If you want to increase you business profits, you must accept your GIFT formula. The Formula: Combine Growing your “real” market with Investing in new product lines and by Freeing your revenue growth through pricing tactics along with Transforming your profit margins through expense and process changes.

Growing Your Real Market

Growing your “real” market starts by analyzing which clients your products have satisfied. Which are your best selling products? The only facts you have to forecast forward are your past orders. It’s amazing how infrequently small business people ignore their history even though they already have all the pertinent data in their sales, billing and service records.

“In our video business, my wife only purchased those movie genres which our customers would rent. One of my teenage employees helped me analyze the types of movies our customers were renting and which were barely breaking even. Using the results of our study, we increased our children’s titles and our ‘ horror flick’ inventory. Those are genres I don’t watch, but my customers did.”

Invest in New Product Lines

Where is your industry going? If you Invest in new product lines by focusing on the “future” rather than “now” you will be ahead of the curve. It is very easy to stay in your comfort zone, especially if you have competition. You are good at what you do but how can you move up? What can you offer to make your business standout in the crowd?

“Cheryl owned a towing and recovery company and she, like any other business owner, saw that her revenues were flat. Other towing businesses waited for the same “phone calls”, to help stranded vehicles, as she did, Intuitively she knew she needed more business than the work supplied from the local police departments and car dealerships.

I recommended she become a “Minority Supplier” and attempt to “contract” with large companies. We got responses from AT&T, J&J & UPS and several others; UPS became a client.”

Freeing Your Revenue Growth Through Your Pricing

Freeing your revenue growth through pricing tactics will help you grow your revenues. Most businesses in competitive markets are forced into charging what the competition charges. “Profits” can only be increased by eliminating costs. But I have a different question: Are you charging enough for your product or service? Many times businesses can increase prices on their existing and new product lines because they have demonstrated how superior their products are.

“Mary made and sold dolls as a "crafter" and charged what she thought the doll was worth, given her skills ( which she took for granted) and the cost of the materials and the market she targeted hr price, about $25.00 to $40.00 per doll.

After some’ pricing’ consultation,, Mary realized that she really fashioned “collectible dolls” using antique fabrics and using her artistic talents to create a unique product. She then targeting those collectors who sought uniquely crafted dolls created out of antique materials. One of her dolls sold for $1200. “ Freeing” her revenue growth.”

Transforming Your Profit Margins

Transform your profit margins through expense controls and process changes. There are ALWAYS expense savings and process efficiencies available within the framework of your business. The information/data is captured in your procedures, your accounting system, your customer database and your marketing and sales reports. If you don’t like crunching numbers, get someone to take a look. Use this data to change your procedures, manage expenses and increase your profits.

Jack in Florida owned a paper products ( napkins, place mats, paper plates) distribution company. He competed directly with two very large companies in the Fort Lauderdale area. His business demand had decreased over the past six months. The sales force seemed to be working, however, he was losing customers and profits started to drop.

Jack decided to visit his existing clients along with one of his salesman. At first the salesman balked at the “boss” wanting to go out on his route, but he finally agreed. They visited existing clients and others whom he had “lost”.

In two days Jack booked several new orders and retrieved one of his lost accounts. He realized he should be out “selling” and so, he hired his wife, who had been an executive secretary before they were married, to manage the office. He changed his process, reversed his profit drop.

Do you want to increase your profits?

Increasing Your Profits is a G.I.F.T.!! Your business profit will increase by combining G + I + F + T. Accept your GIFT!!

If you are working in a traditional repeat-business company, you probably have a field based sales team. If so, the team are probably calling on the same customers on a monthly (maybe more frequent) basis. Because your sales team is well trained and enthusiastic, as well as servicing their existing customer base, they will be trying to follow-up new leads and find new customers by networking with other sales people, searching directories and asking existing customers who their main competitors are.

In a nutshell, they’re pretty busy!

There is also a good chance that they have some latitude to negotiate prices; I don’t mean customer terms here, I mean the price of individual items. The customer asks, “how much are your widgets?” and your sales guy replies “£11.29”. The customer then says “Acme Widgets is doing them for £10.99”, so your guy matches the price and walks away with the order.

Well, that’s a result isn’t it? I don’t know, because, just like you, I don’t know the price at which Acme is selling widgets! Here’s why your sales team shouldn’t do it:

1. Because if the customer can buy from Acme at £10.99 then, a) your price is too high; b) your product is better, c) your service is better, d) your availability is better. If it’s a), then your prices need reviewing generally and papering over the cracks with one customer won’t resolve the wider issue and not all customers will tell you, they’ll just buy elsewhere. If it’s b), c) or d) then you deserve a premium don’t you?

2. Because they don’t really know the Acme price, only the customer’s version of it and buyers always tell the truth don’t they? What’s needed here is some properly structured market research rather than one buyers opinion.

3. Because by freeing the sales team from the ability to negotiate price, they are able to get back to real selling; explaining the company’s proposition and waxing lyrical about your service, quality, availability, delivery frequency, superb sales team, extensive product range etc. Let’s face it, Acme probably doesn’t have them in stock anyway and if it does, it’ll be next Friday before it can deliver them.

4. Because the customer may not be set-up on the right deal. Sales people can be dilatory about reviewing customer terms – it’s admin and their job is selling, right? If your widgets and Acme’s are the same and all other things are equal, is it time to review customer terms?

5. Because it wastes time and effort. Customers will soon understand that your prices are competitive and the sales team has no price control, so that challenge has gone away, leaving more time to discuss new ranges and extensions, this month’s specials and new product launches.

The sales team won’t like it much to start with, but the good ones will soon see the benefits as will the company from the extra sales at higher margins that will result from it.

Two economic sectors dominate the field when it comes to decision-making: one operates on a resource-based model and the other runs on a continuous crisis model. Many organizations choose the latter model because they place tremendous emphasis on saving money minute to minute, not on investing in future need. But resource-based decision-making offers a process that helps you make instant decisions, and more important, introduces small changes that, over time, prevent your organization from getting into future bad situations.

Once you have assessed a situation, you need to determine the best course of action. But before you can make a decision about what to do, you must have the resources to put that action into place. Giant retailers operate on the principle of building “surge capacity,” and your organization can, too. Basically, surge capacity involves investing in plenty of extra resources and having people trained and at the ready to use those resources when necessary.

Here’s how it works: a super-store like Wal-Mart may have thirty cash registers, and while they may have fifty employees trained to work in check-out, at most times only five to ten clerks staff the registers. However, the store prepares based on its assessment of when business is likely to be slow and when it will suddenly mushroom to a point that necessitates bringing on additional staff to utilize those empty registers. On the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve, for example, the retailer will need to add temporary workers and all available permanent staff to get customers’ money and then get them out the door with a minimal wait.

With Resources, Timing is Everything

The idea of surge capacity originated in hospitals that brought in additional help when necessary to utilize their reserve resources in the case of pandemic outbreaks or massive accidents. Ironically, most hospital administrators have now given up using the idea of surge capacity in their emergency rooms, which is why patients must sometimes wait as long as twenty-four hours to see a doctor.

Business models in every industry provide similar examples when they function without back-up resources or surge capacities. In manufacturing, does it cost more to store parts (resources) than it does to shut down the line and pay everybody if a strike means you’re unable to obtain just one necessary part? In your business, how often is a similar situation likely to happen? Knowing this will determine your risk model. What is your tolerance for risk? And what are your customers willing to accept as a failure?

In your own organization, you must look at what resources you have and make decisions about those resources on an ongoing basis. When you have resources in reserve and aren’t doing a lot of business, financial prudence may be wise, but as you approach the end of your available resources, you must reorganize priorities. When that happens, you get out of your comfort zone and front-load the system with more resources. Otherwise, you will provide worse customer service when your resources are only sufficient to meet immediate needs and face disaster when your resources exceed your needs. In extreme cases, you could end up with a full-blown catastrophe on your hands, where your needs exceed all ability to respond or recover. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen often, but when it does, it’s usually in the form of a total business failure.

To keep your organization from holding too many resources—whatever you consider your equivalent of too many empty registers—you need to start as soon as possible to notice patterns. When you begin to experience back-up, should you restrict product outflow or availability? Increase business through incentives at off-peak times so you need to concern yourself less with the peak times? These are all early resource-based decisions that keep you from getting into or exceeding your surge capacity.

Resource Availability and Adaptability are Key

You have to know your resource availability. This may seem like common sense, but cost arguments will arise, so prepare for opposition to this model in the majority of corporate value systems. While super-centers operating on the surge capacity system accept the necessity of only using fifty percent of their registers the vast proportion of the year, the airlines’ practice of overselling flights is far more common. For many such industries, angry customers seem like a small price to pay until the system is maximally stressed.

As you move further into your surge capacity, you need to bring in additional resources so you can utilize those physical resources you’re holding in reserve. In the retail model, this means spreading work throughout the store by pulling people off their positions and on to the registers.

With resource-based decision-making, you’ll learn that you need to adapt; sometimes it’s easier to get employees, and sometimes it’s easier to get equipment. If you’re an auto detailer, all you need to do routine business is your car and cleaning supplies until a surge period like Valentine’s Day, when you may need to hire additional office help to handle calls for service while you go out and detail cars, or you may need to hire other detailers while you stay in the office booking clients.

Many of us learned to make resource-based decisions but rarely as an ongoing practice. You’re taught to plan, but as situations develop, you’re likely to go off the plan, making up new plans as you go, thinking outside the box. But you need to think outside box before the box careens off the cliff. If you’re trying to make resource-based decisions in the middle of the crisis, you’re behind, and if yours is a resource-limited situation, you’ll stay behind.

Make Your Case for Resource-Based Decision-Making

No one’s likely to listen to a lone wolf advocating a resource-based decision model, especially in the midst of a crisis. To achieve buy-in, work patiently to change the corporate culture, introducing the ideas before the organization hits crisis mode. If you’re already at the disaster point, prepare to wait until the organization moves through the emergency, and then seek out key decision makers and suggest half-day conferences to familiarize them with the system’s principles. Post-crisis, many leaders are open to new thought processes that will provide a way to avoid future calamities.

In the end, resource-based decision making beats the crisis model 100 percent of the time. The key is to keep at it consistently and to always be evaluating your resources and making adjustments as necessary. By adopting this practice in your company, you’ll have an edge over the competition, happier customers, and less stress in times of challenge or change. And those are the true keys for a business that thrives.

Sales Managers are often faced with the dilemma of ensuring their sales team are managing highest quality relationships with their current customers as well as (a) gaining new business and (b) commencing the ‘win back' process on worthwhile lost accounts.

Sales Managers need to ensure their sales people allocate a portion of their time (it may only be 5-15% of available time) to (a) and (b) above. Detailed below are the key steps to acquisition and win back - as well as a lead generation guide, which will ensure more effective and efficient outcomes for your people as well as a higher degree of success.

New Business Acquisition

Turning Cold into GOLD. A new business acquisition guide for your sales team.

1. Have a plan. 20 minutes of planning per day will improve your productivity. Your people will leverage their time for more effectively.

2. Have clear, personal goals for each call you are going to make. Which leads me to the next step.

3. Don't make cold calls! Research each call as much as you can conduct industry research, phone the company and get decisionmaker names, ask colleagues if they have any knowledge of the company - find out what you can but watch out for 'over preparation'.

4. Ensure all tools, resources are to hand. Analyse each call and make planned, systematic improvements as you progress.

5. Have a plan for turning gatekeepers into advocates. E.g. courtesy, friendliness, obtain/use their name and keep your conversation brief and professional.

6. When opening a call with the decisionmaker, here is a successful four part formula:

* a positive, confident introduction;

* confirm their status (are they the right person?);

* give the reason for your call: make it short and make it of value to them!

* Ask for their time, before you proceed.

7. Be aware that you are selling YOU - not a product or service - at this stage.

Then, refer to the last section of this article - Lead Generation - Your Guide to Making a Sales Appointment.

Lost Business Win Back

If they were valued customers, then your people need to plan a ‘win back' strategy.

1. Determine WHY the business was lost - internal and external factors.

2. Determine IF the business is worth winning back.

3. Determine WHAT needs to be done to win the business back. Prepare a step-by-step plan.

4. Determine WHO is now the decisionmaker at this business - same person or new blood?

5. Determine HOW to approach this business e.g. write a letter/make an offer/update on new services ...?

6. Consider a special offer to regain the business (especially if your Company shares the blame for the split) but do not alienate current customers!

7. Set goals for the call; have a purpose.

8. DO IT.

9. Analyse results; improve as you proceed with your lost business reactivation campaign.

Don't sit there and wait for business to come to you - get your people on the phones to gain NEW business and REACTIVATE lost accounts.

Lead Generation - Your Guide to Making a Sales Appointment

Below is a guideline for that first time call, to gain an appointment (new business or lost account win back) - first time.

* Introduce yourself, let the decisionmaker know where you are from - in a firm, confident voice.

* Briefly confirm that the person you are speaking to is the person you should be speaking to.

* Give a reason for the call e.g. an introduction of yourself/desire to meet the person/talk about benefits you offer - be brief!

* Close by offering two available days/timeframes: ‘Would you be available for a meeting on __________ or _________?'

* If OK - confirm necessary details and terminate the call. You have the appointment - don't move into a ‘selling' mode!

* If an objection is put forward, compile a list of possible objections (e.g. too busy, happy with current supplier, tied up in a contract ... you have heard them all before) and formulate a short response, ending with one more request for an appointment.

* If that fails, offer to keep-in-touch and arrange to contact them from time to time. Now, find a reason for that next contact!

Rip van Winkle was a legendary American character, who 'fell asleep in the woods one day/spent 20 years of his life that way'.

Well, if Rip was actually a sales representative back in 1987 and awoke from his slumber this year, what would he find? A changed organisation except, probably, the sales department. OK, Rip is now a salesperson rather than a salesman and is given a laptop (which serves a purely decorative purpose).

Rip is coached by his manager (who is so pushed for time that she can only spend a couple of hours every 2-3 months with Rip) in features and benefits, closed and open questions, objection handling and 365 different closing techniques.

Hopefully one day Rip will find one that actually works and can dispense with the other 364. Still Rip is lapping his training and coaching up. Armed with all of this information, Rip hits the road and makes his very first call. Too easy.

Except, in this call Rip has to face three decision makers - all with vastly differing needs and expectations. So what does Rip do? Simple, he follows the rote sales presentation formula!

* A ten minute PowerPoint presentation relating to his company (in 47 countries, with 87,422 employees), his product range (458 products with 82 variations, on average, each - that's 37,556 different sizes, shapes, performances).

* He details the support the prospects can expect if they buy Rip's products: 112 people in the call centre, 28 support desk staff, a total e.commerce suite and the prospects will get their own on-line multi-ordering configuration backed by the latest technology. Whew! Hard to get across in 10 minutes

* Then, a major presentation of the specific products the customer stated they were interested in, when they rang the call centre. This presentation is supported by 12 brochures (all in full colour), another PowerPoint presentation which highlights product features and functions - great reinforcement for what is already written in those 12 brochures! Rip also has some samples which he gives to each of the three decision makers.

I could go on ... and on. In the last 20 years, selling has not changed sufficiently to meet the needs of customers. Unless today's sales executive is adding value and bringing innovation to, and gaining RESULTS for, their customers what do you need a sales team for? Hire a bunch of telephone 'vendors' who can sit at a console and process orders. Save a pile of money!

Most decision makers, no matter how long you/your people have been dealing with them, are thinking:

* What's in it for me? My Company?

* What will I gain from doing business with you?

* Will I save (money/time) by doing business with you?

* What risks am I taking?

* Will your solutions meet my needs? Solve my problems?

Here are nine key points, designed to bring 'Rip van Winkles' in your sales team right up-to-date!

1. Understand and work within the Customer's Buying Processes, NOT your selling processes. It does not mean that you don't utilise sales skills; it means that you understand that customers buy for THEIR reasons and not the salesperson's.

Until salespeople understand this concept, they will remain as vendors in the eyes of the customer.

2. Break the Customer's Buying Process into:

* Personal values and beliefs

* Business values and principles.

For instance, the higher you progress up the organisation, decision makers are looking at ways to increase profits and gain market share - clear business values.

A number of people in line management rely more on personal relationships with the salesperson or on pleasing their manager by avoiding risk.

Let me give you an example:

I met with the CEO of a major organisation, publicly listed, who had utilised my services in the past. His administration manager was also present.

As we agreed a training, coaching and skills development strategy for his managers, sales and service teams - the admin manager inquired how much my fee would be. I gave some line ball figures and he said, 'Isn't that going to be rather expensive?' Before I could respond, the CEO said, 'I don't give a _ _ _ _ what he costs, he gets results!'

We completed our planning session quickly after that!

3. What is the one key buying motivation that dominates all others? Find it and you will get the sale. In my sales training programs, I work on six key motivations - called 'hot buttons'. You find these by asking questions. Simple!

4. Make an offer that matches product solutions and benefits to Needs/Hot Buttons. What? 'All my people do that', I hear you say. NO THEY DON'T - only about 10-15% of the top-echelon achievers do!

5. Ensure your people's presentation and demonstration skills are of the highest calibre. They should build decision makers confidence in them and ensure VALUE outweighs price in the decision maker's mind.

6. Building relationships also means significantly reducing competitive relationships. Your people's character, professionalism, value they offer and skills must be honed to outperform and outsell your competitors.

7. Your people should be adept at gaining long term commitment, not just at closing. Ensure they can do both.

8. Develop an account penetration plan - with your current customer; gain their recommendation to other decision makers within the organisation. Introduce new products and services on a planned basis.

9. Deal with objections and concerns professionally. Objections often arise because your people have commenced a closing process too early, haven't determined needs or the decision maker simply doesn't trust them. Seek WIN/WIN outcomes.

As a manager you have a juggling act to perform, one which balances different points of view, and often requires considerable diplomacy.

Classically these are the viewpoints of:

• Yourself

• The organisation

• Your department (or division, section)

• Your people

• External contacts (e.g. customers or suppliers)

Sometimes (regularly?) conflicts arise: something is right for the department and the people, but not for either the organisation or you. On occasions you will find yourself disagreeing with a company policy but having to support it even though you know that your people see it as wrong and personally inconvenient.

How you handle this balancing act is important, and it may be necessary to explain the reasons behind your actions. It is an area for some consistency.

You need to keep certain factors in mind when balancing the interests of different parties:

First and foremost your responsibility is to the organisation and to achieving the targets set for you

You can only do this with the support of your people, so in the long-term you must carry them with you (some disagreement may be seen as inevitable)

You have a responsibility upwards and downwards within the organisation (perhaps one answer is to support a policy, insisting that your people comply, while communicating upwards in an attempt to have it changed if it can be bettered)

You must never be seen as selfish, simply acting to make your own lot better (this will, rightly, always be resented)

You must sometimes be seen to fight your corner on behalf of your section and its people (this will be appreciated, more so if what you take issue with is a nonsense and, especially, if you win!)

Continually Seek To Demonstrate Your Skills At Balancing Different Interests:

As well as making clear your position in respect of the organisation and the other players you need to consider – and make clear – the relationship between you and your own staff. You must always be fair (but rarely democratic). People must see the realities involved. They must understand that there is a balance and that you cannot always be automatically on their side, right or wrong.

Finally - Make It Clear That You:

• See your success as tied in with and, indeed, dependent on them.

• See your role as essentially supportive (in all sorts of ways: guidance, counselling, development and motivation)

• Believe that by working together you can all succeed – not just by everyone doing their share of the work but by everyone contributing creatively (ideas may come from anywhere)

Pareto Analysis is a very simple technique that helps you to choose the most effective changes to make.

It uses the Pareto principle - the idea that by doing 20% of work you can generate 80% of the advantage of doing the entire job*. Pareto analysis is a formal technique for finding the changes that will give the biggest benefits. It is useful where many possible courses of action are competing for your attention.

How to use the tool:

To start using the tool, write out a list of the changes you could make. If you have a long list, group it into related changes.

Then score the items or groups. The scoring method you use depends on the sort of problem you are trying to solve. For example, if you are trying to improve profitability, you would score options on the basis of the profit each group might generate. If you are trying to improve customer satisfaction, you might score on the basis of the number of complaints eliminated by each change.

The first change to tackle is the one that has the highest score. This one will give you the biggest benefit if you solve it.

The options with the lowest scores will probably not even be worth bothering with - solving these problems may cost you more than the solutions are worth.

Example:

A manager has taken over a failing service center. He commissions research to find out why customers think that service is poor.

He gets the following comments back from the customers:

• Phones are only answered after many rings.

• Staff seem distracted and under pressure.

• Engineers do not appear to be well organised. They need second visits to bring extra parts. This means that customers have to take another day off work to be there a second time.

• They do not know what time they will arrive. This means that customers may have to be in all day for an engineer to visit.

• Staff members do not always seem to know what they are doing. Sometimes when staff members arrive, the customer finds that the problem could have been solved over the phone.

The manager groups these problems together. He then scores each group by the number of complaints, and orders the list:

• Lack of staff training: 6: 51 complaints

• Too few staff: 4: 21 complaints

• Poor organization and preparation: 2 complaints

By doing the Pareto analysis above, the manager can better see that the vast majority of problems (69%) can be solved by improving staff skills.

Once this is done, it may be worth looking at increasing the number of staff members.

Alternatively, as staff members become more able to solve problems over the phone, maybe the need for new staff members may decline.

It looks as if comments on poor organisation and preparation may be rare, and could be caused by problems beyond the manager's control.

By carrying out a Pareto Analysis, the manager is able to focus on training as an issue, rather than spreading effort over training, taking on new staff members, and possibly installing a new computer system.

Key Points:

Pareto Analysis is a simple technique that helps you to identify the most important problem to solve.

To use it:

• List the problems you face, or the options you have available

• Group options where they are facets of the same larger problem

• Apply an appropriate score to each group

• Work on the group with the highest score

Pareto analysis not only shows you the most important problem to solve, it also gives you a score showing how severe the problem is.

*This is only one application of this important 80/20 principle. It shows the lack of symmetry that almost always appears between work put in and results achieved. This can be seen in area after area of competitive activity. The figures 80 and 20 are illustrative - for example, 13% of work could generate 92% of returns. Vilfredo Pareto was an Italian economist who noted that approximately 80% of wealth was owned by only 20% of the population. This was true in almost all the societies he studied.

As part of my marketing campaign, I decided to call on the chiropractor located next to the post office.

Purposely, I hadn’t phoned in advance.

On that particular day I was literally knocking on doors.

What the chiropractor didn’t know was that I had sold him some training cassettes over a dozen years ago, by phone. But now, my idea was to test his openness to becoming one of my new coaching clients.

As I entered his dimly lit office, he greeted me. Instantly, I felt a sense of emptiness, partly conveyed by missing receptionists, assistants, and above all, clients.

“Hello, Dr. Frisbee,” I said brightly. “I’d like to get one of your business cards and then set an appointment with you to see how we might establish a consulting relationship.”

“Okay,” he replied in a subdued, but not disinterested tone.

And with that, I decided NOT to pitch him on the spot, which would have been my preference had I not sensed such a vacuum in his quarters.

In fact, I never pitched him. His name went to the bottom of my prospecting list because I felt his career wasn’t soaring. It was going the other way.

This perception turned out to be correct. A few days ago, as I was driving up his street, I noticed some sheets or towels had been hung awkwardly over the broad storefront window with his name still etched on the glass.

He was out of business.

This sounds like a sad story, but it isn’t; not if you’re a marketer or a salesman. In fact, it represents a breakthrough in a retro sense.

By doing your prospecting on foot, or by car, you can gauge what’s really going on in a business. Instead of seeing just another “tombstone” description of your prospect on a computer screen, you can gaze into the parking lot at that distributorship and see that there are some very upscale sports cars parked in the executives’ spaces.

This company is doing fine, its people are prospering.

Likewise, you can see how large the buildings are that your prospects occupy, and above all, you can evaluate the mood of the place by assessing the reception you receive. Obvious employee contentment and broad smiles tell you this is probably not a place that’s headed for imminent disaster.

Of course, you may be hunting for failure, for dourness, especially if you’re seeking new digs for a real estate client and you want to get in on the ground floor with a motivated seller. Then, you might be hunting for a marginal enterprise that’s more than willing to move on, and to move out.

But you get the idea. Prospecting in person, while it may seem inefficient and archaic, is anything but. It can be the most enlightened way of seeing what’s going on in the real world.

The top salesperson at an international shipping company, one of my clients, used to get in his car and follow the competition’s trucks to see where they were making pickups. He’d count how many boxes were loaded, and how much time was spent at each dock.

Then, he’d customize a proposal before even contacting those prospects, who of course were amazed that he seemed to know so much about them!

Try this, at least every now and then. It will make prospecting a lot more fun, like detective work, and you’ll breathe new life into what can otherwise be a highly impersonal and abstract marketing process.

I believe there is a niche for a a top tele-sales organization that can make these claims to prospective clients:

“We Fill Meeting Rooms With Precisely The Right People.”

“We Set Appointments With Precisely The Right People.”

I could use one right now to get me before people who can green-light on-site training & consulting programs.

Some perspective:

There is a rule of thumb, validated by behavioral research that says if you’re a presenter, a marketer, a persuader, almost without fail the WRONG people will be in your audience.

If you want the Sr. VP of Operations or the COO, you’ll get a telephone sales supervisor or a CSR that has been sent “as a scout,” without authority or much gray matter.

Why? There is selective exposure to information and people notably avoid anything that smacks of what they think they already know or should know. Also, top people closely guard their time.

At a faculty dinner at UCLA Extension, where I’ve been teaching a “Building Your Consulting Business” class since ’99, I asked some cohorts, who also consult, what a qualified appointment with a decision maker would be worth to them.

One said “$100” and the next, a former Xerox executive, shook his head and said: “No, it’s worth at least $500.”

What do YOU think a great appointment is worth?

What would you willingly pay to hook a high-level seminar participant who'd be happy to hear your pitch for upscale products or services?

I believe each outcome is worth a ton, but presently, we're not able to attract effective enough communicators to the tele-selling field in order to produce quality results.

More important, we're trying to use ever cheaper substitutes, working in call centers in India and elsewhere, who are next to useless when it comes to engaging senior executives in what one of my clients termed, "Meaningful Conversations."

Let's turn this around and do what Henry Ford did when he inaugurated the "Five dollar day," which was an unprecedented upgrading of the value of a factory job. By raising the stakes for quality phone folks, we just may be able to entice them to deliver what we need: first class appointments and sales!

The competitive genre of salesmanship is based on a brotherhood that honors its members with respect, who, in turn, owe each other, uncompromising loyalty. …Paul Shearstone 1997

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Over the last few decades, I have watched as simple things like common courtesy and respect - the rules that govern basic human interaction - have deteriorated to levels the last generation would not have believed. Unfortunately, today we live in a world that makes icons of the Howard Sterns and Beavis and Butt-Heads, who in turn, lead the unfulfilled and misinformed, further astray.

Thoreau said that most people, “live lives of quiet desperation.” He said that, when they look in the mirror, they don’t like what they see. And sadly, that is how too many individuals subsist.

There is no clearer evidence, than in the way more and more salespeople are treated in business today. Professional sellers must be ever on guard for the fall-out from those who have lost respect for themselves and lack the moral grounding required to treat others with respect - especially the vulnerable.

The fact is, salespeople put their livelihoods, their dignity and their self-respect on the line, every time they meet a new customer. Salespeople are targets for those, bereft of civility, living unfulfilled existences. For these people the salesperson is someone to be taken advantage-of, if only to justify inner feelings of inadequacy. Nothing illustrates this better than my experience with Beatle-cards.

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Many years ago, a very inexperienced young salesman in my twenties, I finally got an appointment with a customer with whom I’d been trying to meet for some time. The meeting was to take place the following Tuesday morning at 10:00am.

I arrived 10 minutes early, gave the receptionist my card, confirmed that I had an appointment with the owner and took my seat in a little waiting area outside his office.

Five minutes later, in walked another young salesman who went through the same routine. He handed the secretary his card and my ears perked up when I overheard him say that he also had a ten o’clock appointment with my customer. I listened carefully for the name of his company. Oh Great! I said to myself. He represented my biggest competitor. I got an uneasy feeling that something wasn’t right.

As I sat there, wondering if the customer had just made an error in scheduling, the other salesman sat down in the chair next to me. He too, appeared a little uncomfortable. I assumed he must have seen my card on the secretary’s desk. For the next five minutes, I calmed myself with the belief there had been a simple scheduling error and my customer would be embarrassed to find he had double booked two competitors. …Was I ever-wrong about that!

At precisely ten o’clock, the owner’s door opened and out emerged a large man who greeted both of us with a smile and said, “Gentlemen, you are here and on time. Please, [he gestured toward his private office] won’t you come in?”

I was in shock. I glanced at the other salesman to see he was looking at me with the same surprised stare. “Please!” the customer beckoned again, motioning to his office door and smiling even more. Something here was definitely not right, I thought, trying not to show my discomfort as I sat down in a chair in front of the owner’s desk.

The customer, still smiling, took his seat, handed both of us his business card, and said, “Gentlemen, I’ll cut right to the chase. You both want my business don’t you?” We hesitated a little, looked at each other and then said somewhat simultaneously, Yes, yes, we want your business.

“Good!” said the customer. “Then, he said, continuing, [as he opened his hands wide over his desk like some benevolent deity] COMPETE FOR IT!” ………We sat there stunned for a moment until he said, “Go ahead and say what ever you want! COMPETE FOR MY BUSINESS!”

There were few times in my life when I suffered from a lack of confidence. To date, I had never experienced a situation that confused me so badly that it left me unable to speak. That was, of course, until then. When again he said, with his disturbing smile, “COMPETE FOR MY BUSINESS!” I turned speechlessly toward my competitor for some kind of clarification about the surreal situation we found ourselves in.

To my surprise, he had already summed up the ‘task-at-hand’, which included the fact that I hadn’t, and, off he went! For the next five minutes, I sat there amazed, listening to the young salesman run-down my company, vilify my products. He likened me to a rip-off-artist. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing or the fact that the more caustic the allegations directed my way, the more the customer stared at me and smiled. He was getting a real kick out of this, I thought. This for him was entertainment! Eventually, the salesman stopped talking and it was my turn to speak.

The customer looked at me and in a patronizing tone, said, “Paul, don’t you have anything to say?” And that’s when I suddenly became very calm and in control for the first time.

“Yes, I do have something to say Mr Customer. But, since I didn’t interrupt my friend over here, I’d like to say what I have to say, without interruptions also. “Not a problem!” said the customer with a look that suggested he was thinking, “Oh Boy!…Now the fur is really going to fly!”

And so, I began. When I was a boy, Mr Customer, I grew up in a relatively poor family. I’m not saying we went without food but my four sisters and I rarely had money for anything other than what was absolutely needed by the family for basic survival.

In the 1960’s, I was quite young and if you recall back then, the Beatles were very big. They had just come from England to North America and kids everywhere wanted anything and everything to do with the Beatles. There were Beatle-hats, Beatle-wigs, Beatle-boots, Beatle-sunglasses and, for the younger kids like me, there were Beatle-cards. All my friends had Beatle-card collections but I didn’t. My parents were more concerned about putting food on the table, than Beatle-cards. But that didn’t stop my sisters and me from wanting Beatle-cards – badly!

[At this point, the customer was quite confused, but he allowed me to continue].

Down the street from us lived three kids. By our standards, their parents had lots of money. So the kids had almost every Beatle item there was to have - Beatle-hats, wigs, boots, sunglasses and they had Beatle-Cards. In fact, they had so many Beatle-cards, the cards had lost their value.

Knowing that my family couldn’t afford Beatle-cards, those kids used to stand on our veranda - throw Beatle-cards on our lawn - and watch and laugh as my sisters and I fought each other for them. They would throw cards and laugh to see us scurry like rats to get something they knew we couldn’t afford. We knew what we were doing was wrong but we were young and we really wanted those cards badly, because they also represented a degree of ‘coolness’ my sisters and I didn’t have.

In an effort to grab yet another precious Beatle-card that landed on the lawn near the street, I remember pushing my five year old sister to the ground, so hard, that she rolled off our grass - nearly into the traffic! As she lay there crying, I suddenly thought, What am I doing? I turned to look at those kids – who at this point, were on the porch laughing - Laughing at my family and me. This, for them was entertainment.

Mr Customer, [I said through clenched teeth and slowly raising my voice] although I was only nine years old at the time, I made a pact with myself, right then and there – “I WILL NEVER LET ANYBODY - DO THIS TO ME AGAIN!”

At which point, I stood and said, I do want your business, Mr Customer. I then threw his business card, disdainfully, on his desk and said, BUT I DON’T STOOP FOR BEATLE-CARDS ANYMORE!

I turned, glared at the other salesman and made my way to the door. I know I took everyone by surprise, including myself, and I also knew the other salesman thought that by my leaving, he was sure to get the sale. I saw him grinning. I didn’t care, he could have the deal - I had my self-respect!

When I got to the door, I heard the customer shout, “Paul wait!” I stood motionless for a couple of seconds, my hand still grasping the handle. I wanted so badly to leave. “Paul please come back!” he beckoned, with a definite note of desperation in his voice. My heart still said, Go but my training began to kick in. I asked myself, What am I? – I am a salesman. What’s my job? – To sell. Did I have quota, yet? – No… not yet.

As I turned around, the customer barked at the other salesman. “YOU!” he said. “GET OUT!” The young man was flabbergasted [he thought he had won!] When he protested, the customer shouted even louder, “I said, GET THE HELL OUT!” He then, in a soft tone, spoke sympathetically “Paul, please!” as he hand-gestured me back to my seat.

Over the next few minutes, I lectured him for his unprofessional behavior – and he let me. I likened what took place to someone who would go to a carnival to see a poor, down-on-his-luck geek chew the head off a chicken for money, to feed his starving children! – and he sat there and took it because he knew he had earned it.

So what was the upside? Well, I maintained my self respect and I believe we, the customer, the other salesman and I, learned a valuable lesson about respecting others that day. Oh, and another thing. I did sign a deal before I left his office … there was no argument over price.

In terms of achieving and sustaining optimum performance levels within your team it is vital to recognise from the outset that effectiveness depends on the interaction of the following three factors;

• Task

• Team maintenance

• Individual Needs

In my view you must:

• Ensure, continuous task achievement

• Meet the needs of the group

• Meet the needs of individual group members

The balance must always be kept in mind (though some compromise may be necessary)

Your own best contribution to getting things done is ideally approached systematically. You must:

• Be clear exactly what the tasks are

• Understand how they relate to the objectives of the organisation (short – and long-term)

• Plan how they can be accomplished

• Define and provide the resources needed for accomplishment

• Create a structure and organisation of people that facilitates effective action

• Control progress as necessary during task completion

• Evaluate results, compare with objectives and fine-tune action and method for the future

The following three-checklists relate back to our original three factors and highlight the thinking that is necessary here

Checklist 1: Achieving The Task:

Ask yourself:

• Am I clear about my own responsibilities and authority?

• Am I clear about the department’s agreed objectives?

• Have I a plan to achieve these objectives?

• Are jobs best structured to achieve what is required?

• Are working conditions/resources suited?

• Does everyone know their agreed targets/standards?

• Are the group competencies as they should be?

• Are we focused on priorities?

• Are those areas in which I’m personally involved well organised?

• Do I have the information necessary to monitor progress?

• Is management continually assured in my absence?

• Am I seeing ahead and seeing the broad picture?

• Do I set a suitable example?

Checklist 2: Meeting The Individual Needs:

Ask yourself if each individual:

• Feels a sense of personal achievement from what they do and the contribution it makes

• Feels their job is challenging, demands the best of them and matches their capabilities

• Receives suitable recognition for what they do

• Has control of areas of work for which they are accountable

• Feels that they are advancing in terms of experience and ability

Many questions stem from this about what people do, how they do it, how what they do is organised and how they feel about it. It is worth thinking what you need to ask regarding your own particular team

Checklist 3: Team Maintenance:

To involve the whole team in pulling together towards individual and joint objectives, ask yourself, do I:

• Set team objectives clearly and make sure they are understood?

• Ensure standards are understood (and the consequences of not meeting them are understood and approved)?

• Find opportunities to create teamworking?

• Minimise any dissatisfaction?

• Seek and welcome new ideas?

• Consult appropriately and often enough?

• Keep people fully informed (about the long – and short-term)?

• Reflect the team’s views in dealings with senior management?

• Accurately convey organisational policy to the team and reflect such policy in their objectives?

Resolve now – right now – that you will give motivation priority. Don’t be mistaken, motivation makes a difference – a big difference. People perform better when they feel positive about their job. You must:

• Recognise that active motivation is necessary

• Resolve to spend regular time on it

• Not chase after magic formulae that will make it easy (there are none)

• Give attention to the detail

• Remember that you succeed by creating an impact that is cumulative in effect and tailored to your people

Your intention should be to make people feel, individually and as a group, that they are special. Doing so is the first step to making sure that what they do is special

Every manager needs to know something of how motivation works. The key is to influence the motivational climates by taking action to:

Reduce negative influences. Potentially, the good feelings people have about their jobs can be diluted by negative views on matters such as: company policy and administrative processes, supervision (that’s you, unless you are careful!) working conditions, salary, relationships with peers (and others), impact on personal life, status and security. Action is necessary in all these areas to counteract any negative elements.

Increase positive influences. Potentially feelings can be strengthened by specific inputs in the areas of: achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility, advancement and growth.

Many factors contribute to the motivational climate – from ensuring that a system is as sensible and convenient to people as possible (reducing negative policy/working conditions), to just saying well done sufficiently often (recognising achievement).

Understanding Motivation:

The state of motivation of a group or individual can be likened to a balance. There are pluses on one side and minuses on the other. All vary in size. The net effect of all the influences at a particular time decides the state of the balance and whether – overall – things are seen as positive, or not.

Changing the balance is thus a matter of detail with, for example, several small positive factors being able to outweigh what is seen as a major dis-satisfier.

A Little Thought Goes A Long Way:

You need to make it clear from the outset that you are concerned that people get job satisfaction. Major schemes can wait. Early on:

• Take the motivational temperature: investigate how people feel now (this is what you have to work on).

• Consider the motivational implications of everything you do: when implementing a new system, making a change, setting up a new regular meeting or whatever, consider what people will think about it? Will they see it as positive?

• Use the small things – regularly: for example, if asked if you have said well done often enough lately, you must always be able to answer yes – honestly

• Never be censorious: you must not judge other people’s motivation by your own feelings. Maybe they worry about things that strike you as silly or unnecessary. So be it. The job is to deal with it, not to rule it out as insignificant.

Create the habit of making motivation a key part of your management style and doing so will stand you in good stead. If you care about your people (really care) it will always show.

In my mailbox this week was a message from a young guy in Australia who has just taken his first step up into management: His question was quite simply – “What is the most important management trait I should consider developing first?”

Very interesting question, because there are several essential traits that need to be developed as early as possible, but choosing just one - the most important, was a “no-brainer” for me and this is an extract of my response to him.

Nothing puts you in the “bad manager” category more swiftly than poor communications skills.

Staff view an inadequate communicator as someone who is unclear, ambiguous, says too little, speaks up too late, or not at all (keeps secrets unnecessarily) and most importantly, someone who doesn’t relate to their viewpoint.

Managers should resolve to communicate:

• Using appropriate methods (memo or meeting, e-mail or notice-board)

• From the right perspective (talk about we not I and put things personally – “You will find” rather than “This is the case”)

• Using good communication principles (keep it simple, make it clear, be precise and succinct)

• Explaining both the what and the why of things.

Communication is one of the most important aspects of a manager’s role and if you feel you need to bone up on it, do so. Ignoring failings or uncertainties risks disaster.

Your early communications will be looked at or listened to carefully. Lines will be read between and inferences about you and the way you do things will be drawn – for good or ill. Take care!

While thinking about communication, make one firm rule for yourself:

Always be courteous to your staff.

The old adage that politeness costs nothing is true. Any temptation that staff may provide to descend into insults or even to be offhand may cause problems and will certainly not engender respect. This applies whatever the provocation – and, believe me, sooner or later if you manage people there will be some!

So, keep cool, count to ten if necessary and moderate your language and your manner

A final point about communication is that you need to be constantly well informed about what is going on: in your department, around the organisation and in any other area that is important to you.

Never forget that informal communications are as important here as formal ones.

You need to develop a good network of contacts and here I must flag the importance of the grapevine. This exists in every organisation.

• Discover how it works and who is key to its operation

• Get yourself “plugged in”

• Remember that communication is two-way (you must contribute to receive)

Use it constructively: ignore and do not start rumours, use it for firm information, early warning and dissemination and keep your eyes and ears open.

Keep In Touch

Take away communication from an organisation and not much is left. Yet, the subject is often neglected. It is the foundation of a good relationship between manger and staff and thus the basis for success.

Make sure you take action to create good – two-way – communication by, for example:

• Practising MBWA: that is Management by Walking About. Talk to people informally, ask, listen, take note and ensure feedback.

• Regularly informing people of your thinking: by memo, e-mail, at meetings, etc. Tell them what your vision is, what you plan, hope and intend, what’s happening – and how it will affect them.

• Systematise the processes involved: make aspects of what you do formal and regular (e.g.: regular departmental meetings and updates on operational issues).

Fundamental to good management is being seen as open and honest, concerned that people should know what is going on and concerned also to encourage and receive their inputs.

Although researchers have begun to uncover the processes by which interpersonal expectations affect general interactions. it is not clear if or how expectations operate amongst buyers and sellers. The present research explores interpersonal expectancy effects in an effort to understand the behavioral and psychological processes inherent in exchange relations as well as the effects of interpersonal expectations in the context of face-to-face meetings between buyers and sellers.

Interpersonal expectancy effects relate to how one individual's expectations influence another individual's behavior. These effects have been studied by social scientists for almost three decades in many different social contexts and are a significant phenomenon in human interaction. Interpersonal expectancy effects are one form of the more common notion of self-fulfilling prophecy. First, a person has an unsubstantiated belief that a certain event will occur in the future. Second, this belief, expectation, or prophecy leads to some new behavior consistent with the originally false conception and that would not have occurred were it not for the expectation. Third, the expected event occurs, fulfilling the prophecy. In the case of interpersonal expectancy effects, this "expected event" corresponds to another individual's actions or behavior. Although perceiver perceptions and cognitions are potentially critical elements of the self fulfilling prophecy process, the change in target behavior or self-concept is essential to demonstrating a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Analyses of observer judges' ratings of participants' behavior revealed that men who believed they were interacting with a physically attractive woman behaved in a warmer and friendlier manner compared with men who believed they were interacting with an unattractive woman.

The Theory of Rational Expectations maintains that as soon as the information is made public, the price plays a catch-up and soon starts to reflect the new announcement. Finally strong form suggests that not only publicly available information is useless, but also all the information concerning the company is useless, as that will have no impact over the stock price. Rational expectations relates to the efficient market theory as investors, based on their expectations, value a stock, for example if they think earnings visibility is good they bid the prices higher, and if perceive earnings visibility to be low, they bid prices to be low and this is reflected in the stock prices so their estimates or expectations are reflected in the stock prices. Talking of the criticism faced by the theory, we can argue that the theory of efficient market itself suggests that all the announcements and news about the company are already fully reflected in the price, so expectations do not drive the result and hence investors’ expectations have nothing to do with the future market price. Also the theory is based on future (predicting the earnings) which can not be predicted.

Another application of the theory pertains to The Permanent Income Theory of Consumption which states that there is a direct positive relationship between the people’s consumption and their income. Friedman believed that people not only consume depending upon their current income, but also considering their future income. Analysis of future income in his work is due to the expectations that people have about their future, so the concept directly relates to the rational expectations theory. The specific model of consumption and income has been tested time and again and results have varied greatly, as the studies show that the model works, but imperfectly. It can be argued to overpower the above mentioned point that many people have certain consumption habits and if they stick to their habits, it becomes literally improbable for them to care about their resources and income. Many such cases happen with addicts or people who abuse drugs or alcohol.

Rational expectations theory can also be applied to the Expectation Error Models of the Business Cycle, which states that errors in people’s forecasts are a major cause of business fluctuations. Phillips curve shows the inverse relationship between unemployment and inflation, where there is a non-accelerating inflation rate of unemployment. The PC which is the long red line changes in the long run because of the change in expectations and thus only a single rate of unemployment was consistent with the inflation rate. If the unemployment rate stays behind the red line inflationary expectations will rise which will tale the short term PC upwards as indicated by B.