Don’t Trust

What You Remember!

     Unless you are one of the 27 other people in America who has not a shred of interest in football, or who found yourself snowed in and powered out as I was on Superbowl Sunday, you probably missed the emergency portable radio static-filled broadcast of the audio for “60-Minutes.”

     Even as many were trying to remember the Colts-controlled first half of the game as they watched the Colts being trounced in the second half, the “60-Minutes” broadcast was focused on the shortcomings of memory.

     Actually, besides the realization that no one ever listens to portable radios anymore (who knew?), the broadcast was wrapped around a cluster of gruesome news stories involving “100% absolutely positive” witness identifications of individuals as criminals who were not.

     A couple of examples involved innocent people who were wrongly imprisoned for many years (more than a dozen I believe I recall hearing in one case). It was only after a slim-chance break in reviewing nearly untestable past evidence that innocence was proven with DNA studies.

     The point of all the par-for-the-course mainstream media sensationalism was to offer newsworthy, scientific proof that the human memory plays tricks on us… that, no matter how absolutely positive we think we are about something we remember, odds are that we are wrong! 

     Okay, so that’s not much of an ego-flattering thing to have to admit… and especially if it has to do with your business and the ways you think you solved problems in the past, which carries a bit more consequential impact than recollecting who threw what touchdown in the 1987 world series (er, sorry, Superbowl).

     What it might say to us, this little touch of dementia, is that it’s not just professors who are absent-minded and that we could all stand to rely less on what we are sure happened in the past. Big corporations wallow in the past, thinking no doubt it will lead them soaring into the future.

     But if remembering the past produces so many inconsistencies and untruths, what good can it all be? How will it ever move us into the future? It will not. If you disagree, you’ve been hanging around too many history teachers and accountants.

     It is the spirit of entrepreneurship that all business most ultimately adopt if we are to heft ourselves upward and out of this mud-clogged economy. There is a genuine need for business leaders to put the past aside and pay attention to what’s going on here and now.

     The past may be interesting and worth much exploration, but not at the expense of what’s in front of our business faces, because present judgements based on past memories will never lead us forward. Before you bet the farm on what you remember that you’re completely certain of, take a deep breath and look instead to the opportunities that are sitting in your lap… appreciate that times and your memory banks have changed. 

Comment below or direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!  Get blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

Business faculties

teach rules,

yet there are

no rules in business . . .

     If you or someone you know is planning to be a smash-hit success in the business world, and the plan has anything to do with getting an under-graduate or advanced degree from a college or university that offers up business programs and courses run and taught by PhDs and MBAs (and earmarked by curricula that’s been infiltrated by rules and regulations), get outta Dodge!

     Unless you have no brain, no ambition, no gumption, and are willing to embark on a career simply to please your father instead of yourself, the kind of pre-corporate career training you’ll get will simply waste your time and money. How can anyone who knows the truth — that business has no rules (except maybe in accounting and maybe some parts of retailing and manufacturing) — think that there’s benefit to be had from coursework filled with teachers who teach rules?

     Before you jump on the disagreement wagon, take a good hard look around at the economy we’re mired in. Where are the biggest mud-heaps? Where’s the quicksand? What’s needed to turn things around? Who’s leading us in that direction? Who’s not? Who’s talking the talk but not walking the walk? We are slogging our way through an economic swamp largely because too much emphasis has been put on the teaching of rules and regulations of business, where none exist!

     Where do you find the kinds of business courses that make a difference, that are focused on reality, that are taught by people who have been there and done that? Try community colleges. Try private training organizations. But if you think for even a blink that some hotshot School of Business MBA will send you skyrocketing to business success in today’s economy, perhaps you should think again.

• It’s not worth your money.
• It’s not worth your time.
• It’s not worth hearing what textbook academia types who’ve coasted through 16 or 18 years of classroom work think about what it’s going to take to do real work in the real world that they’ve never done — that you’re going to have to do once you get out.

     If you really want to learn business, get a job. Use the job to train yourself. Back up what you learn with some solid community college classes run by people who are in business and have learned in business how to be successful in business by doing it, not by theorizing what might be possible.

     There is no better way to learn the realities of business than to work in a small business and pay close attention to what’s going on, and take courses run by entrepreneurs, not PhDs. Business success is measured by your attitude and by how effectively you apply yourself and what you know, not by where you went to school or what PhD taught you what rules. 

Comment below or direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!  Get blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

If your Valentine list

doesn’t include your

business, get some

marriage counseling, 

or get out!

     Why? Because –first of all– if you own or run a business, you’re married to it. Second– nobody else can love your business for you. And if you’re not head-over-heels with it, your options are slim. You stand to bring it and/or yourself and/or your family tumbling into the kind of abyss that one might expect only to see in a Harry Potter movie. So get up or get out before you get whacked!

     Results of a new 2010 survey by the highly esteemed and credible The Conference Board, as reported in the Corporate Communicator (subscribe free to this great newsletter at www.bonmotcomms.com) show that only 45% of Americans are satisfied with their work…the lowest figure in 22 years!

     In other words, small business owners and managers are now facing big business problems. If The Conference Board findings are correct, and there’s never been any reason I know of to doubt their studies, those of you with 100 employees, have 55 unhappy employees; if you have 20 employees, 11 are unhappy! That’s an awful lot of discontent under one roof (especially if you don’t love your business)! 

     Whether little thumpity-thump hearts fly into the air when you think about your business or not, this 45% figure still spells disaster. It still means the odds are that a majority of people in your company are dragging their butts around, collecting paychecks and benefits from you for doing only the amount of work that’s necessary in order to collect paychecks and benefits from you.

     “Yeah,” says you, “but I can’t pay out any more than I am right now!”

     Ah, but –believe it or not, and EVEN in this economy– money is not always what turns frowns to smiles and negative attitudes to positive ones. Of course paychecks and benefits are important, and even more so where cutbacks have been necessary. But here are some proven solutions you can try, or use to prompt your own versions:

• Do everything you can to help employees be more a part of decision making (particularly as it impacts how they interpret their individual job responsibilities) 
• Empower employees to exchange more job-productive ideas with one another
• Promote greater pride in employee workmanship
• Publicly acknowledge all over-the-top efforts (regardless of whether they succeed or fail) with small frequent rewards

     Selecting something to target from the above list should get you off on a better foothold if your business marriage has been faltering and all you’ve been seeing is stars and corkscrews spinning away from the tops of disgruntled heads.

     And if you still truly love your business and can’t stand the thought of divorce or separation, try cherry-picking off the above list anyway. It can help enhance your Valentine’s Day message to your business and will get you a whole lot further than expensive roses or candy. <3 <3 <3 <3 (uh, right: sideways hearts that the blog won’t let me close the spaces on! Cheers!)    

Comment below or direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!  Get blog emails FREE via RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Gr8 Gift 4 GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

S T O P

managing problems

and S T A R T

ending them!

     We are unfortunately taught from pre-K through graduate school, and brain-deadened all along the way by government, unions, and giant corporations (plus well-intentioned family, friends and associates), to wring out our dripping old problem washcloths and use them again.

     Some kind of recycling “green” thinking stewardship-leadership idea?

     Well, far be it from me to not be fully supportive of environmental and ecological interests, but “No Thanks!” when it comes to recycling problems. To manage a problem is to recycle the problem until it comes back again and bites you in the butt! Small businesses don’t have the financial staying power to withstand multiple butt-bites.

     This leaves small business leaders to end the dripping-old-problem washcloth cycle before it begins by blowing the thing up, instead of letting it collect bacteria before its next use. How? STOP doing everything we’ve been taught since childhood: STOP STUDYING THINGS SO MUCH!

     “OMG, that’s sacrilegious! We have to be analytical — especially men — that’s our job!” Right. Because every blue-blooded American is crazed about getting and regurgitating the “in-depth analysis” offered by competitive sporting events commentators, by political and news pundits, by medical and diagnostic healthcare professionals … and by the vast majority of teachers in the vast majority of classrooms. 

     But this is about your small business and my small business, not the AFL-CIO,  AARP, Chevrolet, Bank of America, VERIZON, GOOGLE, main-stream media or the American Federation of Teachers. This is not about the futility of trying to end the vicious cycle of problems of the deep-pocketed. This is about learning what no one (except perhaps for some wise old grandparents!) has ever taught us: HOW TO THINK!

     Leadership means many different things to many people and organizations and governments, but to small business owners, operators, managers, and entrepreneurs, it can only mean one thing: HOW TO THINK!

     Even college which is supposed to teach us how to think, teaches us instead simply more of how to analyze. Analysis skills will not ingratiate a customer, pay a bill, respond to an immediate market opportunity or patch up piece of bad press.

     Long-term strategic planning is the lifeblood of big business and often accounts for giant corporate leaders’ collective inability to see their hands in front of their faces. Action plans are the regimen of small business; they are about what’s happening now and what can be done now to start ending problems now.

     Successful small businesspeople don’t waste time re-assessing, re-evaluating, re-comparing, re-contrasting, re-thinking, revising, re-visiting, re-structuring, or dwelling on re-reads of studies, surveys, and reports.

     Successful small businesspeople try solutions, and when the solutions don’t work, they try other solutions; they don’t waste valuable time, money, and effort running around in circles trying to manage the fire and put the same flame out over and over again. They get rid of the fire.

What can you do today to start ending

            the problems you’ve been managing?          

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

You have all the

ingredients, but 

it depends on how 

you bake the cake!

[…and you KNOW what happens if you put the egg in at the wrong time!]       

      Okay, so you came here expecting maybe a magic sales solution to make up for not getting a government bailout? Well, maybe you guessed right. Maybe this is the blog post that will change your life…the one that will make a difference in your future by holding your head still for three minutes and getting you to focus on the present.

     First, recognize that if you’re a salesperson, you are an entrepreneur. If you’re an entrepreneur, you’re a salesperson. The two functions and categories are not mutually exclusive. Consequently, Voila!

Salespreneurship is You!

     What does all this mean?

A) You cannot abandon the management and administrative tasks of running your sales rep business. Why? Because customer lead generation, product and service knowledge, customer communication and presentation skills (especially active listening) , closing skills, and building a strong enough relationship to generate repeat sales will all mean nothing.

Without accurate, attentive data entry and paperwork follow-through with every encounter, you are investing in disaster!

B) Likewise, you cannot dismiss the critical responsibilities of salesmanship and selling just because you’re a free-spirit entrepreneur flying from project to project. Why? Because without sales and a properly-performed sales function, there is no business ship to captain.

     So your job #1 mission is to accept that sales and entrepreneurship are joined at the hip. Your job #2 mission calls for acknowledgement of goals (like knowing where the finish line is in a race) and then abandonment of that acknowledgement! 

“If you dwell on the finish line while you’re running the race,

you’ll trip yourself up and fall on your face!”

–HAL ALPIAR

     True success in selling and in entrepreneuring comes with being able to focus on the here-and-now present moment every passing moment of every passing day as much as possible. You’ll never do it 100%. But the farther you can push the envelope and be consistently conscious of what’s right in front of your face, the happier, healthier and more productive you’ll be…the more rewarding will be your success.

     How to do this? The #1 Solution : Go to http://bit.ly/cMoqHf and practice the 60-second exercise offered there as often as you can. The #2 Solution: When you feel yourself drifting off into events and situations and conversations older than one minute ago OR imagining something that’s more than one minute into the future (the approach to the finish line), recognize you are headed into nonproductive fantasyland, and return to Solution #1.

     Salespreneurship. Bah humbug? Sure it’s harder work than being a halfwit entrepreneur or a slipshod salesman, but remember this mindset adjustment is all a matter of choice. It’s your behavior and it’s your choice. History proves that choosing a here-and-now orientation is always a healthier, happier, more prosperous place to be.

Comment below or reply direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!  Blog FREE via list-protected RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Great VALENTINE for GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

Are You

Communicating

Your Brains Out?

Before you throw in the frustration towel over the failure of those who work with you to follow the enlightened path of leadership you carve out, get in front of a mirror; take off your hat and toupee; and examine your brain(s).

If you’re thinking the people around you are getting dumber than horseshoes, see if maybe — just by chance — there are any big bumps on your brain that seem to be causing you to shut down the power valve on your communicating channels.

The first symptom is evident by measuring the expressions of those who work with you. If they’re yawning and listening to their watches or sextexting while you’re talking, you’re probably not giving them enough information. If they’re squinting and frowning and writing too frantically to even look up while you’re talking, you’re probably giving them too much information.

How will you know when you’re communicating just the right amount of information? People will look and act attentive. They’ll ask relevant questions. They’ll ask for examples to clarify their interpretations of your comments. They’ll ask for diagrams, resources, directions. You will see active nods of agreement and reasonably-paced note taking.

Alert, receptive people who are getting your message will sit or stand leaning slightly forward without (defensive) folded arms or legs or ankles or hands. Watch out for the guy who sprawls way back in his chair with (superiority) clasped hands behind his head! And beware the individual whose clasped hands form a forefinger “steeple” especially with forefinger-tips to her lips (which means she thinks she knows more than you about the subject, and is saving up her attack for the right, most devastating, moment)!

Those three posture-people are holding back what they really think, believe, or want to say. Don’t let them disrupt your flow or presentation. Call on them as soon as you see these body language clues. Ask for their thoughts right away. Encourage them to offer their opinions.

Then it’s your turn to listen carefully, make notes, and ask questions about their comments . Today’s leaders are those who rally teamwork by setting examples with their leadership. Active listening, observation skills, and feedback are all enormously important factors in leadership level communications.

Setting examples with your leadership requires you to communicate just the right amount of information to get things done. That means (besides listening, observation, and feedback) to process carefully what you see and hear, and to put your hat and toupee back on before you leave your mirror.

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0911

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals. God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“Awk! My blog

is flogged!”

     Some of you who know me well know I maintain a fairly relentless (accusations of compulsion are sometimes hinted) fast-lane pace for a 200 year-old entrepreneur and business coach. But the last few days, fallout from Mr. Gore’s global warming warning took the starch out of me. Blessed as we were at our home and office, with 30 inches of snow (8-10 more en route) — more than we’d seen since NW Maine — Kathy and I were stoically committed to tough it out with boots and shovels at the ready.

     But then, like Hannah with Montana and bacon with eggs, along came the snowstorm’s accompaniment: 4.5 days of no electricity at 40 degrees inside! And a State state-of-emergency of course (declared by a irrevocably Europe-bound governor!). Foreign leaders no doubt outweighed the fate of the State … and my blog, which by now, was flogged!

     Part of me was in something of a panic mode because I had no contingency plan about how to continue conducting business in a blizzard. [Who woulda thunk an area with no more than a rare broom-sweep worth of snow over most of the past 30 years could be this, now?] I’m also reminded of riding out a hurricane and power outage when I was a dumb young professor living aboard my boat in a stormy marina.

     None of this may seem to have much business application, but — actually — contingency and succession-planning come to mind. Most entrepreneurs, I believe it’s fair to say, never consider worst-case scenarios and alternative plans if the central thrust of their venture fails to ignite. 

     And fewer still, I think, ever consider what will happen to their ventures if anything happens to them. [This thought admittedly rose to the surface after my third round of driveway shoveling in three days.]

     Odds are that not a majority of entrepreneurs will have been successful Girl or Boy Scouts, and so may lack some of that “Be Prepared” discipline. Plus, who likes to entertain his or her inevitable demise or consider being sidelined by accidental injury? The point is that it is as wise a set of considerations as drawing up a will, or planning for retirement or marriage or children, or purchasing insurance policies.

     The positives of entrepreneurship are that most small and new business ventures are undertaken by young, energetic types. The negatives of contingency and succession planning are that most young energetic types are too young and energetic to consider their own mortality, OR that any business problem that arises could possibly be beyond their capacity to control.

     Accept this as myth, and think about it. It doesn’t take much more to come up with an effective take-over and emergency action plan to make sure your business, your family, and your employees and customers are cared for. 

     So back to being snowed in and powered out: I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of business and life with a renewed sense of appreciation for all that I have and for what it must be like to not have those things. Do I sound mushy grateful? Maybe it’s because I am.

Comment below Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT day for someone!  

Is Your Business

A Headcase?

The word therapy may sound ominous to the business mind. It evokes the specter of illness, or worse, of craziness. That should not be. Therapy is part of education. Therapy teaches us through personal experience about who we are and how we became that way. Therapy teaches us how personal responsibility plays a role in who we are. Therapy teaches us how we relate to others and how important other people are in the conduct of our lives. And therapy helps us claim our freedom and take charge of our lives. These are all elements of growing up and getting a complete education.”

     If this seems like a strange and out-of-place subject for you, let me assure you that it is extremely relevant. Why? Because every business –like every human– has problems to solve that have been created and nurtured internally. And, more often than not, a great many of these are denied and consciously or inadvertently glossed over by the boss.

     If you were to distill down all my years of diverse career experiences into one defining function, it would be that I have been a reality therapist to businesses. Powerful corporate executives, entrepreneurs, sales and healthcare professionals alike have called me in the middle of the night, reduced to tears. They have called on the verge of lighting fuses to blow up their businesses.

     I’ve seen business temper tantrums where filled file folders, office equipment, and even scalpels were flung in rage across offices and into doors. Because businesses that needed therapy, that were being run by owners and managers who refuted the need for it, had no place else to bury upsets but inside the troubled stressed-out minds of their leaders.

     Every person and every business, I believe, can benefit by some degree of professional therapy engagement at some point, perhaps continuously, in their lives. Therapy need not be as threatening or embarrassing as Hollywood would have us believe, nor as intimidating as the naysayers around us claim.

     The truth is therapy can be extremely enlightening, masterfully empowering, and a magnet for improved mental, physical, and emotional good health — the secret keys to increased sales!                  

     It may be useful to pause here and be reminded that the feelings of being threatened, embarrassed, and intimidated –like those feelings of enlightenment, empowerment, and improved health — are all behaviors and all behaviors are choices. Why choose negative over positive? Because of some fear? If the fear is not genuine, realistic, and physical, it is imagined; it is fantasy; it is also a choice!

     Many businesses fail because the leaders operate under a self-fulfilling prophecy that a business is beyond repair and nothing can be done to save it. The economy. The bank. The landlord. Lousy sales. Lazy employees. Products or services without real benefits or competitive advantages. No future. Poor track-record. They fail.

     The fix? Hire an informed, experienced, fresh, outside perspective to shrink out your business and coach your leaders.

     Savvy business owners and managers recognize that the business needs to be considered a living, breathing organism, and treated as if it were a separate individual entity apart from the paperwork, computer files, and physical workspace.

     In this context, business therapy can be a healthy and productive intervention capable of turning problems into opportunities. The distance from survive to thrive is measured in receptive leadership that’s willing to explore and innovate.

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You!

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

“GIVE ‘EM

 THE SCREW!”

CUSTOMER: “Could I please get an extra screw or two for mounting the brackets that go with the sets of decorator shelves I just bought? One was missing last time and I wasted hours looking for an exact match.”

HARDWARE CLERK: “Sure, Honey, but they come in little six-packs, and it’ll cost you an extra buck and a half.”

OWNER/MANAGER (who overheard the exchange): “Give ’em the screw, Hazel!” (Then whispering to her: “The whole packet only costs us 75-cents and this man just spent $300 here!”).

The happy customer leaves with his free six-pack of screws.

OWNER/MANAGER: “Listen Sweetheart, I appreciate you wanting to charge for all our products, but sometimes it’s best to just give people the little extras they ask for, as a courtesy…like the sample cheese and lunch meat slices at the deli. In this case, y’just give ’em the screw and he’ll remember us longer; he’ll send his friends; and he’ll come back again. And, then, maybe you get a raise.”

     Customer Service 2010 means standing on your head and tap dancing on the ceiling if it makes the customer happy! Does YOUR business sport hand prints on the floor and tread marks on the ceiling? Why not?

     What possesses business owners and managers to add “Handling” fees to shipping costs? Isn’t handling part of the job people are paid for… to get merchandise from inventory, and then wrap and ship it?

     And, by the way, why is this service added to the purchase cost and charged separately? And why’s it always a whacked out amount? A $19.95 item I bought recently had $6.95 added for “S&H” so the under-$20 product ended up a dime short of $27! I sent it back.

     I thought car dealers were struggling. So why do only luxury car dealers pick up and drop off cars to be serviced, and go the extra mile to wash the car before returning it after servicing?

     What right do restaurants have to decide what tipping percentage to charge for parties of six or more? If service is lousy, the percentage is the same as if it’s great? Is it just me or do other people believe you should tip routinely for routine service and exceptional for exceptional service? If the party of 8 or 10 or whatever is going to produce X dollars for a foodservice person regardless of whether she or he rates a 1 or a 10, why should the person care?

     “Slop that food on the table, Mable, and don’t waste time being nice; you’re gonna get paid the same regardless. Spend your energy instead with those four old men trying to impress one another; You’ll get more tips out of them if you kiss up enough!”

Does your business give customers the screw?

Comment below or reply direct to Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US  Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day!  Blog FREE via list-protected RSS feed OR $1 mo Amazon Kindle. Great VALENTINE for GRANDPARENTS: http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

What music

that you hear

catches in your throat?

What piece of music, musician, vocalist, group or recording gives you goosebumps? Chills up and down your spine? A tear to your eye? Something catches in your throat? How does that happen? What emotion does it raise in you?

What or when or where or whom does it remind you of? How does it do that? Words? Instruments? Violin? Flute? Harp? Sax? Drums? Bagpipes? What about composition? Arrangement? Set and setting? Performers? Charisma? Rod Stewart? Taylor Swift? Bach? The Eagles? Satchmo? The Beatles? Joni Mitchell? Bing Crosby? Pavarotti? Judy Garland? The Supremes? Sugarland?

Listen, you’re a sales pro or you’re the boss of your business, right? So is it not true that you also earn your pay every day by going on stage, stepping into the spotlight, and singing your business sales song?

[“All the world’s a stage” you know. Shakespeare told us so!]

Well, okay, maybe you don’t exactly “sing” your spiel, but you do give it a special spin, true? And how much do the ways you present yourself to others capture the ingredients that you think others use to somehow catch what you hear in your throat?

Have you noticed yourself losing some steam lately? [Well, don’t beat yourself up. You’d have to be a monk or a hermit to not be suffering some wear and tear from this economy]. The point is that great music is delivered with great energy and great enthusiasm.

So are great business sales pitches.

You have a great song to sing about your business — benefits, values, innovation, features, employees, commitments, track-record, service, trust and integrity — are you delivering these messages with great gusto … or just slogging along?

Are you remembering that every encounter every day with every person is an exciting and unique new opportunity to create sales? Are you singing your sales song to employees and customers? To suppliers and associates? To prospects?

(Prospects! I mean, consider this: who isn’t a prospect? Even if you’re a Swiss Screw Precision Manufacturer cranking out precision metal microchip connection parts not much bigger than the head of a pin, and you sell them almost exclusively to government rocketship scientists and Silicon Valley muckity-mucks, you never know who knows who! Never. You never know if the person standing next to you at the railroad station, the airport, the grocery store is the cousin, uncle, mother, or best friend of one of those rocket or Silicon guys.)

Bottom line? You can never (well, hardly ever) be too enthusiastic about your business and what you sell, and why what you sell is so great because of what it provides in the way of benefits! I keep a reminder postcard on my desk that Kathy and I once got from dear friend Judy Vorfeld which is headlined:

“Enthusiasm is the electricity of life”

…followed by the notation:

“Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.”

Just a small idea, but how about making every encounter you have tomorrow be a “Make-it-a-most-important-person-to-ever-hear-your-sales-song-day”? What have you got to lose? You might even be inspired to try it again on Tuesday. Ah, one final word to keep on the front burner as you make your grand entrance and repeat your performances: GENUINE.

Thanks, Judy!

[Visit Judy at  http://www.ossweb.com (her blog) and her wonderful free e-zines Communication Expressway www.ossweb.com/ezine.html and Webgrammar http://www.webgrammar.com]

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!