MONEY

DOESN’T GROW

 ON YOUR BOSS’S

TREES EITHER.

(SETS OF WORDS TO CHERRY-PICK FROM AND ADAPT AS NEEDED)

     DEAR EMPLOYEE: I know you are a basically honest person or you wouldn’t still be employed where you are, doing what you do. And I greatly appreciate your loyalty.

     This message is intended in the spirit of seeing the business you work for, and your own career pursuits –both– experience unprecedented success in the months and years ahead.  

     You should, first of all, know that –as the Boss– I am working for myself and my family, and for you and your family, and for everyone else involved, to provide the best possible product and service quality for the best possible dollar value to our customers.

     I am doing this when we’re closed as well as when we’re open. There’s hardly more than a few minutes ever pass, day or night, that I am not thinking about ways to improve our business, and ways to provide more opportunities for growth to employees, suppliers, and customers.

     I am writing this to enlist your increased support in attitude and productivity. I can only feel comfortable in making this request because you have proven yourself capable, and you have demonstrated your ongoing commitment to sustain yourself and your family by being conscientious and by working hard.

     Now I am going to ask you to accept increased responsibility without increased compensation, but with the increased assurance that when your extra-effort help starts to kick in, I will be certain to see that you are appropriately rewarded with corresponding job security. The more effort we get from everyone, the more opportunities will surface for participating in management leadership teams. 

     The product of our combined extra efforts will lead to more productive and more protected jobs with greater compensation.

     For me to hold up my end of the deal, I need you to start now acting like more of the leader and teammate you have demonstrated you are capable of being. When you observe personnel, system, or equipment breakdowns that you know how to deal with, step in and deal with them. When you are not sure about what to do, come ask. Sweeping problems under the rug only produces bigger problems.

     When you are aware of someone padding their hours, not honoring the terms of their employment, acting lackadaisical or disinterested, filching supply items, or treating equipment abusively, you are doing this business and your own career a disservice by looking the other way.

     I am not urging risky confrontation or that you play “tattle-tale,” but I am suggesting you consider that avoiding the reality of what’s going on is akin to avoiding your responsibility to do the best you can do to help your own family. Only by protecting and nurturing the interests of this company, can your career here be expected to grow and thrive.

     You see, I am not made of money any more than you. You may look at how I live and conclude that it’s like cruise control compared to all your hard peddling. I assure you, the hidden stress makes it a no-contest situation.

     Dealing with the banks, investors, lawyers, bill collectors, insurance agents, the landlord, over-the-top government controls and regulations (and all the accompanying paperwork) is not fun and games. I have no complaints. It’s what I do.

     But for us to get out of this economic crunch, I am going to need you to pull more than your usual share to help me help us to turn things around so that all of us can enjoy greater freedom. Are you with me? What three things can you do this week to help us get this renewed mission started?      

Click Here to work with Hal!

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! 

When times get tough, 

the tough get going,

but they also

inventory their staffs!

     It’s easy to do, costs nothing, takes almost no time, and can produce an avalanche of valuable sales and business contacts. Pass around a short survey every six months that asks the people who work with you what they’ve been learning lately outside of work, who they know, what activities they choose for family fun, what kinds of careers family members have… 

     With a little prompting on your part, and some representative examples you can offer to promote useful responses, you may learn nothing of value . . . but you could be astonished! And until you flat-out ask, you’ll never know. Your administrative assistant may have a brother-in-law who runs a company that’s a perfect fit with your business mission.

     Your operations manager’s sister might be married to a board member of a neighboring business you’ve considered courting for shared marketing expenses.

Maybe your shipping clerk or receptionist is active in the same church as a key supplier who’s been giving bigger discounts to your competitor, but you’ve never had enough of a shared personal connection to feel comfortable enough to approach her about it.

     Why wouldn’t you know things like this already? Most people who are not running a business, or in sales, rarely think about networking, or have experience in the qualifying question process that’s usually needed to uncover valuable connections. It’s human nature to not volunteer “personal” information.

     You have a goldmine of untapped resources under your thumb. Start to draft your survey page.

     Avoid probing personal questions. Unless you have more than a hundred employees where processing answers could start to get unwieldy, avoid multiple choice or yes/no/maybe questions. Keep things open-ended and “optional” so no one feels you’re poking around to get in his or her closet. Explain that good business contacts can come from stretching awareness of existing resources, and that you would be very appreciative of any information shared, even if the respondent didn’t consider it valuable.

“Who do you know in your neighborhood, or your family or immediate circle of friends that might have some work or career connection with our three major prospects/customers?

Would they mind if you or someone from your organization contacted them or used their name to make contact with that prospect/customer to help open up a channel for dialogue about the services/products we offer?

What would it take for that to happen?”

     A question flow like this will of course get answered more enthusiastically and more thoroughly when you can provide some reward — a bottle of champagne, a day off, a charitable donation in that individual’s name, a percentage of potential sales commission, a small piece of some resultant new revenue stream that a connection produces. Use your imagination here.   

     The bottom line is the old reminder that you never get anything if you don’t ask for it. And when you do ask, you may be pleasantly surprised. What’s the worst thing could happen, the questions produce no contacts? At least it will serve to get people thinking.

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

Make today a GREAT Day for someone! 

Yes, “quirky” works.

Save that tablecloth!

     In between rocket-blasting stints with Madison Avenue’s two biggest and most successful ad agencies in history, I once worked as new business director and assistant to the chairman of a rather inconsequential yet highly profitable New York advertising firm. My boss was the number one guy out of three partners. The other two hung out and acted important. My boss was the one who made the sales and brought in the money.

     I never learned much from him except that it really is possible to be successful even when you have no obvious success traits or qualities, as long as you are a stupendous listener, and can be totally quirky. The old man had no redeeming characteristics to speak of but he was both quirky — accentuated by a cartoony voice and over-the-top animation that seemed to ooze incongruously out of his 3-piece suit — plus he was an outstanding listener.

     Three or four days a week, I found myself in the arguably envious position of getting fat by being his sidekick at exorbitantly expensive lunches he hosted at the best restaurants in Manhattan. He invited clients and prospective clients as guests. I was his Boy Friday but he actually encouraged me to talk up agency credentials and experience, setting the stage for his “pitch” at dessert time.

     What he had to say was always on target, but it came only after intensive listening, interspersed with squinty-eyed questions from over the tops of his reading glasses, and requests for examples and diagrams. He made copious notes with marker pens . . . on the tablecloth! 

     In between courses’, he would engage the help of a waiter or two to turn the table covering, drip spots and all, clockwise so he’d have clear writing space for each part of the meal. When lunch ended, he would tuck a $20 bill into the Maitre D’s hand and neatly fold the tablecloth up, tuck it under his arm as he did all the handshake/smile stuff and head for a cab that I would have waiting at the curb.

     When we got back to the office, his secretary would unfold the tablecloth, tack it on the wall over her workspace and type out everything he had written, rising periodically to turn the cloth and re-tack it (lots of pinholes in the wall!). She would enlist one of the designers to recreate any diagrams. The Boss would prioritize items on her draft and identify them as Objectives or Strategies or Tactics the have a final version typed up.

     The typed copy was distributed to all who had any experience with or interest in the business being courted, followed by a meeting, and a summary returned to the lunch guest reiterating the key points, tying them of course to sales points. Often this document became the “working bible” for developing the advertising for an existing client for a full year or more, and often it won new clients.      

     Should we all run out and start writing on tablecloths? Maybe, but the point is that whatever you do to be better at running your business doesn’t have to be something that’s considered “normal” by others, and you need not worry or care about what others say if the system works for you. Someone else I worked for routinely cell phone called his desk from the golf course to leave himself message reminders of sales prospect conversations he would follow up on the next day.

“Quirky” Works.  

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! 

So, ARE you the Boss, or not?

(Part I of II)  

     Other than bad news from your accountant, there’s very little you can hear that’s worse than, “It’s not my job!”  Nor does it make any difference which of those four words is most emphasized (and of course the absolute worst place any boss can hear these words is when an employee says them to a customer!).

The example, though, serves to make a point:

You’re “The Boss” . . . What’s YOUR job?

     If you want to start making more money by tomorrow morning, you’re going to have to change a few things. If you’re going to change a few things, you have to be very clear and keenly aware of what exists right now — beforeyou charge in with your wheelbarrowful of shovels, dynamite sticks, battering ram, hammer and nails, concrete, and power tools.

     Probably the most important first step (which, by the way, takes at least 3-6 seconds!) is to accept the fact that the sooner you can get yourself to STOP thinking of yourself as a “business owner” or “operator” or “manager,” the quicker you’ll get to that money-making part. Why? Because . . .

Because  the minute you think of yourself as some title, like “the owner,” there are certain defined behaviors and privileges that go along with that title, and each of those is limiting.

They unconsciously require you to behave in certain ways.

They actually block you from exercising your true entrepreneurial pursuits, your innovative ideas, and your ability to move your business forward in high gear.

     To put aside your self-imposed limitations, you must first put aside your thoughts of being “the owner/operator/manager,” and start to think of yourself as more of the free spirit that started your business, or that started working with it from that very first day. Remember that? You were all cranked-up and uninhibited in your thinking?

     Forget about what happened since then and focus on where you are right this minute. And as for “down the road,” if you know where you want to end up, don’t waste time checking the finish line; stay with your heartbeat and pulse and breathing! 

     This “New You” also needs to throw off any and all “Get Rich Quick” schemes. Reality note:There is no such thing! Forget about all those slick email and Twitter and Facebook and YouTube come-ons and one-time-only deals that promise transformation of your life and business into an overnight kingdom for just four easy payments of $29.95.

     Instead, you might give some thought to what you could do for your your business yourSELF for the $119.80 [oh, right, “plus S&H” . . . or now it’s “P&H” . . . “P” for Processing. Apparently “Shipping” is now free and you pay only for “Processing.”  Hmmm, “Processing” PLUS “Handling”? Aren’t employees PAID to do “S” and “H” and “P”?  Is somebody double-dipping?]

     Okay, here it is. This is what you’ve been waiting for . . . 

          To get ready to make more money starting tomorrow morning: 

1) Start focusing on what you can do immediately to shed your mental cloak of limitations that revolve around BEING (insert your title), and instead take 3 bold, positive steps toward framing your business in some exciting new, more realistic, more authentic, more transparent directions.

2) Order more deposit slips. 

 Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US 

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

Make it a GREAT Day for someone!

If you failed to teach a

key employee 

something important

today, are you

missing the boat?

     With what I presume to be 55% of American employees being UNhappy [See yesterday’s blog post below this one], there’s very little “happiness-transition” wiggle room for a business owner or manager to exercise. The first important step, though, in the direction of kicking up productivity is to more fully engage employees in the day-to-day operations of your business. 

     Should you flat out trust the one person who seems most likely to head off to a competitor? Should you risk sharing critical product development or service expense information with people who you’re not confident will even be there in six months? Does it make any sense to encourage the employee your classmates would vote “Most likely to be brain-dead,” who you’ve kept around to do the slug work nobody else will touch? Sometimes the least likely people rise to the occasion. Think on that one.

     How about — instead of asking those questions about your employees — you ask some questions of your SELF? Where, for example, are you and your business headed right now? Where do you expect to be in five years? How (what’s the process you’ll use) do you expect to survive the next five months? What will you be doing differently then than you’re doing today? Why are you waiting five months?

     Keeping on that track for another minute, what’s something new you’ve learned about your business today? What’s something new you’ve learned about your SELF today? (Yes, both events did in fact occur; you just blocked them out or didn’t give yourself enough credit for the discoveries.)

     How will any of that new information help you tomorrow? When was the last time you and your family depended on someone else’s decision making? When was the last time you put yourself in your employees’ shoes and thought about their perspective of your business and your decision making? How do you think dependency feels?

     When was the last time you stopped long enough to teach an employee something important that she or he can use to do a better job, or be able to take home to share with family? Do you take active interest in your people every day? Why not? They may never admit it and you may never believe it, but all studies ever done would reinforce that you can be sure they take active interest in you every day, probably every hour! 

     So, that means you’re obliged to return the interest? No. You’re obliged to do everything you can possibly do to cultivate employee enthusiasm for the work they are doing. When financial reward is not possible, emotional support and psychological reward and teaching by example have to suffice. And if you’re consistent about making those money-substitutes work, they will. All human beings need reinforcement and reassurance. Employees need it from their bosses. Are you on it?                                                                              

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At this moment

in history… 

when small business

can least afford it…

[4-STEP  SOLUTION AT END] 

     GOVERNMENT is muscling entrepreneurs into incipient bankruptcy with this healthcare plan that — contrary to what the spin has been — does absolutely NOT pass along tax credit to all. In fact, 88% (maybe more) of America’s 29,000,000+ small businesses will get ZERO healthcare plan-related tax credit! So, do the math: “Maybe 12%” will get some tax credit.

     29 MILLION? Yes, that includes the 23 million self-employed. They are indeed small businesses by any rational person’s definition, and certainly by any textbook definition, and most assuredly by any measure of reality.

     The healthcare plan forces downward pressure on wages, when we’re at a point in time, facing the prospects of total economic demise, that the exact opposite is what should be happening. Downward pressure on wages inhibits business growth and strangleholds small businesses’ abilities to create jobs.

     SMALL BUSINESS will end up bearing the burden of increased insurance premium costs. Insurance companies will now pass on to small businesses the increased costs of government payments they must make. Insurance companies are not stupid. They will simply turn around and stick it to small business . . . camouflaged perhaps, but it will not not happen!

     Heaven knows we need to create jobs. And heaven also knows job creation will never come from corporate giants or from incompetent, close-minded market government agencies like the US Postal Service. 

     Yet, small business is the last and really only hope for job creation. Job creation is the only meaningful and realistic economic stimulus solution in America’s economy. Yet we are being trapped in a vicious circle of reckless spending partisan-politics that has no clue about the value of free market price competition and tax incentives with teeth!

     Instead, our no-business-experience leadership looks forlornly to the corporate and government executives who run the US Small Business Administration for the kinds of help they are simply not capable of providing.

     Most small business owners and entrepreneurs know how to solve problems quickly and know how to stimulate cash-flow and open new revenue streams, how to build a competitive environment and make it be productive. Give them a chance!

THE SOLUTION…

>>> We need regional roll-up-the-sleeves task forces of experienced, successful small business owners and entrepreneurs in place and functioning via virtual meeting site conferences within two weeks.

>>> We need individuals with proven track-records who are willing to step up to the plate and work together for the common good without burden of paperwork overload or complex multi-level reporting systems.

>>> We need task teams to be given full authority AND responsibility to take immediate steps to develop and implement business turn-around programs geared to creating jobs.

>>> We need government acceptance of the fact that the time has come to make the most of America’s great wealth of small business resources by respecting and working with them, instead of pounding them into the ground.   

Comment below or Hal@BusinessWorks.US Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You! Make it a GREAT Day! Blog via RSS feed or $1/mo Kindle. GRANDPARENT Gift? http://bit.ly/3nDlGF

No matter which end of

the interview

you’re on…

     Few things can feel more satisfying than to win over the person at the other end of an interview by taking quiet control with championship communication skills.

     Active listening, thoughtful speaking and careful observations pay big dividends in employee/employer screening and hiring interviews, as well as in day-to-day operations.

     Yes, it’s true that nothing beats a great handshake, neat appearance, good grooming, eye-contact, and a bright smile for openers. But once you’re seated, you need a new set of tools.

     And no matter which end of the interview you’re on, be careful to not blow off a great first impression with lousy body language.

     When you sit back in your seat (especially in a sprawl and/or with hands clasped behind your head) you are giving off a superiority attitude that no one likes, even if you happen to be superior.

     If your arms, legs, ankles, hands, wrists are folded, you are communicating defensiveness, which will not work to your advantage, even if you are feeling that way.

     Open-ended questions provide the most revealing answers:

• “Tell me what’s important to you that’s not on this resume?

• What would you do if I gave you a million dollars cash right this minute?

• Who or what has made the biggest difference in your life and how did that happen?

• What would make you choose situation A over situation B even though B would offer you more money? (or better benefits?)

• What’s the hardest work situation you’ve ever had to deal with?

• How did you get started in this business anyway?”

are all good examples.

     WHAT the answers are to these or any other questions are only 20% important. HOW the answers are delivered accounts for 80% of what’s important! How rushed or deliberate are the responses?

     How serious or humorous are the answers? If humor is included, is it disparaging or self-effacing? In good taste? Does eye-contact have a focal point or is it more like staring? Leering? Avoiding?

Resist the temptation to fill the air with words.

Silence is a very useful and telling tool as long as it doesn’t go past the point of being intimidating.

In the same context, note taking is always a powerful practice; it keeps your attention focused; it supplements your memory banks; it’s flattering.

     Prompt, then listen. Never hesitate to clarify with paraphrasing (“Do I understand you correctly to mean . . . ?” Fill in your own words to check the meaning of something you’re in doubt about). Ask for examples. Ask for diagrams. Offer examples. Offer diagrams.

     Be careful with any job candidate who seems preoccupied with issues involving compensation, insurance, vacations, sick days, personal timeoffs, overtime pay, time reporting, lunch and coffee breaks. If you’re a candidate, be careful of a prospective employer who doesn’t volunteer this information up front.  

     When you can be prepared to the point where the interview is something you look forward to, you are likely to be ready to communicate effectively no matter which end of it you’re on. When you can be a detective during the interview, and make adjustments along the way, you’ll be increasing your odds for success regardless of whether you’re asking or answering.   

Hal@BUSINESSWORKS.US 

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

Make today a GREAT day for someone! 

Wake Up Congress!

The White House

is NOT on Your Side.

(PART 2 OF 2… The rest of the story)

PASS ALONG a printout or email this page link to your U.S. Senator and Congressional Representative

     Small business has been the backbone of America’s economy and the driving force behind job creation as the means to economic turnaround since the beginning of time. Yet small business has been not only blatantly disregarded in the search for economic and national survival, it has been literally stomped on by a penny-wise, dollar-foolish Federal Administration … that you are being dragged along into as a co-conspirator!

     Paying back union bosses for buying the election, and overriding common sense with big business bailout rewards that should not have come from taxpayers to begin with, and should have gone to small businesses instead to create jobs, was (and remains) a colossal error in judgment.

     Adding insult to injury, the White House is now trying to ramrod yet another version of a so-called healthcare reform plan down our throats.

     The voters are not stupid. They know that the schmooze-coated advances the President is making and the tokenism dropped at the feet of small business is meaningless, empty, UN-American nonsense designed solely to increase government control.

     The White House wants you to think the “new and improved” healthcare plan is what your constituents want and need. It is NOT.

     The White House wants you to think that small business is being awarded huge decision making benefits as part of this ill-founded, burdensome, unworkable plan. Not the case. Small business is being awarded gigantic, financially back-breaking responsibility for making healthcare work without being allowed meaningful input.

     If this healthcare plan goes through, the bankruptcy court lines will stretch all the way around the block in every city in America. If you, dear representatives of the people, think we have unemployment problems now, just give this financially-numbing plan 9-12 months to boil over… oh, and don’t worry about picking up the pieces because you won’t be around for another term.

     The people you represent are already fighting for their lives to avoid forclosures, pay bills, and feed their families. They sure as hell are not going to re-elect representatives who continually vote to spend more money that doesn’t exist — and that our children and grandchildren will be paying for, for decades.

     Jim Toedtman, the accomplished and perceptive Editor of AARP Bulletin, wrote last October (and it continues to ring true) that “It’s striking how closely” (Obama’s healthcare plan) “resembles the plan outlined by Nixon” (in 1970). “There’s a lesson here, and an important one that” (even the late Senator Ted) “Kennedy learned four decades too late: Don’t allow partisanship and deology to blind you to opportunity. But who,” Toedtman asks, “in the nation’s all but dysfunctional capital has learned Kennedy’s lesson? Who has the common sense and the willingness to listen? Who will set aside the partisanship that has paralyzed the health care debate? Who will step forward and seize the opportunity before them?”

     Surely that “who” could be YOU!

     Small business owners strongly urge that the torch be passed to those who know best how to fuel the job creation and healthcare reform fires: small business and healthcare professionals… not corporate giants, not hospital executives, not unions, not bankers, not automakers, and certainly not government administrators or media people. 

     There must be free market enterprise price competition, administered on a state-by-state basis (because health problems and needs vary considerably in different geographical regions) and small business owners cannot be expected to carry the financial burden.

     The White House is trying to make its backers look like heroes. But reality is that backers will instead be thought of by those who elect them as internal terrorists whose support of White House plans and policies are tearing at the very fabric of American life.

     Wake up, representatives of the people of America! Small Business Job Creation is what we need and want. If you were unemployed, could you pay for “the new” healthcare? First things first!   

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 YOU CAN FOLLOW

these 8 sentences, you 

understand how to fix

the economy — and the

White House is puzzled.

(PART 1 OF 2)

     Entrepreneurs pursue ideas. They taste, test, trial-and-error, and explore applications of their ideas. When they settle on a direction, they find or attract enough financial support to do two things: 1) Create an operations process to develop (manufacture, fabricate, enhance) the product(s) and/or service(s), and 2) Design and deliver a marketing program.

     Marketing drives prospects to the door and creates a support platform for sales. Salespeople (or the entrepreneur herself or himself, acting in a sales role) produce(s) sales. Sales produce revenues. Revenues pay operations process and marketing (and perhaps investor) expenses and hopefully generate profits.

     Profits allow entrepreneurs to create jobs.

     Big business really doesn’t create new jobs. Research demonstrates time and again that far more than the vast majority of new jobs created in America originate with small business.

     So— why does the White House insist on avoiding and glossing over small business as an insignificant source of new jobs? Why does the White House pretend to befriend small business, shaking hands with the right hand while stabbing it in the back with the left hand?

     Can someone please answer this? Can the answer please be a real one, and not some convoluted response anchored by union-held political chips or fantasyland corporate moguls riding bailout coattails?

     How do”We the people…” choose to allow narcissistic political arrogance to override the critical needs of our economically-threatened society to stimulate and foster job creation?  Part of the answer is that we have a federal government that’s universally comprised of individuals who have not one iota of business experience, and who adamantly refuse to get the business advice needed for economic recovery from the only source that matters: small business.

     And surely–because, really, no one could be this dumb– the government can’t possibly be thinking that the SBA is the place to turn for meaningful input. (Yes, this is the same Small Business Administration administered by small-business-braindead government employees and stimulus-recipient big business corporate types who can’t even spell entrepreneur, let alone think like one) .

     The message is: WAKE UP AMERICA!  There’s more to this story, and it’s coming tomorrow.

     I hope you’ll return for –as one of my heroes, Paul Harvey, used to say– the rest of the story!

# # #

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 302.933.0116

“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!

Should “A-Rod” 

be negotiating

terms for Scott Boras

to play third base?

     With immediate apologies to all those “not a baseball fan” types who prefer brawn-over-brain sports that require heavy drinking to appreciate, and, oh yes, apologies also to all those who suffered great heartache at having to see Olympic curling competition come to an end.

     It’s just that even Herman’s Hermits have heard of baseball’s super-star Yankee slickster, and America’s champion sports agent (No, not the Tom Cruise character from the “Show me the money!” movie). And everyone knows that neither of these guys could do the other’s job with even a shred of success. Besides, it hooked you into reading this, right? 

     Well, this is not much ado about nothing because business owners and managers insist everyday on putting the avalanche of marketing burdens on the shoulders of salespeople who haven’t a clue about the most appropriate tools to use, nor any sense of the command of psychology needed to make those tools work effectively. And designating marketing people for sales roles can be an even bigger joke.

     Marketing is not sales. Sales is a function of marketing.

     Marketing is also the umbrella over all these other functions: pricing; packaging; online and offline promotion, merchandising, and advertising; online and offline public relations, community relations, investor relations, industry relations, business alumni relations, and much of customer relations; professional practice development; formalized networking, blogging, and social media activities; website design and development; and “buzz” (word-of-mouth) marketing.

     Sales has many parts to it. Not the least of these is that being a sales representative means running one’s own small sales performance business complete with bookkeeping and all the other migraine-promoters. But sales is sales.

     Marketers are the planners, organizers, strategists and creators. Salespeople are the movers and shakers. Salespeople are the lifeblood of every organization. Marketers provide the support services that bring prospects to the point of sale. Salespeople sell!

     If you want your salespeople to do a better job of selling, let them sell. Take away the responsibility for marketing that drains their energy, makes them crazy and is beyond their comprehension to begin with, and let them sell.

     Give the responsibility for marketing to people who are trained to do marketing. Let them come up with the words and pictures and designs and plans and budgets and strategies and slogans and jingles and branding lines and media plans and scripts and news releases and online program approaches.

     When their work succeeds at driving prospects to your door, reward them for the results; but then let your salespeople do their job! 

     Of course they all need to interact and share insights with one another. The more each team and individual knows about what makes the other(s) tick, the more successful all of them will be, and so will be your business. Your greatest challenge is to motivate everyone to do what they do best to take your business in the direction you want it to go. That’s leadership, and only you can do that!

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