Yep! History In The Making… 

This being a thankful week, I thank you for joining me today.  With anticipation of my blog post #200 coming on Thanksgiving Day, YOU now have the chance to be part of history in the making . . . 

     I am asking all my friends and blog followers to write favorable comments in the window below that I can take with me to Washington. 

     I will print out your comments and hand them over as accompanying support for my request to be granted a real, honest-to-goodness, taxpayer-dollars-paid-for government bailout. 

     This financial relief will enable me to continue writing blog posts that benefit society without putting any compensation burden on me to have to sell advertising banners, or pay myself a salary with money that I’m just not earning right now. 

[Of course the future will be different, and I’ll only need annual bailout money for possibly seven or eight more years until my, ahem, ship comes in!]  

     I don’t think this is asking too much.  After all, I have a great many years under my belt of paying taxes at great personal sacrifice.  It’s probably time to get some of that back, maybe even more than what I’ve paid in. 

     I have also accumulated significant business debt that came about as a result of my focus change to write helpful business and personal growth hints for others instead of to make sales for myself. 

     Being accustomed to a $900,000 a year lifestyle, I imagine it would be awfully hard to get myself under that to qualify for those campaign-promised tax cuts so I wouldn’t have to be paying into the bailout kitty — let’s see, was it a $250,000 level according to one candidate, or $100,000 level promised by his running mate?  Hmmm.  Well, a hundred, two hundred and fifty, not much difference. Whatever. 

     Paying for incompetence with bailouts funded by taxes.  Now that’s a unique idea.  But, hey, that’s what government is for anyway, isn’t it?  I mean, who else could I turn to?  You might find this surprising, but no one I know of has the ability to pump $3,000,000,000,000+ into shoring up sinking businesses.

(Oh, and, don’t kid yourself: considering that absolutely no one on this planet has even the slightest clue about how many billions and trillions are about to get shell-game shifted around, or by whom, and to whom, and what for, and for how long, and where it’s all coming from, it could be the + on top of that three trillion that’s the real kicker!).

     Of course, I’m sure I will need to unionize first to qualify.  It’d be wonderful to add a dozen or so employees to my blog staff (maybe I could write posts twice a day!) just so I could collect. 

     None of the union folks would actually do anything, but what else is new?  They provide qualification clout.  That works.  Why, it’s almost like being able to get more food stamps by adding more kids to the family!       halalpiar     

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Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 76 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

No one ever made dollars

                                            

by pinching pennies!  

     Business reports are flooded these days with news of companies cutting, trimming, slicing, saving, searching, eliminating, conserving, consolidating, closing, and filing.  Enough already! 

     STOP worrying and making yourself crazy!  If you own or run a business, keep this thought on your front burner:  NO ONE ever made dollars by pinching pennies!  

     Your business can only survive, grow, and make money by making sales.  Yeah, you say, well that’s not so easy when people are using Gorilla Glue www.gorillaglue.com on their wallet pockets and purse clasps.  (Wow! Try saying those last two words three times fast!)  But, you know what?  It IS easy if:

• A) you CHOOSE for it to be easy (since all behavior is a choice!), and
• B) you concentrate hard on using empathy by putting yourself in your prospect’s shoes, by listening carefully to what your prospect says is important to her or him, and by emphasizing the benefits (instead of features) that specifically and directly address the issues and concerns that you hear expressed. 

     Gently and pleasantly “sizing up” the prospect and the situation accurately is the first and often most important step in making a sale.  You need to clear away other thoughts and concentrate on being a friendly detective.  You’ll never catch a ball that’s hit to you if you’re thinking about your next vacation, or last night!

     Pretend you’ve been hired by the prospect to work together on the same side of the desk to help him or her make a buying decision that will be beneficial (and hopefully “smart”) . . . one that truly provides the benefits the prospect seeks, which you’ll know from A) and B) above . . . one that paves the way for building a long-term relationship and repeat sales.  

     Overcoming objections can be critical as well. 

     People will not always say what’s on their minds, but –aaaaah– you know “The Columbo Technique” because you’ve seen the old TV series, right?      http://www.tv.com/columbo/show/1011/summary.html  Forever trenchcoated Detective Columbo was famous for his last-minute stepping back in through a door he was closing as he was leaving a suspect behind, where he would disarmingly lean back in and say something like, “Oh, by the way, I was just curious about something: now that the murder is practically solved, would you mind telling me the real reason you hated your boss?” 

     The prospect is getting ready to leave, and you turn to say thank you for her or his time and attention, and “By the way, now that you’ve made it clear you really don’t want this particular model we’ve been discussing, would you mind telling me the real reason for your decision?”

     Why is it important to know this missing piece?  Because when you know the real reason for the “NO” you know where to focus your energy and attention.  When someone says he or she wants a practical vehicle that can be used with both family and work needs, you then know where to channel your discussion.  Forget about price.  Forget about fuel economy.  Forget about leather interiors.   

     It’s not that these are not important features; it is that they are blocking you from concentrating on what is truly important to this particular prospect: space and convenience. 

     The person is looking for quick, easy, convertable space that passengers will find comfortable, but that changed-over, will accommodate tools or files—or whatever work needs you heard mentioned when you asked about the individual’s job in B) above. 

     The goal throughout this process is to speak 20% of the time and listen 80%.  The results will speak for themselves with sales instead of savings.  Halalpiar        

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Check out and contribute to the daily growing 7-Word Story started 64 days ago (inside a coffin).  Click on the link to the right, or go to the “BOOKS” tab at the top of this page, then to the top headline link.

“The Sky Is Falling!”

cried Chicken Little. 

     Okay, we all know about the sabre-rattling going on in the bowels of Wall Street, and the herky-jerky market activity, and the far greater woes the media would happily have us lament . . . or probably swallow first, and then lament, so they could paint themselves as saviors.  But, you know what?  Even the dreamers among us are sober enough to see that the sky is not falling, and realistic enough to know that when-you’ve-got-lemons-make-lemonade thing!

     Born of financial and housing market instability is numismatic (coin-collection) investing, home remodeling, debt consolidation, home vacations, home-prepared meals, second-hand furniture, second-hand books and magazines, and second-hand clothing and vehicle dealers, career shifts, fuel-efficient cars, energy-efficient appliances, low-cost equipment exercise (walking, jogging, etc.), less frequent but longer consolidated shopping trips, more reliance on cellphones/texting/emails than fee-based deliveries, and increased emphasis on recipes, menus, bulkfood shopping, furniture refinishing, home computer businesses, all-inclusive resorts, in-home hobby and craft gift-making, and on and on.  You get it. 

     What might make the problems associated with economic uncertainty seem more overwhelming than the opportunity flip side is that you may not have or want to have anything to do with the kinds of directions mentioned here. 

     The break-away point, though is for you to know, in fact, for sure, exactly what directions DO fit you and appeal to you that you CAN make work.  

     You will only uncover the reality of what’s crawling around inside you, waiting to be released in a storm of exciting new pursuits IF you stop long enough to take accurate inventory of where you are, what you’re doing, what and whom you’re living with, how long you can (honestly) go without some income (and how much income?), what your true responsibilities are all about (emotional, financial, physical) and what other ways there may be for you to deal with them. 

     Once you’ve done the self-audit, take some kind of break, then return to edit and reorganize your thinking about yourself, and your life, and your family.  And either stay where you are, dig in and enjoy it, or start thinking of new options you will enjoy.  Remember that we always excel and perform best at the things we enjoy doing the most, and that the greatest and most financially successful people of our times are those who did their homework first and took reasonable risks second! 

     Either way, spring cleaning is always productive in the fall . . . “fall” the season, not “of the sky”!         halalpiar

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BE A CO-AUTHOR!  ENTER YOUR OWN 7-WORDS OR LESS TACK-ON to the “billboard discipline” story started 28 posts ago. The next 7 words could be yours! 

Step right up and get your chickin-pluckin’

pickle-packin’ bagel-bendin’ dirty double

disconnected semi-circled rubber baby

buggy bumper!  Or buy three

and get one free!

Sit down, salespeople!  Listen up!  The slumping economy is no reason to panic, but it’s also no reason to think you need to be MORE hardsell, or give MORE stuff away. 

Here’s a great example: just look at how whacked out all the car dealers are.  First came the ridiculous gas price hikes and then the doom and gloom media reports.  Who could blame crushed automobile and truck sales on anything else? 

Unfortunately, the truth is that dealerships have been doing themselves in.  They’re still playing the old-time sales game with old-time pre-economy-catastrophe rules.  They haven’t adjusted to the current market. 

I saw no fewer than six (!) car commercials in a row the other night, each one trying to out-shout and out-give-away the other.  And each, no doubt, was afraid to back off the increased media-trap schedule because the competitors would get a leg up.  So all were spending money they weren’t taking in.

There are new rules out there today!

When times are tight, sales presentations are no longer about giveaways (even free gas ploys!) and no longer about hype and drum-beating.  In fact, sales presentations need to fade away in favor of people presentations! 

It’s not about being more pushy (or, as I recently read about a “trend” to be angry and let customers know you are angry on their behalf!  That’s BS!).  Sales momentum in periods of market stress are all about building trust and relationships and communicating more effectively (especially the “listening” part) with customers and prospects. 

It’s remembering that your greatest source of new business (and most economical to cultivate . . . emails and phonecalls, for example, instead of expensive media advertising) is from existing and past customers! 

It means putting more reliance on personal contacts and community service.  It means depending more on solid public relations programs instead of space and airtime package deals that put you on the air at 3am or tuck you neatly into the newspaper’s obituary section . . . good obscure places to die if that’s what you choose for your sales program. 

This isn’t rocket science, folks!  Just think about what works now that triggers YOU to want to buy now.  Odds are it’s that someone you feel you can relate to (because you’ve interacted with that person at church or school or in some community activity. 

OR it’s because you’ve purchased from her or him in the past and he/she has taken the trouble just to stay in touch without trying to “sell” you. You are likely to choose to purchase from that individual, even at greater expense than from the guy down the street who never stops trying to hustle you. 

What’s it all come down to? 

Remember the old song:  R-E-S-P-E-C-T  

We just won’t hear about

                                                    

what’s good, because it’s

                                                                                    

the media’s job to tell us 

                                                                                            

what’s bad.   

     When I was growing up my Father used to sing-song, “We ain’t got a lotta money, Honey, but we gotta lotta fun!”  It was his way of saying that when the chips are down, keep your chin up. 

     It was a family joke to laugh at a postcard we’d pull out of the desk drawer that had a suffering cartoon cow who hadn’t been milked, with one hoof stepping on her overstretched udder and the caption that went something like, “So you think you’re having a hard time?”

     A favorite old college teacher friend of mine once told me that his sacred book, the Torah, said that God once brought everyone in the world together and asked them to put all of their problems into one big pile.  They did.  Then, my friend said, God asked each person to come to the pile and take away with him or her whatever problems that he or she wanted to keep.  Everyone took back their own problems.

     I’ve heard some people talking with panic-stricken voices that the nation’s financial mess was on the brink of doing them in personally, or something to that effect.  Well, you know what?  If you choose that path of thinking, you will no doubt be done in! 

     The point is that we remain the strongest nation on earth and our economy is NOT falling apart.  Positive indicators (increased housing starts, lower gas prices, higher service sales, and more) are all around us. 

     We just won’t hear about what’s good because it’s the media’s job to tell us what’s bad.  The more bad news the media can crank out, the more people get sucked into watching and listening to and reading the news. 

     It the same principle and dynamics as “rubbernecking” on the parkways when thousands of cars filled with human nature curiosity are compelled to slow down, often stop, to see what’s going on with a minor fender-bender in an opposite oncoming traffic lane! 

     The more that people get sucked into the bad news, the more that media people can charge advertisers and the more advertisers they can sign up, and the more profits the media companies can make.  So of course the media thrives on creating havoc and spreading bad news–true or not–and exaggerating and sensationalizing, and undermining. 

     We can’t even trust a media-appointed “nonpartison, objective” moderator chosen to oversee Thursday night’s VP debate:  she’s just authored a strongly pro-Obama book!  How many millions of voting viewers will never know about this flagrant conflict of interest?  How hard would it have been to pick an independent moderator?

     But you know what, America?  It’s not the sky falling.  It’s the cow with the swollen udder, and it needs only to get relief by someone choosing to milk it!  And someone will, because (and if you haven’t traveled enough to know it, believe me) we don’t want other country’s problems: our own problems that the media beats us with night and day, pale by comparison! 

     Someone who represents your district or State who wants to get re-elected will make that choice to rise above the relentless bombardments of the greedy media moguls.  All you need to do is make some noise that you want the crap to end and the cow milked and the media to go home. 

     But you DO have to make some noise!     halalpiar      

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BE A CO-AUTHOR!  ENTER YOUR OWN 7-WORDS OR LESS TACK-ON to the “billboard discipline” story started 23 posts ago. The next 7 words could be yours! 

Who’s best to captain  

                                                 

the ship through storms? 

     Whether you’re an athlete, or writing a book, running a business, managing a household or delivering a professional practice service, do you periodically stop to take inventory of your resources and re-visit the reality (or fantasy) of where you’re headed? 

     Do you routinely make adjustments in your products, services and plans, in your approach, in your people and procedures?  Do you strive every day to ensure that your pursuits are realistic and your actions based on experience?  Or do you simply aim in the direction of your wish-list, close your eyes, and hope? 

     “If it ain’t broke, fix it anyway” is the rallying cry of successful entrepreneurs who know the only way to get a leg up in competitive industries and markets is to be making informed and reasonable adjustments consistently.  Note informed and reasonable . . . in a word, experienced.  

     If corporate giants (including the failing financial institutions we’re hearing about) and our incompetent overkill government would take (have taken) a more aggressive stance in questioning the ongoing viability of their policies, strategic plans and actions, they would (have) quickly realize(d) that this planet is not at a point in history where it’s physically/mentally/financially/emotionally affordable for any entity to stand still.   

     Refusing to constantly assess and reassess established directions and commitments constitutes investment in the status quo.  At this time in this world, there is no room for complacency or indifference or ambivalance because the rest of the planet continues to spin relentlessly.  The time for standstill thinking and behavior may in fact never come again. 

     Okay.  So who’s best to captain the ship through storms? 

     The team with management experience and proven abilities to reshape and scale back government, with the track-records of having overcome all odds, with the demonstrated abilities to improvise, innovate, and practice active leadership . . . the team that knows how to read the tides and stars to navigate, and that has the skill and experience to sustain resources, and energize others to honor, respect, and protect our country and our families first and foremost? 

     Or the team with no management experience, no proven abilities except to nurture its own charisma, and which has expended more energy criticizing our country than our enemies . . . the team that has admitted it believes in its hearts it can lead by raising taxes to increase a government that’s already nonproductive . . . the inexperienced team that’s convinced it can simply close it’s eyes and wish for the ship to sail itself?             halalpiar

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Well, you must finally be happy to have less gas available, and be paying astronomical amounts at the pump to fill up your tank.  

Oh, yes, and it thrills you to be paying equally mind-boggling amounts to your local grocery store to fill up your refrigerator and kitchen cabinets, right?

Why, you might ask, would I say that? 

Because, of course, you still have spotted owls and views of nature that are unspoiled by wind farms, and polar bears (which you would surely love to cuddle with and invite into your home) running free across the Artic Circle.

And, no doubt, these are all creature survival things that matter intensly to struggling young families, and single parents, and senior citizens on fixed income, and handicapped people living on disability checks, and hurricane victims, right? 

I mean, just ask any of them how important the plight of spotted owls is when they’re scratching and clawing for their next meal.  See how utterly devoted they are to protecting the polar bears when they can’t afford needed medical care.  Yeah.  Go ahead and ask them. 

Get your environmentalist priorities straight!  If you think human beings come first on this planet while you’re busy protesting nuclear energy and hugging trees, you might want to consider rearranging your protest priorities.

Maybe Al Gore did invent the Internet. 

Who knows? 

Stranger things have happened. 

But he surely is as wrong as the sorely misguided (a generous adjective) Nobel Prize Committee when it comes to the subject of global warming. 

Ask any credible scientist. 

And contrary to Mr. Gore’s representations, YOU as an individual CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!  Get started.  This is grassroots stuff.  Set an example.  Teach others.  It’s all about stepping up to the plate!  It’s all about choosing the path of self-sufficiency for our own human species before worrying about other lower forms of existence. 

Regardless of endangered species contributions to our aesthetic senses, or the amount of tear-jerking endorsements and crusading that’s thrust in our faces by Hollywood’s finest, we need to remember that putting human preservation first is the only way we’ll ever be able to have positive impact on the preservation of other species.    

The bottom line is that more drilling is needed to relieve the oil/gas price crisis and related food price crisis because America has enough oil to allow us to completely eliminate dependency on greedy Arab nations. 

But, oh, hey, it might mean losing some endangered species!  Well, I love and subscribe to National Geographic too, but I like to believe that we as human beings are a slightly more important species to risk losing than some owls and bears, and some upturning of the balance of nature.  We’re smart enough to RE-balance whatever we might upset. 

Because we as humans have the ability to think, we have the ability to make changes in our environment that preserve and protect the human species in addition to balancing nature. 

But it has to start with our elected representatives in Congress having the foresight and integrity to initiate expanded oil drilling efforts and to stop bending over to the special interest groups that seek to preserve owls over humans (and human pocketbooks!).  Call your Representative.  Express yourself!        

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www.TheWriterWorks.com

302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

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

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