Your salespeople may be

costing you more

than sales!

Not unlike a new puppy, new (and old) salespeople who aren’t trained properly are likely to mess things up. In the end, they’ll cost you more than sales. Remember it’s your name, your image, your integrity, your authenticity, and your reputation on the line every time one of them opens her or his mouth or taps out a keyboard message.

 _______________________________                                                     

For your (actual, but names changed) Scenerio Pleasure . . . 

“Good Morning.Thank you for calling B. Bigg Sportswear. This is Sally. How may I help you?”

“Hi, Sally! I’m Larry from LLL –that’s Little Losers Limited– and I’m looking for B. Bigg, please; can you connect me?”  

“Er, no, B. Bigg is not here. In fact, ther…”

(Stepping on the end of her sentence) “Well when will ‘B.’ be back?”

(Realizing she has a sales spammer on the line, and smiling, since “B. Bigg” is a fictitious brand name) “Oh, eight and a half weeks!”

She chuckles and starts to explain that she’s kidding, but Larry interrupts her again . . .

“Alright,well, since I met with B.Bigg downtown there the last time I was in the area, I’ll just call back then; no need to leave a message.”

“Right.Well you have a nice day, Larry from LLL!” (now laughing to herself as she hangs up since –on top of there being no B. Bigg– the “town” has only 450 residents in it and the only place to meet is the gas-station-convenience-store).

Sally can’t wait to tell Mr. Star (company president, and retired world-class athlete with lots of industry connections) about the call. He will no doubt comment on how befitting Larry’s company name is.

_______________________                        

We all know about no such thing as a second first impression, but how often do we take the trouble to monitor the first impressions our salespeople are putting out. Appropriate, targeted, perceptive training short-circuits these “moments of no return.”

So, what’s the solution? Be –and stay– on top of your salespeople until you are confident that they are representing you and your business in as professional a manner as you want them to. This doesn’t mean “get on their case.” What it means is to make sure you provide them with the proper training (and re-training) and support — ongoing!

In life and work,

one-night stands never work!

A bad economy is not a legitimate reason to slack off in this pursuit. Just consider where you’d be without sales and with a bad reputation. Reinforcement at every level is critical in sales management.

If you are too busy owning and operating, or if you’re just not cut out to be a sales manager, go get one. Get the best person you can find –NOT the best salesperson — the best sales manager.

Great Salespeople Do Not

Make Great Sales Managers!

Some outstanding resources you can count on to steer you in the right direction:

Doyle Slayton www.SalesBlogCast.com

Jonena Relth www.TBDConsulting,com

Meredith Bell www.YourVoiceOfEncouragement.com  

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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!

Yeast, the Sun,

and Leadership.

I get (and agree with) what Paul Ryan’s advice to Mr. Obama was all about when he visited the White House yesterday and reminded the man that “leadership starts at the top,” but I take some exception to the semantics of what that advice might suggest as it is applied to the rest of the world. 

———————————————-

Leadership, like yeast, like the sun on the horizon, rises from low places. It starts, often below the surface, and grows to recognition, then to love and respect or –sadly, in many cases– to fear and loathing, with little room left in-between those two extremes for tolerance and apathy. The problem is that yeast and the sun are fairly predictable.

Some aspects of leadership are also predictable.

Qualities like being able to inspire and motivate others, for example, are part of almost every description of leadership since the beginning of time.

Truth and reality, however, measure all leadership by one word alone.

What’s your best guess?

What single word sums up “leadership” most definitively?

Surely you know the word if you think about it enough. It’s authenticity. Authenticity of character, of personality, of purpose, of attitude, of responsiveness, of courage, of self-image, of the nature of the people involved, of the nature of the tasks to be done. It cannot be manufactured, pretended, stolen, replaced, avoided, dismissed, disregarded, or disarmed.  

Almost never to be found near government or political enterprises or management: authenticity. And rarely does it appear in corporate life when it isn’t guarded — easy to understand when UN-authentic people hovering at the top feel threatened. Yet, say many, true authenticity must also be free, so how could it be guarded?

Okay, so cross off corporate authenticity. And what are we left with? Family life and small business. Why? Because there is less need to lie, make excuses, and cover one’s butt, and because entrepreneurial attitudes are not so affected and convoluted by status-ladder-climbing and artificial allegiances.

–————————————-

TEN EXAMPLES of authenticity:

1. Giving credit where credit is due.

2. Speaking up for what you believe in and supporting others who share your purpose.

3. Accepting responsibility without excuses.

4. Acknowledging screw-ups and owning up to your mistakes, also without excuses.

5. Taking immediate corrective action when called for instead of analyzing and seeking blame.

6. Being focused on the present “here and now” moment as much as possible.

7. Always acknowledging the human factor in every decision and action, even when others pass it over. Business transactions are impacted by illness, injury, and family issues.

8. Nurturing (and cultivating) positive and productive behavior and attitudes consistently.

9. Soliciting and respecting the opinions of others . . . praise in public and criticize (constructively) in private.

10. Treat every employee and every customer like the special people they are, the way YOU want to be treated, every day, all of the time, without exception.  

————————————

How do you measure up, stack up, size up, match up? What three steps do you need to take now to give rise to more of that authenticity you have inside you? Can you take that first step right now?

It is, you know, a choice. 

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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!

“We are in an information-

overloaded society.

“Most people receive more information from just their smartphones in a week than their grandparents received in their entire lives.”

        ———– Bestselling Author David Baldacci from his newest novel, THE SIXTH MAN www.DavidBaldacci.com

I’m often asked about having done both, and continuing to do both, and can assure you that owning and operating a small business is not the same as writing a book. The commissioned memoir I recently completed and published privately, entitled “GOOD LUCK!” is summarized in the following 25-word “logline” synopsis:

“Steamshipped away, Hitler to Manhattan, 15-year-old Ernst delivered newspapers, farmed chickens, enlisted…  WON medals, citizenship, Holocaust bride, Delaware leadership, White House prominence, and business fortunes.”

That brief description was distilled from the 230-page book. The 230 pages came from more than sixty jam-packed file cabinet drawers and a dozen storage bins, a stack of videotape interviews, and many thousands of photographs, plus over thirty hours of personal interview notes and another 50 hours, at least, of online research.

I’m now working on another commissioned memoir for a totally different kind of business leader. But it’s the same thing. The cutting away process is like being a sculptor, and not always fun. But there is no other way to do justice to representing a lifetime of accomplishment.

Running a business?

Fly by the seat of your pants!

Leave it to the corporate biggies to drown themselves in research. They’re all busy justifying their existences, preoccupied with their own company culture memoirs, while entrepreneurs trial-and-error-and-adjust themselves into small business success, innovative product and service market approaches, and meaningful new job creations. 

I do both (entrepreneuring and writing books) because straddling the two different worlds is challenging to me and because I enjoy the unique opportunities ignited by having one foot in research-based writing and the other in creating new business directions, revenue streams, marketing programs, and sales channels.

Here’s what I see: The bigger the business, the more information-overload there is, and the more of a sculptor one needs to be. The problem is that the pace of life and today’s instantaneous global access forces even an information sculptor to work quicker. So the end product may not always be one of quality as much as one of expediency.

Who spans this gap, covers up and rises through this mad rush? Who leads the way to economic revival? Certainly not those lumbering, top-heavy corporations filled with people trying to cover their butts and write their make-believe life stories as if they were nonfiction.

Your small business is what it is. Avoid the temptation to over-burden it with too much information and too much analysis. Keep hold of the reins, but let it –and your people– run free! At least until it gets so big and successful that you need to ask yourself:

Hmmm, how much IS “too much”?

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“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!

What’s your legacy?

What are you

leaving behind?

Lots of entrepreneurial-minded people end up leaving their business ventures behind when they leave life on Earth, but most –it seems to me– never give it any thought while they’re here. How many business owners do you know who actually take time out of their lives to do estate planning and succession planning?

Cartoon character Ziggy’s philosophy is probably about as much of a guiding light as the majority of entrepreneurs are willing to accept and practice:

We should enjoy here while we’re

 here ’cause there’s no here there.”

And, hey, far be it from me to suggest anything other than living for the moment. Being focused on the present, here-and-now moment, as much as possible, breeds success at every level. It is the fuel for achievement.

But, you know what? Let’s be honest about this: Most entrepreneurs, I’m quite sure you’ll find, barely take time out to eat or use the bathroom until they’re half-starved or busting at the seams. “Trial-and-error” still outperforms formal research studies and assessments. And most are unlikely to plan much beyond next week!

Entrepreneurs. They want what

they want when they want it!

A burning desire to make their ideas work is what drives the spirit, soul, and passion of every entrepreneur. In fact, contrary to popular opinion and stereotypes, the pursuit of “making big money” is secondary, if it’s even on the same wish list, which is rarely the case.

How would you like to get a complete –and guaranteed to be illuminating–  picture of your real self for free, no strings attached? How about if I can vouch for it being completely honest, and perhaps the most insightful summary of what you are all about that ever existed?

Are you ready to spook yourself out while you learn? Okay, here it is:

• Set up a one-page (8.5 x 11) Word document, or work with a pen and notebook page.

• Put your name and birth date at the top followed by a dash and today’s date

• Write your own obituary.

Don’t laugh, cry, shake uncontrollably, throw up, or think you have to be maudlin, guilty, or gushy. Simply the facts. Just the highlights. Give it a try. You will be amazed at how enlightening it will be for you to see what you actually write down or don’t write down, as the case may be. Clean it up. Polish it. Edit.

Read it back to yourself out loud.

Then, before you shred it, burn it, bury it, or lock it in a time capsule, ask yourself what you just taught you about you that you have been overlooking.

Decide what if anything you might want to follow through with that your obit page brought to light. Then, unless you’re completely satisfied with what you’re leaving behind (or the legacy track you’re on), do it! Attack that missing hunk. Get on with it. You will feel pleased, proud, happier and healthier for the effort. Pretty good ROI, eh? 

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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!

Thank you, Veterans old and new, past and present, living and deceased –and your families– for all you have given to the service of America that allows us the freedom to celebrate this weekend in your honor! 

"BREEZY" The First State's Cutest Patriot on Memorial Day 2011

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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!

 Thank you for your

                                     

service to our country.”    

Like clicking on a seat belt, make it second nature to reach out to anyone you meet or see who is or has been in America’s military. Look for her or his hat, shirt, jacket, patch, car sticker, license plate. whatever quiet statement you see.

Then reach out to shake that person’s hand and simply say: “Thank you for your service to our country.” You won’t need to ask about it or explain yourself. You can be sure of a sincere, bright response. 

If you’ve ever traveled to a dictatorship or third world nation, you positively know why you should be grateful. 

                              

 Thank you for your

                                     

service to our country.”    

This Memorial Day, let us each take a moment of silence out of our own lives and be thankful that we are even able to do that:  to be thankful for the freedom we have—to walk down the street, to express our opinions publicly without fear of reprisal

. . .  to travel freely between states without fear or intimidation or threats of being attacked or murdered, to pursue our careers and religious feelings and family lives in the ways that we choose, and to be able to choose in the first place

. . .  to be able to vote and elect our representatives in government, to have so many dedicated young men and women serving so selflessly in our military, to have a flag and a nation we can be proud of. 

 

 Thank you for your

                                     

service to our country.”    

There are so many more freedoms that we forget about most of the time, that even on Memorial Day, we tend to lose behind hot dogs, hamburgers, baseball, beer and soda . . . behind family and friend gatherings, ice cream, boat rides and horseshoes. 

Yet these, the very things in life that count the most, come from the courageous veterans of our military who have given their very lives, their body parts, their hearts and souls for us that we might enjoy our precious rights and freedoms.

                   

 Thank you for your

                                     

service to our country.”    

                                                                        

Next time —anytime— you meet or see someone who is or has been in America’s military.  Reach out to shake that person’s hand and simply say, “Thank you for your service to our country.” 

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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!

Just imagine that someone

doesn’t like your business

(I know, I know, but it is possible!) 

So you get criticized. Then what? Right, you do like any normal red-blooded American: you threaten to terminate your critic.

I mean, after all, it’s dog eat dog out there, an eye for an eye thing. “I don’t like what your business has to say!” or “I don’t like the way your clerk looks at me!” POW! BAM! Blow ’em away! Threaten. Great PR. Guaranteed to win you customers. Oh, and what a fabulous example it sets. Reputation suffers? Who cares. You got even.

Anger wins!

It would almost be funny on SNL, but from all I can determine, this knee-jerk reaction is unfortunately coming from that un-leader-like icon of hope and change: The Great American Dream himself, Mr. (ta-ta-ta-ta-tah-tah) Obama. Are you ready? This news is completely off the charts. If you have a website or blog, you might want to be sitting.

 —————————————

Bloggers and websites critical of Mr. Obama are now reported as being targeted by the White House for something akin to “shape up or ship out” ultimatum warnings.

This news, according to a post filed online yesterday by Messrs. Doug and Joseph Hagmann.

(Doug is at Director@HomelandSecurityUS.com and Joseph is at JoeHagmann24@aol,com).

The two reportedly run a private investigative agency specializing in surveillance and counter-surveillance operations focused on terrorism activities. Their article was headlined in the Canada Free Press Daily Mail.   

According to the Hagmann’s, the Obama “online rapid response team,” created as part of the 2012 re-election campaign is “headed by… Jesse C. Lee, 31, of Tacoma Park, Maryland” who has been “tasked specifically with quashing any Internet articles and news critical of Obama.”

Lee, says the article, has initiated his activities by opening an official White House Twitter account featuring an image of “The Terminator” which sends a threatening message to anyone critical of the Obama Administration, and “a signal that unfavorable reports about Obama and his reign will be dealt with much more aggressively.”

Oh, and by the way, while such activity in the past has been the province of and at the expense of the National Democratic Party, this time, report Doug and Joseph Hagmann:  Mr. Obama has elected to keep costs and control “in-house” and under the jurisdiction of the White House Communications Department.

In other words, Lee’s “Terminator” services

are being paid for by the American taxpayers.

That would be like charging your customers/clients/patients an extra percentage tacked on top of whatever they pay for your products or services to pay for a hatchet man to come back and threaten them with extinction if they dare to criticize you or your business. Oh, joy! What a world this is. You can’t make this stuff up.

So now what? What on Earth could top that? I’m sure something will.

It’s bad enough to have a man that so many well-intentioned people were led to believe would be a great leader, only to find out that he is the absence of leadership.”

Besides being a one-man small business wrecking crew, his meddling is managing to screw up the corporate world as well. We the people are over-taxed and over-regulated at every turn. Mr. Obama continues to spend money far beyond America’s means at a terminally reckless rate. Could you do that with your business? Your household?

Make A Difference! TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2012

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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!

No wonder we feel like

drops in the bucket

with all this

trickle-down spending!

I mean where do we business owner types get our ideas? Sometimes from bits and pieces of what others say and do, and sometimes from opportunities that emerge or smack us in the mouth when we’re not looking. The steady bombardment of media drivel and twisted reports of government greatness can make us stop in our tracks.

We start to think, hey, maybe things aren’t so bad after all. Maybe gas prices will stand still and small business tax incentives for job creation and innovation will actually start to move forward. Maybe there’s more spending power in my bank account than I thought. Maybe tomorrow it will start raining ducks! Maybe I should have hope.

Hope. Yeah, well, that doesn’t accomplish anything. So let’s go back to the trickling action and see what we can learn

From the White House to the State House to the County Seat to the Town Hall, look and learn from all the mindless trickle-down spending muscle-flexing.

I’ve seen people in my town climbing through dumpsters for food scraps, and the mayor and council decide to spend a thousand bucks to buy a town logo and open a mega-million-dollar floodgate of “revitalization.”

Hey, why not? The White House thinks it needs to buy votes so it prints a few million and sends it to the States. The State people think it’s a great thing and that the counties will love them for passing along some of the dough to “green up” the place. The county guys want the poverty-stricken town’s votes, so the town gets a thousand bucks.

The money is spent on a new logo for the town. Next, of course, will be “beautification teams” and landscapers and architects and engineers and street widening and off-street parking and bigger more complicated infrastructure — more fire, police, EMTs, water, electric, sewerage.

But, hey, why not? Easy come, easy go. Spend it now.

Brick walks and old-fashioned looking gaslight fixtures? Go for it. Have fun! After all, you can’t take it with you. Besides, it will spruce up the boarded-up places with broken windows. And why be selfish. Think of your grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Plan ahead for future generations. Spend. So what if the revitalization isn’t needed. Do it anyway. It’ll create jobs, and we need jobs. What does it matter that nobody much cares about beautifying the town except two struggling over-priced restaurants. No one can afford the gas to drive through here anyway.

Oh, and take a guess where that revitalization money will come from. 

There you go. Consider yourself trickled down to! How does that feel? Seems like you need deep pockets and no sense of reality to be successful in politics. Just slap backs, pass out money, and make everything green. “I’ve always wanted a logo” the mayor explained as he railroaded the town council vote through.

Well, who knows? Maybe that’s the kind of thinking we need. A new $1,000 logo for a town where food scavenging and foreclosures and unemployment are almost more the rule than the exception. 

And are you as lucky as we are? I mean we’ve already got mandatory recycling services that we’re forced to pay for even if we want to do our own recycle sorting and transporting. I am NOT badmouthing recycling. I simply want the choice to do my own.

Don’t you just love mandatory stuff?

Well, that should certainly wrap up all the country’s economical and terrorist and natural disaster and devaluation and plummeting national image in one neat tidy package. Isn’t it just exactly the way you would deal with these kinds of problems in your own business?

No?

Oh, right, you know better than to tax and spend

and ignore others’ needs.

Hmmmm. How come you know all that

and our great leadership hasn’t a clue?

Think about it. You have ’til November 6, 2012. Nineteen months to get UNtrickled. Y’think? Well, there ARE 30 million small business owners being trickled on

 . . . as you read this.

Thought for the day: Strength in numbers!

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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!

FEELING: Angry? Depressed? Embarrassed? Happy? Sad? Disappointed? Frustrated? Anxious? Afraid? Lonely? Poor? Dumb?

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Hal@Businessworks.US or 931.854.0474

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

If you are Entrepreneuring

still –in 2011– you got guts!

Look at it this way, those of us who directly or indirectly choose to pursue paths of small business development –in the face of today’s upsets, intimidations, threats, and tsunami-like attempts to control every breath we take— probably deserve a medal!

The thing is there are 30 million of us and that’s an awful lot of medals. Besides, we didn’t choose entrepreneuring for fame and recognition. We don’t much care about being honored. We care about our ideas working.

We care about building our businesses to the point of creating jobs and reputations for customer service (the real kind, not some put-you-on-hold unintelligible “customer service department“).

Who does care about getting a medal? Why the very same types of self-serving, reckless spending, low life that work hard at creating all those roadblocks we and our small businesses are forced to contend with:

• From our arrogant, get-the-votes-at-any-cost-campaign-obsessed, leaderless White House with zero business know-how and the global mindset of a two-year-old

• And corporate giants (the antithesis of innovation, wallowing in incompetence and self-pity) with their deep pockets and greedy unions standing forever at the ready  

• To artificial-do-gooder-preoccupied-with-“green” academia-land, which pollutes the world of small business with theory and complexity over reality and common sense

Loose accusations? No, deeply-documented fact-based assessments.

______________________

Small (and in-home) businesses, professional practices, small business owners, operators, and managers all. We are in the fights of our lives to overcome all the disproportionate tax burdens, all the government over-regulation and controls being shoved down our throats as we try to create jobs and make our ideas successfull!

Unions and academia? Not even a step up from Hollywood and mass media sensationalists: they just get in the way. Let them pester government and the Fortune 500 companies, or –perhaps even better– each other!

UNEMPLOYMENT is the worst it has been in the United States since the 1930s. Terrorism threats are at an all-time high. Natural weather disasters are running roughshod across America, destroying homes and businesses, killing and uprooting families. And America’s allies are being insulted instead of thanked.

GAS PRICES are still through the roof, and igniting skyrocketing costs for shipping, transportation, and now food–costs unmercifully and unavoidably being passed along to consumers who are made more dependent on government controls every passing day. And America’s enemies are being cajoled instead of chased.

ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS are pouring across our borders every night with drugs and weapons . . . and welcomed (!) in our schools, hospitals, and welfare rolls? America is on the brink of bankruptcy compounded by dollar devaluation, loss of global respect, and the compromising of our Constitution.

MR.. OBAMA is in Ireland toasting a pint of ale.The last catastrophe just weeks ago found him absorbed in worries about the Final Four basketball competition. And how long ago did he disrupt his golf trip to “dispatch” advisors to “review” the disastrous Gulf oil spill 30 DAYS AFTER IT HAPPENED?

THIS is leadership? Could your business survive this behavior from it’s leader? Like I said, if you’ve made it this far, you got guts! America needs you.

Keep it up!  Oh, and while you’re at it:

Mark your election day calendar

now for November 6, 2012.

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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!