The Info Treasure Trove

Are YOU as frustrated with your sales meetings as your sales staff is?

You fill the agenda with administrative crap, a bunch of whining and some pseudo-motivational words you picked up from somewhere. You give your staff a budget update and some suggestions on how to improve sales in the week ahead.

What about your sales staff? What are THEY doing?

Listening? Getting motivated to make some sales in the upcoming week?

I doubt it!

The problem is that you are speaking TO your sales staff instead of communicating WITH them. If they are an important part of the sales results, shouldn’t they play an important role in the meeting?

The Plan

Making money isn’t random.

Every business needs a plan to make money.

A great plan is one that focuses on producing results and holds EVERYONE accountable for achieving those desired results. This type of plan creates a production based organization.

Every business and sales organization has a target number that they need to hit either by the end of the month or the end of the quarter. Understanding your numbers and breaking them down into small, attainable chunks is the first step of creating a production based environment.

Every plan needs employees to make it work.

The most important ingredient, however, is the employees. To be productive, your employees need:

1.) Leadership

2.) Structure

3.) Systems

4.) The feeling that what they do matters

Your sales meetings should combine these factors to create an environment that will lead to productive employees.

Before the meeting, each person on the sales staff should create their own action plan. The action plan should be put in writing and should be developed by the employee, NOT the sales manager! This creates accountability, giving each member a sense of ownership and responsibility for achieving the goals of their action plan.

Unlike other methods of accountability, this action plan allows the salespeople to have the freedom to do it their own way while still keeping the objective in sight.

The Meeting

There are two goals of a weekly sales meeting:

1. Report production (How are we doing?)

2. Drive new production (How can we do better?)

Remember, the meeting should focus on producing sales results by highlighting each employee’s contribution toward that common goal or number.

Therefore, the sales manager should simply facilitate these meetings and help celebrate successes. Nothing more! Let the sales staff get involved in the meeting by showing each other what they have accomplished and brainstorm ways to reach the common goal.

Report Production: How Are We Doing?

Your sales meeting should begin by having each member of the team present/report their production from the previous week. They should have the floor to themselves and report their contribution toward your goal, or number, and the team.

Think about this: would you want to stand in front of your co-workers/peers and show them your less than positive results?

NO! And your sales staff doesn’t want to, either!

Your sales staff will be motivated throughout the entire week to be able to report positive data during the next week’s meeting. They will WANT to prove to themselves and their peers that they are making a great contribution to the team. They may not make that crucial extra step for the sales manager or for the company, but when their friends and co-workers are expecting them to hit that number, they won’t want to let them down!

This type of positive peer pressure will be more effective than ANY amount of coaching that a sales manager can provide. It is also better received; it motivates and inspires each member to own their goals and achievements within the system.

When each member is self-driven to do better, they will seek the leadership that is necessary for them to gain better results. The employee will take it upon themselves to turn to the leader for guidance and coaching. They will turn to the leader for sales answers.

This means that your staff will be more receptive of suggestions and advice. It also means that you won’t be wasting your time giving lectures or reprimands to employees that you just can’t seem to motivate!

Reward Production

This is also a good time to recognize and reward individuals that have produced results OR have taken action that will lead to results in the future. Most organizations fail to recognize and celebrate these actions that lead to results, and are missing a great opportunity to continually motivate and inspire their team members!

For example, if a team member hasn’t actually made a sale, but has made several presentations to a number of people throughout the week, celebrate it! They are on their way toward producing positive results!

You know the actions that are required to make a sale, and you need to make the accomplishments of these actions just as important as the sale itself.

By letting each member shine and show their individual production, each team member will provide their OWN desire to produce results for the team!

Drive New Production: How Can We Do Better?

After everyone has given their report on their production from the week prior, it’s time to drive new production and have each salesperson determine a new action plan for the upcoming week.

The best way to drive new production is to have a creative roundtable discussion about how the team can hit the goal number for the coming week. The sales manager should simply facilitate discussion. This isn’t the time for you to bark orders or make everyone in the room listen to YOUR great ideas!

Allow each member of the team to choose how much of the number or goal they feel they can effectively be responsible for. Of course, make sure that the sum of everyone’s individual goals is equal to or greater than the total weekly number.

This conversation is effective because every person on the team has the same goal in mind. There will be many new ideas presented in this style of sales meeting, because everyone will have a chance to brainstorm and give input.

Because each member will have a voice, each will feel like the team goal is their own personal goal, and will feel like they are making a difference. This style of meeting is effective because it provides the members of the team with the structure, system, and accountability they need to produce the results that you want!

By having a production based organization, you will be able to facilitate sales meetings that will keep EVERY member motivated to contribute to the team! Giving each member the chance to own their individual goals and brainstorm ideas will give them the drive and desire to do just what you hired them to doproduce sales!

Tom Richard is the author of a free weekly ezine on selling skills. To subscribe to this ezine send a blank email to subscribe@tomrichard.com Also Tom is the author of Smart Sales People Don’t Advertise: 10 Ways To Outsmart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing

Today’s television saturated audience expect to watch good television. This is why poor acting, grainy vision and boring dialogue will no longer cut it in your training video.

Off-the-shelf training videos can often be poorly produced, so much so that they engender more laughs than learning. Or the messages tend to be too broad and not targeted enough for a specific audience.

To avoid this trap, companies often custom-design their training videos, in order to get unique messages across to their staff or customers.

Yet, just because you have a tailor-made production specifically for your staff does not mean that they will be willing to learn.

So how do you get your training messages absorbed?

1. Get the Script Right

The script is the backbone to your production.

It needs to be short, succinct and written in the same language understood by your audience.

Avoid transcribing manuals into a training video script. They will be too wordy to be of interest on screen.

Spend the maximum time on your script, as it will determine the quality of your production.

2. Keep them Involved

Many training videos often have procedures that need to be demonstrated. Keeping the camera locked on a staff member talking through what they are doing, will never keep anyone interested for long.

The golden rule in making a successful training video is to keep changing what is shown on screen.

This means that each scene needs to run for no longer than 7 seconds. Mix it up by using graphics and titles, cutting to a wide shot or close up, using a different voiceover or even using animation.

By using lots of overlay shots, not only to explain procedures in more detail, you keep the viewer involved with the action on screen.

3. Work out your Style

Using one camera angle continually on your presenter has the tendency to make audiences sleepy.

Work out the best style for your particular training production, in order to engage your viewers.

Keeping the ‘mix it up rule’ in mind, choose one or more of the following (preferably more than one for best results):

• Have actors (either staff or professional) acting out procedures.

• Use professional actors to dramatise scenes to communicate any emotional messages.

• Use a narrator to talk through what is happening on screen, or to elaborate on points made by the actors.

• Use an on-screen presenter to link scenes together, provide summaries of important points and bring your video to life.

4. Highlight Important Messages

The beauty of video is that it communicates both visually and audibly.

When conveying key messages, both the vision and the audio track need to be telling the same story. The audience will lose the message if the vision doesn’t match what the voiceover is saying.

For example, say the voiceover mentions that “You must get the customer to read the document before signing it”. You will need to show the customer receiving the document, reading it and then signing it.

It would be confusing showing just the customer receiving the document and then signing. Or showing just the document being signed. You have to show on the screen every step of the procedure, in time to the narration.

To further reinforce salient points, titles can be added that coincide with the narration. This is a great way to get the audience to remember important pieces of information. Particularly, information such as statistics and names of certain procedures.

5. Do as I say, not as I do

As a parent of a toddler, it is amazing to discover how much your child picks up from just watching you.

It’s no surprise that even adults learn by example. Good leaders know that if they want their staff to follow their lead they have to make sure all of their actions coincide with their verbal instructions.

Often clients ask us to show on the training video the wrong way to do something.

Due to the funny way our mind works, we remember what we have seen. So if you want to teach your employees the wrong way to do something, showing them the incorrect way is a pretty good place to start!

The best method of training is to show the right way to do something.

6. Test their knowledge

The days of instructors playing a video tape and hoping that the audience has learnt their lesson is over.

Training video content can now be played on a computer together with an on-line assessment tool.

Short video modules can be watched ending with a question that the viewer needs to answer.

This not only ensures that the viewer pays attention, but is more likely to help them retain information.

At the end of the training session, simple reports can be downloaded by the trainer. This important information can be used to assess the areas in which more training is required.

(c) Marie-Claire Ross 2006. All rights reserved.

Marie-Claire Ross is the Director of Digicast Productions a full-service, concept-to-completion video production facility specialising in videos that get complex messages across in a simple manner. For more information, visit the website at http://www.digicast.com.au

My Dad has this old joke that goes, “What’s the most important thing about humor?” After a short pause, he interjects, “TIMING!”

I’ve rolled my eyes many a time over this joke.

But here’s a new version for writers: “What’s the most important thing about writing funny? …… WORDING!”

Whether you’re talking about stand-up comedy or humorous writing, surprise is one of the biggest elements of laughter. (Yes, Dad, I know, “Surprise” is what your little timing-joke is really all about.)

Readers become accustomed to seeing things written a certain way. As a writer, you have a choice: give it to them they way they expect, or surprise them with something different.

Here’s an example:

In my article “Does Target Shun Veterans?” I say that Internet Urban Legends are “stories that scare readers into believing such things as rat urine contaminating the tops of their canned peaches, and so forth.” I could have just as easily written, “Internet Urban Legends are stories that scare readers into believing the tops of their canned food is dirty.” But that wouldn’t surprise anyone, and it would have made my piece just another bland “news story.”

I also shook up the sentence about Internet Urban Legends by including some humorous exaggerations. Simply writing “canned food” isn’t nearly as funny as being super specific and writing, “canned peaches,” and being “dirty” is far more typical than having “rat urine” on your lid.

The idea of being very specific is what comedian (and my hero) Jerry Seinfeld has built his entire career on. He doesn’t just talk about flying on an airplane, he mentions everything from the really small bag of peanuts to the pilot announcing the flight play-by-play. As an audience, we laugh at these things because it’s something we’ve experienced but never given much thought to. Who else but Seinfeld could have an entire 30-minute television show about toxic glue on envelopes?

Drawing attention to things that are common to all but seldom discussed makes people chuckle. This is mostly due to their slight embarrassment when they realize “wow, I do that,” but it’s also because for the first time they are paying attention to something they might not have otherwise.

But aside from timing, exaggerations and calling attention to life’s quirks, sentence structure may be the ultimate weapon for writing humor. Just as a lyricist times his verses to a beat, writers need an internal rhythm to make their work conversational and surprising. There is quite a difference between writing a factual news piece and composing a humorous essay, but the biggest difference is sentence structure. Cut-and-dry news pieces need to follow a formula so that the content doesn’t get lost. When writing a narrative or essay, however, you can play with pauses (dashes, colons, etc.), italics and words to create a feeling and rhythm.

Follow these hints and your writing will be surprising and funny….AND have great timing.

About The Author

++You may reprint the above column on your website so long as the following is included the URL address is actively hyperlinked back++

THIS MUST BE INCLUDED: Copyright 2004 Sarah Smiley http://www.SarahSmiley.com - Sarah Smiley’s syndicated column Shore Duty appears weekly in newspapers across the country.

sarah@sarahsmiley.com

How do you gain contacts from a speaking engagement?

The name of the game in providing speaking engagements is to gain more contacts to add to your list of potential clients. Speaking is only one way of attracting business. By providing an engagement, you have opened the door to potential clients in a way that will no longer seem like a cold call. You will now have something in common with an attendee in your audience. They have heard you speak about your expertise and they may want to follow up. I look at speaking engagements as getting 100 or more cold calls completed all at the same time. Your contact list will grow and you will be able to offer other speeches to your audience.

Large or small groups will not matter. The difference will be made by the content of your speech and the word-of-mouth reaction of the value you brought to the table. You can find your initial audience through volunteer organizations. These organizations are often looking for speakers, but you must be careful not to make your speech a commercial. If you do, you will not likely be invited back by other branches of their group nor will you likely do business with the members of the group. Remember, however you get your information out, you need to retain a list of the attendees for following up.

Once you have a few speeches under your belt, your contact list will grow considerably. You must be careful of how you deal with the list, make sure you have permission from each person to keep them on your mailing list for future events. It is a slow process but you will be better known for your integrity and your expertise rather than being a selling machine that has no regard for the privacy of others.

Bette Daoust, Ph.D. has been networking with others since leaving high school years ago. Realizing that no one really cared about what she did in life unless she had someone to tell and excite. She decided to find the best ways to get people’s attention, be creative in how she presented herself and products, getting people to know who she was, and being visible all the time. Her friends and colleagues have often dubbed her the “Networking Queen”. Blueprint for Networking Success: 150 ways to promote yourself is the first in this series. Blueprint for Branding Yourself: Another 150 ways to promote yourself is planned for release in 2005. For more information visit http://www.BlueprintBooks.com

Let’s start the story this way; my friend and I sleepily sit on a study shed on a dry afternoon at school waiting for the next class to begin. We realized (at last!) that we are going to graduate from high school soon. But we didn’t pay much attention to the graduation day itself or even the ball. We talked about what course we are going to take. Which unfortunately ended and summed up into a lurid idea that pathetically sounds like, course we “must” have instead of course we really “like” to have. We choose to have the must thing instead. Its like eating steamed vegetables instead of chocolates. To hell it all, we both sighed in disgust. These way of starting, leads us to planning our ways to the road to our much-desired “sparkling” future. A future so bright it must carry the label “You Can Have It All” - or, if not, maybe make it close to that. But then, while dreaming this flawless dreams, the words “work hard’ hit my thought.

Work really hard. Its 99% perspiration 1% intelligence they said. These lines penetrate each part of my brain with such tidal wave accuracy. The pisser is, I’m quite lazy starting things. Even when it comes on starting a day. First thing in the morning, I wake up really late. Going to school late, and finishing things late. And at last, it dawned on me that there are no benefits on being late. Who knows, I might be missing an opportunity that is present while I’m still cringing on my bed or still working on a thing that must have been finished if only I started it a little early. And the idea of an opportunity that slips out of hands sucks. It sucks so hard. I even read the phrase “wake up early and work hard” on our mayor’s office (or sounds close to that). Words in bold letters hanged on his wall. And by the way, he is successful in both realms of politics and business. Which got me into concluding that he must be the early bird that catches the worm personified. And I guess he have been on that attitude since the day he started building the things he have built today. OK, first step, wake up early.

We both agreed to the fore stated thing. Next, we talke about the course we plan to take just because it have the golden and much coveted title of “IN-DEMAND”. Tada! NURSING. In all capital letters. Everybody seems like taking up nursing for practical reasons. Study, graduate, fly to another country asap and forget about earning peso and earn dollars or pounds instead. Seems like everybody’s desire is to leave the country believing that fortune can never be found here and is there across the seas. Willing to ditch the simplicity of local life in exchange of a more “coz” one (cozy=much money, isn’t it like that?). To be a nurse. Not a bad start we surmise. Bt beyond all that, what I really dream of becoming is a writer. The idea that I wanted to express is hat writing is the thing I enjoy doing. What you enjoy doing, is probably what you do best - regardless of what other people think. If I have to work as a nurse to accomplish my plans for my family, which requires some financial stuff, I would wholeheartedly. But never in hell will I loose grip on my dreams. Maybe I can work for them later. And I am willing to work hard for it. I may not own fame and fortune but having to get the satisfaction that I used my talent to the best of my ability regardless of what other people say, is enough.

That too, we agreed. We promised never to loose grip on our dreams. Next is that we must look straight to the goals we ourselves made. And if taking up the in-demand job is the first step, we gladly would. We can surely learn to appreciate the unappreciated. Working while squeezing few time to work on what we really wish to become. That way, we can develop our ability towards that particular ting. It’s all with the word determination.

Then we should always keep eyes on ourselves. That is, to stay away from anything our parents warned us about (i.e. drugs, “too-much” gimmicks, “too much” of anything - and always remember Angelina Jolie’s tattoo; What nourishes me also destroys me). We must keep our balance while crossing the thin bridge that will lead us to success. One mistake can cause us a lot. Like breaking trust of someone, loosing respect and loosing those whom you can turn to. It happens that those are all hard to restore.

We also promised to ourselves never to give up - or even to think of giving things up. Face everything because we never get ourselves anywhere when we run from it. We only live once and this is the only chance we have. The one and only chance to do what we really want. And we wish to savor the life we think is for us and achieving what we feel is is “calling”.

Next thing that happened in this story? The school bell rang. Back to the real world. Back to the classrooms. Back to where things in life begin.

Source: www.isnare.com

“Phishing,” the latest craze among online evil-doers, has nothing to do with sitting at the end of a dock on a sunny afternoon dangling a worm to entice hungry catfish.

But, if you take their bait, this new breed of online con artist will hook you, reel you in, and take you for every dollar you have… or worse.

“Phishing” describes a combination of techniques used by cyber crooks to bait people into giving up sensitive personal data such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, bank account numbers, dates of birth and more.

Their techniques work so well that, according to FraudWatchInternational.com, “phishing” rates as the fastest growing scam on the Internet.

Here’s the basic pattern for a “phishing” scam…

You receive a very official email that appears to originate from a legitimate source, such as a bank, eBay, PayPal, a major retailer, or some other well known entity.

In the email it tells you that something bad is about to happen unless you act quickly.

Typically it tells you that your account is about to get closed, that someone appears to have stolen your identity, or even that someone opened a fraudulent account using your name.

In order to help straighten everything out, you need to click a link in the email and provide some basic account information so they can verify your identity and then give you additional details so you can help get everything cleared up.

Once you give up your information… it’s all over but the crying!

After getting your information, these cyber-bandits can empty your bank accounts, deplete your PayPal accounts, run up your credit card balances, open new credit accounts, assume your identity and much worse.

An especially disturbing new variation of this scam specifically targets online business owners and affiliate marketers.

In this con, the scammer’s email informs you that they’ve just sent $1,219.43 (or a similar big but believable amount) in affiliate commissions to you via PayPal.

They need you to log into your PayPal account to verify receipt of the money and then email them back to confirm you got it.

Since you’re so excited at the possibility of an unexpected pay day, you click the link to go to PayPal, log in, and BANG! They have your PayPal login information and can empty your account.

This new “phishing” style scam works extremely well for 2 basic reasons.

First, by exploiting your sense of urgency created by fear or greed, crooks get you to click the link and give them your information without thinking.

Second, the scammers use a variety of cloaking and spoofing techniques to make their emails and websites appear totally legitimate, making it extremely hard to spot a fake website, especially when they’ve first whipped you into an emotional frenzy.

The good news, however, is that you can protect yourself relatively easily against this type of cyber-crime with basic software and common sense.

Most of these scams get delivered to you via Spam (unsolicited email), so a good spam blocker will cut down on many of them even making it to your inbox.

If you receive an email that looks legitimate and you want to respond, Stop - Wait - Think!

Verify all phone numbers with a physical phone book or online phone directory like www.Verizon.com or www.ATT.com/directory/ before calling.

Look for spelling and grammatical errors that make it look like someone who doesn’t speak English or your native language very well wrote it.

Never click the link provided in the email, but go directly to the website by typing in the main address of the site yourself (example: www.paypal.com or www.ebay.com).

Forward the email to the main email address of the website (example: support@paypal.com) or call the customer service number on the main website you typed in yourself and ask if it is in fact legitimate.

Above all remember this:

Your bank, credit card company, PayPal, eBay and anyone else you deal with online already knows your account number, username, password or any other account specific information.

They don’t need to email you for ANY reason to ask you to confirm your information — so NEVER respond to email requests for your account or personal details.

About The Author

Jim Edwards is a syndicated newspaper columnist and the co-author of an amazing new ebook that will teach you how to use fr-e articles to quickly drive thousands of targeted visitors to your website or affiliate links…

Need MORE TRAFFIC to your website or affiliate links? “Turn Words Into Traffic” reveals the secrets for driving Thousands of NEW visitors to your website or affiliate links… without spending a dime on advertising! Click Here> http://www.TurnWordsIntoTraffic.com

Assuming you haven’t got the picture on betting establishment card playing, do read on.

no deposit casino

For the sake of clarity, a gaming room is a house that organizes games. At such a place, guests are encouraged to enjoy themselves by challenging one-armed-bandits or trying out some other games. Gambling house games most likely have methodically determined percentages built in which make sure the gambling saloon secures dominion over the patrons. A legion of gaming hall games can incite you into being habituated very quickly. Consider the the standard one-armed-bandit, a cash operated contraption with 3, sometimes more reels which revolve if an arm coupled to it is yanked. The instrument customarily will pay up in alignment with a sequence of motifs perceptible on the panel of the instrument. Regrettably, betting saloon games encourage a mirage of supremacy, thus tricking the patron — the punter is provided with judgments, but in actual fact these don’t truly nix the customer’s long term handicap. That is induced by the betting saloon not refunding the full sum as hoped for. This theory will generally be noticeable in well-known casino games like five-card stud poker, dice games, roulette or blackjack.

Poker is indisputably a highly popular casino game. The gaming devotees, meticulously guarding their fully screened hands, place bets into a central pot that is ultimately given to the last player endowed with best set of cards. (And yes, the shameless bluffer can easily win ..) Just like stud poker, blackjack too is an incredibly fashionable casino game. A substantial chunk of its celebrity is thanks to the mix of chance and know-how and choice making, as well as a procedure called “card counting”. This is an approach by which gaming aficionados can switch the chances of the game to establish the upper hand both by wagering and strategy opetations corresponding with the hands shown. “Craps” is a acclaimed casino pastime where you bet money on the throw of two dice. Gamers wager on the result of one cycle, or on a sequence of rolls on 2 dice. Very much unlike blackjack, there’s absolutely no viable bona fide winner betting system punters can put to use to improve the odds. Roulette is another well-known casino based pastime. A croupier rotates a roulette wheel containing precisely thirtyseven (classical roulette) or thirtyeight (American roulette) separately tagged places in which the pellet must come to settle, which marks the winning number and the other connected odds. When our participant wagers on a single number and wins, in other words they’ve got a lucky hand, the set premium is thirty-five to 1, the initial pledge proper will be paid back. Therefore in total it’s increased by thirty six.

Please try to be very on the lookout as well as such betting room games are considered massively addictive. Plenty of lives may have been ruined by gambling & although it might be a lot of fun, do strive to balance your gambling.

Have you ever noticed how visible large corporations are? Take Coca-Cola®, Nike®
and McDonalds®. They are everywhere. Just ask anyone what comes to mind when
he/she hears the words soft drink, running shoes or quick burgers. More often than
not, you’ll hear these brand names immediately.

We’ve been exposed to these companies so much that it’s natural to think of them
immediately. We recognize them as experts in their specific industries.

What’s the lesson here? Visibility.

As a small business owner, you MUST be visible. If your business isn’t visible to
potential clients and customers, then you might as well close the doors.

Visibility is proactively marketing your business in order to effectively attract new
customers. Sure, you may have a somewhat consistent client base, but resting on
your laurels or just relying on your current client base as your only source of
revenue carries an incredibly high risk, one that has been the detriment to countless
small businesses.

Visibility is one of the MOST crucial determining factors in the success of your small
business. People can’t do business with you if they don’t know you exist.

How can you proactively be visible?

First, remember you are the number one asset of your small business. More than
just getting your name out there, you have to get your face out there in the
marketplace. Prospects can turn up in some of the unlikeliest places and when they
do, it’s your face they need to see in order to consider doing business with you.

For example, take Donald Trump. Whether you admire him or despise him, he’s
everywhere. A few years ago, who would have thought that he would be hosting one
of the most acclaimed network series on television? Who would have thought that he
would have a brand new bestselling book? Even while experiencing financial
uncertainty in his primary business enterprise, Trump is still going strong. Why?
Visibility?

I hear you say, “But, I’m just a small business…I don’t have the same endless
budgets to be as visible as all those corporate types.” As a small business owner,
you don’t have to have a big budget to be visible.

The secret to small business visibility lies in tapping into the solid gold value of
networking. Networking is the high performance vehicle by which small business
owners can drive their exposure towards a successful finish.

But the caveat is…it’s up to you to take advantage of the opportunities that you do
have for networking and to also create your own new opportunities.

Networking is all about people. It gives you the chance to meet new people, make
new contacts, exchange ideas and interact with others. This can seem particularly
challenging for small business owners who run their businesses from home. It can
also seem challenging for those who don’t live in larger cities, but rather in smaller
towns.

But, there are several ways of navigating these challenges. Consider the valuable
networking opportunities with each of these ideas.

One last thing about networking…its not net-sit, net-eat, net-drink or net-hide-in-
the-corner-and-don’t-talk-to-anyone. It is netWORK.

Chambers of Commerce:

Even the smallest of towns has a local chamber group. Membership fees are
typically based upon the annual revenue or number of employees of a business.

If you are a brand new business with limited funds, consider opting for an individual
membership at a minimal fee. This will still give you the opportunity to participate
in chamber events and meet other people in the business community. It will also
give you the opportunity to determine whether your area chamber offers the
networking opportunities for which you are looking.

Professional/Industry-Related Associations:

Do you belong to a group or organization relevant to your area of expertise? If so,
when was the last time you attended one of its meetings or functions? Do you even
know what it’s doing these days?

Sure, you may be a member of such a group, but are you an active member? Simply
paying your annual dues and not participating is not only a waste of money, but
also a waste of a valuable networking and visibility opportunity.

I hear you say, “I don’t have time. That’s like consorting with the enemy. They’re my
competition.” Rest assured that the time you don’t take to make the most of this
opportunity to network is time that your competition is taking to maximize its
networking opportunities.

Look at it this way. What potential value can you offer one of your competitors that
might result in a mutually beneficial situation? How can you benefit from working
together? One of your competitors may be able to provide you with a solution to a
problem while you can offer a solution to one of his/her problems.

Unless you network, you’ll never know. It would be a shame to miss such a valuable
opportunity simply because you decide that you don’t have time or don’t want to
face the competition.

The Internet:

Whether you run your business from a small town or even from home in an isolated
rural area, the Internet has made networking a worldwide possibility. If you don’t
have a business web site, then you are missing your absolute best potential for
visibility.

Maximize your marketing potential by investing in a business web site. The
exposure it generates for you will produce a valuable return of your investment.

However, it is vital that your web site presents your business in a professional light.

If you design your web site yourself, but are not a professional designer…if you
scrimp and try to develop a site on the cheap…and if your expertise is not in
knowing what content to include in a web site to attract clients…you are presenting
yourself to potential clients and customers as an amateur or fly-by-night operation.

This is the LAST thing that you want. Sure, you’d be visiblein a VERY bad way.

In addition to having your own web site, the Internet offers other opportunities for
increasing your visibility through networking. Search for professional and/or
industry-related web sites in your area of expertise. Post comments or suggestions
on industry-related discussion groups or blogs.

Dig a little and you will find valuable resources such as industry-specific forums
that offer countless networking opportunities.

Remember, if people don’t know you exist, they can’t consider doing business with
you. Although this sounds like simple common sense, I regularly see small business
owners who have no concept of the visibility factor.

You MUST be visible.

When it comes to being visible, they mistakenly think that they “don’t have time”,
“can’t make time”, “can’t afford the investment”, “can just hide in their offices and
expect the phone to ring” or any other flimsy excuses that gets them nowhere.

The time to drop that rock is now and increase your visibility.

Jeanna Pool is President of CATALYST creative, inc., an award-winning graphic design, web design and marketing firm located in Denver, Colorado. She helps small business owners who are really good at what they do, but struggle to market their services effectively to attract more clients on a consistent basis. She can be contacted at http://www.catalystcreativeinc.com, info@catalystcreativeinc.com or call 303.380.9100.

One of the most critical choices that an executive or entrepreneur can make is to determine which sales/revenue opportunities to pursue vs. which ones to pass on. How do you determine where you will allocate your time, your resources and your talent? Do you use a rational decisioning process to arrive at the right conclusion or are you the person that is often second guessed or proved wrong because your decision was made irrationally and you arrived at your conclusion by default, osmosis or some other unknown process?

For purposes of this posting I will exclude the greener pastures of new sales opportunities and focus on the most overlooked area of opportunity assessment which is prioritizing decisions surrounding sales of your existing product or services. It has been my observation that many sales plans simply evolve for no quantifiable, qualifiable or tangible reason other than just because…Following are the top 10 reasons not to pursue a particular sales opportunity:

#10: Because a strong sales or product manager flexed his muscles and pushed their bias;

#9: To seek static gains in a vacuum buy just looking for increases in quarter over quarter sequential revenue growth;

#8: To buy business in order to gain market share;

#7: Because more marketing budget exists for Product A vs. Product B;

#6: Because the sales force can’t seem to get traction with Product X;

#5: Because the sales force is getting traction with Product X;

#4: Because the ad agency made a good pitch;

#3: Because the market research said you had a competitive advantage;

#2: Because your competition does it, and;

#1: Because it’s always been done that way.

Some of the aforementioned reasons if encapsulated in an overarching strategy may not in and of themselves be bad reasons to pursue a sales opportunity. However in the absence of a plan and standing alone in a vacuum they will result in wrong choices being made more often than not. To avoid the common mistakes outlined above conduct a thorough comparative analysis of all product and service lines assessing the following key metrics:

• Cost of sales and profit margins;

• Length of selling cycle;

• Sales/revenue obstacles;

• Competitive analysis;

• Current market demand;

• Potential for future market growth;

• Ability to further brand recognition/growth;

• Quality and quantity of available talent and resources supporting a particular product or service line;

• Execution and delivery capabilities;

• Post sale costs of service;

• Ability to add to lifecycle value;

• Recurring revenue vs. one time revenue, and;

• Creation of additional revenue opportunities.

Take the above metrics and plug them into a grid ranking each category from highest to lowest for each product or service line. In addition to individual rankings also created a weighted rank based on the metrics that are most important to your business. Lastly create a blended score for each product or service line. Conducting this type of analysis will help you determine where you should be placing your emphasis for the purpose of moving you toward a best practices approach when creating a well engineered sales plan.

Mike Myatt is the Chief Strategy Officer at N2growth. N2growth is a leading venture growth consultancy providing a unique array of professional services to high growth companies on a venture based business model. The rare combination of branding and corporate identity services, capital formation assistance, market research and business intelligence, sales and product engineering, leadership development and talent management, as well as marketing, advertising and public relations services make N2growth the industry leader in strategic growth consulting. More information about the company can be found at http://www.N2growth.com

Do you have a well thought out reason for writing articles? That is most likely your article writing philosophy, but in case you don’t have one, let me make a few suggestions for developing one.

Thousands of articles about writing articles are bouncing all over the internet and the printed media at any given time. Most of these articles are tips and advice, a few are about grammar and clarity and yet others are about subject matter and how to find it. A philosophy for writing articles is none of the above.

Simply put an article writing philosophy is not about how you write but why. Although it is acceptable to write articles for publicity or hits to your website it is not the strongest motive. Then there are those who write by researching the most sought after keywords on the net and write articles that lead people to those words, thus to their sites. This also qualifies as a reason to write but only in the most strained sense of the word.

Writers are somewhat like preachers, they have a soap box called the printed page and they have a message just like the minister, even if the subject matter is not homiletically inclined. As a young preacher I overheard someone say that “young preachers just have to say something, but older preachers may actually have something to say.” The first step in developing a writing philosophy is to ask your self this question…do I have something to say?

Professional people can quickly answer yes to the question of whether they have something to say. Years of study, training and experience put them ahead of others and all they may lack is just a bit of priming to know how to convey their knowledge by the written word. For those who are not professionals the next question should be “how do you see.” Some people are naturally endowed with a good eye. They don’t need to be politicians to have a good grasp of politics. They can predict, criticize, evaluate and comment on the whole sphere with great clarity and in some cases may affect the outcome of politics in some way. They weigh in so to speak on the subject. In case you think that isn’t so check out the vast opportunities for op-eds (opinion editorials) on the internet today. Thousands of political right and left wing sites are looking for people with good political vision. In this “of the people” society John Q Public is still sought for his view of political figures and things done in the political theatre.

Having a good “minds eye” applies to any field of interest whatsoever. Technicians put together complex electronic and telemetering devices in spacecraft but some people are weighing the result of all that space hardware on people, the environment or the future of man and their insight may be just as needed as the tiniest circuit board any techie can produce.

The motivation for writing an article may only be to provide information; at other times it may be to provide inspiration. Even anger could qualify as a good motive if you are particularly incensed over some injustice or bad behavior. It may sound all to rudimentary or perhaps old fashioned to say that if you are seeking a higher good to be done through your writing then you will always succeed. Sound corny? Think again. No one will ever reject an article that attempts to right a wrong, lift people up or provide a little light and comfort in a troubled world. If that is your motive then that is your philosophy. Good writing.