Power to Prosperity

Power Play # 32 - Get 1000 Fans

Love this interview on Seth Godin. He is very grounded in his approach to using web technologies to fulfill ones life purpose. The market has changed, have you? Get real and be the best in the world at what you do. Do not be a "wondering generality" but be a "meaningful specific". Brilliant!

Power Play # 31 - Be yourSELF!

I just enjoyed watching a few videos of Victor Antonio, a Motivational Speaker. This guy is cool, what got me was his passion and love for what he does for a living.  That alone is electric and worthy of attention.  He is very energized and animate, but boy is is real.  This blog post is to shed light on that idea.  Victor has figured out what it takes to be Victor!!

On Youtube.com you will find many videos on him and one of them is a Documentary, check that one out too. You will get behind the scenes to a very real person speaking about himself, his family and the reality that is him.  Love his openness. 

Check it out - get moved to be more of who you really are.  That is the biggest give Victor gives us.

Check this out ... I like this technique, it has NLP written all over it, but very powerful and very useful for everyday living.

Power Play # 29 - Do YOUR Thing!!

I recently met Donna Browning of Sweaty Bands (www.sweatybands.com) and loved her story of doing her thing!  She is living her dream, doing what she loves to do and energizing a host of people along the way.

She started Sweaty Bands from a need she found herself.  Let me tell you, she is one tough mama!! and has a career doing exercise related activity, from Personal Training to Yoga, it was during these workouts, that she was getting so irritated with her hair falling on her face, that she decided to find a solution.  And a solution she did find.  Donna designed head bands with super utility and style.  She improved on a product that been around for decades, but took it to the next level and made them much more effective and totally cool and exciting. 

What makes her story additionally powerful is that she is not outsourcing her manufacturing to far away lands of cheap labor and other costs. Instead her business model leverages her friends and others locally in the Cincinnati area to manufacture these head bands for her.  She is keeping jobs here and is giving people an opportunity to be productive right here at home.   What she likes about this model is that it makes her feel connected with people in ways she did not expect, some of these women have come back and thanked her for the opportunity to save their home, with the recession we are in - every dollar earned is put to good use.

Congrats Donna and we wish you all the very best.  Here is a pic of Donna with my wife, Shino; that bought a few of them which she will be sending to Tokyo to our friends that do Yoga there.

Sweaty Bands make great gifts!!

Guidance from Neil Rackham - Author of SPIN Selling

I had the privilege of meeting with Neil Rackham at the University Sales Education Foundation (USEF) sales meetings in Chicago. He was tremendously insightful and it was a pleasure meeting him and being in his company. 

Oh, before I forget, let me convey his guidance to me.  He says I should start by reading two of his books and then do the others if I want.  His two picks were ...

• Rethinking the Sales Force
• Major Account Sales

So, there you have it; you know what my home work assignments are!

Anyway, I was going through his website and found this article, thought I would bring it to your attention.  It simply is How to Build a World Class Sales Force in 2009.

Here are the 5 main points, ...

1. Sales supervisors are the key to success
2. Fewer accounts means more sales 
3. Salespeople must become value creators 
4. Coaching brings results
5. Integrate sales and marketing
   

Check it out, read his work and join me in my home work if you want.  I will also be reading SPIN Selling right after that.

Staying Grounded

Had an interesting conversation with my friend Chip yesterday, he was visiting from VA and we were talking about the market and what he was doing. I loved his perspective on the job transition he is currently making.  He recently joined a company that is doing about $1.4 Million a year. They do IT consulting for web sites and web applications with some big accounts like Whirlpool. But obviously many smaller ones (250 of them).

The idea I liked was their strategy to bring him on as their COO to help improve project delivery and customer experiences.  This would give him a fantastic opportunity to get to know everyone in the company.  He will also get to learn about their customers and their needs in this new market segment that he is going into.

The plan is for him to start here, help increase revenue and then take over as the President of the company a year or so later. I love that, right off the bat, everyone is clear that its about increasing revenue and he gets comped on it. As simple as this sounds, I do not see this often enough.  This way, he is prepared to take over the company when it is his time.

My experience has been that most often, business leaders do not have the long therm vision to bring someone on and chart their strategic development path in such a grounded manner, almost sounds Japanese!

Congrats Chip enjoy your new position and I wish you much success now and in the furture as President of the company.

There is a lot going on in Cincinnati

I keep getting amazed at how much there is going on in Cincinnati, now that I have moved back.  I just spend the morning meeting the good folks at the Hamilton County Development Company (www.hcdc.com) which is like a center for small business development, they provide all sorts of services for small businesses and entrepreneurs. 

Was surprised to see them house about 48 or 50 start-up here and they represent a healthy mix of tech and non-tech companies.  Check out their list of tenants here.

While there, I met some very excited people from a new Apparel company called Know.  They  were off to deliver a shipment of t-shirts to a new client. Their excitement was infectious.  Congrats guy.

Check out their website at ....

Power Play # 28 - Take Care of Your Customers

I have a good customer service story to report.  In it, I might also mention a few bad apples that came my way, but lets not focus on them. This about my recent trip Puerto Rico and the Island of Culebra.  By the way - go to Culebra!!  it is like going to Goa, India without the 26 hour flight :-)

Anyway, on the way back all flights leaving PR and flying into Atlanta with delayed, and luckily for us, the flights leaving Atlanta were also delayed. That's the background or for those of you into story telling the structure of a narrative, that is the Expose.

The conflict was that we wanted to get on board the flight from Atlanta to Dayton, we came in late, but luckily the flight was also delayed. We go to the counter and the computers that do not have any "Situational Awareness" have no idea that the plane is still on the ground.  So they say ... "Cannot check in at this time"

The short version is this ... One set of "more experienced" agents gave us all the reasons and rules, why we would not be able to make our flight.  Thank you Betty.

While a junior but more enthusiastic, agent named Victoria, who was tricked out with state of the art Mobile devices that were hooked into their main frames ... actually listened to our situation and before long, got us on the flight and checked in our bags. 

Unbelievable! She actually stopped and addressed our situation and came up with a unique approach to take care of an Elite customer (Frequent Flyer). Her final act of heroism was to go to the head of the check in counter guys and work him over, getting him to help us.  That to me was unbelievable.

Thank you Victoria, for saving the day and the Delta's reputation.

For all you Betty's out there, that follow rules and corporate guidelines ... smell the coffee! The Market has changed ... You better change, or you will be sidelined.

Oh! and as for Airtran ... one simple request, please pay your employees a bonuse or something extra to make them smile.  It was so depressing interacting with them.

Sales is Sales is Sales is Sales!!

Just quick note to share some interesting conversations I have had out here in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  Was talking to Nick Deloitte a businessman from Italy, that sells industrial diamonds, used in construction and gratine stone cutting tools .  We got into talking about my book and before long we were sharing information of sales and salesmanship.  We were in total agreement about all the basics.  That sales is always about solving a customers problem and now with the "Global Market" the way it is, it's time we focused on the basisc to help our customers minimize their risks and solve real problems for them.

Then yesterday, I was out fishing for Tarpon on one of the lagoons here in San Juan, and Dave the Captain was also talking about how his business is driven by the same rules; of giving his customers - mainly the tourists like me that visit the Island, a fantastic experience.  And if he did that well and gave them a fantastic experience, they might just right on their blog about what a great guy he was ... helping him drive business and profits ... Check out Magic Tarpon, the owner is Armando and they are on the web at www.puertoricomagictarpon.com

Thats me and my nephew on one of the Magic Tarpon boats

Then last night, I was talking to a retired Sears sales executive (had worked there for 41 years) at a friends party and between Mojitos and the Salsa dancing, we got talking about salesmanship and were "on track" again with the basics.  He also told me it was always about solving your customer's problems and that being of service and creating positive customer experiences was the surest way of having people come back for more.

Finally, this evening I met three lovely ladies in Old San Juan; they were eating at the same restaurant me and my wife were at - Cafe el Punto and before long we got talking about sales.  I had overheard them talking about the subject and asked if they were sales pros, they were!!  The cool part was they thought they had visited my blog, because my name sounded familiar.   They were from Huston and Ft Lauderdale and agreed that things had changed and it was back to the basics so some extent.

It has been cool to chat with people from different back grounds and different countries and realize that there are some strong similarities in how our different markets work, Sales is Sales is Sales is Sales and there are some things that ARE WORKING ... So I submit to you, the market has changed and so must we. 

Power Play # 22 - Get your Brand out there

Sir Richard Branson on marketing in tough markets.  Love the simplicity of what he says.  Simply put, get your brand out here, hire a PR firm and get them to get your name and your brand out there to your target audience.  If you cannot afford them, then you do the same.  Its all about connecting the dots. 

I have recently noticed a few businesses falter ... due to the economy; they say.  But when I asked them about their marketing campaigns they looked at me like I was suddenly talking a foreign language.   The same thing applies for those of us looking for work in a tough market.

Get the word out - more importantly; get your brand image out.  There is a difference.  Your brand is what ever it is that makes you special and different.  (in simple terms)

What's your brand?  Are you getting it out there to the right people?

Power Play # 20 - Learn to "Close" today's customers

I have noticed something over the last few years and have recently been observing this more recently.  As everything in life changes; so does the behavior of our "customers".  When I used to sell used cars and other things 15 and 20 years ago, people ... i.e.; customers behaved a certain way.  Now a days their behavior is different.  My question is for you to make a conscious effort to observe how "your" customers behave in your market place today. 

Once you do that - you will have a higher potential to sell them something.  Sales is a dance - between the customer and you, using that analogy, it becomes clear that one needs to be in sync with your partner if you want to dance and stay in step.  So again, I ask you ... how have your customers changed?

The basic trend is that customers have become more sophisticated and are more involved in getting a better deal because they can.  The internet allows them to shop around on their terms, in the comfort of their own home or Starbucks ... which might be easier for some and do valuable research about the product or service they are considering buying.

Now that you know this to be true .... how do you design your sales process?  How do you design a powerful offer that is "valuable" to your customer?  How do you present yourself in ways that your customer is searching for you? 

Just as you controlled your body language and tried to read your customer's body language .... are you controlling your Digital Body Language - Check out this nerdy but very powerful blog on the subject. 

I rest my case ... your customer has changed ... have you?