The Property of an Effective Attitude

An effective attitude is one that makes the best use of available resources – your time, energy and efforts – and uses them to create positive change.  It is not about trying to do everything and be everything; it’s making the very best of what you have while enjoying the process of living.

Here are characteristics regarding effective traits and behaviors of such an attitude:

1.  Enjoys and appreciates the present moment.

Happiness is an attitude that can only be designed into the present.  It’s not a point in the future or a moment from the past; but sadly, this misconception hurts the masses.  So many young people seem to think that happiness awaits them in the years ahead, while so many older people believe that their best moments are behind them.

The truth is, the greater part of your happiness or misery depends solely upon your attitude towards any given moment, regardless of the events contained within.  You need much less than you think you need to be happy, and you usually have a lot more than you think you have.  There’s always something worth smiling about.  It’s just a matter of thinking differently.

2.  Connects inner purpose with outer effort.

The most important thing you can know is what’s most important to you.  Your purpose in life is to find your purpose and give yourself to it.  As Friedrich Nietzsche so profoundly said, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how.”  Your purpose is your ‘why.’

You can accomplish almost anything when what you’re trying to accomplish is what you care about.  Wear yourself out with focused, disciplined work on a purpose that connects with who you truly are.  You have a unique voice and a unique drive that are longing to be expressed.
 

3.  Accepts and embraces great challenges.

The most prolific days of your life won’t likely be easy.  It’s not in the serenity of your comfort zone or the inactivity of a lazy day that drives greatness.  Great demands drive the growth of great virtues.  Contending with great challenges forms the foundation of greatness.

Think about a day from your past that ended with a sense of satisfaction.  It’s not a day when you lounged around with nothing to do; it’s a day you had more to do than seemed possible, and you did it.  When your mind is challenged by duties that engage your purpose, then those great virtues, which would otherwise lay dormant, come to life and help you grow into your greatest self.

4.  Self-disciplined.

Without discipline, success is impossible, period.  Discipline is choosing to do what you know must be done, as often and as long as required.  It’s doing the thing you have to do whether you like it or not.

Discipline allows you to control the course of your life.  If you do not discipline yourself, someone else – a parent, teacher, boss, society, etc. – will try to do so for you.  They will choose what they believe is the best method to instill more self-control in you.  But it’s far more advantageous to take control of your own discipline and your own destiny.

Discipline opens up a plethora of options and opportunities which otherwise would not be available to you.  With it you can make best possible use of the time and resources available to you, and employ them to create great value for yourself and your world.  Whatever you set your sights upon, discipline is the vehicle that will get you there.

5.  Remains positive and focused through failure.

Forget about failure.  Trying alone is a huge success.  Regardless of what you’re trying to do – pay off debt, get in shape, start a business, make a difference in the world, etc. – you have already achieved something wonderful simply by putting forth a worthy effort.  If things don’t work out as you had planned, hold your head up high and be proud of the progress you made.  Then make the necessary adjustments and try again.

In the end, it’s focused resilience that eventually leads you to your desired result.  Once you make the decision to be positive and persist through your failures, the universe gradually conspires to make your efforts rewarding.

6.  Filters and channels anger effectively.

Being angry is easy, and by itself anger gets nothing accomplished.  But to funnel your anger into a productive action plan, at the right time, in the right way, and for the right purpose, that’s how you can put your anger to good use.

In other words, you must direct your anger towards specific problems that can be solved, not people or generalized situations.  Look for answers and resolutions, not excuses and complaints.

7.  Willingness and drive to help others.

The best antidote to gloom is constructive work.  The most curing work is found in the challenge of helping someone who has less than you do.  It is one of life’s great paradoxes; when you serve others you end up benefiting as much if not more than those you serve.

If you feel stuck in your life because you have lost your direction, shift your focus from your circumstances to the circumstances of those around.  “The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”  Instead of asking, “What’s wrong with me?” ask, “How can I help you?”  Find someone who could use an extra hand and make an offer they just cannot refuse.

When your focus shifts from your own confusion and difficulties, to the confusion and difficulties of others, and you see yourself making a positive difference, it fills you with a sense of meaning and illuminates the clearer path to a brighter future and a better world.

Getting to the point of asking for the order!

Skill #1: Building the buyer-seller relationship. Salespeople need to develop a better understanding of the buying process that customers actually follow; the real decisions they make, and when they are made. Then salespeople need to match their sales process with the customer's buying process. When this is done, salespeople begin to walk arm-in-arm with the customer as they arrive at the best possible solution.

Skill #2: Planning the sales call. Most companies today lack a well-defined sales process. Very few have documented the sales practices that lead to a commitment from customer. As a consequence, salespeople don't plan sales calls properly. For instance, every call should end in some kind of commitment from the customer-an agreement to do something that will move the process forward.

Skill #3: Asking the right questions. Most salespeople do not ask the right types of questions, even if they prepare questions prior to the sales call, which most don't. The impact of poor questioning skills is enormous. It leads to resistance in the form of stalls and objections; bad presentations that offer improper solutions, failure to differentiate from the competition-and missed sales opportunities.

Skill #4: Business acumen. If you're going to help your customer become more successful you need to know how businesses work in general, how your customer's industry works, how your customer addresses their target market and how your firms offerings can help them better serve their own customers. Without business skills, you will never have the credibility needed to sell

Skill #5: Actively listening. Do not miss important cues and information by talking too much of it and their products. It's much more important to shut up and let the customer talk. Yes, you should guide the conversation, but then listen and digest properly. You can learn so much about what the customer really wants, so that you can position your offering appropriately.

Skill #6: Presenting meaningful solutions. Most salespeople claim that this is the skill they are best at. In fact, we as managers tend to hire people who have "the gift of gab." In reality, quality is far more important than quantity when it comes to making presentations. When salespeople zero in on presenting only specific solutions to previously agreed-upon needs, they rarely fail.

Skill #7: Gaining Commitments. If you really think about it, the only reason to employ salespeople is to gain customer commitment. Yet, when asked, most salespeople admit that this is their weakest skill. Research suggests that almost two-thirds of all salespeople fail to ask for commitment on sales calls. Any effective sales training program must have a solid solution for this problem.

Skill #8: Managing Your Emotions. The way a sales pro explains the causes of their successes and failures is vitally important. Developing a style that sees adversity as temporary and isolated builds the mental toughness, emotional resilience and patience to bounce back from setbacks and be proactive when the time is right.

And last:  Ask the question; “What do I need to do to walk out of here with the order?”  If no excuse, you have an order.  If there are reasons, then you know what it will take.

The Business Expansion Plan

Overview


Small businesses become big businesses through expansion. In most cases, business expansion occurs due to an increase in demand, an increase in efficiencies, new production lines, more diverse or international markets and the need to bring certain functions, such as logistics or manufacturing, in-house. Planning for expansion is a strategic exercise, which involves identifying the exact need for expansion. After this, you can focus on the need and develop more defined estimates of the time and capital required to implement expansion efforts.

            Step 1

                  
            Identify exactly, what needs to be expanded? Expanding for the sake of expanding might lead to increased inefficiencies. Determine exactly what parts of the business you wish to expand. Producing more product does not necessarily translate into a broad expansion across the board. This approach does not take economies of scale into consideration. That is, you may not need to expand administrative functions and/or move into a larger building. Perhaps you need only hire more staff and/or purchase additional equipment.

                   

            Step 2


                                               Determine the effect of the expansion on personnel. Consider hiring part-time workers until the need for full-time work is certain. Also, remember that payroll for increased personnel should come from the increase in revenue, not outside funding.

                   

            Step 3


                                                  Develop training programs for employees. Communicate expansion efforts and goals with employees through training sessions. Train a few of your best employees and then have them train others. If purchasing new equipment, have the seller provide training to staff.

                   

            Step 4

                  
                 Consider expanding through the Internet. Brick and mortar (traditional building space) costs a great deal more than the cost of maintaining a website. This is also a great way to reach overseas clients while extending your hours to 24/7.

                   

            Step 5

                                                
Purchase or lease additional space only if necessary. This poses a significant investment                 and should be analyzed carefully. Until then, consider efforts to maximize the physical space of your current location.

                   Step 6


Determine new routes and plans for logistics. With additional customers comes the need to service a broader customer base. Identify those logistical needs that need to be augmented.

How to Create a Business Plan for Expansion

           Expanding your business is an exciting proposition. It means it's doing well and ready to grow to the next level. But often a business needs financial support to implement expansion ideas. A professional business plan that outlines the expansion details can earn the money needed to grow the business.

o   Write an executive summary that outlines the business' history, including its successes and accomplishments. It should also cover the business' goals, current facilities and equipment, and employees. Include information on the proposed expansion, such as a larger facility or new equipment.

o Describe your target market by demographics, such as age, gender and socioeconomic status. Indicate your current marketing tactics and how they are implemented. If you'll be changing your marketing plan with the expansion, outline these changes.

o  Provide details about your competition, including differences and similarities in services, target market and marketing tactics. Focus on how your business is unique from others that offer the same type of service or products. Elaborate on how your expansion will set your business apart from the competition.

o Provide information about your management team. Give their names, duties to the business and information about their skills or training as it related to the business. If you'll be taking on new partners or managers in the expansion, provide details on the duties and attributes to the business.

o   Outline the daily operations of the business. Describe the day-to-day activities; such as providing services and marketing, as well as who is responsible for assuring these activities are completed. If the daily activities will change with the proposed expansion, provide information on what will be different.

o   Provide financial details about the business, including current statements that show expenses and income, and net worth. Outline the costs related to the expansion as well as projected profits over the next year.

o   Include an appendix for supplemental materials that don't fit in the other sections. For example, if your expansion is adding on to or building a facility, include blueprints of the proposed project. This section is also used to provide other documents, such as permits.

o   Create a professional business plan document to show to bankers and potential investors. Use quality paper and binding, and make sure it's easy to read and free of errors.

Living the Life in Sales: Bending A Negative Response into Success

Living the Life in Sales: Bending A Negative Response into Success

The chances are high that many of my weekly news blogs will be ignored.  Some will just not have the time to read, others find my posts comfortably nestled into a recipient's Spam box out of the discomfort that my feelings may be hurt? I have no knowledge of who they are.  Usually my feedback is when someone takes the time to acknowledge that they agree or disagree with my post.  I am completely comfortable with this.

The fear of rejection is the bane of success. If rejections scare you, you will avoid making the difficult calls in life. And once the fear of rejection gets its insidious claws into you, it gets worse, creating more failure.

To be really successful (at sales or any other career), you must not just learn to cope with occasional (and even frequent) rejections. You must also learn to turn rejection into a goad that drives you towards ultimate success.

Differentiate between invalid and valid rejection

There are two types of rejections. A valid rejection is when a person doesn't do what you want because of something that you can change. Invalid rejections are when that "failure" took place because of something completely arbitrary that's outside of your control.

Here is an example of an invalid rejection:

Suppose you make a cold call and a prospect hangs up on you. While that's a textbook definition of "rejection", the truth is that the prospect's reaction has nothing to do with you. What's actually happened is that you accidentally broke the prospect's rules. You had no way of knowing that the prospect was busy and that the prospect thinks it is okay to hang up on unfamiliar callers.

Now, perhaps if you said something different or called at a different time, you might have gotten a different reaction, but that's just a fiction that you're making up in your mind. However, if you had called at a different time, the prospect might just as easily have added a expletive before hanging up and then sent a memo directing the company to never buy from you ever again.

There's no way of knowing. It's not a valid rejection, its just chance.

What's important here is that the prospect's reaction really didn't have anything to do you with personally, because anybody else taking the same action at the same time would have gotten the exact same outcome? You simply took an action that didn't work.

As soon as you realize that invalid rejections are just luck, most of so-called rejections simply become neutral events and the entire concept starts to lose its sting.

Understand why you feel rejected.

Why do you work? Is it, money, recognition, and achievement? Wrong, wrong, and wrong. All of those reasons are just outward manifestations of your real goal: you want to feel good about yourself.

For example, you think that you work because you want money? Incorrect. What you really want is what the money can buy, and I'm not talking about that new Ferrari. I'm talking about the feeling that owning a Ferrari would give you.

No matter what reason you give for being in sales, trace it back, and you'll eventually get to "it makes me feel good about myself."

Therefore, rejection "hurts" because there's something about the situation that makes you feel bad about yourself. To test this theory, imagine the biggest idiot you've ever known telling you that you're stupid. Do you care? No. The "rejection" fails to sting because it doesn't assault your sense of self. Who cares what that fool thinks?

Rejection starts to sting as the result of three qualitative and highly subjective factors:

Frequency. Everyone can deal with some rejection, but how much rejection can you experience before you start taking the negative feedback to heart? How many times can you contact a qualified prospect and get a negative response before you begin to take it personally? In other words, getting told a million times that you're stupid might make you question your intelligence, even if you didn't particularly respect the people saying it.

Emotional Involvement. How emotionally involved can you become with somebody before you feel that the other person might know you so well that criticism hurts? For example, you might be reluctant to close because you're afraid that your customer might feel "buyer's remorse" and stop liking you -- a form of rejection. In other words, if you like somebody, you'll tend to feel pretty bad if that person tells you to go take a hike.

Perceived Importance. As a sales rep, you're likely to feel most comfortable contacting people who are of a similar (or lower) social class or educational background. However, you might find yourself avoiding people whom you feel are more important than yourself, because their rejection of you might seem to carry more weight or authority.

Understanding why you feel rejected is the first step to removing the "sting." To do this, you take a different approach, depending on subjective reason that's behind you're feeling of being rejected.

Remove the Sting of Rejection.  Your job is to weaken the ability of the "rejection" situation to make you feel bad about it.

To make yourself feel less vulnerable in this area, you must first throw out all the invalid objections (as defined in the first step). Don't even count them. They're nonsense. If you still feel that you're getting a lot of rejections, then look at the norms for other professionals at your level. If you discover that you're in the ballpark for everyone else, there's no particular reason to feel bad about being rejected. If it turns out that you are getting valid rejections more frequently than your peers, then you'll need to figure out what sales skill is missing or broken in your tool kit, and then work on it. We'll get to that in the last step of this post.

Emotional involvement. The cure for this subjective ailment is to value both what you're offering AND the relationship. If you truly value both, then there is absolutely NO reason why you shouldn't want your customers to be your true friends. If it turns out your friend doesn't want or need your offering, it's not a rejection of you, but of the need for your offering, because it's not about you. If it's just a matter that your friend doesn't want or need what you've got to offer, then you can go ahead and be happy for that friend didn't buy. That's what your friend wanted and your offering is still good. And you're doing what's right by your friend.

Perceived importance. The cure for this is simply to believe in you. Here's the honest truth: if you're offering something that's crucial to the success or happiness of your customer, you are as important as the biggest VIP on the planet. Here's another big truth: most VIPs are exceedingly average people who've stumbled into their success; they are not Gods, Among Men Whose Judgment Must Be Validated. They're everyday men and women, just like you and me. So get some perspective. The opinion of some is just not all that big a deal.

The trick to bulletproofing yourself against rejection is to let people have their own emotions and beliefs, and then simply use whatever happens as either a signal to improve your skills (a valid objection) or a signal to exercise your "so what" mental muscle (an invalid one).

Reframe rejection into your path to success.  In sales, the number of rejections you get is directly proportional to how successful you will become.  The people who hit the most home runs are the one who get up to bat the most. As has been pointed out innumerable times, the person with the major league baseball record for being struck out is Reggie Jackson, one of the greatest batters of all time.

Estimate the number of times you encounter rejection in an average day. (No need to be entirely accurate). Now calculate your daily average salary/commission. Now divide the number of rejections per day by your daily salary. 

Example:

Number of times you get a valid rejection each day on average: 5

Your daily salary and commission, on average: $500

The money you make every time you get "rejected": $100

Look at that number carefully. That's how much money goes into your pocket every time you encounter a rejection. The reasoning is simple. If you're not getting rejected, you are not selling. So when you do sell, it's because you've been willing to be rejected. The rejections lead to the sales, so you actually are paid through the rejection process.

The Failure of Supply Side Economics

The Republican Party has long promoted itself as the party of business. Republicans understand the needs of business, we are told, and if the country would leave the economy in their hands business would boom. All we need to do is to give those at the very top of the income distribution – the “job creators” – more income through tax breaks, and then sit back and wait for the magic happen. Our investment in the wealthy will produce remarkable economic growth, and everyone will be better off.

The Bush tax cuts were a test of these claims about "supply side" economic policies. To justify the tax cuts the nation was, in effect, given a business prospectus from the Republican Party. We were promised that cutting taxes on the wealthy would result in much higher economic growth and broadly shared prosperity. For those who wondered how we would pay for such a large cut to the government’s revenue stream, the Republican prospectus had a remarkable claim. The tax cuts wouldn’t cost us anything. Growth would be so strong that the tax cuts would more than pay for them. Even those who admitted that the tax cuts might not be fully self-financing still made strong claims about faster economic growth offsetting much of the lost revenue from the tax cuts.

The reality, of course, has been quite different. There is no evidence (none!) that the Bush tax cuts, or any other tax cuts directed at the so-called job creators, have had a noticeable effect on economic growth. And the promise of broadly shared prosperity has not been realized. Most of the gains from economic growth in recent decades have gone to the top of the income distribution while the inflation-adjusted wages of the working class have been relatively flat. Furthermore, the tax cuts have not paid for themselves as promised, and it hasn’t even been close. The Bush tax cuts have already cost us trillions in revenue, and if they are extended for high income tax payers, they will cost us roughly another trillion dollars over the next decade.

The failure of Republicans to deliver on their promise that tax cuts would be mostly self-financing is a large factor in the deterioration in our long-run fiscal outlook, and it is putting considerable pressure on programs such as Social Security. In fact, the Bush tax cuts can be thought of as a loan from the Social Security Trust Fund that was supposed to be paid back with the revenues from higher economic growth, a loan that is presently in default.

To see this, recall that the government began intentionally collecting a surplus from the Social Security program beginning in 1983 in order to prefund the retirement needs of baby boomers. The idea was to run a surplus for several decades while the baby-boomers were still working to get ready for the deficit years the system would experience after they retired.

The revenue from Social Security over and above what was needed to fund payouts reduced the overall government debt and allowed taxes to be lower than they could have been without these surplus funds. For example, the surplus that Bush inherited from the Clinton administration was largely due to the Social Security Trust Fund, and Bush argued it would be better to give this surplus to the private sector through tax cuts than to leave it in the hands of the government. But it wasn’t better. The income of the wealthy grew as they pocketed the tax cuts, but workers experienced stagnant wages, a recession that hit working class households particularly hard, and intense pressure to cut important social programs.

Despite their failed promises, the Republican Party is asking that we extend the tax cuts for the wealthy, and some are even calling for further reductions in tax rates. However, if the Republican Party is truly the party of business, then surely it will understand that no responsible financial institution would continue to invest in a business that failed, meet, or even come close to the growth and revenue projections that justified the investment in the first place. The payoffs from tax cuts that were promised during the Bush years have not been realized, and the failed promises about growth and revenue have damaged the health, education, and retirement programs the working class depends upon in our increasingly globalized economy.

A true party of business would end our investment in the false promise of "supply side" economics. However, a party with a goal of reducing the scale of programs such as Social Security and Medicare along with delivering tax cuts to wealthy political backers would use arguments about the economic effects of tax cuts to disguise its true intentions. Which description fits best? Many Republicans still claim that tax cuts for the wealthy enhance economic growth despite the evidence to the contrary, but it’s rare to hear a Republican admit that the "supply side" policies have failed.

Business Principles from the Book of Proverbs

Business Principles from the Book of Proverbs

Republished by Request

What is the best book on business that you have ever read? 



If you visit the typical bookstore-at least in the U.S.A. you will find hundreds of volumes in the business section, each claiming to hold the ultimate secrets to business success and professional advancement. Some are biographical; others suggest multiple step "how-to's" of becoming a great business leader or high-producing salesperson. Some focus on motivation, trying to convince you that you can do whatever you set your mind to do, while others offer cute little stories in which they convey basic business truths. 



I have read dozens of these books, and I'll agree that in them I have found many worthwhile insights and principles. However, I don't think that all the books displayed in the business section can come close to the substance that is available in what I consider the greatest business book ever written-the Book of Proverbs by Solomon. In fact, there is more practical business wisdom presented in one small section of the book of Proverbs than you can find in any other book, even those written by today's foremost business leaders.

I love to read business books. Right now I am rereading King Solomon’s Book of Proverbs: I love to read the most about business ethics, positive working attitudes, sales, and management.  All this and more can be found in the Book of Proverbs. The book of Proverbs of Solomon written between 960 and 922 BC and his thoughts were remarkable and if you read today’s writers like Tracy, Rohn, and Canfield you will find traces of Solomon in their writing.

I know what you are thinking (saying)… Hey I am not a bible reader, nor do I want someone pushing me to a “churchly” dialogue.  You would be mistaken, however, if you do not investigate the wealth of information that can be found here for the 21^st century businessperson.

It behooves all of us in business to seek competent information, wherever the source.  You may be surprised just how many business coaches apply the Proverbs principles.

The Book of Proverbs may be the most practical book ever written for the modern day businessperson. It was designed to be a success manual.

Proverbs defines success far more broadly than economic success. It includes economic as one mark of a successful person. But these proverbs make it clear that economic success apart from wisdom is a snare and a delusion.

The book applies its principles to such areas of life as money, work, planning, peace, goal setting, self-discipline, and other topics. It covers the following in detail:

1. The steps to personal success

2. The standards of personal success

3. Success indicators

4. Failure indicators

5. The function of riches

6. The basis of riches

7. The concept of ownership

8. The nature of economic causation

9. The marks of an ethical economy

10. The purposes of inheritance

Whatever your persuasion, non-religious or religious, should you not at least investigate a tested resource that can aid you toward a professional and personal path toward success?