2010 – It’s Time to Make the Sale!

We all know that great productivity methods and advanced business leadership skills depend for success on a third element: sales. And if ever there was a time in our economy to boost our sales techniques and improve results, it’s now.

As we go into 2010, my clients are telling me that they are hitting the road with tighter workforces, tighter margins and greater needs for productivity in all departments, especially in sales. In response, I’ve teamed up with a national sales expert for a 10-workshop series I’m calling Make the Sale! – Powerful Selling Strategies for Business Owners.

We’ve set this up for business owners because owners are (or should be!) the best sales people in their business.

Business owners who learn to sell can typically outsell anyone they hire to sell, even while running their business. Much to my chagrin, I outsold every sales person that ever worked for me. Why? Because business owners have the passion, belief and know-how to answer client questions and deliver on their commitments, as well as make decisions on the spot.

Think of this Make the Sale! series as our gift to you, a self-propelled economic stimulus package for you to put in place immediately. I’m jazzed about Make the Sale! because my clients need it. You need it; in fact, we all need big sales to pull us out of the slumps of 2009. I hope you can make it a part of your 2010; I’m sure that this program can make a difference for your business.

The Sales Strategies Details

Make the Sale! is a 10-session series providing beginning to advanced sales techniques for business owners. Don’t forget: We’re focusing on owners because the higher you go in the organization, the better your sales techniques need to be. The workshops are limited to 15 participants, and designed for owners of small to medium-sized businesses. This is an in-depth, in-person course, the only one of its kind offered in northern Nevada.

The sales techniques learned during Make the Sale! – Powerful Selling Strategies for Business Owners are based on individual preferences and personalities, and you’ll build your style through real-world application, using your own strengths to create personal sales techniques that will work for you in your ongoing businesses.

Make the Sale! includes sessions focused on defining target markets, developing personal sales approaches, planning for and conducting a sales interview, determining individual buying motives, closing sales, and everything that comes in between.

The course begins Feb. 5, 2010, and meets weekly on Wednesdays for 10 sessions. So, my final question to you is: Are you ready to make a powerful leap forward into 2010? I hope so, and I hope to see you there. (Click here to read more about this series on my dedicated Make the Sale! Web pages.)

Leadership and Crisis

Leadership and Crisis

By David Byrd, President, LMI

Pick up any newspaper today and you will read about economic crisis. Turn your TV to any news broadcast, and you will hear about economic crisis. I was with a group of business executives yesterday, and we talked about economic crisis. We are being overwhelmed with negative news and fearful conversation regarding the issues of the current, global economic crisis. But with all the bombardment of negative news and fearful conversations leaders must still lead. How do we do that?

During times of crisis a leader’s greatest enemy is fear. During crisis most people respond from the emotion of fear. This is a natural response that can be traced back to our ancestral roots. The emotion of fear was designed to protect us from any imposing dangers. However, many people have developed the habit of responding to any crisis situation form the emotion of fear, and that poses three significant problems for leaders:

Fear paralyzes productive actions. Fear leads to negative attitudes which, in turn, get in the way of positive, productive actions.

Fear attracts and supports failure. Negative attitudes find comfort in failure. They offer an instant and comfortable excuse to quit, point blame, or procrastinate.

Fear eliminates ownership of possible solutions. Fear destroys creative energy. Fear causes us to think of ourselves as victims and victims have no solutions.

How do effective leaders respond to the natural, human emotion of fear? The effective leader knows that there are only two options in responding to crisis…Positive Actions or Negative Beliefs!

The leaders who respond with negative beliefs nullify their leadership position by joining the ranks of the fearful. When a leader responds to crisis from the emotion of fear, his or her position as leader is no longer effective. The leader has chosen to simply join the crowd, and any attempts at leading will be overlooked by those who are expected to follow.

The effective leader knows that there is only one productive option inresponding to crisis… Positive Actions! You have to consistently fight your normal responses to fear because effective leadership demands positive, productive, and effective actions. This current economic crisis will be managed by effective leaders. In challenging times, effective leaders step up to the plate and lead with positive action plans and consistent high pay off activities. I wish you Godspeed in your significant role as an effective leader!

LMI JOURNAL, VOLUME II, NUMBER 10

Leadership Management Institute

Reprinted with permission

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Strategic Essentials is a Managing Partner for Leadership Management International.

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