The Cold Turnkey

Sales managers who lack the benefit of temperament understanding are inclined to place too much emphasize on their gut-level feeling during the hiring process. Progressive organizations that understand the value of temperament profiling actively seek people with varied behavioral styles and thereby benefit from a richness and diversity of perspective. People with different behavioral patterns are more likely to complement rather than duplicate each other’s strengths and serve in a check and balance capacity.

Managers frequently ask me which traits are the most important to look for in a prospective hire? In my opinion, there are two mandatory qualities any new hire should possess. The first quality I look for is loyalty. If a person is not loyal to their company, research indicates that they are more likely to violate company policies and procedures. Disloyal employees are also the first to leave when the going gets tough. Look for signs of job stability on the resume and check his or her attitude regarding previous employers.

The second quality I look for is dependability. It makes absolutely no sense to invest huge amounts of emotional and financial capital training someone that you can’t depend on.

The most effective people are those who know themselves, know the demands of the situation, and adapt strategies to meet those demands. Research indicates that career incompatibility is the major cause of personnel discontentment and costly turnover. The hidden cost of excessive personnel replacement is often measured through a decrease in customer retention.

Simply put, you want to hire a person that has a temperament profile compatible with the job opportunity. For example, some people are born analytical and have a temperament style that excels in administration and attention to detail. Others are more comfortable in a supportive role and are better suited for a customer service position rather than the uncertainty of commission sales.

The importance of matching the job description to the correct temperament style cannot be overstated. Temperament testing is not only advantageous for hiring and suitability but also as a management aid to assist in training and supervision after the hiring process. I strongly recommend that a temperament evaluation be administered between the first and second interview.

When a temperament evaluation is properly implemented and utilized in conjunction with other standard hiring and interviewing procedures, it ensures that applicants are treated fairly without regard to race, color, age, religion, gender or national origin. If a temperament evaluation is used as part of a hiring process, it shouldn’t constitute the total basis for hiring or placement. I recommend that an organization establish and utilize a consistent standard hiring process. Information gathered in each step of the hiring process should be reviewed in total prior to making a final hiring decision.

You’re Only as Good as Your Pipeline. While some turnover in your sales force such as retirement, promotion, and transfer is understandable and can be anticipated; the quitter is often unpredictable. With this in mind, recruiting must be thought of as a long-term strategy, not a knee-jerk reaction.

Perhaps the greatest mistake a manager can make is underestimating his or her turnover. If your personnel turnover is high, it’s more than likely caused by improper recruiting, rather than inadequate training or a lack of incentives. Even if you’re the world’s best trainer and motivator, if you haven’t recruited correctly you’ll experience high turnover and may find your sales team bogged down with low morale. If your recruiting pipeline has dried up, here are four tips that will assist you in filling it back up with quality salespeople!

To have an effective recruiting program, it’s imperative that your sales team be enthusiastically involved in the recruiting process. Let them know that their ability to recruit is considered a vital skill in leadership development and that their assistance is essential to the health of the organization.

Keep your sales team informed by focusing on recruiting as an agenda item at the weekly meeting. On the agenda show the status of each recruit, highlighting the salesperson that has recruited them.

Design and implement an incentive program for your sales force that places an emphasis on recruiting.

The Fox Realtor is experienced in commercial real estate in Minnesota. Working with developers, investors, and institutions to realize their investment objectives using real estate. He can be contacted at mo@foxreg.com, and more information is available at www.foxreg.com.

The keys to outselling your competition is to compare
your product to theirs. When you find the differences
between products, use your findings to improve
your product. Below are 12 things you can compare
and improve upon to outsell your competition.

1. Price- Can you offer a lower price? Can you offer
a higher price and increase the perceived value of
your product? Do you offer easier payment options
than your competition?

2. Packaging- Can you package your product more
attractively? Do the colors of your package relate to
your product? Can you package your product into
a smaller or larger package?

3. Delivery- Can you offering cheaper shipping? Do
you have a high enough profit margin to offer free
shipping? Can you ship your products faster?

4. Benefits- Can you offer more benefits than your
competition? Are your benefits stronger? Do you
have believable proof that supports your claims?

5. Quality- Is your product built and tested to last
longer than your competition? Can you improve the
overall quality of your product?

6. Performance- Can you make your product faster
at solving your customers problem? Is your product
easier to use than your competitions?

7. Features- Can you offer more product features
than your competition? Do your features support the
benefits you offer?

8. Availability- Is your product always available or
do your have to backorder it? Can your product
suppliers drop ship to your customers?

9. Extras- Do you provided free bonuses when your
customers buy your product? Are your bonuses more
valuable than your competitions?

10. Service- Do you offer your customers free 24
hour customer service? Can you provide free product
repair? Does your competition make their customers
talk to a machine?

11. Proof- Can you provide more proof than your
competition that your product is reliable? Can you
provide stronger testimonials or endorsements?

12 Guarantees- Do you have a stronger guarantee
than your competition? Do you offer warranties with
your product? Do you provide an easier return policy?

About the author:

Rojo Sunsen is a specialized bounty hunter who prefers to work quietly/confidentially for the benefit of her clients.

So it’s finally come time to sell the business. After investing years of your time and uncounted thousands of dollars, it has become successful, providing for your needs and wants, and it’s time to enjoy the fruits of your labor. Where do you start?

A good time to start thinking about selling a business is right after startup, when it shows signs of beginning to succeed and become self-sustaining. Even if you are planning on bequeathing it to your progeny or a partner, it’s never too early to think about what will happen afterwards.

The first step is to take your time–selling a business is a complex process and you will only do it once. Confidentiality is a necessity at this point, as word of an impending sale can cause repercussions among employees and business partners (suppliers, customers, etc.) alike.

Your position in the business is also a point to consider. If you are the sole proprietor, the decision is yours alone. However, if you are a partner or board member, selling your part of the business will involve more considerations.

Finding a good broker is worth any amount of time needed to locate one you are comfortable with. Check the Better Business Bureau for any investigation history, and get referrals from fellow business owners or from industry associations like the International Business Brokers Association (IBBA). This is a non-profit “trade association of business brokers providing education, conferences, professional designations and networking opportunities” (IBBA), as well as professional certifications and boasts over 1300 members.

Next, a professional appraiser should be consulted, as just like selling a home, a professional appraisal will give a fair value to begin negotiations with. Keep in mind though, an appraisal is an estimate of the fair value of a business’ hard assets, and the market value of the business may be higher or lower, as a business is only worth what someone else is willing to pay.

Determining major terms and price are issues that you are going to have to work out with your broker, but a few basic factors come into play: what do you want to get out of the sale? Continuing salary? Lump sum? Stock options? This is a step often overlooked until late in the negotiations, often to the detriment of the seller.

Financing the sale is usually about 90% left to the seller. If you can’t or won’t be willing to cover the costs of the sale, it may not be a good time to sell.

Once you and your broker have located a buyer and agreed on a price, a Letter of Intent is drafted. This letter outlines the terms and tentative price in a non-binding document and allows the buyer time to thoroughly investigate the business. This process is subject to Due Diligence, as the onus of discovery is placed upon the buyer and buyer’s agent.

After the discovery process is completed to both parties’ satisfaction, the Purchase Agreement is drafted. This set of paperwork creates a formal agreement between buyer and seller regarding purchase price, terms, and other legal details. Once the respective lawyers have finalized the details and complied with state law requirements regarding the sale, the Purchase Agreement is signed, closing documents finalized, and the sale is complete. If everything has gone well, it’s time to breathe a sigh of relief and start planning what to do with all that free time!

William King is the director of All Wholesale UK: http://www.uk-wholesaler.co.uk, Wholesale Pages: http://www.wholesalepages.co.uk and Wholesale-Canada: http://www.wholesale-canada.com. He has 18 years of experience in the marketing and trading industries and has been helping retailers, entrepreneurs and startups with their product sourcing, promotion, marketing and supply chain requirements.

After capping off the recent U.S. Open with a 1^st place winning, Tiger Woods had no other choice but to entirely surrender himself to medical care and complete knee recovery, one thing that his doctor had always been telling him in the past.

Woods would be missing the rest of the 2008 golf season since he is due for a reconstructive ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) surgery on his left knee. That would also mean missing The PGA Championship as well as the Open Championship.

Woods has been playing with a torn ligament in his left knee for at least ten months.

In April, he was out of the competition for two months, as he underwent surgery to clean out the cartilage in his left knee. Two weeks before the U.S. Open, he suffered from a double stress fracture in his left tibia while on rehabilitation. He was advised to go on crutches for three weeks and another three weeks of rest. Wanting to play in the U.S. Open like a kid craving for candy, he disobeyed the doctor’s order. Despite a terrible knee condition, Woods still managed to win the competition, a testament to his prowess in golf.

In fact, Woods has won the majority of tournaments that he joined for the 2008 season.

Everybody is saddened because of Tiger Wood’s absence for the rest of the tour but the fans will surely be expecting a stronger and more invincible player when the tiger recovers.

Ron Sarabi played golf for charity, along with his wife Leila, at the Health Net Charity Golf Tournament.Ron Sarabi is a golf philanthropist and businessman. He is the General Manager for Hawaiian Gardens Casino in California.Ron Sarabi is a high-powered leader and member of the California Gambling Control Commission.

If you asked me to point to the heart and soul of a startup company, I would not say it’s the people, the culture, or even the product. I would say it’s the pitch. The pitch is that one message that, when delivered, makes people say “wow, that’s a great idea!”. The pitch gets everyone in the room excited about getting on board with your product and your company. It’s the inspiration that carries everyone along for the ride.

The pitch also determines whether or not the company’s offer has any viability in the market. For this reason the pitch should always precede any other developments or decisions. Your pitch is your divining rod that helps you make decisions on where to go next. So working on the pitch should always be the first step toward introducing any new concept.

Pitch Early

Pitching early is about as close as you can come to having your own crystal ball to see into the future. Getting a customer to say “yes” today, even though the product may not exist yet, is as important as getting them to say “yes” when it’s actually available. This process allows you to probe your customers’ objections early and understand where the fatal flaws in the model or product offering exist. Better to find out now that customers aren’t dying for your product than after you’ve mortgaged your house to finance your idea!

Pitch Everyone

For the pitch to work, you need to see how it resonates with all of the usual suspects - customers, investors, and employees, in just that order. Each of these constituents thinks about your pitch slightly differently and for good reasons. Customers are interested in how your service improves their life. Investors want to know that your idea can turn into a profitable enterprise. Employees want to know that selling your service will create a great (and steady) place for them to work.

The reaction of each member of this trifecta merits careful consideration. For example, if your customers love your product but investors don’t see how you’ll ever make money, you have a potential problem. You will need to successfully pitch all of these groups eventually, so pitching them effectively early on is critical toward refining your offering and insuring its later acceptance.

Build the product with the pitch in mind

Knowing the pitch allows you to make much better decisions when developing the product. If what you’re building doesn’t add to the pitch, think twice about adding it at all. In a startup environment you have limited resources, so you need to concentrate your time and effort on features that will lead directly to the customer’s, investor’s and employee’s decision to say “yes”. Your product should always be built with the pitch in mind.

Sculpt the pitch

French author and aircraft engineer Antoine de Saint-Exupery once said a designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Sculpting your pitch is no different. Keep paring your pitch down to just the most critical elements that make or break a customer’s decision to buy. Anything else is just excess waiting to be scraped away, or worse yet, confuse the customer. Your pitch has become a masterpiece when it is as short and to the point as possible. The faster it hits home, the more powerful it will be.

Keep it flexible

A good pitch is like a chameleon - it adapts and responds to a changing environment. You may find that what you once thought were the perfect selling points get morphed into a message that sounds quite different but is more effective. Don’t sweat it. There’s nothing wrong with changing the pitch over time as long as it continues to be more effective. There are no points won here for “getting it right the first time”, but there are plenty to be lost for never fixing it. Some of the best pitch masters out there are not only great at speaking, they are great at listening to what customers say and modifying their pitch accordingly.

If they won’t buy the pitch, they won’t buy the product

It’s rare that you will be present every time your customers are considering whether or not to buy your product. That said, if you can’t convince someone to say “yes” while you are standing there giving your pitch in front of them, you can rest assured you’re not likely to get a “yes” when you’re away. A good pitch should be so tightly integrated with your offering that it’s able to sell itself without coming from you. And it should be so infectious that customers can’t help but sell it to their friends.

Remember - if you can’t sell it, it doesn’t really exist!

- Wil

Wil Schroter is a serial entrepreneur, author, and public speaker. Wil has been recognized as U.S. Small Business Person of the Year, twice as the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year (1999 & 2004), and is a member of the Business First Top 40 under forty. Connect directly with Wil at wschroter@yahoo.com. Visit http://www.goBIGnetwork.com.

If somebody has become sick and you are very close to him, then it is your duty to wish him well and cheer him up. He might be your colleague, a family friend, a near acquaintance or somebody in your family who is going through tough times. You must always show your support to the sick person, so that he becomes cheerful and recovers soon. This would give the person the power and courage to endure his present sufferings with a cheerful spirit and he will get well soon. There is an old saying that a friend in need is a friend indeed. This is the time when you can prove that you are a friend indeed by providing moral support to the sick person. In these difficult occasions it is the friends who make it worthwhile to live. This is the time to help the person who had always stood beside you both in your grief and in your happiness. The best thing to do is to carry a bouquet of flowers and wish him a speedy recovery. Bright flowers that would bring back the smile he always had. You should gift flowers that would remind him of the sunshine and the happier moments of his life. Flowers which have a soothing fragrance would make him cheerful.

We know that people buy based on emotion and defend what they buy with logic. “But Mom I really need a new bike because my tires are worn out” we said at 10 years old. What we really wanted was the bike that Jane just got for her birthday.

Now we say “But I really need a Palm Pilot! My old day planner is just worn out”. What we really mean is that Fred just got one and won’t stop poking the stupid thing in our face every time he uses it. At 10, or at 40, we want to keep up with, well, you know. On the other hand, we may just want to shut Fred up!

People buy based on emotion in business as well - but the key is WHAT’S THEIR MOTIVATION?

People in business act for two basic reasons. The first is promise of gain. The second is fear of loss. The question is, are you meeting their needs? And these needs determine whether a customer will buy or not buy. Let’s look at each one and see how they can help us succeed.

WHAT’S IN IT FOR THEM?

The need for gain can take on many different forms. We can help people earn more money or gain more knowledge. On the Net, we are often selling something. Examine what you are selling.

What’s in it for them? THAT’S WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT! Let them know that they will get what they want by doing business with you. Have customers give you feedback on why they bought.

Have friends give you feedback on why they wouldn’t buy. Take this information and ask the questions that so few ask. Where did I miss it? How can I better convince them that they will benefit from my offer? Do that week in and week out and in no time you’ll have a site that sells like crazy.

WHAT WILL THEY AVOID?

People want to know it’s been done before. Few will risk their time and money without knowing that what they hope will happen for them has happened for others. Your job is to both challenge them and comfort them. They need to hear from you that they won’t lose out by doing what you want them to do. Examine yourself to make sure that in addition to encouraging people to act you let them know they won’t be hurt by their action.

The Net is a great place to do business. When we were selling face to face (or even on the phone) we could use facial expressions and tone of voice to make our point. Now most of our business is done through words. Be sure that the words you choose communicate that they will gain, they will not lose. Do that and you build relationships that will pay you handsomely for years to come.

Lifestyle coaching is a therapy that has become incredibly used over the last 6 years. The term first became popular in the United States of America where, together with NLP aka Neuro Linguistic Programming, it became part of a new and improved wonderful wave of astonishingly proactive therapy modalities. Change your life today with Life Coaching.

In many ways both Coaching and Neuro Linguistic Programming are an answer against certain factors of the person-centred therapy movement, in particular Humanistic Counselling. A criticism of the humanistic and person centred approach is that it is really reactive and not extremely proactive. Although this works wonderful with some clients, with others long periods of impasse or low return for time and effort occur. Life coaching and Neuro Linguistic Programming are both humanistic therapy in stance, focusing on improving a customers smiles rather than looking into the depths of childhood, as in traditional psychology. Success coachings emphasis is, however, deliberately proactive and resolve issues.

Coaching is not about preaching to the coaching client what to do. This is a common misconception. Some coaches are pretty successful in their business careers and then make the change to lifestyle coaching, assuming that they will merely be required to divulge their pearls of outstanding wise wisdom with the life coaching client. This is more like mentoring an apprentice in a specific environment. Coaching is instead about life as a collective.

A top type sales person can subtract themself from the scene while approaching a potential customer, smile, offer a hand, and in this, begin the selling task. Their preferences, views, attitudes, values, even their ego, are safely tucked out of the way. Nothing is allowed to interfere with the task of understanding the customer and fulfilling their needs.

Most small business people find it difficult to manage this well. In a shop, a smile and an offered hand, maybe. But even this is denied when you own an online business. You have only your site upon which to demonstrate your credibility and expertise. And words are the most effective tool you have at your disposal.

Build A Professional Image

To make the words work, consciously build a business self. A person who rises above or stands aside from bothersome negatives present in day to day living. Got a temper? Bury it. Want to argue? Don’t. Are you one who believes deeply about things? Forget those convictions not related to doing business.

The latter can be particularly hard to do. If you favor your religion over others, your convictions must not be revealed on your site. Many will disagree, which is counterproductive. If you can’t abide children, never let it show. There are an endless list of notions such as these that simply must be set aside in running a business.

Once you have defined that part of yourself you are willing to share with others, never depart from this definition, even momentarily.

Avoid The Risk Of Negatives

The above may seem harsh. I can picture many business people I know saying this isn’t so. They take the position that its sufficient to let yourself shine through. Unfortunately, they are wrong.

We can’t risk anything that may appear other than positive to our visitors. In short, we must always put our best foot forward. Always take care not to offend. Some of our convictions must be restrained, and never be allowed to “shine through.”

Your religious, ethnic, and nationalistic convictions have no place in business. If you can’t grasp this easily, ask yourself if you are willing to share your sexual convictions on your website. Or your attitudes toward the opposite sex.

A Disasterous Example

Years back I was gathered with about a dozen fellow teachers sharing our lunch break. Devoted brown-baggers, we had at least this in common. Groups were clustered here and there deeply involved in solving their vision of world problems. Two women were sharing cat stories.

Abruptly one teacher said to the group as a whole. “I hate cats. When I’m driving, I try to hit them.”

The silence as they say was deafening. The two women who had been chatting about cats tossed a steady stream of angry darts with their eyes.

I think this was about the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard a person say. And I said so. The fellow glowered at me for a time, then left the room. He was substituting at the school for the day. I’ve always wondered if maybe it was such opinions, freely voiced, that prevented him from finding a permanent position.

If for a moment you doubt the need for accenting the positives and ignoring anything your visitors might construe as negatives, consider putting the above two sentences about cats on your site. Those who argue that the “real you” in all it’s parts should be visible at all times, should also try this.

It matters what we remain true to ourselves. But we must share only positive traits our visitors can relate to. We must accent the strengths in our life that enhance our business efforts, and avoid all else.

Utilizing Your New Self

Be professional in all ways. Always be upbeat and positive. No negatives are allowed. Ever. Go the extra mile when appropriate. And never ever break promises.

Never misrepresent yourself or your product. Never even exaggerate. In fact if you consistently undersell, you will always over-deliver which of itself assures satisfied customers likely to return for another purchase.

Take honesty to a grand extreme. Never even consider ducking a customer complaint or a request for a refund. Never ever mislead or take advantage of a visitor.

Good news gets about. And news of an honest site will as well. But news of a site perceived as dishonest spreads 10 to 20 times as rapidly. Frankly, few can afford this risk.

Honesty matters even more in what you say on your site. It matters most when seeking to demonstrate expertise. Include only information you know to be so and arguments you know to be sound.

If you haven’t got the information or argument needed as you write, say so boldly. Your readers will accept a simple, “I’m not sure here, but it seems …” If it’s a point that matters, go find the facts, then rewrite this segment later.

Sure, you’ll make mistakes. You’ll be flat wrong now and then, despite best efforts. But most will not hold you pinned to the standard of perfection. A quick admission of error and a simple apology (Sorry, I goofed here.) are quite acceptable to most, provided all else is straight.

However, there is no way at all to “cover” or “apologize” for stated views with which your visitors disagree. You may in fact truly hate kids. But say so on your site, and you’ll lose an awful lot of moms and grandmoms. Pops and grandpops, too. There are not a whole lot left when you subtract those who like kids from the general population.

While you may feel you are not being completely honest unless you share all your convictions, your social views are not what your visitors came to your site to discover. Share the expertise they need, do so completely and honestly, then quit while you’re ahead.

The telephone is still the best and most effective way to reach people. It can help generate more sales and build your business. Unfortunately most people don’t like the telephone and don’t use it effectively. In order to become more proficient using the telephone, you need to follow some basic guidelines and then practice, practice and then practice some more.

Like everything else, selling by using the telephone has changed over the years. The hard sell approach doesn’t cut it today. With voice mail, answering machines, tele-zappers, and caller ID the old fashion way doesn’t work any longer.

If you are selling a high end product, trying to do it all on the first call doesn’t work. You need to go through a couple of stages to get your end result - the sale. First you need to introduce yourself. Tell them about you, your business and your product. Next try to set up an appointment to go into further detail. Or maybe send some information before calling again. Moving one step at a time gives the customer time to become familiar with you and your product. It also gives your customer time to realize how important your product is to them.

You need to be confident and positive. As we have told many of our students, if you don’t feel like getting on the phones - don’t. That negativity and lack of enthusiasm is going to come through on the telephone. Many years ago when I was working in corporate America as a receptionist my supervisor told me to always answer the telephone with a smile on. That smile carried over into the impression the caller received when contacting a company.

So be sure that a positive attitude comes through . Remember, the old adage, “you must first sell yourself, then sell your product”.

Also of utmost importance is to know what you want to say. If you use a script, have it handy, but don’t just read it. I can tell immediately when a call I get is being read from a script. Write down an opening statement (for example, Hi , my name is Susan from Home Business Solutions. I’m calling about the home you have for sale. Are you the person to speak with? What’s your name?). Make notes of points you need to cover. Practice saying what you want to say until it comes naturally. Be sure you make strong statements. Avoid the words: maybe, could, but.

You also need to know your product. You have to perceive its value before you can convince someone else. You have to know what it does, how it works, and be able to describe it in terms that the layman can understand. You also need to explain the benefits of your product.

One of the first things I go over with our students regarding our telephone script is that they must learn to listen, and I mean really listen. You can tell a lot about your customer just by hearing what they are saying. Also be sure you ask their name, and then use it now and then. Don’t overuse their name because this can become very annoying. My philosophy is if I hate it, so will someone else.

Be sure to ask questions to encourage them to talk about themselves. Empathize. However, don’t do a lot of talking until you are sure you understand. Let them do the majority of talking.

If you pick a certain time frame to make your calls, or do a certain number of calls in a row, try to say it a little differently each time. If you don’t you will start to sound stale, lose your happy voice and sound as if you are reading a script. So if this starts to occur, take a break, or stop for the day.

As we discussed earlier in this article if your product is a high end one you will make several calls to establish a relationship. Once you have done this, and they remember who you are, introduce something new about your product. Keep a record of your calls, and details of what you discussed previously, so that you know where you stand when you call again. When I worked for a franchise company, I kept a record of every call that came in from franchisees or calls I made. First, my employer was amazed at the amount of knowledge I had about franchisees at my fingertips, and more important the franchisees felt like they were the only one, I knew them so well.

Using the telephone can help you get repeat business. For certain products, you can call customers to see how they are doing with the product. Maybe there are additional questions you could answer or problems you might be able to solve.

If everything is going well, you have a excellent opportunity to introduce your newest product, and hopefully, make another sale. This is also a great time to ask for referrals. Even if the follow up call doesn’t pay off right away, you are building a relationship with this customer. Remember it is a lot easier to keep a customer happy than to find another one. Your follow-up also builds credibility with your customers.

Doing the above will give your business a boost.

Copyright 2003 DeFiore Enterprises