Month: October 2010

Categories
Sales & Marketing

Top 10 Ways To Stay Motivated In Sales

Article Contributed by Jeremy J. Ulmer

“Nothing contributes so much to tranquilize the mind as a steady purpose–a point on which the soul may fix its intellectual eye.” -Mary Shelley

1. Get Inspired Everyday. Inspiration is one of the best motivators, and it can be found everywhere. Sources of inspiration can include, but are certainly not limited to:sales blogs, sales articles, sales online success stories, sales forums, peers, friends, sales books, and motivational quotes.

2. Hire A Sales Coach. Working one on one with a sales coach has proven to be one of the most effective methods to truly achieve breakthrough sales results. However, be sure to ask these questions of any sales coach you interview before hiring a sales coach.

3. Have Compelling Reasons For Your Actions. Write them down and know your reasons for wanting to achieve your goals and stay motivated. When you clarify why you want to accomplish certain goals, and what it will mean to you to accomplish them, it will help increase your motivation and keep you on track.

4. Be Ready For Negative Self Talk. Become very aware of that inner voice that says you should just quit and give up. One of the most powerful things you can do is to simply raise your awareness and recognize when it is happening. Just by naming the negative self talk alone, it will help you consciously decide what you need to do.

5. Get Back On The Horse If You Fall Off. Don’t beat yourself up if you slip up one day, but make it a rule to get back into your routine the next day. Don’t wait any longer. You don’t need to be perfect all the time, you just need to brush yourself off, and get back on the horse.

6. Visualize Your Sales Goals. Visualize the successful outcome of staying motivated in great detail a few times for 2 minutes each day. Close your eyes, and think about exactly how your successful outcome in sales will feel. Form as clear of a mental picture as you can.

7. Create A Daily Journal For Your Sales Goals. If you can become consistent about writing notes in your journal, it can be a tremendous motivator. You should focus on writing about what you got done that day and how you felt about the things you did or did not do.

8. Get Competitive. Many sales people are driven by competition. Take advantage of this natural drive by using it to fuel your sales goals. Take a look at your peers around you and see where you are ranking on new clients per month, revenue, or appointments set. Aim to be #1, or stay on top, if you are already #1.

9. Make A Public Statement About Your Commitments. Make a statement on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or announce to your friends and family that you are going to achieve a certain sales goal by a certain date. You will get support and accountability automatically with this method.

10. Think Positive. Monitor your thoughts and become more aware of your self-talk. If you hear negative thoughts, notice them, and then choose to replace them with a positive mind-set.

About the Author:

Jeremy J. Ulmer is one of the most dynamic and requested sales coaching experts in the country. His company specializes in working with executive sales leadership, organizations, and individual sales performers to transform their sales results. They deliver customized sales coaching programs and sales seminars. Sign up for free sales tips at: http://www.SalesCoachingHabits.com/

Categories
Work Life

Design Your Business to Fit Your Lifestyle

Article Contributed by Lisa Cherney

Four and a half years ago I became a mother to a beautiful and sweet girl named Bella. I knew I wanted to be a “mom” but also continue to expand my business. I committed to a three day a week work schedule so I could be mom on Mondays and Fridays and be Lisa Cherney, CEO of Conscious Marketing on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.

I took many steps to expand my business in 2009 and ultimately triple my income, and one of these steps was affirming this three days a week work lifestyle.
Think about your life and your business. Affirm and explore and decide on what lifestyle you want to have while balancing everything there is to balance. I work with a lot of entrepreneurs who were like me many years ago, working six days a week, up late at night, not taking vacations. A lot of us are in business for ourselves because we didn’t want a boss. But we find that we’ve traded one boss for a worse boss – ourselves!
One of the things I really needed to do was to affirm what kind of lifestyle I wanted to have. So I did some soul searching and asked, is this three days a week work schedule for me? Maybe I should be working more – maybe that’s what’s going to help me increase my income.
I realized that working more was not the answer. The answer was that I needed to be smarter. This included questioning the way I was doing things and running my business. It led me to get some needed help for those tasks all businesses must deal with. It led me to think smarter about my approach and how I was selling (and charging for) it and completely overhaul many aspects of what I was doing. Because I need – and want – to stick with my three days a week schedule.
So affirm the kind of lifestyle you want to have and take the steps to make sure you can have it by designing your business to fit your lifestyle. For me it wasn’t trading hours for dollars anymore.

This may require steps that can feel like taking big risks, including:
1.    Saying “no” to low-end, smaller clients or projects that take a lot of time with little financial reward.

2.    Hiring help (virtual assistant, bookkeeper, cleaning service, etc.) even if it appears you can’t afford it right now.

3.    Raising your prices and/or creating a leveraged group program (or a high-end exclusive program). HINT: This is only limited by your ability to own and communicate the value of your expertise.
4.    Hiring a mentor that has achieved the goal you have (even it appears you can’t afford it right now).
5.    Slowing down and/or taking a break from the day-to-day of your business in order to steer the ship in a new direction
For most of us out there, we didn’t go into business for ourselves so we could work 100 weeks and never take a day off. We’re doing it to have a certain kind of lifestyle. Are you living the lifestyle you want?

About the Author:

Lisa Cherney is a Marketing Intuitive and President & Founder of Conscious Marketing™.  Lisa has helped thousands of business owners tap into their intuition and market their businesses from the ‘Inside Out’. For 15 years she worked at Fortune 500 companies and top advertising agencies.

Lisa tells her story in her co-authored book “Inspiration to Realization,” available at www.ConsciousMarketing.com. Conscious Marketing also offers workshops and coaching. Visit her website for more details or call 887-771-0156.

Categories
Franchise

The Most Profitable Franchises to Start Today

Article Contributed by Ray Haiber

As a professional small business broker and franchise sales consultant I am often asked what types of franchise opportunities are the most profitable to start and own. From my experience there are a few common factors or characteristics that give some franchise business models a definite edge or advantage when it comes to the ability to consistently produce high profit margins. Some of these advantageous characteristics include having low overhead expenses, limited competition, and not offering a commodity type product or low barrier services. Below are a few franchise opportunity categories that share some of these characteristics and are generally regarded as having the right stuff to be very profitable.

Financial Services Franchises:

Franchises that offer financial related services such as income tax preparation, accounting, and consumer insurance services generally enjoy very high profit margins for a number of reasons. This includes low overhead expenses because of generally lower staffing requirements and no absolute need to rent high traffic (and expensive) retail space. And because they offer professional type services the barrier to entry is a little higher than starting the average home cleaning or janitorial franchise which helps limit competition. And last but not least financial franchises like insurance and tax franchises offer services that have the ability to generate repeat and residual income which can do wonders for the bottom line.

Medical and Health Care Franchises:

Medical and senior care franchises are well positioned to reap the benefits of an ever expanding market due to major and favorable demographic trends such as the inevitable aging of the baby boomer population. Traditionally health care and medical related franchises that offer services like assisted living, senior home care, and lab testing have very high profit margins and are generally considered recession resistant. These factors bode well for maintaining high profit margins for these generally non-discretionary services that will always be in demand for the foreseeable future.

Home Based Franchises:

Some of the most highly profitable small businesses I have ever worked with as a professional business broker were home based. In my opinion the benefit of not having the expense of a monthly lease payment can not be overstated in terms of bottom line profitability. Other profitable advantages of owning a home based business include no daily commuting or travel expenses, as well as certain tax advantages that could put more money in your pocket at the end of the year. Be sure to consult with an accountant or CPA for more details about the tax advantages of starting a home based franchise or business.

Internet Franchises:

Starting an Internet franchise business offers many advantages in terms of setting the stage for being very profitable. This includes the fact the most Internet franchise opportunities being offered today can easily be operated from a small home based office with just an internet connection, computer, desk, and a chair. Consequently your overhead expenses will be much lower than that of a typical brick and mortar retail franchise business because there are no lease expenses or expensive equipment and inventory expenses. And generally most Internet franchises being offered today are designed to be owner operated so there are no expensive staffing requirements either.

About Author:

Ray Haiber has 12 years experience as a professional business broker and franchise consultant. You can view Franchises For Sale across the USA here. Go here to research affordable and low cost franchise opportunities for sale. © 2010

Categories
Success Attitude

Goals are Dreams with Deadlines: How Goal Clarity Will Get You Where You Want

Article Contributed by Sharpenz

Recently, many of my “students” have told me they CAN’T set goals because everything is changing and they aren’t sure what tomorrow holds. Changing economies is exactly WHY we should set goals!

To start thinking about goals, reflect for a moment on this quote by Diane Scharf Hunt…“Goals are dreams with deadlines.”

Who couldn’t use a little dreaming today? And once we know our dreams, we need to capture them into specific, written and measurable goals. That is what goal clarity is…having specific, written and measurable outcomes that we are working toward. And we can make this easier by following a 5-step process to make it efficient and successful.

The following is a goal clarity strengthening process to implement right now…really, RIGHT now. Take out a piece of paper and pen and make 5 columns on the page for your own Goal Planner.

1. In the left column write at least 5 things you want to happen in the next 60 days. These are outcomes like “Make one new sales appointment each work day.” or “Close $___ in business each week.” These are your goal statements.

A caution: Review the outcomes for measurability and specificity to see whether you can identify whether it is accomplished or not. For example, if your goal is “More time with my family,” be specific about what that looks/feels like. Does it mean a certain amount of time each night or weekend? Certain activities completed together? “I will eat dinner with my family 3 times each week,” allows me to know whether I have achieved this or not.

2. Look at each statement and identify the actions needed to take to get there. Write 2-3 actions that will move you toward each outcome in the 2nd column.

3. Write a specific time/date when you will take that action in the 3rd column. Is it each day? Week? How often? A date is another checkpoint on the road to success.

4. Next, identify your reward for completing those actions or the goal. Think through the BENEFIT of completing the action that leads you to the goal or outcome. Will you sleep better? Will there be self-satisfaction? Will it be a treat like a special coffee or candy? Be prepared to “reward” yourself when you have completed the action/outcome. Write these in the 4th column.

5. And in the 5th column write the name of a stakeholder for this goal or outcome. A  stakeholder is someone who will care about this outcome – it might be a manager, a spouse, a colleague, a friend. You may have different stakeholders for each goal.

Finished? Congratulations! Look at this paper – you have at least 5 goals and a plan of action for the next 60 days to get there!

What’s next? Take action! Share each goal with your stakeholder for that goal. Your stakeholders may be able to:
•    Clarify the outcome with you to make sure it is specific enough for you to know whether you reach it or not.
•    Identify other actions that can get you there quicker or easier.
•    Help you in some way to achieve the goal.
•    Celebrate your progress and ultimate success!
•    Add accountability.

After your stakeholder is ready to stand by your side, it’s all up to you. The 5 steps to goal clarity will allow you to progress where you want – regardless of changing market conditions. It starts today with the action you take!

What are some of the goals you’ve set for yourself? Let us know in the Comments section.

About the Author:

Sharpenz is dedicated to providing sales managers the resources and tools they need to motivate and equip their sales team to sell more each week. Our 30-minute power sales booster programs help companies increase sales by providing the right tools and training – fast. Designed with the busy manager in mind, Sharpenz’ ready-to-go sales training kits will give your sales team the opportunity to grow and earn more – all in a half hour of power.  To learn more, visit www.sharpenz.com and sign up for your free sales training kit today!

Goals are Dreams with Deadlines: How Goal Clarity Will Get You Where You Want

Categories
Planning & Management

Women In Partnerships – The Importance of Due Diligence

Article Contributed by Michele DeKinder-Smith

Business partnerships provide a variety of benefits to women entrepreneurs. For example, women with complementary skill sets or ways of thinking can partner to offer their customers a more well-rounded offering or experience. Women with similar interests and business styles can partner to offer their customers more options. While some entrepreneurs rush forward into a partnership, throwing caution to the wind, others take their time, evaluating every minute detail of a potential partner before signing the papers. Both types of processes can yield a successful partnership – however, due diligence is essential in improving the odds that a partnership will work well for both partners.

Continuing research from delves into the intricacies of business collaboration – and reveals important steps to follow. Based on professional market research of more than 3,500 women in business, research has shown that each of five unique types of business owners has a unique approach to running a business and to handling the other details of her life – and therefore each one has a unique combination of needs. This article outlines surprising trends in creating partnerships, as well as an outline for practicing due diligence before cementing a business union.

Research revealed that while some business owners “went on gut instinct” when pairing up with other entrepreneurs, others partnered with family members they’d known for years, or put their potential partners through a strict rubric before joining with them. While it is entirely possible for a partnership to work out fine without intense upfront evaluation, good chemistry and gut instinct are not the be-all, end-all.  That’s why it is essential that business owners carefully evaluate the qualities of their potential partner before proceeding.  The more dependent an entrepreneur will be on her partner for personal and professional well-being (including  income, stress level, and freedom), the more important a thorough consideration of that individual’s qualities will be.  For example, a writer who needs an editor may hire one more quickly knowing that if they do not work well together, the writer will maintain control over her book and can end the partnership quickly, with only time and a little money lost. When the partnership is longer-term, however, or when the partners are reliant on each other’s ability to produce an income, thorough due diligence can save headaches, heartaches, time and money later.

The amount of due diligence a business owner puts into finding the right partner depends, also, on how well her gut instinct usually serves her. For example, if a business owner tends to see the best in people and to give them the benefit of the doubt, she should require herself to perform a higher level of due diligence.  Depending on the situation, this may include extensive reference checking or even a request to examine the potential partners’ personal or business finances.  On the other hand, if a business owner has partnered successfully many times and found her instincts consistently “spot on,” she may need to invest less time and effort — although any decision that affects a business’ future still merits at least some research.

The bottom line: research shows that many business owners have been burned through partnering with the wrong individual.  While it is possible to have a successful partnership based solely on luck and good chemistry, It is imperative that a business owner perform at least some due diligence before leaping into the business equivalent of marriage, to save herself from future headaches, heartaches, lost time and lost money.
About the author:

Michele DeKinder-Smith, is the founder and CEO of Linkage Research, Inc, a marketing research firm with Fortune 500 clients such as Starbucks, Frito Lay, Tropicana, Texas Instruments, Hoover Vacuums and Verizon Wireless. She parlayed this entrepreneurial knowledge and experience into founding Jane Out of the Box, a company that provides female entrepreneurs like YOU with powerful resources, such as educational blogs, teleclasses, newsletters, and books. Michele was recently named to the National Association of Women Business Owners national board of directors for a two-year term. Buy a copy of her latest book with coauthor Azriela Jaffe, “See Jane Collaborate,” which contains more in-depth information about this article’s topic, at www.seejanecollaborate.com.