No matter what type of industry you work in, no matter what
level of position you currently hold, if you want to move
up to a more fulfilling position with more pay and
opportunity, there are three things you can do right now to
grow your career.  In my opinion, these three actions are
“secrets” only because most women don’t do them consciously
and deliberately.  You can be different.  You can have a
Bodacious Career because you’ve decided to be proactive and
in charge of you career.

Here are the three secrets to getting a promotion:

1. Perform in your existing job.  There’s no way around it.
Outstanding performance helps you get noticed and conveys
confidence that you can do more. Think of it this way:
would you promote someone who isn’t already performing well
in their current position?  Likely not.  But, keep in mind,
performing well is the “ante” into the game.  It doesn’t
guarantee you’ll get noticed, especially in a large
organization.  That’s why secrets #2 and #3 are vital.

2. Market yourself.  Know how your role fits into the
current department or company goals.  Then proactively
share how what you’re accomplishing is helping to meet
those goals.  I love what a billboard said that I saw once
when driving to New Jersey.  It simply stated “Don’t
advertise.  Succeed is overrated.”  And then at the bottom
in small print it said “If you don’t agree, call this
number.”  To succeed in your career requires marketing just
like any product or service.

I recommend you do it in an informative way such as in
project or activity updates at meetings or in e-mail.  Make
sure to always tie your current activities to the
department or group’s goals.  You always want to show how
you’re contributing.  Marketing yourself this way makes it
easier for people to understand what you do and managers
typically love that you see things in a bigger picture!

3. Know the organization’s source of power and
constructively use it.  Every organization rewards and
gives power to what they value, be it rank, relationships,
knowledge, creativity, or otherwise.  Determine the
organization’s values and start demonstrating them to
become more powerful yourself.  In addition, become
familiar with those who have the power now.  People tend to
promote those they know and who they perceive add value
according organizational norms. Be careful not to focus on
only one specific kind of power.  It’s always best to have
as broad of support base as possible.

—————————————————-
During a successful, demanding, rising through the ranks 10
year career with America Online Mary learned that the only
way to thrive in today’s world is to be bold, positive, and
courageous – bodacious!  Today Mary inspires women
everywhere to be bodacious in their lives, careers and
businesses.  You can be inspired, too!  Get a free copy of
Mary’s e-book “10 Bodacious Ways for a Bodacious Career” at
http://www.gobodacious.com/ebook !

Copyright 2006 Joseph Turner

Many years ago, I hated what I was doing for a living and
engaged a career coach.  As a first assignment, she
encouraged me to write down several short stories about
times and events in my life where I influenced the outcome.
I was stumped at first, but after a few days, I came up
with over 15 pages of “stories”.  These were about times in
my life where I not only influenced the outcome but also
grew myself and bettered the existence of others around me.

So what does this have to do with a job interview?

If you read other books on job interviews, you’ll notice
they feed you lists of interview questions to learn answers
to. An interview is not an interrogation, however, it’s a
conversation. To make it that way you need to come armed
with a multitude of small stories about both your business
and personal life.

When you go into an interview, you need to leave your
nerves at the door. The best way to prepare is to be
yourself. The best way to be yourself is to tell your own
story (or stories). So before the interview have your
stories ready to go.

This is especially great for the competency-based interview
being used more today. In a traditional interview, the
interviewer will ask you questions focused on whether you
have the skills and knowledge needed to do the job. A
competency-based interview goes further by asking you
additional questions about your character and personal
attributes that can better determine whether you fit their
corporate culture. These are called “behavioral
competencies”.

A competency-based interviewer will spend about half the
interview on your job skills, and about half on your
behavioral competencies. He or she will be looking for
evidence of how you have acted in real situations in the
past. So having your stories ready to go plays very well
for this type of interview.

A company wants to find out:

1. Are you an asset or liability? In other words, will you
either make money or save money for the company?

2. Are you a team player? Will you fit into the corporate
hierarchy or be like sand in the gears? Can you take and
give (if appropriate) orders?

3. Will you fit into the company culture? They don’t want
prima donnas.

The best way to do that is to take the initiative and have
several personal stories that you can tell, taking maybe 30
to 90 seconds each.

You may want to start by developing your stories around
these areas:

A. Times where you either made money or saved money for
your current or previous company.

B. A crisis in your life or job and how you responded or
recovered from it.

C. A time where you functioned as part of a team and what
your contribution was.

D. A time in your career or job where you had to overcome
stress.

E. A time in your job where you provided successful
leadership or a sense of direction.

F. A failure that occurred in your job and how did you
overcome it.

G. Any seminal events happened during your career to cause
you to change direction and how that worked out for you.

I want to emphasize that an interview should not be an
interrogation. It should be a conversation between two
equals. When you accomplish this you come away a step
closer to your goal of landing the job you really want,
because…

It’s the conversation that wins an interview, and

It’s the conversation that wins the job

To have a conversation, have your stories ready.

—————————————————-
Joe Turner, the “Job Search Guy”, makes it easy to quickly
land that next job.  To claim your free 6-part Recruiter
Secrets Minicourse, visit
http://www.jobchangesecrets.com/Free_Job_Search_Tips.html

Copyright 2006 Peter Crown

If hard work were such a wonderful thing, surely the rich
would have kept it all to themselves- Lane Kirkland

As you no doubt already know, working from home is the
growing choice and dream of many. Suffice to say that
working from home has been fuelled by the exponential
growth of opportunities offered via the internet. This
single phenomenon is changing the face of how we work
forever! Internet marketing has been long in coming! It is
the new rush for gold in the 21st century and it is
available to those who recognise it and will cease the
opportunity. It’s much more fun to quit your job and use
your brain to survive!

1. Ground Zero!

Double jeopardy! As if hard work was not bad enough
employment, I disliked the job I was doing! You can only
imagine how tortuous the road was to work each time I had
to undertake that journey! Hey, how long have you been in a
JOB (Just Over Broke)? The painful reality is that when
you’re working for someone else, you usually end up working
for less and getting taxed more and you still face the
possibility of getting the sack! Little wonder, the workers
of the world are in chains!

2. Enter; Internet Marketing.

My entry into the internet marketing world was through a
virus, sorry, a viral e-book. It was free, had a title
promising the world but had a front page telling me ‘there
was no guarantee of success, either written or implied’!
Argh! For the gurus out there, viral e-books work as you
can see from how I started out on my internet marketing
career. This will be your first port of challenge in the
internet marketing field. What challenge? The information
overload! In business parlance, the internet marketing
industry does not have entry barriers or exit barriers. The
result of this is information overload and a good number
are on sale!

3. Quit Your Job or be Sacked, all the same!

The whole idea here is to quit your job and use your brain
to survive! It’s much more fun or is it? It’s worth paying
attention to words like this, ‘entering into any business
venture involves risks. If you are not comfortable with
taking risks, then the business world is not for you! The
internet marketing world should definitely not be
considered as a no-work-required solution to making money.
The road to internet marketing needs personal, consistent
and focused navigation to starting and running your own
online business. Here is an encouraging poser from an
established and experienced internet marketing guru, ‘the
scariest moment, for me, at least, in the whole process of
starting to work from home was when you realise time has
come to stop learning and start doing! He started doing and
is reaping thousands off the internet today! It’s much more
fun to quit your job and use your brain to survive!

4. You Are At Work Now!

Remember how at work, before you quit or were sacked, your
bosses expected you to work with little supervision and
come up with brilliant and innovative solutions? Well, as
you sit in the house in front of your PC or you tuck into
some information product, YOU ARE AT WORK with the
difference that it’s for and by yourself. You must marshal
all the power in that brain of yours as your productivity
or otherwise is squarely in your hands now! What do you
think disclaimer statements like this mean, ‘the
author/publisher specifically disclaims any personal
liability, loss, or risk incurred, as a consequence of
acting on, undertaking or relaying any advice or
information presented herein! It means simply that you are
the boss. Get advice, buy advice but always do the
balancing and make the final decisions based on what you
reckon you can put up with. It’s much more fun to quit your
job and use your brain to survive.

—————————————————-
Peter Crown is a writer and info-preneur. He avidly
believes that the age of the employer is indeed over. Find
out  more about how to beat employment through internet
marketing, available at;
http://www.jobhatersguide.com

Copyright 2006 Jorge Olson

This is truly one of the most frequently asked questions
that I get from readers and customers.  “How do I find good
wholesale suppliers”?  It is not different to find
Wholesale Suppliers or Wholesale Products, or even
Wholesale Prices. Read on to learn how to get started.

If you’re ready to start your own wholesale business, you
need to find supplier that will supply you with the
products you wish to sell.  However, when you’re first
starting out, you may find that this search takes time –
especially when you don’t know where to start.

Before you even begin searching, you will want to apply for
a resale license.  This allows you to purchase products at
wholesale prices and will also require that you keep
records of your sales for review on a regular basis.  Some
suppliers will ask for this license number before they sell
to you, so it’s in your best interest to have this ready to
go.

To start your search for suppliers, you may want to start
going to local trade shows that are geared toward your
industry.  These are great resources for finding suppliers
as the suppliers are there to specifically meet up with
others that will buy their products.  This will take a
little mingling and business card swapping, but you will
find out more from one afternoon at a trade show than you
could by surfing the Internet.

A side note on looking for suppliers through the Internet:
this is risky in many cases.  Many online suppliers will
act as though they are suppliers when they’re actually
middle men, so you’re not actually paying the lower
wholesale price that you could be.  Why waste your money in
this way when there are plenty of suppliers ready to serve
you?

Another way to approach your search for wholesale suppliers
to find products you like and read the labels to see who
makes them.  You can then take that information and get in
contact with the manufacturer yourself.  When you’re out
and about, look for products that you would like to sell,
buy one, and find out who might be willing to sell it to
you.  The plus to this approach is that you’re already
seeing the product and what it looks like.

You will also want to join any local trade organizations in
order to find out about suppliers that other businesses
use.  In addition, you will be able to make contacts
throughout your chosen industry and be able to stay up to
date on trade shows and other local business news.  There’s
the added benefit as well of getting to hear about any
suppliers that might not deliver on their promises.

And when all else fails, there’s always the local phone
book.  Go to the industry or the product that you are
selling to see if they have a whole sale supplier listed –
you may be surprised at what you find.

No matter which wholesale supplier you choose, you will
want to make sure that they are a legitimate business by
researching them with the Better Business Bureau.  The
www.BBB.org website is a great resource for finding out if
there have been any complaints against a business or not.
While there are some businesses that change their names
frequently in order to not be on the BBB list, this is
generally the best way to spot bad suppliers.

—————————————————-
Jorge Olson is a consultant, speaker and entrepreneur and
owns several Wholesale Distribution companies. Learn more
“Wholesale” by visiting his information packed website
http://www.DistributionBusiness.com

Copyright 2006 Kelly Robbins

Whether a small business owner, nonprofit, or large
organization, a key piece of marketing communication is
making sure everyone that wants to get in touch with you
can. Whether it’s to further the sale, provide you with
information on a new marketing piece you’re working on, or
simply to say “hi,” you should always give people multiple
ways to contact you and your organization.

It’s YOUR job to make contacting you easy for them. Not the
other way around.

A colleague recently told me her sales went up dramatically
when she added her fax number to her website. I was very
surprised to hear this. I didn’t have my fax number listed
as contact information anywhere. (I hate hearing the fax
machine go off in the middle of the night and don’t like to
give it out!). But she assured me it was true. Which got me
thinking…

A lot of the copywriting I do involves working with
doctors. I do marketing consultations and my copywriting
projects often involve interviewing them. They are a large
part of my target market. And, while email is my preferred
method of communication, it’s often not theirs. Some of
them (not all) don’t check their emails regularly. They
would rather use the phone. I’ve learned this through
experience and have worked around it. I prefer email
hands-down. But that got me thinking again, some people may
be more comfortable using a fax rather than phone or email.
It’s concrete; the sender oftentimes gets a confirmation
that the fax went through, and if a signature is required
– there it is.

So, the moral of my story is to make it easy for your
clients to get in touch with you. Everyone does not work
the same way you do, whether that is by phone, email, fax
or some other method. It’s important to give people several
options.

Make it easy for people to do business with you, not for
you to do business with them.

Taking action is the only way to achieve goals

One of the items we talked about in my copywriting
business-building teleseminar this week was taking action.
You can think about great ideas, have big, elaborate
dreams, but if you don’t take action — now — nothing in
your life will change. Your dream will never become a
reality. Taking action is the only way you are going to get
your business off the ground. Taking action is the only way
you are going to get new clients. Taking action is the only
way you are going to get noticed at your company and get
promoted.

Think about what you want and how you are going to get
it…all of the time.

It doesn’t matter if your goals are personal or
professional, setting your mind to the one main goal you
want to accomplish will keep you focused on the outcome.
You will constantly be on the lookout for ways to achieve
that goal. Because it is always on your mind, you will be
constantly brainstorming. Your mind will continually be
looking for ways to take action on that goal.

You become what you think about. Focus on one item, your
one goal. Make it extremely positive, NOT negative.

The next important thing, after thinking about your goal
all of the time, is to take action. I try to do at least
one action item a day. With three kids (four if you count
my husband), a house to run and a growing business, it’s
easy for the day-to-day duties to suck up my time. It’s
easy for me to let life take over and not take proactive
steps towards my goal.

So I decided long ago to do at least one item on my list
each day. It can be a small item to move me toward my goal.
It may be searching for a new journal to run some of my
marketing articles. It could be working on a new product to
sell, coming up with a topic for a new seminar. Some days I
do much more than one thing, other days I barely squeak the
one item in. But I can assure you, if you do at least one
item, if you take one action every day, you will be closer
to your goal than most people you know. And because you
take action towards your goal you are much more likely to
reach it than those who don’t.

—————————————————-
Author of Healthcare Copywriting Secrets Revealed and The
Healthcare Copywriters Toolkit, Kelly Robbins is a
healthcare copywriter and marketing coach/consultant. She
also publishes The Healthcare Marketing Connection
(http://www.healthcaremarketingconnection.com), a free
e-zine on healthcare marketing tips. Contact Kelly to
receive her free report, “5 critical things you must know
when writing for the healthcare industry” —
info@KellyRobbinsLLC.com or 303-460-0285.

opyright 2006 Colleen Kettenhofen

“Everything is hard before it is easy.” Johann Wolfgang von
Goethe

One key to greater personal and professional success is the
ability to effectively manage time, overcome
procrastination, and improve productivity. Here are six
simple strategies that will guarantee your success IF you
practice them on a daily basis.

1. Study and master your core competencies. If you’re in a
leadership position, it’s imperative to continuously hone
your skills. What is one important subject or skill you
could learn, or continue to develop, that would bring you
closer to achieving your major goal? Decide what it is and
work on that area every day no matter what, except for the
one or two days each week you take off and relax. Ask
yourself, “What specific areas do I need to improve upon in
my line of work that would bring me closer to achieving
success?”

The more experience you get, the more confident you feel.
The more confident you feel, the better you perform. Write
these core competencies down. Write them on your daily
to-do list each day. Commit to them 100%, and make time for
them with no excuses and no distractions. Make a daily
habit out of continuing to learn and practice new skills,
strategies, ideas and methods that are most critical to
your success. By continuously honing these skills, you’ll
start achieving better results in half the time.

2. Perfectionism leads to procrastination. Many people have
trouble getting started on a task because in their minds
they think they have to do it perfectly. As the saying
goes, too much analysis leads to paralysis. I remember once
procrastinating writing an article on overcoming
procrastination! Why? Because somehow in my mind I thought
I had to write the article “perfectly,” and get it right
the first time without writing a rough draft. Most of the
time that never happens. Usually I sit down and brainstorm,
and just begin jotting down thoughts. This way all sorts of
creative ideas come to mind. That’s how most of my articles
are written. Many of them are written in the late afternoon
and at night when I’m performing at my peak in terms of
creativity. Which brings up another important point about
improving your productivity:

3. Work with your natural biorhythms on your most important
tasks. What time of day or night are you most productive?
When do you have the most energy, concentration and focus?
If you are a morning person, make certain that is when you
work on those areas of critical importance to your career.
If you’re more of an afternoon or evening person, are you
able to do the bulk of your work during those hours?

I remember a senior manager in one of my leadership
trainings commenting on how many employees complain they
are “not a morning person,” yet they accepted a position
where they must report to work at 7:00 a.m.! Make sure that
your job is in line with your core values, priorities,
likes and dislikes. Otherwise you’ll ultimately fail no
matter how much you are being paid.

4. Incorporate the “Divide and Conquer Rule” to overcome
procrastination and achieve success. Break tasks down into
doable chunks and with specific time frames written down.
Research points to the fact that often we don’t tackle a
task because it seems too overwhelming. For example, if you
have to write a ten page special report, start by jotting
down ideas. Make a commitment to just get started writing
one or two paragraphs. Often the hardest part is just
getting started. Ever notice how often once you begin
something you’re on a roll and don’t want to stop?

I remember vacationing in Aruba in 1996. Normally I don’t
work on vacation, but there was a last minute leadership
training I had to prepare for an upcoming conference in
Seattle. When I told myself I’d work on it six solid hours
a day, I ended up doing nothing. After all, who would be
motivated to work for six hours on a beach in the
Caribbean?! As soon as I made a commitment to work on it
for only 45 minutes a day, and with a specific time frame
written down, it made it more palatable. I was on a roll
and finished working on that leadership training after just
three days. So, get rid of the “all or nothing” mentality.

5. The compounding effect of new information and refining
your skills. If you were to improve one percent per day,
five days a week, at the end of that week you’d be five
percent more effective. At the end of a year (52 weeks) you
would be MUCH  more productive. With that amount of
continuous and steady improvement, you would increase your
overall productivity, performance and output by
approximately 1000% over a ten year period. Project ten
years into the future and think about what that could do
for your income.

6. Eliminate distractions, low value activities, and create
your ideal working environment. Block out a chunk of time
to begin working on that all important task. Write it down.
Before you start, mentally prepare yourself. Clear off your
desk except for the essentials you will need to work on
that important project. Eliminate clutter. Tell everyone at
work that you will be off limits and unavailable until that
time you’re scheduled to be finished. If you work from
home, turn off the TV, your home phone and your cell phone.
Don’t have the washing machine or the dish washer on. These
will only serve as distractions.

What would be your ideal environment where you wouldn’t
have any distractions whatsoever? See if you can create
that. For example, to eliminate interruptions and work at
my best, my ideal  environment is going to Starbucks in
Portland, with incredible views of Mt. Hood right outside
and nothing but my computer.  In my speaking engagements,
participants tell me that sometimes they arrive for work
very early, or stay very late because it’s so peaceful and
no one else is in the office. There aren’t any people
distractions and they get double the work done in half the
time.

Every morning take time to write down your most important
goals in the present tense. Write them down on a large
sheet of paper several times. By writing them down you
print them indelibly in the subconscious of your mind. This
will put you in the right frame of mind to start thinking
of action steps for how to accomplish your major goals.
Remember, the key is to just get started. Do something. Do
anything on a daily basis that will bring you closer to
achieving your dreams. Practice makes perfect.

—————————————————-
Colleen Kettenhofen is a motivational speaker, workplace
expert, & co-author of “The Masters of Success,” as
featured on the Today Show, along with Ken Blanchard and
Jack Canfield.  To order the book, or for more free
articles and e-newsletter visit
http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com or (800)323-0683. Topics:
leadership, management, difficult people, public speaking,
success. Colleen is available for keynotes, breakout
sessions and seminars.
http://www.ColleenSpeaks.com
You are free to repost or reprint this article provided
Colleen Kettenhofen’s name and website are provided with
the article.

Copyright 2006 Dallaire Consulting LLC

“Show me how to maintain my confidence when things are not
going well.” Does it surprise you that many of the most
successful business executives and athletes today sometimes
wrestle with the problem of lost confidence?

Here’s a basic truth that I’ve confirmed many times over
the past 30 years working with individuals in the
high-performance domain: It’s easy to be confident and have
a positive mindset when things are going well! The true
champion however, is one who’s able to retain a strong
sense of self-confidence even when the wheels are “falling
off his wagon” and in so doing, still bring his or her best
performance to the game regardless of the challenges that
they face! High level competitors understand this and this
explains why for many, this is the second Holy Grail of the
performance equation.

But why do we sometimes suffer crises of confidence? The
answer lies in the yardstick by which most of us measure
success, and around which we build our confidence. That
yardstick is – you guessed it: RESULTS! So often, we let
our confidence be dictated by the results we achieve. When
results are good, it’s easy to maintain a high level of
confidence but when results are poor, our confidence often
takes a beating and our personal performance nosedives. We
doubt ourselves and wonder whether we’ll ever be able to
climb out of this performance ‘hole’. And when you lose
your confidence, is it tough to climb out of that hole…to
turn that kind of negative and destructive thinking around?
You bet it is!

But the truth of the matter is, more often than not… WE
CAN’T DETERMINE THE RESULTS!

No matter how well you perform as an individual, in most
instances other factors outside of your direct control have
an effect on the outcome. But how do you get around this
problem of loss of self-confidence? How do you maintain
your confidence in yourself when the results are far from
what you’d hoped they would be? The solution is simple
enough…but it’s not very easy: You have to change the
yardstick.

What’s the only thing that’s 100% within your control,
that’s not dependent on any other factor? The answer of
course is “you” or more precisely it’s the commitment you
make and the effort you invest to give your personal BEST
every time you’re called upon to perform. YOU are the only
one who can cause YOU to give less than your very best
effort in the face of every challenge you take on. If you
choose to give your best effort, there’s nothing I or
anyone else can do to cause you to give less than that.
Consider what would happen to your confidence if your
yardstick was changed to measure how well you gave your
honest-to-goodness best effort when you were called upon to
perform.

If you regularly accomplish this task, you’ll prove to
yourself that YOU can count on YOU to give your best no
matter how great the challenges you face. If you
consistently behave this way, your confidence will only
grow to become stronger and stronger. And so will you’re
self-esteem since self-esteem is the reputation we develop
with ourselves. It shouldn’t be only about the results you
achieve, it should mostly be about the personal commitment
and the effort you invest to give your best at all times.

You will still be disappointed about some of the outcomes
you achieve because results are outside of your direct
control, but the realization that you can count on yourself
to truly give your best effort will help you to grow your
confidence in yourself. This confidence will then allow you
to approach the challenges you face with greater calm and
with a more directed focus on the process of that
performance, rather than on its outcome.

The irony of it is, when you focus on the process of
personal excellence and commit to giving your best effort
every time you’re called on to perform – win, lose, or draw
– the results most often take care of themselves and your
performance ends up being the best you’ve got. The less you
focus on the results while you’re trying to achieve them
and the more you focus on the process of simply performing
‘in the moment’, the better the results typically are.

—————————————————-
For Dr. Jacques Dallaire’s entire vault of Performance
Files, or to learn about Dallaire Performance Consulting’s
leading business performance programs, individual/sport
seminars and mental skills products, go to:
http://www.dallaireconsulting.com

Copyright 2006 Progress-U Ltd.

Have you ever wondered why there are still companies that
use cold calls to acquire new business even though most
people hang up sooner or later on most cold calls?

It’s the so-called ‘numbers game’ which goes approximately
like this:

- You call 100 people.

- Five to 10 people listen to you for a while for whatever
reason (because they’re polite, or feel sorry for the cold
caller or …)

- Two to three people are at the moment searching exactly
for the kind of product or service offered in the cold call.

- One of them eventually buys.

So you just need to make hundreds or thousands of calls and
you will eventually get the business you wanted.

Unfortunately, this business development approach has a
number of considerable disadvantages:

* Chances are good that you will ruin the image of your
company.

* It is highly frustrating to the cold caller to be
continuously rejected.

* It is actually unethical because you annoy most people
you call.

* It is a huge waste of time and energy.

Let me make it clear upfront: I believe in cold calls,
provided they are done with integrity and respect for the
person being called. Cold calls can be a fast track to
getting new business from your target customers, whom you
might not easily reach otherwise.

However, to make every cold call meaningful and enjoyable,
you will need to change a few things in your approach.

1. Opening

Keep in mind that the first impression you make will be
decisive in the outcome of your cold call. People typically
form a first impression about you 12-19 seconds from the
first verbal or non-verbal (the latter not relevant in cold
calls) communication with you. Hence, your opening is
crucial!

Some Tips:

- Don’t sound like a cold caller.

- First ask for permission (just because people pick up the
phone doesn’t mean that it’s a good time for them to speak
with you). Asking permission shows respect.

- Do as much research as possible on the person or company
you want to call.

- Adjust your pace, voice, and speaking style to the way
the person being called speaks (don’t mimic the other
person though, just stretch your natural style to get
closer and still remain yourself). It will make the person
you call feel more comfortable talking to you.

2. Elevator Speech

Early in the conversation your counterpart will want to
know which company you are calling from and the purpose of
your call. Ideally, you prepare a compelling “elevator
speech” which should be as concise and engaging as possible.

An elevator speech is a short statement of about 20-30
seconds (typically the time it takes to travel some floors
up in an elevator) which should answer the question: “Why
should I continue talking with you?”

Some Tips:

- Don’t use the words “are you interested in…” Better use
“would you be open…”

- Don’t bore your counterpart with details of your
service/product or what your company is all about; instead,
say why other people/companies buy your products/services
and share this with the person you call.

- Don’t imply that the person you call has a problem;
rather, say that you have helped others solve such
problems. Better yet, tell them what benefits others got
from buying from you.

- Make your statement as general as possible and as
specific as necessary.

3. About Scripts

Throw away any cold call script you might have - they
rarely work. Instead, write down some key statements like
your opening line and your elevator speech. The opening
line you can always use; the elevator speech you most
probably will need at some point.

There might be some frequently asked questions in your line
of business. Write down some compelling and concise answers
so that you can pull them out as needed

Since every person you call is in a unique situation, you
need to be highly flexible with your approach. Rather than
use a script, learn to become very sensitive and responsive
to each situation. Every situation is unique!

4. About Intentions

I often ask sales people in my seminars: “Which outcome
would you like to have from this call?” A frequent answer
is: “I would like to get a meeting with the person I call.”

This intention leads to a couple of problems:

•  You actually limit the potential success of your call to
getting a meeting; there is always a chance to take it
further in the very first call, perhaps even to the point
of closing a sale. I know it’s rare but in most cases not
impossible.

•  Worse than that is, with this intention in mind you
consciously or subconsciously push the other party to grant
you a meeting. Chances are good that you reap resistance or
get meetings that lead nowhere. It becomes a waste of time
for both you and the other party.

I find it more useful (and respectful) to set the intention
of taking the phone conversation as far as the other party
is comfortable to go. That could mean getting permission to
send more info, follow up with another call, set a meeting,
send a quotation, or even close the deal. I never know
before I pick up the phone.

The advantages of this intention is that I make the best
out of each call, that I am being respectful, and that I
don’t impose any undue pressure.

5. About Preparation

I recently got a call from a logistics company salesman. He
rambled on and on about how great their service is, how
competitive their rates are and God knows what. Since I’m a
polite guy, I let him finish and didn’t hang up right away.
I then asked him if he knew what kind of business I’m in.
The answer was as expected: “No.”

A little research on my company would have saved time for
him and me because it’s quite obvious that the
transportation needs for Progress-U are non-existing.

Using Google, Yahoo and other search engines gives you in
most cases sufficient information to figure out if a call
makes sense in the first place.

6. Making every call meaningful

If you don’t want to be treated like a cold caller, then
don’t behave like a typical one. Be creative, different,
perhaps even funny.

Think: “How much does the person being called care about
you at the moment you call?” Right, not one bit. So you
need to make a compelling case why it would potentially be
worth the time of the person being called to talk to you.
If you can’t answer this question, better don’t call.

If you want to gain some basic trust from the other party,
show that you truly care for their (not your!) outcome.
Make it clear that you have no idea if your product or
service would be really a good match for them. You call
because you want to see if there is an opportunity for
adding value to each other.

Conclusion

To make every cold call meaningful, it is crucial that you
develop an ideal mindset and use words that don’t make you
sound like other cold callers. Truly respect the other
person and learn to be sensitive and as a result act
flexibly. Do your homework before you call.

Most people actually enjoy good conversations, so make them
enjoyable for both, the potential buyer and you.

Good luck!

—————————————————-
Charlie Lang’s mission is to change the image of sales
through the completely buyer-oriented Stop Selling!
approach. He is a passionate and professional Executive
Coach, Trainer, Public Speaker and Author of articles
related to innovative sales,  leadership and change
management.
For more info, visit
http://www.progressu.com.hk/solutions/for-sellers/sales-solu
tions.htm

opyright 2006 Progress-U Ltd.

When I ask my coaching clients, mostly senior executives,
what they do during a typical working day, I notice that
most of them spend the majority of their time with
management rather than with leadership issues.

You may ask: What is actually the difference between
management and leadership? I like the simple but
to-the-point distinction made by the legendary Peter
Drucker. He said: “Management is about doing things right,
Leadership is about doing the right things.” Or in other
words: Management is about efficiency, leadership about
effectiveness.

Typically, the more we move up the career ladder, the more
important leadership skills become. While leadership
competencies might not be that crucial in a junior
management position, they are essential in senior
management and largely determine the success of the
executive.

A question I am often asked is: “Must a good leader be a
good manager and vice versa?” The answer is often: “It
depends.”

Before I delve deeper into this issue, let’s first further
clarify the terms “management” and “leadership.”

Following Peter Drucker’s definition, management is more
about execution, i.e. how to do things. For example, how to
organize, how to structure, how to process, etc. Leadership
is more about direction, i.e. what is our vision, our
mission, our strategy and goals? How are we going to be
different from our competitors? What are our desired
values, (brand) image, culture?

Leaders who inspire know how to develop all these in a way
that the people they lead actually want to make this a
reality. Clearly, once this is achieved, management, i.e.
the execution, becomes a whole lot easier than with a less
engaged team.

Besides these competencies, both managers and leaders will
need excellent communication skills to make high engagement
a reality. For example, the Best Employers Research
conducted by Hewitt Associates shows that the best
communicate the company vision three times as often than
the rest. In fact, approximately every two weeks on the
average.

I learn too often from my corporate clients that even
middle managers are not really fully aware of the direction
of their company. Is it then any surprise that high
turnover rates and low engagement are the rule rather than
the exception? It seems to me that communication is even
more crucial in leadership than it is in management.

Back to the question: “Must a good leader also be a good
manager?”

I would say this is necessary for the leader in the absence
of enough good managers. It usually depends on the position
of the leader and the size of the organization. Obviously,
a small company usually can’t afford to have a leader who
doesn’t manage; hence, management skills will be necessary
as well. However, in bigger organizations, senior
executives often never make the full transition from a
manager to a real leader. There can be multiple reasons for
this.

They include:

* The executive feels more comfortable with execution
rather than with leadership.

* The executive doesn’t trust the managers.

* The executive has a problem of letting go of control. *
The executive is so caught up with tasks at hand that
leadership is simply forgotten.

What is the true purpose of your position? Is it management
or leadership, or both? If leadership is part of it, ask
yourself:

- Do I allocate sufficient time and resources to actually
lead? And if not, what holds me back from being more often
a leader and how can I overcome this?

- Do I have capable managers whom I can trust and who give
me the space to lead more? If not, how can I develop them?
How developed are my own leadership competencies, like
giving direction, creating a corporate success culture,
public speaking, etc.?

First-class leadership is not something we are born with.
While I agree that talent certainly helps, extensive
learning must take place to reach a high level of
competency. In that sense, leadership is no different from
playing the piano or acting in the theatre.

SUMMARY: To make the transition from manager to leader, it
is important to have a clear distinction between both
functions. The distinction helps us to become more aware
which role we are actually playing at any given moment.
Then we must ask the question: Do we actually lead
adequately in terms of the purpose of our position? Do we
have managers who can take over our management tasks? We
can be great at something only if we know how to do it.
Continuous development of leadership competencies follows
as a necessary requirement.

—————————————————-
Charlie Lang’s mission is to develop his clients to become
First-Class Leaders. He is a passionate and professional
Executive Coach, Mentor Coach, Trainer, Public Speaker and
Author of articles related to leadership, change management
and innovative sales. His book “The Groupness Factor”
http://www.progressu.com/groupness-book.htm got published
in August 2005. For more info., visit
http://www.progressu.com/solutions/for-leaders/leadership-so
lutions.htm

Copyright 2006 Daniel Sitter

Challenging conventional wisdom…what a concept! How few
of us are willing to risk moving out of our comfort zone,
learning to push conventional wisdom aside and grow. Why is
it called conventional wisdom anyway? Why; Perhaps, because
the very idea of it is associated with being safe and
secure. Is that where we really want to be?

In today’s fast-changing and ever-shrinking world, new
ideas, methods, and processes are being conceived,
installed and operated at breakneck speed like never
before. There is little room for conventional wisdom
anymore, unless of course you are content with living in a
bubble, with little direction or growth intentions. I like
the old adage, “if you are not growing, you are dying.”
Marketing and sales, as well as many other fields, require
constant movement and adjustment.

The term “conventional wisdom” reminds me the old excuse
“because that’s the way we have always done it.” This
overly-used phrase is nothing more than a crude crutch for
countless persons. Did you know that someone, in
totally-blind ignorance, once had the audacity to say
publicly that “all the inventions that will ever be
invented had already been invented? There is no need for
the patent office anymore.” As ridiculous as that notion
appears today, that particular statement was made at the
turn of the 20th century. If anything, we can only dare to
imagine the discoveries and advancements that will be made
in the next 5 years, let alone the next century!

Certainly, there are instances where conventional wisdom is
quite appropriate, such as well-accepted norms of behavior,
testing procedures and religious practices. I challenge
however, the notion of accepting conventional wisdom at the
expense of personal and intellectual growth. That is where
the element of fear enters in and restricts so many people.
Generally, most fear at this level is simply imagined in
our minds-eye, thus creating barriers to our progress,
self-development and career advances. This is the point
where we need to train ourselves to be conscious of our
actual circumstances and work through this fear to find the
rewards awaiting us. Franklin D. Roosevelt spoke in his
first inaugural address “The only thing we have to fear is
fear itself.” He truly understood people and human nature.
FDR would never settle for accepting conventional wisdom,
and neither should you.

In the world of selling your own ideas, products and
services, we must be continuously growing beyond our
comfort zone, challenging conventional wisdom along the
way. Our ability to persuade others to our point of view as
well as our ability to match our goods and services to the
needs and wants of others, depends upon living and working
in a dynamic environment, not the static world of
conventional wisdom.

—————————————————-
Daniel Sitter, author of both the popular, award-winning
e-book, Learning For Profit, and the highly anticipated
book, Superior Selling Skills, has extensive experience in
sales, training, marketing and personal development over a
successful 25 year career. http://www.learningforprofit.com