By Robyn Davis

Have you ever had that out of body experience where you feel like you’re watching yourself kill a sale? …where it feels like you can literally see the prospect becoming less eager to buy but you just can’t stop yourself from making the situation even worse? You aren’t alone. I work with exhibitors full time and, because the sales process is accelerated during trade shows, there are plenty of opportunities to observe booth staffers who feel like they’re under intense pressure (or simply out of their element) and inadvertently turn off their visitors with nervous habits.

If you have ever experienced this issue, or know someone else who has, this article is for you. Here are four of the most common nervous habits that kill sales and what you can do to avoid them in your next selling situation:

1. Not talking enough.

As the meeting host (FYI – if you’re selling, you’re the host …whether that “meeting” is taking place in your office, trade show booth, or local Starbucks line), you are responsible for progressing the conversation. I don’t mean that you should monopolize the conversation (see habit number two below); but, it’s not okay for you to clam up either. If you don’t do your part to carry the conversation, instead of making your guest feel welcome and at ease (so they begin to like, know, and trust you), you’re placing all of the pressure onto them to entertain you. In this scenario, your problem is that you are not talking enough.

So, if you find yourself becoming too quiet, speak up! You need to be engaged, ask questions, and listen thoughtfully so that you can respond to your prospect’s comments before transitioning the conversation from one stage to the next. If you do get stuck (say you stumble upon a sensitive topic or draw a blank), just take a breath, remember that you’re probably more bothered by any awkwardness than your contact is, and redirect the conversation to a topic that will help you reach your mutual goals.

2. Talking too much.

If you get carried away with avoiding habit number one, you may see your prospect’s eyes glaze over, notice that he has a sudden fascination with his watch/phone, or feel like something really exciting must be happening just over your shoulder. These are all signs that you are talking more than you should and have lost your prospect’s interest. On the flip side, you may find that this habit causes your contact to withdraw from the conversation (especially if your “talking” sounds more like “interviewing”) or become confused while trying to translate your babbling back into coherent sentences. If you observe either of these responses, you are talking too much.

So, if you catch yourself being a bit too chatty, wrap up your current sentence as quickly as possible and immediately follow it with a question for your contact. As long as you let him answer and listen thoughtfully while doing so, this can be an excellent start to reengaging your prospect. From that point forward, it will be even more important to ensure that you are focusing on his needs, his interests, and his continued involvement in the conversation (so that there is a conversation to progress).

3. Overcompensating.

As a sales professional, there are times when you might feel unprepared or inadequate (for example, when you find that you aren’t as familiar with your prospect’s situation as you should be or you realize that your competitor excels in key areas that you don’t). In this situation, there are two clear options: lie or own up to your unpleasant feelings. However, in the moment, you may choose a different option. You may choose to “highlight” the knowledge you do have, like irrelevant industry information (to distract from anything you don’t know) or your competitor’s personal and professional weaknesses (to detract from their positive attributes). Even if you justify this by saying you’re doing your best in a challenging situation, you should know that you’re really just hurting yourself by overcompensating.

So, if you find yourself exaggerating to make up for your lack of preparation or confidence, reevaluate your options. If the information you don’t know is necessary in order to progress the conversation, either ask or reschedule your meeting until you can do additional research. If you are tempted to badmouth the competition, don’t; simply shift your focus back to the relevant benefits your products/services provide. Take the high road and bite your tongue as needed.

4. Appearing desperate.

In a society where the old “minimum standard” is seen as the new “extra mile,” going above and beyond is impressive to prospects and appreciated by clients. However, there is a fine line between providing excellent customer service and offering too much. Once you have offered a huge discount, promised to personally be available 24/7/365 to hold your (hopefully) new client’s hand, and agreed to rush the order at no additional cost, you have probably given away too much. In fact, if your prospect was sold on the value of your offerings themselves, throwing in all of those extras may just be causing him to question his original assessment… Your prospect may now be saying to himself, “why does she need this order so badly? If her offerings are as great as I thought they were, why is she practically giving them away? Maybe they aren’t so great after all…”

Side note: If your prospect can’t see the value of your offerings without so many extra benefits, you missed a step in the sales process; randomly throwing in extra benefits at this point, without resolving these issues, is not your best long term solution.

So, if you catch yourself going too far, just stop and wait for your prospect to respond to what you have already promised. If the package isn’t quite right, design a new offer that is a better fit for his situation (if he wants more benefits, charge a higher price or if he’d prefer a lower price, take away the expensive extras). Negotiating is part of the game, but don’t trade your self-respect or give your offerings away at a loss to get the sale. Premium offerings should come at a premium price (or else they won’t receive the respect they deserve).

Robyn Davis

Offering a full suite of services (including on-site sales and marketing support as well as pre-/post-event consulting services) and a variety of products to exhibitors internationally, Robyn Davis is here When YOU Need Help improving your results at conventions and trade shows – contact Robyn (info@whenineedhelp.com), follow her on Twitter @Robyn_WINH, and connect with Robyn on LinkedIn (www.linkedin.com/in/whenineedhelp)!

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By Zig Ziglar

It’s true.  The typical husband and father doesn’t have a clue as to what the housewife—whether she be full-time or part-time—does to maintain the home.  Ruth Hampton expressed it this way: “The most influential position in the nation today is held by a woman.  She enforces law, practices medicine and teaches without degree, certificate of competence or required training.  She handles the nation’s food, administers its drugs and practices emergency first aid.  She cares for all the physical and mental ills of the family; a man literally places his life and the lives of his children in the hands of this woman–his wife.”

It is, of course, true that many men—and, fortunately, this is increasing, though it’s still far from equal—do help with things around the house.  However, there is a tremendous difference in helping vs. being responsible for.  Typically, the husband asks “What can I do?” when the wife can clearly see what needs to be done.  The husband too often assumes that it’s “no big deal,” that his wife really doesn’t need any help, and besides, he needs to relax after a tough day.  Example: On Monday night, even though she might be a football fan as much as her husband, she’s the one who puts the laundry into the washer, moves it to the dryer during the commercial break and folds and places the clothes where they belong at half-time.  When the game is over, if she’s had any interest in it, she probably takes the dishes out of the dishwasher.  In the meantime, the husband doesn’t have a clue as to what’s going on.  There is a significant difference in taking responsibility and offering to help.

Now, husbands, before you get too upset with me, remember, if the shoe doesn’t fit, don’t wear it.  However, studies reveal that what I’ve said is largely true.  Good luck to all of you.  Husbands, help your wives and I’ll SEE YOU AT THE TOP!

Zig Ziglar is known as America’s motivator.   He is the author of 30 book, including Born to Win.

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by Colleen Stanley

It’s the second quarter of the year and revenues are running behind.  Sure, it’s easy to point the finger and blame poor results on the sales team.   But take an objective step back and ask the question. Is it you or your sales team that is falling short?  There is an old saying, “The pace of the leader is the pace of the pack.”  What kind of sales leader are you and where could you improve in order to create more sustainable and predictable revenues.

Here are three areas to examine your leadership skills and how they might be affecting sales results.   Are you:

Recruiting  ‘A’ sales players.  The first question we ask prospects is:  “Do you have the right people on the sales bus?”  If you want to make your life easier and more profitable, examine your hiring practices.   This is not a new idea or concept.  So why do so many sales managers settle for ‘B’ players, not ‘A’?  There are two basic mistakes made in hiring and recruiting salespeople.

Sales manager recruits only if there is an open territory.  This is the kiss of death because an open territory means there is an unmet quota hanging over your head and a CEO breathing down your neck.  Desperation sets in and all the sales frogs you interview are not starting to look like sales princes.   Practice what you preach to your sales team—prospecting is a process, not an event.  As a sales manager, your prospecting activity is now prospecting for top salespeople, not deals.  Make recruiting a continuous process, not an event, at your sales organization.  Interview candidates each month, even if you are not actively looking.   The wise sales manager follows the best practices of top athletic coaches:  He builds a sales bench before it is needed.

No formalized hiring process.   When you look back on a bad hire, you’ve probably said something like, “He just didn’t fit into our culture.  She had a bad attitude.  He didn’t have a work ethic.”  Bad hires often happen because the salesperson’s values don’t align with the company’s core values.  So how many questions do you ask during your interview process that uncover whether this candidate fits into your company culture?  For example, if teamwork is a core value at your company, weed out the lone rangers by asking these questions.  “Tell me about a time when you helped a colleague close a piece of business?  Give me an example of how you’ve worked with other departments to solve a customer service issue.”  Interview for soft skills as well as hard selling skills.

Lead by example.  In Daniel Goleman’s book, ‘Emotional Intelligence,’ Mr. Goleman notes that empathy is a fundamental people skill for sales and management.  Empathy is the ability to read people and understand where they are coming from.  It is the ability to identify a change in tonality, an irritated gesture and other non-verbal cues.   One of the things I have noticed in this age of technology is that people are not present in conversations or meetings.  For example, the sales manager holds the weekly sales meeting.  She is there physically but not mentally.  She looks like a fishing line with her head bobbing up and down, trying to maintain eye contact with the sales team while checking email.

The sales team observes this behavior and models it in their daily business life.  At networking events, they check their electronics while talking to a potential referral partner.  (Now that’s a real plus for building a relationship and making people feel important!)  Or they have their smart phone on “vibrate” during a sales call.  When a new message comes in, they break eye contact with the prospect and check their phone telling the prospect that the incoming message is more important than the current meeting.  Lead by example and teach your sales team to be present.  Focus is the new selling and leadership skill needed in today’s high tech business environment.

Name the game.  Political correctness exists everywhere.  In an attempt to gain everyone’s approval, people rename things to soften the impact of the behavior observed.  I’ve heard more than one sales manager complain that salespeople “fudge” on the data they are entering into the CRM tool.  Call fudging what it is:   Lying.  Others give the excuse that a salesperson isn’t learning new selling skills because she is so busy.  No, she is uncommitted and chooses to be average.  Start naming things for what they are and you will see a dramatic shift in behavior.

One of our sales managers shares this truth telling conversation that changed behavior from one of his direct reports.  The salesperson was always late to meetings with a variety of excuses.  The sales manager stopped the excuses and told the salesperson that the next time he was late to a meeting he needed to share one of two reasons with the group for his tardiness.  He was arrogant and felt his schedule was more important than the others in the room or he simply didn’t care about keeping others waiting.  The salesperson started showing up on time to meetings because the manager named the game.

The pace of the leader is the pace of the pack.  Recruit ‘A’ players, lead by example and name the game.  You will enjoy sustainable and predictable sales results.

Colleen Stanley is president of SalesLeadership, Inc., a business development firm specializing in sales and sales management training. Colleen is a monthly columnist for Business Journals across the country, author of ‘Growing Great Sales Teams’ and co-author of ‘Motivational Selling.’  Her new book, ‘Emotional Intelligence and Sales Success’ will be released in fall of 2012.   You can reach her at www.salesleadershipdevelopment.com or 303-708-1128.

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by Lydia Ramsey

One of the favorite aspects of my etiquette training business is presenting “Dining for Success” to college and university students. Since founding Manners That Sell nearly 15 years ago, I have worked with numerous colleges and universities teaching table manners. This is a subject that used to be taught at the family dinner table.  However, we all know that families do not dine together as they once did. With both parents working,  single parent homes and schedules that are out of control, there is little opportunity  for the traditional family meal. It is a real challenge to teach table manners when kids are eating out of a brown paper bag from a fast food restaurant in the back seat of the car.

Most of  the young people I work with are  in their junior or senior year of college. They are finishing up their courses and are ready to join the workplace.  The one class they didn’t get is business etiquette training. Now they are faced with job interviews, many of which are conducted over meals, and they don’t have a clue which fork to use, how to eat the soup or even something as simple as what to do with their napkin.  Here’s where I come in.

The dining courses I offer involve a four-course meal that I guide the students through step by step. I am always heartened by the level of involvement and interaction from the participants.  They never run out of questions to ask.  They are  hungry for the information in my sessions.

When the last bite of dessert has been eaten and final drop of coffee drunk, they are in no hurry to leave.  The questions keep coming. We even talk about some aspects of  the job interview. We discuss how to dress, how to present themselves, when to arrive and how to follow up.  The Career Services Departments of the colleges and universities I work with do an excellent job of helping students prepare their resumes and field those tough interview questions, but they turn to me to teach the  interpersonal skills which will set their graduates apart from the competition.

One of my long-term clients is Georgia Southern University in Statesboro, Georgia. I have worked with them since I first became an etiquette trainer.  At the most recent session I presented to them, I was amazed at how many students came up to thank me for the presentation, to tell me how much they had learned and just how many of them said, “This is not my first time to attend ‘Dining for Success.’  I come every year and learn something new each time.”  Several of them followed me into the parking lot to ask more questions and to thank me again.

The next day I received the following message from the director of the program in GSU’s Career Services Department. She said, “Thank you so much for coming to speak to our group again this year. We had great reviews from students and employers. On their evaluations, the students said they truly loved having you walk them through the meal!”

Now who couldn’t love a job like that?

Lydia Ramsey is an international business etiquette expert, speaker, trainer and author of numerous books, including the widely-acclaimed Manners That Sell – Adding The Polish That Builds Profits. She has been quoted or featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Investors’ Business Daily, Entrepreneur, Inc., Real Simple,Woman’s Day Men’s Health, Men’s Fitness and Golf Digest. For more information about her popular presentations and products visit: www.mannersthatsell.com

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When I put a call out for article topics I received a lot of requests for beginner’s marketing information. Really, sharing thoughts on marketing your business is good for all of us. It’s something we can always use a refresher on.

So, here we go.

The main key to marketing effectively is understanding your value – the value your prospect sees. People don’t buy things they don’t need; especially these days. You have to speak to their pain, their need. So, try this quick exercise:

Write down the following –

What do you sell? What’s the product or service?

Now, why would I buy it? What problem does it help me solve or avoid? Why would I want it or need it?

Stefanie Frank of Initiative Based Writing was my guest on Accelerate Your Business Growth Radio Show on October 10, 2011. She shared this tactic – keep asking yourself ‘so what?’ And keep answering that question. This will help you get down to the root of value.

Once you have this information you can start crafting your message. Your message must speak to the value or once again, no one will buy your product/service. Marketing messages should be short, concise, and to the point. Say it and get out of the way. One mistake small business owners make is saying way too much. The message gets lost.

So, practice the KISS method here.

The next step is to get the message out. You want your message to be where your prospects are. Once you know the value you can identify who it is valuable to. Now that you know who, ask yourself ‘where are they?’

I am often asked to advertise in various periodicals and programs. My first question is always – who is reading it? Who is receiving it? If the answer isn’t small business owners and business leaders, I take a pass. Don’t get caught up in the idea that you have to be everywhere – you don’t! You need to be in the right places.

You have a great marketing avenue with social media. Ask yourself where your prospects hang out and communicate online; what are they reading, commenting on, sharing? Then go there, with your message, consistently.

Conventional wisdom says you have to be in front of your prospects at least 7 times in order to make an impression. However, you can’t be SELLING 7 times. So, get creative on how you show up. You want them to get used to you, to see you as an expert in your field and therefore want to be engaged with you.

Earlier I said you have to be consistent. You can’t do one thing and wait for it to work. Marketing is about gaining exposure and credibility. You want to be top of mind when someone is ready to make a buying decision. There’s no question that it’s work. It just doesn’t have to be hard work!

Follow the steps outlined here and then build on them. Get yourself out there. Remember – you can’t sell if you aren’t marketing. Well, you can but it’s a heck of a lot harder! And less fruitful.

Diane Helbig is a Professional Coach and the president of Seize This Day Coaching. Helbig works with salespeople, small business owners, and entrepreneurs, helping them realize success as they define it. She is also the Co-Founder of Seize True Success, a coaching practice dedicated to working with franchisees and she’s the author of Lemonade Stand Selling. 

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Is your sales strategy based upon relationship selling? Then how can you leverage relationship selling to increase sales? The answer lies within you.

Relationship selling is becoming a very powerful sales strategy because of its simple effectiveness. Prospects who are people buy from sellers who are people. Simply speaking, people buy from people they know and have learned to trust.

Trust comes from demonstrated observed behaviors along with the gut brain or intuitive sense. Since trust comes from that intangible sense rooted in each person’s own belief system, then those in sales must believe that every action they take is the best possible one for their clients.

When we believe that we are doing our personal best each and every day, we are not only building authentic relationships, but the results will always speak for themselves. As sales people, we become recognized for our reputation and personal integrity.

Yes, sometimes, we do not have the quick sales experienced by others. However, the success of others should not determine our own personal behaviors.

Being your personal best is your invisible business card. People come to know you by word of mouth or by actual interaction. This is the foundation for relationship selling.

Relationship selling is not about phonies or those looking for the quick sale. This sales strategy takes time and considerable effort. However, the business goal to increase sales resides within the larger one of business sustainability.

You as a salesperson can leverage relationship selling by committing yourself to being the best that you can be at every interaction with every person. This is a challenge especially with so many phonies or “Johnny Come Latelies” in the marketplace. Yet, it can be done.

Just remember to speak these words to yourself out loud before your next meeting:

I am the best relationship builder because I am always delivering my personal best.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Leanne is the author of be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits.  Leanne Hoagland-Smith has over 25 years in sales. Her true joy is selling and helping clients unlock the results that they want. She holds a core belief that the majority of answers are within each individual or organization and, sometimes, people just need an outside perspective to help them discover those answers. Leanne has written more than 1000 articles on sales and process improvement. Learn more about Leanne at www.processspecialist.com

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By Colleen Stanley

Everyone at your company is in sales. The person answering the phones is in charge of first impressions. The employee delivering your products has the ability to spot new opportunities and build relationships. Customer service personnel can determine whether or not you keep a client based on their handling of a complaint.

However, if you walk into any organization and ask a member of the team what department they work in, the typical answer is accounting, legal, or marketing. What would happen if the answers changed to: I am in sales and service. Isn’t this at the very core of why a company exists? If you don’t sell something, you have nothing to bill, ship or service. If you don’t service the client, you soon have nothing to sell or ship.

So how do you create a selling culture at your company? What do you need to do to change or teach your employees that sales is not a department?
Start with basic education and communication. Help members of your organization recognize how to contribute to the top line by learning a few sales basics. Focus education and communication on these three areas.

Who Do You Serve Best?
Most companies build their target lists around SIC codes, size of company, revenue, number of employees and/or geography. This criteria is called demographics. However, when you really dig into who your best customers are, you will hear different criteria. “They treat us like a partner, they value what we do, they collaborate, they pay their bills” appear. These attitudes and behaviors are called psychographics and are often overlooked when educating your employees on who you serve best.

Teach members of your team how to recognize both the demographics and the psychographics so they can listen and look for opportunities. For example, if one of your employees reads about a company that is philanthropic, that company might be a good target for your organization because their values align with your culture. If an employee is at a party and hears an acquaintance discussing expansion of their firm into another part of the country, that could be a good trigger event to report back to headquarters.

What’s Your Value Proposition?
Your employees belong to community organizations such as home owners associations, churches and school groups. At some point in their involvement, the question will pop up, where do you work? This is a prime selling opportunity for any of your employees. Your staff can reply with one of two answers. The first response is a dud. “I work at XYZ company. We DO this.” It’s a dead end response that doesn’t enlighten the person asking the question about problems you solve or opportunities you create for clients. Teach your team basic sales skills and change the response to, “I work at XYZ company. We help our clients customers decrease frustration with technology that doesn’t work. Or, “We help our clients figure out which new products to roll out and which ones to shelve.”

Now, there are a few of you reading this article thinking….my people can’t do that. Folks, if your team can learn the Pledge of Allegiance in grade school, surely they can learn a one line value proposition!

Create Raving Fans
Everyone knows that it’s less expensive to keep a client than acquire a new one. There is an old saying that two heads are better than one. How about getting 15 heads together? Ask each person to share their ideas on how to exceed customer expectations?

For example, the accounting department could sign invoices, thanking your best clients for paying on-time. What about having the warehouse team send a picture of their staff with a note thanking your customers for the opportunity to serve them every day?

At your next department meeting, set aside time for brainstorming on ways to WOW your customers. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Study some of the companies that are already doing it well. Zappos, an on-line shoe store company, is the one of the darlings of the business world. Everyone that works at Zappos knows they are in the customer service business, not the shoe business. And as a result, every employee is focused on ways to WOW the client. Some of you might have experienced this WOW factor by receiving your first order overnight—without any extra charges.

Everyone is in charge of customer happiness at Zappos. And everyone at your company can be in charge of sales and service at your company. Sales and service is not a department. Harness the power of many and get everyone in your company involved in selling and servicing your clients. Double your sales force without any additional payroll. How’s that for a competitive edge in 2012?

About the Author: Colleen Stanley is president of SalesLeadership, Inc., a business development firm specializing in sales and sales management training. Colleen is a monthly columnist for Business Journals across the country, author of ‘Growing Great Sales Teams’ and co-author of ‘Motivational Selling.’ Her new book, ‘Emotional Intelligence and Sales Success’ will be released in fall of 2012.

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By Kendra Lee, President, KLA Group

As salespeople, we’re always looking for ways to provide value to our clients, always trying to differentiate ourselves from the competition.  Well, you may already have something to offer your clients that makes you indispensable, whether or not you realize it.

What is it?

Insider intelligence – that combination of connections, experience and company knowledge that you pick up over time as you work with your clients.

It’s not something you talk about.  It’s a hidden advantage that allows you to help your clients succeed in ways that will make them want to keep you around.

Here’s how it works.

When you know about something happening in one part of an organization that could help your client in another part, you have insider intelligence that could save them time, money and headaches, or help them grow their business.  When you share it, you become a valued member of their team, maybe even indispensable.

For example, our company has worked for several years with a computer manufacturer, and as a result, we’ve gotten to know their employee development platforms pretty well.  A new manager approached us about developing a new sales training module.  Rather than sell him a new module, we steered him toward a very similar program that we’d developed which was already being used by another department in the organization. It fit his needs with minor tailoring while saving him time and money.

Sure it cost us a sale in the short-term, but it was a not-to-be-missed opportunity to provide value that differentiates us from the competition.

Now you might be thinking, that’s great for big and mid-size companies, but in small companies, people pretty much know what’s going on throughout the organization.

Your insider intelligence in small companies is the unique point of view you bring.

We work with a small IT services company that has grown their business through referrals and is looking for ways to expand.  In addition to helping them set up their sales function, we suggested they train their service technicians to ask for referrals.

This was low-hanging fruit, but not something they had considered.  We thought of it because we had been invited into some executive level meetings where we met the Service Director and learned about his side of the business.

It was a simple change – an outgrowth of our insider intelligence – that produced a new revenue stream for our client.

Still another way insider intelligence works for you and your clients is when they start perceiving you as “one of them.”  They find it’s easier to work with you than someone new, because you know their company culture, key employees, processes, history and current initiatives.

Simply put, you get things done without them having to hold your hand.  And that, my friends, is priceless.

Kendra Lee

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert and author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment. Ms. Lee is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. To find out more about the author, read her latest articles, or to subscribe to her newsletter visit www.klagroup.com or call +1 303.741.6636.

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by Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Imagine you receive a voice mail from someone who is seeking information as to the cost of strategic business planning. Oh, and he already has someone he has identified to perform the professional services and that is not you.

First, would you return the call? If so, what would be your response?

Let’s say for discussion sakes you return the phone call because of your values and ask for some additional information to gain greater clarity before you provide your answer. You learn that the strategic business plan is for bank financing or a small business loan (federally guaranteed) for a new, start up business.

The marketing, sales and financial research had already been undertaken with an estimated 50 hours or more of time. From this information, general goal statements had been constructed. All of these actions had resulted in the existing consultant receiving $8,000 for his work. So now it was time to put all the puzzles pieces together.

Of course there were some missing pieces such as Executive Business or Organizational Summary and the Marketing Executive Summary. The final missing piece was synthesizing all of this information into a cohesive format that would support the request for financing.

Now armed with this information what would be your response? Given that this was a start-up, my suggestion would be an additional investment of between $3,000 and $4,000 to complete the strategic plan. If the customer wanted some follow-up and assistance in execution, that would be additional based upon the projected hours.

Coaching Tip: Research and facilitating the necessary knowledge from this data collection usually comprises 70% to 80% of the total time involved.

Pricing a strategic business plan is difficult because of the numerous variables. Many professional service providers based their fees on the organization’s current revenue while others look at the number of employees and some look to receiving a percentage of growth.

One consistent variable is how much time the executive team is willing to devote to this process. A solid strategic business plan is very much research driven unless of course the plan is a stop gap measure because of past failure to put a plan in place. When those within the organization undertake the majority of research, then the consultant has less time invested into the project.

Whatever the cost of the plan, not having a plan is far more costly. Just ask many of those businesses that failed in the first few years.

Leanne Hoagland-Smith

Leanne is the author of be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits.  Leanne Hoagland-Smith has over 25 years in sales. Her true joy is selling and helping clients unlock the results that they want. She holds a core belief that the majority of answers are within each individual or organization and, sometimes, people just need an outside perspective to help them discover those answers. Leanne has written more than 1000 articles on sales and process improvement. Learn more about Leanne at www.processspecialist.com

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• Turn Your Resolutions into Reality: Business Success in 2012

By Kendra Lee, President, KLA Group

I recently read an article about chaos theory and the emergence of what the author dubbed “Generation Flux” – a generation of people defined, not by demographics, but by their common ability to thrive in a state of chaos. “GenFluxers,” according to the author, are exhilarated by change and the opportunities it can bring.

For non-GenFluxers, however, constant change can be overwhelming.

The article reminded me of many conversations with clients who already feel intimidated by the ever-changing sales environment of new tools, new techniques and shifting expectations, along with ever-increasing quotas.

If the article is right in declaring that we’re living in an extended period of chaos – in short, that chaos is the new normal – the question becomes, “How can you, as a seller, stay on top of your game in this chaotic world?”

I’m glad you asked, because the answer is nothing new; it’s something we’ve been preaching for years.  The key is focus.

Sellers need to define and focus on their mission and priorities, from which they set specific goals and boundaries.  These can then be used as filters to decide what to read, how to spend your time, what new skills or tools you need to acquire.  Ask yourself, does this activity contribute to my vision, my goals?  Is it consistent with my boundaries?  If not, we give you permission to say, “No!”  You don’t need to respond to everything; in fact you can’t.

For example, I follow just a few blogs and attend a limited number of events each year, because I’ve learned that I can find an idea to implement in almost anything, and it would be easy to get overwhelmed.   I limit myself to those things that are consistent with my core vision.

One of the side benefits of limiting what you respond to is that time will sort out the fads from enduring changes, so you don’t have to waste your time on things that won’t be around tomorrow.

Now maybe you’re thinking, “Hey, I like change; I enjoy trying new things.” Lucky for you.  You’re wired to thrive in today’s world.  Still, don’t get caught in the trap of trying everything shiny and new, even if you are a GenFluxer.  You still need to let your vision, priorities and goals guide you, if you hope to achieve your aim.

You might try just one or two new things at a time, things consistent with your vision.  Or allow yourself to explore something novel each month just for the sheer fun of it, but don’t let your infatuation with change override your focus and success.

Kendra Lee

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert and author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment. Ms. Lee is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events.

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