I remember moving my family to Argentina as Vice President of Sales for Latin America. I was in charge of managing five regional offices, Argentina of course being one of them.

In the companys ten year history of selling into Latin America it had never exceeded $14 million (M) in annual sales. The Argentina office itself had never produced more than $400 thousand (K) in sales. My task was to increase the sales locally in Argentina, but more importantly throughout Latin America.

I remember sitting in my office one day, looking out the window and wondering, How the heck am I going to grow this business with problems in Mexico, Brazil, Puerto Rico and other hot spots? How can I grow this business beyond $14M when no one in the past has been able to do so? Forget the movie Sleepless in Seattle, I was Sleepless in Argentina, trying to map out a strategy. How would I make sales happen?!

A confession to you the reader: I was scared! Please dont tell anyone!

One day while on the phone with a customer, I heard loud noises from across my office building. After getting off the phone, I opened the window and looked at the shorter building next door. On the rooftop, I saw several men using a scrapping machine to rip apart the flat roof the size of two tennis courts. This noise went on for days.

Then one day I noticed the silence. I looked outside and discovered that the men had finishing stripping the rooftop and were now laying small ceramic tiles. Given the size of the roof I remember thinking, Thats going to take them a very long time.

A few days later to my surprise and amazement I looked outside and saw that they were three-quarters of the way complete. Amazing! How were they able to lay so many small tiles so quickly?

Satori, a moment of enlightenment.

At that very moment, a new mindset was born for building sales. Instead of focusing in on the enormous task of increasing sales for the entire region (the whole roof), I would focus on building the companys sales slowly (one ceramic tile or sales office at a time).

It was this paradigm shift, this Latin American version of eating an elephant one-bite-at-a-time that helped me maintain the patience and sanity needed to grow the business. I considered each country in Latin America a tile. I set out to make sure that each tile I laid was positioned correctly in the marketplace. The result? First year, we hit $14.3M. Second year $45M. By the end of the third year, the regions annual sales had grown to $98M. The Argentina office itself went from $400K in sales to $5M.

Success, in sales and in life, starts when you break things up into smaller pieces; you begin to feel a sense of control. And as I began to take action, I began to feel a sense of momentum. Control and momentum became my engine for success. And every time I felt overwhelmed or anxious, I thought to myself, Victor, lets just lay one tile at a time.

Confucius said, It is not a matter of how fast or slow, but simply a matter of you moving. I learned that progress or success never happens overnight, but over timeone tile at time. I learned how to become a sales carpintero (carpenter who builds things).

Victor Gonzalez, top Hispanic motivational speaker and author of The LOGIC of Success. For more info go to: http://www.thelogicofsuccess.com or by email victor@thelogicofsuccess.com

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I want you to deliver more:

- Profit

- Sales

- Productivity

- Customers

- Quality

And, by the way, youve got less:

- Money

- Staff

- Time

Sound familiar? Year on year, sales leaders are being asked to achieve improved results with fewer resources or, at least, more from the same. To most Sales Directors, the attainment of a permanent increase in sales revenues must seem like the search for eternal youth; unending and, ultimately, unavailing.

Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with e.g. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within safe markets, longer sales cycles and shorter product life spans.

The reality is that whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.

Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Sales management must be capable of reacting to those changes, be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework of a formalised strategy.

The role of strategy is fundamental if the people within an organisation are to be enabled to make the level of contribution of which they are capable. Strategy, based on a good grasp of the core competencies of a business, is an essential precursor to achieving optimal shareholder value.

Getting more for less or more from the same level of resources, is my simple definition of efficiency.

Here then are six steps you can take in 2007 that will help you achieve those increased targets:

Step One: Understand your operation

- Do you know your operation well enough to improve it?

Step Two: Set the right objectives

- Do you have the right objectives to steer improvement?

Step Three: Check customer perception

- How can you identify non-value-added (wasteful) activity?

- How can you remove it?

Step Four: Increase capacity

- Are you meeting demand?

- What action(s) can you take?

- How efficient are your resources?

Step Five: Continuously improve

- Do you have a systematic approach to constant improvement?

Step Six: Check customer perception

- How effective have your efforts been?

- How can you tell?

And finally, when you review your performance in 2006, consider benchmarking yourself against the Sales Management Acid Test:

The Acid Test When thinking about your own sales force,

- Did you understand their motivators what was driving them?

- Did you always have visibility of their numbers year to date, forecast vs. required performance?

- Activity levels did they work hard and smart enough?

- Engagement did they always meet with the right level in their prospects/accounts?

- Messaging were they capable of delivering an appropriate message at the right level?

- Qualification did they only spend time on deals where they could compete and ultimately win?

- Closing did they construct successful campaigns and close enough business?

Copyright 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group thejfagroup.

His weekly blog giving dedicated sales professionals a voice is updated every Friday visit http://www.thejfblogit.co.uk

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If you really want to secure government contacts at the county level; there is a lot more than just getting on a list and bidding on a solicitation. Government even at the country level is a little corrupt and insider-ish. You can complain about the evils, backdoor deals and wasting of tax payers money or you can remember that the imperfect system is run by humans and what goes on in generally what should be expected. No difference than the shenanigans of the Catholic Priests.

First you need to know who the County Board Of Supervisors are. It is important for you to know the local county supervisors representing your area by name. It is equally important for them to know yours. You should attend at least one function during the campaign season of a county supervisor. Incumbent supervisors are usually re-elected so attend one campaign party. If a county supervisor has an office in your town, it should be on your schedule to visit and meet the staff. Many county supervisors have an office staff of two to three people. They make good customers because their caseload is high and they are too busy to do much shopping. These caseworkers are like reporters; they know everything and every body. Kind of like the staff at the catholic churches, they know who is doing what, when and to whom.

You also need to make it a point to meet the Department Heads where you believe you might be able to get a contract with; either for services or to sell your wares. You will eventually over time meet all the department heads in the county. These department heads determine who gets what contracts and how long they get to keep them. They will divulge information to you that you should not know. For instance:

What contracts will be coming up before an official announcement has been made

The price the present contractor is charging

Any problems with the present contractors

They many times do favors for friends or contractors they would rather work with. Some are on the take we expect. You are not to indulge in bribes and kick backs, but you should realize some of them are and your competitors are part of the scandals. If you become a whistle blower you will never get a contract so we do not advise that, just be aware of the reality. Face it they lied to you in school the honesty in government is a complete fraud, but you are grown up now and must deal with it. So understand the game, but take the high-road. Think about it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; http://www.WorldThinkTank.net/. Lance is a guest writer for Our Spokane Magazine in Spokane, Washington

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It is hard to get a funding from a business plan, even a very good business plan. You can give yourself a much better chance of raising capital if you avoid eight common business plan mistakes.

Your business plan may be the first thing investors see, and it is important that your business plan be written professionally and excellently. Investors see thousands of business plans each year, and the ones that get funded are less than 1%. You will greatly improve your chance of getting funded if you avoid these mistakes.

1. Mistakes in Overall Content

A well written business plan finds the solutions to problems that customers are looking for and will pay money to solve. The plan dos not need superlatives to say that it is great. If it is great, the readers will come to that conclusion. Also, be sure your plan presents a focused strategy to solve only one problem in the target market.

2. Stating There is no competition

Every business has competition, either direct or indirect. A competitor is everybody else that is trying to sell to the same target market. Your plan should show how you differentiate yourself from competitors and show that you are stronger in the market.

3. Too Long and Technical

Your plan must convey your business idea concisely. Any detail that you believe is important can be included in an addendum. Also, your plan should not be too technical or scientific. Keep it simple.

4. Poor Organization

There is a logical way that business plans should be put together, and each section should logically flow into the next section. You can finds hundreds of resources that tell you what the basic sections of a business plan should be, and you or any professional you hire should follow this advice.

5. Incomplete or Inaccurate Financial Statements

You must use the right terminology in describing the financial condition of your business. The financials should contain enough detail to fully support your important assumptions.

6. Unreasonable Financial Projections

All the numbers in your financial projections should be reasonable and similar to financial projections of other companies in your industry. Your financials must include Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statement, and they all must be prepared in compliance with GAAP.

7. Writing Errors

You must use proper spelling and grammar and cannot be redundant. Be sure your plan is attractive, interesting, easy to read, and professional looking.

8. Timing Mistakes

Have your plan in final form long before your presentation to investors. You may not have the 500+ hours required to write a business plan. Then you must hire a business consultant to write your plan. Be sure to have another objective person read the plan thoroughly and give you some feedback on its effectiveness before you show it to investors.

About the Author:

Jo Ann Joy is the CEO and owner of Indigo Business Solutions. She has a law degree, an MBA, and a degree in Economics. She also is a licensed realtor and has contacts in the local real estate industry. Her background includes commercial and real estate law, accounting, financial planning, mortgages, marketing, product development, and business strategies.

She ran a successful business for 10 years and has written and given presentations on many different legal and business subjects. She is not a traditional attorney. Rather, she is a strategic business attorney who works closely with clients to create and implement strategies that will greatly improve their performance and success.

Please contact Jo Ann by phone at (602) 663-7007, by fax at (602) 324-7582, by email at joannjoy@Indigo

Business Solutions.net, and by mail at 2313 East Ocotillo Rd., Phoenix, AZ 85016

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So, sales forces must go beyond communicating the value of features a company or solution provides, and finding ways to create new value by thinking outside the box. To create value companies need to find ways to increase the ability to deliver well differentiated benefits. The problem is that a great deal of value propositions presented are canned, and unique benefits that translate into great value are uncommon. To this end, it is not enough that sales leadership commit themselves to a value creation agenda. They must know what it is that they are committed to - that is, what they must do. These obligations cannot be delegated, and action is required. Some ideas on how to work smart and establish a true value creation agenda include:

Matching Strategy to Customers

Having a proper model for customer segmentation vis–vis value creation is essential, so that resource allocation is not an impediment to selling efforts. Huthwaite makes a compelling case for how value migrates depending on the customer. So, who are transactional, consultative, and enterprise customers? That is the known unknown that even well trained and talented sales forces and managers have to figure out. How many times have you seen a heavy investment in selling effort turn out to be a losing proposition? This can be the result of misplaced attention on trying to persuade a customer with very clear ideas on a transaction, where the value is low cost and no more. Time must be taken to understand how the customer defines value, and how to generate new insights by diagnosing problems and needs. The answer at times is to walk away by recognizing that you can not be everything to all customers, and using limited time and company resources to work on higher probability projects.

Interestingly, a failure mode of sales organizations is not recognizing that different approaches to selling are needed for different customers. The research by Huthwaite points out that when there is a value perception misfit no amount of selling skill, clever strategy, or well-crafted value proposition can bridge the gap between what a customer wants and what a supplier has to offer. In todays environment customers demand more value than ever, so its imperative that a sales force must align its values with those of the customer. Sales forces must learn to further segment customers according to the way they perceive and define value.

Traditionally sales forces have survived well by dividing customers by geography, size, vertical market, or specific products and services. However, as the world of sales continues to evolve the advantages of classifying sales efforts under the headings of transactional, consultative, and enterprise is not an option anymore if you want to win more sales. A sales force that creates new value by addressing accurately how a customer measures value, or brings a new consultative element of knowledge that can help a customer improve their business metrics will be in a better position to win against a less sophisticated competitor. Unless the approach to creating value corresponds with the needs and value perception of customers, selling efforts will continue to languish in sales organizations lacking leadership to get with the times.

Professional experience traverses key business disciplines including entrepreneurship, leadership, and strategic management. From a 15 year stint with a start-up developer of software and equipment for the automation and controls industry, which led to several promotions including VP of Sales; to the acquisition of this firm by a Blue Chip company; to managing businesses with P&L accountability for Fortune 100 firms, I have enjoyed a productive career accented by sales/marketing, general management, and leadership talents. Recent educational achievements include an MBA from the University of Miami, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt Certification, ISO 9001 QMS Certification, and Project Management Professional.

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Sales Management is one of the highest paid occupations in the Western world. It is also full of risk, complexity, opportunities for phenomenal success or crippling failure (often occurring one after the other). It requires high standards of living, long hours, and unrelenting stress on body, psyche and relationships. The work of a sales manager involves knowing a lot about many things and being able to communicate that knowledge clearly and authoritatively.

But hey, let me not theorise on the subject. What follows is a mail I received earlier this year from one of my clients. Read it then carefully and truthfully ask yourself to what extent you relate to her story. If there is an echo from your own experience, the Institute of Sales and Marketing Development (ISMD) is where you will most likely find what you are looking for, visit us as www.insales.co.za .

How did I become a Sales Manager ?

Good question I was not born to it my parents wanted me to pursue an academic career. I was not educated for it my speciality was the classics. As I have discovered, there is very little about the sales management life that is classical, other than classic foul ups or classically optimistic, predictions from my sales people. I was not trained for it whilst I was a sales person, I kind of knew that if I consistently exceeded my target, I would become a sales manager presumably on the basis that since I know how to excel, I could transfer my wining ways to others.

In the 5 years that I have been doing the sales management bit, I have discovered that an effective sales manager needs to become an expert in the following skills and behaviours:

* Select top-performing sales people.

* Lead a band of prima donnas.

* Motivate highly volatile characters.

* Negotiate deals, internally and externally.

* Provide knowledge on demand.

* Connect sales peoples requirements, for themselves and their clients, to the resources of my organisation.

* Represent the organisations performance standards to the sales people and vice versa.

* Be a competitive employer the one of first choice in my industry.

* Be a supportive manager to my sales people and my boss.

* Be an effective representative of the sales function to my peers in the management team, individually and as a group.

* Be an effective representative of my company to the executive management in my clients organisations.

* Work closely and intelligently with the marketing people, sometimes doing the marketing work myself.

* Walk across the lake in the park on the weekends only joking !!

But it does often seem that the requirements of my job require supernatural capabilities.

I have built up an image that looks like what I should really be.

I can talk the talk, fake it till I make it I can accommodate most of the cliches. Notice how many time I appears in this outpouring. My image says that I am a stand alone genius, a fountain of knowledge and expertise, but… it really is lonely out there. There is only my image that can communicate with me. My sales people and my boss expect me to just do it whatever it turns out to be.

What I desperately need is someone who can support me; someone who is not

* A competitor for my job, my deals, my reputation or my status.

* A peddler of general information that I have to sift through to find what I need.

* A professional trainer who knows how to deliver course material but is not a subject matter expert.

I need someone who is:

* Practically knowledgeable and experienced in the business of sales management.

* Able to talk about what works and what doesnt, using proven methods.

* Accessible when I need them.

* Good at listening and asking me the right questions so that the real problem and the real solution emerges.

My response to this cry from the heart was Do I ever relate to your experience!!

I lived there for 10 years. I did very well financially and in driving my career. I got to the top spot and stayed there until I started my own business which has run successfully since 1990.

The cost was horrendous to my health, my relationships and my peace of mind. In order to help others walk around the pitfalls we fell into, and enable you to achieve the heights we did and more without incurring all of the cost, my colleagues Darren, Ashley and I have founded the Institute of Sales and Marketing Management.

Visit us at http://www.insales.co.za and discover how you can upgrade not only your performance but also your quality of life. It doesnt matter how you became a sales manager, or how difficult it is to be a really good one all the time.

What matters is, where can you find the support to get on top and stay there, whilst enjoying every minute of your life!

Ian has held senior sales and general management positions in the I.T. industry in South Africa for the past 20 years. These were highly successful years for the I.T. industry globally and in South Africa; in particular the industry became famous for its skills in selling and marketing its products and services. Ian was trained and became a practitioner in these advanced skills. Ian has been successfully involved in major organization development projects since 1977.

Ian works in association with leading practitioners in the field of corporate leadership science and management thinking. He was local MD of the Edward de Bono Non-Profit Foundation between 1994 and 1998. In 1999 Ian created a broad based consulting company, Global Solution Strategies (Pty) Ltd., to enable his clients to generate and implement strategy plans for selling their products and services. The combination of these methodologies, augmented by the practices of cognitive coaching, provide Ian with a considerable breadth and depth of coaching capability.

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In Part 2 we discussed how to determine if a sales action is a critical sales performance competency, and we determined the following:

It is an Action that is tied directly to the end result (Good or Bad)

It can be individually isolated and trained to for Improvement

It can be objectively Benchmarked and Measured

Next, we identified that the act of communicating one-on-one to a Targeted prospect with the objective of setting an appointment as a KEY Core Sales Competency, because nothing happens until you get in front of someone.
And the measurement of that competency was determined to be your Conversation-to-Appointment ratio which nationally averages out to somewhere between 4%-18%.

And if we choose to build a Prospecting System to support a sales performance training objective to improve that ratio it would enable us to set more targeted Top-down appointments in less time. And achieving that would allow us to obtain additional results and make us more money.
Not an unworthy mission for sure.

Additionally, we listed (6) sales prospecting reasons why the national Conversation-to-Appointment ratio is only 4%-18%.
Our mission for Part 3 is to isolate each of these reasons, understand why the majority of the sales population lives by the Definition of Insanity (Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result) and then develop alternative strategies to raise our Conversation-to-appointment ratio.

Sales Prospecting Error #1

We dont seek to first (Before we pick up the telephone) understand the Prospects internal business challenges parallel to our solutions offering, and then model our appointment communication approach around it.

How many times have you received a solicitation call and listened to a stranger communicate nonspecifically about who they are and what they want. Let me say that againWho THEY are and what THEY want.

Just the other day I received a telephone call (I accept them ALL because they provide a great X2 training Lead source) and the nice lady on the other end of the line started to tell me all about who she was and what her company did.
I let her go on for a while and then asked her a specific, closed-ended question:

Do you understand who I am and what Im trying to accomplish as it relates to what you are selling?

Well, she did not. So I kindly left the door open to her if she decided to check out my website and find out (first) Who I am and what I want.

Dont you think thats fair? After all, arent most business people (Business levels tied to fiscal responsibility) open to learning about ways to recover costs, improve productivity, decrease risk, increase profits or provide a measurable Return on investment as long as it gets to the point and in line with ones own Internal language not in a nonspecific marketing language of product/service and feature-benefit.

Instead of Who you are and what you want, try switching to What you know specifically about Me, Myself and I; MY responsibilities, MY business objectives and how you think you can help ME meet them.

The web is a great resource tool for investigating general business objectives of a company; items like business web sites, 10K reports, annual reports, investor sections, Press releases and published articles. Scanning those items prior to picking about the telephone is your first winning step in the process; Who they are.

Now for the second part; What they want. Think of this in terms of title of responsibility and how your offering (if the shoe fits) can help them meet their personal business objectives or what I like to phrase Marching Orders. If you dont know, go get some Business Acumen training around the title of responsibilities you choose to call on. Because you want to be able to discuss specific business challenges as it relates to their title of responsibility.

Or if you are a self-directed person, do what Ive done for years. Interview each new client and ask them what type of communication would make them sit up and take notice coming from a strangers initial business contact. Develop a stock series of questions to allow you to document what is important to them as it pertains to accepting business appointments and outsourcing solution providers.

Youd be amazed at the amount of valuable data you can collect just by asking for 5 additional minutes after closing a new sale. Go to school on your new clients and earn a Masters degree in Business Title Insight.

Sales Prospecting Error #2

We settle for a business level of contact that has no direct fiscal authority.

Your Playing Field is who you decide to call on and why. And there are basically (2) strategies in picking your Playing Field; a Bottom-up approach or a Top-down approach.

The following is an example of a Bottom-up approach. A Telecommunications rep initiates a telephone call into a company and asks the question Who handles your telecommunications needs? Guess where they are sent? If you said office manager you guessed right. If you said Head Janitor you werent far off. Is there anything wrong with that? Not really; its legal and a lot of folks out there do it.

But lets think through this option as a Business person would. Historically, a bottom-up approach promotes a:

Lower 1st appointment to Proposal ratio

Lower Closing ratio

Higher Sales cycle

Lower Average revenue per sale

That being said, from a Business person view, if we had our choice, we would choose a Top-down approach; meeting with the highest appropriate level of contact for our product/service.
And this is important. If our product/service is tied to a measurable Return on Investment, in soft or hard dollars over time, we need to be initially engaged with the correct title in our Prospect company. And thats the fiscal authority that can make a business decision in line with our business solution.

Sales Prospecting Error #3

We sell our product/service instead of selling the diagnostic steps in our Evaluation Process

So far we have decided to call on the highest appropriate level of contact for our service offering, someone that is tied to the P&L; simply, they have some Skin in the Game. And we know with a Top-down strategy we need to understand who our target Prospect is and what theyre trying to accomplish as it relates to what we are selling. And thats BEFORE we pick up the telephone, right?

Imagine now we make that prospecting call and start to talk about our Widget; meaning our Products features and benefits, our excellent customer service, how many years weve been in business and our fantastic customer retention rate.

Are you beginning to understand now why the average Conversation-to-appointment ratio is 4-18%? You might as well read off your Marketing Departments latest brochure. This is a major sales prospecting mistake because it doesnt speak first to the correlation between what your Prospects general business challenges are (By industry and title of responsibility) and how your service has helped other business people with the same titles and internal challenges.

The $100,000 question is how one goes about transitioning from a Product/service specific conversation to a Business Reason to Meet conversation.

My answer to this question is to communicate your companys service solution as a System. One definition of a system is a series of Components and Elements that when working in unison affects a required result. It makes things better. It lowers that Business Challenge wall.
Those ultimate business results could be cost recovery, lower overhead, higher employee production, increase profit margin, more return on investment, faster time to market, etc. That depends on your particular systems solutions and what business challenges they are tied to.

The Components of your system are sub-systems comprising a series of elements that deal with particular business issues. As an example, if you were a Security Solution Provider your components might be themed Loss Prevention, Business Operations and Risk Management, each again dealing with a relevant business challenge.

The elements of your System are the individual products/services that you provide your clients depending on their unique business challenges and where they may have some leaks in the ship. Communicating to individual elements specifically during a prospecting sales call will take you down the Slippery slope of low sales appointment conversion ratios and low sales commissions.

In-between your Components and elements you have internal Business issues. In the same Security Solution Provider example, your prospects business issues could be Fire/Life Safety, Theft, Sweet-hearting, Vandalism, Sabotage, Robbery, and Harassment just to name a few.

Its your responsibility for an effective prospecting sales call to sell the Diagnostic steps in your evaluation process; to appraise if your System, with its series of Components and elements can facilitate lowering your prospects Business Challenge Wall; effectively gaining a Return on investment in a measurable way; because Business people are accountable to ROI.

In Part 4; How to Double Your Sales Appointments in Half the Time, we will discuss the final 3 Sales Prospecting Errors and outline some proven solutions that will head us toward our worthy goal of spending Less time to achieve more targeted Top-down sales appointments.

Jeff Hardesty is President of JDH Group, Inc. and the Developer of the X2 Sales System, a blended training system that teaches sales professionals the competency of setting C-level business appointments. Jeff can be reached at jeff@convertmoresales.com.

Calculate your sales teams Sales Performance Competencies here:
http://convertmoresales.com/marketing_blitz.php

Submit your numbers for a complimentary 30-minute performance consultation with Jeff Hardesty:
http://convertmoresales.com/roi_survey.php

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Last fall I started taking improvisation lessons. I am a somewhat self-conscious introvert, and I wanted to learn how to think faster on my feet, and how to speak up in meetings without feeling a clench in my stomach. I also thought improv techniques would help me work more fluidly with my coaching clients, and that the classes would add some zest to my usual round of activities.
The experience has been great.

What I didnt know was:

There are rules for improvisation;
If we followed some of these rules in business we would quickly increase the ability to trust our teammates and bosses, think more effectively under pressure, se11 and manage more powerfully, and have a lot of fun in the process.
Above all, improv is about teaching kindness. Who knew?

For example, we played a game called Hotspot. As a group we turned our faces to the wall, and one of us had to go into the middle of the room and start singing. Of course, the first person was embarrassed. Very quickly, one of us facing the wall had to save the singer by taking his place and starting to sing. Then we repeated the process: save and sing, save and sing. The goals of the exercise are to take a risk, not let your teammate look silly for too long, and to save each other graciously,
even making the previous singer look good.

What a concept! What if that was the focus of how we interact with each other in sales meetings? Take a risk . . . I will save you when you risk embarrassment . . . and Ill try to make you look good. sales meetings could even become enjoyable, and more people would look forward to attending them.

Here are some other improv exercises that could help living up your meetings, teach some valuable skills, and boost business at the same time. Each activity only takes minutes.

Yes, and (versus No, but or Yes, but)

The intent: To tell a story by accepting and building on each others ideas rather than by blocking them.

The process: One person starts a story by saying a simple sentence, such as, Joe went to the store. The next person adds to the storyline, beginning the sentence with Yes, and he bought an ice cream cone. Keep going, starting every sentence with,Yes, and until the story concludes. If, after everyone has had at least 2 3 turns, an ending isnt in sight, ask the next few people to start concluding.

In our group, some people had trouble accepting and building. We asked the person who blocked an idea to try again, using Yes, and. . .

If your team begins a sales meeting with this game, all the participants can agree to only use Yes, and . . . throughout the rest of the meeting discussion. See what happens.

The payoffs of yes, and . . . . to your business can be huge: breaking down barriers, generating ideas, and increasing cooperation and trust. You can also do this exercise on the phone, so it works well for virtual teams.

Environment Build
This is a physical variation of Yes, and Ive started using this activity in my training classes, and it is hilarious.

The intent: To quickly create a frozen scene with three people, each person building on the action.

The process: Everyone stands in a circle. One person moves into the centre of the circle, announces what object he or she is, then freezes in that position (i.e., I am a tree.) A second person comes in, announces what he or she is, and freezes in that position (I am a dog walking toward the tree.) A third person enters the scene, announces the next part of the tableau, and freezes in that position (I am the owner of the dog, holding the leash.)

The first person then takes him/herself and one other out of the scene. (i.e., removes the tree and the dog.) The next scene begins, I am the owner of the dog, holding the leash. The next two people build on that scene, creating something entirely new, and so on.

The business payoff: When people have fun creating together, they can come up with innovative ideas for tackling sales and other business issues. Also, it is impossible to make mistakes in this activity, so it is very safe to include everyone (even those who are shy or contained) and reap a variety of ideas from all participants.

Tongue Twisters

The intent: Loosen up everyones lips before a meeting begins.

Try these words as a group (repeat each about 10 times, very quickly)

Unique New York
Toy boat
Red leather, yellow leather
She stood on the balcony, inexplicably mimicking him hiccupping, amicably welcoming him in. (Good luck with this one! Its not as bad as it looks.)

The business payoff: Everybody has already tripped over their tongues in front of the group, so they can participate comfortably. This is another great exercise for virtual teams.

Talk back: Id love to hear how you are using improv techniques in your company, and what the business payoffs are.

Nicki Weiss is an internationally recognized Certified Professional Coach, Master Trainer, and workshop leader. She brings to her work 25 years of experience with corporate sa1es executives, small to medium size entrepreneurial business leaders, and sa1es teams of all shapes and sizes.

Sign up for her award winning ezine - Sa1esWise - for great tips on finding, retaining, and developing ideal clients and sales teams at http://www.saleswise.ca

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How do you get your sales team solidly behind your telephone sales campaign and telephone sales goals?

Here are 5 Training Tips for Sales Managers:

1. Identify your goals

Identify the goal of your telephone sales campaign.

Identify the goal of every telephone call your team will make. (These may differ from your overall campaign goals.)

Know the difference between your campaign goals and your individual telephone call goals. (For example, if your team is making calls to set new business appointments, the goal of the call is the appointment. The goal of the overall campaign is to gain new customers.)

2. Communicate your goals

Make sure that your sales team understands your campaign goals.

Make sure that your sales team understands the goal of every individual call.

Make sure that your sales team knows and understands the difference between the campaign goals and the goals for individual telephone calls.

3. Plan your campaign and your calls

Plan out every potential sales scenario.

Develop an appropriate script for each scenario.

Make sure that your script includes answers to the objections your sales team is bound to hear.

Make sure that your scripts are well written and in spoken English.

Test and refine your scripts.

4. Report

Have a method in place ahead of time to track all calls.

Track all calls.

Make sure that your sales team reports all unusual or unexpected sales scenarios.

Analyze those unexpected scenarios and adjust your plan and scripts accordingly.

5. Trust your sales team

Once you have planned your campaign, communicated all of your goals and trained your sales team, give your team a voice and decision-making power in handling prospects and customers.

Trust that your sales team will handle calls appropriately and professionally.

Your trust will result in better morale, better effort and better results.

2005 Wendy Weiss

Wendy Weiss, The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success, is a sales trainer, author, and sales coach. Her recently released program, “Cold Calling College”, and/or her book, “Cold Calling for Women”, can be ordered by visiting http://www.wendyweiss.com Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendys free e-zine at http://www.wendyweiss.com

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Question: What is the number one need for success in business today?

Answer: To persuade others of your value and the value of your ideas.

So What Is Influencing?

Influencing is getting your own way, especially unobtrusively.

Most managers do it, most of the time.

You can influence others simply be being you (notice how easily children are influenced by the behaviour of those around them)
You can influence covertly, behind the scenes
You can use more open strategies and tactics

Great influencers manage to get other people to go along with their ideas whilst maintaining the relationship. If people feel manipulated, relationships will be damaged. It is important to understand the different strategies available to you and to plan your approach.

Mastering The Art:

Increasingly todays managers are measured by their ability to influence others in the workplace. Being able to get people to do what you want has a direct effect on:

The well-being of your staff
The prosperity of your company
And, ultimately, your own destiny

You are probably already successful at influencing others some of the time. How can you become consistently successful? If you can identify your strengths and weaknesses and make a few changes, nothing can hold you back.

Typical Areas Of Open Influence:

A lot of the time, especially in business, influencing is necessary and we accept it as part of human communication. It operates openly and usually follows a recognised process. Open influence can be seen in:

- Meetings

- Presentations

- Sales conversations

- Debates and discussions

- Change management

- Reports

- Proposals

- Negotiations

- Performance management

- Process management

Typical Areas Of Hidden Influence:

Influence can also operate in a less open and direct manner. Your behaviour will be noticed by others, even though you are not necessarily trying to influence them. Your words will always be interpreted, however subtle or oblique. In short whether we mean to influence or not we are constantly beaming out influential messages to the world.

Hidden influence, which is often delicate, slow and on-going, works well in the following areas:

- Changing an image or behaviour

- Altering attitude

- Networking

- Communicating non-verbally

- Developing and maintaining rapport

- Counselling others

- Acting as a mentor

- Maintaining customer relations

- Using metaphor and analogy

- Nurturing relationships

What Makes An Effective Influencer?

Winning influencers share attitudes and behaviours that ensure consistent success. Studies have shown that they:

- Indicate the benefits of their ideas

- Neutralise resistance, preferably in advance

- Find alternative ways to influence others

- Listen attentively to what others say

- Uncover needs and wants

- Empathise continuously

- Notice how others respond

- Create and maintain rapport throughout

- Eliminate weak statements from their language

- Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse

In Summary: Five Easy Steps To Influence

Here are the five main steps to effective influential communication. Make this pattern second nature, leaving you to concentrate on the detail.

Gain Rapport
Be on their level, recognise their beliefs and values; match their behaviour patterns and blend your personality characteristics with theirs.

Ask Questions
Elicit needs and different responses; probe to identify their motives, attitudes and feeling.

Listen Actively
Demonstrate that you are listening: listen with all your senses; suspend judgement.

Stress Pertinent Benefits
Summarise how specific benefits of your proposal accurately reflect their needs.

Work Towards A Decision
Ask questions which will force a decision (or rejection); test interest through hypothetical questions; make positive statements which assume their acceptance.

Copyright 2006 Jonathan Farrington. All rights reserved

Jonathan Farrington is the Managing Partner of The jfa Group To find out more about the author or to subscribe to his newsletter for dedicated sales professionals, visit:http://www.jonathanfarrington.com

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