Here’s what leaders do:

1.  Leaders relentlessly upgrade their team, using every encounter as opportunity to evaluate, coach, and build self-confidence. Professionally, you have to make sure the right people are in the right jobs—support and advance those who are; move out those who are not. This also applies to your life: who gives you joy and energy, and who saps it from you. Once you determine that, the rest of the decision is easy. Coach and build self confidence in those around you. Self confidence energizes and provides the courage to stretch, take risks, and achieve.
2. Leaders make sure people not only see the vision, they live and breathe it. As a leader, you have to make the vision come alive. It is an essential element of a leaders’ job, but only worthwhile if it is communicated constantly and reinforced with rewards. Only then does it come to life.
3. Leaders get into everyone’s skin, exuding positive energy and optimism. It’s all about the right attitude. Make that attitude yours.
4. Leaders establish trust with candor, transparency and credit. Establish trust by giving credit where it’s due, and take responsibility when things go wrong, and when they don’t, generously pass around the praise. You don’t wear a crown, just the mantle of responsibility to bring out the best in others. For that to occur, people need to trust you. So act accordingly.
5. Leaders have the courage to make unpopular decisions and gut calls.  Always listen to your gut, stand your ground. You’re a leader because you’ve been right more than you’ve been wrong. So pay attention… and trust your gut.
6. Leaders probe and push with a curiosity that borders on skepticism, making sure their questions are answered with action. Ask questions. Listen to the answers. Encourage debate. You’ll then get bigger and better solutions. And they’ll get everyone where they want to go.
7. Leaders inspire risk taking and learning by setting the example. Surround yourself with people smarter than you are. It doesn’t mean you can’t lead them. There’s an adage that says you are the average of the five people you hang around with the most. Think about it.  Are you? If you want change, set the example. You’ll love the excitement that comes from it, and so will those around you.
8. Leaders celebrate. Celebrating makes people feel like winners and creates an atmosphere of recognition and positive energy. Work and life can be tough, and the latter is too short not to recognize moments of achievement, including your own. Grab as many as you can, and make them a big deal. After all, if you don’t, no one will.

There’s no easy formula. Leadership is challenging, with many balancing acts, responsibility and pressure. But, really, would you prefer the alternative?

The post The Implications of Leadership appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

Raise Your Prices

If you think you can’t, stop and really think about it because, yes, you can, and here’s why it’s worth consideration: Every penny you get by doing that drops directly to your bottom line and directly into your pocket, one way or another. So the question isn’t whether or not you should raise your prices, but by how much should you raise your prices.

Entertain this thought for one hot minute: Choose one or two of your most popular product lines and increase the unit price by fifteen cents. Now do the math. Then, increase the price to .25 cents and do the math. See my point? You’ve made no drastic changes, not incurred additional costs, and you’re already making more money.

To make the largest impact on your bottom line, do this across product lines, or services offered. Just decide on how much revenue you want to add and then raise the prices accordingly.  Be judicious, not greedy.  A small increase across multiple lines or services can contribute significantly to profit.

Reduce Vendor Costs

Every dollar you don’t spend is a dollar dropped directly to your bottom line, so investigate vendor costs and options regularly—up to and including the idea of using another vendor.  Be fair to long term relationships, but be informed, too, and adjust relationships and terms accordingly.

Consider Affiliate Marketing

If there are products and services you’re already recommending, consider an affiliate relationship with that company and earn a small commission if your customer buys.  Most cost little or nothing to establish, and can add revenue for minimal effort.

Create New Revenue Streams

Sell your by-products.  Is there anything of value that’s created as a result of the normal production of your product or service?  For example, if you’re into social media and are good at getting noticed online, then offering online marketing services may be a viable option for generating additional profit at little or no cost.

Focus on the Right Things 

Just because you’ve done the same things for as long as you can remember does not mean you should continue. Be fanatical about WHY you’re doing things, and quantify how what you are doing (and how) is beneficial to your bottom line. You may think that a method of operating or way of doing business is impactful and generating revenue, but make sure you’re correct by checking facts, which more often than not come in the form of cold, hard numbers.

The simple question is: Does this make my company money or does it not, and can doing it differently or not at all increase profit? You may find that doing something less or differently is far more profitable to your bottom line than maintaining the status quo.

Any one of these small changes will result in maximum impact for your bottom line.

The post 5 Tips for Boosting Your Bottom Line appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

Let’s take hiring, for example. I’ve done a lot of it over years and if I’ve learned one thing it is this:  you have to start by hiring the right people, and you cannot, cannot, CANNOT supply motivation. It is not a commodity you can lend, nor should you, so you have to make sure it’s a quality the candidate already brings to the table by screening for it in the hiring process.

Motivation and Hiring

I can hear some of you thinking you may know better, and maybe you do, but I haven’t seen supplying motivation work—ever—so based on that, here are a few questions I use to get to the heart of the motivation issue, and they’re helpful during any hiring process regardless of the position you have to fill.  Of course, you also have to know what you’re listening for, and that’s a bigger conversation than space allows, but this gets you started:

1. Describe the work environment or culture in which you are the most productive and happy.
2. How do you like to be managed?  Or, what actions or behaviors do you respond to best?
3. What motivates your best performance?
4. Describe a time or a situation where you went over and above to get the job done (or close a sale or whatever best represents the job you’re filling).
5. What did you like least about your last job?
6. When was the last time you struggled to complete a task, assignment, sale… whatever, and what did you do to overcome it?
7. Tell me about a time you failed, and what did you do about it?

The above are various ways to get at the same information, but this is my tried and true question that never fails me: What did you do to prepare for this interview? (Here’s a hint:  “nothing” is the wrong answer).

Also ask about prior work experience (look for a hard worker who got promoted a lot) and ask about interests outside of work (motivated people are motivated not just about work, but about life). Motivation is related to resiliency, and you want someone who stays focused despite the inevitable obstacles.

Motivation and Accomplishing Long Term Goals

It’s ridiculous how easy it is to lose focus when attempting to accomplish goals, especially long term goals, so here’s the short-list on making meaningful progress:

Maintain your focus on goal-directed actions

Every great task is accomplished through a series of small steps, so write down not only your goal–make it proximal, specific and challenging– but why achieving that goal is important to you.  Subdivide your goal into specific short term goals/steps with timeframes for completion.  And make your goals challenging.  Otherwise, they’re neither interesting, nor will you accomplish them.  Keep an eye on the ‘why’ in the equation because when you’re up to your ass in alligators, you want to remember not only that your primary job is to drain the swamp, but also why risking your ass is worth it.

Control your emotions

Failure is part of the equation, so use it as a learning experience rather than a setback.   Time and again I see clients caught up in the emotion of the failure and then paralyzed by doubt, anger, and more.  Waste of time.  Don’t get caught up in any of them.  Accept the failure and move on.  Sure, get mad, get frustrated and then get over it and look at why the failure happened.  Be honest.  Then fix the problem.

Pace yourself

Don’t try to get too much done too fast.  Artificial deadlines are a breeding ground for mistakes.  So control what you can in terms of timeframe, because there will be plenty of things you can’t control during the process.  And don’t burn yourself or your staff out too early.  Be realistic, but not afraid to push periodically or when necessary.

Celebrate

Brag about it, take some time to yourself, work out, buy something you always wanted. Whatever works. Celebrate the milestones, then aim for the next one. Rest, replenish, and repeat.

The post Motivation: Hiring and Achieving Goals appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

1. A mindset of success.  There are a lot of good people out there who ‘try’, but trying doesn’t get it done. Try to hold a pencil—you either do or you don’t. Those who succeed develop a mindset of success. They are not victims of what comes their way in the everyday course and chaos of building and running a business. They learn how to navigate the chaos, how to lead other people, and they possess a willingness—and the knowledge—to do it themselves or to get down into the trenches and work side by side with those who are responsible for getting things done, when the going gets rough. Show them a wall, and their only thought is how to go through, around or over it. Never does it occur to them to allow that wall to stop them.

2. An ability to set and to attain goals. People who achieve have a preternatural ability to set goals and to stay focused on attaining them. And only in your dreams is that straight line. Mostly it’s filled with twists and turns worthy of a stint on reality television, but those who can take the hit, learn, recover, and then reset their course to the goal will be more successful than those people and companies that can’t. It’s that simple.

3. Understand the business they’re really in. Be honest. If it’s only about the money, admit that—at least to yourself, because that clarity is what will drive every decision you make—from who to hire and what to charge, to what vendors to use, how much you pay employees and more. Too many business owners fall into a trap of doing only what makes them feel good, as opposed to what is necessary to do in order for their business to survive. At worst, they misdirect their real intentions toward something more socially acceptable or politically correct. Successful people and organizations aren’t confused. There is absolutely nothing wrong in doing what makes you feel good, provided those values are aligned with your business goals AND your anticipated profit bottom line. So whether your motives are fortune, fame or making a difference, understand, nurture and refine your vision continually over time, yes, BUT, be honest, be clear and then set policies and behavior accordingly.

4. Know the numbers. I cannot underestimate the importance of this. Successful business owners know the critical indicators that contribute to a company’s bottom line, and they monitor those numbers relentlessly. Whether it’s the value of a customer, lead-to-sale ratios, conversion or response rates, the cost of gaining a customer, the number of steps between a lead and a sale, the cost of new market entry, of hiring and firing, and more, they know the numbers cold. Time after time and year after year, I sit down with the business owners of companies large and small and ask the questions, and rarely do I encounter a person or a team who can provide the answers cold. Of course, the good news is that this is one of the fundamental reasons I make a positive difference in their growth and profits—and also, that they’ll never NOT know those numbers again. If you take nothing else away from reading this article, please take this: know your numbers.

5. Have a strategy (and stick to it). This does not mean they possess a singular focus regardless of circumstances, but they put those circumstances in context to the big picture. They know when to bail and when to row, and they don’t ever let the boat take on too much water. They not only know what to do and when to do it, but what not to do and what should be avoided entirely, all of which are equally important when measuring effort and performance in relation to bottom line profit.

6. Know what they don’t know. Successful people don’t know everything, but they accept those limitations and surround themselves with the right people who can fill those gaps. They understand the value of never being the smartest person on their team, and then allow those smarter people the latitude to do what they do best. (Or, they hire the skills they need to figure it out.)

7. Know what’s wrong with their business. And they know it before the competition figures it out. Successful people know exactly what’s wrong or what needs to be fixed and make a conscious decision to act on that information or not.

8. Right people in the right jobs doing the right things. Numbers are impressive, systems are effective and branding is persuasive but its people who are on the front line making things happen and making profits possible. Successful companies don’t ignore that. They have solid hiring processes, train and retrain relentlessly, recognize and reward when appropriate, and make adjustments when it’s not working. Treat people right and they will do the same for your customers.

This list is just the tip of the iceberg, but whether you choose to implement one of these items or all of them, each and every one absolutely will make a difference to your company’s growth, revenue and profits.

The post A Mindset of Success and More appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

More often than not, I see what I call victim-selling: companies cast a wide net and scramble to do all kinds of things hoping it will generate sales, and they take what falls their way. But that doesn’t provide a consistent way of generating sales and revenue. That requires a solid sales plan with sales projections—what are you going to sell, when, and where will that business come from. (That’s the short version). These elements are critical to your company’s growth, and yet they are the most frequently overlooked because they are hard to build and even harder to maintain, especially if you haven’t done it before. But if you build them and manage the execution, you’re sure to hit your numbers in 2013 and beyond.

Here are a few other things I consider fundamental to a healthy bottom line:

1. Build a good sales team: The best teams have high quality people who are developed consistently and driven to produce the numbers.  But your reps need a playable hand including these seven cards—the right marketplace, a competitive offering, adequate territory, a good compensation plan, good management, realistic goals and enough time to hit them. If you don’t hold all seven cards, get them.

2. Sales drives marketing, not the other way around: In my experience, you can build all the fancy marketing programs you wish, but in the end, somebody has to sell your product or service. Build your sales projections then develop the marketing plan to support it. For example, if the majority of your sales come at year end, then enhance the months prior with a kickass marketing program that will prime the market and generate more sales coming into your busy time. If you don’t sell anything at the year’s end, then don’t spend your marketing dollars there.  And don’t waste your money on low hanging fruit, or shiny new objects in the form of a good story told by an experienced marketing sales rep. There are no slam dunk, one-size-fits-all marketing plans, no matter what you hear or read. There are only well thought out, custom plans that are built and managed week in and week out to ensure they hit the mark. So be critical, be judicious and be stingy until you can be reasonably sure that the money you spend will generate the results you want.

3. Target, target, target: Unless you have money to burn in the form of wasted sales and marketing dollars, build your sales plan with a specific market in mind. Is the bulk of your business this year going to come primarily from new business, from existing customers or some combination of both? Think in terms of shooting through crosshairs with a rifle vs. a shotgun. Think about what you want to accomplish, be realistic, and build your sales and marketing plans accordingly.

4. Streamline processes: Be fanatical about evaluating how you do things and making improvements on the spot whenever possible. “Because that’s how we’ve always done it,” and “If it’s not broke, don’t fix it” just don’t cut it in these competitive times. There’s always room for improvement, and you’ll never survive if you aren’t flexible enough to change with the market and constantly develop as a company. The key to success is to make it about developing a company culture around the idea that you’re always looking for the best, most efficient, most productive approach regardless of how long you’ve been doing it.

5. Invest in one new customer touch-point: New methodologies are popping up all the time. Find out how your current customers came to know or prefer to connect with you and be where they are. And don’t overlook your website. It should be attractive, easy to navigate, SEO optimized, with quality content that moves customers along a conversion path. Your social media efforts have to drive traffic somewhere, and that most logical place is your website, so evaluate it with a critical eye—if it lacks visibility in search or doesn’t capture and convert leads, it’s time for an update.

Have a healthy, productive and lucrative New Year!

The post Five Tips to Starting Strong in 2014 appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

Rule #1:  The sales rep isn’t selling.

Regardless of how good you are at team building, or how strong you believe your present team to be, at some point you’ll encounter the problem of a rep who’s just not selling. I’m not talking about one bad week or month, but a quantifiable measurement where the sales numbers just aren’t where they’re supposed to be at a given point in time.  Solve the problem by looking inward and asking yourself a series of questions. Start with these:

• Is the problem in finding deals or in closing them?  One is a prospecting problem, the other is a harvesting problem and each has its own solution.
• Ask yourself whether YOU could harvest this pipeline and how.   Most likely your answer will tell you what’s wrong and what to do about it.
• Ask yourself if the rep in question ever has made the numbers (i.e., quota)?  If so, what’s changed?  Therein lies your solution.

There are other questions to consider, but these will get you started thinking in the right direction. Once you can define the specific issue, you’re just a step or two away from a viable solution. However, never let any sales rep stay below quota more than two consecutive reporting periods without taking action. It’s just not done.

Rule #2:  Keep your reps out of trouble.

This goes for any sales rep or valued employee—some are just prone to driving their lives into a ditch. It doesn’t make them bad people, but their problems ultimately will become your problems, so keep an eye on who’s doing what, when and how. I’m not talking about using interrogation techniques to unearth the deepest secrets about their lives—frankly if that’s your agenda you’re in the wrong job—I’m talking about watching their numbers, their overall productivity, and talking and listening. It’s a lot easier to stay ahead of this potential problem the same way it’s a lot easier to keep a car out of a ditch than it is to have to pull it out.

Rule #3:  Being a manager sometimes sucks.

Every day you will have to make hard decisions—some more difficult than others, and time and again you will face the same choices of keeping a rep or employee who is seriously mediocre (or worse) and getting poor (territory) coverage, discarding or sidelining a rep and potentially having no (territory) coverage or replacing a rep and getting brand spanking “new” coverage. All are tough issues, and in my experience the solution is this: Do your best to make a decision that will best stand the test of time. Short term solutions only create long term problems.

And finally, remember these basics:

1. Don’t tolerate bad attitudes. (‘Nuff said.)
2. Don’t keep reps or other employees that can’t or won’t perform as required.
3. Keep your focus.  Every sales manager has too much to do, so choose what you do each day and do those things well.  Or in the words of the great Ron Swanson (Parks and Recreation): “Never half-ass two things; whole-ass one thing.”
4. Problems are normal. Don’t get excited. Define, prioritize and solve them. Lamenting why the problem landed on your lap is wasted energy. Invest that energy in a solution that stands the test of time. The other stuff just doesn’t matter.
5. And finally, when you face a serious problem, don’t fall into decision-gridlock.  After a reasonable period of time, do something.  Doing nothing is not an option.

The post Sales: What Goes Wrong and How To Fix It appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

Here are 12 tips to getting ahead while remaining authentic:

1. Ask for what you want—clearly and concisely. But before you ask, you have to DECIDE what it is you truly want—and why—because in the end, you may get what you want, but wake up and decide it’s not what you want after all. So put in the time—in whatever way you have to—to learn what is right for you and what is not, and why. Unless you know both, you’re setting yourself up for potential disappointment. (Here’s a tip:  Money does not buy happiness—it only buys comfort.)

2. Set your focus. Everything you do in a day, every encounter you have, should address this question: Does this bring me closer to my goal or does it not? Act accordingly.

It wouldn’t hurt to mention here a technique called “as if”—act and live AS IF you are already what you want or who you want to be. This has a very interesting way of making that thing a reality. A simple example is being late driving to an appointment – instead of rushing and thinking about being late, think as if you are moving right on time. Then see what happens. More than likely, you’ll end up where you want to be AT the time you’re expected to be there. This works for professional scenarios too.

3. Maintain that focus. This is the most difficult part if you haven’t spent the time really thinking about what you want and internalizing it to the point where it becomes the overriding focus in your life (and I don’t mean that to a paralyzing extent).

A lot will happen that can throw you off track—don’t get involved unless whatever it is affects you deeply and directly, and even then, wait a beat before you do because more often than not, things will work themselves out before you ever have to address them. You may have to lower your antennae–or sensitivity levels a bit—but it can be done. While everyone else is spinning their wheels with drama or projects or other things that don’t matter, you’re focusing on a steady course toward your goal. What you don’t want is to get involved, get distracted with what doesn’t matter, and then ‘wake up’ an hour, day, or month later and find you’re still at the starting block. So focus on what you want—not to the exclusion of everything else, but as the ‘background music’ to all you do professionally and personally.

4.  Don’t take any crap. There’s a difference between the usual everyday crap, and the stuff that can derail your reputation or your career. Establish and maintain your boundaries, even if that means direct confrontation (nicely, of course). Focus on creating a win-win as often as possible, and do your best to negotiate solutions that are quick, effective and satisfy some aspect of what each party wants or needs. Remember, you always can escalate, but you cannot de-escalate.

5. Say what you want. Where the notion that woman (particularly) who are assertive are “bossy” and somehow inferior started, I don’t know and I don’t care. What I do know is this: Ignore it. Stereotypes are created as a means of control. Stop cooperating. You can ask for anything you want, provided you ask politely. Your boss, your client, your coworkers and colleagues are not mind readers, so don’t waste your time getting twisted if you haven’t been clear and consistent about what it is you’ve set your sights on, and what are your boundaries. If it’s a raise, say that; if it’s a promotion, say that too. And if it’s the bad behavior of other people that sidetracks you time and again, say that and explain your expectations. Politely.

6. Expect complications and challenges. Just because you stated it, don’t expect it to be easy. I learned something very important from a man who crossed my path when I was in my early 20’s. I was lamenting something—I don’t recall what it was but I never forgot what he said: “Donna, decide what you want in life and the price you’re willing to pay for it, because everything comes with a price.” I’ve forgotten a lot of lessons in my life but I’ve never forgotten those words.

7. Know who has the power. It’s not always the person you’d expect. Those of you in sales already know this—the gatekeeper is the difference between success and failure. This holds true within any company and for life in general. Know this: those with the real power are quiet about it.
8. Learn how to take a punch. The world is not fair, and neither is work, so stop expecting it to be. But this I have learned:  Truth always will reveal itself. So take the hit, deal with it, and then rise above it and move on. To act otherwise only diminishes you.
9. Be authentic; act with integrity and STAND UP.  Maintain perspective and move on from the challenges life serves up. I’ll give you one night with your best buds and a bunch of drinks, but then STAND UP, get over it, learn what you could have done better, and then move on. The faster you take positive action, the better you’ll feel.
10. Be kind, be generous; be gracious. Because these never will fail you.
11. Accept mentors –however they appear. My first mentor came in the form of my grandmother, who taught me the value of my word; my second mentor was a man who taught me how to navigate a complicated work environment. People will show up out of the blue and tell you what you need to learn. Keep an open mind, and be grateful they care. I see a lot written these days about getting yourself a mentor as soon as you can. There is truth to that, but I find the best mentors over time are the ones who seek you out because they see your potential, even before you do. You may not see right away what they have to offer, but stick around for a bit and keep your ears open to see what you begin to learn.
12. You can falter; but you cannot stop. You’ll meet challenges, problems and doubts in the form of unproductive coworkers, saboteurs, and doubts from within yourself at times. Stand up. Face your fears; reestablish your boundaries, and meet the challenges life delivers head on. If you get thrown into the mud—and it will happen—you can sit there or you can climb out. Your choice.

The post How to Get Ahead With Integrity – In Work and Life appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

Firing the slugs is good for productivity, good for retention and, contrary to what some might believe, it’s also good turnover. Bad turnover is when key performers leave and your organization is left with a huge void that affects the performance of your entire organization, and your bottom line. This is not to say that ‘extra’ isn’t required of everyone these days, but you know who is an asset to your business and carrying a fair load, and who is not.

Turnover is costly, and firing people is never fun. But sometimes it must be done for the good of the entire organization. Depending on which study you read, the impact of (bad) turnover ranges from three months of salary for low level employees, to as high as 400 percent of the annual salary of a senior person. That’s a lot of money—and a lot of experience—that walks out your door. To maximize your organization’s performance, make a conscious commitment to good retention practices.

Here are five actions you can take to retain your best people and keep performance and morale high:

1. Fire the Slugs: Hold people accountable for their performance, and if that doesn’t solve the problem, terminate them with respect and dignity. Bonus: Your good performers will love you.

2. Start Top-Down: Assess your supervisory and management team. More than 70 percent of employees say one of the worst things about their job their job is their boss, so find out what’s wrong and fix it. Identify the prima donnas, the untrustworthy, the micromanaging control freaks, the whiners, complainers, and blamers.  Provide basic supervisory training and a plan to improve their performance continuously. As the one in charge, take ownership of this process and make it happen. Besides increasing sales, having the right employees in the right jobs doing the right things is fundamental to success.

3. Clean House: Once you’ve identified the non-performers, and poor managers, make sure they are responding to training and showing significant improvement. If not, remove them and replace them with someone who does what is truly required for that position. If they are not responding, and there’s not another slot where they can be effective, remove them from your organization in a kind, professional manner.

4. Be Visible: Visibility drives retention, so walk around. Talk to your people, your customers, your suppliers, visit with supervisors, help your delivery trucks load and unload. You get the point. See what’s really going on, and be honest with yourself about what you hear and observe. Let your people know you are there and that you care. The point here is to lead by example. If your employees like you, they are less likely to leave you.

5. Care About Your People: Sounds simple but it doesn’t always happen. If you don’t care about your people, your bottom line will reflect that. Caring is the reason people stay. If you don’t, they won’t. It’s that simple.

Donna Saul is a business strategist and consultant with a proven track record of success in working with business owners to increase sales, make more money, improve productivity and build a better bottom line.  She can be reached at donna@donnasaul.com, or via the web at www.donnasaul.com.  

The post Drop the Dead Weight – Fire the Slugs appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

One of the best ways to become your ‘best self’ is to surround yourself with amazing people—people who give you strength and energy, rather than drain it; people who are good role models, people who expand your thinking or support and challenge you to grow. You get the point. And if you’re wondering what this has to do with being good in business and making money, think of it in terms of the energy you have to devote to your work every single day to keep the business  on track. What fuels it? More often than not, it’s those in our lives we turn to for solace, support, fun and more. Unless you have a strong network, your tank will be more empty than full, which leaves very little if you’re building a business and watching it grow.

So to start, forget about losing weight (unless you are SERIOUSLY devoted to that goal), and think about ‘losing’ the friends, family, employees, acquaintances, colleagues and coworkers that do not contribute to your well being and growth. This also applies to groups and other organizations you’re a part of, and the tasks you take on for other’s benefit, but not necessarily your own.

This is more doable than you may think. Just take a few minutes to consider the top five to 10 people in your life or your business life, and then write down the answers to these questions:

• Next to each person’s name, use three words to describe each person (helpful, generous, intelligent, etc.)
• Then, decide whether they ‘give’ or ‘take’ from you.  Two columns—give or take. That’s it.  Decide.
• Now write the qualities you want in an ‘ideal’ friend, business associate, customer.  Create that person.
• Now compare THAT to the list of qualities possessed by the people on your list.  How does it look?  What does it say about you?

Once you determine who’s who and what’s what, you’ll be better able to decide if and how to upgrade the relationship, or whether to change it at all. And remember, this entire exercise does not preclude YOU from being the best friend YOU can be to those around you—those who contribute to your well being, that is. Rate yourself, and then proceed accordingly. Relationships can help or hinder us. Make yours fulfilling, and you and your business will thrive!

The post Are Your Business Relationships Making Sense? appeared first on Donna Saul & Associates.

We’ve recently received many inquiries asking about where companies should focus precious resources? We know times are lean and there is so little room for error. Here are three tips for selling in a tough economy:

1: Mine your existing customer base.

Your best opportunity is in your current customer base. We know you’ve heard this before. But have you really done it?

Common scenario (SOURCE: accenture, The Point, Vol. 4, Issue 4):

• 20% of customers provide 80% of margin
• 85% of margin comes from only 4 products
• More than 50% of the customer base uses only one or two products.

Use this time to meet with EVERY single current and past client. Find out what is happening with them. Look for, and focus on, the areas where you can help them during these tough times. Make sure every customer is aware of every product you offer.

2: Create an economical option.

Times are tough for everyone. Be sure you have accounted for that with your product offer. Do you have an option that takes into account the economic conditions in your market? By doing so, you let your prospects know that you understand their pain and you’re responding to it.

3: Network, Network, Network.

Now is NOT the time to be silent. There may be many in your market who simply cannot enter the buying cycle right now. But that will change. And, when it does…you want to be top of mind. Be sure you are showing up, wherever possible. This is the time you want to canvas the market to build and maintain awareness. While others are cutting back, you will be the one remembered when the dust clears!

Truthfully, these are tactics you should employ no matter the strength of the economy! Still, use this “slower” time to sharpen your skills in these areas, and you will not only survive, but THRIVE!

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