It always amazes me when I have to work hard to market marketing to so many potential clients that believe they should be cutting back on marketing and advertising because of the tough times. Too often, marketing is seen as inessential, wasteful and, worse, unnecessary. In an ideal world, marketing activity would be self supporting, always pay back ten-times what it costs to execute, and be effective in reaching every potential buyer in the appropriate sector all the time. But reality is, marketing activities are driven by several factors, including perceptions of the company, economic forces that drive consumer behavior, and other factors beyond your control.

Time and again, businesses who have defined marketing as wasteful fail to grasp the importance of this essential business function. Because of mediocre marketing efforts that produce little results, they often focus on the cost side of the equation – advertising costs, web site development costs, print collateral costs, etc. They see a marketing budget as a target for cutting costs, and it could mean that they have to make a choice between preserving jobs or marketing. The economy has made all of us work with a smaller pot, and tough decisions have become excruciating. After all, how could you justify spending limited resources on a new campaign when the cost of the campaign includes letting go a valued employee?

Every business plan involves getting customers to pay for a good or service. If you’re unwilling or unable to put forth the resources to achieve this goal, your company may simply cease to exist…Maybe not in the short-term as existing clients can sustain a company for some time, but when the economy recovers, your company may have lost any competitive advantage and market share it worked so hard to acquire or your brand may lose traction all together. Cutting the marketing budget only reduces the opportunities available to build the brand and boost product awareness and memorability in the mind of the consumer, and will reduce market share and profitability in the long run.

Few brands are strong enough to survive without advertising, product promotion and customer service support. Brands are like delicate houseplants - they need attention, support, bolstering, and polishing or they will wither and shrivel to a shadow of their former self. This is not a position you want your corporate brand to be in when the growth engine for the economy accelerates. Many studies conducted by prestigious business publications and university think tanks have come to the same conclusion based on the data they gathered on U.S. companies:

“Those that reduce their presence in their key service markets are in a far worse position in terms of profitability, market share and market competitive presence when the downturn eases and profitability growth returns than those that maintain their marketing activity levels. Those companies that are so bold as to increase marketing activity stand a great chance of taking market share from their less aggressive competitors and can rule the category if the downturn lasts long enough.“

Downgrading the quality of your marketing campaigns and materials.

This mindset will actually cost you both in the short- and long-term. You might save a very small incremental amount on cheaper paper, shorter, smaller brochures, cheaper handouts, smaller trade show giveaways - but the damage you’re doing to your brand and the resulting poor reflection on the company as a whole does far more damage than can ever be repaired by spending those few dollars later to try and fix it. Not to mention shaking the confidence of your customers by giving them a visual representation of how poorly your company is performing! “Gee, they must be in trouble, this looks like cheap junk. Maybe I’d better take my business to the other company that’s likely to be around to support their products down the line,” is the thought you’re promoting by reducing quality in your publicly released materials.

When times get tough, I believe we need to ramp up marketing, providing the market with visual evidence of your corporate strength, your brand leadership, your resilience in the tough market, and the supportive strength you offer for your products and services. Now is the time to not slash your marketing budget or reduce the quality of your materials. Everything you do today will reflect on the health of your company, and cutting here shows the most and helps the least.

Michael Simpson, Director of Marketing and Creative Services for XMARketing (www.xmar.net) has been consulting with businesses for over 15 years. Focused on the needs of small to mid-sized businesses, Michaels specialties include brand strategy, marketing strategy, brand development, marketing efficiency, long-term brand strategy and internet marketing. Michael can be reached at (847) 707– 3507 or msimp@xmar.net .

I know this world is ruled by infinite intelligence. Everything that surrounds us- everything that exists — proves that there are infinite laws behind it. I have managed to tap into the power of the universe through my thoughts and feelings, now I enjoy why I am here and where I am going.

Discovering this intelligence takes us to a higher level not ruled by the past and transcending the encumbrances set by society. True advancement of the human race by focusing on science and the greater universal energy will bring more abundance and happiness than has ever been known to man.

By breaking the chains of organized religions and unorganized governments, we can open a new level for human advancement that puts us all in touch with a real god - ourselves.

Michael Simpson

“If you work just for the money, you’ll never make it, but if you love what you’re doing
and you always put the customer first, success will be yours.” 

RAY KROC, Founder of McDonald’s Corporation

Passion is such an important and essential ingredient, I sometimes wonder how any sales professional could even consider not liking what they sell. Passion may be the most underrated and underutilized ingredient in our recipes either because it is too hard to measure or because no one has bothered to teach the importance of passion in the sales process. 

Selling is about transferring the passion you have for your product or service into the heart of a prospective customer. Passion is a magic ingredient because it isn’t artificial and can’t be faked for a long period of time. It is displayed in sales professionals who genuinely are concerned and want to take the time to serve their customers in whatever manner is necessary. Passion comes from an authentic belief of wanting to help the customer whether things are good or bad. It is at its truest form when things are not going well for either the sales professional or the customer and the sales professional is still willing to serve first and sell second. Having passion does not mean you’re giving up profit, it means you are willing to sacrifice short-term gain, but when you are committed to having passion for your customers, you will achieve a higher level of long-term profit; not only from the customer you’re serving, but also from the repeat business they will bring you.

When you have passion, you will speak with conviction, act with authority, and present with zeal. Passion will compel you to communicate with total confidence and certainty the specific attributes of your product and listen to the concerns of your customers. It is passion that allows any challenge or roadblock in the sale process to be overcome.

Top sales professionals consistently demonstrate characteristics of passion when they take the time to listen to their customer and they attempt to really understand what it is they are looking for. It is displayed not only in the questions that are asked, but also in the tone of voice and body language that are used during a sales presentation and the follow-up after the initial sales call. Sales professionals who have passion are able to create long-term profitable relationships with their customers and consistently benefit from referrals from their existing clients.

Do not create passion based on your product alone. It may be hard to be passionate about certain products, but you can certainly be passionate about what you personally bring to the table, the level of service you as a sales professional provide, the intelligence and knowledge you offer and the satisfaction that you are an expert in your field. You can certainly be passionate about gaining expertise in the art of persuasion and the handling of a wide range of customer dispositions; this will serve you well your entire sales career.

“When you love what you do, you will never work another day in your life.”

- Confucius

Unfortunately in our culture today it seems odd to love what you do for work or to portray the appearance of enjoyment during our working day. When I was a kid growing up work was pretty much defined as not-fun. We grow up with this perception and believe that this is inevitably the way things are.

Successful people win because they love what they do. All of them have a very strong desire to succeed. They have passion for their field, their business. Passion is the single fastest way to spur you to massive success. It is something you love. Something you’re excited about. Something you get up early to work on or to stay up late.

Nothing sells better, faster or stronger than passion. Passion is one of the most powerful weapons in your Recipe; it is an unfair advantage you have over your competitor. Passion for a specific product or service allows you to know and feel more than most people. Your passion will drive you to research and want to learn more about your offering. Passion will allow you hang in there when times are rough or when you are first starting out in the sales profession.

Passion is all around us every day and drives successful people to achieve the seemingly impossible. Bill Gates, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, Jack Canfield, and many others focus on their passion with strong conviction. You must focus on your passion and integrate this powerful weapon into your recipe so you can unleash its power and operate at your sales peak every day. This is when greatness begins to creep into your legacy. Everybody loves someone who is passionate about something. Passion is a secret ingredient in sales of any type.

I had a deep passion to share my years of sales experience with the world. This drove me to write “The Sales Cookbook”. Without passion this would not be possible. It truly is a magic ingredient.

Product and industry knowledge on their own will never close a sale, but used and presented well, they will be a potent ingredient and certainly enhance your perceived value to your prospects and customers. Knowledge is power and for sales professionals, product knowledge can mean more sales. It is difficult to effectively sell to a client if we cannot show how a particular service or product will address their needs.

In order to be seen as a valuable resource for your clients, you have to demonstrate that you not only know and understand your products and the market, but can assist them in making good decisions and provide them with tools to improve their business.

Having a thorough understanding of the products and services you sell will allow you to use different techniques and methods of presenting the product to customers. This knowledge will allow you to recognize and adapt a sales presentation for the various types of customers.

Your knowledge and passion about a product is one of your best selling tools. As you generate excitement for the product, you remove any uncertainty the product may not be the best solution for that customer.

The easiest way to become passionate is to truly believe in the product. If a customer isn’t fully committed to a sale, the difference may simply be the lack of knowledge or passion you have towards the product. Becoming knowledgeable in your product and its uses will help cement that passion and help you overcome objections made by customers by using factual information regarding the product. Being well educated in not only your products, but similar products sold by competitors, allows you to easily counter objections.

Knowledge isn’t everything

While product knowledge is important other ingredients outlined in this book still need to be applied to your recipe. Most customers still buy you first. All the product knowledge in the world won’t help you if the customer doesn’t like, trust or believe in you.

The top sales performers understand the use of knowledge and know that it means nothing if a customer does not trust you. People like to do business with people they like and they like people they can trust. This is achieved by exhibiting a detectable level of compassion and competence stemming from knowledge. This trust is usually created by showing a noticeable level of concern for their needs. When people truly believe you are concerned for them, they tend to think you possess good judgment.

It is important to know all you can about your product or service, but you must present it cautiously so that you don’t ramble on about features or benefits that do nothing for your customer except raise the perceived cost or pricing. Convert the features you present into benefits to create positive mental pictures in your customer’s mind that helps them fit your offering into their needs. Make sure not to use your product knowledge to put down your competitor’s product or service. Instead make professional, logical comparisons that clearly show your product’s superiority.

Sources For Product Knowledge

It is important to understand how a product is made or a service is implemented, how the product or service should and can be used, and what products or services work well together.

What You Need to Know About Your Products or Services

1. History of the product or service
2. Pricing structure and available discounts
3. Models, programs, styles, colors or options available
4. Any special processes you use
5. Product or service delivery/scheduling
6. Engaging the use of the product or service
7. Servicing, warranty and repair information

It may take a while to easily articulate your product knowledge, especially with new products, but over time you’ll become comfortable and confident in providing the correct information to customers. That confidence will pay off in improved sales results and be an important ingredient in your sales success.

I thought this would be an approprate time to remind you of the importance of having a success plan and remind you to stick to it. If you need some motivation as to why you have a success plan just take a look at the following statistics:

3% of Americans are independently wealthy. They can live off the income from their investment capital.
10% live comfortably, the way most of us would like to live.
60% barely make a living. They live from one paycheck to the next.
27% need support from others or the government just to survive.

What is the difference between these groups? The top three percent have written success plans. The next ten percent have their plans in their mind but they are not specific or written. The next eighty seven percent have no plans except to get to the end of the day or week or to the next paycheck.

Now certainly, financial income is not the only indicator of a life well lived, but it is certainly a visible and measurable one. Regardless of the indicators you use, the key is to recognize that those who are living extraordinarily well have written success plans. Do you? Do you have a plan to guide you for the next 12 months?

Let me ask you this! Would you build your dream home without architectural plans? No! You need those plans to make it right, to make it the way you envisioned. So why do so many people go through life without a plan or blueprint for success?

What will this year look like? How will you and/or your team hold each other accountable for the plans you set? Will you allow procrastination, fear or denial to rob you of your best year yet? Remember, the significant difference between those who are barely making it and those who live what we enviously might call a “charmed life” is that the top 3% have written, specific success plans.

Only a fool keeps doing what they’ve always done and expects a different result; so if you’re ready to stop procrastinating and start producing results, I encourage you to take action now. Join me by creating a written success plan that can propel you higher and farther in the coming year by taking the time now! If you have been “meaning” to take the time to plan, take the first step now, and just “do it”. Even if you already have a success plan, schedule the time to review, renew and refresh it. A year from now, you could be enjoying greater joy, success and freedom than you ever dreamed possible.

If you need help building a blueprint for your success and a solid plan for 2009 or you would like to have a coach that can hold you accountable, then you should contact Positive Success International today to get started now. What are you waiting for? Go here and join our success: www.positivesuccessnow.com

“There are no secrets in sales. Instead, there are ingredients that can be identified, learned and embedded into daily routines. Do the right things and you will enjoy excellent results.–”MICHAEL SIMPSON

 I first started my sales career in 1984 on the Island of Hawaii.  I was in the Marines stationed at the air wing in Kaneohe Bay.  I worked in logistics and supply for the 1^st Marine Brigade Service Support Group.  I knew nothing about sales except that I believed I could sell anything.  I was just 19 years old, and I had a strong attraction to business and sales.  One day, I was talking with a friend and he stressed interest in starting a part time business. We came up with a plan to look for a business that we could do part-time that would not interfere with our duties in the Marine Corps.  The next night, I was driving and I saw a large paving company putting the yellow stripes on a parking lot.  Then it hit me, wow this is a perfect fit. This was an easy business to start because we didn’t need a lot of expensive equipment or materials, we could work at night when the pavement was cooler, businesses would be closed so the cars were gone and finally, it was perfect for a two man crew.  After some research we were ready to launch our new business J&S Parking Lot Striping. We determined that I would be the salesman and with absolutely no knowledge of sales I set out to make my first sale for our new company.

My enthusiasm was beaming on my first night out as a salesman.  I quickly learned my first lesson in prospecting, Who are my customers? This is where I got lucky. It was real easy to identify a potential customer by visually inspecting and determining who was in need of our service. My plan was to simply approached the business owner with a contract in my hand and asked if I could give them a quote to restripe their lot. I was doing what I should be doing as a salesperson and I didn’t even know that. 

The third business owner I approached was very impressed by my eagerness to help him and asked if we could get the job done that night and pick up a check in the morning.  That feeling I had at that moment of my first sale is exactly why I am in sales today. Without any training and with little knowledge of my product I did what most sales professionals are trying to do on a daily basis and that is.  Make a sale!

This is the basis for ingredient one, getting back to basics. So how do you get back basics? Read on!

When sales are robust and things are going well, there is no reason to fix things. When things go wrong, when you feel the walls collapsing around you, it’s time to get back to basics and hit the reset switch.

Selling success is measured in terms of deals or products sold as a direct result of personal selling efforts.  For this reason it is important to fully understand the selling process and the basic activities required. Whether it is convincing someone to make a purchase, accept a point-of-view, change attitudes or an infinite number of other behavioral decisions, it all comes down to persuasive communication or selling.

The selling process is a set of basic activities undertaken to successfully obtain an order and begin building long-term customer relations.  The basic activities outlined below apply to all forms of selling and can be adapted to most selling situations.

It should be noted that while we present these activities in an order that is suggestive of a step-by-step approach, in many selling situations this will not be the case.  Additionally, salespeople often find circumstances in which all activities are required but the order these are carried out may be disrupted.  For instance, salespeople are often confronted with a buyer who is resistant to making a purchase even before the salesperson has made a presentation. This will likely force the salesperson to adjust his or her selling process (see “being a chameleon” in chapter 4). 

As you can see, the selling process above will require multiple interacting ingredients that combined, will help you attain the ultimate goal in selling. The purpose of “Hitting The Reset Switch” is to examine your sales approach and focus on building positive ingredients that compliment you, your personality and apply to the selling process. Don’t try to be someone else or shoehorn your sales approach to mimic the top dogs. You become a top dog with your own set of ingredients that fit your values and beliefs. The Sales Cookbook will help you obtain the ingredients necessary to propel you into sales greatness and truly become a sales professional.

Your desire to achieve sales greatness starts with a commitment to analyze every ingredient with an open minded approach. Then, you will mentally set the stage to strategically implement each ingredient into your recipe. Finally, you will tie all the ingredients together into one award winning sales professional.

It’s no secret: to get ahead, you have to promote yourself. But for most people, the thought of promoting themselves and their accomplishments seems unprofessional. Many people that I have coached feel that they quite good at their professions, making good money and that they shouldn’t have to market themselves.

If thoughts like these often cross your mind, ask yourself this — who are the biggest names in your industry or profession and how did you get to know about those people and their work? Did you hear them speak or see them interviewed, Did you read an article or book they had written, hear them on the radio, learn about them on the internet? The point is that these well-known people became well-known because they followed a path of Self Promotion and shared their experience, expertise, stories, and ideas with a wider audience than just their co-workers and associates. You know about them and their work because they marketed themselves through Self Promotion. And I’ll bet it never occurred to you to call them unprofessional for doing it.

Real Self Promotion can never be unprofessional. The reason we get a bad feeling from overt self-promoters is that, most of the time, their efforts are insincere and not authentic. It’s clear that they’re not building a relationship with us but only looking for the quick payoff, whether that’s a sale, a vote, or a positive performance evaluation. They are pretending to be our friend to get something they want. Real Self Promotion extends beyond a targeted objective or goal. It gives people a reason to associate themselves with us, for the long term. It’s genuine and authentic — more like making friends than selling something.

What separates you from everyone else who does what you do is the particular value you bring to your clients, customers, or users. The same applies to your self marketing efforts — people tune out if you’re just blathering on about how great you are. Instead, apply your particular expertise in demonstrable ways — by adding insightful points to a discussion or blog post comments, by creating entertaining and informative promotional spots, etc.  If you are telling people something that adds value to their lives, there’s no reason to feel as if you’re intruding. Stand up tall and show that you have faith in yourself, your abilities, and your work. After all, if you don’t have confidence in yourself, why should anyone else?

Showing off your work doesn’t have to sound like, “Boy! Aren’t I great?” It doesn’t have to contain even a hint of bragging. There are a host of very dignified and appropriate ways to let a wider audience know how good you are without ever saying so. Here are the core 7 that Positive Success focuses on:

Public Speaking - Appearing as a speaker allows you to broadcast your expertise with three different audiences — the people who attend your talk, the people who are invited by the sponsoring organization but can’t attend, and the people you tell about it before and after. If standing in front of a room makes you too nervous, serve on a panel of experts instead. You’ll get to sit behind a table and speak from notes.

Writing - Putting your expertise in writing and sharing it with publications your target audience reads is a powerful — and very professional — way to let more people know about your unique talents. Submit your articles to both print publications and web sites that serve your niche and watch your visibility grow.

 Media interviews - Being interviewed by magazines, newspapers, or on radio and television can spread the word quickly about your expertise and capabilities. Landing interviews is not that hard to do if you remember to start small. Begin by approaching easy targets like association newsletters, neighborhood newspapers, and local talk radio.

Social Networks - One of the fastest growing self promotion tools on the internet is Social Networks. I have found that the acceptance of self-promotion within the social media space is increasing especially in sites like linked In. But that doesn’t mean it is easy. The goal of anyone—be it individual or marketer—is still to reach the point where your fans/readers/subscribers become your evangelists.

Testimonials - Whenever you do a good job for a client, ask them to write you a simple thank you note describing what you did to make them happy. Then make their words available on your web site, brochure, or other marketing materials. Let them tell others about your value, and you won’t have to say it yourself.

Web Sites - A web site can be one of the most rewarding Self Promotion tools you can use. It shows that your up-to-date, gives you instant credibility and exposes you to a global marketplace. Most importantly, prospects can get instant access anytime to your information and examples of your work.

Products - Packaging your work into merchandise that prospective clients can take home and sample gives them a compelling way to discover your real value. Products like ebooks, white papers, and audio recordings allow you to showcase your expertise and increase your credibility. They can often be advertised more widely than your services can, giving you another avenue for getting your name known.

Pick just one of these ideas to pursue and make a plan to showcase what you can do for a wider audience. Self-promotion is about building a long-term reputation for yourself. Establishing trust and respect in the marketplace. This is not something you do in a few months. So you need to get some work habits that will allow you to move self-promotion from a project type thing to a lifestyle type thing