Do you care what people think of you?

Do you know (or care) what others think of you?

A few years ago I was meeting with an attorney to help him grow sales. I asked him, “Why did you choose to meet with me?”

His answer, “Because I called four people I know who know you and they say you are the real deal.”

I was surprised by his answer and did not give it much thought.

Since then my client have introduced me to their associates as “The Real Deal.”

I did a speech to a local chamber and the chamber CEO introduced me to 100 business owners as “The Real Deal.”

Several people I met in the audience asked me how I came to be called “The Real Deal.”

I realized I created a brand. I did not do it with intention, but I have a brand none the less.

I went to my mastermind (a group of business owners that support each other) and asked their opinion about being called “The Real Deal.”.

Here is what they said, “If people call you that, it is OK? If you gave yourself that name it is not OK.”

Since we all have a brand (reputation) in our market, whether we created one with intent or not, do you know your brand? If not why not? This missing piece of information could be costing you thousands in new business.

Do you know what your brand is?

Does it support you or hinder you in creating new customers?

How do you find out what your brand is?

And most importantly, how do you market your brand for your best and highest use?

Let me know what you think of my brand and let me know what your brand is or the brand you are trying to create. You can leave me a comment on my website. Here is the link: http://wp.me/p1xMSz-iW

The Real Deal

Ron Finklestein
www.businessgrowthexperience.com
ron@businessgrowthexperience.com

To learn more on how to start building your brand download the free report: Six Questions Your Prospects Want Answered Before They Buy at www.businessgrowthexperience.com.

Expand Your Box (ESI)

Enlightened Self-Interest.

I created a concept called Enlightened Self-Interest (ESI).  ESI means to understand what is in my best interest with the intent to choose and take action. It allows you to get clear on what is important to you and marshal your resources to focus your time, energy and money to accomplish great things (for you). This concept is documented in more details in the book, Make a Difference: From Being Successful to Being Significant, available on amazon.com.

To accomplish anything important in our lives we have to do things have not done before. We need to solicit feedback from others to better understand our impact. We need feedback systems in place to allow us to self-correct. We need to understand how our actions and behaviors impacts others. When we do these things we do not get out of box – we expand our box!

It is impossible to get out of our box. We can only expand our box, make it larger. This expands our visions and allows us to see things differently; to see possibilities where none existed before. This is what a leader does. A leader create the vision (ESI), sells that vision, communicates that vision and helps others to see the bigger picture; whether in sales, personal development, business growth or personal growth. A leader helps others expand their personal box (vision of the world.)

When you embrace your ESI, you expand. Many time your ESI changes and you expand further. You might start out solving a specific problem (I need to grow sales). You might then grow your ESI into a strategy (this is how we will do things.) Ideally your ESI will evolve into your purpose (I will change the lives of one million people.) It is, as most things, an evolution an expanding, a becoming.

So what’s in it for you? The more selfish you become in executing your ESI, the more you expand you personally. You create a larger view of the world.

And…

As you expand yourself you are able to give more to others, to expand their box, to grow their perception. You can do this because you are seeing things differently, thinking differently and acting differently.

As human being we are driven to continually prove to ourselves the vastness of our influence and connectedness. You realize your boundaries are nearly limitless. Every business owner wants to expand his business, every mother wants their children to expand and become all them can be, each of use wants to know we are leaving a mark and our time spent (in business, in life, in a relationship) was purposeful.

Explore your ESI and give yourself permission to expand your boundaries and see who you really are and what you are capable of.  This is about personal leadership, business leadership and community leadership.

Enjoy!

Ron Finklestein

www.businessgrowthexperience.com
ron@businessgrowthexperience.com
330-990-0788

The Definitive Sales Playbook: How to Grow Sales and Create Lifetime Customers

The Definitive Sales Playbook: How to Grow Sales and Create Lifetime Customers

Dr. Tony Alessandra and I are proud to announce our newest book  The Definitive Sales Playbook is now available on Amazon.  Brian Tracy was kind enough to write the Foreword.

The book was the outcome of a sales membership site Tony and I built with the help of TruNorth. The book reflects the different modules available in the site. The book is designed to be help new sales reps increase sales through the use of best practices, remind seasoned sales reps what they did to be successful and help take existing sales reps to a whole new level in their sales performance.

If you are interested in our sales training or coaching program please contact Ron Finklestein. To learn more about Ron Finklestein  or Dr. Tony Alessandra just click on the highlighted links.

I included the Table of Content for your review:

Introduction

Nine Behaviors of Successful Salespeople

The Platinum Rule ®   — Treating Others the Way They Want to be Treated!

Building And Maintaining Rapport Throughout The Connecting Phase

Building And Maintaining Rapport Throughout The Exploring Phase

Building And Maintaining Rapport Throughout The Collaboration Phase

Building And Maintaining Rapport Throughout The Confirming Phase

Building And Maintaining Rapport Throughout The Assuring Phase

Negative Preparation Leads to Positive Results!

The Power of Testimonials

Lead Generation with Social Media

Blogging as a Sales Tool

What is the number one thing that business owners want from their sales rep?

Behaviors of Non-Performing Sales vs. High-Performing Sales Reps

Why Goals Fail

How to Build Trust Quickly

Why People Won’t Buy From You!

Question #1: “What do you do?”

Question #2: “How are you different?” or “What’s in it for me?”

Question #3: “Why are you the right and safe choice?”

Question #4: “What do you do better than anyone else in the world (in your industry)?”

Question #5: “Why is that important to my prospects?”

Question #6: “Why buy from me?” or “Prove it.”

Sustaining Motivation

Bite-Sized Training

Selling by the Numbers

Identifying Lucrative Prospects

Identifying Your Best Prospects

Incoming Prospecting

Visibility Strategies for Incoming Prospecting

Prospecting

Asking for Referrals

Knowing Your Competitive Advantages

Your Competitive Advantage Statement

Contacting by Phone—Key Telephone Skills

Using the Phone as a Prospecting Tool

Contacting Prospects Online

In-Person Contacts

Common Up-Front Objections

Skills For Responding To Resistance

Three Steps to Successful Sales

Identify Customer Needs

Question Topic Categories

Exploring Important Topics

Ten Tips for More Effective Questioning

Identifying Success Criteria

Ten Commandments of Powerful Listening

Active Listening

Types of Decision Makers—Understanding the Cast of Characters

Features versus Benefits

Five Key Elements of Presentations

Proposing Solutions

Price Concerns

Product Concerns

Postponement Concerns

Product-Price-Postponement Concerns Worksheet

Negotiating Tips

Confirming The Sale Signals

Benefit Summary

Stairs of Customer Loyalty

Commitment To Your Customers

Effective Communication With Customers

Enhancing the Customer Relationship

Thirteen Ways To Assure Customer Satisfaction

Monitoring & Measuring Success Criteria

The Annual Check-Up

Expanding Your Sales

Time Analysis Questions

Return On Time Invested

ROTI Account Classification

Appendix A — Quick Reference Guide

Building Rapport Throughout the Sales Process

About Dr. Tony Alessandra

About Ron Finklestein

 

Click here to purchase the book  The Definitive Sales Playbook.

Click here to learn more about our sales training and sales coach

 

To your success,

 

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788

 

4 Most Powerful Words in the English Language

Four Most Powerful Words in the English Language!

I recently did a radio interview on blog talk radio. We talked about how to use the four most powerful words in the English Language to grow sales and increase revenues.   I wanted to share the broadcast with you. Please give a listen and post your comments. Here is the link:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kurtsteelelive/2013/08/09/4-most-powerful-words-in-the-english-language

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788

Ron @ businessgrowthexperience.com

Check out my membership site and get your free download. got to http://www.businessgrowthexperience.net

Why you don’t want to move away from pain?

Don’t move away from pain?

Many people decide to make a change. Change is good.

The problem I have seen is that they people move away from want they don’t want –pain, not towards what they do want. This approach causes problems with long-term motivation.

For example, if I try on my clothes and notice they are a bit snug, I might decide to drop a few pounds. The desired outcome is for the cloths to fit better.  As a result, I decide to move away from wearing uncomfortable clothes.

As I lose weight and the clothes start feeling comfortable again, the tendency for me is to stray away from what works and start eating the junk that made me fat to start with. This happens because as I move away from pain (tight-fitting clothes,) the motivation is not as strong (because there is not as much pain because the clothes are starting to fit better.)  As I move away from pain of tight-fitting clothes, I think it is ok to stray and again eat food that are not good for me.

If we take that same example and move toward our goals of achieving and maintaining our ideal weight (say 200 lbs.,) as our clothes start fitting better, we are motivated to maintain the changes that helped move us in the right direction, making it easy to stay on the diet and resist temptation to start eating junk. Since we are not moving from pain (though the pain is what started the change), we are moving toward a specific outcome (weighting 200 lbs.) we can continue along the path that is working without worrying about slipping back into the old behavior the caused us to gain weight.

How does this concept apply to sales and business?  

Let’s discuss cold calling as an example. If we focus on the possibility of rejection, it will be difficult to make the call. Let’s shift our focus on why we need to make the call. One of my clients would rather lay off an employee that pick up the phone and solicit new business. Once he got clear on “why” he was picking up the phone (to provide a great living for his family,) He was able to solicit enough business to generate more proposals in 30 days they he did in the prior five years. We needed him to focus on what he wanted, not on what he did not want.

Try it. Pick something that is hard for you and focus on the positive you will experience when you perform the action. Stay focused on the positive. Watch how motivated you become. Watch how much easier it is to stay focused.

I invite you to try out our www.businessgrowthexperience.net/ron  membership site. Our goal with this site is provide actionable contents to help you grow sales, increase revenues and retain happy customers. You get a two-week trial for only $1. If you chose not to continue the free gift is yours as a thank you for trying us out. Why reinvent the wheel. For only $1 you can learn and implement best practices that work. Go to www.businessgrowthexpeience.net/ron to learn more.

Ron Finklestein
www.businessgrowthexperience.com
ron@businessgrowthexpeirence.com
330-990-0788

Are you being disrespectful (and losing business) and you don’t know why?

Are you being disrespectful (and losing business) and you don’t know why?

If you wonder why you are losing business, the story below may be useful. I run several groups call the Business Growth Experience (www.businessgrowthexperience.com). During one group I mentioned how frustrated I am with contractor not showing up on time or not showing up at all and not letting me know. My specific comment was “if I am not yet a customer how will they treat me when I am a customer?”

This lead to a discussion of how disrespectful it is to be late. When you are late you are telling me that I am not important, you do not respect my time and effectively you do not respect me. Each member of the Business Growth Experience talked about how difficult it is to be on time and one gentleman stated, “when I am late I am not honoring who I am, I am not in sync with my values of honesty, respect and dignity towards myself. With that said, I am almost always late and people think nothing of it.”

Have we reached a point where we have no respect for our time or the time of others? I realize that people run late, do not returning call (people I know) or respond to emails, are not necessarily the people I want to do business with. I decided I would not do business with any contractor who was late, did not deliver the proposal when they said they would or did not show, even if they had a good reason (without a call).

I do not think I am too different from the average business owner. I do not have time to waste. I want to associate with people who value my time as much as they value their own time.

How much business is this costing you when you are late? What message are you sending your prospect, associate or friend?

To Your Business Growth,

Ron Finklestein

330-990-0788

ron@ businessgrowthexperience.com

 

Food Almost Killed Me and my Business

This is a true story and I struggled with sharing it. It is confession time. For years I was sick: migraines, fatigue, joint pain, gas, bloating and the list goes one. I knew I would die (I am totally serious here) if I did not get this under control.  Running my business (and my life) was a desperate act of pure will power. For over two years everything hurt. I did not have the energy to try to grow my business. It took all my energy to get out of bed in the morning; it was all I could do was maintain some semblance of a normal life. I just could not understand what was going on.

This is not an exaggeration.

Let me give you the short version of the story. I tell you this not for sympathy but to help you understand the value of good health in growing a healthy business, enjoying life and making the most of every situation.

I took three naps a day.

I eliminated all activities except the bare necessaries of meeting only with customers.

I woke in the morning with so much pain I dreaded getting out of bed.

I had two spiritual visions in six month that I was dead and my wife was in mourning.

I was forty pounds overweight.

I experience four migraines a week.

The muscle and joint pain was so bad I did not want to move.  

I was not absorbing the medicine I was on and needed larger and larger doses. Nothing helped!

Emotionally, I was tired, depressed, frustrated and angry about the situation.

Fortunately, I found a doctor who helped me understand I was allergic to gluten in wheat. As I got better and tested other foods, I found I also had a negative reaction to soy, corn, dairy, eggs, and rice products. In the last 12 months my diet has changed to mostly meat and vegetables.

Because of the way I eat and how careful I am about what I eat and potential of cross contamination, I have been laughed at, ridiculed, and made fun of. Most waiters and waitresses are not familiar with people who deal with this problem and they think I am being ridicule. As a result, I tend to avoid most social occasion where food is the reason for people to get together: chamber lunches, business lunches, breakfast lunches, etc. I am tired of explaining. I am tired of being the only one at the table of eight paying for food but not eating and having people wonder why.

As a result of this dietary change, my life has changed for the best. I am happy again. I have energy. All my physical problems are gone. My relationship with my wife is great and I now can smile again. My hair is gradually changing color (from gray to brown) and I dropped 40 pounds.  I actually started exercising again after 15 years.  

I enjoy meeting people again. I am actively prospecting for new client and I am enjoying my work as a sales coach and trainer again.

I did not write this post to complain but to ask you to think about the food you eat. Is it helping you? Is it sapping your energy? Does it give you gas? Is it making you miserable? What impact is the food you are eating having on your energy and relationships? It is hard to have a good life and a strong business when you don’t feel well. For the first time in my life I finally understand the value of a proper diet and power of eating the right food.  

Because it can take from a few minutes to a few days to understand if food you eat is giving you problems, it is hard to make the connection. Keep a food diary is a great place to start.

I always sign of my blog post with, “to your success.” Today, I will sign off with to your health.

Ron Finklestein

www.businessgrowthexperience.com

ron @ businessgrowthexperience.com       

50% of the People Will Hate You!

50% of the People Will Hate You!

I am reading John Smoltz’s autobiography. If you are not familiar with Smoltz, he played professional baseball for over 20 years. The book focuses on the last year he played.

Smoltz is a very competitive individual. He did not like to lose, He loved playing for Atlanta and he would do what was necessary to help his team win (as long as it was legal, moral and ethical.)

What is compelling about his story is that he was not afraid to fail.

When he failed in a game (gave up 8 runs in 2/3rd of an inning) he would go back to the bullpen and make the necessary adjustment. He would take the changes he tested in the bullpen and implement them in the game. Many players would make the adjustments in the bullpen and never implement them in a game situation. His point is that these changes must be implemented or why do them.

The book is about his ability to fail forward to achieve success.

I see the same thing with my sales coaching. Many people learn the material but they never apply it. They are afraid to fail.

I remember when I wrote my first book. I waited for six months after it was ready before I released it. I was afraid of what others would think. I finally released it. That started a creative streak that lasted five years. I wrote four books in five years: Two of them went international. That would not have happened if I let my fear of failure control my behavior.

As a result of that work, I team up with TruNorth and Dr. Tony Alessandra to create a sales training web site that will be available in late January 2013. That would not have happened if I did not get over my fear of failure. Here is the press release!

Fear of failure is simply a belief. It is a belief that you can release if you choose to. It simply means you acknowledge the fear and do it anyway. As Dan Kennedy once said, “50% of the people will love you, 50% of the people will hate you. Ignore people who hate you and focus on the people who love you.”

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein

330-990-0788

Go to www.businessgrowthexperience.com and download your free report. “Six Questions Your Prospects Want Answered Before They Buy”

 

This is why I do what I do!

This is an unsolicited email from a client in my sales training program. It helped me to remember why I do what I do.

Good Morning Ron;

I hope you and your family had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  I wanted to take  a few moments out and write to you because I had one of; if not the best holiday I have EVER had.  I was sitting here this morning reflecting over my weekend trying to figure out what was different this year so I could recreate it for Christmas! My realization is I was what was different this year.

To give you a brief history I come from a very broken home.  I have actually been on my own since I was 16 years old ( I left on my birthday) I had a lot of abuse both mental and physical from my parents and step-parents alike.  My father was an addict (recovering since 2003) and my mother is still an alcoholic, a functioning one but an alcoholic none the less

I love my parents but one could say I wasn’t dealt the best hand in life.  I have always tried very hard to look at things in a positive light and honestly I just never wanted to end up like my family.  I have always wanted to be the “one who got away” as corny as that sounds.  The way I see it is some people get parents and families who guide them in the ways of life. I figure I was given people who showed me what NOT to do in life.

Enough of that…Going through the program I really have been changing.  I have changed the way I am speaking and most importantly the way I have been listening.  I have learned that my mother is a socializing socializer to the extreme it is her show and if you just sit back and watch the show for a bit it doesn’t drive you crazy and she tends to tone it down some,  if she thinks she is getting the attention she so clearly needs.

My father is a director to the Hitler extreme and as long as he feels he is running the show life gets A LOT easier .  So in short thank you Ron.  Thank you for bringing some calm to my life and an understanding of my parents that I have never been able to have.

 

Thank you for the email

Ron Finklestein
here is the program this person is in http://www.businessgrowthexperience.com
330-990-0788
ron @ Akris.net

Influence vs. Manipulation

I recently wrote an article on the difference between influence vs. manipulation.  I posted it on  http://www.businessgrowthexperience.com 

Here is the link: http://businessgrowthexperience.com/?p=829

At the end of the article is a link to a PDF entitled, How to Build Rapport with Anyone in 90 Seconds or Less. Consider it a gift to you, my readers. You will not have to provide any information. You can just download it.

To your success

Ron Finklestein

ron@akris.net

330-990-0788

Basics of Healthy Sales Relationships

Basics of Healthy Sales Relationships

Nothing can bring more satisfaction to a business owner than knowing they have a healthy relationship with their customer and vendors.

And, of course, as many people find out, nothing can bring so much pain as a broken relationship.

Yes, relationships make the world go ‘round. For better or for worse. There are basics that govern most human relationships, and these basics are what I want to cover below. So here is my list of the three essentials that I believe make up the basics of healthy business relationships.

1.      Honesty. Honesty is the backbone of a great business relationship. If you do not trust your customers how can you expect them to trust you? I recently had an experience where the vendor really messed up and instead of telling me the truth and letting me decide how to respond, he kept the issues from me. Things got progressive worst until we split on less than friendly terms. I would have preferred to salvage the relationship if possible.

Communication is so important because it is the vehicle that allows us to verbalize what is inside us and enables it to connect with another person. Isn’t communication amazing? One person is feeling one thing, and through communication, another person can find that out and feel it, too—amazing. And this is a vital goal in good relationships—to communicate, to tell each other what we are thinking and what we are feeling. It enables us to make a connection. Sometimes we are the one speaking, and other times we are listening. Either way, the central tenet is communication for the sake of building the relationship and making it stronger. And here’s what’s exciting: If we just communicate, we can get by. But if we communicate skillfully, we can work miracles!

It helps if we can communication our message in a way our customers understand. There are six questions our prospects wants answered before they buy from us. Go to the Business Growth Experience web site  and download this report. This report documents the basic communications our prospects and customers want from us.

2.      Integrity. Do what you say you will do, when you say you will do it. Nothing is more frustrating than making a plan based on the action of someone else and then at the last-minute finding out they did not do it. Be respectful of your customers and business partners and expect the same in return. People make decisions on what you say and do; sometimes very important decisions. We need to respect that.

I once had a vendor who never returned calls. I could not make any plans and any decisions that were made always changed because of his lack of follow through. Needless to say that relationship did not last long. If he had only responded and followed through things would have been great.

3.      Common Sense. Every relationship must have a win-win component. If either person in the relationship feels taken advantage of, feelings are hurt and rash decisions are made.  Jim Rohn calls this common purpose. Think about how many friends you have met through the years while working on a common purpose. With common purpose there is something in it for everyone. You had that strong common bond of purpose that brought you together and held you together. Working together, building together, failing and succeeding together—all while pursuing a common purpose—that is what relationships are made of. Find people with whom you have common purposes and sow the seeds of great relationships, and then reap the long-lasting benefits.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
www.businessgrowthexperience.com
330-990-0788

 

Why People do not Trust You!

Why People do not Trust You!

People do not trust you!

Why should they?

There is so much information available and much of it is junk.

How do we get through the unsolicited info?

How to we manage the onslaught of information and determine what is real?

How do we know the info is the most current?

How do we deal with the contradiction?

Unless you can help your prospects and clients answer he above questions they will never trust you.

There are six questions your prospects want answered before they buy from you.

Go here www.businessgrowthexperience.com and download my free report that not only helps you define those six questions, it will help you answer them.

Ron Finklestein

330-990-0788 ron@ businessgrowthexperience.com

Want to learn more call for your free assessment!

Sales Success is an Inside Job

Do you wonder about the how successful sales person becomes successful?

Tim Connor, in his book Soft Selling, discussed how average sales people spent 2% of their time in self-improvement and successful sale reps spent an average of 10% of their time in personal development.

In this post, Selling is an Inside job, the author suggest lack of time spent in personal development is communicated to the prospects in whys we do not really understand but we all have experience.

What message are you sending to you prospect without realizing it and how is impacting your sales?

 

Ron Finklestein
www.businessgrowthexperience.com
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

Business Growth Experience Update

This is different from my normal blog post.

Frankly, I just wanted to share some good news. Today we want to bring you up to speed on all the changes and good things that have happened and how they affect you and your business.

Our newest Product: Business Growth Experience Sales Rainmaker Program

We have spent the last 10 years helping some businesses grow sales and solve a variety of business problems. We still do that and we added a new product to help you. In addition to Business Growth Experience memberships site, marketing programs, workshops, seminars and group coaching, we added the Business Growth Experience Sales Rainmaker training program. This program is designed to make you more successful by helping you to grow sales, increase revenues and shorten your sales cycle. We are so confident this program will work for you we offer a 100% Return on Investment guarantee. To learn more call Ron Finklestein at 330-990-0788 / ron@businessgrowthexperience.com or attend one of our executive briefings.

What Others Say Who Have Been Involved in The Business Growth Experience

“Before the Business Growth Experience we were averaging 2.7 new clients per month. After working with the Business Growth Experience we are averaging 7 new clients a month. In one month we paid for your service.” Ron Conte, Akron Payroll & Tax

Executive Briefings – Business Growth Experience Sales Rainmaker Program

To roll out the Business Growth Experience Sales Rainmaker Program, we are conducting several executive briefings. Here is what you can expect to learn:

  • Three ways to increase sales in any business
  • The six reasons your prospects do not buy from you
  • The seven expectations your customers have of you
  • The single biggest sales issues we must address and why it is important
  • Learn how to use social media as one tool to generate leads and grow sales
  • What you can do to grow sales now
  • Why marketing is the critical and usually missing first step in a sales process for small business owners
  • How to make your customer feel you are the right and safe choice
  • And so much more…

If you are in Summit County, go here to see our schedule: http://becomeasalesrainmaker.eventbrite.com.

If you live in Cuyahoga County (East Side) go here http://solonbge.eventbrite.com.

More Good News

Tom Schroth has joined the Business Growth Experience as a trainer specifically for the Business Growth Experience Sales Rainmaker Program. Tom’s background encompasses a broad range of experience including franchising, small business start-ups and work in corporate America. Holding a degree in Marketing and Business Administration with 20+ years of Entrepreneurship, Tom is often described as a Teacher / Trainer with the soul of a Sales Person and the heart of an Entrepreneur. As a coach and consultant he brings the Best Practices of corporations, personal experience and “outside the box” creative thinking to come up with effective unique solutions. Tom will be facilitating the Sales Rainmaker Program and the Business Growth Experience throughout Cleveland and Northeast Ohio. Tom can be contacted at tom@wboardgroup.com and 440-836-4211.

Next month we will be announcing a new training for Stark County. Stay tuned.

49 Marketing Secrets (THAT WORK)

Ron Finklestein’s book 49 Marketing Secrets (THAT WORK) to Grow Sales continues to sell internationally. We recently receive a contract from a publishing house in mainland China to sell the Chinese translation of the book. It is exciting to have the book exposed to over one billion people.

49 Marketing Secrets is currently sold in Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, India, The Czech Republic, The United States and now China. To order the book from Amazon just click here

Small Business Talk Radio

Ron Finklestein has been asked by long time small business talk radio host Dale Stefancic to co-host Small Business Talk Radio.  We are on every Wednesday from 4:30- 5:30 PM on 1330 on the AM dial or through the Internet at WELW.com (press the listen now button.) We work hard at showcasing local business owners and dealing with important business topics in the small business market. Please join us and let us know what topics you are interested in hearing about. Email me at ron@businessgrowthexperience.com with your suggestions. During the month of August we are going to talk about finding the money. We will have a banker, third party financing representative and a chief financial officer talk about how to find money in your business.

Are you Proud to be in Sales?

It took me many years to fully appreciate the power of being in sales. When I am selling, I am proud of what I do because selling is a profession where I can change the life of people I work with, feel good about it and get paid for it. I hope you feel the way. If not call me and let’s talk because anyone who is not proud of their product or service will struggle.   See more in our latest blog post.

Our Latest Blog Post (Why is Sales So Hard?)

Selected Business of the Month! How to Save Money!

I just meet Joe Campbell. Joe runs a business call the Buckeye Xchange. The Buckeye Xchange does business through barter. He has a good story and you will learn how to grow your business and save money at the same time. Check it out: http://www.buckeyebarterexchange.com . Tell him Ron sent you. If you prefer a person to talk to you can reach Joe at 330-659-0225. There are over 200 businesses already participating.

 

Regards,
Ron Finklestein
ron@businessgrowthexperience.com
www.businessgrowthexperience.com (download your fr.e.e. report Six Questions Your Prospects Want Answered BEFORE They Buy From You)

Just Show Up – Just Do What You Said You Would Do!

Just Show Up – Just Do What You Said You Would Do!

I was soliciting estimates to have an area paved. I called several contractors and many scheduled times and did not show. Several showed but did not provide an estimate. Several were late. Several seemed uninterested when they were there. Others wanted me to feel like they were doing me a favor by showing up. Of the estimates I received one was 90% higher than all the rest (and he was the one I wanted to do the work).

Because of the confusion and the differences in price, I went online and found an estimating piece of software and put the numbers in to see what I might expect to pay. The software came up with a specific price. This was interesting because two of the companies were within $200 of this estimate. The one I selected made some valuable suggestions (like draining the roof run off under the concrete to avoid ice buildup during the winter.) He was the only one who suggested this. But the reason I selected him was because he showed up, demonstrated his knowledge and experience with the suggestion of running drains under the concrete and he listened.

My wife has her list of things she wants to do during her life. One is to drive some heavy equipment. I mentioned this to some of the contractors who took the time to ask me some questions. Some thought it was cute, some thought it was a great idea and others did not give me time to ask the question. They measured the area and left. When I mentioned this to the company I selected, he made a wonderful suggestion to make the experience more valuable to my wife. That told me he not only embraced the idea but wanted to help me made my wife’s request come true.

Here is the lessons learned when you are on a sales call:

1. Show up when you say you will be there. Being late is a sign of disrespect. You are saying my time is not important.

2. Do what you said you would do. Provide and estimate or at least tell me you are not interested. Don’t tell me you will provide an estimate and then not do that. I have decision to make and my time is valuable.

3. Demonstrate your knowledge by the questions you ask not by talking at me and telling me stuff I really don’t need or want to know. Respect my time. If you must tell me at least tell me why it is important to the decision-making process.

4. Listen to the prospect. You do not know why people are doing what they are doing. Make them feel important because you asked questions and listened. I believe, all things being equal, this is the most important.

5. This applies to all business owners not just construction personal and estimators I can tell you when this concrete provider is finished, I will be very happy to recommend him to others and do what I can to help him grow his business.

Business Growth Facilitator

Ron Finklestein

330-990-0788

Ron @ businessgrowthfaciltator.com

Are you untouchable

Are you Untouchable?

In January 2003 The Cleveland Plain Dealer ran this headline – “Ohio lost 200,000 manufacturing jobs”. They blamed competition from India and China.

In a recent article, Business Week discussed how Call Centers are being sent off shore, sending 10s of thousands of jobs overseas. Dell, Citigroup, Microsoft, General Electric and others major corporations now have oversea call centers.

Microsoft and GE have one of the world’s most productive research and development centers in India

Companies such are Ford, GM and Mercedes have built or off-shored entire plants to China.

Tata India has one of the world’s largest and highly trained programming staffs.

Accountants are next to feel the heat from off shore competition. A clerk in the accountant’s office can scan a company’s financial data to an Internet server. An accountant in India will access this information over a secure link and process the financials overnight. The results are waiting at the accountant desk when he comes in the next morning.

How do you fight this?

Outsourcing and off-shoring are here to stay.

Outsourcing is defined as taking a specific task and having another company perform this service and then reintegrating the results back into the original company.

Off-shoring is taking an entire plant and moving it to another country.

In the following example Boeing is building a new plane. Boeing has Russian designers designing the wings. Boeing also outsourced the electronics of this plane to a Japanese company. This Japanese company out sourced certain electronic components to the same company in Russia that Boeing is outsourcing the wing design to.

Boeing can employ five engineers in Russia for the price of one engineer in the United States.

Are you untouchable?

Let me define untouchable. Being untouchable is the ongoing learning process that a person must go through to move to the next level of professional and personal development.

For example, in his book the World is Flat by Thomas Friedman, he discusses the outsourcing impact on his friend Bill Greer.

Bill is 48 years old and he has 26 years experience as a free lance artist and graphics designer. His clients include such notable names as New York Times and McDonalds.

In the past a client requests a finished piece of art. Greer would sketch it, color it, mount it on illustration board, cover it with tissue, package it, and have it delivered. The process I just describes is known as the creation of camera ready art

In the new process Greer’s client would requests a design, Greer would create the product using digital software and email the product back to the client.

Programs like Quark Express turned graphic design into a commodity. Software gives everyone the same tools and allowed almost anyone the ability to create acceptable art work. I use a program call GIMP and it is free.

Greer pushed himself up the knowledge ladder and retooled his skill sets. He became the idea man. He would create the idea, draw it out and email it to his clients and they would finish it. For Greer, the old process was eight steps. The new process is three steps.

This concept of creating ideas moved him into a whole new business. No longer just another friggin artist, his clients now buy his ideas.

Bill Greer is an untouchable. He is adaptable. He continues to retool his skills. He creates new forms of value for his clients.

What are you doing to be an untouchable?

We have been though this before. It happened when we moved from the agricultural age to the industrial age to the electronic age. On the farm you could get by with a third grade education and no one cared. During the industrial age you needed a high school diploma. Hundreds of thousands of people migrated from farms to cities during the industrial revolution and retooled their skills to find work.

In the 1950’s, in Akron Ohio, rubber companies would rent buses and send them into the mountains of Pennsylvania and West Virginia to bring worker to Akron to work in the Rubber factories. That’s how I came to live in Akron. My father left the coal mines of Pennsylvania to find a better life here. Little did he know that working in the rubber factory was no different that working in a coal mine.

People who left the farms adapted, learned new skills and became untouchable in their generation. Men who left the mountains and came to Akron to find employment learned new skills as well.

In both of these cases education played a key role in this transformation.

In the technology age America is being pushed by two very motivated competitors: India and China. After years of repression they now see that they can have what Americans have enjoyed for so many years.

Our grandparents came from the old country to create a better life.

Our parents learned new skills and found ways to compete in their generation.

Technology allows India and China to do the same thing; all without leaving home.

What is America doing to compete? More importantly – what are you doing to do to compete – to become an untouchable? As I see it there are three things we must do:

  1. Stop being complacent and waiting for the government to do something. Government is about boundaries: political, commercial and geographical. They don’t understand that with technology the world is flat and traditional boundaries cease to exist. Politicians are lawyers not engineers. They don’t understand technology.
  2. Take responsibility for your job situation. Treat your job as your business. You can’t change something unless you assume responsibility for the results. Our parent and grandparents took responsibility when they left the farm or migrated to a new country.
  3. Finally, never stop learning. When you stop learning is when you die. Your death my not physical but it is an emotional and intellectual death all the same.

As Satchel Page once said – don’t look back they might be gaining on you.

The untouchables never look back – they are always looking for the next way to provide greater value. If you are always providing value there is no need to look back.

The best way to describe how to we should respond to outsourcing and off shoring is though this African Proverb:

Every Morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up

It knows that is must out run the fastest lion or it will be killed

Every morning the lion wakes up

It knows it must out run the slowest gazelle or it will starve to death

It does not matter if you are the lion or the gazelle,

When the sun comes up

You better start running

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