We business owners (and entrepreneurs) avoid the sales and selling parts of our businesses more than other functions.  We would rather market, create product, work on our websites and particularly stay in the office.  This is because we feel safer in most every other area than a sales and selling environment.  When we sell, we risk being rejected, feeling uncomfortable, appearing pushy, and worst of all, gaining the reputation of a sales person.  In reality, most of our fears about sales and selling are made up.   Sound Sales Strategy is important.

If we don’t learn how to sell (or hire a qualified sales person), we generally fall well  short of our revenue expectations.  There are exceptions.  For example, web based businesses generate money entirely through web sales.  I wasn’t able to find data on how many internet marketers make money entirely online, but I found a lot of how to make millions online articles.  It is safe to say that unless we become 100% internet marketing focused in our small business, we need to develop a face to face sales strategy.

There are four ways to start the process of becoming a great sales person:

(1) Real Sales People Listen, Teach and Add Value – Which means we don’t have to join the ranks of intimidating, sneaky, deceptive and downright offensive sales people to make money.  We all know the sales person we don’t want to be like.  We can all sell exactly how we want to and feel good about it.  Quality sales people ask questions that draw out need, are excited about their solutions, are experts in the solutions they provide and want to sell only if there is a good fit.  Most people want to buy from quality sales people a second time.  Neil Patel explains more about hiring a sales person in “What interviewing 31 sales people taught me about Sales” which also applies to understanding ourselves as sales people.

(2) “No” Is Not The End of The World – Intuitively, we all know this.  As parents, we hear no all the time.  The thought of hearing no or being rejected by a person we are selling to can seem overwhelming.  What if I told you that hearing no is the start of the sales process.  No can mean a person doesn’t have enough information to make a decision, an opportunity to ask clarifying questions and most importantly, a reason not to turn and run.  We are all taught that polite people don’t push when as person says no.  However, if we use No as a signpost and guide, we can get curious and try to figure out why.  For those who want to work more with how we deal with and get past “No”, check out William Ury’s books on Amazon.

(3) Develop a Sales Process – The first thing we have to understand is that “Sales is not so much about personality as it is about process.”  Most of us believe that great sales people are born.  There are some people that have a natural talent for persuasion, but persuading someone to buy a product or service isn’t always a good practice.  If and when we  realize we were persuaded to buy something, we often ask for our money back.  Developing a sales process is very dynamic and the process itself will change many times before we are satisfied.  I can help you develop a sales process in my small business owner workshop or through one to one coaching.

(4) Become Comfortable With Discomfort – When we start selling, we feel like a fish out of water.  We can expect to make a lot of mistakes, talk to much (listening is the key), and to face rejection.  However, once we get comfortable with this new skill, we open the door to higher income and more control of our business.  Becoming comfortable with the notion of feeling uncomfortable is a powerful skill/talent.  We can use this skill/talent in other areas of our lives as well.

We decided to be business owners the day we put out our  “open for business sign”.  Now it’s time to decide we are sales people and take our business to the next level.

Are you an entrepreneur or executive who’s working hard to be a success, yet you haven’t quite found the right formula? Are you puzzled by where you’re faltering in your career, because you can’t put your finger on the problem?

If you’ve been frustrated in your professional performance, perhaps you need to make a change. Is now the time for you to:

• Stop being reactive?
• Start being strategic?
• Develop the leader you know is within?
• Create a business plan that supports your personal goals?
• Get “unstuck?

Read Entire Piece

Brought to you By Grant Webb with Villanova University’s online programs. Villanova University assists professionals in obtaining their Six Sigma Certification through Six Sigma Training

(reprint of Dag Nybo’s column for the Austin Business Journal)

There’s a breed of entrepreneurs who have big dreams like any other entrepreneur but who seek returns on their investments that are bigger than their bottom lines.

Meet Erine Gray and his brainchild, Aunt Bertha.

Read the Entire Article in the ABJ Entrepreneur

Business development and growth are not as hard as they sound.  We can start growing today, regardless of where we are.  If we are losing money, making money but feeling stagnant or growing but overworked, it may be time to re-evaluate.  No sense letting ourselves or our business live in the proverbial fishbowl… that’s frustrating.

There are four steps to moving forward:

(1) Reflection:  This is an obvious step but still hard to do – simple doesn’t mean easy.  Most of us are paradoxically comfortable with our current situation, regardless how uncomfortable we feel.  To break free, we need an environment where we can lay our cards on the table and safely plan our next play.  Every real business (and personal) development process starts with the question, “where are we?”  Once we have that answer, we are already on our way.

(2) Accountability: Once we reflect, we need to do something with what we find.  A business planning exercise which includes reflection but no accountability is bound to fail.  We all want to be held accountable on our own terms.  For example, some of us want to be woken early and pushed hard to achieve our goals.  Others of us want to check in periodically, but are best served by gentle guidance and feedback.  Very few of us are able to effectively hold ourselves accountable.   We all need help in this area.

(3) Mastermind: Solving problems in a group is far better than solving them alone.  To RAMP our business the most effectively, we need to surround ourselves with like-minded professionals that share our goals, values and objectives. By asking questions and participating in a shared group dialog, we make the most effective strides in the shortest amount of time.  Most coaches will agree that the more people we involve to solve a particular problem, the better the results.  If we bring our questions, we always leave with powerful answers.

(4) Plan: It’s not the plan itself that is critical, but the act of planning.  When we prioritize (in writing) what we need to do and need to avoid, we immediately have a clear direction.  When we plan in our heads, we quickly forget our plan or get overcome by the issue of the day.  The information we gather from steps (R), (A) and (M) can converted into SMART goals – with specific steps and clear actions .  Simply put, if we work through the RAMP process , develop a written plan of what we will accomplish over the next 30-90 days,  and give ourselves license to review often and change as needed, we will succeed.

I developed RAMP together with Dean Bogues based on three years of client feedback.  We discovered that these four simple steps, if performed consistently every 30-90 days together with professional coaches, result in significant business growth. All of our workshops include RAMP.  Please write or call (512) 646-0693 for more information.

Most of my clients struggle with some aspect of managing their employees .  Two common complaints are, “Most of my employees under-perform” and “I’ve tried every communication strategy in the book, but none of them work.”  We don’t have to employ the Steve Jobs People Management Strategy to succeed.  In most cases, we don’t want to anyway.

It may not feel like it, but we are both the problem and the fix in most people management situations. Although we feel intimidated and often powerless when we interact with our employees, we  have a fair amount of control.  We need to learn and practice three simple management techniques.

Set Expectations:  We have to know what we want and expect from others to succeed and then communicate consistently/regularly.  If we expect others to understand our version of “common sense”, we will fail.  No one outside of our parents, spouses and children knows what we are thinking or want.  In the case of employees, if we tell them what we want and when we plan to touch bases, we have set the correct stage for success.  Being too busy (or uncomfortable) to follow up is often a reason we managers lose our credibility and ability to impact an employees performance.

Check in and Coach: Managing by facial expression, grunts, shrugs, and anger outbursts does not work.  When we set a clear expectation, we provide a path to success for the right employee.  This allows the person we are managing to do complete a task/project and demonstrate results.  Micro managing only makes those around us nervous.  Micro-management may make us feel like we are in control, but micro-management is also the number one reason employees leave a job.  If we check in with employees and they haven’t performed what we expect, we can reset expectations and coach them on what is required to succeed.  Coaching an employee involves asking clarifying questions about what went well and what was challenging.  The difference between coaching and directive management is that if coached, an willingly participates in the path to a solution.

Hire Slowly, Fire Quickly: An old adage that most of us ignore as managers.  My clients usually hire quickly and fire slowly.  As a result, they lose money and erode their own confidence to manage.  Once we hire an employee (and I would suggest using a predictive job matching tool like Affintus),  we must give an employee guidance so they know how to succeed: Create a job description, set early expectations and let an employee know where they stand (regularly).  If the employee receives proper expectations, coaching and feedback, employee tenure and satisfaction increases.  It’s also easier to help a poor fitting employee find another position if they understand how they are performing.  A Google search will show how much has been written about the Hire Slowly, Fire Quickly concept.

Managing people is not difficult, but it does take time and a methodical process.  Most of us managers aren’t willing to put the effort into effective management.  That’s when we lose control of our employees’ and their performance.

2011 is past us and I am still waiting to find someone with anything positive to say about the last 12 months.  For me, it wasn’t the best year, but it also wasn’t the worst.  My business grew, I worked many hours (as is expected as a small business owner) and I had many wonderful (and not so wonderful) experiences.   But I still look at 2011 as a great experience and expect 2012 to be the same.  Why?

I am………

Surrounded By The Right People:  I haven’t always been able to say that.  My family, friends, coaches and clients give me energy, they push me, they don’t let me forget why I’m doing what I’m doing.  I know I will grow with them around me, all I have to do is show up and give it my best.  If you don’t have such a group of people around you, try to find them in 2012.  You can always start by gradually separating yourself from the people (and clients) that bring you down.

Part of the American Dream: Yes, the American Dream has changed over time and I no longer have to fight to be included .  Pick up a copy of A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink or read Metlife’s Study of the American Dream and you’ll know what I mean.  We entrepreneurs, independent thinkers and right brainers are now closer to mainstream America than we’ve ever been.  We can plan and succeed on our own terms.

Completely In Control of My Next 12 Months: That feeling used to scare me, but now it’s a blessing.  On the professional side, I am in the driver’s seat.  I can business develop as I see fit which means I control my own destiny. On the personal side, I can also spend as much (or as little) time with my family and friends as I want to. I can blame my circumstances, but quickly tire of hearing myself complain. I didn’t used to think it was a choice.  If you don’t know how to move forward on this one, you can read Your Best Year Yet for some ideas.  Call me if you don’t know how to make it happen, or you need a coach to keep you motivated and hold you accountable.

The message is simple.  As small business owners, professionals and participants in the New American Dream, we can succeed on our own terms.  Better yet, our national and world economy is gradually lining up to support us.

Let’s Make 2012 better than 2011, but that doesn’t have to mean 2011 was bad.  It simply means we are in control.

The word “passion” is overused in business and entrepreneurship.  Those of us who own micro and small businesses throw it into any and every discussion that involves life, work and career.  Has it gone too far and have we gotten lazy? Check out Jonathan Field’s blog Has Passion Jumped The Shark .  In Three Words I’m Eliminating From My Vocabulary, Dave Pye defines the word “Passionate” as public enemy number one.  It’s going to be a tough fight, Dave.  I just did a search of two years worth of my blog articles and found plenty of examples.  Please forgive me.  I was young and naive.  I am newly committed to the cause.  To set the example, I’m going to use it cautiously in 2012.

Why the diatribe?  Passion is a good thing and a core part of what drives us.  But many of us have fooled ourselves into believing that it is the key ingredient for business and personal success.  It is both a starting point and a set of guiding pylons, but beyond that, it’s a form of intoxication.

Plainly stated, passion doesn’t always lead to high performance. Cognitive scientist Scott Kaufman clarifies this notion in Why Passion for Work Could Ruin Your Career. According to Scott, “while passion seems clearly desirable, recent psychological research suggests that not all forms are adaptive”.  Some people feel that all they need is passion to do well in work and career.  They can become so blindly focused on the existence of passion that they forget everything else.

Synonyms for passion include  affection, agony, anger, animation, ardor, dedication, devotion, distress, eagerness, ecstasy, excitement, and fervor.  I certainly don’t hope I bring ecstasy to my working day.  I’ll leave that for the weekend.

So let’s be passionate in our lives.. but keep it in perspective. We are better served by focusing our energies on (1) developing and acting on our key business objectives , (2) eliminating time-wasting activity and (3) allowing ourselves to make and learn from mistakes.  Passion will always be there.

Have I gone nuts?  How can a personal demon help us in our business? Well it can’t directly, but understanding how our personal demons sabotage us can help us both personally and professionally.

“Imagine how successful a company could be if every salesperson, every manager, every executive would drill down and confront the internal demons that keep him from optimal performance. It would be unstoppable.”

This quote came from Overcoming Self Sabotage Requires Looking Inside by ABJ Columnist Alan Buhner.  Although this article focuses mostly on sales people, it hits a home run.  Most of us look for outside causes and solutions to our issues.  If we can work with our internal demons, we uplevel our game significantly.

To confess, I have my own demons and I met one today.  I love playing soccer, but I can also become very intense and aggressive.  I once considered giving up the game, but realized I’d leave a big hole in my life that would be difficult to replace.  Today, my demon hit me in the first 10 minutes.  I was body blocked by an opposing player (and friend) and retaliated.  But I quickly caught myself, worked it out and the rest of the game went smoothly.  Understanding my own tendencies and responsibilities has helped me tone my game down and continue to play at a high level.  I can also use this awareness when I work in the professional world.  When someone “body blocks” me or treats me aggressively, I can more easily put it aside and not react.

The term Personal Demon may sounds harsh and overplayed, but if we look closely, most of our destructive behavwith ones from past negative conditioning and experiences.  For business professionals, examining the past is often considered weak and unnecessary.  However, one approach to making more money and enjoying a richer life involves becoming comfortable with both past and future.  Practicing this approach won’t necessarily fix the demon, but it will help manage it.

So whatever metaphor we want to use, if work on ourselves, our professional lives will improve.  Employing just a little  Business Therapy leads to more satisfaction and productivity.

This is a guest blog post from David Manzer, founder of PROverCoffee and MyLocalReporter.   Most business owners don’t have a PR (Public Relations) strategy of any kind, but instead focus on marketing only.  The lost opportunity is great.  Learning to pitch a story to the media is a critical business skill that few of us know we can even learn.  Not only can we learn it, but with Dave’s product, it’s downright affordable.  I have my Austin Business Journal Column, which helps me generate exposure and business.

“MyLocalReporter Helps Start-ups Get Covered in the News by Dave Manzer”

A start-up based in Austin recently launched an application designed to help other start-ups, and existing businesses, find and pitch reporters most likely to be interested in writing about them.

MyLocalReporter eliminates the three most common barriers preventing most start-ups from receiving news coverage (and subsequently enjoying its many benefits):

1. Who to talk to: MyLocalReporter allows users to freely search for reporters based on the industry vertical (or beat) they cover. Knowing which beat a reporter is half the battle in a campaign to get news coverage for start-ups.
2. What to say: MyLocalReporter provides video tutorials that help newcomers to PR discover what is most newsworthy about their paticular start-up. It also steps the beginner through the process of how to write a compelling news pitch designed to gain the attention of a busy reporter.
3. How to contact them: Once a start-up identifies which reporters to approach, and what message to share, MyLocalReporter makes it a snap to send out the news pitch to all reporters. After filling out a simple news pitch form, MyLocalReporter will then send out the pitch to all of the selected reporters in a user-friendly email then provide you with their phone numbers so you can follow up with them at your convenience over the next 24-48 hours.

Perhaps best of all, each news pitch you submit is reviewed by a PR professional to make sure it’s the best possible pitch before it gets released to the media. By dong this, MyLocalReporter guarantees that each start-up receives the advice and help needed to pique the attention of even the most jaded and cynical reporter.

MyLocalReporter doesn’t rest on its laurels, either. Its recent accomplishments have led to several start-ups and existing businesses receiving news coverage in such media outlets as the Austin American-Statesman, Fox News, the San Antonio and Austin Business Journals, and other media outlets. In one recent edition of the Austin Business Journal, MyLocalReporter was instrumental in placing 2 out of 8 major articles, which is a success rate virtually unheard of in the media world.

Why is MyLocalReporter so successful at getting its customers in the news? According to the founder, Dave Manzer, it comes down to providing real-time access to media information in one convenient app, adding a professional PR touch to customer news pitches, then getting out of the way and letting the customer’s story speak for itself.

Why are start-ups interested in getting covered in the news media? Well, that’s simple too, says Manzer. “Getting covered in traditional news media confers an element of trust on a company. If it’s been written about in a news paper or quoted on TV, people trust that the idea has been vetted by a professional journalist, that it passed the litmus test.” Manzer cites examples of start-ups who have seen a 60% jump in sustained website traffic and new business leads and opportunities that never would have been possible through simple marketing, at least not as quickly.

When asked if MyLocalReporter takes on PR consulting projects, the answer is a quick no, and yes. “We always try to leverage MyLocalReporter to keep the PR costs for start-ups contained to a reasonable level. But, there are times with a company wants to get into a major national media outlet and we take it on as a special PR project.” One of Manzer’s recent projects was for SalesVu, an Austin start-up which recently launched a mobile payment processing cloud-based app, which landed a signficant write-up in TechCrunch, perhaps the most influential technology blog covering cutting edge technology.

“The key is to make PR work for you on whatever budget you have,” Manzer notes. “Ignoring PR is never good because what 80% of failed start-ups have in common is little to no consistent media coverage, which is a bit like a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you can get the news media tell the world how wonderful you are, and you keep doing it over time, well the world will tend to believe you and think of you ahead of the competition.”

(reprint of Dag Nybo’s column for the Austin Business Journal)

Most adults have heard at least one horror story about a failed business partnership. In these stories, there are few winners, including the partner who makes off with the larger share of the company’s assets. Recovery is long and painful as each partner overcomes debt, hurt feelings and legal complications. Although a May article on eHow.com suggests most banks are more willing to lend money to partnerships than individual entrepreneurs, there is still reluctance among many entrepreneurs to consider a partner.

Read the entire article in the ABJ Entrepreneur