There is No Maximum to Human Potential

Megatrends 4 Megabucks: Business Alliances that Grow Revenues

Statistics show that 70% of alliances fail.

Alliance, channel partner, joint marketing agreements and other forms of business partnerships are not new. However, few companies can successfully create long lasting and financially lucrative programs. We’d like to change that.

Business partnerships fail because the wrong people were assigned the task of implementing them, the metrics were vague, and the agreements were not mutually equitable – as in, they read like a vendor contract called an alliance.

Megatrend for Megabucks: Business Alliances That Grow Revenues is a ½ seminar that created by Amy Hedin, president People Performance Solutions, Lori Richardson, president ScoreMoreSales, and Jeanette Nyden Seattle business attorney and president of J. Nyden & Co.

Topics covered: ways to create long lasting and financially lucrative business partnerships.

• Pick the right people to create and manage alliances,

• Develop innovative sales channels through business partnerships, and

• Negotiate, draft and implement agreements that last. Date/Location:

Where: Columbia Tower Club, Seattle Washington When: November 7, 2007 from 7:30 am to 11:30 am. Agenda: Registration begins at 7:30AM and breakfast will be served at 8:00AM. The gourmet breakfast will be an “All American Breakfast Buffett” At 8:30 the speakers will start and will be finished at 11:15. There will be 2 breaks between speakers. We will conclude the event at 11:30 after the drawing for the iPod and other prizes

Registration is $75.

Register on-line at www.megatrends4megabucks.com

This event is sponsored by: Eben Design, Columbia Tower Club, Clearwire and Mike Nakamura Photography

The Golden Answer to Get Prospects to Call Back

I recently took a trip to the San Juan Islands.  Instead of driving north and taking a ferry to get there we decided to take a float plane on Kenmore Air.  It was so amazing to fly low enough to look down and truly appreciate the beauty of the water and landscape in the Northwest.  It was like seeing the view from the other side---another perspective.

I have been experiencing something similar over the past year.  Instead of being in a role where I call on executives to sell my services, I am the one getting the calls now.  I have had an epiphany that I would like to share with the world in hopes of improving the success rate of cold callers around the globe. 

Drum roll please...

I will call you back if you 1. acknowledge you know my business, 2. you can solve a problem that I am currently facing, and 3. you have a friendly and genuine approach. 

That is it!  Short and simple. Only three ingredients in this recipe.

If all three ingredients are not present I will say "DELETE" into my phone system to erase the message for eternity. 

Just today I received a call from a company that had one out of three...the friendly voice.  What was missing is he did not reference that he knew my business and what I did, and did not position his product in the context of solving a problem I am facing. Instead he told me that he wanted to send me a sample of his product, which I am familiar with, but I would have to call him back to get him the particulars on where to send it.  (A quick glance at my webiste woudl give him "the particulars.")  You can probably already guess what my answer to his voicemail was..

"DELETE!"

Maybe this was the fish hook sales tactic he heard about 25 years ago that he is applying in the attempt of getting the prospect to call back. The sad part is even though I am familiar with his product and there really is a chance it could be relevant to my business today or at some point I am not going to take my time to call him back just to give him info that is in the public domain. 

WHAT ARE THE SHARED QUALITIES OF TOP SELLERS?

The Harvard Business School did a study to determine the common characteristics of top salespeople.  The evidence they found is clear that most people can be top sellers if they are willing to study, concentrate and focus on their performance.  Here are the attributes the study found in highly successful salespeople:

•             Did not take “no” personally and allow it to make them feel like a failure.  They have high enough levels of confidence or self-esteem so that, although they may be disappointed, they are not devastated.

•             100% acceptance of responsibility for results. They didn't blame the economy, the competition, or their company for dips in closings.  Instead, the worse things were, the harder they worked to make negatives work to their advantage.

•             Above average ambition and desire to succeed.  This is a key area because it affected priorities and how they spent their time on and off the job, with whom they associated, etc.

•             High levels of empathy. The ability to put themselves in the customer's shoes, imagine needs and concerns and respond appropriately was a habit.

•             Intensely goal-oriented. Always knowing what they were going after and how much progress they were making kept distractions from sidetracking them.

•             Above-average will power and determination.  No matter how tempted they were to give up, they persisted toward goals.  Self-discipline was a key.

•             Impeccably honest with themselves and the customer.  No matter what the temptation to fudge, these people resisted and gained ongoing trust of customers.

•             Ability to approach strangers even when it is uncomfortable.