Visitor, your SEPTEMBER 2017 FocalPoint Newsletter is here

Study successful businesses and you’ll discover something: They virtually always have a brand story that sets them apart from the crowd. You see, our brains loves good stories – stories connect powerfully to our subconscious minds. And, we really love stories of overcoming obstacles. Do you have that story for your company? In this article, we show you how to craft your own winning story.

Enhance the Presentation

When working with buyers, you are always in sales mode – from the initial contact to the on-site tours to meetings – even after the deal is struck. Make each contact with the buyer positive. The initial tour should show off the plant in the best light. Let the buyer see clean work spaces, well organized inventory, efficient assembly areas, and offices that function and thrive, not shells of empty cubicles with desks piled high with storage boxes and discarded computers.

Further, find an item of good news to share in each conversation. Our days as owners are filled with information about product pitches that have gone well and some presentations that did not work out as we would have hoped. Inevitably, the buyer will ask about a comment made earlier in the process, perhaps regarding a new customer or product the business was on the cusp of landing.

It is not uncommon that these projected slices of good news do not turn out as hoped. What is important however when sharing this disappointing news is that the owner finds some sliver of good news to report alongside the bad news.

Coming next month: “Curb appeal and what does your company do?”

-         by Greg DeSimone - Beacon Equity Advisors, Inc.

Here are a couple of Wise Old sayings, “Faint heart ne’er won fair maid.” and “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” Giving in to fear makes you fearful, while acting boldly makes you courageous.

Your thoughts create your visions, your visions create your feelings, your feelings create your action, your action creates your realities.

Each time you feel afraid or nervous for any reason, the only solution is to “Do the thing you fear.” An old man, grandfather once advised his grandson with this wonderful phrase: “Act boldly and unseen forces will come to your aid.” This is where courage thrives and truer words have never been spoken.

Most salespeople are underperforming; earning much less than they have potential for. They have an overblown fear of rejection. Even though they have never met the prospective client or customer, they have an irrational fear of that person and worrying whether that prospect will like them or approve of them. When you take a step back and dispassionately evaluate the fear of rejection by prospects or strangers, it seems kind of silly.

But for salespeople faced with the need to develop new prospects, it can and often does, freeze them in their tracks, the activities needed doing don’t get done and are holding them back. They creatively avoid doing the work that would change their lives and those that they serve.

One of the very best ways to develop the ability to take intelligent risks is to consciously and deliberately do the things you fear, one step at a time, making small strategic changes in your mindset. Taking a leap out of an airplane without a parachute isn’t a small step that is not risk taking that is simply crazy.

What you will have to do is to resist your natural tendency to slip into a comfort zone of complacency and low performance, that’s the creative avoidance kicking in.

What if you were to take any fear that you are experiencing and look at it as a challenge; as an opportunity to grow and to increase your efficacy, in other words your causative power living your life on purpose rather than on regret.

Face the fear by moving towards it,  control the fear thoughts, the self-talk that’s going on, master the fear and continue to move forward regardless of the fear. This is the mark of the superior person

Many of our fears of taking risks are false, F.E.A.R. - False Expectations Appearing Real!  They have no basis in reality. When you test them, you find that they don’t even exist.

- by Coach Phil Gilkes

One of the hardest tasks for a business owner is hiring the right employees. To make sure you're hiring the best of the best, you'll need to take IQ (intelligence quotient) and EQ (emotional quotient) into account.

Businesses often like to hire those with higher IQs for their reasoning skills. EQ concerns one's ability to empathize and emote; this is a quality that can prove invaluable in a wide range of tasks and settings.

Candidates with a high IQ are great with data, numbers, and anything that deals with cold, hard facts. While they may not be as creative as their EQ-heavy coworkers, they're important. You can expect accuracy, clarity, and data-driven results.

In contrast, many businesses prioritize those with a high EQ. While intelligence is certainly an important component, a great employee needs to know how to work with others. Those with a higher emotional intelligence flourish in team settings. (High IQ employees often prefer to work alone.)

When filling a position, ask yourself: What does the job require? IQ vs EQ may seem like a no-brainer at first, but interpersonal skills are a must for nearly any job.

We have some great news and some cautionary advice. First the great news. This should be the best holiday season for retailers in years: Consumer confidence is up, the economy is cooking, and unemployment is at a decade low. Now the caution: To really cash in on this promise, you need to put in place the savvy strategies outlined in the in-depth Retailers: Get Ready for a Profitable Christmas Season.

Would you like to have employees who are:

• More productive,
• Profitable,
• Safer,
• Focused on creating strong customer relationships, and
• More likely to stay with your company longer?

If so, you need a leadership development plan. Here are the steps for crafting your plan.

#1 Define What Makes a Good Leader. Becoming a leader takes skill, dedication, and knowledge. To begin, create a list of desired leadership traits.

#2 Offer Development Opportunities. Offer growth opportunities. Give employees the chance to shadow leaders and step in for leaders when they are away.

#3 Identify Potential Leaders. Keep an open mind. Refer to your list of important leadership qualities. There are excellent personnel assessments that will help you spot leaders and understand what areas need development.

#4 Determine Ways to Measure Results. Keep your eye on metrics such as:

• The number of employees who develop into effective leaders
• The number of employees who complete the program
• Promotion statistics
• What leadership skills employees have developed
• Retention statistics

#5 Allow Employees to Address Problems. Use assignments and projects that expose employees to challenges. Create teams to work together to solve problems. The effective problem solvers will emerge.

The Law of Posteriorities says: Before you start something new, you must discontinue something old.

You can only gain control of your life to the degree to which you stop doing things that are no longer as valuable or as important to you as other things you could be doing.

You already have too much to do and too little time in which to do it. The average person today is working at about 110 percent of capacity, or more. Your dance card is full.

You must continually ask yourself, “What activities in my life can I cut back on, delegate, or discontinue to free up more time for my most important activities?”

To start anything new, you must stop doing something old. We say that “getting in means getting out.” Analyze your time carefully and have the courage to stop doing things that are no longer as important to you as other things could be.

Starting up means stopping off. Getting in requires getting out. You cannot take on something new without deliberately deciding to discontinue something else.

What is it going to be?

- from "THE 100 ABSOLUTELY UNBREAKABLE LAWS OF BUSINESS SUCCESS" – Brian Tracy