business help

I read Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive by Harvey Mackay in 1992. It was a life-changing, and career-changing, book for me, and millions of other readers (hopefully you). The #1 New York Times bestseller Swim with the Sharks contains a hundred short business lessons that are both impactful and actionable.

What do your emails look like? Just like everyone else’s? How is that helping you “differentiate” yourself? How is that helping you make a sale? How are you accessing your social media sites? How are you creating an automated sales campaign? How are you accessing sales tips as you need help in real situations? How are you creating your weekly ezine (aka proactive value messages to your customers)?

In my early intensive days of learning sales and attitude (1972-1973), I was taking a four-hour sales and attitude training class EVERY DAY from 8am-noon. Every day.

All of my fellow learners (there were nine in the group) immediately took a lunch after the training – except me. I scheduled a sales appointment every day at 12:01pm.

SCENARIO: I need buttons for my upcoming Social BOOM! book launch. I want 1,000 buttons with the word BOOM! on them for people attending the launch party. Buttons will be an easy way of identifying who has registered and who has not. The buttons will also be a souvenir from the event.

I never met him, but I knew him. I never talked to him, but he spoke to me often. I never saw him present live, but my vision of him is burned into my brain. Steve Jobs has left the earth, but his legacy and remains are among each of us, and will be touched every day for decades.

Are your sales (finally) on the increase? It seems as though there’s a slight sales surge going on, but no one’s talking about it much – probably because no one wants to jinx it. The economy is still very fragile, the world is even more fragile, and with elections taking focus, politicians of all sorts are finally realizing that jobs and small businesses are the priority. That only took three years.

I am getting all sorts of SOS calls and emails asking advice for what to do in Q-4. My answer is simple – the same thing you should have been doing in Q-1, Q-2, and Q-3. Calendar years are broken into three-month quarters predominantly for the pleasure of people who run companies.

The social revolution has changed the way you sell forever. Only problem is, most salespeople have no idea of that – YET! As business social media evolves and matures, all salespeople, executives, and entrepreneurs will expose themselves for who they are and who they aren’t WAY BEFORE a sales call or sales meeting of any kind takes place.

THINK! – About what have you learned from your father and mother. Their wisdom has been the foundation of your philosophy, your belief system, your personality, and your achievement. They influence and affect your attitude towards yourself and others. Parents (and siblings) also influence your social habits and philosophies. They shape your self-image and your self-esteem.

I gave a discount. It’s not the first time I’ve ever done it, it probably won’t be the last time I ever do it. But I teach against it. And I preach against it. If your price is $1000, and you discount down to $900, $100 comes right out of profit. And in these times, profit is the only saving grace of business.