Brian Sullivan, President and Founder, Precise Selling

Do you want to have a successful day today? Well, you have about 960 opportunities (16 waking hours x 60 minutes) to make it happen. So the trick is to make sure the percentage of successful moments far outweighs the percentage of stale or unproductive moments. And to do that, all you need to do is consciously think about what you are doing during several moments throughout the day.

So here is a little exercise to help you win the daily success battle. I want you to grab your daily calendar and pick 5 different moments where you will evaluate yourself. And if your calendar is electronic and has an alarm on it, that’s even better. And when that moment comes, take 15 seconds to consider whether the activity you are doing will help you succeed at whatever your professional or personal goal is. If it will not, refocus and string together a bunch of moments that will get you back on track.

You see, the only difference between top performers and the average is how they look at each moment, each hour and each day. There is a sense of urgency in high achievers that has them keeping score between productivity and wasted time. And top performers simply come closer to 960 great moments than others. And when they roll over to set the alarm clock before bed, it is at that moment they can tell themselves, “I made my objectives, I served others, I made a difference, and I did my best. Today was a great day!”

Go make it a 960 day!

Brian Sullivan is the author of the book, 20 Days to the TOP- How the PRECISE Selling Formula Will Make You Your Company’s Top Sales Performer in 20 Days or Less. To dig deeper into the PRECISE Selling Formula, go to www.preciseselling.com.

Linda Bishop, President of Thought Transformation

Last week I was signing a register at a hotel and the desk clerk said, “Wow! It’s February already. This year is sure going by fast.”

He was right. The first month of the year came and went at warp speed. If you were one of the fortunate salespeople who met or exceeded your goal, congratulations. Figure out what you did right and keep doing it.

If you missed your goal, why?
• Do you have enough potential customers in the funnel?
• Are enough of them ready to buy?
• What should you be doing to convince them to buy from you?

As the proverb goes, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. If there’s a problem, own it and fix it. Do something different so when March rolls around you’ll have met your goal and have no regrets.

To see more on Thought Transformation, please visit http://www.thoughttransformation.com.

Steven Amiel, President of Marketing Mentors

My father was the consummate print salesman. Uniquely successful for over 50 years, he retired last year at age 85. He never cared about recessions and did extremely well through the economic downturn that seems to occur once a decade. His was a simple sales process: he focused on one person only, the print buyer. That was his bull’s eye. He never stopped hunting, building relationships by taking an interest in their lives and helping them get jobs and, lastly, providing the best service and quality printing.

But today, the bull’s eye has changed. Successful print sales require selling beyond the printed page and the print buyer. They demand understanding your customers’ business and contouring your products and services to improve their current business processes.

The takeaway: recessions come and go, but are nothing compared to the enormous fundamental changes in technology, data, and media choices that have impacted our industry. As a sales person, if you spend twice as much time selling the old way, it still will not translate into increased sales and larger commissions. Today’s successful sales persons have developed the skills to literally create their business with prospects and customers. To do that means spending that extra time to:
• Develop credibility by learning about your customers’ industries.

• Speak about your company only in terms of the benefit it provides to their business.

• Focus on selling solutions to people in the organization who have a stake in the benefit.

So back to my father’s advice, “Son, you can never stop hunting for new business. The second you do, your business starts going backwards.”

He is still right Just make sure you aim at the right target.

Steven Amiel is the President of Marketing Mentors Inc.
Website- www.marketingmentors.com

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President, PrintGrowPro, Inc.

This past Holiday Season, I finally drew a line in my family’s sand: if you are old enough to go to school, feed yourself, be responsible for your personal hygiene, and access Face Book, you’re old enough to say ‘thank you’.

And I don’t mean a phone call (although that would be my second choice), an email, or a text message. I mean a genuine hand written thank you card.

No more IPODs, train sets, or gift cards that go unacknowledged. No more of those special die cut graduation envelopes (the ones that when the inserting is done properly feature a picture of one of our Presidents) that for all you know got lost in the mail. No more, no more, no more.

There’s a life skills lesson to be learned here and I guess I’m going to be my family’s teacher.

How about you Mr./Ms. Professional Sales Person? Are you on board here?

How many ‘thank you’ cards did you send out last month? Did you get one to:

➢ Your CSR for staying until the middle of the night to check some proofs?
➢ Your best customer for his loyalty and friendship and business?
➢ Your estimator who turns things around in less than a hour?
➢ Your new customer for that first order?
➢ That outside supplier who ‘saved your bacon’ on a rush job?
➢ The buyer who took time out of her day to learn more about why she should do business with you?
➢ Your neighbor who watched your kids because you had a press okay?

If there is an easier way to show creativity, sincerity, and humor, I don’t know what it would be. If there is a faster way to set yourself apart from the masses, I don’t know what it is (everyone can find five minutes).

By the way if you take my advice and decide to make this a part of your weekly prospecting plan, here are some ‘thank you’ card pointers:

*write legibly (duh!)
*spell correctly (remember what a dictionary is for?)
*use a quality card stock (think Crane’s)
*before you write, practice writing a line several times (we don’t write much anymore)
*sign it with your first name only
*if possible, mail your card to the recipient’s home address

Thanks; make it a great month and always try to remind yourself that the daily implementation of the ‘Rule of One’: (one more call, one more quote letter, one more task, one more lap around the track, one more serving of vegetables, one more thank you note, up one hour earlier) can make all the difference in your world.

To visit PrintGrowPro, Inc., please visit http://www.printgrowpro.com.