Twiddling your thumbs and waiting for some business to come in? Why not use this downtime to set yourself up for greater success in the new year? Here are my 10 picks, but you don't have to do them all. Even doing just one will get you another rung higher on your business ladder. 1. Evaluate your virtual team and make changes if necessary. Are administrative tasks taking up most of your time and keeping you from working ON your business? Then hire a virtual assistant. (See my article on this topic at www....

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Your ability to write an effective and persuasive business proposal directly relates to your level of success. Write a great proposal and you'll get the contract or make the sale. Write a ho-hum proposal and your prospect will go elsewhere. Regardless of the product or service you're pitching, your prospect makes his or her ultimate decision based on how you write the proposal, not the product or service itself. That means even if you have the best product in the world, if you write the proposal poorly, you probably won't get the deal....

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Here's the scene. You're at the trade show, having a discrete "Sales Call" conversation with a visitor. Things are going well until he says something like... * So who else uses this upgrade? * You mentioned Big Foot, Inc. as a client. Who can I contact there? * I'm not sure it's worth the extra money to us. Got any examples of real savings? * We're heavily invested in one of your competitors and I can't see junking everything we've already done even though we have problems with that system. You say the transition would be smooth....

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I just finished a phone call with a potential client who had called to discuss a problem. His 18 person sales force was paid on straight commission. All had been with the company for 8 - 15 years and were earning healthy incomes. His problem was that he couldn't get them to do what he wanted them to do. Here's the example he shared. He wanted the salespeople to call on new prospects to expand the company's base. Instead of just seeing established customers, he asked them to call on prospects, and report back to him on the progress they were making....

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Recently, I was asked to spend some time on the telephone, coaching a client's administrative assistant on how to check out an employment candidate's references. After each in-person or telephone conference, I complete a brief written report going over the information discussed. The information that I gave this worker was so vital to the company's overall sales management success that I felt impelled to share the report in my periodic client e-mailings, feeling that it might be of value to others that I serve....

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I recall a heated discussion with a sales director some time ago where I proposed that the long-term effect of setting activity targets for salespeople would eventually lead to failure. He vehemently made the point that he had systematically imposed activity targets on his sales force and that the result had been to treble average income per salesperson within 18 months. What he didn't say, something which I found out when I investigated further was that he had at the same time: ? reduced his sales force from 450 to 300 - letting the bottom 150 hundred producers go, and ?...

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Imagine you run a pizza parlour. You have all these neighbourhood families that pop in at least once a week for some pizza, garlic bread and Coke. On an average, one customer spends about $30 per week. But let's assume they spend just $20. Imagine you did something that bugged this customer, but he or she never told you about it. What would you stand to lose if they left? Its simple math: You lose $20 x 50 weeks. That's equivalent to $1000 a year. If you lost just 10 such customers per month, you'd lose about 100 clients a year....

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Seminars and events have always been implemented as a holistic experience to participants. Thus, organizing an event requires extensive planning and preparation with most work implemented at least a few months before the actual event. Most of the time, seminars seem to run like clockwork with all events flowing smoothly according to schedule. In reality however, much groundwork has been worked on with the purpose of developing the right atmosphere in addition to a beneficial experience to partipants....

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Imagine increasing your business earnings by 30, 40, or 50%.And this just by putting into use a fundamental truth of life. Manygreat men of history have used this truth in turning aroundtheir fortunes. You must understand that our world is governed with basic principles which if used right can produce amazing results. These are truths that have been since life began. You can also profit with them in anything you choose in life. In this article you'll discover how you can build you home business with one of these basic truths....

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If you have a small business and you are looking to boost your sales and make the public aware of your business, how do you going about doing this? There is one sure way that I know to boost sales and create awareness. It may not be sexy, but it WORKS! The best way to "start" marketing any business is to develop a marketing plan. And before you decide you don't have the time or expertise to create a plan, I urge you to understand why it is so important. Creating a plan will force you to determine who you want to make aware of your business - it really is not just "the public....

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What does it mean to be an "effective executive"? Well very simply it means achieving the goals you set out to achieve in an efficient, creative and effortless manner. Some of the benefits that ensue from this self efficacy are: feelings of self confidence, self esteem, self worth, a sense of personal empowerment, feeling invigorated and passionate about everything you choose to do, a sense of resilience, more energy, personal emotional and physical health and for some a great sense of purpose. How much of the time do you feel any or all of these?...

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