Seven Steps to Differentiation

1. Why bother to differentiate?

I would like you to imagine that I have two boxes in front of me. The boxes are identical, what is in them is identical and they were both manufactured by the same company in Taiwan. Two different companies sell the boxes and the only difference between the boxes seems to be the price. Box A is priced at $300 and box B at $400. Which would you buy?

Of course… you would buy box A. If you can see no difference between two products other than the price you will always buy the cheapest, it is human nature.

Now imaging that with Box B you also get delivery over the next 24 hours, a lifetime guarantee and a very attractive sales person to sell it to you, which one would you buy now? Of course you would buy Box B. Even though the boxes are the same the apparent value is now very different and you would be happy to spend more if you think you are getting better value.

The power of differentiation cannot be underestimated. In a highly competitive market we need to be seen to be different from all the other products or services out there or the customer will just buy the cheapest. So how do we do that?

2. Know your own business

What business are you in? I know…. You are in the pipe laying business, or you provide a catering service or sell insurance. This may be the business you think you are in but it was Charles Handy that said, “The business of business is to satisfy Customers”. So now what business are you in?

If you think you are in the pipe laying business, you may be very proud of the quality of the pipe, the strength of the re-enforced concrete that is in the pipe or the way each piece of pipe fits together. Your customers, however, couldn’t care less about your pipe!

What the customer cares about is getting fluid efficiently and economically from point A to point B. That’s all. So now what business are you in? Your competition may be selling pipes but if you start to sell the ability to get fluid from point A to point B you will differentiate yourself from your competition.

When Parker advertise pens they don’t advertise writing implements the advertise gifts. Kodak advertises memories. They know what business they are in. Have another look at your business and work out what it is the customers are buying.

Differentiate yourself from your competition by focusing on the end result the customers want not the way you will help them get it.

3. Look at the competition

Of course you know what business you are in, you have been in it for years and you are an expert. But when was the last time you had a look to see what your competitors are doing? There should be one member of every sales team whose responsibility it is to gather competitor information. You should have all the competitor brochures, know where they are working and what they are offering. Keep an eye on their advertising and see what they are doing differently. We should be trying to develop USPs (Unique Selling Propositions). By definition a USP is unique. If the customers want it they have to come to you to get it.

Do the competitors have any USP that we should be copying? Are there opportunities that the competitors are missing?

Differentiate yourself from your competition by being unique

4. Talk to the Customers

When was the last time you talked to your customers? I know, you do it all the time. You often go to customers and ask them how the service was, whether the products arrived on time or if we fully satisfied the customer’s needs. But when was the last time you asked your customers what they would like to see you doing in the future?

The customers will not always be right of course. But having had a look at what your competitors are up to, it makes a great deal of sense to see what your customers want in the future. Good customers will help you develop your business if you ask them.

Differentiate yourself from your competition by focusing on what the customers want you to do next year.

5. Be Creative in the way you attract customers to your business

If I were to ask you where your new customers come from, after some thought, you would probably answer with the following four items:

Advertising; Referrals; Cold Calling; Walk Ins/Phone Ins

How do I know this? I have asked this question of thousands of groups all over the world and I always get the same four items, and there lies a problem. Both you and your competition are trying to get new customers in the same way. The customers, therefore, cannot see the difference between you and will just buy the cheapest.

We need to be much more creative in the way we attract new customers to our business. How can you be creative? I don’t know your industry but what about some of the following:

• Stop people in the street and give them a business card.
• Announce a new service by hanging from a hot air balloon
• Stick a coin on your business cards (do you think people would throw that away?)
• Give everybody in your team a really different new uniform
• Have a party in your factory and invite all your competitors’ customers

The list is endless. Ten minutes of every sales meeting should be dedicated to creativity.

Differentiate yourself from your competition by attracting new customers in creative and exciting ways.

6. Don’t forget the little things

There is a great book on the shelves of your local bookstore called “Don’t sweat the small stuff” (Richard Carlson). In selling it is different. “Do sweat the small stuff” (Richard Mulvey). It is the little things that can make a big difference in the minds of the customer. Consider the following:

• When was the last time you sent a customer a thank you card when you didn’t get the business?
• When you make a delivery include a small bar of chocolate with a thank you note.
• Send a personal SMS on every customers’ birthday

· Always be looking for an opportunity to do something extra. An extra 100 pages printed, an extra button just incase the customer looses one, a small battery charger and rechargeable batteries with the toy, a bag of mints in the hire car, fruit in the room at the hotel……. etc.

Interestingly the little things also cost a little amount of money but they make a big difference in the minds of your customer

Differentiate yourself from your competition by doing little things for your customers every day.

7. Be happy when you make mistakes

I know what you are thinking. You are thinking that if you make a mistake the customer will go to your competition next time but this isn’t exactly true.

Your customers don’t mind you making a mistake, what the customer really cares about is when you take forever to fix it, that is when they decide to go elsewhere next time they want to buy. If you can fix the problem straight away, however, the customer will be happy to come back because they know if they have another problem you will solve it without delay.

Time is of the essence here. Every member of your staff should have the authority to solve customer problems straight away. In this way you can keep a customer for life.

Differentiate yourself from your competition by solving customer’s problems straight away.

Being different isn’t difficult, but it is an effective way of letting the customer know there is more to the decision they have to make than just looking at the price.

Richard

Richard Mulvey "The International Sales Guru" is available at www.richardmulvey.com & www.salescoachingworx.com. You may re-publish this article in any electronic media as long as it is not changed in any way and includes this paragraph at the end.

107 Joe Girard on Beating the Recession

How the Top Sales Guru's are Beating the Recession

Joe Girard - No 3 on the list of top 30 sales gurus in the world.

Background

Joe Girard is a motivational speaker and sales trainer but when he was younger he sold cars… lots of cars. In fact he is still in the Guinness Book of Records as having sold more individual cars and trucks than any body else in History.

Joe - “After the third year of my automotive retail sales career I was already doing very well. In fact, I became the number one new retail car and truck salesperson in the world; a title I never relinquished until I retired.”

What we are really interested in for this series of articles is how Joe Girard responds to the recession.

In 1974, during a major recession, unemployment at 9% in the US (today it is hovering around 8%,) oil was in short supply, petrol being rationed, not sold, the consensus was you could not sell cars. Joe only sold 1,376 that year, or roughly 27 cars a week! This is not the total cars sold in the dealership, these were sold by Joe Girard himself.

How did Joe sell so many cars?

As you might have guessed, primarily by referrals. Long before email and the personal computer Joe sent a handwritten card to every single person on his list, every month, just to let people know he was still out there selling cars and thinking about them. No promotions, no advertisements, just hand written cards.

Joe’s referral system was so successful he personally hired two assistants to help him pre-screen his customers, manage his appointment-only sales schedule, and assist him in writing 500+ cards every day.

Richard – Don’t you just love this simple approach. I often get sales people writing to me about the recession and asking what they should do to get out of it. They are looking for brand new ideas and earth shattering sales skills that will break the hold that the recession seems to have on their business.

For every one of these people the answer is the same, “Get More Referrals”. Every one of your existing customers knows someone else you could be doing business with. Find out the name of that “someone else” and you will double the number of people you get face to face with overnight. Don’t you think that would be cool? Can you think of anything easier?

In good times and bad Joe Girard sent hand written cards to his customer base every month. Not cards advertising his cars or the service he provides. Just a simple, personal message of friendship. Today we all have the means at our fingertips (literally) to do this with very little effort and yet how many of us follow in Joe Girard’s footsteps?

You have the solution to the recession in your hands right now. You know how to fix the problem all you have to do is just get out there and do it!

Read Joe's 13 rules to success. It is simple stuff but if we could do this all the time we would all be as successful as Joe Girard

Visit Joe Girard's Website: www.joegirard.com

Joe Girard - No 3 on the list of top 30 sales gurus in the world.

106 - Zig Ziglar on Beating the Recession

Zig Ziglar - No 1 on the list of top 30 sales gurus in the world.

Attitude Makes the DifferenceHTML clipboard

The sales profession has a different attitude about life and business. In the non-sales community, when business drops, management generally calls a 'pity party.' (That's what Mrs. Mamie McCullough, the lady who started the I CAN course for schools, named them. She also says many pity parties are held on an individual basis.) To zero in on all the difficulties, management explains they are going to have to cut the lights and let a couple of the janitors, secretaries, and support personnel go. With a stiff upper lip they explain that despite the fact things are tough 'We're going to fight this and hope for the best.' The sales world handles recessions differently. When the media announces a recession, management gets everybody together and says, 'We know you've been hearing all about the recession, but we've figured out a foolproof way to beat it. All we've got to do is reduce our sales.'

Right? Wrong!

What management does is simple. They call a management conference to organize a sales meeting to end all sales meetings. The president, board chairman, and sales manager are primed and rarin' to go. They get the troops together, roll out the red carpet, and in a highly excited manner say, 'Folks, we know all of you have been hearing the completely unfounded rumor about a recession. Well, let me tell you what we think about recessions. We think they are definitely between your ears! Recessions are like a lot of other things. You can either join them or refuse to join. It is our current company policy not to join.

'Let me tell you what we are going to do. We're going to put on a contest like you have never seen before in your life! We're going to put prizes up like you can't believe. We're going to offer incentives to our customers and to you as salespeople which will make everybody so ecstatically happy and excited that they'll end up praying for any so-called recession to continue. We're going to embark on a promotion and advertising campaign that will absolutely blow your mind! We're going to get each one of you involved in a sales training and a motivational program which will increase your effectiveness and productivity dramatically. We're going to sell more and better than ever before.'

Richard - I love this approach. Oh Sure.... I can already hear some of you saying that Zig is naive. "You can't just ignore the recession, it is here and we have to cope with it."

If this is your point of view consider this for a second. The problem is not the lack of business in your industry (whatever industry you are in), the problem is your share of the business that is available. You can do the same things in the same way as you have always done if you want. The result of this activity (or lack of activity) is that your percentage of the market will, at best, stay the same. As the market goes down so will your business.

The alternative, if you truly want different results, is to start to do things differently. More activity, more enthusiasm, more promotions, more rewards, more motivation, more creativity and much, much more positivity. There is business out there you just need to have a bigger share of the declining market and that will take some interesting activity on your behalf.

So what are you going to do? Sit back and complain about the recession or get up and take some action?

Zig Ziglar took a fall down some stairs a couple of years ago and now at the tender age of 80 doesn't get out as much as he used to. He is still writing books and articles and for my money he has earned the title as the world's No1 Sales Guru.

Visit Zig Ziglar's Website: http://www.ziglar.com

Zig Ziglar - No 1 on the list of top 30 sales gurus in the world.

105 Bob Urichuck - Beating the Recession

How the Top Sales Guru's are Beating the Recession

Bob Urichuck - No 7 on the list of top 30 sales gurus in the world.

www.bobu.com

Dear Richard

Thanks for the invite to share a few pointers with your readers.

My main message to many recently has been to double up. Whatever you did in the past, do twice as much with better targeting – A and B profile clients where you can get the best R.O.T.I. (Return on time invested).

Richard – I don’t think Bob is talking about having twice as many hours in the day, but rather doing twice as much of the good stuff that brings in the good business.

The acronym ROTI (return on time invested) is a very important one here. Have a look at your existing customers and dived the amount of their monthly income by the time it takes each month to service the client, then look at the results.

A good customer measured by their turnover may be taking up a large amount of your time. They may look good on paper but when you analyze their ROTI they may be costing you money. Sometimes we have to bite the bullet and drop customers that take too much time to service and use that time to get customers with a better ROTI.

Create a personal marketing plan where you are positioned as an expert in your target market and do things to attract people towards you – they chase you, not the norm of you chasing them – a pull vs push strategy. This means knowing who your targeted prospects are and how to be able to reach them – through speaking at the associations they belong to, getting involved in a active way in that Association, writing articles in the magazines they read, being in the media as best you can – press releases, charitable drives, etc.; gathering and using testimonials.

Richard – We didn’t need to do this when business was flowing in over the last seven years so many of us just got lazy. Start now to make a name for yourself in your industry

Having a referral reward program in place, along with other educational, socially responsible and value added activities.

Richard – Getting referrals is important but how often do we remember to say thank you? We need to have a system in place that reminds us to send a little something to say ‘thank you’ when a customer gives us a referral.

Finally look for ways to partner with your best customers and suppliers to increase awareness and create a win-win for all.

Richard – In the marketplace there are people who are thriving and people who are struggling. In my experience the people who are thriving are the people who set up partnerships with their customers some time ago. It is not too late to do this. Identify your top customers and meet with them. Discuss the possibility of exclusivity in exchange for longer contracts or better terms. Find out more about their business and see if there are other things that you can do to help them. Can you make their life easier? Solve some of their problems? If you can you are ensuring your own survival. (One word of warning, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Linking yourself very closely with just one customer may have the opposite effect if they begin to struggle)

Bob Urichuck - No 7 on the list of top 30 sales gurus in the world.

Bob Urichuck is a globally sought speaker on sales, motivation, leadership and team skills. He has spoken in over 100 cities, in over 25 countries and to over 1,000 organizations worldwide. Bob is available on www.bobu.com

104 Frank Furness on Growing in the Recession

Frank Furness

Frank Furness is No 13 on the top 30 list of World Sales Gurus and can be found at www.frankfurness.com

When speaking to clients about the current economic climate and how to deal with it, I have 5 strategies that I speak about:

1 – Looking after your key clients better than your competitors. Who are your top 10 clients and what are 10 things you know about them. What are you doing that is different and better than your competitors and why should your key clients stick with you when they can get similar service, pricing and products elsewhere.

Richard – We all know that 80% of our business comes from 20 % of our customer base so looking after the top ten clients makes a great deal of sense. When times are difficult we sometimes often rush off in different directions looking for new business without making sure that our existing business is secure.

2 – Constantly be prospecting for new business and clients. Presently there are a lot of companies unhappy with their suppliers, so how do you build your brand online and offline to let organisations know who you are and how you can help them. I also show them different strategies for finding new business and clients.

Richard- The last 7 years has been a sellers market and sales people the world over have become “order takers”. We now have to re-train our sales people to sell all over again and in Frank’s excellent book “Sales Prospecting for new business and clients” he describes 17 ways to get new business (http://www.prospectingforsales.com/)

3 – Everybody is a salesperson – I am advising my clients to let all their staff know that they are all relationship managers.

Richard - This is so important. When business is easy we get lazy. We forget that it is not just the sales teams job to bring in the business. The Accounts Department, Transport, Reception, Technical and even the tea lady. We all get face to face with customers on a regular basis and therefore must be trained to provide great service. When business is tight the last thing we can afford to do is to lose customers because of bad service delivery.

4 – Get up to date with technology – there are so many free tools and methods to use social networking to build your brand and drive business

Richard - Technology is Frank’s passion and a brief search on the internet will let you know how well equipped he is to talk on the subject. Many of us are missing out on potential business opportunities because we don’t understand the power of the Internet. This is a subject I will return to over the coming months but in the mean time social networking is something you should be working with now. This will have as much impact on the sales department as e-mail did 15 years ago. I signed up for Twitter just a few months ago but I am already getting new business from there. (Sign up and then follow me on: www.twitter.com/richardmulvey )

5 – Get rid of dead wood. There is a glut of talent out there at the moment looking for employment; there is no better time to replace underperforming staff.

Richard – I was speaking to a friend over the weekend and he tells me that 52% of estate agents have left the business over the last year. Has anybody noticed? In a business where people have to be successful or starve, the underperformers move very quickly. In your business you may be supporting underperformers, but now is the time to get rid of them.

Frank Furness is No 13 on the top 30 list of World Sales Gurus and can be found at www.frankfurness.com

103 Do Something Extraordinary

My work as a motivational sales speaker and trainer is an interesting one. Much of my day is spent with groups of people encouraging then to be different. They want different results otherwise they wouldn’t have called me in the first place, however, in most cases they want to keep doing the same things in the same way and, by some magic, end up with better figures at the end of the month. My job is to politely (but firmly) explain that this is not going to happen.

If you want different results you have to do things differently. If you are going to carry on doing the same things in the same way you will get the same results. The only way to get different results is to change what you do and how you do it. Most people find this the hardest part of skills development.

Just getting different results is okay, but not extraordinary. Each of us has the ability to be extraordinary but few of us tap into that ability. As I write this I am reminded of the very topical Susan Boyle.

Eight weeks ago Susan Boyle was a very ordinary person living in a small village in Scotland going about her ordinary life in an ordinary way. At 47 years old and single, she lives in a small cottage with her cat. That was just eight weeks ago but now she is the talk of the world. She has travelled to America, interviewed by Oprah had many television appearances and won the hearts of millions of viewers all over the world. How has she done this?

Susan Boyle decided to have a go at being extraordinary. She applied to sing in a talent show in the UK and was given the opportunity. The rest is, as they say, history. (If you haven’t heard of Susan Boyle have a look at You Tube).

Susan Boyle has an extraordinary talent but she didn’t allow that talent to excel until her late forties. We all have extraordinary abilities hidden within our selves. What is yours? I know you know what it is. You know, but you keep it hidden. It is easier not to let it out. It is easier to be ordinary then you don’t risk making a fool of yourself.

Invest the next 20 minutes in yourself. Consider what extraordinary talents you may have that you have kept under wraps for all these years. You know what your extraordinary talent is and it would be a waste to spend the rest of your life hiding it.

If you want to continue the rest of your life getting the same results that’s okay. If you want to get different results, however, now is a good time to allow yourself to be extraordinary.

This article is written and published by Richard Mulvey who can be contacted on www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article in any media as long as it is not altered in any way and it contains this final paragraph

102 Creating your own website in 15 minutes

The internet is a great source of new business and we haven’t yet started to scratch its surface.

I know what you are thinking here. You are thinking that the internet marketplace is for the bright young nerds who are making a fortune on e-bay, but this is just not true. Even if you think that “Java” is coffee and “Flash” is what men do in raincoats in the park. You can still make use of the internet to sell your products or services very easily.

The first thing you need is a website. Wait a minute! Don’t switch off just yet. A website does not have to be a 100 page monster that costs half the national debt to create. You can create a website in 10 minutes for free! (yes YOU!)

It is very easy to do and as long as you know how to switch on the computer and connect to the internet you too can be the proud owner of a website selling your products or services. In fact, it is so easy that I recommend that you consider doing it for each of your products.

The easiest way to create a website is to create a “Blog”. Blogs were originally designed as an internet diary, and bloggers (everyone has a name on the internet) compete with each other to have the most interesting (and therefore the most sought after) blog.

Blog software is, however, the easiest to use and you can easily create a blog for yourself for FREE, in just 10 minutes. Let me explain how it is done:

1. Switch on your computer and make sure it is connected to the internet
2. Open your internet software (usually Internet Explorer) and type in the following address: https://www.blogger.com/start.
3. I will be creating the website in Blogger which is Google’s free blog generator. There are others out there to choose from I just use Blogger because it seems to be the easiest, and they don’t insist on you using their advertising.
4. If you like you can cruise around the site learning more about how it all works but for now we are going to create the site.
5. Click on “Create your Blog Now”
6. If you haven’t got a Google account you will have to do this now. Follow the instructions, it costs nothing and all you have to have is an e-mail address.
7. Keep following the instructions and you will get to the Blogger Dashboard. You are now ready to create your blog.
8. Click on “Create your Blog Now”
9. Type in the name of your Blog. Anything will do here… “Fred’s Spanners”
10. Now type in the URL name. This will be http://www.(yoursitename).blogspot.com. Again you can type in anything you like to describe the content of your site.
11. You are now directed to the template page. You can choose what you want your blog to look like. It doesn’t matter what you choose because you can change it later. Click on one of the templates, then press “Continue”
12. Click “Start Blogging” and you will be directed to a page that you have to complete with your first article or information.
13. Fill in the title at the top and then some description of your product or service.
14. Click on “Post Article” and you are away.
15. You can click on a button to view your blog, but I recommend you click on the “Layout” tab, and add a few interesting additions.
16. Click on “Add a Gadget” on the right hand column and you can add pictures, videos, slide shows, text, pretty much anything.
17. Keep referring back to your Blog to see how you are going.
18. Don’t forget to put your telephone number or contact details so that people can contact you to buy…..

How simple is that? It has probably taken longer to read this that it does to start your own website. Now we have to drive people to your website, and we will look at that in the next issue

This article is written and published by Richard Mulvey who can be contacted on www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article in any media as long as it is not altered in any way and it contains this final paragraph

101 How to become a Professional Speaker.

As the president of the Professional Speakers Association of Southern Africa (formerly the NSASA) I am often asked how I became a speaker. People think I have a wonderful job. I get to travel all over the country and all over the world, stay in the best hotels, have plenty of free time and get paid to tell people what I think.

Actually I do have a wonderful job but it is not always that glamorous.

If you would like to become a speaker you can, but don’t expect it to be the easiest ride of your life. Of the hundreds of people who decide to take up a career in speaking every year, very few have the stamina to make it. Many of them have had a career in Human Resources or Sales and are used to speaking in front of an audience. They see the speaker at their annual conference speak for an hour and get paid well, so they decide this is the life for them. Most of these people fail in the speaking industry. They work for a couple of years trying to make a go of it but move into another more reliable career when their golden handshake runs out. In the PSASA we help people avoid the pitfalls and develop a speaking business that works.

There are four things involved in becoming a professional speaker:

1. Develop a good message
2. Acquire exceptional speaking skills
3. Find paying audiences who want to listen to your message
4. Work out a good business model

Let’s have a look at these one at a time.

Develop a good message

People often go into the speaking business for the wrong reason. They have the skills to deliver a message, but they are not passionate about the message they deliver. The first stage to being an exceptional speaker is to have a good message. You may well have climbed a mountain or walked the Great Wall of China, but what is the message in the experience? What does your target market care about? In the PSASA we often talk about the “Niche” you should focus on. It is a mistake to try to be all things to all people, so where should you focus?

Acquire exceptional speaking skills

People are not born good speakers, they acquire the skills to speak and then practice. I will often encourage people to join the Toastmasters organisation to develop their speaking skills, but the best way to fine tune them is to practice. Once you have a message, get yourself in front of as many people who will listen and present your ideas. There are many organisations that are looking for speakers at their meetings. Organisations like Rotary, Round Table, and networking groups are crying out for interesting speakers. You will not get paid for this of course, but you are fine tuning your skills at their expense which is worth its weight in gold. If you have a book or video on the subject, take it with you to sell after the event. During my first year as a speaker this income was sometimes the only money I had to live on.

Find paying audiences who want to listen to your message

This is a tough one. You have a great message and the skills to deliver that message, now you need to find people who will listen and pay you for the privilege. The Speaker’s Agents and Bureaus will help here but don’t rely on them to be your only income. They are in business just like you are so don’t expect them to invest a lot of their time in you without getting a good return on that investment. They will help of course, especially if you have an interesting or unique message. Their customers are always looking for something a little different. Some speakers work entirely with bureaus but this is unusual. Most speakers also create their own audiences with Seminars, Training courses, or working directly with companies at their conferences.

Nobody is going to hand you audiences on a plate; you have to work hard for them. Many speakers fail at this point because they expect the audiences to beat a path to the door. It’s just not going to happen.

Work out a good business model

It is well known in the speaking industry that you have to create a business model that is sustainable. It isn’t just about speaking. Most speakers have written a book or two to give them credibility and have something to sell at the back of the room after the presentation. Others have become consultants, give webinars or teleseminars, become coaches or mentors, and have DVDs, CDs and MP3s to support their message. Each successful speaker develops their own business model and this is where the PSASA can be of great assistance. We cannot help you get audiences, but we can help you with advice on how to create a sustainable business model. Our monthly chapter meetings have speakers from all over the world who are delighted to share their experiences and offer advice.

So if you want to become one of South Africa’s great world speakers, have a interesting message, develop the skills to deliver that message, start to work on getting as many people to listen to you as possible and create the right business model. That’s all you have to do! See you at the next PSASA meeting.

This article is written and published by Richard Mulvey who can be contacted on www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article in any media as long as it is not altered in any way and it contains this final paragraph

100 Selling in a Receding Economy

In today’s competitive market there seem to be more suppliers and less customers than ever before. World costs are rising dramatically and here in South Africa we have additional challenges of an inconsistent electricity supply, impending political change, rising fuel costs and a sharp decline in the growth of the economy. The ecomomists will tell you that we are not actually in a recession, but it sure does feel like it. So how come some businesses excel? Why are there are more millionaires created in a declining market than in a growing one?

What makes the winners so successful?

How do we become wealthy in a receding economy?

Attitude is important here. The people who thrive in a receding economy are those people who see themselves as successful despite all the evidence to the contrary, see a positive future where others are battening down the hatches or worse still, leaving the country.

Even if you do decide to go, where do you go to? This is a world recession; America’s housing market is struggling as is that of the UK and Japan. The American dollar is in decline which may sound like good news for tourists but with a weakened economy the USA will be purchasing less and this has a considerable effect on the exports from countries like China, Canada, Mexico and even South Africa, who exported over US$7,5 billion worth of merchandise to the USA last year.

Very few countries are immune so the only real answer is to make this country work. But how?

Attitude is important but it is not the only thing that matters.

We all know people who are positive at every opportunity, but fail to get the desired results. This sort of idiocy will not work. Positive thinking has to be converted to positive action if we are really going to make this work. “Action is the mother of opportunity”. We will explore this principle later in this series but it is clear that sitting quietly in a darkened room being positive is not going to generate the required results.

So what action do we need to take?

Interestingly any action is better than no action at all, but what action to take? Too often we fall back on lots of ¨M.O.T.S¨

M.O.T.S.?... More Of The Same.....

This will just not work. Oh sure, when things are going well M.O.T.S. works. When the economy is growing you can continue to do what you did last year and get good results. When the economy is receding however, this approach is doomed to failure.

Many businesses are now doing business as normal and wondering why their results are declining. To these businesses I say “Watch Out!” These businesses will be the first to go to the wall.

Over the next few months we will be exploring what you can do in a receeding economy to grow your business but for now I would like you to consider how flexibility can help.

When the economy is receeding there will be many industries that decline, but some will flourish. The housing market typically will be in decline, but people have got to live somewhere, so the rental market is increasing.

In my own market as a conference speaker, conferences are in decline. Many companies are reconsidering their budget for the year and cutting back on what they consider to be non-essential expenditure. Interestingly there has been a dramatic increase in the requests for focused sales training. This is a good thing of course. Businesses are struggling so it is a good time to get the sales team to improve their performance and deliver better results.

Consider your own market and work out what areas will be in decline and what will grow. Then be flexible to focus on the areas of growth.

This article is written and published by Richard Mulvey who can be contacted on www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article in any media as long as it is not altered in any way and it contains this final paragraph

When in Rome

In Cameroon I had the rare honour to be introduced to the Fon of Bafut (A Fon is the "King" of the area and Bafut is the largest of the three provinces in Cameroon). Prior to the meeting I was given explicit instructions not to shake his hand and what to do with my own hands instead. Our friend who had arranged the meeting, was his son.

I was told that the proper use of the hands when speaking to the Fon is in front of your mouth with your eyes cast down to the floor, and when the Fon is speaking the hands should keep up a quiet clapping motion in front of the body. It was felt, however that I may get this wrong which would be a terrible insult, so when (if) the Fon addresses me I should keep my hands behind my back at all times, which I did. I also looked at him when he talked which was, apparently, not on, so my conversation with the Fon was quite short.

The psychology behind the position of the hands is, I guess, that the Fon is too important to care about your attitude when you are talking to him so you should lower your eyes and hold both hands over your mouth. This would effectively hide your body language and therefore a large part of the communication of your feelings. By clapping when the Fon is talking however you are indicating your approval of what he is saying. He is all powerful in the area anyway so I guess it doesn't matter what you feel, you have to approve.

This story serves to underline an important issue. When doing business with people of other cultures, it is not only important to learn some of their verbal language but also their body language. By not fully understanding the importance of averting my eyes, my conversation with the Fon was cut short. Under the circumstances this was not a problem but if I had been visiting the Fon to get his approval over some business matter, my mistake could have been catastrophic.

The lesson here is easy one. I was told what to do, and I simply did not realise the importance of this type of body language.In business we learn by training or experience how to use verbal and written language to communicate. Nobody would doubt the importance of these media in business communications, and without a good command of the appropriate language, business at anything but a basic level would be impossible.

To be really effective in business, however, it is essential that we learn the art of understanding body language, so that we can communicate well using our own gestures and understand others by reading theirs.

This article is written and published by Richard Mulvey who can be contacted on www.richardmulvey.com. You may re-publish this article in any media as long as it is not altered in any way and it contains this final paragraph