To solve your problems, think outside the box

Forget about Tony Buzan and his mind-mapping techniques or Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking approach.  What you need is to put your brain in its right perspective to be able to think outside the box to solve either your marketing or sales problems, the Malaysian way.

Throughout my working career, I have often been put in sticky situations where even my fellow managers would remark that it would not be possible for me to have the matter fixed, so why not just give it up.  I didn't.  Instead I persisted  on the matter as I felt that there must be a way to overcome the problem, and all I need to do is look around in my mind for the answer.  This is why I enjoy Marketing the most as it allows me the room to be creative and to allow my mind to explore the horizons.  To put it simply, we only use 10% of our brain.  There is so much more to explore in the remaining 90%.  So why leave it to waste?

Edward de Bono's Lateral Thinking tends to be too wordy for some, but putting it into a nutshell, my own concoction that is, here is a little story of how lateral thinking works to solve a problem.  Remember, until now, you, me and all the people around us are doing what we called, vertical thinking.

Once there was a wealthy Arabian sheikh who had a tremendous interests in well bred stallions.  In the immediate neighbourhood, there were two horse breeders who have the horses that the sheikh was looking for.  One day, he approached the two horse breeders that he would like to buy one of their horses.  Immediately, the horse breeders protested saying that their animals were not of the fine breed, lacked grace and did not have the ability to run fast, something the sheikh was looking for.  Despite the assurance that the sheikh would pay them a handsome price for the horse, the two horse breeders still refused to make the trade.  Not giving up, the sheikh proposed to the two men.  "We will solve the problem this way.  We will have a race.  Whoever comes out the winner, I will take the horse.  A will ride the horse belonging to B, and B will ride the horse belonging to A." [QED as they say in mathematics].

Look at the picture, another lateral thinking technique in solving a problem in today's world ....

[click the picture to enlarge]

The tricky issue of trademarks

In a broad sense, most of us are comparable to salesmen.  Throughout our lives, we concentrate our efforts on persuading others to give us a favourable response to our endeavours.

The aim of the politician, diplomat, professional or the man who proposes marriage is all the same, that is acceptance of our offer of services or compliance with demands subtly made.  In preference and often in competition to others in the same field.

Is competition good?  Andrew Carnegie says, "While the law of competition may be sometimes hard for the individual, it is best for the race because it ensures the survival of the fittest in every department.  We accept and welcome, therefore, as conditions to which we must accommodate ourselves, great inequality of environment, the concentration of business, industrial and commercial, in the hands of a few and the law of competition between these, as being not only beneficial, but essential for the future progress of the
race."

In the words of Adam Smith: "Every man, as long as he does not violate the laws of justice, is left perfectly free to pursue his own interest in his own way and to bring his industry and capital in competition with those of any other man or order of man."

In our economic system which has relied on competition to keep down prices and improve the quality of products, the policy of the common law is not to run the risk of hampering competition by providing civil remedies to everyone competing in the market who has suffered damage to his business or goodwill in consequence of inaccurate statements by rival traders.

Exaggerated claims by a trader about the quality of his wares, assertions that they are better than those of rivals, even though he knows this to be untrue, have been tolerated in the past (perhaps still so) by common law as venial puffing which gives no cause of action to aggrieved rivals.

The law has now provided progressively and cautiously some remedies against dishonest rival traders by implementing copyrights, trademarks and patent laws and by developing the tort (civil wrong) of "passing off."  A civil action for passing off will lie where a trader marks his goods in such a way as to create the impression  that they are the goods of another trader, thereby "cashing in" on the latter's goodwill.

A trademark is any visible sign or device used by a business organisation  to identify its goods and distinguish them from those made or carried by others.  Trademarks can be in many forms, such as words, logos, letters, numerals, devices, names, the shapes or other presentation of products or their packages, wrappings, colour combinations with signs and so on.

In any case, the trademark should display some distinctive marks to distinguish the goods of the proprietor of the trademark from those of other persons.  The trademark protects manufacturers/traders against unfair competition where a person or business represents or pass for sale his goods as the goods of the trademark owner.

Customers are protected from imitations of the goods for which they have known preference.  For those who are interested in knowing more of trademark protection, please visit the website http://www.malaysia-trademark.com/index.html

When does one commit infringement of trademark which makes him liable in criminal and civil law?  Under Section 38 of the Trade Marks Act, a registered trademark is infringed by a person who uses a mark which is identical  with it or so nearly resembling it as likely to deceive or likely to cause confusion.

The above provisions have been subject to numerous interpretations by overseas and local courts the only safe conclusion of whether an act constitutes infringement depends upon the facts of each case.

In the leading Supreme Court case of Tohtonkee v Superace (M) Sdn Bhd (1992), the court made an important decision.  In that case, one of the main points was whether condoms sold under the "Sister" trade mark infringes those sold under "Mister" trade mark.  The answer was "no" based on the totality of evidence before the court.

The court said: "There is similarity in the second syllable but, as a whole, the similarity is not close enough as to be likely to cause deception or confusion.  Further, the get-up of the intervenor's product is a green background with the picture of a lady whereas the get-up of the applicant's product is a white-lue-grey background with a picture of a lady and a man.

Similarly, in a recent case, the Kuala Lumpur High  Court held that there was no basis for the plaintiff's allegation that the trademark "Comelku" had infringed the trademark "Anakku".

In conclusion, there is no legally recognised category of unfair competition as such although it is not unlikely that a more flexible approach to traditional concepts will be adopted in future to meet new tricky situations and circumstances.

Below are two videos, "How to trademark your logo design" and "Trademark Protection" which will give you some insight on trademarks and how to ensure your trademarks receive adequate protection.

Where good ideas come from by Steven Johnson

Having problems coming out with new ideas to improve your work system or product development?  This video may just help.

[Those who are interested in the "Innovation in Marketing" workshop, please contact the blogger at 012-6884989 or email to billyolh@gmail.com]

How to keep customers forever

Twenty six our of 27 customers who have a problem with a product or service will not report their dissatisfaction.  Why?  Largely because those 26 people feel it would be a waste of time to complain.  They believe they will not receive satisfaction and that the company may not even take heed of their complaint.  That attitude eventually results in lost sales.

One of the secretaries in the executive suite of a company is responsible for making airline travel reservations for all of the executives.  She is biased against one airline that treated her poorly in one instance in the past, so she uses only its competitors.  The gross cost to the airline that once provided inadequate service is $100,000 a year.  If she continues to handle the arrangements for 20 years, that will mean a loss to the airline of $2 million.

At a small IBM computer installation at a wholesale distributor the equipment went down at a critical time.  A panic call was made.  Within three hours, there were six IBM technicians working on the equipment.  It was a small computer room and they were practically hanging from the ceiling.  By mid-afternoon, the equipment was back on track.

The installation was on a service contract, so all of the extra effort did not cost the computer user one cent.  However, there was not question, from the president on down, that no other computer manufacturer would gain entry into the company after that.  The company grew and acquired other companies.  After an acquisition, any non-IBM equipment was replaced by IBM equipment.

These are some of the hallmarks of poor service:

• Too few incoming phone lines to the service department.
• Callers are frequently placed on excessive hold.
• Service personnel transfer calls to other areas.
• Loss of misplacement of paperwork by service people.
• Low ability of service people to grasp the problem.
• Failure or excessive delays (i.e. days) to return calls.

Customer problems that are handled well, even though not to the complete satisfaction of the customer, can result in repeat or continuing business.  Sometimes just a little understanding of the customer's predicament can cause customer appreciation.

How knowledgeable are your service people?  In an experiment, a bank president called his bank, without mentioning his name, to ask about interest rates.  After a few minutes, he slammed the phone down in exasperation.  His bank took large, expensive ads in all the local newspapers.  These advertised the current rates to attract new depositors.  In addition, every bank branch lobby had a large sign indicating the rates.  Yet the switchboard operator could not answer the question and the new accounts department, after hearing the question, put him on hold.

Follow the lead of the bank president and call your customer service department.  If a name is required, us a fictitious one.  If you voice could recognised, have a friend or your spouse call.  Take notes.

Later, make recommendations for improvements in the handling of customer calls.  Those improvements can be monitored.  After a while, it will get around that someone is checking on customer service.  As the customer service staff do not know which alls are part of the ploy, all calls may receive better service.

Solve problems the simple way

A simple breach in advertising

Singapore : Does this crab look 900g to you?  It certainly didn't look like it for customer 'Calvin' when a seafood restaurant in Changi served him an "undersized" crab, according to a report in STOMP.

He said he was taking advantage of a coupon promotion by the restaurant which offered a 900g crab for $25.

But when he was served a much smaller crab, he pointed it out to a staff who challenged him to go weigh it himself in the kitchen.

Calvin, who related the incident to STOMP, said he bought a total of six coupons and went to the restaurant on February 10.

He said: "We complained to the staff about the size of the crab we were served, but she was rude to us and challenged us to weigh the crab ourselves in the kitchen to prove the crab weighed 900g.
"What surprised us was that the crab does not even look like it weighed 900g. We took a photo to compare a handphone to the shell of the crab."

Calvin said the diners next to their table also found their crabs too small and complained to the staff too.
"But the answer that they got was the same. After this incident, we felt so cheated by the restaurant."

Another diner, who wrote to Stomp, said the crabs were "definitely less than 900g" each.
"It was about 600g, at the most, 700g. It was small and the shell was soft."  He said one staff blamed it on the supplier. But he pointed out to her that "their chef should weigh it before cooking" and that it could be a "case of cheating".

In the end, the restaurant "compensated" him with another crab.

The diner said the restaurant must adhere to business ethics.  "If the restaurant cannot deliver what it promises, then don't promote it."

[Source: SoShiok.com]

Let's get innovative : A set of lounge seats from Japan

 

 

 

 

 

The training programme, "Innovation in Marketing" is available.  For more information, please contact the blogger.

Can our local advertising agencies come up with eye catching, creative ads such as these?

 

 

 

 

Don't give up on former customers

Former customers are a major source of sales left untapped by many companies,


Jim Dombrowski, an information products manager, was handed a list from his company's customer database labeled, "To be purged".  It listed more than 3,000 customers who hadn't bought anything in nearly two years.


But three years before, they had collectively spent $485.000.  Before deleting their names, Dombrowski had a team of telemarketers call them.


It turned out many on the list were once small customers who hadn't received any attention after their initial order but were now big companies


Within a few months, 378 of these placed orders totaling $87,000.

Selling by THINKING

In Eliyahu Goldratt's novel, "It's Not Luck", executives at the hero's company must help the sales force land some big ones or lose the company.  They use a Goldratt analysis method called the "Thinking Processes", by which you, the seller, get the prospect to talk you into the sale.


As Don, one of the executives, explains, the reason for the sales team's earlier problems in selling their new offer - very beneficial to the customer - is they "talked about how great this new offer is.  How much it would save the buyer ... You know, all the good stuff."


"Isn't that what they're supposed to do?"

"Put yourself in the buyer's shoes.  A salesman praises his own company's offer.  What's your natural reaction?"


"I'd start thinking of objections."


"Exactly.  You will object.  And statistically, the more objections the buyer raises, the less likely the sale."


"Instead, Don presents the buyers with a cause-and-effect diagram called a Current Reality Tree that shows how his own company caused the clinets' worst problems.  The clients loved it.


"Most responded by asking what we were planning to do about it, which opened the door nice and wide."


The salesman hands the buyer a Future Reality Tree, showing how the company's new policies - and its current offer - solve the problems.  So the deal won't seem too good to be true, they ask for minor guarantees in return.


"Then we had the salespeople say the buyer needs time to think about it, and ask for another meeting."  Most client insist that discussions continue and close themselves.

For more inforamtion on both Reality Trees, please email me at billyolh@gmail.com

It is coming .... Windows 8

MICROSOFT will pull the covers off Windows 8 - a radical rethinking of the operating system that runs most of the world's computers. And it has one clear goal in sight: The iPad.

The software giant will talk about the forthcoming release on that date and hold what is essentially a massive public beta of the next-generation operating system, an overhaul intended to stress the growing importance of tablet computers and smartphones to the overall world of technology, reported Fox News.

Users will most likely be able to download the software for free that day, though Microsoft refused to confirm when it would be available.

The new operating system boasts a completely revamped user interface Microsoft calls "Metro."

It will run on top of the conventional interface and is intended to work not just with the world's hundreds of millions of Windows computers but also with the emerging mobile devices that have taken consumers by storm.

The new interface will display applications as tiles for quick and easy access, while also allowing them to toggle back to a classic Windows look.

Other user interface changes already unveiled include a new "lock screen" for the operating system that gives far more information at a glance than the current iteration of Windows and pervasive touch input controls - yet another a signal that Microsoft will be focused on devices that emphasize touch.

[Source: NewsCore]

CASE STUDY : KFC, is this what you called 'Service'?

A KFC employee was seen punching a customer in the face before dozens of hungry waiting patrons. He was seen doing so moments after his co-workers confronted the patron en masse.

Uploaded on YouTube on Feb 6, a 28-second video showed the fight allegedly taking place at KFC’s I-City outlet in Shah Alam. Early in the video, several of the blue-shirted employees charged out from behind the counter, gesturing threateningly at the customer.

“Sekarang nak apa! (What do you want now!)” several of the workers shouted at the customer, both of whom were separated only by two frantic-looking women.

One of the workers was seen pushing back his colleagues in an attempt to calm them down, and stopped a man who seemed to be running towards the customer.

Just then, one of the workers suddenly brushed past the others and socked the customer in the face, before grabbing him around the neck and kicking him into a nearby table.

The women screamed as other patrons at the outlet looked on, stunned. The perpetrator was then quickly led back to the counter area by a female employee.

According to YouTube user Jess6366, who uploaded the video, the attacked customer had apparently been waiting for more than an hour for his fried chicken.

The user said that when it came to the customer’s turn, he was informed that there was no chicken left, prompting the customer to demand an apology from the manager.

Jess6366 wrote that one of the workers allegedly told the customer: “Kalau mau makan, buat sendiri lah babi (If you want to eat, make it yourself, pig!)”

The video caused an outcry to erupt on Facebook, with many outraged at the fast-food boxer’s antics.

“Kenapa perkerja kfc selalu keluar video, banyak pasai lo.perkerja kfc ini nampak samseng betul.sikit disiprin pun tk dak,teruk betullah. (Why do KFC workers always come out on video?)

[They have] so many problems. These workers look like gangsters…not even a little bit of discipline. This is terrible,” said one Criss Khoo.

KFC investigating the incident

Criss may have been referring to a July 5, 2011 video which allegedly showed KFC employees wiping spilled oil and squeezing it back into what appeared to be a fryer

“100% salah pekerja… anggap la anda semua pelanggan… Bayangkan anda pergi KFC bukan makan percuma.. mesti anda bayar kan. kalau pekerja layan anda seperti diatas.. adakah anda akan kata pekerja itu betul dia laku kan keatas anda,” said Mohd Nizan.

(“This was 100% the fault of the workers. Imagine if they were all cusomters. You don’t go to KFC to eat for free. You are paying. What if a worker treated him like that? Would you say that the worker was right in what he did?”)

Other comments however, appeared to side with the workers, asking for viewers to see if there was a different side to the story.

Chang Yew Sheng said: “I had been working at KFC Genting Klang for almost a year (and) from my experience, some customers are real rude to us. But then we must also be patient with them with (keeping in mind) the policy (that) customers (come) first.”

Chang added that the workers may have been depressed or overworked, blaming bad management and the slashing of company benefits.

“Aku faham perasaan pekerja 2 (I understand how the workers feel),” said Hafizul Skys.

“aku yg kerja kat pizza selalu je jumpa customer yg cam 2. semua x fhm, fikir la. kteorg ni manusia bknnya robot. semua nak memaksa. (When I worked at Pizza [Hut], I’ve met customers like this. They never understood [my situation]. We are human beings, not robots. The customers are always so forceful.)”

“klu kteorg lmbt service sekali pun ada sebabnya. klu dah dari pagi kerja smpi ke malam mmg la penat. aku kdg2 rasa gak bengang ngan customer sbb semua x reti nak memahami kitaorg yg bekerja ni ni. (There is a reason if our service is late. If we work from morning until night, of course we get tired. I sometimes feel very angry with customers because they don’t try to understand our working conditions)”

[Source: FMT]

So, for you people in marketing, what are your suggestions to KFC to solve the problem?

Handling in-coming calls

Seriously, this tactic should not be applied when you are working in a call centre. You just may not live to see that customer again.

Customer service facilitators

Do you realise how frustrating it is at times, when you want to make a complain by phone to a firm's "Customer Care" hotline [1-800-88-xxxxx], is when you are told electronically to press one number after another number just to reach the person you wish to speak to.  Now if that is not bad enough, in most times when you thought you would finally be speaking to the officer concerned, you will be informed that their "agents are busy at the moment, and if you like to hold on, please press the hex key."  This is when the company take the opportunity to promote their products or services to you while you are holding on.


Since marketing is also responsible for retaining existing customers, it must find ways to ensure their goodwill and continued business.  One way to make this happen is to make it easy for these customers to complain or inquire about their purchases.


Customers get very impatient when they have to re-explain their needs each time their phone calls are transferred to another employee.  On the other hand, it pleases them very much when an employee is able to show knowledge of their past needs or problems, or the status of the last action taken about a particular complaint.  A "dedicated" customer contact representative with a direct line can be assigned to each individual customer or account.  But that causes problems when the service rep is tied up when a customer calls, or when he or she is sick or on vacation.  It is better, according to The Service Edge newsletter, to establish service teams that will each exclusively handle separate groups of customers.  Since the teams are small (four to six people), customers still will deal with a familiar name and voice, and special customer concerns are easily shared between team members.


Better yet is the use of a customer database containing service histories, which  employees can access for information on individual accounts and update after every transaction.  But do remember that -
(a) the system should measure and reward employees based on the accuracy of data entered into the database, not on the number of calls handled, and
(b) it should be designed for the customer and the service employee, not for the accounting department.  If data entered are not accurate, wasted time and effort will result from confusing or missing information.  If customers are referred to merely as account numbers, nothing will happen, but the aggravation of the customer's frustration when the customer can't give his account number.  Systems that give customer files by name, rather than account code, are more personal as well as user-friendly.

Successful Branding

The three attributes of successful branding.


1. Coherent : A single brand personality results from the blending of the physical product, the package and all the elements of communication (name, style, advertising, pricing, promotions, etc).


2. Unique : and constantly developing to stay unique, in both functional and non-functional values (that which appeals to the senses, the reason and the emotions);


3. Relevant: to people's needs and wants, in an immediate and salient way.  In addition, buyers should be able to "hear" the sound when they read the name and "see" the spelling when they hear the pronunciation.

Vincent Tan: How I made a fortune from Facebook

 For a man who does not have a Facebook account, Tan Sri Vincent Tan surely knows the value of the Internet giant.

“I may have one later,” quips Tan on opening an account but he will be counting the windfall from the 3.5 million shares his company, MOL Global Bhd, owns in Facebook once the company is listed on either the New York Stock Exchange or Nasdaq.

Based on an assumption that Facebook shares start trading at US$40 post-initial public offering, Tan’s MOL Global stands to pocket RM420mil for its shares.

Speaking to StarBizWeek, Tan recollects how he came about getting his hands on a tiny but valuable stake in Facebook.

Friendster was among the first social networking websites. It preceded MySpace and Facebook. Starting operations in 2003, Friendster found the going tough and lost money for years.

The company continued to raise but spent money aggressively. In running up losses, Friendster had, nonetheless, built up a base of 140 million registered users, of which 40 million were active.

Tan said the losses then stemmed from Friendster not monetising its user base. Finding it hard to make money from its users, it was losing an average of US$10mil a year.

Eventually, the patience of the owners and investors in Friendster wore thin and they wanted to exit the business. Friendster then called for a process to sell the business and now Friendster CEO, Ganesh Kumar Bangah, who was then working with Tan, informed him that Friendster was for sale.

“I asked for the numbers and found that 140 million registered users and 40 million active users was interesting. If we could make them spend some money, maybe Friendster would be a good investment. Of course, the downside was the business will continue to lose US$10mil a year,” he said.

Tan said the owners of Friendster initially wanted US$100mil for the business but with losses mounting, he knew no one would pay that much for the company. “At that time, Facebook wanted to buy Friendster’s patents but Facebook was willing to pay US$10mil cash and later increased it to US$20mil cash.”

Tan was made to understand then that the owners felt that taking US$20mil only to lose US$10mil a year will soon see that cash vanish and then decided to accept US$40mil for Friendster but wanted a quick sale. “They gave the potential buyers about a week to decide. Many people were looking, including large firms from China and Japan, at Friendster.

“They were much larger than MOL but with the owners of Friendster needing a fast sale, I told Ganesh to do a quick due diligence on Friendster.

“We took two days for the due diligence and made a bid. We said since Friendster owed people US$2mil, we offered US$38mil.

“With other potential buyers doing their due diligence, I told them that if they accepted US$38mil, we will do the deal right away. They accepted our proposal,” said Tan.

After buying Friendster in 2008, Tan then turned his attention to Facebook, which remained interested in Friendster’s patents and whose offer of US$20mil cash for the technology rights was still on the table. “We had a conference call with the people at Facebook. I accepted their price but I wanted shares.”

Facebook officials told him that Mark Zuckerberg, the boss of Facebook, did not want to dilute the shares in the company but Tan stood firm and said “if there was no shares, forget it”.

Tan insisted on getting shares in Facebook because he felt the company will be big in the future. Finally, Zuckerberg agreed to a share exchange for the patents and Tan got his 700,000 shares. His shares have grown to 3.5 million following a 5-for-1 split in Facebook’s shares before the IPO process.

Tan did not leave Friendster to languish but devised a plan to get the social networking website to breakeven point. He closed the US, Singapore and Australia offices to cut cost and began rebuilding the company.

This year, Friendster has stopped the bleeding and Tan felt the company has become “quite valuable”.

“The number of active users on Friendster has fallen from 40 million to four million but these four million spend money with us. We put games and all kind of things on the website and they spend money. If they didn’t, we cannot monetise the business,” he said.

Potentially, Tan values his Internet business at around RM1bil. It does business in Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and India and is trying to get into Vietnam and many other countries.

MOL makes money from points people buy to play online games. It is also a payments gateway and is a payment partner for Facebook and Zynga, which is the creator of the hugely popular Farmville.

Tan said business models employed by companies such as Zynga, instead of relying on advertising revenue, was how large sums of money can be made from the Internet.

“People play and buy cows and tractors for their game. It’s amazing why people pay so much for that and I cannot imagine it.

“I tell my kids ‘you don’t play Farmville. If you want to farm, you can go to Bukit Tinggi. I will give you a real farm’,” he laughs.

Will he hold or sell his Facebook shares?

“We will see where it goes,” said Tan. “We will probably sell them for our business. We don’t want to hold them for too long but will see where the shares go after the IPO.”

At any price, the Facebook shares Tan owns has been hugely rewarding and the profit from the shares means the Friendster acquisition was paid for plus a lot extra profit on the side. “We were lucky,” he said.

So where does this investment rank among the many that Tan has executed in his corporate life?

“It’s one of the good ones but none can beat DiGi,” he said. “DiGi was my best investment and I should have stayed with it. I sold when DiGi had a market capitalisation of RM5bil to RM6bil. Today, the company is worth some RM31bil.

“That’s the big one that got away,” he lamented.

[Source: MC]

A toast to the Year of the Dragon

As the 15-day festivity of the Chinese New Year come to a close, allow me to toast all my friends in the marketing and sales fraternity.


Enough success to keep you eager;
Enough failure to keep you humble;
Enough joy to share with others;
Enough trials to keep you strong;
Enough hope to keep you happy;
Enough faith to banish depression;
Enough friends to give you comfort;
Enough determination to make each day better than yesterday;


BEST WISHES FOR THE NEW YEAR!

Time management ideas

Whether you are in marketing or sales, one thing is for certain, someone is bound to say, "No time!".  It is therefore very important for us to ask ourselves, "Are we busy over something, or are we busy over nothing?"
Unless we start to think about time managing ourselves, our work will always be seen to be undone or incomplete, and as a result, STRESS will take a stranglehold on us.


You can't figure out where you are going if you don't know where you have been.  To understand your effectiveness as a time manager, keep a log of each day's activities for at least two weeks.  Use 15-minute segments and make notes of how the time was spent.  In a few days you'll be able to see certain patterns where time is wasted or effectively used.  This will give you some idea of which activities to eliminate and which to expand.


If you are a sales person, avoid too much time in the office doing paperwork.  If someone helps you, delegate as much of the paperwork and record keeping as possible.


If your prospecting or selling time is worth RM100 per hour, does it make sense to be doing RM6 per hour paperwork?  Use your prime selling hours for just that, selling.  Remember your job is to see the people.


Stop procrastinating!  This is the most serious affliction.  Procrastination has many disguises; many even appear to be logical reasons for putting off what must be done.  If we put off to tomorrow what should be done today, we will be developing a habit that is hard to break.

Surviving a slump in sales

• Note your strengths.  Jot down your good points and recall recent sales successes.
• List likely prospects.  Call on present clients; canvass territories where you've had previous successes.
• Try out new ideas.  Add a new approach to your presentation; attempt to sell new products; try a new close.
• Increase the number of client calls and keep track of the number of calls you make; increase the number of calls each week and each month.
• Focus on the positive.  Read uplifting mentally inspirational material to improve your attitude and self-concept.
• Do cold calling.  Stay on your toes in your selling skills by facing and challenging the unexpected.
• This is the age of social networking and blogging.  Start getting connected!
• Start paying more attention to your present clients.  The closer you are to them, the easier it is to obtain referrals.

The Mission Statement

Every company, big or small, must have a mission statement that will provide the firm a direction it must take in order to maintain its very existence.
Mission statements typically have the following five components:


PURPOSE
Provides the company's basic rationale for existence, and manner and spirit in which products and services are offered.


PRINCIPLES AND BUSINESS AIMS
Which link specific, forward looking operation-level goals to the mission statement


CORPORATE IDENTITY
Which determines how the company is recognised by customers, employees and the world at large.


POLICIES OF THE COMPANY
Which shape the philosophy and management style of the company, its decision making structure and the nature of the management-shareholders relationship.


VALUES
Company values are a broad set of moral norms or standards that the company employs in running
 its business.


SO, WHAT ARE "VALUES"?  "Value" is very important because it shapes the company's values in several key areas.

• How the company values its customers.
• How the company competes fairly, without compromising product excellence.
• How the company promotes a positive working environment in which employees and management share common work values.
• How the company conforms to the dictates of regulatory agencies; and
• How the company relates to its community and sense of social responsibility.