Business owners can learn several great lessons from the one-of-a-kind Chef Julia.

Watch the video below to get the full course meal.

Learning and adapting is usually a good idea, particularly if your results weren’t as you expected. But what are the best ways to learn from your mistakes, plan, and adapt to a new market condition?

This post explores how some of the smartest small companies in the Baltimore, Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia markets are planning their 2010 business development strategies.

The tried and true. There are certain business development strategies that just plain work and I’ll go over some of them below. These are things that have been working since the beginning of (business) time and they will very likely continue to be effective until the end of (business) time.

If you are not currently using these strategies in a consistent and meaningful way, I very strongly recommend that you start.

Find your ideal customers. With the gigantic number of sales prospects available to almost any company, it doesn’t make sense to target any that are less-than-ideal for you. If you haven’t already, take the time to define your perfect customer in very specific terms.

• What industry are they in?
• What customers do they serve?
• How many people do they employ?
• How much revenue do they generate?
• Where are they located physically?

To get started, take a look at some of your existing customers that you consider to be a really good fit for your company. What are some of their characteristics?

Don’t overlook existing clients. When people think of business development strategy, a lot of the focus tends to be placed on new accounts and new clients. The truth is that it is many times easier to develop deeper relationships with existing clients than it is to start new accounts from scratch. Particularly if you’re target market is a larger company, there are almost always opportunities to sell up, down, or sideways within organizations.

Don’t be afraid to ask questions like, “Are there any other departments/people here that you think would like this?” or “Who else do you know that can benefit from this type of service?”

Don’t overlook new business either. Unless you have an extremely hungry base of existing customers, you’ll probably have to look outside of your existing customers to meet your 2010 revenue goals. There are so many ways to find and target new opportunities and in all likelihood, you are not doing as effective of a job as you could be. The key is to keep an open mind and think outside-the-box. Most organizations become very comfortable with their existing methods of developing new business, when in reality, they could be doing better with other strategies.

• Referrals
• Paid lead services
• Email campaigns
• Blogging
• Exhibitions
• Networking events
• Sales contests
• Direct mail
• Webinars

How many of those are you using? Which do you think would be best to integrate into YOUR 2010 business development plan?

Take a step back. Being a CEO or managing partner in a business can often cause you to look at your business in a way that’s much different from how others may see it. By removing personal biases and ideas from the equation, you can gain some real insight into important areas of your business.

Often, CEOs are so close to their companies that even when they try to do this, they are not able to. If that’s the case, get another set of eyeballs. Either bring in a trusted colleague to help you with this, or consider hiring a professional business consultant with a strong track record of success.

Plan it out. CEOs, executives, and leaders throughout organizations sometimes have a tendency to discount the importance of the strategic planning process, which is a big mistake. Smart companies take the time to plan their business development strategies very thoroughly, including areas like sales and marketing, human resources, and general corporate growth. When planning is conducted properly, it always proves to be time very well-spent.

A SWOT analysis is a good way to do this (SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats in case you’re not familiar). Have a look at an example SWOT analysis here.

Use all available human capital. Human beings never cease to amaze me. We really are incredible creatures, particularly when we’re in an environment that allows us to perform near our potential. You might be surprised to find that if you build a team of good people around you and then incentivize them to do what you want them to do, they will do a splendid job – often better than you could do yourself.

The two keys here are to 1) properly incentivize (Note: incentives don’t always need to be monetary – a lot of employees feel very strongly about things like fun, learning new things, and feeling as though they’re part of a larger goal) and 2) communicate clearly what you want them to do (leaders have a strong tendency to assume that the other person knows exactly what they’re talking about even though they used a minimal amount of explanation to get the point across – don’t make this mistake. Communicate clearly and then confirm that the other person has an understanding by saying, “Okay, let’s go over the goals” and then being quiet and inviting them to do the talking.)

Set S.M.A.R.T.E.R. Goals.

• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Timed
• Exciting
• Recorded

If you need a business development strategy consultant and you’re in the Greater Baltimore Washington area, JACOBY may be able to help you personally. Our CEO-experienced Partners have decades of combined experience and a success rate of over 90%. Contact us by filling out this form to learn more.

If you are outside the Maryland, DC, Virginia area and want our assistance with your strategic planning efforts, JACOBY can help you remotely with phone and/or skype conference calls. There are a variety of other useful posts on our blog, along with some business analysis tools we have developed, and our famous 2-minute business lessons that can help you. If you would like strategic planning help specific to your business, call us at 410-744-3900 and we can set-up a time for a free consultation.

Until next time,

Art Jacoby

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After you’ve read this post, check out our new business success calculator to understand your company’s probability of success in the market.  

Checklist Questions

Copy and paste the following questions onto a document and take a few minutes to answer each one as objectively and thoroughly as you can.

• How beneficial are your products/services to targeted users?
• Is your target market niche a specialty that makes it a competitive advantage for you?
• Do you have a marketing calendar and budget that is just the right combination of the 5 P’s for your target market?
• Are you currently profitable and do you have a history of strong earnings?

The 7 Most Important Aspects Of A Business

After having worked closely with 100s of small-to-medium sized businesses, JACOBY has developed a framework of the characteristics of the most successful companies. In our experience, when a company is strong in all 7 of these aspects, they grow, thrive, and generate significant wealth for their shareholders.

Look over the following bullet-points, then take this assessment test to see where your company’s strengths lie and where you need to improve.

Quality of Your Team and Culture – Is your team functioning at their highest potential? Do you have the right people on board? Strong culture lets individual members take advantage of their strengths and function TOGETHER to achieve common goals. By reevaluating your team and culture you can produce better results, better processes and a better work environment.

Quality of Your Products and Services – Your products and services are the front line in the customer’s eyes. This is what will keep your customers coming back for more. Taking the time to make sure your products and services are as good as they can be can make a huge difference in maintaining customer loyalty.

Quality of Your Target Market Niche – Is your company targeting the right audience? By making sure you are reaching your niche market you are promoting your visibility effectively, saving money, and it may even be a barrier to competition.

Quality of your Marketing Capabilities and Performance – Having a strong marketing team means that your product or service is getting the attention it deserves. Without effective marketing there is no way for your customers to really gain knowledge of your company. 

Quality of Your Sales Capabilities and Performance – Even with the right marketing, you need a great sales department that can move relationships forward and "close the deal". By making sure you are optimizing your sales department you are ensuring better customer satisfaction and business growth.

Quality of Your Operations – Taking a look at how efficiently and effectively your business produces work and manages customer relationships is key in maintaining positive business growth. By reevaluating your business operations you can help increase business income and increase your businesses value.

Quality of Your Financial Capabilities and Performance – At the end of the day, the key measure of business success All businesses boil down to numbers. If you do not have highly functioning financial capabilities, your business could be losing money.

Where The Rubber Meets The Road

When you make the decision to assess your business practices and technology, hire a business growth consultant with the expertise to uncover the valuable insights that will inform positive change in your business.

JACOBY has all the tools you need for a full company assessment and decades of combined experience in guiding medium-sized and small businesses through the growth process from assessment to strategy formulation to implementation..

To learn more about what JACOBY can do for you, contact us at via this form on our website or call 410-740-3900 for a free consultation.

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When a recession rocks the economy and profits start to decline, businesses look for ways to decrease spending. One area most often affected by such cost cutting is marketing.

This post outlines some methods that companies can use to adapt their strategies of marketing in a recession to meet their consumers’ needs and ensure their own survival during economic hard times.

Spend More Money

This may sound counter-intuitive, but the truth is that the trick to making money under recessionary conditions is to keep investing!

Companies that maintain or increase their marketing and advertising efforts during a recession while their competitors cut back often see a dramatic return on their investment.

On the other hand, those companies that decrease marketing in a recession often see parallel decreases in sales as well.

Instead of limiting funds, companies should re-evaluate their current marketing strategies to figure out what is and is not working. Redesign advertising campaigns and reforecast product demand wherever necessary to generate new consumer interest.

Embrace the Customer

When marketing in a recession, companies also need to know how their customers are defining value.

It’s out with the caviar and in with the fish sticks as recession customers become increasingly cognizant of certain products’ pricing.

Respond to the new needs of their customers by downplaying, or even eliminating, marketing for products that are not selling as well as they did in the past.

Adjusting marketing strategies to not only attract new customers, but also to promote consumer loyalty by featuring temporary price promotions or credit extensions can also prove beneficial to almost any business.

Locate New Marketing Outlets

A recession can also provide the perfect time to explore new areas of marketing. One new area that is rapidly gaining popularity is social media marketing through web sites such as Facebook and Twitter.

Once companies develop Facebook pages and begin to accumulate “fans,” friends of those fans will also receive a notification prompting them to check out the company.

This feature helps generate interest in those companies and exposes them to an entirely new audience that otherwise might not have known they existed.

Twitter feeds not only allow companies to post updates for their products and promote special sales, but they can also act as a form of customer service. Consumers post questions to the company’s status and receive an immediate response.

Oh, did we mention these services are absolutely FREE!

Against the Odds

Just because the economy is in a recession does not mean your company’s marketing and profits have to suffer.

To be successful and pull your company through a recession, maintain your marketing budget, but consider re-evaluating old marketing strategies.

Learn your customers’ needs and how to effectively market to them while exploring new media outlets to reach to new audiences and continue boosting sales.

Jacoby Grows Companies

Here at Jacoby Consulting, we have worked with hundreds of small to medium sized businesses for a common purpose: to grow sales and earnings.

Our consultants have an unmatched track-record of success, helping more than 95% of our clients pump up their bottom line significantly.

If you’re looking for marketing ideas to implement during the recession, or are simply looking to increase your company’s earning and profitability, call us at 410-744-3900 to set-up a free consultation.

You can also contact us via this form on our website.

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4 Simple Ways To Grow A Business In A Recession

Marketing Strategies For Services Companies

Does Your Company Need A Sales Growth Consultant?

Tips On Creating Training Programs For Sales People

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However, according to a recent survey by Intuit (Quickbooks, TurboTax) 90% of small business owners see growth opportunities for their own companies over the next year. That’s quite surprising, isn’t it?

Many of these companies are in for a rude awakening unless they take the proper steps to weather the storm and come out of the recession ahead of the game.

Following are a few strategies to grow your company during a recession

Ways to Keep Growing a Business in a Recession

1. Continue advertising & marketing. It may be tempting to cut your marketing budget during tough times, but firms that stay visible in a recession tend to come out stronger in the end. You want to stay in front of  the market so that your presence is felt.

Firms that come out of recessions the best are often the ones that actually increase marketing and advertising during the recession.

Think about it, your competitors are facing the same conditions.

And they’re tempted to cut their budgets. And many of them will, potentially losing valuable market share to you and other smart companies that invest during recessions.

See the Sales and Marketing Category for more ideas

2. Show established customers loyalty. Showing your customers that you appreciate their business is a sure way to keep their business. Though you’d think this is common sense, the number of companies I see that don’t act on this golden rule of business is astounding.

Did you know that it’s roughly 6x easier to get more business from an existing customer than from a new one?

Your customers know you and they trust you. Do good work for them and show them that you appreciate their business regularly.

Smart growth is about building a well diversified portfolio of expanded business with current clients and new clients. In almost any business, repeat, long-term customers are the lifeblood of success.

You can expand your current client business in many different ways, i.e. instituting a loyalty program which includes rewards and discounts to reoccurring customers, offering new services and serving new areas or departments of the client’s business.

3. Delight your Customers. Complementing a strategy of showing customers that you appreciate them is the idea of delighting. That is, promising modestly and producing fantastically.

When you produce beyond expectations, clients feel great about you and your Company. They feel that they really are getting a good deal and working with a knowledgeable and very competitively priced professional.

And this leads to spreading the word about you. When business people make smart decisions, they like their network to know about it for two reasons. They like to celebrate their good decision-making with others whose opinions they value. And, they like to help those who help them. Performance beyond expectations brings out the best behavior in your customers – they spread the good word.

4. Re-think your staff. There’s a lot of talent on the streets. Many are getting pink slips or taking early retirement as large corporations cut back. You’ll be able to attract employees with a wealth of experience – and potentially with their own established clients.

I’m not saying to let anyone go.. But take a fresh look at your needs.

Nobody likes to think about firing their employees, so this can be a touchy subject. But having the proper staffing is imperative to the growth of your business – especially in a recessionary environment where talent abounds.

There are affordable and productive channels at your disposal that you can use to attract your ideal hires. From the local college and university system, to Craigslist and other job posting sites, to word-of-mouth, there is a lot you can do to enhance your workforce.

This is another area, like marketing, where you can capture a competitive advantage once the recession is over.

Time For Action

Sure, these are good “ideas,” but this is where the rubber meets the road.

Of those 4 Simple Ways To Grow Your Business In A Recession, at least one of them can probably be applied at your company right now. And it would almost undoubtedly have a positive impact if implemented properly.

If you think these sound like good ideas (they should b/c they are!) but you’re not quite sure how to start or implement them…

If you’d like to learn about affordable ways to market during a recession..

Or if you’d like to think about some customer appreciation tactics, or get some fresh eyes on how you may be able to over-deliver to customers at a low cost…

Or if you think you’d like to start interviewing and hiring quality people.

RIGHT NOW is the best time to take action and we can show you what to do.

Click here and fill out the form and we will contact you to talk about your business. Otherwise, please call us at 410-744-3900 to talk.

When you call, we’ll ask some questions to gain an understanding of your business and your perspective on what it needs. Working together, we can create a smart plan of action and even guide you so that you implement the plan effectively.

What’s important is that you take action now. Your business deserves it.

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If done right, implementing these strategies into your daily business practices (Disclosure: that’s not the easiest thing to do) can make a great impact on your top and bottom lines.

So grab a drink, sit back and explore our Top 7 Powerful Small Service Business Marketing Strategies

1. Set Sales Goals And Keep Track Of Them. This is one of the most fundamental concepts of business and yet it’s surprising to me how many of our clients neglect this.

It’s extremely common.

And it has nothing to do with the client knowing that they’re supposed to do this. Almost every small business owner knows that they should be setting yearly – and ideally quarterly and monthly – sales goals and keeping track of them.

The problem is that it’s difficult to keep up with when there are so many other things flying around your head on a daily basis. Owning or managing a small services company is not the easiest thing in the world to do.

But the reason that this goal-setting principle is so effective is that it forces you to imagine your goals in a vivid and emotional way.

If you HAVE to think about your goals on a regular basis, after a short period of time, the process of imagining them will tend to get you excited – "pumped up," if you will. And this in turn has an overall motivating and positive effect on most entrepreneurs and managers.

2. Harness Technology As Much As Possible. The technological sophistication of new gadgetry never ceases to amaze me these days. Companies are relentless in creating better, faster, more effective ways for companies to get things done. It’s important that you don’t fall behind the curve.

It’s true, sometimes new technology that comes out ends up fizzling out. Sometimes what everybody thinks will be the next big thing, ends up amounting to nothing. But that’s not a good reason to tune out technological innovation.

I may venture to guess right now that some technology exists that could help you streamline a portion of your business, or to earn a lot more money from your existing marketing efforts, that you simply haven’t heard of yet.

It doesn’t matter what you do, when it comes to small service business marketing strategies, they can always be aided by harnessing the latest in technology.

But the problem is that many of us don’t have this capability in-house. Many of us are even hesitant to pursue the latest in technology as it can become intimidating as we grow older.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that there’s help.

There are entire companies that do nothing but advise small service companies on the intersection of technology and marketing. They do obviously charge fees, but any consultant worth their salt is going to earn money for their clients.

In other words, any money that you spend with a good small business consultant will be a worthwhile investment.

If you would like to meet some good consultants, some consultants that will earn you money, we know a few. Contact us to talk about your main challenges.

3. Use Email…And Your Business Cards. If you’re a small service company, either you or somebody at your company is probably attending a fair amount of networking events (if you’re not, you probably should be). When you come back, you’ll usually have a pocket full of cards. Cards that – if you’re like most business owners – you’ll never use effectively.

Most small service companies don’t have lists of email addresses because they don’t realize that email addresses are the equivalent of money. It’s true, email addresses are the equivalent of money and I’ll tell you why..

Because if you have a large list of email addresses (I’m talking legitamite, opt-in email subscribers – I do NOT advise spamming) and you send them all an email with a particular product or service offering…SOME of them are going to open it and read it.

And of those ones that read it, some of them are going to think about it…

Or of the ones that read it, one of them may have someone in their life that may needs that very same product or service that they were just reading an email about…And mention it to them.

It may sound far-fetched, but it happens every day for smart service companies that work their email lists.

The ROI on email marketing is pretty outrageous.

And if you’re looking for small service business marketing strategies that work, you should try email marketing. If you would like to get started, but have no idea how, I will be posting a more detailed post soon.

In the time being, you can contact one of our consultants to get some guidance.

Where Can Your Company Improve?

This is by no means an exhaustive list of business marketing strategies for small services companies but I wanted to give you some things to think about. It’s important that you are constantly looking at yourself and your operation and asking the question, "How can I do this better?" or "How can I make this take less time?"

A major key to business success (and personal success, for that matter) is to continually seek improvementy. Companies and people that are constantly seeking improvement and refusing to accept the status quo, often end up becoming great.

Sometimes it can be hard to determine the areas that most need improvement. Sometimes we’re so close to our own lives and our businesses that we fail to see things that are completely obvious to others.

There can be a huge value in a 3rd party perspective and that’s part of the value that we add here @ Jacoby Consulting. We’re not just a provider of small service business marketing strategies and business growth strategies; we’re coaches, objective advisors to our clients.

And the value of that can sometimes be worth exorbitant amounts of money.

If you think your small service company could benefit from these ideas and you’d like help implementing them, you need to contact us. Or, if you think you can benefit from some fresh eyes (almost everybody can!), definitely contact us.

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The Tough Questions

If you’ve ever asked a “business development guru” for advice on your business plan, it probably started with some really tough questions…

What’s the purpose of your business?

How much money do you want to earn?

When do you want to have this money by?

What products and services will you offer in exchange?

Who is your target market?

The list goes on…

While these are all very important questions, they don’t necessarily hit on the main point.

The main point is that you want to grow your sales. You want to grow your earnings. You want to make more money.

How can you do it?

The obvious answer is…TO MAKE MORE SALES!

Right?

Sales are the lifeblood of your business. No sample business development plan is going to be worth anything to you if it doesn’t stress the importance of learning how to make more sales.

So here’s what you do…

Make A Sales Plan

For the time being, skip the usual questions and ask yourself these ones instead (take out a pad and paper and write these down with your answers).

1. How do you make sales (do sales happen for you over the phone or in-person)?

2. What happens before you make a sale (a phone conversation, in-person meeting)?

3. How many times does the activity identified in question #2 have to happen before you get a new sale (in other words, how many appointments do you need to get a new sale)?

4. What’s the average size of your sales in revenue?

5. What are your revenue goals (if you don’t have revenue goals, you should set those – we’ll write on setting sales goals soon)?

Once you’ve answered those questions, it’s a simple math problem, right?

You take your goals, the average size of sale, the average number of customer touches it takes to make a sale, and you simply deduce the number of customer touches you’ll need to hit that mark.

Let’s Take An Example

Suppose you want to earn $1,000,000 in revenue over the year. Let’s say your average sale size is $10,000.

$1,000,000 = $10,000x

x = 100

So you know you have to close 100 deals to make $1,000,000.

Let’s say it takes you 5 appointments on average to close a deal. To close 100 deals, you would need to go on 500 appointments.

That means that in an average 50 week year, you would need 10 appointments/week.

So there you have it, the best sample business development plan you could ask for. You don’t have too much to think about – just go on 10 appointments/week and you hit your goals, right?

This is an overly-simplified version of what we do with clients.

1. Determine how much you want to make

2. Figure out how you make money

3. Do the math to see what level of activity is required

There are some other things you can do to help with this process. For instance, sometimes we have clients tell us that they need to go on 25 appointments before they close a deal. In that case, we explore ways that they can shorten the sales cycle.

Or sometimes clients earn a small amount of revenue per sale. In this case, we look into ways that they can change their offerings to earn more.

In conclusion, there are a lot of things that go into the ideal sample business development plan – lots of things that are specific to your business.

But the #1 thing that you need to focus on is getting more sales. Look at your sales process, determine your goals, do some math and MAKE IT HAPPEN!

Would you like some 1-to-1 advice to help grow your small business? Contact Jacoby today and start a new growth cycle.

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• Is your business slowly dropping sales and losing profit?
• Are you looking for a long-term strategic plan that will help your business earn higher profits?
• Are you a young company looking for a stable foundation?
• Or maybe you’re an established business looking to take your business to the next level.

Profit growth and projections are clearly important to the growth of a company. If your business is not “lighting up the boards” – that is, making a bunch of sales, then hiring a sales growth consultant might be one of the best decisions you can make for your business.

Especially in a recession.

But can we afford it?

The bottom line is that any sales consultant worth their salt will not cost you money. They may be an expense in the short-run, but the beauty of sales growth consultants is that they quickly produce returns on the money you invest with them.

Not only will a good sales consultant reinvigorate you and your sales force, but they will give you actionable, proven ways to increase your sales NOW! Not to mention help with training new sales people.

There are many different strategies and techniques a growth consultant could use to help your business, which ones will work for your company?

Choosing the ideal sales consultant

When looking for a sales growth consultant you should consider the background of the specialist and their past credentials.

• Have they helped companies like yours before?
• Do they have references you can talk to?
• What was their career before they started consulting?
• Do they have a good reputation in the area?
• Have their techniques had demonstrated success in improving company revenues and profitability?

Where can I find a consultant like that?

Jacoby is a Business Growth Consulting firm specializing in sales growth that’s located physically near Baltimore, Maryland. But we have clients are from all over the country, from California to Texas to Boston.

In addition to decades of combined experience, the reason that our clients excel is because of our passion for helping clients, and seeing them succeed.

Aside from sales growth consulting, we have the expertise and know-how to solve complex business problems that can help your company prosper.

Call 410-744-3900 or fill in this contact form to get started.

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This post will examine some of the most common mistakes executives make when creating sales training programs, along with some “DO’s” and “DONT’s” you should keep in mind to ensure the success of your future sales team.

DON’T Get Overwhelmed. It’s easy to start feeling like there is so much to do with not enough time. Realize that the creation of this sales program does not have to be finished in a day or a week.

DON’T Reinvent The Wheel. There are thousands of companies that have already created training programs for sales people with phenomenal success. Why start from scratch when you can easily leverage the work already completed by sales masters?

DO Read! Why not pick up some Zig Ziglar? Or take another look at the legendary “How To Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie? There is a gigantic wealth of knowledge at your fingertips, especially in this digital age. Harness the resources available to you.

DO Consult. As you’re designing your training program for sales people, take a lesson from the most successful sales organizations in the world, and create consultative sellers. What does it mean to be consultative? In a nutshell, it means asking meaningful, relevant questions, and listening more than you talk.

There’s a reason we have 2 ears and only 1 mouth.

DO Tweak. Just as it’s not possible to create a sales training program for your company overnight, it’s not going to be possible to absolutely nail it on the first time, either. We live in a world of hyper-fast change. Your business is changing at light speed as is that of your customers. This hyper change is inherently going to present itself in your company’s sales training.

DO Embrace Change. Realize that if you neglect to change, or if it has been a long time since your company has changed, you’re probably falling behind. Because the competition is changing so quickly, if you’re doing the same things that you were doing ten years ago, you can’t possibly expect the same results. Know that success comes to those who are most willing to embrace change.

These are some of the many lessons I’ve learned over the past 20 years I’ve been selling professionally. We will be releasing our complete “Sales Optimizer System” which will be tremendously valuable for anybody tasked with creating training programs for sales people.

If you’d like a free copy of the system to preview before its official release, or if you’d like help coming up with your company’s sales training program, contact us here and let us know what’s on your mind.

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Welcome to the World of Marketing Seminars

“Buzz word, buzz word, buzz word!! Trendy, Trendy, trendy!! Learn it here and make lots of money!” Welcome to global marketing and sales pollution.

Common sense, business basics and hard work trump trendy marketing buzz words every time. Much of what’s presented as state-of-the-art marketing is either worthless drivel or plagiarism of concepts that have been around for years. If it looks too good to be true…Well, you know.

In teaching smart, practical marketing and sales strategies and tactics to several hundred SMBs over the past 20+ years, I’ve avoided big words and stuck with the basics. Yes, you need the occasional bit of magic sprinkled in but marketing and sales seminars that don’t emphasize the basics are doing a great disservice and worse, are misleading businesses.

Rather than learning the acronym du jour, invest in expert assistance, developing a customized sales and marketing plan that optimizes YOUR business, taking into account your industry, competitors, products/services, team, etc. You can get a general understanding of concepts from good marketing and sales seminars (if you can find them) but translating them into results in your business is another matter.

Most generalized training does not have sustainable value. Your probability of success goes up dramatically when you engage the services of dedicated experts to build a Plan and help you execute the Plan effectively. The karate practitioner “sees” through the board — its all about follow through.

In football, the basics start with strength, speed and leverage — the physical laws of nature. You don’t see offensive line coaches telling the right tackle to forget about how he places his weight prior to the snap. The same is true in sales and marketing. The basics that worked when Dale Carnegie wrote “How to Win Friends and Influence People” — still the definitive business advice book — in 1936 still apply.

Marketing and sales seminars will leave you wanting almost every time, so instead, get the expert, personal attention your business deserves.

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