There's nothing better for business than a booming economy. Unfortunately, it often encourages faulty thinking and spawns erroneous ideas. When sales are strong and profits meet projections, we're quick to take the credit. When things go sour, external forces get the blame.
A good economy tends to mask distorted thinking and inappropriate ideas. For example, personal computer sales have been drifting downward, even while prices have been dropping. Manufacturers are petrified. Out of near desperation, they jack up power to a sizzling 500 MHz to try to capture customer attention. Just as this happens, free PCs appear. In the midst of all this, one company rediscovers itself. To IBM's credit, it figured out what business it's in: solutions.

The goal in business is to outdistance the competition and make profitable sales by producing more customer-friendly products or services. To reach this goal, you need an advantage to improve your batting average-but it's getting more difficult and complicated to obtain this advantage, let alone keep it.

A MARKETING MINDSET CREATES CUSTOMERS by John Graham As the insurance organizations marketing meeting began, the president stated, We need more sales. This might see...

If you’re in sales, you know the feeling. It’s the middle of the night about two weeks after starting a new job. You were enthusiastic and could hardly wait to get going. Now, your head is full of doubts. You try to shove them aside, but they don’t go away. “Everything is new,” you tell yourself. “I just need to give it a little more time.” However, the doubts keep coming back.
The gap between what you were told about the job and what’s actually happening grows wider by the day. After about three weeks, you finally ask yourself, “Have I made a mistake?”

If you're in sales, you can identify with this situation - about two weeks after starting a new job, you begin to doubt your decision. You detect a widening gap between what you were told to expect and what actually occurs. After only a month on the job, you conclude, 'I think I made a mistake.' You're probably right, because salespersons seem to be more prone to selecting the wrong job. Too often, their profession's tendency to stress the positive and minimize negative factors extend into their approach in choosing a job.

COMMON MISTAKES IN SELECTING SALESPEOPLE These points from Boardroom Reports were taken from a talk by Dr. Arthur Witkin, chief psychologist at Personal Science Center, New York. These are basi...

COMMON MISTAKES IN SELECTING SALESPEOPLE These points from Boardroom Reports were taken from a talk by Dr. Arthur Witkin, chief psycholog...

CULTIVATING YOUR P.R. CAMPAIGN: BEGIN AT THE BEGINNING by Michael Maynard Growing a strong and healthy garden doesnt begin in the spring. The real work takes place in the winter ...

FOR THE FUTURE-PRODUCER RECRUITING Producer recruitment should be a continuous process that provides the lifeblood for your agency. In th...

FRAMEWORK FOR AGENCY SUCCESS by Patty Vaughn Planning agency success is a learning experience. Sharing ideas, taking advantage of opportunities, and tapping untapped resources, with the help of ...