Small Business Leadership and Sales Blog

Hello Marvelous People!

Okay, by now you should be sick of articles and blog posts that talk about your 2011 goals.

But have any of those articles “INSPIRED YOU TO ACT”? Because if you have a perfect plan and you don’t BEGIN TO EXECUTE THAT PLAN WITH MASSIVE ACTION, then you will spend 2011 just like you spent 2010. It’s time to DO MORE, BE MORE, EXPLORE MORE! Don’t just be a candle in the wind, Marvelous People. As my mentor, friend and Certified Speaking Professional Mikki Williams says: “BE OUTRAGEOUS, it’s the only place that’s not crowded!”

May I offer this one warning? Go back and look at your 2011 “WRITTEN GOALS”. (Yes, written. If it’s not written, it’s not a goal, it’s a dream. More specifically, it’s a fantasy pipe dream that’s not going to come true for you.)

Assuming you are NOW looking at your written goals, can you honestly point to an item that has anything to do with the subject of Personal Development Training? Personal development training is not company training. Point: you may know company knowledge, policies and procedures but without developing your soft skills, your effectiveness will be severely limited. Complete knowledge, policies and procedures do not make you more productive – personal development and human relation skills do.

The soft skills are the hardest skills to master. Human Relations Skill development is critical. Human Relations Skill development does not have a destination. It is an endless journey. Work harder on yourself than any other item.

So here’s your CALL TO ACTION.
1. Stop planning. Start MASSIVE ACTING on your plan.
2. Let yourself go for – MORE!
3. Put your WRITTEN Goals in your Purse, Wallet, Refrigerator and Bathroom Mirror NOW!
4. The Soft Stuff is the Hard Stuff!

Peace, Love and Gumbo!

Marvin LeBlanc, LUTCF, CNP

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Marvin LeBlanc is a left-handed, right-brained, fun-loving Cajun that is obsessed with Life Performance and Overcoming Adversity. He is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and founder of Marvelous Performance Systems. Marvin is available for business retreats, keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, & individual coaching programs. His book “COME HELL OR HIGH WATER” will be available in the Fall of 2011 through New York Publisher www.BloomingTwig.com. To rent Marvin’s brain, contact him marvinleblanc@aol.com

Here we are at the beginning of the year and we’re trying to develop new relationships with customers.

Well, why not have a little fun and get with a local vendor and grab yourself some high quality popcorn and some boxes and get into a routine whereby you call on your target market. Whether it be 10 people or 15 people or 20 people, and you bring them a big tin of popcorn. As they eat their popcorn and you say hello to them jovially, you get an opportunity to talk with them about what is going on in their business and how might you be able to assist them in 2011 on their business.

And as fate would have it, it’s time to leave and then you say to them, I’ll see you in a couple of weeks to fill up your popcorn.

This was a very successful marketing campaign that was put on by my roommate many years ago. His Crown Victoria was completely packed with bags and bags of popcorn, and that’s what he would do. He’d go in, have fun, and fill up popcorn bags. They would welcome him in and that provided many opportunities for him to learn about what projects were coming up and how he could benefit.

So think through and have a “Pop On By” popcorn marketing campaign. Keep it light, keep it fun, but at the same time remember when you’re there to ask those very important four essential questions. [If you haven't heard my "Four Essential Questions" talk, you can find it on my brand new CD Come Hell or High Sales.]

We’re available to help you and your team members get inspired to have a great 2011.

“Practice your lines”.

That’s right.  Practice your lines.  Your job, like a Broadway Play is a performance.  And no great Broadway Play opens up to the public having never practiced their lines.  The great Indiana Hoosiers basketball coach Robert Montgomery Knight once said, “everybody wants to be National Champions but no one wants to come to practice.”

If you’re not committed to practicing your lines, so that you can clearly articulate what your companies’ unique value offering is – then quite frankly you’re not really serious about business.  More specifically, you’re not serious about WINNING in Business.  So that’s rule #1 to avoiding becoming “roadkill” in your industry.  Practice.

Look for Rule #2 coming shortly.   And remember, MAKE MARVELOUS HAPPEN!

(If you’ve not already done so, please click the RSS Feed Subcribe so that you will be immediately notified of his most recent blogs as they are posted.)

Peace, Love and Gumbo

Marvin LeBlanc

I start off each day with a daily checklist.  Every day needs a certain routine, and I’ve got about six or seven things on my daily checklist.  The reason why I am covering this right now is that I often see entrepreneurs, business owners, and team members not having a clear daily checklist written down to be followed.  And they get blown around all day long like a candle in the wind.  In my particular example, I start my day with email subscriptions from people like Jim Rohn, Timothy Ferriss, Malcolm Gladwell, Seth Godin, Warren Buffett. HINT: what you read is who you are.

Start your day with something positive. Don’t let the news media throw up all over you first thing in the morning. You’re smarter than that. You and you alone are the controller of the input you receive from the outside world.

I then go into my old trustworthy appointment calendar. If you love electronic calendars, then use those. But don’t get hung up on “WHAT” you use, just get hung up on the need to “USE SOMETHING”. So a 20 second glance and  I know what the events are for that day.  I still have a paper file for papers one through 31.  Days one through 31.  And so whatever day of the week it is, I certainly go into that file and clear that day’s work of paper.  I also go into my company’s Outlook e-mail for that day, and either the work is being completed by someone else in my office, I’m deleting unnecessary e-mail or I’m delegating that e-mail, or I am working that e-mail.

Then, there’s three questions that I always ask my team members – and your questions might be different but this will give you a good start.  Touch base with your team members with these three questions.  1) What did we sell yesterday?  2) What is in the hopper for today?  3) And how can I help?

Just some simple thoughts that start your day, and get them organized so that you can have maximum effectiveness.

Marvin LeBlanc is a left-handed, right-brained, fun-loving Cajun that is obsessed with Life Performance and Overcoming Adversity. He is an entrepreneur, writer, speaker and founder of Marvelous Performance Systems. Marvin is available for business retreats, keynotes, breakout sessions, workshops, & individual coaching programs. His book “COME HELL OR HIGH WATER” will be available in the Fall of 2011 through New York Publisher www.BloomingTwig.com. To rent Marvin’s brain, contact him at www.MarvinLeBlanc.com and request a Free Personal Coaching Session.

I read this at http://theartistfarm.com and wanted to share. Please post a comment and let us know what you think.

In the deepest sense money isn’t real. It’s true. Intrinsically it has no real value. It’s just a fancy piece of paper. If you were to take our money to an alien world what could you use it for? Money is simply a mutually agreed upon token we use to exchange for things that provide REAL VALUE to us like food, community, comfort and shelter. It is the thing we buy with money or the thing people buy from us that has actual value.

Why then do we stress over money? You stress about money because you have mistakenly identified money, the actual money, as the thing of value.  You feel stress because you are “fighting” to get something that doesn’t exist – the closer you get the more elusive it becomes. There is another way.

Look at the thing of value as what’s underneath the money. If you want to generate more income, then think of how you can generate more value, not more money. Also recognize that both value and wealth come in more forms than just money. You can be financially wealthy but be bankrupt in true friendships, peer respect or health.

This observation is universal; applicable to anyone, anywhere in any business or organization. It applies to the artist business, the management company and the United States Government.

In equation form it looks like this:

Wealth = Value Provided by Y * Number of Entities that Directly Value Y

(Where Y is the product, employee or subject generating wealth.)

Think about this on a higher plane. We are all connected in a giant ecosystem and the flow of money is merely a manifestation of the exchange of our energy. Next time you are stressed out about money be self-reflective. Rather than stressing about how you can get more money for money’s sake, focus instead on how you can provide more value to more people. All sorts of wealth will flow from this mindset.

Peace, Love and Gumbo -

Marvin LeBlanc

How do we express that “inner soul,” that voice inside of us?

Earlier today I received a call from a friend in Rochester, New York who is pursuing his dreams of writing, speaking and coaching. We had a great discussion and covered six ways to express his inner soul. You can follow these steps too:

1)      Identify your compelling story. We all have a story of significance. What’s yours?

2)      Be careful with whom you share your dreams with initially. Some of your inner circle is well meaning but lots of times they doubt the direction that you seek.

3)      Be careful but also be outrageous. One of my friends, Mikki Williams, has a quote—“Be outrageous. It’s the only place that’s not crowded.”

4)      Constantly be stimulating your mind with additional new material. Allow yourself to be outrageous and if you do have thoughts inside your soul, remember great readers are great leaders and great leaders are great readers.

5)      Be encouraged. Most of my good ideas are considered ridiculous by my inner circle when I first mention them—and a lot of them are! Don’t get discouraged. That inner circle may be right initially because I do have ridiculous ideas. But I keep developing those ideas. I am encouraging you to develop your ideas and have undaunted courage (like Lewis & Clark did during their expedition toward the West!)

6)      Forget the world of reason and probability. Just write it or speak it out. This is from Kelly Corrigan, writer of the books The Middle Place and Lift.

Listen to your inner heart, that idea, that compelling story, that seemingly ridiculous dream…that voice of your inner soul will serve no one if you don’t give it birth through writing or speaking your message into existence.

Remember, obstacles are the things that you see when you take your eyes off your goals. Search your heart and find those goals. Search for a way to be significant.

Peace, Love and Gumbo~

Marvin LeBlanc

People don’t care…

…how good you are. They care how good you’re going to help them become.

…what you can’t do. They care what you CAN do.

…if you’re having a bad day. They care how you’re going to help them have a better day.

…about price. They care about value, convenience and risk.

…about your company. They care about the problems your company can solve.

…about being apologized to. They care about answers, solutions and resolutions.

Article Written by Scott Ginsberg

Peace, Love and Gumbo~

Marvin LeBlanc

The 10 Most Common Mistakes Salespeople Make

1. They talk instead of LISTEN.

2. They presume the prospect’s needs instead of ASKING QUESTIONS.

3. They ANSWER UNASKED QUESTIONS.

4. They fail to get the prospect to REVEAL BUDGET up front.

5. They make TOO MANY FOLLOW-UP CALLS when sale is actually dead.

6. They fail to get a COMMITMENT TO PURCHASE when making a presentation.

7. They chat about everything and AVOID STARTING THE SALE.

8. They would rather hear “I want to think it over,” than to hear, “NO”.

9. They see themselves as BEGGARS instead of DOCTORS.

10. They work without a SYSTEMATIC APPROACH to selling.

 

* Article written by Brian Azar, PRESIDENT, THE SALES CATALYST, INC

Peace, Love and Gumbo -

Marvin LeBlanc