Black In Business

Happy New Year! This is a time to be optimists regarding business. The slate wipes clean and you have a new business plan to attack! Let be for real, business for most is shaky now and we must look to do some things differently in order to make money in this environment.
I came across an article in the Wall Street Journal that marketeers need to look at. Budgets for marketing have been cut and consumers have lost confidence. We are afraid to buy products.The Secrets of Marketing In a Web 2.0 World is a article that Marketing VP’s need to share with their marketing teams and facilatate discussion on how their firms can build a social network with their clients and discuss the pros and cons there of.
I hope we can have some lively discussion through comments on this article.
Lets assume, we all want to get closer to our customers. What does this mean? Is blogging a way to do it? What about very larger firms? Do we want customers to feel a part of product development? Do we want our customers feedback on design goals?
Here are some global big picture statements regarding this 2.0 marketing strategy.
Marketing these days is more about building a two way relationship with customers.

On-line collaboration with customers on product development, service enhancement and promotion is becoming more common placed.

Get customers involved in all aspects of marketing.

Listen to and join conversations about your products outside your site.

Give your customers plenty of leeway to express their opinions.

Don’t just talk at your customers, listen and work with them thought the process of marketing.

Give your customers a reason to participate.

Resists the temptation to sell,sell sell!

Do not control let go!

This is fascinating and the article by DR’s Parise, Gulnan and Weinberg is even more so. Read it and return here with your comments.

You think your job is tough, just think how it is for salesmen today. Tough economic times cause buying decisions to stall. Money is tight and decision makers become fearful of making poor decisions.
The salesman still has to look for opportunity and pitch their products. They have be professional and uncover needs, present solutions, gain agreement and close for the deal.
Believe it or not, some customers and prospects have a hard time saying no. Your salesmen are dynamic and persuasive personalities that can get prospects excited about their offering.
Most prospects know how to put off a sale close without saying no. It could be, “I will think it over,” or, “I need to speak to my boss, wife, husband or someone who is not available.
Many of us salesmen have found that if we take the clue to call back next week or after the first of the month, we never get another opportunity to close the deal.
Hers is a technique to handle the old; I will think it over objection.

“That is fine Ms Customer, obviously you would not take the time to think it over unless you were seriously interested, would you?” At this point most prospects will say something to the effect of, “we are very interested!”

Your response should be, since you are so interested, what is it that you will think over? With out a pause, ask, it is the quality, my company image, my personal integrity, the product ability to solve your needs? Do all of this very fast and ask questions that you know are not the issue. Lastly ask, “is it the money, do you think the product cost too much?”

At this point, your prospect may just want to get rid of you, so they will most likely say, yes it cost too much. Keep in mind if the answer to any of your other questions is yes, you have found the objection and can proceed to over come it.

If it is the money, ask, “How much too much is it?” When your prospect tells you, try to figure how much too much that is per day or per hour. You should be able to make a large sum seem small. Let’s say it is 20 dollars a day, in that context, show how the benefits your product gives is worth much more than the 20 dollars. If you can do that and you have the true decision maker as your audience, you should be able to close the business then and there.

So, what do you think? What strategies are you using to close some business during these difficult economic times. Tell me something good.
.

I am so glad it is football season. The Bears are in first place, the Bills have brought excitement to Western New York and the hopes of many are still alive. At a college level, there are many teams vying to be number 1.High school football is coming to an end with state championships and traditional Thanksgiving Day games.
I love the combat of football but also the life and business lessons we can learn from it.
For instance; learning how the set goals, work hard, be accountable, monitor progress, become a team player, be coached and how to win and lose, are all valuables takes a ways from the competition of sports.
If you notice, the athletes make competition fun. They have a tremendous desire to win but there seems to be little fear of showing emotion.
A pre game ritual is for the head coach to give a speech, or it could be the team captain. The speech is meant to fire up the team for the goal of winning. I saw Tony Dungy do this with his team and at the end he simply said, “Let’s do what we do!” At that point grown men went crazy with excitement. They were yelling, jumping and bumping helmets as they ran out of the locker room. The screams included the proverbial, Let’s Go!!!!
Keep in mind there are life and business lessons at work here. What the Colts do, is score a lot of points and win football games, Kentucky fried chicken, fries chicken, the heavyweight champion, knocks people out.
This brings us to us. What is that you do? Is your mission clear? Are you fired upped about it? Do you desperately want to achieve it? Is it fun for you?
Obviously, you want your answers to be yes. If there are no’s, chances are you will not care if you are successful or not.
In closing, as you watch games this week, ask your self, what do you need to do, to be that fired upped come Monday morning? How can you use emotion to make your job seem more important to you? Enjoy your holiday, and Go Bears!

What a great opportunity our President elect has to gain and keep the trust of a vast majority of the American public. What an opportunity for our nation to reclaim our place at the top of the world community.
Think about it, 65 million voters voted for Barack Obama and over 130 million American voted in total! Never in modern times as there been so much interest in our nations politics. This is becoming bigger than the Super Bowl. The entire world is watching this defining moment in history.
So far so good for President elect Obama, a great and humble acceptance speech, what appears to be an excellent transition team, a potentially great economic advisory team. The man is looking and acting like a President.
The vision for the campaign was change, one word that has incredible possibilities and Barack has already gained the respect and admiration of many conservatives. Now the difficult part, what does change mean and how do you manage it? Even more important is how do you make the change positive and with the support of our nation?
Many business leader face the same challenge. Here is my free and unsolicited advice.
I offer a few simple steps for managing change.

1) Establish a strategic intent statement. Barack is visionary and this is a difficult one because of the vast nature of the republic. John Kennedy once said, “we will send a man to the moon and return him home safely before the end of the decade!” The goal was clear,{send a man to the moon} there was a time frame, {10 years} and it was a stretch goal. We need some sort of goal that all people can be aware of.
2) State the reason for change. This one is more obvious.
3) Express the benefit our nation will realize from this change.
4) Express the benefit we the people will realize from this change.
5) Express the role we the people must play to make this change possible.
6) Communicate the positive steps of the change, the YouTube radio address is one way, how about a federal blog that we the people can comment on ?celebrate the small steps to victory.
7) Have champions for change across the nation helping to gain support for your change initiative
If somebody has a better idea, use it, make modifications as necessary.

That is it, a 8 step plan for change. We can do this. What are your thoughts? How do you manage change? Lets talk!

You have to read this story and understand the Obama family has the same history of all of us living black in America. It Started on a slave ship! My friends at Blackpoliticsontheweb, hipped me to this article on Michele Obama that came from the UK. I urge you to visit this site and find one place for great black political insights.
I am sitting here think about all the times I felt weighted down by race. Thinking about how it is a white boys world. I hope it become a world for us all and opportunity that we all can reach. This mandate of a landslide election gives us an opportunity to learn from past mistakes. The angry white males of the 90’s lead by Newt Gingrich, and the George W. Bush political capital and I am going to spend it, is not the style of Obama.Notice the positive effect he has had on John McCain, whom seemed like a statesman in his gracious concession speech. How about George W Bush, showing emotion and offering to welcome the Obama’s to the White House, a side of our President we had not seen in 8 years. Even Secretary of State Rice, was proud to be black again. Oprah although surrounded by white people she did not know, crying on the shoulder of a unknown whiteman while her man stood in the background, found something in Black America she could be proud of!
Myself, I will try not to be so defensive around white people, I will try to be more open and less fearing. I am no racist, some of my best friends are white. Man it felt good to say that. How will Obama’s election win change you? What did you learn about our suddenly great nation? BTW, I told you so, here