That's published - in your hands published - by September.

(Yes, there is already a networking book with that title. Great minds think alike.)

This book is about leadership - and a simple model that can help people like you and me understand how to apply just about all the leadership thinking to date in an effective way.

I'm inviting some people to join me in helping refine, test out, and illustrate the concepts in the book with their own stories - some of which will be published as part of the book itself.

If you're interested, send me an email through the connect with us portion of the website.

• Targeting Prospects, getting a one-on-one
• Time managment
• Managing our emotions
• Pacing yourself--how to manage your energy
• Making it a business transaction
• Creating referral networks, asking for referrals
• How to fix a bad day
• Expressing value, how to sell at your price
• Limiting beliefs
• The science of cold calling
• Breaking the decision-making process into chunks you can manage
• How to clearly express your Value Proposition
• Territory management, planning for success
• The technology trap: the right tools (CRM, Social Networking, Effective emailing)

 These topics are listed in order of interest, so the presentation topic on March 4 will be "Targeting Prospects"

Hope to see you there!

Something like "Why in the world would we say no to anyone who wants to buy what we have?!?" probably popped into your brain.

That is exactly the question you should be considering.

Here are a couple of answers - if they aren't on target I'm sure you can add some that are. Saying no to  business that isn't a simultaneous win for the client and you does the following:

1. Preserves and can even heighten your reputation for being someone who does the right thing for the client (and yourself)
2. Frees up the energy you're likely to waste dealing with a difficult and/or unhappy client
3. Enables others to know and refer the right kind of business / projects / clients to you in the future
4. Strengthens your own internal picture of the value of your work

I could list the consequences of settling for less - even if just this one time I promise I'll never do it again honest - yet I think you know them already.

One of our primary metrics of success at Trebuchet Group is when we are turning away as much business as we are taking on. Essentially, we know our marketing and sales system is working when we are saying no as often as we are saying yes. Here's how we do it:

1. Be selective - We know our ideal client, the situations we can help with, and where we know we can help them get to. If clients aren't willing to collaborate and work on their business and themselves, we are completely transparent and tell them "We're very sorry - unfortunately what we have to offer will probably not meet your needs." And then if we can we refer them to someone who we believe can help.
2. Listen to a lot of people - We tend to err on the side of attending too many events where we get to connect with others. A really successful spontaneous conversation for us ends both with a mutual desire to sit down and talk more specifically at a later date, and with the other person saying "Gosh, I feel like you understand where I am and yet I really didn't get a chance to find more than the basics about your business." People want to be heard, and when we listen with integrity we enable both of us to be able to say "Yes!"
3. Be willing to say no - This is the hardest part: trusting in the abundance of the universe, trusting that there are more people and businesses that have a greater possibility of true win-win situations, trusting that by saying no you become more attractive to those very situations you need.

By saying no to opportunites that trigger those little flashing warning lights, you can enable your own greatness.

Are you ready and willing?

Cool, but now it’s got me thinking: what do these folks have in common with one another and with the greatest salesfolks I’ve known?

Looking over the list I see a variety of experience, a plethora of industries, and a vast array of talent sets.  I see commercial and residential real estate professionals, I see retail whizzes, I see IT experts  and bankers and media people…all over the map.

What ties this diverse group together? They are:

1. Deeply committed and proud of what they do. Sales is a passion for them and a way of life.
2. They have a high energy/activity levels, they’re persistent and determined.
3. Relationships are how they view sales: the creation, maintenance and nurturing of these relationships is what makes their jobs fun, rewarding, and profitable.
4. They’re focused, have excellent time management skills, and know their own strengths and weaknesses.
5. They are lifetime learners, in a constant state of self-improvement.

How would you describe the best salesperson you’ve ever known?  How would you rate yourself on this scale?

What can you do today to improve your sales performance tomorrow? What books will you read, what courses will you take, what investment will you make in yourself and your future?

Why do you suppose that is?  Has it ever happened to you?

You may have noticed that our images of ourselves are reflected in the folks we attract to us. My colleague wants to change her client mix, but she has to change herself first. How will she do this? Where would you start?

My friend has what it takes to do business in exactly the way she wants to do it. She’s attracting the wrong prospects because she’s not thinking big enough, she’s compromising and settling. She’s saying yes when she should be saying no.

What specific steps can she take to improve her prospects?

1. Articulate in careful detail who she wants her customers to be. Be ridiculously precise: where do they live, what resources do they have, what are their problems, how have they solved them in the past? What will impact their decision-making? Keep going until you can’t think of anything else.
2. Now, why would they want to do business with me? In other words, what is my unique set of characteristics/talent/skills/products that will eliminate their pain, move them forward, and make them look like heroes to their friends and business associates?
3. Knowing all this, how will I show up for them TODAY? How will I tune my self image, my prospect list, my marketing, and my communication approach so it will ring true for them?
4. Am I willing to walk away? My friend will never achieve her goals if she’s handcuffed by fear. Saying no to the wrong customers gives energy, focus and power to relationships with the right customers.

In the Last Crusade Indiana Jones takes the step out over the abyss as a “leap of faith”. As business people and salespeople we take these leaps every day…if we don’t, we’re doomed to more of the same.

Close, but not quite what we had in mind. 

This blog appears on Lee Porter's "Everybody Sells" at NCBR.com

• Getting a good return on (financial) investment isn't good enough anymore
• Technology that doesn't bring out the best in us as people (or causes us to conform to it vs. having it conform to us) isn't good enough anymore
• Organizations that treat people like mere pleasure-seeking, pain-avoiding drones are barely succeeding, and the people in them are actively looking for something else

There are other related trends that I'm sensing but can't quite articulate - yet. It's like the old, restrictive, keep-you-in-your-place rules are beginning to get some pretty deep cracks in them. And whoever has been patching the cracks up to now is no longer able to keep up.

For instance in today's extremely challenging environment, common wisdom would hold that people would isolate themselves, feel that they needed to become survivalists, become even more greedy and self-centered. Yet people are giving more of their time and effort to help others. Neighbors are helping and connecting with each other more than ever before.

Implications for business - and your organization

I used to think that good organizations create an environment where people could bring their physical, emotional, and spiritual gifts to share for everyone's benefit.

Now I am starting to see organizations must invite people to tap their gifts not just on the surface but deep down.

Without the full commitment and the gifts of all, organizations are choosing to be also-rans and yesterday's news.

It's just a matter of time.

George Carlin, the late comedian, used to have a routine where he would use oxymorons like "jumbo shrimp" and "military intelligence" to get a good laugh.

Personally, I think that oxymorons are exactly the way to express the paradox of great leadership - that is, leadership which embraces the whole of reality and uses the extreme edges to inform the decision and ensure an optimal result. Here are a few:

• Servant leader
• Flexible system-user
• Listening communicator
• Thinking doer
• Practical idealist

Great leaders are simultaneously focused on the accomplishment of the mission and the welfare of the people who make mission accomplishment possible. They are relentlessly focused on the future needs of the organization while simultaneously handling immediate needs. They are courageous and considerate, gentle and firm, corporate and entrepreneurial.

Some people will read this and say "Oh, yes. It's all about having the proper balance." And frankly, they would be wrong. 

Real leadership is not about balance - it's about having as much of both apparent opposites simultaneously as possible.

Here's an example of having both apparent opposites: Fuel-efficent and safe cars.

People used to think the choices were either big, heavy, safe and fuel-inefficient or small, light, fuel-efficient and unsafe cars. While physics says the greater mass does indeed absorb (or give) more energy in a crash, enterprising engineers found ways to have both fuel-efficient and safe cars - things like active airbags, better seatbelts and seats, collapsing steering wheels have all dramatically decreased the injury and fatality rates of accidents, while simultaneously advancing engine technology to create small, powerful, and fuel-sippling engines.

It's our choice - either/or which means we maximize one thing at the expense of all else, or we look for other solutions which simultaneously meet as many of the needs (that appear to be opposite) as possible.

Emotional intelligence is described as the ability to understand relationships among the people around you, interpret emotional signals sent by others, control your own emotional state and motivate yourself.

Not correlated with IQ, EQ is a better measure of one’s ability to function in the world. It signals leadership ability, sales ability, success in business, family, and love.

The best salespeople have it. They’re able to read a prospect’s undercurrent emotional states, they can empathize with the prospects' problems, uncover their pain. They also know how to control their own emotions, not get caught up in other people’s stuff, stay focused and maintain their equanimity. The best salespeople screen out the negativity around them, stay positive, creative and pro-active.

How’s your emotional intelligence? Are your prospects using your own emotions against you or are you in control, empathizing without judging, engaging without manipulating, creating a safe place for you and your prospect to do business?

Selling with integrity demands a high level of emotional intelligence. You can start by observing yourself and your emotional triggers. Self awareness is the first step to clarity.