Scott's Sales KnowHow Q1 2012

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S A L E S KnowHow Stress-Free Selling powered by

INSIDE: Eliminate Stress: Take Away the Sale!

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Eliminate Pressure: Insist on Their Success

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The Goldilocks Effect: Improve Your Trade Show Pitch

Top 10 Management Traps for 2012 Page 17

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Athletes earning millions of dollars a year, work on their skills every day.

You will improve results if you do too.

Turn Drive Time into Money-Making Time!

Listen to sales CDs or Mp3s every time you drive, and transport downtime into growth time. You'll get fresh ideas the first time and more great ideas each time you listen.

“My sales person brought in TEN new customers in less than two weeks after reading your manuals.”

Dave Brian, Hercules Media

1- Take “Sales” Out of Selling - $47 CD or Mp3

Creating a great business relationship is not the goal of a sales meeting. It is the natural outcome of things done right. If you are insecure or uncomfortable, you will create these feelings in your prospects! Stress-free sales environments produces results and great relationships. This presentation was made to the 2007 National Speakers Association Annual Convention. Take the “sales” out of selling, and sell more easily, naturally and stress-free.

2- Make Objections Disappear - $47 CD or Mp3

Unintentionally, salespeople actually create the obstacles that manifest objections. In this live presentation to the 2006 National Speaker’s Association, Jenaé shares nine simple tactics that eliminate most objections. Your sales will never be the same again!

3- Turn Objections into Sales - $47 CD or Mp3

Most sales people go into presentations without answer to the toughies: “Your price is too high,” “I have to think about it,” “I have to talk to...”

This 60 minute live seminar helps you conquer your most stubborn objections. You will never feel attacked again.

4- Non-Traditional Stress-Free Selling™

(Formerly Pearl Marketing)

- $47 CD or Mp3

99 inexpensive and fun ideas guaranteed to increase sales and referrals, reduce loss, and get through previously closed doors. This 60 minute seminar opens your creative flow allowing you to produce new, exciting tactics. (NOTE: 30 seconds is garbled on this CD)

5- Write to Sell© - Stress-Free Letters, Emails & Proposals™ - $97 CD only

Do you have trouble reaching prospects after you send proposals? Effective letters makes sales easier. Most are self-centered and don’t create desire or motivate action. Letters rarely inspire recipients to pick up the phone and call you. Do yours? No? Change that now.

Stress-Free Selling® Manuals

Stress-Free Selling® works for newbies and veterans looking for a big edge in this tough economy. You discover, in a practical, logical, easy-to-comprehend style, every important aspect of the sales process. The Stress-Free Selling® program comes in three manuals and has several bonuses - including a Playbook where you create answers to your specific challenges. In addition, you get a half hour telephone consultation to use for yourself or your sales force to help overcome any sales obstacle. Follow this program, and you will absolutely increase your sales quickly and easily.

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2 Sales KnowHow

Q1 2012

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Q1-2012 5

Publisher’s Letter The Art of Stress-Free Selling

Features

6 8 9 10 12 14 17

Two Transformational Expressions – Jenae Rubin

The Power of Belief – Jenae Rubin

The Fastest Way to Build Relationships is Not to Work on the Relationship! – Jenae Rubin

Management by Objective – Tibor Shanto

Create a Meaningful and Memorable Trade Show Pitch: The Goldilocks Effect – Barry Siskind

QR Codes Can Create Greater Trade Show Impact – Barry Siskind

Top Ten Management Traps for 2012 – Laura Stack

Q1 2012

Sales KnowHow

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Scott’s Directories Corporate Masthead

By Scott’s Directories

Group Publisher Paul Stuckey pstuckey@scottsdirectories.com

National Sales Manager Lindsay Rodgers lrodgers@scottsdirectories.com

General Sales Inquiries Scott’s Catalogue sales@scottsdirectories.com

specialized lists lists@scottsdirectories.com

Advertising in Sales KnowHow advertising@scottsdirectories.com

Creative Services Design Layout - Carolyn Brimer

Programming Abraham Oligane Gary Fleming

Scott’s Directories account managers Sandra Foster sfoster@scottsdirectories.com Richard Iann riann@scottsdirectories.com John LaBattaglia jlabattaglia@scottsdirectories.com Bridget Wiley bwiley@scottsdirectories.com

We welcome your suggestions, input, feedback and more. Reach us today. salesknowhow@scottsdirectories.com

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Q1 2012

Copyright 2012 Scott’s Directories Scott’s Directories is a division of BIG Directories LP. Business Information Group (BIG) is a subsidary of Glacier Media Inc.

Publisher’s Letter

The Art of Stress-Free Selling H

ello and welcome back. Sales is a rewarding career – the process of converting prospects to buyers can offer great personal satisfaction in addition to a well-earned income commensurate with performance.

A good sales person – a professional sales person – not only benefits via a rewarding career but simultaneously provides benefit to his clients by way of selling them what they need at a fair price. A good sales person makes the experience enjoyable for everyone concerned and can build and nurture a great clientele in this Win-Win process. By doing so, the true professional makes it look easy.

I think you’ll agree the market deserves professional sales people just as everyone expects to meet a “professional” dentist or lawyer or tradesperson – i.e. competent and fair and customer-centric.

Understandably not every buyer is a “professional shopper”, but every sales person should definitely be a professional the buyer can trust. At the hands of incompetent sales people, all too often the process of making a sale (and reciprocally the experience of making a purchase) disintegrates into a conscious battle between seller and buyer – with both parties resorting to actions untoward happy commerce. The mantra of “Buyer Beware” takes great meaning when a buyer senses something is amiss. Most buyers are fearful of making a wrong purchase decision to start with. When they sense their sales rep is not taking the time to listen and care, they will become overly defensive and take evasive measures to avoid purchasing anything – putting up road blocks as soon as they sense the seller is out for blood. Sales people who are rude, pushy and incompetent and who resort to manipulative tactics and false promises just so they can “sell something” are not going to thrive in their profession. The outcome from this style of selling is often mediocre sales, low satisfaction and high stress for everyone involved.

Professional sales people approach a new prospect with genuine interest in helping the client, not just in making another sale. As a matter of routine they place the prospect’s needs ahead of their own and they maintain control of the situation through a variety of skills and methodologies designed to keep the process stress-free for both parties. Therefore the pursuit of stress-free sales is a worthwhile endeavor for a professional sales person to pursue as the positive outcome benefits everyone involved, and it’s conducive to creating a lasting and profitable relationship.

Our friend Jenae Rubin teaches the art of StressFree Selling™ and her articles in this issue provide some insight into how you can start today. Consider taking her audio courses to maximize the effectiveness of your drive time – available on CD or as MP3 files as outlined in her advertisement. With those audio courses, you’ll have Jenae riding along with you as you sharpen the axe.

In each issue of Sales KnowHow we strive to bring you great tips and expertise you can use right away – put these into practice and you’ll build a skill set that lets you reach your goals while making the process enjoyable and stress-free for your clients too. That’s the professional approach.

On behalf of Jenae and everyone here at Scott’s Directories, here’s wishing you Stress-Free Selling™!

Paul Stuckey, Group Publisher pstuckey@scottsdirectories.com For More Articles by Paul Stuckey Click Here

Q1 2012

Sales KnowHow

5

Sales Sales

Two Transformational Expressions

Selling is not brain surgery. So why is it so complicated? Because of the pressure and stress – real or imagined – by them and by you! Today we’ll talk about how to defuse your clients’ and prospects’ concerns, so they are comfortable with you. When their guards are let down, sales becomes easy… and stress-free. Here are two incredibly easy-to-incorporate phrases that produce magical results.

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Q1 2012

By Jenae Rubin President, Sales Powerhouse

Eliminate Stress: Take Away the Sale!

Eliminate Pressure: Insist on Their Success

One reason prospects throw up objections is because they’re afraid of being sold something that won’t really be beneficial to them. So one way to alleviate this issue is to take the sale away from the conversation!

To overcome a mid-sale objection, start the same way, “Whether you do business with us or not,” and then continue with an educational piece of information. For example, in order for you to be successful in your advertising you want to make sure your key prospects see your ads over and over again. So what this means is that advertising just one time will not help you achieve your goals. See how easy it is to explain the necessity of buying frequency (quantity)?!

You made your point, and they don’t feel threatened that they will make a mistake.

To overcome a Getting-In objection, simply start with, “Whether you do business with us or not, I will share ideas with you that will help you reach your goals.” (Preferably, substitute “reach your goals” with something more specific.) Of course you need to be prepared to give your prospect ideas as to how they can reach their goals… whether they do business with you or not.

To fulfill on your promise, you need to ask a ton of questions at the beginning of your visit so you can share one or more great ideas as to how to achieve their goals or overcome their challenges.

After a great Fact Finding job - the foundation of every good sales relationship - you will have a lot of helpful ideas whether they do business with you or not. Fact Finding develops trust, more trust than you can develop in the same amount of time doing anything else - short of saving their lives or something dramatic like this. So, take advantage of the information you gather at the beginning of your sales meeting, couple it with these magic words, and your ideas will be welcomed instead of seen as a ploy.

Acting in fear of missing a quota, salespeople frequently accept whatever customers say they’ll buy instead of making sure the purchase is viable and in their best interest.

Imagine your customer says, “Ok, I’ll take XYZ,” and instead of your saying “Great,” you say, “That’s not enough to get the results you seek. I don’t want your money if you won’t get results.” Now milk this! Continue by telling them, “If you’re not satisfied, you will tell everyone our company is no good, or you’ll come back and return the item… when it’s really that you didn’t choose the item you need to get the results you need.” Now you can take out that great marketing research that shows how important whatever you want to recommend is.

Your biggest fear is losing that small sale, figuring something is better than nothing. What actually happens though is you will lose one for every three! When customers trust you are after their own interest, they stop throwing fake objections at you, and they enter real conversations. You don’t have much to lose, and the upside is huge. Some people will walk. And then they’ll walk right back in… when they find others aren’t fair with them or they aren’t getting anything better elsewhere.

Truly, you will be much more successful not accepting an order that is not in their interest than accepting is. If your product has “sell-through,” with a bad initial order, your sell-through will be zero.

Think about this, when you don’t just take their money, they trust that you really care about them. When they trust you, they do business with you. The reason you write small orders (and non-repeat business) is they don’t really trust you. If they did, they would be there time after time. After all, nothing else makes sense.

“Whether you do business with us or not…”

“I don’t want your money if you won’t get results.”

Here’s to successful, stress-free salesTM, Jenae Rubin

Jenae Rubin is the president of Sales Powerhouse – Overcome Overcoming Objections and may be reached at Jenae@SalesPowerhouse.com or 954-290-9896.

Copyright 2012 Sales Powerhouse, Inc. This article may be reproduced with credit and copyright intact.

For More Articles by Jenae Rubin Click Here

Q1 2012

Sales KnowHow

7

Sales

The Power of Belief A

h, the power of conviction. Success in the face of disbelief is unlikely… at best. In fact, we manifest, in our lives, what we believe in. People even “show up” for us, in life, the way we believe them to be; despite that others see them differently, we have a hard time seeing anything other than what we believe to be the truth.

In sales, this “shows up” like this: if we believe our prices are too high, we create price resistance. If we believe our prices are justified, appropriate, a good value, worth what we’re asking, price objections are not major obstacles.

Lack of belief is like a giraffe to a lion; negative belief devours success. Negative belief means Success doesn’t stand a chance.

So, what’s the solution? You have three choices: 1. Get comfortable with the issue you’re having problems with 2. Change your situation 3. Sell something else If you believe your prices are too high, get comfortable with them by whatever means necessary, change your prices, or get another job! You will never be successful with the belief that your prices are too high.

People buy because you believe not because they believe!

If you are uncomfortable with your prices, you will never avoid price objections.

I have actually seen many salespeople cut their prices within minutes of beginning a conversation! Literally… within minutes… without there even being a price consideration, no less an objection!

In the first place, the beginning of a conversation is completely the wrong time to discuss price! Price is not the reason people buy. It’s the fifth or sixth objection. Yet many salespeople hit this obstacle because they don’t believe what they are selling is worth what they are asking. Believe me, regardless what

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Q1 2012

competitors are charging, if you don’t believe you are worth what you are asking, you will have problems selling.

“If I hadn’t seen it for myself, I never would have believed it,” a client announced. He used to believe discounting his rates was necessary. After all, all his competitors did.

He couldn’t see how it could possibly be feasible not to. Then he got it! He realized the reason people ask for a discount is because they think they can. He realized by acquiescing, he allows them treat you like a commodity. So he decided he’d let his competitors play the “commodity game.” He was not!

Since believing his rates were justified and fair, he no longer discounts, and through the recession we are pulling out of, he has had double digit growth every year… despite the economy… and despite what his competitors do.

The vicious circle The thing is, if business isn’t going well, you can’t afford to wait until you see it yourself. The reality is if you keep doing what you’re doing, you’ll keep getting the results you are getting.

That’s well and fine when business is good. If business is not growing, you have to change; otherwise there’s nothing to stop your downward spiral. Now is precisely the time to take a risk and start changing the way you’re doing things.

I remember when I played tennis (I had younger knees then!) If I thought I was going to serve a fault, I served a fault.

When I visualized a perfect serve, many, many times I served, exactly that. So powerful is belief.

Take Sam Garnes. He’s is a 6’3”, 225 pound strapping New York Jets 2001 Super Bowl player. He could seriously hurt my 5’5” slight frame with his pinkie (he wouldn’t, but he could!)

In an exercise, he repeated “I am strong and successful.

By Jenae Rubin President, Sales Powerhouse

The Fastest Way to Build Relationships is Not to Work on the Relationship!

By Jenae Rubin President, Sales Powerhouse

I am strong and successful.” After his tenth declaration, I pulled a muscle trying to budge his outstretched arm. Less than one minute later, after merely saying “I am weak and a failure,” this is what happened: He worked up a sweat just making statements that were detrimental to his confidence and self-esteem.

His strength was seriously compromised.

I lowered his arm with two fingers and zero effort.

Watch the video at: http://www.SalesPowerhouse.com/ SamAndMe.avi (NOTE: capitalization is important after the .com/).

If you think your prices are too high, you have repeated many more times than ten this negative belief that is killing your success rate.

Fortunately the answer’s simple: brainwash yourself. You successfully brainwashed yourself into believing whatever you believe now. So why not brainwash yourself into something that will actually help you! Get comfortable with your prices. Know they are reasonable. Or change them and make them reasonable.

Here’s a fourth option. Call me. I can help you get comfortable, reassess your pricing structure, evaluate your positioning, or train your sales force. It’s in your hands. You can make price a nonissue. Add this simple step to your sales process, and you will stop wondering, what can I do now?

Here’s to successful, stress-free salesTM, Jenae Rubin

Jenae Rubin is the president of Sales Powerhouse – Overcome Overcoming Objections. and may be reached at Jenae@SalesPowerhouse.com or 954-290-9896.

Copyright 2012 Sales Powerhouse, Inc. This article may be reproduced with credit and copyright intact.

For More Articles by Jenae Rubin Click Here

“What’s your goal of this meeting?” I asked the sales rep I was training.

“To build a good relationship,” she proudly replied.

Sound familiar?

I’m flabbergasted at how many salespeople think this is a viable goal. Contrary to the belief that building relationships is paramount in the sales process, I assert: A good relationship is the natural outcome of everything done right.

Many salespeople approach the process believing “I have to develop a good relationship with the prospect. So, they start by asking “friendly” questions that have nothing to do with the business relationship. People see right through this sales “strategy.” They think you are phony, because it is phony. And you waste time, eating into the time they allocated to you, so you delay the process of being able to create a solid business relationship. Ironic, isn’t it?

Imagine this scenario instead…

Your focus is helping your prospect overcome his challenges and reach his goals. After all, this is what he spends most of his time thinking about.

Instead of (obvious and obsequious) idle chitchat, you connect with your prospects in a way that is critical to his well-being. Which “you” do you think he will want to have a relationship (business or personal) with? The one who cares about him and his business or the one who is playing the transparent “I want you to like me” game?

When our intention is self-centered, people see through us. So be other-centered instead. Care about and focus on your prospect’s concerns, and you will reap the benefits of the strongest of all possible relationships… by doing everything right.

Q1 2012

Sales KnowHow

9

Sales

Management

By Objective M Related Link

10 Sales KnowHow

any organizations take advantage of a means of accomplishing things through a process popularized by Peter Drucker known as Management By Objective (MBO).

This allows everyone to understand the company’s objectives, the means and process of achieving it, and the individual’s role and responsibility in delivering it. One by-product of MBO is the efficiencies gained through standardized processes.

Most functional areas of companies have standardized procedures and processes to ensure a level of quality and consistency in their product and deliverables. After all, by having a uniform or standard approach, it is not only easier to manage, but easier to predict and address flaws or issues should they arise. This is even more the case for companies with multiple locations or facilities carrying out the same process. What you also notice is that in most functional areas of these same companies, there is usually an adherence to corporate standards and processes and without completely squashing a healthy dose of local flavour and character.

One area where many companies continue to struggle in implementing MBO is sales – specifically when it comes to front line sales people. There seems to be success with MBO

Q1 2012

with Directors and Managers, but continues to be a challenge for the front line. In many companies this is due to the role sales people play, or are supposed to play in the revenue process.

Where there is a lack of sales process, reps are able to perpetuate the myth that sales people are a unique breed, with godgiven skills that would be neutralized by any interference by management, especially in the form of a process. Since one of the fundamental elements of a good sales process is metrics, measurement and comparisons as a means of maintaining and improving standards, it requires a level of transparency and visibility many sales people are uncomfortable with and are willing to accept. Of course without this it is unlikely that you can roll out and get adherence to a functional and worthwhile sales process. Since many of these sales people have convinced their managers that they cannot perform if a process or MBO is implemented, managers are held hostage to the unspoken possibility that they may lose one of the sales reps, even when they know the rep is not performing up to standard or ability. There is no bigger fear among front line managers than the thought of a vacant territory, so they fall for the bluff

By Tibor Shanto

and work with the rep to either avoid a process, or help them circumvent it in the hope of numbers to be delivered. When the numbers come in, fine; when they don’t the manager is left holding the bag, and the underperforming rep dodges another one.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Managers should be able to extend MBO down to the front line, they should be able to show at least the vast majority of their reps that a process and MBO can help them be more consistent in their success and enjoy the monetary and other rewards that come with adoption. It is true that at times there will be some short term turmoil, some reps that are good may leave because they don’t like the new regiment. That is usually offset by the gains realized from the other reps, who may not be stars, but improve their performance by adhering to the process and working with MBO. The question that has to be answered is are you willing to live through short term rough waters in exchange for long term performance improvement, or do you want to continue delivering unpredictable results.

From where I sit, it is much more practical to align front line objectives with the overall corporate objectives by managing to those objectives.

Tibor Shanto – Principal - Renbor Sales Solutions Inc., is a recognized speaker, author of the award winning book Shift!: Harness The Trigger Events That Turn Prospects Into Customers, and a sought after trainer; his work has appeared in numerous publications and leading websites. Called a brilliant sales tactician Tibor helps organizations execute their strategy by using the EDGE Sales Process to create the perfect combination of strategy, tactics, skills to ensure execution. Tibor can be reached at info@SellBetter.ca or 1-416-822-7781. You can read his blog, The Pipeline with new material three times a week, and follow Tibor on Twitter @Renbor.

For More Articles by Tiboor Shanto Click Here

What’s in Your Pipeline? © Copyright Notice All content, text, graphics, are Copyright 2011–2012 by Tibor Shanto. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Any use of materials in this publication, including reproduction, modification, distribution or republication, without the prior written consent of Tibor Shanto, are strictly prohibited.

Q1 2012

Sales KnowHow 11

Exhibiting

Create a Meaningful and Memorable Trade Show Pitch:

By Barry Siskind

The Goldilocks Effect In the late ninety seventies one of my favourite television shows was the US sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati. The character I remember most was Herbert Ruggles (Herb) Tarlek Jr., played by actor Frank Bonner. Herb was the epitome of bad salesmanship characterized by his boorish and tasteless approaches to clients. To complete his baboonish portrait, he wore loud plaid suits, with a belt that matched his white shoes.

Herb was the man you would never knowingly join on an elevator to face the consequences of his talking your ear off with information that you would have trouble relating to.

Fast forward to the second decade of the 21st century at a typical busy trade show when without warning you are approached by a modern day Herb who, while better dressed, still feels the need to overload you with information you care little about. You have just fallen victim to the greatest of exhibition sins – the poorly thoughtout and executed pitch.

If you are a fan of fairy tales then surely you will remember the story of “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” written by British author Robert Southey. It’s the story a young girl named Goldilocks who finds herself in a bear’s home and searches for perfection as she works her way through porridge, chairs and beds before drifting off to sleep. Goldilocks teaches us that the perfect solution to things in life, like a product pitch, should not be too long, not too short, but just right. That’s the “Goldilocks Effect” that all front line staff who meets visitors at a booth should adhere to rigorously.

A good presentation begins long before the exhibition. It is developed by uncovering four elements: • The features and benefits of your product and service • Identifying prospects and understanding what issues are most important to them • Finding your own voice • Rehearse...rehearse...rehearse 1. The features from the benefits There is an old adage in sales that says, you don’t go shopping to purchase a 1/8th inch drill bit, what you really want is a 1/8th inch hole.

What are you really selling? Make a list of all that your product

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Q1 2012

(or service) provides. For example some of the features of an automobile might include, Exhaust Heat Recovery System, 2.4 Litre 4-Cylinder, DOHC, 16-Valve, Variable Valve Timing, Tier 2 Bin 3 Emission.

Next ask yourself which items bring real value to your customer. You record your answers in a second column beside the feature. For example the Exhaust Heat Recovery System generates electric current from waste heat in your automobile to improve overall engine efficiency resulting with a great potential for fuel savings. What does your customer want? An Exhaust Recovery System or fuel savings?

2. Identify your prospects and understand what issues are most important to them Your customers are not one homogeneous group of people. Each has their own perspective, interests and level of knowledge, so a one-pitch-fits-all approach is clearly not going to work.

If you haven’t already done the exercise then create a profile of your customer in as much detail as possible. Your profile goes beyond a simple description of demographics.

Go a bit deeper into what motivates these people. If you are unsure then perhaps its time to pause and conduct a bit of research. Get your front line people involved with this exercise and see if you can identify all the people they will come in contact with and identify their motivations.

The next step is to compare your customer profile to the audited list of attendees provided by show management. What you will learn is that only a fraction of the potential attendees fit the profile. It also tells you that you may have many opportunities to meet people who can influence the final decision. These people may come from finance, administration, marketing, production, sales and so on. With this information in hand you can now refine your profiles to reflect all possible interactions at the show.

Add this list to your list of features and benefits deciding on which benefits will

be most applicable to each identified prospect. For example someone from finance may not be interested or not understand the nuances of your product’s performance capabilities but they will understand the impact of your product on the corporate bottom-line.

3. Find your own voice Have you ever listened to a professional comedian tell a joke and thought it was the funniest thing you have ever heard? But when you try to tell the same joke to your colleagues, after the punch line they stare at you wondering what you thought was so amusing. The reason behind this is that we all have our own unique way of conveying information. Some phraseology works for some people and not for others. So the trick is to find ways of presenting information that fits your personality. You need to use words that you can say with enthusiasm, comfort and honesty. Fake it and you sound like the Monday morning comedian telling jokes that go flat. The way you find your voice is through practice.

4. Rehearse...rehearse...rehearse Rehearsal begins before you utter a word. Begin with the list of features and benefits that are most likely to appeal to your audience.

Next decide how you will be presenting information. Think of the pitch in three parts: The opening, the body and the close.

The opening. At your booth you have already spend a few minutes getting to know your visitor and their perspective. Before you introduce benefits you need to ensure that you have guessed right so your opening may sound something like this: “Let me see if I understand your situation correctly. Your primary interest is to ensure that the installation of new equipment can be accomplished with a minimum amount of downtime. Is that correct?”

The body. Here is where the content of the presentation is customized. If you have done your work well, and asked the right questions you should have a good idea of your visitor’s specific interests. You now relate those interests back to the exercise you did before the show where you matched features and benefits to your various visitor profiles. Remember, you are most likely not going to make a sale now and the best you can realistically hope for is to leave this visitor with a positive feeling about you and your products and services so that when a follow-up contact is made there is a better than average chance the visitor will respond. The trick is to pick and choose those issues that will most likely impress your visitor.

The close. You want to make sure that the few benefits you have introduced meet the visitor’s expectations. You also want to ensure that you haven’t missed anything crucial. The solution is to summarize and ask. It sounds something like this: “So you see how our product is cost effective and will result in a minimum

webinars Barry Siskind’s trade show training webinars are now available on demand. This is a great opportunity to offer your staff an in-house training session. By ordering one of the webinars listed below, you will have access to the webinar for 30 days.

I encourage you to order one of the on demand webinars by clicking this link.

From here you can either read the descriptions of the webinars, order an on-demand webinar or read one of the many articles posted by Barry Siskind The webinar topics currently available are: How to Use Entertainment to Drive Trade Show Booth Traffic Create and Experience For All Three Generations Who Walk The Trade Show Floor Create a Trade Show Booth That Attendees Cannot Ignore Get Real Value From Your Trade Show Giveaways Developing Powerful Booth Staff Create a Simple, Smart and Strategic Exhibit Budget Plan Turn Your Tradeshow Booth into an Experiential Environment Measuring the Value of Your Trade Show Program Drive Trade Show Crowds from the Aisles into Your Booth Selecting the Right Show Turn Trade Show Leads Into Sales To bring these webinars in-house or to have a customized webinar delivered contact Barbara Siskind at 1-800-358-6079 or Barbara@siskindtraining.com to discuss your requirements.

To order Barry Siskind’s best-seller Powerful Exhibit Marketing call 1-800-358-6079. amount of downtime to integrate into your production line.

Is there anything I’ve missed?”

Making effective presentations does not come easily. It requires good planning and lots of training to ensure that the people working your booth maximize those precious few minutes they have with a visitor. So, just as Goldilocks proclaimed - not too much, not little, just the right amount will suffice.

Q1 2012

Sales KnowHow 13

Exhibiting

QR Codes

By ByBarry BarrySiskind Siskind

Can Create Greater Trade Show Impact I

f you want people to read your product and service information and yet want to reduce the amount of paper you bring to a trade show, QR codes may be your answer.

Quick Response or QR codes are that weird looking box found in the lower right hand corner of a product label. With an app on a Smartphone or tablet, the user has instant access to company or product information. In a recent projection by US based Gartner Research, by the year 2015 the number of smartphones and media tablets worldwide will exceed one billion.

For the exhibitor looking to provide more information with a greater chance that it will be kept and reviewed, QR codes are the way to go. QR codes are similar in nature to bar codes that retailers use to identify the product, price, SKU, etc. The key difference is that a QR code is two dimensional which means it holds considerably more information. And the good news to exhibitors both large and small is that any business can easily generate their unique QR codes through the use of a QR generator.

Creating the code is generally free. It begins with your search of the internet for a generator such as Kaywa.com, QRstuff. com or 2d-code.co.uk or simply Google QR generator and sees the number of sites available. Once you have found a generator, customizing a QR code is a relatively simple task.

Before you start you need to consider how the QR code will be used. Do you want your customers to be directed to a certain page on your web-site, given contact information or receive a text about specific product offerings?

Now, using a generator, you can create the QR code that works in your situation. Some generators allow you to customize your QR code with colour and format. You can place your QR code on specific products, informational graphics or on your literature and business card. The more places the better.

When you are engaged in a conversation with a visitor rather than offering them a brochure you can suggest they scan your QR code onto their electronic device.

You can offer additional customer service for the visitor who does not have a QR code reader installed. In your pre-show

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invitations, let your prospects know what you will be offering at the show and that the information will be available through QR codes. Then give them the URL’s for the apps that they can download. Some of the more popular reader apps are Red Laser, Barcode scanner and i-inigma.

If they have arrived at your booth without the appropriate app then you can help them find the right download for their device in a matter of seconds.

There are some who say QR codes are already passé and the marketplace is heading towards a need for more information than what QR’s can provide. While there is truth to this premise and technology continues to improve at break-neck speed, specific visual cues such as we see in a QR code remain an important means of exchanging data and linking to virtual locations.

For the exhibitor looking to add value to their trade show investment, QR technology and the benefit of having an increased exposure to information at very little cost, leaves the decision to take the plunge a no-brainer.

© Copyright 2012 Barry Siskind Barry Siskind is author of Powerful Exhibit marketing. He is also President of International Training and Management Company who offers a number of services to exhibitors including the creation and implementation of a mystery-shopping program. Contact Barry at barry@siskindtraining.com for more information.

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The Montreal Manufacturing Technology Show is Quebec's premier manufacturing event.

MMTS is the largest and most important event servicing North America's French marketplace and the leading event for machine tools and factory automation technology. Technology-focused exhibits, along with a relevant industry keynote, interactive town hall experience and cutting-edge technical sessions make MMTS a must-see event for manufacturers looking for the products, solutions and technology that keep them up-to-date and competitive.

For more information, 1-888-322-7333 canadasales@sme.org

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Productivity

Top Time Management Ten Traps for 2012

By Laura Stack

These days, despite technology intended to make life easier, we tend to work harder and have less discretionary time than ever before. Why? After 20 years speaking at conferences and implementing productivity-improvement programs at Fortune 1000 companies, I’ve come to recognize certain nemeses most of us face repeatedly. While clients do occasionally surprise me with the nature of their time management headaches, about 95% of the time, the traps they find themselves mired in fall into the same familiar handful of categories.

So to kick off a productive 2012, let’s take a look at the ten biggest time traps Related faced by the modern worker. I’ll discuss the common variations of each, and Link offer some advice on how to overcome them.

Trap #1: Prioritization Setting workplace priorities is by far the most common time management complaint I hear, and it comes in two flavors: either the worker has problems juggling multiple projects and can’t set his or her own priorities, or the boss has problems setting priorities for the employee. Often, the boss labels everything as equally urgent, leaving workers to throw up their hands in frustration and simply guess which project to focus on – which may cause drama and stress later on, if they guess wrong or the boss proves unreasonable.

Whether the failure to set priorities is the boss’s or the worker’s, the worker ends up scrambling, and may soon fall prey to overwork and overwhelm (which represents another common time trap; see below). The solution, while easy to state, may be difficult to accomplish: firmly ask your boss to prioritize your projects.

Then ruthlessly triage your task list, focusing first on the items that truly matter. Prioritize everything else according to relative value.

Trap #2: Interruptions and Distractions This timewaster consists of anything unscheduled but routine that disrupts an individual’s focus and thereby damages productivity at work. Meetings and crises don’t count; they have their own categories.

I imagine you could fill up a whole page (or more)

with a list of the various interruptions and distractions that impact your workplace productivity: coworkers who drop in at random intervals; ringing phones; noisy neighbors; and micromanaging bosses. Communications issues, especially those involving email and phone calls, plague us all constantly, and represent almost a third of this category of complaints.

Overcoming this particular trap requires a firm application of self-discipline. If something distracts or interrupts you, make the effort necessary to guard against it. If you have an executive assistant, have them guard access to you. Otherwise, tighten your focus. Use ambient sound or music to block out noise. Turn off your email alerts and close your browser. Forward your calls to voicemail when you have no time for calls and respond a few times a day. Go somewhere quieter for a while or work from home one day a week.

Trap #3: Overwork/Overwhelm This problem boils down to: “There’s not enough time in the day to do everything!” Given the human need for rest (and sanity), workers can push themselves only so far within the unforgiving limitations of the 24-hour day.

Time is a constraint no one can bargain with or stretch.

Take firm control of your time, jettisoning the unimportant tasks from your schedule, and maintaining an unremitting, tight focus. Examine each task and determine if you’ve been overdoing it; in other words, can Q1 2012

Sales KnowHow 17

your downstream user make do with less? If the task really belongs to someone else, give it to them. To the maximum extent possible, find ways to delegate tasks to others, and practice purposeful abandonment: if you run out of time for something of minor relevance, let it go. Stop seeing your task list as a “must do” list, instead viewing it as a “want to do” list.

These steps represent only the beginning of a valid prioritization effort, but taken together, they’re big steps—and they can help you deal with the beast of overwhelm before it devours you.

Trap #4. Lack of Self-Discipline For some people, the biggest time management problem is actually a lack of self-discipline: i.e., not having the willpower to say no to distractions, or to stick tenaciously to the task at hand. Many people won’t admit it, however.

Many employees are unable to concentrate or attempt to multitask too much. Too often, they lose track of the projects they’re juggling, which echoes prioritization and planning issues as well. Others have problems with setting or sticking to goals...and a few just can’t seem to get anywhere on time. To overcome these problems, fire up your willpower, crack the whip on yourself, and decide to concentrate on a task until complete.

About a quarter of those with self-discipline problems see procrastination as a bigger issue than a simple lack of focus. Most often, they find themselves daunted by huge, complex projects. So in addition to applying tight focus to the problem, break it into smaller chunks you can handle more easily. Set milestones, buckle down, and get to work.

Trap #5: Disorganization Many workers accept a high level of chaos in their lives, and as a result find themselves stuck in the time trap of disorganization. Information constantly gets lost or misplaced. Tracking action items, managing the boss (or subordinates), filing, planning, and overall project management sometimes overwhelms these workers, because they don’t have a logical information processing system in place.

Learn to use your email software to its fullest, establish a logical, simple organizational system, and process every piece of information as it enters your life. Don’t let it pile up, and

Related Link

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never dither about what to do with an item – whether a piece of paper, an email, a voicemail, or any other bit of information that crosses your desk. Always make time for planning. And occasionally, step back and look at the big picture, so you can see how everything is working. As necessary, take steps to fix what doesn’t work, and be on the lookout for ways to improve efficiency.

Trap #6. Scheduling Do you have problems getting things done in the time you have? Common complaints include an inability to properly estimate how long specific tasks will take (a skill that comes with experience), and deciding where on one’s calendar to place each task.

The second case requires thoughtful (and stringent) application of both task triage and prioritization, as well as a willingness to say no to new work when possible.

You especially have to learn to let things go. You can’t get important things done you’re your calendar is burgeoning with unimportant meetings. Most of us prefer to do the easy, fun tasks first—an unproductive attitude at best. Instead, do the hard, high-significance things first. You can let go of the rest if time runs out.

Trap # 7: People Problems Jean-Paul Sartre famously said, “Hell is other people” – and yes indeed, your coworkers can present a variety of difficulties when it comes to getting your work done.

As I’ve already discussed, many workplace distractions emanate from others; who hasn’t been annoyed by coworkers gossiping in the hall, or playing their music too loud?

Upper echelon workers often find that management duties represent their biggest time challenges; but those come with the job. Productivity at work suffers more when people act as roadblocks and bottlenecks.

A few seem to do it on purpose, often from sheer cussedness. Some don’t care about your deadlines, so they don’t get important information to you in a timely fashion. Others just can’t seem to get anywhere on time, thereby wasting your time. And when a boss can’t (or won’t) make a decision, you might end up twiddling your thumbs until they do.

Some bottlenecks you can go around. Some you can break by stepping in to help, or at least by asking the blocker flat out what the hold-up is. Whatever the case, try to smooth the way, so you can get the workflow process moving again. If you can’t, then accept the situ-

ation as something you can’t change and move on to something else.

Trap #8: Crises The time trap of the unexpected runs neck-and-neck with people problems in my informal survey. In fact, most workplace crises arise from human behavior in one way or another. Bosses dump urgent projects on you at short notice, slow coworkers keep dragging their heels until you can barely meet your deadlines, human bottlenecks tie up resources, and everything suddenly comes due right now. We’ve all been there—and we’ll all certainly be there again.

You can’t do much when other people spin things into crisis, except react—which means you must remain perpetually flexible. Establish systems and processes in advance to handle the unexpected when it lifts its ugly head, including guidelines for each type of emergency you can imagine. When a crisis arises, practice SLLR: Stop, Look, Listen, and Respond. After you have a handle on the situation, spring into action.

You may have to triage your to-do list again, with some tasks moving down or off the list as a result. If you’ve already scheduled a little extra time into your schedule, let it take up the slack. Do all you can to address the new work while letting as few of your normal tasks go as possible – and get all the help you can while doing so.

Trap #9: Work/Life Balance It may sometimes seem like your organization doesn’t want you to have a life outside of work, considering everything they pile on you. Workers tend to accept excessive hours as part of the background noise.

Mostly, people just want a personal life, so they can pursue their hobbies, rest and relax, exercise, go to school, or (the #1 response) spend more time with their families. Again, the solution involves a strict adherence to self-discipline, ruthless task triage, and relentless prioritization, so you can make a big enough hole in your schedule to enjoy life outside of work. Focus on being efficient and productive at work, so you can achieve maximum results in minimum time, leave the office earlier, (can you get down to 10 hours instead of 12?), and get a life.

Trap #10: Meetings No organization can function without face time; so inevitably, meetings take up some portion of the average worker’s daily schedule. In some organizations, they get out of hand, directly harming workplace productivity.

Finding enough time to actually fit in work when you regularly spend half the day in back-to-back meetings can be difficult. And before you accuse me of exaggeration, I do know people who’ve worked such jobs.

When meetings go bad, the problem, again, tends to be because of oblivious people. They go off on tangents, won’t get to the point, or simply can’t communicate well; whatever the case, they err by wasting everyone else’s time. Besides fighting this tendency in yourself, you can overcome the meeting trap by cutting down your commitments to meetings, going only to those you absolutely need to attend, and setting time limits you communicate to everyone as soon as you arrive. If you can, leave once you’ve made your contributions. If the meeting goes over the allotted time, politely excuse yourself, citing another meeting to attend.

And There You Have It! That rounds out my list of top ten time management traps, based on my research and decades of experience helping people hone their workplace productivity. Most interrelate in a variety of ways, both obvious and subtle. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly in this article, the secret to overcoming these time traps will always be hard work and unremitting vigilance in the form of task triage, serious efforts at prioritization, and laserlike focus. Simple and straightforward enough, if not especially easy!

If you’d like further details on how to construct and maintain an effective workflow process that allows you to get everything done and still have a life outside of work, be sure to grab a copy of my new book, What To Do When There’s Too Much To Do, when it hits bookstores in 2012.

Make it a productive day! (TM) © 2012 Laura Stack. Laura Stack is America’s premier expert in personal productivity. Since 1992, she has presented keynotes and seminars on improving output, lowering stress, and saving time in today’s workplaces. She is the bestselling author of four books, including SuperCompetent. To have Laura speak at your next event or to sign up for her free monthly newsletter, www.theproductivitypro.com.

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Sales KnowHow 19

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