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Sales --- Woe is Me!
I hear a variation of the following statements quite often these days. Sales people complain about the economy as well. But, are comments like these a fair assessment or explanation for the sales challenges faced in this economic environment? Are they true statements? "Sales just doesn't get it. They aren't getting the results we need and the economy is their easy excuse." "Maybe we need to change our compensation plan." " We need a new Sales Manager." "Training hasn't been effective." "Our sales people have lost their energy." "The Economy Sucks." Let's examine the reality of the situation that most of us find ourselves facing today.

Focus Speeds Up The Buying Cycle
What we focus on in life expands. Face it, life right now is busy, and with so much uncertainty and fear in our economic environment it is easy to get distracted. If you want to ease the stress in your life, take the edge off the anxiety and just bring the fun back into your everyday life, then learn to focus.

Time to Update Your Strategic Plan
Feeling caught in a no win situation? Don't feel bad, no one anticipated the economic trauma we've recently gone through. The economy has changed, people aren't buying, you have opportunity but can't get credit to take advantage of it, and your existing client base is slowly melting away into retirement, bankruptcy or sale. If you’re in react mode, you'll never get ahead of the changes taking place - things are moving too fast. It's time to re-evaluate your opportunities and update your strategic plan.

Can You Walk the Walk if You Can’t Talk the Talk? Improve Your Financial Vocabulary
Accounting is the language of business. Getting more information from your accountant than just pages of numbers in the form of monthly reports requires that you know the language. For many owners, that means acquiring a new vocabulary complete with terms like “gross margin,” “key performance ratio,” and “break-even analysis.” Unfortunately, many business owners are intimidated by the language or choose to ignore it altogether. They ignore the financial performance of their company, delegate it to an employee, or outsource it. Understanding the fundamental financial concepts gives owners a much better chance of prospering in today’s challenging economic environment.

PLANNING FOR SUCCESS – PART 2 – CLARITY IN YOUR BUSINESS
The #1 reason business fail today is a distinct lack of clarity…in everything about their business! In today’s market we see businesspeople that have been in business twenty years or more who will fail due to a lack of clarity about their business or about marketing their business. If you haven’t noticed, how we conduct business is changing drastically almost daily and it will continue to change. New options; new technology; smarter customers and an uncertain economic environment all contribute to this tsunami of change. In order to do effective planning it is essential to have total and complete clarity about all facets of your business in order to plan accurately.I have listed seven questions that I always work my business coaching customers through when going through the Clarity exercises for our planning sessions.

Sales Management Training and Focus
In a strong economy just showing up to play is enough to achieve your sales objectives. In today’s economic environment sales leaders are facing sales force downsizing and poor sales rep morale. Sales reps are frustrated by longer sales cycles, dropping demand, unrealistic quotas, concerns about declining income and losing their jobs.
Top 10 Tips For Sales Success
We’re all crossing our fingers these days and hoping for a better economic environment. It’s been more than a little scary for many of us. However, even during these tough times, effective salespeople are acquiring new customers and making sales. How? Here are the top ten tips for effective sales that will bring you success regardless of the state of the economy.

How Focus Helps Sales Management Effectiveness
In a strong economy just showing up to play is enough to achieve your sales objectives. In today’s economic environment sales leaders are facing sales force downsizing and poor sales rep morale. Sales reps are frustrated by longer sales cycles, dropping demand, unrealistic quotas, concerns about declining income and losing their jobs.

Succeeding in a Challenging Economy
How do you succeed in a challenging economy? It's all in your perspective...
How to Market Your Small Business Without Breaking the Bank
In today's tough economic environment it is more important than ever for small business owners to find low cost marketing strategies that work. Sure advertising your small business on buses and on billboards would be great, if you could afford it, but if you can't that doesn't mean you can't get the word out effectively about your small business without going broke.
Following the Leader Who Follows the Leaders
It started out -- as most things do in the PC/CE/communications industry -- as a "little" idea...an application store on a corner of the virtual cloud world. Suddenly you can't make your way around the web without bumping into another one. No one at Apple will say but people speculate the company has racked up $45 million with their virtual store front. Now new smartphones are coming out, every app store offers something.

(Guest Post) Optimizing Value in the Economic Downturn [and Recovery]
This article is the second in a three-part series of guest articles on optimization by Dr. Olga Raskina, Lead Scientist, with Emptoris, the supply and contract management solutions provider. As we push on through the troubled economic environment, corporate leaders are laser focused on bringing supply chain management under tighter financial guidelines. An article I recently read in Supply Chain Digest highlighted the typical urgency felt by procurement managers to cut supply chain costs.
Building A Firm Foundation For A Strategic Plan
Executives almost always overlook the fact that a strong organizational foundation must first be laid within the company in order for a strategic plan to be effectively implemented. Otherwise, the process of strategic change is like a skyscraper built over a swamp - it won’t take long to sink under its own weight.
Entering the ‘go-go’ zone with your eyes wide open
The Go-Go zone is that place a business can find themselves in that sounds like heaven. In reality, it is more often hell. It is the place where you have more business than you know what to do with, where it is all you can muster just to get orders processed and shipped. Keeping customers happy gets left by the wayside. This article is my effort to help you understand the pitfalls of this seemingly idyllic situation, and help you prepare for it if and when it occurs.
The right business can prosper in any economy
If you are trying to shield your business from the vicissitudes of economic fluctuation, there is a simple rule you must live by: Focus on customers’ needs. Because of current economic conditions (February 2009), this article focuses on how to ride out a recessionary environment.
Mall Cop - The Sales Example
Have you seen the movie Paul Blart Mall Cop yet? It's Home Alone meets Die Hard. It has a great analogy to sales - especially in this economic environment.
Now is the Time to Master Financial Conversations
While these are admittedly challenging times for many, I still see a lot of sales being made among the companies we are working with. The biggest difference in selling today is the amount of time it takes for sales to close, especially compared to the last few years. But some sellers aren’t feeling any pain – their sales aren’t taking longer in spite of the economy – and yours don’t have to either.
Stress-Free Selling® - Tough Economy, Tough Competition
On May 15, the New York Times reported that starting this Fall, Turner TV is offering advertisers spots that capitalize on the content of the movies! Hearing this, AMC cable network created Audience Identity Metrics so they can offer packages to advertisers that are tailored to the behavior of the consumers who watch those movies. Contextual online advertising is commonplace, and while online advertising grows, it is changing the way advertisers think about traditional print media. Publishers Information Bureau recently reported consumer magazines ad revenue decreased 1.2% the first quarter 2008 and ad pages sank 6.4%. This is a brief State of the Advertising Industry. All real estate related businesses are down as are luxury items and many other industries due to our economic environment. Here's the point, if you...
THE DUMBBELLS CUT BACK THE SMART PEOPLE DONT THE UPSIDE OF RECESSION
By Robert Croston and Patrick Cahill The market drops 370 points in a single day, corporate earnings disappoint and housing prices continue to sink. We are in uncertain economic times. We may be in a recession right now, or could slip into one next week... or next month. As optimists, we don't like forecasting difficult economic times. But, even optimists have to come to grips with the realities of our uncertain marketplace. With economic anxiety looming, many of our clients are asking: how should I position and market my firm in the year to come? Assuming yours is a healthy company, here are our general recommendations.

The Call to Leadership
As a coach working with small business owners for over a decade I've seen the difference it makes when entrepreneurs consciously choose to function as leader and learn to apply the fundamentals of good business practice. Learn them here.
Why small businesses are important for the Canadian economy
In recent years, small businesses across the country have played a crucial role in stabilizing the often volatile economy in Canada, and there are a variety of reasons why.

Determinants of Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa
Several underlying factors can affect the rate of output change. Key among these are the rate of investment, increase in the size of the workforce, and changes in economic policies.

LOCAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND GLOBAL LINKAGES: ENABLING CONDITIONS AND CONSTRAINTS
What do entrepreneurs need in order to invest successfully in manufacturing? At a basic level, particularly if they are traders thinking about moving their capital into a fixed investment, they need a political and economic environment with a certain degree of stability and predictability and some incentives, or at least the absence of strong disincentives for investment.

Other economic environment Related Articles

Policies and Regulations: Constraints of growth-oriented enterprises
The enabling environment is important-especially as the enterprise grows. This would appear to be related to the fact that the larger the enterprise becomes, the more difficult it gets to operate outside the formal economy. In talking about the enabling environment entrepreneurs tend to emphasize macro-economic conditions per se, rather than specific regulations. This implies that they are quite capable of working their way through (or around) regulations, but that they find it more difficult to deal with economic downturns.

Smaller Crowds Hold Hidden Potential: Exhibiting During Economic Downturns
Economic cycles have very real and immediate consequences on the tradeshow environment. When times are good and there's lots of money floating around, tradeshows can become lavish events, with teeming crowds treated to extravagant displays and over-the-top exhibiting. On the other hand, when the economic indicators aren't so good, the tradeshow starts to look a little bleak. Exhibitors scale back and the crowds get smaller. This trend holds true among all industries; some are hit harder than others, but most see a significant decline in attendance numbers during economic downturns. Surprisingly, that's great news for exhibitors.

How to Recession Proof Your Job: Ten Job Secrets for Career Success!
Economic times constantly change and organizations adapt to these changes. For you to find career success, you must be pro-active about your job. What are the career secrets of those who soar to the top in their careers no matter what the economic environment is in the world? The following are ten career secrets you can use to “recession proof” yourself and find career success no matter what the economic situation is.
Navigating A Marketing Spin Out
If you own a medical, dental or legal practice, you probably already know that marketing your practice in today's difficult economic times is like navigating a race car during a spin out. Putting the brakes on your marketing budget is not the best way to survive and thrive in a challenging economic environment. You can and should cut back on marketing that is not working. However, you should invest in f you the areas that are generating your most cost effective leads - especially Internet marketing.
The right business can prosper in any economy
If you are trying to shield your business from the vicissitudes of economic fluctuation, there is a simple rule you must live by: Focus on customers’ needs. Because of current economic conditions (February 2009), this article focuses on how to ride out a recessionary environment.
It is not to late for a career revelation - professional to successful entrepreneur.
In today's economic environment, changing careers might seem like an unstable decision. Truthfully, you have to examine if you are cut out for a transition, and if you have the mindset it takes to succeed. A job is not necessarily stable anymore. YOU have to be the stability in your economic future.

Organizations Must Think, Communicate and Act Differently to Survive!
Grudgingly or simply out of habit it appears that most organizations try to react to their ever-changing complex environment using linear industrial age thinking. This normally means trying to make the organization a smooth running machine. Get the systems, processes and incentives right, get the strategic plan, policies and job descriptions in place, get the financials in order – and everything will be just fine. This may have worked in the past, but it is a formula for failure in our present and future chaotic economic environment.
Free Market Capitalism Is The Worst Economic System
Sir Winston Churchill famously quipped: "It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others that have been tried." With apologies to Mr. Churchill, I would suggest a modernization of that quote based on today's political/economic environment in the United States. You hear a lot about the "failure of capitalism," and how bad it is compared with the socialist Utopia long sought by progressives; but in reality, free-market capitalism far outpaces any other economic system.

Planning and Passion – Keys to a Successful Business
James Dicks examines what it takes to create your own business in today's economic environment.

World at Work Trends - The Impact of Charisma
According to a detailed analysis of the world’s shifting trends and dynamics, Manpower Inc has identified a critical mega trend that is vital to sustainable growth during these tough economic times; Demographic and economic shifts are accelerating the talent mismatch. In an economic environment where organisations are pressured to do more with less, businesses and governments will continue to demand more specific skills and behaviours. The pressure to find the right skills in the right place at the right time will increase as working age populations decline, economies rebound, emerging markets rise, and the nature of work shifts. This will intensify the skills mismatch.
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