What music

that you hear

catches in your throat?

What piece of music, musician, vocalist, group or recording gives you goosebumps? Chills up and down your spine? A tear to your eye? Something catches in your throat? How does that happen? What emotion does it raise in you?

What or when or where or whom does it remind you of? How does it do that? Words? Instruments? Violin? Flute? Harp? Sax? Drums? Bagpipes? What about composition? Arrangement? Set and setting? Performers? Charisma? Rod Stewart? Taylor Swift? Bach? The Eagles? Satchmo? The Beatles? Joni Mitchell? Bing Crosby? Pavarotti? Judy Garland? The Supremes? Sugarland?

Listen, you’re a sales pro or you’re the boss of your business, right? So is it not true that you also earn your pay every day by going on stage, stepping into the spotlight, and singing your business sales song?

[“All the world’s a stage” you know. Shakespeare told us so!]

Well, okay, maybe you don’t exactly “sing” your spiel, but you do give it a special spin, true? And how much do the ways you present yourself to others capture the ingredients that you think others use to somehow catch what you hear in your throat?

Have you noticed yourself losing some steam lately? [Well, don’t beat yourself up. You’d have to be a monk or a hermit to not be suffering some wear and tear from this economy]. The point is that great music is delivered with great energy and great enthusiasm.

So are great business sales pitches.

You have a great song to sing about your business — benefits, values, innovation, features, employees, commitments, track-record, service, trust and integrity — are you delivering these messages with great gusto … or just slogging along?

Are you remembering that every encounter every day with every person is an exciting and unique new opportunity to create sales? Are you singing your sales song to employees and customers? To suppliers and associates? To prospects?

(Prospects! I mean, consider this: who isn’t a prospect? Even if you’re a Swiss Screw Precision Manufacturer cranking out precision metal microchip connection parts not much bigger than the head of a pin, and you sell them almost exclusively to government rocketship scientists and Silicon Valley muckity-mucks, you never know who knows who! Never. You never know if the person standing next to you at the railroad station, the airport, the grocery store is the cousin, uncle, mother, or best friend of one of those rocket or Silicon guys.)

Bottom line? You can never (well, hardly ever) be too enthusiastic about your business and what you sell, and why what you sell is so great because of what it provides in the way of benefits! I keep a reminder postcard on my desk that Kathy and I once got from dear friend Judy Vorfeld which is headlined:

“Enthusiasm is the electricity of life”

…followed by the notation:

“Knowledge is power, but enthusiasm pulls the switch.”

Just a small idea, but how about making every encounter you have tomorrow be a “Make-it-a-most-important-person-to-ever-hear-your-sales-song-day”? What have you got to lose? You might even be inspired to try it again on Tuesday. Ah, one final word to keep on the front burner as you make your grand entrance and repeat your performances: GENUINE.

Thanks, Judy!

[Visit Judy at  http://www.ossweb.com (her blog) and her wonderful free e-zines Communication Expressway www.ossweb.com/ezine.html and Webgrammar http://www.webgrammar.com]

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Hal@Businessworks.US 302.933.0116

Open Minds Open Doors

Many thanks for your visit and God Bless You.

Make today a GREAT day for someone!

“Panic At The Disco” ROCKS!

(ROFLMBO)

Well, I can tell you from two days of firsthand, frontline experience, that there’s very little in the world that can compare with what’s left of your brain after it’s been overhauled by a thirteen year-old girl.

You know those anti-drug commercials showing fried eggs with some line like, “This is your brain on drugs!”?  Well, a thirteen year-old girl (my spectacularly brilliant and charming granddaughter, to be specific) has the ability to fry your eggs and make you think you’re eating watermelon!

Grandma Kathy and I got indoctrinated to Fallout Boy, Panic at the Disco, and All Time Low among other top new recording sensations. 

(And yes, we do understand that Lady Gaga has “a message”!)

Of course we had our cell phone ringtones programmed to remind us of our our own, out-of-touch, oldtime favorites. 

And, no, it didn’t stop there.  Our granddaughter also connected my ipod to a new docking station Christmas present from her parents.  and promised to help me set up a podcast.  (“A piece of cake, Grandpa!”)  Double-cool! 

It might be awhile before I run out to buy any Panic at the Disco tunes to play, but I certainly enjoyed hearing The Eagles; Joni Mitchell; and Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young sounding –if such a thing is possible– better than the original recordings!

Like having a bee in your bonnet, this child (and I do use that term advisedly) keeps a schedule that would embarrass the workplace pace of any CEO.  Oh, right, and the economy is not, like, worth worrying about anymore than whether the awesome sparrows will, like, indeed return this year to Capistrano.

Here’s the point, Dear Bosses of Businesses: It’s an extraordinarily healthy experience for your enterprise –stodgy corporate or edgy entrepreneurial makes no difference– to shake up your awareness levels and get your tired boring self off the treadmill for a day.  Take the chance you can get your mind fast-forward catapulted into reality.

When you gain a fresh perspective,

your business gains fresh customers!

When you can look at things differently, you are prompting others to do the same.  Internal AND external customers will evaluate and re-evaluate your offerings with increased receptivity.

Now I know you can get some of the same values by getting down on the floor and playing with a baby or a puppy, but you’ll never learn about the hot new music groups or how “txt msgs” literally dominate the communication existences of those between the ages of 10 and 25! 

     Have you any idea, for example what some of these texting acronyms mean?  (Ask any 13 year-old!):

KWIM~~~~SHID~~~~YYSSW~~~~ROFLMBO~~~~?

Ah, just one other point of significant consequence, BTW: neither the baby nor the puppy can get you dynamically ring-toned! 

But don’t get me wrong.  Babies and puppies are good.  And they are better than nothing.  Playing with either and/or both will definitely divert your brain from your daily routines enough to force you to step up to your phone, desk, computer, meeting. or work site with some degree of renewed vigor –at least until the diaper needs changing or the puppy needs to be out the door.

So ANYthing you experience that’ s different 

can produce some ripples,

maybe even a tide change!

But if you’re going for some big-time rattle-your-business-cage kind of stuff, put aside (not literally of course) the baby and puppy in favor of a thirteen year-old girl, an experience that can help you create new ideas for exciting change.  The resultant energy can help you realign your attitude and reconstitute your commitment to move your business forward.

If you’re not already getting a daily dosage, spend a day with your kids or grandkids or a baby or puppy, and open your mind enough to allow them to step (or crawl, or jump!) inside! 

Then see how that experience changes the ways you think about what you’re doing every day to create and build sales, to attract and keep customers, to cultivate best employees and top suppliers.  If your life is all about getting ongoing adrenalin shots from kids already, look deep inside your business with their eyes! 

Go ahead.  What have you got to lose?  A stuck-in-the-mud reputation?  Another stress-filled day?  Opportunities to do more of the same thing you’ve been doing for weeks?  Months?  Years?  Go enjoy yourself!  Give yourself permission to play for a day!  (Or to see what you’ve been overlooking!)  

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www.TheWriterWorks.com or 302.933.0116 or Hal@BusinessWorks.US

Thanks for visiting. Go for your goals! God Bless You.

“The price of freedom is eternal vigilance!” [Thomas Jefferson]

Make today a GREAT day for someone