One of the biggest frustrations business owners face is converting more leads at a higher rate, with better efficiency and results. Time is money and so is temperature. Hot leads bring immediate dollars. Cold leads are dismissed to the land of misfit toys.

To better understand why, let’s hop into the way-back machine and head back to the beginning of mankind. When cavemen discovered how to use sticks and stones to make weapons and tools, it made their lives easier when hunting and gathering food. When the wheel was discovered, it made life even that more efficient.

These items allowed them to hunt better and quicker. It allowed them to gather more food in shorter amounts of time. And it lit the fuse that ignited the need for bigger, better and quicker.

Flash forward a few million years, and we are exponentially bigger, better and quicker. Not necessarily as people or society (although there are several National Geographic specials that would probably confirm that notion) but with the technology we use to improve efficiencies and reduce the amount of time we need to access pretty much anything we want or need.

A byproduct of the improved efficiencies and reduced lead times is an incredible need for immediate gratification. It wasn’t enough to cook your own meal, so restaurants sprung up to do that for us. Then, it wasn’t enough to sit down and place your order so they opened up the drive-thru. Still not fast enough? Well here’s a box that will zap your food hot in mere seconds.

So how does this relate to sales and working with leads? Immediate gratification.

Businesses spend valuable dollars and invest incredible time and effort to generate leads to drive people to their cash registers – and credit card swipers. Typically, the leads go into the sales funnel are pre-qualified to determine which ones will lead to immediate sales. Guess what leads are given immediate attention. You got it. The hot leads!

As these hot leads are being worked, additional leads continue to come in. These new leads are then pre-qualified and dealt with in the same manner. Meanwhile, the other leads are sitting in the funnel where the warm leads are becoming cold leads and the cold leads are becoming dead leads.

But warm and cold are only temporary. If all your efforts are poured into converting only the hot leads, you are going backwards on the evolutionary efficiency curve. You’re investing time into building systems to generate leads; do the same to convert more and more of all of those leads – not just the hot ones.

There are several types of systems you can implement to convert these tepid leads. However, one of the fastest growing, widely accepted, and highly effective methods is right in front of your eyes. The e-mailed newsletter.

These people have told you they have some level of interest in your product or service; otherwise they wouldn’t have ended up in your sales funnel. Just because they aren’t ready to ring your register today, doesn’t mean they won’t want to tomorrow, next month or next year. Don’t waste that initial effort. Follow up with these folks on a regular basis with product, service or industry news that is of value to your prospects and keeps you in front of them until they are ready to give you their nickel.

It is very important though to deliver timely and valuable information without choking them with your sales pitch. When they are ready to buy, they will. Until then, be a resource for them. Be someone they will automatically turn to without hesitation when they are ready to pull out their checkbook.

Stop being Cro-Magnon with your lead management. Find a system that works for you, and more importantly for your prospects, turn up the heat and watch those warm and cold leads slowly cook from a simmer to a raging cauldron of increased sales!

Now, Go Get ‘Em!!

Referral generation is a two-way street. With the right questions, it can be a two-way super-highway!

“Good” questions are open ended that require more than a one or two word response. “Better” questions inspire others to respond by painting a picture you can use to further a conversation. When it comes to referral generation, the “best” questions open roads to drive prospects to your door and to the doors of your customers and prospects.

The east-bound lane of your referral super-highway is full of random people that you have not yet met that are your potential customers. They are driving all different types of cars, trucks, vans and SUV’s. There are as many types, sizes and colors of vehicles as there are products and services that you may offer.

You don’t know the drivers of these vehicles yet, but you may bump into someone they know. When you do, you need to be able to get them to introduce you to these drivers. How do you do that? By asking specific questions that will lead to those introductions.

Let’s say that a red Chevy Camaro represents the product that you sell in particular. When you ask someone for a referral, rather than be vague and ask if they know someone that drives a car, be specific and ask the first great question – “Who do you know that drives a red Chevy Camaro?”

Now, instead of shrugging their shoulders and blowing you off, that very specific, turbo-charged question triggers a person to scour their mental rolodex searching for everyone they know that drives a red Chevy Camaro. Now you can get an introduction to them where you may never have had that opportunity.

Next, let’s take a look at the west-bound lane of the referral super-highway. This lane is bumper-to-bumper with people you know or may come in contact with. This is traffic that may be the perfect referrals you can direct to your customers and potential customers.

When you are meeting with your customers helping them buy from you, there is another great question that you can ask. And when you are meeting with a prospect, you can also ask this same great question. Additionally, this same great question is versatile enough that you can ask it when simply networking with others.

The second great question is “How will I know if someone I meet would be a good referral you?” Tell me, wouldn’t you love to be asked that question from everyone you meet!? How would you feel if you were asked that question by someone that was networking or prospecting you? The trust level just shift into overdrive!

If someone was taking an active role in my sales and my success while also trying to provide me with their product or service, that transcends the buyer/seller relationship to that of success partners. If someone was driving sales to me, how much more motivated would I be to return the favor? 10-fold? No. 1000-fold? Absolutely!!

So there you have two great questions that individually drive referrals in both directions. Together, they help elevate you to that of a trusted advisor that people will be confident doing business with.

Now, Go Get ‘Em!!

If you read through enough websites, blogs, business journals, newsletters, etc., you will find that one of the fastest growing business sectors is that of the entrepreneur. I would agree with that to a certain extent.

More specifically, I would say that one of the fastest growing sectors is the technician with an entrepreneurial spirit. By definition, an entrepreneur is one who “organizes and manages an enterprise, especially a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.”

By contrast, the Technipreneur is someone that is an expert at their trade or with their product or service, that has a desire – that entrepreneurial spirit – to go out on their own and start a business rather than lend their technical expertise to someone else’s business.

Another way to look at the difference is the Technipreneur wears many, if not all of the hats in the company including, management, production, implementation, sales, marketing and administration. Conversely, the entrepreneur organizes others to wear each one of those hats.

There is a fundamental difference in paradigms between the entrepreneur and the Technipreneur, with each having their own unique benefits and challenges. The entrepreneur sets out with the mindset to organize people and develop a business system around a product or service that is needed by society. She doesn’t necessarily have an in-depth working knowledge of the product or service they provide. But she doesn’t need to as she will find people that do have the knowledge and assemble them into the business team.

On the other hand, the Technipreneur is typically an expert at the product or service they provide. He may have gone to school to learn it and spent many years perfecting the knowledge of the product or crafting the skills of the service. Then, one day he gets an itch to venture off on his own with the entrepreneurial spirit to start a business and provide the product or service on his own terms.

Examples of Technipreneurs range from mechanics and contractors to lawyers, accountants and financial advisors and many of them will tell you that starting out isn’t done with a simple “if you build it, they will come” model. This is where the successful Technipreneur becomes resourceful. He seeks out others that help him where he may lack expertise such as business plan development, marketing and sales. With training and experience, the Technipreneur becomes a jack of all trades and actually a master of SOME!

In this information age in which we live, it is becoming more and more viable for the small business owner/technician to flourish with all of the resources available to them. Typically smaller in size, they can be more flexible than the larger companies as well as more responsive. As such they can compete on a field where they can position themselves as the trusted advisor in their industry.

That will do it for this week’s overview of the Technipreneur. We will look closer at the dynamics of the Technipreneur off and on over the next several weeks and how you can apply the concept and ideas into your own activities. Until then…

Now, Go Get ‘Em!!

If you’ve ever been at a closing to buy a new house, you’ve probably left with carpel tunnel in your signature hand from all of the forms you had to sign. Some of those sheets seem pretty ridiculous – I recently had to sign one acknowledging that I had signed the previous document! Although that may seem pretty ridiculous, the amazing thing is an instance or a series of instances precipitated the requirement for these seemingly frivolous documents.

Likewise, have you read the directions on some of the most basic products that are use every day? For example, on a kids Halloween Superman costume, the label reads “Warning: Wearing this garment does not enable you to fly.” Seriously!? Then there is the one on a Nytol sleep aid that reads, “Warning: May cause drowsiness.”

So what does this have to do with anything sales related? Well it lays the foundation for why I am writing about this week’s topic. For all of the ridiculous things we see and read, there is a reason why we are reading it. Much of the time it is because of repeated and total disregard for the obvious. We also live in an increasingly litigious society so these “C.Y.A.” documents are unfortunately needed. Not coincidentally, there is something that needs to be addressed in sales that you wouldn’t think should be.

There’s a saying in sales that goes something like this: “Half of the sale is just showing up.” It seems preposterous, especially in today’s business environment, to not show up for an appointment or a sale. But it is happening. A lot. Just this week I made two sales and heard from two other people with similar experiences where the other people that were called to quote a job never showed up. Or they did, but never submitted the quote or didn’t return a call.

But this isn’t an article to remind you to show up for your appointments. Rather, it is to look at the opportunities you have when you do, and others don’t. These are observations through my experiences and those of the others I mentioned.

1. Establish Credibility. When you show up and others don’t, you immediately establish a heightened perception of credibility and dependability that you may not have received if your competition also happened to show.

2. Become the Hero. By just doing what you are expected to do, you almost become a hero in your prospect’s eyes. They have a need and everyone else they turned to let them down except for you. (Time to put on that Superman cape!)

3. Get the Order. When you are the only one that shows up, you don’t automatically get the job. They always could try calling a few others. But when you deliver your excellent service and value, most of the time you earn that sale without “burdening” your prospect with having to look for others. Also, when they are ready to re-order, do you think they will call around? Or will they just call the one person that they know will take care of them? (Hint: it’s the second one there!)

4. Get the Referrals. This is probably the biggest byproduct of your competition not showing up! After you’ve delivered your exceptional product or service and gained a loyal customer, you now become the dependable hero to everyone your customer tells the story to. And believe me, they are telling the story!

Now, Go Get ‘Em!!

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, in business, your village is everyone in your organization, and your child is each and every sale, customer or prospect that you serve.

Consider how companies are downsizing, either by lay-offs or attrition, and it is becoming more and more crucial that everyone in the company has at least a basic level of sales mindset. This includes everyone in every department. Everyone from the office assistant to the folks in production and service need to have a sales mindset.

What about the accounting department? Yep. The maintenance department? Yep. Ok, but what about the nurses in an urgent care facility!? Absolutely! Every single person in every single business or organization needs to wear a sales hat to some degree. Why? Simple. Competition.

Consumers and businesses are holding their dollars tighter and they have exponentially more options of businesses to spend it with. Factor in your on-line competition and the arena you’re playing in makes the Coliseum look like your backyard kickball field.

So with all of this competition what are you supposed to do? Take your ball and go home!? Heck no! Far from it. You get creative and use all of the resources you have available to you. As a result, more and more businesses are ensuring that everyone in their company from top to bottom have the sales mentality needed to wow their customers regardless the department they work in.

Typically, the only people in an organization that receive any kind of sales training whatsoever is the sales department. They are the frontline out in the sales battlefield fighting for every lead, every prospect, and every sale. Let’s take a look at two perspectives on why similar sales training should be expanded throughout the company at all levels.

The first perspective is that from the prospect when dealing with any department they may come in contact with. Some may view this as “customer service” which does have its place. However, it is the mindset of the person delivering the service that makes or breaks their efforts. Without the correct mindset, customer service can become very methodical and cliché.

When people have a sales mindset, delivering customer service has reason, passion and a sense of commitment and urgency. I believe we’ve all experienced it before when the person on the other end of the line or other side of the desk is telling us what we want to hear, but do we really believe there is conviction behind the words, or merely a training manual with a script. Conversely, how do you feel when you deal with someone that walks the talk!? They deliver above and beyond what you not only expected, but would even dream of.

The second perspective on the need of everyone having a sales mindset is the power in numbers. If all you’re relying on is your sales staff to generate leads, provide the value, serve the prospect and close the sale, you are missing out on all kinds of potential activity.

In a previous article, we looked at the power of tapping into other’s personal networks where we each know on average 250 people. If you have 20 people in your company in addition to your sales staff, that is 5,000 potential prospects that are not even being tapped into. Heck, if you only have six people, that’s an additional 1,500 people that could be introduced to your business, product or service.

You may not be able, nor want, to put everyone into a commissionable position, but having a referral reward system in place to thank your “non-sales” staff further cements the sales mindset throughout the organization. Make it worthwhile for everyone to actively “sell” for you and bring you back good, quality referrals. Maybe it’s an individual incentive, or it could be a company-wide incentive with non-sales staff goals in place to works towards.

(Here’s an idea…if “X” number of referrals are generated by your non-sales staff over a four week period, the sales staff holds a pot-luck luncheon and serves everyone else. They will gladly serve everyone for the hot referrals they get to work!)

Finally, by providing Sales Mindset training to your entire organization, it proactively puts everyone in a position to drive more and more people through your door. It gives everyone a sense of ownership in the success of the company. It gives people a greater sense of value and a better appreciation of everyone they work with.

Now, Go Get ‘Em!

This week we are going to do a 180 and look at sales from the “half-empty” view of the glass. Rather than discuss a few positive things to do during your sales presentation or process, we are going to look at a few things that can really knock you on your can. Rather than knocking one out of the park, these things will send you straight back to the dugout.

Killer #1: Lack or Absence of Professionalism

First impressions can come in many forms. If you are phoning a lead or referral, your first impression is your tone of voice, vocabulary and conversational skills. If you are stopping in to see someone, meeting someone for the first time on an appointment or if you are attending a networking event, you first impression is your outward appearance. Yet another first impression is the one given through your marketing materials such as your web site, brochures and business cards.

A positive, favorable first impression holds the key to your opportunity for a second impression and a third and fourth. Put your best professional foot forward with all you do and live to make another sale!

Killer #2: No Rapport

A sale requires trust. Trust requires comfort and confidence. Comfort and confidence requires building rapport. Building rapport requires your time and effort to engage your customer and provide value through your actions and conversation. Unfortunately, many people think the presentation is the first step in making a sale. However, without rapport, you have not earned the opportunity to deliver your presentation.

Killer #3: Telling not Selling

Here is another trap many people fall into. Assuming a good first impression was made and that rapport has been established, many people will use their presentation to talk about all of the wonderful features their products or services possess. This is a sure-fire way to lose your customer and kill the sale. Your prospect could care less about the features. Rather, they want to know how those features will benefit them. How will they increase, efficiencies, productivity and profits? It is these types of outcomes that will draw them in to place an order!

Killer #4: Over-presenting and under-presenting

This killer is tied to the rapport requirement. During the rapport building, you should have discovered the triggers that will cause your prospect to become your customer. Now, during the presentation, once you’ve addressed and satisfied those triggers, close them. Too many salespeople feel they have to deliver their whole dog and pony show. By going on and on about things your prospects have no concern with, their desire wanes and their excitement diminishes. By the time you are done, they want to “think about it” a little because they forgot why they wanted to buy.

Conversely, not going over enough information or simply skimming over the details can give you a quick boot out the door, too! It may be the 952^nd time giving this same or similar presentation, but it is the very first time your prospect has heard it. Take the time to make sure you are as thorough as you need to be!

Killer #5: Dropping the Ball

This final killer can be the most devastating. You’ve managed to avoid the first four killers and secured an order, but your job does not stop here. You need to ensure everything is in place to deliver what you’ve sold. You also need to follow-up to ensure everything is working out the way they expected it to. Mishandling anything in this process could get your order cancelled and frustrate you with all of the time you lost. Worse yet, it could cost you all of the referral business that could have come your way. (Said with a shudder!!)

There you have it. Five “glass-half-empty” pitfalls you must avoid to ensure that your cup runneth over! Now, go get ‘em!

Your time is valuable. Your money is valuable. Perhaps even more valuable than both of them combined are leads for increasing businesses and profits. An excellent source of filling your funnel with new leads and prospects are local business expos and trade shows.

Although you will have a few “trick-or-treaters” (people who just walk around and fill their bags with your schwag), most of the people that attend these shows have at least a curiosity of the products and services represented and many have direct needs going in. This may be one of the top three things you can do with the biggest bang for your buck – and your time – since your time and money are focused directly at the people you are targeting.

The rewards can be great, but successful business expos and trade shows require considerable advance preparation to get the return you want. If you aren’t ready, not only can it be a waste of your time and money, it can also lead to a logistical nightmare. To avoid this nightmare, use the following tips to develop a solid game plan, monitor your progress and be prepared to adapt as needed.

BEFORE THE SHOW

1.  Read the enclosed Exhibitor Information material

·  Review the floor plan and the items that are included in your booth
·  Determine additional items you’ll need to bring in addition to your product and displays
·  Review parking and set up instructions to avoid frustrating delays upon arrival

2.  Identify your goals

·  Define exactly what you want to accomplish as a result of your participation in the show
·  This may include: increased visibility, lead generation, or checking out your competition
·  Setting concrete goals will help you determine if your time was well spent and to evaluate future participation

3.  Define measurements of success

·  For each goal, determine a way to measure its success. Make these measurements as specific as possible.  It could be to hand out 1000 brochures, obtain contact information for at least 200 prospects, or meet 5 new contractors or strategic partners to do business with. These benchmarks will help you decide whether the show was worth the expense.

4.  Put your show plan in writing

·  Develop a schedule of who will work your booth and at what times
·  Develop a comprehensive list of preparation activities, including: building the display, ordering materials and printing brochures, among other things you may need
·  Assign individuals to complete tasks and timelines for when they should be completed

5.  Develop a key message for your booth exhibit

·  Develop and promote one major or primary message
·  Reducing multiple messages eliminates confusion and allows your prospects to focus on who you are and how you can help them

6.  Design an open and inviting booth

·  An open booth design invites your prospects to “stop in” to see you
·  Your logo should be big enough to be seen from a good distance
·  Do not place your table at the front of your booth and sit behind it!!
·  Maximize “walking around” space by placing brochure displays against the walls or on tables along the walls

7.  Advertise your show participation

·  Advertise your presence in anything you send out prior to the big weekend
·  This could include postcard mailings, estimates, invoices, etc.
·  Use a simple tag line like: “See us at Booth #15 at the Chamber Business Expo  on October 7th”

8.  Order all necessary supplies, including brochures and giveaways

·  DO THIS EARLY!! You won’t be the only one needing to order printed materials and probably not the only one that waits until the last minute. Do not get caught without these materials because you didn’t give the printer enough time to get to your order.
·  Design forms for filling out prospect information – clear forms eliminate guesswork and shows your prospects that you are organized with attention to detail
·  Consider giveaways to generate attention and a sense of fun. These don’t have to be expensive. Pens with your logo, web address and a catchy slogan can be very effective.

9.  Design PowerPoint presentations and demos for the booth

·  A PowerPoint presentation running on a laptop or monitor not only allows your prospects to learn more about you, but gives them something to do – and stay at your booth – while you are talking to other prospects

10. Create a unique identity for you and your booth staff

·  Have a dress code for your staff
·  The best one will have everyone wearing the same thing or at least the same type of clothing – preferably with your company logo on it
·  A matching dress code will make your representatives easily identifiable

11. Train your exhibit staff before each show

·  This is crucial! Your staff needs to know what your expectations are relating to performance, dress, actions and communication
·  Go over all of the products/services that you want to be promoted and emphasized
·  They must know how to run the demos and presentations and know how to troubleshoot them if needed – nothing looks more unprofessional than a demo that does not work

As you can see, there definitely is a lot of preparation that goes into having a successful show. But do not let this deter you! The rewards you can reap far exceed the time you will spend on your successful preparation. Check back next week for tips on successful activities while you are at the expo. Now, go get ‘em!

progression [pruh-gresh-uhn] -noun 1. the act of progressing; forward or onward movement.  2. a passing successively from one member of a series to the next; succession; sequence.

Remember that model train you had as a kid? Or do you remember someone that had one? Maybe you still have one that has now become a life-long hobby!

I remember my model train vividly. The base was a 4′ x 8′ sheet of plywood with green, textured “grass” paper stretched over it and stapled underneath. The track was a basic oval, kind of like a race track, with a wooden, covered bridge along the back of the railway. It also had a couple of stops that the train made during its travels. One was to dump a load of timber and the other to pick up some barrels of oil.

But what I remember most was that all of the cars were very different from each other. Lined up between the engine and the caboose were box cars, flat bed cars, tankers, cars with removable side rails and one with a functional crane on it. They were all different colors and of various lengths. But as different as they were, they all had one thing in common – they all linked together and relied on that link to accomplish the journey from beginning to end.

Being in sales, or owning a small business, is very much like putting a train together. You start with the engine and one-by-one add another car and another car until you get to the end and finally link up the caboose.

You, as the sales rep or business owner, are the engine. You drive everything that goes into your sales process. You are the first person that your customers and prospects see as you are coming down the track. The caboose is the delivery and payment on the product or service that you provide. All of the cars in between represent everything that happens along the way during your sales process.

Before looking closer at this sales analogy, let me ask you another question. Have you ever been caught at a rail road crossing waiting for a train to pass, wondering how long it is, both in length of the train and length of your wait? You get a little anxious and a little frustrated not knowing the answer to these questions. The longer you wait, the more frustrating it becomes.

But what if there was an attendant at the crossing that informed you there were 48 cars on this train and that the expected wait time was going to be less than three minutes? You would feel much better about the wait knowing what to expect. Even if it were 200 cars with a 10-minute wait, you would at least feel much more comfortable with the process of waiting for the train to clear.

Ok, let’s get back on track! How do you think your customers and prospects feel when they see you (the engine) coming down the tracks (through their front door) knowing that somewhere behind you, you are pulling a caboose. Even if they want your caboose, they may be anxious with the cars in between that they cannot see. So put them at ease and tell them what kind of train cars you have and what the purpose of each of them is. Sell the train, not just the caboose!

You (the engine) have already established a rapport with your prospect and a relationship with your customer. You’ve talked about how your product or service (the caboose) is going to solve their problem or make their business more profitable. Now do something that will make the process less anxious and more comfortable for them. Show them that there are “X” number of cars in the train and what each of them is there for. Maybe your sales process has six cars in it. Describe each of the cars and what role they play in the process.

Just as important, when you drive your train through their door to follow-up with that first car, remind them what the next car looks like as well as the remaining cars that are still to come. This will reassure them of the process and prepare them for the next step. As every car goes by, sell the next car in line. In doing so, their comfort level will rise throughout the process making it much easier to pull your caboose through their door and collect on a successful delivery. Now, go get ‘em!

resource [ree-sawrs] -noun 1. a source of supply, support, or aid, especially one that can be readily drawn upon when needed;  2. capability in dealing with a situation or in meeting challenges

What kind of resource are you? Not a map or a dictionary, not that kind of resource. I’m asking, “What kind of personal resource are you to the people that know you – and the people that don’t know you?”

It may be better asked as, “Do you merely sell to your customers and simply exist with the people you do not know? Or do you go beyond simply existing and ‘serve’ your customers and strangers alike?”

In business, and especially in sales, being a resource is much more valuable to your customers and clients than being a typical sales rep or owner. (Not you of course!) With everything else being equal, your customers will rather do business with someone that goes above and beyond, than someone that merely takes their order or provides them with a basic level of service.

But what does it mean to be a resource? This one question could be the foundation for writing an entire book rather than a short newsletter article. So we will look at it in a general sense, or the Cliff Notes of being a resource, if you will.

Let’s start at the end and work our way back. How do you know if you are a resource? There are several clues that you experience that let you know you are, or on your way to becoming a resource. For starters, your customers may call you with questions that may not directly relate to the product or service you provide for them. Your customers also ask for your opinion on matters unrelated to your typical dealings with them.

People of resource are generally asked by many to help out with this organization or that club. People of resource know how to get things done, and if they hit a snag, they know and can call on someone that can help them push through to get it done.

Resources go above and beyond what people expect of them. They make their promise and over-deliver. They are Jacks, and Janes, of all trades and masters of quite a few! They have many “-ables” that describe them: dependable, reliable, accountable, likeable, honorable, respectable – and a slew of others that elevate them to the forefront of the minds of every customer they have.

Let’s go deeper, eh!? Being a resource is not just something you are; it’s who you are. It’s a mindset. It’s a way of life. It’s seeing ways to help in the most obscure places and instances. It’s seeing an opportunity to help someone and following through – whether you know them or not. Or whether it benefits you or not.

Being a resource is a responsibility, and it can be a lot of work. But the rewards are great and plentiful. In business and sales, the rewards are also profitable! (There’s another “able” for you!) The cool thing is – you can do it and be it! The really cool thing (for you) is – not many others will. The door is there. Kick it open and be the resource you want to be and the resource your customers hunger for. Now go get ‘em!

I have to warn you…this week I am writing about something that I certainly am not an expert on. Not even close. It’s something that I’m trying to do better. Sometimes I come close, but most times I fail. I know it’s important to do, but when work piles up it’s something that seems almost impossible to achieve.

I hear the same from many people so I know I’m not alone with this and know that many will relate, and some of the comments that relate to this come from many of the “seasoned veteran” leaders from around the community. This week I hope to help some people that may also be in my boat as I will also look for help from others that can relate and do a much better job than me. So this will be a short article, but hopefully will provide some great value to me and many others in the future.

It’s Monday afternoon and I am sitting down to write this week’s article. I’m mulling over a few topics that I’ve been thinking about. I’m looking at what kind of articles I’ve written over the past month or so to keep the topics at least somewhat even between marketing, sales, networking and attitude. But this week’s article really doesn’t fall into any of those categories. On the blog, this article will be filed under “Uncategorized.”

To my right are the job folders of projects that are going on and a flock of coffee mugs and soda cups that I need to take downstairs. To my left is a never ending to-do list of websites and other projects to start working on, notes of follow-up calls to make this week and four 3-inch high stacks of business cards that I’ve acquired over the past few months that haven’t been scanned in to my Outlook Contacts yet. And there on the corner of my desk is a row of books that I reference and some that I need to read yet.

But just to the left of my screen is perhaps the biggest and most important reminder of something that needs some attention. It is a picture of me with my beautiful wife and our two girls. (Actually, it’s more like one daughter and one diva!) What is it that I need to do? Achieve balance.

In the next week we will have two anniversaries – wedding and first date. We’ve been together for five years now and cannot believe how fast it’s gone! They say that time flies when you’re having fun. It has been fun, but it’s also been busy. All my girls have been great and very understanding of the late nights and early mornings. They know that there is a lot of work that always needs to be done so they don’t really complain.

But therein lies the riddle – for me and I’m assuming for many others: Achieving balance between working hard to both provide for your family and over-the-top service for your customers while carving out more consistent time to spend with your family. It seems like it should be such a simple riddle to solve, but your insight and experience is very welcomed and appreciated. Please e-mail your pearls of wisdom to workinghard@helpingusellu.com and let me know if it is ok to share them with everyone in a future newsletter.