Is the Economy an Excuse to Fail or an Opportunity to Excel?

Negative headlines create fear and anxiety. This is not the time to crawl under the desk and suck our thumbs. Our role as sales leaders is to help salespeople translate fear into energy. It's time to remember our core mission, and it's time to raise our heads and pursue more audacious goals.

We need to adjust our strategy. Many sales managers ask their salespeople to doublel their call volume, but the reps then end up doing only half their job with twice as many prospects. It is far better to call on fewer but more qualified prospects and create a deeper connection and deliver more value. One way to look at this is "deleting 25 percent of the company's prospect database, saying, 'We need to stop chasing garbage trucks.'"

We need to shore up our balance sheet, lower the cost of doing business. Trim fat, but don't cut muscle.

This isn't the time to lower our price. If we cut price, we look like we're having a fire sale. The best strategy is to lower the risk of buying.

Sales leaders must over communicate that they have confidence in their team and confidence that the market will return to normal, that the world is not coming to an end, and that job security comes from creating happy customers.

This is the time to improve everything: people, processes, and technology. Sales will improve with better training and coaching. Sales will improve with better processes. Sales will accelerate with better technology. The worse the economy gets, the harder we need to work on improving our business.

This is the time to get on the offensive. We cannot control the market. As one VP of sales says, "This is the time to rip our competitor's hearts out."

Tough times will test our leadership. Effective sales leaders will lavish praise on their people for performing at peak levels. At the same time, sales leaders -- always ready to improve everything and always determined to expect better results in the future -- will express chronic dissatisfaction with the status quo.

We need to reassure our star performers that their jobs are safe and their bonus potential will be high even though their results may be lower.

We need to focus on our customers, respond to their new requirements, and uncover new opportunities.

We as sales leaders need to improve our mindset, for all eyes are on us. The economy may empty our pockets, but it cannot empty our spirits.

Source: Gehard Gschwandtner, Publisher SellingPower

Look to the Recent Past to Change the Future

You don't want your organization to be caught off-guard by fast-moving trends. Try this strategy: Look at recent changes in your industry. Analyze their impact on your organization right now, and then extrapolate what might happen in the future as a result. For example, fuel prices have risen considerably in recent months. What's that going to mean for your organization if the trend continues? If you keep alert, you'll be better positioned to make changes before they're forced on you.

Source: "Integrity in Leadership," by Peter Drucker, on the Sales Boss Web Site

What to Look for in a Coach

When you hire a coach, take as much time and care as you do when recruiting any employee. Look for these crucial strengths:

Personal Commitment. Coaching should be more than just a source of income to the person you work with. Ask what positive values guide their coaching, and listen for evidence of serious thought, not cliches about empowerment or self-actualization.

Client Focus. Good coaches are centered on their client's needs, not their own, Does the coach really listen and ask intelligent questions -- or just share stories and advice based on his or her own experience?

Challenge and Support. You need someone who will push people's comfort zones without traumatizing them. Find our how they identify challenges for their clients, and how they encourage, persuade, and prod people to achieve their goals. They should be able to mix empathy with a firm push in the right direction.

Mental Flexibility. You don't want a coach who just relies on exercises and strategies that worked with previous clients, but someone who's creative about finding new approaches that fit your individual needs. Look for spontaneity: How does a potential coach respond to changing situations and new information, for example?

Source: "Four keys to picking the right leadership training coach for your team," by Jennifer Long, in the Denver Business Journal

Food Later, Talk Now...

Parties, receptions, and other social gatherings where you plan to meet with customers and other contacts can be enjoyable as well as productive events -- just don't enjoy yourself too much. Yes, we're referring to food and drink. You can't concentrate on what your conversation partners are saying when you're balancing a drink and a plate of snacks and have a mouthful of food. (Forget about shaking hands!) Simplify life: eat something before the event so your appetite is quelled and you can concentrate on the business reasons for attending.

Source: The Manager's Intelligence Report

Ask Your Staff to Write Personal Mission Statements

Many companies have mission statements -- documents where the goals of the company are outlined, as well as the means by which to achieve them. Why not have individual employees write mission statements of their own? Ask them to write out a paragraph describing their professional ambitions and goals. It's a good way to find out where your employees want to go, and how they plan to get there.

Source: Motivational Manager One Minute Ideas

The Economic Threat to the Travel and Tourism Industry

When historians of modern tourism write about tourism in the first decade of the twenty-first century they will most likely see it as one of continual trials and challenges. The terrorism attacks on September 11, 2001 forced the travel and tourism industry to face global security threats and to determine how this new reality would change the way the tourism industry would do business. Certainly anyone who has traveled since 9-11 is well aware that travel is not the same as it once was. In some ways the tourism and travel industry did an excellent job in responding to this new threat; in other ways it is still in quandary as to how to handle global terrorism. Following on the heals of September 11, travel and tourism has had to face issues of food safety, heath crises, natural disasters and the rapid rise in petroleum prices resulting in major price increases for both land and air transportation.

Now toward the latter part of this decade, the tourism industry must once again face a very different type of threat. While neither physical nor medical, this threat may potentially be just as or even more dangerous than the others. That threat is the current economic meltdown and what it means to world tourism and travel. While it is still too early to predict exactly how this current economic crisis will impact the tourism industry some clear trends and ideas are already emerging. To help you think about the impact of these economic turbulent times on travel and tourism, Tourism & More offers the following insights and suggestions.

Be realistic; neither panic nor have a sense of false security. There is no doubt that tourism, especially the leisure side of the industry, may be in for some proverbial stormy seas. However, in every crisis, there is the chance for new and innovative ideas to emerge, new directions to be taken, and new alliances to be forged. The bottom line is that the travel and tourism industry is not going away and your business is not going to fold tomorrow. Take a deep breath; think about which challenges each component in your locale's tourism and travel industry may be facing, and the possible solutions that will permit you to overcome these challenges. Remember the best way to solve big problems is by breaking them down into smaller, more manageable problems.

Be upbeat and positive. This challenge is not the first nor will it be the last that the travel and tourism industry is going to have to face. Your attitude impacts everyone with whom you work and/or serve. When leaders demonstrate positive and cheerful attitudes, creative juices start flowing. Difficult economic times demand good leadership, and the basis of good leadership is believing in yourself and in your product. No matter what the media may be saying, walk into your office with a smile on your face.

Do not let the media get you down. Remember that much of the media thrives on bad news. Learn to separate facts from "analytical fictions." Just because a commentator states something does not mean that it is true. News media are hampered by their need to provide 24-hour news coverage, and thus must constantly seek new ways to attract our attention. Remember the media thrives on bad news. Know how to separate facts from opinion and truth from media hype.

Think spiritually. When times are tough many people turn to some form of spirituality. Spiritual tourism tends to boom during difficult political or economic times. While many houses of worship may be the foundation for spiritual tourism, spiritual tourism is much more than merely visiting a church or synagogue. Think beyond your houses of worship to the underlying sense of spirit within your community. This may be the time to encourage people to visit cemeteries where loved ones are buried, or develop inspirational trails. Places where historical events occurred may also become part of your spiritual tourism offering.

Assess both your tourism and economic strengths and weaknesses. Know where your proverbial Achilles heals may be. If the economy should worsen considerably which groups of travelers may you lose? Is there a new group of travelers to whom you have never marketed? Is your business, hotel, or CVB carrying too much debt? Is this the best time to ask for salary raises or to seek credit for a building? Remember the media reports on world and national conditions, but what often counts are local conditions. Assess your goals, needs and problems in light of your local conditions and the economic conditions at your principle customer sources.

Remember that travel and tourism are component industries. That means that your business will be impacted by everyone else's business. For example, if your community loses restaurants then that loss will impact the number of people staying in town and may hurt local hotels. If hotels are not occupied not only will lodging tax revenues decrease but also this decrease will impact a wide variety of business owners. Tourism and travel will need to practice collective survival. The power of clustering to increase business will become an important trend

Develop an economic security team. This is the time not to pretend to know everything. Call upon as many experts as possible to develop new ideas and to monitor the situation. Most communities have economically savvy people. Bring local bankers, business leaders, hoteliers and attractions owners together for a local summit and then follow up this summit with a schedule of regular meetings. Remember this crisis will most likely be fluid with multiple economic ups and downs.

Think out-of-the-box. Crises are the time to try to figure out ways to do more with less. Consider ways to connect your product development to/with your marketing. In turbulent economic times the public seeks substance of glitz. Make sure that you provide tourism essentials such as a tourism oriented policing unit and good customer service. Beautification projects not only add value to your tourism product but also provide an uplifting environment that allows for creative problem solving and encourages business-people who must face a myriad of problems to want to return to your locale.

Economist and finance specialists are not always right. To paraphrase an old adage, the "road to bankruptcy is paved with the opinions [of] economists and people in finance." Listen to the best advice, but at the same time never forget that economists make numerous mistakes. Neither finance nor economics is an exact science. Instead listen to expert opinions but never forget that in the end, the final decision is yours. So once you have done your research listen to your gut. That may be the best advice of all.

By Dr. Peter Tarlow, Author of Tourism & More

Who is the Customer?

GenXers are more likely than other generations to shop online (69%) and bank online (65%). 32% own an HDTV and 29% have a DVR.

Source: Randall Travel Marketing & Forrester Research