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ATTENTION PresidentElect Obama Heres the Real Economic Rescue Plan

Written by: George Ludwig

Article Overview: The economy is falling. Times are uncertain. Many people are in crisis. What's the answer? Will the government bail us out? When will it kick in? How will it affect us? No one knows the answers, and with all due respect; even President-Elect Obama doesn't know these answers. What's the real answer? The real answer is that a collective bailout will require each and every one of us to participate in our own rescue.

ATTENTION PresidentElect Obama Heres the Real Economic Rescue Plan

Turn on CNBC. The stock market has lost more than $6 trillion in value. Real estate values and sales have declined at record rates all across the USA. Workers are getting laid off, small businesses can't get loans, and retirement 401k's have plummeted 30% on average, causing baby boomers to worry significantly about their future. Parents are feeling more angst than ever about being able to send their children to college. The economy is falling. Times are uncertain. Many people are in crisis.

What's the answer? Will the government bail us out? When will it kick in? How will it affect us? No one knows the answers, and with all due respect; even President-Elect Obama doesn't know these answers.

What's the real answer? The real answer is that a collective bailout will require each and every one of us to participate in our own rescue. A collective bailout will require every businessperson to play a key role. When I went whitewater rafting a few years ago, our guide told us that if we capsized, we should not passively wait for him to rescue us but should instead use our wits and engineer our own survival until he could reach us. With respect to our failing economy, if President-Elect Obama and the government can help us, great; but if that's our entire plan, we may well drown.

So how can business and salespeople conquer this crisis and orchestrate their own rescue plan? Here are six fundamental keys:

1) Put the economy in perspective. The economy has been falling, not failing. Its down, but it's down from the biggest economic boom of all time, the biggest housing boom of all time, and the easiest loan requirements of all time. Sure, home sales are down 33%, but even with this negative statistic, five million homes will still be sold this year. Someone will make those sales.

The low-hanging fruit of two years ago is just higher in the tree. Don't let national gloom obscure the fact that there's still business in the marketplace.

2) Replay the crises that you've overcome in the past. Virtually every person and business has conquered at least one crisis in their past. This is the time to replay those movies and remember that you came through them stronger than before. You may have beat cancer, survived the death of a loved one, or overcome an addiction; you may have turned around miserable sales numbers or had your company succeed when it was predicted to flop.

Remember those experiences and realize that you can be a Lance Armstrong, an Oprah Winfrey, a Colonel Harlan Sanders who can prevail in tough times. Even better, find a mentor who is achieving the results you want. Find out how they think, what strategies they employ, how they conquer a crisis. This approach is much more efficient than the time- consuming trial and error efforts you'll put forth on your own. Remember—if they can do it, so can you.

I teetered on the verge of bankruptcy after I launched my own business in 2001 but bounced back to enjoy success. I hung in there to finish the 1998 Walt Disney Marathon after being forced to drop out three years in a row due to injuries. These memories teach me that the current economic crisis will eventually pass.

3) Decide what you want. A crisis like our tough economic times forces us to confront this decision: can we be stopped (by unfortunate circumstances), or are we unstoppable? No great change ever occurs without a firm, committed decision to overcome the obstacles that get thrown in our way. In fact, although no one ever seeks them out, crises actually provide us with opportunities to build new strengths and identities.

Once you've decided what your goals are in overcoming the current gloomy economic climate, you've got to focus on them relentlessly. Write down exactly what sales and business goals you want to achieve and keep them in front of you all the time.

You also need to connect emotionally with why these goals are important. Write down what their achievement will mean to you—will they improve your retirement? Make a family vacation possible? How will it feel to be able to send your kids to college? Stack the deck with compelling reasons about the importance of these goals—we can endure any how if we have a strong enough why.

4) Don't forget your body. Nobody is immune to the fear and worry that the economic downturn has created. From the billionaire to the barber, the CEO to the carpet layer, everyone is feeling the stress. Don't let a poorly conditioned body leave your mind vulnerable to gloom and your sales performance weak. Start today on a committed exercise program. Go for a run, do 50 push-ups (right now—I'm watching you), sprint to the corner, ride your bike like you are attacking the mountains in the Tour de France. You'll feel stronger than ever, and you'll be resilient enough to handle any adversity.

5) Get training to get better. When the economy is booming and our sales are soaring, we all tend to get a little lax in our ongoing sales training. We forget how important it is to constantly hone our sales techniques and strategies.

After providing sales training for several years, I have observed many fairly successful salespeople and managers get stuck by developing an overconfidence in "their way" of selling. When hard times hit, they're left with no way out of the crisis because they don't know how to create new and improved ways to sell. They haven't invested enough in keeping their sales education current.

Business leaders and salespeople often tell me they don't have the time or money to get additional training, but in the words of Ben Franklin, "if you think education is expensive, try ignorance." Sales training is an investment that is guaranteed to make your sales "stock market" index rise—it works! I know from my professional experience that virtually any person can be trained to sell more effectively, from rookie to veteran. So go buy a book, attend a public sales seminar, or get your company's salespeople some outstanding training ASAP (call me-—I happen to know a guy)!

6) Keep the main thing the main thing. Recent research shows that salespeople only spend 90 minutes per day in high-impact selling activities. That means the rest (that's more than six hours a day!) is spent on activities which don't directly generate greater sales. In a tough economy, you've got to flip those numbers around—commit to increasing the percentage of your time that is spent selling or prospecting to well-qualified ideal buyer types face-to- face or on the phone.

As President-Elect Obama takes office and tackles our country's economic woes, remember that each one of us has to create our own bailout plan. These six fundamentals aren't easy—we've got to work our butts off, but the results will be worth it!

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Article Tags: baby boomers, bailout, businessperson, cnbc, due respect, economic boom, fundamental keys, future parents, gloom, key role, loan requirements, low hanging fruit, obama, president elect, real estate values, retirement 401k, salespeople, statistic, stock market, wits
Referred by: http://www.JustChangeIt.com



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