Private Jets Who Wouldn’t Want to Fly This Way?

f_11310495064_social-networking.jpgWith asking prices that might seem astronomical to the average man or woman on the street, chartering a private jet might seem like extravagance gone truly mad. But while many of us struggle to afford our one week’s holiday every year, the people to whom charter jet companies advertise their wares are those who earn more money in a week than many of us are likely to see in a lifetime. So let’s pretend we’re rich and famous — what are the advantages to chartering a private jet?

There are certain benefits that are fairly obvious. The ever-increasing rise of celebrity means that many of the people earning the sort of pay check that would merit commissioning a private jet are all too well known, meaning they would cause a crisis of sorts for the staff trying to deal with the many other issues involved in making a flight run smoothly. Not to suggest that all celebrities are the thoughtful types — this attention is as abhorrent to them when they are not working, as it is difficult to the staff attending the flight. For many celebrities, anonymity and privacy are all important, and chartering a private jet allows them to keep to themselves.

So what about those people who are quietly wealthy — why don’t they save their money and fly with the rest of us? Because chartering a private jet has many other advantages, and while the going rate might seem exorbitant to those of us earning five figure sums, the money spent on private jets must be put into perspective. The relative amount that the wealthy spend on this type of travel is probably not much more than we spend on our own flights — they earn much more and so can spend accordingly. And while they might save a few tens of thousands of dollars by flying more economically, is it really worth it?

Private jets offer the ultimate in in-flight service. As the only customer on board, the person hiring a private jet receives the full attention of the flight staff, meaning that he or she can enjoy anything at any time. This fits neatly into the lifestyle of the wealthy, where money buys the best of service — why compromise just because you’re airborne?

Private jets might seem the ultimate in luxury to the ordinary man on the street, but to the very wealthy, they are as natural as riding in limo. So until you make your first million, it’s airline flights for you. But you can always dream!

Forget the Eagle, Peacock, Owl or Dove … are you a Canary?

f_01311083214_business-people.jpgYou may be familiar with the Eagle, Peacock, Dove and Owl from the program that identifies your behavioral social style. This isn’t about any of those birds. It’s about being a Canary – or not!

From the early 1900′s to the mid 1980′s, coal miners around the world used canaries deep in the mines to alert them to dangerous levels of carbon monoxide gas. If the birds stopped singing, it was time to get out of the mine … fast.

After many years of dedicated service, these incredibly effective canaries became obsolete. Technology replaced the singing saviours. Could the canary have done anything differently to keep its job? The short answer is no.

What about you? As a sales professional is there a chance you could become a canary and be replaced? It is still a stretch to suggest technology will replace the face-to-face selling environment. That said reflect on how far e-commerce has advanced in the past five years! What will the next five years bring?

I am a strong believer there will always be a place for proficient, well-qualified sales people. Any vibrant economy needs to have face-to-face selling for a variety of reasons, be they cultural preferences, complexity of information, or simply the consumer’s desire for a relationship based experience. I emphasised proficient and well qualified for a reason. As I speak with many sales reps today, I find it alarming that many do little to maintain, upgrade and advance their selling skills. Don’t go the way of the dodo bird – yes, there really was a dodo bird that became extinct but that’s a different story.

As a professional in any career stream, one needs to stay current with new advances in their field, be they process related, technical in nature or staying abreast of the competition.

Would you want to deal with a physician who obtained their medical degree twenty years ago and has not kept current with medical advancements? I think not.

I run in to some sales reps that say “been there, done that, took the course, got the t-shirt.” They feel they have done all they need to. Often these same people wonder why they haven’t reached their full potential or are slipping gradually down the leader board.

I have worked with realtors who have been in the business 10, 15, 20 years and can’t understand why they are not as successful as when they first got in the business. Some say competition has increased, demographic changes make negotiating commissions more difficult, what ever. When I ask they what they have done in recent years to hone their skills I often get a blank look. When I ask them what they did to be successful when they entered the business, they talk about the marketing, the networking, the door knocking, and following a specific sales routine. When asked if they still do all of this, they admit they no longer do all these activities. Hmmm.

If you consider yourself a sales professional, you have an obligation to invest in yourself. There are many excellent offerings in the market place to keep you on top of your game. If you don’t want to go out and spend the bucks, take that program you went through five years ago and read it again. I’m positive you’ll be reminded of some golden nuggets you had forgotten. Grab a partner and practice some of the exercises you did years before, you’ll probably have fun at the same time.

It is no secret that professional athletes between games still go to events called practices. No mater how proficient one thinks they are there is still the old adage “practice makes perfect.” They employ coaches to instruct on technical and psychological elements of the game. Who is your coach? Is it your sales manager, if so when was the last time you got together for a meaningful coaching session. Maybe you need to be direct and specific in which area your sales game needs help. I was always delighted when someone asked for help. It told me they wanted to do better. Fact is we had something in common, as their coach, I wanted them to do better as well.

In summary, stay current. Do it yourself, or work with others to stay on top of your game.

The canary could do little to ensure its continued utilization deep in the mines. You as a professional sales person can and should do what’s necessary to avoid becoming redundant.

Marketing Software: Have To Have If You Want Money?

f_21310495272_bussinesmanrestingcopy.jpgSo your in the internet business market for a reason right? Because you want to get your share of the millions and billions of dollars that there are to be made on this up and coming marketplace that has in part and will eventually in whole bring the whole world’s worth of customers into your store. You have made a good decision for many reasons. However there is even more potential than you realized because you haven’t entered into the world of automation yet. Automation is almost the biggest reason to have commerce on the internet anyway. So what do you need to automate your internet business? You need marketing software.

Marketing software is just a fancy way of saying that you need programs that are tailored to your specific niche and business model that will take all of the steps that are taking you days/weeks to do manually and do them in a matter of minutes. You need a program that does all of your market research. You need a program that selects products to then market. And on, And on. Basically you need your computer to do the work that you are capable of so you can have the time that you desire to use your money the way you dreamed you would, only 20 years from now instead of immediately.

You say that sounds great but what your talking about, if it is truly tailored to the product I am selling, the advertising strategies that I am using, and the evaluation and fine-tuning of these, than I am going to have to write this marketing software myself. My answer is a great one: well, yes and no.

Yes you will have to come up with the plan for how you want the program to run and how you want the output to be organized and what parts you want to do in what order. But no in the fact that you don’t have to actually write the marketing software yourself. What people don’t realize is that there is a lot of talented software designers who live in other countries and are happy with beans when compared to their American counterparts. The internet is all you need after all and there are great systems set up (like PayPal) that allow payment to be safe for both parties.

They are happy to do projects for you and eager to please, and did I mention that they are talented. You may even get better work than from guys here–just because they don’t have the same drive that these guys do to make good marketing software.