What’s the difference between the people who are successful and the ones who are not?  The answer isn’t complicated.  It’s not about the economy.  It’s usually not about the product.  It’s about the attitude.  You need to understand why you are in business.  Everyone in business says that they want to make a profit.  That’s the result of being in business.  You become profitable by having customers or clients, establishing and maintaining good relationships, creating a great work environment for your employees and understanding the cost structure of doing business.

But here’s the secret that is no secret at all.  Successful business people understand that you must prospect, sell and close deals.  Almost every time someone goes out of business it’s because they aren’t doing enough business.  The part of the business most people dislike is prospecting.  Prospecting and new potential clients are the lifeblood of your business.  Even if you think you have enough business, you never stop prospecting.  Not ever!

If you don’t believe that prospecting is an important element of your company’s sales cycle then your sales force won’t either.  Sales people would rather follow up on a lead that has come in by way of the internet, phone or referral than to actually go through the process of prospecting and looking for new business.  Of course, in addition to prospecting it is important to maintain the customer or client base you already have.

Prospecting is the first step to putting money in the bank and staying in business.

Even though I tend not to watch overdone violence in television programs or films, I never miss a Bruce Willis movie.  Every once in a while, Bruce makes a clunker of a movie.  But usually his stories are fun and the good guys always win such as in the Die Hard series.  The plots aren’t all that different:  Bruce is just minding his own business, going about life and before you know it, he is pulled into some desperate situation that only a hero can resolve.  He should be listed in the yellow pages as, Bruce Willis: Save The World. 

If you think about it, aren’t you the Bruce Willis of your business?  At any given moment, an incredibly difficult or challenging situation can arise that takes creative thinking, determination and a great deal of will to solve.  During these economic times, you the CEO, president or business owner, have needed to be more of a super hero than you’ve ever been. 

It may not have been enough to just to have sales people.  You may have had to go out and sell the products or services yourself.  You may have had to make cold calls. You may be doing multi-tasking more than ever and wearing various hats of responsibility at your company… and working longer hours. 

When you look back on these times, when the economy does recover (and it will), you’ll enjoy thinking about how you got into action, saved the day and made your company a better, more productive, profitable business. Maybe you didn’t save the world but you did save your world.

1) Athletes need to be more than just good at their sport to win.  It’s not just a matter of getting on skis, riding a bobsled down the course at 90 mph or putting on a pair of skates and hitting the ice.  Athletes truly have to excel, be talented and be one with their sport.

2) Even if the athletes are the best at what they do, they still have to train long and hard to get on the medals podium – especially to achieve Gold.

3) Not only do athletes have to be physically fit, they also have to be mentally tough to stand up under all the stress, demands and pressure put upon them when in the spotlight.

It’s the same with business.

If you really want to excel, you can’t just own the business. You have to BE the business.

You can’t just show up every day.  You have to continually know what is going on in your industry – read about industry news in print and on the internet, read the Wall Street Journal and continually educate yourself in sales, marketing, motivation, technology, human resources, for example.

It’s does you absolutely no good to make a small fortune if you haven’t taken care of yourself and you’re sick and can’t spend the money that you’ve made.

Finally, you must be mentally tough.  There will be days you will wish you were anywhere except your business.  There is always the next mountain to climb and always a problem that seems overwhelming.  But if you are mentally tough you work through whatever it takes to resolve whatever issues you are faced with.

So prepare yourself to be the best and win the gold medal of business – in other words, win the game of business.  Get those profits you deserve for all your hard work.

Like many Americans, I have been watching and reading about the Vancouver Olympics.  One of the most highly watched series during the Olympics is ice skating.  There is usually some sort of drama associated with the Olympic skating events and this year isn’t any different.

Here are two extreme examples regarding behavior.  In the recent men’s skating competition the American skater, Evan Lysacek, edged out the Russian skater and 2006 Olympic champion, Yevgeny Plushenko, by a small margin.  Even though I am not an expert in skating, listening to the skating commentary from NBC’s Scott Hamilton (an Olympic, World and National champion himself) it was clear that although Plushenko skated well Lysacek’s program was more difficult and better executed and deserved to win.  Unfortunately, Plushenko acted badly in interviews afterwards by allowing his ego to get in the way and showed the entire world he did not skate with the true spirit of the games in mind – which is simply to do your best, be your best and act as a representative of your country.  When asked about Plushenko’s comments, Lysachek was quite gracious, praising the Russian, saying he had looked up to him as a role model in skating and Plushenko will always one of the best in the world.  How impressive and refreshing to hear Lysachek speak so highly, so respectful of a world class competitor even though the competitor was really quite unprofessional with his statements.

The other example is from the ice dancing competition.  The American team of Belbin and Agosto, Silver medalists in the 2006 Olympic Games, just missed the podium and a Bronze medal after what may have been their last competitive dance together.  Belbin and Agosto, like Plushenko, are highly respected and recognized for what they have brought to the sport.  Each has led the way for other future skaters with their overall excellence.  When interviewed Belbin and Agosto, though reflective, had prepared for such a moment and felt the dance they performed was a fitting good-bye, had done their best and were satisfied with the results.  They only had gracious words for the Russian team who took third place.

This is where momma’s advice was right on target.  Momma would say:  If you can’t say something nice about somebody, don’t say anything at all.

Good advice that extends to business.  Never say anything bad about a competitor, a former employee or an associate.  You never know when or where you will meet these people again.  You may want to sell them a product.  You may see them at a professional gathering. And the last thing you want is to have other business people or even customers/clients make judgments about you or your company because of your negative responses.

I am a believer in delegation.  Setting goals.  Meeting deadlines.  Taking care of necessary daily tasks.  Having a “to do” list.  Having the most appropriate individual do the work rather than having it all piled up on your desk.  Employees need to consistently act responsibly and be results oriented.  But the employees who are saying: “Don’t micromanage me!” are usually not getting the job done.  They don’t want you looking over their shoulder.  They don’t want to improve the way they are doing their job and don’t want to be taken out of their comfort zone.  They are perfectly happy not succeeding and trying to make you feel guilty because you have expectations of them doing their job.

It’s not necessary and it’s undesirable to micromanage employees who are meeting goals and expectations.  The more on target you are with hiring the right employees, the less you will find you are micromanaging people.  Giving you more time to do what you need to do.

If you have a department or an employee that is not getting the job done, don’t hesitate assert yourself, find out what needs to be changed, take action and get the situation turned around.  Don’t wait!  And don’t buy the story, or the excuses, from someone who isn’t getting the job done for you.

Remember, it’s your business.  You are the person who is ultimately responsible for your success.

The athletes at these time honored games have devoted their lives to being the best in the world and to earn a spot on their country’s Olympic team.  And when their moment arrives to compete in front of the world, they only get one shot at Olympic glory.  That’s it.  One shot.  And if they lose focus or make just one mistake their dream can quickly fade and be taken away from them in an instant – no matter how superior they may be at their sport.  Or though they may have done their best, best wasn’t good enough because a surprise unknown performed even better and stood on the medals podium instead of them.  Yet there are others who not only excel at their sport but maintain consistent determination and focus to achieve their goals… and win.  It goes beyond just being a sport and the pursuit of excellence.

You can compare the Olympics to your business.  Especially during these challenging economic times you need to be better than you’ve ever been. Your business needs to be “world class” in everything it does.  Just like the athletes at the Olympics, every interaction you have with your customers or clients needs to be right on target.  Your company needs to perform at every level with precision.  You can’t second guess.  You must be constantly focused on the goal.  You need to be ready when it’s your turn to perform for your customer or client.  Otherwise, the competition gets the business or gold medal rather than you and your company.  Know what is necessary to get the job done to bring in new customers or clients and to keep those you already have.  Excel at what you do.  Give it your all. And inspire others in your company be motivated to do the same.  Don’t spend years building a business and then make that one mistake that is going to cause you to lose your share of the marketplace.  It can happen in an instant.

There are two accepted ways of cold calling.  One is to just pick up the phone, have a name and phone number, get your targeted prospect on the phone and give them the sales pitch.  The second method is called a warm call.  You mail a business person a letter and then call them to follow up on the letter.

Just like the majority of the business world, I resisted cold calling for a long time too.  But I realized over these many months of economic recession what an essential part of business cold calling actually is.

Businesses will run media ads, use print brochures, have websites, invest time on social networking sites and do many other types of marketing to let others know who they are.  Although all of these techniques may be valuable and should be part of the marketing plan, when you place an ad, mail brochures or put up a website you don’t really know if your potential client is looking at it.  When you cold call, you can quickly narrow in on the business and the individual who would buy your product or service.

And yes, people won’t take your phone call, some people will be impolite and every once in a while someone will just abruptly hang up on you. But when you are making those phone calls you will also find buyers of your product or service who are receptive because you have exactly what they need.

In this economy, you can’t sit around and wait for the customers to come to you.  Instead, you have to go out and find customers.  Think about cold calling this way:  when you make the phone call you are doing it for the greater good.  Your purpose is not to offend anyone, to annoy them or to waste their time.  Your purpose is to help perspective customers by introducing yourself and your product or service that is going to be invaluable to help them run a better business and make a profit.

PS:  Any CEO, president or business owner of an established company who would like to have a further discussion about cold calling, prospecting and how it can improve business, is welcome to call or email me.

Every year FedEx ships billions of packages.  They have hundreds of airplanes in the air every single night.  A little know fact about FedEx is that every night sixteen airplanes are in the air completely empty and positioned in different parts of the country so they can divert those planes to any airport that has an overflow of packages or any airport with planes having mechanical difficulties.  FedEx use to have an advertising slogan:  When it absolutely, positively, has to be there overnight.  The company still lives by this motto today.

FedEx has grown from twelve small jets to one of the largest corporations in the world.  Yet they took time to call me. Why?  Because they noticed that although I have an account with them, I haven’t used the account very often.  They wanted to know what they could do to get more of my business.

I was impressed with the call.  I started to think about all the CEOs, presidents and business owners in this country who pay no attention whatsoever to their current client or customer list but yet are always trying to create sales, expand business and get new customers while at the same time ignoring current ones.

Think about it.

What can you do to impress your customers or clients to make them feel like you truly appreciate them and value their feedback? When your competitor calls on your current customers or clients (and they do) to prospect for business do they say:  No thank you – the people we do business with service us well and we wouldn’t think of changing.  Or do they say:  We might consider changing.  What do you have that may be of interest to us?

Your customers or clients should be nurtured in a professional manner to become advocates of your products or services.   Every time someone buys from you, the sales cycle should start over again and treat the current customer or client as though new due to your prospecting efforts.  In any relationship, never assume everything is okay.  Those relationships become old and broken rather quickly.  In business, that is something you can’t afford to have happen.

Or… Don’t they think they’re something?!  I remember them when…

And that’s exactly what’s happened at Toyota.  They got too enamored with their own success and stature.  According to news reports, the company has known for quite some time that they have a potentially life threatening mechanical defect with the gas pedals on several Toyota makes and models.  And now even owners of the popular, eco-friendly Prius are coming forward with concerns. Yet the company hasn’t dealt with it.  Until now, when finally the US government met with Toyota and pressured officials to do something about the safety hazard.  As a business person and consumer, you have to ask the obvious question – Why?  Why did Toyota let this problem spin so out of control?

Toyota has spent years building an image and building a company that ultimately became the biggest car manufacturer in the world.  Although Toyota may recover from their financial and image losses at some point, for now the business is in serious trouble.  Car dealers can’t sell popular models.  Owners of Toyota cars are worried every time they drive that it will be their gas pedal that sticks.

Could this business fiasco and public relations nightmare been avoided?  Probably so.  Now Toyota will spend millions and millions of dollars and an extraordinary amount of time trying to rebuild their reputation for well built cars with consumer safety being foremost in the company’s priorities rather than rank and profits.  It could take years to undo the damage.  It’s only a matter of time till the lawsuits are filed against Toyota.

Don’t get too big for your britches.  Don’t think you are too big to fail.  Pay attention to your business.  Remember, you don’t need to be the biggest business to be profitable or to be influential in your industry.  What’s important is making a profit, keeping customers and employees happy and designing your products and/or services to meet the needs of those who buy them.  And always… putting the customer first.

Lysacek’s challenge has been getting more first place finishes than second and third place finishes in recent years.  In the past year he asked, “What do I have to do to take that next step and be better than everyone else?”

His coaches told him, according to USA Today, that you have to stretch yourself – beyond your current capabilities.  In other words, get out of your comfort zone.

And that is exactly what Lysacek has done in preparation for the Olympics and the quest for gold.  He stretched himself with music selection, costumes, skill set and has worked on changing his overall perspective and mindset.  The article goes on to quote Lori Nichols, one of sports top choreographers, as saying, “You should do something you do best, but, if a skater gets bored, there’s a flatness to his program…”

The same applies to business.  When you keep doing the same thing over and over again in your business you run the risk of getting bored and not doing things as well as you use to without even realizing it.  Get out of your comfort zone.  Change your perspective.  See things through the eyes of your customers and clients, your employees.  Because of economic conditions the marketplace is changing.  Is your business making the changes necessary to reflect the times in order to attract and keep business?

Getting out of your comfort zone and making the necessary changes in your business can often mean both big and small changes. After you’ve dealt with all the big changes necessary to move your business forward then you need to deal with the small issues that can be just as important to the bottom line.  Paying attention to details is vital to business success.

When you understand what it takes to get to the top, it’s a lot easier to get there.  Stretch yourself beyond your capabilities.  See how it takes you and your business to the next level of success.