The JF Guest Author Spot

Recently I went to this really cool, really massive grocery store that friends had been raving about. It has all sorts of international foods, smoked pork, fish from all over the world…it was like stepping into a fabulous foreign country!

As we purchased all of our groceries – we were told to grab a gift box of these mango/coconut popsicles (hey I am always game for dessert!) and of course I was thrilled with the little extra touch.

Flash forward – we’ve used the mango/coconut popsicles in some home-made slurpees (with tequila of course!) and loved them.

A few days ago – I was watching a movie and thought “Heyyyyyyy – I want one of those little mango “doo-dads.”

As I opened the wrapper, I was reading the ingredients etc – all good.

And then. I. saw. it. (Insert screechy Exorcist movie music here.) The due date of April 2006!!!!!

My mind was rapidly doing the math – thinking ” This thing has to be almost 3 years old – maybe older!!” I’d been eating petrified mango/coconut goo.

And all of a sudden – the little EXTRA that I had received from the grocery store – left me with a really bad lasting impression of their store.

Are You Handing Out “Goodies” Past Their Due Date?

I know you wouldn’t give any expired food away- but I bet you’ve been tempted to use:
-That un-used box of business cards with your old address
-The out-dated brochures you paid a fortune for
-A give-away that you discovered the printing rubs off
-Cheap candy at your tradeshow booth
-Some silly thing that was cheap but doesn’t work

Remember – Everything Matters!

And it leaves your customers and potential customers with a lasting impression of you. In selling, where top of mind awareness is everything – this is your chance to do something cool rather than cheap.
How do you want to be remembered??

So Have I Been Back To The Grocery Store?

Nope. Even just thinking about it makes me gag a little. Plus – I have told this story to all my friends…and it made them gag too. Remember – viral marketing can go 2 ways.

So there.

Love From Your Bossy Sales Diva,

Kim

Kim Duke, The Sales Diva, provides savvy, sassy sales training for women small biz owners and entrepreneurs. Kim works with clients internationally, showing them The Sales Diva secrets to success! Sign up for her saucy and smart FREE e-zine and receive her FREE Bonus Report “The 5 Biggest Sales Mistakes Women Make” at www.salesdivas.com

Kim is also one of the original members of the Top Sales Experts team and you can read more about here here

Today’s News: There are ten great articles nominated on Top 10 Sales Articles this week – you can check them out here

I am just off to complete a final proof reading of the Top Sales Experts ebook, so depending what time-zone you are in, you may get a chance to read it today – it should post at 5pm GMT – 12noon Eastern. I think you will be mighty impressed, I am! If you have already registered, it will arrive in your inbox automatically, if not, you can register on the home page here

Tomorrow: “God gave us two ears and one mouth”

In a survey of more than one and a half thousand managers, people were asked what they would most like to see in their leaders. The most popular answer, mentioned by 55% of people, was ‘inspiration’.

When asked if they would describe their current leader as ‘inspiring’, only 11% said yes. The two attributes that people actually mentioned most often when describing their leaders were ‘knowledgeable’ and ‘ambitious’. As well as this thirst for inspiring leadership, there’s also evidence to support the idea that companies with inspiring leaders perform better.

The Sunday Times publishes an annual survey of the ‘Best Companies to Work For’, which is compiled from the opinions of the companies’ own employees. One interesting fact is that those ‘Best Companies’ that are publicly quoted consistently outperform the FTSE All-Share Index. Five-year compound returns show a 5.7% negative return for FTSE All-Share companies against a 13.6% gain for the Best Companies. Over three years, the returns were -11.3% and 6.7% respectively while, in the last twelve months, they were 23.1% and 44%.
The ‘Best Companies to Work For’ have also performed impressively on staff turnover, sickness rates, absenteeism, and the ability to recruit good quality people.

The stereotype of the inspirational leader as someone extrovert and charismatic is the exception rather than the rule. Looking at best practice across business, though some inspirational leaders certainly do fit this mould, a large number do not. Many are quiet, almost introverted.

My personal view is that the best leaders promote a culture where their people value themselves, each other, the company and the customers. Everyone understands how their work makes a difference. This helps to build a commitment to higher standards where everybody is always looking to do things better.

Today’s News: It’s going to be a BIG week: The Top Sales Experts latest ebook launches tomorrow – 143 pages and contributions from fifty of the world’s top sales gurus – and it is FREE! It went out to them for final proof-reading over the w/e and the feedback was, to say the least, AWESOME. You’ll get your chance to judge for yourselves very soon.

Over on my Sales Manager’s Mentor Blog this week, I provide ten tips for more dynamic sales meetings – here

Ph.D Student Needs Your Help: If you are you a sales trainer, sales coach, sales manager, sales professional, or sales recruiter, Brian Lambert would love to get your input into a survey he is conducting with Capella University.

The free survey and analysis link is here:
http://www.zoomerang.com/Survey/?p=WEB227YW7PAAT7

* At the end of the survey you can enter a drawing for a 32GB IPod Touch.
* You will also be able to see how your responses rate with everyone else’s.

Thank you for helping Brian in this aspect of the sales profession.

Fantastic feedback from my two JF Uncut posts over the w/e: “Where There’s Life, There’s Hope” and “More Bullshit – When Will It End?” if you missed them, just scroll down

Tomorrow: Greg Bautz, fellow Top Sales Expert, makes his debut on the JF Guest Author Spot, so be sure to join us.

JF Uncut

My intention was to post on the fact that it is going to get a whole lot worse and explain why, but having just read yesterday’s Guardian newspaper, I needed to share this with you. My mouth is still wide-open; I am stunned; Is there no end to the obscenity of it all?

Wall Street banks in $70bn staff payout Pay and Bonuses

Financial workers at Wall Street’s top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year – despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.

Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted criticism. The government’s cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay would be curbed.

Pay plans for bankers have been disclosed in recent corporate statements. Pressure on the US firms to review preparations for annual bonuses increased yesterday when Germany’s Deutsche Bank said many of its leading traders would join Josef Ackermann, its chief executive, in waiving millions of euros in annual payouts.

The sums that continue to be spent by Wall Street firms on payroll, payoffs and, most controversially, bonuses appear to bear no relation to the losses incurred by investors in the banks. Shares in Citigroup and Goldman Sachs have declined by more than 45% since the start of the year. Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley have fallen by more than 60%. JP MorganChase fell 6.4% and Lehman Brothers has collapsed.

At one point last week the Morgan Stanley $10.7bn pay pot for the year to date was greater than the entire stock market value of the business. In effect, staff, on receiving their remuneration, could club together and buy the bank.

In the first nine months of the year Citigroup, which employs thousands of staff in the UK, accrued $25.9bn for salaries and bonuses, an increase on the previous year of 4%. Earlier this week the bank accepted a $25bn investment by the US government as part of its bail-out plan.

At Goldman Sachs the figure was $11.4bn, Morgan Stanley $10.73bn, JP Morgan $6.53bn and Merrill Lynch $11.7bn. At Merrill, which was on the point of going bust last month before being taken over by Bank of America, the total accrued in the last quarter grew 76% to $3.49bn. At Morgan Stanley, the amount put aside for staff compensation also grew in the last quarter to the end of August by 3% to $3.7bn.

Days before it collapsed into bankruptcy protection a month ago Lehman Brothers revealed $6.12bn of staff pay plans in its corporate filings. These payouts, the bank insisted, were justified despite net revenue collapsing from $14.9bn to a net outgoing of $64m.

None of the banks the Guardian contacted wished to comment on the record about their pay plans. But behind the scenes, one source said: “For a normal person the salaries are very high and the bonuses seem even higher. But in this world you get a top bonus for top performance, a medium bonus for mediocre performance and a much smaller bonus if you don’t do so well.”

Many critics of investment banks have questioned why firms continue to siphon off billions of dollars of bank earnings into bonus pools rather than using the funds to shore up the capital position of the crisis-stricken institutions. One source said: “That’s a fair question – and it may well be that by the end of the year the banks start review the situation.”

Much of the anger about investment banking bonuses has focused on boardroom executives such as former Lehman boss Dick Fuld, who was paid $485m in salary, bonuses and options between 2000 and 2007.

Last year Merrill Lynch’s chairman Stan O’Neal retired after announcing losses of $8bn, taking a final pay deal worth $161m. Citigroup boss Chuck Prince left last year with a $38m in bonuses, shares and options after multibillion-dollar write-downs. In Britain, Bob Diamond, Barclays president, is one of the few investment bankers whose pay is public. Last year he received a salary of £250,000, but his total pay, including bonuses, reached £36m.

Tomorrow: It is business as usual. I just have to hope that my blood pressure returns to normal and my glasses de-mist once the steam stops hissing out of my ears.

JF Uncut

Do cheer up. There is no such thing as all bad news. Every cloud has a silver lining…

Some good things are happening. The price of oil has tumbled 40% since July. House prices in the UK are down 13% from last year. Those with strong nerves and some money can even buy shares that are unbelievably cheap.

Restaurants are emptying, air travel is easing and I noticed last week that central London traffic jams were strangely diminished. Soon, hotels will be discounting heavily and luxury holidays will suddenly become affordable.

Yes, some people are poor and some are out of work, but not everyone; not even a majority. Keynes was right. The most important thing in a recession is for those with money to keep spending it. Those without can cite Aquinas and remember that the best things in life are free.

The greatest boon to result from the financial collapse is the end of the age of hysteria. We shall never again hear Gordon Brown inflating the dotcom bubble or boasting “the death of boom and bust”. Those whose vulgar boosterism was unsuited to national leadership have been silenced.

Instead we can listen to the sweeter voice of caution. Last week on the BBC a construction executive declared “an end to the tall cranes” and a reversion to the repair and renovation of existing buildings. I cheered loudly.

Gone, too, should be the facile hyping of home ownership by housing ministers. Their talk of the “right” of all young people to buy a house saddled millions with debt they could not afford and with career inflexibility. In every other European country, most young adults pay rent.

The collapse of the buy-to-let market should lead to rents plummeting and people spending realistically on housing. The end of the home-ownership boom should encourage existing owners to sublet and reduce the under-occupancy that has long inflated British house prices. This is a good thing for all.
The green belt, threatened by avaricious speculators, can breathe a sigh of relief. The government’s spurious “eco-towns” should be halted and its “pathfinder” bulldozers should fall silent across northern cities. Economy should return to the overheated property market, with builders switching to energy-saving conservation from high-cost development.

The impact of recession on government should be even more benign. Only now do we see how casually the rampant growth in revenue has led ministers to behave. There should be no more extravagant pay settlements for doctors; no more thoughtless purchase of NHS and ID-card computers; no more of the £70 billion that Labour has spent on “advice”. The death of spurious consultancy and the reassertion of civil service morale should be another gain of the recession.

Someone may even reverse the government’s capitulation to the International Olympic Committee over the cost of the Olympics – though sadly not the London mayor, who has gone native; £9 billion of public money cannot be justified for two weeks of sport when the exchequer is bleeding to death. Britain would gain worldwide kudos if it announced a 1940s-style austerity Games, in place of the turgid extravaganza at Stratford.

The rewards of adversity will go even deeper. The dingdong of political debate in the past two decades has depended on a dichotomy of free markets and state control. The market has had the best tunes. It has now met a cataclysm similar to that which afflicted state planning in the 1970s – if not the 1940s. Thatcherism has for quarter of a century assumed an ideological supremacy. Now it seems in ruins. From thesis and antithesis should emerge a mature synthesis.

Markets cannot be denied. They allocate resources in any enterprise economy. But markets require regulation by a controlling state. In extremis they require the confidence on which they depend to be guaranteed by the state. Citizens as taxpayers must underpin that confidence if they wish to avoid the most ruthless form of “market correction”, as now being experienced.

The age of hysteria was the converse of today’s (we hope brief) age of panic. The “mergers and acquisitions” mania that spread through almost every sector of the British economy now seems destructive and expensive. It distorted corporate incentives and made enterprise no more than the appeasement of greed. The thesis that the disruption of selling Heathrow, breaking up railways or disposing of utilities was justified by efficiency was never proven – and now looks sick. It saddled vital services with unsustainable debt. All this must surely end.

Britain will emerge from recession with manufacturing shattered. But the services on which the economy relies should be in recoverable order. The country remains a world-class supplier of hospitals, education, retailing, tourism, culture and even financial services. London is still a bolt hole for refugee and rentier alike. Its appeal to the world’s rich can only increase as its prices cool.

The age of hysteria should give way to an age of humility. The bombast of Tony Blair and his worldwide crusade for capitalist democracy – enforced with bombs and belligerence – was a counterproductive obscenity. How can we lecture Russia, China, Africa and the Muslim world when we cannot even regulate a sub-prime mortgage market? Where now the pledge to “end world poverty” or to “bring peace to the Middle East”? These presumptions were not just arrogant but absurd.

Social economists have long emphasised non-economic gains in contributing to the good life. They point out that human happiness depends not on ever-rising incomes but on the ordering of leisure and a sense of self-worth. The downfall of the masters of the universe leaves space for the rise of the masters of realism and personal satisfaction.

These are uncertain times, but in every disaster there is good news to be found. For all Pandora’s ills that have spilt across the nation this past month, we should remember the little creature who stayed behind in that mythical box of catastrophes. Her name was Hope. She was a cheery fellow.

Tomorrow: “Why Markets Are Still Falling – The Real Truth, In All It’s Ugliness” 

 
You can imagine that there are a whole host of reasons why we should be building brick walls around our most important accounts right now – predators are everywhere – and I will be discussing these in some detail during a webinar on November 12th, with my co-presenters, Jill Konrath and Kendra Lee, hosted by Landslide – more about that soon. In the meantime, here is an outline of the model I designed some years ago.

There are four parts to the JF Major Account Model. Each part influences and is influenced by the other parts:

 Key Information tells us what we need to know about the major account.

 The Long Term Plan, allows us to gain a clear picture of where we are trying to go (Objectives) and how we plan to get there (Strategy).

 The Short Term Plan, concerns the actions we must take over the coming weeks.

 The Traffic Lights give us a quick, accurate picture of our current position and how we should move forward.

Key Information:

As the Chinese general Liu-Ji wrote over 600 years ago:

“Action always starts with calculation. Before fighting, first asses the relative wisdom of the leadership, the relative strength of the enemy, the size of the armies, the lie of the land, and the adequacy of provisions. If you send troops out only after making these calculations, you will never fail to win.”

There are twin dangers about information in major account management: Too little information and too much information of the wrong sort or that is difficult to access.

We have found it most effective to break information down into three broad areas: Global, Corporate and Project.

Global information looks at the big picture, the world in which the major account operates.
 Organisation

 Industry

 Politics

 Competition

 Economy

 Own Company

 Psychology

 Legislation

 Finance

 Technology     

Corporate information is about understanding the business you are dealing with. It is a broader, more commercial picture than the selling information. Many people who do not think in major account terms will feel this is not needed and ignorance in any of these areas creates a potential “banana-skin”.

Corporate Information:

 Culture:” The way we do things round here”

 People

 Finance

 Future

 Structure

 Relationship

 Markets

 Activities

 Commercial Objectives

The third level of information is Project Information. This is the information we need in order to be able to sell a specific product, service etc. to the major account. It is the information which a good key account salesperson should be gathering all the time.

 Customer Requirements

 Decision Making Unit

 Our Offer

 Competition

These four levels of information will ensure that we understand both the big picture and the detail.

The Long Term Plan:

This divides into two parts. We need to have a clear set of objectives and we  need to have a strong set of strategies.

Objectives:

For a long time the only objectives I used for major accounts were very specific business objectives. “We will increase turnover by X%”. “We will introduce 2 new programmes and increase our profitability by Y%”. I began to understand that these business objectives were not enough. Multi-level objectives has proved very powerful in winning and keeping business. There are four levels of objectives and together they create objectives that excite and motivate the team and which are also very practical.

First we set visionary objectives. We picture what the result could be if everything went well. We discipline ourselves not to be limited by history or today’s issues. The outcome is a very strong vision of what the account could be like in 2 or 5 or 10 years.

Secondly we set relationship objectives. Everyone in the account team needs to know what we want the relationship to feel like. Imagine you could hear your customer talking about you in two years time. What would you want to hear them saying? It might be statements like “We trust them completely”, “They always give us new ideas”, and “Things do not go wrong often. But when they do they always make things right quickly.” We have found that these relationship objectives help us do everything in the way we should and in the way the customer wants. In the past it was more difficult to be consistent and customer-centred.

So far, we have talked about quite “soft” objectives – how we want things to feel. The first two objectives are about emotion and imagination but we need some “hard” objectives as well. The third level is the level of business objectives. These objectives are specific – very clear. “By the end of this year we will have increased sales of product A by 25% on the last year’s volumes and maintained our profit margins.” They are also measurable (if we cannot measure them, how will we know how we are progressing?). They must be agreed within the account team and maybe even agreed with the customer! They must be realistic – other people will be depending on our forecasts. Finally they must have a time-scale. Those business objectives provide the strong disciplines that we need to know in order to understand whether or not we are succeeding.

The final level of objectives is the level of stage goals. We may say that we will achieve a result of X by the end of year 2 within the key account. If this is to happen we need to be planning where we should be at important dates.

If the objective is to be selling five products to the customer by the end of next year and we’re selling two today we probably need to plan to have three in place by this October, four in place by next March and five by next September. The stage goals make sure we are on target and allow us to solve problems before they become impossible to solve.

We have found that using these multi-level objectives helps to motivate each major account team member but can also help us significantly increase the amount and quality of business being done with key accounts.

Strategies:

If objectives show us where we are trying to go, strategies show us how we can plan to get there. Strategy is part of the long term plan. It is not too detailed. It focuses on ways of working, not the detail of what will happen in this or that sales call.

When setting these strategies we have found it useful to ask three questions:

 What strategies do we need for this major account?

 What should each strategy say?

 How do we communicate them so that each member of the team is committed to them and carries them out?

The Short Term Plan:

It is important to think long term in major account management but there is a danger that we spend all our time analysing and planning and never do anything! The short term plan keeps us active and effective.

The long term plan is concerned with why (objectives) and how (strategy). The short term plan focuses on who does what, when.

The timescale for the short term plan will vary from business to business but many organisations find that a rolling three month plan reviewed monthly is very effective. This means that late in April you plan events for May, June and July. Late in May you plan for June, July and August etc. The first month is usually in detail, the second two months are more in outline.

The short term plan should focus not only on matters that are very urgent but also on those actions which are important but are not urgent. These might include developing more contacts in the major account, introducing colleagues, gathering information etc.

The short term plan helps ensure that the important things get done efficiently and effectively.

Traffic Lights:
                           
The fourth and final element of the key account model is the traffic lights.

This is a simple but powerful way of analysing any customer situation.

• What are the factors that are in your favour? E.g. Product is approved, strong personal relationship. These are the green lights.

• What are the factors that are absolutely against you, that stop you achieving an objective? E.g. Kicked off preferred list, operations manager swears not to use you until xyz improves. These are the red lights.

• What are the factors which could go either way? E.g. Change of Financial Director, they buy a new Company. These are the amber lights.
 
This simple approach has proved highly effective, even within our most sophisticated clients that needed an easy way of talking about the situation in their major accounts.

If you would like to read  the JF Major Account Model in full, you will find it here

Today’s News:

My good friend, Jeb Blount, CEO of Sales Gravy, best selling author of “Power Principles” and my publisher, is presenting a webinar next week – here are the details:

People Buy You Five Strategies For: Creating Loyal Customers, Increasing Sales, and Crushing Your Competition

What’s most important for your sales and business success?  Your price, collateral, marketing, response times, service guarantees, features and benefits, testimonials, the color of your business cards, job title, territory, or latest press write up?  What if I told you it was none of the above?

In this webinar Jeb Blount reveals five levers that are essential for increasing sales, creating customer loyalty, and crushing your competition.  Learn strategies that will help you:
Be Likable;
Connect;
Solve Problems;
Go the Extra Mile; and
Create Positive Emotional Experiences.

Wednesday October 22nd at 12 noon EDT

It’s FREE and you can register here

Tomorrow:I’ll be back again with JF Uncut and I’ll be looking at all the good things that have come out of the global financial crisis – oh yes, there are some consolations!

Wherever you are, have a great w/e – JF

The JF Guest Author Spot

Paul S. Goldner 

So much has been written about objection handling that you might wonder why I am going to revisit one of the oldest and potentially most challenging areas of sales.  The answer is simple; there is a better way to handle this time tested topic.

Background:  When I learned about objection handling early in my sales career, I was taught a simple, but relatively effective four step process:

• Step I – Listen fully and completely.

• Step II – Demonstrate an understanding of the customer’s (or prospect’s) position.  This is otherwise known as showing empathy.  Empathy does not mean that you agree with the customer.  It only means that you understand their position.

• Step III – Provide your viewpoint on the issue or situation.

• Step IV – Go for the close.  If you are prospecting for new business, “the close” means that you ask for the appointment, typically the goal of your prospecting call (assuming that you are a field seller).

If you are much further into the sales process, “the close” means asking for the business.

While the word close may have different meanings depending on where you are in the sales process, the four steps above provide a time tested process for handling objections.  But there is a better way!

When I learned about objection handling, I also learned about “objection handling techniques.  Many of you are, I’m sure, aware of the same techniques that I am.  These include:

• Feel, Felt Found – This technique, while often viewed as a sales technique with the word sales having a negative connotation, is quite effective in the right circumstance.  This technique is often quite useful in handling the price objection, for example.  You could say something along the lines of the following when responding to a typical price objection: 

I can understand how you feel.  Many of my best customers also felt that way but what they found, when they started to work with us is that our company gave them a much lower total cost of ownership due to our regional manufacturing and service facilities.

• Ask an open ended question – This technique is also quite effective and uses one of the best of sales tools available, the open ended question to probe for more information. 

Here again, the customer could say something along the lines of “your price is too high”. 

You could respond with an open ended question such as “how did you arrive at that conclusion?” or “what factors entered into your decision making process?” 

The interesting point about this objection handling technique is that it makes use of the open ended question to gather more information about the customer’s concern. 

The reason that you probably find yourself in this position because you did not ask enough open ended questions earlier in the sales process.  In essence, you are almost getting a second chance to make the sale.

• Present a different alternative – This is one of my favorite objection handling techniques though it is only a personal preference.  I am not advocating any one technique above the others.  The choice should be made by you in terms of what you feel most comfortable with and what you believe is most effective for you.

The good news about objection handling is that you typically do not need more than one response to a given objection.  In our examples around the price objection, you will see four equally impactful responses.  Depending upon your preference, you will typically select one of these four for your personal use in the field.

Using the different perspective or different alternative method, you could state that “your way of viewing this point is one way to look at the facts and my way is simply another (i.e.: the different alternative).  If you were to consider the time saving features of our web site, you will see that you get the best return on your investment with us.”

• Ask leading questions – Leading questions are often not discussed in a sales program.  I am not sure why but leading questions are very powerful in terms of handling objections.  In fact, that is what they are most often used for.

Leading questions are used typically in the middle of a sales process when you need to overcome customer objections.  Leading questions, if used correctly, can artfully cause your customer to consider new facts and circumstances when the prospect otherwise thought they were correct.

For example, you could respond by saying “have you considered the impact of our web site (see prior example) on the time it takes for you to process an order?” 

Here, instead of telling the customer that they made a bad decision or may be about to make a bad decision by using price, instead of value, as their decision making criterion, you artfully ask them a question that allows the customer to gracefully change their answer or decision without having to acknowledge they were wrong.

How many objections are there in sales?  I love to ask this question when I deliver a seminar that includes objection handling as one element of the seminar.  The answers range from a low of one to a high of infinite.

The lower guesses that I receive (say one to ten) are simply because the people in the program know that I am asking a trick question.  The answers of hundreds and thousands are the ones that the program participants really believe are correct. 

However, the true answer is that there are only FOUR OBJECTIONS in the whole world.  The challenge comes from the fact that there are many, many ways to say exactly the same thing. 

For example, staying with the price objection example, one way to state the price objection is for the customer or prospect to simply say that “your price is too high”.  However, another way to say the same exact thing is to say that “their (the competition’s) product comes with free shipping or installation.”

By making the latter remark, the customer is telling you that your product, plus the cost of shipping or installation is more expensive than the competition’s product. 

Likewise, the prospect could state that they are using the competition for the product you are selling and they are quite happy with the results they achieve.  They could also say that they handle the need for your product or service internally.  What this latter statement means is that the customer makes the product or delivers the service themselves rather than calling on a third party organization like yours to do the same thing.

As you can see, there are many ways to state exactly the same thing in terms of objection handling which leads me to understand that there are only four objections in sales; Price, Competition, Not Now and Will It Work?  Every other objection is just a version of one of these four basic objection categories.

Because of this, we are now prepared to give you “The Three Easy Steps to Handling Four Hard Objections.”

• Step I – Listen fully and completely.  This is the same first step as before because it is crucial to understand what the customer is telling you.

• Step II – Categorize the objection.  Here, you are asked to place the objection you just heard into one of our four categories; Price, Competition, Not Now and Will it Work?

• Step III – Provide the category response.  Step III is really where the great insight comes from.

Provide the Category Response:   Because there are only four objections in sales, irrespective or your industry, your geography or your job role (inside sales vs. outside sales), you need not memorize thousands of responses to what seems like thousands of objections.  Rather, you need only prepare one good response for each of the four category objections.

Since we have already provided four sample responses to the Price objection above, we will focus on giving you representative responses to the other three categories.

• Competition:  The customer says “we use your largest competitor”.  To this, you can respond by saying “That’s fine.  They are a good company, but what we have found is that we can often be an excellent supplement to some of the things that they provide.  For example … {you would have to complete this sentence for your response to be effective.  Your response is a function of the company and the industry that you work in.}”

• Will it work?  The customer says “have you ever successfully implemented this in our industry?”  To this, you can state “I can see why that would be a concern to you.  It would be a concern to me if I were in your position.  What I would like to do is to provide you with three references of companies in your industry where we have already successfully implemented this solution.”

• Not now:  The customer says “I don’t have a need for that now.”  Here, you can respond by saying “I can understand that that you don’t have a need at the moment but as long as I have you on the phone, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?  This way, when you do have a need, I will already have an understanding of your business.”

Here, what you are doing is using open ended questions to try to find some unstated customer need that you can act on now as a basis to get your face to face meeting. 

In this situation, I recommend using three open ended questions.  If you cannot get a meeting after three open ended questions, my recommendation is to set up this prospect for your next call to them a month or more into the future.

Keys to success:  There are two keys to success in implementing our new approach to objection handling.

The first is to understand what key phrases you should use when crafting each of your four category responses.  The key phrases have been highlighted in our responses above through bold and underlined text.  They are also presented here for your greater understanding:

• Price – Lowest total cost of ownership or greatest return on investment.

• Competition – Supplement, compliment or in addition to.

• Will it work? – Reference stories.

• Not now – Use three open ended questions to probe for additional reasons to meet when the initial reason that you used is not compelling to the prospect.

The second key to success is preparation.  Because there are only four objections in all of sales, there is no excuse not to prepare a response for each and to role play and practice your responses until you are as fluent as an Academy Award actor or actress.

Conclusion:  The 21st century has presented us with an unprecedented series of business events from the Dot Com crash in year 2000 to September 11th in year 2001 to the credit crisis in year 2008. 

If you were to go back and study the significant business events each and every year since the turn of the century, you will find that each year has been characterized by more than one, once in a lifetime event that has rocked the global economy.

And all of this is taking place under the technology revolution that started in the early 1980s and is still going incredibly strong today as the Internet and new technologies continue to evolve and develop.

Our response to these major economic events has got to be to consistently improve and grow as sales professionals.  We must find new ways to do old things that allow us to become more efficient, more effective, more professional and more value oriented.  Remember, the Law of Evolution tells us that only the strong will survive.

I hope that you found this new approach to objection handling to be refreshing and valuable.  May 2009 be a REDHOT year for all of you!

Paul S. Goldner is a noted author, entrepreneur, global sales strategist and professional speaker.  He is the author of the REDHOTSALES® series of books; Red Hot Cold Call Selling, 2nd Edition (AMACOM, 2006), Red Hot Customers, Selling Value (Chandler House Press, 1999), Red Hot Sales Negotiation (AMACOM, 2007) and Red Hot Selling (AMACOM, to be released in the spring of 2009).  Paul can be reached at  914-232-HOT2(4682),  914-232-4845,  Paul@REDHOTSALES.COM and WWW.REDHOTSALES.COM.

Today’s News: My good buddy, Clayton Shold over at Salesopedia is doing something different this week; instead of the usual interview, he and his erstwhile partner in crime, Dave Maynard, are interviewing each other, and discussing the evolvement of Salesopedia – it really is fascinating. You can listen in here.

Tomorrow: There can be no doubt that in these troubled times, whilst it is always essential to seek out new business opportunities, it is vital that we consolidate the clients/customers we already have, because they will be being targeted by our competitors: So tomorrow, I will share with you, more of the JF Major/Key Account Model: Here’s a snippet.

“As the Chinese general Liu-Ji wrote over 600 years ago:

“Action always starts with calculation. Before fighting, first asses the relative wisdom of the leadership, the relative strength of the enemy, the size of the armies, the lie of the land, and the adequacy of provisions. If you send troops out only after making these calculations, you will never fail to win.”

During the 1970s and 1980s, it was common for large corporations such as Hewlett Packard (Compaq) and IBM to put their new sales recruits through a twelve to eighteen-month training programme. I know, because I went through one myself, before designing the next generation.

Today, salespeople consider themselves “lucky” if they get an initial two weeks of training.

Have companies discovered that training doesn’t really pay off?

On the contrary! Training appears to be even more important today than years ago and it is getting more important all the time.

This extract from one of my favourite books ‘All Together Now’ by Sir John Harvey-Jones articulates the last point perfectly.

“There is practically no area of business where the difference between rhetoric and actuality is greater than in the handling of people. Every businessman will always claim that it is the people in his organisation who are the key to its success. Indeed it is difficult to argue anything else. A company consists of money (which can ebb and flow almost with the speed of light), of fixed investments (which by definition are obsolescent from the very moment that they have been made), and a range of products – and hopefully a market position – which are under continual attack from competitors who are trying to produce better and more desirable products for less costs.

What a company does have, and handled rightly can maintain, is the commitment, skills and abilities of its people. This is constantly attested to by the statements in company annual reports – I cannot remember the last time I failed to see the chairman’s last sentence paying tribute to his people. Yet despite all these facts our skills at enabling our people to give their best, and continuously beat the best that come against them, are remarkably tenuous. Moreover, this area of activity is seldom subject to the sort of analysis, debate and experimentation so readily devoted to fields such as production or marketing.

Even though we are all welded to the concept of continuous improvement, when did you last see an improvement plan for the management of your people? If you have seen one, I would bet long money that the plan referred to reduction of administration costs or overheads, rather than being a plan consciously adopted to enable more of our people to contribute more.”

In 1990, I had dinner with Sir John, and I was able to clarify a number of points with him face to face: He remains one of my most significant mentors.

Less Training With Higher Expectations
So, what’s going on here? How should a Sales Director reconcile the fact that many corporations today provide less upfront training for their sales staff than in years past, yet attach increasing importance to staff development?

This is hardly a surprise, because the current stock market ethos creates a powerful dis-incentive for firms to invest in their people. A firm’s investment of human capital, in the form of training and other forms of education of staff, is not separable from the general expenditure of a corporation. It therefore appears as a cost on the corporate balance sheet.

Difficult Times
Alas, many Sales Directors, having concluded that their best strategy is to cut back on training, look instead to hire people who already possess all the talent and skills needed to do the job and send them out into the field armed with what they know. But many Sales Directors know how difficult it is to find skilled salespeople. And anyway it is not possible to equate experience or seniority with success.

Huge Demands On Salespeople
The fact is that selling in today’s climate is both an art and a science. Selling is a profession that demands a far wider range of skills than ever before – skills that require continual fine-tuning and constant practice.

Lack Of Ongoing Reinforcement And Development
The operative word here is “ongoing”. Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there’s no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies, and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change.

This fact requires that salespeople are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

The key word here is frequent – long gone are the days, when professional salespeople could attend a “one-size fits all” program, and consider themselves qualified for life, that mentality, as I say often enough, is being relegated to the annals of selling history.

Today’s top performers, the “Top 5% Players” wake up and smell the coffee every day, before the majority have even stirred from their slumbers. 

Today’s News: Is again scarce, as I am still with clients in the “Heart Of England” – but I’ll make it up to you tomorrow.

I will just mention, that I made a decision with this client to introduce in a number of trusted and highly respected friends, all internationally renowned sales experts: The experiment is working superbly.

Last month, Leslie Buterin brilliantly addressed a small group of young sales professionals on “cold calling techniques” and today it was the turn of Paul McCord, to coach a group of more senior sales team members on “referral selling”

Despite the fact that he already had a mentoring appointment at 7.30am CT with his own client, he delivered a two hour session at 5am CT, to my group here in the UK. That is really quite an incredible thing to do, and indicates why Paul is another member of my “inner sanctum” of high commitment, high intelligence, high profile and high integrity friends, who will form the nucleus of something very special, which is due to launch very shortly – The Global Sales Council – a small, unique, band of brothers and sisters, with a “big-picture” international focus. More soon, I promise.

Oh, and the feedback from Paul’s session? – “Superb” “Extremely useful advice” “Excellent, thoroughly enjoyed it” ”Brilliant, what a really great presentation” “What a pleasure to listen to a master” 

I have another treat in store for the team tomorrow – Nigel Edelshain will be giving them an overview of the implications of Sales 2.0 - yep, I do spoil them.

Tomorrow: I have a real surprise for you on The JF Guest Author Spot – you will enjoy it!

The JF Guest Author Spot 

Email is so much easier to use for prospecting than the phone. You can write it at any time day or night. You don’t have to worry about being hung up on and you won’t catch your client “at a bad time.” But it’s also easily deleted with no response. When you put yourself into your email, your chances of getting prospects to respond escalate. You stand apart from the other sellers who blend together as Inbox clutter.

Sound hard? It doesn’t have to be.

You know that it’s your personality and message that distinguish you on the phone. But, when you write, you have to be really careful that the words you choose let your personality shine through. If your prospect can’t feel your personality, you’re no different than any other seller trying to get time on his calendar.

Here’s the story of two sellers I’ve been working with and their very different email prospecting results: Eric, who follows the email prospecting rules perfectly, and Mae, who breaks the rules and allows her personality to shine.

Eric sells IT maintenance services. He does most of his prospecting via email because he doesn’t like to cold call. He has an outstanding value proposition including impressive financial results clients have received in reducing unplanned IT expenditures.

Eric adapts his value proposition to the group he’s targeting and follows all the email prospecting best practices.

* Limits the length to 4-5 sentences

* Uses only 1 link

* Includes a tag line in his signature

* Provides his phone and contact information

* Includes an offer his prospect can respond to if interested

* Writes a compelling subject line

Eric has utilized best-practices tactics for email, but even quoting impressive financial results and a client testimonial, he only gets replies from 10% of his prospects. Look at how Mae both uses those tactics and then goes beyond the norm to ensure her personality helps her make stronger connections.

Mae sells IT software and servers. She does most of her prospecting via email because she sees how easy it is to grab prospects’ interest and for them to click reply. She identifies a small group of prospects to target, uses a value proposition like Eric’s, then breaks the prospecting rules by:

Mentioning something about herself in every email, from running in an upcoming marathon to the kids being out on fall break in two weeks

Consistently following up over the course of a month, gently pushing for a connection. Each time Mae forwards the previous emails with a general, but personal, note about the prospect: how busy they must be now that it’s fourth quarter; or, are the leaves turning?

Including a simple  emoticon in her third or forth email to reinforce something personal she’s written if it suits the content: Go Broncos!! 

Writing a personal subject line, such as: Can we talk?, or Checking your availability Tuesday at 3:00

Mae’s emails let her interest in talking with her prospect – and her personality – shine through. She becomes a real person who sat down at her PC to email this specific prospect. Her emails let prospects she’s never met know it’s her sending the email, not some marketing system, and in turn, as they realize it, they reply. As Mae continues to email them, a whopping 85% of prospects reply!

So how do you let your personality out and get 85% of your prospects to hit reply?

Mention a tidbit about yourself. One time I emailed a bunch of prospects during my birthday month and told them all it was my birthday that month! I got nearly a 100% reply rate and started a conversation with every one.

Picture your prospect and write as if you already know him. You know what job your prospect has, so talk about something he can relate to.

Make it easy to reply by suggesting a couple of times to talk. You’ve been friendly and now you’re eliminating the work in scheduling a time to talk. Of course he’s going to respond because you’ve given him a valuable reason to take you up on your offer.

As your prospect gets to know you through your emails, he will respond as he would to anyone else he knows personally. After an email conversation he’ll want to talk to you because he knows you, likes you, and feels comfortable with you. By combining best practices with your personality, your emails will become a productive prospecting tool – instead of a shot into the Inbox abyss.

Kendra Lee is author of “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group helps companies rapidly penetrate new markets, break into new accounts and shorten time to revenue with new products in the Small & Midmarket Business (SMB) segment. Ms. Lee is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. For more information, contact the company at +1 303.741.6636 or info@klagroup.com or visit www.klagroup.com.

For more articles like this one, visit www.klagroup.com . Click here to sign up for the free KLA Group Strategic View e-newsletter.

Today’s News: I am onsite with clients, so you know what that means – news is brief: I did sign up today, to do a webinar for Landslide with Jill Konrath on November 12th – it’s FREE, and I’ll give you all the details in a couple of days.

Tomorrow: “Some Salespeople Have Ten Year’s Selling Experience; Most Have One Year’s Experience Ten Times” a brief extract……..

“During the 1970s and 1980s, it was common for large corporations such as Hewlett Packard and IBM to put their new sales recruits through a twelve to eighteen-month training programme.

Today, salespeople consider themselves “lucky” if they get an initial two weeks of training.

Have companies discovered that training doesn’t really pay off? On the contrary! Training appears to be even more important today than years ago and it is getting more important all the time.”………. more tomorrow.

Even companies that enjoy the luxury of clearly superior products, realise that those products will not sell themselves. As a minimum, companies need a sales force comprised of skilled professionals who understand the application of the product range, have an in-depth knowledge of their customer base, market sector and of course the competition. But even all these elements together are not sufficient to ensure optimum performance levels and profitable sales.

So What Is A Sales Process?

Put quite simply, it is a set of procedures, which determine how a company wishes its sales team to operate – “The way we do things around here”

The most successful organisations have implemented a process and an all-encompassing framework for defining performance standards. This involves assessing, appraising, developing, reviewing, providing continual feedback on performance, as well as implementing efficient and relevant process tools

Lack Of Direction

Far too frequently, competent salespeople are expected to channel their own activities into the areas that will produce the quickest wins. Unfortunately, left to their own devices, they don’t develop and pursue a formal strategy for moving a sale tangibly forward during each prospect interaction, neither do they have a clearly defined set of goals against which to measure the progress they are making Typically, their judgment is based on gut reaction and is purely subjective i.e., “Oh yes, I’ll get that order, he likes me”, because salespeople have to be optimistic by nature. They end up “dancing around” with prospects, in the hope that eventually they will get to their chosen point on the dance-floor i.e. -the sale. In this scenario, the customer has complete control.

A Discouraged Sales Force Diminishes Sales Efficiency

When their efforts don’t pay off immediately, even experienced salespeople tend to become discouraged. They spend more and more time struggling to meet their sales quotas and working less and less efficiently.

Feeling increasingly powerless to influence prospects, they may also begin to press for a sale in ineffective ways – for instance, by arranging formal product presentations to prospects that they have not even qualified or who haven’t yet agreed that they need the solution. They allow prospects to milk them for information without getting a commensurate commitment first – and even worse, they fail to defend margin and make unprofitable sales in order to achieve quotas. The details of what goes wrong differs for each individual salesperson but the net result is always the same, a discouraged sales force, diminished sales efficiency (i.e. wasted investment of sales time and resources that fail to produce high quality sales) and, consequently, increased cost of sales which inevitably drastically reduces net profit.

What’s the bottom line? Sales never result efficiently and with maximum revenue unless the sales process is continually and closely managed. But before the sales process can be managed, it must be manageable.

Developing A Consultative Sales Process

From the Sales Director’s perspective, developing a consultative sales process means developing a comprehensive, formal, realistic and step-by-step outline of what salespeople are expected to do. This is just as appropriate for internal and totally reactive sales teams as it is for external pro-active ones. This outline includes the activity and calls they must make, the relationships they should establish with prospects, the documentation they should use in sales calls, the issues they must discuss and resolve with prospects and the tangible goals they must achieve in sequence along the path to each sale, in order to achieve maximum effectiveness.

It’s only when such an outline is in place that sales management can be in a position to:
 Monitor the sales force’s activity, progress and results,
 Assess issues as they arise and take appropriate action,
 Redirect individual sales representatives’ efforts efficiently.

Although many organisations appreciate the importance of being customer-focused and talk in vague terms about their “consultative sales process”, surprisingly few sales leaders invest the time and energy required to develop a formal sales process – a process that is at once detailed and resilient enough to guide their salespeople and permit effective management of their efforts.

Overcoming Implementation Intertia

Even when a consultative sales process has been developed, understood by sales managers, written down and circulated, it’s often not enough. No matter how brilliant, a sales process will only be effective to the extent it is followed and used by frontline sales staff. And this is where most organisations fall down: overcoming inertia – among managers and salespeople alike – and implementing the process. The hurdles that must be cleared in order to get people throughout the organisation to actually implement it are enough to cause Sales Directors to tear their hair out. But a select few, of the very best, have found some innovative strategies that have enabled them to achieve the Holy Grail: Sustained sales growth achieved efficiently, reliably and by design.

Today’s News: What a great reception we received to our first two JF Uncut posts at the w/e: If you missed them, just scroll down.

The next Top Sales Experts ebook, has been delayed and will now launch next Tuesday – October 21st – I am certain the wait will be worth it!

Over on Top 10 Sales Articles this week, we again have a very strong ten nominees – so be sure to check them out here

Tomorrow: On the JF Guest Author Spot, is the very wise and very smart Kendra Lee, who last week sent me this message:

“Now for a story of how small the world is thanks to the internet and those of us who network. This week, I was working with a new client in a planning session for his sales managers. We had a facilitation session to get their buy-in and agreement on their next steps. During the session the EVP of Sales pulled out a definition of consultative selling “from a fellow named Jonathan Farrington” and quoted it to me!!!! It was so cool to say, “I know Jonathan well. We work together.”

Now, that is cool!

 JF Uncut

ATCA:  The Asymmetric Threats Contingency Alliance is a philanthropic expert initiative founded in 2001 to resolve complex global challenges through collective Socratic dialogue and joint executive action to build a wisdom based global economy.  Adhering to the doctrine of non-violence, ATCA addresses asymmetric threats and social opportunities arising from climate chaos and the environment; radical poverty and microfinance; geo-politics and energy; organised crime & extremism; advanced technologies — bio, info, nano, robo & AI; demographic skews and resource shortages; pandemics; financial systems and systemic risk; as well as transhumanism and ethics.  Present membership of ATCA is by invitation only and has over 5,000 distinguished members from over 120 countries:  including 1,000 Parliamentarians; 1,500 Chairmen and CEOs of corporations; 1,000 Heads.

I consider myself fortunate to be an invited member of this group, and here are our collective thoughts about how it’s going to be, as we cast our eyes to the very near future:

 
Here is a consolidated digest of the key “Opportunities and Threats”
 
Opportunities
 
.  Humanity is moving with hiccups towards greater humility, acting in concert and collective thinking.  Nation states are recognising their inter-dependence within the global community of sovereign nations.
 
.  Small is beautiful.  The way out of economic difficulty is through the creativity and the ingenuity of small to medium size businesses as they have the ability to create employment and reinvent processes in all kinds of economic conditions.
 
.  The global economy will no longer be driven by two or three trading blocs, as other smaller trans-national and regional engines are gaining significance. 
 
.  Watch out for solid deposit based financial institutions with excellent capital adequacy ratios and corporations with extremely low gearing, exemplary geographical diversification and healthy profits.  These entities are potentially big winners from the crisis.
 
.  For those entities and individuals who bear the difficulties and remain sanguine, asset acquisition suddenly looks affordable and tending towards value-for-money over time.
 
.  Inflation has been a cause of concern, however it will come down in the near future.
 
.  Savings:  Even as the global financial mayhem will lead to a slowdown in investment flows, domestic savings will have to rise in lock step to take care of strategic investments.  The mi2gIntelligence Unit forecast is that looking at the demographics over the next decade, all countries will have to move towards higher saving rates to remain competitive and to stop the continuous erosion of lifestyle quality.
 
.  The use of advanced technologies — bio, info, nano, robo & AI — is going to increase in industry and business to reduce costs and light weight yet strong man-made materials will replace natural raw materials significantly causing commodity prices to decline further and energy efficiency to increase considerably.  The innovators and purveyors of these technologies will benefit from the present global crisis in the years ahead.
 
.  Clean energy, sustainable technologies, microfinance, water and eco-friendly infrastructure will settle as key sectors for the coming “Golden Age” and remain growth areas — post the inevitable correction — as the world addresses climate chaos, radical poverty and energy efficiency challenges.
 
.  The world will tend towards multi-polarisation as the key shapers of the 21st century economic architecture are thrown into sharp relief.  East Asia is the real place of dynamism and growth action now.  Both China and India will continue to remain major engines albeit with lower than double digit growth.  Japan’s power and influence may also increase.
 
.  Japan, China and India have a unique opportunity to consolidate themselves in leadership positions in the global political and economic “Power Architecture”.  The American, European and Russian crises may be Japan, China and India’s chance to improve their global significance even further given their relative strength and competitive advantage.
 
.  Japan, China and India should be able to weather the storm through domestic capital formation, resilience and rising strategic overseas investment plays.  The combination of high saving rates and highly functional capital markets should propel the countries forward albeit with much lower growth.
 
.  Boardrooms from Tokyo to London and Beijing to New York are enthused about India Inc, especially in regard to infrastructure projects.   India’s economy is based on strong fundamentals like a globally competitive services and manufacturing sector backed by domestic demand driven growth generated by 800 million people with spending power. 
 
.  The road ahead for countries including the Middle East is to go further down the path of globalisation.  These events should not be used to justify not engaging with the world. It is in the interest of each sovereign nation and the world’s collective interest that all continue with their global engagement and coming together.
 
.  The ongoing financial crisis is a clear indicator that the global parking lot for both long-term and short-term capital is going to modify, the US and US dollar are going to remain key but they are not going to be the only preferred destination and currency. There is a great opportunity for Japan and the Japanese Yen.  China and India may also remain preferred destinations for capital at the expense of other emerging nations.
 
.  We are moving towards a free and fair world trading system albeit with hiccups.  A multilateral rule-based system established by the World Trade Organisation is, therefore, as much in the interest of emerging countries as in the interest of established countries. It is important to get rid of non-tariff barriers which make it difficult for a country’s market to be penetrated even when tariffs are zero.
 
Threats
 
.  Ignorance, hubris and arrogance in the corporate, individual and government spheres.  Leadership based on “I” and not “We” — me-first and me-last as opposed to our mutual interest and joint well being!
 
.  Inflation has increased input costs, which has trickled down to higher prices in stores. However, in the medium to long term the threat of deflation across all asset classes is much larger because of massive and unprecedented demand destruction.
 
.  Businesses and consumers are being hit by a double whammy: a decreasing cash flow and a dip in the value of assets on the balance sheet.  This may continue to sap confidence.
 
.  One cannot have the world’s major economies slowing down and their impact not being felt worldwide. However, it is not a zero-sum game.
 
.  Recovery from the global financial crisis is going to be a highly turbulent long and slow process.  Exchange rates are more volatile. Commercial and residential real estate values may continue to fall for some time.
 
.  In order to emerge from the current crisis — the worst to have hit the banking and insurance industry in the past 70 years — the balance sheets of financial institutions have to be repaired step by step.  Financial institutions are leveraged between 25 to 35 times. A long slow, painful process of de-leveraging needs to take place.  The troubles of the financial services sector have dried up the available money supply.  Government assistance and partial nationalisation may or may not do the trick.
 
.  The possibility of surprise asymmetric threats — black swans — emerging in the key ATCA areas is rising.  Those areas are climate chaos and the environment; radical poverty; geo-politics and energy; organised crime & extremism; advanced technologies — bio, info, nano, robo & AI; demographic skews and resource shortages; pandemics; financial systems and systemic risk; as well as transhumanism and ethics.
 
.  Watch out for a potential destabilisation in China from within as a result of significant economic slow down and regional differences as well as grass roots disenchantment.  The lack of access to quality new and information from across the globe in an open way is likely to increase misunderstandings.
 
.  Watch out for the vulnerability of the Euro currency as the fragile financial union of European nation states demonstrates disjointed and haphazard actions to resolve the financial crisis on a case-by-case and knee jerk basis.  There are likely to be multiple clashes between Euro-zone nation states and the European Central Bank as the going gets tough.  This may make the Euro currency vulnerable.
 
.  Watch out for the potential destabilisation of nuclear-armed Pakistan because of the desperation of the Taliban and the ongoing NATO war in Afghanistan.  The Iran nuclear stand off and the Middle East situation in regard to Israel also have the combined potential to create their own global flash points without much notice.
 
.  Russia may use the present global financial crisis to meet long term geo-political objectives such as the swift action seen in regard to Iceland.

Final thought for today from me: The last seven decades have been about how much money one can make.  The next decade may be about how much money one cannot lose!

Tomorrow:It’s business as usual – I am off my soap-box, so be sure to join me