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 INSIGHTS & JOY

A business newsletter with Pizzazz!

"We help leaders become better marketers
using a holistic business approach!"

October 2006

When working with a team, especially a sales team, allow time for honest individual expression in a non-threatening environment. Selling an individual idea to a workgroup gives the person an opportunity to hone both thinking and presentation skills. This month, I recall one way to gain involvement and develop ideas for improvement. It worked like a charm!


    
 
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IN THIS ISSUE

Ask sales reps to sell their peers!

Smiles make the day!

$ Million Marketing Tips

Amazing Facts!

Marketing Facets - The Market Focused Guide to Company Analysis

Ask sales reps to sell their peers!

Back in the days when I was leading a group of sales professionals, sales meetings tended to be pretty one-sided. I spoke. My marketing reps sat, listening to goals and results while keeping an eye on my boss to try to determine his mood. All of the reps were graduate engineers and they were enthusiastic marketers. Occasionally, someone would ask a question or make a comment, but I always got more ideas, comments, gripes, and questions outside of the formal meeting. Nobody wanted to speak up when my supervisor was listening for fear of making themselves look bad.
 
I was determined to change the productivity of my sales meetings and bring the team closer together. For starters, I knew that progress was unlikely so long as my boss was in attendance. Now, how do you toss your boss out of the meeting?
 
The answer was pretty easy. After discussing my intent and reasons with my supervisor, I changed the usual meeting agenda. Introducing my boss at the start of the meeting allowed him to give us all an overview of total division results. He got to comment on my district's performance. He took questions (there weren't many) and generally handed out praise for victories. Then, I covered more specific district objectives and results, new programs, product changes, etc. So far, nothing new, right?
 
At a meeting break, the boss agreed that he would leave our meeting to handle other pressing affairs. When our meeting resumed, the only people allowed were me and my marketing team. No visitors, no bosses. At that point, I sat and listened while each member of my team individually took the floor. The rules were simple. Each rep got exactly ten minutes to present a subject to his peers. The only other rule was that the topic had to be business related (no presentations on the speaker's good looks, amorous adventures, etc.). For each presenter, the object was to 'sell' his peers on supporting the subject being presented. Peers could ask questions or comment following each presentation. More importantly, I was not allowed to respond to or debate a presenter, only to listen and take notes of issues or ideas for follow-up.  
 
Each team member got to practice presentation skills in front of his most critical audience, while I got to listen for good ideas and the real concerns of my team members. Results were immediate and gratifying! Team members put extra effort into their sales meeting presentations, because they wanted to impress their peers and because they finally had the opportunity to formally present a subject that had probably absorbed a lot of their mind during the inevitable "windshield time" every outside representative endures. Often, flip charts, diagrams, and typewritten handouts appeared. This was back before PowerPoint and videotape. The time limit created well-structured presentations and improvement ideas.
 
I followed up on any gripes, along with the positive ideas, but never attempted to exact revenge for any personal criticism. This was also in the days before the advent of 360 degree evaluations. I guess my team was ahead of its time. The fact that I was willing to take their remarks as positive and helpful, rather than negative, welded our team closely together.
 
When working with a team, especially a sales team, allow time for honest individual expression in a non-threatening environment. Selling an individual idea to a workgroup gives the person an opportunity to hone both thinking and presentation skills. As leader, you will be pleasantly surprised by the number and quality of improvement ideas that come from those who are anxious to contribute based on their personal experience and intellect.
 

Smiles make the day!   
Who's got an idea? Who's listening?

Facts, when combined with ideas, constitute the greatest force in the world.

Good ideas need a landing gear as well as wings!

A mind stretched by a new idea never returns to its original dimensions.

Each person has the chance to improve, but some just don't believe in taking chances!

In this country you are privileged to free speech, but that's as far as the Constitution goes. It doesn't guarantee listeners.

The largest room in the world is the room for improvement.

You win more friends with your ears than with your mouth.

Nobody ever listens themselves out of a job.

Take a tip from nature. Your ears aren't made to shut, but your mouth is!

An idea is more than information; it is information with legs and it's going somewhere.

If you can't think up a new idea, try finding a way to make better use of an old one.

Ideas are not truly alive if they remain locked in a single mind.

The best way to put an idea across is to wrap it up in another person.

Unexpressed ideas are of no more value than kernels in a nut before it has been cracked!


$ Million Marketing Tips

TIP: Business buyers are no more logical than consumers. There are emotional elements in every sale.

TIP: You're selling a relationship, one person at a time. Each person is buying more than a product to satisfy a need at a price...so you need to understand all the person is buying and all that you are selling! 


Amazing Facts!

1. Teddy Roosevelt, the only president born in New York City. 
 
2. Careful, you'll use about 200 muscles each time you take a step.
 
3. Who invented Daylight Savings Time? Benjamin Franklin.
 
4. One speck of dust contains a quadrillion atoms.
 
5. Twice as many people live in Shanghai, China as in New York City!
 
6. Who invented the rocking chair? Benjamin Franklin.
 
7. The average American male spends 2,965 hours shaving in his lifetime.
 
8. Most popular hard liquor in Scotland? Vodka!
 

Marketing Facets - The Market-focused Guide to Company Analysis

Marketing Facets is a practical resource for those involved in determining the current health of a company and gauging its future prospects. I designed my 103-page guidebook to be a supplement to other evaluation procedures and information normally gathered during a thorough due diligence or business valuation process. The workbook takes a holistic approach, assembling facts and management assumptions in key areas to help the analyst form and support conclusions. 

Marketing Facets is a valuable resource to private investment fund managers, individual investors, venture capital specialists, investment banks, and valuation specialists. Marketing Facets can also serve as a guide for C-level executives who wish to perform their own company analysis as part of normal business planning, or in advance of efforts to refinance, acquire or divest.

Marketing Facets is available in electronic form via the Internet, on CD/ROM, or in print with a ring binder. 
> Electronic in MS Word .doc or Adobe .pdf format via the Internet @ $79.95
> CD/ROM format @ $85.95 including U.S. shipping and handling
> Ring binder version and CD/ROM combo @ $99.95 including U.S. shipping and handling

Consulting is also available. Please contact me for additional information.
Telephone: 972.931.7993  Fax 972.931.0542
  rpmorgan@morganmarketingsolutions.com.
 


P.S. Ninety-five percent of our engagements originate as a referral from helpful people like you! If you know someone who:

> Wants to develop a more productive marketing program, or
> Needs help building and implementing an effective operational business plan,

I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss the situation with you.

Our ideal client is a business owner or CEO between 30 and 60+ years old. Usually with a financial, engineering, or production background. Who is often impatient, and interested in improving company performance. Comes alive when you ask, "How's business?" He, or she, is practical but also enjoys the finer things in life. So, you may see my ideal client driving a Lexus or SUV to Neiman Marcus...and to Sam's Club. Who do you know that fits this description?

A client speaks:  "Nice job with the group. You brought your worth to the program Saturday afternoon late by requiring the action plans with dates for accomplishment. Thanks."
Jimmy Moore, AmeriCAD, Inc.

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© 2006 Morgan Marketing Solutions, Inc. All rights reserved. Other distribution permitted with proper attribution.


Richard P. Morgan CMC
Morgan Marketing Solutions, Inc.
Two Galleria Tower, Suite 10008
13455 Noel Road, Dallas, TX 75240-6620

Telephone 972.931.7993  fax 972.931.0542
email
rpmorgan@morganmarketingsolutions.com
www.morganmarketingsolutions.com

Author, Marketing Facets - The Market-focused Guide to Company Analysis


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