Today and more and more in the future, all selling is social and the connection points to all your

relationships will involve a component of online.

To thrive in the future you will need to learn to connect, network and foster relationships online.

Here are a few statistical wake-up calls:

Nearly half of all people report socializing online more than they do face-to-face.

You don’t have to LIKE the statistics, but you will have to deal with them.

Here is another, 61% of LinkedIn users use it as their primary professional networking site. Every single second of every day, one new user joins LinkedIn.

What does that mean to you? read more »

In the last post we discussed the unconquerable power of confidence. Let me now pass along a couple ideas from two known experts on the topic.

First is Sam Horn, who wrote the book Concrete Confidence. She suggested, if you are looking to act more confident and be more confident, to “learn to speak confidently.”

I believe that is true. Your ability to speak clearly, persuasively and confidently does wonders to the totality of your confidence in general.

It doesn’t matter whether your business requires you to speak in front of groups or not; being able speak confidently and persuasively is a critical element to your greater success.

And like any skill you want to develop, you need to study it, practice it and do it a lot.

So here are my suggestions:

1. Go buy three books on becoming a better communicator, one-on-one and in front of groups.
2. Join

Toastmasters or some other networking or Mastermind group that will require you to present your ideas in front of a group (meaning practice).
3. I challenge you to offer your speaking, training or lectures for free at

high schools, universities, local service groups or other places (more practice).

Almost every hall of fame speaker I know started off scared to death to speak in front of small groups, but you’d never know it. Why? Because they did exactly the kind of thing I just outlined to you.

Don’t allow yourself to settle for mediocrity in this area. Stretch, grow and improve in your ability to speak confidently. It will do wonders to the confidence of your entire person.

Next, Debbie Ford, who is best known for Shadow Process, and her latest book, Courage: Overcoming Fear & Igniting Self-Confidence.

Debbie offers this simple formula: read more »

There’s one attribute that can help you overcome even the most disastrous of circumstances.

Even if you are faking it.

What is that one attribute?

The story below reveals it…

A once-successful business owner found himself deep in debt and could see no way out. The creditors were closing in on him and his key suppliers were demanding payment or they were going to cut him off, which would shutter his business.

Desperate and distraught, he found himself sitting on a park bench fretting about his situation trying to think of what to do to save his company from its impending bankruptcy.

Just then an old man walked up and sat down next to him. The old man said, “I can see something is troubling you son. What is it?” After listening to the business owner’s woes, the old man said, “I believe I can help you.”

He asked the man his name, wrote out a check and pushed it into his hand saying, “Take this money. Meet me here exactly one year from today and you can pay me back at that time.” Then he turned and disappeared as quickly as he had come.

The business owner looked down to see the check in his hand was for $500,000, signed by John D. Rockefeller, one of the richest men in the world. The business owner thought, “All my money worries have been erased in an instant!”

Nevertheless, the business owner decided to put the check in his safe first, before going to immediately cash it. He thought, just knowing it was there as backup gave him strength to work out a way to save his business.

With renewed optimism, he negotiated better deals, got extended terms of payment and pushed through on a few big sales. Within a few months, he was out of debt and making money once again.

Exactly a year later he returned to the park with that un-cashed check. The old man did not appear for some time, yet the business executive decided to wait for a while more. Sometime later the old

man came along but seemed unmindful of the business owner.

He stopped the old man and was about to hand over the check with enthusiastic words of gratitude when he saw a nurse come running up to grab the old man. read more »

I recently had lunch with a CEO friend, Mark, who owns a commercial construction management company valued at about a half billion dollars.

I negotiated to pay the lunch tab if he’d tell me the secret to his fantastic success.

For the price of a spinach salad with salmon, he handed over the sales strategy that’s been key to his success—ever since 10th grade, when he first applied it to impress a girl (of course).

Mark came up with the strategy during the annual Student Council candy bar drive. The winner got a trip to Washington, D.C., but Mark’s interest was Cindy Mason, the reigning champ.

Cindy was a senior; the most popular, most beautiful girl in school; with a three-year winning streak and a burning desire to make it four. In 15-year old- guy logic, Mark thought winning the candy bar drive would capture Cindy’s affection, too.

As soon as he got his first box, he approached his three best friends who,instead of buying candy bars, convinced Mark to give them candy bars for free. He then went to his brother and sister, who went “halfsies” on one bar. His calorie-counting parents turned him down flat, explaining he needed to figure it out on his own (parents,take note).

In just one afternoon, Mark had exhausted his entire network and his sales were in the red.

But Mark remained determined. One night, his parents had friends Bob and Nancy over for dinner. Mark suggested candy bars for dessert (for the bargain price of only $1each). With caramel dripping down his chin, Bob said, “You know Mark,these are really good.If you give me a box, I could probably sell them at my office.”

The next day, Bob came back with an empty box, an envelope full of cash and a request for more.

That was Mark’s eureka moment!  read more »

Now I don’t like this fact. I would philosophically argue against this fact. But it is a fact… and the evidence is all around us.

Who makes the best-tasting hamburger in the world? Doubtful you’d anoint McDonald’s with that title, but they outsell everyone else by many billions of dollars.

What is the best wine in the world? Certainly Franzia (which comes in a box!) wouldn’t be your first or 100th guess, but it is the best selling.

What is the highest-quality bottled water? If you tested it, it certainly wouldn’t be Aquafina (owned by PepsiCo), Dasani (owned by Coca-Cola) or Poland Spring (owned by Nestle Waters), but those are the number 1, 2 and 3 best selling.

Nine times out of 10 it is not the best or highest-quality clothing line, automobile, restaurant, CPA firm, real estate agent, lawyer, furniture manufacturer, refrigerator, etc. that sells the most or becomes the biggest—it is the ones who market themselves the best.

This is the business axiom that I witness all around me every day:
The ultimate success of a product or service is 10% the quality of the product and 90% the quality of the marketing.

Now while I don’t necessarily LIKE that fact, as I believe the success of a product or service should be what’s most important and it should stand ENTIRELY on the value it delivers, that is just not how it works in reality.

Even if you are simply an individual in a sales organization this is true. It is not necessarily the best, the highest quality, highest class, most refined people that make it to the top… it is the ones who market themselves, network themselves, position themselves with credibility amongst their peers and demonstrate their growing and developing selves to the circle around them that end up at the top of the sales organization.

Now, let me also add this: If your product or service is bad… or even if you are bad, unethical or without integrity, no amount of marketing will make you or your product or service successful—especially in this day and age of Yelp, Twitter, Facebook and Google. You and your product or service reputation will die a certain and expedient viral death.

Here is a not so funny (literally) great example of this: read more »