Build a sale force

A sale culture is not a fancy phrase or slogan you hang on your walls. It’s the collective actions the sales leaders and sales people are performing that result in an environment of such. Building the environment is very important! Because it will affect the behaviour of the people in it that ultimately bring in the results.

There is also the ‘last minute’ culture where sales people wait till the end of the month or quarter before they start moving out to bring in the sales. You know what’s the end result of this culture? Buyers know your sales people are desperate to meet targets in those timelines and guess what they will tell your sales people,” I can help you with those sales, just give me a better price.” Boom! Discounting practice, bad margins and low profits.

Another terrible one is the ‘we are cheapo’ culture. We sell on price is their corporate motto. They don’t sell on value, they don’t focus on all other things that make them different. That’s the fault of the sales leaders of course. Main reason? Lack of training.

Here’s two good cultures:’ learning’ culture. I manage to build this culture when I was a sales manager. The first step to build a powerful sales culture is the leader. The leader is live by the culture you want to build. Everyday, yes, everyday, whenever enter the office start off with a short 1-5 minutes motivational speech. It’s not a bashing speech, it’s a motivational speech and my team is eager to listen to what I have to say. And in my sales meetings, every member of the team must give a short speech too, meaning they need to go read something from somewhere in order to have stuff to say. This is practiced regularly thus creating a learning culture.

Another good culture is the ‘brand congruent’ culture. This is the one you want to build. It simply means the culture reflects what you want it to be. Do you want to create a professional image sales force? Do you want to create a high energy sale force? Do you want to create a Duty focused sales force where they are responsible for their actions and accountable for their results? Here are 5 steps for you to build a sales culture:

1. Know what kind of a sales culture you want to build.

2. If you already have a sales culture, know what has to stop to build your new sales culture.

3. What new activities must the team live by and do that is aligned with the new sales culture?

4. When do you want it to happen?

5. What must you personally as a sales leader change first before implementing change in the team?

(Copy from SME & Enterepreneurship Magazine - Hanzo Ng)

The Richest Man in the world-When we decide to do something, we do it quickly.

Carlos Slim Helu, born on January 28, 1940 in Mexico City , Helu was the fifth of six children to Lebanese immigrant parents Julian Slim Haddad and Linda Helu. In 1902, in attempt to avoid the military draft, Julian fled the Ottoman Empire and wound up in Mexico – at the age of 14 and speaking no Spanish. Eight years later, the Mexican Revolution unleashed itself throughout the country, during which time nearly one in every 15 Mexicans would be killed. But, not Julian.

Helu’s father opened a general store in 1911 in Mexico City’s central district. While others were warning him to leave the violence, Julian insisted on staying. He purchased prime real estate at rock bottom prices in the Zocalo district as others quickly and eagerly sold all they could. It was a gamble that paid off in the end, and a lesson his young son would always carry with him.

Helu’s business acumen began to develop at an early age. When he was just 11 years old, he invested in government savings bonds and kept a detailed ledger to track all of his purchases. By the time her was 15, he had become a part shareowner of largest bank in Mexico.

Helu grew up to study engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico., graduating in 1961. However, he realised that his true calling was business and so few years later, he set up a stock brokerage. Working 14-hours day, Helu slowly moved into the insurance industry. He was becoming a modest success but it was not until the 1980s that Helu would make a real name for himself.

In 1982, Mexico found itself in the middle of a massive debt crisis. All the banks were struggling and everyone was trying to get out of the stock market as quickly as they could. Everyone that is, except Helu, who decided there was no better time to pounce. He had learned the lesson of hunting for bargains from his father, and he was not about to let this opportunity pass him by. Helu quickly snapped up the cigarette distributor Cigatam, as well as a coffee and gift shop at rock bottom prices. However, it was his next acquisition that would become his greatest to date, and the one that would help Helu go down in the history books.

Helu’s big break came in the 1990s, when the Mexican government succumbed to pressure from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund to liberalize its county’s economy. A massive campaign of privatization began, with the government selling off the hundreds of companies that were state-owned. Among those companies was Telefonos de Mexico (Telmex), the Mexican national telephone company.

In Telmex, Helu saw the potential for a huge hit. At the time, he had a close relationship with then-accusation that the Mexican President gave him any special treatment, Helu was able to buy Telmex from the government for US$1.7 billion in a deal that saw him resourcefully partner up with Southernwestern Bell Corporation and France Telecom . At the time, auditors had valued Telmex at US$10-12 billion. Helu had gotten a good deal.

Accusations of preferential treatment gained increasing strength after 1993, when Helu attended a gala fundraising event and made a very strategic and public announcement. He, along with 30 other high profile Mexican business leaders, pledged US$25 million each to Gortari’s political party. Whatever the truth, Helu took control of Telmex and established a landline monopoly throughout the country, as well as developed control of 70 percent of Mexico’s long distance market.

Since the 1990 acquisition, Helu has continued to use his Telmex profits to fuel his other investments and become a leader of the digital age. He sought out struggling – and cheap – companies where he thought he could bring renewed vision and turn things around. By bringing a stronger focus on the bottom line to his companies, Helu began developing a reputation for efficient cash management and implementing strategies of aggressive growth.

Helu’s biggest holding is America Movil, which he grew to become Latin America’s biggest mobile phone service provider with more than 41 million subscribers. His Grupo Carso, which owns Telmex, also has control of more than 80 percent of Grupo Sanborns, which includes the Sanborns chain of department stores and a majority stake in Sears Roebuck de Mexico.

In Mexico, Grupo Carso has become a leader in everything from bakeries to railroads and retail chains , In 2000, Helu strove less successfully to enter the US market by acquiring the troubled CompUSA for US$1 billion. After cutting 1,500 jobs and divesting the company of some of its business, Helu was beginning to seesome success. However, in 2002, after not realizing as positive results as he had hoped for, Helu decided to spin off his 51 percent stake in the company to two new holding companies.

Helu’s companies now make up roughly half of the value of the Mexican stock exchange, and are the equivalent to seven percent of the country’s GDP. He recently handed control of Grupo Carso over to his three sons, but Helu remains a powerful presence.

(Copy from SME & Entrepreneurship Magazine- Jennifer Lee & William Ng)

Let me be your ...little star

There are so many uncertainty in our life. Sometimes, we feel lost because we do not know what to do next. Life is tough, there are so many hurdles. No matter how tough the life is, we still need to go through it.

Remember you teach me sing 'ABCD' and 'Twinkle, twinkle little star'.
Remember you force to make phone call, just want to help me built up confident.
Remember you accompany me when I was down and stress.

No matter how tough the life is, hope you can keep accompany me.
And I will be your little star, lighten the road for you.

Unique

Sir Alan said that 'Nobody like me because I am unique'.
Every CEO is unique, every boss is unique.
How to make me become unique?
Shorter can be unique??

Rubbish: Saving

Saving is a good habit for everone, however, after we put our money in bank, bank will use our money as loan to other people. Then bank earn the interest rate, but just give us a little interest.

A lot people feel safe to put money in bank and happy to earn little interest, but when financial crisis those debtors can not pay their debt. Bank will declare loss or bankrupt. If bank bankrupt we will lose all the money that we put in bank.

So why we put money in bank, let bank use our money to make them wealth and when problem happen, we have to take the responsiblity.

We saving is a good habit, however, in rich people minds our saving money is a tool for them to get richer.

Rubbish: Learn to make money

I am sure that everybody want to be rich. Everyone need money that is a basic need. There is a way to motivate you and to give you a brainwave.

How to earn money fast? How to come out a good ideal to earn money?

Easy!!! Guys, you have to spend all you money. No matter you are poor or rich you have to know spending. After spending you have no money left then you are step in the way to earn money. After you spend all the money you will feel nervous and scare because you have no money. At that time, you will know the important of money, the need of money. Then the feeling will force you to earn money. At this moment, you will come out a lot of ideals to earn money.

Failure is the mother of success, never fall down before, never know how to stand up.

When you have no money on you, the feeling will push you.

Rubbish: Spending and Saving

Spending represent a country purchase power, if a country purchase power is high that mean the peoples there spend a lot. Then it will boost their economic, people have money. However, all people keep spending then will cause inflation, people over spending and then credit cruch. At the end, economic crisis.

Saving is a good habit. A country whose people keep saving and no spending, it will cause those manufacture reduce the selling price to increase sales. Then it will cause deflation, when deflation happen manufacture have to fire some employees to keep the cost low, then unemployment rate increase. At the end, economic crisis.

Spending is wrong, saving also wrong. That is so hard be a human.