I have to congratulate the teams of our staffing businesses C-People and Dataworkforce - October was a record month for both companies and in particular, engineering recruiter James Grimes, who posted a $50k fee! 

Recruiters need to be proud of their fees and the commission they earn - we are launching an elite 'Presidents Club' for elite recruiters and they will be the first group put forward to our clients.  If you think about it, the more money a recruiter earns, the more value their clients get and of course, it's all about value. 

On the Franklin-Spirko front, we are about to launch our new website and we are all very excited about the amount of activity we have after only four months and particularly with the Trump University account.  Our new site will be up very soon!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: motivation, success, recruiting, staffing, business, fees, president

Anyone who knows me will know of my passion for sales and especially the art of selling and many entrepreneurs are good salespeople, including myself (I'm actually excellent)!!!  Seriously, selling is the heart of any business and driving and motivating the sales force is key to success.

Selling is simply a transfer of belief and the process of belief starts with self belief.  Each and every salesperson should be striving to be the best they can be - there is little point in joining or being part of, an industry where you can literally write your own paycheck, if you don't want to write the biggest!  The success of any salesperson is firmly in his or her hands, poor performance is not an option and certainly NEVER missing your quota - you simply did not work hard enough.  Hard, smart work is the only option.

With the above in mind, I totally support the concept of continual churn and that means cutting the bottom 10% of your sales force…continually! I know there are many people out there who are concerned with their employee churn rate, but in selling, it is a necessity.  Think of any Military special forces unit - do you think they adapt and change their standards for those that simply cannot make it, do you think they will accept the bottom 10% and do you think they worry about churn.  Standards are standards and in selling, they should be set high - there is a very powerful message in having a 'special forces' sales team - your customer is the winner - they get the best products and the best service, from a team that is committed to being the best. Think about it!  "Feed the greedy not the needy", was a phrase I learned from a former employee of mine regarding your sales team and he was absolutely right.  Take out the bottom 10% and feed the business to the top!

I started this post with a phrase and I will write it in whole - it is a phrase that should ring in the mind of every sales person and team out there:

'There are several million reasons for any failing…but not one single excuse'!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: selling, top 10%, entrepreneur, special forces, winning, excuses

We have really defined and locked down the message with Franklin Spirko, with a focus on the Internet, showing companies how the Internet can make them $$$$!  We are also developing a content management system (CMS), that will put our customers in control of their websites and not rely on web developers to edit and maintain their sites.

We are showing our clients how Internet marketing can generate leads, how NOT to spend too much money on design, at the expense of marketing, how your site is already sending a PR message, that could be leading to a crisis, the exact meaning of Search Engine Optimisation and hot to use it and how you can effectively tell your story on the web, using audio/video and more.

This is extremely exciting for me as I have made all the mistakes in my own business career and can speak from personal pain and experience.  Perhaps the most interesting statistic for me, is that 95% of all websites fail to effectively capture leads to their full potential, which of course means that only 5% do! 

We are constantly reviewing websites as you can imagine and we find that most of them are nothing more than very expensive corporate brochures.  We want to explain to the world that your website is a total representation of your company, from the CEO down and also it could be your best salesperson!!

Exciting times!

~Neil

Technorati Tags: Internet, SEO, PR, Crisis, Multimedia, Business, Leads 

Franklin-Spirko is just about to launch Dallas Business Broadcast, an on-line radio show, dedicated to improving business in the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex. We will be inviting business leaders to share information about the issues and challenges of doing business in Dallas and our goal is for the show to be the premier source for business news and information in Dallas.  If you are in business in the DFW Metroplex and have a story to tell, get in touch with us at Franklin-Spirko and we will be happy to assist!  If you would like a sneak peak at the type of content we will be profiding you can listen to our first recording here about how Blogging can impact your business.

I have had a very busy three weeks, producing videos and e-books on varying subjects including golf, fitness, self defense and sales training!  Crazy Jack and I (I will lessen my typing effort by just calling him Crazy in future) are producing a sales training course that will help existing and aspiring sales people unravel the mysteries in this special art. The course is closely linked to our book The Inner Salesman (which is in final editing) and details how everyone was born with the ability to sell as it is a 'primal' skill of everyday life and at one time an essential component of survival!

Crazy and I are working with some recruiters at the moment and have just completed the first session with the main subject being 'what is the definition of sales/selling'?  We have asked many people during the research phase of our book and some of the answers were amazing - our view is that if you cannot define exactly what selling is, then how can you possibly sell?  The answer is…

Well, you'll have to wait for the book!

 ~ Neil