Today February 04, 2012

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Wagenseller Law Firm

Cultivating An Entrepreneurial Mindset

In This Issue

• You Are The President of You, Inc.
• Spotlight: James Huang and Dennis Nicolet
• Giving: Send An Inner-City Kid To Camp With The Downtown YMCA
• Embrace Uganda

You Are The President of You, Inc.

Too many salespeople think of themselves as employees, treat their careers as jobs, and focus too much on market conditions. They bellyache about the dealer or broker they work for, their sales manager who provides no support, the unrealistic sales quotas they have to meet, and the fact that the economy just isn’t what it used to be. They end up wasting a lot of time they could be using to move more product. As long as a salesperson has a mindset that what they are doing for a living is a job, they will be in a dead-end job. To be successful in sales, stop thinking like an order-taker and start thinking like a small-business owner, an entrepreneur. Think of yourself as You, Inc., a business entity unto yourself, a revenue generator. Your success depends on you and you alone.

PROCURE TOOLS AND RESOURCES Take a few minutes to write down a comprehensive list of what you think you need to succeed in sales. By performing this exercise, you are essentially creating a business plan for You, Inc. Your business plan should contain a timetable, estimated costs, and your estimated increase in sales revenue.

MARKET YOURSELF Now that you are your own business, launch it like any large corporation might launch a new brand. I often observe salespeople primarily marketing the companies they work for and only secondarily marketing themselves. They pitch themselves as RE/MAX agents or Ford dealers rather than emphasizing their own brand. When you crank up the marketing machine, keep in mind that You, Inc. is the company you are promoting. The goal of your marketing campaign should always be to build a high positive profile that constantly reinforces your image and the fact that you are knowledgeable and trustworthy. However, remember that this is not an ego trip. Your success depends entirely on your ability to make your customers and everyone around you successful, too.

HIRE EMPLOYEES (ASSISTANTS) Until you have one or more employees, you are simply a self-employed freelancer, and you are probably wasting time on no- or low-profit chores, such as pushing paper and stuffing envelopes. You should be spending time on dollar-productive activities—marketing yourself, meeting with clients, selling product, and exploring other revenue-generating opportunities and partnerships. Everything else you should delegate to your assistants. If you don’t have an assistant, you are one.

BUILD A SALES TEAM When more business is coming in than you can personally handle yourself, consider building your own sales team rather than turning away prospective clients. You may include someone, probably yourself, who plays the role of rain maker—attracting new business; another person who takes care of the actual selling of the product; and a third person in charge of closing the deal and processing the paperwork. Each person on the team can have his or her own specialty.

Winners make sales. Losers make excuses. You are the key to your own success.

- Adapted from “52 Weeks of Sales Success” by Ralph R. Roberts

Spotlight: James Huang and Dennis Nicolet

In an effort to introduce you to others who may help in your business, we spotlight our friends and let you know a little about them and their practice.

James Huang (left) is the Principal and Founder of BRC Advisors and BRC Capital, where he focuses on commercial real estate brokerage and investment.

Dennis Nicolet, a Vice President at Wells Fargo, is a trust real estate asset manager.

Jim, Dennis and I are members in the LA5 Rotary (downtown) and our club’s real estate breakfast group. I highly recommend them both for their integrity and expertise.

You can contact Jim at (213) 226-8708 or jhuang@brcadvisors.com.
You can contact Dennis at (213) 703-8048 or dennis.l.nicolet@wellsfargo.com.

Giving: Send An Inner-City Kid To Camp With The Downtown YMCA

Have you sent in your check to help send inner-city kids to camp this summer with the downtown YMCA?

We are coming to the end of our annual campaign to help send as many disadvantaged kids to Camp Whittle in Big Bear for one week with the YMCA. The kids get a chance to camp, swim, hike and mountain bike. More importantly, they get a chance to learn leadership and values (caring, honesty, respect and responsibility).

Click here for more information. It only costs $350 per child and any donation you can give helps.

Embrace Uganda

I am leaving next Friday for two weeks in a village in western Uganda on a short-term mission trip with Embrace Uganda. Our team includes doctors, dentists, real estate professionals and others. We will serve a small village and its orphanage, doing dental, construction, educational and spiritual work. I will have photos and stories to share with you when I get back.