LANCE ARMSTRONG, JUARA BALAP SEPEDA TINGKAT DUNIA

Tahu Tour de France? Itu adalah lomba balap sepeda paling bergensi di dunia. Jika Anda tahu ajang balap ini, maka Anda juga pasti sangat mengenal sosok bernama Lance Armstrong. Ya, Lance merupakan juara tujuh kali berturut-turut Tour de France dari tahun 1999-2005. Tapi, bukan soal prestasinya itu saja yang hebat. Perjuangannya melawan penyakit yang mematikan-kanker-dan bahkan divonis tak kan sembuh, justru menjadi sebuah prestasi yang jauh lebih luar biasa pria asal Texas Amerika ini. Kiprah Lance Edward Gunderson di dunia balap sepeda penuh dengan liku-liku. Pada awal tahun 1990-an, Lance memasuki dunia balap profesional. Awal jadi pembalap profesional, ia tertinggal jauh di belakang sang juara. Lance terpaut hingga 27 menit di belakang sang juara pertama. Sungguh, permulaan yang kurang berkesan bagi Lance. Namun, karena kekalahan itulah, ia justru terpacu untuk memberi porsi latihan melebihi yang biasa dilakukannya. Ia bertekad untuk memperbaiki catatan waktunya. Satu-satunya yang....
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NASRUDIN DAN TIGA ORANG BIJAK

Pada suatu hari ada tiga orang bijak yang pergi berkeliling negeri untuk mendapatkan jawaban atas pertanyaan yang mendesak. Sampailah mereka pada suatu hari di desa Nasrudin. Orang orang desa ini menyodorkan Nasrudin sebagai wakil orang orang yang bijak di desa tersebut. Nasrudin dipaksa berhadapan dengan tiga orang bijak itu dan di sekeliling mereka berkumpullah orang orang desa menonton mereka bicara. Orang bijak pertama bertanya kepada Nasrudin, "Di mana sebenarnya pusat bumi ini?" Nasrudin menjawab, "Tepat di bawah telapak kaki saya, saudara." "Bagaimana bisa saudara buktikan hal itu?" tanya orang bijak pertama tadi. "Kalau tidak percaya," jawab Nasrudin, "Ukur saja sendiri." Orang bijak yang pertama diam tak bisa menjawab. Tiba giliran orang bijak kedua mengajukan pertanyaan. "Berapa banyak jumlah bintang yang ada di langit?" Nasrudin menjawab, "Bintang bintang yang ada di langit itu jumlahnya sama dengan rambut yang tumbuh di keledai saya ini." "Bagaimana saudara bisa mem....
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SALON SPIDERMAN

Peter Parker (Spiderman) kegirangan. Nomer togel yang ia pasang tembus. Gak tanggung-tanggung, 4 angka sekaligus. Dalam perjalanan ke tempat bandar untuk mengambil uang, ia terus berpikir mau dipakai untuk apa uang tersebut nantinya. Yang jelas, berhubung selama ini hidupnya serba pas-pas-an, kemungkinan besar ia akan menggunakannya untuk membuka usaha. Setelah memutar otak, akhirnya Peter memutuskan, ia akan membuka usaha salon! Ya, salon potong rambut. Kebetulan saat ini sudah mendekati musim panas. Pasti banyak orang yang akan potong rambut agar tidak gerah, pikirnya. Begitulah. Tidak sampai seminggu salon yang diimpikan telah usai dibangun. Maklum, ia minta bantuan kepada Flash yang bisa bergerak secepat kilat itu. Salon itu ia beri nama “Salon SiLabi”, singkatan dari “Si Laba-laba Imut”. Selain mempersiapkan peralatan-peralatan salon, Peter turut ‘menyesuaikan’ penampilannya. Karena ia tahu salon tersebut baru akan laku ap....
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KUPU-KUPU

Seseorang menemukan kepompong seekor kupu-kupu. Suatu hari lubang kecil muncul dari kepompong. Orang itu duduk dan mengamati selama beberapa jam bagaimana si kupu-kupu berjuang memaksa dirinya melewati lubang kecil itu. Kemudian kupu-kupu itu berhenti membuat kemajuan. Kelihatannya dia telah berusaha semampunya dan dia tidak bisa lebih jauh lagi. Akhirnya orang tersebut memutuskan untuk membantunya, dia ambil sebuah gunting dan memotong sisa kekangan dari kepompong itu. Kupu-kupu tersebut keluar dengan mudahnya. Ternyata, Kupu-kupu itu mempunyai tubuh yang gembung dan kecil, dan sayapnya mengkerut. Orang tersebut terus mengamatinya karena dia berharap bahwa, pada suatu saat, sayap-sayap itu akan mekar dan melebar sehingga mampu menopang tubuhnya, yg mungkin akan berkembang dalam waktu. Ternyata Semuanya tak pernah terjadi. kupu-kupu itu menghabiskan sisa hidupnya merangkak di sekitarnya dengan tubuh gembung dan sayap-sayap mengkerut. Dia tidak pernah bisa terbang. Kebaikan dan ket....
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PERAMPOK

Shiciri Kojun adalah seorang perajin tenun sutra. kata orang, ia bukan hanya sebagai seorang pengrajin kain – tetapi lebih dari pada itu, ia adalah seniman kain. Motif-motif kain sutra rajutannya sangat indah, sehingga tidak heran jika ia menjadi sangat terkenal karena karya-karyanya. Pada suatu senja, saat Shiciri Kojun sedang merajut sutra, datanglah seorang perampok memasuki rumahnya. Perampok itu membawa sebilah pedang, yang langsung ditempelkannya ke leher Shiciri Kojun.. “Serahkan semua uangmu !” kata perampok itu. Dengan tenang Shiciri berkata, “Semua uangku ada di laci itu, tapi jangan ganggu saya, karena saya sedang berkonsentrasi mengerjakan tenunan sutra ini..” Pencuri itu pun segera melepaskan pedang yang ditempelkannya di leher Shiciri, lalu berjalan dan bergegas membuka sebuah laci lemari yang ditunjukkan Shiciri. Ketika perampok itu sedang memasukkan uang-uang itu di tasnya, tiba-tiba Shiciri berkata, “Jangan ambil semuanya, saya masih butuh seperempat da....
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LAYANG-LAYANG

Sebuah layang-layang yang baru saja selesai dibuat. Pemiliknya membawa ia ke lapangan terbuka. Secara perlahan-lahan layang-layang itu menemukan dirinya terbang semakin lama semakin tinggi. Ketika ia mengangkat wajahnya menengadah ke langit, ia berteriak gembira; 'Wuaahhh, langit yang biru. Aku akan terbang tinggi sampai ke ujung sana.' Namun tiba-tiba ia merasa bahwa perjanannya kini agak tersendat dan menjadi berat. Ia tidak bisa bergerak lebih tinggi dan tak mampu maju lebih jauh lagi. Ketika ia menundukkan kepalanya, barulah ia tahu kalau pemiliknya memegang kuat ujung benang. Benang itulah yang membuatnya tak bisa terbang tinggi. Layang-layang itu menjadi amat marah. 'Mengapa ia tidak melepaskan aku?? Bila aku dilepaskan secara bebas, aku pasti akan terbang lebih tinggi menembusi awan-awan yang ada jauh di atas sana.' Demikian layang-layang itu berontak. Tiba-tiba tali benang itu terputus. Dan Ternyata bukan kenikmatanlah yang dia peroleh. Sebaliknya, ia kini jungkir balik ter....
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HARGA SEBUAH PENYESALAN

Sepasang suami-istri yg sudah dikaruniai,seorang anak berumur 1 thn hidup dgn bahagia. Mereka memelihara seekor anjing yg begitu setia. Sejak dari pacaran sampai sdh dikaruniai anak, anjing ini telah menjadi bagian dalam hidup mereka. Sebagai teman bermain, penjaga sekaligus pelindung keluarga. Merekapun sangat menyayangi dan mempercayai anjing ini. Suatu saat kedua suami istri ini keluar rumah dan maninggalkan anak mrk bersama anjing peliharaannya. Namun mrk lupa memberi makan anjing tsb. Saat mrk pulang, dikejutkan dgn tetesan2 darah yg berserahkan dilantai. Kaget, takut, khawatir bercampur aduk dlm benak mrk lsg berlari menuju kamar. Di depan pintu kamar, duduk anjing peliharaan itu dgn mulut yng masih meneteskan darah segar. Histeris, kedua suami-istri berteriak. Si istri terduduk lemas dgn isak tangis, sedangkan sang suami langsung mengambil kursi yg ada diruangan, dan menghantamkanya bertubi-tubi kekepala anjing tsb. Si anjing seolah pasrah menerima nasibnya tanpa berusa....
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SOPAN SANTUN

Seorang pensiunan guru berjalan menuju kasir di K-Mart, supermarket yang lumayan terkenal di kota itu. Kaki kirinya terasa sakit, ia berharap tidak lupa untuk meminum semua pilnya tadi pagi. Satu pil untuk tekanan darah tinggi, satu pil untuk pusing-pusing, dan satu pil lagi untuk penyakit rematiknya yang kadang kambuh. “Syukurlah aku telah pensiun beberapa tahun lalu” katanya kepada diri sendiri. “Masihkah aku kuat mengajar anak-anak sekarang ?” Begitu tiba di depan antrian kasir yang penuh, ia melihat seorang lelaki dengan empat orang anak beserta istrinya yang hamil. Mantan guru itu tidak dapat melepaskan pandangannya dari tato di leher orang itu. “Pasti ia pernah dipenjara”, pikirnya. Ia terus memperhatikan penampilan pria itu. Dari cara pria itu berpakaian, mantan guru itu berkesimpulan bahwa ia adalah seorang anggota geng. Mata pensiunan tua itu tambah terperanjat ketika melihat kalung yang dikenakannya, bertuliskan “Parlson” – pasti ini adalah nama orang it....
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NASIB DI LANGIT

Pada jaman dahulu ada seorang Jendral dari negeri Tiongkok kuno yang mendapat tugas untuk memimpin pasukan melawan musuh yang jumlahnya sepuluh kali lipat lebih banyak. Mendengar kondisi musuh yang tak seimbang, seluruh prajuritnya gentar kalau-kalau akan menderita kekalahan dan mati sia-sia. Di tengah perjalanan menuju medan perang, Jendral itu singgah di sebuah kuil kecil. Ia sembahyang dan berdoa meminta petunjuk para dewa. Sedangkan prajuritnya menanti di luar kuil itu dengan harap-harap cemas. Tak lama kemudian, sang Jendral keluar dari kuil tersebut. Ia berteriak pada seluruh pasukannya, “Kita telah mendapat petunjuk dari langit.” Lalu ia mengeluarkan koin emas simbol kerajaan dari sakunya. Sambil mengacungkan koin itu ke udara ia berkata, “Sekarang, kita lihat apa kata nasib. Mari kita adakan toss. Bila kepala yang muncul, maka kita akan menang. Tapi bila ekor yang muncul, kita akan kalah. Hidup kita tergantung pada nasib....
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MENJUAL SISIR KEPADA BIKSU

Pada suatu hari, sebuah perusahaan sisir akan mengadakan ekspansi untuk area pemasaran yang baru. Perusahaan sisir tersebut lalu membuka lowongan pekerjaan. Karyawan baru itu akan ditempatkan di Divisi Marketing. Setelah lowongan dibuka, banyak sekali orang yang mendaftarkan diri untuk mengisinya. Lebih dari 100 orang pelamar datang ke perusahaan itu setiap harinya. Setelah melalui berbagai proses seleksi yang cukup ketat, terpilihlah tiga kandidat utama. Sebut saja A, B, dan C. Perusahaan lalu melakukan seleksi final dengan memberi tugas kepada tiga orang terpilih. Seleksi finalnya ialah A, B, dan C diminta untuk menjual sisir kepada para biksu – yang tinggal pada sebuah komplek wihara – di area pemasaran baru tersebut – dalam jangka waktu 10 hari. Bagi sebagian orang, tugas ini sangat tidak masuk akal, mengingat biksu-biksu itu berkepala gundul dan tidak pernah memerlukan sisir. Sepuluh hari pun berlalu, akhirnya tiba saat ketiga pelamar tersebut datang kembali pada perusahaa....
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CARA BERPIKIR GAJAH

Ketika teman saya sedang melewati gajah, ia tiba-tiba berhenti, bingung dengan makhluk-makhluk besar yang diikat oleh tali kecil pada kaki depan mereka. Gajah tidak rantai, juga tidak dikandang. Sudah jelas gajah bisa melepaskan diri kapan saja dari tali yang mengikat gajah tersebut. Teman saya bertanya ke pelatih yang ada didekatnya, kenapa hewan-hewan besar (gajah) itu tidak berusaha melarikan diri, padahal itu adalah sangat mudah untuk gajahlakukan. “Yah,” kata pelatih gajah, “ketika gajah-gajah itu masih sangat muda dan jauh lebih kecil, kami mengikat gajah tersebut menggunakan tali ukuran kecil yang pada usia saat itu cukup untuk menahan gajah tersebut. Ketika gajah-gajah itu tumbuh, gajah-gajah itu dikondisikan untuk percaya bahwa gajahtersebut tidak dapat melepaskan diri dari ikatan itu. Gajah itu percaya bahwa tali yang kecil itu masih bisa menahan mereka, sehingga gajah-gajah tersebut tidak pernah mencoba membebaskan diri. Teman saya kagum. Gajah ini bisa setiap saat ....
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Keinginan dan Stress!

Dear Member ATURKEUANGAN yang berbahagia, Sebagai manusia yang biasa tentunya semua orang menginginkan mencapai kaya raya, agar setiap kebutuhan dan keinginan diri dapat dipenuhi, dalam menikmati kehidupan di dunia ini. Banyak orang yang khawatir dan cemas akan masa depan hidup diri, pasangan dan anak-anak mereka. Mereka ragu akan kemampuan diri untuk memenuhi setiap dan segala kebutuhan hidup sekarang dan di waktu mendatang. Mulai dari kebutuhan pangan, sandang hingga papan. Tekanan ekonomi, inflasi dan tingginya tingkat konsumsi membuat kekhawatiran ini semakin memuncak. Sesungguhnya setiap orang tidak perlu terlalu mengkhawatirkan diri dan memenuhi pikiran mereka dengan segala kecemasan dan stress yang tinggi akan kecukupan kebutuhan hidup mereka.  Kita dapat melihat kehidupan di sebuah desa (kota kecil) di Jawa Tengah, mengapa mereka mampu hidup dengan tenang dan damai walau penghasilan mereka tidak sebesar orang-orang yang tinggal di kota besar. Mengapa orang desa dapat
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KEPITING MARAH

Beberapa tahun yang lalu, teman saya mengajak saya memancing Kepiting. Bagaimana cara memancing Kepiting? Kami menggunakan sebatang bambu, mengikatkan tali ke batang bambu itu, di ujung lain tali itu kami mengikat sebuah batu kecil. Lalu kami mengayun bambu agar batu di ujung tali terayun menuju Kepiting yang kami incar, kami mengganggu Kepiting itu dengan batu, menyentak dan menyentak agar Kepiting itu marah, dan kalau itu berhasil maka Kepiting itu akan 'menggigit' tali atau batu itu dengan geram, capitnya akan mencengkeram batu atau tali dengan kuat sehingga kami leluasa mengangkat bambu dengan ujung tali berisi seekor Kepiting gemuk yang sedang marah. Kami tinggal mengayun perlahan bambu agar ujung talinya menuju sebuah wajan besar yang sudah kami isi dengan air mendidih karena di bawah wajan itu ada sebuah kompor dengan api yang sedang menyala. Kami celupkan Kepiting yang sedang murka itu ke dalam wajan tersebut, seketika Kepiting melepaskan gigitan-nya dan tubuhnya menjadi mer....
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ANAK ANJING

Sebuah toko hewan peliharaan (pet store) memasang papan iklan yang menaik bagi anak-anak kecil, "Dijual Anak Anjing". Segera saja seorang anak lelaki datang, masuk ke dalam toko dan bertanya "Berapa harga anak anjing yang anda jual itu?" Pemilik toko itu menjawab, "Harganya berkisar antara 30 - 50 Dollar." Anak lelaki itu lalu merogoh saku celananya dan mengeluarkan beberapa keping uang, "Aku hanya mempunyai 2,37 Dollar, bisakah aku melihat-lihat anak anjing yang anda jual itu?" Pemilik toko itu tersenyum. Ia lalu bersiul memanggil anjing-anjingnya. Tak lama dari kandang aning munculah anjingnya yang bernama Lady yang diikuti oleh lima ekor anak anjing. Mereka berlari-larian di sepanjang lorong toko. Tetapi, ada satu anak anjing yang tampak berlari tertinggal paling belakang. Si anak lelaki itu menunjuk pada anak anjing yang paling terbelakang dan tampak cacat itu. Tanyanya, "Kenapa dengan anak anjing itu?" Pemilik toko menjelaskan bahwa ketika dilahirkan anak anjing itu mempunyai....
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Marketing Plan

Creating a successful marketing strategy, finding opportunities to sell products and services, and connecting more effectively to current and prospective customers is a demanding job. If you wonder if there are ways to make your marketing efforts more efficient, ask yourself these questions: • Do you have a complete view of your customers and have you identified the best prospects based on this view? • Is your customer information dispersed among e-mail messages, documents and databases? • Do you need sophisticated marketing materials, yet you can't afford a professional printer? • Do your sales representatives have a process for following up on sales leads? The information that follows highlights basic sales and marketing practises that can help you develop a tactical marketing plan and sales process that works for your business. Create a Marketing Plan A good marketing plan can shape the way you connect to your existing customers and attract new ones. It can also help you determine the types of customers you should target, how to reach them and how to track the results so you learn what works to increase business. If you don't have a marketing plan, creating one is not difficult. A successful marketing plan doesn't have to be complex or lengthy, but should contain enough information to help you establish, direct and coordinate your marketing efforts. To help you through the process, we've identified five steps to follow. These encompass information gathering before you write your marketing plan, the drafting of the plan itself, and updating the plan after you've created it. Along the way we use Margie's Travel, a new 25-person travel service company, as an example. Step 1: Position your product or services To start your plan, keep in mind the four "Ps" of marketing: product, price, promotion and place. Your goal is to put the right product or service in front of the right customers, at the right price and at the right time and place. A good way to get started is to answer some basic questions about your business. The following scenario for Step 1 is based on the marketing plan used by Margie's Travel. • Who are you selling to? Margie's Travel provides personal travel services to busy working professionals. Based on collected data, the typical clients are homeowners between the ages of 35 and 55, with yearly incomes of more than US$100,000. • What do those customers need? The target market for Margie's Travel is affluent working couples with children who want travel plans customised for a family. The company's goal is to provide convenient, unique and relaxing travel experiences appropriate to each family. • What distinguishes your product or service from the competition? Margie's Travel has a competitive advantage in its ability to accommodate families with children of all ages, from putting together fun and entertaining travel packages to making special accommodation travel plans with short or extended notice, flying domestically or internationally. Margie's Travel also has the advantage of being a home-based business that requires lower overhead and start-up costs than a traditional travel service business. • Are there marketing tactics that work best for your business? Research indicates that the most effective advertising tool for a service like Margie's Travel is small display ads in local papers, such as a weekly community newspaper with a paid subscription base of 5,000 to 40,000 readers. Margie's Travel also places ads in the local boating community newsletter, and sends brochures to larger businesses. By answering these key questions about your business, you can develop a solid foundation on which to build your marketing plan. Step 2: Ask for input from trusted advisors To ensure that you have a clear sense of your own business, it is a valuable practise to gather information from those around you. Set up meetings with trusted friends, staff, advisors and peers, and ask for their input on the following: • Who is your business selling to? • What do your customers need? • What distinguishes your products or services from the competition? • When and how often should you employ marketing efforts? • Where should your company be one year from now? Getting feedback on these aspects of your business can help you prepare your marketing strategy as well as create targeted materials. Step 3: Ask for input from customers and prospective customers To successfully market to customers, you need to learn how they react to your product, pricing, brand or service — anything related to your business. Ask several of your current and prospective customers what they think about your business, products and services, potential to sell to them, and competitors. You can ask them by e-mail, telephone or marketing postcards. Incentives, such as discounts or samples, can encourage feedback. Step 4: Draft your plan Now that you have feedback and an outline, you can draft your marketing plan. Start by summarising your market position and goals, and define what you expect to accomplish in a specific time period. A typical marketing plan might be organised in the following way: • Market Summary • Competitive Landscape • Product Comparison and Positioning • Communication Strategies • Launch Strategies • Packaging and Fulfillment • Success Metrics • Marketing Schedule With a marketing plan in place, you have a structure you can use to help keep your business on track. Step 5: Track your results, update your plan Reviewing your plan every six months helps you determine whether it is producing the results you need. You can easily track your progress with a spreadsheet, where you can also calculate your marketing costs and compare them with sales and other metrics. You should also update your plan regularly to respond to changing market conditions. Build a Sales Process A sales process is a series of customer-focused steps that your sales team can use to substantially build your customer base, generate repeat business and increase revenue. Each step consists of several key activities and has a predictable, measurable outcome. If you wonder whether your small business really needs a formal sales process, see if you answer "yes" to any of the following questions: • Have your customers become more demanding than they used to be? • Is it increasingly challenging for your business to attract and retain customers? • Does your sales force sometimes react sluggishly when opportunities arise? • Do your salespeople have trouble projecting a consistent, professional image? • Is your customer data out of date and dispersed in multiple locations across the company? Having a well-defined sales process can help your sales force identify and qualify leads, find more opportunities for repeat business, negotiate and close more sales, and establish a follow-up process after the sale to ensure customer satisfaction. A formal sales process also helps you understand each customer's business obstacles, match their needs to your products and services, and deliver proof that your products can meet those needs. With a strong sales process, you can more accurately assess the revenue potential for a given customer. For example, you can view consolidated information for all customers in your sales pipeline, consistently position the unique value that your company delivers versus the competition and create stronger relationships with customers and business partners. Five steps define the sales process methodology: prospecting for customers, qualifying them, developing a proposal, facilitating a decision and assuring repeat business. Each step consists of several key activities with predictable, measurable outcomes. The steps help sales professionals succeed by: • Focusing on critical business issues facing customers • Developing potential value for customers to gain • Creating a strong desire in the customer to buy products and services supplied by your company Step 1: Prospecting At this first stage of the sales process, the salesperson is generating qualified leads, finding new opportunities among the existing customer base and differentiating his or her company from the competition. Depending on the type of business, prospecting can take many forms, including networking, attending seminars and trade shows, sending marketing materials and making cold calls. The goal of this step is to identify a qualified decision-maker, or an ally in the organisation who can help you reach the decision-maker. Step 2: Qualifying At this stage of the process you and the customer are sizing each other up. You are assessing the revenue potential and costs associated with a customer opportunity to decide if it's worth pursuing, while the customer is assessing whether your company can meet his or her business needs. In this stage, your sales professionals must be adept at discovering the customer's true needs, in detail. Then they must clearly articulate how your company's products or services can uniquely meet their needs. The goal of this step is to convince the decision-maker to move ahead with an in-depth evaluation of your solution. Step 3: Proposal At this stage of the process, the customer usually narrows the number of companies under consideration. Small businesses must be prepared to respond rapidly to potential leads. When you reach this step, the promises end and you must demonstrate to the decision-maker that your company can deliver. You can create a mutually agreed upon product/service evaluation plan that emphasises key steps to prove your capabilities and ensure a win for both the customer and the salesperson. The evaluation plan is an important tool that many salespeople overlook. After a customer agrees to the evaluation plan, the salesperson is in control of the sales process. This is because the customer can only afford to go through the steps of an evaluation plan with a single selling organisation because of the time, cost and resources necessary to perform each step. The goal of this step is to demonstrate the value your business can provide the customer, through successful completion of the evaluation plan. The customer then requests a proposal from the salesperson. Step 4: Decision By now, you are so near to closing this deal that you're almost prepared to celebrate. Unfortunately, plans and details can change. For example, one of your salespeople may have conceded too much in the final negotiations, making the deal unprofitable. Or conversely, the salesperson may have walked away from a good sale when a low-cost giveaway might have closed it. Such is the delicate and unstable nature of this step in the sales process. The goal of this step is to facilitate deals that are beneficial to both your company and the customer. Step 5: Repeat business This step is critical to a sales process. After a contract is signed or a sales commission is paid out, the product or service must be delivered and implemented as promised. A sales professional who is truly focused on building a long-term, profitable business relationship will take ownership and follow up with the customer to make sure that everything proceeds smoothly. Satisfied customers are more likely to place new orders, and might be willing to act as referrals for new clients. Implement your Sales Process A well-defined, measurable sales process can make a big difference in your business. But change can sometimes be difficult for people. The following can help: Demonstrate management support. The business owner needs to take ownership for implementing the sales process. As with any proposed change, sales professionals will watch closely to see if a new process will be enforced by the organisation. (Some businesses offer compensation to reward employees who adopt the new sales process and succeed with it.) Above all, business owners should ensure that everyone participates. Make the sales process work for your customers. Your sales process should match your customer's buying process: small businesses selling to medium or large companies; small businesses selling to other small businesses; and small businesses selling to consumers. In general, more complex sales usually result in a sales cycle that has more steps. You need to adjust these models to meet the unique needs of your customers and your own sales organisation. Adopt a clearly defined approach. Implementing your new sales process is not a one-step action; this integration should occur in stages. To approach your implementation more easily, follow these steps: research, implement, evaluate, refine and provide ongoing management support. Step 1: Research Speak with customers and reflect on the process elements that have worked well for your top salespeople. Step 2: Implement Document your customised sales process, tailor any forms or templates that you want your salespeople to use, and offer compensation to encourage adoption of the new sales process. Step 3: Evaluate Quantify what is or is not working with your sales process by getting immediate feedback from your customers. For example, has customer satisfaction increased as a result of your new sales process? Are customers more willing to act as referrals? Are new leads being generated? Are you generating repeat business? Step 4: Refine Your sales process needs to be a dynamic tool that changes to reflect the customer buying process as well as the evolving personnel and culture of your organisation. Look for trends and clues in your sales process metrics and consider doing a periodic review of the process to improve it as needed. Step 5: Provide ongoing support Initially a sales process creates uncertainty and additional work, so employees might watch management closely for signs of a loss of commitment to the new process. The business owner and sales manager (often the same person) must support and reinforce the process at every opportunity.

Hotel Plan

01 October 2010
By William Edmundson
HotelNewsNow.com columnist
williamledmundson@yahoo.com

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As we put the economic downturn behind us, we must be strategic in how we think about sales plans for our hotels. The plan should not just be about getting heads in beds at all costs. The following six steps are proven and can help you lay out a successful hotel-level sales plan.

William Edmundson

1.  Revenue goals—One thing hoteliers forget is to have specific revenue goals for their property that consider not just a number that they would like to achieve, but a number that is made up of components including occupancy throughout the year, and average daily rate that considers not only your base rates, but also your negotiated rates for both weekday and weekend business. If your market is growing in demand, will you be able to utilize additional revenue maximization strategies? Will rate be increasing across your competitive set?

2. Competitive analysis—Know your competition inside and out. What is the condition of their product? Who are their top accounts? What rates are they charging, and what is their volume? What are their strengths and weaknesses? How is their staffing and service? Know the answers to these questions and you will be in a good position.

3. Current accounts—Be sure that you know who is staying with you and at what rate. Have it catalogued. Know who the decision makers for your clients are and have a plan to make sure that you are on top of every account and every decision maker within that account. This is good old-fashioned account saturation. You should also know what your property’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are. It is amazing how one small open issue with an account can leave an opening for one of your competitors.

4. Top target accounts—Which accounts do you want to steal from your competitive set? How are you going to do that? Use the development of your sales plan to know who your top target accounts are. Know where they are staying, what they are paying and how you intend to get that particular account. Just like you should have a pre-call objective when you make a sales call, you should have top target accounts when you make a sales plan. Know that there are accounts that may not make sense to have at your hotel – don’t waste valuable sales time on these.

5. Plan for each target segment—Plan for each target segment. If one of your goals is to increase leisure business, you should have several tactics that will help you do that. If your goal is to increase revenue per available room for a particular segment, then you will need to be sure that your pricing strategy and the training of the front-desk staff and your revenue manager are on the same page. You have to have a united front here or goals can slip away.

6. Measurable goals—Have measurable goals for each strategy and each tactic in your plan. The best operators know that it is not just your annual occupancy, average daily rate and revenue per available room, but how you get there. Know what performance you need to hit by day of week and season of the year, and don’t forget that RevPAR is the combination of rate and occupancy. You need to know how you plan on adjusting that mix while keeping on mind your hotel’s condition, staffing levels and a realistic assessment of what the price value of your property is.

Follow these six proven components to a strategic sales plan, track your progress often and remember to make your plan a living plan by reviewing it frequently and adjusting it according to current market and competitive conditions.

William Edmundson is a hospitality executive with more than 20 years experience in brand building, culture creation, innovative marketing and sales, operations, and franchise relations. He has worked on industry leading brands for Holiday, Promus, Hilton and Choice. William is currently consulting, speaking and writing for the hospitality/travel industry and can be reached at williamledmundson@yahoo.com or 301-653-0506.

The opinions expressed in this column do not necessarily reflect the opinions of HotelNewsNow.com or its parent company, Smith Travel Research and its affiliated companies. Columnists published on this site are given the freedom to express views that may be controversial, but our goal is to provoke thought and constructive discussion within our reader community. Please feel free to comment or contact an editor with any questions or concerns.