Costco Connection Magazine

In the past, I’ve written about companies that have the best return policies. Costco has always been one of them!

Well I just received my January 2007 issue of Costco Connection, Costco’s monthly magazine, and I’m honored to say, “I’m in it!” I’m a contributor to an article on pages 30-31 titled, “Tips from the Top: Selling for the Non-Salesperson.” It’s an article for small business owners who have difficulty selling that contains tips and recommendations from top sales pros around the country.

You can also click here for the PDF since it takes awhile to navigate through the online magazine. Thanks to all of you who continue to make my book a success!

What’s In Store for 2007

Well, 2006 is officially over and it was an exciting year. My first book, The Best Damn Sales Book Ever: 16 Rock-Solid Rules for Achieving Sales Success, hit the bookstores last March and has, so far, exceeded my wildest expectations. Thanks to all of you who purchased the book.

In 2006, my speaking business implemented customized, private podcasting for certain clients, delivering informative, motivational talks right to their company’s desktops. Private podcasting now enables our corporate clients to send out talks tailored to their company’s mission and values, while defraying the costs associated with large seminars and national sales meetings. Salespeople, service reps and other staff anywhere in the world can listen and learn wherever they are at any time, night or day, even while driving to their next appointment! It’s cost effective and incredibly efficient. To learn more, click here for our podcasting demo.

As great as everything was in 2006, I’m even more excited about 2007; and you should be too. Every year brings new opportunities and the chance to break out and do the things we’ve always wanted to do.

One of the things I’m looking forward to this year is writing another book. My next book will be about customer service. If you read this blog on a regular basis, you know that’s something I’m very passionate about. I want to fill part of the book with real life customer service stories (both good and bad), and use them to show the readers what could have been done to make things better, and how companies that do it right reap the benefits of increased sales. But for this I’m going to need your help.

If you have a customer service story that you would like to see in print, please email it to me at warren@greshes.com. If you don’t want me to use your name, just tell me.

I’m also really excited about podcasting my regular show again “The Warren Greshes Show: Your Voice for Sales, Success and Small Business. " But here too there’ll be exciting changes. We’ll be doing more interview shows, bringing in experts on topics like sales, customer service, small business, beating the competition, communication skills and more. If there’s a subject you’d like to learn more about, let us know.

For those of you interested in video, I’ll have two new DVD’s coming out in 2007. One will be a comprehensive, in-depth program on Goal Setting and Action Planning. This program will help you create a focus, direction and sense of purpose for your life, career or business.

The second program will be the DVD version of the very successful online audio program I released in 2006 on effective prospecting, “Don’t Count the Yes’s, Count the No’s.” Look for both programs sometime this summer.

So far in 2007 I’m scheduled to speak in Los Angeles; Cancun; Nashville; Florence, AL; Jacksonville; Daytona Beach; Detroit; Scottsdale; Lake Tahoe; San Francisco; Atlanta and a few other hot spots. If you’re going to be there, I can’t wait to see you and kick off the year.

And of course, there’s only 6 more weeks until pitchers and catchers report: BASEBALL SEASON! This is the year! After 52 years of torture and coming up short, my Giants are going to win the World Series. You heard it here first.

As you can tell, I’m psyched about 2007 and I hope you are too. Let’s make it a happy, healthy and successful new year!

Diversity Plus Magazine Review

I’m pleased and proud to announce that The Best Damn Sales Book Ever,was the feature book review in the September/October issue of Diversity Plus Magazine. Diversity Plus Magazine is the only diversity magazine covering women and minority business opportunities both in the U.S. and overseas, including Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean. You can download a PDF of the review by clicking here or read it below.

The following review has been reposted with permssion from Diversity Plus.

The Best Damn Sales Book Ever

Listen closely and you can almost hear the groans…not another sales book! Sure, the occasional sales tip can come in handy, but it’s the rare how-to book that actually gives you the unvarnished truth about selling— because without motivation, you’re sunk.

Warren Greshes, a sales pro turned business improvement speaker, learned long ago that the right attitude opens doors…lots of them. In The Best Damn Sales Book Ever, Greshes outlines his “16 rock-solid rules for achieving sales success” — detailed steps for motivating yourself and developing a positive mental vision for your career and your life. It sounds like something we could all use, whether our job title has the word “sales” in it or not.

Planning to succeed
According to Greshes, attitude and commitment are not qualities we’re born with. Rather, they’re developed through setting goals, planning, and creating a sense of purpose for ourselves. When was the last time you visualized your success, a detailed mental picture of where you want to be next month, next year or even 10 years from now?

The Best Damn Sales Book Ever gives readers a useful process for maintaining a high level of personal motivation. It starts with developing a written five-year plan for your life, career, and business. This detailed list of goals enables you to focus more clearly on what you want to accomplish, when you want to accomplish it, and the specific steps you’ll take to get there.

Ever notice how much easier grocery shopping is with a written list? Without one, most of us tend to wander around aimlessly, wasting time and spending more money in the process. It’s the same with a life plan, says Greshes — writing down our goals provides some muchneeded focus. More importantly, it makes us accountable to ourselves.

The most effective life plans have three basic components, according to the author. They are 1) expressed in continuous action, 2) broken down into manageable steps, and 3) structured so you can measure your progress every step of the way. For example, your goal is to earn $100,000 this year. If your average commission is $1,000 on each sale, whatsounds less daunting —closing 100 deals, or closing just two sales a week?

By breaking down the steps even further — the number of appointments needed on average to make two sales a week, for example — you begin to create a plan for continuous action that will get you that much closer to your goal.

Building a better salesperson
So, besides a solid plan, what else do you need to succeed? Greshes identifies some of the personal qualities common to top salespeople everywhere:

They are goal-oriented.
They constantly practice and prepare.
They are in control.
They are persistent.

Most importantly, successful sales professionals learn to create and sell value rather than price, and seek to become indispensable by going the extra mile — delivering the benefits of speed and ease, and serving as a resource to educate and inform those around them.

Advice from the trenches
In addition to his “rock-solid rules,” Greshes sprinkles The Best Damn Sales Book Ever with entertaining sidebars— sales tips, alerts, and rants — from his years on the front lines. Among his best revelations: rejection is personal. The only way to handle it is to know howmuch rejection you “need,” or how manyno’s it takes you on average to get to a yes. Recognizing where you are in the processhelps you to view rejection as a necessarystep — one that gets you closer to your goal every time.

Greshes’ last rule is certainly one thatcan be applied to everyone in business,regardless of job title: love what you doand success will follow. That kind of passion can’t help but be contagious to customers, colleagues, and staff alike.

Lisa Fahoury is a Certified Business Communicator and Chief Creative Officer at West Orange, NJ-based Fahoury Ink(www.fahouryink.com), a marketing communications firm that helps businesses create marketing messages with maximumimpact. She can be reached at lisa(at)fahouryink(dot)com.