THIS IS YOUR MIND ON MEDITATION: LESS WANDERING, MORE DOING
By Melissa Healy/Los Angeles Times/For the Booster Shots Blog
7:41 p.m. EST, November 22, 2011

The brains of experienced meditators appear to be fitter, more disciplined and more "on task" than do the brains of those trying out meditation for the first time. And the differences between the two groups are evident not only during meditation, when brain scans detect a pattern of better control over the wandering mind among experienced meditators, but when the mind is allowed to wander freely.

Those insights emerge from a study to be published next week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, which looked at two groups: highly experienced meditators and meditation novices, and compared the operations of the "Default Mode Network" -- a newly identified cluster of brain regions that go to work when our brains appear to be "offline."

"I think it's safe to say this is brain-training at work," says Yale University psychiatrist Judson Brewer, who conducted the study with psychologists from Yale, the University of Oregon and Columbia University. "It makes sense," adds Brewer. "Anything you train to do, you do better."

By the definition of the latest study, mental control was defined as the ability to keep two key nodes of the default mode network from becoming active during meditation. The posterior cingulate cortex and the medial prefrontal cortex appear to be hubs of the brain's "neutral" setting--areas that come alive when we are not engaged in a task that requires more specialized attention and let our minds wander. (Not coincidentally, they are also areas that tend to become active when we remember events in our past and think about other peoples' motives and intentions.) In the 12 veteran meditators who participated in the current study, those two regions were quieter during meditation than they were in the brains of the 12 meditation novices with which they were compared.

The study also detected greater connectivity between some of the brain's key cognitive control areas and elements of the default mode network. During meditation and in the mental rest periods in between, a brain region known to be important in focusing and maintaining attention, the dorsolateral anterior cingulate cortex, was more likely to activate in tandem with the posterior cingulate cortex in regular meditators than in those who are new to the practice: that, says Brewer, suggests that during meditation and in everyday life, meditators may have more skill in reining in their wandering thoughts and bringing the brain back "on task"-- than those who don't routinely meditate.

Why would mental control over our daydreams make us more healthy? It turns out that having a well-functioning default mode network--one that lets us explore ourselves and our lives but doesn't intrude into our efforts to concentrate when that's what's needed--is critical to mental health.

Those of us who daydream more often are more likely to be depressed--either because we get caught in a cycle of rumination or because depressed people have poorer concentration (which comes first isn't clear). A study that tracked the daily activities and moods of iPhone users-published in Science magazine last November--found that those whose minds were wandering off task more often were more depressed. People who suffer from attention deficit disorder also have difficulty keeping mind-wandering at bay, which may be why many studies have found that meditation helps those with attention deficit disorder.

In fact, Brewer cites the legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, who is quoted as saying" Practice doesn't make perfect: perfect practice makes perfect." Meditation, suggests Brewer, appears to be "perfect practice" in the skills that make undistracted work a possibility: the ability to detect the first signs of mind-wandering, to recognize and essentially forgive the impulse, and then gently to draw the mind back to the task at hand.

Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times

This article brought to you by...
Present² Awareness (P²A)© — http://www.PresentAwareness.org
360° Achievement Coaching — http://www.360ACHIEVE.com

When you are truly inspired by your clients and you serve your clients with authenticity, your clients will become your greatest champions.  I am blessed that as an Achievement Coach, I have been able to provide guidance, collaboration, and partnership to so many creative, ambitious, and excellence-driven professionals and entrepreneurs.  One client in particular comes to mind today...  She's a mother, a wife, and a professional with integrity.  She had discovered through self-introspection that her career no longer inspired her and that it had lost integrity for her.  She knew she needed to manifest change in her life, and so she turned to the services of an achievement coach for insights and collaboration on her journey of self-discovery and transition.  (Because I provide all of my clients confidentiality, she will remain nameless for this article.)

After earnest introspection, assessment, strategic planning, and follow-through, my client experienced nothing short of extraordinary transformation professionally and personally...  Today, just several years later, she is a successful entrepreneur with visions of owning yet another business and achieving success in yet another industry.  For years now, she has been making her own schedule everyday and is the author of her own choices at every turn.  She is a leader to her employees, her customers, and her community.  What's more, her success has been a reward to me several times over as well.

Year after year since she has grown her business and discovered greater satisfaction in her personal empowerment and professional success, she has been a champion of my coaching services.  She has referred many clients to me.  Whenever she is asked about her success, I am honored by the fact that she always mentions our work together as a turning-point and critical resource for her professional, entrepreneurial, and personal development.  When she was honored in an industry periodical for being a breakthrough leader and success story in her marketplace, again she took the time to mention me and to honor our coach-client collaboration.

I share this story not to sing my own praises or even to tout the value of achievement coaching services, but to share my appreciation for this client's courage to want more from life and work, to reach for it, and to live and work by a code of ethics in her achievement of her goals.  Foremost, I want to emphasize here that I acknowledge that it was not merely the collaborative power of coaching or the service I provided to my client that made the most difference, but it was that together we have achieved trust, respect, and authenticity with each other when we work together.  No amount of tactical insights or strategic development can have the impact for a client that can be achieved like a relationship of productivity grounded in authentic human-to-human synergy.

Want more clients?  Want more referrals from your existing clients?  Want more of your clients to be champions for you?  First, be open, honest, ethical, and real with your clients.  Next, be foremost dedicated to your client's achievement.  Next, be committed to ethics, best practices, and being excellent; and hold up excellence as the benchmark for your client's endeavors.  Lastly, and certainly not least, again be open, honest, ethical, and real with your clients.

The truth is that I could elaborate on what I mean by being "open" and "honest" and "ethical" and "real" with your clients.  But I will save each of those articles for another day.  I will simply leave you with a call to action here now:  Please take five minutes today, tomorrow, and the next, and ask yourself what being "open" and "honest" and "ethical" and "real" with your clients means to you.  Then, choose to live it, and open yourself to the extraordinary results for your personal empowerment and professional achievement.

~   ~   ~
Achievement Coach Greg Kilgore
360° Achievement Coaching
Providing a 360° Perspective, Strategies, and Coaching for
Personal Empowerment, Professional Productivity,
Business Growth, and Extraordinary Achievement

I know quite a few runners.  For a few years, I was even a coordinator and stand-in announcer at the finish line for the Austin Marathon.  Perhaps you know the typical runner's behaviors:  "Nope, I can't stay out tonight.  I have to wake up early tomorrow to get in my five miles before the sun comes up," and, "I'll just have tea with lemon, no beer tonight."  Yet, that's not even the half of it.  Many of the runners that I have gotten to know well are always conditioning themselves for the next race and marathon.  That’s where the intensity of intention and commitment really seems to be evident.

I think we've all heard how professional athletes need to condition themselves, train and practice with fortitude to succeed—and how athletes understand that they achieve more efficiently and perform better with the accountability to and leadership of a coach.  Well, I've heard that anecdote so many times that the novelty has worn-off and, I'm like, "So what?"  Yet something about what is going on with the non-professional, amateur, neighbor-next-door runner piqued my interest...  I wanted the answer to a couple of questions about the runners' lifestyle:  Why do you run?  Moreover, why do you run races and marathons?  The answer to the first question is what you expect:  Runners run to be fit, feel good, look good, relieve stress and be healthy.

As a professional dedicated to the development of personal empowerment and human performance and productivity, the answer to the second the question is particularly intriguing to me:  Why do you run races and marathons?  It seems that running simply to maintain wellness and achieve the basic goals of improved self-image and various levels of fitness is not enough to keep many runners inspired and motivated to continue running.  They want, perhaps even need, more significant milestones to achieve:  Completing a marathon.  Improving upon past performance by running faster with less fatigue and better efficiency than previous performances.  What's more, there typically seems to be a reward of improved self-confidence and pride in accomplishing these more significantly burdensome milestones.

Therefore simply put:  It's not enough to run for feeling and looking better.  To stay in the game of running for maintaining the essential benefits, the quintessential runner also needs to race and compete if even to only compete against his/her own past performance.

Of course, being an Achievement Coach, I have extrapolated the extraordinary intentions and commitments of runners to application in most, if not all, human pursuits for achievement and success.  The lesson to share here:

Enough!  Enough with "fine" and "good enough!"  Greater inspiration and, consequently, greater self-motivation is derived from stepping-up your game.  So reach higher, define grander goals, and step-up your game!  I've thrown down the gauntlet.

Now, very often, due to human nature being what it is, the novelty of solo/self-driven motivation lessens over time and leaves us again feeling uninspired, unaccountable, and disempowered.  Ready to step-up your game?  Engage a coach.  Why does coaching work?  The obvious benefit is:  A professional coach is a “performance and achievement specialist” specifically dedicated to helping you identify the ideal strategies and solutions to be personally empowered and achieve objectives.  In addition to the obvious benefit, I have also identified at least three fundamental principles that explain why coaching works.  The power of the Coach-and-Client relationship originates from three effects that are grounded in the competency of the Coach...

Firstly, the “Partnership Effect” of Competently-coached Collaboration is an association made by a Client of Coaching.  The association made by the Client is immediate and yields a state of awareness, clarity, and reflection.  In effect, a greater capacity for acknowledgement and discovery results for the Client from knowing that the Client’s ideas and observations will be considered, evaluated, and reflected back to the Client.

Secondly, the “Discovery Effect” of Competently-coached Collaboration allows for the discovery of answers and questions that cannot otherwise be ascertained when someone endeavors to arrive at solutions alone.  An especially dramatic byproduct of the Discovery Effect is the transcendence of the Client from not merely seeking knowledge which the Client already knew that he did not know, but to exploring knowledge that the Client did not know that he did not yet know.

Lastly, yet as significantly, the “Momentum of Accountability Effect” of Competently-coached Collaboration creates a state of responsibility and action—where the Client does not settle for that which does not work—yielding faster turnover of methods and action-plans and resulting in the earliest possible discovery of the best methods, processes, and action-plans to achieve the most desirable results.  Ultimately, results that may have or may not have been arrived at by a Client alone are achieved with greater momentum in partnership with a competent Coach.

Pick up the gauntlet.  Step-up your game.  Contact me, and let's create the extraordinary together.

~   ~   ~
Achievement Coach Greg Kilgore
360° Achievement Coaching
Providing a 360° Perspective, Strategies, and Coaching for
Personal Empowerment, Professional Productivity,
Business Growth, and Extraordinary Achievement

A message to experienced sales people…

Do you ever ask yourself, “Am I firing on all pistons?” or “Am I playing the sales game with attention to all of the critical essentials of effective gameplay?”  I think many sales people who are ambitious and excellence-driven wonder this, yet they procrastinate about resolving their concerns.  Avoidance is also human nature, so many deny there’s any need for concern at all.  If you don’t routinely ask yourself these questions, then you should.

Study of adult learning reveals that it is human nature to be drawn to learn new concepts that present themselves with a context or experience of novelty.  We tend to give prioritized attention to new and seemingly uniquely valuable ideas.  Yet as time passes, novelty and prioritization of previously fresh ideas lessens.  We take for granted the value of concepts, and they lose their luster in our field of attention.  It is a false assumption (most everyone makes) that, if we learned a concept before then we “know” it forever…  And since we know it forever, well then, we will always benefit from that knowing and we most certainly apply that concept at every opportune occasion.  Right?  Yeah, right.

What’s more, even important concepts, such as effective communication techniques or productive business strategies, from which we would benefit to re-consider and perhaps implement with a new vigor, are dismissed reflexively if the mind thinks, “oh, that sounds like something I’ve heard before.”  The mind reacts with, “I already know that, I’m smart enough and good enough as it is, and so everything is fine as it is.”

A moment of earnest and honest introspection reveals to us:

• We carry around the false assumption that we we know everything we’ve ever seen before.
• And we keep falling back into living on auto-pilot mode, “good enough and fine.”

If you don’t choose to ambitiously act out extraordinarily on your own behalf, then your mind will live your life for you as “good enough” and “fine.”  I don’t know about you, but “good enough” and “fine” have never been enough for me!  So, I seek-out fresh, bold, concise, and compelling new presentations of fundamentals for effectiveness, productivity, and success as often as I can.  While experiencing a same-old idea that is newly-framed, and so freshly-compelling, we give renewed meaning and newly-inspired attention to the most recent presentation of a concept that we have perhaps previously learned and since let slip away from our active mindfulness.

About how learning works and a message to students of sales, new sales people, and people who merely want to learn to be more effective communicators and be more persuasive…

When you are seeking out resources for engaging your mind to increase your knowledge and improve your effectiveness, some resources are better than others.  The field of educational psychology tells us that we learn more information more quickly and more deeply when the information is presented using generally-conversational language, carefully-chunked concepts, patterns, memory devices, and triggers.  So, whenever I am learning new ideas and concepts, I don’t just look for the book with the brightest colors and the glossiest cover…  I seek out resources that employ information presentation techniques and formatting that I know will best support my understanding of the information and ease the challenge of retaining new information.

THE GOOD NEWS for new sales people and experienced sales professionals…

Dale Brakhage’s book, ABC’s of Selling with Etiquette, is an ideal refresher course for essential sales concepts.  To begin with, the ABC-format of this book is easy-to-read and very understandable.  Readers will appreciate the bite-sized chapters and enjoy the insights and anecdotes featured throughout the book.  Moreover, ABC’s of Selling incorporates techniques to enhance learning.  Readers of this book become engaged in a “conversation” with the authors.  The style of the text is less formal and more accessible to attract and hold the attention of younger readers and those who communicate more frequently via the Internet.  Selling is persuasive communication, a complex process.  ABC’s of Selling breaks the complex process of selling into simple behaviors that readers can easily learn and demonstrate.  Those behaviors, called essential concepts, appear in a matrix, the alphabet, which all readers can easily recall and recite correctly at any time.  Associating the simple behaviors of selling with the alphabet provides readers with an effective memory device, called a trigger which allows them to recall the behaviors easily.

Also a valuable feature of the of the book, acclaimed celebrity chef, author, philanthropist, speaker and advertising industry business woman, Edie Hand, co-authored ABC’s of Selling with Etiquette by contributing the book's "etiquette essentials."  Hand has authored, co-authored, and helped to develop over twenty books ranging from inspirational cookbooks to novellas from a strong woman’s perspective.  Not only does ABC’s of Selling with Etiquette recommend essential “selling” strategies and methods for expressing yourself and your ideas, but the book also emphasizes a dimension of sales that is often neglected, the human-to-human conscientious courtesy of “business etiquette.”  Merging selling tactics and the practice of better human relations through business etiquette will help you learn to listen with intent and empathy, express and demonstrate respect for others with appropriate protocols and manners, better manage and present your ideas, work efficiently to achieve goals and objectives, communicate effectively, and ultimately create mutually-valuable and appreciated transactions of exchange between people.

I was recently enlisted to edit Brakhage’s ABC’s of Selling with Etiquette, and I felt so strongly about the value of the book that when I was invited to do so, I enthusiastically contributed the foreword to the book.  Most people find it difficult to sell their ideas.  Even more people struggle when trying to sell products or services.  People everywhere want to succeed in business and need to know how to be persuasive and behave appropriately.  Everyone should learn how to sell!  ABC’s of Selling with Etiquette can help you communicate more effectively, persuade others to accept your ideas and agree with you, and get more of what you want out of life.  ABC’s of Selling with Etiquette reinvigorates our focus on the fundamentals of communication, persuasiveness, and sales principles and tactics.

Buy "ABC's of Selling with Etiquette" now!

~   ~   ~
Achievement Coach Greg Kilgore
360° Achievement Coaching
Providing a 360° Perspective for
Creating Awareness, Accountability,
Action, and Extraordinary Achievement 

Aligned Leadership:  A Model for Extraordinary Achievement
— Greg Kilgore, Updated October 15, 2010

It is my vision that you, me, and all of humanity work and play together free, enriched, fulfilled, and rewarded.  All of the articles I post, the information I share, the projects to which I contribute, and the clients with whom I engage are in support of this vision.  (For more about my professional passion, please visit Ventures for Transformation.)

September 2009, I posted an article about leadership, Leadership Essentials, which has been viewed 1,400+ times (source: Posterous).  In that article, I present the following essential leadership strategy:

Responsibility. Values. Commitment. Strategy. Planning. Execution. All the while, alignment to the values. Begin again with responsibility. Repeat. The game to play to win all the other games combined.

Also, in that article, we explore the value of most of those aspects of fundamental leadership strategy.

In this article, I emphasize the most critical aspect of effective leadership and WHY it is so valuable to understand and to embrace...

The most critical endeavor of effective leadership is ALIGNMENT (or "Aligned Leadership").

Whether you are embarking upon a campaign to create change within a community, a marketplace, a small business, or an organization, Aligned Leadership is required.  Without Aligned Leadership, short-term goals may be attained, but sustainability, lasting growth, innovation, and extraordinary rewards will never be achieved.  Effective leadership is only ever Aligned Leadership, otherwise leadership is ultimately ineffective.

Aligned Leadership is a phrase that implies "alignment" is required between something and something else.  So what then is to be aligned with what?  And why?  Simply stated:  Everything you do must be aligned with your VALUES and fundamental COMMITMENT(S).

Why?  A career of study and practice of adult learning styles, training techniques, achievement coaching, and human performance development reveals: People choose and act upon what INSPIRES them.

~  ~  ~

Here are the basics of the model of Aligned Leadership with enough complexity to get the big picture...

Identify and declare your VALUES. >>>  Define and communicate your VISION Statement.

Determine and declare your COMMITMENTS.  >>>  Define and communicate your MISSION Statement.

Determine, define, and maintain:  models, processes, rules, policies, systems, and methods.  >>>  All the while MAINTAIN ALIGNMENT with the VISION and MISSION.

Observe, consider, and respond to the cards you are dealt, in other words, the external environment, availability of resources, internal interpersonal dynamics, etc. >>>  All the while MAINTAIN ALIGNMENT with the VISION and MISSION.

~  ~  ~

Many of the terms here (vision statement, mission statement, models, methods, etc.) have evolved (or devolved) in corporate and business culture over the years to the point of being considered absurd.  There is one reason alone why that is true:  Leaders failed to maintain alignment of actions with Values and Commitments.  Leaders fail to maintain alignment because they  allow several aspects of human nature to get the best of them.  A few stand-out challenges of human nature facing leaders (and team players) are...

• Novelty:  I've been studying adult learning styles most of my career.  One thing is clear:  We very often take for granted and forget critical know-how knowledge the more familiar we become with performing the exercise.  To reinforce sustained performance excellence and continuous improvement, we require being re-introduced to critical know-how knowledge in fresh, new presentations, stories, and contexts.
• Ego:  We associate basic instinctive survival with looking good and being right.  So much so, we instinctively and habitually avoid doing what's best for others and for ourselves to avoid the appearance of impropriety, wrongness, and looking bad to others and ourselves.
• Short-term satisfaction and short-term memory:  We will choose short-term gratification much more often than long-term satisfaction.  Often, we will put-off until tomorrow actions that we do not enjoy and then forget our long-term motivations altogether for those actions.  Ultimately, often the actions never get fulfilled.

Recently, I discovered Simon Sinek's presentation about the importance of WHY.  To quote a few Internet sources:

Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership all starting with a golden circle and the question "Why?" His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King, and the Wright brothers -- and as a counterpoint Tivo, which (until a recent court victory that tripled its stock price) appeared to be struggling.

All organizations and careers function on 3 levels. What you do, How you do it and Why you do it.  The problem is, most don’t even know that Why exists.  The Why is your driving motivation for action.  The Hows are the specific actions that are taken to realize your Why.  The Whats are the tangible ways in which you bring your Why to life.

If you want a pleasant diversion into Sinek's perspectives, they are right on-point with the practice of Aligned Leadership, they are stated somewhat more simply than this conversation, and his presentation is enjoyable to watch or hear...

So, I emphasize here:  Once you are grounded in your "Why" (VALUES and COMMITMENTS), everything you do (sales, marketing, business process, human resource management -- everything) must BE ALIGNED with your Why.

~  ~  ~

I've been gratified to learn that there's recently been a rising-up and definition of a new role in some organizations, the CSO, Chief Strategic Officer.  The role of Chief Strategic Officer is defined as as a high-level senior executive whose main responsibility is to ensure that execution flows from strategic planning by assisting the chief executive officer with creating, communicating, executing, and sustaining strategic initiatives within a corporation.  Chief Strategy Officers are normally executives who have worn many hats in business.

Chief Strategy Officers are responsible for three critical jobs that are considered to be the most important aspects of successful strategy execution: (1) Must portray a company's strategy to every business unit within a corporation so that all employees, partners, and contractors understand the corporate-wide strategic plan and how it backs into the companies overall goals.  (2) Must drive immediate results within a corporation, whereas the CEO is normally responsible for driving long-term results and providing vision.  (3) Must drive decision-making that creates immediate change.

The CSO often influences organizational development, typically in close coordination with the CEO, including consumer innovation, business process outsourcing, financial structure, product supply chain, regional expansion, communications, and acquisitions.  The CSO ensures a robust organization design which is a key component of a successful market focus and position; market focus and position of course being a building block of a high-performance business.

Thanks to Simon Sinek (video above), I now also refer to the CSO as the "Chief WHY Officer!"

~  ~  ~

Did you notice my VISION and MISSION at the start of this article?

It is my vision that you, me, and all of humanity work and play together free, enriched, fulfilled, and rewarded.  All of the articles I post, the information I share, the projects to which I contribute, and the clients with whom I engage are in support of this vision.

I invite you to hire me to collaborate with you to achieve this vision for you, your business, and your big games in life!

~  ~  ~

GREG L. KILGORE, Achievement Coach
360° Achievement Coaching:
Creating Awareness, Accountability,
Action, and Achievement!

Get a 360° perspective, and take action now!

Of all the complex business strategy decisions to deliberate, "commission-only versus salary with commissions or bonuses," is certainly the most tricky and the most important.

Over twenty-plus years in business, I've heard all the debates and the pros and cons of each approach, and I have seen each approach work and fail in varying degrees.  There didn't seem much point for me to re-tread all of the same old issues on this topic, but I did think it would be helpful to uncover perspectives and insights that are already out on the web, and to bring them together in one place for review.  Albeit, these are the insights that I've identified with which I agree and my experience validates so that bias does apply.  So here are a few citations that bring together the most salient points...

There are three situations or combination of situations where commission-only sales seems to work well...

1. When the product is easy to sell, commission only provides a way for the salesman to maximise his earnings. I have a friend that sells advertising on a commission-only basis, when his peers have a base combined with a much lower commission.  He chooses commission-only as he spends his day working lists of old customers which have a very high percentage of people that are ready to make a buying decision.
2. When the salesperson is already selling to the target audience and your product would simply be layering-on additional revenue with perceived minimal effort.  This option also covers selling though an ad hoc opportunity, e.g., "I sat next to this guy at lunch and..."
3. Commission-only also seems to work best when their are short sales cycles measured in hours or days.  Long sales cycles cause two issues: First, the time investment increases requiring a much greater ROI for the salesperson.  The second issue is the risk the sale will be “undermined” by competition during a long sales cycle.

When does it not work...

1. Obviously it's not going to work when you get the reverse of the above:  When your product is difficult to sell, when your salespeople have to find brand new customers, and when there are long sales cycles.
2. However it also doesn’t work when it's an excuse to not invest in your sales activity.  I don’t mean just pay retainers, I mean not even providing adequate training, management and follow-up.  All too often commission-only is perceived as an “I’ve got nothing to lose” solution because it supposedly costs the vendor nearly nothing.  The reality is that it can lull you into a false sense of activity or worse you can have your brand completely trashed.
3. It doesn’t work when the agreement is informal or the audit-trail is poor quality.  Both which normally translate into perceived breaches of the agreement, a lack of trust, and sales coming to a stall-out.  All too often I see merchant-banker types fighting over who was owed the commission on a deal that mutated and had mutltiple parties involved along the route to a transaction.
4. Finally, it doesn’t work when what each party brings to the table isn’t valued properly by the other party.  For instance, I am endlessly approached by people who wish to access my network for free (the one I have slaved long and hard to build) and only wish to pay me if they can conclude a transaction – an activity I have no control over.  Another regular theme is that I can have a website built for them at no cost and then make margins from their brilliant product.

A couple of other points to consider...

1. A commission-only sales force has little interest in providing customer service beyond the sale.
2. The hiring and management of commission-only staff can can be a huge drain on the management team as these people are all independent operators.

Source: Does Commission-only Sales Actually Work? (above)
By brendan at 3 March, 2010, 9:37 pm

The first condition required for this model [commission-only sales roles] to work is a short sales cycle. Most people either do not have the patience or simply cannot afford to wait three to six months to complete a sale and earn a commission. In addition to the requirement that these staffers have the financial means to support themselves for several months, a long sales cycle dramatically increases the difficulty of maintaining their interest and motivation...

The second prerequisite for success with this compensation model is a relatively simple product. Consider the items sold by successful home-based and network marketing firms such as Amway: vitamins, long-distance service, household cleaners, the list of products trends very heavily toward simple to understand and consumable goods...

Contrary to the idea that commission-only sales representatives are free, since they are only paid on what they sell, there are two huge costs of using such a sales force:  1. The hiring, training, and supervision of these workers can overwhelm the management team.  2. Independent sales representatives are given little incentive to provide customer service beyond the sale.

Source: The Commission Conundrum (above)
Column by Francisco Dao

How do you find the good reps?  It’s very difficult! The good productive rainmakers usually work with big brands that we all know. The others are very picky about who they will represent. They will ask much of you – do you have current accounts that produce revenue that they can now manage so they can earn business is ready to do business. You must have a great website, enticing brochures, great spec sheets, alluring packaging, and other basics your need to succeed. If you are not ready to play with the big boys, the good reps will take a pass on your and move on to greener pastures.

Should you hire a sales person in house?  I know, money is tight. You barely make enough to pay your mortgage never mind a high priced sales pro. But here lies the dilemma – do you invest in a dedicated proven sales pro who will devote himself to you? How do you know they will perform and at least cover their cost of having them on staff? Perhaps you tried this in the past and have gotten burned – big pay with little or no sales from them. This is always a tough call, but, if you are truly in it for the long haul, you need to invest in good sales people. They are the heart of your organization. Without sales, nothing else happens. We believe one of the best investments you can make is to bring aboard the highest quality sales help you can afford.

Source: Should you hire commission only reps or hire in house sales people? The inside story... (above) by Jim DeBetta, February 22, 2010

There are many reasons why salaries and bonuses are better for both real estate principal and salesperson alike... How you reward your sales team impacts significantly on both the profit of the [business] and on the earnings of the salespeople themselves. When you pay salespeople - or anybody - a percentage of your gross income, you sacrifice profit. When comparing the three most common systems used in real estate agency sales and using the same expenses, the same gross average selling fee, and showing the break-even Points for all three systems, the office that breaks even first is the independent office paying "salaries and bonuses" to its salespeople. Does this mean that the salespeople are worse off? NO!

So why does our industry persist with reward systems that are both unprofitable for the office and are detrimental to the financial health of all but a few of the salespeople working under those systems? [Business] leaders are afraid of losing money paid in salaries to people who do not perform, so they opt for the commission-only system which they believe will minimize losses.  Yet, without adequate hiring programs to properly train and test new recruits, then the chance of failure is high. Just as the recruit reaches the point where he or she is about to make money, the person leaves. This leads to the industry leaders complaining, "You can't find good people!" ...To build a winning team you need a few things working for you: Your office must be ATTRACTIVE. You must have HIRING PROGAMS that minimize the risk of lost salaries paid to the wrong people. You must have TRAINING PROGRAMS designed to get your new people to a satisfactory knowledge level... Your TRAINING PROGRAMS must continue developing your new people for as long as they remain with your company. These four ingredients explain why our Top 100 salespeople perform as well as they do, and thanks to salaries and bonuses there is sufficient profit for the agency to thrive as well.

Source: Commission-Only Versus Salary-and-Bonus (above)
Pittard Training Group Leadership and Sales Bulletins

The number one mistake businesses make is in assuming that commission only sales people are just like employed ones, just paid differently. If going down the freelance route is going to work for you and your business, you need to radically rethink, and the best way to start that process is to put yourself in a freelancers shoes...  He is taking a leap of faith (after due diligence) that you will pay him on time and not go bust in the meantime, that you will provide the service promised to the clients/customers he finds for you, not leaving him to answer the angry after sales calls, and most of all, that there actually is a market for your products at the prices you are asking him to sell at.

[Rules for commission-only sales to work...]
Rule 1: Be realistic and honest. If you have found selling your product yourself difficult, or it has a long lead time, tell him so.
Rule 2: Learn from businesses who have successfully used self employed sales people for years. They know you have to keep your people busy, by providing leads, appointments or data to work with (depending on the type of business). Expecting a freelancer to provide all his own leads, with no data provided to get him off and earning quickly will mean you loose them very quickly.
Rule 3: The quicker you pay his commission the more loyal and hard working he will be.
Rule 4: Motivation rules!  Sales people are a complicated breed, and freelancers the most complicated of all! They spend their lives motivating themselves, and get a group of them in one room and usually there’s a party! They are as a group the most “up”, optimistic, enthusiastic people on the planet. Yet, when the bubble bursts, many can bomb with a speed known only to Newton!  To keep a freelancer motivated and on task, you need to be aware of your role in managing him. Anything you do, any process you have, any communication (or lack of it) could affect whether you are the parachute, the soft place to land, or the trampoline which will get him bouncing back up again, this time even better than he was before and doubling his sales. Become a Sales Manager par excellence, and if you can't, then hire one!
Rule 5: Do not expect him to work under the same terms and conditions, or to have the same relationship with him as an employed sales rep.
Rule 6: Train, train, train! Give him the best product and product related sales training possible. Even if he is experienced in selling a similar product, he still needs to know yours inside out.
Rule 7: Do NOT confuse marketing with sales.  What you have on your hands is a hungry sales machine, not a marketeer. Sales mops up where marketing leaves off. He needs you to provide him with the marketing tools, presenters (and pitch), leaflets, business cards and back office support.
Rule 8: Think of recruitment as ongoing.  Freelancers rarely stick around long. They can be the “ladies of the night” of the sales world.
Rule 9: Always recruit more freelancers than you think you need.  The drop off within the first month of contracting with a freelancer is very high. The reason is simple. Just as you aren’t needing to commit to them long term, so they aren’t needing to commit to you.
Rule 10: Budget for success. Remember the “free” in free-lance means:  Not “tied," not “no cost!" There are three main areas to budget for: recruitment, training and management costs.

Source: Commission-only sales, the right choice? (above)
By Liz Sparkes, 17th Mar 2010

There are quite a few valuable insights from the sources above.  I'll add at least one more...

Consider all of the human-relations understanding, communications, behavior-styles adaptation, leadership, and management required to manage traditional salaried employees...  Now, consider applying all of that know-how and then some to managing employees who admittedly choose as their primary motivator whether or not you and your company is doing everything it can to support their success at earning even $1 let alone $100, $1,000, or $10,000. Recruiting and managing a commission-only sales team is a game that can be played and occasionally won, but I do not believe that it is for the faint of heart or the inexperienced.

One last note: Whether you are seeking to hire a salaried employee or a commission-only sales freelancer, here's a fairly good article about "How to recruit top notch sales people."  I especially like the eight interview questions.

To experience your greatest fulfillment and to achieve your best, you must set "peace of mind" as your first priority, and then create your personal life (and your worklife and workplace) to support it.  This is true at an individual's level of responsibility for self.  As well, this should be an on-going personnel-maintenance/support issue for management and executive leaders within companies and organizations.  It's not default human nature to achieve and thrive with this approach, so it requires extraordinary intention, commitment, and efforts to apply this methodology:  First priority, peace of mind...  All other priorities follow that priority.  It is amazing how individual performance becomes extraordinary and organizations become authentically powerful and successful when this commitment is adopted within the organization's mission and is honored by the individuals embracing it.

Get a 360° perspective, and take action now!

GREG L. KILGORE, Achievement Coach
360° Achievement Coaching:
Creating Awareness, Accountability,
Action, and Achievement 

Business quiz: If your company has to decide between doing what’s right and making a profit, which should it be?

Answer: Both.

What if the distinction between business and doing good vanished? What if all those who engaged in business were committed to a deeper purpose, and all those committed to doing good were entrepreneurial and enterprising? What would it take for a world of seven billion such people to solve all the world's problems?

If you are one of these people, wondering where to go from here...

Visit FLOW.

The Orlando Business Journal (OBJ) recently reported:  Anheuser-Busch InBev Reports $1.5B Profit.

I found at least two points in the article compelling from a business analysis perspective...

First, with all of the economy doom-and-gloom buzz still resonating in the media and water-cooler conversations throughout the U.S., a beverage company (InBev) turned $1.5B in profit up from $690 million reported a year ago before their merger with Anheuser-Busch.  I find it fascinating and encouraging that two corporations, leaders in their industry, merged and doubled profits for one of the companies.  There's something to be learned from A-B InBev wouldn't you say?  Though revenues are down 10 percent from the $10.9 billion the combined companies reported a year ago before the merger, InBev's profits still doubled.  I don't think that the OBJ article presents enough salient details to fully identify all of even the most critical causes for the profitability, however the OBJ article does mention significant cuts in expenses while yet rolling-out two new products.

I was also struck by the quotes at the end of the article that assess A-B InBev's business growth strategies:

"The third-quarter results confirm that the company's cost-cutting efforts, while risky, will lead to margin expansion..."

And:

"We continue to believe that if InBev cuts marketing expenses too much or if its personnel cost cuts drive off key managers at Anheuser-Busch, the top line could suffer, and, given the firm's leverage, profits would probably suffer as well."

Anheuser-Busch InBev is taking a stand for the value of new product development, maintaining a healthy marketing budget, and retaining effective management and leadership.  Given the report of profits, especially during the economically gloomy fervor of 2009, I think Anheuser-Busch InBev is worth listening to now and probably worth further study of their business growth strategies and operational tactics.

Cyber criminals take advantage of the increased number of legitimate e-cards sent during the holiday season to send out their own fraudulent, and potentially damaging, e-cards. These spammed messages may try to lure you into clicking on malicious links in order to compromise your PC with a Trojan horse or virus.

Be extra vigilant in the weeks ahead when you get an e-mail claiming, "You've received an e-card," unless you're certain it's from a trusted friend or family member. It only takes a moment to check out an e-card, and it could save you hours of headaches:

• Examine the e-card notification closely before clicking on any links contained within it. Are there typos in the message? Does it lack a personalized greeting that identifies you by name? Those are warning signs.
• Look at the link you're asked to click on in order to receive the e-card. If it ends in ".exe," it's an executable file—a file that automatically executes code to install and run programs and routines. A legitimate e-card will not have an executable file, so seeing one is evidence of a scam. Do not click on the link.
• Check the headers of the e-mail to see if the Web address is different from the one displayed in your Inbox. If it is, this is another warning sign.

Should you receive an e-card notification containing one or more of these "red flags," do not click on the link. Simply delete the e-mail from your Inbox. In addition, continue to follow these basic security precautions:

• Use a firewall.
• Use antivirus and antispyware software and keep it up to date.
• Never download or click on anything from any unknown source.
• Don't accept an end-user agreement without reading the fine print first; you might inadvertently agree to install spyware or something else you don't want.

Exchanging holiday e-cards can be a wonderful part of the season. Just make sure you keep your eyes open before you open those e-card links.

[Source: Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc., SkyBest Communications, eNewsletter of Skyline Telephone Membership Corporation]