Reading this post? Thank a soldier.

As we head into Memorial Day weekend we should take a moment of our professional day to think about those who have given their lives in the service of our great country. Without their sacrifice, without the efforts of American fighting men and women now and then, we might not be in business today as we know it.

Want to open a business? Go right ahead. Want to switch careers, maybe move to a different state to start anew? You are free to do so. Want to publish your thoughts and opinions in your publication? The Constitution says "be my guest." Thank a soldier for preserving those rights and privileges. Remember all those who have fallen this Memorial Day holiday but do so during your business day, too. It seems only fitting.

I've never lived in another country but I have to think the USA government is one of the innovators in programs to help people get started in business and to start over in new careers. There are a lot of things in our nation and state that could use reform and improvement but there's still no place better on the face of the earth to live, raise families and do business. Thank a soldier.

Enjoy your holiday weekend!

Numbers are changing but it's still a numbers game

Wish me a happy anniversary. Three years ago today, May 15, I was ordained a permanent deacon here in the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse. It's a wonderful part of my life, a real blessing. What does it have to do with sales training? I thought you'd never ask.

Driving to the office this morning I had the Catholic Channel on satellite radio. To be honest, it's not one of my favorite channels (classic rock'n'roll!) but, just by chance, I happened to hear the host talking about a study of the young men who are going to be ordained as priests this spring. Fascinating stuff considering the shortage of priests is one of the biggest challenges facing the American church today. I'll be the first to agree that the Church typically doesn't move too quickly, but here was a report on trends and stats for a group of 2013 people. Extremely current stuff. They knew more about these guys than one would ever have imagined. Four percent of them have been home schooled compared to less than 2% of the general population. Thirty-one percent of them had grown up in families that traveled with the military. That's a huge number.

Timely, statistically significant information about a big problem that needs solving.

That's a big part of what a successful media sales group has to bring to the client's table today, more than ever before. With all respect, if a church gets that than you and I had better get it, too.

Google "newspaper readership demographics" and gobs of goodies come up in your search results from respected companies like Pew Research and others. All for free. Subscribe to (and actually use) services like AdMall that give you great local information on business trends and demographics. Understand the information and use it to your advantage. If you are an FCPNY member, call me (315-472-6007) or email me (tcuskey@fcpny.com) to arrange for in-house training on these topics and more.  Use the numbers to help build the most important numbers of all: profitability and cash flow.

Thanks for reading!

A hit? An error? Let's go to to the tape...

I started my day today, as usual, watching SportsCenter on ESPN. My heart went out to the skipper of the Oakland A's, ejected from a game with the Cleveland Indians for arguing a call, a call he got right. Umpires called a shot off the outfield fence a ground-rule double. Replays clearly showed it to be a home run ball but the umps, after reviewing the video, stuck to their first call. Ouch. 

I wouldn't want to be sports official for any amount of money, especially today when there are cameras everywhere. Every ball, every strike gets reviewed...your mistakes go on national TV. Can you imagine working under that kind of pressure? Maybe you can, or maybe you should. If an average workday of yours were recorded for the purpose of review, what would the video (or audio) show? 

Trust me, you are saying things you shouldn't. Your body language sends the wrong message. You make statements that are confusing or don't make any sense to the listener. So do I. It happens to all of us. Videotaping a role-play in your sales meeting helps but it isn't the same as "game conditions" where we relax and get into our routine. Let's start with the easy stuff. If you have a smart phone (and you should) it likely has an audio recorder built in or there is an app for that. Turn the recorder on and record several live sales calls. Playback right after each call; listen carefully for those "did I say that?" moments. Share it with someone you know. Ask them to rehash back to you what it was you were trying to say to the customer. Did they get your message correctly? If you're gutsy, play it back for a colleague or manager and ask them to critique you. 

The only way to get better at anything, selling included, is to practice, get good coaching, learn from mistakes and repeat good behaviors. Good baseball managers may get thrown out of a game a few times each season. Good salespeople get ejected from sales calls several times a day. Don't argue the call, but learn from the errors you make in the sales field by reviewing the tape. 

Here's hoping you go 5 for 5 in your next outing! 

That's why they call it a slippery slope.

Just back from Denver, site of the Association of Free Community Papers 2013 conference, where I had the privilege to be part of the training component of the three-day program. "Reaching New Heights" was the theme and I believe we did just that. My colleagues in The Leadership Institute did a great job presenting on a wide variety of topics and the rest of the presenting team was simply awesome. It was one of the better conferences I have ever attended.

In keeping with the "heights" theme and the Rocky Mountain backdrop was our keynote speaker, Rex Pemberton. The Australian native is the youngest person to have scaled Mount Everest and his presentation was spellbinding. He also put on a great business skills seminar using the art and science of climbing as a teaching tool for teamwork, communications and decision-making. Two things struck me about the taking of Everest:

1. To reach the summit, a team has to alternately ascend and descend from one camp level to the next in order to acclimate to the brutal physical conditions. You just don't go up and come down, but rather advance and retreat in order to reach the goal. It takes months.

2. More than 80% of the mishaps that occur happen on the way down after the summit (or goal) has been reached. 

A publisher can apply these lessons to their overall business just as a salesperson can do so in approaching a customer. Good salespeople tackle big goals and big prospects. They feel their way through the process, advancing an idea, retreating and learning from the environment and are willing to invest the necessary time to win. They don't give up when conditions get tough. And once the sale is made, they stay focused on service and follow up making sure their "descent" from winning the sale is also successful. After all, in sales you have to live to sell again tomorrow. 

You have to train to be successful no matter what you do. One of our goals this year at FCPNY is to help provide sales and sales management training on-site for our members. We will be reaching out to members soon with a menu of available topics to help your team reach new heights this year, too.

Thanks for your time today!