All you have to do is believe and ask!!

When Tulane University Professor Jeffrey Barach ran for a seat in the U.S. Congress, he asked a noted political consultant what it took to run a successful campaign.

The consultant replied, “One word: ask!”

Candidates must have the ability to ask for money, votes and help. “So, also, with leadership,” adds Barach. “Commanding is a form of asking. When a leader personalises a vision, he or she is asking others to share it.”

Yet, asking is hard for many people. For example, some sales people fear asking for an order.

How is the fear of asking overcome? A successful college fund-raiser once advised Barach that people cannot ask for donations if they think the would-be donors are doing them a favour.

Of course, in a sense they are and fund-raisers should be grateful and solicitous. But they also should recognise they’re offering donors an opportunity to do something for themselves.

“The solicitor has to believe that the donors’ gift solves a problem for them,” Barach maintains, “or the tone of voice will not be right.”

The same principle applies to selling anything. A student in one of Barach’s summer courses sold knives, mostly to college girls as part of their hope chest.

His classmates criticised him for hawking expensive knives to young women with low incomes.

He countered that they were great knives,and the smaller sets were a good value, although he agreed that he shouldn’t sell them his big ticket ($200) sets.

Later in the summer, however, that student told the class that he had come to believe that the larger sets of knives also were a good value,that his customers would appreciate them in the long run.

What amazed him, he added, was that as soon as he came to that conviction, his sales of the larger sets increased radically.

Don't let the Decrease in VAT Increase your costs

Yellow Brick Road Consulting – Press Release 25th November 2008

Don’t let the Decrease in VAT Increase your costs

So how will the recent cut in VAT affect local small and medium sized businesses? Will the impact have a positive effect or not? A recent release from Wise & Co states the following:

“In a move that will affect all businesses registered for VAT, the standard rate of VAT has been cut from 17.5% to 15%, effective from Monday 1 December 2008. The rate will remain at 15% until 1 January 2010 when it will revert to 17.5%.

Zero-rated supplies, such as basic foodstuffs, children’s clothing and books; exempt supplies, such as education and health; and supplies subject to VAT at 5%, such as domestic fuel and power are not affected by this change.”

There are other small changes to the legislation detail but the key point is whether any potential benefit from increased sales from non VAT registered customers will outweigh the incremental administration benefit for business. Probably not is our view. Customer activity is unlikely to be radically changed by this small reduction in the cost of products and the increased administration is a pain.

In this market businesses are much better off looking at the bigger picture. Are they doing the business basics right? In business we are no longer order takers as we have been for the last ten years. We have to work much harder for our sales and ensure that the sales that we do make contribute fully to the bottom line. Only the most efficient businesses will come out of the current economic situation on the front foot.

For more information on how Yellow Brick Road can help your business get the business basics right call the contact numbers noted below.

Alex Warren
Yellow Brick Road
www.yellowbrickroadconsulting.co.uk

Office: 08447 706320
Mobile: 07771 682673

Alex Warren gets his IIB accreditation!

On 7th November 2008 Alex gained his accreditation from the Institute for Independent Business (IIB).

To gain the accreditation Alex had to prove that he had held senior executive positions in business over a number of years. Having proven that Alex was put through a number of assessments to ensure he was fully entitled to talk business to owner managers of small/medium sized businesses.

"It was tougher than I thought to get the accreditation, however it confirmed to me that the quality control processes within the IIB were tough - they don't just let anyone in!"

Now Alex has the benefit of over 5,000 senior executives worldwide to use for the benefit of his clients.

"It's great, now I can deliver benefits to my clients via experts in Sales, Marketing, Finance, HR, IT and Operations. The owner manager now has all this resource available to him which he couldn't otherwise obtain. My role is to co-ordinate that resource to create maximum value!"

To learn more about the IIB please follow the link below:

http://www.iib.org.ws