It is interesting to see how the Federal Reserve accumulates its information to formulate forecasts about where the economy might be trending. It is not all statistics. A bank executive that sits on the regional board asked me to be one of the local business executives to provide responses to specific questions for their quarterly board meetings. As you will see below they are questions about recent developments and also what our plans as a business are for the near future.Â
- Recent surveys show a deceleration in the pace of increase in new orders.
- Have you seen sales / orders slow or moderate?
- Have you adjusted overall expectations for sales / orders for 2011 in the last month?Â
-  The Fed continues to watch inflation indicators very closely. Core consumer prices have increased, but remain below the FOMC “target†of 2% on an annual basis.
- Do you plan to increase your average selling price in the near future?
- Do you plan to increase wages in the near future?
I am a fan of the book “Strengths Based Selling”
A number of posts ago I mentioned that Now, Discover Your Strengths is a great book.  This book, and its integrated internet based StrengthsFinder Profile, helps identify what your 5 dominant talents/strengths are and helps you figure out how they can be best translated into personal and career success.
Now authors Tony Rutigliano and Brian Brim have followed that book up with one titled, Strengths Based Selling. I read the book while I was on vacation. This book, as with the original, provides a key to take an assessment to identify your top five strengths.
They start the book with a chapter titled, “Two Myths About Sales”. Those myths are:
They then go on to explain why they are myths (I agree wholeheartedly with their explanations).
The next several chapters are used to explain more about the talents/strengths concept (the book also includes the “34” themes as related in the original book, so it is not necessary to buy the original book).
The authors then proceed to target the sales profession and in general terms discuss how to utilize one’s talents/strengths in the sales process. They illustrate what they call the strength equation. It is:
 Talent ( a natural way of thinking, feeling, or behaving) times
Investment (time spent practicing, developing your skills, and building your knowledge base) equals
Strength (the ability to consistently provide near-perfect performance)Â
At the end of the book they include action items for each Talent/Strength theme that each individual can apply to their work in sales.
I have developed training sessions for my sales staff based on this book. We should complete the sessions by the end of the August. Through the next several months I will blog on the progress of the training and the thoughts of the staff.
Have a great weekend!