Hey, Joe Calloway here, filling in for Marty Grunder while he’s on vacation. Good for Marty for taking his family out of town and relaxing. I sure enjoyed meeting many of you at GROW! 2011; I’ll see you there next year. Marty asked me to share some thoughts with you this week while he’s sitting in the sun.

How many landscapers have their companies organized enough to take a family vacation at the busiest time of the year? There are lots of principles to good organization, but I want you to think about just one: does everyone know the “why”? Effective leaders build on a foundation of everyone knowing what’s important, what our values are, and why we do what we do. Reinforcing the vision and the values should be a continuous process that you do every single day. That’s where you get “buy in” from employees—on the “why” level. Then you can be like Marty—take a break, and go to the beach!!

PS – Don’t forget about the 2011 webinars with the first one this week on Thursday at 4 pm, EDT, for Sales & Marketing Strategies. Sign up today!

My buddy and mentor Ed Eppley is a brilliant sales coach. He was teaching us what we need to do to help ensure our selling efforts are successful with prospects. Here are 4 tips he shared recently with my team.

1. You need to establish clarity around the expectations your clients have for a successful transaction.
2. Begin the second call by establishing “what changes, if any, have taken place since our first conversation” in the thinking of the prospect. (Done to determine if either the “current” or “desired” realities on which his proposal is built are still the same.)
3. Consider asking what budget people have established for their project. (Not always a true indicator of what people are prepared to spend but it may help determine what value they place on your kind of work.)
4. Be prepared to ask “closing” questions to help prospects make a decision so you can advance the opportunity further through the selling cycle. If they say “no,” it creates an opportunity to ID specifically why they are hesitating which should ultimately shorten the selling cycle.

I hope these points make you think about how you are selling. Good advice and thanks, Ed!

Don’t forget to check out the webinars and sign up today! Also, it’s not too early to sign up for the Grunder Field Trips.

One of my favorite sayings is: “When you do nothing, expect nothing.”

I don’t know that there is a more true statement in life than that one. When you sit on the sidelines and watch things happen, you get passed by. Activity moves things forward; sitting around does nothing. So, hence my saying, “When you do nothing, expect nothing.”

If you’re not happy with where you are right now, take some action. If you aren’t pleased with sales, don’t sit there feeling sorry for yourself; go make some calls. Go see some old clients. Get moving.

If you’re not happy with the performance of your team, talk to them. Just sitting there ignoring the facts is never going to change anything.

When I look back in life at all the mistakes I’ve made, most of them went on and on because I sat there and did nothing to change things. I just didn’t act. Learn from my mistake and take some action this week. Because the alternative, doing nothing just doesn’t work.

When you do nothing, expect nothing.

Oh yeah, sign up for my webinar bundle; there is NOT a better value around. No planes, no hotels, and the like. Just focused learning from me at a very low cost. Can’t beat it.

I love that saying; I use it all the time. Some people hear me say it and don’t know what I mean so I thought I’d explain.

There is an incredible amount of work you can sell just by getting back to prospects immediately. So, Speed Kills.

We live in a world where people want instant gratification. Patience is not something many of us have. Someone sends you a text message and if you don’t respond to it within the hour, they call you and say, “Did you get my text?” I’m sure you can relate. If a client or prospect calls you, they expect you to get back to them quickly. Every minute that goes by, that you don’t call them, gives them reasons to pick someone else or just not do anything, due to losing interest.

So, this week, sit down and see how fast you are getting back to your clients and prospects and understand that the faster you can get back to them, the better your chances are for making the sale. It’s as simple as that. Gotta go; a prospect is on the other line right now and I am the top salesman at Grunder Landscaping Company. Why am I the top salesman? Speed Kills, baby!