Checking Bags with Fedex

Here's a little tip for you sales managers and sales reps who travel a lot.  Many people are opting to mail their bags through Fedex.  That's right.  People are finding it to be a cheaper and easier alternative to checking bags at the airport.

Almost all airlines are now charging a fee for checking bags.  That seems ridiculous to me.  Anyways, it's getting even worse now that there are so many restrictions with carry on baggage due to recent security concerns.  Fees for checking bags can really add up.  That is why many people are starting to mail their bags via Fedex.  They are finding that in many cases it's cheaper and easier.  You don't have to lug your bags around the airport or wait in the long check in lines at the airline counters.  You simply mail your bag to your destination hotel and it shows up when you get there.  Mailing your luggage with Fedex is going to be a growing trend.

Google versus China

Google is considering leaving the Chinese market siting the ongoing censoring by the government of online content and search results, recent hacking of gmail accounts of human rights activists and a cyber attack in which Google source code was stolen.  Because they have in in China for the last four years, one can conclude that it's really not the censoring that has instigated this move, and even the hacking of gmail accounts is suspect.

What one has to conclude due to the timing of this event is that Google is afraid of the Chinese government stealing their source code.  Code for a software company is their bread and butter, it's the commodity of their business.  And if that is stolen and duplicated, their competitive advantage goes away.  Google currently does not have a large market share in the Chinese market so they won't be losing out on much profits in the short term.  Of course, they wanted a foothold into the country as it's a rapidly rising economic super power.  You see more about this on CNN - Google and China.

Jobless Recovery is Not Sustainable Recovery

There is a term being thrown out there right now that seems to be an oxymoron, jobless recovery.  There have been many positive signs in the economy recently.  Retail numbers are up across the board.  We had a pretty good holiday shopping season.  All the consumer confidence reports seem to indicate that people are no longer hoarding and may be dispensing they cash a little more readily, showing us that people are confident about the future of their own economic state.

In addition, there has been growth in the manufacturing sector indicating that companies feel confident that people will buy the stuff they make.  All good signs that we might be seeing an economic recovery in motion.  But the thing that can break this good momentum to economic health may be jobs. 

It's a very simple equation that I don't get why people who throw around terms like 'jobless recovery' don't get.  If people don't have a job, then they don't have money to spend.  It seems to be a clear cut correlation to me unless I'm missing something, which I'm not.  People are positive about growth and future earnings and that's why people are buying and producing, but the reality is, unless people have jobs to get them money, they will not spend it, and if they do as they are doing now, they will run out of it.

China's Economic Bubble

I just wrote an article in Hubpages regarding what I think is an economic bubble in China that's ready to burst.  Chinese government officials just came out saying that their economy is going to grow 10.2% in 2010 and I don't know how that's a sustainable growth rate.  In any case, there are many experts and analysts who believe that there is an over capitalization in real estate like we saw recently in Dubai. 

On top of that, there is an influx of money into the Chinese economy through the recent $580 billion stimulus package from the government as well as an influx of monies from foreign investment.  It's definitely an economic bubble ready to burst.  I think with all the hype around doing business in China, foreign businessman underestimate what it's like to do business there and really don't know how to relate to the Chinese business place and the Chinese market.  You can read about China's economic bubble on Hubpages.

Starting the Week

As you start the week ahead as a sales manager, remember that you are a leader and sales managing is all about leadership.  How effective you are now depends on how effective your sales reps under you are.  That means you have to work hard to invest in them so they can produce for you.  As you start the week, take some time to think about the following things about good leaders.

Good leaders know how and who to recruit
Even the best leaders can't turn someone with no motivation or ambition into a success.  Good leaders know how to spot those with potential and know how to filter out those who don't.

Good leaders cast vision
A good sales manager will always put the vision of success in front of their sales reps.  They will constantly be telling them what hitting their goals will mean and what they will get out of it.  They never lose sight of the prize, but don't let their sales reps lose sight of it either.

Good leaders celebrate every win
Good sales managers know how to celebrate every win.  Whether it's as simple as ringing a bell when a sales rep schedules an appointment to breaking out the six packs when the sales team has hit their monthly goal, sales managers take every opportunity to celebrate the wins.

Life Insurance Sales Jobs

Life insurances sales can be a good business to be in.  It has low and easy barriers to entry, but only the fittest survive.  What does that mean?  That means a sales guy with little or no experience, education or training, with enough ambition and fortitude make a good living for himself in life insurance sales.

Again the barriers to entry is very low.  All one has to do is take a week long class, take a state exam, and get a license.  Life insurance sales jobs aren't hard to find either.  Most start as commission only so the insurance agency or brokerage takes on very little risk hiring you.  And they make out good if you turn out to be a good sales rep for them.

So what's in it for the entry-level life insurance agent to go with a commission only job at an agency? Simple, mentorship.  Having a mentor who knows what it takes to be successful is an extremely undervalued asset, especially those who are willing to do the work.  And they have a financial incentive for you to succeed which makes it even better.

Often times, life insurance is just how you start out.  Most sales reps that stick with it end up taking on other insurance and financial products like business insurance, homeowner's insurance, annuities, and other retirement plans.  Some become financial planners and stock brokers with additional training and licensing.  For information on selling insurance policies as a great career track, go to How to Sell Insurance, and article I wrote a while back at Hubpages.

Jobs Report Good News For Some

Despite what forecasters were expecting the jobs report that came out today from the US Labor Department was less than ideal.  Analysts had expected there to be positive jobs growth in December 2009 but 85,000 jobs were lost instead.

The hardest hit were jobs in manufacturing and construction.  Manufacturing lost 27,000 jobs while construction lost about 53,000 positions.  The service sector had little change.

There were some sectors however that made some gains.  The professional and business services sector gained 50,000 jobs in December while the health services sector also added 35,000 jobs.  So this is good news for those who are looking for sales managing jobs or sales rep jobs.

It is also good news for those you sell to the business services sector.  If you're market is in any professional services, you should be happy.  That means if you sell to accountants, bankers, administrative personnel, executives and other people who work in offices generally, will fare well in sales as jobs grow in these areas.

Of course, sales jobs continue to be in demand as the economic recession continues, but this jobs report will mean that there will be more demand for sales jobs in the future.

Management Consulting in Sales Management

Many sales managers go on to do management consulting jobs for other companies that need to establish and manage a new sales force.  This can be a very lucrative and rewarding career for someone with the right experience who get bored really fast working for one company.  Also, management consultants make a lot more money than normal full time workers.

I just finished writing an article on Hubpages called Management Consulting Jobs that give an overview of the professional field and industry.  I also say why companies are opting to use management consultants for some of their business functions rather than normal full time employees, even though they have to pay the consulting firm more money per hour.

Many consultants are also self-employed and work for themselves.  The do all the sales, marketing, operations and accounting themselves.  This can be a very exciting career choice for someone with a specialize skill in a particular area of business.

Sales managers with a good track record in recruiting, hiring, managing and building a sales force could make good money consulting for other companies to do the same.  Good sales managers are difficult to find and most companies are willing to pay top dollar to get a good one.

You can read my article Management Consulting Jobs on Hubpages for more detail on how all this stuff works and why companies hire consulting firms.  It'll give you a few selling points if you decide to do this and when you go out to market.

Sales Managing in Insurance

If you're an effective sales manager and enjoy coaching and mentoring sales reps, the insurance business might be a good one for you.  Insurance agents make pretty good money and getting started in life insurance is very easy.

The classes to get a life insurance license is generally no more than one week and the exam is pretty easy.  All of this is very cheap too depending on what state you are in.

Recruiting and hiring can be pretty simple too.  Most insurance sales jobs start out on commission only as you learn the business.  So most people who start out in selling life insurance policies do it part time to begin with.  That way you don't have the financial burden of paying their salary while they try to bring in revenue.

You can invest time here and there with them but there is no urgent reason to get them selling policies right away. That can be very stressful for a sales manager and it might even cost him the new sales recruit. 

Recruiting, hiring and managing insurance sales reps can be very exciting and low stress.  Just get a young ambitious kid from your local college and mold them into a insurance sales machine, part time, commission only.

Once you get a team of experienced insurance sales reps, than you can sit back and see the sales manager commissions rolling in.

Car Jump Starter for Your Sales Reps

If you're a sales manager for outside sales reps, I would recommend that you recommend to them they get themselves a car jump starter.  This is something you might want to buy yourself and give to them as employees as well.

Your outside sales reps are running from sales appointment to appointment in their cars.  Especially the younger and new sales reps often have crappy cars.  Even if it's a new car with no problems at all, one of your sales reps may have a dead car battery problem if they do something as simple as leaving the lights on.  Just get them a portable car jump starter.

They are relatively cheap for what they do.  If the car of one of your sales rep dies because of a dead battery, it might ruin the rest of his day of appointments.  So ask yourself, how much is an entire afternoon of sales appointments worth?  Having a portable car jump starter in their trunk might save them a sale and at least will get them to their next appointment on time.

In addition, do you remember when you were out selling on the road and the batter on your laptop started dying and you desperately needed a charge because you were on your way to sales presentation?  Well your sales reps probably deal with that all the time.  Problem solved.  Many car jump starters also come with AC and DC outlets so they can charge their laptops and cell phones.  They just plug it right in while they are driving and charge up their batteries.  It's that simple.

Trust me, this will be one of the best investments that you make for your sales reps and most don't cost more than $100.  Check out Amazon's top selling car jump starters and you can order it online.

Sales Conferencing Are Great Tools

If you've never used sales conferencing, also known as webinars, for their sales presentations, you're missing out.  It's a great way to do tons of sales presentations for less.  I've worked at past software companies that had multiple prospects on at the same time to view the software demo over a sales conferencing call.

There are tons of benefits to it, plus you can cut your traveling budget into bits, unless you still want to travel a lot.  Especially in this economic climate, you have to find ways to cut costs where you can.

I know many of you are probably against this because you have been in sales for years and you understand the value of a hand shake and a smile.  I totally understand.  I also believe that meeting a prospect in person makes it easier to sell your product or service.

The main problem with doing in person sales presentations only is that it just takes so long to do and traveling costs get really expensive.  A typical sales rep may be able to do 4-5 sales presentations in a day, and that excludes cold calling or sales follow up calls.  You can do up to a dozen sales conferencing presentations in a day, get multiple prospects on simultaneously and still be able to get in a good bit of cold calling.

It's a great method.  Here's a guideline on how you can use the sales conferencing method as well as a mention of a couple of webinar companies that can provide this relatively cheap service to you.

Sales Managing is Leadership

It's one thing to be a regular Sales Rep foot soldier and completely another to be a Sales Manager.  Sales Management can be a very challenging job even for successful star Sales Reps.  No longer are you selling to just potential customers, but you are making sales pitches all the time, even to your own department.

You have to give a sales pitch to recruit new Sales reps, effectively persuading them of the great opportunity they would have in working for such a great company in such a hot industry.  They have to sell the benefits and features of the job, the company and their career and financial trajectories.

Then once they are hired, you must motivate them with a different set of sales pitches to get them to make the cold calls, set the appointments and close the deals.  Not only must you motivate yourself to hit your own personal sales goals.  You must now motivate an entire sales force to do the same.

In this economic downturn, companies are still aggressively hiring Sales Reps.  But now it's all the more important to hire the best of the best.  To do that, you as a Sales Manager must sell yourself as a great leader as well as your company as one that is thriving and will thrive even in a recession.

Sales is the rare job that is solely based on merit.  Even those without college degrees makes successful Sales Reps.  It gives hope to anyone who is hungry enough to succeed in sales.  A piece of paper can rarely tell you if someone will succeed in sales.