How to Navigate Difficult Times

by Dave Kahle

We are in the middle of some difficult times.  Rather than belabor that point, I’d like to come to the heart of the problem.

What do we do?  We need to answer that question in an immediate, urgent basis: What do we do right now?

We also need to answer the question in a strategic, ongoing way.

What do we do this week, this month, this year?  How shall we wisely and prudently arrange our activities – not just for this moment, for the next few months?  Ultimately, as we sort through our lives, as we think about our careers and guide our businesses, we need to confront and answer that question.

Confusion

It’s easy to be confused.  First, we have all these competing responsibilities:  spouses and children, extended family, neighbors, business associates, employees, customers, vendors, our communities, and the nation as a whole.  If we are not careful, we can flit from one responsibility to another without making an impact on any.

A new way to help your team excel

Are you frustrated and discouraged trying to help your sales team excel?

We can help with our Immersion Selling System Course. You have never seen anything like it.

15 minutes a week, for less than the price of lunch.

In addition, we have all the media, including all the cable networks, the traditional media, and social media, all shouting at us with everything from heavily tainted, agenda-driven broadcasts, to silly solutions dreamed up by simple-minded social media contributors. It’s easy to allow ourselves to flounder in the fog created by unlimited media messages.

Before I offer a solution, let’s take a bit of a mile-high view.  We have been here before.  As a nation, as individuals, and every level of society in between, this level of confusion and anxiety is not new.

Now, it may be new for you.  Depending on your age, this may be your first encounter with life that hasn’t gone according to your plan.

But it certainly isn’t unique for many of us.

I have lived through many similar circumstances.  In addition to three major financial reverses in my life,  I have lived through the oil embargo in the 70s; Jimmy Carter’s malaise and inflation in the teens; the 911 attacks and the resulting tailspin in the economy; the dot com crises, and the 2008 real estate crisis.  I’ve seen my business so devastated that I had to tell my staff that I could no longer make payroll. I got to the point where, with a cast on my leg, no cash in the bank and no prospects for new business, I closed my office door and burst into tears.

In all of this, I have learned some lessons and gained some wisdom that may be helpful to you. I have some advice to give regarding guiding your family, shepherding a sales force, and directing business through these difficult times.  I will talk about those issues and more in follow up posts, so stay tuned.

For now, however, I want to focus on... READ THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE HERE.

FEATURED PODCAST:

Improving Your Sales Force Begins with The Sales Managers

When budgets are limited, the single most effective use of training money is not on the salespeople, but rather the sales managers. Let’s dig into this.