I’m the kind of person who decides to organize before I start working. It’s what I do before I start. For example, this morning I sat down and wrote my master task list of projects I had to do today but then I decided to organize some photos from the past 5 years. Why? Because I wanted to find one picture. Because I wanted to send my friend Jane a picture we took together 4 years ago. Because I’ve learned how to upload my istock photos on my blog. Because I’m thinking of framing some new photos of my trip around my house. So there you have it, 3 hours later, more disorganized than I started, frustrated that I lost so much time and unsettled with how much I didn’t accomplish.

What do you do before you start? Are you avoiding or procrastinating on a project or task? I’ve watched salespeople build the most elaborate dashboards to track their leads and closed opportunities instead of just printing out a report and making calls. I’ve listened to salespeople talk on the phone at length with No-Po’s just because it was easier not to challenge themselves to call at the right level. I’ve watched managers put their C performer on plan instead of investing the time to coach and develop them into a B or A performer.

Today, I am inspired to follow a straight path and not veer off the side of the road to buy something from the fruitstand or to look at the map for a turn I forgot to take.

Ahh the memories of summer in suburbia. That would be the short stint I spent in the San Fernando Valley. Taking the beach bus to Malibu, walking barefoot to the market, swimming in highly chlorinated pools and spending hours hula hooping.

I was a skinny teenager so the hula hoop seemed to stay up- don’t ask me how. Somehow, standing in front of a group of people gyrating my hips, pelvis and butt didn’t seem to matter back then- as long as the hula hoop stayed up.   

Today the hula hoop marks it’s 50-year anniversary and still makes people smile, laugh and watch the fun. There’s a certain confidence we have when we pick up a hula hoop- we are determined and motivated. 

There’s a place where the ego hides- it slows you down, pushes your behind and sets you up for grief.  At my Yoga retreat last year when I was struggling on this difficult pose, my Yoga instructor Joe came by to ask me to stop trying the pose because my ego was leading it. He was right, I was struggling with this pose, beating myself up, sitting in judgement and comparing myself to all the other students. No way was I going to achieve this pose.

I’m currently negotiating on a few large projects where they want my sales system but may not want as much reference to my company name, TeleSmart or reference to the founder and owner- that would be me. Big test on the ego, should I take it personally or treat it as a business?

I don’t think I’m generalizing when I say that salespeople are known for having large egos. It’s what make them successful when it’s bright but it’s also what sabotages them when it’s dark.

Last count was 780 registrants for today’s Top 10 Email Habits to Keep you Selling During a Downturn- yippee! I’m ready, my Email Control What’s In & What’s Out for 2008 Hotlist is ready, our power point slides are ready, and the big question is, Are You Ready?

We’ve assembled a great team  for today’s webinar, Matt West and FelicityWohltman are the Marketing gurus at Genius and they are some of the most progressive marketing professionals you could ever meet. In order to keep pace with David Thompson, CEO of Genius they manage to stay one step ahead. Karl Dias, the Director of Sales at NetProspex will also be hosting this session. Yes, all of us from three different locations will be virtually coming together for this session. The best part is this webinar will be delivered on Adobe’s Connect tool. This is the way to go in web conferencing today.

So…… this is the place to be today from 10:30-11:30am PST and we have a healthy crowd that continues to grow. Unless something more important happens like Angelina deciding to give birth to her miracle twins, this is the place to be. So tune in, check us out, tell us what you think, agree or disagree and hold steady in a wobbly market.

Registration for Thursday’s webinar on Top 10 Email Habits to Keep you Selling through a Downturn is out of control? Why so many registrants? Is it the topic? The Felicity/Josiane/Karl combo? The Email Control Hotlist I publish each year? I think everyone is scrambling to figure things out right now and this session is loading with insightful information so sign up.

Gary Halliwell is the founder of Netprospex, a new and upcoming company that is sponsoring Thursday’s webinar. NetProspex is an information exchange allowing B2B sales and marketing professionals to buy or exchange executive contacts. I had the pleasure of talking with Gary, a fellow blogger and a smart guy who comes from 15 years in electronic publishing and was President of Zoominfo prior to launching NetProspex.

Why did you launch NetProspex? We launched the company a couple years ago as a result of the web 2.0 movement which made it possible to create an on-line executive directory that goes deeper than has been traditionally possible. We do this by pooling the combined knowledge of the sales community to create a database that includes difficult-to-find decision makers across a broad range of industries.

How do you see this helping salespeople? It’s really a time management tool for salespeople because they have better chances of getting to the right person by calling deeper and wider into a target account. If a sales person has greater visibility into more prospects in their territory with information on job titles, addresses, phone and e-mail contact information  we can save the sales person a lot of time digging for the right contacts.

We make it easy for the salesperson, what does that mean? We believe that having the salesperson spend as little time as possible trading data or exporting data is important. We make it really easy for them by having them spend only a few seconds with the data and we take it from there. We invest a lot on the back end by cleaning, processing, verifying, and validating the data for accuracy.

There’s a lot of dirty data these days, how accurate is your data? Yes, contact data is like fish - it soon goes off.  This is one of our biggest differentiators as our quality standards are extremely high. We validate all contacts traded into the database, so our accuracy rate is about 80% which means that 3 out of 4 calls must have the right contact. In addition, we throw out all contacts older than 2 years as older data becomes less accurate as executives change positions and companies.

You mentioned in your blog that outbound solicitation such as phone or email could be a thing of the past? Well I was suggesting that it sometimes feels like that.  There have been so many advances with the web in the past 10 years primarily around inbound lead generation and lead management. We are just starting to see technology impact the outbound lead generation market, so now more than ever, hunters are a valuable commodity in many sales organizations. I don’t think it’s ever going to go away for salespeople to get on the phones and talk with more customers, especially in a down market.

In outbound efforts, calling on multiple contacts is the way to go? Collaborative decision-making is how most decisions are being made so the more people you call on and understand their roles, job functions, the better you can leverage this into your discovery calls.

What’s next? We want to stay focused on building the content and continue to increase the quality of the database by improving our technologies for automatically processing and cleaning the data that is contributed by users. Today, there are 3 million b2b salespeople out there and that is a massive runway for our on-line research tool. Ultimately we predict this sort of user-contributed contact database will morph into a true electronic marketplace which has fewer gatekeepers, and which delivers enormous value across the network of sales users.

I have to admit I haven’t done any business development in many months because I’ve been so busy with projects. But all projects seem to have the same lifespan- they all end at the same time. Actually I wouldn’t have it any other way- it’s my business cycle and after 15 years, it works.

I’m spending 99% of my time marketing- new webinars, negotiating partnerships, blogging, podcasting, video blogging, writing articles, columns, recording interviews, updating my LinkedIn contact, etc. This is a good start because anyone I contact gets a quick marketing rundown of what’s new and improved.

So last week I started pounding the phones and sending emails out. It’s like going to the gym after a long holiday or going for a long hike in the early hours when your body is still asleep. I felt creaky, sore, rusty, unwelcome, irrelevant and outdated. After I built some momentum I realized my emails and phone calls just sounded too salesy- they sounded cold and hungry- that’s a turn-off.

When we send cold and hungry emails- we reduce the chances of getting a response. But how do we know we sound so cold and hungry? And who said that contacting people cold is out? Joanne Black wrote a book on No More Cold Calling and Jill has written a great article on Does Email Cold Calling Work. With all the social networking and pre-call research tools out there today, there shouldn’t be any such thing as cold anymore. Because we all are coming in with some knowledge and the ability to listen to needs about our prospects than making this all about us.

I test drove what will be my new car yesterday- it was made for me. I know it sounds so superficial to get so excited about a new car and since I haven’t bought one for 8 years, I think I’m allowed to indulge.

I know we still hold on to our image of the slimy car salesman and they’re not as slimy anymore, just missing something in the frontal lobe of their brain. When I got to the dealer, I was greeted by a concierge who brought out a team of 3 big guys dressed in cheap sportcoats to welcome me. Hmm… very tight fit in my sportscar if all these guys climb in, I thought. Maybe not, they assigned one of the guys to me.

When inside sales reps sell, they tend the ask the timeframe and budget question too early before they have established rapport, well my salesman decided to ask the lease versus buy question too early and just like my manicurist down the street who mumbles the same question when you walk in, ”what color?” is what he asked next.

Now sitting and driving in a car with a prospective buyer is about as intimate as sitting inside an inside salesperson’s cubicle listening to their calls. The subtle nuances, the buying signals, the potential objections all seem to swarm around. Instead my sales guy didn’t seem to have a plan nor take control of the situation. He just climbed into the car and sat there not saying much. 

I really want this car and I’m actually going to buy this car- one problem, I don’t want to be sold. I want to bombard my  my salesperson with tons of questions and want his answers to convince me I need to buy this vehicle. I’m pretty typical to Sales 2.0 customers these days because I want to be in control, I’ve done my homework and research and know what I want. I just want it validated and need a cheer leader in the process. While waiting to be sold yesterday, I asked some of these questions and wished for these answers:

“Does this car come loaded with all the features?”- I want to be sold on why all these features are so necessary.

“Why can’t I turn my right blinker off?”- I want to be sold on these cool high tech blinkers.

“Is this the first year this model is out?” -I want to be told that although it’s the first year, it’s got a track record in the European market.

“Why is the visibility so poor in this car?” -I want to hear the car is so small and compact that the visibility is all around you.

“How do you compete with others in this same price range?”- I want to be sold they are the best in their class.

I went to the REM concert last night which was fantastic. It was at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley. A historic amphitheatre modeled after old Greek architecture with concrete seats. That means when I finally got to my section 3 to sit on seat 6, it was wet. As a matter of fact, the entire row was wet because of spilled beer and wine, etc.  A really nice couple huddled together preparing for the cold evening offered to lay their blanket over my seat so I wouldn’t get wet. Wow, they just made the entire concert a little more enjoyable for me and I thank them.

The little things we can do to extend ourselves means so much more. We get so focused on our agenda and squeezing every tiny bit from everything we say, do, spend, buy, eat, plan. Sometimes our greed keeps us from spontaneously reaching out to others who may not expect it. Sometimes our bad tempers distance us from everyone. Sure, you can volunteer somewhere and put in time to help clean, serve or support something. But what about something smaller than that? How about paying the toll for the car behind you? Or paying for someone else’s Starbuck’s? When you are asking for “2 adults please” at the next Sex in the City movie, why don’t you buy a ticket for someone who is standing alone in line? Or as you are about to rush for that parking spot, give it another car who is patiently waiting for you.   

I want to share an old REM classic, Losing My Religion which was written by Peter Buck as a result of buying his new Mandolin. The term Losing my Religion is about losing your temper or being at the end of your rope. Try practicing Random Acts of Kindness instead:

What’s the next hot job?

A thumb surgeon. That’s right, there’s an increase in thumb surgery due to excessive Blackberry use. All those messages one types so fast with their thumbs are causing more harm.

Here’s some advice on avoiding Blackberry thumb such as taking frequent breaks, keeping your wrists steady, laying off from typing with your thumbs and writing shorter messages.

Today there are 2.5 million Blackberry users and that number continues to grow.  I’m not included in that mix- for now.