March 2007: Turn Your Business Upside Down

World-class companies are turning themselves upside down. They’ve found that the old top-down pyramid style of management doesn’t work. So they’ve inverted the pyramid, giving all employees more say in what goes on. And it works, as evidenced in improved customer satisfaction, sales and profitability.

Interested in Inverting the Pyramid and Synergizing Your Business?

Here are some tips:

• * Build Synergy by making teamwork and service a core value.
• * Challenge employees to come up with their own better ways to do their jobs.
• * Release the brain power in your business by seeking out ideas from everyone.
• * Treat everyone (internal and external customers) with honesty, respect, and courtesy.
• * Give authority to solve problems immediately.

By allowing employees more control over their work environment and more involvement in improving the quality of their jobs, you build zones of inspiration and highly profitable work environments.

April 2007: Synergizing with Your Customer Drives Your Financial Engine

Synergizing with Your Customer begins with treating everyone you work with as your customer. It incorporates the Golden Rule, "Treat others as you would like to be treated". It is a proven fact that employees tend to treat customers as they are treated by the company. Bad service and bad attitudes are merely reflections of the way in which people have become accustomed to treating one another. Synergy works from the "inside to out" and it's paramount that everyone in every department understand the principle of serving one another. Service from the internal to the external drives the financial engine of a business. Good service increases revenues, lowers costs and reduces staff attrition. Everyone should be service minded and empowered to solve problems immediately and directly. The senior executives, managers, service representatives, sales people and receptionists need to be committed to service. Trust and loyalty are reinforced when all customers are taken care of in an effective, efficient and friendly manner.

The Cost of Poor Customer Service

• It costs five times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep an existing one.
• Seven out of ten customers stop buying a product because they think the company doesn't care how they feel.
• Five out of ten customers who complain are dissatisfied with the response to their problems.
• Unhappy customers tell between eleven and fifteen other people about their dissatisfaction with a company.
• For every one complaint you hear, somewhere between ten to fifty complaints are not reported.
• Bad service can put a company out of business.

May 2007: Jumpstart Your Business Today!

It's easy to become overly harsh with your team when you are besieged with slow-downs and difficulties. Psychologists tell us it’s natural, but "natural" harshness will only worsen your situation. In tough times great sports coaches and leaders focus on passion, results and winning! . . . not the blame game.

Powerful Tips to Jumpstart Your Business Today:

• Clear vision, expectations and direction always produce results. Set up a "shot-in-the-arm" positive goalsetting session to direct and focus your team. Create shared destiny.
• Enthusiasm sells! Enthuse your team by empowering them to discover their own solutions.
• Energize and challenge each team member to take personal responsibility and ownership of the shared destiny.
• Move and shake! Coach, council, nurture and move each team member toward directional and deal clarity.
• Manage performance by giving constant feedback, reinforcement and rewards. Be specific! An average sales person can become a national champion under a focused, committed coach.

"The single constant to business success, is good leadership -
the art of shifting mind-sets, inspiring passion and delivering results."

June 2007: Enthusiasm Sells Houses, Planes, Trains and Automobiles!

The atmosphere in a model home, sales office or showroom - energized with enthusiasm and excitement - is a powerful, trust building attraction magnet. People want to do business with upbeat, successful companies.

Business leaders often overlook the importance of continuously firing up the atmosphere with enthusiasm and positiveness. Human beings come with rechargeable batteries and good leadership is the power source . . . the energizer bunny!

It’s a tough role; especially for the cynics of this world - but the payoff is miraculous.

Powerful Tips to Energize and Enthuse your People:

• Set co-authored short range, realistic goals with each sales person.
• Enthusiastically walk, talk and praise achievement.
• Cultivate a sense of spirituality through purposeful work, team interaction and social responsibility.
• Build people up - never demean anyone in front of their peers. This is an attitudinal virus that will flood your team with fear and doubt.
• Follow through on goals and listen for motivational hot buttons.

"Let’s Make it Happen!"
extracts from "The WOW! Factor"

July 2007: Deal or No Deal - Can You Cut It?

"Is it a deal or no deal? Many experienced negotiators will tell you that obsessing on that question will play havoc with your confidence levels and negotiating ability. Top negotiators have a optimistic and realistic state of mind - it’s a deal ... if all the pieces fit. If the pieces don’t, won’t or cannot fit - they walk away!"           - Chris Alexander

Seven Steps to Power Negotiating and the Art of Influence:

• 1. Preparation: "If you fail to prepare, you prepare to fail." Never a truer word spoken. Prepare yourself mentally, physically and strategically.
• 2. Understand Needs and Wants: Understand what you and the other party wants and needs. Be clear about this. Many negotiations have gone south because not enough time was spent on establishing dominant motivators.
• 3. Patience: The tough one! If you are good at poker, you will be a good negotiator. Impatience will not create confidence and trust.
• 4. Continuous Agreements: Start the negotiation from a wide non-threatening position, but with clear agreement points in mind. Start with small agreements and then move through an elimination process to larger and larger agreements.
• 5. Build Benefits and Value: As a part of your strategy, demonstrate your ability to deliver and more importantly your complete understanding of the other party’s needs and the value of moving ahead.
• 6. Build Synergy: Use your creativity with integrity to find greater and larger benefits than the obvious. Several additional "sweet spots" are discovered this way. Leading to long term and rewarding relationships and future deals.
• 7. Walk Away: As with all business negotiations, some will, some won’t, some do, some don’t - but through it all your strength lies in your ability to mentally, emotionally and financially walk away.
   

"Let’s Make it Happen!"
extracts from "The WOW! Factor"

August 2007: Save Me Time! Save Me Money! Put Me First! -

Do you focus your full attention on the voice of the customer?

It is all too easy to focus inward on our own daily activities rather than looking out for our customers. World class companies make a point of listening to the voice of the customer and deliver faster than their competitors.

Strategies That Save Your Customer’s Time and Money and Put Them First:

The “WOW” Factor!: Have you ever said: “WOW, I just love the way they took care of that problem - I’d go back to them in a heartbeat.” You’ve just been “WOWED”. It’s a magical experience and we want to repeat it again and again. “WOW” experiences are the result of a customer driven culture that saves customers time and money and puts them first.

Law of Attraction Marketing: The ways of the past are just not enough these days. You cannot think about marketing after you produced the product. Thinking you know how to do it can be the biggest blockage to listening to the ever changing voice of the customer.
The customer is demanding that you become more creative, more authentic, exceptional and unique. Your ideas must capture attention, be noticeable and highly attractive. What’s your vision? What’s your story? Can you communicate your story with impact and power? Does it stick and have a call to action? If not, go to work and find it - it’s in there . . . somewhere.

Right Fit! Right Job! Right Result! So often executives overlook the importance of careful selection and employ someone who is not the right fit. Wrong fits cause conflict, demotivation and can become very expensive.
Right fits on the other hand, revitalize the energy in a team, bring in new ideas and re-energize older team players. The right fit in the right job will give you the right result.

High Performance Teams: High performance teamwork remains the ultimate competitive advantage. When you get all the people in your organization working together towards a shared destiny - magic begins to happen. Teams always out perform other groups and teams are the best way to integrate across structural bounderies and energize the entire company.

“It is amazing what you can accomplish
if you do not care who gets the credit“
Harry S Truman (1884 - 1972)

January 2008: When the Going Gets Tough, The Tough Get Going!

The right mental attitude means making authentic and empowering choices that will help you grow - help others grow and lead to actions that are healthy, honest, and honorable. Most right attitudinal choices will build a foundation of strong values, validated self-esteem and trustworthy approachable behaviors - exactly what we need to help us through tough times.

10 Ways to Have the Right Mental Attitude

• 1. Exercise your privilege of choice and always look on the bright side of life.
• 2. Have an attitude of gratitude. Be grateful for the ability to work, for your health, family, friendship and life.
• 3. Take "me-time" once a day. Listen to your favorite music, laugh with a good friend, read something worthwhile, take a walk.
• 4. Learn something new: computer skills, selling, marketing, business writing, P.R., leadership and management skills.
• 5. Take pride in what you do - do everything as well as you can! Meet deadlines and be competent.
• 6. Take initiative and be a workplace leader - don't stand back - synergy is about involvement and helping.
• 7. Choose a job you love - or choose to love the personal growth you gain from what you are doing. All work is honorable.
• 8. Motivate, encourage and help others. The gift of self-esteem is received from giving of oneself.
• 9. Turn a weakness into a strength.
• 10.  Choose to create joy in your life by improving the relationship with yourself, others and life.

Extracts from the new and revised edition of
Synergizing Your Business
by Chris Alexander
Available in bookstores everywhere in June 2008.

February 2008: Be a "First-Giver"!

 Being a first-giver means you believe in sharing and contributing, and not being a bystander. First giving is non-material. It is about whole heartedly supporting a purpose, cause or a team. Dedication is a powerful form of giving. You may be dedicated to your work, your church, your family or to life in general. Dedication often results in contributing positive energy, solutions, a good attitude, a soft face and a great person to work with. As a first giver, you manifest a universal law - the law of reciprocation. Human nature is such that if you treat a person with kindness, you will receive kindness in return. No matter how long it takes, even the most ardent cynics will eventually relent and return the kindness.

20 Ways to be a First-Giver

• Give unconditionally - Have no "fear" of loss.
• Give full attention and presence to those with you.
• Give by being competent and doing a great job.
• Give motivation and encouragement to your team.
• Give great service to internal and external customers.
• Give by embracing change.
• Give by following the golden rule: Treat others as you would like to be treated.
• Give by making eye contact and listening.
• Give by being innovative, creative and find better ways of doing things.
• Give respect by being on time every time.
• Give commitment to the vision, values and goals of your organization.
• Give your voice to something that will help make the team better.
• Give by valuing and supporting education and training.
• Give by mentoring, coaching and empowering others - Pay it forward.
• Give by doing it right first time.
• Give leadership by example.
• Give by being courteous and well mannered.
• Give by practicing quality in all you do.
• Give to those who are less fortunate.
• Give yourself the gift of giving.

"No-one ever needs a reason to be generous and kind"

Extracts from the new and revised edition of “Synergizing Your Business”
Available in bookstores everywhere in June 2008.

March 2008: Being Outrageously Victorious in Tough Times

Being victorious in tough times takes mental and emotional toughness. It takes a high level of motivational intelligence to stay unflappable while those around you are blaming, complaining and flipping out.

Henry Ford said: "If you think you can or you think you can't, you will always be right!"

 Strategies to ramp up your motivational intelligence and multiply your potential for victory

1. Focus on your locus of control. You can't control the economy, but you can control how you react to it. You are in control of your daily choices, attitudes and actions.
2. Focus on the process. Looking at the entire mountain can be discouraging while one step at a time will get you to the top.
3. Avoid negative media. The media sells fear, uncertainty and doubt with sensational exagerated punchlines - don't buy it! Turn off the T.V. and don't read newspapers.
4. Step up personal contact with customers. When the pie is smaller, you have to be more creative, more motivated and focused to get your slice.
5. Stay away from the whiners and complainers. Negativity is a contagious disease - don't listen to it, don't touch it, don't go near it!
6. Necessity is the mother of invention - Get creative, find new markets - you will be surprised at your potential when you think out of the box!
7. Do what everyone else is not doing and in that way you will have no competition. Everyone is waiting for the gravy train. Don't wait: make gravy; package it and sell it.
8. Surrender the memories. Make change a source of strength, rather than a source of stress.
9. "WOW" customers with great quality, outrageous responsiveness and appreciative added value. Remember: it's all about their experience.
10. Stick to the basics and go for it!

"Let's go to work on purpose"

April 2008: Why Worry; Be Happy!

Strategies for Reducing Worry and Stress

Psychologists tell us that "worry" is nothing more than a projection into the future of the worst possible thing that can happen and getting stressed and anxious "now" or it maybe a thought about a past situation that should have or could have happened differently.

"Worry" bothers everyone from time to time as we wrestle with life's challenges, trying to figure how and what to do. Fortunately there are excellent self-help strategies that will reduce worry and avoid making it a habit.

10 Powerful Self-Help Steps to Reduce Worry and Stress

1. Surrender the memories. Let go, move on and move up. Try to focus on today and what you can control.
2. Get it out. Write down how you are feeling and release the toxicity that worry causes. Success is a state of mind.
3. Get back to your purpose. Do what makes you feel worthwhile and what gets you up everyday with zeal. Your purpose is your cause, your reason for doing things, your reason for living. Purpose motivates you.
4. Visualize achieving your purpose. See it, feel it and get the JOY now! There's a simple principle that we can all take heed of: "What you think, affects how you feel, which will affect what you do."
5. Take action. Make your purpose and vision happen with clear goals and action steps. This will turn negative worries into positive experiences and results. Procrastination is the thief of time and the bedfellow of fear, uncertainty, doubt and worry.
6. Bring laughter into your life. A child laughs and smiles a least 400 times a day. It's never too late to have a happy childhood! Laughter is the great connector to life, people, prosperity and health. Laughter pops the cork of pent up stress.
7. Do what you love to do or make an attitudinal choice to enjoy learning and growing as a person in whatever you do. Choose to love your work; sing, paint, write, go to the theater, get back to nature, spend time with a loved one in a special place.
8. Exercise your mind, body and spirit. Stimulate and stretch your mind, exercise your body and give, pray and be grateful.
9. Have structured routine. We are creatures of habit and stability in our daily life reduces stress.
10. Take it one day at a time.

Affirmation: Just for today, I will try to live through this day only, and not tackle my whole life's problem at once. I can do something for twelve hours that would appall me, if I felt I had to keep it up for a lifetime.

May 2008: The “WOW” Factor! DVD by Chris Alexander

"JUST RELEASED!"
Recorded at the San Diego SMC Sales Symposium

In this high energy, engaging and informative presentation, you will learn powerful keys to release your personal "WOW" Factor and all the secrets to getting rave reviews from customers, praise from competitors and applause from co-workers.

Bring The "WOW" Factor! into your business and earn customer loyalty for life!

Haven't you ever said:
"WOW"! I just love the way they took care of the problem"
"WOW"! They were so professional, I'd go back in a heartbeat"

When we experience the magic of The "WOW" Factor!, we want to repeat it over and over. It's flattering, it's attractive and we want more of it.

Chris Alexander will help you bring The "WOW" Factor! into your business and into your life by learning how to make deliberate authentic choices to power up your charisma.

Get The "WOW" Factor!; Get the Applause!; Get the Respect!

 "WOW"! Can you see yourself creating a great impression every time you take care of the customer?

APPLAUSE! Imagine what it would feel like to receive rave reviews from customers, praise from competitors and applause from co-workers.

RESPECT! Be respected, be valued, be trusted.

 In this extraordinary presentation you will learn how to:

• Give and receive "WOW" experiences
• Build love and loyalty
• Become world-class
• Exceed customer expectations
• Earn respect and appreciation
• Build your charisma
• Inspiring! Exciting! Informative! Humorous!

Click here to order this live presentation.
Special Offer! Order NOW and get The "WOW" Factor! CD-audio track ($15 value) FREE!
Special Quantity Discount:
Order 5-10 DVDs (CD audio track included-value $75-$150 Free) and get a further 10% discount PLUS free shipping!
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Call NOW! 949/586-0511

June 2008: The Power of Communication

If people were machines, communication would be the oil that reduces friction and keeps things running smoothly.
   Communication influences perception and perception is the measure of a good or bad relationship. Good relationships build trust and trust leads to great marriages, families, businesses, quicker purchases and customers for life!

10 “WOW” Factor! Steps to Power Up Your Communication

1. It’s a Choice
“Choose to become a good communicator

• Make a point of showing genuine interest in others
• A smile is worth a 1,000 words
• Talk about the other person more than you talk about yourself

2. Be Real
“Be authentic and sincere”

• People distance themselves from phonies
• Show that you are human
• Avoid stuffiness

3. Make it Fun!
“Make each communication fun”

• Have something funny to say
• Make fun of yourself and your mistakes
• Laughter and humor are the great connectors

4. Listen
“Be a good listener”

• Bring yourself into the present moment when communicating
• Don’t interrupt - it’s rude and not smart
• Repeat interesting points; it shows you are listening

5. Be a First-Giver

• Have no fear of loss
• Follow the golden rule
• Give motivation and encouragement

6. No Freaking Out
“Control your nervousness, anxiety and stress”

• Stressed out people make others disappear
• Anxious communication creates hostility and fear
• Count to 10

7. Quit Bragging
“Avoid comparing, competing and bragging”

• Avoid bragging about success to those less successful
• Make the other person feel important
• Lift someone up before putting them down

8. Don’t be Obnoxious
“Be respectful, courteous and polite”

• Show respect for different opinions
• Understand differences: cultures, religions and preferences
• Practice good old fashioned manners
• Avoid arguments

9. Be the Change
“Teach people how to treat you and those you care about”

• Walk the talk
• Be candid and caring about issues you want changed
• Appeal to nobler motives in yourself and others

10. Be Trustworthy

• Be responsible
• Be reliable
• Be accountable
• Be responsive
• Be competent
• Be transparent
• Be a great connector

“It’s amazing what can be accomplished when nobody cares
who gets the credit.” -- Harry Truman

July 2008: The "NEW" Winning Formula!
   The "New" Winning Formula takes doing business to a whole new level. Now you must create World-Class experiences that "WOW" customers. Experiences that show your uniqueness and excite, delight and stimulate customer loyalty continuously. It's from the inside out that will create cash flow from the outside in!

"New" Winning Formula Steps

1. Decide to be World-Class
Prepare your business and your people for change. You instantly elevate your business when you and your team think, feel and act World-Class.

2. Follow the money
Listen to the voice of the customer. What will they pay for? What do they want? What do they need? How can you peak their interest levels? All your potential growth is from the outside in by focusing on delivering solutions to solve customer problems.

3. High-performance teamwork
Build a high-performance well-trained team at all levels. Create an inspirational environment by focusing them on a shared destiny, e.g. "To become World-Class". Your sustainable success is from the inside out by aligning systems, processes and people.

4. The "WOW" Factor!
Have you ever said: "WOW", I just loved the way they took care of me!" Being WOWed is a magical experience and we want to repeat it again and again. It's not by luck, chance or fate that you were WOWed. It's a deliberate choice and the driving force of a World-Class business.

5. Form strategic alliances
Form a special group of alliances and advocates - strong centers of influence - who love your "stuff" and who want to help you. Start with these loyalists and make the group grow by offering incentives for referrals and hot prospects.

August 2008: Olympic Optimism in Action
"WOW!" What a magnificent example of teamwork and optimism. This week, the USA swimming relay team reminded us of the need for optimism in our lives.  We have all been touched by the power of teamwork - synergy in action - fusion, combined energy creating something greater than the sum of its parts. As with world class sports teams, in business, this is your competitive advantage and your customers can sense it - and you can feel it if you are on your game. If there are two companies competing for the same customer - on an equal playing field - the teamwork company will win every time. When a group of committed individuals come together united behind a common set of optimistic goals and core values, barriers are broken and there's magic in the air.

Why should your business team be any different than a team of Olympic champions?
 I can make that happen in your company!

The Optimists Credo - Inspired by The Optimists Creed - Christian Carson, 1922

• Be firmly focused on your life's purpose, passion and goals so as to maintain peace of mind through good times and bad.
• Speak about joy and prosperity with everyone you meet.
• Make everyone you meet feel special and worthy.
• Manifest optimism by looking on the bright side of life.
• Increase your expectation of success, by working for and with success minded people.
• Always do the best you can in whatever you do.
• Surrender the memories of the past and press on and never, never give up.
• Be cheerful, have a sense of humor, laugh and the world laughs with you.
• Conserve natural resources, appreciate nature - be kind to all living creatures.
• Give more time to improving yourself than to criticizing others.
• Rise above worry, anger, fear, guilt, envy, jealousy, doubt and revenge - all destroyers of happiness and joy.
• Walk away from trouble and people who cause it.
• Conquer destructive fear, uncertainty and doubt.

It is an authentic and fulfilling choice to live your life on purpose .

October 2008 Newsletter: Crisis = Loss = Gain

Everyday I'm inspired by individuals and groups of people who have made the choice to turn crisis and loss into gain. Their new successes demonstrate how life strengthens us through experience.

The moment we choose to let go of the way it was, or should be, profound and powerful thoughts and emotions take hold and push us toward new horizons. We see new opportunities that motivate us to take assertive and decisive action. Simply, we focus our energy and strength on moving on and moving up and that makes all the difference.

 It's really all about the power of choice.

Choices That Will Help Turn Crisis + Loss into Gain

 1. Choose the Right Attitude
Attitude is more important than facts, than the past, than circumstances, than failure or success. It's the key to success.

2. Choose to Challenge Fear
The first step is to have the courage to recognize the existence of fear within you. The second step is to set a goal to go into action to change your circumstances.

3. Choose to be in the Present
Consciously tackle issues one day at a time. It is a powerful and successful formula but it takes a conscious effort to stay in the now, instead of in the "coulda"-"shoudas".

4. Choose Work
Go to work on purpose. Focus on using work to build your personal confidence, creativity and fulfillment

5. Choose Wisdom
Clear thinking supported by principal centered values, tempered by the prudent anticipation of potential high and low road outcomes, can be considered wise.

6. Choose to Dream
Dreamers are the saviors of the Universe. Dreams give you hope for the future and purpose and meaning to your life.

7. Choose Love
Choose to love what you do, choose to love life. A passion for what you do is an unstoppable, unflappable source of power.

8. Choose Communication
Communication is the soul food of personal relationships, families, cities and nations. Connected minds collaborating and communicating spark one another to greater creativity, opportunity and success.

9. Choose Silence
Take time to practice being silent. Learning to be silent, is learning to be with yourself. It only requires 20-30 minutes a day to relax your mind and body.

November 2008: Persistence Prescription

 Nothing will take the place of persistence. Talent will not, nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent, genius will not, unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not, the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "press on" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.     - Calvin Coolidge

 10 "Persistence" Quotes

 1. Money grows on the tree of persistence             - Japanese Proverb

2. Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality, the other, a matter of time
                                                                                                                                                         - Marabel Morgan

3. Genius is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration              - Thomas Edison

4. When the World says: "Give up"
Persistence says: "One more call, one more step and then . . . one more!"          - Chris Alexander

5. Success comes in cans - not can nots          - Chris Alexander

6. Consider the postage stamp: it's usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there
                                                                                                                                                               - Josh Billings

7. It's the last key in the bunch that opens the door                - Chris Alexander

8. It's always darkest, just before the dawn                 - Unknown

9. This too shall pass!                      - 1 Corinthians 10:12

10. Laughing every day is like being on an extended vacation                   - Chris Alexander

January 2009: Fortunes Made and Fortunes Lost

 In life and in business, there are always two sides to a coin. If the one side is negative, the other side is positive. While people are losing money, fortunes are being made. It has a lot to do with how you react to situations and circumstances. In tough times you have to get tough, become more focused, spread the net further out and become a hunter! You will be surprised at the opportunities that exists on the other side of the coin . . . but you have to turn it over!

Perseverance
There's no thrill in easy sailing, when the sky is clear and blue.
There's no joy in merely doing, things which anyone can do.
But there is some fulfillment, that is mighty sweet to take,
When you reach a destination, you thought you couldn't make.

Ideas to Turn Over

 1. Surrender the Memories
Let go of the past: the reality is that we are in challenging times and that requires a fresh approach, more intense focus, more attention to detail and more enthusiasm and energy than ever before - if we are to succeed.

 2. Confront the Fear
Fear immobilizes you. it immobilizes your staff, your customers and reduces your potential for recovery. Mostly fear is : False - Evidence - Appearing - Real. Fear is a coward, if you confront it with focused goals and action steps it subsides.

 3. Direct Your Anger
Direct and convert pent up frustration and anger into constructive, directed energy and positive goals.

4. Don't Procrastinate
Visualize, energize - but most important of all is to materialize your goals through action. Procrastination is the thief of time and money. Nothing happens until you sell something!

5. Double and Triple Your Call Rate
Selling in tough times takes at least 5 to 6 calls to make a sale. Studies show us most salespeople give up after the 2nd call. Be more persistent, but don't be a pain, do it professionally and appropriately.

6. Build Strategic Alliances
Strategic alliances are centers of influence who will refer you. Align yourself with business professionals who call on the same clients as you. Centers of influence who give you referrals have a 70% closing ratio.

7. Create Bundles
Make it inviting, exciting and irresistible by bundling extras or offering discounts on additional purchases. Be prepared to make less profit to maintain your customer base and market share.

8. "WOW" Your Customers
Give a superior level of service and build customer loyalty. These are the times that you want to hold onto your customers. The best assurance you have during tough times is a bank of loyal customers who may give you a bit less but an important and steady flow of business.

9. High Performance Team Marketing and Prospecting
Include and involve everyone into the marketing and sales process. During tough times, everyone is in marketing and sales. Brainstorm new ideas, new markets, new contacts, old contacts, friends, family and relationships.

10. Follow the Money
In every downturn, there are industries that are booming. New industries or specific industries that flourish in changing times - follow the market, follow the money and follow growth industries.