Don Gabor
Best Selling Author
www.DonGabor.com

As an expert on conversation skills, you might have the expectation that Don Gabor is also a seasoned sales expert. Undoubtedly, Don is the master in getting people to talk. But, Don wanted to improve his success rate in one other key area, closing more business.

Before Don took The Titan Boot Camp, his questions centered more on the prospects skills set versus their strategic needs and direction. Now, he asks a different set of questions. One of the things the Titan Boot Camp showed me how to do was to connect the conversation skills with how people would benefit by improved communications with their colleagues, customers, friends and family.

Just by changing the questions Don asked, he started to see immediate and dramatic results. The first week after the boot camp, Don closed one of the biggest deals of his career. That was nine months ago. Since the program ended, Don continues to use the process and has seen a significant result in his bottom line. Don also claims that by going through this process and working at it every day, he has managed to reposition himself from being perceived as a vendor of commodity type services to being a trusted advisor offering real solutions.

Don Gabor is stellar example of a Titan… a professional looking for ways to improve himself and increase the value he brings to his clients. He realizes that growth is not an event, but a process of continuous improvement. He continuously strives to be the best he can be.

Congratulations Don Gabor, our Titan Profile of the Month.

Tragically, we sometimes realize the valuable contributions of others in death vs. life. On Monday, April 19th, 2004, James R. Cantalupo, CEO of McDonald’s, died of a massive hear attack just before the opening of the annual McDonald’s convention in Orlando, FL.

Mr. Cantalupo came out of retirement in January 2003 after McDonald’s posted its first quarterly loss since it became a publicly traded company. In 16 short months, James Cantalupo implemented a strategy that turned around McDonald’s earnings and put him into the upper echelon of CEO’s who truly have made a difference for their company and community.

These changes were significant and worthy of blazing new frontiers. McDonald’s, known for its fast food, decided to do away with its highly successful trademark Super Size® promotion. Responding to the well documented spread of obesity in America, McDonald’s silenced it’s critics and jumped on the bandwagon of healthy eating. Another significant change addressing the obesity issues was the first ever Adult Happy Meal, consisting of salad, bottled water and a pedometer.

Of course, Mr. Cantalupo initiated other changes such as selling off non-performing assets. Most importantly, James Cantalupo showed true leadership by acting as a visionary, thinking outside of the box and shifting his company so that it better aligned itself with the needs and wants of today’s market. Making these decisions was risky, but James intuitively knew that this was the direction his company had to take.

The results speak for themselves. The leader spoke up and addressed his company and market needs. And now, James R. Cantalupo’s legacy will continue to speak for many years to come.

James R. Canatlupo, our Titan Profile of the month, thank you for showing us how the right leader can bring refreshing ideas to a company that has been around for a long time and produce staggering results. Your legacy proves there is room for improvement in all of us.

Jon FriedmanProducer – The Rejection Show
www.tremendousrabbit.com

Some writers, cartoonists and actors have had their work shot down by the market. What do they do with the rejected pieces of work? If you are smart, you would take it to Jon Friedman, who created a show dedicated to rejection. Jon’s Rejection Show is gaining popularity and is becoming a hot topic. Imagine a show where you can go and present your material that was just shot down and the audience loves it. Loves it? But wait a minute, it was just shot down. How can somebody else really love it?

This is a perfect example of some one else’s garbage being someone else’s treasure. In talking with Jon, here are a few interesting thoughts.

* Most of the people who had their works of art rejected are considered very successful in their own fields. They realize as part of their success, they will be rejected more often than accepted. The thing that separates them from the not-so successful colleagues is they do not let the rejection stop them. In fact, they are fueled to continue on until they are accepted because that is the feeling that motivates them.

* These same people realize their pieces are sometimes rejected for reasons outside of their control. For example, the material might not be right for the venue. The reviewer may be in a bad mood. Sometimes, material will look differently on paper than when it is actually performed. The decision is not made on quality but on personal taste. You can take all of these reasons and add a dozen more from the miscellaneous column and realize that many times, plain luck takes over. You have to have all of your stars in alignment.

* And sometimes, heavens no, the piece you thought so highly of, is just not good enough.

Jon went on to say that the successful artists who perform their rejected pieces in his show have a few things in common. First and foremost is their passion for what they do. Their passion drives them through all of the negativity associated with success. The ones that do it just for the financial reward are not as likely to escape unscathed by rejection. In fact, more often than not, the artists looking for only financial gain are least likely to continue on the path to success after being rejected several times. The last common denominator is the successful artists may take the rejection personally, who wouldn’t? But they get over it by being creative and findings ways of being accepted. They don’t let it stop them.

Thank you Jon Friedman, our Titan Profile of the Month. You have shown us how rejection is a part of every successful person’s game. The only difference is what you do with it. You might as well as turn it into a show, because someone out there is going to like your stuff.

John Daly
Professional Golfer

If a customer says no to you, do you stop? If 50 customers say no to you, do you stop and go home? If you do not win any of the 180 golf tournaments you have played in, do you give up and retire? John Daly didn’t give up.

With a well documented story of having tough times and difficulties in coping with life, it has been 9 years since John Daly won a PGA tournament. After failing for 188 times, John Daly won the Buick Open on February 15th. The tears running down his face during the interview symbolized the sweat, anguish and heartache he has gone through. Yet, you would never have known it since he kept playing through it all and eventually reaching the high ground once again as a champion.

The reality is John Daly has been a champion all his life. His story continues to motivate us all and provide evidence of what it takes to succeed in life. It takes sheer determination and belief in yourself, even when others may have given up on you. It takes belief when you, yourself, are down and doubt whether or not you can do it. The only difference that separates the sales superstars and the non-performers is they don’t let their fears and doubts stop them. Oh, there is one other key thing that separates the top performers from all others, commitment and hard work.

Thank you John Daly, our Titan Profile of the month. You have exemplified the type of behavior Titans employ daily as part of the quest to succeed in life.

Don Cameron
President
Guilford Technical Community College

Did you ever wonder how a small community college can grow in difficult economic times? Just ask Don Cameron, President of Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) in North Carolina. Don has seen his share of tough times. The long gas lines in the early 70’s, the recessions of 1981/’82. 1991/’92 and the tough economic times of post 9/11.

In tough economic times like these, states normally cut budgets. In fact, when Don became President of GTCC, he had to revert a half million dollars back to the state. So how does a college continue to grow, raise more funds and provide its students with the services they need when there is no money?

Don Cameron claims you can do this if you carry out the following three principles: Keep a positive attitude, think outside of the box and look at ways you can be more efficient and effective.

Don wanted GTCC to be a place of higher education for students to learn and get jobs. Or, if they wish, to transfer to a 4 year school. But to do this, he needed the support of the community.

He turned to a colleague of mine, Nido Qubein. Together, they produced presidential seminars designed to provide ideas and skills to the leaders of industry in the community. These seminars helped GTCC gain awareness as a quality institution. They were able to raise additional funds including money, equipment and buildings. The results have been so staggering that GTCC has just embarked with confidence on a $6 Million Legacy Campaign.

These partnerships have allowed GTCC to flourish in times that have dealt serious blows to other institutions. This success story is so significant that even the Wall Street Journal found out about it and ran a front page story detailing the incredible journey of this small community college.

Thank you, Don Cameron, our Titan Profile of the month. You have shown us that circumstances by themselves cannot hold us down if we do not allow them to.

Joel N. Greenberg
Financial Representative- Guardian
jngguardian@aol.com

If you look at Joel Greenberg’s title above, it is simply understated in terms of what he really does for a living. Joel is a master at networking and being an invaluable resource to his clients. His version of cold calling is going out in the winter to meet with a client. Joel gets all of his clients through referrals, but recognizes that the business opportunities may not develop overnight.

He may meet a business owner looking to get zoning approval to purchase new land. Hearing about the challenges facing the business owner, Joel will line up the necessary support through his contacts. While he does this on his own with no guarantee of future business, he knows that if you constantly help others get what they need and want, you build relationships and in the end will get your fair share in return.

It is this process that enables Joel to sell a far ranging set of services and products from insurance to 401k plans. His referral network helped him land clients ranging from entrepreneurs to mature businesses and influential private clients.

In short, when Joel wakes up every morning, instead of worrying about where his business is going to come from, he concentrates on helping his clients and others succeed in life. He knows if he spends time with the right people, he will eventually be exposed to unlimited business opportunities. This is why Joel has achieved average annual growth of 15% over the last 25 years.

Congratulations to Joel Greenberg, our Titan Profile of the Month. You are a stellar example of how Titans stay on top year after year.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Governor Elect- California

It is very difficult to find one person who could not believe the carnival atmosphere associated with the Gray Davis recall vote. Putting all politics aside, there is another story that needs to be told.

It is about Arnold Schwarzenegger, the successful body builder, entrepreneur, actor and now politician. Dan Rather had it right in a commentary the day after the election. You can criticize Arnold for his ridiculous behavior with women. You can mock his acting abilities. You can even question his qualifications to be Governor. But what you cannot question is his success.

Arnold has succeeded in all four careers he embarked on for several reasons. The first and primary reason was his commitment to success. Before he agreed to step into each new area, he was fully committed to doing whatever it took to succeed and reach the top of his professional field.

Another virtue was his ability to surround himself with highly qualified people. Getting Warren Buffet as an advisor was not only a stroke of genius, but also provided instant credibility to Arnold’s campaign.

Finally, Arnold’s history proves that as time goes on and the media grows more powerful, it is going to be more difficult to find a candidate with no blemishes on his record. The issue in most cases is not so much the blemish, but how the blemish is treated. Do you ignore it or acknowledge it? Kennedy (Bay of Pigs) and Johnson & Johnson (Tylenol scare) are two great examples of how one can instantly reduce the heat by acknowledging issues (not necessarily taking blame) versus Nixon (Watergate) and Exxon (Valdes) who both suffered the ultimate consequences through their failure to acknowledge the issues. While Arnold’s acknowledgement did not eliminate the issue altogether, he did reduce the negativity associated with it enough to not let it get in the way of his candidacy.

Looking at Arnold’s candidacy this way, you realize Arnold just does what most successful people do.

Congratulations Arnold, our Titan Profile of the Month. Now, show us how you can clean up California and return it to the vibrant state that once again attracts people with their dreams.

Naomi and Jim Rhode- Founders- SmartHealth, Inc.

Just like HP and other well documented success stories, SmartHealth, Inc. started in business over 30 years ago in the garage of its founders, Naomi and Jim Rhode. Today, it is a bustling concern grossing over $80 million and taking up thousands of square feet in several buildings. SmartHealth, Inc. started out with a targeted niche in dentistry. Its specialty was practice management and patient communications. Today, they have taken that same core business and applied it to vertical markets including realtors, chiropractors and other professionals.

Naomi and Jim are marketing and leadership experts who speak to thousands of people annually. During a recent trip of mine to Phoenix, Jim invited me to take a tour of his facilities. Several things Jim spoke about stood out as common but critical principles on how they have built this business.

The first thing I noticed was they bought their own printing presses and brought the capability to print most of their marketing materials and products in house. Looking at the huge commercial presses run, Jim mentioned that 50% of the press volume is used solely on their own marketing materials.

Selling the deal should take up at least half the amount of time you have in a given day. If you are not selling at least 50% of your time, you probably are not meeting your numbers. If you are spending a great deal of time fulfilling orders and only a little time selling, you will wind up with a drastic reduction in revenue once those orders have been filled.

In watching Jim walk around the buildings, he knew every employee and exactly what they did. He would shake their hand with a smile, and ask them what they were working on. Within seconds, he knew if the company’s resources were being used properly or wasted. You can’t do this if you do don’t fully understand your business. Jim knows everything works within a system. If you follow the right system, success is just around the corner. If you follow the wrong system or no system at all, you will keep waiting for success to arrive.

Ultimately, Jim and Naomi are specialists in keeping their most treasured resource, their employees, fully motivated and highly productive. During this tour, several managers told Jim how they really liked Naomi’s talk on leadership earlier that week. If only one person says it, you believe it. If several people say it, you really FEEL the impact Naomi had on the troops.

Thank you Jim and Naomi Rhode, our Titan Profiles of the month, for showing us how to build a world class business.
(To see if you any of their products will help your marketing efforts, please to visit them at www.smartpractice.com )

The CFO and the owner of a company become dissatisfied with the blue chip vendor servicing their 401k program. They put out the word of their unhappiness and before you know it, the CFO gets a call from Mark Gajowski, a Certified Financial Planner (CFP), who is all too happy to fix their problems and get the business.

Before Mark makes the call, he does his homework and finds out from his sources providing the lead that the CFO and owner greatly value their employees. They are very frustrated that their employees are not getting the kind of service they deserve. During the call, Mark quickly gets into a brief discussion regarding their concerns. While the CFO is unhappy, he believe the timing is not right to make a switch and blows Mark off.

A few months go by, and Mark has been following up on a consistent basis. Finally, when the time comes to make the change, who do you think gets a call to come in and present their solution? Our friend, Mark Gajowski. As they say, tenacity pays off.

Even though Mark got the call, so did a couple of other financial planners. He still has to differentiate himself from the competition. To do this, Mark focuses on the customer in the meeting by discussing what the prospect is looking for and how they can fill the gaps. As he works on putting the proposal together, there are a number of follow-up phone calls and e-mails to clarify exactly the needs of the customer. Mark believes this is crucial because “there is always an unlimited number of ways on how to do a presentation, but none of those ways matter unless the topic material is important to the client”.

The finishing touch in customizing the proposal is as simple as putting the logo of the company on the Powerpoint slides and handouts. Mark understands that “the sweetest thing you can hear is your name. To an owner its his company name and logo. It is a matter of recognition and pride”. Mark is so right on this point since this is the way I managed to hear of this success story. The CFO, a friend of mine, was commenting one night how this guy came in and had their logo on the presentation. It was a small gesture that had great impact.

Mark gets all of his business from referrals and using the sales process outlined above. His closing ratio is a whopping 95%! But how does he get the referrals?

He never stops doing what got him in the door to begin with. He constantly finds ways to increase his value by identifying areas he can further assist and fill in the gaps of what’s missing for his clients. That is exactly why the initial blue chip vendor lost the business to begin with. They stopped doing what got them the deal in the first place.

Thank you Mark Gajowski, our Titan Profile of the month. You have provided us with a stellar case study on how to sell value and equally important, how to maintain and grow a business by continually giving clients what they need, in the way they want it.

Dan Ross Atlantic Area Sales Manager, HP (Hewlett-Packard)

Dan Ross knows that to increase his team’s sales revenues, they have to find new ways to excite clients enough to create the positioning of HP as the best alternative. Selling HP Business Critical Systems (server and storage solutions), Dan’s team reduces client risk by delivering scalable solutions that can be implemented company wide.

Typically, HP closes 5-10% of new accounts called on (to set up a personal sales call) for the initial appointment. They targeted 30 potential new accounts for a test using The Titan Principle® Selling Methodology. They closed 40% of these new accounts for the initial sales appointment! The news gets even better. Of these initial appointments, they uncovered 6 new deals; 3 times more than what they would have normally uncovered. They closed all of these deals within 6 months which generated several million dollars in incremental revenue. Finally, Dan’s team in the last quarter was #1 in overall revenue and incremental new revenue for the Business Critical Systems Unit of HP. Now, that’s Titan Results!

Don’t miss the opportunity to learn how
you can achieve similar results…..
Comparing The Titan Principle® sales process to what they have done in the past, Dan claims the number one difference is “quick competence.” He states his salespeople quickly became more competent to identify and qualify opportunities by asking powerful questions instead of talking about their features and benefits. They became more confident calling on high level executives. They found out that by asking the right questions, senior level executives were willing to give the answers they needed to present the best solutions to their client’s problems. And by discussing the consequences of inaction, they were quickly able to create the perceived value for the customer.

Their telemarketing success to get the initial sales appointments was also impacted by The Titan Principle®. They successfully crafted a resource proclamation, focused on benefits, by carefully studying these selected accounts. This generated an effective way to get the prospects time and attention over the phone.

Dan Ross is a seasoned veteran who knows that continued success depends upon staying on top of one’s skills and not letting one’s pre-conceived notions and ego get in the way. This is critical if one expects to consistently rank as a top performer. Congratulations to Dan Ross, our Titan Profile of the Month.