Many business owners feel they are building their businesses, leading a crusade, with a team of ineffective salespeople. “They’re all order takers,” they think.

“They don’t bring in new customers.” It’s like running a race with 100-pound weight on each leg.

How does this happen? Are there no good salespeople? Why do so many business owners wind up saying, “If only my sales team would sell the prospects as strongly as they sold me when I hired them!”

As leaders, business owners and executives need to accept responsibility for this outcome – to evaluate why it happened and what could be done differently.

Leading a strong sales team starts with a strong hiring policy, strong standards and a strong selling value system.

A fundamental cause of salesperson failure is the wrong value system – the inability to put business values before social values. We are all socialized, with friends and family, to respect psychological space. For example, if you ask a friend to go to the last Indiana Jones movie and the friend says no, do you push back, saying, “But you love Harrison Ford, you love the Indiana Jones saga, you love period pieces and you love John Williams music, so, what is the problem?”

Or do you say, let’s do something else?

In the social sphere it’s generally recognized as inappropriate behavior to pursue the matter when declined. In the business sphere if you determine there is a fit with the prospect you need to find a way to continue the conversation. This is putting business values first.

The business owner cited above, complaining about the salesperson who wouldn’t sell, faces this scenario:

   • The salesperson probably wants prospects to be his friends. Social values prevail – this is why he can’t close and many never close the sale.

   • The salesperson treats the owner on a business values basis.

The owner’s challenge is to help salespeople transfer this business value set to the prospecting and selling sphere.

When we hire salespeople we want to make sure they understand this values distinction. We ask for instances from their life when they acted on this premise. Further, we offer case histories of expected business development behavior – for example, sitting in a waiting room until a buyer gives you an appointment. We tell salespeople they need to follow this behavior from the outset.

We are very careful with orientation. A three- to four-week orientation period, with no selling while they learn the business, can dull the killer instinct. Making the salesperson comfortable is a recipe for failure.

Since we typically need values retraining, from a social to a business orientation, we are going against the mainstream culture. We need to offer the salesperson a strong justification, much stronger than the economic incentive.

One approach is suggested by Joseph Campbell in Hero with a Thousand Faces. Campbell studies hero myths in dozens of cultures over thousands of years. Heroes are necessary to and celebrated in every culture and begin their journey by passing the “first threshold” – the world as we know it, the world of safety and continuity. For example, think of Luke Skywalker of Star Wars passing the first threshold when he leaves with Obi Wan Kenobi.

We need to celebrate salespeople as heroes, because they:

   1) Pace change, making it happen faster; and

   2) Shift the buyer’s paradigm from commodity to consultative buying.

In order to do these things, they must pass the first threshold – putting business over social values.

Do you embrace, teach and celebrate the hero culture in your firm?

This is essential to shutting down the sales country club and achieving exponential sales growth, even in declining markets.

Solar power promotion and assistance is one of the area development services offered to businesses and communities by PSE&G.

These guys had three jobs among the most important in the state. Their decisions affected billions of dollars of economic activity. I have always found it amazing that the lights stay on given the qualifications of the people running the show. I spend more time checking the credentials of my plumber than the state spends on most of its appointees.

Few people notice who gets appointed to the boards, authorities and commissions that abound around New Jersey. There are specialty boards, regulatory boards, promotional boards, water boards, sewer boards, etc. There are statewide boards, regional boards and local boards. There are important boards and unimportant boards. Some board members get paid, some do not.

The governor has the authority to appoint thousands of people to all these boards. It is one of the greatest sources of political patronage, and unlike the state payroll jobs, these appointments are generally made without much public knowledge or oversight. It is a truly insider game that is being played.

As he prepares to leave office, Gov. Corzine has submitted 180 names for a myriad of boards to the Senate for confirmation. These range from the Board of Public Utilities to the board of directors of Horizon Blue Cross and Blue Shield to the New Jersey Maritime Pilot and Docking Pilot Commission.

While it is fairly common for outgoing governors to grant a few last favors, the magnitude of the Corzine appointments is really beyond the pale. The move is a cynical attempt to place as many poison pills around the state as possible, rather than an attempt to pay off a few old friends.

At the Board of Public Utilities, which I view as the most important of all the regulatory agencies, Gov. Corzine’s nomination of Ken Esser as a commissioner will ensure that the Democratic party maintains control of the board until 2012 with a three-to-two majority. Now, while Mr. Esser may be the most qualified nomination to come along in a long time, this breaks the time-honored tradition of allowing the party in control of the Statehouse to control the levers of government.

So why is this important? Is tradition all there is to this argument?

When we elect a new governor, we expect him to be able to govern. That is why the team at the top changes. We get all new cabinet officers and appointments several layers down in the different state agencies. This way new policies can be implemented.

However, when you have all these authorities, which actually have authority to do things, you cannot implement a policy agenda if the other side retains control. It basically undermines the election result. It is a poison pill.

A much better system would be to get rid of most of these appointed bodies and bring these semiautonomous groups back under the direct control of the state.

In the near term, however, Gov. Corzine should stop this shenanigan. He should withdraw these last-minute appointments and allow his successor, Chris Christie, a chance to do what he was elected to do – govern.

The residents, employees and businesses of New Jersey received an early holiday gift December 7 when the state Legislature wrapped up fiscal responsibility and placed it under the tree in Trenton. The day that has lived in infamy this year became a day of unparalleled political consensus in a state where those two words are not frequently joined.

The Assembly passed a proposal for an amendment to the state’s constitution “requiring contributions collected from assessments on wages to be used for employee benefits and prohibiting use of the contributions for any other purpose.” Essentially, the amendment will ban future state leaders from raiding the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund (UI), the Temporary Disability Insurance Benefit Fund (TDI) and various other workers’ compensation funds for reasons other than their intended purpose.

The unemployment fund, which is financed by both employees and employers and guarantees benefits for out-of-work state residents, is dangerously low due to the practice by past and present administrations of dipping into its coffers to pay for other expenses. About $5 billion has been diverted from the fund since 1992, most used to fund charity care, which mandates that New Jersey hospitals provide medical care for all patients even if they are uninsured.

This unemployment fund shortfall has led New Jersey to borrow $800 million from the federal government to cover its obligations and in July the state’s 250,000 businesses were hit with an additional payroll tax of $90 per employee when the fund’s level dropped to a point that triggers the automatic tax.

If passed by New Jersey voters in November, this amendment will stop the raiding, which is good for employees, employers and the state’s taxpayers, who ultimately pay for New Jersey’s debt.

What is remarkable about the bill – SCR-60 in the Senate and ACR-134 in the Assembly – is the sweeping support it has received from nearly every sector. The bill’s six primary sponsors were split evenly between Democrat and Republican and the measure passed the Senate and Assembly by votes of 38-0 and 77-0, respectively. The measure was supported by the New Jersey Chamber of Commerce and New Jersey Business & Industry Association as well as labor groups.

Earlier this year one of the bill’s primary sponsors, Sen. Stephen Sweeney (D-3), said,

“These programs were created as safety nets for difficult economic times. Yet, time and time again, public officials have resorted to one-shot gimmicks to transfer surplus from these funds to plug holes in the State Budget.”

Another primary sponsor, Sen. Thomas Kean (R-21), offered, “It is critical that we work

to safeguard the funds that help unemployed and underemployed workers cope with tough times. It’s only fair that we meet the promise to workers taxed to pay for these benefits.”

Added the New Jersey AFL-CIO, “At the heart of this issue is a desire to interject fiscal discipline into the budgetary process.”

Fiscal discipline should be at the top of the New Year’s resolution list for every resident and business in New Jersey. While the state’s constitution mandates that the governor and Legislature balance the budget each year, there has been too much wiggle room on how that is achieved. State leaders have been not only dipping into the unemployment fund; everything from the state pension to the Shore Protection Fund has taken a beating in one way or another over the years.

With the constitutional amendment protecting the unemployment fund now clear of the

Legislature it will be placed on the ballot with the next general election in November. One can only assume voters will pass the measure with enthusiasm equal to the support it has received to this point.

Yet problems are not so easily solved in New Jersey. While the amendment will protect the unemployment fund from future raids and help ensure it solvency, there will remain the unhealthy issue of funding charity care.

Under the current charity care plan the state’s hospitals are reimbursed for charity care at below-cost rates. This has led to a financial crisis within the state’s hospitals, a crisis that has resulted in New Jersey hospitals posting an average operating margin of just 0.2 percent in 2008, down from 1.7 percent in 2007, according to the New Jersey Hospital Association.

More than 40 percent ended 2008 in the red. That is a trend that bodes very badly for the state’s hospitals, with more than a dozen already declaring bankruptcy in the last two years or on the threshold of doing do.

State leaders next must establish a financially solvent and fair mechanism for reimbursing hospitals for charity care and must do so quickly before more of these institutions become terminal.

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With the economy slowly returning to form, we must now focus on a new challenge –

putting America back to work. It won’t be easy – unemployment is at its highest level in more than 25 years. We must create 20 million new jobs over the next decade simply to put the unemployed back to work and to keep up with a growing population.

There’s only one system that’s proven capable of meeting this goal – American free

enterprise.

Economic renewal will begin where it always does – with entrepreneurs and America’s 29.6 million small businesses. These everyday heroes are unparalleled in their ability to create jobs, spur local development, and bring new products and services to market.

Over the past 15 years, small businesses created almost two-thirds of new jobs and, given the right business environment, can deliver big for Americans once again.

But free enterprise is about more than just a small startup or the biggest corporation.

It’s a powerful idea that is inseparable from the American Dream. Free enterprise offers

the opportunity to dream big – and to turn that dream into a reality.

We’ll never claim that free enterprise is a perfect system. But while it has its faults, free enterprise has done more to improve the human condition than any other system ever devised. With significant challenges – including energy and health care – ahead of us, we must take advantage of the power of free enterprise to harness human talent. Nothing less than our economic competitiveness is at stake.

The goal of this comprehensive and sustained program is to remind, educate and persuade our fellow citizens and leaders that the free enterprise values of individual initiative, hard work, freedom of choice and the free exchange of trade, capital and ideas that built this great country can lead us back to prosperity.

This campaign isn’t about partisan politics – it’s about preserving the American Dream

for this and future generations through low taxation, reasonable regulations, a doubling of American exports and free and vibrant capital markets.

Washington, by taking the steps necessary to avoid a new Great Depression, has done its part. Now, it’s time for government to assume its traditional, limited role. Economic growth and recovery will come from the bottom up, not from Washington down. It’s up to the American people – all 300 million of us – to outwork, outthink, and out-dream our competitors. Our work begins anew.

Elizabethtown Gas Company recently received a Public Service Award for Excellence from the New Jersey Business & Industry Association (NJBIA) for its mentoring and internship program at Elizabeth High School. To help students at the nation’s largest high school earn their diplomas, Elizabethtown Gas created the program five years ago to show students how a natural gas utility is operated and to underscore the importance of getting a high school diploma and pursuing a college degree. The utility seeded the program with $20,000 and continues to provide $10,000 to keep the program going.

Over the past four years mentors from the company spent 2,500 volunteer hours at the

5,000-student school, giving college campus tours, holding end-of-the-year class trips and discussing professional skills, the role education has played in their careers and any other topics of interest to students.

Employees at the law firm of Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook & Cooper P.C. of

Westfield recently donated more than 1,300 pounds of non-perishable food items to

The Community Food Bank of New Jersey. Employees from the firm’s three New Jersey offices in Westfield, Summit and Rumson collected pasta, rice, canned goods, oat meal, water, juice, cereal and baby items.

The firm also was the recipient of the 2009 Spinnaker Corporate Good Neighbor

Award from the Eastern Monmouth Area Chamber of Commerce. The Corporate Good

Neighbor Award goes to a business with 50 or more employees whose culture motivates employees to be personally involved as good Samaritans in their communities.

Sometimes the simplest ideas have the greatest impact. For PNC, this truth is more than cliché.

A nationwide leader in diversified financial services, PNC offers the array of products

and services one might expect from a major financial institution. Yet similarities in products give way to uniqueness in delivery. For PNC one simple yet powerful word makes all the difference: conversation.

“As relationship managers and a relationship bank, our goal is to get to know our customers,” said Bob Young, senior vice president, business banking, PNC Financial Services Group. “We have an in-depth cash flow conversation with our customers and with prospects.

We get to understand their business first. By not presupposing what a customer needs, we provide a tremendous amount of value.”

This becomes particularly important given an economy still struggling to regain its footing and businesses still treading with caution. According to PNC’s 2009 Fall Economic Outlook, which surveys small and mid-sized business owners in New Jersey, “Business owners remain cautious in their expectations about the U.S. economy.” At the same time only 8 percent are optimistic about the local economy.

“When times are not so good and people are struggling, I think it’s the time they need the most advice, and they need somebody to talk to,” Young said. “You need to take a step back and look at how you’re doing business.”

As a first step, Young points to examining business efficiencies. PNC’s approach helps customers do just this, with a conversation Young describes as “granular.”

“How does the business collect their money?” he asks. “How do they disperse their money? What do they do with excess money? When they’re in need of capital, how do they raise that money, and how do they monitor it?”

While many businesses look at pieces of this cash flow puzzle, few examine it in its entirety, Young noted. “When times are as they are today, I think that’s what business owners have to do,” he added.

Partnering with customers to ask these questions helps businesses not only uncover

problems but also discover needs previously unrecognized.

“It’s always great when you can raise some questions and have them think it through,” Young said.

This critical conversation is a core component of PNC’s overarching brand: ease, confidence and achievement. In a day in which faith in many financial institutions is tenuous, instilling confidence is more vital than ever. Emphasizing PNC’s financial strength and stability – which anchored the company during the recent financial storm – Young sees opportunities to continue to gain customer loyalty and trust.

Doing so entails continually expanding services, which currently include simple and sophisticated products and services that cover a broad range of clients and needs. When all is said and done, however, it still goes back to that person-to-person conversation – and to understanding the particular situation of each customer and tailoring solutions to meet the same.

“Some customers may need to monitor how cash is going in and out, so we provide online banking or treasury management solutions,” Young explained. “Some may have a shortfall of cash or need a credit line to bridge the gap. Every customer is unique.”

PNC remains a ready partner to help businesses assess their situations and architect

blueprints for the future.

“The challenges to the businessperson are our own challenges,” Young said. “As they face those, we need to be there to try to meet them and try to help them through that process. If they’re successful, we’re successful.”

It is as simple as having a conversation.