Can Businesses Afford to Wait for Affordable Healthcare?

By Rod Hirsch

It's Nothing Personal -Just Business

By Andy Gole

We associate selling with entrepreneurship. We know: “Nothing happens until someone sells something.”

Is there a direct connection between selling and entrepreneurship? Can entrepreneurship improve selling, particularly the business development component?

Selling can seem complex, containing three major components:

1. Customer Service – Responding to customers’ needs, often consuming most of a salesperson’s time, particularly in a mature market;

2. Account Management – Developing and implementing a plan to increase profitable sales with an existing customer. It also includes developing the relationship to secure a flow of meaningful “decision-making” information – including opportunities and threats;

3. Business Development – Bringing in new customers.

Sales people who primarily work in customer service are often disparaged as “order takers.” In truth, they are customer service representatives, wrongly identified as salespeople.

Account managers perform a vital function for their companies – particularly in helping management forecast future sales. They do little or no business development.

Business development is essential not only for company growth, but even to maintain sales. A company can lose 5-15 percent of its customer base annually through attrition – customers being acquired, going out of business, changing buyers, etc.

Business development – bringing in new customers – entails two types of causation:

   (1) identifying new prospects and putting them into the opportunity pipeline; and

  (2) closing new prospects – whether the lead is self-generated or furnished by the company.

If a sales person closes only company-furnished leads, he is often called an order taker. This wrongly presupposes that no special skills or efforts are needed to close a new customer. Effectively closing prospects requires a strong standard sales call, which resolves the three fatal flaws in the selling process.

Nevertheless, for growth – particularly in small-to-medium businesses – the salesperson must generate his or her leads.

Lead generation is impeded by many factors, including a reluctance to network and ask for introductions – a function of putting social values before business values.

Two additional factors that merit attention are:

  1. The paradox of business development

  2. The entrepreneurial skills required

Many business owners lament that their best salespeople have become lazy. They no longer go out and close new clients. These owners overlook the paradox of lead generation.

A huge effort is generally required to close a new account. A much smaller effort is required to maintain it. The profit – for both the salesperson on a commission basis and for the company – flows from developing and maintaining the account.

If a salesperson isn’t going out and developing new business, this might be a function of the compensation system.

Entrepreneurship is managing uncertainty and change – the unknown future possibilities. It means identifying and then effectively acting on opportunity.

This ability is essential to effective business development. According to the DISC survey, only about 10 percent of the population possesses entrepreneurial skills. These skills include estimation and calculation, including the ability to model and calculate break-even points. Many entrepreneurs engage in non-stop evaluation of opportunity. This skill allows the business developer to determine if a new market or customer is worth the effort being expended.

To be successful, an entrepreneurial business developer needs aggressive outreach, and must put business values before social values. In addition, he needs the ability to calculate the expected outcome of his actions. Companies would be well advised to test their business development candidates for calculating and conceptual skills.

_____________________________________________________________________

Andy Gole has taught selling skills for 14 years. He started three businesses and has made approximately 4,000 sales calls, selling both B2B and B2C. He invented a selling process, Urgency Based Selling®, with which he can typically help companies double their closing or conversion ratio. Learn more about Andy’s method at www.bombadilllc.com or by calling him at 201.415.3447.

Mountainside Indoor Tennis Center

Advantage In - This Family Oriented Tennis Facility

As fall settles across the Watchung Mountains, a different seasonal change unfolds in Mountainside. The burst of a freshly opened can of tennis balls heralds the

start of the indoor tennis season.

Just off Route 22 tucked behind the local Elks club, the six courts of Mountainside Indoor Tennis Center are ready and waiting – for the four women who meet each

Thursday morning for two hours of spirited competition; for the after-work commuters anxious for their weekly destress; for the senior citizens still showing a bounce in their step and the five-year-old girl launching a love for a game that will last a lifetime.

Score: Love all.

“We try to offer something for everyone,” said Dan Aquila, tennis director at Mountainside Indoor Tennis Center (MITC). “That’s what this sport is all about. It’s a

great family sport you can take with you the rest of your life.”

Aquila and his family are living examples. The family has run MITC for 25 years and has always ensured it was a family-oriented business. Georgia Aquila has managed the facility since 1990. Dan has been playing competitively since he was 12, including at Westfield High School, Seton Hall University and as a local tournament player; he is certified by the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA).

“This has always been a family-oriented facility,” Georgia Aquila said.

This friendly atmosphere combines with an array of offerings to set MITC apart like an ace service at deuce. These include:

  • No membership fee – MITC is open to the public – and flexible court scheduling

  • Six courts and state-of-the-art lighting

  • Small clinics – 4-5 students to allow for individual attention from USPTA-certified

instructors and private lessons starting at age 5

  • Senior rates Monday-Friday, 12:00-4:00 p.m.

  • On-site stringer

  • A renovated lobby centrally situated to allow players, parents and tournament fans

to watch all six courts

  • Full locker rooms

  • A convenient location served by Route 22, I-78 and the Garden State Parkway that draws customers from Union, Essex and Somerset counties MITC also hosts the Central Jersey Women’s Traveling League and United States Tennis Association Junior-sanctioned tournaments.

Seasonal players remain the heart of Mountainside Indoor Tennis Center and are treated accordingly. They commit to a set day and time for play for the 33-week indoor season and enjoy the convenience that comes with a waiting court each week.

“We serve families – kids with parents who played and are looking for continuity, who

are looking to continue the sport,” Dan Aquila said.

Ah, the American West, home of wide open spaces and strongly voiced opinions.

I was driving through northern Idaho recently and was captivated and entertained by the billboards. Yes billboards. It seems that people in these faraway lands want to share their opinions with everyone, so they erect billboards to do so.

My favorite billboard said, “You can’t fix stupid, but you can elect new people. Vote November 2nd!” Funny, to the point and insightful. What more could you ask of a billboard.

For me, it was also thought-provoking. Why are our elected officials so bad? Why are they so easily corrupted? Why do they pass such shortsighted stupid pieces of legislation?

As I play out the answers to these questions, I do so on a number of levels.

The easiest and the most accurate answer to these questions is because we elect them, and elect them and elect them. Whether you look at federal or state elections, we the people have very little respect for our legislators. And yet, year after year, we send the same stupid folks back to Trenton and to Washington.

So really, I guess the answer to why we elect stupid people is because we, ourselves, are stupid. We never learn from past mistakes.

But there is a second reason that we are stupid, and that is that we are usually too lazy to learn what the issues really are, and where the candidate we are getting ready to vote for stands on that issue. Campaigns so often devolve to a couple hot button issues, like guns and abortion, which have little relevance to our lives but are easy to understand and thus easy to have an opinion on.

Whether or not cap and trade or a carbon tax is a better solution to combating carbon emissions is over our heads, it is simply over our level of interest. How many of us are willing to take the time to become familiar with an issue of this magnitude? Very few, I bet.

The only real issue that seems to have caught our attention, at least in my living memory, is health care reform. As a nation, we have paid very close attention because health care affects each of us so personally. The debate has spawned the Tea Party movement, which was probably responsible for the aforementioned road sign.

But going back to legislators, there is another reason that we get such poor legislation, and that is, for the most part, they are ill-prepared themselves to deal with issues that are before them. And you can’t pass good legislation when you don’t really understand the issues yourself.

The vast majority of all legislators are attorneys. But law school doesn’t teach economics. It doesn’t teach engineering. It doesn’t teach medicine. And yet we ask lawyers to make decisions on issues that are so critical and complicated but of which they have little intrinsic understanding.

It is no wonder so much legislation is so poor and misguided.

Often legislation is also cynical. It is designed to get the crafter re-elected. That is why we have so many unfunded mandates in this state. I often am appalled by legislation that has contrary effects. For instance, many health care mandates – and New Jersey has more than anyone else – sound good, don’t cost the government anything and are great election tools, but they result in fewer people having insurance.

Most of us don’t even realize how often the wool is pulled over our eyes.

Read, learn and vote on November 2!

James Coyle

President

The lady doth protest too much.

So says Gertrude to Hamlet about a queen adamantly protesting her innocence. Of course, the queen is guilty – at best of poor judgment, at worst of illicit behavior.

Which brings us to New Jersey, a state all too familiar with guilt – and corruption, abuse of power and back room politicking.

In response to this eddy of mis-governance, Gov. Chris Christie has proposed a series of reforms designed to address ethics laws and government transparency; public pensions and benefits; education; and business development.

The governor is calling for the elimination of dual office holding by all elected officials, for example a state legislator also serving as a county freeholder and earning salaries and pensions on both positions. Under his proposal there will be no more “grandfathering.” Christie also proposes banning dual employment for all state, county and municipal employees. In addition, the governor wants forfeiture of pensions by convicted public officials and the prohibition of the use of campaign funds for criminal defense.

Christie is calling for elimination of “wheeling,” which allows county political committees to skirt campaign financing laws by shifting money from committee to committee and to candidates in other counties. He also has proposed stricter financial disclosure requirements for office holders – for example, applying the same disclosure rules for contributions from labor unions as apply to businesses and private citizens – and tougher pay-to-play rules for public contracts at all levels of government.

The reform package calls for greater contribution to benefits by state employees; tightening of tenure qualifications and introduction of merit pay for teachers; and easing of regulatory restrictions on businesses to foster business growth and job creation.

Collectively, these areas of potential impropriety, inefficiency and over-regulation undermine public faith in government, unnecessarily cost taxpayers money and continue New Jersey’s reputation as one of the worst states in the nation in which to do business.

Democrats in the Legislature immediately found fault with the governor’s proposals. Joe Cryan, Assembly majority leader and a dual job-holder, accused Christie of rolling out his reform package as a means to distract attention from his administration’s mishandling of the state’s Race to the Top application. Unlikely, but what if Cryan were right? So what? The reform package should be measured purely on its merits or failings, not on its timing.

Senate President Stephen Sweeney countered Christie by calling for the governor to disclose his personal and financial relationship with Reform New Jersey Now, a non-profit political organization with close ties to the governor and his supporters. Perhaps Sweeney is correct in this demand – does not that simply strengthen Christie’s call for fuller financial disclosure?

Perhaps the lady doth protest too much. Perhaps Christie has hit a nerve and threatened to undermine long-standing pillars of double-dipping, sidestepping of ethics laws and turf protection.

Christie is nothing but consistent. As a candidate he promised to reform government, eliminate waste and make New Jersey a better state in which to do business. As governor he started from day one, for example freezing implementation of new regulations on business.

More recently the governor eliminated more than 60 defunct or inactive boards or commissions across the state and recommended eliminating or merging an additional 260. He also signed into law democrat-sponsored legislation significantly reducing the fees to individuals and businesses for obtaining copies of public documents. This latest package of reform proposals is simply the next round in his fight to make New Jersey a better place in which to live and work – and govern.

And a much needed one.

Gov. Christie is not subtle. He can be blunt and bullying. But Christie told the residents of New Jersey who he was upfront and they elected him to do a job that everyone knew was going to be tough and at times messy but absolutely necessary.

His reform package is a good one and contains a number of proposals the Gateway Regional Chamber of Commerce has been promoting for years. Now he should take his efforts one step further. Christie should completely and transparently reveal his relationship with Reform New Jersey Now.

Then the lady will have nothing to protest – and we can move on with a good set of reform proposals.

U.S. Republican Leonard Lance (R -7) House Financial Services Committee

Economic Certainty is Needed to Create Jobs, Boost the Economy

With fewer than 60 days until Election Day 2010, the top issue on the minds of New Jersey’s voters is the state of the American economy. With New Jersey’s unemployment rate at 9.7 percent – slightly higher than the national unemployment rate of 9.6 percent — Garden State voters are wondering, “Where are the jobs?”

With levels of debt at record levels and government spending seemingly out-of-control, New Jerseyans are shouting, “When will Washington stop the spending?”

And with a new health care law that mandates a new burdensome 1099 reporting requirement that will mean hundreds of more pages of forms and thousands of more  dollars in costs, New Jersey’s small businesses are saying, “How can we create jobs with all of these government mandates and costs?”

Yet despite these cries for common-sense and fiscal responsibility, leaders in Congress have responded with more of the same ineffective policies of the past 18 months that have failed to jump-start our economy and create jobs. This includes the latest plan – borrowing another $50 billion to spend on planes, trains and automobiles.

I understand that our economy doesn’t need more spending. It doesn’t need more stimulus spending, more bailouts or more onerous government regulations.

What our economy needs is economic certainty out of Washington.

Economic certainty that comes with renewing the Bush-era tax cuts for all taxpayers so that individuals and small businesses won’t face a $3.8 trillion tax hike on January 1, 2011.

Certainty that our children and grandchildren will not be burdened with debt racked up by this Congress by passing a constitutional amendment limiting federal deficit spending.

Certainty that Congress is willing to do what so many working families in New Jersey have done – tighten their belts. This means passing legislation that reduces federal spending to levels seen in 2008 – prior to the TARP bank bailouts, government takeovers and trillion-dollar stimulus program.

We must rein in spending now to get back on a sustainable path toward fiscal responsibility.

With so many frustrated with a new health care law that experts say does nothing to lower the cost of health care and insurance, Congress must go back to the drawing board and pass commonsense solutions to lower health care costs such as allowing insurance to be sold across state lines, allowing small businesses insurance pooling and implementing real medical malpractice reform.

And with so many small businesses unable to hire and expand, Congress must pass a small business assistance bill that reduces regulatory burdens, improves lending and allows our Nation’s job-creators to keep more of what they earn to hire workers, buy new equipment and expand their companies.

The American people understand that we cannot spend, borrow and tax our way to economic prosperity. Multiple bailouts, failed stimulus spending, unrestrained government spending and record deficits have pushed the United States to the brink of bankruptcy.

We can achieve prosperity by working together in a bipartisan fashion to eliminate the job-killing uncertainty that is dragging down New Jersey’s small businesses and hurting the economic recovery our nation needs.

Former Treasury Secretary William Simon once said, “Bad politicians are sent to Washington by good people who don’t vote.”

Today many good people don’t vote, and even fewer get involved in politics. Modern politics is a minefield that many of our best citizens seek to avoid.

They have little taste for the savagery of political life today, the drumbeat of slander and distortions so typical of our political campaigns. They do not want their families exposed to the barrage of attacks that slander and scrutinize their private lives. They dismiss a system that offers little honor and much aggravation.

Political life is also very demanding. On the local and state level, most legislators are part-time officials with full-time schedules. A typical week might include two or three evening meetings, appearances at district events and celebrations, along with the everyday obligation to help constituents.

Consequently, “real people” – such as salesmen, small business owners, office managers and workers – are often disqualified from political activity by the nature of their work and the size of their bank accounts. They work long hours and their employers do not provide time for political activity.

Instead, political life is populated by attorneys and the self-employed with a growing number of exceptionally rich candidates who overwhelm and corrupt the system with a windfall of wealth.

For many Americans today, politics inspires apathy, disappointment and cynicism. We retreat into our private lives, lured by television, cell phones and the magic of the Internet. The overload of information often creates confusion and doubt, making it safer to distrust rather than trust.

Some people also believe they do not need politics, while they complain about the failure of policies and the peccadilloes of politicians.

The lack of an involved public opens the door to political corruption, inviting the frauds and fakes who flatter our prejudices while leading us down the primrose path of complacency. In New Jersey, this is especially true, as in recent years we’ve endured numerous convictions of mayors, legislators and other public officials.

Our history is replete with the intermingling of crime and politics, the passivity of local prosecutors and the prevalence of routine conflicts of interest. By most accounts, New Jersey ranks with Louisiana and Illinois as leading hotbeds of political sleaze. One scholar has even described the state as “the epicenter of the nation’s corruption.” The decline of newspapers and the subsequent loss of investigative journalism only threaten to make matters worse.

Corruption is the sin that goes on sinning. Its consequences are viral, whetting the appetite of others who seek or hold office. It taints the political process and undermines our faith in government.

It leads to suspicion of all who govern and encourages others with questionable motives. For this reason, laws aimed at punishing or preventing corruption must be reliably enforced.

But laws and reforms have their limits and are no substitute for a watchful and active public that monitors political life.

Instead of wallowing in cynicism about government, we need to emphasize moral standards that counter the temptation to exploit public office for private gain.

We also need to accept the fact that politics is a basic need, at its best a necessary good rather than a necessary evil. Despite the media’s fixation with scandal, there are good people in politics who weather the pitfalls of political life and genuinely care about the public good.

“Power corrupts,” wrote Lord Acton, “and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Yet this famous phrase must be amended: Power corrupts when good citizens look the other way and stay home on Election Day.

William Berlin is chairperson of the Political Science and Law Department at Montclair State University. He can be reached at 973.655.7576 or berlinw@mail.montclair.edu.

David Lespinasse, a student at the Cerebral Palsy League Jardine Academy, throws a ball at the dunking tank at the academy’s Carnival Family Fun Day.

_________________________________

TD Bank this week launched a full-scale, market-wide small business campaign  during which teams of lending officers and bank employees are fanning out across northern and central New Jersey and personally visiting with more than 1,000 small business owners in one day. The purpose for the door-to-door small business effort is to spread the word among New Jersey’s small business community that TD Bank is actively lending to companies of all sizes, across all industries, and to discuss the needs and concerns of small business owners.

_________________________________

Trinitas Regional Medical Center announced that Dr. Ari Eckman has joined its staff as the chief, division of endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism. Eckman came to Trinitas from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, where he completed his fellowship in diabetes, endocrinology and metabolism. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Medicine and Dentistry New Jersey’s Medical School in Newark. Eckman received his undergraduate degree in psychology from Yeshiva University in New York and his master’s degree in interdisciplinary biological and physical sciences from Touro College School of Health Sciences in Bayshore, New York. His medical degree was awarded from Technion Faculty of Medicine in Haifa, Israel.

Trinitas also announced that Walmart Foundation recently donated $41,000 to the hospital through sponsorship of a van used in Trinitas’ residential treatment program.