By Dr. Jim Sellner Ph.D.

My point is this…

If you don’t want people to run screaming in the opposite direction when you have crucial conversations with them, you have to be able and willing to get “real” use “ordinary speak” and connect with people – on their “mind turf.”

Be respectfully honest, compassionately brutal and authentically devoted to their betterment. You are going into the room for improvement to have a conversation — one human being human with another.

Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines is a master at this.

Talking to engage isn’t just about using with the “proper” words. Its not about the technicalities of words, its about the emotion in the message. Its about the intention behind the words you are sharing. You want to connect with people on an emotional level.

Making them value you.

Making them want to sharethings with you.

OK, fine — now you might ask, “How the heck am I supposed to do that?” Well, glad you asked!

This is not rocket science. The rules are quite simple.

1. Talk with a specific person or team about a specific goal or task you want improved – one task or goal at a time. Think of it this way.

2. Talk the way you talk. Don’t go “rap” and use street slang and shorthand. But if you can’t say what you need to say without stumbling and tripping over our tongue – you’ve gone too complex. Practice what you’re about to say preferable with a colleague who will be brutally honest with you.

Use simple words – not stupid, simplistic words. Most people have a grade school comprehension level. Some will be at college level. Very few will be highly skilled.

Most everyone, in a crucial conversation, in which heightened blood pressure clouds the mind, can only listen in 6-7 second word bites. Simple, easily understandable, delivered in small chunks makes it easier for people to digest the message. You don’t want them throwing up on you.

3. Tell a story, make it funny. Here’s one I like that one of my managers told me when I was being resistant to his instructions.

A motorist was mailed a photo of his car speeding through an automated radar post. An $80 speeding ticket was enclosed. Being a bit of a smarty the motorist sent the police back a picture of $80. The police mailed back a photo of handcuffs.

I got the point.

4. Relate to the person or group. Get into their shoes. What is their context? Use words that let’s them know you understand their world, and that you’re just as human as they are. People like that, they will then tend to like you. When they start thinking you’re a threatening alien you’ve lost their trust.

5. Make yourself easy to understand. Big, long speeches with long, run-on sentences send your audience screaming out of that room for improvement. Break it up, even use occasional word pictures or real pictures to help break it up. Ask for their input to engage people more.

6. Sleep on it before you deliver it. If you go for it when your rushed or under pressure it’s a sure bet you’re slap happy or exhausted and that 10-minute diatribe is nowhere near to being as impactful as you are deluding yourself into believing it will be.

7. Relax! Say what you’re passionate about. Say what you expect. Make it an invitation to improve.

8. Use the four keys to getting people to open the door to the room for improvement — Why? What? How! and “What if?

There you have it.

8 ways to not repulse the person or your team.

Are you able and willing to manage people with genius, to stop treating them like idiots or dummies — to engage, respect, and show that you’re interested in them becoming better?

I’d appreciate to hearing from you.

Human Principle #2: We behave in our best interests when we:
Increase our competencies;
Are aligned with our personal and business values; and…
Choose to be engaged.

By Marc Weiner

Beginning in the early 1980s, organizations and well-renowned establishments such as the Harvard Business School, The Gallup Organization, the Chally Group, the Xerox Corporation, among others, began studying outstanding salespeople to identify the competencies – also referred to as the vital behaviors – that contribute to their extreme levels of success.

Two of the most surprising discoveries – and these are very important because it doesn’t matter what product or service you are selling – are as follows:

1. 39% of a customer’s buying decision is based on the salesperson’s competence.

2. Only 1% of salespeople utilize all the essential competencies. Furthermore, only 0.3% of actual sales forces and sales teams achieve what is considered to be world class status in the customers’ minds.

The vast majority of sales teams and companies will enjoy a tremendous competitive advantage – whether it’s a single sales person, a coach or a solopreneur, or a complete sales team – if they make even the slightest improvement in the required competencies.

Essential Sales Competencies

1. I use a partnering approach with my customers.

In all my years of working with people in sales training, every time I have asked the question, “Does anybody like to be sold to?” no one has ever raised their hand and said, “Yes, me.” No one likes to be sold to. Instead, you must become a partner with your prospective customer.

2. I am motivated by a compelling personal mission.

People are attracted to the passion we bring and the belief that we have in our products and our services. They may not understand every single process, but they can feel, touch, see and want the passion behind it. When they relate to you not only as a sales person, but a deliverer of those services, they become motivated by your compelling personal mission.

3. I use a listening/probing style with customers.

This is critical. If you’re not listening, you’re selling and you’re pushing. People want what you have, but only as it relates to them and if it can take them where they want to go. This can either be eliminating a source of pain, attaining a source of joy or achieving something of value to them.

4. I adapt my relationship style to various customers.

There are actually four quadrants in our behavior relationships. Each of us has pieces of all quadrants, but we always have a predominant quadrant. Some of us are analytical, some drivers, some amiable, and some are expressive. It is important to understand your behavior style, and to understand your potential customer’s style as well.

5. I build trust readily.

You’ve probably heard this before. We buy from people we know, like, and trust. Trust is especially important.

Think of a situation where you have purchased from, been involved with, or worked with someone you didn’t fully trust. It is not a comfortable relationship. Remember we started off by saying we use a partnering approach with our customers and my clients. Trust is a core component of partnering.

6. I express empathy well.

Empathy links to listening skills. In order to be empathetic, you must have the ability to understand what someone is going through. It doesn’t mean you judge them. It doesn’t mean that you necessarily agree or disagree with them. What it does mean is that you are listening and feeling their emotions to the best of your ability. It is the skill of viewing the world from their emotional perspective and unique set of circumstances.

7. I apply a higher level of thought and strategy in dealing with customers.

Do not simply shove something down somebody’s throat. Elevate yourself to a higher level in thought and strategy. This ties into operating with a partnership approach as well as listening and empathizing with your customers.

Your aim is to become not only a sales person, but a consultant, an advisor, a friend. Together you figure out how to work together, and determine the next step to positive action.

8. I hold myself personally accountable for achieving my customers’ desired results.

If you are simply selling a product and you really don’t care if it brings them their desired results, you will have less passion for what you are doing and you will not build trust with your customers. Hold yourself personally accountable to help that customer or client achieve what it is that they’re trying to achieve.

Evaluate these eight core competencies of top achievers and make sure you’re applying all of them in your own business to get the results you want and deserve.

Even incremental improvement in these core sales competencies will help you close more sales, build your business and improve your relationships with current and future customers and clients.

By Sam Manfer

Active Networking

For salespeople to be effective lead generators, they must have both active and passive marketing programs. Now (1) their marketing program must be their own – not the company’s (although the two can be in sync with each other), and (2) they will do both, halfheartedly or not at all unless you the sales manager shows them how and holds them accountable. Accountability means setting goals, actions and measurements. Then, review progress on a regular schedule to give meaningful feedback and motivation to reach agreed-upon metrics.

So here are some sales management training tips for managing an Active Lead Generation Process.

Active marketing is networking (a) up and out within existing accounts, (b) into competitors’ and lost accounts, and (c) new markets.

For existing accounts do your sales people have 100% of their existing accounts’ business? Do your sales people what it will take to steal accounts from your competitors? Do your sales people have a method to introduce and integrate your products into new markets? Probably not.

Now, the easiest way to get more business is to spread like a virus through all accounts, focusing on eventually getting to the C-level and/or profit center leaders and their immediate staffs. Your goal as a manager is to keep them focused on connecting with more and more people to learn their problems and potential opportunities that relate to your solutions portfolio. Then, with their gleaned knowledge, develop suggestions and strategies that these leaders find helpful. Try not to concentrate at first on the purchase, but rather on learning and then their buy-in to your suggestions. Learning their thinking will show what it will take to get buy-in. With buy-in comes support, and with support comes networking to those with the power to mandate changes, create budgets and to authorize purchases.

If your sales people stick with their one or two main contacts, their ability to discover opportunities and make suggestions that lead to purchases is severely limited. Therefore, you must insist upon an Executive Relationship Chart. The elements of such a tool include:

1. Who are all (up and out) involved people by name and title in that organization?
a. The powerful — C-Level, Profit Center Leaders and their immediate staffs.
b. The influential, the functional and the impacted.
c. The administrators — purchasing agents spec writers, engineers, and controllers.
2. Where does your sales person rank on the credibility pyramid for each of these people — 1-low to 6-a resource/consultant?
3. What actions is each taking to improve his or her position with each decision maker?
4. When will these actions be completed, and
5. How will you know it’s complete and how will you measure it?

Obviously, if your salespeople are a 5 to 6 on the credibility pyramid with the powerful, they will have access to new opportunities, which they have helped create. Conversely, if they are stuck with low-level administrators and functional people, they will be just another one of the bunch of competitors.

Your job for helping your people create quality leads is to keep them networking, learning from each individual and offering-up ideas. This process will take time, but once it catches-on, it will produce an ongoing flow of leads from new divisions, for new products, and more and more. This applies to existing and lost customers, competitors’ accounts, and new markets as well. My rule is 50% of sales people’s prospecting time should be spent on existing accounts, 30% on lost and competitors’ accounts where they have contacts, and 20% in those accounts where they have no contacts.

So start creating Executive Relationship Charts for each of your existing accounts and those accounts you would like to penetrate. These charts will yield your networking plans and the actions your people will take to improve their credibility with the powerful and influential. From these actions will emanate the leads that generate sales.

However, I guarantee your people will not do this without your pressure and your help.

By Patrick Jennings

If you want to sell your business fast you need to be aware of the 90% rule.

“The 90% Rule” states that 90% of people who respond to a business for sale ad or who call a broker about buying a business never buy anything.

The brutal fact is that most people who sincerely want to buy a business can’t. They don’t have the money. Or they don’t have the ability to raise the money. Or they simply don’t have the guts to actually pull the trigger on a deal.

Most sellers waste a lot of time and emotion on people who will never buy. It’s natural for you to want to believe the buyer is serious, especially if they are the only prospect you have. But for the sake of saving time, and your sanity, you need to be ruthless in evaluating the legitimacy of each potential buyer.

So how can you tell up front if someone is part of the 90% or the 10%?

Well, there is no way to know exactly but here are a few behavioral traits that distinguish the two.

** They ninety-percenters focus almost exclusively on money while the ten-percenters focus on money AND the dream/idea/challenge of being in business for themselves.

** The ninety-percenters want a “turnkey” business that they can put on cruise control while the ten-percenters want a business they can improve, build and make their own. Ten-percenters are looking for a good business they can make better and are willing to work hard to accomplish that.

** Ninety-percenters think they should be paid handsomely from day one while the ten-percenters are willing (and prepared) to cut back on their lifestyle and expenses for as long as it takes to pay for the business.

The good news is that even if just 10% of prospects are good prospects, that’s still enough prospects for you to sell your business.

The important point here is that you don’t want to waste all your time trying to please the 90% who aren’t going to buy.

And you don’t want to waste your time trying to turn a ninety-percenter into a ten-percenter.

Too many sellers make the mistake of trying to please everybody. They try their hardest to paint a rosy picture of easy money for little work. They brag about how their business is a “turnkey” operation. And all for a bargain basement price.

To the 90% of non-buyers, this is just what they are looking for. To the 10% that are educated, prepared and qualified, it sounds too good to be true.

The best way to ferret out the real buyers from the 90%, who can’t or won’t buy, is to treat everyone like they are part of the 10%. Here’s how:

1.) Describe your business in the best possible light without going overboard.

2.) If there are opportunities for growth explain them to the buyer in detail so he understands. Don’t settle for generalities about how easy it will be for the new owner to “explode profits”.

3.) If, along with these opportunities are challenges and the need for hard work and sacrifice, say so.

4.) If you have made mistakes that have hurt growth and earnings admit to those mistakes.

If your prospect responds by showing real interest in the inner workings of your business and the opportunities it presents then you probably have a good buyer. If their only response is to ask for a price discount along with 100% financing then you know you don’t have a buyer.

The bottom line is that even though only about 10% of the prospects out there are good ones that is still enough good prospects – after all, you only need to find one. But you can’t afford to waste time with bad prospects.

So stop trying to please the 90% who aren’t going to buy anyway. It’s amazing how quickly these prospects lose interest once you are honest about what it takes to run a business successfully.

The high quality prospects however, know that there is no free lunch and are not going to be impressed when you present a situation that is too good to believe. So don’t even try.

By Dr. Jim Sellner Ph.D.

Or, Why is the “soft stuff” so hard to do?

The cry for better management can be heard in every corner of the corporate arena. So with all this focus on managing people effectively, why do so many companies have such a difficult time actually making it happen?

First, note that “management” is not one thing. It is the amalgam of insights, skills, determination and often bold, decisive actions. When broken down into its parts, the task of managers appears to be Sisyphean (in Roman Mythology Sisyphus was a king whose punishment was being compelled to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat it throughout eternity).

Here are 5 elements that prevent businesses and the individual in them from doing a better job of managing people.

1. Bureaucratic Rigidity

Most businesses, particularly larger ones, are by nature, rigid. Good management of people requires flexibility to deal with the vagaries of human behaviours. A corporate culture driven by short-term earnings demands does not encourage or enable flexibility. Risk-taking, the kind that tends to inspire employee innovation and engagement, is a key part of the management process; but it is not typically all that acceptable in the executive suite.

2. Looking for Quick Fixes in All the Wrong Places

“Let’s improve our people management practices!” Too many companies hire high-paid consultants to develop new management models and methodologies when they don’t have the foggiest idea how the culture drives management decisions. So often, the people on the frontline who produce the bottom line are ignored.

3. A Paucity of Fresh Perspectives

Few organizations have the abilities, willingness or emotional intelligence to turn themselves on their ears. Yet, that is what would be necessary in order to effectively manage people. Too often, the people who rise to power positions in most companies have been doing the same ineffective things over and over again. Their blind obsession on the task at hand is what got them to the top. It’s what can drive them into ineffectiveness. You have to challenge the status quo if you want to adopt and adapt to a fresh perspective on people management practices. “I have seen the enemy… ” is a powerful, frightening brutal fact for many in power, but one that must be confronted if one is interested in innovation.

4. Incongruity

“Our people are our most important asset.” First of all most corporate cultures simply does not support that statement. Second, to regard people as assets betrays an impersonal “human-is-a-machine” approach to people. Both of these attitudes reveal low emotional intelligence.

5. We Just Don’t Get It

Maybe the greatest obstacle to managing people better is that we simply don’t pay attention or acknowledge what constitutes the human experience. Management, besides being an inexact art, is not just the stuff of balance sheets, margins, machines, etc. although paradoxically all these things are created and managed by people.

Management is not something you do once then sit back and enjoy your work. It’s a never-ending, unfolding story with many subplots. It is a mindset, a viewpoint, not only of work, or people, but of one’s worldview. It’s about making unique, often seemingly disconnected associations, connecting the interactions no one else sees. It is ongoing curiosity, questioning, searching for something new, different, better — posing the uncomfortable questions like “What if?” or “Why not?” That is the stuff of managing people.

So here we are in a changing world of unknowns, unpredictabilities, surprise events, terrorism and roller coaster behavioural economics and an environment of business that is summed up by,

“The rules have changed, the players have not noticed!”

A few companies like Southwest Airlines, Apple, Patagonia and Google have managed to learn how to manage their people very well. Many smaller less publicized companies are doing a great job too. The ROI in their investments? — profits, highly engaged, aligned, productive people.

I wonder why more companies don’t choose the courageous decision to do a better job of managing their people?

By Trevin Bensko-Wecks

Managing a sales team effectively is difficult. Many sales managers find themselves promoted to the position directly from sales because of their outstanding individual sales performance. They often have no previous management experience and are given little training to develop leadership skills. In the absence of direction and development they’re usually compelled to take control of their sales force rather than develop and lead it. Here is a list of the top 7 mistakes made by sales managers, and how to overcome them:

* Micromanaging. While delegation is an exceptional tool for experienced leaders, it is extremely difficult for inexperienced managers to grasp. In the absence of confidence and self-awareness they frequently attempt to control every facet of a salespersons work day. They often base these instructions on what worked well for them in their own sales careers without taking into account individual strengths, personalities, habits and learning styles. Instead of removing roadblocks they create them, making a salespersons job more difficult and less rewarding. Efficiency, effectiveness and moral all suffer as a result.
* Creating blanket policies. Issues that arise in management are often specific to an individual salesperson(s) rather than the team as a whole. Individual conversations take time however, and can be uncomfortable. Sales managers tend to avoid confrontation by issuing blanket policies and communications that negatively impact the entire team. The team doesn’t understand the reason for the policy/communication and as a result, feels unjustly suppressed. Mean while the individual(s) that was the cause never has the benefit of a direct conversation enabling them to understand the root issue and participate in the discovery of a solution.
* Requiring excessive paperwork & reporting. Insisting that all team members produce exhaustive reports about their daily activities is both inefficient and ineffective. While call activity might be an important coaching opportunity for a new salesperson, it probably isn’t a good use of time for your top performer(s). “What’s good for one is good for all” is nonsense. Team members should be assessed on an individual basis and asked to report on information that can positively impact them. Make sure the information tracked is relevant and important to their success and give them access to any tools and technology that can increase the efficiency of their reporting.
* Allowing mediocrity. There are almost always people on a sales team that will never perform at a high level, regardless of how much training and technology is invested in them. Evaluate people fairly but if it’s clear that they aren’t going to cut it, get rid of them. Putting off the inevitable is not good for them or the company.
* Not providing enough 1-on-1 time. We all have different strengths, personalities, learning styles, and needs. For sales people to grow they need individual attention and help. Figure out a way to get time alone with every member of your team regularly and consistently. Review the information you intend to discuss a day in advance – this will help you do a better job of listening and discovering areas of need. It’s no different than selling; if you don’t understand their needs, you can’t show them how you can be a benefit to them.
* Not spending enough time on the street. To really understand how a sales team is performing managers need to get out on the street with them. There isn’t a coach in the world that shows up for practice but skips the game. The field is where we see theory put into practice, and it’s where true coachable moments appear.
* Not listening. Telling team members how to perform better isn’t the same as teaching them how. We have to listen to fully understand issues, roadblocks, and what the solutions might be. There is always something to learn, even for managers.
* Not giving credit. Sales managers too often assume that they have to prove their worth by demonstrating the effectiveness of their own efforts. The reality is that managements effectiveness is reflected in the performance of the team. Give credit where credit is do. Promote the successes of individuals and of the team. It boosts their confidence and moral, and shows that you are more concerned with the success of the company than with your own success.

It’s difficult to manage a sales team effectively, but by identifying common mistakes and working hard to correct them, over the course of time, sales managers will find themselves capable of elevating individuals and teams to a new level of success.

By Charlotte Sorrentino

A few years back I worked for someone who actually said his product sold itself. Goes to show you smart people say stupid things. I often wondered if he actually “believed” this.

It’s no accident that people buy from one company versus another. It’s a group effort by all but Sales is at the forefront. Yes a good product is the nucleus but if the price isn’t right or the service stinks then what good is it? If you are offering a product no one else has then your product may just sell itself in a way; there’s still advertising and marketing as people need to hear about it. But for most businesses competition is fierce and they need to do it better than the other guy.

People buy from people they like is heard often what this means is people buy from someone they trust to service them, they can depend on in a rush situation and even more importantly when there is a problem they can rely on fair dealings.

Yes like anything in life people do get settled in with a company and don’t want to change until something goes wrong. If it does for a company giving a lot of business to a vendor it’s a no brainer but when the company is small and doesn’t do the volume then sometimes they don’t get the same treatment. Being in sales, I have always given customers the 4-star treatment.

I have worked for many small to midsize companies and not one of them ever sat with the Sales Dept and worked as a team it was almost like the Sales Dept. were piranhas and cashflow or production seem to have been more of a focused, concentrated effort then building and expanding sales. I think management’s attitude is, “What am I paying Sales for if they don’t promote and sell?” Often management has lots of meetings about why Sales’ hadn’t achieved numbers but rarely talks about how Management could partner with sales.

If I had my druthers all businesses should be created by natural born sales or marketing people. These businesses seem to thrive better than most. Yes if you have the cheapest prices and service, well you can do business but it seems one would want to be the best of the best and not just settle for mediocrity no matter how much money you are making. Is it the money or the passion to do the job?

Ever try to sell someone and can’t then the owner of the company intercedes, drops the price and he GETS the sale only to rub it in your face? It takes no skill to give something away any idiot can do that. Many salespeople would love the authority to be able to make these kinds of decisions without prodding and convincing management to give a concession to a customer. Management will allow an accounting person to handle all their money with, sometimes, little overview yet haunt Sales for wanting to give a 2% discount on an order to keep a customer happy.

All aspects of your business needs attention much like gardening. If you plant seeds they need attention, water, good soil, sunlight, fertilizer and patience. This is the same for businesses and people. Quit replacing and start to make your business grow.

By Olessia Smotrova-Taylor

It is a known fact that people tend to work harder and more intelligently for the people they like and care about. This is why building a team- putting names to faces and faces to names, so to speak, and adding personal spin to make people real and likable on your proposal team- goes a long way towards helping the proposal effort.

Any proposal requires a little or, more often, a lot of extra effort from a person- extra creativity, extra dedication, extra hours, extra resourcefulness… the list goes on. Anything that goes beyond the call of duty requires people to exhibit good will, and the fact that we do more for the real people we know and like is programmed in our psyche. Especially if there are no other incentives, such rewards to winning proposal teams or promotions to new positions on the program that was awarded, generating good will through team building is essential.

Here are five simple techniques you can implement on your proposal immediately.

Technique 1. Require the ENTIRE proposal team to be present at the kick-off meeting. This includes ALL the writers and contributors as well as the management. This is one of those non-negotiable things where management has to clear their calendars, and people dedicated to their day jobs on projects have to let their customers know that they have to attend the kick-off. This has to be a factor in your scheduling and budgeting.

Insist that people attend your kick-off meeting in person, since the first most important kick-off goal is to make people more willing to do a lot more for the people they like and care about. If a couple of people, no matter how much they try to clear their schedules, cannot participate in your meeting, you will need to plan to do a mini-kick-off session for them later, and also to speak about them in detail at the original kick-off. Prior to the original kick-off, request their resume, their information, or even their photo to show to the team.

If a physical meeting is not feasible, video teleconferencing technology is the next best alternative – even if it is as simple as using Skype. Also, don’t rely on just a phone line and emailed presentation. Instead, use collaboration tools, such as NetMeeting, LiveMeeting, and GoToMeeting. This will reduce the likelihood that the attendees will lose track of your presentation’s progress as you flip the slides, and get distracted. Make an extra effort to get remote attendees involved and speaking up, and insist that no one multitasks.

Technique 2. Start your meeting with ice-breaker introductions. Even if some people know each other, there is no better way to get everyone to liven up than asking each attendee to take one minute to answer the following three questions about themselves:

1. Their name and company

2. How can they best contribute to this proposal based on their experience

3. One fact about their lives or themselves they consider unusual, special, or fun.

Answers to the last question transform the atmosphere in the room. People start laughing, they make jokes, they ooh and aah. After everyone has shared their information, they stop being strangers in suits and turn into fellow human beings. You can get really creative with an ice breaker question. For example, you could ask, What are you most proud of in your life? As you invent more ice-breaker questions, important rule for this exercise is to not ask a question people would lose face or get in trouble for answering. Keep it light and positive.

Technique 3. Explicitly state that proposal is a TEAM EFFORT. Basketball or Football teams have the word TEAM used every day as part of their coaching, and being a team player is emphasized over everything else. Somehow, on many proposals this message gets lost, and people focus on getting a bunch of individual performers together instead of emphasizing collaboration. It is amazing that many of us spend so much time implying things, beating around the bush, and feeling like heroes, all without ever asking for what we need. Since the goal is team building, state it, and explain what it means. Team effort means clear, open, and honest communication; collaborative decision-making; seeking people’s input; collaborative brainstorming to capitalize on the team’s expertise; collaborative writing; and no pride of authorship.

Technique 4. Prepare in advance and pass around the Contact List to fill in missing data including home numbers, and a field stating “Availability During the Proposal.”This sets expectations correctly for when someone may be unavailable and therefore when they could be reached ahead of that time. Or, it enables them to show that they are busy working during the day, but are committed to donating their evenings and weekends to proposal work. This is especially useful when your proposal effort takes place in the summer, around holidays, or vacation seasons. This way your team will have a chance to plan their interfaces better. Another useful field is “Time Zone” if you have the team across the country or across the globe.

Technique 5. Feed your proposal team. There is nothing like food that conveys hospitality and caring for people. Proposals do cost a lot of money, but it is baffling that so many companies try to save money on food, while food is by far the smallest budget item in the proposal. As inexpensive as good food is, it goes a surprisingly long way to make people feel welcome and appreciated. There are many ways to avoid paying high catering fees, and to feed the whole team a gourmet breakfast at a third of the price that a caterer would charge. Just make sure that you get a small budget pre-approved from the start, so that you get reimbursed for the receipts, and then stop by a grocery store to get fruit, and bakery on the way to get bagels, pastries, and real cream for coffee, and you will feed a couple of dozen of people for under forty bucks.

Also, do not bring in the same old tired sandwiches and pizza for lunches that feel like a brick in one’s stomach. For the same price or cheaper, you can get chafing dishes from caterers, which are often advertised as feeding 10 but that can easily feed 15 or 20 – and they are WAY healthier and easier on one’s waistline. I also usually ask people whether they are vegetarians, vegans, Kosher, have major food allergies, or have major likes and dislikes. You will be asking people to sacrifice their personal time and energy, so this is the least you can do to make everyone feel welcome and cared for.

There are, of course, more advanced techniques for creating fun and team spirit, such as contests, spot awards, games, and ways to reward individual performance, but these five simple techniques will get you the most mileage. These are the basics without which cohesive proposal teams are difficult to pull off. These techniques don’t cost you much to implement, but their impact lasts longer than the proposal itself and creates better work environments and better companies.