Fall Foliage Triggers Instincts

It was a gorgeous weekend in Washington. The leaves have really begun to turn, the weather was in the sixties, and the air had that first little nip of winter in it. It’s really one of my favorite seasons, and I can’t wait for next weekend when we will likely see peak foliage. According to Weather.com, we are already experiencing the early part of peak foliage.

Of course, with the turning leaves comes an instinctual sense of urgency. Winter is coming, and there’s a rush to get going. And business is no different. Why? Well, at least in this town things really come to a grinding halt after Thanksgiving.

Yeah, you might get a deal done if you’re lucky, but really if it’s not well on its way to be being done, you are looking at slowness until January/February, when things start to move again. So really, now is the time to close deals before the end of the year. There’s really 30 days left in the new business cycle for 2006.

Complicating things this year is the election. In my opinion, this is particularly true for the B2G marketplace. I think a lot of vendors are waiting to see what happens before allocating 2007 dollars. If the Democrats ride the tide all the way in and take both the House and the Senate, you’re probably looking at a different spending environment with a dramatic shift away from defense spending. Bush won’t pull the troops, but the Democrats won’t enable him anymore.

That’s why it’s good to have a balanced business with monies in multiple verticals. You can weather changes in the landscape.

Anyway, in that vein I organized my first sales pipe in 4+ months. With #1 on board, I can back to business as usual, and that’s a good thing. Focusing on new business wins is essential for a start-up (or any business for that matter). The good news is there’s a nice handful of opportunities to work on.

Another key business focus is visualizing positive outcomes. Dating all the way back from Earl Nightingale through to today’s Jeffrey Gitomer, sales coaches will tell you to focus on positive outcomes, such as winning. By visualizing the success, you attain your goals. Conversely, by visualizing failure, you achieve negative results.

I am really trying to be conscious of when my head starts to turn south right now, and immediately practice visioning positive outcomes. I’ve been listening to Denis Waitley’s Psychology of Winning to help get me there. And when I think about it, we’ve really had some great client successes over the past 5 weeks. It’s only natural that wins would follow.

OK, Monday’s quotes:

“The thing always happens that you really believe in; and the belief in a thing makes it happen.”
-Frank Lloyd Wright

“Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.”
-Benjamin Disraeli