As human beings, we seem to be hard wired to resist change, even when presented with information suggesting that to move in another direction would be wise.

Reminds me of the movie – Groundhog Day. Bill Murray portrays Phil Connors an egotistical TV weatherman faced with living one day in his life over and over again. Connors is presented with the rare opportunity to take a different path when faced with the same circumstances. It is a clever film about do over’s and the challenges of changing our ways.

78% of buyers consistently say that they go to the web to do research on something they plan to purchase according to Anderson Analytics.

This is the world of social selling. In today’s relationship economy, buyers are not interested in meeting with you personally to learn about your products and services. At least not at first. They want to research you before meeting you. You need to be ready.

Sales behavior has to adapt to this new relationship economy. It doesn’t mean that your prior investments in sales training, sales methodologies, CRM systems or sales process is lost. It does mean that how you engage and connect with potential buyers has changed.

Are you ready?

Most of us are busy, but undisciplined. We are active, but not focused. We are moving, but not always in the right direction. –Jack Canfield

In the things they never told me before I became an entrepreneur file is how important it is to be a good steward of time. For most of us, we start our careers working for other people who have a schedule they want us to adhere too. Even though I lived in the world of sales where there is certainly more flexibility than in your typical 8-5 “go to the office” routine, there was still structure to the day. People expected things of me at specific times. It made it easier to say no to the other stuff. After all, it might not be wise to risk the paycheck. Why then do we develop amnesia in this area when we become independent business owners?

Entrepreneur = Rainmaker

Guess what? You won’t initially have much of a salary, if any, when you first start out. Unless of course you are one of the lucky ones whose company received a million dollar cash infusion from the local venture capitalist down the street. For most of us though, WE ARE the paycheck. Every moment of our time is either billable or not. And not isn’t a good thing. You need to remember that your corporate brethren aren’t thinking this way, because if they waste time here and there – they still get their paycheck. You, however, do not.

Saying NO is hard to do.

Though it was fairly easy when I was on the corporate clock to say no to requests that would interfere with my other business obligations, what is so different now? The answer will vary depending on the person, but here are 5 reasons why I think we stumble.

1. Ego. It’s nice to feel in demand. When you are out on your own, it’s easy to feel a little disconnected and unrecognized.
2. We feel obligated. After all, someone else introduced us and suggested that the two of us meet. It is even tougher if the connector is your paying client.
3. People won’t like us. In our desire to “be nice”, we are driven to accommodate the wants of others forgetting that our own goals and priorities need to take center stage.
4. Activity is confused with effectiveness. Lots of activity doesn’t magically lead to revenue. It is the right kind of activity that does.
5. We aren’t thinking like real business owners yet. Real business owners know that their time really is money!

After the lunch meeting today that wasn’t, I was once more reminded of how important it is to think thoughtfully about what gets locked in on your calendar. An hour of my day was wasted waiting to meet someone who never called, sent a text message or an email to say he couldn’t meet with me after all. The eventual response to the email I’d sent while waiting in the restaurant was…”My apologies. I had a packed morning and did not check my calendar. Thank you for your understanding.” Maybe my response needs to be…”Here’s the bill for my time today. Thank YOU for understanding.”

So I just partially listened to about the most boring presentation EVER from Evan over at Salesconx. If the meat came after the self-serving preening then I missed it. The call wasn’t boring because Evan isn’t talented or because he cannot communicate his message well, but boring because it was nothing more than a pitch – a feature dump – offering pretty much no value to me. The buyer. Ah, the wasted potential.

Maybe Evan didn’t realize that the webinar came off sounding like the cheezy sales pitch that it was. Thing is that Evan is the real deal. I love the concept of his business model. It’s a referral driven marketplace that has big potential. I enjoyed his interview with Fast Company Magazine and think you might too.

But back to that darn webinar…

Driving Sales Revenue Using a Virtual Team was the topic that caught my eye. I signed up. I carved out 45 minutes of now non-billable time to listen in. The session didn’t live up to its name. A little creativity could have gone a long way.

I’m a small business owner. Educate me on industry best practices. Show me how using a virtual team actually drives the intended results. Give me some pointers on the questions I ask during the RFP process with a virtual sales company. Tell me how the right virtual team skyrockets my sales. Share a nugget with me that I can put into action now. Then you become my hero forever.

Capture my interest. Show me value. Then you have earned the right to talk about yourself.

James Arthur Ray, author of Harmonic Wealth is someone I have admired since first hearing him speak in The Secret. His subsequent interviews on Oprah were inspiring, and I have benefited greatly from Ray’s philosophy about living a life of wealth. His business is built on the theme of teaching you “the secret of attracting the life you want.” At this moment, I’m not sure that James Arthur Ray is happy about the circumstance he’s attracted into his life.

On October 8, 2009 Ray’s empire started to crumble when two people died during a sweat lodge ceremony held in Sedona, Arizona. Another ceremony participant died a week later and close to twenty other people were injured. What was meant to be a personal cleansing experience turned into a death trap for some and an emotional, life changing experience never to be forgotten by the others there that day.

Put aside for a minute the fact that there have been a number of complaints registered against Ray’s organization by people injured during his programs. Perhaps if someone had taken the collapse of a male participant in a 2005 sweat lodge activity seriously, the tragedy four years later could have been avoided.

I have to wonder if Ray’s rapid rise in the world of motivational “guru”dom began to cloud his judgment. It seems quite possible that he has not been listening to the concerns of his community. No safety personnel on sight during an exercise that clearly had the potential to become a disastrous problem is unthinkable. In the crush to up the competitive ante in the world of personal development products, did Ray’s organization go too far with the Spiritual Warrior vision quest retreat? It would seem so. From the looks of things, Ray’s business is shutting down. At least temporarily.

The tragic deaths of people who expected nothing more than to improve their lives during that Sedona weekend with Ray are a reminder of the harsh consequences of what can happen when a company has forgotten who they serve.

Resident Talent Builders tech advisor, Mark Moore turned me on to Toodledo, an online tool to help me better manage my goals and priorities. It was time. As much as I love and use technology myself, I had not transitioned from my old habit of writing to do items in my Franklin Covey binder. I started realizing that the manual approach wasn’t working for me anymore.

A bit of a routine for me each morning is to let the dogs outside, pour a great cup of coffee, light the candles and grab my journal and day timer to plan for my day. While it is quiet, and my mind is fresh, I like to think about my goals and focus priorities for the day and week. I’d jot down things that needed to be done. But then I started noticing that when I went up to my office to work, my day timer sat there quietly, closed and unused on my desk. If my memory was working well, I probably knocked a few important things off the list. I’m quite certain though, that I missed some things that may have moved me closer to my goals more quickly.

I needed a better way!

I was on a rant recently about how I’d heard motivational speaker, Verl Workman talk about the critical steps to time and life mastery. The one that really caught my attention is the suggestion that all priorities are scheduled electronically. Then you stick to your priorities ruthlessly.

Why electronically? We will miss a deadline for a to do item at some point in our life, but we’ll still want to keep it on the list to ensure that it is completed. Unless you remain disciplined to moving the handwritten items forward, you are bound to miss something. Mark happened to mention that he was using Toodledo, an online system for managing goals and to do items. It integrated with Outlook and had the required iPhone app, so off I went. I began using Toodledo about 2.5 weeks ago. Already I’m seeing my productivity shoot up. BTW, I’m a huge fan of Stephen Covey – always will be. And I’m aware that Franklin Covey offers an electronic planning system. I just never had much luck with it for some reason.

I have some very specific goals I plan to achieve. In my mind’s eye, I already have. Using Toodledo is giving me the focus and organizational tools I need to stay on track. I Toodledo - do you?