Whale Hunting Women, Volume I, by Dr. Barbara Weaver Smith, celebrates how women do big deals in business and community.  It’s about the unique talents that women bring to whale hunting–doing big deals–, such as a preference for collaboration and cooperation, a willingness to mentor their team, and an ability to empower others.  It’s also about the special challenges that women sometimes face, such as a reluctance to claim their expertise, a lack of confidence, or the feeling that their organization is too small to hunt.Big deals are big sales.  They are big projects.  They are big events.  They are lofty goals and big ideas.  How you go about accomplishing a big deal is the same whether you are a salesperson, a business owner, an executive, a board member, an educator, a community leader, or part of a team that does big deals.

If you do big deals, or if you want to do big deals, this is the book for you! 

 Purchase your download copy now! 
25% discount throughout the Virtual Blog Tour!

The Buzz about Whale Hunting Women
Whale Hunting Women Summit, Indianapolis, June 4 2009
Read an Excerpt: Hanging from Your Own Rope
Table of Contents
Dates and Places:  The Virtual Blog Tour for Whale Hunting Women

The Buzz About Whale Hunting Women

Visit with Joyce Anthony, Books and Authors Blog
Interview with MaAnna Stephenson for Just the FAQs
Interview with Wayne Hurlbert, Blog Business World

Book Review by Wayne Hurlbert Blog Business World

“I highly recommend Whale Hunting Women: How Women Do Big Deals by Barbara Weaver Smith, to any women business owners or managers who seek to transform their companies from small bit players to major sales and marketing organizations. Through practical and hands on advice, the author shows a clear path for landing those major corporate whales, and growing a small business into a much larger company.

Read Whale Hunting Women: How Women Do Big Deals by Barbara Weaver Smith, and discover the power and importance of devoting a small percentage of the sales and marketing budget on pursuing very large customers. Simply landing one of these whale sized clients will change a business bottom line overnight. Stop thinking like a minnow, and go after and land the whales.”  Wayne Hurlbert

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction
How Women Hunt Whales
Only A Minnow (In A Sea Of Whales)
Small Fish Hunting Whales
Radical Culture: Take A Rival To Lunch
Radical Culture: Money Is Cheap
Radical Culture:  Kill Some Commandments
Who Do You Trust?
Hanging From Your Own Rope
Fast Times
Whale Hunting Resolutions
Conclusion
Whale Hunting Glossary

EXCERPT FROM WHALE HUNTING WOMEN, VOLUME 1.

HANGING FROM YOUR OWN ROPE

“Commoditization”  represents a massive shift in today’s economy.  It’s an ugly word that reflects an even uglier situation.  Many whale hunters are struggling to fight it.

A commodity is a product for which there is market demand but that is relatively undifferentiated by brand.  Think of unprocessed produce like rice, corn, soy beans.  Market price fluctuates on the basis of supply and demand, not features and benefits.  There’s nothing wrong with commodities-markets need them and companies make money buying and selling them.

The trouble comes when a product or service that was once considered “premium” loses its cachet, and buyers start treating it like a commodity. 

All kinds of companies in all kinds of markets are fighting this trend.  Products and services that were once highly differentiated based upon their value proposition or were in short supply are regularly undercut–”commoditized”–by innovation, new supply, and cheaper methods of conducting the transaction.  Within any industry vertical, you will find companies struggling to avoid the commodity trap.  Perhaps you are one of them.  The ubiquitous “solution sale,” [sell “the solution” - not the product or service ] a typical method to fight commoditization, is becoming a commodity itself.  Not that there’s anything wrong with providing a solution to a customer’s problem, but if everything is promoted as a “solution,” the term becomes meaningless.

But the most dangerous position of all is when you unintentionally “commoditize” yourself, as I see clients do all too often.   It can happen like this:    

• “Free consulting.” Give away too much of your wisdom up front and your buyer will not value what you have left to sell. This is the biggest danger in writing proposals and responding to RFP/RFQ requirements. You run the great risk of giving away your methods, processes and prices , enabling an unscrupulous buyer to implement without you or hand off to your competitor.
• “Cut rate.” The buyer will not value your product or service more than you do. If you lead with a discounted price, you seriously undermine your value proposition. Buyers may want a discount and may even expect a discount, but if everything is “discounted” you have no real price point. The buyer will continue to want it for less, and you will become very disgruntled with that customer, perhaps providing lackluster service, which further commoditizes you. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t offer products or services at various price levels if that’s part of your sales plan. But they should be differentiated, not simply discounted. If the buyer is going to select a vendor based solely on price, you don’t want to win that business unless you are selling a commodity.
• “Earn It.” Accept a contract for a small piece of business in hopes of “earning” the right to do more. In our experience, this strategy usually leaves you pigeonholed in a small vendor space from which you can’t escape. The kind of work you accept teaches the customer who you are and what you provide. If you are inadvertently teaching “small”, “local,” and “niche,” that’s how the buyer will identify you. National firms don’t buy from the companies that make small sales to their local outlets. It is very hard and therefore very costly to move from one silo to another inside of a large company.
• “Not on target.” When you violate your target filter by going after business that is wrong for you, you devalue yourself and what you are selling. It means you don’t trust your strategy, you don’t trust the image you intended to present to your market, and you don’t trust your ability to sell the right things to the right customers. Every client has stories about the “killer whale” - the one you landed that was all wrong for you. Most of the time, if you’re honest with yourself, you knew it wasn’t a good deal for you.

If you suffer from commoditizing yourself, what can you do about it?

1. Understand it as a danger and take active steps to avoid it. Be sure you are clear about the steps in your sales process and what you need to learn from the whale at every step. Be sure the whale understands how you sell and that you learn how the whale buys. Vigorously research who is at the Buyers’ Table and get to know how they make decisions. If it’s not a good fit, send it Back to Baja.
2. Be very choosy about answering RFPs. Be sure you understand how the RFP will be handled and how your rights and intellectual property will be protected during the process. Do your best to know the solicitor and determine whether it is trustworthy. Test the RFP against the “Dirty Dozen” flaws that spell trouble for you.
3. Review and if necessary revise your Target Filter. Be certain that you have the right criteria that will lead you to the best possible whales. Each time you consider a new prospect, compare it to your target filter Don’t put it on your Whale Chart if it doesn’t fit.

Markets are constantly commoditizing products and services-it’s a natural outcome of innovation and globalization.   If you sell something unique or differentiated, make sure you’re not helping the market commoditize you.

Watch Out for Internet Dating Dangers

Most people who sign up at dating websites are usually clueless about Internet dating dangers — whether they pay to join an Internet dating service or it’s a totally free Internet dating site — it doesn’t make the experience any safer if you don’t know what to watch out for.

So, be on the look out for these common Internet dating dangers:

Read the rest of this entry »

Last week we launched our new book –

The Heart of Marketing - Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back (Morgan James Publishing)

with an Amazon Best Seller Campaign!

And a Best-Seller it is!

*** It hit #59 on Amazon overall (which means that only 58 books sold better than ours)

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Be sure to take advantage of this Book Launch Special if you are in any way involved in sales, marketing, and/or business.

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The beauty is that everyone comes out ahead!

Because It IS All in the Connection,
Judith & Jim

Today! Get your copy of The Heart of Marketing - Love Your Customers and They Will Love You Back (Morgan James) at

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And tell your friends! Thank you from Judith & Jim

How can you tell if you suffer from the fear of success? Most people think they’re afraid of failure, but the truth is that the fear of success is really the issue.

And here’s just one way to check it out . . .

What do you do when someone gives you a compliment? Do you smile, thank them with all your heart, and continue on with your day feeling a little better about yourself?

Or maybe instead, you shrug. Or deny it. Or claim it’s a lie.

Maybe you don’t say anything at all, but silently tell yourself that it’s
not true. You say “They’re just trying to make me feel good”, “They want to get on my good side”, or even “I wonder what they want from me”.

Did you ever stop and think, “Wow, someone just took a little bit of time
out of their day to pay me a compliment”? They didn’t have to say anything. They could have easily nodded at you and continued on without a word.

That person obviously noticed something extraordinary about you and felt they needed to let you know exactly how wonderful you really are or how well you do something. They wanted to express the way they truly feel about you.

What happens when you compliment someone and they blow you off? For example, what if one of your friends got a new haircut and you thought it took 10 years off? You tell them they look amazing, and they say “Yeah, right”. You protest that you really think it looks great, and they tell you to quit lying.

Read the rest of this entry »

You’re single. You’re lonely. And you’re fed up with the dating games that nearly everyone plays. So you decide to look for your special love partner online.

But how do you go about finding the right type of dating site? Lots of dating sites are expensive so you don’t want to join up with a bunch of them at the expense of your wallet. And lots of them cater to people with values that don’t match who you are.

So when you’re looking for love and romantic relationship online, and you’re serious about not playing a bunch of dating games yourself, you have to be cautious and careful. You’ll want to join a dating site that caters to people who hate all that dating game stuff - like all the people who lie about their age, their weight, their marital status — all that kind of thing.

So you’re going to want to join singles sites that attract more conscious singles, people who are interested in smart dating, dating with self-respect and respect for those they meet and date.

And it’s even better if you can join dating sites that are free. That way you can join several sites, check them out, and do no harm to your wallet.

Then you’ll want to be as honest and as specific as you can be in your own profile in order to stand in your own integrity— AND attract the right kind of person who is looking for you.

Also, make sure you have some important and serious questions you want to ask prospective partners who reach out to you online. That way you encourage their honesty and their integrity right from the start — and you establish that you’re only interested in a serious, grounded relationship with a love partner who wants the same thing!

For a Free Singles Site devoted to supporting you with Free Smart Dating Gifts when you join, be sure to create your profile at “LoveLife Express” http://www.lovelifeexpress.com

Keywords - love partner, dating games, singles site, dating site

Most relationships, from dating to long-term marriage, suffer from emotional cheating. Determined emotional cheating.

Why do we say “determined”?

Because most people suffer from the false belief that they aren’t lovable AS IS (otherwise known as The Fear of Being Fabulous). So they won’t show up in their relationships AS IS.

They think they’ll be more lovable if they pretend to be:

** happy all the time
** helpful and doting all the time
** funny and fun all the time
** s..ex..y all the time
** gorgeous and spiffy all the time
** and on and on and on . . .

So, what happens? They can never feel loved because who they REALLY are is never available to love and be loved.

And their partner knows, consciously and unconsciously that something isn’t quite right, even if they can’t name it. They know there’s more they want. Something quite fabulous, but they don’t know how to get it.

Typically both people are dancing this game of pretense and both people feel cheated.

And they ARE being cheated.

We knew a woman a few years ago who was bright, creative, ambitious, loved jazz, AND had a wildly raunchy sense of humor. BUT she thought men would be turned off by her humor, so she came off more like a stuffy, maiden librarian than a fun-loving, full–throttle, stand-up dame.

Are you surprised to learn that she had never attracted a man she could fall in love with?

Of course not. The right kind of man could never see her, who she really was, and would find other women who fit the bill.

Under her falseness lived the truly wonderful, intriguing, always fascinatingly complex Fabulous Person that the right kinds of men would want to be with.

But she never believed that.

Even though somewhere, deep inside, waaaay deep inside, she lived with the knowledge that she shouldn’t have to live with the fear of “being found out.”

But she did. Opting for her fear rather than for love.

Now, having read that, you know better. Somewhere deep down inside you now know better . . .

So what can you do?

1. Admit to yourself that you are living a lie.
2. Acknowledge that the person you are with can’t truly love you because you’re hiding your real value.
3. Decide whether you want to keep hiding how fabulous you are . . . or you’d rather make a break for the freedom of being your Real Self.
4. Confess your fear and your hiding to the one you’re with, or at least a close friend.
5. Determine to come out, come out, come out little by little, bit by bit and see how people respond to the Real You.
6. Receive their sincere love and enjoyment just being with you, the Real You. The Fabulous You!
7. Know that you’re on the fast track to changing your entire life . . .

Ready . . .

Get set . . .

GO!

NOTE - Be sure to watch for our holiday special on our program “Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous.”

Since we’re always prodding you to overcome your fear of being fabulous, it’s only fitting that we keep jumping up and leaping forward - far beyond where we’ve been.

So next week we open our membership site - the Soft Sell Marketers Association - to Beta Members only. That’s because we want to get the kinks and gremlins out of it before we open the doors a bit wider.

Our commitment is to making the Soft Sell Marketers Association - SSMA - the home for Soft Sell Marketers - so that online marketing is no longer so lonely or isolated.

More when we throw the doors wide open!

Start a Freedom To Be Fabulous Journal . . .

For your first entry, write down the one thing you most want in this life that you haven’t been able to make happen.

Then write five “reasons” that you tell yourself about how it is that you’re still going without this prized goal.

Can you see that these are just excuses? Or are you pining after something that is physically impossible for you to have (like being an all-star basketball player, when you’re only 5′ 6″)?

Either way, recognize that you’ve started an exploration that is dedicated to liberating you from the bondage of The Fear of Being Fabulous.

NOTE: Our 12-CD “Overcoming the Fear of Being Fabulous” program is nearing completion - we’ll let you know as soon as it’s available!

Consider the areas in your life that are less than fulfilling. What’s missing?

What do you want to change?

Where do you want more success?
More freedom?
More love?
More recognition?
More wealth?
More ??????

Pay attention to any areas in your life in which you feel disappointed,
maybe even victimized.

Now, this may feel uncomfortable, maybe even painful.

But that’s okay. It may even be necessary before you can say . . .

“I’ve had it with losing out.”

“My time has to come . . .now!”

And here’s our nudge . . .

What are you feeling right now, in response to our nudging you to look at the results of the fear of being fabulous in your life?

What objections, doubts, worries, anxiety have crept into your mind and body?

All that stuff is your enemy.
That stuff isn’t rightly yours.
No. It’s not.
You got it from someone else.

And now, take a breath.

Because here’s the question for you to explore.

Where did you get those negatives attitudes about yourself and your life?
.