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When we first decide to write, we feel good about it–we have memories and stories that form who we are. We want to explore ourselves, to capture times long gone and preserve them in story form. To leave a legacy about our lives. But other voices compete with our writing–”what will people think; you should be ashamed; you will embarrass the family. Don’t air dirty laundry; you know only part of the truth, so be quiet. Your mother will roll over in her grave if she found out you wrote that.”

We all know these voices. They make us throw down the pen, sit back and turn on the TV. We don’t want to lose our family. We don’t want to make them angry. Writing a memoir is an act of courage, even defiance against powerful family dynamics. We need to find a way out.

As a family therapist, I have worked with many families, and because of my background, I’m in a position to help my coaching clients understand the source of their resistance to writing their stories, and the source of the critic voice inside.

When we write memoir, we reclaim our own voice, we stake a claim to our version of the story. Every family has multiple story lines. There is the “official” version, controlled by the most powerful people in the family, usually the parents or those who have the most to lose. The “lesser” points of view–most often held by the children or those lesser in power–are often not believed or accepted as true.

Who decides what version of a story to believe? Who is not listened to? Whose point of view is unwanted? The answers to these questions will be decided by family dynamics and power.

In most families there is a “scapegoat,” or a clown, or the most sensitive. People in these roles may hold a unique, and unpopular, view of the family stories, and those with the most power may try to suppress it.

A memoirist must begin by writing her story in a protected bubble so the story can evolve. Take care of your writing environment, and protect you from forces that will derail your efforts.

1. Figure out the power dynamics in your family. If the critic voice stops you, write down what it says. Try to find the original source of those voices in your background.

2. Begin with an image–a photograph is often a good prompt. Write in your own natural voice.

3. If the voices say: “I don’t know how to write; my family will hate me; how do I know I am writing the truth.” don’t stop. Write anyway. Your critic/family protector will try to silence you. If you were silenced when you were growing up, you will need to work through it now.

4. DO NOT hit the delete button when you feel critical after writing. DO protect your writing from curious family or friend invaders. Treat your work like a young plant that needs protection.

5. Find supportive people to write with. Write in cafés, in writing groups where you feel support or at least no attack.

6. Remember: if you’ve been abused, neglected, forgotten, or silenced, you likely learned not to value your own point of view. Writing your own story can change that. Keep “telling it like it is.”

7. Write for five minutes. Another 15 minutes. Stretch your ability to stick with a story. When you feel like stopping, write for five minutes more. We are tempted to stop as we get close to the core emotion of a story.

Set your journal or diary where you will see it everyday, i.e., on your nightstand, at your desk, where you have coffee. This will help to remind you to journal.

Part of keeping a journal, is skipping a day, a week, and even months.

Writing a word, sentences, or paragraphs, journaling whatever you have to say that day is just the right amount to write.

Journal whatever is important for you to write about right then and there. I’ve journaled about a fabulous soup I ate, my concerns about a friendship, my dreams for the future.

Keeping your journal private. That can mean setting boundaries with those in your home, it may mean hiding it, or locking it away. You will have to make an individual decision about what that means to you.

Re-read your journal or not. Rarely do I re-read my journals. Some people always read what they have written. Again it is a personal choice.

Remember to use your journal for your benefit and well being, what ever that that means to you. Keeping a journal is a powerful tool that you can give to yourself everyday. Plus, this creates time for you every day.

Copyright Doreene Clement All Rights Reserved

Doreene Clement
www.the5yearjournal.com

info@the5yearjournal.com

Did you know the critical part of your self is never going away? In fact, to want to kill the critic off is just playing into the Critic’s game because it is wanting to kill off a part of yourself. It reinforces the idea that something is wrong with you that needs to be fixed– “Once I get this critic handled, THEN I’ll be able to create.”

Here is what works much, much better: accept the critic but always, always remember you–the adult, is in charge. Accept that the critic has gifts to share but he only gets to share them when you say so and even how you say so. Accept that we all contain light and shadow, and our full creative power means we have to listen to all the parts of ourselves, icky and angelic.

Fully acknowledging the critical parts of yourself is not the same as agreeing, entangling with, arguing with, or believing this part of yourself. The best three tools to be in dialogue with the critic are:

1) Tell the critic, “Thank you for sharing,” when you do not currently need his input.

2) Boss the critic back during first drafts, getting the paint on the canvas, or designing the sweater, then invite the critic to be heard during editing, revising, during the times you need discernment.

3) Never let the critic have the last word. You the adult creator is always in charge.

It’s very interesting to me that I had to take medication for 6 weeks (yesterday being exactly 6 weeks since my surgery) to keep my body from rejecting the “foreign” object in my body…that is, the stainless steel knee and ligaments and the connective cement. It makes me think of how often we reject our creative impulses…how something that will renew us comes right into our laps and we reject it, consciously or consciously. The medicine that I had to take had to be monitored carefully. I had to have bloodwork every week, and I had to monitor some of my foods because excess Vitamin K threw the dosage off. Each week, the dosage was tweaked to make sure that this medication, this tonic for bodily acceptance, was working properly. ACCEPTING a gift of renewal, it seems, is tough work…it needs monitoring, upkeep, attention, and the willingness to surrender to what pain can teach us. Just as that which our spiritual expansiveness requires from us.

She sits in the salon of the Mable Dodge Luhan house on the outskirts of Taos, New Mexico. Her hand moves across the page. The smell of currant scones drifts out from the kitchen. She sighs and tells me later, over dinner, that she has never had this much time to write in her life. It is both exhilarating and frightening. “I’m learning I don’t like to write in solitude, I like to be around people. I’m learning I don’t want to write six hours a day but three. I’m learning I want to write and also do other things in my life.”

Money guru Suzie Orman claims we take care of our money the way we take care of ourselves. In my work as a creativity coach and my own experience of writing five books, essays, screenplays, and a TV script, I have found the same to be true: We take care of our creativity the way we take care of ourselves.

Six things I believe about writing:

If you put your bottom in the chair, you are a writer; it ain’t about what people think.

Learn to surrender to the desire to create.

Learn to value your own opinion.

Learn to speak to yourself like someone you love.

Learn to separate out opinions from facts.

Learn to have faith.

“Why is it that I wanted to write and what was it that made me feel that way?” Allow, however, it is that you feel to pour out on to the paper before you.

Timed writing three minutes.

Done with lightness.

Ways to use: warm up, clear out head, generate ideas, generate content that you can then revise on computer, outline, go back into a piece and expand or generate new energy into a section.

An idea for a one week practice: Go back to this first session then pick from any number of questions that you could ask of your original writer, like: Why is it that I want to write? What it is that I really want to write? What is it that has held me back from writing as I would like to? What can I do to change the destiny of my writing?

Letters between Jung and Freud: Watcher at the gate and he keeps them from their genius, the place in themselves that wants to speak. They agreed to make monstrous clay heads and when they wrote about whatever was meaningful to them, they would turn them to the wall, actively turn the Watcher away.

Writing practice: If I turn my Watcher to the wall then…

You know you’re doing something right.

NEWSFLASH: 11 January 2004

One of my bestsellers, “Starting an Internet business at Home” (Kogan Page ISBN 0-7494-3484-8) is currently ranking No.3 out of 27,376 competing titles at Amazon.com under keywords ’starting an internet business’. It was first published in 2001 and is still selling like hotcakes. Writing for Profit: You can do it with my tutorial even if you’ve never written anything before in your life!

Access my proven strategies: they will empower you to create niche non-fiction and generate an exponential residual income stream in your spare time.

This powerful creative writing course reveals the closed secrets that propelled my first traditionally published niche non-fiction book to dizzy heights and inspired me to replicate the formula with a sequel that continues to sell in big numbers online and offline “Starting an Internet Business at Home” Kogan Page ISBN 0-7494-3484-8) followed by a host of other top selling titles. What I have achieved in writing for profit, so too can you when you are in possession of my tried and tested make-money-writing formula.

If you ever yearned to write a book and have it published but never quite knew how to go about matters with any degree of certitude then this unique tutorial is right on track for you. The focus here is on writing for profit by creating niche non-fiction which is akin to formula writing in that the author works to a tried and tested blueprint. It is the archetype that opens up a vista of possibilities even if you consider yourself to be among the least experienced of wordsmiths.

In this creative writing course you will learn how to: 1.Develop a much-in-demand topic from your own expertise 2. Undertake effective research to add to your knowledge 3. Create a master class writing-for-profit structure 4. Craft the essence of the topic into compelling text 5. Inject it with the little-known secret for best-selling potential 6. Transform your work into a professional teaching module 7. Sell through online outlets on an experimental basis 8. Prepare and submit a winning proposal for hard copy publication 9. Enjoy residual royalties from bookstore & online sales 10. Attract additional streams of incremental income 11. Produce several disparate books from the same basic concept

To assist you in locating an appropriate publisher for your particular project, you will also be directed to a secret web site, a ‘vertical’ portal containing 1000s of publishing activity profiles together with access to the relevant web sites where you can make your selection of candidates for submission.

Comcast Cable has grown to become the largest cable service provider in the United States. It was founded back in the 1960s as a local single system cable television provider and is now available almost anywhere that cable TV is offered. With an ever growing array of competition it is interesting to note how Comcast Cable is able to lead nearly all its markets.

Available in over thirty states, it’s a safe bet that if one of those state’s residence subscribes to cable that they are using Comcast. Born as a television company, home entertainment is still its primary concern. Overall they service over twenty million homes with cable television. Furthermore they provide digital cable service to almost another ten million homes.

During the last decade the technology that’s been made available to homes has grown at such a staggering rate that it has allowed companies like Comcast to expand into providing other services. Personal computers, for instance, never would have offered a market to Comcast cable when they first began entering homes. Then came the advent of the internet. Faster computers and larger amounts of data called for speedier internet connections that dial up providers couldn’t possibly provide. Taking advantage of this new market, cable companies were able to offer their own brand of internet service which can currently offer speeds a hundred times faster then its dial up predecessor.

Comcast cable internet came to exist and it now provides high speed cyberspace access to almost eight million customers. That number represents over one third of their television subscribers which is quite staggering given how fresh the technology really is. Just think how slowly cable grew when introduced as a television service; no one wanted to pay for something that they were already getting for free. Initially cable internet had the same reaction with people not wanting to pay double the price for faster data transfer. But those numbers clearly show that the idea has definitely caught on.

Another boost for their consumer base came with the advent of the cable telephone alternative. While that idea has yet to catch on with most people being satisfied with their existing services, Comcast has still managed to attract over a million clients to this service.

Other business ventures from Comcast Cable includes several of their own channels. These include the Golf Channel, PBS Kids Sprout and TV One. Comcast even has four Comcast Sportsnets. Outside the communications ring, they also have a majority ownership in a company that has a lot of holdings. Some of these are sports teams in hockey, football and basketball; also they own two large multipurpose arenas in Philadelphia where Comcast is based.

Comcast cable has become a staple of the American communication world. Their employees are numbered at over seventy thousand people. As a company they continue to look to the future for new opportunities and ventures to offer their customers.

Christopher M. Luck has an extensive background in working exclusively at comcast cable and is now offering his free personal cable advice to the public. If you are at all interested in Christopher’s cable advice, tips, or secrets, you can visit his cable tips blog

Creative Writing Tips -

I have said above that if a secondary character tells the story of the main character, then the spotlight should be kept on the main character.

This shouldn’t be taken to the extreme though.

In other words, you don’t just write the story of the main character without telling your readers a bit about your secondary character.

Unless the reader understands the reason a secondary character is telling the story, it will seem peculiar that the main character isn’t telling it himself. It is, after all, the main character’s story.

So, the following have to be answered…

•Who is this secondary character?

•Why is he telling the story instead of the main character?

•What is his connection with the main character?

Weave in some information about the secondary character so we can gain a better understanding of his role in the story.

Excerpts from fellowship about the real Jesus and the role of Christians in society today:

If you understood that Yashua is the I AM – He not only had the Canaanites destroyed for their pagan religious practices, He sent Israel and Judah into captivity for refusing to follow His biblical religion and as Yashua drove out of “My Father’s House” the moneychangers with a whip in His hand! Certainly that was met with raised eyebrows and shaking of heads, not to mention FEAR! Yes, fear religion!

And anybody who is a Christian who dares to deny that Christ will rule, as necessary with a ROD OF IRON, enforcing PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH, simply is either in denial or woefully ignorant of the biblical King of Kings and Lord of Lords who will soon reign on Earth from Jerusalem with TOUGH LOVE!

You’re talking Old Testament.

I’m talking the Law and the Prophets that Yashua upheld and will enforce when He reigns perfectly from Jerusalem with TOUGH LOVE, giving different strokes for different folks.

Notice that God hasn’t ordered the execution of anyone since Jesus walked the earth.

Yes, He has, time and again through the Law and the Prophets that haven’t been made null and void by the tender mercies of our God, the Sermon on the Mount, except for those who are truly repentant as we can best determine with the help of God. Why do you think it is written about the ministers of State: “He bears not the SWORD in vain?” And that such ministers of state are to enforce the Law of God, serving as the vengeance of God? Romans 13 shows God has ordered the execution and other forms of punishment upon lawbreakers since Christ, since His Word remains true and hasn’t changed or been altered to accommodate fickle men and fleeting societies.

Jesus never told us to establish any form of government on earth. He clearly taught that His kingdom was not of this earth. If He wanted a government here now, He would have made one here, now. We, as disciples, are not called to rule here or even govern here.

Now you sound like the traditional Worldwide Church of God and those groups who have forsaken it in droves since the Great Apostasy after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, concerning avoiding politics, shirking your responsibilities, your civic DUTIES, failing to render to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s, and by such woeful neglect and sinful negligence, have forfeited the reigns of government to the wicked and then cry about how awful things are! “All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing.” I submit they’re not such good men or they would do something!

Yashua revealed HIS Kingdom of God-Beings, the ruling Kingdom-Family of God administering the Law of God, is yet future, that’s true, of which He will be the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. However, as the I AM, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, He has established an earthly kingdom called Israel and Judah today, our family of nations – the Anglo-Saxon and white peoples of Northwestern Europe with our Jewish brethren. And to us, which includes those called to be Christians now: “REMEMBER THE LAW OF MOSES MY SERVANT WITH THE STATUTES AND JUDGMENTS” (Malachi 4:4).

God calls upon our Israelite family of nations to RESTORE HIS LAW AND ORDER, and we’ll receive blessing to the degree we love and obey and He will bless our NATIONAL EFFORTS that reflect national repentance, learning to go by God’s Word as LAW, trusting in His wisdom, rather than leaning to our own understanding with all our different political parties of men. We must recognize we are suffering national curses for national disobedience and repent and avert further national disasters (Daniel 9:11). God will draw near to us as we draw near to Him. God’s Kingdom on Earth has always been through the physical descendants of Jacob-Israel, and we’re to be a TYPE of the future Kingdom of God-Beings that will reign over us as we reign over other nations.

We are called to be Christ on earth. To show others by our example, who He is. Would Jesus have advocated war? How about slaughter?

Yes, we are called to reflect Christ on Earth, and our NATION is called to reflect GOD on Earth, as a “Light to all nations,” a MODEL NATION for others to follow, seeing our sound mindedness and wisdom, peace and prosperity from following God’s heavenly law here on Earth.

Christ would certainly advocate war, if and whenever necessary, without hesitation, as revealed in the Law and the Prophets, the Law of Moses that our peoples and professing Christians have forgotten to our confusion and shame! Onward Christian Soldiers!

This is where groups like the KKK confuse the heck out of me. They obviously don’t know Christ. If they did, they’d know that He’d never treat another human the way they do.

I don’t know a single member of the KKK and from personal experience know how a group’s beliefs can be misrepresented by hysterical mobs. If the KKK is biblical on this or that, I support them on this or that. Where they’re not biblical, I would say so and not offer support but call upon them to change.

The racist NAACP obviously doesn’t know Christ or they wouldn’t judge everything falsely by the color of someone’s skin rather than the content of character (while ignoring national issues that are biblically based on ethnicity), and they wouldn’t hold people down and under and back so they can keep their self-important positions they’ve prostituted themselves for at the expense of their own people whom they’ve sold down the river, listening to the siren calls of the race hucksters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, both of whom should move to Africa and lead the way and create opportunities for others to follow. I would support them expressing such creativity in action instead of always cursing the real or imagined darkness rather than lighting a candle.

So many people claim to be followers of Jesus, then turn right around and go against His teachings. Jesus taught us to turn the cheek, love our enemy, bring peace and love to the sick and hurting. Deliver others of demons and heal the sick. I see none of this in our government body and I see very, very little of this in the corporate church body.

God’s one government has two branches. Jesus was talking to individuals (Sermon the Mount) and He was talking to the NATION (10 Commandments/Law of Moses) when He revealed how we are to live. So many people claim to be followers of Jesus, then turn right around and go against His teachings. He said to expel sworn enemies from our Land; to execute various criminals and cleanse the Land, to wage war, if and whenever necessary, and not to show the mercy of fools to nations or individuals who hate our guts and would slit our throats their first opportunity.

Yashua said to be “wise as serpents and innocent as doves.” He was referring to an ATTITUDE, a willingness to go the extra mile, out of our way, but not indefinitely! If we take all of Yashua’s teaching on any given subject, rather than twist His teachings into some hippy pacifism, you’ll see there’s a time and a place, which is why He could act so violent and knock over tables and chairs and drive both men and animals from the Temple with a WHIP IN HIS HAND!

Certainly doesn’t fit the traditional false image, does it? His harsh words against the religious leaders of His day certainly weren’t smooth and pleasant to listen to, especially if you were on the receiving end of His verbal attacks! And when He reigns, He will rule with a ROD OF IRON and rebuke some nations, punish others and even destroy some.

Folks would do well to not try to tell the REAL JESUS about His teachings or to remember His Sermon on the Mount! Jesus will perfectly exercise the Law of Moses tempered by the Sermon on the Mount, as divine wisdom calls for, and we’re called to whatever extent we’re offered in this life to do the same, whether it’s in the home, office, pulpit or political position. That’s why our kings, our rulers, are commanded by God to read and study His Word daily that it may be the LAW OF THE LAND, and they can be humbled by realizing they’re merely human instruments of God’s grace, God’s rod and staff.

David Ben-Ariel, a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe’s Rise and Fall, shares a special focus on the Middle East, reflected in hard-hitting articles that help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out Beyond Babylon.

Sempre olhamos para o tempo e sentimos como se tudo o que hoje existe, que foi criado ou que existir e ser criado durar de forma eterna.

Sempre estou assistindo filmes e lendo livros de fico cientfica onde os cientistas encontram planetas cheios de ruinas de alguma civilizao que deixou de existir por algum motivo. Alguma estrela que explodiu, radiaes, guerra, doena ou até algum tipo de ameaa por outras raas.

Muitas destas raas deixaram arquivos quase que eternos, onde estes cientistas conseguiram aprender sobre suas civilizaes. Eles deixaram informaes sobre sua msica, teatro, tecnologias, desejos, livros, vidas e tudo mais. Mas também, existem outras que nada deixaram, fora as runas, algumas sem muita informao ou histria.

Minha imaginao vai mais além. Procuro imaginar esta nossa civilizao, para onde ela vai, até onde conseguiremos chegar como unidade e como tudo o que estamos criando e fazendo hoje. Penso sobre meus, seus e sonhos de todos do mundo. Meu filho, cidades e tudo mais.

Lembro-me de um livro que li, onde o autor relata um encontro com pessoas e um Sr. chamado Dr. Cabrera, que vive no Chile e encontrou, catalogou e decifrou milhares de pedras na cidade onde mora, em Ica no Chile. As tais pedras (Ica Stones), so mais conhecidas devido suas revelaes e algumas constataes.

O Dr. Cabrera afirma que as pedras foram marcadas por um povo que existiu aqui no nosso planeja h mais de 200 milhes de anos, porque esta é a data que a anlise das pedras mostrou. Imagine, 200 milhes de anos, j existia uma civilizao que tinha aparelhos que voavam e brigavam com dinossauros. O triste é que o tal Dr. Cabrera est sendo desacreditado pelos ndios locais, que alegam estarem esculpindo das pedras que encontram pela regio. Tudo porque eles tm medo da polcia, que pe na cadeia pessoas que se apoderam e vendem artefatos antigos.

A tristeza est no fato que no sabemos mais nada a respeito deles. O que eles faziam, onde viveram e tudo mais. Viveram realmente aqui no nosso planeta. No estou falando em gente de outros lugares, estrelas e planetas.

Parte da justificativa do desaparecimento est no fato, que em 200 milhes de anos, a Terra teve muitos cataclismos, como os que as prprias pedras apresentam, como a queda de uma das luas da Terra, que acertou o principal continente, fazendo com que ele afunda-se.

Imagine se isso acontecer com o nosso planetinha?

Milhes de anos vo passar até que uma nova humanidade possa se criar, tudo novamente, em um eterno looping, até que o nosso Sol termine o seu combustvel e destrua tudo ao seu redor.

Ser que de alguma forma, tudo o que criamos. Seja até as guerras, dio, mortes que tanto vemos no mundo, ser conhecido?

Pois é… D uma tristeza muito grade quando pensamos a este respeito. Futuro. Continuidade e tudo mais. Como tudo isso est TO longe ainda, precisamos também nos manter pensantes para o presente, mas penso que no devemos deixar tudo somente para o presente. Podemos deixar um pouquinho das idéias para o futuro.

Are you a salesperson representing a smaller company that competes against the “big guys”? If so, you probably find yourself feeling like the underdog in the age-old tale of David and Goliath. Andthe story’s biblical outcome notwithstandingyou’ve probably noticed that in today’s hyper-competitive business world it’s usually Goliath who trounces David. Sigh. Am I fighting a losing battle? you wonder. Is there any way I can ever defeat a company with more manpower, more resources and, well . . . more status in the eyes of the prospect? As a matter of fact, you can bring down that Goliath of a competitor, says Dave Stein, consultant, trainer and author of the book How Winners Sell: 21 Proven Strategies To Outsell Your Competition and Win The Big Sale (Bard Press, 2002, ISBN: 1-885167-55-5, $24.95). “When the smaller team loses a sale, (or the larger one, for that matter,) it’s for one of two reasons,” he explains. “Either they didn’t properly qualify the opportunity, or the competition outsold them. There is no third alternative. When you understand these two eventualities, you can take steps to improve your selling capabilities.” Stein offers some insights on how to take on your Goliathand win the sale: Qualification: Is this really a sound prospect?

Qualification is the process by which we determine if it is worth our time and effort to continue to pursue a sales opportunity. It’s a process, not an event. That means you don’t qualify your sales prospect once, when initial contact is made and then, with a smile on your face and your head in the sand, blindly do whatever you believe (or your prospect tells you) it takes to win their business. You qualify vigilantly and consistently. Why? Because things change. Because buyers have been known to mislead sellers. Because sometimes a buyer doesn’t even know who in his own company is going to make the real decision favoring one supplier over another. When you are qualifying your prospect, you are asking them, and yourself, questions like: When are they going to buy? Why are they going to buy? What are they going to buy? Does our product or service fit their requirements? Who is making the final decision? What is the decision process? Who is the competition? And certainly, how will they pay for what it is that I am selling? There are many, many more. Qualification criteria for smaller companies who compete against the big guys must contain questions about the prospect’s buying preferences. For example, you need to ask yourself, “What evidence do I have that the prospect will do business with a company of our size?” Also you’ll need to know what guidelines they must follow in terms of suppliers’ company size, revenues or financial viability.

Does size matter? (Knowing when to move on)

It’s hard to ask these questions, but it is irresponsible not to. You must be certain that if you meet or exceed all the prospect’s requirements, size does not matter. You may have the greatest product, innovative services, committed people, stellar customer satisfaction levels, top product quality or anything else that you consider of valuebut if size matters, little else will measure up. And if size does matterand if you can’t convince the prospect fairly quickly that it shouldn’thit the road and move on to another opportunity. You’ll need to be careful here. Sometimes the size issue is less obvious. For example, your prospect may have a requirement that you implement their Supply Chain Management System in twenty-five plants within a year’s time. That’s a legitimate business requirement that is directly related to size. And if you are a smaller supplier, without pre-established partners with service firms who are capable of delivering the service levels required, for example, your chances of winning are remote. What all this means is that there are certain opportunities for which you should not compete, because you cannot win. Sorry, but that’s a fact.

Once they’re qualified, what do you do? Answer: competitive selling.

You’re going to need to influence your prospect’s decision criteria, so that the perceived value of your competitor’s size, and other size-related capabilities are neutralized, if not diluted. Here is a simple, well-used example. Let’s say you sell for a smaller company that provides programming services and you’re up against a major global firm. Based upon preferences and needs of the buyers, you may decide to use the “small-fish-in-a-big-pond” approach. It goes like this: “Ms. Prospect: there are few people who would not be impressed by MKPG’s size, reach and resources. I’m sure they proudly reference some very prominent clients. However, you might consider that a project such as yours, although highly critical for you, might very well not have the importance and therefore not generate the ongoing attention within their firm that their premier clients’ projects would. It’s only natural…” From that point, a discussion of how you would manage their project and business relationship in the futurestressing executive attention and the importance of their success to your successwould propel you forward. If you are effective with this approach, you will have moved size as well as the power of their client list down in importance and executive attention and interest in their success up.

Meetingand defeatingGoliath’s challenges:

Here are some ways that a larger competitor might attempt to exploit your size, along with some potential considerations for handling those objections with your coaches and allies in the account:

Challenge: The competition may question your viability to the prospect. “What would happen to you, Mr. Prospect, if they were to go out of business or be acquired?”

Your strategy: Don’t wait for this to happen, as it most likely will. You need a concise, compelling story, prepared in advance, that must be credibly and sincerely delivered by your most senior executives. Mitigating perceived risk is part of the critical path to success when competing against a much larger rival.

Challenge: The competition may attempt to expand the scope of the evaluation into areas where you don’t have a solution.

Your strategy: Alert your prospect in advance that this may happen. Praise their efforts in defining their requirements so well. Ask if they are prepared to have the scope of their initiative, project or investment substantially expanded.

Challenge: The competition may attempt to impress your prospect with hordes of resources to demonstrate their prowess.

Your strategy: Again, prepare your prospect in advance that this may happen. Suggest that these firms make a lot of money and therefore have the ability to expend resources, in order to impress prospects to make a sale. If you know your competitor’s bid will come in considerably higher than yours will, you may want to subtly suggest that using resources to win business may be a reason that their overhead is so high.

Challenge: The competition may be willing to guarantee results in a way that you cannot.

Your strategy: Perhaps they can guarantee results, but at what cost to the prospect? Educate your prospect that the word “cost” in cost overrun does not only refer to what a customer pays a supplier. There are many other costs as well, including lost opportunity, customer satisfaction and employee retention to name a few.

How will you know in advance what your competition is going to do? Raise your competitive IQ. You do that by investing the time to aggregate and analyze past wins and losses against a few key competitors. When you do, you’ll start to see patterns of behavior that individual companies and the people who sell for them use against you. Learning to build sales strategies based upon that information will you be able to begin to outsell your competitors on a consistent basis.

Remember the two components. You’ll be glad you did.

Qualification combined with strategic competitive selling does work, asserts Stein. As proof, he offers the following anecdote: “After confirming that size did not matter in a face-to-face meeting with a division president of a $5 billion corporation, my client, the CEO of a $5 million firm, commanded that his team pursue a $2 million contract competing against a $750 million rival,” he says. “Now there is a David and Goliath scenario! I coached that sales team. Among other things, we diluted the competition’s apparent strengths and portrayed their large size as a liability, which in this case it really was.” “We outsold the competition and won the business,” Stein concludes. “And my client’s company got a lot more to follow, because they did what they promised for their customer. As the CEO related to me, elated with a contract five times larger than anything his team had secured up to that time, ‘the most important thing for me is that this process is repeatable.’ I think that makes a compelling case for the two components, and their critical role in smaller candidate’s success.”