Summer’s over. Vacation’s over. Lame “everyone’s on vacation” excuses are over.

Back to business. Back to work. Back to sales.

And back to reality. The economy still sucks. Business is still slow. Your competition is still cutting prices. Your customers are still paying slowly. And you are struggling to create a difference between you and the people you hate. REALITY: Concentrate on YOUR economy, not THE economy.

What can you do that actually creates new and renewed opportunities to sell? PLENTY! But you have to renew your personal commitment to do more and work more.

You need to devote time, creativity and hard work to these elements:

1. Understanding THEIR reality. You’re down because they are down. You’re slow because they’re slow. Meet with them. Talk to them. Understand them. Help them, and they will reward you with both business and loyalty. REALITY: Unless you help your customers win, you will continue to lose.

2. Value first. Make a list of what you have discovered about your customers’ needs, and give them ideas to meet those needs. REALITY: Value first requires a new mindset.

3. Value perception. Whatever you decide to do in favor of the customers must be perceived by them as valuable. REALITY: If the customers don’t perceive it, then it isn’t.

4. Daily social media activity. Begin your personal value-branding today. Assign yourself the goal of gaining 100 Linked-In connections, achieving 500 Facebook followers who “like” you on your business page, and earning 250 Twitter followers who are re-tweeting the value messages you offer to them. REALITY: Social media is the new cold call.

5. Differentiation. Decide on what’s REALLY different about you. NOT what you think is different or better, but what your customers think is different or better. And then get customer video testimonials that support those differences. REALITY: Testimonials are the only proof you’ve got.

6. Helping customers. If you know what your customers need, why not spend quality time actually helping them? REALITY: Even if they don’t accept the offer, you will win their respect.

7. Brand building. For your product or service AND you. REALITY: If you blog, have a personal website and send a weekly e-mail magazine, you can build both brands at once.

8. Creating WOW! There are huge opportunities right now to make a difference. Maybe it’s your e-mail, your welcome, your delivery, your phone response or your service. REALITY: You’ll know it when you hear it.

9. Breakfast and lunch. These are the two best times for relationship building and sales meetings. REALITY: You can combine this with WOW! by bringing a referral or prospect for your customer.

10. Creating and capturing IDEAS. The key ingredient to this entire “back to reality” process is your ability to generate and capture ideas. This requires new study, new habits and new thinking. REALITY: Ideas come from focused thought, an open mind, a positive attitude and a renewed belief that you can do it.

10.5. Forget your “sales pitch.” It sounds pathetically like those of your competitors. It never ceases to amaze me that a sales presentation that ends in “send a proposal” or “I want to think about it” or “NO!” gets repeated over and over. IDEA: Collaborate with the last 10 customers who bought from you. They have all the answers. It’s time to revise and revamp your value proposition and present something new and exciting. REALITY: The more the prospect perceives value, the less price will matter.

REALITY: Sales have not stopped; they’ve just slowed down. Your value and hard work will ensure you more than your fair share.

Jeffrey Gitomer can be reached by phone at (704) 333-1112 or by e-mail at salesman@gitomer.com. © 2010 Jeffrey H. Gitomer