These articles by Joe Bonura offer tips and suggestions for boosting your personal success.

Click on each link below to read the article

"Be A Quitter - And Win"

Huh, Oh! I think Joe has lost it. How can you be a quitter and win? Well, it depends on what you quit. If you can quit...

"Be Prepared"

What we do before the sales call determines how we handle ourselves during a sales call. Preparation is not a one time event—it is a lifetime...

"Chicken Little"

The sky is not falling. One of my favorite stories as a child was the story of Chicken Little who was walking down the street when an...

"Come Out of Your Comfort Zone"

You will succeed in life in direct proportion to your willingness to come out of your comfort zone and escape from your self-imposed prison of mediocrity. You hold the key to mental freedom...

"Dialing for Dollars"

A.G.B.'s Contribution Save time, save steps, increase your effectiveness, and make more money by using the telephone to make appointments. It is sad that many sales people do not like to...

"Discipline Yourself to Sales Success"

Recently, when I opened one of my training sessions, I asked the question, "Can you give me a word that will enable you to out-think, out-perform, out-sell, and out-service your competition?" There were fifty people in the group...

"Don't Lose the Wonder"

I was waiting at the gate to catch my fifth airline flight of the week when a man walked up to the window with his six-year-old son. He pointed to the big Boeing 747 waiting at the gate and said...

"Failure Takes Work"

Just using the word failure, in this month's E-Zine, makes me uncomfortable. But after a lifetime of watching people fail, I have learned that...

"From Salesperson to Serveperson"

Imagine what it would be like at your organization if every service representative knew more about selling and every salesperson knew more about service...

"Get Your Career Shipshape - Part I"

When I visited with a friend, I noticed a picture on his wall, entitled, Salesmanship. It was a drawing of an old sailing ship with each sail labeled with the traits of a great sales person. I was so impressed that I noted...

"Get Your Career Shipshape - Part II"

Resilience: What Is Your Bounce-back Quotient? In the profession of selling, you sometimes lose more than you win. The secret to success is to keep on keeping on. No one likes to lose or to be rejected; however, the way to move forward in selling is to make calls. Every time you make a call...

"Get Your Career Shipshape - Part III"

Persistence: I am always amazed at how life often mimics selling, and the same skills that I apply every day of my life in selling, I applied to save the lives...

"Go for the Goal"

I received an e-mail from my son Joe who was excited about his wife Karen's accomplishments at the recent Mary Kay Convention. Karen placed 7th out of 140,000 for the Queen's Court of Personal Sales...

"Good Tired"

Get up and get going. Stop waiting for someone else to make life happen for you. This morning, I read something that I would like to share with you...

"How Big Are Your Dreams?"

I'm flying at 35,000 feet on my way to Seattle, Washington, all because of two brothers named Orville and Wilbur, two ordinary guys with an extraordinary dream. On December 17, 1903, they made history...

"Hidden Treasures"

My wife was cleaning our basement seventeen years ago, preparing for a move to our new home. For some unexplained reason, I decided to go through a box we were about to...

"In A Rut"

The dictionary defines a rut as: A state of being that has become so routine that it is no longer...

"It Takes More Than Brains To Succeed"

Six weeks ago I was in San Angelo, Texas, where I completed a successful field day with four sales people. The sales manager drove me to the airport...

"Jump In"

As a small child, I remember going to the beach with my Mom and Dad. I approached the water and put my toe in, felt how cold the water was...

"Lagniappe - The Secret to Customer Excitement"

When I was a young boy, I remember working with my father at his butcher stand in the heart of New Orleans, Louisiana...

"Network Your Way to Sales Success"

There was a PBS documentary about a couple who lived in a remote area of Alaska where they made a living off the fish they caught in their net. In order to survive...

"Now Power"

As I was watching an ice climber on TV, I was amazed, impressed, and a little frightened for the climber. Climbing an ice floe...

"Oh, Say Can You See?"

Because I use my glasses just for reading, I often forget to put them on before I leave the house. Last week, I forgot my glasses, and didn't notice until I was...

"Only Fools Rush In"

My son Nick and I completed a two-week camera safari in Kenya, and we were walking in downtown Nairobi, saying our goodbyes to a dream adventure, when a neatly dressed Kikuyu gentleman approached and immediately got in step with us...

"Overcoming Procrastination"

You will succeed in sales in direct proportion to your ability to overcome procrastination. Procrastination has caused more losers than any other sales "sin." Procrastination focuses on...

"Persistance Pays"

Twice I walked by the shoeshine stand, and on both occasions, the person manning the stand enthusiastically asked me if I wanted a shine. It was on my third pass that he...

"Reap What You Sow"

Last week, as I drove past a twelve-acre cornfield, strangely located in the middle of a suburban area of Louisville, I noticed that...

"Seasoned Salesperson, Beware!"

What's the next step for an apple on a tree after it ripens? If no one picks it, it falls to the ground and rots...

"Seek A Star"

When I decided to sell my advertising agency and become a full- time professional speaker in 1988, I attended the National Speakers Association Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. My first goal was to find out...

"Sell Like A Dog"

I was cutting up a celery treat for my miniature Schnauzer Muffin when I realized...

"Servicing Your Customers by Phone"

No matter how many people work in your organization, your customer may only come into contact with only one person -- the person who answers the phone...

"Shortcuts Add Up to a Big Detour in Life"

I was walking my dog Muffin this morning for thirty minutes when it occurred to me that I could cut ten minutes off of my usual 45 minute walk by cutting across a field...

"Stop Driving Yourself to the Poorhouse"

A while back I was making calls with a sales person in St. Louis, and we drove forty minutes to our first appointment. The second appointment was located about four blocks from our original starting points...

"The ABCs of Selling"

Ego, more than anything, deters many people in the selling profession. Ego prevents them from admitting that they do not know where they are in relation to where they could be. They believe that they have reached the top...

"The Attitude of Gratitude"

Iona Kupiec was my high school English teacher who introduced me to opera, poetry, Greek mythology, the arts, and The Reader’s Digest (School Edition). The students thought she was a very strange English teacher. We were supposed to be learning grammar, sentence structure, punctuation...

"The Question is the Answer"

What multi-purpose tool can you add to your Business Tool Box that will help you dramatically improve sales and service? The Question is the answer. If you have read this far...

"Time To Throw The Rabbit"

I could not think of a better way to start the New Year than by writing about my first sales call. We can learn from every experience, good or bad, if we look for the clues. From experience, I find that I learn more from...

"Using Voice Mail - Part One of Two"

Are you suffering from technology overkill? When calling clients and business associates, do you hear recorded messages more often than live voices? Does it become more and more difficult to reach people by phone? This is Part One...

"Using Voice Mail - Part Two of Two "

The previous article encompassed principles of voice mail when calling people you know or who know of you. This article focuses on how to use voice mail to your advantage when making cold calls. Voice mail can be a disheartening obstacle for sales people cold calling...

"What Is Your Focus?"

Can you remember the first time you used a magnifying glass to burn a hole in a leaf by focusing the sun's energy through the lens? The same thing can happen in selling...

"When The Saints Go Marching In"

It was September 17, 1967, and I was there in Tulane Stadium when the New Orleans Saints played their first National Football League regular season game. Atlanta lost the toss, and the Saints elected to receive. On the kickoff...

"Yahoo!"

There is no such thing as should'a, could'a, would'a. What you do now is significant! The only thing between you and the success that you were born to experience is YOU. As the cartoon character...

"You Have a Friend on the Front Line"

You can only make the sale if you get through the receptionist to get to the buyer. The response you get from a receptionist is in direct proportion to your attitude toward her. Most salespeople approach the busy executive's front line of defense as...

"You, Inc."

As a sales person, every day you are in business for yourself. You are ultimately responsible for your own success or failure as a company within a company...

"Your Possibilities Are Unlimited"

Several years ago my wife and I were on vacation in Puerto Rico at the Dorado Beach Hotel. The manager Hendrick Santos threw a Wednesday night welcoming party for the hotel guests. I asked Hendrick to tell us how he became the manager of one of the finest hotels in Puerto Rico. He seemed...