03/31/2009
Chamber on a Roll with Ten Pin Challenge
Cy-Fair - Northwest Houston businesses and residents will have an opportunity to combine fun and support for a good cause at the Chamber’s Seventh Annual Bowling Tournament on Tuesday, May 26, from 6 to 9 p.m. at Copperfield Bowl , 15615 Glen Chase Drive.
A portion of the proceeds from the event will benefit an Endowed Scholarship at Lone Star College – CyFair. In the past seven years, the Chamber has raised over $21,750 to benefit scholarship endowments.
Each of the five-person bowling teams will receive dinners of bowling cuisine and goodie bags. Trophies will be awarded for the first-, second- and third-place teams.
Caldwell Companies, Comfort Suites, Copperfield Church, Cypress Pony Land Co. LTD, Dickens Delivery Service Inc., Executive Inn & Suites, First Community Credit Union, Hewlett-Packard Company, Jersey Meadow Golf Course, Leadership North Houston Alumni, Lone Star College – CyFair, Members Choice Credit Union, MillerCoors, Motel 6, Raba-Kistner Consultants Inc. and Signs Now have already committed to sponsoring the event.
A wide variety of sponsorship opportunities are still available. To become a sponsor or to reserve your team’s spot call Sherri Padalino at the Chamber Office at 281-373-1390.
In addition, the Auction Committee is looking for all types of donations including sports memorabilia and tickets, restaurant meals, hotel stays, airline tickets and much more. To make a donation to the auction call Jennifer Ellis at the Chamber Office at 281-373-1390
For more information please call 281-373-1390 or visit our website www.cyfairchamber.com.
03/26/2009
Rub Shoulders with Local Heroes at the 15th Annual Sprint Proudly Present Salute to Law Enforcement
Come join the 15 th Annual Salute to Law Enforcement event which will be held on Saturday, May 2 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Willowbrook Mall. There will be more than 100 law enforcement agencies to visit. The event is the largest known single law enforcement exhibition open to the public, attracting almost 50,000 visitors annually.
The Salute offers citizens the opportunity to meet law enforcement representatives, tour vehicles and gather literature about safety. About 100 different agencies will be represented, with more than 200 officers and 90 or more indoor and outdoor exhibits.
The Salute begins at 11:00 a.m. with an opening ceremony that will include singing of “The Star Spangled Banner” and recitation of the names of local officers who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
Throughout the day, visitors will have the opportunity to meet law enforcement representatives and be able to:
- Tour emergency vehicles
- Climb aboard a helicopter
- Tour the Harris County Sheriff's Department mobile command center
- Explore a CCEMS ambulance
- Meet officer on horseback
- See the drug sniffing dogs
- See partrolling robots
- Receive handouts fo the children
- Enjoy opening ceremony and on-stage demonstrations throughout the day and
- More exhibits inside and outside
Sprint will be sponsoring the DNA Life Print for all children attending the event. Parents can greatly increase their chance of quickly recovering a missing child if they can immediately provide an FBI -certified 10 digit biometric fingerprint profile, a DNA sample, a high resolution full color photograph, and current statistical information.
Additionally, exhibits will have video presentations about a variety of subjects. Booths will provide opportunities for auto ID, anti-theft devices and light/heat sensitive displays.
Sponsors at print time are the Allstate Insurance/The Lipton Agency, Comfort Suites, Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce, Cy-Fair Federal Credit Union, Executive Inn and Suites, Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole, Jersey Meadow Golf Course, Klein Funeral Homes and Memorial Parks, Lone Star College–CyFair, Bob and Darcy Mingoia, Motel 6, Spring ISD, Sprint, Sweet Tomatoes, University of Houston-Downtown and Willowbrook Mall .
For more information about this event or to RSVP for your agency, officers, or organization call Chief Alan Bragg, Spring ISD Police Dept. at 832-764-4901, info@SaluteToLawEnforcement.org or alanb@springisd.org . For sponsorship information call Sherri Padalino at 281-373-1390, sherri@cyfairhcamber.com or visit www.cyfairchamber.com or www.salutetolawenforcement.org.
03/17/2009
Training Expert Says Building Clients’ Trust Can Boost Sales, Even in Tough Times
One of the primary reasons that potential buyers mislead, avoid, and hide from salespeople is a lack of trust, said Troy Elmore, managing partner of Sandler Training.
“Buyers don’t trust us and in a recessionary economy, they trust us even less,” Elmore told Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce members at the Chamber’s March 17 General Membership Luncheon. “There are two things you can do – quickly – to build up that trust.”
First, Elmore said, when making that introductory call to a potential client, set up expectations and ground rules. Four goals must be accomplished in that call, he said. It may seem like a large task, but it is well worth the time and effort.
• TIME - Consult with the buyer on the amount of time he or she has for a face-to-face meeting, and based on that, establish how long the meeting will take. Elmore said a major fear of many who are on the buying end is that the salesperson will not respect time boundaries and will interfere with the remainder of the day’s appointments and tasks.
• AGENDA – The client needs to understand your agenda, and you need to understand their agenda, Elmore said. Consult with them about what they want to talk about at the meeting, and explain what points you would like to cover.
• “NO” – “The first thing you need to give them when you walk in the door is the option to say, ‘No,’” Elmore said. “When you do this, you are not giving them an idea that they do not already have.” He said about 90 percent of salespeople will not follow this advice, but the 10 percent who do will reap the rewards associated with giving the potential buyer a choice.
• NEXT STEPS – Allow time to talk about what will happen after the initial meeting. “What happens
next?” Elmore said.
The second way to build a potential buyer’s trust is to find a compelling personal and emotional reason for them to buy what you have to sell, Elmore said. Probe and find out what type of “pains” the buyer is experiencing in his business.
“If there is not pain, there will not be change,” he said.
That pain can be immediate, or one that will be experienced in the foreseeable future. The buyer will be more willing to take action to be rid of the immediate pain, Elmore said.
“If you find this out, you won’t spend as much time on people who do not have any pain,” he said.
People without pain are often not in a position to buy, and are probably working to gather information from a salesperson in order to keep their existing supplier honest.
A salesperson can also work to show what type of gain the potential client could make by buying the goods or services.
“If they can visualize something wonderful, you put them in a position to buy from you,” Elmore said.
Overall, it is important to find a way to differentiate yourself and your company from the competition, he said.
A salesperson has to decide, particularly during this economic downturn, if he or she is going to have the mentality of limitations, or mentality of abundance. It is all in how one views the situation, Elmore said. There are always sales opportunities out there – you have to approach the market with an open mind, and build trust to get yourself in the door.
03/06/2009
Texas A&M’s Chief Economist Predicts Economic Recovery by Year’s end if Government Gets Moving
Texas A&M’s Chief Economist Dr. Mark Dotzour said he has been accused of being “too optimistic,” but he believes that the nation could start on the road to economic recovery by year’s end if the U.S. government would lay all of its cards on the table and let businesses, consumers and investors react and adapt to the finalized recovery plan.
“It is better for government to come out and do what they say they are going to do so businesses can start to fight again,” Dotzour said. “Now they are hiding and doing nothing.”
Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce members applauded Dotzour’s candid take on the present economic crisis at the Chamber’s first annual Economic Forecast luncheon March 6.
Chamber leaders were also pleased with the turnout at the event, and Dotzour’s presentation.
“The First Annual Economic Forecast Luncheon was a great success due to our dynamic speaker,” said Erin Al-Salman, Cy-Fair Houston Chamber of Commerce President. “I believe the Chamber delivered a beneficial and timely program for our members and we have received very positive feedback. This will be hard to top next year!”
As Chief Economist and Director of Research for the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University , Dotzour is currently doing market research to monitor how global and national trends are likely to impact residential and commercial real estate markets. Since joining the Real Estate Center in 1997, he has published 59 articles in magazines and given over 800 presentations to more than 110,000 people. His research findings and comments have been published in the Wall Street Journal , Money Magazine , USA Today and Business Week , and was a guest on the Jim Lehrer Newshour on PBS.
According to his “best-case scenario,” Dotzour said, the stock market could start rising this summer which would be followed by an increase in consumer confidence spending and favorable corporate earnings by the fourth quarter of 2009.
That rise in the stock market is vital, he said, because consumer confidence – and spending – will rise along with it, thus leading to the rise in corporate earnings.
With all of this in place, employment should stabilize, which will be followed by an end to lay-offs.
Dotzour said he has also formulated a “worst-case scenario.”
Under that scenario, the federal $800 million economic stimulus package recently passed by U.S. Congress would have no effect on the economy; the U.S. Treasury Department and Federal Reserve Board will continue to “stumble” in their efforts to assist ailing businesses and “bad banks and businesses will continue to be propped up”; and in general, political indecision will continue to pervade the economic atmosphere.
Consumers will also “sit on their hands,” and unemployment could surpass 10 percent.
Dotzour said he does not support the federal government’s bail-out efforts. That did not happen in past economic crises, and U.S. businesses and residents were the better for it.
“We have somehow decided this time that we are weak, and cannot survive without government hand-outs,” Dotzour said. “I think that is wrong.”
Dotzour said people are finally listening to the advice of their more senior relatives, and trying to live within their means as opposed to running up credit card bills and buying more than they can afford.
“That is what every level of government needs to do right now,” he said. “We are not going to have a real economy until debts are paid down.”
Dotzour said overall the Houston region holds a solid position in the global economy, and though businesses are experiencing tough times, the outlook is more optimistic than in other parts of the country.
“Houston is right in the heart of the global economy,” Dotzour said. “It is a city where people roll up their sleeves and successfully compete in the global marketplace.”
“It is one of the strongest cities in the country,” he said.
Click on the following link for the presentation.
03/05/2009
Cy-Fair Area Congressional Representatives Voted Against Economic Stimulus Bill
U.S. Congressmen John Culberson (R-TX) and Michael McCaul (R-TX) voted against the $787 billion economic stimulus bill signed by President Barack Obama in February.
Ellie Essalih, Culberson’s district director, and Colleen Gilbert, McCaul’s field director, told Cy-Fair Houston Chamber Governmental Affairs Committee members that the two Congressmen were opposed to the proposed tax increases and high rate of spending outlined in the economic stimulus package.
McCaul, District 10, and Culberson, District 7, split representation of the Cy-Fair area.
Essalih and Gilbert said the bill passed the House with no Republican support – the vote was 246 to 183. The Senate vote was 60 to 38 with minimal Republican support.
The package contains $575 billion in spending and $212 billion in tax breaks, and supporters say its primary goals are to create and retain 3.5 million jobs and help families pay for food, housing, and healthcare.
“It was a highly emotional bill,” Essalih said. “We haven’t had a spending bill like this since 9/11.”
The Patriot Act passed at that time received strong Republican support, she said.
In Culberson’s district, about 90 to 95 percent of the people who called the office to comment on the stimulus package said they opposed it.
That percentage was higher – 98 percent – in McCaul’s district, Gilbert said.
Gilbert said it was crucial that residents, business owners and organizations like the Cy-Fair Chamber stay in close contact with their federal elected representatives, and weigh in on critical issues like the stimulus package and many others.
That includes the proposed Highway 290/Hempstead Highway reconstruction project, which needs a source of funding.
Both Congressman are focused on doing what they can to make that happen, even though funding for transportation projects is almost non-existent.
“U.S. 290 is his (Culberson’s) number one transportation priority – he wants to do to U.S. 290 what he did to Interstate 10,” Essalih said. “In the fall they are reauthorizing the highway bill. By then, the project’s environmental studies will be completed and we will have a good idea what authorization they need in that bill.”
Essalih said Culberson is also in favor of a commuter rail system in the Highway 290 corridor, if it does not run down the middle of the highway.
McCaul’s District 10 straddles U.S. 290 from Barker-Cypress to Austin so the Highway 290 project is a priority, Gilbert said.
He is also working to get more funding for law enforcement agencies that patrol the U.S./Mexico border.
“He is the ranking member of the Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on Intelligence, and very involved in addressing violence on both sides of the border,” Gilbert said.
Also a member of the Science and Technology Committee, McCaul is working to make sure NASA has the funding needed to support that agency.
Gilbert and Essalih said both Congressmen and their staff members stand ready to help the Chamber and Cy-Fair area in their efforts to ensure economic stability and quality of life in the booming community.
McCaul’s web site: http://www.house.gov/mccaul/index.shtml
Culberson’s web site: http://www.culberson.house.gov/
Archived News
02/20/2009 Erin Al-Salman resigns as chamber president
02/12/2009 Economic Forecast Luncheon is set for March 6
02/05/2009 Economic Forecast Luncheon Announces Keynote Speaker
02/05/2009 Legislative Staff Members Preview 2009 State Session
01/19/2009 Fifteen Years and Still Going…Chamber Herd Rides Again
01/13/2009 Chamber Leaders Respond to Challending Times with Optimistic Outlook