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OCTOBER 2022
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IS THERE A WRONG TIME TO INVEST IN AMERICA?
F or some reason, and it could just be coincidence, some of the worst stock market days have taken place during the month of October. We saw it recently during the Great Recession of 2008. When bank bailouts were being discussed, we saw the Dow fall by 7.3% on Oct. 9. Not even a week later on Oct. 15, the Dow sank 7.9% as retail sales had reached a three-year low. The infamous Wall Street Crash of 1929, which preceded the Great Depression, also took place in October. On “Black Monday” (Oct. 28, 1929), the Dow fell 12.8%. The very next day, on Oct. 29, the Dow dropped another 11.7%. The worst stock market day in history also came in October after a crash in Hong Kong spread throughout the rest of the world. The Dow dropped 22.6% on Oct. 19, 1987. At the time, many investors were worried about inflation and new computerized trading programs, but according to experts, there wasn’t any one single cause for the fall. While many believed a recession would result from the drop, the market stabilized within 48 hours! If you’re not someone who pays attention to the stock markets, you’re probably wondering what exactly all this even means. When many people talk about “the stock market,” they’re referring to the Dow Jones Industrial Average (aka Dow), which is a stock market index of 30 prominent companies listed on stock exchanges in the United States. We’re all familiar with most of the companies in the Dow, which includes Apple, American Express, Boeing, Home Depot, Johnson & Johnson, Procter & Gamble, Nike, Chevron, 3M, Walt Disney, Microsoft, Walmart, and McDonald’s. I think the S&P 500 or the Russell 1000 indexes are better representations of “the stock market” than the Dow, but their histories also support the premise of this article, so it’s not really important what index is used. When the Dow was first published in 1896, there were only 12 companies on its list. That number grew to 20 in 1916, then to 30 in 1928. Another interesting thing about the Dow that’s worth mentioning is how much it has grown throughout its history. The Dow’s average closing price first broke 100 points (dollars) back in 1925. It didn’t break 500 until 1959 and didn’t break 1,000 until 1983. It took off from there, reaching over 10,000 points in 1999 and hovering around 33,000 so far this year.
Many people like to evaluate how the overall economy is doing based on the publicly traded stock markets, but the Dow is just a small sampling of 30 companies. There’s a saying that the market goes up like an escalator and drops like an elevator, but even so, we have seen remarkable growth over the last 40 years and sporadic but generally upward growth for the last 100 years. The stock market has had its ups and downs, as it’s survived multiple wars, a president resigning, assassinations, recessions, a depression, social upheaval, and many other incidents, but it has consistently continued to grow. While there may be market crashes, history shows that the market finds a way to bounce back, and sometimes it’s quite sudden, like after the worst dip in Dow history back in October 1987, or more recently in 2021. In my opinion, the stock markets prove that investing in the American economy is and has always been, given a long enough time horizon, a very prosperous thing to do.
–Brad Johnson President, Risk Services of AR
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PERFECT YOUR ABILITY TO CLOSE SALES
From restaurant and hospital workers who slip and fall on spilled liquid to retail workers who get injured using the cardboard baler, every industry and workplace is susceptible to workplace injuries. Travelers recently released the results of its newest study that focused on workplace injuries. It analyzed over 1.5 million workers’ comp claims between
2015 and 2019 and found that 35% of injuries occur during employees’ first year on the job, regardless of age or work experience.
Here’s a situation you’re probably familiar with: You’ve got a prospective client, and it seems
like they’re interested in your product, but no matter what you or your top salespeople say or do, they just won’t commit to the sale. If this sounds like your business, don’t panic! There are ways you can improve your closing skills that you can start doing right now!
“Our data underscores the importance of comprehensive onboarding and training programs for employees, particularly as we navigate the challenges of COVID-19 and see many workers starting new jobs,” said Chris Hayes, assistant vice president for the Travelers Risk Control - Workers Compensation and Transportation division. “While new employees are among the most vulnerable, many injuries sustained by employees of any tenure can often be prevented if the proper safety measures are in place.” Travelers found that the most common cause of first-year injuries was overexertion, which accounted for 27% of claims. Following that were slips, trips, and falls at 22%, being struck by an object at 14%, and cuts and punctures, being caught in or between objects, and motor vehicle accidents at 6% each. Amputations, multiple traumas, electrical shock, and dislocations were the most expensive claims. When it comes to which industry saw the most incidents, the restaurant industry stood above the rest, as 53% of the claims involved first-year workers. The construction industry followed closely behind, as half of their claims came from workers still in their first year with a company. When people get injured at work, they usually have to miss a few days. Throughout the five-year period that was studied, 6 million work days were lost due to first-year injuries. On average, construction workers missed the most days followed by transportation workers. Dislocation and inflammation injuries resulted in the most days missed. Travelers’ study shows that workplace training is essential to reduce the risk of injury in the workplace. Make sure your employees are well-trained when they start and that they go through continuing education courses to greatly reduce the risk of workplace injuries.
One of the most tried-and-true methods is the assumptive close. In this tactic, the salesperson proceeds under the assumption that the prospect already wants to buy. They won’t say things like, “Are you ready to buy?” Instead, they focus on saying, “How many of our products would you like to purchase?” Another often successful method is the “puppy dog close.” This is a common tactic that involves offering a free trial or sample of your product to the prospective client in hopes they will fall in love with it and continue with the actual purchase. However, improving your closing skills means nothing if you don’t put legwork into the actual sales process beforehand. When you try to sell to someone with whom you aren’t familiar, even just talking with them can be difficult. So, you need to make an effort to know each customer and their potential objections. Take some time to figure out who they are and why they’re coming to your business for your products or services. This will help you figure out what objections they may have so that you can develop a plan to combat their doubts. Lastly, know when to give up on a sale. You aren’t going to be able to close with every customer who walks through your door, and that’s okay. When prospects fail to show interest in closing after multiple meetings, it’s time to focus your efforts elsewhere. If you get too caught up in one unlikely prospect, you may miss out on more promising opportunities.
If you take the time to learn and train your team on different selling techniques, you will begin to notice an increase in sales before long.
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Music Can Help Us Remember Lost Memories
Have you ever listened to a song that made you reminisce about a specific moment in your past or helped calm you down? We aren’t just imagining these feelings — science backs up their existence. Psyche Loui, an associate professor of music, is attempting to use music to encourage dementia patients to recall distant memories. She got the idea for the study after playing music in various nursing homes. She found that people could harmonize or even sing along when she was playing, even if they could not finish a sentence before that. Loui and her team of music therapists, neurologists, and geriatric psychiatrists studied a group of older adults aged 54 to 89 from the Boston area. They had them listen to a playlist for an hour each day for eight weeks and write their response down in a journal. Loui and her team would scan the participants’ brains before and after listening
to measure their neurological responses. The playlists featured the participants’ self-selected songs as well as a preselected mix of classical pieces, pop and rock songs, and new compositions. The researchers found that the music helped create a channel directly between the auditory center and the medial prefrontal cortex, the brain’s reward center. This area also happens to lose functional connectivity in aging adults, especially those with dementia. Music that the participants selected showed a strong connection between these areas of the brain. After discovering successful results, Loui hopes to extend her study to older adults who have cognitive and neurodegenerative disorders, as they could greatly benefit from the effects of music therapy. If you’re trying to remember a fond memory, throw on some of your favorite music from that time in your life and prepare to reminisce.
Solution on Pg. 4 Have a Laugh!
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INSIDE This Issue
Understanding the Stock Market page 1
Proven Methods To Become a Better Closer Understanding Travelers’ Workplace Injury Study page 2
Music Can Stimulate Our Memories page 3
Become an Expert on Remote Work page 4
Is Remote Work the Future?
‘The Nowhere Office’ Explores This Idea
Think about your current work environment for a second. Is it the same as it was three years ago? Likely not, as the traditional workplace was overhauled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, many employees across various industries are working remotely. But can work return to the offices full time? Should it? Julia Hobsbawm answers these questions and more in her book “The Nowhere Office: Reinventing Work and the Workplace of the Future.” Now that pandemic lockdowns have been lifted, many business owners have attempted to push employees to return to the office full time. Hobsbawm believes that’s the wrong approach, as forcing employees back into an office could kill productivity, and writes that remote or hybrid workplaces can be more flexible for employers and employees alike while still allowing work to be completed on time. But if remote work is the future, what will happen to the workplaces owned by businesses? Are they unnecessary? Not exactly, explains Hobsbawm. She believes that businesses still need physical workspaces, but how they are used will change. They will no longer be a place where employees spend their entire days. Instead, they will be designated for networking, training, and development.
Hobsbawm also tackles the idea of how much employees should be working. She informs business owners that it’s okay to have employees work less, as it can lead to more productivity. She states that “work
can and should be not only a source of
raw income but also a purposeful life itself.” While your employees need to earn a livable wage, they should also find passion in their work, or they will quickly burn out and feel resentment toward their job. If your business has switched over to a remote or hybrid environment and you’re still trying to figure out how to successfully manage your team, “The Nowhere Office” will help you develop a plan.
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