Positive Signs for Professional Selling in 2011 ? from cost cutting and balance sheet rebuilding to expansion

The secret of success in life according to the Victorian PM Benjamin Disraeli is to be ready for opportunity when it comes.

Maybe the signs of opportunity can be found from those " experts" who forecast as picked up in the press at the moment.

The latest survey from Deloitte which questioned finance bosses 35 FTSE-100 and 45FTSE-250 companies sates that companies are now shifting to expansion and undertaking capital expenditure.

The study undertaken in the last quarter of 2010 with chief financial officers suggested increase confidence about the economy and that fears of double dip have calmed.

Finance chiefs at the companies surveyed are shifting to expansion strategies including taking on new staff and undertaking capital expenditure, according to the survey


Click for Deloitte CFO Survey Q4

Meanwhile the world's biggest banks have their analysts hard at work in their Delphic arts of prediction.

Goldman Sachs Expect economic activity in the advanced economies to pick up during this year and more markedly in 2012, led by US but visible in Canada, the UK and Japan.

Morgan Stanley reckon Europe can pull through " even if Portugal and maybe Spain seek external assistance.

UBS expect Britain to remain in recovery mode and her economy to grow by 2.3 % during 2011.

Standard Chartered reckon that the euro is likely to remain weak during the first six months while sterling should begin the year on a "fairly strong footing".

Credit Suisse said that current yields from UK commercial property suggested that real estate prices could potentially rise by about 12% while property stocks could improve by 24%.
Other factors such as the recent stabilisation of rents ad the fact Britain's real estate sector has lagged behind the US counterpart rather than performing in line with it, lent further support to its predictions.


Further economic optimism persists in industrial activity from both Europe and the USA which are showing growth. The manufacturing purchasing manages' index showed factory activity across the euro zone improving in December for the third successive month due to increasing orders and hiring of new staff.

In USA manufacturing activity expanded at its quickest rate for 7 months.

Well that is what some experts are suggesting. For those who are more cynical you may like David Butler's definition of experts

An expert is someone who does the wrong things for the most sophisticated of reasons

In Professional Selling it is probably worth keeping both Disraeli and Butler in our minds and actions during 2011.