Undoubtedly it’s the question mark and should be the salesperson’s best friend. Understanding how to use the question mark can unlock the keys to the kingdom for a robust dialogue.
Loretta Lage, on January 25, 2016
Undoubtedly it’s the question mark and should be the salesperson’s best friend. Understanding how to use the question mark can unlock the keys to the kingdom for a robust dialogue.
Beth Sunshine, on January 21, 2016
Most of us spend a lot of time trying to figure out what we are supposed to be doing with our lives. We wonder whether we are on the right path and if we are using our strengths as we should.
Although some discover their passion and their purpose at a young age, for most, this is part of a life-long journey. Regardless of your age or experience, it may be easier than you think to spot the tell-tale signs of talent and figure out what your strengths are! Then, once you have pin-pointed your strengths, it’s just a matter of seeking additional opportunities to use them.
Many years ago I had the opportunity to hear Marcus Buckingham speak. He explained the difference between a strength and a weakness in a way so simple that a small child could understand—yet it was powerful enough to change how grown adults think. Don’t quote me here, but essentially what he said was that when you do something that uses a strength, you feel strong. Even after hours of practice, although you may be tired, you are left feeling energized and eager. When you do something that is a weakness for you, you feel weak. At the end, you feel depleted, disengaged, and you are ready to stop.
John Henley, on January 20, 2016
Kim Alexandre, on January 19, 2016
A co-worker of mine recently posted a fun quiz on our employee Facebook page, called “Are These Marketing Buzzwords Real or Fake?” While taking the quiz, I couldn’t help but think some of the words I correctly answered were in reality just made up for fun, so I did little digging to investigate and found lots of buzzwords worthy of defining in plain English! Digital terms went from being a bunch of illusive acronyms to being a combination of words made up to define the new digital landscape. To help clear the muddy waters of digital marketing buzzwords, here are 5 defined in plain english:
Loretta Lage, on January 18, 2016
Take a minute to think about all of the sales meetings you’ve attended or facilitated. Were you disappointed or delighted? Maybe you felt bored or even punished. Did the facilitator, AKA Sales Leader, drone on, pontificate, lecture, demean, or all of the above? Was it a one-voice meeting? What was the general engagement quotient of the participants?
John Henley, on January 13, 2016
Chris Brogan recommends an exercise at the beginning of each year that he calls “My Three Words.” He uses these three words as a way to focus his energy and effort for the coming year—a creative twist on the new year’s resolution. I have seen Chris refer to this the last few years, but this is the first year I decided to take his recommendation.
I created a first draft and set it aside a few days and then came back to put it in final form. My three words are Think, Decide, and Appreciate. Here’s what I resolve to do.
Jim Hopes, on January 11, 2016
Sales meetings are often seen as a necessary evil by both salespeople and sales managers—the salespeople often think they are a waste of time (and sometimes they are) and managers generally hate putting them together (and a are often not that good at it). So, here are five tips to help you produce a sales meeting people will want to be part of, with less work on your part to provide all the content:
Brian Hasenbauer, on January 6, 2016
As a parent of two small children, I've coached my share of soccer teams over the years. I like to think that my teams learned something from my coaching and leadership, but I am starting to think that I learned more from them.
Many of the lessons I have learned can be applied to sales and specifically sales management: the team that keeps score does best, practice like you intend to play, and you are only as strong as your weakest player.
John Henley, on January 5, 2016
Here’s a new year’s resolution I have: I am going to try to be more demanding in 2016! Demanding about the right stuff, that is.
We can all fall into the trap of being ok with good performance (from ourselves and others)—instead of demanding great performance. An example of this for our company is in the area of insights. Many of our clients count on us for insights related to specific categories of business or overall consumer trends that impact numerous business categories. Over the last few years, we've tried to do too much. As a result, we had a lot of average content in our business category insights. This year, we are going to narrow our scope and improve our content (and design). I am going to demand it from all of us.
.png?width=2000&height=307&name=CSS_website%20footer_awards_2%20(1).png "CSS_website footer_awards_2 (1)")