Well, I think that sums things up very well. Life is far too short to spend a majority of it at a job you don’t love, or at least like very, very much. So I challenge you, on a scale of 1 – 10, with 10 being complete passion for your job and 1 […]

The post Reality Check appeared first on Business Help and Success Tips from John Spence.

1. Write the way you would speak to a friend: Read your email out loud. If you wouldn’t say these things to your target’s face, don’t email them
2. Engage in their agenda: If you can, ask a sophisticated question about their agenda
3. Get a receipt: Mention your desire to get together in the future. This way, if they respond, you can show the email to their assistant to get onto their calendar
4. Give context:  Assume the target wasn’t paying attention when you met. Remind them who you are and why it makes sense to continue the conversation
5. Be very careful with humor: Studies show that most attempts at humor fail in email due to lack of contextual cues.

Guest post by Lisa Regan and conference co-host Sarah Milstein.

The Lean Startup methodology has its roots in the tech sector, where companies need to iterate quickly in order to survive. But the methods have expanded into nearly every industry we can name. In fact, at last year’s Lean Startup conference we had speakers from a number other sectors, including government, transportation, education and public health. They demonstrated the ways that testing and measuring could help many industries build truly useful, successful products and services. At this year’s conference—for which a new batch of discounted tickets has just gone on sale—the conversation continues with additional industries and a deeper focus on exactly how Lean Startup works in other sectors. For those of you who couldn’t attend last year, we wanted to point out a few talks from 2012 that we’ll be building on this December.

Could anything be less like a startup than the federal government? Todd Park, the nation’s Chief Technology Officer, cheerfully admitted as much when he spoke at Lean Startup last year. But, as he also said, “Projects within [government] often are.” Park helps the federal government in “harnessing the power of Lean Startup mojo to better serve the American people.” He described a dizzying array of initiatives in a range of fields—health, energy, education, public safety, finance and non-profits. Here's just one example. The FDA hosts Innovation Pathway 2.0, a program offering streamlined processes for evaluating and approving potentially revolutionary medical solutions. Companies that create devices can see these rapidly pressure-tested, cutting the length of clinical trials and shortening products' time to market (as well as cutting failing ideas faster). Specific challenges help fuel this effort, for instance a call to address end-stage renal disease that put an artificial kidney into testing. Park’s mission: help slow-moving government learn to more quickly pivot toward what works.


Of course, MVPs and prototyping, which Park mentioned in that last example, can be key Lean Startup tools, and last year we heard from two speakers who used it to find success in areas far from tech. Danny Kim of Lit Motors invented an appealing little vehicle that has, as he says, “the romance and efficiency of a motorcycle with the safety and efficiency of a car.” It essentially cuts the car in half, leaving just the part the driver sits in (plus a really cool set of wheels). The idea is for something sustainable and affordable—“the same thing the Model-T did,” as he puts it. Jumping into mass production of something as complex as an automobile is incredibly difficult, so he started by testing out a showroom before he built the cars. When he found that nearly 16% of people who walked into this simulated showroom were ready to put down money on the spot, he had demonstrated enough marketability to start hand-building the vehicles for individual sale. He sold out of machines before even getting Series A funding.


You can MVP just about anything, as we learned from Jocelyn Wyatt of IDEO.org. She is working toward affordable waste removal in Kumasi, Ghana, a city of 2.5 million where 72% of people do not have in-home toilets. Wyatt’s organization iterated through a series of MVPs to find a toilet that functioned like a camping unit – durable, and requiring no sewage system — but that people would be willing to use. And once IDEO had the units, they also prototyped a system of service operators to empty them. They even prototyped and tested a brand name and logo that reflected not what they thought the locals would want, but what Ghanaians actually chose (see the video for the surprising differences). The result: IDEO is scaling from 150 toilets to 10,000 over two years.


Last example—education, where Lean Startup methods give “testing” a whole new meaning. As Diane Tavenner at Summit Public Schools, a group of charter schools in the Bay Area, told us last year, “The typical public school is the opposite of lean or startup—it’s guaranteed customers and guaranteed revenue, even when you’re losing your customers.” But by testing the school’s methods, rather than just the students, she is changing that, starting with a math curriculum with one major principle: self-design. Her team created a math guide with a range of materials—online courses and assignments, playlists of materials, games, in-person lectures—and invited students to learn at their own pace. Students determine what they’re ready to be tested on, and when. The teachers and administrators collect data and meet to discuss it daily, and they respond in weekly cycles, testing different solutions to see what works. They’re aiming at 100% graduation rates for their students from 4-year colleges; as it is, 100% of their students already become eligible for college, against a California average of 24%. To find out about how Summit’s “tutoring bar” replaced lectures, check out her 2012 talk:


Some of last year’s speakers will be returning to The Lean Startup Conference this December with more nuanced insights to share. We’re also bringing in additional speakers from these sectors and from sectors new to the conference, including US healthcare, bioscience, traditional automobile manufacturing (where lean principles got their start) and more. If there’s a particular industry you want to see included, let us know in the comments. Meantime, as you may recall, we sell discounted conference tickets in batches; when one batch sells out, the price goes up. We’ve just opened up a new batch today, and we look forward to seeing you in December.

Generally, marketers love social media. We tweet with the best of them. Our LinkedIn networks put non-marketers’ networks to shame. We understand how to use Facebook for business and pleasure. There is one social media channel, however, that marketers appear not to like. In fact, marketers seem to hate it. That channel is Google+.

In an informal poll of marketers, MarketingProfs asked about social media preferences. Not surprisingly, LinkedIn is marketers’ favorite network for professional use and Facebook for personal use. What was surprising was that (to date) 42% of respondents have identified Google+ as the network they “Never Want to Hear About Ever Again” and 50% of marketers’ said Google+ was the most confusing social network.

Most confusing and least favorite? Ouch, Google+, that’s gotta hurt! But why are marketers saying this? We asked our Facebook audience of nearly 70,000 marketers what they thought.

Here are their thoughts regarding Google+.

Why Most Marketers Hate Google+

“It’s basically a mashup of Facebook and Pinterest. It doesn’t have a great user experience or visual design (in my opinion), and users in our target audience simply aren’t very active there. No reason to spread yourself so thin for subpar results.” (Autumn McReynolds)

“When I sign up for other social networks, it feels like I’m walking through a door on my own. When I sign up for Google+, it feels like I’m in the process of being captured.” (David Brazeal)

“I don’t like circles and the term feels like I’m back in high school.” (Rob Yoegel)

“They need to open API to personal pages; also, [it] takes multiple clicks to get to the professional pages.” (Stott T. Templeman)

“The giant F-Up on their part was getting marketers on board with G+, then enabling those same marketers to create a G+ account through Google Apps. The accounts couldn’t be cleanly merged and the process of importing all of my Circles and other data over to a business account took FAR too long for them to figure out. Month after month, it was ‘We’re working on a solution for this.’ Give me a break. It’s absolutely ridiculous a company the size of Google couldn’t have this detail worked out beforehand.” (Dan Gershenson)

“I hate Google+ because it’s not very intuitive, not many people are on it, and Facebook beat them to … everything.” (Nicole Rodriguez)

Why a Few Marketers Don’t Hate Google+

Now, let’s be clear—some marketers love Google+. We wanted to hear from them, too. Here’s what they had to say.

“I love G+. And I love that everyone else hates it. It’s harder to market there, but especially for someone introverted like me, it’s easier to find and sort deeper connections, not to mention how just… stupid easy … it is to find like-minded people of other groups.” (Tinu Abayomi-Paul)

“So far, I’ve made more money marketing myself and expertise on Google+ than other networks. I’ve also captured top 5 search rankings for keywords with close to 19MM results…because of Google+. Learning curve? Yep. Confusion? Yep. Gigantic community of people and professionals to help? Yep. Significantly better collaboration tools for business? Yep. Instant search indexing? Yep. You guys can stay here if you want; I’m happily enjoying the success.” (Stephan Hovnanian)

What Do You Think?

So, Google+, there you have it. Marketers could love you a whole lot more. Even though some marketers already do, mostly marketers feel confusion, a lot of angst, and unhappy. It seems that marketers need some more information on how to make Google+ work for them, and perhaps Google+ needs to make a few changes to make the site more intuitive for marketers.

Want to voice your opinion about your favorite social network? Take the following poll and let us know what you think.

In early July Google+ rolled out the most significant change to it’s signature +1 since it was introduced over two years ago. Now “plussing” a post on Google+ can result in it becoming a “recommended” post that might be shown to selected people who follow you on the network.   As you can see in … Continue Reading

Google Plus New +1 Recommendations: What They Are and How to Use Them by Mark Traphagen - Maximize Social Business - Maximize Social Business - Your Social Media for Business Resource ... Featuring Contributions from Global Thinkers . This copyrighted content was originally published on Maximize Social Business and may not be republished on any other website or in any other format without explicit permission from the publisher.

   

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The Pipeline Guest Post – Megan Totka

I think that a lot of us in the business world take sales for granted far more than our predecessors did. These days, it’s easy to assume that a product will sell itself, or that it will be easily marketed via free or cheap avenues like social media. Unfortunately, not all businesses and products will be able to take off this way. Many will still require the expertise of a hungry, willing, and excited salesperson.

It can be argued that people who actually enjoy working in sales for a living are a unique breed. Many of us tend to avoid sales because we don’t like putting pressure on others. But one of a book full of secrets to being a great salesperson is to apply just the right amount of pressure, without the other party realizing what you are doing. So when you run a small business, should you hire someone to do sales for you? Often, the answer is yes.

So how do you go about choosing the right sales person for your business? Hiring people for a sales job can be a bit different than hiring for other types of jobs. Here are a few things to consider:

Resume – people in the sales business may have a very traditional resume, but in my opinion sales for small business has some room for creativity. In addition to evaluating education and work experience, pay attention to the little details, like how much time they put into creating a resume.

Interview – sales interviews can also be a bit non-traditional. You can ask your potential employee to “sell” you something in your office. I think it’s always a good idea to talk to interviewees about what their hobbies and interests outside of work are, as well. This way, you can see how their chosen career path comes across with their personal life. Their hobbies may be reflective of a driven or adventurous personality, as well.

Past Experience – of course, a sales background is the perfect precursor to a sales job. But does your candidate always need to have an extensive sales background? In small business, maybe not. Knowledge of your industry or product can sometimes substitute for a bit of experience. While you probably don’t want to hire someone who is completely green when it comes to sales, consider other factors, like if the candidate knows the art of the sales, before dismissing a candidate without as much experience as you would prefer.

All in all, hiring is tricky no matter what business you are in. Screen your candidates carefully and consider a trial period before hiring them full-time.

(Photo Source)

About Megan Totka

Megan Totka is the Chief Editor for ChamberofCommerce.com. She specializes on the topic of small business tips and resources. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses grow their business on the web and facilitates connectivity between local businesses and more than 7,000 Chambers of Commerce worldwide.

So, we’re just about half way through the guest post series.  I hope you are enjoying them.

Today’s post is from Tim Ohai. I introduced you to Tim a few weeks in a Sunday Morning Blog post.

I love Tim’s take on collaboration and cooperation here.  What do you think? Is cooperation for losers?

 

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Did you ever get assessed on whether or not “you work well with others” somewhere on your report card? It’s an interesting form of brainwashing dynamic that was introduced in the post-WWII culture of the American classroom.

Imagine 1946. The year after World War II ended brought the biggest surge of infant births in history (up to that point). Hospitals could barely keep up with the so-called “baby boom,” so they instituted practices more commonly found in the warehouses of big industry – palletizing organizing baby cribs in rows, scheduled maintenance care and feeding routines, and so on. How artificially tender…

Now, jump to 1951. Kindergartens surge from small, organic cohorts to crowds of energetic but highly “disorganized” children. Teachers can’t use their traditional methods of classroom management. Industrial logic enters from stage right yet again. And ADHD becomes a disorder/excuse for drugging your kids. See Sir Ken Robinson’s delightful breakdown of this international tragedy here.

So why go into all of this on a sales blog?

Simple. Because your ability to generate revenue as a sales person rests on understanding how to NOT work well with others. You have to be disruptive to the point of discomfort – for a bunch of people.

Now, let me pause here and say that I am NOT advocating you act like that kid in the back of the classroom who consistently cracked jokes, disrupting whatever learning the poor teacher was trying to inspire. And who then grew up to be a sales blogger. (oops – THAT was a little too transparent)

I am simply talking about throwing the shackles of “playing nice” off and into the fire.

If I can put it another way, I would ask you, “Are you cooperative or are you collaborative?” The distinction, though seemingly slight, is MASSIVE.

Being cooperative means that you are polite. To the point of avoiding uncomfortable topics/problems. Being collaborative means that you “stir the pot” and invite disagreement – as long as it maintains respect.

Being cooperative means that you share the burden of getting a solution with others. Being collaborative means that you share the burden of solving a problem with others. You see, cooperators will stop cooperating once they have the solution they want. Collaborators won’t stop collaborating until the problem goes away for everyone.

Being cooperative means that you work best with people who think just like you, and pay lip-service/marginalize everyone else. Then whine later when other people are getting in your way. Being collaborative means that you work best with people who don’t always think like you, and treat opposing views as a way to get a better understanding of the problem. Even if you still complain when other people get in your way.

(Note: complaining is not an indicator that you are a loser – it’s what you do with the complaints that defines your status. Okay. Where was I?)

Being cooperative means that you are trying to fairly divide value amongst everyone involved. Being collaborative means that you are trying to create new value for everyone involved.

Which brings me back to my original point: your ability to generate revenue as a sales person rests on understanding how to NOT work well with others. You have to disrupt customers to get them to see the problem, solution, and outcome that you can help them successfully address. And, perhaps even more importantly, you have to disrupt your own organization to get them to see how they can help your customers experience the value you are trying to sell.

You are going to have to be a master of collaboration, avoiding cooperation at all possible times. You are going to have to identify problems that other people share and turn them into opportunities to work together. You are going to have teach others how to disagree respectfully by first inviting others to disagree with you respectfully. And you are going to have to enjoy it. Seriously. Because a fake collaborator will get chewed up and spit out every time.

I mua. Onward and upward.

By Tim Ohai (www.TimOhai.com)

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Tim Ohai is the founder and president of Growth & Associates, a community of experts that specializes in sales enablement and sales transformation solutions, with an emphasis on maximizing the most critical of resources: people. With well over a decade’s worth of experience in developing sales team performance, he consistently helps Fortune 500 companies design and implement selling solutions internationally, build sales systems that increase revenue and customer loyalty, and create genuine coaching cultures. He is often asked to consult larger, more complex issues, especially around the topics of redesigning sales organizations and leading organizational change.

As a researcher, author, and emerging thought leader in modern selling, Tim’s expertise and enthusiasm have taken him to Latin America, Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Middle East as both consultant and keynote speaker. He is one of the Top 40 Sales Influencers on Twitter globally and his most recent book, Sales Chaos: Using Agility Selling to Think and Sell Differently, is on sale now.

In a recent post on the Internet Marketing Blog, 13 thought leaders share their recommendations to optimize visual content marketing. Tim Riesterer, chief strategy and marketing officer at Corporate Visions, explains that marketers need to “create a sense of urgency for change.” He defines the “three Cs” of great visuals as Context, Contrast, and Concrete. Read on to discover additional expert insights, as featured on http://writtent.com/blog/visual-content-marketing-insights-from-13-genius-thought-leaders/.

Visual Content Marketing Insights from 13 Genius Thought Leaders (originally published on 7/18/13 on Internet Marketing Blog)
By Tatiana Liubarets

93% of communication is nonverbal, and nearly half of consumers consider a website’s visual elements the most important factor in determining the credibility of a company. Visual content marketing has never mattered more, particularly in an era where consumers are increasingly savvy, connected and crunched for time. Way back in 1998, Communications Professor Mitchell Stephens predicted the rise of images and video, writing “moving images use our senses more effectively than do black lines of type, stacked on white papers.” Humans are simply wired to process visuals more effectively, and the increasing prevalence of visually-oriented platforms like Pinterest and YouTube has only fed this demand. It’s never mattered more to incorporate multimedia elements in your marketing strategy. To inspire your efforts, we’ve curated recommendations from 13 of the brightest minds in the industry:

1. Lori Kozlowski – @LoriKozlowski

“We’ll only see a deeper connection to video and to visuals on the web in the next few years, as more startups make smarter plays.”

Kozlowski is an expert on emerging platforms and the sorts of major cultural shifts which change the way consumers connect with companies. In a recent article in Forbes, she took a deep look at how the rise of visual content is connected to the increasing prevalence of mobile, and more importantly, what small businesses can do to capitalize on the trend. Her recommendation? Invest in smarter visual content assets, which are mobile-optimized, relevant or real-time, and potentially gamification elements. Using YouTube or Vine for marketing is within nearly anyone’s budget, and we’re inclined to believe Kozlowski that it’s the direction in which content marketing is headed.

2. Heidi Cohen – @HeidiCohen

“Break through a cluttered content landscape.”

Leading blogger and keynote speaker Heidi Cohen deals in “actionable marketing,” a term used to describe her approach to utilizing the latest trends and technologies. In her expert opinion, visual content doesn’t need to be comprised of perfectly-edited, long-form videos to succeed, and in fact, it may be better if it isn’t. Cohen wisely points out that Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram are all experiencing meteoric growth, and investing in amazing images can allow you to connect with consumers on these platforms.

3. Scott Signore – @ScottMatter

“The ship is sailing, and you need to get on board.”

Signore has dealt in visual communications for decades, but he’s a firm believer that the format has never been more important. A recent major survey conducted by his company, MatterNow, found that 95% of marketers believe that visual content matters. He advises companies of all sizes to spend 2013 “staffing up” their creative departments in order to create a sufficient variety of content to remain competitive.

4. Aaron Strout – @AaronStrout

“Work with your influencers to co-create content.”

Strout literally wrote the book on mobile-optimized marketing, as the co-author of Location-Based Marketing for Dummies. He wisely points out that the most entertaining and engaging forms of visual content aren’t always costly. Sometimes, they’re user-generated. Actively accepting visual content contributions, like Instagram snapshots or iPhone videos, from your company’s most vocal and influential fans can allow you to build up your visual content assets, as well as reap the rewards of social proof.

5. Miranda Miller – @MirandaM_EComm

“Show me so I can understand.”

Content marketing expert Miller specializes in the intersection of psychology, learning styles and marketing. Accordingly, she emphasizes just how important it is to tailor your content marketing to the largest segment of the population – visual learners. While estimates can vary, at least 30% of the population absorb information best when it’s illustrated, filmed, or drawn. Her recommendations for your business? Use a mix or all of the following options: “charts, infographics, video demonstrations, comics, eBooks, photos, or even animation.”

6. Corey Eridon – @Corey_bos

“Sometimes explanations just lend themselves to a more visual representation.”

Eridon knows a thing or two about quality content, as a leading inbound marketing manager at HubSpot Marketing Automation software. Their blog has legions of subscribers, and in some cases, the quality and quantity of HubSpot’s visual content was probably key to their conversion. When faced with the choice between writing 1,200 words or creating a quick visual, Eridon is a believer that sometimes the better option is a visual. You don’t always need the help of a super-talented designer, either. Powerpoint or Visio could be all you need to create a quick graph or flowchart that gets the point across perfectly.

7. Jeff Bullas – @JeffBullas

“We are seeing the rise of platforms…that communicate messages in a more visual way.”

Not only is Bullas one of the most universally-respected social media marketing experts, he knows a thing or two about content promotion. His blog’s current status as one of the AdAge 150 was undoubtedly earned through a mixture of brilliant thought and strategic promotion, and Bullas was an early adopter of Pinterest for marketing. He’s a strong advocate for optimizing your content marketing to thrive on visually-oriented platforms that are experiencing meteoric growth, which could include Tumblr, Pinterest, and Google+. By taking the time to pin or crop infographics or customize images with text, your content promotion strategy could see much better success on visually-oriented platforms. For more about content promotion, check out Writtent’s blog post Content Promotion Strategy: 23 Proven Ways to Explode Your Website Traffic.

8. Michael Brenner – @BrennerMichael

“Sure, events still work. Emails still work. But we are not seeing the same amount of time and money spent.”

Brenner is a leading expert on B2B marketing trends, which he shares in his regular contributions to Forbes, and applies as Vice President of Marketing and Content at SAP. When asked in a recent interview to summarize the latest breaking trends in marketing, Brenner pointed to the fact that “direct promotional hype” just doesn’t have the ROI it used to. He recommends that content creators develop proficiencies in the types of outreach which are still effective, which include visual design, videography, and Slideshare. Small businesses considering adding a dedicated content marketer or hiring an agency should look for solutions which will leverage more than simple text marketing.

9. Maria Pergolino – @InboundMarketer

“Text is dead, visual is the future.”

As Director of Marketing at Marketo and Aptus, Pergolino has dedicated her career to raising the bar in the realm of content marketing. In a recent presentation at the software’s annual user conference, she revealed some brilliant ideas for visuals that go beyond simple text and video. Comics, memes, and visual note-taking can be even simpler to create and customize, and they are perfectly primed for sharing in an era where there’s simply more text than any consumer can read fully.

10. Tim Riesterer – @TRiesterer

“Create a sense of urgency for change.”

Visual content doesn’t automatically equal quality content, and it’s important to invest in images and videos that will make a difference for your bottom line. Tim Riesterer, Chief Strategy Officer at Corporate Visions, has conducted years of research to determine exactly the types of content that will increase conversions, shares, and perceptions of organizations. Lucky for the rest of us, he shared the “three Cs” of great visuals in a post at Content Marketing Institute:

• Context: Your visuals should be sufficiently powerful to inspire your viewers to immediate action.
• Contrast: Use content to illustrate the difference your solution will make in a prospect’s life.
• Concrete: When using visuals to communicate complex concepts, rely on simple elements like lines and arrows to confidently relay information.

Simply leveraging visual content won’t allow you to gain an edge on your competition, which is why it’s critical to map your visual content to the role your company plays in your buyer personas’ lives. To discover more about creating vibrant profiles of your ideal customer, delve into our article Building an Epic Buyer Persona Profile: a Totally Comprehensive Guide.

11. Carla Johnson – @CarlaJohnson

“We’re not creating the buying process – we’re facilitating it.”

As an author, speaker, and Principal of agency Type A Communications, Johnson has observed a significant change in consumer behavior during her career in marketing. She recently described the major shift of the past several years as “people buying differently and knowing exactly what kind of information they’re looking for.” Many consumers, particularly savvy segments of the population, no longer consider YouTube or social media networks novel. As a result, Johnson recommends becoming more proficient at using visual content elements to create “snack-size” content which conveys exactly what your consumers are looking for in 90-second elements or easy-to-scan whitepapers.

12. Shanna Mallon – @foodloves

“Don’t be naïve. Anticipate ways your [visual content] could backfire.”

A professional content marketer, Mallon has nearly a decade’s experience helping companies of all sizes seamlessly adopt myriad forms of content marketing. She’s observed mistakes, and when asked to provide recommendations, she cautioned against the following pitfalls:

• Don’t ignore the importance of branding standards and consistency in typefaces, font sizes and color schemes in visual content.
• Don’t use overly flashy images which will ultimately detract from the intent and messaging of your content marketing.
• Don’t copy the format of popular infographics closely; creativity counts.
• Don’t try memes if your buyer personas aren’t particularly internet-savvy.

In essence, your visual content should be a seamless component of the rest of your company’s digital presence. Aim for consistency in tone and brand personality, even if that means ignoring memes or comics in favor of well-designed white papers or slideshows.

13. Steve Glauberman – @sglauberman

“There’s mileage in circulating content befitting of the label ‘exclusive’.”

Glauberman has earned a position as a thought leader due to a unique blend of expertise in user experience and marketing principles. From interactive content to gamification, he deals in it all, but he recently made a suggestion on the Content Marketing Institute blog that any company should get behind. By employing what he refers to as “corporate candids,” behind-the-scenes snapshots of how your company operates, you can benefit by offering a peek into your inner world. Glauberman points out that candid visual content can be highly shareable, and create an instant rapport with viewers. Whether you’re participating in a volunteer project, or snapping images for your upcoming product release, don’t be shy about revealing a peek.

Are you leveraging visual content in your marketing strategy? What lessons have you learned from major organizations and thought leaders who specialize in amazing videos, images, and infographics?

Is working at a troubled company advisable? Troubled meaning heading into bankruptcy, having a deserved bad reputation, struggling to survive, or going through a turnaround. The answer: it all depends.

If you want something safe and secure, it’s probably best to avoid it. On the other hand, if you have a high tolerance for risk, can deal with ambiguity, and want to jumpstart or accelerate your career growth, it might be the perfect choice.

I’ve been thinking about this issue for many years. It started about 40 years ago when I first became a manager. I was with Rockwell Automotive in Troy, Michigan (Manager of Capital Budgeting), and my boss, Chuck Jacob, the Controller, and I were interviewing MBA students for financial analyst positions. We were going head-to-head with IBM, Ford, and P&G – the “hot” companies of the day.

We were making truck axles and brakes, and while we didn’t make the hot or cool company list, Chuck had a great recruiting technique. Since the interview schedule was overbooked, and I had never interviewed anyone before, Chuck suggested we conduct the first interview together. After about 10 minutes Chuck said something to the candidate like: Time is your most valuable asset. What you do during the next 2-3 years will affect what happens to you over the next 5-10 years.

He then drew a chart similar to the one shown, saying that if you go to a big, secure, and safe organization like Ford, IBM or P&G, it will take you 2-3 years before you get a promotion. While the first year or so will consist of rapid learning, the next few will be doing the same things over again. If you spend too much time on the plateaus, after 6-8 years you’ll really only have 3-4 years of equivalent experience.

Since Rockwell Automotive was going through a major restructuring, Chuck said you’d have an opportunity to spend more of your time on the steeper part of the learning curve. Taking on bigger jobs, being successful, and getting promoted more rapidly is how you get twice the experience in half the time. This is how you maximize your use of time. He let this idea sink in.

Chuck then pointed to me and said, Lou has only been with Rockwell a year and has already been promoted. He then described his own experience, saying that he has been with Rockwell three years, started at the Corporate office as Director of Financial Planning, became the senior director over all business functions a year later, and was just named the number two financial executive for a $2 billion business unit for a Fortune 50 company. Chuck was only 29 at the time. The technique worked, and we hired a number of great people who had offers from bigger "names." None regretted their decision.

I’ve been using this “maximize your use of time” concept ever since, especially when a candidate has a difficult career choice to make. Here’s the collective advice in a nutshell. It might prove helpful if you’re considering working at a troubled organization:

1. Compare the downside to the upside. Unless you’re currently on a great career path in an industry that has a bright future, there’s less long-term risk than might be first imagined. That's what the graph is all about. There is more short-term risk if the economy is slow and there’s a good chance the company you’re considering won’t be around too long.
2. You’ll be able to jumpstart or reaccelerate your career. If you believe you’re not as far along in your career as you’d like, a troubled company might be a good place to turn both your career and the company around.
3. There is a hidden risk in staying put. Playing it safe could put your future in jeopardy, since you're not growing or stretching yourself.
4. You don't need to be fully successful to get some kudos. Even if you don’t fully succeed, most people would still give you credit for making the attempt.
5. It makes greater sense when you have a chance to make a significant impact. If you’re just tagging along and hoping things turn out okay, it’s not worth taking the risk, unless you’re desperate.
6. Your confidence will increase. Successfully handling a difficult situation gives you the inner confidence and leadership ability to handle something even more difficult in the future.
7. You’ll have a stronger resume. Having the guts to take on a big task where success wasn’t assured is a career building accomplishment.
8. Your negotiating power will increase. Companies are always looking for people with a proven track record of significant accomplishments.
9. It might be easier to get a job in a different industry. If you’re underemployed or want to change industries, a troubled situation might be the perfect situation for you. Not only are these jobs easier to land since there’s less competition, you’ll be able to recover some lost years due to the accelerated learning opportunity.
10. Don’t avoid troubled situations, seek them out. The best people have a track record of taking on tough problems and succeeding. Look for them inside your own organization and ask to be assigned to handle them. This is how you maximize your use of time.

So should you work at a troubled organization? It all depends on whether you want to just spend your time doing something, or invest it wisely building a stronger career.

Check out these LinkedIn Influencer posts:

• STOP! Don't Send That Resume! 
• Shiny Objects: Tips For Using Both Sides Of Your Brain
• Why Your Company's Social Media Is Failing

Lou Adler (@LouA) is the creator of Performance-based Hiring and the author of the Amazon Top 10 business best-seller, Hire With Your Head (Wiley, 2007). His new book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired, (Workbench, 2013) has just been published. Feel free to join Lou's new LinkedIn group or 'like' us on Facebook to discuss all types of hiring issues.

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As part of my day job, I run a company that trains recruiters and hiring managers on how to attract, assess and hire top performers using Performance-based Hiring. To overcome the impact of first impressions - the primary cause of most hiring errors - we suggest using the first 20-30 minutes of the interview to look for the Achiever Pattern during the resume review. This indicates the candidate is in the top 25% of his or her peer group. None of this has to do with academic credentials, how smart someone is, their communication skills, personality or first impression. It all has to do with how others have recognized the candidate’s on-the-job performance.

Being pretty cynical and somewhat analytical, the following is how I go about spotting a high achiever. (Note: job-seekers can use this information to make sure the Achiever Pattern is easy to spot on both your resume and LinkedIn profile if you have it. If you’re not quite there yet, use these tips to find a job that offers you the chance to get into this elite 25%. See point 6 below for the importance of this.)

1. They've been assigned difficult challenges ahead of their peers. The best people, including engineers, accountants, and sales reps, plus everyone else, are typically assigned tasks, clients and projects that are normally given to more senior people. If it happens regularly, especially during the first year of each new job, you’ve found tangible evidence of the Achiever Pattern.
2. They volunteer or ask to be assigned to projects over their heads. A person needs a lot of confidence to take on a task where they have little or no experience. If they’re successful at it multiple times, the person deserves double bonus points.
3. They’re put on important multifunctional teams. Managers assign their strongest staff members to critical team projects. Look for a consistent pattern, including teams growing in size, importance and impact over time. This is great evidence of strong team skills, as well as the Achiever Pattern.
4. They get a chance to demonstrate their abilities to more senior executives. Managers put their subordinates in front of a company exec to both demonstrate the manager’s good judgment, and to help the subordinate get more exposure.
5. They get promoted more rapidly. Look for promotions due to exceptional performance. More proof: a consistent track record of increasing responsibility at different companies.
6. The reason they change jobs is long-term career focused. For each job change, ask the person how they got their new job, why they changed jobs, and if these objectives were met. Changing and accepting jobs is one of the most important decisions a person can make. Make sure you hire people who have made them wisely.
7. They’ve established and achieved major goals. Rather than asking about a person's goals, ask first about the biggest goal they’ve already achieved. Then ask how they’re going about achieving their next one.
8. They’ve been rehired by a former manager. Top managers tend to rehire their best subordinates from previous companies.
9. They rehire their former subordinates. Ask more seasoned managers if they’ve ever hired someone they’ve worked with in the past. Top people follow other top people.
10. They’re the “go to” person inside their department. Find out where the person has been recognized for outstanding work and where they’ve coached others. Map this to what you need done.
11. They’ve received formal recognition outside of their department. The best people have reputations beyond their department and function. It could be a company award, a white paper, a fellowship, speaking at a conference, or assigned for special training.
12. They were mentored and/or mentored others. Just ask, and look for a continuous pattern. Then find out why, and the results.

When I was a full-time executive recruiter, my goal was to find talented people who had a track record of top performance. Finding the Achiever Pattern allowed me to use facts to counter a hiring manager who conducted a superficial or biased interview. More important, it provided hiring managers a concrete way to trade-off a contrived list of skills and experiences with a track record of exceptional performance. As a minimum, just looking for these factors as soon as you meet a person will lessen the impact of first impressions. Many times candidates overlook these important factors, so it’s up to the interviewer to seek them out. Once you hire a few top people this way, you’ll realize it’s worth the extra effort.

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Between down rounds and the inability for startups to raise millions of dollars (the "Series A Crunch"), it seems like the party is over in New York tech.

Instead of stories about Wall Street executives leaving their cushy jobs for startups and consumer apps raising eye-popping amounts, dying startups are making headlines. The once thriving scene has taken a down turn, and a lot of founders are crawling back to the workforce.

Patrick Keane has been part of the New York tech scene for almost two decades. He was the CEO of Associated Content when it sold to Yahoo for $100 million and now he's president of native advertising company, Sharethrough.

Despite the Series A crunch, he thinks New York is still a thriving tech scene. Here are the investment and startup trends he's seeing, and his prediction on the next big tech acquisition. 

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Edited by Justin Gmoser

SEE ALSO: How Tory Burch Built Her Fashion Empire And Became A Billionaire In Less Than A Decade

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Today's advice comes from Bill McComb, CEO of Fifth & Pacific Companies, Inc., via LinkedIn:

"Partnering is the fastest, most-effective, lowest risk way to solve for nimbleness and growth. It brings new knowledge, skills sets and opportunities to your organization fast. The catch, of course, is that you can’t just snap your fingers and create a lasting, productive partnership. Human nature – pride, confidence, success and skills — are exactly what gets in the way."

McComb says that many young businesses don't realize that partnerships are the missing link in their growth models, and that the list of areas that partnerships can benefit is extensive. Licenses, joint ventures, distributors, contract manufacturing, fulfillment houses, software developers, customer service centers, marketing agencies, and revenue affiliates are all types of partnerships that foster successful symbiotic relationships.

"Leaders need to ask themselves and their organizations tough questions ... How can we overcome the natural instinct to define 'our way' of doing things as the best? You will need a 'partnering' team to help identify the skills required, review opportunities, make the big decisions, and drive 'partnering' and alliance management as a way of being throughout your organization. Otherwise, your once great capabilities could become great liabilities."

Want your business advice featured in Instant MBA? Submit your tips to tipoftheday@businessinsider.com. Be sure to include your name, your job title, and a photo of yourself in your email.

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Would you believe that a person's behavior at a party could accurately predict their sales success? It's true. Recently, two researchers were able to determine the winners of a business competition with 87% accuracy simply by observing their social cues at a pre-event gathering.

They watched for things like their energy level, gestures, expressions, tone and more. In short, here’s what they discovered about achieving sales success:

Successful salespeople had more energy and were more positive about things. They talked and listened more. They spent more face time with people, chatting with them and drawing them out. Their positive attitude truly did make a difference - in the other person.

So, what does that mean to you as a seller? First off, if you're a natural at it - lucky you! Keep using your charm to work your magic.

However, if you're like me, being charismatic is not natural, but it can be learned. You can practice upping your energy level. When you're in social gatherings or business meetings, you can focus intently on other people and get them talking. You can also be more positive - even if it's just for a short time.

At first, for me, it felt really awkward. But over time, you can actually get used to this new charismatic persona - and even enjoy it! Plus, it has a positive impact on your work and your interactions with others. And that matters.

Achieving Sales Success whilst Running a Marathon I recently completed my 2nd Marathon. This one was on the sunny Gold Coast. Yes, not a bad place to be in the middle of winter! As I was running, I could not help but think that there were some parallels to running a marathon, and recent prospecting [...]

Read the full article here:

We went to the movie, We Bought a Zoo and while it wasn’t the comedy we expected it to be, it did have this: 20 seconds of courage.  Several times during the film, it was necessary for one of the characters to possess 20 seconds of courage; for Benjamin to meet the woman he would marry, for [...]

First of all, please note that in the title I used “we” not “they”. This is not a conspiracy theory.
On the other hand, the lastest and greatest marketing movements (of which I support wholeheartedly) forgot one thing: It’s hard to drive demand. Please, don’t get me wrong: Content marketing, inbound marketing, lead management, technology, et all are all the foundation for scalable, efficient revenue machines BUT there is so much that goes into driving demand besides the sexy topics. There is a lot to juggle.

Biruleibe – Toss juggling: Balls from Lucas Gardezani Abduch on Vimeo.

Here are some of the things we forgot to tell you:

1. You have to generate lots of leads to significantly impact revenue — If, I repeat “IF”, your conversion rate to opportunity is 10%, then you need 100 leads to drive 10 opportunities. If your conversation rate from qualified opportunity is 20%, then you generated 2 deals. That’s a lot of leads man, plan accordingly. I am telling you this so you can create a strategy that can guarantee the numbers you need at the top.
2. Leads costs money — Driving demand is not cheap. It costs money from paid advertising like AdWords to tradeshows to third party lead vendors to appointment setting. (BTW, even content marketing costs money and resources.) Get budget and buy traffic or leads not because you want to, but because you have to. Find out where your buyer is hanging out and whip out the checkbook.
3. Names or contacts from are not counted as leads — A list of names from data.com is not a list of leads. Don’t get me wrong, you need to buy names to run marketing programs but those aren’t leads. Not yet at least.
4. Marketing automation does not generate leads — This is important. Marketing automation is not the “Fabulous Lead Machines”. Yes, these systems will help support generating leads but the power really begins AFTER you have generated the lead. Then marketing automation manages the critical lead lifecycle which if you haven’t read already takes time. You have to have a plan to generate registrations or leads to feed the system. This effort comes at a cost (see #2).
5. Inbound marketing takes months to show real returns– I love inbound marketing but it takes time to generate significant results. When I walk into a company, I bang my first on the table: “Inbound marketing or else!”. When they agree, I then say: “Okay, now lets figure out how to get leads for the next 9 months.”
6. You can’t tell if someone is a buyer until they tell you — A proper lead generation plan thinks of a series of conversions. For example – Visitor – Lead – Qualified Lead – Opportunity. To get from lead to qualified lead, the buyer has to literally tell you they are qualified. The biggest misconception is that scoring solves this problem. It does not, it helps you predict who is more likely to be qualified but you still have to hear it from them or help coax it out of them. Now, this confirmation from the buyer can be over the phone or it can be in a “contact sales” form.  (Note: Most companies still have someone call the “contact sales” leads to hear it verbally)
7. The critical step of connecting with and talking to prospects is hard as hell — Man is it hard. I asked my buddies at Vorsight what they were seeing statistically and they sent me this: “22.5 dials to conversation is the industry average, but if you’re calling highly solicited divisions (i.e. IT or marketing) or very senior executives the number is closer to 30 dials to 1 conversation”. That’s crazy. But we have to talk to them or there is no conversion. From Mike Damphousse: “The sales cycle doesn’t start until a conversation with a prospect.” Marketers: This IS your problem. Remember, my earlier conversation rate numbers? If no one can reach the leads, then conversion rates get worse and your demand gen pain gets worse. The key is to make the process of converting leads to qualified leads part of the plan upfront. There are solutions — a sales development team, a multi-channel follow up plan (email, social, and phone), sales alerts from marketing automation vendors showing buyer web activity, messaging tactics, and dialing technology (Great posts on dialing technology options from CedarCone here.) A number of my tips are in a cold calling post I did awhile back.
8. You care deeply about how sales converts the first call — Many marketers make the mistake of considering sales’ first call conversion  “out of my hands”. My buddy Steve Hays at Insidesalesteam.com reminded me of this factor a couple weeks back when he talked about how much work his company does with clients on perfecting the first call or transition call. I was reminded of how in my previous life running a demand generation company we save many failing programs by consulting our clients on their first call conversion.
9. You care deeply about whether sales can close deals — Enlightened marketers are focusing their attention to pipeline acceleration efforts including content and technology. When starting out, worry about the entire revenue machine. It’s sales responsibility to close, but ask “how can I help?” I know you have a lot to worry about, but with added respect for the marketing function comes added responsibility for revenue.

Why did I write this post? Make a realistic plan that considers all the potential outcomes when launching demand generation. I have experienced first hand many great marketers start off on the wrong foot because they missed some things. It’s not your fault. We just forgot to tell you. (:

Craig Rosenberg is the Funnelholic and a co-founder of Topo. He loves sales, marketing, and things that drive revenue. Follow him on Google+ or Twitter

 

 

Sales Question:

"I've seem to have lost my SALES MOJO. What can I do to get it back?"

Answer: 

Chances are, you're not going to like my answer, but here it goes:

RECORD YOUR SALES CALLS

Listening to recordings of your own sales calls will allow you to objectively (as possible) hear how you sound to your prospect. It will also make it very clear and evident on areas that your sales calls needs improvement on, such as:

• Asking better sales questions,
• When to ask them;
• How to ask them (its not just what you say, but HOW you say it)

It will also bring to light times when you missed a buying signal or when you mishandled (or misunderstood) a prospects request, question or objection.

This is an important step in your growth to becoming a better salesperson. The evidence will be clear when you have it recorded. Many times salespeople “think” they responded the correct way or said the right thing but often do not. Having your calls recorded will be an eye-opening experience that will help you avoid a prolonged learning curve, allowing you to become better faster by quickly realizing which areas need improvement.

Don’t Just Record The Bad Ones…

We all have sales calls that we wish we could do over and it is important to learn from them. But it’s also important to have a few recorded sales calls that we just absolutely nailed.

Keep a “master file” of these calls and label the ones that are examples of “needing work” but also label the ones that were spot on sales calls. 

This way if you notice you are starting to struggle with your sales calls again, you can go back and listen to a recording or two that had you knocking it out of the park and I’m willing to bet you will quickly hear what you’re doing wrong now and will be able to fix it ASAP.

Sometimes for whatever reason, we just stop doing what worked and don’t even realize it. Having a recording of a perfect or near perfect sales call that we made in the past that we can refer back to from time to time can be an extremely valuable asset for a sales person.

Jeb Brooks
President, The Brooks Group

Wow!

We've earned another spot on Selling Power Magazine's prestigious list of the Top 20 Sales Training Companies.

As you can imagine, we're all honored.

We believe it's a reflection of two things:

1. Our clients' results

2. The strong group of people that make up The Brooks Group's team. According to Selling Power, they ranked companies based on five criteria:

1) Depth and breadth of training offered. Our friends in the training industry often look at our company's intellectual property and express shock at the amount of material we have developed through the years. The reason we have so much to share is that we have a true passion for salespeople and their leaders. It's easy to invest in research and development when there's a culture of learning at a company like ours.

2) Innovative offerings (specific training courses or methodology) or delivery methods. Ever since 1977, we've found ourselves somewhere between the bleeding edge and the cutting edge of the learning and development industry. We embraced concepts like gamification and distance learning before they were "cool."

3) International capabilities. The ability to deliver training programs overseas is far more challenging that it would appear at first. Delivering effective training programs across the globe involves carefully learning about a wide range of selling environments (not to mention dealing with a lot of difficult logistics). We always enjoy delivering meaningful programs for our clients. Regardless of where they are.

4) Ability to customize offerings. One of the cornerstones of our approach to any project is a complete and thorough customization and change management process. We believe that every engagement should be customized. We take it a step further by incorporating a whole-person assessment in virtually all of our programs, which makes the experience even more customized - right down to each participant.

5) Strength of client satisfaction. We take great pride in developing true partnerships with our clients. We believe that it's impossible to truly deliver meaningful change without becoming closely aligned with them. We take great pride in working closely with them at every turn and are incredibly thankful for the wonderful things they have said about us. - @JebBrooks

The post Selling Power’s Top 20 Sales Training Companies appeared first on Sales Evolution.

Cloud Infographic: Turning Big Data Overload Into Big Sales The amount of data in our world increases massively day-by-day. Big data is about capturing, storing and analyzing large pools of data from customers/consumers, suppliers, partners, operations, employees etc. According to a McKinsey  report, US companies from almost all industry sectors have, on average, hundreds of terabytes of data stored per company. The amount of data is growing as companies gather more and more information with each transaction and interaction with their customers. Continue reading the full article. Attached is an excellent infographic courtesy of PROs titled “The Big V’s Of Big Data” Infographic Source:


ENJOY THE FULL ARTICLE!

The post Cloud Infographic: Turning Big Data Overload Into Big Sales appeared first on CloudTweaks.

Today's post from the Chamber of Commerce features business-growth advice for small companies.

If the adage “time is money” is true, then productivity is a valuable asset in sales. From initial sales contact to follow up calls, making even one sale is an investment in time and sales staff resources. So how can you boost your own efficiency, and encourage your employees to do the same?

Take a look at these five tips for heightened productivity in sales:

1. Prepare. It may seem counterintuitive to productivity to spend more time upfront getting ready for a sales call or meeting, but it will make a difference in the long run. A salesperson with his or her “act together” is one that will make more sales.
2. Take a deep breath. Productivity expert Laura Stack talks about the importance of calmness in making sales. On The Productivity Pro® blog, Strack says that a “confident, energetic, authentic individual will always attract more attention… than someone who seems nervous or apathetic.” Get your nerves in check before any sales presentation and eliminate negative energy.
3. Believe what you say. Do you think that your product or service is vital to your customers? Avoid feeling like you are asking for a favor during a sales presentation; instead, remind yourself of all the ways your item will benefit the buyer. You are not “bothering” your prospect – you are showing that prospect how business will improve with the aid of the product or service you are selling.
4. Encourage interaction. It is not enough to simply talk. You must find ways to engage the listener in sales presentations. Think ahead to the questions your prospects may have and then encourage them to ask them. Do not assume that a prospect will arrive at the need for what you offer alone. It's your job to guide them down the path that has you as the answer.
5. Be confident.  The best way to exude confidence is to combine all four of the above steps. With the right preparation, you will be able to answer any queries expertly. Staying calm will keep your body language and vocal inflection strong. Having faith in your product or service will make it easier for your listeners to also believe in it. Allowing for input from your prospects shows that you are not tethered to a sales script and that you really do know the ins and outs of what you are selling.

Productivity in sales is not just a nice phrase to toss around – it is a necessity for true revenue growth.

How do you ensure your own productivity when it comes to sales?

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(Photo Source)

Katie Parsons writes for ChamberofCommerce.com where she specializes in business news affecting major markets. ChamberofCommerce.com helps small businesses with online growth. Plus, it facilitates connectivity between local firms and over 7,000 Chambers worldwide. 

Sales Training Article: Proposals and Asking for the Business

By John Holland, Chief Content Officer, CustomerCentric Selling® - The Sales Training Company

Sellers get excited when they submit proposals. The source of much of their enthusiasm is the perception that it is a step in moving the process forward and getting closer to an order. In my experience working with sales organizations, the vast majority of proposals are sent prematurely. In my mind this drives up the percentage of opportunities that linger for months is the pipeline and often end in "no decision."

There are a few variables in play when asking for an order that you may want to consider:

• Can you ask a person for the order or do you have to submit a proposal?
• If you ask a person, it is someone that is authorized to make the purchase decision?

My concern about issuing proposals is that oftentimes copies are presented to executives that have little knowledge of the offering in question and its potential value. For these reasons it is a poor vehicle to use to ask for orders. Few senior executives will take the time to read the full proposal. Those that do are likely to get confused. Most will go toward the back of the proposal, see a price without any sense for value and wonder why on earth they would spend that amount of money. The problem is exacerbated when multiple executives are given proposals and a committee decision has to be reached.

If and when sellers can get face to face with buyers and ask for the business, how often are they in front of decision makers? Asking someone without the authority to move ahead with a proposal wouldn't seem to be anything that will move the process forward.

How can you get in front of decision makers and minimize the need to write proposals? If a seller can gain access to Key Players early to uncover business issues and value, much of the work in scoping and proposing will be done with lower levels. After "setting the table" with the buying committee and determining they would like to see a proposal, a seller can offer a quid pro quo in that they will meet with lower levels and keep the committee apprised of progress, but that before issuing a written proposal he or she would like to get in front of the committee and review a draft of the content of the proposal.

If/when the committee has reviewed the contents (pricing; implementation; cost vs. benefit; etc.) and indicate it is what they are looking for, the seller can ask a logical question:

"I can take the time to submit a formal proposal, but since you've reviewed the content and nothing is going to change, would you like to move forward today?"

Executives often want to get started (if copies of proposal are issued decisions will likely take weeks or months to be made) and can make the decision once they know what will be in the proposal. If successful, make sure you provide whatever documentation is needed to describe who's responsible for what. Best case you can close without issuing a proposal. At times you will have to submit proposals, but it can be after the decision has already been made.

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Need some help with your sales performance? Take a look at the sales training workshops available to you and improve sales performance.

Read more sales training articles from CustomerCentric Selling® - The Sales Training Company.

Do you use social media to generate inbound leads for your business? Are you unsure about where and how to focus your efforts to meet your lead generation goals? According to HubSpot’s Inbound Marketing Annual Report, social media produces almost double the marketing leads of trade shows, telemarketing, direct mail or PPC. If you’re starting [...]

Salesforce.com is the largest SaaS company in the world. Heck, they’re the inventors of the category…and have posted the fastest growth of any company valued over $10 billion. But why is Salesforce.com so successful?

We believe one of the most telling reasons is their sales organization.

Their sales reps are a key factor to their monumental success. Here are 8 reasons saleforce.com sales reps are great:

1. Culture

We have a poster on our wall at SalesLoft quoting Tony Hsieh that reads “Your Culture Is Your Brand.” From day 1, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff held culture in high regard. His posters in their cheap apartment were of Dalai Lama and Albert Einstein and read ‘think different’. They’re continually voted one of the top places to work. They’ve built a culture of winners, who have fun and make things happen. It allows them to hire fantastic reps who make a huge topline impact.

2. Onboarding

Just last year, Salesforce hired over 2,500 new people. Many of these folks work on revenue generating teams. At this level of growth, onboarding has become a strategic initiative all the way up to the highest executive levels. Shortly after hire, reps go to a week long sales training session or “bootcamp” at the corporate office in San Francisco. Bootcamp runs for 8 days and provides a solid foundation of culture, products, case study learning, and competition before breaking out into role specific training.

This leads to a team that knows how they are measured and has access to the resources of getting the job done.

3. Incentives

Their sales culture is defined by being results oriented. Sales reps are rewarded for every deal they close. Everything sales reps do is tracked on a dashboard, which include top performance metrics and frequently reference leader boards and gamification. Reps are motivated to see themselves at the top because they are incentivized with tangible rewards for each closed deal, as well as the pride of being on top.

4. Teamwork

Although sales reps are competing against each other, it’s a part of Salesforce.com’s culture to work as a team and always be there for each other. Teamwork is a value that can be seen with collaboration tools they use, such as Chatter, to help each other with opportunities if a rep needs advice or has questions.

5. Product

Salesforce.com has the #1 SaaS product in an $18 billion CRM market that’s growing at double digits. And the application is extremely scalable and configurable. Reps get to focus on their customer needs rather than the inner working of the product. Having confidence in the product allows sales reps to discuss more personal goals tailored to the customer’s specific needs, so these discussions focus more on solutions for their clients and less on the product itself.

6. Brand

Although this is the job of the Salesforce.com marketing team, sales reps benefit tremendously from quality marketing. Cold calls or e-mails are easier for Salesforce.com sales reps because people already have an understanding of who Salesforce.com is.

7. Quantity

The more salespeople you have, the more revenue you’ll bring in. Don’t assume your salespeople can sell more; if you want to sell more, get more salespeople.

“Nine times out of ten, companies fail because they don’t set up a large enough sales force and thus have no way to collect enough revenue. Don’t skimp on sales reps: 25 to 50 percent of the employee base should be salespeople”- Marc Benioff

Half of Salesforce.com’s company consists of salespeople. Because the number of salespeople are managed well, productivity is ensured.

8. Inside Sales

The power of constant communication throughout the sales cycle can be effectively achieved remotely. Salesforce.com’s “corporate model” uses telesales, otherwise known as inside sales. According to Benioff, telesales has a “high close rate at one-third the cost and in one-third the amount of time as the traditional selling model.” It was cost effective for the beginning of Salesforce.com’s ventures and proves to remain effective today.
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These are 8 factors which have proven effective by Salesforce.com’s success. Did we miss one?

Too many salespeople, professionals and business owners spend too much time throughout the sales process talking about things the prospect doesn’t remotely care about. It wastes your time and theirs, leaving everyone frustrated and cursing each other under their breath. The simple fact is, your prospect doesn’t care about: 1. Your product 2. Your service [...]

How many times have you left a sales meeting and thought, "I should have said that..."?

Or, during a meeting, as you listened to what a prospect was saying, you thought, "That's not right; he will be making a big mistake if he goes down that path," but you never voiced your opinion?

Or, perhaps even more dramatic, you got the sense, "This guy is holding something back. I need to get to the bottom of this." But, again, you said nothing?

In all of these examples, what usually keeps you from saying the things you want to (and should) say is a strong need for approval from your prospects. You want to be liked, and in some cases loved, more than you want to close the deal. Research¹ that includes more than 500,000 sellers estimates that 47% of sales people have a need for approval to the extent that it can limit their ability to ask tough questions, disagree when appropriate, and advocate for a point of view that may be disruptive to the status quo.

One of the most valuable characteristics of processA set of activities, through which work flows, aimed at a common result. excellence is the distinction between what people can control and what they cannot. No improvement is possible without this information.  The good news is that the effort spent identifying these factors helps salespeople become more effective and to elevates the performance of the team.

QualificationThe measure of how well a prospect compares to the ideal prospect. Done properly, sales teams develop observable qualification criteria that are assessed using a qualification tool, and converted into a numeric quality score by a statistically valid method. criteriaA statement describing the observable characteristics of a prospect that make them more or less likely to buy our products and services. should be worked out in great detail, ideally in the form of questions salespeople can score on a five-point Likert scale. The idea is that each salesperson understands the ranges of observable facts in areas such as:

1. How do we know there is an opportunity?
2. What is the pain/valueThat which one (i.e., the customerThe person who pays for and/or uses your products and services. Also known as the "end user" (as opposed to channel partner).) acts to gain and/or keep. Also, that which our own company acts to gain and/or keep. to the customer?
3. What is the value to us?
4. Can we win the business?

Completing these Likert scale questions accomplishes a number of valuable objectives:

• Focuses attention on the facts of the customer rather than on what the salesperson (or the boss) wants the truth to be.
• Provides a repeatable checklist or strategy for how to handle accounts/opportunities
• Captures useful data about the accounts/opportunities (parallel to how a check sheet is used in a production plant)

We have found in our work with clients that the effort to develop those qualification criteria systematically and to use them in every deal offers dramatic payback. It provides a more precise language for understanding their opportunities and account situations. It enables salespeople to discern what they can and cannot control and to improve their chances of winning a deal by designing their strategies around what they can control. It also gives them justification to walk away, eliminating wasted effort.

Further, it standardizes the way the organization prioritizes its pursuit of opportunities, elevating the predictability of the whole system.  Furthermore, it becomes possible for deal qualityThe science of defining what the customer wants, and enabling your organization to provide it to them. scores to be used as feedback for the effectiveness of lead generation campaigns. The data this type of approach provides can be priceless.

Avoid the blunt instrument approach to sales qualification. Define your terms. It works.

In today’s world, you as a marketer must engage prospects and customers across many different channels, with more content, at exactly the right moment. That’s where nurturing comes into play. But to succeed—and to engage today’s buyer marketers need to change how they think about and handle nurturing. Download this ebook to find out what you should look for in a lead nurture solution.

There are literally a million different varieties of sales roles from those that handle inbound calls for information to those that manage existing relationships and those that open new accounts. The most coveted type of sales professional, what we tend to call, ‘Hunters’ pound the pavement (or the phone as the case may be), find their own prospects and generate their own leads, and develop and close new business. And they are very hard to find. A question we are often asked is “why is it so hard to find hunters?”

What Makes a Great Hunter?

Being an effective hunter requires a unique blend of personality traits including goal orientation, ambition, confidence, optimism, competitiveness, resilience and perseverance. This combination of traits is what leads a person to pursue opportunity like a bulldog, make numerous calls on cold prospects where rejection and failure is a real possibility and succeed in spite of adversity and poor odds. This combination of traits is also rare. Various studies have shown that perhaps only 10-20% of the population possess these traits and even fewer are in sales.

It is a simple fact that most people are better suited to other pursuits than hunting for new business and furthermore, of those that are actually suited to finding and closing new business, even fewer are suited to do it your company. But wait, it gets worse. Even fewer still are suited to hunting in your company AND interested in joining you at the moment versus staying where they are or joining one of the many other employers that are also competing for their services.

Furthermore, the traits required to be a great hunter are hard to assess and many employers have trouble determining which candidates have what it takes and which don’t. Taken any sales team and look at the the individuals tasked with hunting. What you are likely to find are a mix of decent hunters and those better suited to farming who have been put in roles where it is folly to expect them to excel.

A Very Small Percentage of the Population
In the end you are looking at a tiny fraction of the population who are hard to spot, which explains why hunters are so hard to find. No wonder sales training and performance improvement is an enormous industry. Skipping the tough work of searching for hunters is the easier path to building a sales team. Except it usually doesn’t work. Proof of this can be found in the level of failure in the sales sector. Nearly 50% of reps are below target in many sectors and in some the stats are worse.

Always be Recruiting
So what’s the antidote? Simple. Never stop recruiting. Look everywhere and look often so that you increase your chances of being exposed to the mix of DNA that makes a great sales hunter and when you spot it, make sure you get it onto your team. Then set them up to succeed so it is a win-win relationship and they never want to leave you to work for another employer.

CEOs who stand on the side and don’t think they need to be involved in sales other than discussing the business with the VP of Sales in a weekly meeting are failing to understand their role.

CEOs must be engaged with sales and understand what is happening in the marketplace.  This is part of solid sales leadership, and sadly too many CEOs downplay this aspect.

I encounter far too many CEOs who can’t recall accurately the last sales call they made.

CEOs who fail to spend any time in the field are subject to having their view of sales be filtered 100% by what the VP of Sales wants to share with them.

By the very nature of their title, CEOs have the ability to have discussions with customers who won’t entertain such discussions from other people lower in the company.  Yes, the title “CEO” can make a difference. CEOs can ask questions others can’t ask.  Better yet, CEOs will find out insights from customers that other people simply won’t be able to uncover.

A CEO who is engaged in the sales process will, over a period of time, identify significant opportunities.  If a board does not require their CEO to be with customers occasionally, then the board is failing in their responsibility to the shareholders.

The amount of time a CEO should be out with customers is a moving target, as it can vary dramatically by industry, time of year, company objectives, etc.   A good rule, however, is a CEO should make at least one customer visit per month.

One customer visit per month is not too much to ask, and over the course of a year, this would allow a CEO to gain a broad understanding of what is happening.  Also, by visiting a customer a month, several new significant opportunities will emerge.  That’s good business all the way around!

Is a CEO going on calls a threat to the sales force?  No, because the CEO is merely doing what they should be doing.  I see it more as a gain, because the CEO is opening doors and helping improve the overall business.

Copyright 2013, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.