It’s hard not to feel sorry for Matt Brown and Maureen Cassidy. Or at the very least, saddened for their spouses and children.

The Mayor of London, Ontario, and his now ex-deputy, stood—separately—before the media this week to cop to a workplace affair. The “inappropriate personal relationship,” as Brown termed it, started “during a period of intense workload,” and didn’t last long. The 42-year-old called it a “grave error of judgment” and apologized to his wife, family and everyone else.

Cassidy, who tearfully resigned from the city’s number-two job but retains her seat on council, spoke of her immense regret. “I’ve caused my family horrible pain and embarrassment,” said the 49-year-old. “I know that this has also hurt the Brown family deeply, and for this I am very sorry.”

Both politicians are taking some unpaid time away from the office and trying to repair the damage at home. It’s not at all clear whether their political careers will survive. But what’s even murkier is why they felt compelled to share their very personal failings with the voting public.

Brown alluded to “rumours” that had been circulating, and a desire to “be as transparent as possible.” But why? Both maintain that their professional duties and decisions weren’t affected by the consensual relationship. (The mayor has asked the city’s integrity commissioner to take a look, just in case.) And even though the local Free Press dubbed it a “sex scandal” after-the-fact, it’s hard to imagine that the paper, or anyone else in the mainstream media could have come up with a justification for breaking the story. All sorts of people have, and will continue to make, similar mistakes. And even public figures are entitled to private lives.

‘But wait! What about Rob Ford?” asketh the Internet trolls. The late Mayor of Toronto frequently showed up drunk, high, or both, in public places. Sometimes he drove himself there. He was photographed with his arms around three alleged members of a street gang—one of whom was later shot dead. Ford was under police investigation for his ties to drugs and violent thugs. He hurled racist insults at a cab driver and sexually harassed city staff. He would disappear from the job for days at a time. There were videos—plural—of him smoking crack. He crossed so many lines that the people of Toronto elected the blandest possible replacement, John Tory, to explicitly guarantee that they wouldn’t have to pay any attention whatsoever to municipal politics for at least four years.

Brown and Cassidy’s painful honesty isn’t likely to spark a trend. The global standard remains that politicians don’t admit to affairs unless they get caught out (Bill Clinton, Anthony Weiner), or feel the need to brag (Nicolas Sarkozy, Silvio Berlusconi.) If their personal lives become too difficult to handle, they retire to “spend more time” with their families, or “pursue new opportunities” in the private sector. And really, what’s it to the rest of us?

There is, however, a point to made about how we define transparency these days. Brown was elected in 2014 as a new broom—promising to restore faith in city hall after his predecessor, Joe Fontana, was convicted of fraud for saddling taxpayers with $1,700 in expenses related to his son’s wedding while he was a federal Liberal cabinet minister. Perhaps this explains the current mayor’s belief that he must be answerable to the public in all matters that touch upon his job and his judgment.

But let’s not confuse the ballot box with the confessional booth. Voters don’t need to know about the peccadillos, especially when so many major political sins remain obscured. Our current system provides a surfeit of mostly meaningless detail—”proactive” expense disclosures that allow journalist to police the cost of fresh juice,  lobbyist registries that track meetings, but not their content or outcome, “sunshine” salary lists that keep the focus on what individual cops and teachers make, rather than bankers, lawyers and brokers of the one-percent.

And yet, where accountability truly matters, it often can’t be found. Independent investigations into police shootings in Ontario where the justifications, recommendations and even the names of the officers who pulled the trigger are kept private. A tax system that allows the über wealthy to hide behind numbered shell companies, and billion-dollar corporations to off-shore profits, then repatriate them without cost. New security laws that permit preventative arrests on the mere suspicion of future danger, and create secret no-fly lists, compiled via secret evidence, that can only be challenged in mostly secret proceedings.

General Dynamics Land Systems, the London, Ont. armoured vehicle manufacturer, is located just a few kilometres from city hall. The company’s $15 billion, 14-year deal to supply Saudi Arabia with LAVs became a big issue in the 2015 election, with much of the criticism focusing on the Kingdom’s woeful record on human rights, and penchant for using military hardware against its own people. In the past, some of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s closest advisors had panned the agreement, but his new government quietly signed off on the bulk of the sales this April, papering over abuse concerns in a memo stamped “secret.” “To the best of the department’s knowledge, there have been no incidents where [the Light Armoured Vehicles] have been used in the perpetration of human-rights violations,” it read.

Stephen Harper and his former Conservative government had defended the deal as one that supports an “ally in the fighting against the Islamic State,” and would provide London with 3,000 jobs and spin-off benefits for 500 other firms.

Since taking office, Trudeau has been more equivocal, questioning the bargain, but maintaining that Canada must honour it—as a matter of principle. “People have to know that when you sign a deal with Canada, a change in governments won’t immediately scrap the jobs and benefits coming from it,” he said in an interview with the Toronto Star last week. “Because we’re not a banana republic.” Transparency will be the watchword when it comes to future arms sales, he promised. “Going forward, we will make sure that we are much more rigorous and transparent about living up to Canadians’ expectations.”

Unnecessary private disclosures, and hidden facts that should be public.

It’s all a reminder that we live in an age of way too much information, and precious little truth.

 

 

The post Looking for accountability in the TMI Age appeared first on Macleans.ca.

If you are considering implementing discounts as a pricing strategy, there are usually three main causes why you are even thinking about this.

1. The price of your product is in decline. This reason is clearly a compulsory factor for a discount. When the price on the market is dropping due to the strategies of your competition or for any other reason for that matter, the purchasing power needs to be altered.
2. Raising product awareness. Especially if you are concentrated on the inbound marketing techniques, this step is a much needed one when the market becomes overcrowded with similar offers. By lowering your prices for a certain amount of time, you are drawing attention and recreating the interest in your product or service.
3. Getting rid of old stock. A pretty much self-explanatory reason. When those products begin to pile up, sometimes you just have to cut your losses and get the best out of the situation. Having a discount is a well advised strategy in this situation as well.

In all of the above mentioned cases, a discount as a strategy will prove to be an effective technique only when executed correctly and diligently. Putting up a sign for a discount is rarely a novelty these days, so if you are in a situation where you simply have to conduct and execute a strategy of this sort, here are a total of three verified ways in which your discount strategy will be flawless.

Discount Strategy #1: A Special Event

If you have the time to wait for a special occasion of any sort, know that your customers are probably waiting for them as well. This is a very effective strategy simply because people are well accustomed to looking for discounts at Christmas, Easter, and every other holiday for that matter.

In 2010, during the Black Friday, a total of 212.000.000 shoppers stormed the stores, both off and online. In 2013, e-commerce sales increased by a total of 32% during the Thanksgiving holidays, and this trend continues to rise each year.

It is evident why companies worldwide wait for this specific date to announce their discounts. But if you believe that this is all in the spirit of the holidays, think again – it is nothing more than a clever marketing strategy.

From electronics stores to kitchen appliances, companies execute discount pricing strategies very diligently, not missing even the Memorial Day to offer a special deal for some of their products.

Discount Strategy #2: Your Premium Customers

Segmenting customers is a very important factor for maintaining a successful business. When you are thinking about customers’ relations management, know that by implementing categorization of your customers you are gaining an automatized level of communication and a structured method which will help you in the offer distribution department. This also includes discounts.

By keeping a record of your customers, and through a relationship which you should care for and build with continuous communication, you are able to get not just brand advocates, but also build a base of regular clients. And with this discount strategy you will not just sell your products, but maintain a relationship with you customers, making them feel special and appreciated in the process.

This is one of the standard tactics for driving revenue. Most companies employ these, and similar tactics, from the very beginning of the customer’s journey. For example, Dodo case, a company which manufactures all sorts of cases for iPads, wallets, and similar products, offers a discount in exchange for an email address.

With this “special offer,” a company is able to build a relationship with a customer instantaneously. If they keep giving discounts to those customers, they are able to build a steady stream of revenue, and each and every discount will already have a group of prospects that will love to hear about special offers from their favorite brand.

Discount Strategy #3: The Secret Discount

This strategy is very similar to the aforementioned “Premium Customers” strategy. The difference between the previous pricing strategy, and this one, is in one little element that we all cherish and fall for frequently – a pitch that is usually refer to as “the inside tip.”

If you are looking to make extra profit while your product is still selling for its regular price, you will certainly have no problem in finding your “most trusted” customers, or even retail shops, that will appreciate to get this product for a discount. The trick is – you are making them believe that they are the only one that are actually getting this discount.

The best way to execute this strategy is to have a potential partner that can actually sell your product to their customers, and gain profit from your discount. While we can’t present examples for this particular strategy, for obvious reasons, you should know that this is also a standard practice in the retail business.

But be careful when you are executing this strategy. A potential information leak may cost you more than you’ve bargained for. So offer a discount discretely, let the potential partner know what the regular price of the merchandise is, and how much you appreciate their business. By doing so, you are gaining a partner, and a possible channel for your future sales as well.

The Conclusion

Discount strategies work. In fact, more than 93% of the US consumers use a coupon or a discount throughout the year. So there is an evident need for them! All that you need to do is to push it in the right moment, to the right customer.

Email segmenting is one of the most powerful techniques for boosting open rates, CTRs, and total revenue per email. It’s also surprisingly neglected.

With the high cost for sophisticated email platforms and the technology segmentation requires, it makes sense.

Fortunately, there is a simple way any marketer with 10 to 20 emails sent per month can take advantage of segmentation in email marketing efforts.

The Categorization Approach to Email Segmentation

Let’s look at a typical listing of various email sends you may deploy in a given week:

• Promotional sales email
• Email showcasing your latest blog posts
• Announcement about some recent industry or company change

Other than the break-down of these messages as promotions, newsletters, or announcements, there is no process that categorizes the actual content.

Consequently, this presents a shiny ray of light for our email segmentation pot under the rainbow. Each and every email you’ve sent can be categorized in a way that tells more about what your audience is interested in. That’s data that can, once utilized, make for better targeted email campaigns with higher response rates.

Here are two of the easiest, most efficient categorization approaches you can start utilizing:

#1. The Product / Topic Segment

Different people on your email lists are naturally interested in different things. With this approach, you simply take your subject lines and organize them into topics.

By creating this type of category-based segmentation, you give yourself a better way to cater emails to your audience.

This keeps people from receiving emails they have no interest in and, more importantly, ensures the emails they do get are based on their specific interests.

#2. The Appeal / Emotion Segment

If you have just one product or topic you email about, segmenting as above may not do much for you. That’s where the appeal / emotion segment really becomes useful.

Rather than blasting out another promotional email to 20,000 recipients, take a look at the past promotional emails you’ve sent.

Likely you’ve tried a variety of approaches:

• Special offers
• Emails focused on what the customer will gain
• Emails focused on fear or the problem your product solves
• Emails focused on exclusivity

Subject lines derive their power from the emotional appeal they trigger in the minds of readers. Readers that opened emails with one type of emotional appeal are much more likely to open that approach again, rather than an appeal they’ve ignored.

And that’s what segmentation is built upon – behavior. An action performed today is likely to be repeated again tomorrow.

As Elliot Howard states, “an action performed to-day is liable to be repeated tomorrow and the following day until it becomes ingrained in the life of the individual.”

Start With Your Past Sends

Just look at this set of subject lines from a non-profit music organization over the past few months:

• Steinway piano special
• American Dreams Concert
• Sizzling Hot August Specials
• Master Class with Buddy Strong, keyboardist for Usher, this Saturday at 10am!!
• #eventinvite
• IMPORTANT: Please Read
• Holiday Studio Specials
• Introducing New Vocal Coach, Kim F.

These emails were all sent to the same list. If you were a vocalist with zero piano playing abilities, would “Steinway piano specials” really appeal to you?

Probably not.

When it comes to users’ inboxes, every email you send is creating an experience. Users may not open an email but if they glance over at your subject line and turn it down, that’s a point against you in their eyes.

Do this enough times and your visitor will likely finally open the email to unsubscribe (or worse, they’ll just click “Spam”).

That’s where the product / topic segment approach comes in.

Taking the subject lines above we’ve got a few categories we can lump things in:

Pianists

• Steinway piano special
• Master Class with Buddy Strong, keyboardist for Usher, this Saturday at 10am!!

Vocalists:

• Introducing New Vocal Coach, Kim Fernandez

Those that are interested in recording:

• Holiday Studio Specials

Recipients who opened the emails above likely were interested in the category it’s been lumped into.

While many more basic email service providers won’t allow you to automatically create segments, you can easily do it in a few simple steps:

1. Export your list of openers
2. Add a custom field to your list
3. Label this field your “category”
4. Create this custom field in your email service
5. Re-import the list with the added data

Now all the emails that opened the “Pianist” segment have an additional layer of data about their preference.

This process will take a total of five minutes. The value you’ll get out of this simple process, however, is invaluable.

Getting Started with Email Categorization for Segmentation

Contrary to common belief, you don’t a high volume email workflow to start with segmentation. A simple monthly prospecting email, for example, is perfect to segment and optimize.

Simply create a few different segments and work to optimize the following for each:

• Subject Lines
• Headlines in the email content
• The Intro paragraph

By catering these three elements to the segment your users fall into, you’ll better personalize your emails.

The key is to get into your email data and start using what you have. It doesn’t have to be perfect. All you have to do is get things moving.

Frustrated by the amount (or lack) of phone calls being returned? Tune in to this week’s video sales tip. Want to drastically increase sales in your organization? Pick up your copy of Nonstop Sales Boom.

Generating high-quality leads is one of the most important functions of a marketing team. Trade shows offer marketing professionals a chance to define their brand, explain their solutions and establish personal relationships with prospects—all key factors in generating quality leads. What’s more, compared to other marketing avenues, trade shows are more likely to swiftly turn cold prospects into hot leads. This guide to trade show lead generation was created to arm you with the knowledge you need to generate more qualified leads on the trade show floor.

The Three Keys of Trade Show Lead Generation

When planning for a trade show lead generation campaign, it is best to break down your efforts into three phases to help you plan more efficiently. Carefully planning out all three phases of the process is essential for lead generation success.

1. Attract Interest:

Promoting your marketing efforts and trade show presence to gain prospect interest and attendee traffic is the first step in generating leads at a trade show.

Tips for attracting prospects:

• Use web assets such as landing pages, industry blogs and social media platforms pre- and in- event to advertise and promote your trade show campaign and in-booth actives.
• Secure an attendee mailing list and send out email blast and direct mailings to event attendees prior to the show.
• Place ads in the show book and industry publication to let attendees know that our company is attending the event.
• Task your sales team to ask clients to invite others to visit your booth at the show. Word of mouth is very powerful!

Remember, no matter which lead generation tactics you choose to adopt, you efforts will ultimately fall flat without solid promotional plan to attract prospects into your booth.

2. Incentive Lead Capture:

Exchanging something of value in return for a prospect’s contact information is key in converting booth traffic into a healthy lead stream. While developing your trade show lead generation plan, ask yourself: What value can I provide to prospects on the show floor? The answer to this question will drive your overall lead generation planning and tactics.

Four Common Strategies for Collecting Leads

Product-Focused:

Product-focused lead generation tactics are great for showcasing your product or service to attendees.

• Product demonstrations
• Show-only product giveaways
• Show-only discounts and promotions

Giveaways:

Giveaways are tried and true tactic for cultivating staff and attendee engagement.

• Food, drinks and snacks
• Branded swag such as tote bags, USB storage devices and apparel
• Coupons to local bars and restaurants

Contests:

Contests tap into people’s competitive and reward-driven nature and are also great for drawing spectators.

• Raffles and drawings
• In-booth games related to your brand or theme
• Digital games and apps

Thought-Leadership:

Seminars, presentations and panel discussions at industry events provide a platform for organization to share your expertise.

• Sponsoring events outside of normal show hours
• Join panel or round table and encourage follow-up at your website or at booth
• Host in-booth seminars

3. Collect and Store Data:

After attracting interest and incentivizing lead capture, you need a method to collect, store and retrieve leads information to your sales team. Consider investing in a lead management platform such as iLeads, LeadWizard and Crowd Compass for use on smartphones, tablets and other devices. Barcode scanners are typically available for rent through show services and are a good option for reading the contact information off of attendee badges making it easy to give and receive information.

If you are planning to adopt a lead retrieval software, make sure that you research and consult with your IT department to integrate into your CRM or in-house lead management system.

Tracking and Measuring Trade Show Lead Generation Campaigns

The best trade show lead generation programs have calculated measurement strategies planned in advance. As a part of your it is important to compare investment and return of your lead generation campaigns, track the following metrics to determine campaign success:

• Cost per lead: Total campaign costs/quantity of leads
• Quality of leads generated at a trade show: The % of leads not rejected by sales
• A trade show’s % of leads contributed to the sales pipeline
• Rate of conversions from leads generated at trade show compared to leads generated from other avenues
• The % of revenue in the sales pipeline that originated from trade show leads

Conclusion

Executing a well-planned trade show lead generation campaign takes time and buy-in from multiple stake holders. Make sure that everyone from marketing, sales, management and IT understands their role in the lead generation process. Remember, leads are the coal that make the sales train go–it is up to marketers to keep fuel in steady supply.

If you've eaten raw oysters, chances are you digested them while they were still alive.

These little critters deteriorate fast, so restaurants serve them as fresh out of the ocean as possible — and that generally means while they are still breathing.

That goes for oysters served at land-locked restaurants and retail stores, too. Some varieties of the shellfish can survive out of the water for up to two weeks if kept properly chilled and moist. In fact, oysters are stored under particularly regulated conditions because once they die, they are no longer safe to eat.

How do you know if an oyster is safe to eat?

SafeOysters.org recommends tapping the shell lightly with your finger. "If the shell closes, the animal is alive and safe to buy. If the shell is gaping open or does not close after tapping it, the animal is dead and may harbor high numbers of bacteria which can make you ill," the site says.

And yes, oysters are good year-round.

Although folklore says that oysters should be eaten only in months with "r's" in them — September, October, November, December — that is no longer true. Global Gourmet writes, "The notion that oysters should not be eaten in "r"-less months — that is, months that occur during warm weather — may have started in the days when oysters where shipped without adequate refrigeration and could spoil. But today all that has changed and we can enjoy oysters twelve months a year."

So, yes, your plate is alive. But oysters are tastier that way.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Scientists discovered something heartbreaking about this newfound dinosaur

Rio de Janeiro (AFP) - Rio state authorities declared a "state of public calamity" Friday over a major budget crisis, in order to release funds to finance the Olympic Games due to begin in August, a spokesman said.

The decree authorizes the state to "adopt all necessary emergency measures to ration essential public services in order for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games to take place." 

It added that "any institutional instability would hurt the country's image."

Join the conversation about this story »

In our first episode of the Sales Enablement Shift podcast, Seismic’s Daniel Rodriguez and Scott Santucci of the Alexander Group discussed best practices for building a sales enablement foundation and getting executive buy-in for a sales enablement initiative. “Sales enablement functions are like snowflakes; they’re all different from one company to the next,” said Scott. So you can imagine that the process of getting executive buy-in for a sales enablement function—and the steps to success that follow—differ from one organization to the next.

The responsibilities of sales enablement can range from training and onboarding to strategically bridging the gap between sales and marketing—and typically everything in between. The value and importance of sales enablement are real and measurable, but when and how can it make an impact that drives corporate initiatives? Instead of being overwhelmed by the uncharted waters and seemingly unending road ahead, organizations should pull best practices from other companies’ sales enablement initiatives. This is why Applied Systems shared its story of successful sales enablement execution with a packed room of SiriusDecisions Summit attendees back in May.

Here is the five-step process Applied Systems took when planning and executing its sales enablement strategy to help drive corporate initiatives:

• Sales content management: Without organized, consolidated and findable sales content, it’s impossible for organizations to properly equip salespeople with the resources they need to sell. When Applied Systems first came to Seismic, it had its content stored in a number of disconnected, disparate repositories:
  Once these disparate content sources were connected and consolidated, Applied Systems then did an audit of its existing marketing content, and in effect eliminated duplicate, outdated and off-brand content. This step also included giving marketing a single location to create, organize, store and deliver content to sales.

• Activity-based enablement: Next, Applied Systems measured and assessed sales activities to minimize the time reps spent searching for and creating their own content. During this process, Applied Systems found that reps were spending 25-30% of their time searching for content. It also found that reps were spending considerable time in email and Salesforce, so it integrated Seismic—and its newly consolidated content repository— with its CRM and email hosts. This helped Applied Systems streamline its sales processes and eliminate reps’ unnecessary and time-consuming tasks. Reps also had this content available anywhere—laptops, tablets, mobile phones and within Salesforce.
• LiveDocs® enablement: Now that reps had easy and quick access to content, Applied Systems wanted to make sure that reps were sharing the right content with the right people. Applied Systems’ salespeople can now customize content for the exact person, company, and buying stage. LiveDocs® provide two levels of customization: LiveForm prompt, where reps fill in customer and company data to populate the right statistics, case studies and more into presentations; and automated filtering through CRM that serves hyper-relevant content to reps and then incorporates customer-specific data. Using Seismic LiveDocs®, Applied Systems’ salespeople experienced the following benefits:

• Sales and marketing alignment: The first three steps in Applied Systems’ enablement execution were very technology-heavy, but sales enablement is much more than just technology. The fourth step involves bringing in the right people who are invested in and responsible for sellers’ This step requires business stakeholders to understand each other and sales and marketing’s needs. Once needs, goals and priorities were identified and aligned, Applied Systems used the information gained to build strategic content for both Sales’ internal and external usage.
• Company-wide enablement: the previous four steps are the foundation for company-wide enablement, but must be completed and executed in full before enablement can be rolled out company-wide. This step involves extending enablement to other functions of the organization, which for Applied Systems includes Education Services, Product Management, and Support.

As a result of this five-step execution process, Applied Systems has experienced impressive results in terms of time saved by its enablement, marketing and sales teams. For example, two enablement employees were spending five hours each responding to 25-30 content requests weekly, and personalizing content was taking 100 hours per week. These hours are now dedicated to creating high-value, core selling activities and more strategic marketing initiatives.

Your organization’s sales enablement execution may not employ the exact same five-step process as Applied Systems, but it’s a great place to start during the universally relatable “now what?” panic. Understand that sales enablement execution takes careful planning and strategic execution to see results, and taking an incremental approach is the most effective way to do so. Many thanks to Applied Systems for sharing their story of successful sales enablement execution at the SiriusDecisions Summit!

When it comes to creating content online, it’s all about engagement. It doesn’t matter if it’s text, infographics, images or video… you must provide your audience with something they find value in or they are simply going to leave your site and never come back. With this in mind, today we are going to look at five different ways you can start using video to not only increase engagement with your audience but also provide a higher level quality of content as well. Online video is also one of the best ways to deliver online courses, live events and turn boring

The post 5 Examples of How Bloggers are Using Video to Increase Engagement appeared first on Blogging Tips.

“Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.”

---

“You say you want a revolution,” the Beatles sang in 1968 as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was erecting the pillars of nonviolence on the other side of the Atlantic, “Well, you know / We all want to change the world… But when you talk about destruction / Don’t you know that you can count me out… If you want money for people with minds that hate / All I can tell you is brother you have to wait.”

Perhaps such is the curse of our species: Only in violent times do we remember, in our bones and our sinews, that hate is not a weapon of rebellion but of cowardice; that no true revolution is achieved through destruction and nihilism; that the only way to change the world is through constructive and life-affirming action. No one has made this point more persuasively and elegantly than Albert Camus (November 7, 1913–January 4, 1960) in his sublime and sublimely timely 1951 book The Rebel: An Essay on Man in Revolt (public library).

Six years before he became the second-youngest person to receive the Nobel Prize, 38-year-old Camus writes:

What is a rebel? A man* who says no, but whose refusal does not imply a renunciation. He is also a man who says yes, from the moment he makes his first gesture of rebellion.

[…]

Rebellion cannot exist without the feeling that, somewhere and somehow, one is right… The rebel … says yes and no simultaneously… In every act of rebellion, the rebel simultaneously experiences a feeling of revulsion at the infringement of his rights and a complete and spontaneous loyalty to certain aspects of himself.

* Let not the gendered language detract or distract from the lucidity of Camus’s wisdom, for it is a function of his era — something on which Ursula K. Le Guin has commented brilliantly.

Nearly two decades after his assertion that “there is no love of life without despair of life,” Camus adds:

Despair, like the absurd, has opinions and desires about everything in general and nothing in particular. Silence expresses this attitude very well. But from the moment that the rebel finds his voice — even though he says nothing but “no” — he begins to desire and to judge… Not every value entails rebellion, but every act of rebellion tacitly invokes a value… Awareness, no matter how confused it may be, develops from every act of rebellion: the sudden, dazzling perception that there is something in man with which he can identify himself, even if only for a moment.

[…]

Why rebel if there is nothing permanent in oneself worth preserving?

And yet true rebellion, Camus argues, is an act motivated by concerned with the common good rather than by self-interest:

The affirmation implicit in every act of rebellion is extended to something that transcends the individual in so far as it withdraws him from his supposed solitude and provides him with a reason to act.

[…]

An act of rebellion is not, essentially, an egoistic act. Of course, it can have egoistic motives… The rebel … demands respect for himself, of course, but only in so far as he identifies himself with a natural community.

[…]

When he rebels, a man identifies himself with other men and so surpasses himself, and from this point of view human solidarity is metaphysical.

With an eye to the osmotic relationship between construction and destruction, Camus adds:

Rebellion, though apparently negative, since it creates nothing, is profoundly positive in that it reveals the part of man which must always be defended.

While this essay is a particularly spirited expression of his lifelong mission to defeat nihilism, Camus uses the writings of Nietzsche — who proclaimed himself “the first perfect nihilist of Europe” — as a springboard for exploring the constructive potentiality of rebellion. He writes:

Because his mind was free, Nietzsche knew that freedom of the mind is not a comfort, but an achievement to which one aspires and at long last obtains after an exhausting struggle. He knew that in wanting to consider oneself above the law, there is a great risk of finding oneself beneath the law. That is why he understood that only the mind found its real emancipation in the acceptance of new obligations. The essence of his discovery consists in saying that if the eternal law is not freedom, the absence of law is still less so.

[…]

The sum total of every possibility does not amount to liberty… Chaos is also a form of servitude. Freedom exists only in a world where what is possible is defined at the same time as what is not possible. Without law there is no freedom.

Building on Nietzsche’s ideas about the fine line between constructive and destructive rebellion — ideas Camus sees as “born of abundance and fullness of spirit” — he summarizes this orientation of mind:

One must accept the unacceptable and hold to the untenable… From absolute despair will spring infinite joy, from blind servitude, unbounded freedom. To be free is, precisely, to abolish ends. The innocence of the ceaseless change of things, as soon as one consents to it, represents the maximum liberty. The free mind willingly accepts what is necessary. Nietzsche’s most profound concept is that the necessity of phenomena, if it is absolute, without rifts, does not imply any kind of restraint. Total acceptance of total necessity is his paradoxical definition of freedom. The question “free of what?” is thus replaced by “free for what?” Liberty coincides with heroism. It is the asceticism of the great man, “the bow bent to the breaking-point.”

In a passage of remarkable resonance today, when we are confronting a wave of violence so strangely divorced from everything the past has taught us — those countless bloody lessons in the perennial fact that violence is always without victors — Camus considers the only adequate role of history:

History … is only an opportunity that must be rendered fruitful by a vigilant rebellion.

“Obsession with the harvest and indifference to history,” writes René Char admirably, “are the two extremities of my bow.” If the duration of history is not synonymous with the duration of the harvest, then history, in effect, is no more than a fleeting and cruel shadow in which man has no more part. He who dedicates himself to this history dedicates himself to nothing and, in his turn, is nothing. But he who dedicates himself to the duration of his life, to the house he builds, to the dignity of mankind, dedicates himself to the earth and reaps from it the harvest that sows its seed and sustains the world again and again.

More than half a century before Rebecca Solnit’s electrifying case for the vital difference between blind optimism and hope as an act of rebellion, Camus writes:

The words that reverberate for us at the confines of this long adventure of rebellion are not formulas for optimism, for which we have no possible use in the extremities of our unhappiness, but words of courage and intelligence which, on the shores of the eternal seas, even have the qualities of virtue.

No possible form of wisdom today can claim to give more. Rebellion indefatigably confronts evil, from which it can only derive a new impetus. Man can master in himself everything that should be mastered. He should rectify in creation everything that can be rectified. And after he has done so, children will still die unjustly even in a perfect society. Even by his greatest effort man can only propose to diminish arithmetically the sufferings of the world. But the injustice and the suffering of the world will remain and, no matter how limited they are, they will not cease to be an outrage. Dimitri Karamazov’s cry of “Why?” will continue to resound; art and rebellion will die only with the last man.

[…]

Then we understand that rebellion cannot exist without a strange form of love. Those who find no rest in God or in history are condemned to live for those who, like themselves, cannot live: in fact, for the humiliated. The most pure form of the movement of rebellion is thus crowned with the heart-rending cry of Karamazov: if all are not saved, what good is the salvation of one only?

It is out of this understanding of rebellion as salvation for all that the most courageous acts of solidarity are born. One is reminded of Simone Weil, whom Camus lauded as “the only great spirit of our times” and who, as she lay dying of tuberculosis, defied her doctors’ orders by refusing to eat more than the rations her compatriots in Nazi-occupied France were given. Invoking such heroes, Camus writes:

This insane generosity is the generosity of rebellion, which unhesitatingly gives the strength of its love and without a moment’s delay refuses injustice. Its merit lies in making no calculations, distributing everything it possesses to life and to living men. It is thus that it is prodigal in its gifts to men to come. Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

[…]

Rebellion proves in this way that it is the very movement of life and that it cannot be denied without renouncing life. Its purest outburst, on each occasion, gives birth to existence. Thus it is love and fecundity or it is nothing at all. At the end of this tunnel of darkness, however, there is inevitably a light, which we already divine and for which we only have to fight to ensure its coming. All of us, among the ruins, are preparing a renaissance beyond the limits of nihilism. But few of us know it.

In a sentiment of especial poignancy today, as Europe struggles to welcome the world’s refugees and displaced families so ungenerously referred to as a “crisis,” Camus adds:

In the light, the earth remains our first and our last love. Our brothers are breathing under the same sky as we; justice is a living thing. Now is born that strange joy which helps one live and die… With this joy, through long struggle, we shall remake the soul of our time, and a Europe which will exclude nothing.

The Rebel is a magnificent and acutely timely read in its totality. Complement it with Susan Sontag on courage and resistance and Nietzsche on what it really means to be a free spirit, then revisit Camus on strength of character, happiness, unhappiness, and our self-imposed prisons, the art of awareness, and the touching letter of gratitude he sent to his childhood teacher shortly after winning the Nobel Prize.

---

donating = loving

Bringing you (ad-free) Brain Pickings takes me hundreds of hours each month. If you find any joy and stimulation here, please consider becoming a Supporting Member with a recurring monthly donation of your choosing, between a cup of tea and a good dinner.

---

newsletter

Brain Pickings has a free weekly newsletter. It comes out on Sundays and offers the week’s most unmissable reads. Here’s what to expect. Like? Sign up.

There are a variety of institutions and governments that have delivered doomsday scenarios for Britain in the event of a Brexit, but analysts at Macquarie point out that some companies will actually do pretty well out of it.

In the event of a Brexit, it is widely acknowledged, by everyone from the Bank of England, to the IMF, and even some campaigners for Leave, that assets across the board would tank. The pound will dive, and equities will suffer, falling at least 5% according to recent research from Deutsche Bank.

However, as with every major negative event in the markets, there will be winners from Brexit.

Gold is set to explode according to HSBC, other commodities will bounce, and the Yen will see substantial gains.

Certain equities could also benefit in the UK, according to Australian investment bank and research house Macquarie. Analyst Matthew Turner has put together a list of the stocks Macquarie feels could take off in the wake of a Brexit, suggesting investors go long — basically bet that the stock will rise — on these seven companies.

Check out the companies Macquarie thinks will bounce if Britain votes to leave the EU, and why the bank thinks so, below.

Vodafone

What it does: Vodafone is one of the world's largest telecoms companies on earth, bringing in revenues of more than £42 billion ($59.95 billion) of revenues every year, and a market capitalisation of around £56.5 billion ($80.6 billion).

Why it will do well after Brexit: "We would be long Vodafone into a Leave scenario, as more than half of its revenues are euro-denominated, and so we would expect it to benefit from a weaker pound. Specifically, 51% of revenue and 55% of operating income is euro-denominated, and every €10c of FX movement is equal to 10p of Vodafone value."

Burberry

What it does: Burberry is listed on the FTSE 100 and is known across the world for its array of luxury clothing and lifestyle products, featuring the company's world famous beige, red, black, and white checked pattern. In recent years, under the leadership of CEO Christopher Bailey, the company has aggressively marketed itself in the Asian luxury market.

Why it will do well: In the event of a Brexit, Macquarie notes that Burberry will benefit from the inevitable weakening of pound that will follow, thanks to the fact just 10% of its sales exposure is denominated in pounds, less than half of its operating expenses are in sterling, and around 15% of the cost of goods sold by the company is in sterling.

If the pound drops 5% after Brexit, Macquarie expects earnings to increase 7%, while if there is a 10% GBP depreciation, earnings upside will be 13%.

Associated British Foods (ABF)

What it does: FTSE 100 listed ABF owns many of the best known food brands in the UK, including Silver Spoon sugar, Twinings tea, Ryvita, and Patak's Indian foods. The company also owns renowned cheap high street retailer Primark.

Why it will do well: "With half of Primark profits (60%) coming from Europe, unless there is a significant depreciation of Euro also, Associated British Foods should be relatively better hedged in event of Brexit than more UK pure-play Next. Grocery (c28% of earnings) and Ingredients (c8% of earnings) businesses well diversified, and recovering sugar business (moving from c5% to c10%+ of earnings over next few years) has Chinese and African profit streams as well as UK."

See the rest of the story at Business Insider

The Bank of England is planning to launch a fintech accelerator that "will work with new technology firms to help us harness FinTech innovations for central banking."

Fintech businesses that get involved in the new accelerator will be invited to carry out "proof of concept" trials with the Bank. The BoE will then act as a reference for the firm in future if it is looking to drum up more business.

The BoE says it has "already carried out initial work in the areas of data anonymisation, cyber security and distributed ledger technology" and is now interested in looking at machine learning, data protection, and data analysis, among other things. Consultancy PwC confirmed they worked with the BoE on the distributed ledger trial, seeing if it could use the technology first developed to underpin blockchain.

The central bank announced the new programme on Friday, saying: "In return, it will offer firms the chance to demonstrate their solutions for real issues facing us as policymakers, together with the valuable ‘first client’ reference that comes with it. With time, the accelerator will build a network of firms working in this space for the benefit of us and them alike."

The Bank's governor Mark Carney hinted at a big announcement on fintech last month and Andrew Hauser, the Bank's executive director for banking, payments, and financial resilience, told a conference in April that central banks "can't afford to be Uber'd."

Hauser said at the time: "We need at least the technological capacity to run 24/7/365, even if the issue of whether we chose to use it is slightly more finely balanced.

"We need better data and analytics for people using our systems so that they can control their flows better." Hauser said the Bank of England is also looking closely at how it could potentially use blockchain technology in central banking.

A fintech 'reformation'

Governor Mark Carney was due to announce the new programme last night at the annual Mansion House dinner for top bankers in London. However, his speech was cancelled as a mark of respect after the killing of MP Jo Cox.

While Carney did not deliver the speech, the text of what he planned to say has been published on the Bank of England's website.

In it, Carney says:

FinTech has the potential to deliver more resilient financial infrastructure, more effective trade and settlement, and new ways to encode, share and analyse data.

For the financial sector, these could offer shorter, speedier transaction chains; greater capital efficiency; and stronger operational resilience. For consumers, they could mean more choice; better-targeted services; and keener pricing. For everyone, FinTech may deliver a more inclusive financial system, domestically and globally; with people better connected, more informed and increasingly empowered.

However, the Bank of England Governor says he does not think there will be a fintech "revolution" that will overthrow the hegemony of the banks but a "reformation." He says: "The balance of these forces may yield a third alternative – a reformation – a more diverse, resilient and effective system for consumers. One where large banks exist alongside new entrants who compete across the value chain."

Carney sets out a 5 point plan to help fintech startups get off the ground:

1. Give startups and fintech firms access to the central bank's payment settlement systems, currently restricted to 48 big firms;
2. Be open to startups looking to use the central bank's payment settlement service for securities and stock transactions;
3. Exploring the use of distributed ledger technology — first developed to underpin bitcoin, and known as blockchain — in its own activities;
4. Launching the fintech accelerator;
5. Taking a reasonable regulatory approach to the new sector: "FinTech should neither be the Wild West nor strangled at birth."

Carney concludes that: "With time, FinTech could mean a more open, more transparent, and more democratic global financial system." You can read the full text of the speech here.

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Why this Instagram star withdrew $1.2 million in cash — then deposited it the next day

When you’re setting priced as a freelancer, you might think about it in terms of how much time it takes you or what your costs are. You should also consider a less common factor: how much value does your client receive from the work you do?

Read more...

We’ve covered the basics for landing pages many times here at WordStream, from our favorite landing page tips and tricks to the best landing page tools you can use to amplify your landing page performance. However, today I’d like to take a look at some landing page strategies that go beyond the basics, so you can take your landing pages to a new level of conversion power.

You may have seen some of these strategies for high-converting landing pages before, but I’d like to illustrate some of the more subtle points as to why and how they can make your customer experience stand out. Some of these strategies might, in fact, be new to you. Either way, these real-world examples should provide a spark that you can employ in your own landing page optimization efforts to get significantly higher conversion rates.

But first, a quick note on landing page conversion rate benchmarks.

What’s a High-Converting Landing Page?

Our research indicates that conversion rates vary by industry, but averages generally fall between 2% and 5% for AdWords advertisers.

Does that mean you should settle for average? Of course not! There are lots of businesses out there who have managed to achieve higher conversion rates. WordStream did a study in 2014 that showed some advertisers – the best of the best – were getting conversion rates of 10% or more. That’s what you want to aim for!

Now let’s get on to the strategies that will help you raise your landing page conversion rates.

1. Incentivize Your Visitors with an Irresistible Offer

Vitacost does a great job of making an offer that helps close the deal right away. I’m a huge proponent of giving new customers an incentive to take action right now, and after about five seconds on the site this enticing offer pops up—a 10 percent discount—and it’s something the main competition is not doing. Given this, I’d be more inclined to shop with Vitacost since they’re giving me immediate savings.

Additionally, the page itself gives a clean, well-laid-out impression, and it makes the benefit statement clear: save up to 37 percent on organic foods. Specificity sells, and pinpointing it at this granular level makes it more believable.

Ultimately, the main takeaway here is that the offer provides visitors with something they can use right now.

2: Limit Choices

In this example for project management software, Wrike takes minimalism to the extreme. Often with software you’re given multiple choices, but in this case Wrike limits the offer to one main choice at ten dollars a month, billed annually, with a free plan available. They chose to use very little text and make the offer straightforward and to the point.

In this case they went counter to what’s normally recommended for lead gen situations, which is to use the standard three feature and benefit statements, include a list of plans available, and have a form to fill out.

In addition, this landing page stands out because of the eye-catching hero image, and it leverages credibility boosters with the Gartner mention and the big-name brand customers along the footer, both of which are best practices for landing pages.

3. Provide Customer Service with a Lighter Touch

Live chat is nothing new, but in this case American Eagle offers it in a less intrusive way than many others do. There’s little more annoying than the chat pop-up that comes out of nowhere like a pushy salesperson. In this case when searching for “men’s shorts,” the live chat sits in the corner ready for you if you want it. Of course, you have to give up your email address to use it—American Eagle wants to get something out of the chat, right?

In addition, American Eagle uses a nice header image that highlights their wide selection. We covered product-landing-page best practices recently here at WordStream if you want more tips on how to optimize them.

4. Go for a Test Drive

Webex’s landing page for webinar software really nails it when it comes to the test drive. You can either sign up as an individual or group to see the product in action before you decide to buy. This “hands-on” approach helps prospects visualize how they’d be able to use the software in their own lives, which can be a crucial deal-maker and help close sales.

The form is a bit long for my taste and would be something to test for sure. We covered landing-page forms last year and it warrants revisiting if you use a form on your landing pages.

In addition, following the three feature and benefit statements, Webex builds credibility a la McDonald’s by showing a running tally of the number of webinars they’ve hosted in the last month. This credibility booster falls right in line with what Dr. Rober Cialdini mentions as “social proof” in his widely read and quoted “Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion.” (If you haven’t read the book, I suggest you pick it up soon. It’s pre-internet but the principles stand the test of time.)

In the book Cialdini mentions that social proof—the fact that other people are using or buying the product—helps new prospects feel at ease about the purchase decision because they know lots of other people are customers too. I’ll reference more Cialdini later.

5. Provide Real-Time Social Proof

Similar to Webex’s running tally, Timberwolf Bay, a vintage home furnishings company, posts a running update of orders. You see where the person was and what they bought, and it’s updated in real time.

This little feature builds confidence in the company because, as Cialdini mentions, it implies that people just like you are buying from this website. Who wants to feel like they’re the only customer on a website? Also, it’s pretty fun to watch the orders pop up!

Another example (below) of this strategy comes from Zingerman’s, a popular food market in Ann Arbor, Michigan, except they put the running tally in the footer:

6. Use Scarcity and Urgency as Motivators

Here again Timberwolf Bay does a great job of using another of Cialdini’s principles: scarcity. When you’re looking for “timberwolf bay automobiles,” you’re shown the existing inventory. If you’re dying to get B.B. Korn Race Car, hurry. If you wanted the brass accordion “headlight” sconce, you’re out of luck.

Kidding aside, the real-time quantity updates can motivate people to buy now. Showing that an item sold out implies a) your company moves a lot of product and b) visitors need to take action because products DO sell out. The bottom line here is that scarcity motivates people to buy because we hate to feel like we’re going to miss out on something.

Building off the scarcity theme, we should also consider urgency. When we know a sale ends soon, we’re more apt to buy rather than wait. In the example below, Gilt does a great job with a countdown timer to let people know the sale ends soon, so they better act fast:

7. Show the Value

Everyone loves a deal, and on this page Eastbay does a good job highlighting how they’ve slashed the price on “men’s kobe shoes.” If Eastbay simply showed the new price, a visitor would have no context to put the price in perspective. Now, a potential customer will hopefully think “wow, this is a great deal, I need to take advantage of this.” At the very least, the shopper will bookmark this page to buy after doing some comparison shopping.

In addition, Eastbay highlights free shipping prominently in the header, so that’s even more incentive for the visitor to buy from this landing page.

The bottom line in this case: It pays to illustrate the value.

A Final Word on High-Converting Landing Pages

These have been just a few examples of landing pages that go beyond the basics of effective landing page strategy and execution. To be sure, landing pages and their tactics evolve constantly, and as digital marketers we have to always be testing to see what works.

What other strategies have you seen employed to create high-converting landing pages?

Find out how you’re REALLY doing in AdWords!

Watch the video below on our Free AdWords Grader:

Visit the AdWords Grader.

Reinforcement is a critical and an often overlooked component to a sales training initiative. We often have people email us asking for a quick training event for a sales kick-off or a mid-year meeting. While we are always happy to engage with any person who wants to do business with us, we often start the conversation with asking what outcomes the organization is looking to drive. Most of the time, their desired results can be achieved with a “quick training event.”

Perhaps the sales team is selling features and functions or the salespeople are having trouble getting to decision makers. One event may help, but it won’t drive lasting change. You need reinforcement to truly transform your sales organization.

Here are some of our best practices for reinforcing a sales initative. They should be the cornerstone to any training event you launch with your team.

1. Lead from the Front

You can never underestimate the importance of leading from the front. Leaders can’t just show up, give a few motivational talks and then get back to their golf game. Whatever initiative or program you are implementing, it takes top-level executive support to motivate and drive consistency. The C-level should be using the language of the methodology, reinforcing the value and importance of the initiative. (Before Force Management became GrowthPlay, the team produced some great content with The Sales Curmudgeon that really drives home this point. Check it out here.)

2. Equip Them with Consumable Tools

Statistics show that you only retain a small percentage of what you are taught in a training event. Therefore, you need to arm your sellers with content, tools and resources that are easy to use in their day-to-day operations. Think one-sheets not binders full of content. If your tools and processes aren’t easy to use and reinforce, the initiative will fail. Bottom line.

3. Establish Simple Evaluation Processes

Front-line sales managers need simple and objective tools to inspect and evaluate results in the early stages of transformation. A consistent management cadence provides a rhythm that managers can use to coach and reinforce key behaviors. Tools, like Opportunity Qualifiers and Pre-Call Planners, help leverage the methodology. Ultimately, this helps managers inspect opportunities and hold sellers accountable for the desired outcomes.

4. Execute Learning Over Time

Spaced-learning techniques have become commonplace in education and training. It’s an effective approach for your sales initative. This approach to training involves spreading training out over a period of time rather than cramming everything into an initial period of time. It allows learning to continue over time, rather than in one sales kickoff event. Short bursts of information can help keep critical learning points in front of sellers preventing sellers from reverting back to bad behaviors.

Want More Information?

Check out our eBooks on Sales Transformation in our Resource Center

Today’s news that the Financial Times has acquired content marketing firm Alpha Grid is further evidence of the seismic shifts taking place in the world of media and communications. The lines that used to exist between the disciplines of journalism and marketing are continuing to blur and dissolve, creating opportunities for media companies and corporates alike.

The FT is an interesting example of a traditional publisher that is grasping those opportunities with both hands. Back in September last year, the company announced the launch of content marketing suite FT2, with the mission to “bring carefully selected client content to the right audience at the right time”. With the launch of this division, the FT has formalised the practice of publishing branded, often paid for, content from advertisers – content that readers have reported as offering real value. In fact, branded content has proved so valuable for the FT that it is credited with driving a 30% increase in revenues.

Branded content has proved so valuable for the FT that it is credited with driving a 30% increase in revenues

Native content vs native advertising

Business Insider is another publisher that takes pride in working with paying customers to deliver high quality content to its 2.5 million daily readers. Around the same time that the FT was launching FT2, I attended a CMA breakfast briefing where Julian Childs, Business Insider Managing Director UK and Europe, gave an impassioned talk about the difference between ‘native advertising’ and what he calls ‘native content’. In his view, native content is defined by its thought leadership qualities and the ability to offer genuine insight. That’s a very different proposition to the click-bait style native advertising that has found a home on many news sites these days.

The challenges facing media organisations in today’s fragmented landscape have been widely reported. Publishers must fight ever harder to retain their audience and overcome the issues created by the rise and popularity of niche websites, social media and ad blocking technology. When done in the right way, branded or advertiser-sponsored content is one of the most powerful weapons in that fight.

Publishers must fight ever harder to retain their audience

High quality articles that are endorsed by respected brands like the FT will always attract attention, whether paid for by an advertiser or not. And that advertising revenue is essential if those same publishers wish to continue producing journalistic pieces. It’s a symbiotic relationship that has always existed and is simply evolving to keep up with the demands and sensibilities of today’s readers.

If native content is helping publishers bring together the best of journalism and marketing, then the same is true in reverse: marketing has gained value from the discipline and rigour of journalism. Customers and clients are looking for more than carefully crafted brand messages. They can spot marketing hype a mile off and will often turn away from anything seen as flimsy or unauthentic. The way to win their attention is through useful, interesting or entertaining content that adds something real and honest to their lives, which sounds a lot like journalism by another name.

Customers and clients are looking for more than carefully crafted brand messages

The best agencies have journalists and marketers

No content marketing agency is complete these days without one or more journalists on the team, bringing with them a deep understanding of how to craft a well-balanced story. The best agencies and in-house teams are combining journalism skills and marketing strategy to produce high quality content with editorial flair.

Journalists make great content marketers because they understand how to hunt out an interesting angle; how to conduct thorough research that’s underpinned with appropriate references; how to avoid overt commercialism and how to work in a high pressured, deadline driven-environment. They have also been taught to write snappy, succinct copy that gets people’s attention and is free of grammatical nasties. Of course, alongside all of those skills, journalists also been trained to hunt out corporate hyperbole and spin, so it’s fair to wonder whether a trained reporter would ever be happy in the world of marketing.

The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) addressed this topic last November in an article that asked whether it’s ethical for a journalist to work in content marketing. The article makes the point that well developed content strategy isn’t a pure act of self-promotion. It’s about addressing the needs of the target audience, whether that’s a need for information, advice or pure enjoyment. In that article, Scott Roen, vice president of digital at American Express, makes the point that the ethics of a content marketer, or a brand journalist as he otherwise calls them, can and should be the same as that of any other journalist. And when more and more traditional publishers are calling on their editorial staff to produce branded content, one has to wonder if there is even a difference between the two any more.

It will be interesting to see how this relationship between journalists and content marketers continues to evolve, and I suspect that the likes of the FT will be at the forefront of that continued change.

Welcome to the Executive Sales Leader Briefing, a new blog series I am doing every Friday. If you want to receive the Executive Sales Leader Briefing in text form in an email early Friday morning before it is published on the website, go to this page to sign up or complete the below information:   Top […]

The end-of-spring graduation season always brings out a variety of advice from guest speakers at universities across the nation. Though their words are intended for those just entering the workforce, many can also apply to those looking to make their own way and start a small business.

Here’s a look at several examples from recent graduation speeches.

President Barack Obama at Howard University (via Politico): “You have to go through life with more than just passion for change; you need a strategy. I’ll repeat that. I want you to have passion, but you have to have a strategy. Not just awareness, but action. Not just hashtags, but votes. You see, change requires more than righteous anger. It requires a program, and it requires organizing.”

Small business lesson: The president was largely speaking of social and political strategy. But strategic thinking is essential for entrepreneurs, and the initial steps of starting a small business should include serious analysis. Take this list of five basic questions of where to begin in marketing, by Greg Head of Smallbiztrends.com:

• “Who is your narrowly defined target customer?”
• “In which category does your business exist?”
• “What is your unique benefit?”
• “Who is your real competition?”
• “How are you clearly different from your competitors?”

“To make your tactics work better, to grow your business and bring sanity to your world, you have to decide on the single, simple answer to each of these questions and commit to not changing it for a year or two,” Head writes. “This is focus. And focus is almost always the difference between a business that grows profitably and one that never seems to gain any momentum.”

Oprah Winfrey at Johnson C. Smith University (via Yahoo): “Every stumble is not a fall, and every fall does not mean failure. Being human means you will make mistakes. And you will make mistakes, because failure is God’s way of moving you in another direction.”

Small business lesson: Learn from your errors, and use those lessons to navigate difficult times and challenges. As Mitch Rothschild writes for Entrepreneur.com, entrepreneurs should “reframe problems into lessons.”

“When the going gets tough, we all know people who start to lament, ‘Why me?’ But playing the victim doesn’t solve problems. Tough times are going to happen. The resilient leader asks, ‘What have I learned from this experience?’ Not, ‘What have I lost?’ The lessons of past experiences only help to inform future chances to do it better next time. That’s something all successful businesses and individuals understand.”

Paul Feig at USC Film School (via USA Today): “You want to make something great, but be cool while you’re doing it so people will hire you again. Because if you screw up and you’re an [expletive], they won’t hire you again. But if you’re nice and you screw up, then they’re like, ‘Let’s give him another shot …’ It will buy you one free pass.”

Small business lesson: The director of Bridesmaids and Spy must be skilled in the art of diplomacy. A small business owner will need that ability to have give-and-take discussions with clients, peers and staff members. As Caron Beesley writes for the U.S. Small Business Administration, diplomacy “opens the door to problem-solving and respect.”

“No one likes to be pressured or threatened into submission — whether it’s done bluntly or passive-aggressively,” she says. “But it’s going to happen — and the good thing is that this is your opportunity to really let your personality shine through. Handling negotiations with grace and diplomacy puts both parties at ease. … Diplomacy and poise on your part can go a long way to defusing even the trickiest negotiations and demands.”

J.K. Simmons at The University of Montana (via missoulian.com): “ … I mean wherever you are physically present, to also be mentally, emotionally, spiritually present. And by present I mean fully engaged, not staring at your damn smartphone all the time. I’m just another curmudgeon who likes to moan about how things were better in my day — which they were. Before smarty-pants-phones.”

Small business lesson: The Oscar-winning actor went old-school on the new graduates, even emphasizing the need to be on time and to use the turn signal. While many business owners are looking to capitalize on the strengths of millennials, there can be value with old-school business methods, as Paul Angone examines for Business Insider.

“Millennials’ anthem should be ‘HYBO’ — Hustle Your Butt Off. If you make a mistake, take ownership and don’t leave until you’ve helped remedy the situation. Don’t hide behind email. Pick up the phone, knock on someone’s door, and look people in the eye. Become a real, live person in the office, not a millennial who’s addicted to their iPhone. Millennials have huge dreams of making an impact, making a profit, or most of the time, doing both. Their big dreams are not the problem; the timeline for how quickly we think those dreams should come to fruition is. Don’t chase your dreams. Plant them in the best soil you can find and then water them every day with old school values.”

Michael Bloomberg, University of Michigan (via Yahoo): “The secret to success is not rocket science. It just requires true dedication and a willingness to go the extra mile. … Let’s put it this way: I know of no Nobel Prize winner who has stopped studying.”

Small business lesson: Entrepreneurs have to be willing to put in the work, and to examine ways to expand their own horizons. In a story for Entrepreneur.com, Jacqueline Whitmore emphasizes the dependability of those with a strong work ethic.

“You can be relied on to keep your promises,” she writes. “You are always on time and prepared for meetings, and deliver your work on schedule and on budget. Your reputation for reliability precedes you because you’ve proven over time that customers, clients and colleagues can trust you to do everything you say you will. In an uncertain world, your customers, colleagues and clients will appreciate the stability you embody.”

Ryan Seacrest at University of Georgia (via USA Today): “Make sure you happen to the day instead of it happening to you. But no matter the circumstances, you still only get one shot to make a day that matters.”

Small business lesson: The TV star is far from the first to make a “carpe diem” speech, but the thought behind “seize the day” certainly applies to business owners. There’s no room for a passive approach, as Cynthia Measom explores for Demand Media.

“Entrepreneurs are proactive,” Measom writes. “They have initiative and they are ready to use it to further their business. They look for opportunities to improve their company, such as implementing services or marketing products that allow their business to stand out from the competition. They are also open to opportunities that can help them expand their current business into new areas.”

When managers negotiate in organizations, with their bosses or colleagues, they do so in the context of how (or whether) they have negotiated before. They fall back into the roles they’ve traditionally played, and their counterparts expect that they will act as they have in the past.

In the leadership development programs that we run with for female executives at leading corporations, we use the term “Velcro” to describe these patterns of behavior, because like the sticky fabric, they can lock people into a weaker negotiating position that undermines their career growth and success.

Velcro can take many forms. Some of the women describe being stuck in the informal role of great producer, someone who is willing to take on ever more work even if it’s no longer relevant to their current position. Others have reputations as fixers, enlisted to clean up problems but without ever getting full credit for this work. Others are known as team players, who do whatever is asked of them for the good of the group, never asking if or how they will be compensated.

Recognizing one’s Velcro is the first step in breaking away from it. The second step is to know when people are giving you an “invitation to your Velcro” and responding in a way that puts you in a stronger negotiating position.

Consider a case study. Rebecca is a director in the technology division of a major financial firm. Over the past few months she spearheaded the development of a business case for a major transformation in her division and was therefore invited to apply for a VP role that would involve her overseeing the transition. When the company’s leaders appointed an outsider instead of Rebecca to the job, her boss offered her a retention bonus to prove that the firm still appreciated her work.

You and Your Team Series

Negotiating

There are two stories about what ails business investment in the United States that I hear frequently, and at first blush, they seem to be in tension with each other. They're not — and the connection between them leads to a different policy solution than is usually advanced by the people telling one story or the other.

One, examined in a series on Business Insider this week, is that corporations have become too disinclined to reinvest their profits. Instead, they are sending cash to shareholders, often in the form of share buybacks, in a way that is destructive of long-run value. This is a story about equity capital being too eager to leave firms.

The other, discussed for example in Josh Brown's February article about "abundance," is that low interest rates and quantitative easing have driven stock prices too high. Frustrated by low bond yields, investors are drawn to equities and willing to accept price-earnings ratios that do not appear sustainable. There is a parallel story on the venture capital side, with high valuations for private firms and free-flowing private capital that makes IPOs unnecessary, often for business models with no clear strategy to generate profits in the long run.

The second story is about equity capital being too eager to enter firms, a trend Brown alleges is leading to "malinvestment."

These two stories seem, at first glance, inconsistent with each other. But I think they are both symptoms of a single underlying problem — a problem that is not driven by monetary policy, shareholder value ideology, interest rates, or share buybacks. 

The core problem, behind all the negative symptoms discussed above, is a weak outlook for global economic growth. Population growth has slowed, productivity growth is low, and China's catch-up growth is tapering off.

In this environment, it makes sense that firms would reinvest less of their profits. Because of the bad outlook, they have fewer good investment opportunities per dollar of available capital than they used to, and they might as well send the excess profits from the existing business back to the owners.

It also makes sense that long-term interest rates are low. Positive risk-free interest rates exist because people prefer money now over money later, but because capital is not scarce that preference is not as strong as usual.

It also makes sense that valuations would be high, especially for firms with reliable income streams, and that investors would take gambles on frothy markets and fuzzy business models. Where else are they going to stick their money and hope to earn any profits?

These are all symptoms of a real problem, and it makes sense that people are alarmed by them, but the world's fundamental growth problems cannot be fixed by treating the symptoms. Raising short-term interest rates will not create the stronger economic growth conditions that would support higher long-term interest rates. Making it harder for firms to pay dividends and buy back shares will not give those firms good ideas about how to reinvest profits productively in a slow-growing economy.

What would address all these symptoms would be a solution to the root problem: Policy changes that would improve the global economic growth outlook. If growth expectations were higher, firms would be more inclined to reinvest their profits in the business. Long-term interest rates would go up, and shareholders would be able to demand lower P-E ratios. The higher cost of capital would make venture capitalists more discerning and discourage bubbles.

Unemployment would also be lower and wage growth would be stronger.

On one level, what I'm saying here is obvious: more economic growth would be good. My point is simply that the core economic question the world faces today is a growth question, and it's not going to be fixed through changes in shareholder policy or monetary policy.

How to promote real economic growth is a complicated and difficult question, but here are three ideas that, if implemented, would make it easier for capital to find a useful application.

Western governments should take advantage of low interest rates to devote larger shares of their GDP to infrastructure — but only if the investment is devoted to cost-effective projects that can raise productivity in the long run, not wasteful ideas like LaGuardia AirTrain to Flushing that are appealing solely because they are "shovel-ready."

China should reform its capital markets so investment performance is driven by the profitability of the underlying business — so capital in China is better directed to economically useful ends.

And Europe should fix its economic imbalances, so southern European economies are no longer shackled by monetary policy that cements in place high unemployment and economic stagnation.

All three of the above ideas are (in ascending order) extremely difficult to implement, and I don't expect any of them to happen in the next five years. But they are the sorts of things that need to be done to improve global growth prospects. These sorts of changes, not corporate governance, are where I would focus my energy to improve global economic performance.

"The Price of Profits," our series with Marketplace, looks at what happens when profits become a company's product. For more, visit priceofprofits.org.

FOR MORE FROM "THE PRICE OF PROFITS": US companies have spent $2 trillion doing something that has absolutely no impact on their business

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: These are America's 2 most hated fast-food restaurants

Organizations, whether businesses or nonprofits, almost universally pursue growth. In fact, 94% of the senior executives who responded to a recent global survey conducted by our firm, Strategy&, said that growth was a priority for their companies. Thirty percent said that growth was more important than anything else.

But the goal of sustained growth remains elusive. More than 60% of the executive survey respondents, for example, said they aren’t fully confident their company will realize its growth targets; 70% said it’s more difficult now to generate profitable growth than it was in the past; and 66% said knowing which growth avenue to pursue is harder than it was a decade ago.

A few companies, however, do succeed in growing year after year. They do so by building powerful growth engines. As described in Strategy That Works, companies like Amazon, Apple, Danaher, Haier, IKEA, Natura, and Starbucks are presented as having a value proposition that resonates with customers. Their value is supported by a system of distinctive capabilities, aligned with an entire portfolio of offerings.

In short, growth comes from the entire company, not from any particular product or service. If you build a robust growth engine on a strong foundation, rather than seeking individual opportunities, you can be confident knowing that sustainable expansion will follow.

Consider the sports apparel company Under Armour. Its goals are extremely ambitious; it is not just a pioneer in developing new fabrics for active wear, but in developing wearable electronics. In everything it does, the company pays as much attention to its growth engine — its ability to manage innovation and launch consistently valuable products — as in any particular garment or device it sells. It stretches itself (in part through acquisitions of complementary fitness-app companies like MyFitnessPal and Endomondo), but it does not get ahead of its capacity to realize its ambitions.

Other companies known for their capabilities are similarly focused on building growth engines. Starbucks, for example, has a strong presence because CEO Howard Schultz, deliberately developed a growth plan grounded in its capabilities. The business has a distinctive customer experience capability, a prowess at creating premium food and beverage products, and an ability to recruit and manage thousands of retail employees with high loyalty and low turnover. With all this in place, Starbucks can move with assurance to expand.

We know this approach flies in the face of some of the conventional wisdom about growth in turbulent times. Many business experts advise companies to search for rapid growth avenues, regardless of whether they have the capabilities to compete effectively. Too many companies try to expand wherever rapid revenue opportunities lead them, diversifying into new products, entering new markets, expanding through mergers and acquisitions, or investing in organic growth (which often means stealing market share by releasing products or services similar to those of your competitors).

The conventional approach focuses your attention on questions about your external environment:

• Where should we grow?
• Where are the markets with opportunities?
• What do they offer us?

These are obvious questions, to be sure, and their appeal is clear. They lead you to new revenues — at first — but the end results are often counterproductive. Pursuing growth this way can put tremendous pressure on your enterprise to extend into new markets that seem hot — but where your enterprise has no capabilities to win. You are likely to discover, along the way, that you lack the capabilities you need, and must develop them from scratch. This is difficult and expensive, especially if it must be done quickly.

Initiatives like these tend to be the growth efforts that fail; wasting a lot of cash, and — worse — diverting your company’s attention from sustaining and growing its successful business core.

One recent example is the collapse of SunEdison. In 2015, it had been one of Wall Street’s most favored alternative energy companies. In April 2016, it filed for bankruptcy. According to Fortune, “The company’s tale of woe stems from overreaching ambition, [trying] to grow too big, too fast, and in too many directions.” Its capabilities as a semiconductor company fit naturally with photovoltaics, but did not naturally translate to its new wind energy, battery, and construction/installation businesses. Even though these sectors also qualified as “clean energy,” the capabilities they required were too diverse to manage.

The growth engine approach that we believe in focuses your attention on questions related to sustained growth:

• What is our unique advantage?
• How do we add value in ways that others do not?
• What do we do better than our competitors that allows us to add value?
• How can we build the kind of capabilities that will propel us forward, time after time?

The Chinese appliance maker, Haier, has used this type of thinking to expand around the world — most recently in its purchase of GE’s appliance business in the United States. In every market Haier enters, its products vary — for example, it makes washing machines for farmers’ vegetables in China and for thick robes in Pakistan — but it applies the same capabilities: consumer-responsive innovation (tailoring products for local markets), operational excellence, mastery of local distribution networks, and on-demand production and delivery. Haier’s engine for growth developed over years; it is the heart of the company’s identity.

If you start with your own capability-based growth engine, you’ll tend to move outward from your core in a deliberate fashion. You’ll start with in-market leverage, growing within your core. You can offer new products and services to your existing customers that complement your existing offerings.

Second, you can proceed to near-market expansion. This is also called expansion through adjacencies. You broaden your geographic footprint or product assortment, but only when your capabilities system will help you.

Third, you can develop new capabilities to complement your growth engine: opening up new avenues as you expand around your core identity.

Finally, on rare occasions, you may offer a truly disruptive product or service — one that redefines your industry, as genetic engineering of plants redefined the agricultural chemicals industry and music streaming redefined recorded music. After these innovations, the entire structure of the industry changed, including the business models of the companies (like Monsanto and Netflix, respectively) that promoted those innovations.

All four forms of growth reinforce each other: for instance, full deployment of in-market growth often leads to innovation of new business models, which helps you identify and capture near-market expansion opportunities, which makes your capabilities stronger, which makes you more adept at in-market growth, and so on and so on. The engine of growth is inherent in the company, not any one product or service.

Haier, for example, continually conducts at least three of these four forms of growth. It regularly offers new products to its original Chinese market; it currently has an apartment-design service for people moving into urban areas; and offers water filtration systems tailored for 22,000 different neighborhoods in China, each with a different pollution profile. Other examples of companies who are performing capabilities expansion include Natura and IKEA, which have learned to manufacture products with very high levels of environmental sustainability.

Unfortunately, most companies aren’t focused enough on the advantage that comes from having a growth engine. Here, too, they realize part of the problem: 61% of the survey respondents said they aren’t doing enough now to realize their company’s growth targets. Chasing growth won’t help them (or you); the only viable alternative is to build the kind of company that enables you to grow as a matter of course.

In 2015, nine years after founding TOMS Shoes, Blake Mycoskie stepped down from the position of chief executive.

He chose as his replacement Jim Alling, who'd previously served as chief operating officer at T-Mobile and held multiple executive roles at Starbucks.

When I spoke with Mycoskie recently, I asked him why he relinquished some of his power and what his current role entails.

According to Mycoskie:

I was CEO by default, but I never was a CEO. I mean I'm a founder, I love the beginning of things. I love working with the creative team, but running a business, dealing a lot with HR, dealing a lot with processes, that's never really been my strength. Once I was in a position where I could bring on and attract world-class CEO talent, like Jim, our CEO, I was super excited to do so.

He went on:

Success in business is about playing to your strengths as a company and as individuals. And my strengths are definitely in telling our stories, getting people excited about our mission, working with the marketing and creative teams to create the product and the messages we want to share, and now I can focus all of my time on that because now I don't have the responsibilities of being a CEO.

Mycoskie's decision to select a new CEO is supported by research. One study found that the more control the founder retains, over both the CEO role and the board, the lower the value of his or her equity stake. In other words, retaining total control over your company may stop you from building the most profitable organization possible.

 

In a 2013 LinkedIn post, LinkedIn's cofounder Reid Hoffman shared his thoughts on why hiring a new CEO is often a founder's best option. Five years after cofounding LinkedIn, Hoffman hired Jeff Weiner to replace him as CEO.

Hoffman echoed some of Mycoskie's sentiments about the difference between being a founder and a CEO:

To be a successful growth-stage CEO, you need to be ready to manage a 1,000 person organization and devote substantial time to time consuming things like running meetings and other business process. You can't just do the exciting stuff like making the final call on product and speaking at conferences, while shuffling off everything else to the mythical COO who loves doing all the dirty work and doesn't want any of the credit.

Mycoskie told me his decision to hire Alling as CEO has worked out well for TOMS: "It's a really great partnership with Jim, business has never been stronger, and our employees are a lot happier, too because they have someone day-to-day that they can go to."

Read the full interview with Mycoskie »

SEE ALSO: On the 10th anniversary of TOMS, its founder talks stepping down, bringing in private equity, and why giving away shoes provides a competitive advantage

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: Former Defense Secretary shares leadership lessons from five US Presidents

With it being the season for the NBA Finals, Stanley Cup series, Copa America and UEFA Euro soccer tournaments, the best of the best talent in terms of teams and individuals for their respective sports have been on display. As with every team sport, there are fundamentals that, when mastered, help elevate the skill and abilities of both the individual player and the collective squad.

The same can be said of professionals across the business world. And, interestingly enough, many of these fundamental skills have strong reflections in skills needed to excel in team sports. In fact, there are a myriad of critical lessons that transfer from the court to your career, providing you a critical edge to your individual abilities while enhancing the performance of your cross-functional teams when embraced and mastered.

Here’s a look at five fundamental sport skills that can also elevate your career:

Play Your Position

“My responsibility is to get my twenty-five guys playing for the name on the front of their uniform and not the one on the back.” – Tommy Lasorda

As a coach, I am constantly telling my players to ‘trust their teammates.’ Even with lesser talent, teams with better position-play can overcome squads stacked with talent. Teams that play the game more as individuals than a cohesive unit often have egos serving as a driver for the team’s play. This myopic style with players who lack trust in their teammates and refuse to ‘do their job’ as Bill Belichick, head coach of the New England Patriots, says tends to result in disjointed execution.

When players get out of position and try to do things outside of their set responsibilities things can often go wrong as plays break down. Performing your role, whether as part of marketing, product, sales, client support etc. is one thing, but having a clear understanding of how your position coordinates with and supports the roles across other teams can be huge differentiator. Too many individuals focus squarely on their set tasks rather than responsibilities, failing to focus on how their roles impact those around them, while others tend to assume duties outside their set responsibilities ‘just to make sure it gets done.’ This latter approach of ‘doing it all’ tends to cause confusion, waste resources and erode trust across the team.

Fast Break: When everyone on the team knows their role and plays their position consistently, the squad has increased understanding, greater trust and tends to perform at a higher level.

Talk It Out

“Effective teamwork begins and ends with communication.” – Mike Krzyzewski

As a coach, I am regularly telling my players that ‘nothing gives them an advantage like communicating consistently.’ Teams that communicate on of the field or court tend to perform at a higher level, but more importantly have stronger trust among their ranks. They know the play being run, understand what everyone’s doing on the field and can quickly identify open opportunities take advantage of. Failing to communicate can transform a team’s play into a guessing game, wondering what each other is doing next.

The same goes for organizational teams. Communication delivers clarity and also fosters understanding. A lack of consistent communication forces team members to make assumptions and basically guess as to what their team members are focusing on or doing next. A simple as it sounds communication is one of the biggest shortcomings teams on the court or in the conference room tend to face. In fact according to a Root study, 71 percent of surveyed businesses say that communication improvement on something as simple as the company’s strategy is a focal point of their organization. Teams that communicate early in often understand the play and the steps towards achieving the objective in order to find success together.

Fast Break: If you want to excel and build trust with your team over-communicate on your decisions and actions on a consistent basis. But remember, communication is a two-way street that requires all sides to participate.

Play with Patience

“Whatever you’re doing, you must have patience.” – John Wooden

As a coach, I am constantly telling my players to ‘play with speed and control.’ As the old adage goes, ‘good things come to those who wait.’ Forcing or rushing plays can result in missed opportunities and create chaos for a squad and opportunities for your opponent. This happens more often then not when a player opts to go it alone to make a big play devoid of support or understanding from his teammates.

Patience, on or off the field, takes discipline and determination. In today’s world of instant gratification, many want instant results, which often turn out to be ill-execute plans that lack details, optimization, and efficacy. Patience requires strategy – to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your opponent or objective and identify emerging opportunities to capitalize on. Focusing on speed without control typically results in chaos. Patience largely results in control and precision of execution.

Fast Break: Success is often bred with patience, but patience doesn’t mean to just sit and wait on the sideline. It means you’re understanding your situation, identifying opportunities and executing on success in a methodical approach. It means you play fast with control.

Blend Your Skills

“If you’re not getting better you’re getting worse.” – Joe Paterno

Most sports require an array of skills. To excel at soccer, for example, players typically need a combination of strength, speed, finesse, stamina and agility, as well as refined footwork. This requires a spectrum of training elements in their regiment in order to refine their established skills and expand their fundamentals to enhance their play.

The same can be said for your career. Sitting back and relying on your established skillset will have you quickly falling behind as today’s digital world as it continues to evolve. Take the discipline of marketing for example, long gone are the days of the traditional focus on the ‘4 Ps’ (price, product, place and promotion). Savvy marketers are consistently refining their skills across both art and science from campaign measurement and SEO optimization to content development and creative design. Evolving your skill set through enhancement and expansion are powerful ways to strengthen your role, establish your position, deliver value and get ahead in your career.

Fast Break: Diversifying your skills on the court makes you a more valuable player. The same holds true in your career; picking your area of expertise and expanding your skill set provides tremendous value to your team and your future.

Follow Your Shot

“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.” – Wayne Gretzky

One of the most consistent lessons I teach my own players is to “follow your shot.” That is to never quit on a play and avoid assuming that your job is done just because the ball leaves your possession. Great things happen on second change rebounds, but only for those players who stay in the play through the whistle.

In your profession, this equates to simply failing to follow up. A simple differentiator between many who achieve success and those who struggle with finding it is the fact that the former individuals tend to “follow their shot.” Failing to follow up on an inquiry or invitation to meet or make a connection displays apathy or even incompetence with even basic tasks. Those who excel consistently follow up on their opportunities, doing what they say they’ll do. Again, this tends to be a rare skill in today’s fast-paced world.

Netanya (Israel) (AFP) - As European defence budgets rise in the wake of increased threats, Israeli companies are seeing a boost in sales, further solidifying the country's image as an arms industry leader.

The increases have come despite, and perhaps partly aided by, Israel's continuing occupation of Palestinian territory -- with Israeli firms themselves highlighting that their products have been tested in conflict.

European spending on defence and security had remained roughly static in the past decade, but Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014, Islamist attacks in France and a wave of refugees from the Middle East have encouraged a spike.

Across the continent, defence budgets are expected to increase by 8.3 percent this year, according to a recent report by a group of think tanks including the French Institute for International and Strategic Affairs.

Israeli companies, many of which have strong backing from the state, are capitalising by pushing new products.

Twenty-nine of them displayed technologies this week at the Eurosatory conference in Paris, one of the world's largest land defence exhibitions.

Exports to France, which has strongly criticised Israeli settlement building in the occupied West Bank and is overseeing a peace initiative that the Israelis oppose, have spiked.

In 2014, the total number of exports of both homeland security and defence technologies from Israel to France amounted to slightly over $150 million, according to the Israel Export Institute.

That figure more than doubled to $355 million in 2015, when France was hit by two major jihadist attacks.

In 2016, Israel is projected to overtake Italy to become the world's seventh-largest defence exporter -- by far the smallest country in the top 10, according to arms industry analysts IHS Jane's.

There has been a "substantial increase" in European interest in Israeli technologies, said Ran Kril, vice president of international marketing at Elbit Systems, one of the country's largest weapons companies, with profits of just under $900 million last year.

That has come "after long years in which the defence budgets in Europe were declining," he said.

- Seeing through trees -

At a media exhibition of Elbit's new technologies last week in the Israeli city of Netanya, products on display included a radar system the company said was first specifically designed to locate people through trees. 

A salesman pitched it as being perfect for European countries seeking to locate migrants hiding in forests.

"Maybe you are not going to shoot them, but you want to bring the police forces or other means," he added.

Kril confirmed that Elbit, which provided drones to protect stadiums during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, was also involved in the ongoing Euro 2016 football tournament in France, though he would not specify how.

Other Israeli firms, too, are finding increasing interest.

Saul Gold from AgentVI, which specialises in smarter CCTV technologies, said they had seen a five to 10 percent increase in inquiries in the past six months from northern Europe.

Among those they had met with about their systems was Brussels airport, the scene of an April suicide bombing that, along with an attack at a metro station, left 22 people dead.

Gold said European airports were increasingly interested in learning about security measures at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport, often cited as having the highest security measures globally -- though critics allege blatant racial profiling.

- Israeli edge? -

The desire for Israeli technologies can also pose an ethical challenge for European nations that have long criticised its policies towards Palestinians.

Late last year, the European Union introduced labelling on all products from settlements in the occupied West Bank and Elbit's 2015 annual report identifies "calls in Europe and elsewhere to reduce trade with Israel" as among the threats to its growth.

Many of the technologies being sold to Europe are first used in conflict with Palestinians, including the 2014 war with Hamas and other militant groups in Gaza.

Indeed for companies, this experience is often a major selling point.

"These countries very much admire the operational experience of these systems," Kril said. 

"Most of these products and technology are fielded and are bringing results daily. This is very important for the customers, especially the ones that need immediate technology and immediate solutions."

Gilles Perez of the Israel Export Institute said: "The Israeli edge is where the security ecosystem allows the Israeli companies to have many pilots, many tests at home."

"They can test it with the (Israeli military), with the special security forces."

Sari Bashi, Israel and Palestine director at Human Rights Watch, said during the 2014 Gaza war the watchdog had documented "violations of the rules of war that appear to rise to the level of war crimes in Gaza using some of these weapons."

"That kind of field experience is not something I would be proud of," she added.

Join the conversation about this story »

As consumers, if we are not in an active buying cycle, we are in a passive buying cycle. Like it or not, in the course of our daily lives we are exposed to and consume so much information and content that buying something or acquiring something including experiences, goods, food or resources is always on our mind. However, certain trigger events (tangible or intangible barriers that when met or breached cause another event or action to occur) cause us to move from a passive buying cycle into an active one.

In terms of B2B marketing, we know the buyer’s journey can be long and is often complex, involving many different buyers and typically buying committees from across an organization. Just as in our consumer lives, B2B buyers are either in a passive or active buying cycle. So how can marketers identify buying triggers for different buyers and why does it even matter?

Understanding the triggers–
By understanding buyers inside and out, marketers can anticipate their buyer’s challenges and how they are likely to try and solve them. For example, if a new law is implemented, such as the Affordable Care Act, it will have a radical impact to the buying patterns of healthcare buyers. It is these triggers, among others, that may cause passive buyers to become active buyers.

External or internal triggers-
Knowing what external triggers impact buyers (CEO, VP of marketing, HR department, board members or Chief Privacy Officer) in the healthcare example above helps marketers develop insights into buyers. Internal triggers may be things like fear of non-compliance, growing out of a specific system or internal pressure to improve performance. Internal triggers may affect buyers differently, once again, highlighting the need to understand what motivates and influences your buyer(s).

It’s about the buyer-
While triggers are the impetus for buyers to purchase and do not necessarily impact vendors, it is vital that vendors understand them o they can message appropriately. As marketers we will utilize this information to create content, include key words on our sites, and develop relevant blog posts around topics that relate to triggers. For examples of how to utilize triggers in marketing content, read the evergreen post by Velocity Partners.

Identifying triggers-
So how do you get a better grasp on your buyers and what their external and internal triggers are? Ask them. Ask them what they read, when and how they prefer to consume content, what events or circumstances pushed them into a buying process, etc. However, don’t stop there. Do additional research into the market and find those who are not your customers, but fit your buyer profile to get a different perspective. The goal is to obtain both a broad and detailed understanding of your buyer. This is where marketers can develop deep insights into their buyers and build a strategy to support ongoing education that will eventually lead to a conversion (sale).

Knowing and understanding buying triggers is one of the most important aspects of the creation of buyer personas and the start of understanding the buyer’s journey. Given that in many instances the buyers begin their buying process without involving sales, it is imperative that content be developed to speak to the buyers as their buying journey begins. Educating your buyers and helping guide them through the process via relevant and timely content, all begins at that all too important trigger event.

One of the principal goals of inbound is to bring in leads organically and there is no better tool to achieve this than your website. The aspects of website design that you choose to employ have a direct impact on how visitors behave on your site and whether or not they convert. Though there are many ways to design a website with leads in mind, these four tactics are effective starting points for driving conversions on your site.

Homepage

Your homepage is the face of your business. It sees the most traffic on the site, so it should be visually appealing with images and clean, concise copy. Your visitors should be able to quickly understand your value proposition and find what they are looking for, whether it be a CTA right there on the homepage or navigation to another page on your site. Keep in mind also that visitors will be accessing your site from a range of devices and if your site isn’t responsive, or designed to display appropriately on all devices, it can easily turn potential leads away. And with about half of consumer traffic to leading websites coming from mobile devices, it’s obvious why a responsive site is crucial.

Example: slack.com

Slack’s homepage pulls no punches when it comes to defining and sharing their value proposition, to make “working lives simpler, more pleasant, and more productive.” The page is aesthetically pleasing and simple to navigate, featuring a call-to-action front and center, encouraging conversions. Slack’s homepage also offers social proof, featuring real organizations (Charity: Water in this case) who use their product and how it is helping them achieve their goals. Pretty impressive that the featured group on this page is using Slack to “change the world!”

Bonus: Check out this great infographic from HubSpot on the critical elements that every homepage should have.

Landing pages

There are several elements to a landing page that effectively converts visitors. Just like your homepage, it’s important to include a strong headline and a clear description of the benefit your visitors will get from your offer and what problem you will help them solve. Unlike your homepage, your landing pages should not contain menus or navigation. For lead generation purposes, you want your visitors’ attention focused strictly on a call to action or form. An appropriate form should capture the information you need without being too long or intrusive and thus turning your visitors away. It’s also best practice to include an image and immediate access to the content that you are offering.

Example: HubSpot

When discussing a great landing page, why not turn to the pros? On the page shown here, HubSpot clearly outlines the purpose of their offer, how it can be used to the downloader’s benefit, and a few of the key questions that readers can expect the report to answer. The page design is clean and simple, features an image, and incorporates a form that emphasizes immediate access to the report.

Calls-to-action

An intriguing call-to-action (CTA) can have a significant impact on your conversion rate. Best practices for CTA design include using colors and copy that are visually appealing and incorporating action-oriented words like “register now” or “learn more.” Your copy should be concise and direct, yet persuasive. Make it easy for your visitors to convert by including CTAs on multiple site pages as well as on your blog posts. CTAs are a design aspect that should be experimented with to see what your audience finds attractive. If your CTAs aren’t performing the way you would like them to , try changing copy, design, and placement on your site and tracking the results.

Example: buffer.com

The buffer homepage employs simple CTAs that urge visitors to get started with their product immediately and at no cost. The minimalist design and color draws the eye right to the CTA buttons. buffer also wisely uses multiple CTAs at the end of their blog posts, one encouraging blog subscription and one to sign up for their product.

Blog

Although maybe not thought of as a conventional design tactic, incorporating a blog into your website is crucial to lead generation nonetheless. Your blog attracts visitors, improves SEO for your site, and helps to establish you as a subject matter expert, all helpiong to increasing conversions. According to Hubspot, 82% of marketers who blog daily acquired a customer using their blog, as did 57% of marketers who blog monthly. A blog is an instrumental tool in pushing visitors to your landing pages – remember those CTAs I mentioned earlier?

Example: Game Ready

To help grow their business, Medical Device manufacturer Game Ready implemented a keyword and blogging strategy that helped optimize their website, boosting their online presence and improving lead generation. Blogging regularly was a key factor in the 110% growth in organic leads they saw within the first year.

What web design tactics have you implemented to help drive leads?

The job of a sales rep is to show up on a call (or meeting) knowledgeable, skillful and with the right assets to help prospects buy. If there’s any indication that any of these elements are not there, you need to invest in sales enablement now. These gaps in efficiency and effectiveness are robbing your company of money.

Google trends shows the growing demand for this crucial business function.

The verdict is in, and the research proves that sales enablement has a dramatic impact on revenue growth.

Studies by Aberdeen reveal that sales enablement leads to 62% higher team quota attainment, 205% more revenue growth, 725% higher sales velocity, and 23% increase in lead conversion rate in organizations with structured sales enablement programs versus organizations without it. That’s how powerful it is.

It’s clear that sales enablement is a sales driver, not just a nice-to-have. Many high growth companies are deploying this function with incredible results, as they jump on the opportunity to supercharge the revenue generating side of the business. However, other companies are laggards, and they suffer the consequences.

Where does your company stand?

What is Sales Enablement and Its Scope?

Sales Enablement is an evolution of sales ops and marketing but elevated to a more strategic, proactive and hands-on level. With more tools, more resources, and a more complex sales process, you need a person or department who owns this and can deliver it to sales reps.

There’s no single agreed upon definition of sales enablement, as it’s still maturing and evolving in function and scope, but I like the definition by Brainshark in Sales Enablement For Dummies: A systematic approach to increasing sales productivity, by supporting reps with the content, training, and analytics they need to have more successful sales conversations.”

Though the responsibilities of sales enablement is still being defined, we can begin to clarify its scope. The following four functions are key in a successful sales enablement program:

• Content: Sales enablement must make sure that quality content is created and sales reps can find and utilize the right content at the right time.
• Training: Reps must be trained in not only sales skill, but product, marketing/industry and business skills as well.
• Tools and Technology: Once the strategy is established, you must guarantee adoption of the technology to execute against the process. This function also overlaps with training, as tools and technology add functionality and become more complex.
• Strategy and Execution: There are a lot of moving parts in that sales enablement has touches and influences, which is why it has to be thoughtful and strategic. However, at the same time, sales enablement goes beyond that to executing on strategy to win deals, hire and onboard, forecast, budget, and performance reviews.

Many companies are bought into the vision of sales enablement, however, according to research by Highspot and Heinz Marketing, there’s a huge disconnect.

When you ask about the importance of activities that are under the sales enablement umbrella, there’s a Grand Canyon sized gap between how important companies rate those activities and how they rate their current efforts.

But there are clearly 8 keys to any successful sales enablement program:

The Program is Customer Centric: It’s becoming more understood that sales needs to know more about marketing, marketing needs to know more about sales, but what’s missing is the customer. We all need to know more about our customers! Once we align the sales process with the buyer’s journey, then we’ll be able to deliver the right information to the right customer at the right time and place to move the sale forward. This ultimately will affect your most important metrics: pipeline, revenue, lifetime value and customer advocacy.

The Programs Includes Sales Process Development: As I mentioned, strategy is part of sales enablement’s role. You must have confidence in your process, and you must be constantly iterating as you learn. Sales enablement’s interactions with the various teams can help deliver those insights. Sales enablement is a very hands-on role, as you need to be talking to all the people who are closest to the problem.

The Right Tools and Technology Support the Sales Process: My approach to tools and technology is don’t let the tail wag the dog. What I mean by that is nail the process first, and technology will follow. If you have a well defined sales process, it becomes a matter of finding the right technology to help accomplish your goal. Too many people and organizations get caught up chasing the newest, shiny objects and build their process around the technology. That said, there are a lot of great tools and technologies that will help sales teams utilize content, execute strategy, and make sales reps more effective, like PandaDoc and PersistIQ.

The Sales Systems Are Integrated: Though the sales enablement function is relatively new and the vendor space has only begun to get traction, cutting confusion and non-active selling time is crucial. Having tools that that automate tedious tasks and seamlessly integrate with all the other tools reduces time spent on admin related tasks, like logging activity, transferring data, and finding the right content.

Playbooks Are Accessible and Up-To-Date: Simply put, a playbook is a sales facing asset that tells people how to prepare for a series of conversation, what to do in those conversations, supporting materials needed to sell, and how to drive certain outcomes. How many companies have playbooks that are collecting dust and pulled out only when onboarding new reps? Chances are those are out of date. It’s important that a rep not only has quick access to updated playbooks, but also uses them regularly. In the quickly evolving sales landscape, it’s often hard to keep the playbook up to date and relevant, but you must prioritize that if you want to maintain your competitive edge.

Access to Better and More Insightful Data: Having the right data can be your competitive advantage, but it’s not easy, and there are a few aspects that you have to get right. First, you have to collect the right data. Most sales enablement, sales acceleration and sales automation platforms will track your most important metrics, so next, you have to regularly report it. And finally, the most important piece is analyzing and taking action. The numbers themselves don’t mean anything — it’s what you do with them.

Streamlined Workflow: Since the key objective of sales enablement is to increase a rep’s active selling time, integrations are going to be key. Reps should spend less time going back and forth from tool to tool. Every minute more spend in your CRM or any other selling tool is time that a rep is not selling.

Content Optimization: I touched on it in the previous section, but since it’s such a critical part of sales enablement, it deserves more attention. The two problems that need to be solved regarding content are quality/value and discovery/utility. There’s an overwhelming about of mediocre content on the web. By creating more valuable content, you’re helping reps stand out in the noise, establish expertise, and build trust with prospects faster.

When it comes to discovery/utility, among the many studies conducted, they all agree on one thing: less than 60% of the content being created for sales is not being used. This is in large part because either the content is not easily accessible and discoverable, or reps simply don’t know the most appropriate time to use which content. It’s sales enablement’s job to make sure the right content is being created and reps can find and use said content.

In the End

In his book To Sell is Human, Dan Pink explains that sales has changed more in the last 10 years than in the last 100. However, this is wrong. The reality is that the buyer has changed (especially in a complex B2B sale), and sales is only now catching up.

Though there’s no single agreed upon definition of sales enablement, no definitive scope of the function, and no clear department that owns the program, there is one thing that we can all agree on – sales enablement should be a mindset. If the foundation of sales enablement is the customer and the ultimate goal is revenue, then all parts of your organization have a vested interest and should support this function. You need a true sales culture where all departments are on the same page. Once everyone truly understands this, you can begin to impact the bottom line in a major way.

For a more in depth look at sales enablement, join us and PandaDoc for a webinar on “How to Use Sales Enablement to Increase Pipeline and Drive Revenue.” Register here.

The post 8 Keys For An Effective Sales Enablement Program appeared first on OpenView Labs.

If I told you there was a sales strategy that could multiply every closed deal into three more, enable you to enter every sales conversation with built-in trust and interest, and significantly increase your close rate, would you be interested?

Yeah, I thought so.

The secret is out: This strategy is real, and it's called referral selling.

But in our time on the HubSpot Sales Blog, we've noticed a strange and frankly disheartening trend. Posts about referral selling -- how to ask for a referral, how to mine your existing network, how to build a referral program -- don't perform well. But posts about proactive outreach perform through the roof.

Why is that? Proactive outreach is harder and more time-consuming than referral sales. It requires more average upfront research to find one good fit prospect, and there's no guarantee that you'll ever connect with them.

Referral selling, on the other hand, is the very definition of warm outreach. By asking your happy customers which of their acquaintances are a good fit for your product and might be in the market for a new solution, you're achieving two things:

1. You’re being referred by a trusted mutual source. As a result, the new prospect is more likely to want to speak with you -- you've clearly passed their acquaintance’s litmus test, so you're viewed as more reliable and trustworthy.
2. You're asking your acquaintances to do some light qualification work for you. Instead of taking a shot in the dark, you're focusing on prospects who have been identified by your own customers as likely to want and see success with your product.

Think of referral selling this way. Most sales processes follow a linear path. Starting with proactive outreach starts you on square zero. Starting with inbound leads brings you up to square one or two. But referral selling? You're already at square five.

If you're ignoring referral sales or haven't made it a regular part of your selling routine, you are missing a huge untapped source of leads. We're in the Information Age and all empowered to find the answers to whatever questions we might have on our own, but the sheer volume of information out there means that often it's just easier to ask the people we trust.

In fact, HubSpot CEO Brian Halligan sat down with some of our department heads to find out how they make decisions, and they unanimously replied that they most trusted their professional network to make recommendations of products they’ve used with success.

And that’s where referral selling comes in. If you can tap into these networks of trusted acquaintances, you can enter your deals with one foot already in the door, jump to the top of prospects’ vendor lists, and speak with prospects who are already looking for a solution.

Sound good to you? To get started with referral selling, check out these resources:

• Connecting Beyond the Click: How a Referral Program Seals Deals
• The 7-Step Referral Checklist Top Salespeople Use to Close More Business
• How to Magically Turn 1 Sales Referral Into 2
• The #1 Question Sales Reps Need to Ask Their Customers
• How to Get Referrals That Give You 5X More Business
• The 10 Un-Commandments of Referral Sales