Categories
Human Resource

Sales Leadership Excellence: How to Recruit & Retain More High-Producing Sales Leaders

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Article Contributed by Gregory Stebbins
As a sales leader, have you ever felt like you were at war in your business?
No surprise there because modern business is based on a military model. However, today’s business environment is rapidly changing requiring sales managers to look at new and different approaches to leading sales organizations.
Now the question is: what will replace the old business model?
You have probably heard of the idea that everything is based on either fear or love.
If today’s business model is based on fear, then the answer to what will replace it is apparent.
How the World of Business & Getting Sales Became War
In the 1500’s Niccolo Machiavelli wrote The Prince where he answered this question: Is it best to be loved or to be feared. Machiavelli wrote, “The answer is of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved.” He related this to military models, providing examples of Hannibal and others.
As time progressed new business models arose. The master/apprentice paradigm was created as business owners looked for ways to increase productivity with a largely uneducated work force. Frederick Winslow Taylor, author of The Principles of Scientific Management, proposed what was a thinly disguised military model. From then on, fear was injected into the workplace in continually greater ways.
Why Your Sales Leadership Style Must Change
As work becomes less about muscle and more about intellect, sales leadership styles need to change. Today, we have an ever-increasing number of “knowledge workers.”
We also have a new generation entering the sales workforce –The Millennials.
These workers have loyalty to their manager and sales team, but not to the company. Managing them through fear usually results in them voting with their feet, and finding a different type of company to work for.
Now, with baby boomers increasingly leaving the sales workforce there is a rapidly growing shortage of qualified workers. So how do you recruit more members for your sales team? And, how do you turn them into high-producing sales leaders.
How Showing Love Will Help You Recruit & Retain High-Producing Sales Leaders
Do you have employees who tell you they just love their sales job or the work they do? Do you have employees who complains loudly and constantly about how screwed up their sales job is and especially they work for including you?
Which type of employees is more productive for your sales organization?
There are many reasons why people love their jobs:
– Some people love business because of the money they make.
– Others love business because of the recognition they gain.
– Some love the security it provides for their family and themselves.
– Some love their work because it allows them to contribute in making a difference.
Once you know what causes a worker to enjoy their work, you can provide that experience they want motivate them to become a high producing sales leader. And, when people love their work, they’ll tell others. This means more people will want to work for your sales organization.
However, there’s a lot more to love than that. Love is unique in that it is a choice, an attitude, and an outcome all at the same time. So, regardless of a work situation or its circumstances, a person can choose to love. The trick is to create a work environment where this form of loving is at least allowed and at best, encouraged.
Here’s a step in that direction…
How to Create a “Loving” Sales Organization
The famous cartoon sailor, Popeye, had a great statement: I yam what I yam and that’s all what I yam.” If more people followed that, there would be less fear—and more room for love in the sales organization workplace. However, most people, not having been trained otherwise, choose to serve their ego. This automatically perpetuates the fear-based Machiavellian model.
When a person adds an adjective to the words, “I am,” they are declaring an ego position, which inherently has fear attached to it. It looks something like this: “I am a sales manager.” If I have an ego position in being a sales manager, which I have declared by saying I’m a sales manager, then I will either consciously or unconsciously choose to protect that position. Inherent in the protection is fear, specifically fear of loss of my identity as a sales manager.”
Is it different if you choose to declare, “I am loving?”
No.
The same thing happens: You need to convince others about how loving you are, even if you’re not feeling particularly loving today.
The challenge for most people is declaring, “I am,” and not adding anything else to the declaration. It’s too amorphous. It has nothing others can relate to.
Here’s the most interesting part. By stating “I am,” with nothing attached you have declared your freedom. You can choose to be love unconditionally. You could also choose to hate unconditionally. It’s your choice.
In today’s world of knowledge workers who will job hop in a New York minute, which choice do you think would attract more qualified sales leaders to your sales organization? This is not a trick question. Support your workers and associates in knowing they are whole people doing a job, not being the job. In that awareness, fear falls away, job enjoyment and satisfaction increases and the whole company moves into the new paradigm of enhanced excellence, productivity… and loving.
About the Author:
Sales Psychology Expert Gregory Stebbins has helped more than 20,000 sales professionals better understand their customers so they can outsell their competition. Now with his book, “People Savvy for Sales Professionals” sales managers can help their sales team understand a simple, yet groundbreaking plan to winning your customers’ trust and business forever. Get your free sneak preview at: http://www.peoplesavvy.com/book.htm

Categories
Operations

Print Newsletters vs. Email Newsletters – 6 Reasons Why You Should NOT Just Do an Ezine

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Article Contributed by David Gruttadaurio
With everyone bombarded by email overload, do you really think your ezine is being read?
A Nielsen Norman Group Report revealed that the typical email newsletter gets 51 seconds of your reader’s time.
That was three years ago. Today, many say its closer to 26 seconds. And, that’s if your email newsletter is even opened.
You’re Not as Popular as You Think
While you believe YOUR ezines are special and opened like gifts on Christmas morning, remember this: Dozens of emails are routinely wiped out daily in one swoop with the push of the delete key.
Even if the reader recognizes your name, you can be expunged just because they’re having a busy day or your email got caught in a large block of spam.
Now, I’m not suggesting that you stop doing email newsletters. In fact, I advise you to do an email newsletter on a weekly basis. But, I also suggest doing a monthly print newsletter.
Here’s why…
6 Ways Print Newsletters Beat Email Newsletters – And Why They Need to Be Part of Your Marketing Mix
1. Printed mail gets delivered – It’s never blocked or caught in spam filters. Faulty connections, email authentication and webmail service idiosyncrasies are not issues. And, you have no worries about connection speeds.
2. Print newsletters have more perceived value – Think about it: How many companies are willing to do this? Your clients aren’t stupid. They understand the energy, cost and time required to send them a great newsletter every month. It will get their immediate attention.
3. Print newsletters let you use unlimited amount of images – A picture really is worth a thousand words. Print newsletters are not shackled by bandwidth. That means you can use a variety of text, graphics and formatting styles to capture the interest of your clients.
4. Print newsletter are sticky – Print newsletters have great ‘hang-time’. Not only are they likely to be read from start to finish, they usually get passed around. Hand-along readership can be as high as four-to-one. Talk about free marketing!
5. Print newsletters offer convenient and comfortable reading – Printed newsletters are much easier on the eyes. Reading articles of any length on a computer screen is uncomfortable and often inconvenient. Plus, a print newsletter allows you to mark sections you find interesting, take it to work and leave it there to be picked up by workmates.
6. Print newsletters stand out and get noticed – By using color, logos and a familiar return address, a print newsletter is easy to spot. With an inbox filled with subject lines, every message looks the same.
Here’s Your Best Bet
Make no mistake. There is a place for electronic communication with your customers. Websites and email are an important part of any business.
But the hands down best choice for keeping customers and getting more referrals and building relationships is to include print newsletters within your marketing mix
You can even offer your customers a choice. They will see that you really care about what they want, not just what you are willing to provide for them.
And that’s what relationship marketing is all about, isn’t it?
About the Author:
Print Newsletter Marketing Expert David Gruttadaurio was tired of wasting money on marketing that didn’t work. So he searched for a marketing tool that would give him more clients for his cleaning business. Then he found newsletter marketing! Through print newsletters he was able to triple his sales. Now, discover how he got and retained more clients with his FREE “Profit Exploding Newsletter Secrets Report” at http://www.NewslettersMadeForYou.com

Categories
Newsletter

BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 78

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Cover Story
Better Support From Japan: Bras For Men
Kramer really was on to something after all. The ‘Men’s Premium Brassiere’ is the number one wishlist item being devoured at Rakuten, the online Japanese store. The male bra trend is sweeping the country…
Continued in BIZNESS! Newsletter Issue 78 >>>
Top Stories From CoolBusinessIdeas.com
– Servinity Network
– 3-D Printers
– LED Blow On-Off Candles
– Green Christmas Ornaments
– Bike Power Charger
– Speed-dating For Babysitters
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Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>
Top Stories From GetEntrepreneurial.com
– 5 Marketplace Implementation Lessons From A Corporate Strategy Execution Consultant
– Become A Possibility Thinker
– Keys To Dealing With Problems
– 5 Simple Tasks To Delegate So That You Can Free Up More Time
– 6 Reasons Why This Economy Is Good For Startups
– 7 Reasons To Grow Your Business With Ezines
– Sole Trader Basic Accounts Income And Expenditure
Continue reading these top stories in the BIZNESS! Newsletter >>>

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Categories
Planning & Management

5 Marketplace Implementation Lessons from a Corporate Strategy Execution Consultant

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Article Contributed by Scott Glatstein
The best-laid strategic plans often go awry once exposed to the light of day and the rudeness and ruthlessness of reality.
Former President Lyndon Johnson understood that. He often told a story of a man who had applied for a job as a flagman at a railroad crossing. The man was told he’d be handed the job if he could pass a test consisting of just a single question
The applicant was told to imagine that he was a flagman at a crossing consisting of a single track when he suddenly observed the Continental Express bearing down from the east at 95 miles per hour. Coming from the other direction was the Century Limited at 100 miles per hour. With the trains only 500 yards apart, the man was asked, what would he do under these circumstances? Without hesitation, the would-be flagman responded that he would go and get his brother-in-law.
Puzzled, the railroad examiner inquired, “What good would that do?”
The job applicant promptly replied, “He ain’t never seen a train wreck.”
Clearly the would-be flagman didn’t understand the overarching strategy of his potential employer (prevent accidents) nor his potential role in executing that strategy. Unfortunately, this is not unlike the current state of corporate strategic execution as evidenced by the train wrecks (AIG, Lehman Brothers, Citigroup, and the automotive industry) we see everyday in the marketplace.
How would I know? Well, my name is Scott Glatstein and I help companies execute their strategies in the marketplace for a living. In fact, I’ve been doing so as a corporate executive and a consultant for over 25 years.
I even wrote about strategy execution in my book, “Strategy Activation: How to Turn Your Vision into Marketplace Success.” In this book I present a breakthrough, holistic planning discipline that links strategic vision to marketplace reality.
Here’s What I Learned During My 25+ Years Executing Corporate Strategy:
1. Organizations who have mastered the intricacies of translating strategic vision into marketplace execution are, far and away, more likely to outperform competitors in key areas like:
– Revenue growth
– Profitability
– Customer satisfaction.
This is particularly true when the economy falters. When money tightens consumer confidence falls and commerce slows. As a result customer needs and expectations change. Every spending decision becomes an exercise in deploying limited resources. Whether it’s a consumer considering a night out on the town or a manufacturer trying to preserve margin the decision to spend money is not taken lightly. And the tolerance for imperfect execution melts away.
2. The old disjointed execution methods don’t work anymore.
Historically, work has been divided into two parts: strategy and execution. Top executives wrote the marketplace strategy, which always looked good on paper. Everyone else was supposed to execute it. However, many necessary steps and important questions were usually skipped over when moving from theory to implementation. For example:
– Would employees be able to implement the marketplace strategy given the new expectations placed on their performance?
– Can the company execute its strategy within its existing culture, reward system, or fundamental workflow processes and systems?
If you want to succeed in today’s difficult marketplace than you need to break down the historical wall that exists between strategy and execution.
3. Corporate strategic plans fail when there is no disciplined approach to their execution.
Strategy has to be more than a feel-good presentation shared with your managers, shareholders and the media. It has to be woven into the fabric of your organization. This means you must go beyond articulating the typical strategic plan. You must translate your marketplace strategy into specific employee roles and create the infrastructure and processes that enable them to fulfill those prescribed roles.
4. Strategy fails when companies fail to recognize that existing tools and methodologies will NOT enable success.
It’s difficult to implement a new strategy without changing the way your organization works. Too often, though, we redefine employees’ roles with little regard to the systems and processes that guide and enable their work. Your business processes and systems must meet the demands of your new strategic vision. Do your customer-facing and internal workflow processes enable the customer experience defined by your strategic vision? Do your tools facilitate communication and information sharing across the organization and enable the completion of the specific tasks that deliver your marketplace vision? Pursuing a new strategy with old capabilities is a recipe for disaster.
5. Strategy execution can improve as executives streamline daily activities and realign them so they are in harmony with the company’s overarching go-to-market strategy.
I bet every division across your organization thinks it’s different and therefore needs its own unique tools and workflow processes. In most cases that’s just not true. While customization may be appropriate in some instances, one must not lose sight of the broader organizational advantages of standardization. Consistent information and task tools support a consistent approach to the marketplace and allow employees to move seamlessly from one part of the organization to the next with less training. In short, standardization can bring more organizational flexibility and consistency to operations. And internal consistency drives consistent marketplace execution.
These difficult times call for a disciplined, thoughtful approach to execution of strategy in the marketplace. I created the Strategy Activation® planning approach to facilitate corporate strategy execution excellence. Apply it to your business and you will achieve higher revenue growth, profitability and customer satisfaction.
About the Author:
Corporate Strategy Execution Consultant Scott Glatstein, President of IMPERATIVES, LLC turns market opportunities into record-breaking profits with effective marketplace strategy planning & execution. Now for the first time, with his new book, “Strategy Activation: How to Turn Your Vision into Marketplace Success,” Scott unveils his groundbreaking plan for higher strategic profits. Get your FREE SNEAK PREVIEW at: http://www.strategyactivation.com

Categories
Online Business

The Ezine Queen’s 7 Reasons to Grow Your Business with Ezines – The Most Effective Online Sales Tool

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Article Contributed by Robert Skrob
Business owners across any and every industry are constantly on the lookout for effective (and cheap) ways to market their products and services online. Looking beyond the inundated world of advertising many have found the email newsletters or ezines to be one of the best, inexpensive online sales tools.
Alexandria Brown, known as the Ezine Queen and Author of Boost Business with Your Own Ezine, is one of them. As one of the leading authorities on email publishing, she is a proud advocate of using the ezine to drive sales.
According to Alexandria, offering a free ezine is important because most people are surfing the net for information, not with the intent to buy something. She calls ezines the “bait”. If you can establish yourself as a credible source for information and build a large list of people who are interested in your information, you will create “built-in” buyers. Now, anytime you introduce new products and services you will market to an already-existing customer base.
Here Are The Ezine Queen’s 7 Reasons to Grow Your Business with Ezines Now
1. Ezines Make It Possible to Grow a Mailing List Full of Sales Leads.
By offering a free ezine, you make it possible to collect contact information from tons of current and prospective customers, allowing you to market to them all at once. In every issue of your ezine, you can share information about your products to a targeted audience you already know is interested in your service.
2. Ezines Provide an Effective Means for Promoting Your Products.
Ezines give you the opportunity to demonstrate how great your product is by sharing free examples of what you have to offer.
3. Ezines Help You Position You as an Expert in Your Niche.
Your subscribers will come to see you as an expert simply because you offer good information. Experts sell more and can charge more.
4. Ezines Help You Keep in Touch with Customers.
Ezines help you stay on the radar screen of every past, present and future customer. It’s your job to remind your customers that you are still in business. So keep yourself in front of your prospects so they think about you first when they are ready to buy.
5. Ezines Spread the Word About Your Business Effortlessly.
When you share quality information with your subscribers, they will forward that information to their friends, family and colleagues with just a click of the mouse.
6. Ezines Are an Ideal Way to Get Contact Information from Your Website Visitors
Most people visiting your website will not buy during the first visit. That means you should do anything you can to contact these prospects again. It takes several times for potential customers to see your message before they will take a chance and buy. An ezine gives customers a reason to stick around, and you the opportunity to continue marketing to them.
7. Ezines are Cheap and Easy to Publish
Ezines are easy to design and there are no printing or postage costs. Best of all, you can get your messages out much more quickly than traditional mailings.
About the Author:
Robert Skrob, President of the Information Marketing Association teaches new entrepreneurs and small business owners how to build 6 and 7 figure income information marketing businesses simply by modeling top experts like Bob Regnarus. Now you can get his FREE Video revealing how 5 info-marketers easily created and marketed fast-selling products & how you can too. Get free access now at http://www.infomarketingstartup.com