Communication

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Are You Playing to Win?

Your #1 job as a leader is to create a compelling vision of winning, then keep yourself and everyone else in the organization focused on it with laser-like intensity. Are you focused on winning and moving towards it each day, celebrating milestones along the way? Or do you play to not lose? When an organization lacks a clear destination, it usually has many ill-defined ones. Employees feel unmotivated and uncommitted. Time, talent, and resources get wasted on products and projects that go nowhere. And people end up working on their own personal agendas rather than doing what’s best for the…

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The Dangers of Sensory Overload

sensory overload

Call me an old fogey, but the fact is we live in a very over-stimulated world. The real issue is not so much that we’re constantly in sensory overload. It’s that we’ve become desensitized to most of the stimuli bombarding our senses. This automatic tuning out of sensory input enables us to cope in today’s information overloaded world. But it does not serve us well at work.

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3 Tips for Better Cold Calling

cold calling

As a sales force development consultant, I have worked with sales teams of all shapes, sizes and industries. Every team thinks they are “different” when it comes to their product and how it should be sold. And while I often hear “our industry is unique. We rely solely on referrals”, I can tell you that every company in every industry relies on word of mouth—yours is no different.

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Stop Confabulating!

Dictionary

“We know what our employees really want or need without asking. Our customer relationships are in great shape. That‘s the way everyone in our industry does it, so why should we do it differently? We don’t need to slow down to plan or communicate; everyone here knows what to do. Sure it’s happening elsewhere, but technology won’t disrupt our industry.”

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Leverage Resources

Videoconference

In working with a client today, he was telling me how he was proactive in sending out some communication to his clients that they needed, but didn’t think through it enough so got bombarded with phone calls wanting to know more information on the communication they received. We talked about how to do this differently next time.

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Treat Me Right

customer service

Just because you think you are doing a favor for your clients, it doesn’t mean you’re not short-changing them. I am sure that the hotel I stayed at believed that I wanted convenience and speed. With that, they are right, but by giving me that convenience, they cut out the personal touch.

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Does Your Website Stand Up, Stick Out in a Crowded Market?

dailyblogma

As you know, I’m here to help you find that “unique” factor in your life and in your business to help you stand out among the competition because to blend in means to go unnoticed. And people don’t buy from people they don’t notice. The website is an extremely valuable tool, as it may be your only chance to hook your customer. In my business, as a motivational speaker, if they don’t like what they see in thirty seconds, I am out. And I never even knew that I was in.

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Do Your Elevator Pitches Stand Up and Stick Out?

elevator pitch

As you know, I’m here to help you find that “unique” factor in your life and in your business to help you stand out among the competition because to blend in means to go unnoticed. And people don’t buy from people they don’t notice. And today I want to talk about vendor/sponsor elevator pitches. As a motivational speaker, I attend a LOT of conferences, most of which include vendors or sponsors who are often given opportunities to stand in front of the entire group and introduce themselves. And I watch eyes glaze over as one by one the vendor runs up, spits out some memorized commercial, smiles, waves, and runs off. And I shake my head, wondering if they are aware that…

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Are You Making the Right Connections?

dailyblogma

When ranchers first began raising cattle on the wide-open plains, they used the Osage orange as fencing material. But the thorny bush took a lot of time and effort to transplant and grow. Eventually, someone hit on the idea of fashioning wire fences patterned after the Osage’s sharp thorns. This innovation made it affordable to fence vast areas of land, and led to the practice of animal husbandry on a much larger scale.

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Networking for Hermits

Businessman Shaking Hands with Businesswoman

Networking for Hermits, Beginners and Newbies is a free downloadable (pdf) guide-book for people who are new to networking or are interested in starting a networking group. Networking is not about selling to the people in the room, it is about earning the chance to sell to their 250-1000 contacts. Most people who are new to networking think that when they are asked to give a short commercial introduction that they are selling to the room. This is not the case. In a commercial introduction you are telling people in a very succinct way: What problem exists for your targeted…

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Is PowerPoint the New Birth Control?

bc

Your audience may be more bored with PowerPoint than you think. A recent Sliderocket survey proved that 24% of people polled would rather give up having sex tonight than have to sit through another PowerPoint presentation tomorrow. 32% admitted to falling asleep during a presentation, 20% dozed off so often that they’ve lost count. PowerPoint may be the answer to population control.

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Mobile Marketing as a Strategy

Industry-Executives-Have-High-Hopes-for-Mobile-Payments-276x300

Mobile Marketing – there’s a broad topic. The spectrum is broad, and consists of texting, mobile couponing, survey response, voting, video email, QR codes (2D barcodes), LBS (location based services), mobile web sites and mobile landing pages.

While there is no silver bullet when it comes to marketing, the use of technology is by far becoming the all-important medium for advancing customer interaction. Let’s take a look at one component; mobile marketing through texting.

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Print is Dead for Obituaries

bell

We all know the Internet and the social media revolutions have rung the death knell for traditional newspapers. Print newspaper sales are in deep decline, as advertising revenues have been diverted to other media. As out population embraces digital technology and abandons traditional print, there is a brand new market currently under served.

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