Lack of preparation is the number one challenge to making a good presentation and we must all learn an effective process of preparation. In my preparation, this process includes the 3-D Outline (describing the What, the Why, and the How) and will cut your preparation time in half!
Selling Like a Leader: Welcome to New World Selling TM
Last week, I was chatting by phone with a friend of mine who happens to be the CEO of a major player in the high-tech industry. We were talking about how, when, and why he decides to get involved in the sales process. An hour or so into our talk, almost as a lark, I decided to ask him for his take on the current state of the economy and how the events of September 11 had affected his own business. His answer was concise and it came quickly: “I believe it’s a new world,” he said, “and it’s a new world economy which is going to take new world marketing. That’s our working assumption for growing and succeeding from this point forward.”
Calling the CEO Its More Important (and Trickier) Than You Realize
When was the last time you called the CEO of your very best account?
If you’re like most of the people I work with, you had to think twice about your answer – or, even worse, you don’t even know the CEO’s name! This state of affairs, in my experience, is an excellent way to set up the humbling phenomenon known as “losing your biggest source of revenue the instant your competitor targets it.” Feeling a little sheepish now? Good. That’s a necessary prerequisite. Keep reading.
What CEOs Who Sell Know
At some level, of course, all business leaders must “sell.” But why do so many CEOs, owners, or presidents either remove themselves from the sales process altogether … or limit sales exchanges to “closing” or “top-dog” meetings?
Secrets of Reciprocal Linking Strategy
Whether you’re new to the internet or a seasoned online marketer, developing a plan to increase the number of reciprocal links back to your website can help you bring more highly targeted traffic to your website as well as improve your ranking in the search engines.
License Fees vs. Linux Hype: and the Winner is…
Don’t Believe the FUD … or the Hype
While Microsoft spreads fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD) over free software, the advocates often oversell community software on pure enthusiasm; there are truths on both sides. You can’t blame the geeks who laboured years without recognition, budgets or marketing: By their ideas alone, whole governments are now choosing their work over wares honed by the world’s richest vendors! Between the FUD and the hype, there are community alternatives for most business needs, but there are also rough edges.
The Three Keys to the CEO Sale
There are three elements necessary for a CEO sale: knowledge, action, and currency.
My PDA, Myself
I used to be one of those people who kept everything in their head. I prided myself on my ability to memorize phone numbers and birthdays, and knew my schedule without writing anything in a calendar.
Then I became a mom.
I am now one of the most forgetful people on the planet. I don’t know if it’s due to the fact that I am no longer responsible for just myself (keeping track of my schedule, my daughter’s schedule, the school’s schedule, the play dates, the after school lessons and more)… or if I lost brain cells during pregnancy … but my short term memory has turned to mush. These days, I need to write everything down… more than ever, now that I have a business of my own.
What You Can Learn from CEOs Who Carry a Quota
Last week in Chicago, I had the good fortune to meet for the first time with the senior vice president of sales for a major manufacturing concern. When I asked whether the CEO of his company made a habit of making sales calls, my new acquaintance’s response surprised me.
The ART of Business Operations: Rules, Tools and Glue
Ok, so you’re growing the business but have you paid attention to its infrastructure and the extent to which it can support this growth? In today’s technically dependent work environment attention must be paid to the tools and glue that binds and keeps a business operation functioning efficiently while preventing it from falling apart under the pressure of expansion.
Personal computers have become to the office of today, what hand calculators were thirty years ago, you’ve got to have them. They are the tools for today’s highly efficient operation, permitting team members to organize, communicate, manipulate and produce a number of products efficiently to support the business.