Make your sales pitch better with this simple formula. It’s easy to get yourself twisted in a knot when trying to pitch your company in a sales situation. In an effort to make your best case, your brain is often flooded with ideas: Where do I start? What do I say? What is too much …
Category: Customer success stories
Telltale signs of top talent – The Sunday Snippet – [6.2.14]
Spotting talent in employees and bosses is difficult. Here’s how to do better. I often meet with individuals – and companies – in various states of searching and hiring, and it’s amazing how difficult it is for good people to get connected with other good people and companies. Claudio Fernández-Aráoz is a senior adviser at …
Loving your life – The Sunday Snippet – [5.25.14] – by John Stevenson
For graduates, for start-ups — for anyone. This is the time of year when visionaries, sages and accomplished individuals of arts, sciences and business descend upon educational campuses nationwide and dispense their wisdom to new graduates. Here’s a bit more for the collection. Even though he was only a fictitious character in the hit movie …
Room for doubt – The Sunday Snippet – [5.18.14]
The best leaders are humble leaders. When it comes to successful leadership traits you naturally think of confidence, decisiveness and forcefulness – someone who tells people what to do and how to do it. That style can be useful, especially in time-sensitive, life-or-death situations like medical emergencies or combat. Sports competitions are another area for …
Legendary leadership lessons – The Sunday Snippet – [5.4.14]
Leadership Lessons From Jack Welch Ten years ago, and for many years before that, you couldn’t pick up a business periodical without seeing Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, on the front, in a quote, or being referenced in some way. Welch retired in 2004 but is credited with some of the most enlightened leadership …
Your Big Opportunity – The Sunday Snippet – [4.28.14]
Forget the giant strategy deck. There’s a shorter (and better) way. Business strategy is notoriously difficult to articulate, absorb and execute. Strategy sessions often begin with 2-inch thick PowerPoint presentations and then devolve into foggy, multi-tangent discussions with a barely perceptible plan of action. Harvard Business School professor John Kotter and his colleagues at Kotter …
Baby steps, big benefits – The Sunday Snippet – [4.20.14]
Implementing small changes can make big differences. Baby steps can lead to bigger goals. That’s the whole idea behind Caroline Arnold’s book “Small Move, Big Change: Using Microresolutions to Transform Your Life Permanently.” She suggests using “microresolutions” to kickstart change and higher productivity. Here are a few of her recommendations in her own words: Resolve …
Tighten your writing – The Sunday Snippet – [4.13.14]
How to make every word count in your writing. If you want people to absorb and act on what you write, whether it be a report, memo, or email – it must be short and every word must count. Here are three ways to trim your writing and say what you want in fewer words: Refine …
What success looks like: using personas to sell – The Sunday Snippet – [4.6.13]
Using personas to sell: How to identify and visualize your ideal clients and customers. My friend and sales pro Brad Roderick recently wrote an article for ENX Magazine on how to create marketing personas to better reach and convert clients and customers. Brad has been in sales and marketing for over 30 years and is …
Next play – The Sunday Snippet – [3.30.14]
Commiserate. Celebrate. Move on. The Final Four teams for the NCAA Basketball Championship are being decided this weekend and this post from a couple of years ago seemed timely. Duke was bounced early from the tournament, but the lesson is a good one. Duke’s coach Mike Krzyzewski has won more games than any other men’s …