Relationships do matter in salesA quick search of Amazon for books about how to sell will give you access to nearly 700,000 ideas about how a sales person can win faster and more often. One topic receiving little press lately is the value of the relationship between buyer and seller. The days of stopping by with donuts in hand and getting the decision maker to place an order are probably gone, but strategic relationship plays are alive and well. Read more
Choose your customers wiselyIn the mid 1960s, a small local bank named Crocker Bank was determined to expand their business. They had a prominent and wealthy clientele but also an aging group of customers. They wanted to diversify and attract other customer segments. This is not unlike many businesses today, but the questions looms: Are all customers good customers? Read more
Each week, the Fast Track Tools training company and the Cubicle Ninjas design firm work together to publish a template that makes it easier for you to communicate your ideas. As we wind down 2010 and move into 2011, we are running a 10-week series on time line templates. Read more
Black Belt, schmack belt, why Six Sigma?A quick Google search says we have over 50,000 options for sales seminars to teach sellers how to win more deals. Of all the options, would you expect to find the General Electric (GE) system known as Lean Six Sigma to be included? You should. Xerox’s recent success with 8,000-plus sellers is rooted in these principles. Read more
Don’t be too busy to say thank youDoes it ever seem to you that “all you ever needed to know you learned in kindergarten?” Saying “thank you” is one of those important life lessons. In the overstressed, busy world where many of us live and work, sometimes, saying thank you may not seem a high priority. Read more
Each week, the Fast Track Tools training company and the Cubicle Ninjas design firm work together to publish a template that makes it easier for you to communicate your ideas. This week we bring you a template inspired by the Microsoft Excel functionality called Sparklines which allows you to put a chart or graph in a single cell. Read more
How to make a presentation interactiveAs a presenter, you always want to know your audience. When presenting to hundreds of audience members at a large event, you could troll the lobby and get a feel for how some will react to your content. Some venues may even offer interactive polling where you could open some questions and get immediate feedback from audience members holding voting devices. Read more
Use the principles of war in your next presentationIn business, we may tend to think of our competitors as “the enemy.” But, we rarely engage our competitors directly. Rather, we fight a two-front battle against forces that have the power to utterly destroy our ability and will to fight. Those forces are one, our customer, and two, ourselves. Read more
Each week, the Fast Track Tools training company and the Cubicle Ninjas design firm work together to publish a template that makes it easier for you to communicate your ideas. This week is the fifth of a five-week focus on personal branding. Read more
Small ideas grow into big ideasThe debate over what is true in the recent hit movie Social Network will go on for years. The fact that Facebook has grown at extreme rates since the site was launched is not debatable. Facebook has more than 550 million users. If it were a country, it would be the third largest in the world. Read more