Top Sales Techniques by PBR

6 Ways To Avoid Pointless Pow-Wows

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:07:22 -0600

Unnecessary work meetings can rob you of time you (and others) can be using to actually accomplish things. Sure, communication is important -- you need to keep your colleagues in the loop. However, it's also easy to overdo it. Before you know it, every little thing turns into an occasion for a meeting or conference (possibly with a side of bagels or danish). If the meeting organizers have valuable information for you and your co-workers, that's fine. But just as often, the meeting ends up being an exercise in aimless chit-chat (to say nothing of overeating) that only drains away valuable time for all concerned. Author Nicole Blades shares six secrets for pruning away unnecessary meetings in Sidestep Pointless Powwows, Part 2 of her January 2009 Women's Health Magazine article Work Less, Do More. Try the following list of... 6 Ways To Avoid Unnecessary Work Meetings Decide whether you need to be there. Is your presence truly essential? If not, send your regrets. Avoid meetings with no agenda. Ask for one, and if none is forthcoming, politely decline. Schedule meetings to last one hour. If you're in charge, impose a strict time limit. Starting and ending on time gives all conc...

How To Untangle The Web Of Distraction At Work

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 13:24:32 -0600

E-mail distraction at work is a big problem with employees at most companies. Even the most industrious workers occasionally (or even not so occasionally) take a moment to e-mail friends about weekend plans, or check their Facebook pages, or any number of things. In the January 2009 issue of Women's Health Magazine, writer Nicole Blades warned in her article Work Less, Do More that while some employees see chilling on the company clock as a worker's right, all those mental breaks and email distractions are costing you. According to Kathleen Alessandro, president of Michigan consulting firm Energized Solutions, "E-mail pings, phone calls, blogs, IMs, texts, cubicle chitchat, and undefined meetings are taking an enormous chunk out of your plan for a productive day." Alessandro estimates that the average worker unwittingly wastes about 5.6 hours a day, considering one intrusion occurs every seven minutes and lasts an average of five minutes (including the time it takes to remember what you were doing before the interruption). That adds up to 68 work distractions daily! Blades and the experts she consulted have many helpful suggestions to avoid email distraction, helping you get more...

Can You Sum Up Your Accomplishments In 6 Words?

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:37:20 -0600

Can you sum up your accomplishments Haiku style? Few of us could, but in his Business Week article "Leadership in Six Words," author John Baldoni suggests that being able to do just that is important for career success. Leadership in Six Words Once upon a time Ernest Hemingway was challenged to write a story using only six words. Impossible, some thought. Not for Papa, as Neal Conan explained on NPR's Talk of the Nation. The next day Hemingway produced this: "For sale. Baby shoes. Never worn." Clare Booth Luce, according to columnist Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan, once told President John Kennedy that "a great man is one sentence." Noonan writes that Lincoln's life could be summed up as "He preserved the Union and freed the slaves." Scott Eblin adapted the concept to summing up one's leadership legacy. "It takes time and effort to boil down the essence of what you're trying to do to a short and memorable idea." Reducing one's life to a handful of words is a mighty challenge. Creating a six-word memoir, a concept inspired by a project conducted by Smith College's magazine, can be a useful exercise in self-analysis, particularly if you apply the process to reflecti...

Study Shows Employees Crave Meaningful Feedback from Managers

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 14:16:03 -0600

Leadership IQ, a Washington, DC-based research and training company, directs one of the largest leadership studies ever conducted. Their work has appeared in Fortune, Forbes, Business Week, CBS News, ABC's 20/20, Fox Business News and many more. The results in this eye-opening article were compiled after the Leadership I.Q. team surveyed 3,611 workers from 291 business and healthcare organizations. New Study: Managers Are Ignoring Their Employees Note to managers: Employees want a lot more attention and feedback from you, even if it's sometimes negative. According to a new study by Leadership IQ, 66% of employees say that they have too little interaction with their boss. And this number is up from 53% in May, 2008, the last time this study was conducted. But employees don't just want warm-and-fuzzy interactions. While 67% of employees say they get too little positive feedback, 51% also say they get too little constructive criticism from their boss. What's worse, employees who said they didn't get enough feedback were 43% less likely to recommend their company to others as a great organization to work for. This study discovered that not only is the quantity of feedback l...

The Promotion That Got Away, And How To Learn From It

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:36:09 -0600

Eilene Zimmerman writes the "Career Couch" column for The New York Times. I was particularly impressed with her timely advice in her September 27th, 2009 column, "The Promotion That Got Away," and I wanted to share some of her helpful suggestions. 1. You've just been passed over for a promotion you feel you deserved. You're shocked, but don't want to mishandle the situation and make things worse. What should you do? First, calm down. You may feel as if you've just sustained a body blow, but you need time to put this decision into perspective and analyze it. If you're feeling emotional, try to say very little at first, because you could unwittingly end up doing something counterproductive, says John Beeson, founder of Beeson Consulting in Manhattan. "Your boss is probably feeling guilty and is not prepared to give you good reasons for the decision," Beeson says. "Just say: 'I'm disappointed. I'm not challenging the decision, but I would like to come back to you in a few days and get some feedback that would help me manage my career.' That tells your boss you're not giving up and you want more information." 2. After you've calmed down, what's the best way to find out why you didn...

Four Strategies For Getting Back In The Game After Downsizing

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 13:17:22 -0600

In addition to tips on staying employed for life, Mike Zimmerman's article Income for Life -- Guaranteed! in the October 2009 issue of Men's Health also covers what to do if you find yourself downsized. Strategy 1: Reassess what "important" means to you. "Your time, energy, and money always go to what's important to you, no matter what you say is important," says Larry Winget, author of It's Called Work For A Reason. "Part of your preparation is to know what's really important." In your plan, ask yourself: "Do I want it, or do I need it? Can I live without it?" Winget says, "You have to know in advance what you can't live without. I once had an unemployed guy tell me, 'I can't disconnect my cable -- the final episode of The Sopranos is in 2 weeks.' I said, 'You're an idiot.'" Knowing now what you truly can't live without will make all your choices easier on the day you actually have to enter that mode. Strategy 2: Invest in media training. Companies of all sizes need to find as many marketing avenues as possible. How much more valuable would you be to your employer (current or prospective) if you had the skills for public speaking or media interviews? There are organizati...

Seven Strategies To Stay Employed For Life -- Guaranteed!

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:22:31 -0600

The October 2009 issue of Men's Health includes Mike Zimmerman's article Income for Life -- Guaranteed! Schools have fire drills, and New York and other big cities have emergency responder drills -- by the same token, according to Zimmerman, in these tight economic times the rest of us should "blueprint...a God-forbid plan for your most important asset other than your health -- your income." You'll have a better chance of keeping your job in these days of downsizing if you follow the strategies suggested by Zimmerman and the experts he consulted: Strategy 1: Lose the high-school-cafeteria approach to work. Funny, cool, and popular aren't job skills. The only way to become a more visible and dynamic presence at your current job is to get results. Become the person who can be given Job X and fully execute it without hesitation or attitude, as well as making yourself more valuable by becoming a source of execution and strategy. Strategy 2: Aim for excellence, not happiness. We're taught to pursue happiness in our work. If we feel unfulfilled, something must be wrong, says Alain de Botton, author of The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work. "Aristotle stated that no one could be both free...

Glassdoor Provides Clear View Into Company Workings

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:45:39 -0600

The James J. Hill Reference Library has chosen Glassdoor as its Business Web Site of the Week. Glassdoor was created in 2007 as a career and workplace community that anyone can use to find or anonymously share salary details about specific jobs for specific employers. Glassdoor can also be used to post or find detailed company and interview reviews describing life inside specific companies. If you're interested in gaining insight into companies via real-time compensation data, company reviews, and ratings, Glassdoor provides access to anonymous salaries, company reviews, and interview questions and reviews for over 23,000 companies. Glassdoor's information comes from people who know these companies well: either employees who work there, or candidates who have interviewed there. In order to access Glassdoor's data, you must post an anonymous salary, company review or interview review of your own. In this manner, Glassdoor can continue to bring greater transparency to our world of work.

How to build rapport with questioning skills

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 16:30:56 -0600

Rick Farrell's article Pain Locator Questions is on target in his fine examples of how to build rapport with questioning skills. I think you'll like it as much as I did. Pain Locator Questions Since for all intents and purposes prospects could care less about you and your company, the pain locator questions are a great way to put all the emphasis and focus on prospects. These questions are an excellent tool to use to build rapport; create a long-term relationship built on trust and confidence; build a business case instead of just a product justification; and save time, energy and resources by quickly identifying your prospect's problems, consequences, commitments, priorities and motivations to change. The depth of these questions underscores the tenet that there are many ways to skin a cat. I have listed, obviously more than necessary, the questions you may use to gain insight and understanding of your prospects' problems and pains. Generally 5-10 questions will suffice. When I have my clients in my training sessions list out all their own diagnostic questions, they can usually go no deeper than 2 questions, if that! The process of asking these in-depth questions is essential...

Captain Denny Flanagan And His Birthday Wish

Fri, 05 Jun 2009 13:51:46 -0600

When United Airlines pilot Captain Denny Flanagan, the subject of my Wow Factor Sends Customer Satisfaction Sky High post, read it and responded, he also revealed that it was his birthday, and that he had the following wish to share with all of our readers. I hope you'll spread Captain Flanagan's good word among your colleagues, friends, and loved ones, too. Happy Birthday, Captain Flanagan. Dear Family, Friends, Workmates and Customers who I have flown through the Friendly Skies, I'm approaching 58 years on Earth, and I ask myself what have I done to make this planet a better place to live. On birthdays, you generally receive material gifts, which you can't take with you, so this year I am reaching out to you for a special favor. A few years ago I had the honor and privilege of spending some quality one-on-one time with Astronaut Jim Lovell. (Tom Hanks played him in the film, Apollo 13.) During our conversation I asked Jim what was his most memorable flight. Without skipping a beat, Jim looked at me and said, "Denny, when I die, the last thing I will see before I close my eyes is the view of our planet I witnessed from Apollo 8 in 1968." At this time, Jim made a fist, half...

ExecuCross: Developing Tough Leadership Skills During Tough Times

Thu, 21 May 2009 08:24:51 -0600

From May 3rd through May 6th, Patrick Connor and I led a select group of highly seasoned senior executives on our first ExecuCross Bike Trip. Our group journeyed along the Great Allegheny Passage Trail, a 150-mile system of biking and hiking trails connectng to the C&O Canal Towpath in Cumberland, MD. We started our adventure outside Pittsburgh, PA, eventually ending our odyssey in Paw Paw, WV, covering a distance of over 122 miles. (The Great Allegheny Passage Trail is still a work in progress, but it will connect Cumberland to Pittsburgh, PA when it's completed.) Our outfit forged on, undaunted, through four days of grueling yet exhilarating physical activity, torrential rains, and mud flooding the creeks and rivers. Not only was a rip-roaring good time had by all, but each of us came away from our first ExecuCross tour with plenty of progressive ideas on leadership in a challenging environment. It was a great opportunity for braving the elements and breaking away from the office, instead of the usual safe, comfortable, unchallenging office or classroom setting with a PowerPoint presentation, or hitting the golf course and the bar at the country club afterwards. Instead, we put ...

The Winnie The Pooh Guide To Blogging

Tue, 12 May 2009 09:56:36 -0600

I recently came across this excellent piece by James Chartrand of Men With Pens. It struck me that Chartrand's suggestions for bloggers would work equally well for communicating effectively with clients. I hope you'll find it as enjoyable and useful as I did. The Winnie the Pooh Guide to Blogging Sometimes, expert advice comes from where you least expect it. Winnie the Pooh himself will tell you he is a "bear of little brain," but he also has an uncommon, clear-eyed wisdom. You may have heard of The Tao of Pooh. But what about The Blog of Pooh? Given that the happiness and feelings of his friends are Pooh's chief concern (other than "hunny," that is), he'd likely build a strong community as a blogger. Here are six social media lessons we can all learn from the lovable bear who's stuffed with fluff. Lesson 1: "You can't stay in your corner of the Forest waiting for others to come to you. You have to go to them sometimes." Pooh rarely sat around. In most stories, he was heading out to visit his Good Friend Piglet or perhaps have a little spot of Something with Rabbit. He went to Owl to get advice and to Christopher Robin to get help. Likewise, you need to get out of y...

Tip For Any Prospective Facilitators Who Are Interested In Working with Uni Strategic

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 16:02:09 -0600

Don't -- A division of the Singapore-based UNI Strategic Pte Ltd. has hosted corporate and training conferences and workshops for organizations all over the world, including many Fortune 500 companies. They attract top speakers for their well-attended events. For a company that teaches proper business practices and tactics, you'd expect them to follow their own advice and pay speakers promptly and fairly for their time and travel, wouldn't you? Think again! Numerous trainers and lecturers have reported massive problems with receiving payment from UNI Strategic. A while back, PBR went to Singapore to do a training program with them, titled Strategic Sales Leadership. This exciting international opportunity turned into a horrendous situation where it took us several months and endless contacts to Roger Tie, President and Pan Tei Boon, Conference Manager to get the payments we'd been promised. We soon discovered we weren't the only ones who'd had a hard time collecting appearance fees from UNI Strategic. Several other instructors and facilitators shared their own horror stories with us about the snail-slow payment and shabby treatment they'd endured from www.unistrategic.com. How's ...

Tip for any prospective facilitators who are interested in working with UNI Strategic

Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:15:13 -0600

Better Questions Mean Better Sales In A Recession Economy

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 16:36:21 -0700

A lot of salespeople tell me that customers are cutting back or putting off decisions. Such news is causing some salespeople to start acting like their customers -- where they too are developing a "bear-like" mind-set by going into hibernation or waiting it out until the economy starts turning around. Whoa, now is not a good time to follow your customer's lead. If they choose to be complacent, that's their choice. Don't let it be yours! So, what can you do now to create a sense of urgency with customers who want to wait it out? Ask them plenty of thought-provoking questions. Get them to think about the consequences of putting off a decision to doing business with you. How might their lack of action impact the bottom line? What's it going to cost them in terms of time, resources, missed opportunities, growth, or profitability? Your customers have plenty of competitors who are hungry and willing to steal market share from them. And that's why they need you now more than ever. Find ways to position your products and solutions that will give your customers the competitive edge, peace of mind, security, and/or control they're desperately seeking in this turbulent economy. Because many...