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| Volume 8, Best of 2008 |
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In This Best of 2008 Issue:
 Let's start with an icebreaker
The customer is the company
Get lost [on vacation]
 Why some presentations … um-ah … stink
 Smart presenting: Will you pass the three-minute challenge?
Five things not to do in front of an audience
Fuel your sales-Even when gas prices are high
Presenting smart: Are you the victim of sales typecasting?
Nine points to a motivated sales force
Solve your biggest marketing presentation problem
10 ways you can help your employees "get it done" every day
The personal touch: Four ways to enhance your listening skills
PowerPoint prowess: Using presentations as a solution
The sales dodo: Sales candidate attributes
 Starbucks' lessons for premium brands
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Let's start with an icebreaker
Last July, the seven members of Tea Collection's sales team gathered at a board member's Napa Valley home for the company's fourth annual summer sales meeting.
Over the course of three whirlwind days, they discussed all the sales issues facing their children's clothing company, which had $8.8 million in sales in 2007. Designers presented the new line and explained the inspiration behind each look. Reps shared
feedback from retailers, learning, for example, that several different customers had asked for a navy pant. The team members brainstormed ways to squeeze as many items as possible into a sales call that might last only 90 minutes. And they learned about new
software tools for geographic sales prospecting. What was the payoff? Amy McKinstry, the company's sales rep in New York City, says she was able to identify and land 20 new accounts after the Napa meeting, using the lead-generation software that was
unveiled there. Plus, the confab was good for morale. The team went on a vineyard tour, and the company's co-founders cooked a big group dinner (salmon on the grill). "We don't see each other but twice a year, so the bonding is important," McKinstry
says. "We work so hard, but it is so much fun." Pioneered by large corporations, summer sales meetings have become common at many private companies, particularly those with reps spread over a number of offices or geographic territories. Teams typically
review the first half of the year and plan for the second half. Plus, sales tend to slow down in the summer as customers go on vacation, so it's not a big loss to take
reps out of the field for a few days. [Other companies that take a different tack in terms of how their sales meetings are held, while gaining the same postive results...]
Read the article. Back to top
The customer is the company
Top of the Class
Jake Nickell (left) and Jeffrey Kalmikoff, both college dropouts, are now in demand at the nation's top business schools.
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Jake Nickell stepped to the front of a small classroom on the MIT campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and looked around.
It was an autumn morning in 2005, and before him sat a dozen executives from some of the country's largest companies -- General Mills, Pitney Bowes, Clorox, and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) -- and a contingent of innovation researchers from MIT's Sloan School of
Management and other business schools. The meeting had been organized by Eric von Hippel, an MIT bigwig and the foremost authority on something called user innovation. Von Hippel had heard about Nickell from a graduate student and had invited him to
Cambridge to share his story with the group. Nickell was somewhat befuddled by all the attention. He was not familiar with the term user innovation -- or, for that matter, the term Eric von Hippel. Business at Nickell's company, Threadless, had been growing
quickly -- annual sales were on track to hit $5 million, and he had lately started getting curious calls from venture capitalists and large retailers. But Threadless didn't quite seem like MIT material. At 25, Nickell hadn't even graduated from
college. Von Hippel, a Harvard graduate, entrepreneur, and former McKinsey consultant who was 40 years Nickell's senior, called the room to attention and began lavishing praise on Threadless; he called the company a "perfect example" of a new way of
thinking about innovation. Von Hippel's theory, which he had introduced in the late 1970s, was that most product innovations do not come out of corporate research and development labs but from the people who use the products. Nickell shot a confused
glance at Jeffrey Kalmikoff, Threadless's chief creative officer, and Jacob DeHart, his chief technology officer. The meeting had barely begun, and they had already learned something. Nickell started talking about his company. Threadless, he
explained, ran design competitions on an online social network. Members of the network submitted their ideas for T-shirts -- hundreds each week -- and then voted on which ones they liked best. Hundreds of thousands of people were using the site as a kind of
community center, where they blogged, chatted about designs, socialized with their fellow enthusiasts -- and bought a ton of shirts at $15 each. Revenue was growing 500 percent a year, despite the fact that the company had never advertised, employed no
professional designers, used no modeling agency or fashion photographers, had no sales force, and enjoyed no retail distribution. As result, costs were low, margins were above 30 percent, and -- because community members told them precisely which shirts to
make -- every product eventually sold out. Nickell's company had never produced a flop. The audience members listened, rapt. For years they had suspected that this kind of business model was possible -- even inevitable. They had seen the beginnings of it
in the open-source-software movement, and they had been trying to make it happen in small ways within their own companies. But somehow, this T-shirt guy had gone whole
hog. He had built an entire business around the idea that an online community could drive innovation. "We were blown away," says von Hippel...
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Get lost [on vacation]
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Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur whose six businesses have included a three-time Inc. 500 company. His co-author is editor-at-large Bo Burlingham.
Taking more vacations increased the value of my company. How cool is that?
No reader of Inc. needs to be reminded of the challenges of going into business. I wonder, however, how much you have thought about the challenges of getting away from it. I've been thinking about them lately, and not just because I sold a majority
interest in my company to a private equity firm last December. Long before the sale, I had set a goal for myself of spending 16 weeks annually -- yes, that's almost a third of the year -- traveling or skiing or simply taking time off. I reached the goal three
years ago, and I have continued the practice ever since. Along the way, I have become increasingly aware of the mistakes other people make when they take a break from their companies. Those mistakes fall into two broad categories that roughly correspond to
the age groups of the people involved. The first group is made up largely of younger people who think they are taking a vacation when in fact they have simply moved their offices outdoors. They spend most of the time doing work. The second group includes
all those baby boomers for whom vacations are no longer enough. What they really want is a change in lifestyle. But because they haven't done the necessary planning, they wind up alienating their customers, undermining their employees, and damaging their
businesses. Now, I will admit that I haven't always been as strong a believer in the importance of taking time off as I am today...
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Why some presentations … um-ah … stink
Andy Craig is a presentation coach and owner of Elevator Speech, Inc. His clients include Microsoft, CA (Computer Associates), Deloitte, Humana, Reebok, Ingram Micro, Petrobras
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It was 9:15 a.m. on a typical day of presentation coaching.
My video camera was fixed on a software company executive, and I was sipping Starbuck’s. Forty minutes and more than 300 “um-ah” stammers later, I thought: “Why do so many great executives give such crummy presentations?” Here’s why: presentations in
corporate America are created backwards. Tell me if this sounds familiar: You’re assigned a date for a presentation. To customers, partners, employees, analysts, industry peers, whomever. You follow one of three paths: One, you email your marketing
department for a suitable PowerPoint presentation you can use with this group. After reviewing the slides, you think about how you’re going to talk to each one. Two, you...
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Smart presenting: Will you pass the three-minute challenge?
John Windsor, an online columnist for Sales & Marketing Management, and president of Creating Thunder, a Boulder, Colo.-based communications training and consulting company. As author of the popular YouBlog, John offers a unique
mix of innovation, communications, sales and marketing ideas. An award-winning marketer, John has held vice president positions in marketing, sales, and
business development and has worked with companies like American Express, Reuters, Staples, and Knight-Ridder.
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Could you make your case in only three minutes? What would you say? What would you show? Could you even do it?
Many sales teams and managers would be inclined to automatically respond in the negative. I don't blame them: This is a tough challenge. But, as difficult as it may seem, sticking to a succinct game plan can totally transform how you present—and, more
importantly, how strongly your audience connects with you and your message. What does it take to have a real impact in that short a time? Talking really fast won’t do, nor will a quick rip through a lot of bullet-point slides. It could be that you only use
one slide—or none. But know this: you can, and should, be able to make your case in three minutes or less. At this point, you may be thinking, "Why bother? I have plenty of time with the client. What's the point of compressing this to only three minutes?"
Or, "Our annual sales summit is a full-day event. If my presentation is only three-minutes, what will I do with the rest of the time to engage my reps?" Here are four reasons why you should bother...
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Five things not to do in front of an audience
Kathy Reiffenstein is the founder and president of And…Now Presenting!, a Washington, D.C. area business communications consulting and training firm, where she draws on her background in sales, marketing and customer service to create confident,
persuasive speakers. She works with business executives, authors, non-profit leaders and the military to help them speak clearly, effectively and engagingly to their audiences. Visit www.andnowpresenting.us
for free presentation tips and resources. Stop by Kathy's blog for more tips and insights.
Audiences don't usually throw tomatoes or pound their shoes on the table in response to a bad presentation.
But they do respond in more subtle ways: they don't buy your product, they don't sign up for your cause and they won't refer you. So what audience "no-no's" should you avoid?...
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Fuel your sales—Even when gas prices are high
We're all affected by high fuel prices. Every time a car rolls up to the pump, the new economic reality takes an even bigger bite out of our collective wallets. The ripple effect has some buyers thinking long and hard before making buying decisions.
In turn, many companies and independent sellers are ringing alarm bells instead of ringing up sales. Fear-based thoughts—such as declining profits and potential
downsizing—dominate these sellers' every move. Regrettably, many professionals don't recognize that they're in the driver's seat. The ability to be successful is within their control...
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Presenting smart: Are you the victim of sales typecasting?
Back when I was a budding actor, my fellow performing hopefuls and I hated being typecast. We wanted to be recognized for our talent, not how we looked, sounded or dressed. But we rarely escaped typecasting's grip—how you looked, moved and sounded
was critical in 98% of the auditions, even down to hair color and height. You could gauge your chances of getting the job based on how close your looks were to the sketches on the storyboards.
Now, though, as I view things from a persuasion perspective, typecasting makes perfect sense. We are ALL hardwired to make snap judgments about someone from a single glance—especially when it comes to sales and making decisions about where to spend our money. So think about that: You're about to make a presentation or a sales call—or
go ahead with that press release or marketing campaign—and the people you want to reach are going to decide whether they'll accept you and your pitch in the first second. That's right, one second. All that effort, and they may summarily dismiss you before
you even open your mouth. Yikes! Unfair, right? But that IS the reality. Social psychologists have been detailing for years our tendency towards snap judgments, and Malcolm Gladwell’s excellent book, Blink, is devoted to just this subject. So what do you do?...
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Nine points to a motivated sales force
Don't be fooled, experts say. Money isn't the only motivator in the workplace. To find out what gets your sales team going, you must first understand how each person views and experiences his or her job. What you learn just might surprise you.
Imagine keeping your sales force—each and every individual—motivated and performing at peak performance. Sound too good to be true? According to Theresa Gale and Mary Anne Wampler, authors of Wake Up and Sell and founders of Transform, Inc., a specialized
training and consulting firm based in Laurel, Maryland, this fantasy can become a reality. They firmly believe that understanding how each of your sales people view and experience selling, what motivates them toward peak performance, and how you, as sales
manager, can tap into this knowledge is your starting point for success. "We know from experience that all sales people don’t see selling situations the same," explains Mary Anne Wampler. "What motivates one person may not even begin to entice another. That
old-fashioned notion that money is the only motivator for sales people just simply isn't true." So what is true?...
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Solve your biggest marketing presentation problem
Dave Paradi teaches professionals and executives from Fortune 500 corporations to non-profit agencies how to transform the overloaded text slides they currently use into persuasive visuals that sell ideas, products and services effectively to decision
makers. He is the author of "The Visual Slide Revolution" and co-author of two "Guide to PowerPoint" books from Prentice Hall. His ideas have been published in The Wall
Street Journal, The Globe and Mail, BusinessWorld India and many other publications around the world.
Four steps to solving the biggest problem with most presentations produced by the Marketing department.
You know the drill: A prospect from a company that is an ideal customer for your product or service has a specific problem that they are losing sleep over. They see one of your generic ads in an industry trade publication and it interests them enough
to visit your Web site. At the Web site, they read more detailed generic information; it looks promising, so they contact a sales rep. The sales rep meets with the prospect to find out specifics on the problem. The rep leaves behind a generic brochure. The
prospect heard enough promising information from the rep that they decide to invite the rep to present to a larger audience of key decision-makers. What is the marketing department going to provide the rep for this important presentation? Too often, the
answer is a generic set of slides. And that's going to be a problem—for the rep and for the decision-makers at this key prospect company. The sales rep knows he needs a customized presentation to meet the specific needs of the situation. So he'll do one
of two things. Either he'll use the generic presentation and fumble through it as he skips the parts he doesn't need. Or he'll create his own set of slides and present poorly designed slides that don't match the important branding that the marketing
department has worked hard to create. Neither approach results in a successful presentation and neither give the sales rep a good chance of securing the order.
The solution is to create...
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10 ways you can help your employees "get it done" every day
Here, Richard Lepsinger presents 10 keys to inspire an "execution revolution" at your company. (Edited by Jonathan Tannenbaum)
Even though many companies envision themselves becoming a market leader one day, many employees often see these aspirations as far-fetched dreams. A recent survey conducted by OnPoint Consulting shows that almost half of respondents believe that their organization continually fails to execute its strategic vision. But it doesn't have to
be this way, says Richard Lepsinger, President of OnPoint. Your company really can keep its promises—but first you must take some tried and true steps to create a "get it done" culture. For example:...
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The personal touch: Four ways to enhance your listening skills
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S&MM online columnist Jeff Schmitt is a consultant from Dubuque, IA. His column, "The Personal Touch," is designed to help managers and professionals step back and evaluate how they think, interact and work.
"You're not listening to me!"
Have you ever heard these words from a customer? They certainly get our attention. Even more, they force us to step back and ask some uncomfortable questions. What did I say or do to alienate this person? What verbal cues did I miss? Did I put my agenda above his or her needs? Have I made other customers feel the same way? Our customers
are no different than ourselves. They crave someone who understands them, sympathizes with their difficulties and values their input. Most of all, customers expect a resolution. By sharpening our listening skills, we can better pinpoint our customers' concerns—and find solutions that address their real problems. In theory, listening
seems easy enough. Just sit there and soak in what someone says. In reality, variables ranging from our jaded attitudes to customer quirks often inhibit our ability to listen. To counter these distractions, apply these strategies:...
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PowerPoint prowess: Using presentations as a solution
Randy Lipson is VP of Sales Performance Consulting at Competence Systems. Randy has over 30 years of selling and sales management and consulting experience. Randy's specialties include results-driven sales, training, coaching, and execution.
In sales, there is a lot of emphasis put on a salesperson's PowerPoint prowess.
Sales managers and those departments and individuals who are responsible for helping sales reps to be as successful as possible, often voice the need to "improve presentation skills" as a top priority. But this emphasis leads to a lot of pressure
put on salespeople to be expert presenters, and often gives a false impression that a knock ‘em dead presentation is a rep's key to success. But what many forget is that 80% of selling takes place before the presentation. Relying on a powerful presentation
to win the sale may result in failure more times than success. Yes, presentations are mandatory to differentiate yourself and communicate your solution, but you must be able to powerfully communicate to the mindset of the customer. Unfortunately, many
sales presentations today, appeal to the mindset of the salesperson and the features and benefits Marketing wants sales people to emphasize. [To avoid these issues, sales professionals need to build their own solution roadmap—a framework for selling
successfully. Sales reps follow a step by step roadmap, slowly and systematically building towards selling success. An essential part of the solution roadmap involves building a business case and presentation for solving specific problems or satisfying
needs that are compelling to the prospect. This should be the ONLY focus for any sales presentation. The Keys to Building and Presenting Winning Presentations...]
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The sales dodo: Sales candidate attributes
Lee B. Salz is president of Sales Dodo, author of Soar Despite Your Dodo Sales Manager, and an online columnist for Sales and Marketing Management. Look for Lee's new book in February 2009, The Sales Marriage." He specializes in helping companies identify and hire the right sales people.
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Companies spend tons of money trying to attract sales talent through job boards, yet they impair that campaign with what they put in their ad.
Close your eyes. Think of the perfect mate. How long is your list of requirements of the perfect mate? Are there five of them? 10? Perhaps, you have 20. Think about your list again. Are each of those really requirements of your ideal mate? Or, are those
desired attributes? On which items are you willing to be flexible? People make decisions every day based on their "desired" and "required" aspects. There are some aspects on which people can compromise and others where they cannot. This challenge
hits employers when they are trying to attract sales talent. Instead of creating ads on job boards that invite folks to apply, they tightly close the spigot. [Here is an
example of the requirements section from a job board advertisement: The successful candidate must have...]
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Starbucks' lessons for premium brands
Starbucks' announcement that it will close 600 stores in the United States is a long-overdue admission that there are limits to growth.
In February 2007, a leaked internal memo written by founder Howard Schultz showed that he recognized the problem that his own growth strategy had created: "Stores no longer have the soul of the past and reflect a chain of stores vs. the warm feeling of a
neighborhood store." Starbucks tried to add value through innovation, offering wi-fi service and creating and selling its own music. More recently, Starbucks attempted to put the focus back on coffee, revitalizing the quality of its standard beverages. But
none of these moves addressed the fundamental problem: Starbucks is a mass brand attempting to command a premium price for an experience that is no longer special. Either you have to cut price (and that implies a commensurate cut in the cost
structure) or you have to cut distribution to restore the exclusivity of the brand. Expect the 600 store closings to be the first of a series of downsizing announcements. Sometimes, in the world of marketing, less is more...
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