I've learned a few things about selling a house.
I know, for instance, that much depends on timing (economic timing as well as the time of year you put the house on the market), and of course, the mantra "location, location, location" is still paramount. I've also learned a property needs "curb appeal." That is, it needs to make a special, positive, and instant impression when
prospective buyers first see it. So when I read Drew Westen's fabulous book, "The Political Brain" (about the role of emotion in politics), I wasn't surprised to learn curb appeal also is crucial in political campaigns. Of course, Westen is referring to personal curb appeal. According to Westen, "One of the main
determinants of electoral success," he explains, "is simply a candidate's curb appeal. Curb appeal is the feeling voters get when they 'drive by' a candidate a few times on television and form an emotional impression." Research shows personal curb appeal can be assessed quickly. [How's your personal curb appeal? When your
co-workers, clients, and business partners "drive by" you, how do you come across? If you'd like to improve, here are five tips to keep in mind:...]
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Four years ago, we launched a study of sixty extraordinary groups. We were curious about what makes some groups fantastic while most are ordinary. Or worse. Our study led us to a number of conclusions and a book. We will share some of what we learned here.
We focused on extraordinary groups of two to twenty people and what makes them so wonderful. We interviewed members of great groups, figuring why not learn from people who have lived through an extraordinary group experience. Four years later, we reached conclusions based on hearing stories from one to two members in each of
sixty groups. We learned about what motivates them to participate, how they feel about that, and what they actually did. This article describes eight performance patterns common to great groups. The more of these eight patterns are present, the more likely the group is to deliver amazing results...
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Networking events. Association meetings. Conferences. Regional meetings. Trade shows. Each of these events represents an opportunity for you and your company, whether you want to make the sale, make the right connection, or exchange business cards with the right person.
But how do you know who Mr. or Ms. Right is? Who is the person who can green-light your product or service within their company? You can do some pre-meeting recognizance. Find the bigwig's name, do a Google Image search, find a picture, and you have your target. At the meeting, all you have to do is scan the room until you
see the person of power. But what if that's not possible? What if Google Image search pulls up nothing? What if you're not sure who your ideal target is? What if your ideal target doesn't show up? Who is your No. 2 guy or gal? Thankfully, when this happens, you don't have to randomly approach people and hope they can buy what
you have to sell—which is what most people do at such events. Instead, you can be a detective at all your future business meetings by using the skills of interpreting body language to discover the most important people in the room. Without knowing how
to read some key body language techniques, your initial assumptions about who Mr. or Ms. Important is might be wrong...
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When trying to access the right people in an organization to advance your sales efforts, you may struggle to chart a successful course.
Maybe you spend a lot of time cultivating a relationship with one person, only to discover later that he or she did not have "pen power" to sign the deal. Or on a loss debrief, you learn you lost the deal because your chief competitor had the ear of a key influencer. Sometimes you don’t recognize until too late that a person you
know in one division is tight with the project manager you are trying to sell in another. How do you make sure you—or the people you manage—recognize and identify the key players as soon as possible to optimize your chances of winning?
Solution:
This is a universal problem, and I have encountered similar issues when advising companies in more than 30 countries. But no matter how different the culture or language, people worldwide have used maps for centuries to help them get where they
want to go. Marco Polo and Magellan used maps to chart their course, and so should we in sales—a map to guide us in building stronger client relationships that lead to increased revenue...
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Are you shy about directly contacting your competitors' employees? Don't be too bashful.
The recession may have weakened the war for talent, but the battles have intensified, according to a recent study by Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp). In the study, which looked at competitive recruiting practices among
organizations, a quarter of companies said they recruit new talent by contacting their competitors' employees directly. Here are the highlights:...
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Today's organization is faced with not one, not two, but three fundamental "gaps" that limit sales, revenue, and the bottom line. The gaps are:
Differences between what a sales force thinks is keeping its customers up at night and what really is.
Gaps within an organization between the sales and marketing functions.
“Digital" gaps between an organization's marketing/communications team that is rushing pell-mell to engage in a social media dialog while their peers in customer service are doing everything possible to disengage from the very same target audience.
Gaps in Knowledge About Their Customers Are Hampering the Efforts of Some of the World’s Top Companies to Pull Out of the Recession, Says The Boston Consulting Group.
Nearly 90 percent of blue-chip companies are not making the most of their market-research efforts, according to a new report released today by The Boston Consulting Group (BCG). The report, titled The Consumer’s Voice—Can Your Company Hear It?, offers stark evidence that even large blue-chip companies lack basic
knowledge about their customers. In a survey of more than 800 executives based at 40 global companies with sales of $1.5 billion or more, only...
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Well, it's a money-losing website made up of very short messages (like this one) where your kids (and C-list celebrities) waste time.
All this you know. Or you should. But Twitter isn't just about buzz:...
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Advice for small businesses on how to create the best compensation plan for your sales team, by determining sales goals, performance measures, payout formulas, and the sales cycle of your business.
One of the biggest management challenges for a growing business is compensating salespeople effectively. You know you need an incentive compensation plan that encourages your sales force to land new accounts and continue to upsell existing customers, but where do you begin figuring out the best way to compensate them?
It often boils down to finding the right balance between base pay and commission. But other questions also may come in to play: Will a commissions-only model work for you? How do you set parameters for performance? How do you measure that performance? If these issues seem daunting at first, don’t worry. You’re not alone. Sales incentive programs can have an enormous impact on the bottom line and on future
growth of the business. Executing a well-designed sales compensation plan can help companies create a sales culture of high performance where individual goals are aligned with those of the larger organization. Furthermore,...
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Managers today are taught not to micromanage their employees. But there comes a time in every business when you need to step in and master the details. On a recent visit to Austin, Ryan Carson and I got into a rental car and set off to visit, for the first time, the venue where we were hosting a conference the next day. Ryan's event-planning company, Carsonified, had teamed up with my company, Fog Creek Software, to produce a series of daylong technical conferences for software
developers. Austin was the second stop on our 10-city tour, and we were expecting 200 developers to show up. Between the pouring rain and the difficulty we had in finding the venue -- which was, oddly, tucked into the back corner of a strip mall -- I should have anticipated trouble. The first problems revealed themselves when we
met the venue manager, and he started off by saying, "She only sent it to me yesterday." "She who? Sent you what?" I asked. She, we soon learned, was a member of
Ryan's staff. And it was our detailed list of audio-visual requirements. [So I wanted to go through the Five Whys exercise with Ryan and his staff. Five Whys is...]
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Ever wonder if you could run your business via phone? These 13 phone apps will help you do it. Cell phones may never replace laptops or tablets for serious computing outside the office, but working on your phone is getting easier, thanks to a slew of apps for business users. Here are the top downloads for various phones...
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A look at the most popular articles, news items and videos from the editors of Inc. Magazine.
A look at the year's greatest hits, based on online traffic, from the editors of Inc. Magazine and Inc.com...
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SUMMARY: Chances are your overall marketing budget was hit hard by the economy in 2009 and the prospect of recovering a substantial portion of these funds in 2010 is not very likely.
Still, there is good news for social media marketers...
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Let's assume that your press release gets picked up by several outlets. It's a great opportunity to increase your company's visibility. So what do you say in your 15-word introduction?
"XYZ, a ___ __ ___ ___ __ ___ ___ __ ___ ___ ___ __, announced today..." Would that resonate with your prospects? Another scenario: One of your happier clients is at a barbecue listening to another guest describe a business challenge that sounds like the one you just solved for her. What easy-to-remember message have you provided your client to use in a situation like that? Or let's assume you...
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Looking for the right hire? Here are some tips for using the Web and social media to hunt passive candidates.
Hunting for the ideal job candidate? Ask any hiring managers and they will very likely give you a ranking system for would-be hires. Lower on the list are those actively looking for a job. High on the list are employee referrals. Unfortunately, it can be difficult to elicit employee referrals on a broad enough scale. First,
employees know only so many quality candidates. Second, if you have a very rigorous hiring process, employees will be loath to refer people unless they are sure that person would get strong consideration. What's a hiring manager to do, then? One way to get a steady flow of high-caliber applicants is to...
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Paul Falcone, Time Warner’s VP of employee relations and author of 101 Tough Conversations to Have with Employees, chooses his words carefully when he has to counsel employees—and he wants you to do the same.
Falcone urges managers and HR pros to tackle tough workplace conversations head-on—but he doesn’t want you to enter the battle unarmed. That’s why he developed a series of “scripts” to use when speaking off the top of your head just won’t do.
Covering an array of topics—from bad breath to time card fraud—Falcone’s language emphasizes treating employees with respect, politeness and firmness...
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Suppose someone came to you in December 2006 and advised you to start thinking about a mobile brand strategy, and fast. The reason: a computer company was about to unveil something that would take marketing over wireless devices to a whole different level.
Come on, be honest. Chances are good you’d have nodded, maybe added mobile to your list of things to look into when you had time, and then forgotten all about it until Steve Jobs got up and introduced the world to the iPhone. And the brands that already had cellphone strategies in place—or at least on the drawing board—got to
steal a few giant steps on those that didn’t. Well, you just may have a second chance at being an early entrant, thanks to another company not known for phones...
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