Adrian Gostick is the undisputed thought leader in employee motivation. Adrian Gostick is the author of several bestselling books on corporate culture, including the New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestseller The Carrot Principle. He also wrote the bestsellers The Integrity Advantage and The 24-Carrot Manager. Adrian Gostick's research on employee engagement has been called a "must read for modern-day managers" by Larry King of CNN, "fascinating," by Fortune magazine and "admirable and startling" by the Wall Street Journal. Adrian Gostick's books have been translated into 20 languages and are sold in more than 50 countries around the world. As a leadership expert, Adrian Gostick has appeared on numerous national television programs including NBC's Today Showand has been quoted in dozens of business publications and magazines. Adrian Gostick is Vice President of the consulting and training arm of the OC Tanner Recognition Company. Adrian Gostick earned a Master's degree in Strategic Communication and Leadership from Seton Hall University, where he is a guest lecturer on organizational culture. International bestselling author Adrian Gostick, along with partner Chester Elton (aka "The Carrot Guys") co-wrote the critically acclaimed Managing with Carrots, which was nominated as the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) "Book of the Year." Adrian Gostick is also co-author of The 24-Carrot Manager,. Adrian Gostick's bestselling work The Carrot ...
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Business. Show all posts
2011/04/30
2011/03/28
Ed Brodow: Negotiation Expert, Best Selling Business Author, Keynote Speaker
Ed Brodow is an internationally renowned speaker and expert on the art of negotiation. SEC Chairman Harvey Pitt dubbed Ed Brodow the "King of Negotiators." Forbes magazine agreed, ranking Ed Brodow as one of the nation's leading dealmakers. Ed Brodow is negotiating consultant to some of the world's most prominent organizations, including Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, Starbucks, Learjet, Raytheon, Philips, Hyatt, The Gap, Revlon, Zurich Insurance, Mobil Oil, the IRS, and the Pentagon. Ed Brodow is the bestselling author of four books including Negotiation Boot Camp: How to Resolve Conflict, Satisfy Customers, and Make Better Deals. Ed Brodow has been delighting audiences since 1987 with his high energy delivery, infectious humor, and practical ideas on negotiating and success. As a nationally recognized television personality, Ed Brodow has appeared as negotiation guru on PBS, ABC National News, Fox News, Inside Edition, and Fortune Business Report. Followed by hidden TV cameras in New York, Boston, and San Francisco, Ed Brodow proved to American consumers that they have the power to negotiate better deals in department stores and retail malls. His innovative negotiating strategies have been showcased in The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, Business Week, Smart Money, Forbes, and Selling Power. A true "Renaissance Man," Ed Brodow has been a corporate sales executive (IBM, Litton), US Marine Corps officer, novelist, and Screen Actors Guild ...
2011/01/09
How to Create a $1000000 Business: "The E-Myth"
Visit SalesTubeSite.com For More Great FREE Training From Gabe! Entrepreneurial Myth - Small Business Coaching and Strategies - E ... E-Myth Worldwide provides business coaching and strategies to small business entrepreneurs. www.e-myth.com - Cached - Similar - About E-Myth Worldwide - Small Business Coaching and Strategies ... E-Myth Worldwide is the pioneer of modern-day small business coaching, ... www.e-myth.com/pub/htdocs/about The E-Myth Revisited: Chapter 1 - Entrepreneurial Myth - E-Myth ... Learn how to apply the business success principles in Chapter 1 of The ... www.e-myth.com/pub/htdocs/emr_ch1 More results from e-myth.com » Amazon.com: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't ... Amazon.com: The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It (9780887307287): Michael E. Gerber: Books. www.amazon.com › ... › Entrepreneurship - Cached - Similar - Amazon.com: E-Myth (9780887303623): Michael E. Gerber: Books E-Myth Mastery: The Seven Essential Disciplines for Building a World ... The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don't Work and What to Do About It ... www.amazon.com › Books › Business & Investing - Cached - Similar - Show more results from www.amazon.com The E-myth revisited: why most small businesses don't work and ... - Google Books Result Michael E. Gerber - 1995 - Computers - 268 pages A completely revised edition of the groundbreaking bestseller that provides the key ingredients to developing a ...
2010/11/17
How to use Social Media to bazaar your business and your brand
www.WesWisdom.com The right way to use Social Media like Facebook and Twitter to promote your small business. As more and more mainstreet businesses come to the internet, I get more questions on the right way to interact with people online A great source of information for branding yourself is Gary Vaynerchuks' book Crush it - In his book Crush It, Gary Vaynerchuk explains how Social Media has removed the gate keepers that control what gets exposed in traditional media and therefore how anyone can use Social Media Tools and their own time to create a personal brand that they can then market GAry Vaynerchuk propelled his parent's wine and liquor store into a multi-million dollar business while using http to create a brand so powerful that he was interviewed on Late night with Conan O'brien. One of the things Gary suggests in his book "Crush It" is to take advantage of the new social media sights, like Facebook twitter and more and get yourself a video camera like the Flip Ultra HD or the Kodak z18 and start using video To expand and promote your brand . More about Wes and branding yourself online at www.weswisdom.com "In March 2009, Vaynerchuk signed a 10-book deal with HarperStudio for over $1000000 and released the first book, "Crush It! Why Now is the Time to Cash in on your Passion," in October 2009. The deal is groundbreaking in the publishing world as one of the first attempts to successfully use a low-advance royalty business model.[19] In the first weeks of its ...
2010/11/08
Business Ethics: How The Sales Function Can Transmit Company Values
I recently got a "thank-you" call from a man who read my new e-book Buying Facilitation.
"Boy," he said, "this method sure helps me close more deals and make more money. Thanks!"
"Glad I could help. Is that all you're looking for? To make more money?"
"What do you mean...all? What else is there? Sales is about closing deals and making money, right?"
"I'm surprised you didn't notice the value of becoming a trusted advisor, or how you can use the seller's role as one of a servant-leader to lead your clients to discover their solutions quickly."
"Well, I noticed all that. But it's all in service of me closing deals and making money, right? I don't mind doing it nicely if it gives me better results. But what's sales about if my job isn't about me making money?"
I'm wondering how many people out there still believe sales to be a job that is focused on making money? Or only about making money. All of us want to get paid fairly for what we do. The question is: how can we make money and make nice.
Most people get paid for doing a day's work. But most sales people get paid for the results of their work, not necessarily for a day's work. This leads to the tendency of sellers to have a different focus in their jobs than their non-sales colleagues: they often focus on 'closing' a sale rather than on the results of the interaction, or on 'doing a deal' rather than making sure the client has all their ducks in a row prior to making a purchase. As a result, sales practices and sellers can be seen as aggressive, pushy, eager to get immediate results, and less aware of the other person in the interaction.
What causes money, greed, manipulation, and self-interest to prevail at the expense of serving? What's stopping sellers from using their jobs to promote respect, integrity, servant-leadership, collaboration, and trust - for their customers, for their companies, and for themselves? Why is there a belief that it's not possible to serve and make money? To support and be aggressive? To be a trusted advisor and close rapidly?
I once began a Buying Facilitation® program at a major brokerage house. As I was being introduced, the manager mentioned that my program was the precursor to the program they were having the following week on 'closing' techniques. I was dumbfounded.
"You won't need that! You'll be able to close twice as many accounts in half the time after this program. What else do you need?"
"I know you say that's possible, but I don't believe it. It's one thing to have values. It's another to make money." After the program, the decision was taken to delay the 'closing' program and give it 8 weeks to see what the results would be from using Buying Facilitation®. It turned out that the brokers had a 25% increase in closed sales - the first month after the training. They cancelled the 'closing' program.
Given our business climate today, and the need to bring values throughout our corporations, and into our interactions with staff and clients, let's discuss how the actual function of sales can be used as a major delivery vehicle of ethics.
CONSULTATIVE SALES
As a start, let's look at the model and beliefs that modern sales folks operate from.
Fifteen years ago, Consultative Sales found its way into the sales culture. The promise here was to move away from just pitching product and include buyers into the process by asking the buyers questions - to help a buyer actually recognize a need for themselves so they'd clearly understand that they have a problem.
I'm not convinced that the addition of Consultative Sales has changed the equation any; the process is based on the theory that if the client discovers a need, he'll make a purchase. The questions are therefore manipulative: they are cleverly rooted in those areas in the client's environment that the seller knows will come up lacking, based on the seller's understanding of the buyer's environment and probable needs.
"Why do you ask questions?" I repeatedly ask consultative sellers?
"To discover what the client needs."
"And, what will you do with that information once you have it?"
"Understand their environment better."
"To what end?"
"To help them solve their problems [with my product]."
And there you have it: the assumption that just because the buyer may have a need in the seller's product area, they will be ready, willing, and able to align all of their internal systems and variables in a way that will allow for something new to enter their system.
Let's look at the above assumption. On the face of it, consultative questions seem to be supportive of the buyer, ostensibly showing care about the buyer's needs. But if a client has a need, does that mean she'll make a purchase? Does it mean that all of the internal deciding factors are ready to do something different? That the client wants to follow the path that your product will lead?
Doesn't the buyer have a string of decisions to make that are independent of the seller's product?
If the buyer has a need in one area, it is only part of a systemic issue that must be solved internally and systemically, and it can't be solved by the simple addition of a product. Not to mention that the buyer may have a specific time factors to weigh, partnering issues, strategy issues. We have no way of knowing the micro elements that maintain and create the problems we perceive.
When sellers assume their job is to understand the buyer's needs and solve them, they are committing the ultimate disrespect:
- that an outsider knows more than the insider;
- that the insider has been unsuccessful in solving his own problem;
- that the problem is a simple one (and eschews all of the politics, partnerships, initiatives, and personalities that have created and maintained the problem) and can be solved by purchasing a new 'something';
- that all of the internal variables contained within the prospect's culture will easily assemble around the seller's solution in a way that will serve the organization's mission and strategic vision.
In other words, at the point that sellers believe they have a solution for their buyers before the buyer has discovered all of the systems pieces that need to be lined up, and before buyers can specify all of the systemic components of what a solution would need to look like, they are committing the ultimate act of disrespect.
VALUES
Sales people are in a primary position to be a company's ethical representative: they are the primary emissary who touches clients daily. Sellers hear clients' needs and concerns; they share thoughts and ideas. Sellers are also in a position to convey client information back to the company. Successful companies understand that their sellers are their brand ambassadors.
Who are the sales people in a company? At UPS it's the delivery people. At the phone companies it's the customer service reps. At banks it's the tellers. At service and repair companies, it's the techs. In doctors offices it's the admin, or the payment officer. Every person who touches a customer is doing a sales job, and by definition must carry the values of the company. Every person.
I've recently had a spate of calls from banks and financial institutions seeking to expand their environment from one of a service environment to a sales environment. I have asked them all the same question:
"What are your criteria for training up your people?"
"To increase revenue."
"Is that all?"
"What else? We do service well. Now we just have to bring
in more revenue."
Sales people - all of the people who touch customers - are in a prime position to teach customers how to:
- make their best decisions efficiently;
- differentiate between vendors and products;
- recognize and organize their own unique internal issues so they won't face chaos when they make a purchasing decision.
Sellers are also in a prime position to become trusted advisors - even on short telesales calls.
Because sales has been based on getting products sold and using product data as the main vehicle (Tell me who among you has never assumed that because your product is terrific that buyers will know how to buy it.... once you explain it, present it, advertise it, and pitch it brilliantly??), ethics have often been ignored.
For me, the answer to the question that my caller asked - "But what's sales about if my job isn't about me making money?" - is serving.
For me, the responsibility of sales people, as the representatives of companies who touch customers daily, is to create an ethical foundation on which companies can flourish. Without business healing the world can't flourish. And sales is the foundation on which companies stand: without selling product or touching customers there is no need to have Boards, or to discuss leadership, for example, because the companies won't exist.
We can use the job of sales as the way to promote, offer, exhibit our company values; a way to show our customers and our partners, our vendors and our teammates exactly what we stand for.
WHAT DO WE STAND FOR
And what, exactly, do we stand for? As companies? As employers? As product manufacturers?
If we don't know, we shouldn't be in business. If we don't want more than to sell product, if we don't enter into business with any idea other than making money, we are losing a big opportunity of using our position to make a difference.
I believe - and I'll go out on a limb here - that those companies who thrive by creating values-based organizations will fare better over the next decade then those that don't. In my definition of values-based, I include:
- caring about people - employees, customers, vendors, partners;
- caring about the environment and how the manufactured product supports the earth rather than destroying it;
- caring about the world - finding a way to use some profits to give to groups with need.
Most large companies have community out-reach programs and have their favorite charities. But some large behemoths that we all know give large sums to world health and education, while their sales force remains greedy, manipulative, and aggressive.
For me, giving with one hand and taking with the other is out of balance. It is not only possible, but necessary, to run a sales force that turns over large amounts of business while serving its customers with respect and exceptional care. And for me, if you are just pitching information, or posing questions, with the hope of making a sale, rather than using that opportunity to be a servant-leader, you are losing an opportunity to exhibit your company's values.
As worker-bees, we have a responsibility to our customers, our staff, our Boards and shareholders, to serve them with respect and care and make money. As sales people we are in the primary position to connect in a way that will make it all possible - to make money and make nice.
BUYING FACILITATION®
As a wrap up, I'd like to put a plug in here for The Buying Facilitation Method®. I created Buying Facilitation® as a result of selling in a manipulative world, and as a way to bring my own spiritual, ethical values into my daily workplace. I believe I'm part of something bigger - my company, my family, my relationships, my country, my world - and that I have a responsibility to be in service at all times (well, as often as I'm humanly able). And I like money. I like what it buys, I like to pay bills, and I like giving it away.
To that end, Buying Facilitation® was developed to help sellers reach more customers more efficiently, support customers ethically as true Advisors and Coaches, and help customers buy quicker. When I created Buying Facilitation® I discovered a secret: that no matter how I sell or how great my product is, buyers absolutely cannot buy until they align all of the variables - the people, the systems, the initiatives - that create their current situation. Sales just doesn't work.
Buying Facilitation® will find you more buyers. It helps people who need your product (but didn't know they need it) understand how to buy. It will help them close quicker because the time it takes buyers to discover their own answers is the length of the sales cycle, and Buying Facilitation® helps them find their own answers.
This Method is not a sales method - it's a facilitative communication model rather than a sales technique. It's a way to serve by helping people make more efficient, systems-centric buying decisions that include all of the people and variables that get touched by the purchasing decision. The Method uses a collaborative, servant-leader process that is ethical and truly consultative in the truest sense. And, best of all, it crosses contexts: it can be used by managers to communicate with staff, with coaches to work with clients, with Board members to use with each other, for customer service reps to use with annoyed customers, for nurses and docs to use with patients, for parents to use with children.
It is indeed possible to use ethics in our daily communication. It's not only possible, it's a necessary component of our lives.
2010/09/02
10 ways to get what you want in Business
A common frustration for women in business - and men - is being pushed around by people and businesses we need to succeed. Sometimes they send you in a circle around the resources, other times just are not as useful as you know, can and often left waiting to ... and awaits a response.
Learn how to boldly and directly, and asking for respect, fairness and attention is part of being a successful businessman. This does not mean thatThere is no place in business should be welcoming and pleasant, but as "too sweet", you can delay your progress. As someone once said: "If you use the space for people who take a leave, they will." Here are 10 tips for getting what you want, anytime, from people who need it most:
Before you write your goals. Read it often to make sure that your current residence. Share this with someone you trust and can help online.
According to Discover what isI first meet people. You are therefore more likely to remember your goal, making the debate around it, and finally reach.
Third let people know if you need help for something. Even if you do not help themselves, tend to find someone who can.
Fourth Do not leave any questions unanswered. If you have, just ask!
Quinto Do not be afraid to walk. If you think you waste your time, or it could be argued, your willingness to goAnother may be what some call the actions in your favor.
If the sixth consolidation of a job or a deal, or simply to protect themselves, write. A lot of people try to backtrack on promises they make when there is no chance of maintaining their responsibility.
Seventh Tell people what you want from them. You use some clock, but directly. Most business people have more respect for them.
8th Giving people the best reason to want to help. A good man 'sfirst step. If people like you, are more likely to go out of their way to you.
Ninth Always think in terms of creating win-win situations. How you can help help? Figure out first and you are getting one step closer to what you want.
10th Believe in yourself and your business. If you really think that leads to success, make possible.
2010/08/29
Top Business Books For Young Entrepreneurs
This top five list is our continuing list of favorites! As we continue to read business literature, we will update this article with more books. For now, we just wanted to name our personal favorites. Keep checking back for more suggestions on great books!
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
Good to Great is my personal favorite. Jim Collins analyzes companies, on standards and statistics explained in the text, that made the transition from a good company, to a great one. While our entrepreneurial road to building a good company will be hard enough, it is one that has many paths. However, making that transition from good to great is rare and challenging. Many times if unsuccessful it will leave a company in a tough spot. Collins is a great writer with a great research team to back the words.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable
For those of you new to business literature, it may be boring or difficult to read at first. Patrick Lencioni presents invaluable leadership and team-related advice within a story. The fictional characters are personalities that we have all worked with, or will work with, in the future, and seem very real in the text. You can imagine yourself sitting with the executive team at their retreat. Lencioni's writing is refreshing and engaging. You will get lost in any one of his "Leadership Fables" quickly.
The Five Temptations of a CEO, 10th Anniversary Edition: A Leadership Fable (J-B Lencioni Series)
Lencioni is obviously my favorite author, so I will not brag on him too much. This is another book in the same format with the same feel as #2. This fable pertains to the CEO and the temptations that can be realized when he or she is failing. While some of these may seem obvious, reading about them in this fable is eye-opening. You can put yourself in the CEO's shoes and seriously consider the temptations. We all may easily be guilty of one or more, analyzing them will help us better ourselves.
The Code of the Executive: Forty-Seven Ancient Samurai Principles Essential for Twenty-First Century Leadership Success
A truly original and insightful read! Don Schmincke took the Code of the Samurai from ages ago (when Tom Cruise was a Samurai), and transferred it to relate to the executive. Surprisingly, you will not find a forced interpretation with vague or confusing links. It smoothly flows into a motivational/leadership book that goes beyond a normal read. Many great business motivation books are set on business and helping others perform. Schmincke takes this further and also focuses on the Executive's mind and body, and his or her interaction with family, friends, and others. Prepare yourself for an awakening in business and life.
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
Ferriss describes a concept in his book that may be new to most people--living like the "New Rich." Ferriss argues that people don't want to be millionaires to have million dollars, but to live like millionaires. By starting an automated profitable enterprise, Ferriss describes precisely how you too can "escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the New Rich." Not a theoretical treatise on business concepts, this outstanding book is a step-by-step guide to creating wealth by working less.
Here are links to a couple of the books:
Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't
The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich
2010/05/09
Robert Kiyosaki Network Marketing Business Opportunity Part1
www.WinningEdgeEnterprises.com is a business opportunity that utilizes fundamentals learned from the great Robert Kiyosaki. Robert Kiyosaki (born April 8, 1947) is an investor, businessman, self-help author and motivational speaker. Kiyosaki is best known for his Rich Dad, Poor Dad series of motivational books and other material. He has written 18 books which combined have sold over 26 million copies.Three of his books, Rich Dad Poor Dad, Rich Dad's CASHFLOW Quadrant, and Rich Dad's Guide to Investing, have been on the top 10 best-seller lists simultaneously on The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the New York Times. The book Rich Kid Smart Kid was published in 2001, with the intent to help parents teach their children financial concepts. He has created three "Cashflow" board and software games for adults and children and has a series of "Rich Dad" audio cassettes and disks. He also publishes a monthly newsletter. A large part of Kiyosaki's teachings focus on generating passive income by means of investment opportunities, such as real estate and small businesses, with the ultimate goal of being able to support oneself by such investments alone. In tandem with this, Kiyosaki defines "assets" as things that generate money, such as rental properties or businesses, and "liabilities" as things that cost money, such as house payments, cars and so on. Kiyosaki also proclaims financial leverage to be critically important in becoming rich. Kiyosaki stresses what he calls ...
2010/04/25
Blue Ocean Strategy *SECRETS* in Online Business
www.TrafficVaultSecrets.com Blue Ocean StrategyMaking the competition Irrelevant. The official site of the International Bestseller written by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne discusses how to get Free Leads and Traffic to your Website. Blue Ocean StrategyBOS frameworks and tools include strategy canvas, value curve, four actions framework, six paths, buyer experience cycle, buyer utility map, and blue ocean is one of the premier ways of traffic and lead generation. Blue Ocean Strategy - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia31 Dec 2008 ... Blue Ocean Strategy is a business strategy book written by Professors W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne of INSEAD, a leading global business. I used it to take my Business to the Next Level and to become the HUNTED instead of the HUNTER. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and ...Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant: W. Chan Kim: Amazon.co.uk: Renée Mauborgne: Books. If you need free leads and want to dominate with social media and web 3.0 you have come to the right place. Amazon.com: Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market ...Amazon.com: Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant: W. Chan Kim, Renée Mauborgne: Books. You need to understand how to get conversion and not just traffic. That is what the Blue Ocean Strategy also covers in depth. BlueOcean Strategy logic behind blue ocean strategy parts ...
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