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 timeline templates. Read more
Using fictional storytelling techniques in business, part 2In the wildly successful book Made to Stick, authors Chip and Dan Heath offer an easy outline to remember when trying to make ideas memorable and convincing: SUCCES (simple, unexpected, concrete, credibility, emotion and stories). And there’s a reason they put stories in the acronym’s last spot. Read more
Using fictional storytelling techniques in business“Once upon a time…” Need I go further? You know you’ve entered a story. Perhaps you prefer something a little more straightforward: “Call me Ishmael,” “I am an invisible man” or “Mother died today.” The simple act of telling a story demands attention whether it starts with the fantastical or the concrete. It’s the difference between academic and business-speak and barroom banter. 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 timeline templates. Read more
Hot (or cold?) sales incentivesFargo, ND as a sales incentive trip? In the WINTER? You betcha. Well, not really — more of a “disincentive trip.” MSNBC reported that the company that makes Hot Tamales candy “offered its sales team an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii if it met its annual goals, and a trip to the nation’s arctic tundra if it didn’t.” 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 timeline templates. Read more
Is there room for storytelling in business settings?This post first appeared as a guest blog on the Corporate Executive Board.
Is storytelling appropriate in business? Is there a place for incorporating an engaging tale in the commercial world? I believe there is, but after sharing my ideas about storytelling in the boardroom and beyond for the past year, I encountered many who disagree. Read more
How to steal your competitors’ top peopleGeoff Colvin, Fortune senior editor, has an extraordinary breadth of knowledge on the most vital issues facing business and the economy. Top business leaders confide in him. For obvious reasons a top CEO did not want to be named when in late 2008 he said “Any CEO that is not panicked about the economy, should be.” Colvin now sees opportunity. 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 timeline templates. Read more
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