Non-verbal cues: rubbing palms together signals positive expectationWhat does your body communicate when your prospect says: “Your price is too high?” Think of your last sales call and try to remember specifics – your body angle, facial expressions, the position of your arms, hands and legs. Most salespeople show negative changes in their body posture when hearing objections. Read more
Using fictional storytelling techniques in business, part 3Of course, stories in the business sphere don’t always fit into this tidy framework. Regardless, they must have sufficient detail to make the story authentic and vivid. Physical detail will help give your story vividness and pull someone in, because it creates a dream state in the mind. When crafting stories, be as specific as possible. Read more
One sales enablement initiative most likely to make you wish you’d never heard of sales enablementThis is the second part of a post I am pleased to share from Sharon Little, Director, Global Field Communications, VMware, Inc. In our last post, Sharon shared three components relevant to sales enablement. Today, I am happy to share Sharon’s ideas about what she calls “the one sales enablement initiative that most likely to make you wish you’d never heard of sales enablement.” Read more
Learn how to learn to propel your careerTo improve the learning process, climb the learning ladder in stages.
Have you ever learned something the wrong way? For me it was golf. I play occasionally, but never bothered to really learn the basics. Recently, I decided to focus on improving my game. Read more
What your boss wants from youYou may be surprised to learn that today’s boss wants you to think more. And do less. Read more
How to design a fun and productive meetingThe following is a guest post about designing well-organized meetings by Miri Zena McDonald, an organization development and communications strategist on a quest to help companies thrive by engaging employees, improving culture and promoting wellness. She tweets at @miri_orgchange.
What motivates us? It’s not what you think!Dan Pink has a great video out about what motivates us. Hint – it is not what you think!
In addition to being fun to watch (take my word for it), he shares really surprising research about what compels people to perform. An MIT study has demonstrated that, once you get beyond rudimentary cognitive skills, higher financial rewards actually result in LOWER performance! Read more
3 tips to tell authentic business stories
How to solve problems in corporate AmericaToo often, we begin to pontificate, offer opinions and attempt to solve problems without taking the time to truly understand the situation at hand. Intellectually, we know the best approach involves asking the right questions, discovering the details, being patient and listening to the full story, but often that is not how problem solvers in corporate America proceed. Read more
Four stories to get your audience excited about your manual, guideline or procedures – Part 4This is the last in a series of several stories providing metaphors to help you get your audience invested in a new manual, guideline or procedure. Regular readers know that I believe telling stories and creating metaphors to help drive points home and convince an audience to act after a presentation is over is one way to persuade listeners. Read more