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12 December 2013
Barack Obama speaking at Nelson Mandela’s memorial service said “And while I will always fall short of Madiba’s example, he makes me want to be a better man”. What a fantastic example of Mandela’s ability to inspire.
30 November 2013
Do you perform better with encouragement? So do your people.
Genuine appreciation from you, the manager can taste better than anything – even a pay rise! If you make people feel special you will end up with a special team.
17 August 2013
Today everyone sells; not just outside the organisation but within it as well. The ability to persuade and influence is part of everyone’s job. Whether you are selling, negotiating, marketing, advertising, coaching, leading, managing or speaking in public, you are persuading others to accept your ideas. Selling is the preeminent skill.
6 August 2013
Inevitably you will find it necessary to have a tough conversation with one of your reports at some stage. Either because their performance has slipped for some reason or their attitude is not as positive as you expect.
14 June 2013
Here’s an exercise you can use to come up with useful probing questions. Think of one of your current customers and brainstorm the potential problems/issues they might have (and the opportunities they would like to realise). Choose areas you know your product or service can help solve. Make a list of them.
13 May 2013
I remember how hard it was to make those initial calls early in my career. I used to sit there staring at the phone. I’d pick it up and think, ‘No way, I can’t call. He won’t want to speak to me. I’ll feel an idiot.’ So I’d put the phone down again.
27 March 2013
Successful Key Account Managers know the importance of building a wide network of contacts within their accounts. Part 1 looked at the financial buyer who will sign off the funding for the purchase, let’s now look at some of the other key players:
23 March 2013
To succeed in key account management we must make lots of contacts and talk to lots of people within the account. One of the ways customers reduce risk is to ensure that as many of their people as possible are in favour of the decision.
9 March 2013
Sometimes a buyer will deliberately deadlock in order to lower your aspirations. She will take you to the edge of the cliff and see how tough you talk then.
21 February 2013
Let people sense your strong will to succeed. You communicate with your words, your appearance, your manners, but especially with your sense of purpose. Certainty is more persuasive than charm. In business as in sport, the person who wins is usually the one who wants it the most.
9 February 2013
Love them or lose them. As the economy brightens engagement is hugely important. You need to make sure each of your people think ‘this is the best place for me to be’.
24 January 2013
The only certainty about change is that it will never be this slow in the future. Everyone has resistance to change, but research shows those with high performance potential have lower resistance.
1 December 2012
In a leadership role, and anyone who is responsible for the performance of others is a leader, you are always setting an example whether consciously or not. If you’re hacked off who is going to pick it up? Everyone.
17 November 2012
The more you listen, the more you are fascinated by what people have to say, the more they will like you, trust you and want to do business with you.
17 October 2012
Something that never ceases to amaze me is the effort that many organisations direct towards getting new business while overlooking their existing client base. That’s crazy – it’s like filling a bucket that has a hole in it.
14 October 2012
Many people start a new job or their job description changes and they have the attitude, ‘I’ll wait and see whether or not this job comes up to my expectations.’
14 September 2012
The ability to convince yourself of your potential is the greatest selling skill of all. To win more business with this approach, one of the questions you must ask yourself is: ‘Am I a two- or three dimensional salesperson?’
11 July 2012
Protect your attitude in sales and leadership roles
The laws of aerodynamics tell us that the bumble bee cannot fly. Its wings are too small, it’s too heavy, it has insufficient muscle and it’s the wrong shape. Technically there is no known way that a bumble bee can get off the ground. But fortunately, no one has told the bees and they carry on flying around.
5 July 2012
Your ability to set the direction, quite rightly, is a key focus of good leadership training. What’s your goal? What key areas do you need to work on? What are the priorities?
Your responsibility to your followers is to be clear about where you are headed. You must define the performance objective.
19 June 2012
In this hard to predict economy, two themes are clear – first, competition is strong and getting stronger. Your competition is just a click away. And second, as products and services become more and more alike, the difference is people. The only thing your competitors cannot copy is the relationships you have with your team and your customers. That’s why inspirational leadership training is vital to business success.
19 May 2012
Leadership training normally focuses on what you should do, however it is is just as important to know what NOT to do.
15 May 2012
GrowthStream is highly practical, so you can use it to address real problems
People leadership is the new core competency. To thrive in today’s market we simply cannot afford to field anything but teams of A players.
