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Jonathan Farrington is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author and consultant, who has guided hundreds of companies and thousands of individuals around the world towards optimum performance levels. He is Chairman of The Sales Corporation, CEO of Top Sales Associates and Senior Partner at The JF Consultancy Formerly, Jonathan was the Managing Partner of The jfa Group which he established in 1994. Prior to that, he earned his spurs in some of the most demanding ... [More]

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Sales Leadership - Building a Shared Mental Model
[Business:Sales-Management] The role of a Sales Leader is to translate the organisation's vision, mission and values into a meaningful context that sales teams can relate to and feel excited by. If this is achieved then the Sales Leader will have created a sales team with a shared mental model. This transforms an ordinary sales team into a high performing one.

Objectively Re-Assessing Your Current Opportunities
[Business:Sales] All sales professionals claim to be permanently time constrained: We always have limited time and resources with which to achieve our targets. We can be involved in only so many accounts or sales situations before we begin to lose your ability to manage what is taking place. At that point we lose control and the competition takes control.

The Twelve Golden Principles of Selling - 2.0 Version
[Business:Sales] Selling is the most wonderfully exhilarating, satisfying and fulfilling career in the world - but only if you are selling successfully. Someone has to be the best - why not you? Here then are my revised "Twelve Golden Principles Of Selling - Version 2.0"

How We Conceived And Delivered "The Top 10 Sales Articles"
[Business:Sales] Imagine a single location, where time strapped business captains, sales professionals and publishers can locate a review of the very best sales articles every week: Where authors, have a unique opportunity to showcase their work and benchmark the quality of their writing, against that of their contempories, and have it reviewed by globally recognised sales experts.

Conducting Appraisals - The Essential Skills
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] All managers expected to carry out performance appraisal should have some training. Ideally this should not just be on the skills of performance appraisal – the 'how' to do it, but also on the reasons for performance appraisal the 'why' we do it. Managers should understand how it fits into the wider strategic process of performance management and how the information and data generated contributes to understanding of the capacity of the human capital of the organisation to contribution to business strategy and value.

Do We Need Leaders Who Are Left-Brained, Right-Brained Or Something In Between?
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] I have always known that the very best sales professionals are predominantly right-brained: I also suspected the Finance Directors and Technical Directors were predominantly left-brained - so where does that leave CEO's and Managing Directors?

What Leadership Was And What It Has Become
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Leadership was once about hard skills such as planning, finance and business analysis. When command and control ruled the corporate world, the leaders were heroic rationalists who moved people around like pawns and fought like stags. When they spoke, the company employees jumped. Now, if the gurus and experts are right, leadership is increasingly concerned with...

How To Plan And Prepare For An Effective Appraisal
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Both parties should prepare for an appraisal meeting beforehand if a successful outcome is to be delivered - as with most things in life the quality of the planning and preparation will certainly affect the quality of the final outcome.

What Happens When You Have Too Many Sales Leads?
[Business:Sales] Few marketers will question the value of sales leads generated by direct mail and other direct response methods. However, a poorly integrated lead generation programme can actually reduce the overall productivity of a salesforce. This is a true story and only the company name has been changed.

Engineering Team Spirit Is An Essential Leadership Responsibility
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] A very good friend and ex-client of mine runs a highly successful information technology service in the South of England and his private-sector customers include many Times Top 100 companies. We often exchange opinions and I recently asked his views on leadership, because I have always been impressed with his commitment to "people development" This is his take on successful leadership...

How To Negotiate With The Four Personality Types
[Business:Negotiation] People negotiate differently and behave differently during the negotiation process. We can observe different styles of negotiation and how different types of behaviour can affect the outcome of negotiations. In commercial negotiations, some people negotiate quickly and take risks, others take their time and try to avoid risk.

Psychometric Testing And Professional Salespeople - Uncomfortable Bedfellows?
[Business:Sales] I have to tell you that when I was first introduced to psychometrics in 1983, I was somewhat sceptical and that scepticism has remained with me ever since; so why my scepticism and why do I believe that psychometric testing and professional salespeople are uncomfortable bedfellows?

New To Sales Management? Begin With Your People In Mind
[Business:Sales-Management] Before you do anything, have the likely expectations of your people in mind. They will tend to define a good manager as one who ...

Negotiation - Understanding Your Sources Of Power
[Business:Negotiation] One of the main differences between negotiators is how confident they feel when negotiating. Typically, the more confident we feel, and the better we are prepared, the more successful will be the outcome of our negotiations. Personal power comes from many sources. To build up and increase our confidence as negotiators we need to step back and analyse the sources of our personal power and compare them with those of the people with whom we are negotiating.

What Should An Effective And Professional Sales Team Appraisal Contain?
[Business:Sales-Management] Every sales manager has to appraise subordinates and the mechanics of it vary from ticking little boxes, through marking on five-point scales, to writing an open ended report. The primary purpose of an appraisal is to help the subordinate, whilst at the same time ensuring that the company is receiving an appropriate return on it's considerable investment. Here I discuss just what precisely an effective sales specific appraisal document should contain.

New To Sales Management? Assess Your Team Sooner Rather Than Later
[Business:Sales-Management] The importance of assessing the skills-sets, experience, promotion potential andaspirations of your team as early as possible, cannot be over-estimated. Knowledge is power!

Leadership - Just How Important Is Emotional Competence?
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] As business changes, so do the traits needed to survive, let alone excel. All these transitions put increased value on emotional intelligence. Competitive pressures put a new value on people who are self-motivated, show initiative, have the inner drive for outdoing themselves, and are optimistic enough to take reversals and setbacks in their stride. The ever-pressing need to serve customers and clients well and to work smoothly and creatively with an ever more diverse range of people makes the ability to empathise all the more essential.

Leadership Is About Constantly Challenging Paradigms But Staying Within The Overall Strategy
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] One of the key tasks of a leader is to continually seek ways to improve the way in which their team operates – constantly challenging paradigms and questioning “the way we do things around here”, will ensure the team remains at optimum performance levels. However, it is also important to stay within an overall long term strategy and not effect change for change’s sake. Here are some thoughts on moving forward in a structured manner.

Successful Leaders Take Decisive Action In Order To Maintain Standards Of Behaviour
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Successful modern leaders should be supportive of staff, but should also take decisive action to maintain standards of behaviour: The worst leaders are those who fail to support staff. These conclusions came from research by The Industrial Society, carried out among 3000 business people, published in 1999. The survey, "Liberating Leadership 1999", identified 38 key competencies for leadership, and exposed some myths about modern leadership, derided by some as 'too soft' and people-centred.

Negotiation - Understanding Movement, Concessions And Bargaining
[Business:Negotiation] Asking questions and listening effectively are important skills both in selling and negotiating. The first phase of negotiation involves both parties agreeing the background to the negotiation and fishing for the opening demand or offer. It is often better to present the opening demand or offer in terms of a hypothetical question, as this allows the negotiator to retreat to his initial position if necessary.

What A Performance Appraisal Is And What It Is Not
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] The performance appraisal or review is essentially an opportunity for the individual and those concerned with their performance – most usually their line manager - to get together to engage in a dialogue about the individual's performance, development and the support required from the manager. It should not be a top down process or an opportunity for one person to ask questions and the other to reply. It should be a free flowing conversation in which a range of views are exchanged.

The Importance Of Working Together With Your Team
[Business:Sales-Management] The principle of working together with your team should underpin how you operate. Managing people doesn't just mean acting as overseer, to see that they get their work done satisfactorily. It means involving people throughout the team in a creative role, to ensure that together you are all able to succeed.

Negotiation - Planning For A Successful Outcome
[Business:Negotiation] In any kind of negotiation the planning stage is probably the most important. Too often we go in badly prepared and end up giving concessions that reduce the overall profitability of the final deal. The importance of planning is in having a very clear idea before entering into the negotiation.

New To Sales Management? - How To Quickly Establish Authority
[Business:Sales-Management] Sometimes a new Sales Manager has to face awkward, contentious, embarrassing or tough issues. Difficult situations, you may have noticed, don’t tend to get easier if delayed or ignored. For the manager, dealing with such problems goes with the territory.

Leaders Who Balk At Taking The Journey Of Self-Development Could Find Themselves Becoming Isolated
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Traditionally, one of our largest clients ran its business from manuals. Staff who wanted to know how something should be done would be directed by a senior manager “to look in staff manual 108” for the answer. It was not a motivational style of management, and had become unsuitable for fast-changing modern business conditions.

Customer Service - The Huge Gap Between Intention And Reality
[Business:Customer-Service] When it comes to looking after our customers, quite often there’s a gap, a huge gap between theory and practice. There are books about customer relations; there are videos about customer relations; there are Gurus (mostly self-appointed) about customer relations. None of them actually have to deliver customer relations. That chore is left to what was known in the last two World Wars as the PBI – as in “Poor B….y Infantry”- the foot soldiers. The front line people, your front line people. So what do they make of it all?

Leadership - Some Thoughts About Structure, Self-Sufficiency And Responsibility
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] The organisational structure of a team is important. Who does what, how one job relates to another, the lines of reporting and communication – all affect effectiveness. This is something to continually re-assess.

Leadership - The Importance Of Remaining Focussed On The Present But Always Looking To The Future
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] The environment in which you work is, no doubt, dynamic. Change is the order of the day. We may not know exactly what is coming but, during the course of your career as a manager, you can be sure that change will continue and that the pace of change will increase. Never forget this and help – and expect –your people to recognise it too.

Poor Performance - Your Options For Dealing With It Effectively
[Business:Management] Poor performance is an issue that faces any manager from time to time. You can deal with it in several ways, however choosing the correct option can often be critical.

Why Appraising Performance Regularly Against Relevant Criteria Is So Important
[Business:Management] Every manager has to appraise subordinates and the mechanics of it vary from ticking little boxes, through marking on five-point scales, to writing an open ended report. However, in all cases the primary purpose of an appraisal is to help the subordinate.

The Ten Easiest Ways To Lose Your Customers
[Business:Customer-Service] Most of us are involved in some form of business acquisition for our respective companies. We all know that winning business often requires a significant investment in time, resources and energy and that the thrill of the chase is an exciting one. Isn’t it a shame that sometimes the customer, who you worked so hard to win, cancels the order during the initial stages because someone somewhere has let them down.

Some Thoughts About Leadership And Greatness
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Shakespeare was good about leadership, as about most other things. The spoof letter which caused poor Malvolio to make such a fool of himself contains words that say a lot about the subject. "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them". Greatness and leadership are so closely akin that the words give us a useful point of departure.

Styles Of Negotiation
[Business:Negotiation] Our style of negotiation will be influenced by the style of the other party. If both sides are adversarial; there will be little trust between the two parties, however, if one side decides to be co-operative, there is a danger the other side will use this apparent sign of weakness to their advantage.

Understanding The Nature Of Dynamic Leadership
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] To those who would suggest that great leaders are born not made, I would say this: We can examine all of the great leaders in history and identify some common characteristics but we cannot say they were “Born Leaders”. They all developed into their leadership roles over a period of time, learning the skills along the way. I do believe that leaders can be developed – I have to believe that because currently we have far too few of them in the world

The Four Essential Component Parts Of Successful Selling Part One - Attitude
[Business:Sales] I first began to recognise the need to be able to benchmark sales performance more objectively and more rigorously over twenty five years ago: The motivation to do this was strong because I knew I was wasting thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds on sales skills training programmes which were not providing me with a proper return on my considerable investment. But I needed to prove my theory because without an accurate analysis of my requirements, I would continue to abdicate that responsibility to the training providers, most of whom had only their own interests at heart. So with this quote from Drucker, "The most effective way to manage change is to create it," firmly in my mind, I set about my task, a task that became a journey, which began in 1981 and is still ongoing.

The Four Essential Component Parts Of Successful Selling Part Two - Skills And Process
[Business:Sales] I then turned my attention to "Skills". I discovered that to begin with, the one off programme was supplying a short term motivational buzz and provided my team with a number of thought provoking ideas. However, in reality, once they were back at the "front-line" the day to day pressures of hitting quota etc took over again and the reactive mindset returned.

The Four Essential Component Parts Of Successful Selling Part Three - And Finally, Knowledge
[Business:Sales] It is fairly common knowledge that even today, in most industries, a very high percentage of training budgets are spent on "product knowledge" workshops and training sessions. This is understandable to a degree particularly in the more technical sectors, but what about all the other types of "knowledge?"

Negotiation - Tactics, Tricks And Threats
[Business:Negotiation] Most successful negotiators recognise that the way people involved in negotiations behave does not always reflect their true feelings or intentions. This article looks at negotiating tactics that may be used by you or on you.

Reactive Salespeople, Pro-Active Salespeople And Vilfredo Pareto
[Business:Sales] "Winners in life constantly think in terms of I can, I will and I am. Losers on the other hand concentrate their waking thoughts on what they should have done or what they don't do" -Dennis Waitley Can we all become "Winners"? Yes, of course we can. We cannot have everything we want in life but we can have anything that we really want, because if we want it badly enough we will find the means to bring about its happening – this is called "fulfilled expectation"

Negotiation-Dealing With Price And The Closing Stages
[Business:Negotiation] Price is an issue in most negotiations. We need to deal with the price issue confidently, but with an understanding of the needs of the other side. Here are some notes to help you:

How To Structure A Negotiation
[Business:Negotiation] People who are successful negotiators, always have a well thought out strategy before entering into the negotiation, are well prepared, self confident and structure the negotiation, so that they remain in control of the negotiating process.

Sales Managers Need To Be Adept Jugglers And Trained Diplomats
[Business:Sales-Management] Sometimes (regularly?) conflicts arise: something is right for the department and the people, but not for either the organisation or you. On occasions you will find yourself disagreeing with a company policy but having to support it even though you know that your people see it as wrong and personally inconvenient. How you handle this balancing act is important, and it may be necessary to explain the reasons behind your actions. It is an area for some consistency.

How To Use A Pareto Analysis As A Sales Management Tool
[Business:Sales-Management] Pareto Analysis is a very simple technique that helps you to choose the most effective changes to make. It uses the Pareto principle - the idea that by doing 20% of work you can generate 80% of the advantage of doing the entire job. It is also a formal technique for finding the changes that will give the biggest benefits. It is useful where many possible courses of action are competing for your attention.

How To Get The Best From Your Sales Team
[Business:Sales-Management] In terms of achieving and sustaining optimum performance levels within your team it is vital to recognise from the outset that effectiveness depends on the interaction of the following three factors-

Sales Management Is All About Motivating
[Business:Sales-Management] Resolve now – right now – that you will give motivation priority. Don't be mistaken, motivation makes a difference – a big difference. People perform better when they feel positive about their job. Your intention should be to make people feel, individually and as a group, that they are special. Doing so is the first step to making sure that what they do is special.

The Role Of Communication In Sales Management
[Business:Sales-Management] In my mailbox this week was a message from a young guy in Australia who has just taken his first step up into management: His question was quite simply – "What is the most important management trait I should consider developing first?" Very interesting question, because there are several essential traits that need to be developed as early as possible, but choosing just one - the most important, was a "no-brainer" for me and this is an extract of my response to him.

Transactional Analysis And It's Effect On Our Customer Interactions
[Business:Customer-Service] Knowing the basics about "Transactional Analysis" will give you a better understanding of why people communicate in a certain way. For example, why they feel the need to be aggressive or manipulative to get their point across when they are unhappy about something.

Professional And Dedicated Sales Professionals Are Busy Setting Goals And Objectives For 2008
[Business:Sales] It is that time of year when all professional and dedicated sales professionals should be focusing on what they want to achieve next year. Having said that, most people, and I would estimate 80%, because Pareto's principle is always pretty accurate, will not set objectives and in failing to plan will in effect, be planning to fail. The greatest difficulty most people have is knowing where to begin, so here are some thoughts that will hopefully assist you in constructing an achievable plan for the next twelve months and beyond.

Sales Networking - The Best Way To Begin Is To Dive Right In
[Business:Sales] Like any adventure,when you begin networking you may have some fear and trepidation about facing the unexpected, but you should also feel some of the thrill of the challenge and excitement in finding new people with whom you can really connect. By making time in your schedule to network, you can use early opportunities to watch others networking and to get into the habit of talking to the people you meet. Don’t forget, networking successfully means that we sometimes have to stretch ourselves to the edges of our comfort zones – hard at first but much easier with practice.

Sales Presentations - Tips On Dealing With Anxiety From An Old Pro
[Business:Sales] The first thing to remember is that anxiety or nerves means you are alive and without them your resulting presentation would be like you - dead! What you need to do is learn to control your anxiety and use it to fuel your enthusiasm.

The Essentials Of Decision Making
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Decision-making is something that happens throughout our day but with different degrees of importance, urgency and consequential outcomes. Success comes from the quality of the decision itself as well as the robustness of implementation or application.

Who Should Be Involved In The Induction Process
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] A common mistake in induction schemes is to leave it all to one person to organise. This puts a lot of pressure on that individual and may reduce the effectiveness of the programme. It is advisable to involve as many people as you can in the process, by splitting the responsibility and making it more interesting.

It Is Vital To Set Objectives Prior To Delivering An Induction Programme
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Many people leave a job because they are disillusioned, let down or misinformed. A good induction will illustrate to new comers that the organization is committed to them and will do everything it can to retain them as long as possible. This results in reduction of staff turnover and recruitment costs. However, it is vital to set objectives so that the results can be benchmarked.

Recruitment - The Process Of Selection
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] A good advertisement is not measured by the number of suitable candidates it attracts. If you have carefully and thoroughly considered the experience and formal qualifications required, a number of applicants can be dismissed immediately because they lack basic qualifications or because the age is incorrect. Never the less keep one eye open for the exceptional person who departs from the ideal.

The Selection Interview And It's Aims
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] In spite of widespread and growing criticism of the personal interview as a selection procedure, it is still by far the most common method. It is flexible, relatively inexpensive and acceptable to the candidate and management. The selection interview has other advantages. It has been discovered that certain areas of information can be assessed more accurately by interview than by other methods i.e. the candidates interpersonal behaviour and the likelihood of them adjusting to the social aspects of the job situation and also the candidates motivation to work

How To Deliver A Professional Sales Presentation
[Business:Sales] All professional salespeople have to be involved in a presentation at some time in their sales career and Top 5 % players present their proposals every time.

Are You Achieving Sustained Sales Growth Efficiently - Reliably And By Design
[Business:Sales] In his book "Fundamentals of Selling," Charles Futrell identifies careful use of selling time as perhaps the distinguishing characteristic of the successful salesperson. Frequently there are two main pitfalls that even experienced salespeople can fall into in terms of activities. First, they simply aren't doing enough. What's enough? Enough telephone calls to make appointments, enough face-to-face calls, enough calls that involve or influence the decision-makers. In general, the more focused sales activity salespeople generate, the greater the number of sales opportunities they can create.

Identifying The Stages Of A Consultative Sales Cycle
[Business:Sales] Before we identify a typical "Consultative Sales Cycle", it is important to discover if you are currently selling in a traditional way or if in fact, you are already selling consultatively. Vending or Traditional Selling...

Induction Programmes Are Not Just For New Recruits
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Induction is not just for newcomers, but for anyone who is in a new situation at work or who has special needs.

How To Conduct A Successful Interview
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] It is easy to forget that the recruitment interview is a selling event: Obviously the interviewee is doing everything he or she can to impress the interviewer(s) and provide sufficient evidence of their suitability for the vacancy, ahead of the other candidates. However, it is also important to remember that we need to sell our company in order to attract the very best staff and during that first interview, candidates will begin forming their opinions of our professionalism and our suitability as potential employers.

How We Relate Maslow's Theory To Induction
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Even though newcomers will have anxiety, they will also be feeling enthusiastic and motivated to do a good job. The main goal of induction is to maintain this enthusiasm and motivation for as long as possible. This will result in more effective performance.

Just How Important Is The Induction Process?
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Just how important is the "Induction Process"? Well, frankly, it is incredibly important – I was prompted to write this article after hearing of the experiences of an ex-student of mine last week. Suffice to say, I was disappointed for her but not surprised. My perception is that far too little thought is given to "inducting" new recruits and what she endured is commonplace.

The Nature Of Sales Networking
[Business:Sales] Networking effectiveness starts with a positive personal attitude and an understanding that successful networking is built on a spirit of giving and sharing and not of bargaining and keeping score. Armed with this knowledge, we can now look at how the process of good sales networking actually works in practice.

How To Create A Sales Network Map
[Business:Sales] There is ultimately no better way to start networking than to try it for real. The easiest way to do this to commence with the clients you already have, rather than to find new ones.

Sales Networking - How To Research Potential Contacts
[Business:Sales] I truly believe that every individual in the whole world is potentially only five or six contact steps away. This 'five or six degrees of separation' shows that even an entire population of over five billion people is still highly accessible. However, for practical purposes , we don't necessarily want or need to meet millions, or even thousands of people in different organizations, age groups, religions, professions, culture or places. We are just looking to develop a network that will eventually provide us with additional business. Ideally therefore, we need some kind of filtering or research system that will help us to build a set of relationships of high quality, or a strong network that can find people and resources both efficiently and effectively.

Are You Really Making The Most Of Your Most Important Customers?
[Business:Sales] A vitally important sales activity is that of managing existing customer accounts to consolidate and grow the relationship. Yet unfortunately, when compared over time, the customers’ interest levels increase while salespeople’s interest levels tend to decrease. This creates a “relationship gap” and is due entirely to complacency.

You Have Made An Important Decision - Now You Need To Sell It To The Troops
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] So, you have reached a decision that will affect other people and you need to now advise them of your deliberations and conclusions so that the decision can be put into effect or implemented without further delay.

Why Some Decisions Are Harder Than Others
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] While some decisions are easy (what to eat for supper) many more are extremely hard. Usually, a hard decision involves greater consequences/implications or, in some cases, a higher level of resource commitment. In reality, not all so-called hard decisions are hard. Some feel harder than others owing to scale:

The Five Main Drivers For Improvement Within Organisations
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop. Change is continuous and will become more rapid as we move forward over time. Senior management must be capable of reacting to those changes and be prepared to take advantage of them and yet stay within the overall framework and agreed strategy.

How To First Understand And Then Develop Your Emotional Skills
[Self-Improvement] All forms of stress have an emotional element, but the emotional energy created by stress can be used to your advantage. Essentially, emotions are resources which when used skilfully, will have a positive effect.

How To Begin Improving Your Sales Networking Skills
[Business:Sales] Before you even begin to look at engaging seriously in lots of sales networking effort, it is useful to look at your own temperament or disposition,. This is the individual’s internal desire to network and to find value and enjoyment from the whole process of building relationships, which will in turn lead to increased sales

Making The Most Of Customer Service
[Business:Customer-Service] Customer care has become one of the most important issues facing businesses in every market. Customer care programmes come under a number of titles - customer services, customer satisfaction, customer focus, customer orientated etc. Their common theme is meeting the customer’s requirements and ensuring that all aspects of the business contribute to customer satisfaction. The intention is to build repeat business if customers are satisfied with the product and the standards of service they receive, they will return again and again.

How To Become Truly Assertive
[Self-Improvement] If you want to become more assertive, pay particular attention to your non-verbal behaviour as this needs to be in line with your verbal behaviour. If they are at odds it is the non-verbal behaviour that is usually believed

How To Apply The Herrmann Brain Theory To Decision Making
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Everyone has a different make-up that influences how they take decisions. Ned Herrmann’s extensive research in this field led to the Herrmann Brain Theory which when understood, can be a very useful tool for decision making.

The Signs That Should Tell You Your Business Is Heading For Trouble
[Business:Small-Business] There are a number of obvious signs that a small business is in trouble but the reality is that however severe the situation may appear to be, ignoring the symptoms will not remedy the situation. The "ostrich" approach should not be an option, because there always solutions.

Decisions - What They Are And What They Are Not
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Decision making is an essential requirement of management and the very best leaders appear able to make crucial decisions effortlessly “standing on their feet” But what exactly is a decision – and what is it not?

Lessons In Leadership From Earnest Shackleton
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Sir Ernest Shackleton has been called “the greatest leader that ever came on God’s earth bar none” for saving the lives of twenty-seven men stranded with him on an Antarctic ice floe for almost two years. Unlike most of the polar expeditions, every man survived – not only in good health, but also in good spirits – all due to the leadership skills of Shackleton.

Are You Fully Prepared For A Fresh Set Of Challenges? A Sales Management Checklist
[Business:Sales-Management] As we near the end of the year, this is an excellent time to take stock and ask yourself some important questions to ensure that you are totally prepared for the fresh set of challenges that lay ahead next year

How To Deliver More Next Year With Less!
[Business:Sales-Management] Year on year, sales leaders are being asked to achieve improved results with fewer resources or, at least, more from the same. To most Sales Directors, the attainment of a permanent increase in sales revenues must seem like the search for eternal youth; unending and, ultimately, unavailing.

What Does Your Calling Card Say About You?
[Business:Advertising] Of the four business meetings I have held so far this week; only in one case was the other person able to produce an up to date and informative business card, despite the fact that they were all very senior executives. As I have said on numerous occasions, a common (and often overlooked) image feature for every would-be business professional, is the business or calling card (the summary information about yourself you choose to give to others).

Discipline - It Is Vital To Get The Punishment/Improvement Balance Just Right
[Business:Management] The view of discipline as punishment may originate from childhood associations, and the view that discipline is all about a ‘wrong’ to be ‘corrected’. A balance needs to be struck between viewing discipline as punishment or improvement.

It Is Important To Keep Our Internal Customers Happy Too
[Business:Management] Ask a colleague to define the customer and they will probably say "Someone who buys from us" What about internal customers? Colleagues, other departments, branches, suppliers? They are equally as important and deserve to have their problems and complaints taken seriously. External customers sense if there is a good working atmosphere, a co-ordinated approach to customer service, teamwork and high morale. It gives them confidence to stay with you.

Building A Network Of Contacts Is Vital For Success In A Front-Line Sales Role
[Business:Sales] To some, networking means simply meeting or calling someone new for what might be a one-off discussion or event. In this limited sense, networking is only a trading relationship in which two parties seek to discover whether they have anything of mutual interest to talk about. They either make some sort of exchange or quickly move on. This makes networking a highly "transactional" subject, much like buying and selling or negotiating with someone. My view is very different because I believe that networking has a much wider definition. In fact it can be a major social and life skill to be used in both a business/organisational and personal setting.

Professional Salespeople Can Learn So Much From Covey's Seven Habits
[Business:Sales] Covey's view focuses on interdependence, on what he calls "mature interaction". When we are truly interdependent, then we have achieved and are practising all seven habits. The habits are in fact steps, leading us from dependent through independence to interdependence and making use of our innate human characteristics - moving us in effect from what Covey terms "private victories to public victories".

Selling Is The Key Element In The Total Marketing Process
[Business:Sales] Business people in the UK have devalued selling for far too long and some managers have convinced themselves that they would do better if they did not employ salespeople - after all good products sell themselves, don't they? As a consequence, until very recently, salespeople have done everything possible to avoid calling themselves "A Salesman or a Saleswoman". They have developed a series of euphemisms such as: "Sales Engineer", "Account Executive", "Technical Sales Consultant" etc. But nowadays we accept that we all sell everyday.

How To Organise A Successful And Professional Seminar
[Business:Sales] To sell effectively in any environment, companies need to project a clear sales message to groups of prospects. The most cost effective method of doing this is a professionally organised seminar, which is specially tailored to the prospects areas of interest and offers an unrivaled opportunity to explain "up front" what the company stands for and outlines their solutions and services.

How To Deal Effectively With Grievances
[Business:Management] Grievances are often below the surface – they are the moans and groans that provide fodder for the grapevine. They are the hygiene factors of the Hertzberg view of motivation: those issues that need to be cleaned up to maintain a sense of order.

How To Develop Active Listening
[Business:Sales] Your role in the sales situation alternates between sender and receiver of messages. The very best sales professionals devote a large portion of the sales interview to listening. However, there is a huge difference between merely listening and listening actively - this is a skill which has to be developed.

The Importance Empathy Plays In Professional Selling
[Business:Sales] Empathy is the magical word in human to human interaction. It means feeling as the other person feels, not just with them. It means putting yourself in their shoes and shaping your attitudes accordingly. Beyond getting the order, the plus factor in selling is to make people look good in their own eyes and in the eyes of others. Rather than sell to them, we help them buy.

Problem Solving Is The Bedrock Of Successful Selling
[Business:Sales] The human mind is a computer. You programme your computer by the input you feed into it: learning, knowledge, experience and so on. If you programme your mind with images of failure, you will fail. If you build a bank of success images, your computer will direct you to success.

How To Identify The Four Personality Types Resident In Every Boardroom
[Business:Sales] There are four personality types or social styles - Analyticals, Drivers, Expressives and Amiables - and all four have their own unique approach to business, their own language and thought processes etc. As a consequence, the very best sales professionals have become adept at recognising which personality they are dealing with and adapt their approach and communication style accordingly. In every boardroom, you will always find three of the four personality types, occasionally, all four: I have discovered over the years which personality is likely to fill which position on the board.

How To Communicate With And Sell To The Four Personality Types Or Social Styles
[Business:Sales] Sometimes we get on instantly with other people, occasionally there's a clash. Changing your behaviour to suit different people is perfectly normal. It doesn't change you as an individual, nor is it manipulative.

Introducing Scotsmen - A Simple But Highly Effective Opportunity Analysis System
[Business:Sales] As I have highlighted in a number of articles dealing with opportunity assessment, having a tilt at every windmill that presents itself, is neither practical nor profitable. Qualification, is a core competency that every professional salesperson should take on board as quickly as possible. Working to the maxim that "All business is good business" is unrealistic and totally erroneous.

How To Prepare A Professional Presentation
[Business:Sales] As with all things in life, the quality of the preparation affects the final outcome and this is certainly true when it comes to planning and preparing a presentation. I have experimented with a number of methods over the years but I do believe that the simplest are usually the best.

Planning Is Key To The Success Of A Professional Presentation
[Business:Sales] There are of course, a number of key elements within a professional presentation, for example: Planning and preparation, structure, verbal delivery, physical delivery, the use of visual aids and the management of the question and answer session. Each element is important andeach needsto be planned thoroughly.

How To Communicate Effectively With A Dissatisfied Customer
[Business:Customer-Service] Handling any sort of conflict requires you to draw on all your resources. In particularly your communication skills. The reality is that we all have many communication skills but don’t always use them effectively and certainly we do not take the opportunity to improve them as often as we should.

Presentations - What Audiences Want And What They Definitely Do Not Want
[Business:Sales] In today’s business world of 'quality circles' and 'managing for excellence', the most successful individuals are often accomplished presenters. That’s because a successful presenter is more than just a fact dispenser - he or she really knows how to communicate with their audience, someone to whom people listen. The effective speaker in business, just as in the political arena, is the one who can make people hear the facts and believe the message.

Handling Interruptions And Feeding Monkeys
[Business:Sales-Management] Despite being a busy person, it is easy to get sucked into doing things for others. Often these tasks have nothing to do with your job (perhaps they interest you or you are flattered to be asked!). Each time we say 'yes' to these requests we collect another 'monkey', namely a problem that started with someone else (who is working for whom?).

Customer Complaints - Techniques For Special Occasions
[Business:Customer-Service] Some customers aren't worth having. They are bad business. Don't be frightened about losing them providing you are certain that you have been fair, acted with integrity and endeavoured to obtain a "win-win" conclusion.

Turning Customer Complaints Into Customer Referrals
[Business:Sales-Management] It’s a mistake to think that because a customer has expressed dissatisfaction with your product or service they will not come back to you.

The Importance Of Developing A Formal System For Handling Customer Complaints
[Business:Customer-Service] Most medium to large businesses have a policy for handling complaints but perhaps need to review it from time to time. Businesses that take a mainly "ad hoc" line would benefit from developing a consistent approach.

When It Comes To Making Presentations The Very Best Salespeople Are Seekers
[Business:Sales] All professional salespeople have to be involved in a presentation at some time in their sales career and Top 5 % players present their proposals every time.

What Are The Characteristics Of The Very Best Sales Performers?
[Business:Sales] As you can imagine, I am often asked by sales leaders, anxious to recruit the best salespeople they can afford, just what is it that makes a consistently top performer, what are their characteristics, where are their strengths and what differentiates them? Over the past twelve years I have trained and developed thousands of sales professionals, from foundation right up to "master craftsman" level and this has given me the opportunity to formulate an accurate profile of a Top 5% Achiever. So What Is It That Top 5% Players Do?

How To Conduct Meaningful Meetings
[Business:Sales-Management] Too many meetings, too little time. When the true cost of holding just one meeting is accurately calculated, it should provide sufficient motivation for us to want to ensure that all of our meetings are meaningful, necessary and can be justified.

Are You Working Smart Or Are You Working Dangerously Hard?
[Business:Sales] There has been increasing evidence that sales professionals and sales captains are working longer and longer hours, thereby putting health and family relationships at risk. Pressure to complete and meet the ever-increasing demands of customers (as well as the need to achieve higher sales quotas) is forcing people to spend more of their time working.

Categories Of Buyer Resistence
[Business:Sales] It is not enough to know whether people are for or against you and your ideas and proposals. The people you want to influence can be divided into nine categories.

Why Buyers Resist And Object
[Business:Sales] To handle resistance to your ideas and influence, you will first need to pinpoint exactly why there is an objection.

What Gets Buyers To Yes
[Business:Sales] When we agree to an idea or proposal, it’s because there's something in it for us. It's hard to influence people who can’t see what's in it for them. Sounds one-sided, but it is true. Call it self-interest, selfishness or whatever. It is only human nature to ask, 'What am I getting from this?'

Understanding The Different Influencing Styles
[Business:Sales-Management] The way in which you behave as a manager and the approach you take will have a marked effect on your ultimate success or failure. Having a range of approaches and styles of behaviour gives you more flexibility. It increases your options - and your chance of success.

How To Build Rapport - That Essential Sales Skill
[Business:Sales] Rapport is the most important process in influencing others. It is vital if you want to maintain relationships. Without it, you are unlikely to achieve willing agreement to what you want. People who have excellent rapport with others create harmonious relationships based on trust and understanding of mutual needs.

Two Steps To Get You To 'Yes' More Easily
[Business:Sales] Unless the person you are influencing offers an unconditional yes to your proposals you will need to do or say something that will generate a positive decision. There are essentially two major steps you can take to get to yes, more easily.

Is Your Organisation Committed To Succeed?
[Business:Sales-Management] Whatever got you where you are today will not be sufficient to keep you there. A rapidly changing environment is the regular background against which organisations must develop.

Successful Sales Managers Are Great Influencers
[Business:Sales-Management] Great influencers manage to get other people to go along with their ideas whilst maintaining the relationship. If people feel manipulated, relationships will be damaged. It is important to understand the different strategies available to you and to plan your approach.

How To Plan For Success
[Business:Sales] According to Albert Einstein,” the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same things in the hope that those things will miraculously achieve a different result.” If that is the case, then if you are not happy with the results you are achieving you must make changes. Keep doing what you are doing and you’ll keep getting what you have been getting!!

The Changing Face Of Professional Selling
[Business:Sales] The primary objective of a sales partnership has to be, to create and sustain a mutually productive relationship, which serves the needs of both parties, now and in the future. The key word here is symbiotic. Partnership does not mean eliminating the tension between buyer and seller; it means that top-performing salespeople know how to strike a balance between achieving immediate results and developing the relationship fully.

Top 5% Achievers Expect To Be Successful Because They Plan For It
[Business:Sales] Generally top achievers expect to be successful and as a consequence they usually are. They are driven by a 'have to' attitude not a 'want to' attitude and they understand that planning is essential.

Consultative Sales Professionals Need To Fulfil Three Basic Roles
[Business:Sales] Consultative sales professionals have progressed from the more traditional, 'lone ranger' approach of selling to a more team-based consulting style which requires them to fulfil three basic roles, that of Business Consultant, Long Term Ally and Strategic Orchestrator.

It Is Important To Understand The Different Types Of Buyer Needs
[Business:Sales] Customers and prospects possess a hierarchy of needs which have to be uncovered and the very best professional salespeople have become masters at recognising those needs. Rarely do you get information unless you ask for it. You need information to sell your services or products and look for future sales possibilities.

How To Construct A Professional Proposal
[Business:Sales] A professionally prepared proposal is an essential part of the overall sales cycle and is often the only way some members of the customer's decision making unit (DMU), find out about you, your company and your proposed solution. If you fail to adequately represent what you have to offer, all of that time invested in first locating the opportunity, initial meetings, qualifying etc, will have been totally wasted. Here then, are the essential ingredients of a professional proposal.

Some Thoughts On Dealing With Absenteeism Effectively
[Business:Sales-Management] As the biggest investment a business is likely to make is staff, any time lost to sickness can be costly. This cost must be measured not only in terms of lost production and sick pay, but also in terms of employee morale. Whenever an employee is off sick, there is a knock-on effect on those colleagues who have to cover.

Some Thoughts On Effective Telemarketing
[Business:Sales-Teleselling] Uncovering new opportunities and potential new business is an essential task of any sales team, however, it is probably one of the most unpopular activities. The main reason for this is that professional salespeople, just like the rest of us, fear rejection.

The Effective Way To Deal With Objections
[Business:Sales] An objection can be looked upon as sales resistance, and without it you cannot expect to make a sale - just as in electricity, you cannot expect to have current flowing from one end of a conducter to the other without resistance...

Are You Receiving Enough Customer Complaints?
[Business:Sales-Management] We must continually strive to earn the right to receive our customers business and one significant stride in that direction, is to implement an effective customer care programme.

Ten Suggestions For Making Your Sales Meetings More Dynamic
[Business:Sales-Management] Sales meetings offer regular opportunities to benchmark performance against plan, provide additional skills development, update the team on new product development and "pump them up" to go out and exceed next week's/month's/quarter's targets. However, the responsibility for the success of the meeting, lies entirely with the manager.

How To Match Sales Team Requirements With Management Input
[Business:Sales-Management] In commercial terms we should seek to develop our teams in two specific areas i.e. competence and commitment. Competence consists of the combination of knowledge and skills whilst commitment is a combination of confidence and motivation.

Sales Training Programs Rarely Provide A Proper Return On Investment
[Business:Sales-Management] In my opinion, hundreds of millions of pounds world-wide are wasted every year on irrelevant, unnecessary or inappropriate sales skills development and there are four obvious reasons. To begin with, the one off programme may supply a short term motivational buzz and provide the delegate with a number of thought provoking ideas. However, in reality, once they are back at the "front-line" the day to day pressures of hitting quota etc take over again and the reactive mindset returns.

Is Your Sales Team Practicing The Don Quixote Approach To Opportunity Assessment?
[Business:Sales-Management] Having a tilt at every windmill that presents itself, is neither practical nor profitable. Qualification, is a core competency that every professional salesperson should take on board as quickly as possible. Working to the maxim that “All business is good business” is unrealistic and totally erroneous. It takes just as long to work an unprofitable opportunity through the pipeline only to lose it at the death, as it does a profitable one – the ability to determine which is which, can have a huge impact on your ultimate success in a front-line sales role

In Field Coaching Can Have An Enormous Effect On Sales Team Performance
[Business:Sales-Management] Even if salespeople have undergone progressive sales training, there's no guarantee that they will be successful. It is common knowledge that skills grow rusty over time and salespeople are prone to pick-up bad habits along the way or to simply skip steps and take shortcuts that can lead to long-term trouble. Perhaps even more important these days, is the fact that markets, competition, technologies and customer preferences are all in a constant and accelerating state of change. This fact requires that sales people are able and willing to rethink their sales strategy and approach frequently and receive a regular top-up of skills and motivational coaching.

In Summary - What Is Major Account Management All About?
[Business:Sales-Management] An effective Major Account Management strategy depends on selecting your major accounts intelligently, creating a strong, consistent, flexible way of working with both major accounts and other customers and then implementing the plan in a disciplined, effective, efficient manner.

Are Your Sales Teams Submerged In Their Comfort Zone?
[Business:Sales-Management] Perhaps of all the temptations we meet in life, money, power, sex, alcohol, drugs and fame, the subtlest of all is the comfort zone, that invitation to settle for less, to go for content when the stresses of over achievement beckon. The way that takes you out of the comfort zone is the route less travelled by. Most of us when we come to that place where the two paths divide prefer the one that leads to safety, to warmth and to comfort.

Successful Major Account Management
[Business:Sales-Management] As the Chinese general Liu-Ji wrote over 600 years ago: "Action always starts with calculation. Before fighting, first asses the relative wisdom of the leadership, the relative strength of the enemy, the size of the armies, the lie of the land, and the adequacy of provisions. If you send troops out only after making these calculations, you will never fail to win."

How The Most Successful Companies Develop Their Sales Teams
[Business:Sales-Management] Dependence on people is key to delivering the latent capability of a business. Our people are the greatest source of competitive advantage we have and that is precisely why we should continue to invest in them and fully develop them. This is particularly true now that in most market sectors competitive advantage is continually being eroded - i.e. International barriers are coming down, selling time is becoming limited, competitors are getting smarter, fewer and fewer names are appearing on companies' databases, and product uniqueness is rare. Conversely, undeveloped personnel can bring down a company through inadequate performance, leaving the competition to harvest the marketplace.

How To Develop An Effective Three Minute Elevator Pitch
[Business:Sales] An elevator speech is a short presentation that you could deliver to someone in an elevator as it travels from top to bottom or vice versa. It must be compelling as well as descriptive. It should contain such punch that the other person would love to buy from you. Of course, you can use this in ways other than travelling in an elevator.

Major Account Management Is Not A Single Action
[Business:Sales-Management] In Part Two of this four part series, I identify that Major Account Management is not a single act but a series of actions which link together to produce a powerful, professional and profitable result.

A Fresh Approach To Managing Your Most Important Accounts
[Business:Sales-Management] Most companies are looking for ways to manage their most important business relationships more effectively and more efficiently. It is not easy to do and it is not always enjoyable to do, but when a major account strategy works well it is extremely satisfying.

How To Become An Inspiring Sales Leader
[Business:Sales-Management] The best leaders promote a culture where their people value themselves, each other, the company and the customers. Everyone understands how their work makes a difference. This helps to build a commitment to higher standards where everybody is always looking to do things better.

Developing Your Team - What Are Your Options?
[Business:Sales-Management] In today’s highly competitive selling environment, there is less room for apprenticeship, as organisations need to see a swift return on their investment. Therefore, Sales Directors need to allow sufficient time to enable their investment in training and development to “pay off”. Introducing ongoing reinforcement programmes will help accelerate the benefits gained from the training and development investment.

To Have Growth In Profits You Must Have Growth In People
[Business:Sales-Management] Unfortunately, the task of selling never becomes any easier and as competition continues to intensify, sales people will face issues that can be extremely difficult to deal with i.e. decreased product uniqueness, increased competition within "safe" markets, longer sales cycles and shorter product life spans. Every organisation that intends to survive in the re-engineered environment which arrived with the new millennium must, in my view, respond to those realities

In Sales - What Differentiates Top 5% Players?
[Business:Sales-Management] Recent exhaustive surveys suggest that only 5% of professional salespeople reach and remain at the highest level, which we call Level 3. A further 15% attain Level 2 status, but the majority, i.e. a massive 80% remain at Level 1 in terms of potential achievement.

Strategic Selling Begins In The Boardroom
[Business:Sales-Management] In most industries today, a handful of ideal customers have become universal targets. Nearly every industrial salesperson dreams of calling on the CEO’s or managing directors of those top companies, which logically means that there are maybe 500 customers for a million sellers. With such intense competition, conventional approaches are not equal to the challenge. Salespeople need to develop strategies that distinguish their products, services and their organisations in the mind of the customer.

How To Achieve Sustained Sales Growth - Efficiently, Reliably And By Design
[Business:Sales-Management] The Sales Cabinet concept is a sophisticated process for analysing, planning, directing, and monitoring the activity of a sales team. It is an essential tool for setting sales policies and the management, at whatever level, of a sales team, if not every sales call produces an order and there is a time lag between the first contact with a potential customer and that company placing an order.

How To Conduct A Successful Performance Appraisal
[Business:Sales-Management] Most organisations review the performance of their employees on a regular basis, usually annually. The term appraisal however, is disliked by many, conjuring up images of a superior passing judgement in a god like fashion. The answer must be to establish good relationships between both.

The Importance Of Up Selling And Cross Selling To Increase Margins
[Business:Sales-Management] To increase the revenue and margins of an order by selling products and services at a higher price i.e. up-selling or by selling additional products and services i.e. cross selling, we must be able to prove to the customer that there is something in it for them. We must show them increased, i.e. added value.

Problem Employee? - Hold A Counsel Interview
[Business:Management] A Counsel Interview is a practical approach to dealing with staff problems - and all such situations. Issues rarely solve themselves and therefore it is essential that managers recognise that a problem exists and then solves it as rapidly as possible, because an unhappy employee will not be working at optimum performance levels.

How To Create An Effective Business Development Strategy
[Business:Strategic-Planning] The Business Development Strategy is used to underpin your main Business Plan and essentially it sets out a standard approach for developing new opportunities, either from within existing accounts or by proactively targeting brand new potential accounts and then working to close them. This document highlights the key issues you should consider prior to compiling your own plan and will hopefully guide you logically through a proven framework. The key word is 'Strategy', because you are creating a workable and achievable set of objectives in order to exceed your annual target.

How To Develop A First Class Sales Team
[Business:Sales-Management] For a group of people to remain consciously competent at optimum performance levels, they require frequent injections of stimulation, motivational guidance, prompting and directing, otherwise they can easily lapse into becoming unconsciously competent or worse, unconsciously incompetent

Quality Activity Achieves Quality Results
[Business:Sales] Failing to focus salespeople's activity reduces efficiency and consequently reduces results, because there is not a salesperson alive that believes they have enough time in their working week to complete all the activities they want to achieve!

Self-Programming For Leadership Success
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] The best security you have in this world is you. Your efforts, your leadership and your ability to develop others as leaders.

Small Companies Really Can Compete - Here's How
[Business:Sales-Management] A small improvement in bidding techniques and tactics can lead to a disproportionately large increase in the number of contracts won.

Why Do So Many Potentially Good Sales Managers Fail?
[Business:Sales-Management] The single most common mistake that organisations make is promoting their number one salesperson into the role of sales manager, thereby depriving themselves in a single stroke of their best producer and hamstringing their sales force with an ineffective manager. The skills required for managing, mentoring and developing a sales team are totally different from those required for selling. As a result, it’s not uncommon to find newly promoted sales managers who regret having taken a management position and may even leave to get back into sales.

Traversing That Bridge Between Sales And Management
[Business:Sales-Management] When a salesperson gains promotion to management the first thing they have to do is to quickly acquaint themselves with a new set of working relationships - and a new set of rules.

Are You Really A Leader - Or Merely A Manager?
[Business:Sales-Management] You can buy someones physical presence, but you cannot buy loyalty, enthusiasm or devotion. These you must earn. Successful organisations have leaders who focus on the future rather than cling to the past. Leaders bring out the best in people. They spend time developing people into leaders.

What Is The Most Crucial Stage In The Sales Cycle?
[Business:Sales] The Exploratory Meeting is the key element in the sales process. Typically the meeting will have been arranged after qualification via the telephone and a decision made by both parties that it would be mutually beneficial to meet.

Action Centred Leadership
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Any leader must retain respect of the group that they lead and they will be judged by the actions they take in doing their job dealing with their workmates. Developing this theme, one could say that leadership is centred on the actions that a person takes. From this thought came the idea of Action Centred Leadership.

How To Uncover Needs Or Wants Painlessly Using The JFA Funnel Technique
[Business:Sales-Management] The key to uncovering client/customer needs or wants, lies in good questioning techniques. Questioning is a skill that requires much practice and concentration but once mastered serves you well - nobody ever raised an objection to buying something they either needed or wanted; you just have to discover what it is they really want or need!

The Formal Account Review
[Business:Sales-Management] Obtaining continual feedback against a set of established criteria is vital if an organisation is to retain its existing top clients and seek to improve its standing and the quality of its service levels to them.

Sales Management - What's Involved? Part 2
[Business:Sales-Management] Management, and particularly sales management, operates on and obtains its results from the staff that are managed. This clearly puts emphasis on the behavioural skills required to promote good human relations and helpful attitudes.

Sales Management - What's Involved? Part 1
[Business:Sales-Management] What any individual Sales Manager actively does is conditioned by the size of their company, the products it sells and the way they are sold, the organisation of functions within it, and perhaps their own special ability. They may carry most or all of the responsibilities which would be those of a Marketing Manager, if this position does not exist within their company.

The Eight Reasons Why Salespeople Fail
[Business:Sales-Management] The responsibility for ensuring that every member of the sales team is successful, lies entirely with management so what are the eight reasons why sales people fail?

Leadership Defined - Part 2 Skills You Must Cultivate
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] No one has all the skills of management or leadership to the same degree, any more than they have the personality traits to the same degree. However, it is much easier to learn or acquire skills than it is to develop new personality traits. There are five basic skills, and the degree to which any individual cultivates those skills, may well determine the degree of their success.

Leadership Defined - Part 1 Qualities Of Leadership
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] The best security you have in this world is you. Your efforts, your leadership and your ability to develop others as leaders.

The Art Of Delegation
[Business:Sales-Management] In any organisation there is a degree of formal authority which goes with the job. A subordinate expects their boss to have a wider knowledge, wield a greater influence, and carry more weight than they do themselves. At the same time, there is an added dimension to authority which is invested in the person themselves which we call leadership.

Qualities Of Leadership
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Although there are many qualities necessary to be a leader in a specific situation, these qualities should be common to all.

The Development Of Organisations - Part 2
[Business:Strategic-Planning] From analysis of the way in which many organisations have made growth over the years, it is possible to build up a picture of a number of principles of development, which the normal organisation will follow as it develops.

The Development Of Organisations - Part 1
[Business:Strategic-Planning] One of the main factors which affects the performance of individuals at all levels within an organisation is the way in which the organisation itself develops and changes in time. Such changes are often closely related to a company’s growth but not necessarily; developments can clearly take place in an organisation which is not increasing in size as such.

Identifying Your Time Robbers
[Self-Improvement:Time-Management] We all know that procrastination is the thief of time, but it doesn't have the monopoly. Complete this analysis of your own 'typical' day and identify what or who is wasting your time - only then can you do something about it.

Time & Self-Management
[Self-Improvement:Time-Management] Time is your most valuable resource and until you realise this you will continue to wonder where all your time goes!!! If you consider those times in your life where you’ve experienced disappointments e.g. the lost sale, the breakdown of a relationship and ask yourself "If I’d had more time, (i.e. to prepare, to talk etc.) would the outcome have been different?" - the answer almost certainly will be YES!

Assertiveness & Interpersonal Skills
[Self-Improvement:Positive-Attitude] Assertiveness skills are very important in many situations; by being assertive you are letting people know what you want, need or prefer, in a way which is acceptable to both you and them. Put simply; assertiveness is about getting what you want without upsetting anyone!

Motivation In Perspective - Part 2
[Self-Improvement:Motivation] Everyone is constantly subjected to a variety of motivating factors. The more basic the factor, the stronger it is in determining the course of action which will be taken.

Motivation In Perspective - Part 1
[Self-Improvement:Motivation] Everyone needs some form of motivation to get them to do anything. This really means "sufficient reason" for doing it. It can take very little to motivate someone to do something pleasurable. It can take quite extreme circumstances to get that same person to do something objectionable