Leanne Hoagland-Smith - EzineArticles.com Expert Author Bio

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Leanne Hoagland-Smith - EzineArticles.com Expert Author

Leanne Hoagland-Smith is, simply speaking, a results driven executive and sales coach. She brings practical and positive return on investment solutions by focusing on the real problems not the symptoms posing as problems. Her first book "Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales Success" is now available at Amazon. Leanne's expertise extends beyond being one of the top sales authors at EzineArticles to EvanCarmichael, Sales Gravy ... [More]

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Selling Yourself - Walk Your Talk
[Business:Sales] In getting clients you must do a lot of walking either using or legs or your fingers and a lot of talking either verbally or written. How you engage in these actions will directly determine your ability to increase sales.

Selling Yourself - Use These Five Criteria Within Your Sales Qualifying Questions
[Business:Sales] In sales, getting clients happens with greater frequency when you can determine if the potential customers have the necessary characteristics or what are called by some qualifying criteria. By knowing this information, selling yourself becomes much easier. For many years, there existed the following criteria: Decision Maker Need Dollars or Budget Later as the marketplace became more crowded and decision makers had much fuller plates, urgency became the fourth criterion.

Selling Yourself - Infuse Psychographics Into Your Effective Marketing Message
[Business:Sales] How do you sell yourself or if you prefer differentiate yourself from all the other gray suits in the market place? How do you stand out as the Red Jacket in you quest of getting clients? Maybe you are forgetting this one action that is especially critical to attraction and keeping the attention of your target market.

Selling Yourself - Getting Clients by Using the Words of Others Through Customer Testimonials
[Business:Sales] Are you missing this great sales opportunity? Read how you can better leverage the already established customer loyalty to help you increase sales.

Selling Yourself - Unite Fact Finding With Compelling Marketing Messages to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales-Training] A compelling marketing message works to emotionalize the buying/selling process. If you believe this to be true, have you considered using this strategy within your fact finding questions?

Selling Yourself - Authenticity is Where it Starts, No Ifs, Ands Or Buts
[Business:Sales] Many in sales experts talk about refining your sales skills such as asking probing questions, but fail to specifically answer this question: How do you sell yourself? Selling yourself begins with you first and foremost, hands down, no ifs, ands or buts.

To Be a Top Selling Professionals You Need to Adopt Will Smith's Treadmill Belief
[Business:Sales] Will Smith has some sound advice for top selling professionals. Learn what he means by the treadmill and see if you are willing to adopt his belief.

Contrary to Some Top Consulting Firms Strategy is Not Dead
[Business:Strategic-Planning] In a recent Wall Street Journal article, strategy was declared dead by a top consulting firm recognized for its business guru expertise. This individual did qualify the death of strategy by adding this clause "as we know it." So it is true, is strategy really dead or is this something else going on?

Yes I Am Alive So Do Not Believe Those Top Consulting Firms Who Say Business Strategy is Dead
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Once again, thanks to consulting firms, business gurus, experts or whatever they call themselves today have reported my death. And having been around since the beginning when man engaged man, I can tell you, I am very much alive and for some even thriving.

How Determined Are You to Reach Your Goals to Achieve Success?
[Self-Improvement:Success] Do you believe you have determination? Get a quick history lesson about a father and a son who truly demonstrated success and learn how that can apply to you.

Critical Book Review - Outliers - The True Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
[Book-Reviews:Non-Fiction] The origins of success have been attributed to hard work and occasionally as being from the right family to actual luck whatever that is. Malcolm Gladwell looks beyond the common understanding and provides some new insight as to the hows, whys, whats, whos and wheres of success.

Two Often Overlooked Facts in Marketing - Because My Paradigm is Your Belief
[Business:Marketing] Sometimes in business we miss the obvious and possibly presume that our paradigm (how we look at things) is shared by one and all. Here are two proven facts that you may be forgetting as you construct and engage in your marketing activities along with a solution on how to work with these information.

Success in Business Ethics is About Internal Behaviors Not External Laws Or Regulations
[Business:Ethics] Success in business extends beyond the bottom line. Ethical behaviors are truly necessary for sustainable business results. Unfortunately, far too many believe you can legislate for positive ethics and therefore keep the focus on external actions instead of internal behaviors.

Critical Book Review - No BS Sales Success by Dan Kennedy
[Book-Reviews:Business] Want a quick easy read full of practical and useful selling strategies that looks beyond sales to persuasion and negotiation skills? Then this review may help you determine if this book should be added to your sales library.

Critical Book Review - The 10 Commandments of Business Failure
[Book-Reviews:Business] Imagine for a moment condensing 70 years of life and business experience into less than 200 pages. Then consider the words are easy to read, relevant, insightful and filled with historical references along with a smattering of quotations from the past to the present. Finally, imagine that the pages within this book can help you avoid business disaster. Would you be willing to part with less than $25?

Critical Book Review - Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
[Book-Reviews:Self-Help] This classic read is for all who wish to expand and realize their potential. Unfortunately far too many self-improvement books look to other external and internal factors while ignoring the two most important elements - the mind and the brain. If you have not read this book, possibly this review will encourage you to take such action.

Why Are So Many Small Businesses Unable to Define and Deliver Sales Results?
[Business:Sales] Sales results are a partnership between thinking and doing. The doing part, the behaviors, are what we can observe and through those observations become more aware of what we need to do. Learn a quick tip to help you focus on "results" focused behaviors to increase sales.

Sales "Cluelessness" Is Still Rampant in Consultative Selling
[Business:Sales] Some engaged in consultative selling from realtors to financial advisors to business coaches appear to be totally clueless when it comes to realizing their goal to increase sales. These folks appear to be doing everything not to secure this goal under the very pretext of working toward it. Read a couple of examples of what this looks like in the real world and see if you are one who may be suffering from "sales cluelessness."

5 Quick Tips to Jump Start Your Business and Sales Results
[Business:Sales] Do you want to increase sales? Tired of reading about expensive, time consuming solutions? Then these 5 quick tips to jump start your sales may work for you.

Solid Structure Supports Strategy For Executable Strategic Action Plans
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Peter Drucker is quoted as saying, "Structure must follow strategy." Unfortunately, for many, structure is the last thing examined during the strategic planning process and thus encourages failed executions of those very expensive action plans.

Are You Talking Yourself Into Sales Failure?
[Business:Sales] How many professional sales people especially those involved in consultative selling be them insurance agents, financial advisors, mortgage specialists, lawyers, accountants and even business coaches actually talk themselves into sales failure? This negative self-talk is a killer especially if the goal is to increase sales.

Why the Odds of a Bad Customer Service Experience Are 1 in 2 When Dealing With Your Employees
[Business:Customer-Service] What would happen to your business if one out of two customers encountered an unhappy, dissatisfied employee? Would you see your sales increase? Would it be more difficult to secure more referrals?

Buying Your Services is the Beginning, Selling Your Services is the End
[Business:Sales] Much is written about selling your services from identifying your target market to actually how to converse with your potential customer (a.k.a. prospect). That is all well and good. Yet, the bigger picture is missing which creates a lot more work for busy sales professionals.

Give Yourself a Marketing Present That Provides You With Incredible Business Opportunities
[Business:Marketing] If you could have a marketing strategy that was like the Energizer Bunny in that it continued to deliver you ongoing business opportunities from leads to strategic alliances, would that make sense? Then you may find this article of interest.

Consider Madam Curie's Four Secrets to Success in Her Own Words
[Self-Improvement:Success] What is keeping you from securing the success that you desire and deserve? I came across this quote from Marie Curie:""Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and, above all, confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." In four sentences, Marie Curie summed up what you need to do to turn your life around.

Does Coaching Certification Equal Legitimization and is That the Real Question to Be Asked?
[Self-Improvement:Coaching] Have you ever wonder how important coaching certification is especially if you are seeking a coach? Maybe there is something even more important?

Miracles Are Wonderful Because You Are the Wonder
[Self-Improvement:Inspirational] Do you believe in miracles? Do they always need to be big? Maybe it is time to refocus and appreciate all the little miracles in life.

Innovation Demands Releasing Your Ego in Relationship and Consultative Selling
[Business:Sales] With many sales professionals engaged in relationship selling because their services are of a consultative nature, the market place is becoming even more crowded. How to differentiate yourself can be through this one word innovation, but it does demand you release your ego.

Self Doubt Can Challenge Even the Most Experienced Individuals
[Self-Improvement:Inspirational] Do you ever doubt the correctness of your actions? Maybe reading this personal experience may help you.

Where to Start to Develop a Customer Centric Culture and Organization
[Business:Customer-Service] Have you ever heard or even had this thought: "Boy this job would be great if it were not for all those customers?" Be honest. Many of us have had this thought especially when customers become demanding or when other activities must be addressed.

How is Your Flexibility As a Sales Professional?
[Business:Sales] Do you view flexibility as a talent or necessary sales skill? And more importantly is being flexible necessary in your current selling role? These are two critical questions that salespersons need to be able to answer.

The Dirty Shared Secret Between Smart Criteria and Failed Sales Goals
[Business:Sales] With almost 50% of all sales goals missed, why does this happen? The SMART criteria has been around for decades and yet failed targets continue to happen. Learn the dirty shared secrete between these two and how you can increase sales.

How Business Networking Events & Cold Calling Are More Alike Than Many Sales Professionals Realize
[Business:Sales] Do you as a salesperson attend business networking events or engage in cold calling? Are you happy with the results? Would you like to improve the results from both strategies? Then you may find this article of interest.

Strategy is the Beginning For Sustainable Business Results
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Strategy is a much often word used in businesses and organizations. "We need this strategic approach" becomes almost a mantra for many in business. However very few people truly understand what strategy means.

Ensure Sustainable Execution of Your Strategic Action Plan
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Are you up to the task to know, choose and create the sales professional you wish to be? You may find some additional insight as to how to do just that.

Do You Sales Yammer?
[Business:Sales] Do you really know what empathy is? Do you have it? And do you know why it is so critical to sales success?

Measurement - The Missing Piece in Executable Mission Statements
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Do you have a mission statement? Is it getting the results you want? Maybe now is the time to consider incorporating this word so that you can achieve your vision.

To Serve is the Result of Service Especially For Those in Consultative Selling
[Business:Sales] Are you engaged in consultative selling? Service is a primary value and what may separate you from all those other coaches or consultants. Now is the time to explore this word in greater depth if you wish to increase sales.

Sales Professionals Need to Just Deal With It
[Business:Sales] Just deal with it is a comment heard by many sales professionals. Did you know that Henry Ford II is potentially the source of this often used remark because he was quoted as saying: "Don't complain, don't explain, just deal with it." Of all people, Ford lived with this attitude considering his family tree.

5 Proven Tips to Turn Your Diamond in the Rough Sales Skills Into a Polished Gleaming Gem
[Business:Sales-Training] Many salespersons wish to increase sales and become that super performer. Selling is simple if you have honed your talents both personally and professionally. I realized this when I came across this story of Ole Bull, a famous Norwegian violinist of the 1800's.

Let's Be Honest - Are You Really Serious About Increasing Sales Or Are One of Those Hopefuls?
[Business:Sales] If you are really serious about achieving your goal to increase sales, then how many contacts do you make with your potential customers? Learn if you are one of the many or one of the few. This number may just surprise you.

For Sales Management, Effective Leadership is Just As Much About Words As Actions
[Business:Sales-Management] To improve sales management begins by understanding some key concepts to leadership. Learn one potential obstacle keeping your sales leaders from securing the team goal to increase sales.

Increase Sales With Strategic Alliances Or Partnerships
[Business:Sales] Formal joint ventures or what is now called strategic alliances are common for larger businesses where one business cannot handle a specific project, does not have expertise in a particular field or needs help with a new product. However by uniting forces with one or even two other organizations, these innovative firms can divide and successfully conquer the project. The results are increased sales and additional loyal customers.

Time & Goal Achievement Are the Foundational Partners to Sales Success
[Business:Sales] The lack of time continues to vex many busy sales professionals. These folks appear to be always running out of time and then shift the blame to others from too much work to too many demands. Yet, if we change the focus or as Marcel Proust encourages us to view "the landscape with different eyes," maybe we can begin to learn how to better manage ourselves and in that process create additional value for our efforts.

The 12 Weeks of Business - A Sales Carol For Small Business Owners, SOHO & Sales Professionals
[Business:Sales] Have you ever wished for a Sales Carol? You know one that you already know the tune, but is to bring a smile to your face along with a lot of great presents. Then you just might find of interest if not at leasing amusing.

How Policies & Procedures Either Build Great Customer Service Experiences Or Just Tick People Off
[Business:Customer-Service] Repeat business by loyal customers happens in many cases because the customer service experience is great. Very few people return to those establishments where they did not feel value for their exchange of their hard cold cash.

Relationship Selling Begins With Believing in Yourself If You Wish to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Are you engaged in relationship selling? Many salespersons say they are and yet their results suggest something is amiss. Learn what you may be missing to realize your goal to increase sales.

Real Sales Success Means You Are One of the Few and Not One of the Many
[Business:Sales] Are you tired of not being successful in sales? Or maybe you desire even more greenbacks in your piggy bank? Then learn who you can become one of the few instead of being one of the many.

Is it Just Me Or Do You Also Have a Problem With the Do As I Say and Not As I Do Marketers?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] Once again in speaking with an Internet marketing consultant he confessed that his focus was not on his website, but helping others with theirs. He began to rattle everything he has done for his clients. Yet, I could not help but think if I was searching for an Internet marketer and came upon his site would I have confidence in his expertise?

Just Make the Time to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Do you want to increase sales? Then you must invest the time to "make it so."

Avatar - Big Bucks Create Incredible Movie Experience Through a Compelling Story
[Arts-and-Entertainment:Movies-TV] Are you considering seeing the movie Avatar? Not sure, because of mixed reviews? Read the impressions from this movie goer.

12 Must-Have Business Growth Strategies to Increase Sales Now and in the Future
[Business:Sales] If you could identify the 12 most important strategies to increase sales, what would they be? Read to learn if yours are on this list.

Why Does Bad Customer Service Continue to Thrive Especially During Turbulent Economic Times
[Business:Customer-Service] In turbulent economic times, the last thing any business desires is bad customer service. Yet, this challenge continues to exist for essentially these 3 reasons.

Critical Book Review - TNT the Power Within You by Claude M Bristol and Harold Sherman
[Book-Reviews:Self-Help] Do you want to achieve your dreams and goals? In this book by authors Claude M. Bristol and Harold Sherman, TNT The Power Within You: How to Release the Forces Inside You & Get What You Want!, you learn Bristol's philosophy (The Magic of Believing) and how you can unleash the power within you.

Critical Book Review - Wisdom of the Ages by Jim Stovall
[Book-Reviews:Self-Help] The use of a compelling story or parables (fables) is a great way to deliver a message. In this book, Wisdom of the Ages, Jim Stovall creates such a compelling story about leaving an enduring legacy and how to find such a legacy.

Strategy is Far More Simple Than Most Experts Wish to Admit
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Every day another dozens of articles on strategic planning emerge discussing everything how strategy is your unique value to valuation to the overall planning process. What these experts fail to realize is that strategy is simple because of the origins of this word.

Is Too Much Information Making Ethics Passe?
[Business:Ethics] Is all this too much information from tweeting, answering emails or taking emergency phone call showcasing your lack of ethics when you are with others? Are you blaming your behaviors on others? Maybe it is time to confront that person in the mirror and take 100% responsibility for these boorish behaviors.

Critical Book Review on Customer Loyalty Guaranteed
[Book-Reviews] The purpose of business is simply to attract and maintain loyal customers who continue through their actions to bring sales through the door. In this book, authors Chip R. Bell and John R. Patterson examine customer service through essentially the perspective of these three words - create, lead and sustain.

Customer Service Can Be Personally Contrasted Quickly Leading to Loyal Or Disloyal Customers
[Business:Customer-Service] Ever feel like you are visitor in two separate worlds when you engage in the shopping experience? Building customer loyalty is critical at all times and especially during the holidays or when special opportunities are being offered. Here are two real life experiences that demonstrate the difference between poor and exceptional customer service.

Improving Yesterday's Leadership to Tomorrow's Results So Management Can Make it So!
[Business:Management] Improving the management's results from yesterday to tomorrow requires a review of current talents and a determination if they will fit down the road. Given the workforce is now more multi-generational than ever before maybe now is the time to reconsider how you lead.

Executable Strategic Planning is the New Now With a Focus on the Business Basics
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Executing strategic plans continues to vex many business leaders. Anymore it appears the new now is getting the plan done. Possibly one of the challenges is forgetting the basics along with being reactive when being proactive is far better?

"That is Not a Bother, That is My Job" is the Ultimate Customer Service Attitude
[Business:Customer-Service] Today at a local family owned restaurant I heard the young waitress (mid-twenties) tell a customer who had just apologized for bothering her make this statement: "That is my job and your request is not a bother." Read how you may be able to develop that type of customer responsive employee.

Why Losing a High Performing Salesperson Equals a $250,000-$500,000 Hit to Your Bottom Line
[Business:Sales] Your high performing sales person walks out. You, in sales management, think you know the hit to the bottom line, but do you? Maybe you are only calculating the hard costs and ignored the many soft costs?

7 Great Advantages Why Small May Be Better Than Big to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Small can be big in today's market place. These advantages can catapult your business ahead of the pack.

5 Quick Tips to Increase Sales For Executives, Businesses, Sales Coaches and Consultants
[Business:Sales] Are you a coach or a consultant looking to increase sales? Possibly you are lacking some critical information about these two tools within your overall business toolbox.

Rudeness is Common and Manners Are Uncommon in Today's Business World
[Business:Ethics] Maybe it is just me, but there is a lot of rude people in the business world today. These rude folks remind me of the Hare who thought he could outrun the Tortoise. You may be able to share this article with someone who needs to be reminded that he or she is truly not that important.

How to Begin to Develop a Talent Based Training & Development Process For Human Resource Departments
[Business:Human-Resources] Many have said "Doing the same thing over and over again gives you the same results." If your current training and development focuses on improving weaknesses maybe it is time to consider a far more effective way to maximize your human capital through the existing talents of your employees.

Small Business Owners and Soho Need to Stop Confusing Business Networking With "Netselling"
[Business:Networking] Never heard of "netselling?" Probably not, but you as a small business owner or SOHO entrepreneur may have already engaged in it especially if you use business networking as one of your primary marketing strategies.

How Strategic Planning is Very Much Like an Orchestra Playing a Composer's Masterpiece
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Sometimes it helps to rethink how something looks and how it is done. Strategic planning is no exception. Read about the 10-90 value of the planning process and determine if you are engaged in the 90-10 value.

In Your Quest to Increase Sales Are You Pushy, Passion Or Proactive?
[Business:Sales-Training] Selling requires being passionate and always being proactive. The challenge is sometimes having passion or a proactive sales approach results in your being viewed as pushy. When this happens, the ability to increase sales does not.

Top 5 Reasons Why Sales Training Should Not Cost Space Rocket Prices
[Business:Sales-Training] Developing a high performing sales force is critical to business success especially during challenging economic times. Many businesses look to sales training as one viable solution. In doing so, they may be faced with an investment that could be compared to the cost of developing a space rocket.

How Success in Sales is the Combination of Technical Sales and People Skills
[Business:Sales] Sales success is just as much about your people expertise as it is your technical aptitude. The real question is do you know your own talents to leverage both of these skills sets?

How Fear Creates Your Perception Because That Maybe the Focus of Your Reality
[Self-Improvement:Motivation] What are you fearful of? Are those fears limiting your motivation? Maybe you will find some solace in actually numbers instead of the fears being promoted by the media.

Simplicity in Strategic Planning Stretches Dollars, Creates Sustainability and Improves Execution
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Are you thinking about engaging in strategic planning? Yet, your past experiences have not delivered the desired results and possibly you are hesitant to commit to what you may believe is an effort in futility. Then you may find this article of interest.

Save Thousands in Marketing Dollars and Get Real Sales Results With These 3 Secrets
[Business:Marketing] Are you investing hundreds to thousands of dollars in marketing your business? If so, are you getting sales results? If not, these 3 secrets may help you achieve your business goals.

The $10 Lesson - Business Ethics Lesson
[Business:Ethics] Business ethics comes down to your beliefs about money and productivity. Read how one experience quickly demonstrates the value of just $10.

Why the Leadership Question of Being Born Or Made is Really Quite Irrelevant
[Self-Improvement:Leadership] Are leaders born or made? This question continues to swirl around and is a great point to start discussion of how leaders become like the "Make It So" personage as demonstrated by the fictional Captain Jean Luke Picard of "Star Trek Next Generation."

Why Do Smart People Continue to Pay For Dumb Mission Statements?
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Smart people including CEO's, small business owners, SOHO and even sales professionals abound in business. Yet, these same intelligent people spend (note not invest) millions of dollars in truly dumb mission statements.

Stop the Selling & Let Your Customers Buy If You Really Want to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Have you considered that selling is 100% contrary to the desired results of your ability to increase sales? Learn why you may wish to consider a different approach.

How Cold Calling is a Lot Like Starting a Fire
[Business:Sales] Have you ever considered the similarity between cold calling and starting a fire. Believe it or not the desired results are the same. So how well do you start fires?

The King & Queen of the Two Top Sales Skills For Selling Professionals, SOHO, Small Business Owners
[Business:Sales] If you could name the top sales skills, what would you say? Would you consider those skills in relationship to what we now know about the brain and how people make buying decisions? Then you must might find this article of interest.

How the Simple Postage Stamp is Returning With Vengeance to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Have you moved most of your marketing and selling activities to the web? If so, you may surprised by the results of this survey and how it will affect future sales results.

How Sales Management Continued Acceptance of Excuses Creates Poor Sales Results
[Business:Sales-Management] A recent marketing challenge that really was not that difficult solicited a lot of excuses and whining from those individuals who failed to meet the challenge. Most of these folks accepted the challenge and then when the deadline loomed, the excuses started flowing. This reminded me of how some in sales management continue to make excuses as to the performance of their teams.

Top 3 Changes in Business Marketing
[Business:Marketing] Is your marketing reflective of the 19th, 20th or 21st centuries? Maybe it is time to make sure you are aware of these top 3 changes in how to market your business.

Beyond the Business - Networking and Selling Expectations
[Business:Networking] Is selling the purpose of business networking events? Could there be another reason why business leaders provide these opportunities?

Customer Loyalty Begins With Understanding Your Customers Truly Don't Care
[Business:Customer-Service] Do you believe in building customer loyalty around what you believe your clients care about? Maybe you are looking at the wrong end of this issue.

Social Networking a Proven New Way to Build Your Business & Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Social networking is a great strategy and tactic to increase sales and improve customer loyalty. Read some examples of small business owners have utilized this dynamic marketing tool.

Why You Should Leave the Elevator Speeches at the Door If You Really Want to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Are you unsure about your elevator speech? Maybe now is the time to rethink this entire process and leave it at the door before your next business networking event.

Business Management - Misguided Purposes Create Poor Business Results
[Business:Management] Many in business management, due to "not knowing," do not receive the results they so rightly deserve for their limited resources of time, energy, emotions and, let us not forget, all that cold hard cash. I realized this once again this week after talking to several business owners who did not know the purpose of business.

How to Eat the Very Large Elephant of Search Engine Optimization Through 7 Tips of Wisdom
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is critical for those small business owners who wish to leverage their Internet marketing presence. However SEO is very much like a large elephant with the issue of how does one eat an elephant. Through these 7 tips you will gain wisdom and learn to eat the elephant one bite at a time.

One Simple Action to Increase Search Engine Optimization
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:SEO] Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is big business and very complex. Years ago, Winston Churchill understood how simplicity emerges from complex issues when he said "Out of intense complexities intense simplicities emerge." Today many who profess to increase page rankings fail to begin with simplicity and the end result is that many dollars are spent without achieving the desired results. Read some lessons learned from a novice in Internet marketing and SEO.

How to Hit the Target For Your Internet Marketing Through 5 Self Help Questions
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Internet-Marketing] Are you making the most of your time when writing articles to drive Internet traffic to your website? Do you know what articles are being read more on a daily basis? Would you like a way to work smarter not harder when writing and submitting articles? Possibly, the answer is much simpler than you realize.

How to Gain Web Traffic Through 9 Simple Tips
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Site-Promotion] Building an Internet site is one thing, but driving traffic to the site is another. Site promotion and web development are partners in creating traffic to your Internet site. These 9 easy tips should help you within a very short time frame multiply the traffic to your site.

Career Education - Does Not Mean the 6 Year College Plan
[Home-and-Family:Parenting] A distrubing trend is happening to U.S. parents. Years ago studens were expected to graduate in 4 years. Now, a paradigm change has altered that expectation and is costing U.S. parents, students and our economy. Will your child become part of this new norm or will you take action to avoid this very expensive trend?

5 Tips to Manage the Constant of Change in Business
[Business:Change-Management] Change is not easy. Every day we are faced with change. When this change directly affects our daily behaviors, we usually are quite resistant to it and sometimes even angry about it.

Strategic Goal Setting the Lynchpin in Any Business Planning Process
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Are you faced with strategic plans that are not executed or poorly executed? If so, maybe you have been focusing far too much on your vision or values and not enough on the actual process of strategic goal setting.

Why Many Business Development Titles Create Motion and Activity With No Progress and Results
[Business:Sales] The title of business development adorns many of those 3" x 2-1/2" paper documents passed out at all those business networking events from chamber of commerce meetings to ribbon cuttings to open houses to more formal meetings. Yet what does this title really mean and more importantly what are the results from these 2 simple words?

Sales Titles For Business Cards - A Matter of Choice Or Necessity?
[Business:Sales] To differentiate yourself begins with your business card. From the weight of the card, to the color, to the font, to the graphics and to the actual message being displayed is the first opportunity to separate yourself from all those other Gray Suits and truly be the Red Jacket. So right now, grab your card and look at your title. What does it say?

8 Tips For B2B Salespersons to Keep Hot Sales Leads From Getting Ice Cold
[Business:Sales] Do you know how quickly B2B sales leads get cold? The answer may not only surprise you, but may require you to change some old marketing and selling behaviors.

5 Marketing Axioms to Increase Sales and Achieve Sustainable Business Results
[Business:Marketing] What comes first marketing or selling? This is the chicken in the egg quandary faced by small business owners, SOHO, sales professionals to even C-Level executives.

Being Authentic Will Build Your Coaching Business Provided You Go Beyond Just Selling
[Business:Sales] Do you believe that you are the most authentic coach or consultant and not to mention a great salesperson? Great! However you are missing a key element if you truly wish to have a sustainable and profitable professional services business.

Why System Selling Fails and a Process Sale Approach Works Far Better
[Business:Sales] Do you use the words system and process interchangeably? Maybe this is possibly why your sales results are not where you need them to be. Learn the origins of these words and why one is far better than the other.

People Buy Simplicity, and That Can Work For Selling, Consulting, Or Coaching Services
[Business:Marketing] Keep it simple is an old adage. Now it appears that simplicity is outselling complexity and there is data to prove it. Read several tips that may help you be ahead of this new buying trend.

A Major Obstacle Facing Human Resource Managers When Hiring is a Lack of Knowledge
[Business:Human-Resources] Hiring a new employee can be an investment or a cost. When the person is the right person, the process is viewed as a successful investment. However, when the perspective employee is not the right person in the right seat, what was initially viewed as an investment is now a cost and potentially an incredible liability.

How Price Equals Product While Value Means Solutions For Those Selling Professional Services
[Business:Sales] Have you ever considered that price is all about products while value means solutions or results. If you are engaged in selling professional services, this quick read may help you better understand what you need to do to switch from the traditional approach of selling to what works in today's knowledge driven economy.

Why Sales Training For Professional Services Needs to Dramatically Change
[Business:Sales-Training] Are you engaged in selling some sort of professional services such as coaching, consulting, financial, insurance, real estate, etc.? Did you attend sales training with the promise Do this and they will buy? Well, how is that working for you?

Yes You Can Increase Sales Without Selling
[Business:Sales] Do you believe you can increase sales without selling? By changing your approach, you can actually achieve this goal and have a lot more fun in the process.

Make Sure Your Marketing Message is Integrity Driven and Cannot Be Quickly Challenged
[Business:Marketing] Are you sacrificing integrity to enhance your marketing message? You may wish to reconsider that approach after reading this article.

Do You Sell Price Or Value For Your Professional Services?
[Business:Sales] Are you selling price or value? Learn 5 actions to help you establish greater value than will increase sales and your bank account.

How to Avoid These Top 5 No-Nos When Engaging in Education Based Marketing For B2B Sales
[Business:Sales] If you are a professional services provider, then avoid these 5 Nos or mistakes when engaging in the Try It, You'll Like It education based marketing approach. Sales Coaching Tip: This approach usually involves giving something away for free and expecting an earned commitment.

Has Halloween Taken the Bite Out of Your Future Sales?
[Business:Sales] Halloween has come and gone. Many retailers are disappointed because of less spending. For some, they may believe that this spooky holiday is truly haunted due to profits being scared off. So the question is how can you reverse this trend?

Fall Into Just Doing it and Stop the Procrastination Not Too Mention Being a Pack Rat
[Self-Improvement:Time-Management] Do you ever work from home? Are you tarting to feel like you are living in a fall forest with leaves (papers) falling all over the place? Possibly you are suffering from paper procrastination a deadly disease that usually indicates you are becoming a pack rat. Learn this simple lesson and stop this time waster.

Lost Leaders Are Only Because You Believe Them to Be So
[Business:Sales] Do you use lost leaders especially if you deliver professional services? Well, if you believe them to be just that, then you will receive what you believe.

Lost Leaders Create a Lost Sales Belief For Service Professionals, Small Business Owners & SOHO
[Business:Sales] Many service professionals, small business owners and SOHO especially consultants and executive coaches engage in the marketing practice of lost leaders. This marketing strategy is to attract people to them with the belief that give them something free and they will buy. Unfortunately, the reality is unless the person receiving this "freebie" is a qualified potential customer (a.k.a. prospect) the likelihood of a sale is almost as far away as without the free offer. Sales Coaching Tip: Build it and they will come is not a viable strategy to increase sales.

Top 5 Reasons For Sales Objections and 5 Hints How to Avoid in Future Selling Endeavors
[Business:Sales] Common sales objections are the bump in the sales process road and the one that many wish to avoid like the plague. From price to quality, the obvious question is why do these barriers raise their ugly heads? Here are my top 5 reasons for why professional salesperson encounter these challenges and some hints to avoid them in the future.

Lost Leaders Have This Secret Advantage That Increases Profitability
[Business:Sales] Do you use lost leaders especially if you deliver professional services? Did you realize that this marketing strategy has a secret advantage that increases profitability?

Lost Leaders May Lose You Sales & Establish a Self Fulfilling Prophecy For Service Professionals
[Business:Sales] Lost leaders are common in the retail business. However their use may be setting your business up to fail.

Increase Sales by Actually Listening to the Person on the Other End of the Phone
[Business:Sales] Today, it happened again. However no longer does this experience upset me. Now I use it as an opportunity to write about it or share it within my business coaching training practice.

3 Tips to Overcome Inconsistency in Sales
[Business:Sales] One of the most frequent issues that I hear from new customers is the lack of sales. In many cases this is really a marketing issue far more than a selling issue. One of the reasons for this issue is many individuals confuse marketing with selling. This confusion leads to inconsistency.

Asking Great Probing Questions is a Must Sales Skill to Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Sameness
[Business:Sales] If you could identify the one must sales skills to separate you from all the other gray suits in the marketplace, what would that skill be? See if you agree the ability to ask great probing questions is that one must skill.

Clearly Defined Management Leadership Yields Targeted Results
[Business:Management] How do you define leadership in your business or organization? Some believe leadership is having a vision and passion. Others contend that leadership is all about building trust and being an excellent communicator. A recent discussion on a social network site had approximately 25 plus different definitions.

A Serious Crack in Freedom Revealed Through Rush Limbaugh's Media Firestorm
[News-and-Society:Pure-Opinion] The recent media firestorm regarding Rush Limbaugh's desire to be part of a consortium to purchase a national football franchise reveals a lot about the media bias, the rampant hypocrisy and a serious crack in this country's fundamental belief of freedom and that scares me more than anything else. Let me explain.

To Win More Sales Begins by Stopping the Laziness
[Business:Sales] Sales professionals to small business owners can, in all honesty, be quite lazy. When new opportunities present themselves, that is the time to take advantage of them, get off the dime and move forward with directed and focused action.

How C Level Executives Confuse Alignment Symptoms With the Leadership Problems
[Business:Management] Alignment suggests that between two forces or entities there is a lack of alignment or straightness. Unfortunately, this is the wrong word and consequently executive leadership takes the wrong actions resulting in even greater problems.

Top Five 800# Gorillas to Be Faced by Today's Management and Leadership
[Business:Management] Management in the 21st century faces a lot of known obstacles from global market competition to the impact of technology. Yet, for some reason, these five 800# gorillas (challenges) continue to be present. And the bad news is that they drain profits, performance and overall business results.

Increase Sales by Dealing With Your Fears Instead of Ignoring Them
[Business:Sales] Fear is a powerful de-motivator and in some cases motivator. No where is this more true than in sales. How many times do sales professionals allow fear to stop them dead in their tracks?

So What Does Social Media Have to Do With Education Based Marketing? - Everything!
[Business:Marketing] Social media continues to grow in size. Even if some of the statistics are questionable, social media is about people and people do not want to be sold (sales based marketing). This is why education based marketing is a natural partner with social media.

What Should a Strategic Plan Cost When All the Research Has Been Completed?
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Imagine you receive a voice mail from someone who is seeking information as to the cost of strategic business planning. Oh, and he already has someone he has identified to perform the professional services and that is not you.

Try It, You'll Like it is a Critical Key to Selling Professional Services in Today's Marketplace
[Business:Sales] Do you give away free professional services to increase sales? This strategy is all about trying something, liking it and then buying it. When used correctly, this strategy does work. Learn why it is a critical key to increasing sales.

Mission Impossible is Possible For Strategic Business Planning
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Why do so many businesses and organizations write failed business plans? The "Houston we have a problem is a repetitive challenge in business. Learn one reason for these failures that can be easily corrected.

Change Your Sales Management Focus to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales-Management] Let's be honest, the goal of selling is to increase sales. Yet, for those in sales management the focus more often that not is what they, as the salespersons, are doing wrong instead of what they are doing right.

How by Swapping Your Attitude From Failure to Success May Significantly Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Sales statistics as well as business statistics are quite interesting. Whether the source is the U.S. Small Business Administration, noted business gurus or industry associations, there is a lot of data focusing on failure. What would happen if by swapping your attitude about how you see things, you could increase sales?

Inconsistency in Marketing Delivers Poor to No Sales Results
[Business:Marketing] One of the most frequent issues that I hear from new customers is the lack of sales. In many cases this is really a marketing issue far more than a selling issue. However as I write in my numerous articles and within my book, many individuals confuse marketing with selling. This confusion leads to inconsistency.

Why Many Businesses Fail to Get it and Become a Statistic Because of the 80-20 Axiom
[Business:Management] Business failure is rampant in the U.S. With 50% of all businesses failing in the first 3 years and 90% not being around at the 10 year anniversary, you would think that these enterprising entrepreneurs, SOHO, small business owners to C-Level executives would get it. But the results show they simply do not get it.

Are You Forgetting This Step When Harvesting Sales Leads From Auto-Responders?
[Internet-and-Businesses-Online:Email-Marketing] Sales professionals understand the importance of leads and how to build a continual list. These potential contacts impact future sales and sustainable growth.

Arrogance in Sales is the Surest Way to Failure
[Business:Sales] How many times have you run into or heard something huffing and puffing about themselves or their products and services? This behavior demonstrates product or sales based marketing.

5 Tips in How to Turn Business Networking Costs Into an Investment
[Business:Networking] Time is money and business networking is a cost both in terms of time and money. These 5 tips will help you turn that cost into an investment.

5 Considerations For Earning The Complex Sales in Complex Economic Times
[Business:Sales] Overcoming many obstacles is part of the complex sales. During challenging economic times, this becomes even more difficult. Here are 5 considerations to help you through that sales process.

How Following Directions Translates to the Bottom Line For Management
[Business:Management] Have you ever considered how following directions can impact your bottom line? Believe it or not this is a serious challenge for management. Read four examples to demonstrate how this simple activity can deliver disastrous results when not executed correctly.

Got a Coach For Your Sales Team?
[Business:Sales] Today, the question for many businesses, sales professionals and executives is: Got a coach? By getting a coach or implementing a coaching program, the results have demonstrated exceptional performance increases. So how does someone go about finding a business coach, sales coach or an executive coach?

Do You Believe in Me is the Beginning in Relationship Selling
[Business:Sales] If your firm is engaged in relationships selling, how do you as a sales professional engage in building these sustainable relationships? Most of these connections begin with someone believing in you. Then you must take that belief and develop further until you have gained complete trust of your potential customer (a.k.a. prospect).

One Word to Improve Sales Results
[Business:Sales-Training] If you could identify one word to improve your sales results, what would that one word be? Read on to learn if it is this word.

Why the Majority of Strategic Business Plans Never Leave the Starting Gate Let Alone Win the Race
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Are you having challenge executing your mission statement? Maybe it's basic design that is keeping your from winning the race.

How Mergers and Acquisitions Are Both Blessings and Curses For Management
[Business:Management] Mergers and acquisitions have become a standard practice to grow a business. Yet within 2 years, many M and A have failed because the blessing has worn off and the curse has arrived. Learn several strategies in how to reduce the curses while increasing the blessings.

5 Musts For Magical Marketing Messages to Dramatically Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] No matter how great your products or services are, unless someone knows about them, they will sit on the shelf or wherever and your bank account will still be empty at the end of the day. So, here are 5 Musts to create a magical marketing message that dramatically increase sales because you receive bunches and bunches of qualified leads.

If Your Sales Approach is All About You "Telling," Then How is That Working For You?
[Business:Sales] Each day thousands of sales professionals engage in product based marketing. This sales approach is all about "telling" and in today's global economy frankly just plain stupid because selling is not happening. Maybe this is why 40% to 70% of all sales goals are not achieved.

Stop the Whining and Start Taking Action to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] After attending numerous events the last couple of weeks, I have had it with the whining from executives, sales professionals, small business owners, SOHO, to entrepreneurs. This continued and constant whining centers around this alleged bad economy, poor sales and how they just do not have time.

How to Use Brain Research Within Your Sales Training and Sales Coaching Programs
[Business:Sales-Training] With all the technology now available, brain research can actually help your sales training and coaching programs deliver better results. Now is the time to get ahead of the flow instead of being in the flow of traditional training if you truly wish to increase sales.

Increase Sales by These 4 Uncommon Verbs
[Business:Sales] Sales is far more than just relationships building to the effective execution of sales skills. The essence of selling begins within each individual. These 4 uncommon verbs have you take a different perspective and should help you increase sales.

Why Top Sales Producers Understand the Difference Between Know and No
[Business:Sales] Do you sometimes confuse Know and No? Yes, they sound 100% alike. However, the difference is 180 degrees and can be keeping you from your goal to increase sales.

Are You Reinventing the Wheel When Engaging in Strategic Business Planning?
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Many who engaged in strategic business planning potentially are engaged in reinventing the wheel. Have you ever considered thinking differently begins by adopting the successful thoughts of others?

How an Education Based Marketing Sales Approach Allows For Effective Upselling
[Business:Sales] To be able to upsell your products and services is a great way to increase sales and more importantly profits. Yet, for many, this effective sales skill is lacking. The reason way is possibly due to the disconnect between the marketing and selling approaches.

How Being a Solution Provider Instead of a Problem Identifier Can Dramatically Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Problems or needs are part of the sales process. People buy to meet known and unknown needs to overcome existing problems or challenges. However, by taking a different sales approach can dramatically increase sales and even your credibility within the marketplace.

How Article Marketing is a Lot Like Rock Climbing
[Writing-and-Speaking:Article-Marketing] Are you a rock climber? If you utilize article marketing within your marketing mix, you may share far more rock climbing skills than you realize.

Increase Sales by Understanding How Your Brain Works
[Business:Sales] Did you know that brain research can help you sell smarter and not harder? Curious? Then read on.

Top 10 Customer Service Issues That May Cost Your Business Loyal Customers
[Business:Customer-Service] Did you ever think that being a loyal customer is really a challenge? As a loyal customer, have you ever noticed a problem with customer service or specific employees' behaviors? Read just one poor customer service experience and then the top 10 customer service issues that cost loyal customers.

Innovation is a Natural & Necessary Result of Change
[Self-Improvement:Innovation] Have you ever considered the linkage between innovation and change? This article may have you looking at innovation with a different perspective.

How One Degree Can Potentially Increase Sales by 10% to 50% to 100%
[Business:Sales-Training] Do you know the difference between boiling water and steam? Surprising it is only one degree. What would one degree of extra effort generate for you and more importantly what is that one degree of extra effort costing you?

A Great Reading List For Those Lazy Days Where You Can Still Be Productive & Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Lazy days for many salespersons are truly a luxury. Yet even when we are lazy we can still be productive because there is one activity that does not require a lot of physical energy. That activity is reading.

How to Increase Sales by Focusing on the Talents and Not the Weaknesses of Your Sales Team
[Business:Sales-Training] Is your sales training program strength based or weakness based? Are you wasting resources on turning weaknesses into strengths? Is there a better way?

Stop Thinking Pennies, Start Thinking Dollars
[Business:Sales] Save your pennies and watch them grow into dollars. This thinking or belief is held by many, but in today's world it may be keeping you from your goal to increase sales.

Lose the Penny Thinking If You Want to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Do you think in pennies? Of course not you may respond! Yet, due to conditioning you may be thinking in pennies and losing sales opportunities.

Stop the Penny Mentality If You Want to Win More Sales
[Business:Sales] Is your mental picture where it needs to be to win more sales? How you think and therefore make decisions determines your ability to increase sales. Let me explain.

7 Beliefs to Be Changed For Educational Success
[Reference-and-Education] The U.S. spends an average of $10,000 annually in taxpayers dollars to educate each young person. This figure now is almost four times what was spent forty years ago (inflation adjusted) and the results are not four times better. These seven crippling beliefs have contributed to the waste of millions of dollars and human potential.

13 Questions to Win More Sales With Your First Impression
[Business:Sales] Do you want to win more sales? Maybe you need to assess your sales approach during the first few minutes instead of looking to other sales skills issues such as fact finding or delivering an effective presentation?

How This Sales Strategy Can Increase Sales by 12%
[Business:Sales] If you could increase sales by 12% and not spend a whole heck of a lot of money to do so, would you take embrace that sales strategy? Yes you can, but the caveat is probably you won't because you already know what to do, but have failed to just do it.

Business Coaching Delivers Improved Performance and Has the Numbers to Prove It
[Self-Improvement:Coaching] Business coaching continues to be a hot industry. Would you like these numbers for your business?

Executive Coach Or Business Coach - Did Your Business Grow by 40% in 2006?
[Self-Improvement:Coaching] Business coaching or executive coaching is considered to be the second fast growing industry after Information Technology. If your coaching business did not increase sales by 40% in 2006, then what did you miss?

How a GPS is a Great Sales Strategy That Can Increase Sales and Reduce Business Costs
[Business:Sales] Did you know that having a GPS for your car has been documented to save you dollars and time (up to 12% on average)? Learn why this interesting statistic is crucial for your sales and business.

Effective Business Networking Requires Thinking If You Truly Wish to Increase Sales
[Business:Networking] There is a lot of business networking being conducted. Unfortunately, the results for the resources expended are probably not delivering the results necessary to increase sales. Learn why you may be one of the many failing to leverage your networking activities.

How a Proven Sales Process Stops the Confusion and Reaps the Rewards
[Business:Sales] Confusion abounds in business from who is the best person to hire to where should I place my limited resources of time, energy, emotions and dollars. No where is this more evident from my experience than within the sales process.

Why Many HR Departments Ignore Their Employees' Talents Because the Focus is on Weaknesses
[Business:Human-Resources] Leveraging every ounce of your human capital talent is an economic necessity and no longer a luxury. Yet, many Human Resource departments and their respective leadership and management teams with the best of intentions continue to focus on behaviors through such performance appraisal instruments as DISC and fail to understand and appreciate the inherent talents of individuals to their current roles.

Increase Sales by Uncovering These 5 Basic Buying "What If" FEAR Factors
[Business:Sales] Sales is all about emotions and emotions are either positive or negative. Your goal is to enhance the positives and reduce or better yet eliminate the negatives. Unfortunately, many of those negatives are fears that may be hidden and only uncovered after extended conversations. Knowing these 5 basic buying What If FEAR Factors just may help you in your ongoing quest to increase sales.

Relationship Selling Requires Thinking Before Leaping
[Business:Sales] Relationships selling does demand the use of gray matter. Far too many sales people leap (take action) before thinking resulting in potentially disastrous results. Read one such example and possibly learn how being reactive is far easier than we realize.

Enjoy Your Business Accomplishments
[Business:Productivity] Each day in today's global marketplace, people are busy working toward one of many business goals. When the goal is achieved, another one quickly fills the void. What would happen if business professionals would take time to relish the accomplishments of their productivity?

Short and Valuable Lesson on How to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] With the global economy's upward spiral one day and downward ones the next, securing new sales is paramount to the survival of any business be it in the United States or South Africa. So the million dollar question is how to increase sales?

12 Tips to Simply Listen to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Do you want to increase sales? How well do you listen? These 12 tips may to help you improve your active listening skills.

A Missed Qualifying Question Essential in Relationship Selling
[Business:Sales] People buy to meet their known and unknown needs. For them to feel good about that decision is far easier when they can see measurable results. Your goal as a sales professional is to have that clearly articulated within your sales approach as you qualify your potential customers (a.k.a. prospects).

A Great Relationship Selling Question to Learn Potential Obstacles When Qualifying Prospects
[Business:Sales] Obstacles in sales derail may deals. In some cases it is because the salesperson failed to do her or his homework during the qualifying process. If this has happened to you, you may find this question very valuable.

Great Relationship Selling Question That Qualifies & Builds Upon Emotions of Your Prospects
[Business:Sales] Sales is a transference of feelings according to Zig Ziglar. How good are you at building those feelings or emotions with your qualifying process if you are engaged in relationship selling?

Relationship Selling Begins by This Qualifying Question
[Business:Sales] Where to start the qualifying questioning process is a challenge? After all, you want to quickly separate those with real needs from the tire kickers while achieving your goal to increase sales. So what is a great question to ask to be that Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits?

Critical Book Review - The Maxwell Leadership Bible by John C Maxwell
[Book-Reviews:Spirituality-Religion] Noted organizational development expert, Dr. John Maxwell, shared his belief the Bible provides the greatest examples of leadership. He then works thorough the Bible to illustrate his position and to stay true to his definition of leadership that being influence (Original source: J. Oswald Sanders).

Critical Book Review - The Elements of Persuasion Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman
[Book-Reviews:Business] Are you seeking a new way to increase sales by being able to sell faster? In this book by authors Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman, The Elements of Persuasion: Use Storytelling to Pitch Better, Sell Faster & Win More Business, sales professionals learn what makes a compelling story.

Critical Book Review - Leadership Promises by John C Maxwell
[Book-Reviews:Spirituality-Religion] Would you like a daily message to keep you focused and help you better understand the Bible? Then this book might just be what the Pastor, in this case, John Maxwell ordered.

Critical Book Review - Good to Great by Jim Collins
[Book-Reviews:Business] What separates a good company from a great one? This is the question Jim Collins in his 5 year research set out to answer. If you are just beginning the journey to organizational transformation, this is a necessary read to help you avoid making costly mistakes.

How Your Sales Action Plan is Your Fog Line to Keep You on the Road to Sales Success
[Business:Sales] Do you know what a Fog Line is? Learn where this white stripe is and why it is important to your own sales success.

How is Your GPS When it Comes to the Goal to Increase Sales?
[Business:Sales] Do you use your GPS as part of your daily sales behaviors? Maybe it is time to think differently especially if you are having trouble achieving your goal to increase sales?

Five Relationship Selling Questions to Better Qualify Your Potential Customers Aka Prospects
[Business:Sales] Time is of essence to sales professionals. Dealing with tire kickers or prospects (I prefer the term potential customers) does not add any greenbacks to your piggy bank. These five questions may help shorten your qualifying process within your sales approach and help to achieve your goal to increase sales.

3 Reasons Why the Ketch-Up Sales Approach is Bad For Business and Sales Management
[Business:Sales-Management] Do you know of sales professionals who are always complaining about not having enough time to follow-up, make phone calls, process orders, etc. and the bottom line is sales are not happening? Yet, you know of other successful salespersons who have even less resources and never complain. What is the problem?

Sales Managers Who Learn to Say No Can Increase Sales and Build Strong Sales Teams
[Business:Sales-Management] Are you limiting your sales team and the ability to increase sales by not ever saying No? Sometimes, you need to demonstrate sales leadership by just standing up and not saying or appearing to be saying Yes to everything.

Why Sales Success is Directly Connected to Daily Habits
[Business:Sales] Are your daily sales behaviors at the level necessary for sales success? Do you remember Wimpy in the Popeye carton? His come today and see you tomorrow attitude reminded me of why some sales professionals fail to achieve their sales targets.

How Sales Training Can Reduce Rising Health Care Costs
[Business:Sales-Training] Sales training is still in demand because the marketplace is no longer across the street or state line. Rising health care costs continue to drain training budgets. What would happen if you could improve the sales skills of your sales force while achieving the goal to increase sales?

How the Power in a Simple Values Statement Can Help to Reduce Rising Health Care Costs
[Business:Strategic-Planning] Values statements are part of the overall strategic planning process. This simple statement has potentially untapped power to reduce one of the greatest challenges facing any business - rising health care costs.

Why a Leadership Competency Model Just Simply Speaking Does Not Work
[Business:Human-Resources] Does your leadership development or leadership training embrace a competency approach? If so, this article may show you why such an approach may not be the best way to improve your people.

How Employee Assistance Programs Can Reduce Rising Health Care Costs
[Business:Human-Resources] Many larger organizations have employee assistance programs. Now these programs can actually reduced rising health care costs. Interested? Read on.

How Human Resources Management Can Reduce Rising Health Care Costs
[Business:Human-Resources] With two thirds of all health care costs associated with poor behaviors, changing the behaviors of employees would be a logical and sensible way to reduce or control rising health care costs. Now is the perfect opportunity for human resources management to take the lead and create both a healthy and high performance organization.

Are Your Policies and Procedures Working Against Building Customer Loyalty?
[Business:Customer-Service] Are you working harder to grow your repeat customers and finding some challenges? Maybe the source of those issues are right in front of you within your current policies and procedures.

A Better Way to Train a Sales Team
[Business:Sales-Training] Training and development research suggests that 90% of all dollars invested in furthering the knowledge of employees generates a negative return on investment. There are many reasons for this dismal statistic and one of them is due to where the current focus is specific to what is being addressed.

Does Your Sales Training Include This Sales Productivity Strategy?
[Business:Sales-Training] Sales training runs from specific sales skills to people skills. Yet many times all these learning interventions fail to increase sales as well as to improve sales productivity. So what is a business supposed to do?

Manage Your Sales Team Using This Circular Framework to Increase Sales Productivity
[Business:Sales-Management] If you are in sales management, are you having these two challenges: increase sales and improve productivity? Then, this circular framework may help you to overcome those challenges.

Increase Sales Turn Signals Are Not Optional Equipment in Selling
[Business:Sales] Do you use all the standard equipment as you are engaged in your daily selling behaviors? Maybe you are ignoring some standard practices thinking it is not necessary?

Increase Productivity and Profitability by Simply Eliminating Gossip
[Business:Productivity] Do your employees gossip? Have you ever considered the financial impact to your bottom line? What can you do to eliminate it?

How a Competency Sales Training Approach May Be Costing You Big Bucks!
[Business:Sales-Training] In many sales training programs, there are a list of defined competencies. Unfortunately, in many cases, these competencies do not recognize the salesperson's natural talents. Additionally, this type of sales training approach can create a focus on weaknesses that are not relevant to the individual's current role.

Use This Simple 3 Circle Strategy to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales-Training] Sales is demanding especially during challenging times from economic downturns to increased global competition. Here is a simple strategy to get you back on track.

How to Increase Sales by Knowing Your Numbers and Doing the Math
[Business:Sales] Small business owners to large corporations need to continually increase sales especially with the changes in the marketplace. Yet sometimes their efforts are overly complicated because they fail to do the simple math.

To Increase Sales, Identify the Beliefs and Reward the Behaviors
[Business:Sales] Have you ever considered that possibly the reason for poor sales goes beyond your behaviors and is very much connected to your beliefs. Also, when you are successful in sales do you reward the positive behaviors or are you undermining yourself and possibly your sales team by rewarding negative behaviors?

Traps Are Not Just Found on the Fairways
[Business:Sales] A lot of business is conducted on the golf course between the fairways and the putting greens. Golf is a great analogy for how you approach sales or even the overall sales process.

Critical Book Review on "Leadership and Self Deception - Getting Out of the Box"
[Book-Reviews:Business] Leadership is necessary in business. To understand why you may not be securing the results you wish for yourself or your employees this book helps you to better understand how your focus is creating your reality.

Why Do Kids Sell Better Than Adults?
[Business:Sales-Training] How come as a kid you could sell your parents on almost anything? Now you are having trouble selling potential customers (a.k.a. prospects) on your products and services even though you know they need them. So what gives?

How You May Be the White Rabbit in Sales and Losing More Than Just Time
[Business:Sales-Training] Are you feeling like the White Rabbit in Sales? Rushing around, late for this or just barely on time for that? Read about an important study that connects time to leads and how you maybe losing more opportunities than you realized?

5 Tips to Improve Your Sales Approach When Recognizing Prospects
[Business:Sales] How do you recognize a prospect or what I prefer to call a potential customer? These 5 tips may help both improve your sales approach and increase sales.

How to Be True to the Purpose of Professional Business Cards in Today's Business Marketplace
[Business:Sales] What is the purpose of your business card? How does it affect your ability to increase sales? Learn if you card passes the AIDA Reading Test.

How by Being in the Bottle is Keeping You From Reading the Label and Growing Your Sales
[Business:Sales] Being in the box is a common analogy. How about being inside the bottle? If your goal is to increase sales, what is more productive, reading the label from inside the bottle or outside the bottle?

Critical Book Review on "Working With Emotional Intelligence"
[Book-Reviews:Business] For years, your IQ or intelligence was thought to be of primary importance. However, Daniel Goleman has shown in this book, "Working with Emotional Intelligence," your EQ or emotional intelligence is far more important to business or even personal success.

Top 10 Qualifying Fact Finding Questions That Will Earn You the Sale For Consultative Selling
[Business:Sales] Qualifying fact finding questions are directly connected to your industry, your products, your services and most importantly your customers. In consultative selling, I find that asking these 10 insightful qualifying questions early in the selling phase of the sales process saves me time.

Growing Your Business Requires Closing the Gap Between Sales and Customer Service
[Business:Sales] For many businesses, there is a distinct line between sales and customer service. To ensure that the sales process is executed without problems, separate departments have evolved addressing what are perceived to be sales issues and customer service issues. Yet is this really effective given the research about customer turnover, the time to earn a signed commitment and how quickly sales leads become cold?

3 Fact Finding Questions to Convert Your Sales Prospects Into Customers
[Business:Sales] How successful are you in converting your sales prospects into customers? These 3 quick fact finding questions may help you increase sales.

Why Your Sales Approach Should Aim Small, Miss Small
[Business:Sales] How would you define your sales approach? More importantly, how effective is it? Are you missing a lot of sales targets or just a few?

Top 5 Tips to Increase the Effectiveness of the Most Important Sales and Marketing Tool
[Business:Sales] What is the most important sales tool that you have? And more importantly, are you losing opportunities to leverage this key tools? These 5 tips will help you use that tool more effectively as well as to increase sales.

No Business Card Simply Means No Business
[Business:Sales] Have you attended a business networking event or a business conference and attempted to exchange professional business cards with another professional but he or she did not have one? What were your thoughts?

Start Managing Using Your Sales Team's Talents & Stop Focusing on Their Weaknesses
[Business:Sales-Management] From you role in sales management, do you manage from a perspective focusing on existing talents or from a weakness one? If you truthfully answered from a more negative than positive focus, then can you answer this question: Why do winning teams win because of their strengths or their weaknesses? Now is the team to change your management style especially if you wish to increase sales and have a high performance sales team.

How a NICHE Market Strategy Approach Increases Sales
[Business:Sales] Much is written about having a niche to improve your selling success. A niche is a narrow target market where there are few competitors and allows you to be the Red Jacket in a Sea of Gray Suits. Use this acronym to help you strengthen your niche in your marketplace.

3 Strategies to Achieve an Effective and Responsive Sales and Service Culture
[Business:Sales-Management] Do you believe that there is a distinct line between sales and customer service? Possibly that belief is keeping you or your organization from reaching that next level? These three strategies may help you change that belief and ultimately increase sales.

Top 5 Strategies to Improve Your Sales Approach
[Business:Sales] So you want to win more sales? The local economy is down. Contacts and leads are drying up. More and more competitors are entering an already tight market. What can you do?

Stop With the Closing and Start With the Earning If You Wish to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] All businesses and especially sales professionals want to win more sales. Yet have you ever considered that by thinking closing they are shutting out potential customers?

Win More Sales Using an Effective Sales Approach That Includes Small Steps and Giant Leaps
[Business:Sales] What is your sales approach? Is it effective meaning are you doing things right? Maybe the words of Astronaut Neil Armstrong when he was the first man to walk on the moon have far more meaning to you as a sales professional that you realize?

Why Confusion Between Vision and Mission Statements Hurts Sales Growth and Sales Managers
[Business:Sales-Management] As a sales manager do you sometimes find confusion between the vision and mission statements? Do not feel bad because you are not alone. Learn how to end the confusion and start realizing your goal goal to increase sales.

How Excuses Statements Prevent Sales Success
[Business:Sales] Each day millions of excuses float in the air from sales professionals. These thoughts whether spoken or unspoken reveal the real primary obstacle to sales success - beliefs.

5 Sales Tips to Turn Hot Leads Into Hot Sales
[Business:Sales] So how fast do you believe leads stay hot? Or would you prefer this question, how fast do you believe leads get cold?

How the Blinding Flash of the Obvious is Keeping From Achieving Your Goal to Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Is the blinding flash of the obvious keeping you from sales success? Maybe this starts with your inability to recognize your potential customers?

Boorish Behaviors Are Today's Common Business Behaviors
[Business:Ethics] People do business with people they know and trust. Learn if your behaviors are professional or simply boorish.

Selling Success Marries the Sales Approach to a Proven Process
[Business:Sales] A recent poll by a respected sales guru suggested that during your first meeting with a potential customer (a.k.a. prospect) you can begin your presentation after you have established rapport. Maybe that works for you, but given that only 2% of all sales are made on the first contact, this sounds like a recipe for disaster.

The 4 Buckets For Sales Training That Deliver a Positive Return on Investment (ROI)
[Business:Sales-Training] Is your sales training not delivering the results you expected or more importantly need? Maybe you are placing too much of your efforts in only two of the four buckets necessary to deliver a positive return on investment.

Possibly Your Sales Management Solutions Are Scaring Your Sales Team
[Business:Sales-Management] Did you know that research suggests anywhere between 40 and 70% of all sales targets are not achieved? With many salespersons missing their goals, some in sales management are seeking new solutions to this continued problem.

What is the Most Effective Quality Within Your Sales Management Team?
[Business:Sales-Management] Sales has always been a team effort even if you are one person team because your potential customer (a.k.a. as prospect) is also a member of your team. If you could identify the qualities of an effective sales team, what would you consider those to be?

To Change Your Sales Approach May Require Courage
[Business:Sales] Your sales approach may be your obstacle to sales success. Of course, you may not know this because how you sell is still working. Yet, as the old expression goes there may be a way to build a better mousetrap.

The Biggest Obstacle to Sales Success Is - "I Am Not a Salesperson"
[Business:Sales] Yesterday during a conversation with an international colleague where we were discussing business and how to increase sales, I heard this dreaded comment: I am not a salesperson. During the last 30 years, I have lost count of the number of times I have heard this or read this statement. What is even more astounding this was an independent businessman who was responsible for earning all revenue.

One Dynamic Strategy to Increase Sales and Be the Red Jacket to Your Target Market
[Business:Sales] What if there was one guaranteed way to increase sales? Would that interest you? What if that way did not cost you any hard cold cash up front? Am I getting your attention?

7 Great Tips to Increase Sales by Going Beyond Being an Anybody
[Business:Sales] Anybody can sell. Have you heard that? Maybe years ago that was true, but in today's highly competitive global market place, this is no longer true.

Quick Quality How-to Business Tips to Help You Build Increase Sales
[Business:Sales] Do you lack time to read those thick or small print books on how to increase sales to just improving your business? In this book, "Streetwise Business Tips" Bob Adams realizes your time is precious so he has provided you with 200 tips to get ahead in business.

What Do You Need to Do to Move Your Sales Team to That Next Level?
[Business:Sales-Management] A recent on-line poll at SmartBrief of nearly 1,400 respondents asked what was the most important skill in this current economy. Even though this was not scientific, the results were interesting especially when looking from a sales management perspective.

Yes There is a Secret to Asking the Right Question
[Book-Reviews:Business] The ability to ask effective questions that move you closer to earning (a.k.a. closing) the sale are necessary in today's global and highly competitive marketplace. How well you ask the right question according to Thomas A. Freese's book The Secrets to Question Based Selling will allow you stand out in the crowd.

Landing a Big Sale Can Be Achieved
[Book-Reviews:Business] Small business is big business. Yes for many small business does not put enough bread on the table nor pay the bills. Getting into big companies is far more lucrative, but a real challenge.

How to Plan Your Sales Game by Avoiding the Common Traps
[Book-Reviews:Business] Do you know why you are losing sales? Possibly, you may be hitting your ball (sales presentation) into the sand (sales) traps around the cup hole (earned commitment) and not be aware of these pitfalls?

Sales Success Equals Fewer Mistakes
[Book-Reviews:Business] Stephan Schiffman in his book, The 25 Most Common Sales Mistakes and How to Avoid Them, provides you with some common sense observations and solutions. Since this is a small pocket or purse size book, keeping it on you as an easy reference guide is simple.

How This Book Review Writing Template Delivers 5 Articles an Hour and Has Two Hidden Benefits
[Writing-and-Speaking:Writing-Articles] Is article writing part of your marketing strategy? Would you like to increase the number of articles you write? Have you considered writing book reviews?

How to Build Your Business Even If You Dislike Marketing and Selling
[Book-Reviews:Business] Would you like to have more clients? Who doesn't? Michael Port in his book, Book Yourself Solid, shares three modules in how to increase your customers.

Relationship Selling Includes Effective Networking
[Book-Reviews:Business] Lillian D. Bjorseth has updated her original 1996 book, Breakthrough Networking, with the trend towards social networking. Yet, networking is still as Bjorseth states about a process linking people into mutually beneficial relationships.

Successful Selling Equals Successful Buying
[Book-Reviews:Business] Sales success is very much dependent upon buying success. Yet, much has been written both truthfully and untruthfully about why people buy. If you could understand this why, would you be better able to increase sales?

You Are Your Greatest Obstacle to Professional Sales Success
[Book-Reviews:Business] Have you read a lot of sales books and still not happy with your ability to increase sales? Then maybe it is time to step out of the box and read Robert K. Cooper's book, Get Out of Your Own Way: The 5 Keys to Surpassing Everyone's Expectations.

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