business acumen

Like this article? PLEASE +1 it!

business acumen Tagged Articles

5 Strategies towards Smashing your Sales Targets in 2010
If you are still a salesperson in 2010, firstly congratulations - here are 5 recommended strategies you can employ towards getting on top of your target this year.

Hiring Talented Business Acumen and Business Acu-women
Okay, so it was a catchy title-there is really no gender difference when it comes to business acumen. But wait, what exactly do we mean by business acumen, and how do we know it when we see it?

Business Acumen Boot Camp is not for Sissies

Spring is in the air, buds are starting to bloom, the economy is starting to turn, and the sap is rising in the veins of entrepreneur’s everywhere (forgive the poetic license – it has been a hard winter). But although our entrepreneur’s sap is rising (when we say sap, think: motivation, frustration, ambition), their business acumen skills may not be up to the job? Here is where Business Acumen Boot Camp training can payoff.

Consultants Can Be Scary but Do They Provide Value

As a CEO before I became a consultant ten years ago I had very little time for consultants and did not have a high opinion of them. One of the things that always stuck in my craw - and still does for that matter -- is to see a consultant conduct sales training that never actually carried a bag themselves. Some have very little if any experience in the field as an outside sales person. Even more concerning is to watch a consultant give leadership or business acumen advice when that consultant never had to meet a payroll or run a company personally. Consultants can provide real value on many occasions but they can also be your worst nightmare.

The Mobile Mexican Magnate: How Carlos Slim Helu Got His Start

He has been called the Warren Buffett of Latin America, but on the most recent Forbes list of the world’s richest people, the Mexican born Carlos Slim Helu bumped the great American investor down to third spot. With an estimated net worth of $53 billion, Helu is now the second richest person in the world, and just $3 billion behind Bill Gates. He is known for never cracking a smile, but Helu’s current monopoly over the telecommunications industry in Mexico must surely make him one happy businessman. With his hands now in all of the retail, banking and insurance, technology, and auto parts manufacturing industries, Helu shows no signs of slowing down.

Lesson #4: Infuse Your Company with a Survival Mentality

“I started The Body Shop in 1976 simply to create a livelihood for myself and my two daughters, while my husband, Gordon, was trekking across the Americas,” recalls Roddick. “I had no training or experience and my only business acumen was Gordon’s advice to take sales of £300 a week. Nobody talks of entrepreneurship as survival, but that's exactly what it is and what nurtures creative thinking.”

Reaching New Horizons: Southwest Airlines Takes Off

With his own legal experience and his partner’s business acumen, Kelleher was convinced the two of them could see their business lift off. What was their idea? They wanted to create a no-frills airline, and one that would be exempt from the restraints of federal price regulations. By refusing to cross state borders, and operating flights only within the state of Texas, they were able to do so. Kelleher’s new Southwest Airlines offered drastically reduced fares and quickly became a hit with passengers.

Blueprint for Success
It’s not just business acumen, but integrity, that carries you forward in the business world. It’s as simple as keeping your word, or, in some cases, remembering what your words were. It seems that “simple” isn’t always easy for some people.

Guerrilla Proposals
It's at Proposal Time That The Rubber Meets the Road. To Get The Best Ride Possible, You've Got to Present a Guerrilla Proposal. Here's How.

Leadership Acumen
What is leadership acumen? Leadership always yields tangible business results in the long-term. Since acumen is about insight and wise action, let’s consider it in context of great leadership and excellent business.

Home Based Business - Negative Consequences of Setting Unrealistic Goals

Home based business owners need to understand the importance of setting realistic goals and then focusing all their efforts to achieve them. Without goals you will not have any way to measure your success. You will be like a ship at sea without a rudder. Without goals you may not be able to achieve targets or assess your potential as an entrepreneur. Goals provide an opportunity to test your skills and business acumen required to run a home based business.

Australian Home Stager Increases Property Value by $30,000
The Staging Diva, shares a home staging success story from Staging Diva Graduate, Colette Smith.

Top 5 Ways Business Acumen Adds to Your Bottom Line

Acumen is described as insight, good judgment and wisdom. Sales acumen combined with business acumen is being hyper aware of trends going on in the world and connecting the trends to your product/service and solutions. The salesperson of the future is moving beyond bonding and rapport; They are professional that know how to carry on a conversation at the 'C' suite. Today's decision maker expects a professional salesperson to understand the business of business.

What do your sales people really need to know and apply?

In today's market selling skills training does not equal product training or pressure tactics. If product training or pressure selling (the hard sell) are on the top of your sales training agenda or the only training you offer your sales people then you may want to rethink your sales training strategy. What is expected of sales people today by way of skillful thought and action goes way beyond the product or the hard sell. Let's first look at what clients want. This will then help us determine what sales people need to be able to do.

What do clients want?
Clients don't expect to be coerced, bullied, tricked or intimidated into buying. They don't expect to be treated like an idiot by sales people who just talk at them and flash brochures or product sheets. Relationships do not work effectively if they are forced!

How Being a Professional In Sales Will Directly Increase Sales
Is it just me or are a lot of sales professionals missing opportunities to increase sales because of their lack of professionalism? This thought occurred to me during a recent presentation at a business networking event and small business trade show exposition.

Is Your Weapon of Choice an Elephant Gun or a Fly Swatter to Increase Sales?
Sales professionals are very much like hunters in that they are seeking a quarry (customer). By bringing down their victim, they receive a prize that being a sale. In many cases these salespeople select the wrong weapon because their focus is not prey, but on the prize.

Companies Develop Leaders? 10 Ways to Know
Is your company paying enough attention to internal leadership development? Here are 10 ways to determine if developing the next generation of company executives is a strategic objective.

Win More Sales by Sharing Instead of Selling
Sales professionals need to sell their products and services in order to earn a living. However, in today’s global driven marketplace, selling is a challenge because of the Internet to the current economy to all those negative belief about pushy sales folks. So what is a poor sales professional supposed to do?

Why Most Coaches Are The Gray Suits in the Sea of Sameness
Google the word executive coach and you will find a plethora of websites. Given that executive coaching is still a growing industry, one would think that these coaches would have more business than they could handle. However this is far from the truth. So what is the real problem? If you are interested, read on.

How To Successfully Buy Your Second Company

An accomplished entrepreneur who has sold his or her first business often seeks to re-enter the business world by acquiring and operating another company. But the acquisition likely involves new partners and different strategies than those previously employed. This article examines just such a scenario, presuming the reader is the purchaser in question. The article covers the necessary planning, leveraging purchasing power with debt, considering outside investors, and the benefits of professional expertise to ease the acquisition process.

Entrepreneurs – Do You Need More Financing But Not Sure How To Ask For It?
You’ve got a meeting at the bank next month, and you will be discussing financing for your business. Your company is profitable and I'm looking for a bank loan to finance more business growth. What things should you focus on in the meeting? Are there certain things that you definitely should/should not talk about?

Bank Managers - So Necessary for your Business But....
Meeting with your bank to ask for a loan for your business is always going to be a challenge even if you have a profitable business. Here’s a few ideas for you.

Leading In A Down Economy - Crisis Or Opportunity
Yes, most often the buck does stop with you the leader when it comes down to the big or final decisions; however, using your best organizational talent can “turn your crisis into their opportunity.” What keeps you up at night can keep them up at night and this can be a good thing.

It Takes G.R.I.T. to Win More Sales
Remember the movie, True Grit? John Wayne played an over the hill U.S. Marshal who in spite of some character flaws displayed “grit.” Many professional sales people sometimes feel over the hill especially during difficult economic times. What would happen if you had some of that grit of U.S. Marshall Rooster Cogburn?

The Key to Rapid Growth in Network Marketing or MLM is Duplication

There is a common trait which runs through all massively and even moderately successful Network Marketers, they have all applied this very simple principle. The principle they have applied is that of ‘duplication’. Duplication is an absolute corner stone of success in Network Marketing and MLM. I will even go so far as to say that if the network marketing business does not posses the ability to duplicate their efforts, business is doomed to failure!

Termination Procrastination

"Profit covers many sins". That means that many of us may have become a little complacent and tend to procrastinate when it comes to problem employees... Maybe we didn't quite run our business following absolute best practice. Maybe some of us overlooked less than the best performance expected from our employees. Maybe we were a little too compassionate regarding employee effectiveness and as a result we haven't "weeded the garden" to allow our good employees to flourish. Instead, we just procrastinated on making these kinds of decisions. If your company is one that got caught in that viscous web of easy success and thought that prosperity in the market wouldn't end and you didn't quite pay attention to basic best practice business acumen, you may have fallen prey to the "Procrastinating Concept of Profit Covers Many Sins".

7 Foundations for Sales Greatness!
There are 7 key areas to develop when laying the foundation for your sales team. Build on these principles, and you will set your team up for greatness!

Price Is an Issue Its Not THE Issue
You’ve hired a dedicated sales force. Your company has the best product. Great service is delivered after the sale. So why is your team losing sales to “low price?” Colleen Stanley of SalesLeadership explains four reasons great companies run into this problem.

"When the Pupil is Ready the Teacher Will Appear" --Business Coaching 101

Business coaching provides the leader and the organization an opportunity to shift current strategies in a manner that is custom tailored and specifically designed for them. In a time of global competition and information over load, maintaining one’s personal balance while supporting the motivation and direction of the team can become difficult to say the least. Day to day pressures often prevent us from standing back and making a fresh assessment of where we are and what’s the best course to set for tomorrow. Like wise, as the role of the servant leader emerges as a model for greatness, it compels us to seek new ways to refine our business acumen.

Be an Advocate to Ruffle Some Feathers and Accelerate Your Business
The “it” factor- that special something that will make you and your business stand out in a crowded marketplace and be selected over your competitors. The “it” factor is being an advocate. Taking a stand for something and in fact being loud and proud about it.

Entrepreneurs and the Entrepreneurial Spirit

There are distinct differences in being self-employed, running a small business, starting a new business, and being an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur simply means ‘first to enter’, or the person who takes a plunge into a business venture, which can be in retail, services, or manufacturing. In other words, an entrepreneur is a leader, not a follower or imitator. Can entrepreneurial spirit be taught? Can we educate a population of entrepreneurs that reflect the likes of a Sim Wong Hoo (Creative Technologies) or a Sir Richard Branson (Virgin Group)?

Business Knowledge to Shape Your Future

We are living in a “customer driven economy.” People are walking into car dealerships with an internet invoice price list in hand and stating what they will pay for a vehicle and in some cases stating exactly how they want the vehicle equipped and when they want it. In this new environment; Time – want it now, Money – want it cheap, and Quality – expect it in product, sale and service, is the admission price to do business.

5 Pitfalls to Avoid When Developing Business Acumen
Planning on improving the business acumen of your sales force please watch for these 5 pitfalls.

Business Acumen – Helping Pharma Companies Compete to Win
Business Acumen has been identified by sales leaders as the critical sales skill in order to compete and win in the new era of leaner and meaner sales forces. With fewer sales reps and resources companies have become more reliant on the existing sales reps to deliver sales.

5 Ways to Win at Business Acumen

With fewer resources sales leaders need to become more strategic in how they grow their business. Many have chosen to move in a more business and customer focused direction. The challenge is how to do it. We have discussed several important variables to making the transition. The reality is that it requires a multi-faceted approach. Sales leaders need to align the entire organization, adapt business planning processes, information systems and train sales people and their mangers.

Can Pharma’s Woes be Tied to Poor Business Acumen?

The Pharmaceutical Industry has undergone enormous change. The number of sales reps has declined significantly over the last 4 years. Declining sales has not only forced the industry to reduce the number of sales reps calling on physicians but has also created the need to better focus on customer needs. The days of adding sales forces are dead and companies are struggling to find ways to deliver value to their customers.

Heres a Source I Forgot
Lunch with Jack Singer at a new Italian place today gave me the chance to ask him how he started to prospect. Jack's a fund and stock broker who brought his family here from South Africa about a decade ago. Over there he was a druggist, so there were few skills to transfer, other than his business acumen, but no prospects or clients.

Women in Leadership
Research has shown that there are three main traits of a leader: People skills, Professional Competence & Business Acumen. Women outperform men on People Skills. Business week called attention to these finding in its November 20, 2000 issue with a cover story titled, “As Leaders Women Rule”.

What is the Advantage of Being an MBA?
The importance of MBA degree lies in the fact that it is the confirmed ticket to the corporate world. Many more aspirants are taking new and advanced courses in MBA to accelerate their career growth so that they inculcate the much needed management expertise and business acumen. A mere mention of an MBA rank adds value and weight to one’s resume which gives an edge over others.

The Value YOU Bring Is As Important As Your Products
What you bring as YOU, the value you add to helping customers meet their business objectives, your ability to help them see a broader perspective, is as important, often more important, than what your products will do for them. Lately, there has been a focus on the need for salespeople to increase their business acumen - and rightly so.

business acumen Tagged Articles

Other business acumen Related Articles