decision making process Tagged Articles

Entrepreneurial Objectivity

For most of us, it's obvious that the bulk of the decisions we make on a daily basis are based upon the summation of our previous experience. Then combined with some sort of reactive observation. “That looks hot, I once was burned, don’t touch it.” A rather simplistically calculated decision to a situation, correct? There are a lot of philosophical explanations to this phenomenon, (of which I have no desire whatsoever to regurgitate.) However, the idea of understanding, evaluating and augmenting our decision making process, is quite possibly one of the most effective, yet difficult things to do.

Anatomy Of A Buying Decision

Before your prospect makes the decision to buy your product or service, four decisions must be made. For the most part these decisions will be made inside their heads or in conjunction with others depending on whether it is a joint decision making process or not. In small to medium sized businesses one person may make the buying decision, but in larger companies it is usual for the decision be made by a group of people. Whatever the amount of people involved in the buying decision, the same four decisions must be answered.

Selling In A Gloomy Economy

What is the difference between selling in a robust economy and selling in a failing economy? A lot. But not what you think. * Your product is the same * Your pitch/presentation is the same * The buyer’s need is the same What’s different is the decision making process the buyers need to go through. Do they have a problem that needs to be resolved now, and the economy has mitigated the types of solutions they seek? Do they have a problem that can be fixed with a partial, cheaper solution, or with internal resources that can be modified to create a solution? Do they wait until…. until they have some belief that their business won’t be at risk?

Ethical Leadership Develops Moral Communities

Leaders in businesses and schools must determine what is right for their employees and students to ensure that the organization continues to improve. In many cases, improving the organization requires that the leader develop strategies and programs that will address ethnic, racial, and gender challenges. Overcoming the described challenges requires the leader to also use an ethical decision making process.

Effective Listening: Part 2

In part one we discussed the role of emotion in decision making and made the case that effective leaders listen to HOW people say things rather than WHAT they say. This certainly compounds the challenge of being an effective listener given that the words and logic seem to play only a minor role. So what you need is a tool you can use to identify a person’s level of involvement in the decision making process. So let me start with the least involved and work our way up to the most involved.

Examine Buy In with Stakeholder Analysis

Identifying the main stakeholders and their level of influence can be vital to the success of your project. Stakeholder analysis involves recognizing individuals and groups with the power to either sway or make a key decision. Mapping can be used to get a deeper understanding of the position and motive of each stakeholder involved in the decision making process. Use Demand Metric’s Stakeholder Analysis Matrix to document key influencers and to understand how your efforts can be channeled more effectively.

What is a Decision Making Process to Problem Solving?

There are many approaches to problem solving and making decisions. This short article offers some suggestions for defining parameters as you approach your problem solving/decision making situations. Taking adequate time to research and brainstorm answers to your problems is a key step to any decision making situation you find yourself in whether business or personal.

Why Smart Companies Do Dumb Things

Not a day goes by when I don’t ask myself, “Why do smart companies do such dumb things?” We all know companies that cook the books and throw outrageous parties at one end of the spectrum to sell lousy products at the other. A sweeping answer is that companies are run by smart people, and smart people do dumb things as we’ve learned.

Decision making for success

This article discusses the importance of the decision making process.

Recruiting Strong Salespeople - The Sales Candidate Pipeline

Recruiting Salespeople - again? Yes. I cannot write enough about this! But, as usual, I'll address recruiting from a slightly different perspective this time - the candidate pipeline. Not to be confused with the candidate pool which is simply a single component of the pipeline. Your sales pipeline should have four stages:

Book Review: How We Decide

I’ve always known that a marketing message should “connect� with your prospective customer’s emotions. The traditional explanation has been that emotions truly rule the decision making process. This book explains why this mantra isn’t quite right.

Decisions

People with ADHD often fall into two camps. Those who make decisions very quickly and those who can’t make a decision without lots of mental anguish. If you fall into the latter group, here are five tips to help make decisions easily and with confidence.

Teach your Sales Team to Qualify and Sales will Increase

Qualifying leads in its easiest form

The Long & Short of It -- Long Copy Versus Short Copy

There's an age old debate about long copy versus short copy. Which is more effective in marketing? TThe long and the short of it is that both are effective when incorporated in your overall strategy.

Qualifying your Prospects

Qualifying your customer is the process of determining their interest in your value proposition, their budget and their decision-making process. Do they have the Money, Authority and Desire (MAD)? They are not fully qualified unless they have all three. One of the ways you can determine if they are MAD is simply to ask. Here are some qualifying questions that work.

C-Level Selling - Asking Sales Questions Is Easier Said Than Done

It’s easy to tell a sales person to ask questions and listen more. However, doing it is very difficult. Here are 5 steps to make the process easy and productive for closing sales.

The 10 Questions of Marketing

Why do we as marketers do what we do? To achieve results! But how do we ensure that we are consistently achieving results?

What job? What career?

Considering what job and career path you want to follow can be a potentially daunting decision. Careers advisors and even friends can help with this though ultimately you have to make the choice. This article will help you in considering these employment options and coming to a decision.

Starting Out? – Main Common Niches For Your Home Based Business

More people are now looking for ways to make money online with a home based business. For those starting out, it can be very challenging to actually decide the type of home based business to start.

The Ben Franklin sales close. For when they say "We want to think it over"

Every salesperson I have ever worked with has heard a prospect says those immortal words "We'd like some time to think it over". That's the time to use the Ben Franklin sales close. There are two types of "Think it over", the Fob off and the Bungy effect. Good salespeople can spot the difference and respond accordingly. They're the one's who come away with the deals.

A Matter of Trust

Trust is the basis for all successful leaders and all successful relationships for that matter. You cannot buy trust, but it is free. Trust is priceless yet can be earned over time. Have you ever tried to request someone’s trust? Maybe it was a team member, customer or a colleague. You may have wanted a decision to be made in your favor. To overcome some initial disagreement and expedite the decision making process, you might resort to “Hey, just trust me!” That statement is worthless. Either the other party already trusted you based on your past actions or they did not trust you and your request won’t change that. Trust is not spoken, it is demonstrated. Trust cannot be requested, it must be earned.

Managing in China Without Coaching

- Published by CONCHIUS in Shanghai Star Business Journal 31 March, 2008. In most Western countries, leaders are used to working in an environment where the employees are highly participating in meetings and contributing their opinions and experiences to the decision making process. A Western employee feels comfortable to argue for their beliefs and to share opinions in meetings with superiors. Furthermore, a manager in the West is not necessarily assumed to be an expert in his field or industry. On the contrary, he is supposed to utilize the knowledge in his team in decisions and projects. The Western managers are therefore used to lead highly interactive teams relying heavily on two-way communication. When a team achieves strong synergy, he can and will step down. The team becomes creative and manage it-self.

What Am I Doing Here?

All too often, salespeople find themselves doing battle with unworthy opponents, only to discover too late the time invested was really time wasted! How did they get there? Why didn’t they recognize where they were? And, why did they stay so long?

Business Decisions: How to make them more effective

Most people think that emotions hinder rather than benefit business decisions. This common conception, though, is being challenged. Evidence supports just the reverse.

Entrepreneurs -Meetings – Make Them Effective And Profitable

Meetings – in business they are very important, but you can have too much of a good thing. Meetings are also time consuming and expensive and often take you and your staff away from more profitable activities. So how do you make meetings effective and profitable?

Time Management is an Oxymoron

Do you have a time management challenge? If so, then learn why you don’t have one.

Sales Questions To Ask Prospects That Get Through To Their Bosses

What can you do when sales prospects seem interested yet keep stalling, avoiding commitment because they're not the only decision-makers? Asking the right sales questions is vital when their bosses are part of the decision-making process. Here's how to ask them, streamlining your sales prospecting process, saving time, and closing more sales.

New Zealand Public Sector eSourcing: Transparent Procurement encourages Competition & Investment

It is widely accepted that procurement transparency promotes competition, and that competition is a good thing for economic efficiency and growth. On a national level, it is also interesting to note the positive correlation between transparency and Foreign Direct Investment.

What The Campaign Can Teach Us About Sales

The presidential campaign can teach us a number of lessons about sales and marketing. Have you been paying attention?

3 Simple Actions to Increase Sales

If you could increase sales, by just 3 simple actions, would that have value for you? Learn what those 3 actions are.

Planning for a Negotiation

The fundamental difference between selling and negotiation is that selling is a process to identify the fit between what the seller is offering and what the buyer is seeking. Negotiation is the process of agreeing the terms of the deal and is part of the selling continuum. Yet, the negotiation should only begin when there is a genuine commitment from the buyer and seller towards a conditional sale.

How to Dispose of Negative People in 7 simple steps

Compelling reasons and actions steps to erradicate distractions, interruptions and frictions that negatively impact the course of our business as well as our lives.

Are You Part of the Problem?

The midlife crisis not only causes individuals pain and confusion, but it also has more far-reaching effects. Much outside you depends on your internal condition.

Understand Your Roles

How many hats do you wear? Well, not literally, of course. You hear that phrase all of the time. Wearing many hats. What that essentially means is that in life, we all have different roles that we play in different groups. If you don't consider those roles, it can cause you time management issues down the line.

When Making the Right Choice Goes Wrong

When was the last time you examined your core values? Do you even know what they are? Are you aware of the extreme influence they have over your daily decision-making processes?

THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICES MARKETING AND HOW TO AVOID THEM

By John Doerr The science and art of professional services marketing have come a long way in the last few years. It is no longer impossible to find examples of marketing efforts planned well, executed well, and measured well. Yet, in spite of these great strides, I continue to see the same marketing sins committed over and over again to the detriment of the firms and the people steering the marketing ship. What’s frustrating about these sins is that they are all made by intelligent people who have the good sense and ability to avoid them.

Questions - Questions - Questions

Questions Open Control Confirm

Maybe

When we hear “maybe” from our customers we often believe that it really means “yes.” Learn why it doesn’t and how to prevent hearing “maybe.”

Q: Is this a bad time to start up a new restaurant with a slow economy?

I field a lot of questions from new and soon-to-be new restaurant owners. Here's one of those questions regarding concerns about opening a business during a slow economic period.

How to manage risk (but don’t stifle innovation)

Mining is a capital intensive industry and a lot of money is spent to reduce the risk of making wrong decisions on investments and to reduce the risk of investments not delivering what was promised to shareholders. The same principle applies to any sized business. Every business wants to make the right investment decision and increase the likelihood of the business of delivering what is expected. When evaluating a new business good risk management tools and techniques can assist the decision making process and increase the likelihood of business success.

Not Everyone will Want What you are Selling

Over the years, while working with work at home moms and dads who are home based business owners, I have noticed their unrealistic ideas as to how their business should grow. Many expect overnight success and many expect that everyone else should have the same interest level in the type of business they are involved in as they do. When you are in a home business, no matter what it is, you need to realize that not everyone is going to be as excited about what you do as you are. Everyone has different interests, different goals, and different likes and dislikes.

The Einstein Factor in Leading Science Based Projects - Part 4

When asked if the people, practices and techniques required to lead science research projects are different from those in the general population, the answer is not just YES, but a resounding DUH!

Book Review: You Can’t Teach a Kid to Ride a Bike at a Seminar

Are you having trouble getting people to buy what you are selling? Read this book. Let’s say you already know that to be successful marketing your business you need to identify your audience’s problems and show why you have the best solutions. Isn’t that good enough?

Do You Know the Top 7 Question to Ask When Hiring a Business Coach?

Hiring a business coach is your most recent decision. What questions should be part of that interview process?

Lessons From Blockbuster: Don't Hide All Your Good Sales Material

Blockbuster is making a mistake by not letting people see the various program options they offer. For many, this information can be an important part of the decision making process. Blockbuster provides these options only AFTER you create an account (and are therefore logged in.)

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