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insight Tagged Articles

How Gross is my Margin?
The article provides insight into the value for business owners and financial managers to understand gross margin and how it affects overall profits and business risk .

How to Manage Stress in a Fast-Paced Culture
If you want to achieve more success and fulfillment, this article offers insight into the role that stress plays in your life and practical tips on how to manage that stress.

Services Provide by a Equipment Lease Financing Expert
The article provides insight the benefits of using an industry expert when it comes to sourcing equipment and lease financing.

Oscar-Winning INTERVIEWING Performances Are On The Rise!

The goal is to hire high performers...right? How do you do it? How do you tell the real high performers from the applicants who are merely pretending to be the high performer? Both may interview well. In fact, the impostor just may be more prepared and actually impress you more. If you have been fooled before, what makes you think you won't be fooled again especially if you are interviewing applicants exactly how you have interviewed them in the past. This article will provide valuable insight as well as interviewing tips of how to see through an applicant's Oscar-winning performance.

TRUTH IN INTERVIEW - Part I

This is a two-part article. In PART 2: Help is available! The conclusion includes Interviewing This is a two-part article. The conclusion includes Interviewing Tips and Techniques to better identify High Performers. Locus of Control, a 50-year old psychology will be introduced to improve interviewing effectiveness. This behavioral psychology can provide interviewers with insight to the achievement attitudes and behaviors that are present in ALL Top Performers. By using simple interviewing techniques, Locus of Control can add information that will improve the accuracy of distinguishing the High Performers from the Impostors.

Carol Quinn's Interviewer Tip #3

There are an infinite number of resources directed toward job seekers. These sources offer insight into the interview process in order to help applicants ace interviews. Carol Quinn is an advocate for the employer! The ultimate decision to hire or not-to-hire resides with the interviewer. Employers pay a huge price for their hiring mistakes. It's time for the interviewer to be armed with the knowledge to accurately select the best.

10 Tips to Help You Find & Do Your “IT”
Wittig offers his insight on how you not only identify that thing you know you should be doing in your life, but how to act on ‘IT’ as well.

Is Dell Really the Place to Buy a Computer?
In the computer era, you need a computer. Now you might be reading this statement and thinking, “Wow, this guy has a level of insight that is staggering and quite amazing.” However, I am making this point for some obvious reasons. If you are trying to make money online in any way, shape or form, then you know the importance of having a very good computer.

Lesson #4: For Better or For Worse, There is Always Something to be Learned

It may be Wang’s name and Wang’s name alone that adorns everything from the bed sheets to the wedding gowns of her multi-million dollar business, but Wang’s road to success was not paved single-handedly. Growing up in a privileged family gave Wang many advantages that would come to help her in her later life, the most important of which might have been her early exposure to some of the greatest fashion designers in the world.

The Process of Marketing
Marketing is not an event, but a process. How long does the process last?

The Truth About Technology
You’re aware, as all guerrillas are, of how technology can strengthen your marketing. You’ve also got to be aware of its limitations and of the new advancements that are taking place at breakneck speed. Don’t let those advancements overwhelm you. Very little becomes obsolete, but nearly everything becomes improved.

How Long Till Marketing Works?
Whatever you do, don’t hold your breath while waiting for marketing to take affect. Instead, hold your horses because it’s not gonna happen instantly.

Finding Your Currency
"What if I don't have much to offer?" You know, I'm shocked and a bit sad by the number of people who ask that when I explain that to build strong relationships -- the kind that will consistently grow sales, boost your career, or just pack your social calendar -- you have to give, give, give, and not keep score. (Click here to read Keith's "Don't Keep Score" column.

Guerrilla Marketing And Karate

The karate master learns everything necessary to slam his hand through the wooden boards. He doesn’t even think about the boards, only about seeing his hand on the other side of them. Their being shattered is not part of his vision. The board is merely an illusion. His hand beneath the cracked boards is the only reality the karate master will accept. Theory is what helped him earn his black belt, but he never would have earned it if he had not taken action.

How Guerrillas Economize

When guerrilla marketers think of economizing, they don’t necessarily think of trying to save money. What they do think of is getting the absolute most from any money they’ve invested in marketing. They realize there are two kinds of marketing -- expensive and inexpensive -- and they know that expensive marketing is the kind that doesn’t cover the investment they’ve made in it, while inexpensive marketing pays rich rewards for their investment. Guerrillas have the insight to know that economizing has nothing to do with cost; it has everything to do with results.

Do Your Investors Use Your Product?
Brad Spirrison has a nice article in the Chicago Sun-Times titled Feedburner’s investors have its technology at their fingertips. Among other things, he highlights that three of the FeedBurner investors – me, Fred Wilson at Union Square Ventures, and Matt McCall at Portage Ventures are active bloggers that use FeedBurner’s services regularly.

The Designated Guerrilla
Reality in running a small business means knowing exactly what you've got to do but not having enough time to do it. If you understand how guerrilla marketing can propel you into hyperprofitability but can't take the steps to activate and maintain the process, your understanding is wasted.

Fathers Day Insight
I want to share with you this bonus Usable Insight from Dr. Mark Goulston's blog. Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there!

Guerrilla Timing
If your marketing is right, but your timing is wrong, watch out. Even the best-laid plans go awry when the timing is off. Here's how to prevent that.

Do Not Hide from Unhappy Clients
Customers and clients can be a great source of feedback and insight. But it's not going to be smiles, smiles, smiles all the time.

Guerrilla Persuasion
Marketing is persuasion at its core. You must persuade individuals or groups to part with one of their most prized possessions: -- their money.

Financial Models for Underachievers: Two Years of the Real Numbers of a Startup
My buddy at Redfin, Glenn Kelman, decided he wanted to bare his financial soul so that other entrepreneurs could get greater insight into the witchcraft called financial modeling. In this two-part posting, he reveals his numbers and his lessons. They are eye-opening for most entrepreneurs.

How to create a great website
Here are principles I think you can’t avoid:

Young Boss, Older Worker
In today’s multi-generational workplace, it’s not unusual for an older worker to have a younger boss. In order for that relationship to survive, both partners have to capitalize on each other’s experiences and strengths.

Entrepreneur Things

Entrepreneurs ( I need to share this with you) do the most ridiculous things. (I’m not going to name any of those things here because I don’t want to hurt the feelings of the dumb entrepreneurs who thought them up) But, I’m sure you know what I mean. I’m sure you’ve asked yourself the question from time to time, “What in the world was he thinking?” Well, that’s the subject of this morning’s blog. (It’s morning where I am, and I woke up with the thought that I needed to get this out of my system, off my chest, out of my mind, so here goes.)

California's Not a Big Entrepreneurship State
In playing with Google Insight I started checking trends on entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship. Has that sort of thing become, you know, passe, since the dot-com bubble burst and the Web 2.0 thing is waning? Or is it growing, at least as evidenced by people's search behavior on Google?

Who Tells You the Things You Don’t Want to Hear?
Today's tip is a crash course on one of the key ideas in the new book - lifeline relationships.

What you can learn from a lousy teacher...
If you have a teacher (of any sort) that you cannot please, that you cannot learn from, that is unwilling to take you where you need to go because he is defending the status quo and demonstrates your failure on whatever report card he chooses to use, you could consider yourself a failure. Or you could remind yourself...

What a Pole Vaulter Can Teach You About Professional Networking
Here’s an insight about building intimacy that I shared on yesterday’s Relationship Masters Academy coaching call.

Give Your VCs Assignments

Over the weekend, Mark Suster wrote a great post titled How To Communicate with your Investors between Board Meetings. Mark continues to just tear it up with great advice for entrepreneurs. However, he left out one thing from the post – which is one of my favorite pieces of advice for entrepreneurs. Give your venture capitalists (and board members) assignments Mark alludes to this in many of his suggestions but he never comes out and says it. And, amazingly to me, many entrepreneurs either don’t ever think of this or don’t feel comfortable doing it. They should.

Insightpreneurs and Differencemakers - leaders of our new world

For the longest time there were landowners and farm workers. For a couple of hundred years they were largely replaced by industrialists and factory workers. For less than a hundred years information experts and knowledge workers have led us. Their rule is over now because today we live in an age, largely due to the internet, where information is abundant and mostly cheap or free, yet time consuming and often energy sapping to access.

How to Motivate Your Staff and Employees to Do Their Best
While it’s true that you can’t really motivate your employees; they have to motivate themselves; there are some things you can do as an owner or manager to create the proper environment for employees to provide their own self-motivation, i.e., to do what is expected of them. To do this, you need to find out what motivates your employees.

Ask for Help!

In a recent interview I was asked what I thought was a common thread for all my clients. Without thinking, I answered, "They're ready and willing to ask for help". I knew it was true before, but I hadn't put it into words. Understanding and acknowledging this I can now focus on finding those who are ready to ask for help. That's a great insight. I can simply ask prospects if they are ready to get help.

5 Preventable Pitfalls to Solid Client Relationships and How to Resolve Them
If we consider the collaborative nature of our client relationships, teamwork is essential. So perhaps we can gain new insight into improving our client teamwork by examining our relationships through the lens of the Patrick Lencioni's book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team. We discover that what's good for team performance is also good for client and customer relations.

10 Common Leadership Mistakes
While there is significant benefit to understanding how leaders make good decisions, there is also powerful insight in how to become a great leader if you know the pitfalls and trouble spots they face. You can learn by what not to do!

Why Professional Experience Hinges on Personal Value
The personal value attached to the people you do business with directly affects your professional experience. Treating others with the same respect and dignity you’d expect isn’t the bench mark in business. Try treating complete strangers as though they were your closest friends and you’ll immediately become valuable to them.

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.

Complexity of Issues Regarding the Regulation of the Natural Health Product Industry Likely Tied to Basic Issues
This Wednesday's segment of the PI Window on Business "Doing What Comes Naturally: Are Natural Health Products Being Held to a Higher Standard?" in which I interview NHPPA President Shawn Buckley regarding the controversial Bill C-6 that poses two potential threats to the industry's survival in Canada, promises to be one of the most thought provoking.

Produce A Large Home Based Business Income Without Trying!

Have you heard of the snowball effect? If you know anything about marketing then you've heard this before. An you've heard of people producing large home based business incomes without even trying. That's because of the snowball effect. Small marketing efforts that overtime turn into a large massive avalanche of marketing. An that's when you produce that large home based business income without even trying. The unfortunate thing is, is that 97% of people online can't even get the ball rolling. So to accomplish a large home based business income hears what you do.

Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal Part 3 - Employee Perspective
Now that you have a sense for what the Making the EXCEPTIONAL Normal system can do for you and your company. Let's see how employees feel about it.

Increase Profits Without Adding Resources Part 3
Two often overlooked profit drains are quality and vendor payment terms. Changing your approach in handling both of these factors can help you increase profits without adding resources.

Twitter Metrics Programs
The programs that make Twitter metrics possible.

Top Five SEO Tips to Increase Website Traffic
SEO starts with a solid keyword research and sorting. Most of the SEO professionals are impatient and always in a hurry to implement their ideas.Keyword research for effective SEO results needs a lot of patience and intelligent calculations. Above all you should be using the best possible tools to perform keyword research for a strong search engine optimization.

Testing times when recruiting ‘good’ salespeople
When I consider how I spend my time professionally, I find it is often devoted to demystifying two things: 1. What is ‘good' selling? 2. The proper use of psychometric assessments, especially in sales recruitment Having written on the former on many occasions, I would like to dedicate this space to the latter - the proper use of psychometric assessments in sales recruitment.

Intuition: An Untapped Resource
What is intuition exactly? The Oxford Dictionary defines the term as “the ability to understand something instinctively, without the need for conscious reasoning.” It is a keen and quick insight, independent of any reasoning process. While intuition is important in all endeavors, it is particularly important for those in a leadership role.

Track Sales Calls with Call Accounting Software
Call accounting software allows managers to track sales calls, monitor employee productivity, decrease telecom expenses, and track marketing campaigns.

Smart Women, Subways and Asking
This article is about asking for help from people or “experts” that have the knowledge and information that could help women in their lives both personally and professionally. It’s natural to get “lost” at different times in our life. The key is to ask the right people for help and direction to get you back on track and moving in the right direction of your goals.

Market Your Small Business for Free by Harnessing the Power of Online Forums
According to a report on the internet research firm Website eMarketer.com, more than 260,000 small businesses in the U.S and Canada use Social Media marketing tactics. Yet only 28% of them use forums to market their businesses. I believe you should be part of that 28%!

Can Using Twitter Make You More Efficient?
Improve efficiency using Twitter? Really? It's all about connections. Read and learn!

What do People Buy In A Recession?
Studies have identified five key areas where people buy in a recession. You can use this knowledge in your business.

Speakers, Coaches, and Experts: Write to Sell During a Recession
Money is tight, but that doesn’t mean people don’t need you and your solutions. In fact, I’d be willing to bet that the people in your market need the guidance and insight you provide now more than ever. But in a recession, it takes a little more encouragement to get people to help themselves by buying your products and services. In other words, you may need to fine-tune your marketing.

Saving Selling Time
How simply set expectations with others can save an enormous amount to time for both.

Building Resilience
How to bounce back from the letdowns and life happens situations, 6 steps that work.

Why Do We Not Need Health Care Reform?

Last year I wrote an article about consumer driven health care and I told the story of a woman who paid over $300 per month to insure herself and her teenaged child. She required dental surgery that would take several iterations, but was not able to finish the process because she could not pay the $3000.00 bill. So the world turned and a year later she finds herself working for this very same insurance company, and guess what? She only pays $20 a month for her coverage. There is a saying that came to mind when I heard about that "somebody is buying you wholesale and selling you retail". I mean seriously people, if the insurance company employees can pay only $20 per month for coverage, why are you and I paying upwards of $300.00? What the heck are we paying for exactly?

Spend Analysis versus Spend Intelligence: More Than a Semantical Difference

I believe the phrase "spend intelligence" to be misleading. To me, it sounds like a new take or sub-segment of business intelligence software applications which offer analytics and dashboard capabilities and sit on top of existing systems of record. The problem is that spend visibility and analytics is much more complex, requiring data cleansing, rationalization, classification and other efforts which go far beyond what is needed to gain insight into basic HR, financials, IT and other internal information, which fall cleanly in to the BI camp.

Conversational engagement versus static accessibility: sharing knowledge in the 21st century

Key points • Old mindsets must be set aside in favor of a more progressive view that is commensurate with the growing awareness that an organization’s purchasing team is not merely a functional extension of another department, but plays a critical strategic role in the emerging global enterprise. • This is not just limited to purchasing, as both CIOs and CFOs are going through a transformation that is based on a collaborative versus a siloed view of organizational duties and complacent relationships. • A key enabler for this change in outlook is the various social networks and mediums. But it is painfully apparent that the recognition of how social networks can and ultimately will influence both conversational insight and the purchasing function itself is lost on the majority of procurement professionals.

Useful Internet Marketing Tools On The Cheap: YouTube Insight
If you're playing in the online video arena with your Internet marketing campaigns, YouTube must be one of your parking places. But are you getting all you can out of those postings? Do you know which of your videos are being viewed the most? Who's watching them? Are people commenting on your videos?

It Takes Planning
Some companies hit on just the right product or service and find success, business plan or not. But generally, operating a business without a business plan is a mistake. A business plan gives you a blueprint to follow during the life of your business. If you update it frequently, it will tell you when, where and how to implement changes that will make your business more profitable.

Would a wiki work?
A recent study conducted by CSO Insights indicated that poor sales knowledge management is hitting the top and bottom lines of companies in extremely negative ways. These included high sales rep turn over, longer sell cycles and lower win rates.

What's the best way to make your verbal statements more compelling?
It's time to make (and stick to) another one of those "I know it makes sense and it's good for me and I really need to make time for it" resolutions.

Got the right people in place
Getting the right skill sets and behaviors in the right spot is not always easy, yet it will make or break that new hire!

Overcoming Risk Aversion in Selling
The reality is all people have some aversion to risk in making decisions, how do we overcome this as quickly as possible in our sales and persuasion efforts? Here are key points.

Budgeting 101: more FAQ's
Aaahh the Spend It part of the budget. I personally love this part, and who doesn't? To be able to buy those luxury or "big ticket" items, you first need to go through the Save It stage.

8 Principals To Live By
Be Organized, have a plan, take action and have a great reason to do it all daily. Are you missing any one of these 8 principles to live by?

The Very Necessary Needs Assessment
For anyone in a professional sales role that requires any degree of sophistication the skills of uncovering opportunites, identifying needs, revealing shortcomings and exposing gaps is critical. Learn what the needs assessment is and why it is necessary to your success. Read on...

Channeling: Not Just For Those

This may be hard to believe, but once upon time, only certain, special people could channel Divine Guidance. They were endowed with special psychic gifts that allowed them to access the spiritual realms, hear the voices of non-physical beings and offer spiritual advice and information to other, less gifted individuals who were hungry for spiritual guidance. Channeling your Guidance benefits you and everyone in your life, for it allows you to be in sync with your Higher Self and the greater good for all. And you can get started today!

Reading People
Are you able to effectively read people and make proper adjustments in your approach and selling style? Do you understand what this means, have you experienced the difference it can make in your selling results and do you have the skills to do so?

Real Estate Marketing Strategies: Are your Self-Limiting Beliefs holding you back?
Have you been struggling with the feeling that you're not doing as well as you could be? This article gives you some great tips on how to re-program those feelings.

Job Interview Tips: How to Ace the Job Interview and Get Hired - Even in a Recession
Get hired faster even in a recession! Once You Get the Job Interview, Here Are Your Next Steps...

What culture do you develop?

As a leader have you considered the culture you want in your organization? A culture of an organization is determined by the behaviors and perceptions of your people. Consider, how your people treat your customers, how they treat each other, what their perception of your suppliers is, or more importantly, what do they think of the leaders and managers? You have heard the phrase 'walk-the-talk', people are watching you and based on your behavior they develop perceptions and will act accordingly. As an observer of an organization, it is very easy to identify the culture, one visit to a store, one interaction with the sales team, or customer service department will provide you with an indication of what is happening in that organization.

Online Business Success: Advisory Board Primer (Part I)
Would you like to have industry leaders give you FREE business advice on a regular basis? Read this article and learn all about the power of advisory boards.

Make it Happen!
If you want succeed at anything, there is only one way to make it happen. This article explains how to utilize that one thing to optimize your results.

Business Blogging, The Lessons of 100+ Posts
I recently passed the 100 post mark on my blog.To say that I have learnt a lot in between would be an understatement. To say that I have lots more to learn, would require an even bigger understatement.It has been an enjoyable, frustrating and fascinating experience. I have gained readers; I have gained new customers and best of all I have gained many great new friends.

Differences Between Psychotherapy and Professional Coaching
Coaching: Views both parties as naturally creative, resourceful and whole. Does not diagnose or treat. Therapy: More apt to view the clients from a medical model. Diagnoses and treats.

How to change your life in just 90 seconds!
You know those self help books you see on the shelf at the book shop that tell you you can change your life in six months - six weeks - six days - Even 24 hours? Well they're right! In fact, all you need to do is follow the 90 second rule and you can begin to move away from where you are now and towards where you want your life to be. Just 90 seconds is all it takes.

Betting On Yourself
You have to take a chance, in order to have a chance--a story from the life of Martha Hughes.

Facebook skeptics…
Just wanted to post something short and sweet today. I’m still a little perturbed about my meeting at work on Tuesday, so I decided to post some opportunities the new Facebook layout proposes for businesses. My theory is that if I can potentially present sound principles that shift traditional thinking it may become easier to sway the skeptics.

Marketing is complex - Sales is much easier!
What are you goals and aspirations? And how do you see me helping you get there? What do you think I need to start, stop and continue doing? If I could wave a magic wand over your busienss and grant you one with what would that be?

What should my sales team expect from a successful Sales Coach?

Successful sales coaching requires patience, a good ear, curiosity and of course the ability to provide individual sales people or sales teams with the right information at the right time. These relationships empower the recipients with knowledge and the confidence to maneuver themselves toward the right outcomes. Wisdom is knowledge applied. Therefore the sales coach prefers not to impart his wisdom directly, instead coaching the sales people or sales team to find their wisdom through their own questioning, answering and experiences.

The Value of Blog Commenting
This is an article for bloggers about the value of blog commenting in the quest of building up a dominant blog in any niche in Page Rank, search engine rankings, and traffic.

How to correctly use direct mail to generate SaaS leads
To produce the best results for a direct mail program for marketing SaaS, there are several very powerful direct mail strategies you will need to follow to increase your response rate. These strategies will produce great results for all sales letters, not just SaaS...

When Things Go Hardest...

During times of economic downturn, life and work become increasingly difficult for virtually everyone. Organizations and their people tend to flounder in a sea of uncertainty, while struggling with their decision making processes. Those leaders who have historically preceded us in troubled times, provide key insight into the aprropriate attitudes and actions which can sustain us through the current recession times.

May I Quote You?

As an author, the question, “May I quote you?” is a humbling request and a great compliment. For anyone who is in search of excellence a good quote is fuel for our journey. It’s amazing how a short, simple quotation can quickly provide perspective, inspiration, comfort, motivation or insight. What a wonderful return for our invested time - take 10 seconds each morning to read a new quote and our day, maybe even our world, is changed. I wanted to share a few of my favorites which can also be found in the new coffee table gift book, The Nature of Excellence… “It’s hard to beat a person who never gives up.” - Babe Ruth

7 Secrets to Online Business Success
I've done more here than just cover 7 principles of online success. Yes, I do lay out these important secrets, but I also illustrate them with examples so you can see how they have proven themselves to work in real life situations.

The Power of Social Networking Groups
Paraphrasing the old saying, "if your audience won't come to the mountain (i.e. your web site, webinars etc.), then bring the mountain to the audience." What we are really talking about is meeting your audience where they are, at their computer at work and/or at home.

The Race to Success by Cheryl A. Clausen
Are you losing the race to success? Would you like or even need some sales coaching to self improvement tips? Then look no more for this book has it all!

Finding A Niche Market On The Internet - The First Steps
First steps to finding a niche market on the internet. Great ideas and tips on where to look.

Motivation determines the Price
A quick overview on how values of the past no longer determine the price paid today. The Motivation of the seller and the buyer is the key to the price paid.

Value need not be the Transaction point
Everything has a value but the motivations of the Seller and the Buyer will decide the transaction point - the PRICE

PASSION to do it will show through
The passion to do anything will make you stand out from the crowd.

Manage Fear of Failure
Clues from past sucesses can help up beat fear of failure.

Make the TIME
It is not all WORK. Networks and relationships contribute to but they need TIME as well.

Your Initial reaction - is it valid or fair
Sometimes we react with a habitual response. In testing times this can be both unfair and/or invalid. Learn to test you reactions before you pass the messag on.

It just didn't matter
In negative times, not all you hear need matter but if you aren't careful you can let it matter when it needn't.

Make down times up TIMES by investing in YOU
Cutting costs is NOT always the solution. Sometimes we need more skiils, more training, a better environment or inspired leadership

Tough times require CORE Tasks
In tough times we need to be superb at the basics, engage in core tasks.

You always need to ask the Question
You can have all the tools, skills and marketing but you stil need to ask the question.

Website Usability – what does it mean for your revenue?
The true test of any marketing effort, whether online or otherwise is this: did it produce the desired outcome? Did revenue, leads, downloads or whatever your goal is increase as a direct result of this effort?

So You Just Got Promoted to Management – What Next?
This article provides an excellent process to use when you get promoted to your first or subsequent management position.

How to Explain your Accountabilities in your Resume

It's not what you say, it's how you say it that matters. Many outstanding candidates fail to get interviews because they are unable to articulate their accountabilities clearly in a way that engages the reader. This article provides some guidelines and hints to help you express your accountabilities in the various jobs you have had in a way that grabs attention and convinces recruiters and hiring managers of the value you can add.

Need a coach? Select wisely!
Coaching has become a useful way to help successful people become even more successful. In this article Ralph Jacobson describes when coaching can be effective...and when other kinds of support such as mentoring or counseling are more appropriate. The article very quickly establishes for you the approach that is best suited to your specific circumstance.

What Have You Done For Them Lately?
Showing Employees Appreciation and Rewarding Good Performance - A Survey Summary

Social Disease

I have always subscribed to the philosophy of “work hard - play hard”. But I always separated my play FROM my work. What I am referring to is my resistance to socialize with my employees or management peer groups as I worked my way up the corporate ladder. There is an inherent danger in creating a social environment within the workspace that spreads to the after work space. This almost ALWAYS ends badly. Here is my list of No-No’s:

Business Forecasting
Developing a business forecast provides management with strategic and operational insight leading to improved business performance.

Is Six Sigma Still Relevant in a Dynamically Changing World
The following is the overview of a just released white paper on Six Sigma, Lean and Integrated Enterprise Excellence with a corresponding link to download the paper itself (as the work was funded there is no charge to obtain the paper). I am certain that it will inspire a spirited debate - and that of course is beneficial to everyone.

Increase Sales By No Longer Being the Toad in the Road
If you could be anything but a salesperson and still increase sales, would that be of interest to you? Read how you may need to change your focus from your weaknesses by truly leveraging your talents.

Providing a Blueprint for Generational Leadership
Learn about succession planning and how to tap into the skill set of each generation

Win More Sales By Thinking Like a NFL Team
Yes, winning in sales and in sports obviously have a lot in common. However, a recent statistic may provide even greater insight in that you may need to start thinking like a NFL team.

Where Entrepreneurs Should Invest their Money First

Where entrepreneurs should invest their money first - Where should you invest money when you're investing back into your business? There are so many tools and software choices. Or maybe you should hire more staff? In this article, you'll read about a series of investments that might surprise you – and these might currently be pretty low on your investment list – but they should be much higher, and perhaps even immediate. When you do invest in one of these options, you'll not only be setting your business on a firmer foundation, but you'll also be opening your business up to much greater opportunity.

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall?
Perception is a concept that can be related to every area in your life. It is important to remember that that way you think your being perceived and the way others are actually perceiving you might not always be in alignment.

The productivity problem...
Today's small business owners are complaining about time-related pressures more than ever, saying that there's simply no way possible that they could EVER complete everything that's expected of them.

Insights Journalling: How (and Why) to Write a Journal

Journalling is one of the most valuable tools for gaining insight into who you truly are at your core and growing confidence. Whatever major change you seek – whether it’s in your career, relationships, athletic performance or any other area that matters to you – you simply can not move forward with purpose and intention unless (and until) you begin to understand the inner workings of your own personality.

Increase Sales by Surveying Your Customers Current and Future Needs
Do you know what your customers’ current and future needs really are? Possibly, you are just meeting their existing needs, but have not taken the time to survey future needs. By not truly knowing your customer needs, how much business are you leaving on the table?

The Art of Non-Doing Leadership
Managing people without doing things ourselves is a foreign concept to most people in the Western world. Here our tradition is one of managing by harnessing, directing, controlling, dominating, exploiting and using. However, this approach works less and less in today's world. Find out in this article just how powerful you can be by stepping back and doing nothing.

Finding alternate lead sources within your company
Many sales reps often overlook valuable lead sources within their own company, and spend precious selling time looking for leads outside their office doors. They attend networking events, travel to conferences and trade shows, partner with other sales reps, and research potential external lead sources, but rarely consider all the invaluable sources of information around them.

Your Inner Entrepreneur
Recently I was asked by a friend “how do you see so many opportunities?” I thought about her question for a while and was not sure how to answer and said “My mind always sees the big picture, but I’m not sure why.”

Sales Training Salespeople Who Lose Sales Can Bounce Back
Salespeople need to get over lost sales to avoid a sales slump. At age 45 George Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer after he was outboxed for the first nine rounds. What can salespeople learn to recover from lost sales from a comeback in boxing?

7 Reasons to Invest in Yourself Today
You are all you have! I know this to be the case first hand. There’s nothing like a separation, grueling divorce and – here’s the kicker – a near death experience to clue you in that without you and your ability to be at your best – physically, mentally, emotionally and intellectually, you have less.

Bridging the Gap between Your Prospects Your Offerings

The best way to get tuned into what your prospects and clients biggest challenges are is to listen to the questions they ask you that they need answers to. It seems so simple, yet we often forget to write down the thoughts, concerns and needs of our clients. Begin to make a list of the questions you hear them ask over and over again and begin to formulate pro-active responses that specifically address their needs and provide a solution to their problems.

Strategic Thinking Tactics - Time To Be A Visionary Leader
Strategic thinking is an approach or a perspective that any manager needs to adopt while thinking about their business organization into the future. It is an indispensable method to learn how to convert long-terms aspirations and goals into reality.

What makes OPD unique and different?

Good question. Answer: It is a better model of the link between staff behaviours (human performance) and business strategy and goals. It is the best possible model in fact, it is the only way staff behavior can be linked directly to strategy. So what? If your thinking is clearer, do you act more effectively? Of course you do. OPD has answered the question: How is staff behaviours linked directly to business strategy and goals? Having answered the question, the OPD-SHRM system then provides the consulting support and web based administration systems that enable every team leader to apply the model to their team.

Sell Anything to Anyone Using Market Data & Bad News - Secret Sales Strategies from Chet Holmes
This is what Chet Holmes has done with the sales organizations that he has built to double their original size. It applies to almost any and all industries and businesses, whether you are in law, medicine, or any other profession. It makes objections pass away and opens the door and gives you permission to have a conversation.

How You Can Stand Apart
Find out what makes you stand out from your competitors...and enjoy the bonuses that involves.

Is Your Career LinkedIn?

Social networking is the buzzword of the moment...Facebook, MySpace, Plaxo, LinkedIn and many more. People are asking, “is it relevant to my career or professional life?” With so many options, it’s easy to become overwhelmed if you’re trying to figure it all out, and you may even question whether it’s worth the time to invest in setting up an online profile. If you’re searching for a new job, wanting to change careers, trying to advance in your current field, developing your credibility as subject matter expert in your field, or building your own entrepreneurial venture, LinkedIn is an invaluable resource.

Unique Way to Create Business Goals - Learning from a Kindergarten Student
Calahan shares how to tie her son's school creed to your business goal setting program. This system is best for creative types, however, it is a great way for more analytical organizations to think through how to tweak goals too.

Cut StartUp Costs By Using a Dropshipper
Dropshippers, as they're called --are an excellent way to start your e-business and, if done properly, don't have to be a costly endeavor. There are literally hundreds of companies out there that will dropship products for you, everything from gifts and housewares to power tools and furniture.

Team Performance and Emotional Intelligence: Emotional Intelligence Training
Team Performance and Emotional Intelligence: Emotional Intelligence Training.

Self Leadership: Fear + Self Esteem = Your Success Level
Have you ever wondered why some people seem more successful than others? Yes, there are lots of external techniques that can be taught to improve your outcomes … lots of processes and strategies that once applied help to give a foundation for success.

What is eDNA and How Can it Affect Your Brand?
Have you ever written anything online that might cause someone to question the integrity of your company or brand? Think about all the imprints you've left online over the last few years - emails, blog posts, forum comments, articles, etc., essentially an eDNA trail that leads back to your small business.

Your Divine Guidance Knows How to Attract More Money
When you are in constant communication with your Divine Guidance and trusting the information you receive, you won’t need to talk about hindsight. You’ll be playing with a full deck of information and making the perfect decisions to support your ideal outcomes.

Strategies That Get You Hired
If you are in sales, pursuing a new job is much like pursuing a sales prospect. Your marketing tools have to present you in the most relevant light. This article tells you how to effectively use them.

STOP! Don't Take Action
Yes, it’s true. I seem to attract clients with issues similar to those I’ve experienced in the past or am experiencing to some degree now. It’s a great mirror and provides me with much insight. The issue I’ve been noticing over and over this last year is addiction to action. And believe me, it’s an addiction.

4 Tips for Mining Golden Copy Nuggets with a Good Interview
AWAI member, Heather Robson, gives you four ways to get more out of an interview.

The Unsolved Mystery In Sales
Perplexed, I ask myself if these people are just lazy and took too much time off after their last employment? Were they no good at their last place of employment so they always lived hand to mouth?

How To Effectively Use Business Mentoring

If you are running a small business and you get frustrated when things seem to be going wrong you’re not alone. Every successful businessperson experiences some level of frustration. The distinction between successful business owners and those that continually struggle is the way they handle their frustration. Learn how a mentor can not only help you to handle frustration, but thrive during difficult times.

What to Ask When Recruiting
As you become proficient at questioning, you’ll be able to reveal a candidate’s motivation for considering this career. You’ll make better recruiting decisions and as a consequence have more time to devote to the candidates that will succeed.

Earning Money Online with Adsense
There is nothing better than free cash. Earning money online however, is generally not free cash you have to do something. But there is a way you can get Google to pay for doing virtually nothing. The system is called Adsense. Basically what happens is that Google will place little ads on your blog or website that are relevant to the content of your webpage.

What REALLY Matters?
Knowing what REALLY matters to you is a key to living a fulfilling life. Here are some important questions to ask yourself.

Is Your Website Written For An International Audience?
Put yourself in your visitor’s shoes and think about just how much ‘local’ knowledge they might have if they live outside your country. And then adjust your website or web page to accommodate them.

The Joel Roberts Way to Make Profits from Problems

Joel Roberts used to be with KABC radio in Los Angeles. He went from radio to marketing, and he now trains people on how to become direct marketers. His list of clients speaks for itself; it includes Harv Eker (Secrets of the Millionaire Mind) and Stephen Covey (The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People), and he is also the official media coach for Chicken Soup for the Soul. Chet Holmes says to focus on the market data - focus on the problem. Chet’s advice is to build the pain until they can’t stand it any longer and they have to take action. Joel Roberts has a similar but unique perspective. He answers the question: How Do You Get The Attention Of The Mass Media?

How to Gain Mastery and Become World-Class at Anything

Chet Holmes was said to be “America’s greatest sales and marketing executive” by Charlie Munger. He said that he had run 40 businesses and never seen anybody consistently achieve the kind of breakthrough results that Chet Holmes had achieved again and again. Chet Holmes shared his formula and it is SO simple that I’m already smiling because I know what kind of “That’s it?” reactions this will get. What he managed to do is pretty impressive. He said that if you can do 4000 activities 12 times, or 12 activities 4000 times, which would you pick. 4000 activities 12 times might be fun, depending on the situation…I wouldn’t want to watch 12 movies 4000 times, for example. But there is a trade-off. Chet Holmes is a ‘turn-around expert’, and he chose the latter option: 12 activities 4000 times.

The More You Give, The More You Get: How To Get Interviews With Experts In Your Niche

We all know what karma is. What goes around comes around... it’s the law of the universe. Simply put, the more you give, the more you get... or as Robert Cialdini puts it in the science of “Influence”, it’s the rule of reciprocity. Now, we’ve all heard of reciprocity with our customers. Give them bonuses, surprise them, and as we’ve riffed on, basically delight the customer to get them to love you. I realized then what we had been missing... we needed to delight our potential business partners too. So I put aside the time to study the course. Okay, I’ll admit... it did seem a bit dreary at first, listening to 12 hours of audio... but let me tell you it was well worth it in the end. The more you give, the more you get indeed. That’s the power of karma.

Two Underused Secrets in Motivating Others
In this article you can read about the simplest, cheapest and often most gratifying and effective way of motivating others.

What are the 3 biggest challenges faced by supply chain/purchasing professionals today? (Survey Result 17)
There are many factors both internally as well as externally that are affecting supply chain/ procurement practices today. From the growing talent vacuum to the continuing lack of collaboration between Finance, IT and Purchasing relative to corporate initiatives. What in your own experiences and opionions are the top 3 issues that procurement professionals face?

Who will be the supply chain poster child in 5 to 10 years?
Member Question: Who will be the supply chain poster child in 5-10 years time? Dell => Walmart=> ? In the 90's it was Dell, in naughties it is Walmart, who is the next in line to emerge as the poster child in 5-10 years time? Where will Walmart be in this context?

When to Say When

Do you know when to say "When"? Not to stereotype our gender, but it does seem that women seem to have a problem with being able to say "no" to the requests for our time, services and money. When friends and colleagues come to us for our expertise in what we do, we gladly give away our knowledge and insight. Many times though, this can also lead into using your skills and services. If this goes on without keeping it in check, soon you find that what you typically get paid for from your clients, you are now doing free for those close to you, which in turn, uses up too much of your time.

Trend Spotting To Improve Your Business Efforts
Identifying and acting on trends is important in every business. It helps to identify new products or services, opportunities to expand on an existing range, and it can provide insight into a more effective marketing strategy.

The Importance of Thinking Big in Business

There is reward and satisfaction in big thinking but it is so easy to forget when you hit the inevitable rough spots in building your dream.....The start up phase of a business is such an obsessive undertaking that we can usually only focus on what is in front of us and the next few weeks ahead. But if the business survives, the day comes when we lift our gaze from the near term goals and are forced to think in terms of bigger dreams and how ambitious we might dare to be.....

Are You My Mentor
It might not come as a surprise to you, but if you interviewed every successful business leader that ever lived, you would discover somewhere on the journey to their success every single one of them had a mentor — someone who guided them with insight and feedback.

Tune Out and Tune In

Why is it that a person is willing to listen to the author of a self-help book, yet discounts their own thoughts, feelings, and intuition? What makes one person’s insight more correct than another’s? Perhaps the answer lies in one’s belief that they really can find the solution to a question. If so, then how does one achieve this level of confidence? How about, through practice? Exercise, if you’d prefer to look at it that way. Trusting in intuition is learned. It is developed through repeated instances of success.

Crisis Management
– Struggling to deal with a crisis management plan?

Happiness Is A Decision
Gain a fresh perspective in how you can feel happiness every day regardless of what is happening in your life!

3 steps to create a unique selling point to compel customers to do business with you
Creating a great Unique Selling Point or USP is much like making a love letter. You must, through words, create an image of yourself that the object of your affection will love in return. Unlike love letters though, you’ll have fewer words with which to accomplish your goal.

Six SanitySaving Scenarios to Turn a Massive Breakdown into a Powerful Business Breakthrough

I've learned over the years that a breakdown means that something very valuable is happening – I have new insight into how I can improve my process, my attitude, or my belief so that problem never happens again. The bottom line is that life happens and breakdowns will occur. We have all heard the saying, "breakdown, breakthrough." So take those challenging situations and look for the opportunity to strengthen your personal mindset and your business systems.

3 Simple Steps for Creating an Effective Unique Selling Point
Creating a great Unique Selling Point or USP is much like making a love letter. You must, through words, create an image of yourself that the object of your affection will love in return. Unlike love letters though, you’ll have fewer words with which to accomplish your goal.

Why I Love Negative Feedback

We've all heard about feedback and why we need it. We've also heard that positive feedback is much better than negative feedback. In other words, if you want to achieve your goals and get others to work with you in achieving them, you must be positive. Unfortunately, this kind of new age mush obscures the real reasons for feedback. Even more important is the fact that negative feedback is infinitely better than positive feedback.

Are you a Mega Manager?
Managing a team in today's environment means more than telling your team what to do! I believe that there are managers out there who already know this and exhibit a leadership ethic that promotes a healthy and happy team. Obviously there are different ways to "manage", finding your comfort zone is crucial, but you are not able to do that unless you truly know "yourself".

Why is a work at home business plan important?
Why is a work at home online business plan important? A strategic work at home business plan is basically a list of the things you would like your business to accomplish and how you plan to accomplish them. A online business plan should cover...

The Power Of A Group In Your Business
In a constant effort to do more with less, our world seems to become more frenzied every day. Security issues and national politics change rapidly. We have to know more, be more, and do more than ever before. There seems to be no time for planning future personal or career moves, or thinking creatively about business issues.

Focus on Brand - Courtesy of EasyJets Stelios
Stelios Haji-Ionnaou is the founder of easyJet which celebrates its 10th anniversary this year. Here is one of the 'things I wish I'd known at the start' - all about Brand...

Networking is Not a Dirty Word
Networking doesn't have to be overwhelming, it is a valuable tool that enhances our job search, your career advancement, and enables you to find a satisfying and rewarding career path. Overcoming the resistance to network is crucial to your career.

The Power of Creativity
Yes you are creative. Check out these ideas and discover how easy it is to add more creativity to your life.

The Excellent Investment Executive
Have you ever read something that says exactly what you want to say but so well, and with so much deeper insight that it becomes a revelation?

How to pass psychometric tests
65% of employers use psychometric testing in recruitment and this article gives an insight into whether to cheat yours or not.

Using PPC in 2010
Professional Internet Marketer Frank McGuinness offers some insight into using PPC in 2010.

7 Secrets to Successful Keyword Research
As people search for information online, they use keywords to find the information that they are seeking. In order to be found online by your target market, you need insight about the keywords they use to search for a business like yours. The quickest way to gain that insight is by conducting thorough keyword research campaign.

Secured Lending in Canada
The articles provides an insight into the Canadian secured lending environment in regards to business financing .

Avoid These 3 Business-Killing Mistakes
John Assaraf provides great insight to help you avoid some costly business mistakes.

Increasing Success in Life and Business by Embracing Insecurity
Valuable insight in how to successfully deal with insecurity and 3 steps to get you started.

The NLP Approach to Treating Anxiety
What is anxiety really, and how can we effectively treat it? NLP provides insight off the beaten path.

Christy’s Laws of Information Technology Leadership Law #4- Ask Questions
Christy gives her insight into information technology.

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