Conferences, whether they are industry-specific trade shows, inspirational/motivational events, or learning opportunities around a specific topic– bring up mixed emotions for me. On the one hand, I think about spending a lot of money to travel to another city, spend time away from my family, eat crappy conference food…etc., etc. These are all things that…
If you are active on LinkedIn, your chances of “getting found” increase. You will get more inbound contacts from prospects, job seekers, potential partners and (unfortunately) random connection requests from people you don’t know. While some of these requests can be kind of puzzling, (“Why would the CTO of the country of Bangladesh want to…
Cold is not usually a positive association. Cold coffee. Cold weather. Cold attitudes. Not many people will jump up and down with excitement when you’re describing something cold…unless it’s ice cream. The same goes for cold leads. They’re not the easiest to work with–and you need to find a way to warm them up while prospecting without…
When I talk to business owners, I tend to hear “business is great”–a lot. “We closed a bunch of new business! My employees are rockin’ it! Going to work feels like I’m on vacation!” But then, if I get the privilege of working with them, I hear a different story. “How do I start making…
When you finally decide it’s time to send your clients a price increase notice, there are a few best practices to follow to help ensure you and your customers are on the same page about what’s happening. The last thing you want to transpire when you’re making a request is to put them on the…
Did you start this year off with big goals? Did you set aggressive growth targets for your sales? Are you thinking about writing a book, working on some speaking topics, or taking a big trip with your family? Well? It’s February. How are you doing on those goals? Have you made significant progress? Enough so…
When was the last time you said, “Wow, I’m so glad I got that voicemail!”…? Tell me. Do you get a thrill when you see that the VM icon on your phone is lit up? Didn’t think so. Maybe it’s time we faced the fact that voicemail is a technology whose time has come —…
When it comes to interviewing, most potential candidates prepare their canned responses for those oh-so-predictable interview questions. But how well can you really test interviewees when they don’t have to think on their feet? How can you judge their creativity, worldview, critical thinking, and troubleshooting abilities when they know what to expect? The answer: You…
“What is the difference between a living thing and a dead thing? In the medical world, a clinical definition of death is a body that does not change. Change is life. Stagnation is death. If you don’t change, you die. It’s that simple. It’s that scary.” – Leonard Sweet Let’s face it. The last four…
Based on the broad economic indicators 2015 is shaping up to be a terrific year for the US economy. The question is, for most business owners, “What will that mean for mybusiness?” A robust economy generally means that our customers have more money to spend, so our sales pipelines might start to really move again….