To Tweet or Not To Tweet? If That’s The Question, The Answer is – Know Your Objectives
Nov 10, 2009 American Entitlement, Business Coaching, Business Tools, Communication, Marketing, sales tools
Follow me on Twitter here.
“Should I be tweeting, Keith?” This question comes up more and more when speaking with clients. Since there are several factors to consider when answering this, my response to this question are additional exploratory questions that guide a conversation to help individuals and companies determine whether it makes sense for them to become part of the Twitter universe or, twitterverse, which according to the urban dictionary is defined as, “The cyberspace area of twitter. This naturally extends beyond twitter.com to anywhere you can twitter, which includes cell phones.” (Yes, be prepared for more jargon and a new language.) Here are a handful of those questions:
1.“What do you already know about Twitter?”
2.“Is this something you’re setting up as a personal account or for your business?” (What are you using it for? Staying in touch, for fun, to achieve a certain goal or objective, to make money, etc.”)
3.“Tell me why you feel you want to/need to be tweeting?”
4.“What are your goals and expectations?”
5.“How much time do you have to devote to this?”
6.“If this is for your business, who will be doing the tweeting?”
7.“What message are you looking to deliver?” (Around your personal brand, corporate branding, certain theme or platform, marketing messages, notifications, events, special offers, attracting prospects, nothing specific, etc.)
8.“What results are you expecting?”
9.“How many followers do you want?”
10. “Who do you want to follow you?” (“How many people, what audience, why do you want them following you,” and so on.)
11. “How will this complement your current marketing campaign and align with your social media strategy and objectives?”
Once we siphon through the answers to these questions, we can then start mapping out whether or not it makes sense for them to invest their time tweeting and a strategy to go about doing so that would achieve their objectives.
I know it’s easy to get caught up in trying to get as many people as possible following you on Twitter, and social media is all the rage. (Just Google “social media” and you’ll get 203,000,000 results. Probably even more since this blog went live.) For some people, Twitter has become a downright obsession, an ego stroke, a validation, a need to be needed, a way to feel ‘connected.’ (I’ll have to address what ‘connected’ means in another blog.)
Sure, there are those people out there that have earned the bragging rights to say they have tens of thousands of people following them on twitter, but I can tell you this with great certainty, if you’re looking at it from the perspective of what the financial benefit or monetary impact could be and how much personal income has been generated, I wouldn’t run out to swap your W2 statement with most of them. That being said, there’s always the few exceptions.
Like any new strategy you’re considering adopting, if you’re looking at Twitter as part of your overall marketing campaign in order to leverage it as a social media communications tool, there needs to be a healthy balance between the quality of your efforts and the quantity of them. There’s no, “one solution.” What’s needed is a holistic and well balanced approach to utilizing a variety of marketing vehicles that would reinforce your brand, provide further exposure and put you in touch with your target audience which, collectively, would achieve your marketing objectives.
Just think of selling; if you look at selling as a numbers game rather than a science or strategic benchmarking process, you’re in big trouble. After all, you can have thousands of prospects in your pipeline but what are those prospects worth if they’re not a fit for your product or service? The costs are significant: time and money wasted on engaging with the wrong people multiplied exponentially by the time you are not spending targeting, calling on and following up with the right prospects.
Depending upon your goals and the responses to the questions I posed earlier in this blog, Twitter may certainly prove to be one very important spoke on your marketing wheel that’s worth leveraging (it’s been worthwhile for me), that complements the other marketing platforms you utilize.
To reinforce this point, here’s a short movie aligning the values of legendary Zig Ziglar and his son, Tom Ziglar with Twitter. In this movie, you’ll find some great, classic quotes from Zig Ziglar, as well as a handful of guidelines from Tom on how to leverage and maximize Twitter to your advantage.
And yes, I do tweet as part of my overall social media strategy. So, feel free to follow me on Twitter here.
Enjoy the new Ziglar Twitter Movie. Click here to watch.
Tags: cold calling, Marketing, prospecting, selling, tweet, tweeting, twitter
New Facebook Page Launched – More Goodies and Pictures I’m Sharing With You
Sep 17, 2009 Books, Business Tools, Career Advice, Sales Management, Videos, career coaching, podcast, sales tools
Keith Rosen | Create Your Badge
We just launched a new Facebook page and I’m excited to invite you to connect with me here. The plan is to offer some additional resources, videos, pictures and materials that you can find exclusively on this new Facebook page. I look forward to connecting with you here! Here’s the link:
One thing this Facebook page already has that you can’t find anywhere else are all of the pictures I’m taking documenting my eight country tour, of which you can already find pictures from Ireland and Prague.
It’s been an incredible journey filled with new experiences which I can’t wait to write on. While I’ve certainly built in the additional time to explore the richness and culture each country has to offer, the primary objective is to deliver my management coach training program to CEO’s, Directors, VP’s and managers, especially sales managers; based on my last book, Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions. (Currently we’re also doing a huge book event this week which you can find more about here and how you can get additional Bonus Gifts from The World’s Top Thought Leaders.)
The result so far? My peripheral vision has been expanded exponentially, as I continue to be fascinated by the subtleties and nuances in cultural differences, in management style and in organizations across the globe.
However, one thing has been consistent: People are people; wherever you go. People share the same core needs, same dreams; our core values still remain. And one thing is for sure; coaching is a UNIVERSAL language. (Maybe this can be a conduit to world peace? No, I haven’t lost my mind fully as of yet!)
Next stops, Dubai, Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Columbia! A few more countries to be added shortly. Looking forward to connecting and sharing this amazing and ongoing journey with you!
Tags: Books, coaching, facebook, podcasts, social media, training, Videos
My Blog Voted Top 100 Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills
Jun 26, 2009 All About Selling, Business Tools, sales articles
Just got this email and thought I’d share it with you. Looks like a good resource.
Hi Keith!
We just posted an article, “Top 100 Blogs to Boost Your Sales Skills.” I thought I’d bring it to your attention in case you think your readers would find it interesting.
I am happy to let you know that your site has been included in this list.
Thanks for your time!
Tags: awards, best blogs, best sales blogs, recognition, win
Landslide Technologies Named Top 100 Private Companies in Eastern U.S.
May 22, 2009 Business Tools, Prospecting, Cold Calling and Networking, Technology and Software, sales tools
More great news about a company I happen to be a raving fan of. Press release below. Recognition they rightfully deserve.
Landslide Technologies Named Top 100 Private Companies in Eastern U.S. by AlwaysOn
Company Selected as Technology Innovator in SaaS and Enterprise for 2009
Landslide Technologies today announced that it has been selected to the 2009 AlwaysOn East 100 List. The AlwaysOn East 100 winners were selected from among hundreds of other technology companies nominated by investors, bankers, journalists and industry insiders. The AlwaysOn editorial team conducted a rigorous three-month selection process to finalize the 2009 list. Landslide was selected by the AlwaysOn editorial team based on demonstration of growth, market opportunity, quality of innovation and customer traction
Landslide Technologies was selected for its solid customer traction and focus on helping companies build world class sales organizations. Landslide’s Sales P3 System is the only cloud computing offering that combines powerful sales process software with live personal sales assistants to provide salespeople a complete environment for increasing sales.
From providing the ability to embed proven sales processes in the day to day lives of sales reps, to providing the right job aids at the right time and personal assistants to offload data entry work, the Landslide Sales P3 System is purpose-built for the sales organization.
“We selected Landslide because of their single-minded focus on increasing sales,” said Chris Roussos, CEO, OrthoSynetics. “We expect to see significant improvement in our sales team’s productivity by supporting them with best-practice sales processes and the personal live assistants.”
Since its launch in 2006, the company has received awards from industry experts including the ‘Cool Vendor’ award from Gartner Group, the Product Innovation Award from Frost and Sullivan, the ‘One to watch’ by CRM Magazine two years in a row and has been twice included in Gartner’s SFA Magic Quadrant as a Visionary company. In addition, the company’s focus on sales process and the needs of the salesperson has won it endorsements from leading sales experts such as Michael Bosworth, Jill Konrath, Gerhard Gschwandtner, Keith Rosen, Dave Kurlan and many more.
“The AlwaysOn selection of Landslide is a validation of what our customers have known all along: that Landslide is the first true sales-centric offering built with a mission to help salespeople succeed,” said Razi Imam, CEO, Landslide Technologies. “Our focus on helping salespeople close more deals rather than just capture more data is what distinguishes us from traditional sales offerings.”
Landslide and the other AlwaysOn East 100 winners will be recognized at the Venture Summit East Conference at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Boston, MA, on May 20-22. This two-and-a-half day executive conference is co-presented by J.P. Morgan and Forbes and will feature presentations and high-level debates from the most influential institutional investors, venture capitalists, corporate buyers, investment bankers and research analysts in the Eastern U.S.
“It’s no secret that technology and innovation are vital to bringing our country out of economic recession,” said Tony Perkins, founder and editor of AlwaysOn. “The companies on this year’s list have not only created innovative technologies that solve real business problems, but have stimulated economic growth through the generation of new jobs. I congratulate every winner selected for this year’s award and wish them all tremendous success in the future.”
A full list of all the AlwaysOn East 100 winners can be found on the AlwaysOn website at http://alwayson.goingon.com/permalink/post/32212
About AlwaysOn
ALWAYSON ignited the open-media revolution in early 2003 by being the first media brand to launch a global blog network. In 2004, ALWAYSON continued to lead the media industry in innovation by introducing a social network where members can connect and engage. ALWAYSON is also revolutionizing the media business by applying its open-media principles to its executive event series (Summit at Stanford, OnMedia, OnHollywood, GoingGreen East and West, Venture Summit East and West) and quarterly print “blogozine” by empowering its members to post and share their ideas and meet each other online. As our loyal readers know, ALWAYSON is committed to the free-market, merit-driven approach to reporting and event programming. No other media brand has dared to create such open interaction with its readers and event participants.
About Landslide Technologies
Landslide Technologies is the provider of Landslide Sales P3 System, a Sales Production System that helps BtoB companies increase sales volume. Landslide Sales P3 System is the first system that combines sales process consistency with sales performance technology and outsourced administrative services to transform individual performers into a world-class team of consistent sales. The company is privately held with headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA. Additional information can be found at landslide.com.
Tags: aps, crm, database, sales tools, technology, tools for salespeople
Landslide Now Available on the Force.com AppExchange from Salesforce.com
May 10, 2009 Business Tools, How to Manage Your Team, Sales Training, Technology and Software
Just announced and something each salesperson and sales team need to consider when it comes to leveraging solutions to best manage their prospecting efforts and entire sales process. Salesforce CRM customers can now deploy Landslide Sales Production System. Press release below.
Landslide Technologies, provider of the Landslide Sales P3 System, today announced that it is now available on the Force.com AppExchange from salesforce.com. Salesforce.com users can now quickly and easily add Landslide’s Sales P3 System to their Salesforce CRM deployment to add sales processes and produce a high-octane sales production system.
Landslide’s Sales P3 System is a cloud computing offering that combines sales process software, sales performance tools and personal sales assistants to provide salespeople a complete environment for increasing sales. From providing the ability to embed proven sales processes in the day to day lives of sales reps, to providing the right job aids at the right time and personal assistants to offload data entry work, the Landslide Sales P3 System is a best-in-class offering purpose-built for the sales organization.
Making Landslide’s Sales P3 Systems available on the Force.com AppExchange will allow companies to leverage their investment in Salesforce CRM to build a sales production system that transforms individual performers into a world-class team of consistent sales producers empowered to drive high-volume sales, high-value sales and higher sales velocity.
“Landslide’s integration with Salesforce CRM presented the perfect solution for us as we were looking for ways to maximize our sales productivity,” said Stu Schmidt, Vice President, Global Sales and Services, Unisfair Inc. “It allows us to continue to leverage salesforce.com’s powerful Force.com platform and CRM applications, while letting our sales team take advantage of the sales process implementation of Landslide and its personal assistant services.”
Endorsed by leading sales experts like Michael Bosworth, Jill Konrath, Keith Rosen and Jim Dickie, Landslide has been selected as a “Visionary Quadrant” company and “Cool Vendor” by Gartner Group, “One to Watch” by CRM Magazine and as an Innovative Product by Frost & Sullivan.
About Landslide Technologies
Landslide Technologies is the provider of Landslide Sales P3 System, a Sales Production System that helps BtoB companies increase sales volume. Landslide Sales P3 System is the first system that combines sales processes consistency with sales performance technology and outsourced administrative services. By institutionalizing sales processes, by providing software that leads sales people step by step from first contact to final contract, and by offloading administrative chores, Landslide Sales P3 System turns inconsistent individual performers into a world-class team of consistent sales producers empowered to drive high-volume sales, high-value sales and higher sales velocity. The company is privately held with headquarters in Pittsburgh, PA. Additional information can be found at www.landslide.com.
About the Force.com Platform and AppExchange
Force.com is the only proven enterprise platform for building and running business applications in the cloud. The Force.com platform powers the Salesforce CRM applications, more than 800 ISV partner applications like those from CODA and Fujitsu, and more than 100,000 custom applications used by salesforce.com’s 55,400 customers such as Japan Post, Kaiser Permanente, KONE and Sprint Nextel.
Applications built on the Force.com platform can be easily distributed to the entire cloud computing community through the Force.com AppExchange marketplace at www.salesforce.com/appexchange/.
Tags: cloud computing, crm, landslide, sales aps, sales performance tools, sales tools
How to Interview and Identify Top Sales Champions and Avoid the Costly Mis-Hires
Apr 28, 2009 Business Advice, Business Tools, Career Advice, Communication, Executive Coaching, HR issues, Hiring and recruiting, How to Manage Your Team, Interviews, Sales Management, accountability, career coaching, coaching for managers, management tips, training for managers
“I know how to interview. I’ve been doing it for years.” I hear this from practically every manager or HR executive I’ve ever had the privilege of coaching or training. And today, when speaking to one of my favorite clients, a VP of HR, this statement was echoed once again.
And it’s not like these managers or those responsible for making a hiring decision are doing it all wrong. Many are quite good at interviewing people, finding the right candidates and screening out the ones that just don’t fit. I’ve just observed over the years some key areas that many people are missing the mark on when conducting an interview and determining who the best candidate for the position truly is.
Especially when it comes to topgrading and rebuilding your sales team, getting the right candidate in the right position in the most expedient way possible is more critical than ever. The cost of not doing so can be severe. And this cost is compounded when companies onboard the wrong person. Just pick up any newspaper and read about another company closing their doors or missing their sales goals to exemplify how much of a priority this is today for any organization.
Below, I’ve listed some very key questions in order to reduce mis-hires and bring on the right people. If asked and asked correctly, these questions will reduce mis-hires by about 80% or more. Yes, that’s how powerful these questions can be. I would strongly suggest weaving these questions into your interviewing process. And keep in mind, most of these questions will apply to any position. Notice that I’ve also broken down these questions by category, as well as some additional categories that you can use to build out further interviewing questions.
Granted, you may already be using some of these questions during an interview. And keep in mind, this list can be built out even further. However, it’s the collective use of all the questions that are going to have the deeper, more positive impact when choosing the right hire.
Moving beyond simply the questions that you could ask, what other things are you doing to ensure you make the best hiring decision? Keep in mind, the interviewing process is multi-dimensional. To build off this, lets look at how you manage or facilitate a simulation or a role play. Many interviewers ask questions like, “How would you handle this if you were in this situation” or “Tell me what steps you would take before calling on a key account” or even “Walk me through a strategy you would use to build your pipeline.”
While these are all great questions, they are still falling short of one critical element. That is, the language this candidate would be using to facilitate the type of conversation described in these simulations. To go deeper in determining this person’s acumen or ability, it’s critical you’re able to evaluate how they communicate, as well as their overall communication strategy that would be embedded in each of these situations I’ve described in the prior questions.
The most successful salespeople realize that sales, just like leadership and coaching, is truly a language and a way of communicating. Therefore, it’s imperative you uncover not only how they think strategically and the processes they may use but how effective this person could be when you send them out to connect with your new and existing customers. Anyone can talk a good game regarding processes and approach from the hundred foot viewpoint. But how they deliver the message in a variety of different situations is something that can’t be faked during an interview.
When these questions and the simulation exercise are used correctly, you’ll find that the need to topgrade your sales team will diminish because you’ve fixed the breakdown in your overall hiring and retention strategy; the broken component that exists in your system and where it all starts, your interviewing process.
Interviewing Questions:
Work History:
1. What were your responsibilities in your last position?
2. We all make mistakes. What would you say were a couple of the mistakes or failures you experienced in your last job?
3. If you could go back in time and fix that, what would you do differently?
4. What would you prior supervisor say if asked what your strengths and weaknesses were?
5. What were some of the biggest challenges you faced and were able to overcome?
6. What were your successes? What are you most proud of? How did you achieve that?
7. What circumstances contributed to your leaving?
8. What was your supervisors name and title? Where is that person now?
9. Would your boss hire you back? Why?
10. What were his or her strengths and weaker points from your perspective?
11. Would you be willing to arrange for us to talk with him or her?
Next Position:
1. What criteria are most important to you in your next job?
2. Describe your ideal position?
3. How close does this opportunity fit your ideal position?
Excellence and Development:
1. How to you better your best?
2. How do you raise the bar on yourself and others around you?
3. How do you develop yourself and your skills?
4. How important is it to you to be the best at what you do?
5. How do you assure that happens?
6. How do/did you keep your edge in such a competitive environment/marketplace?
Accountability:
1. What does personal accountability mean to you?
2. What areas in your life/career are you most accountable? Least?
3. Give me an example of how becoming more accountable has contributed to your success?
4. Where do you feel you need to become more accountable (in an area in your life or career)?
Decision Making and Problem Solving:
1. How do you solve problems?
2. How do you go about making decisions?
3. Give me one problem or challenge you had and walk me through how you solved it using that model.
4. How do you go about making a career decision? What factors do you measure? Your approach?
5. What were a couple of the most difficult or challenging decisions you’ve made recently?
6. What are a couple of the best and worst decisions you’ve made over the last year or so?
Creativity and Solution Development:
1. How creative are you?
2. How important is creativity in relation to your overall selling approach and strategy?
3. Can you provide an example how you were creative in your last position that led to solving a problem or closing a sale?
Integrity:
1. What are some of the values you have that you refuse to compromise?
2. Describe a situation where you were pressured or challenged to compromise your integrity and what you felt was best and right? How did you handle it?
Self Discipline, Time Management and Organization:
1. How do you go about organizing your schedule and your day?
2. Do you live by a set of best practices? How? What are they? (in selling, organization, etc.)
3. When was the last time you missed a significant deadline? What happened?
4. Everyone procrastinates at one point or another. Can you share the kind of things that you have a tendency to procrastinate?
5. How much guidance and supervision do you feel you need?
Self Management/State/Stress:
1. What stresses you out?
2. What do you when that happens?
3. How do you eliminate it? How do you handle it?
Openness and Self Awareness:
1. What were the most difficult criticisms for you to hear and accept?
Resourcefulness:
1. What actions would you feel you would need to take during the first few weeks here in your new position if you were to join our organization?
2. What obstacles did you face during your present/last position and how did you handle those?
3. What would you be mindful of needing to do and the resources and training you would need to secure your success here?
Tactical Sales Oriented Questions to Recruit at a Deeper Level:
You can find these questions and more on my prior blog post here:
1.What was the average size of each sale? (Dollar amount, cost of goods/services sold.)
2. What type of appointments were you scheduling when prospecting or cold calling? What was the goal here?
3. Where the appointments on site/face to face with each prospect or via the phone?
4. When actually closing a sale, did you actually sell over the phone or did you have to meet each prospect in person?
5. Did you sell a product, a service or both? (Describe how you sold each product and why there was a different approach.)
6. Did you handle the entire sales process from start to finish, including the deliverable? (Was there an account executive who you worked with, was it a team oriented approach to selling, were you only responsible for certain aspects of the sale?)
7. Describe to me the products or services you’ve sold? (Complicated or simple?)
8. Did you sell something that had an online component? Was it strictly a service? (Where they selling the tangible or the intangible?)
9. Was your product/service a “nice to have,” a “want to have” (luxury, added benefit) or a
need to have?” (Was it a necessity, i.e. gasoline, telecom, office supplies, utilities, mobile phones, insurance, etc.)
10. What do you consider ‘prospecting’ and ‘cold calling’ to be? How do you feel about having to engage in this activity? (We’re looking to uncover how they think and feel about prospecting; their perception of it.)
11. What type of prospecting and cold calling did you do? How much cold calling did you do each day/week? (Number of calls made.) How many calls did you have to make to (get an appointment, close a sale, uncover a new prospect, etc.)?
12. Please share with me what your typical approach would be when cold calling. (Describe not only your process but exactly what you said when you were making a cold call.)
13. Who was your target audience/prospect? (B2b, b2c, C level executives, business owners, sole practitioners, were you dealing with only one decision maker or did you have to coordinate with several decision makers, influencers, committees, board members, etc.)
14. When were you calling on them? (Time, day, frequency of calls, etc.)
15. What was the average size of the company you called on?
16. What markets did you focus on? (Type of company, industry, vertical, etc.)
17. How did you get your leads/uncover your prospects? Where the cold calls you made totally cold or were you getting them from another source and then following up with them? (These would be warmer leads from trade shows, web inquiries, referrals, call-ins, direct mail and marketing efforts, etc.)
18. What were the concerns or objections that you typically encountered with your prospects? (What stalled your sales efforts?)
19. How long was your average sales cycle? (From the time you connected with a qualified prospect up until the time when you converted that prospect into a client.)
20. Were you selling based on a bidding process, RFP’s, etc.?
Simulations and Role Plays:
1. If you had to make a call to a prospect who you have never spoken to, what would be the steps you would take before making that call?
2. What would that cold call sound like?
3. If you were following up with a customer to explore and uncover additional selling opportunities, what would your approach sound like?
4. Lets say you just delivered the final product/service to your new customer. They called you the next day with a major problem. They were frustrated and irate. Lets say I’m the customer in this situation. How would you facilitate that conversation? What would that dialogue sound like?
5. There’s a prospect you’ve been calling on for months. They’re finally ready to make a decision to buy and you just found out that there are two more venders now involved in this bid for their business. What would be your strategy to position yourself as the vender of choice? (What would you say, questions asked, etc.)
6. How many times do you call on a prospect before putting them on your do not call list? How do you determine that? What would your approach be? Why?
7. You’re about to visit a new potential client for the first time. What preliminary work would you do? How would you craft your presentation and set the expectations of the meeting? (What would your presentation sound like?)
8. You’ve been handed a client list of approximately 100 accounts to call on. You’ve noticed after several months, their monthly spending with you has slowly diminished. How would you handle this? What would you say?
Additional Topics That Require Further Questioning:
• Persuasion
• Communication
• Presentation
• Assertiveness
• Team player
• Conflict management
• Motivation and passion
• Tenacity, commitment, perseverance
• Education
Tags: avoid mis-hires, avoid mishires, Executive Coaching, hiring, hiring salespeople, how to interview, interview process, interviewing, Interviews, management training, onboarding, recruiting, recruiting salespeople, screening candidates, topgrading
Twitter has Entered The Schedule
Feb 24, 2009 Business Tools, sales tools
Follow me on Twitter here.
In case you’re one of the many who have joined twitter.com I just wanted you to know I’ve begun chirping in this new platform. Now, I’m not sure how long this is going to last, nor do I know how many times I’ll tweet. What I do know is, this is yet another venture into the social networking experiment.
I know what some of you may be thinking. Yet another responsibility to communicate in the social network abyss, another platform that you have to start assimilating to, more time on the computer and in the social network abyss when time is already in short supply and another strike against simplifying our lives and reducing information overload. The one thing I like about Twitter is that it’s not too much information nor a major time commitment. Twitter solves information overload by changing expectations traditionally associated with online communication. At Twitter, they ask one question, “What are you doing?”
Simplicity has played an important role in Twitter’s success. People are eager to connect with other people and Twitter makes that simple. Answers must be under 140 characters in length and can be sent via mobile texting, instant message, or the web.
Finally, for those of you who are more discerning or protective of your Facebook or LinkedIn account and who you connect with, look at Twitter as your first step to start connecting with anyone and everyone, fast – sort of like the speed dating of social networking.
I hope you enjoy what I post and feel free to comment as I’d love to hear from you. Here’s the link to my twitter page in case you’d like to follow my chirping.
Tags: application, Communication, social networking, twitter
Winner of the 2009 Stevie Award for Sales Eduction Leader of the Year
Feb 16, 2009 Books, Business Tools, Executive Coaching, Interviews, Live Events, Sales Coaching, Sales Management, Sales Training, management articles, sales articles
The other day, results were announced in the 3rd annual Stevie® Awards for Sales and Customer Service, an international competition recognizing excellence in customer service and sales. Stevie Award winners were announced during a gala awards dinner at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
I’m excited and humbly appreciative of winning the 2009 Stevie Award and being recognized as the Sales Education Leader of the Year. To me, this is not only an honor but a responsibility I have to you. I look forward to continually earn the right to hold this title and further my commitment to support sales executives, managers and salespeople world wide through my writing, training and coaching. And today, distinguishing and positioning yourself as an invaluable part of your organization is more essential than ever. This can only be achieved by developing yourself into the sales leader you can be.
Below is the ‘official’ press release.
KEITH ROSEN WINS 2009 STEVIE AWARD FOR SALES EDUCATION LEADER OF THE YEAR
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – February 10, 2009 – Keith Rosen was presented with a Stevie® Award for Sales Education Leader of the Year in the third annual Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service.
The awards are presented by the Stevie Awards, which organizes several of the world’s leading business awards shows including the prestigious American Business Awards.
Nicknamed the Stevies for the Greek word “crowned,” winners were announced during a gala banquet on Monday, February 9 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. Nominated customer service and sales executives from the U.S.A. and several other countries attended.
More than 500 entries from companies of all sizes and in virtually every industry were submitted to this year’s competition. There are 27 categories for customer service professionals, including an Award for Innovation in Customer Service and Customer Service Department of the Year; as well as categories for sales professionals, ranging from Sales Education Leader of the Year, to Sales Training Program of the Year to Sales Department of the Year.
The Executive Sales Coach and sales strategist for many of the top sales and executive teams in the country, Keith Rosen has written several best selling books, including the award winning Coaching Salespeople into Sales Champions. This book was recently named the 2008 Sales Leadership Book of the Year and received a gold medal at the Sales Books Awards just last month; a perfect complement to the award Keith has won here at the Stevie Awards.
Members of the Awards’ Board of Distinguished Judges & Advisors and their staffs selected Stevie Award winners from among the Finalists. Finalists were chosen by business professionals worldwide during preliminary judging.
“This year’s honorees demonstrate that even in challenging economic times, it’s possible for organizations to continue to shine in sales and customer service, the two most important functions in business: acquiring and keeping customers,” said Michael Gallagher, president of the Stevie Awards.
Details about the Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service and the list of honorees in all categories are available at stevieawards.com/sales.
About The Stevie Awards
Stevie Awards are conferred in four programs: The American Business Awards, The International Business Awards, The Stevie Awards for Women in Business, and The Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service. Honoring organizations of all types and sizes and the people behind them, the Stevies recognize outstanding performances in the workplace worldwide. Learn more about The Stevie Awards at stevieawards.com.
CEO’s Need to Get Their Head Out Of Their Assets. Check out This Layoff Tracking Scorecard
Feb 15, 2009 American Entitlement, Business Advice, Business Coaching, Business Tools, Executive Coaching, Sales Management, Surveys and Polls, accountability, articles on leadership, coaching for managers
I want to share a conversation I had recently with a CEO of a fairly large company. He was telling me how they’ve done as much fat cutting, expense reduction, budget freezing and overhead trimming as they can.
They’re on their second rounds of layoffs and it’s still not looking good, as another layoff is lurking. With sales down and their pipeline drying up rapidly, I asked him what he’s doing to better market and sell his core product line, as well as what the company is doing to better train and develop their people, especially their salespeople. As I surmised, he responded, “Well, regarding advertising and training, those were two of the first things we cut out of our budget.”
He then continued by saying, “We’re doing everything we can to cut costs wherever possible, just doing the absolute minimum in spending to ride this storm out. We’re running pretty lean right now and really, the only things we’re spending money on today are the bare necessities to keep this ship afloat and to keep the lights on.” The tone in his voice almost suggested that he was proud of the way he’s handled this.
My response to him was simple. And it’s the same message I’d deliver to every CEO and business owner out there who thinks this is what they need to do to navigate through these challenging times and come out on top. I said, “You can continue to cut costs and do what you can to keep the lights on but keep this in mind. In the end, you’re still selling and managing in the dark.”
In today’s marketplace, you can’t incentivize a company through a recession, freeze enough spending or cut enough overhead to survive, let alone thrive. There are enough companies out there that have proven this already who are no longer here today and more that adhere to this philosophy as a survival strategy (Circuit City, Steve & Barry’s, Linens ‘n Things, Macy’s, Citibank, Sharper Image, Washington Mutual, Home Expo, Ebay, AT&T, KB Toys, Panasonic, IBM, Microsoft and the list goes on and on. Here’s one scorecard on CNET that lists the companies that fall victim to this line of thinking and how many people they’ve laid off to date).
There are dozens of case studies and statistics out there demonstrating that those companies who continually market, advertise and invest in the growth of their people during tougher times are the ones who eventually rise to the top and thrive, positioning themselves to win more business when things turn around. Those companies who are thriving today are the ones who have the most important question in focus and in their line of sight. What is top of mind for them is, “How can I make my salespeople even more valuable and effective?” These are the companies who are investing in advertising and more so in sales coaching, sales training and in further developing their core asset, the one that can make the greatest impact in their bottom line; their people.
CEO’s and leaders of these top corporations are more transparent than ever, and most of us don’t like what we see. In fact, the words “clueless,” “disconnected” and the phrase, “out of touch with reality” come to mind. Maybe it’s because they’ve been sitting in their ivory tower far too long or maybe it’s because they’re spending far too much time traveling in their private jets.
Sure, we can’t control many of the things going on in the economy. However, what these CEO’s and companies can do is realign their thinking around the things they can control and the importance of continually developing their people, which begins with how these executives develop themselves into the leaders they can be in this new age.
It’s evident that many organizations have lost sight of the primary objective of management and leadership, which is simply this: To make your people more valuable.
So until my next rant, learn something new, hone your skills and have a great selling week!
Increase Your Sales In the Midst of Budget Cuts
Feb 10, 2009 All About Selling, Business Tools, Career Advice, Sales Coaching, sales articles, sales tips, sales tools
The Big, Big, BIG question we posed to our board of top sales experts was this:
“What can we do to best support sales professionals around the world?”
We thought and we thought and then … we thought some more!
One member said, “I’ve got it. Let’s put all of the world’s best sales blogs together in one place for easy access to sales pros! One place on a web site where they can find rock-solid, up-to-date information on every aspect of sales – from cold calling to closing.” We all said, “Great idea.” And we compiled that list.
“What else can we give?” someone challenged.
“How about a job board – for those who for one reason or another want to seek opportunities elsewhere. A board for real sales-professionals looking for outstanding opportunities!” “Very cool!” we all chimed.
“What else can we give?” we wondered aloud.
“A regular Newsletter and one-stop-product-shop would appeal to me” said one of the experts “with discount coupons” she added. “Let’s do it” was the unanimous vote.
And on we went….
So Phase One of completing is here … let the trumpets herald … now announcing …..
The Top Sales Experts TSE 2.0 launch! Learn more about it here.
Where you get access to:
Now! MARK YOUR CALENDAR for Tuesday, February 10th, 2009!
We are going back to the drawing board to come up with even more goodies for your most-excellent-selling bag-of-tricks-tips-and techniques.
The excitement is rising – “see you” at Top Sales Experts!
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