Sales tips, leadership communication skills insight and more from Steve Giglio, sales training professional for more than 25 years.

03.22.11 Women Get It Right

Forbes has released its list of the Top 50 Companies for Women.  The article details several criteria used in determining with what companies women are most likely to succeed.  Interestingly, none of the criteria mention money.  Here is how they describe it:

Rankings were determined by female representation, hiring, attrition and promotion rates; access and use of retention and advancement programs, like mentoring and executive coaching; and manager training and accountability.

As you can imagine, I particularly like the underlined section!  It demonstrates that even at the highest level with the best companies, people want to believe that their company is invested in their personal success.  All the time, I get the feedback that my programs deliver that confidence and they create loyalty.

03.21.11 Are You Losing Your Best Salespeople?

A recent article in Crain’s New York Business (click here) posed the question: “Will your competitors poach your employees?”  I have a simple answer:  YES, if you let them.

There are many ways to prevent it.  Money is one, but survey after survey say that money is not the leading factor in employee satisfaction and loyalty. Feeling like their company cares about their success regularly appears at the top of the list.

As you will see in the “comments” part of the article, I suggest that investing in an employee’s development through training and coaching is an excellent demonstration of the value you put on your employees.  And consistently, the feedback I get from the trainees is that they feel more motivated.  For examples, please review some of the case studies on this site.

03.17.11 Raise a Glass to Leaders!

On this St. Patrick’s Day, we raise a glass to leaders…and how they got there.  A key: listening.  A recent Business Week column highlights that oft overlooked skill.  Sometimes, silence really is golden.  Look for my comment in the article too.

Click HERE for the article.

03.09.11 Keeping the Flame Burning

Advertising Age recently took a look at a constant struggle in the agency/client relationship:  keeping the flame burning.  It happens…you lose the spark that got you excited about choosing the agency in the beginning or maybe, they seem to have lost the edge that kept the fire hot.  In either case, it takes work to bring it back.  AA’s CMO Strategy offers five tips HERE.

My take on their advice is that the article provides very important protocols for marketers and agencies to live by.

As a messaging communication consultant I recommend marketers review their value proposition/brand DNA  at a minimum annually and teach it to their agencies. An agency must understand the DNA strands that the marketer decides must be communicated.
Agencies must also be taught by the marketer the company’s competitive differences so that the agency is as clear as the marketer. What keeps you engaged with your client/agency?  E-mail me at info@giglioco.com.

03.07.11 Making Sure Employees Succeed

steve trainingSuccess is a powerful motivator.  So, how can you ensure that your employees get that kind of motivation, the kind that comes from their own achievements?  Harvard Business Review has a few ideas on that…and I have a few of my own.

Harvard Business Review article

 

The author makes essential points to develop key people.

Given my work in executive development and communication training, as you create their plan for success and build in the metrics to measure their progress, keep a sharp eye out for training/coaching opportunities you can provide to them.

Read more

Are Your Sales Reps Spending Too Much Time in Front of Customers?

Here’s a great article I want to share with you (click here).  It is a must-read article for any sales leader and salesperson committed to being all they can be.

It’s clear that “we’re not in Kansas anymore” with regard to where the world is and where it’s going.

My father, a surgeon, always said that no two patients are ever the same, never treat one the same as the other. Similarly, the author’s discovery is essential data to realize the importance of pre- and post-value proposition tailoring for each client. The only way to proceed is to become the steward of our client’s needs not their custodian.

Never be on auto-pilot, treat each client as though you are by their corporate bedside taking their vital signs and maniacally focused on helping their business by hyper-tailoring a solution and sheparding that solution through your own company to insure a seamless connection.

 

01.26.11 Taking Risks

The new year.  It brings with it the hopes of great accomplishments.  It also brings hidden challenges.  We all want to believe that our innovation will be rewarded but sometimes, risks need to be controlled as well.  That’s what the Harvard Business Review delved into in the following article, which I provided comment on as well.  Read it HERE or below:

“Taking Risks in Tough Times”
Harvard Business Review
January 2011
by Ron Ashkenas

You’re probably familiar with lab experiments in which mice are conditioned to behave in a certain way by receiving sugar pellets for “good” behavior and electric shocks for doing the opposite. But what happens when the consequences are random or contradictory, i.e. when the same behavior sometimes is rewarded and sometimes is punished? The answer is that the mice become highly stressed and confused, and start to take no actions at all. In other words, they stop taking risks, which is the safest possible behavior.

Read more

01.13.11 New Year, New Direction?

Given how brand conscious all of us are personally and with the organizations we work for, my wish for all of you is to be clear…crystal clear (thanks Jack Nicholson) with regard to where you and your organization are going this year.

January is a great month to look in the mirror and honestly declare where your business is committed to going and the specific steps required to get you there. Step one is creating the goal, step two is operationalizing it. Step two is the harder one and requires a lot of collaboration and goal synthesis. It’s an essential process that makes or breaks your team.
Best of success with it!

12.19.10 Business travel recovering

See article below.  Good news for my travel clients, and a hopeful sign that the economic recovery is starting to show some measurable results.  Corporate travel is hugely important to the travel industry, filling mid-week room nights while leisure travel fills the weekends.  When the market dropped, companies severely reduced their corporate travel budgets, negatively impacting airlines, hotels, conference facilities and food/beverage operations. A recovery of the average flight cost to pre-recession levels indicates that companies are seeing corporate travel as an imperative in which they will invest.

Read LA TIMES article here.

12.14.10 Hiring Innovators

INNOVATOR: a person or an organization who is one of the first to do something and often opens up a new area for others and achieves an innovation.

We all want to work with, and for, innovators.  But how can you tell that you are hiring a person with an innovative mind?

Read the following article for a great real world situation and some tips.  Look for what I had to say in the comments!

Click here for article