9 Habits of Top Sales Professionals

In a company it can often be seen that 13% of the top sales people will bring in 87% of the revenue. Much has been written about what it takes to be a good sales person.
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The relationship spectrum between you and a client

When it comes to relationship, there is a certain spectrum at play. I often think of this as a scale. Where in this spectrum should clients be? Clients should certainly not have to become your best friends, in order to have
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Supplier Engagement

Just as we use employee engagement as a part of employee retention, we ought to retain our suppliers. . To understand supplier engagement, we must first understand what employee engagement is.
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Where does your service really begin?

Where does the service you provide begin and end? There is a common misconception among retailers that your customer service starts when clients enter your store for the first time.
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Conflict Resolution for Pro’s

It is a given that in any business, conflict will arise. Whether you are in a management position, or simply the unlucky employee that answered the upset client’s call, it is important to learn how to deal with these conflicts in a professional manor.
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How to motivate yourself

How to motivate yourself? We have all gone through a phase where work is just getting you down. There are so many different ways to motivate and inspire yourself.
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Ego in the workplace

“That guy has such an ego, I love working with him” said no one ever. As professionals we have spent hours honing our skills. Our perception of our expertise is a massive part of our identity. Which also means when we feel like our hard-earned skills are being criticised or not recognised we inevitably take it personally.
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Are your employees demotivated? What you might be doing wrong

Are your employees demotivated? There are many things that you as employer or manager can do to that shape the environment and motivation levels in your office. When employees feel motivated, they work with more energy and confidence.
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Upgrading your blog to the fast generation

Blogs contribute to a major chunk of our interactions with clients in the age of digital marketing. This is a way to show off the personality and corporate culture to current and prospective clients while providing them with a post containing either valuable or entertaining content.
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How to plan your day effectively

Effectively planning and scheduling your work day can be a challenge for many. Follow these tips to make sure you get the best start to your day and get the important things done.
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Minimising time wasters without destroying morale

Employers are always looking for ways to boost productivity in the office and minimise activities that waste time. We look at three of the worst time wasters in the office and discuss a few suggestions on how to overcome them.
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Utilise Social Media for Customer Support

“Customer support is the very rare opportunity to connect to your customers on an emotional level. You can’t do that in any other way.” Buffer COO, Leo Widrich.
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How to Brainstorm

Here is a typical brainstorming scenario: a group of employees take an hour or two to brainstorm creative ideas for a content strategy – but more often than not, there is only one person putting ideas on the table.
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How much are you worth?

We all have a built-in perception of either our own value or that of our business’. We also have a perception of the value we offer to our customers or employers.
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6 Essential Steps to take After a Sales Meeting

What you do after a meeting, is just as important as your preparation and presentation during the meeting. Here are six vitally important steps to take following your sales meeting.
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How to Have a Great Sales Meeting

In a previous article we discussed how to prepare yourself for a sales meeting. Now that you have prepped, it is time to implement these preparations, and here’s how:
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How to Prepare for a Sales Meeting

The sales environment has changed a lot over the years – the sales consultant used to be a source of information, but now they are just a representation of the company, there to close a sale and fill in any gaps of information that the client has.
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What Builds a Likable Business?

Fancy branding and cutesy advertising no longer work as the defining factors for closing a sale.
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How to Motivate Your Sales Force

To motivate your sales force you need to eliminate demotivating factors.
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Gaining Customer Service Brownie Points

According to a press release by American Express, 78% of customers have backed out on an anticipated transaction because of poor customer service.
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How to Place Yourself in the Client’s Shoes

As a business it is important to see things from the client’s perspective. This is difficult but should be emphasised to become a way of life when dealing with potential clients.
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Motivate and be motivated Part 2: Management & Leadership

To motivate those who work alongside you, you need to practise intelligent listening, in-depth understanding, and courageous talking. .
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Motivate and be Motivated: Part 1

A commitment to something, anything, will start and it will perish if you are not constantly motivated to continue.
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Creating a Corporate Culture of Lifelong Learning

Focusing on a group of corporate employees, whether it is a small company, a department within a company or a large enterprise, I would like to argue that a reputable culture of Lifelong Learning can be established and maintained.
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Born Creatives: Can We Think Differently?

What do you think? Is it possible to think differently and creatively or is this impossible if you were not born with a creative mind? Creative thinking is present in most aspects of our lives. Whether it’s finding solutions to problems, managing a business, having everyday conversations or writing an article, creative thinking is central. Being able to think differently leads to innovation and this is why it is so important when it comes to business.
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Explaining Value

Value is one of the most important elements that people look for in products, services, companies and, most commonly, other people. The thing with value is that it might not be as obvious as one would think. People often do not recognise value for what it is worth – it is more of a given than a gift. If you do not communicate your value to all who favours from it, you simply won’t be rewarded for it.
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Using Willpower to Create New Positive Habits

According to the book Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, by research psychologist Roy F. Baumeister and science writer John Tierney, successful people use their willpower to modify negative habits and to develop new positive habits. This is interesting because habits are stored in a different part of the brain, called the “dorsal striatum”, which uses less energy. You benefit from these new positive habits, month after month, year after year, without depleting you precious daily willpower quota.
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Is It Possible To Increase Your Own Willpower?

According to Baumeister you can indeed increase you own willpower because it works like a muscle, the more you use it, the more you have.
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Comparing Organisational Change to Social Rituals of Change

Organisation change management is a science in its own right and much has been written on the process of managing inter-company changes like the adopting of new systems such as task management software, or a change in the hierarchy of command. This article does not explain change management procedures in a step-by-step manner. This article is concerned with understanding the phenomenon of change in a business environment as compared to how we approach change in our social lives.
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The Secret to Success: Give More Than You Take

As humans, we are a social species. We need each other in order to survive because we trade, arrow heads for food, for example. A person’s value is determined by the society in which he or she operates. Success is then again determined by these value judgments and structures. The social perspective of value is most prominent in situations of trade.
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The Vocabulary of Leaders

We think in language. How we define our thoughts, feelings, pursuits and the way in which we communicate these to the outside world, is all dependent on the vocabulary at our disposal. In order to properly and healthily reason with oneself, one must have a sufficient vocabulary to do so.
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Crumbling Empires

With Kodak having filed for bankruptcy, who else will sink beneath the digital wave?
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With Content Marketing You Get What You Deserve

Content marketing and the real-time nature of social media makes big business a meritocracy. The content marketing revolution has affected more than just the way companies communicate with the public. It has opened up an international, real-time dialogue with the public, and that means that companies get what they deserve.
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How To: Making First Contact

What if your dream client is out there and you are not willing to wait for them to come to you. You want to get their attention but, how do you make that first essential contact? More importantly, how do you make a positive impression?
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The Value of Success

Success happens when you have achieved what you set out to achieve. In other words once you have accomplished your intended worthwhile goals, you have achieved success.
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Book Review: In Search of the Human Mind

In the book "In Search of the Human Mind", Robert Sternberg outlines twenty possible reasons why seemingly intelligent people tend to fail in one form or another. With this knowledge in hand we can understand ourselves a bit better and possibly even change our future outcomes.
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The Power of Social Media: The Egyptian Revolution 2011

Who would have thought that social media would play such a pivotal role in the violent protest that lead to the overthrowing of the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarack. The cataclysmic events that transpired in Egypt and Tunisia made waves not only in the political sphere but the digital world as well.
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Conservation of Energy

We live in a time of abundance where physical energy does not need to be conserved as it should have been in early hunting days. Why then do we continue to lie on the couch?
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