This is a question that I have heard asked on many occasions in interviews for jobs, or of celebrities in TV interviews and many times I have listened to the answers without much reflection. There are always the perhaps more predictable responses – famous historic figures and others in the public eye, but the ones that carry most weight for me are the ones where people quote “real” people that they know – especially family members. Having said this, I rarely think much about this. Until now that is – I was just relaxing in my bath and my thoughts turned to recent conversations and the person in mind I started to remember interviewing him for a position in the company I worked for perhaps 10 years ago. I started to recall that I asked him this very question and his response needed no thought – it was his father who turned out to be a man of the church. So why am I blogging about this? The simple answer is that I have often reflected on people I admire and (sadly) for the first time I thought about my parents in this light….and I thought and thought, and you know what I AM absolutely proud and full of admiration for my parents. They brought my brother and I up incredibly successfully – we always had the essentials and were always loved and cared for. Both of my parents had to work to “make ends meet” and there were occasions when things were difficult, but they made sacrifices and made sure my brother and I always had what was needed. They are definitely my heroes, and you can be sure that I will tell them to their faces when I next see them 🙂
Category: Business
It’s not so easy to sit comfortably over a coffee while reading emails or browsing websites in places like Starbucks since Watchdog pointed out how easy it is for fraudsters to hack into your laptop. The convenience of these wifi hotspots has become such a normal part of our everyday lives that it’s hard to give up, so it’s tempting to trust the computer firewall and lapse into a false sense of security again. Read more at BBC web site and http://www.geid.co.uk
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The Telecom industry is under-invested in training as a whole. This was the general feedback and view of many attendees of the recent Convergence Summit held at Sandown Park during a panel debate session. So why is this so? Do people generally feel that there is no need to invest in training because they already have all the skills they need to have? I’m sure that most of us need training and do generally welcome it, so why is this the case? Perhaps it’s as simple as not having sufficient training available to them… I’d be interested to know what holds us back in this area, because I know from first hand experience how valuable training is.
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What’s in it for me? And What are you going to do to help me? These are just two of the key questions any potential channel partner will be asking, presupposing that you can get an invitation to meet in the first place. How quickly can the new partner generate profitable revenues, and who will assist them to price, win and implement their initial sales? Next steps are to really build a significant revenue stream together and manage the support issues and obvious cash management challenges, notwithstanding the “hygiene” factors of ongoing training and relationship- building ongoing trust and goodwill. It is a worthwhile journey if you are committed to this path. One word of caution- don’t do this if investing is something you are trying to avoid – you can’t build success by “allowing” partners just to have access to your offering. You may make a few opportunistic sales, but you won’t build a business.
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So- you are a sales professional, and you have an in depth
understanding of your product or solution offering? Could you explain to your grandma what your product does or more importantly what problems your product solves for your customers? I fear that for many sales people today the answer is no (if we are being 100% honest and not just giving the answer you think should be given). This is an opportunity though if you can revisit and get to the problem or problems you solve. Think how much more powerful your proposition is if it’s framed this way.
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Like me, you may sometimes wonder why people make the decisions that they do, and I think the well known NLP presupposition covers this incredibly well – The map is not the territory. Essentially, our own internalised perception of the World is only the way we have recorded a situation and need not be the same as somebody else’s recollection. I think this helps to at least begin to explain the initial assertion of the decisions we see being made that perhaps don’t always make sense to us.
What prompted this thinking is the fact that the sales arena is a very complex one – often onlookers would say that selling is selling! However, there is much more to sales than might at first glance appear to be the case, but is this just my MAP?
It is really easy to become drawn into making sweeping statements about people who come from a certain background in sales as being unsuitable for a new and apparently different role – for example, a sales person who has spent a long time in a small company might be overlooked for a sales job in a large corporate organisation, and of course vice versa. This does not necessarily need to be the case. In fact in my experience I have witnessed many successful transitions from small business direct sales to large corporate indirect sales and the same in reverse.
So why does this occur? That’s difficult to say, other than to suppose that experiences have dictated for some people that the experience has been unsuccessful. Perhaps a deeper investigation into the individual’s skills and flexibility, through objective assessments may have uncovered this, and the mistakes may have been avoided and the perception changed.
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Amazing that this is probably one of the most frequent reasons sales people give for not investing in training. Got customers to see and deals to close is the cry, yet isn’t it the case that World Class athletes, sportsmen and women all participate in training and coaching regularly. I would suggest that taking time for regular, planned training is a fundamental component of success- wouldn’t you agree?
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So it looks like all of the talking and predicting has culminated in Avaya acquiring ailing Nortel Enterprise Solutions for a reported $900 millon…but it’s still subject to some final t-crossing and i-dotting which is expected to conclude later this year.
Speed is of the essence though, as whilst this period of uncertainty for Nortel remains, competitors will pillage the reseller base driving FUD in their paths.
It’s difficult to know how this will shape up moving forward and where the impact will be felt the most (both positively and negatively). Technology is the single most talked about area in conversations I have had, as there is a perception of huge overlap. I can see some really fascinating synergies though and areas to leverage in the quest to defeat their number 1 enterprise nemesis. As always in these matters – the HOW will be one of the biggest challenges. I’m sure we will all be watching with great interest.
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This arrived in my email last week and I thought it was too good not to share. I don’t know who originally created it, but thank you, whoever you are!
1. Quit arguing with people about the same old foolishness! Respect their position and keep it moving!
2. Quit telling people your secrets when you know they are not going to keep them! And if you keep telling them, then quit getting mad when they tell your secrets!
3. Quit trying to pull people on your journey who don’t want to travel with you. Either they believe in you and value you….or they don’t!
4. Quit complaining about things you can’t and won’t change!
5. Quit gossiping about other people! Minding our own business should be a full time job!
6. Quit blaming each other for things that in the big picture aren’t going to matter three weeks from now! Talk solutions…and then implement them!
7. Quit eating things you know are not good for you! If you can’t quit…eat smaller portions!
8. Quit buying things when we know we can’t afford them! If you don’t have self control, then quit going to the stores! Quit charging things, especially when you don’t NEED them!
9. Quit staying in unhealthy relationships! It is not okay for people to verbally or physically abuse you! So quit lying to yourself! It is not okay to stay in the marriage for the children! Ask them and they will tell you that they really would prefer to see you happy and that the misery you and your spouse/partner are living with is affecting them!
10. Quit letting family members rope you into the drama! Start telling them you don’t want to hear it! Quit spreading the drama! Quit calling other relatives and telling them about your cousin, uncle or aunt! Go back to #5 minding your own business should be enough to keep you busy!
11. Quit trying to change people! IT DOESN’T WORK! Quit wasting time & energy getting angry at people when you know that they are just being the miserable and jealous people that they are!
12. Quit the job you hate! Start pursuing your passion. Find the job that fuels your passion BEFORE you quit!
13. Quit volunteering for things that you aren’t getting any personal fulfilment from anymore! Quit volunteering for things and then failing to follow through with your commitment!
14. Quit listening to the naysayers! Quit watching the depressing news if you are going to live in the doom and gloom of it all!
15. Quit making excuses about why you are where you are or why you can’t do what you want to do!
16. Quit waiting on others to give you the answers…and start finding the answers for yourself! If what you are doing isn’t working for you…then quit it!
17. Quit deliberating and start making your dreams a reality!- Quit being afraid and START LIVING YOUR LIFE! CREATE THE LIFE YOU WANT! If you want something different than what you have had in the past…you must quit doing what you have done before and DO something different! JUST QUIT IT …… and START DOING something to create the experience you want!
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As social media grows in popularity – sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Friendfeed etc, are all growing exponentially. Why is this?
Well there could be many reasons, and there are many experts sharing their views on it. I simply see this as the more adventurous and networking oriented people doing just that – networking first off with their friends and colleagues, to share news and keep in touch (for me Facebook started with my son taking time out to travel and share his experiences there. I registered to follow him and stay in touch daily) and then once engaged realising that there are bigger opportunities with this medium.
My first networking experience was actually Linkedin a few years ago – I was invited to connect with someone and joined and put together a brief profile (have it all updated now I know better), more recently I have really embraced social networking and have multiple presence on line including Ecademy. I joined just over 18 months ago and have (through some assistance) managed to gain some great contacts. One piece of advice I took was to decide what I wanted from networking and how I was to approach it. The advice was to be an OPEN RANDOM and SUPPORTIVE networker rather than CLOSED SELECTIVE and CONTROLLING. The former promotes a completely open approach to networking along with a high degree of randomness (as the name suggests). Some folk choose to only network with people that they have already met and know – I prefer to connect randomly and then learn more about them, how I can assist them, and the overwhelming evidence I have seen suggests that this is the most productive long term.
In the final analysis everything in life is like a wheelbarrow – it will do nothing unless you pick it up and push it.
Graham Bunting -The Partner Catalyst 
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