Are you taking the turn?

There’s a great motivational poster that deals with CHANGE. It says that a bend in the road is not the end of the road UNLESS you fail to make the turn! And boy are there some bends in the road just now! If you are a difference person and therefore change oriented, then all is well, but what about the poor sameness person who likes things pretty much the way they’ve always been? It can be tough, but I offer this for those facing change. It’s not what happens to us, but what you do about it…watch this inspiring video and you’ll see what I mean ...W Mitchell

Building a channel – a simplistic view

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.

What matters to your customers?

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.

Transferable skills?

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.

Training- I haven’t got time!

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?

Avaya acquire Nortel

http://unhub.com/aTGz

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.

What is a friend?

And does this change over time?
What I am driving at here is simply that I am sure we all perceive friendship slightly differently and based upon our personal expectations and experiences, may have cause at some time to reflect on this question.
Are those people that you thought were your friends STILL around when you most need them, or are they conspicuous by their absence in your life now you could do with some support and anchors?
I wonder what your experience has been ?

Time to quit!!!

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!

Open Random and Supportive

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.

Animoto.com

I just created this video on Animoto – looks a great service and brings the message alive