BizStratBlog2

Sales success—it's all about details.

The true mark of a good salesperson is not always about how many sales you can close, but rather how many clients choose to stay with you because they can count on your reliability. From an employers’ perspective closed sales are important, but from the clients’ outlook, their main concern is whether or not you and your company will provide consistent service and performance.

Some years ago when I served as sales manager for a local printing company, I was charged with overseeing the activities of 4 to 5 other sales people and assisting them in building and managing their respective client base. One of the junior salesmen had an abundance of energy, and was affectionately referred to as the “Wild Mustang”. He was rather freestyle but had a natural talent for getting past the “gatekeepers”, engaging with prospects, and securing a sale – often with his first meeting.  No one could fault him on his sales approach. You can’t knock success!

Social Media Tutorial

We're hearing a lot about "social media" these days. The phrase has become a catch-all for anything Web 2.0. -- which is another catch-all. Within the marketing realm, these two phrases are bandied about as easily as "email" and "internet"... both phrases that took their time becoming accepted use concepts.

Naturally, when new tools and opportunities create new ways to reach and interact with customers, they spawn a list of new terms. Each term is a way to identify what's new and different about that particular approach. Unfortunately, these new terms get in the way, sometimes, of actually helping small business owners understand the value of participating in the new format of marketing.

Some of the small business owners I talk to actually get a bit testy when I say, "Web 2.0" or "social media." They're most annoyed by the whole "blogging" phenomena, although I do notice that they're less so, as time goes on. What seems to be happening, here in Rochester, as well as throughout the rest of the U.S. (and elsewhere - remember, the Internet is global), is that business owners have enough to do to run their businesses successfully. They bristle at the thought that we techies want to drop something new - and complicated - on their desks.

Leadership: A Tricky Role in Today's "My, my, my" World

We're preparing for a visit from our favorite leadership strategist, Lee Thayer, over at WME Books, and it seemed like a good time to visit the leadership question, here.

I find Lee Thayer inspiring and thought-provoking, but some people might consider him annoying, opinionated, and downright rude. What all that means is that he doesn't pull punches. He tells it like it is, he gives his honest feedback (when asked) and, he calls up his decades of experience working with successful (and not so successful) CEOs. I don't know that I will ever meet anyone else who brings his level of expertise to the table - although I have met a number of outstanding mentors who also inspire me.

Lee has an outlook on leadership that is contrary to today's thinking. He takes the viewpoint that being a leader is something you're called to do - not something you're programmed to do, or taught to do, or decide you want to do. You can't be a true leader if all you think about is - you. Or, the bottom line. Or, whether or not you're giving your employees everything they want.

If We Build It, Will They Come? The Restoration of the Downtown Erie Canal

Hundreds of people dining al fresco on a warm summer night. Others are window shopping among rows of galleries and arts and crafts shops. All admire the lights twinkling in the trees lining the waterway.

San Antonio? Providence? Ottawa? No, it could be the downtown Rochester of the future.

In 1823 the Erie Canal ran through downtown under what is now the Rundell Library and crossed over the Genessee River where Broad Street is currently located. But by 1920 the railroads were gaining in popularity for the shipping of large freight, so the canal had to become more competitive. A decision was made to relocate it to the area where the Dinosaur Barbecue is today. Broad Street was reused first as a subway tunnel in 1926 and later, with the support pillars still intact, built over to create a street.

Read the online exclusive at Business Strategies Magazines' website here.