HARDISON’S TIPS – DECEMBER 3, 2021 – Think You Can’t Get Away? – PT.2 A Sales Action Plan is not Enough Many businesses have a loose sales action plan and think that is enough. A sales action plan, however, can be inherently fluid, based only on evolving answers to key questions such as: What size sales pipeline do we need during the next sales period to achieve our goals? What do our “ideal clients” look like? What can we do for these clients better than our competitors can? And how do we articulate that difference? These questions might have been answered via trial and error. As the business started, grew and adapted to change, the answers became clearer: sales pipeline goals known, ideal clients personified, and the…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – DECEMBER 3, 2021 What Are You Doing Wrong on Virtual Meetings By now, most of us are used to carrying on with socializing, going to school, or going to work via video conferencing software. Whether you use Zoom, Teams, Google Meet, or other programs, you probably know a thing or two about how to have a successful virtual meeting. But are your virtual meetings effective? Here are 5 things you didn’t know you’ve been doing wrong on while meeting in a remote video platform. You have a busy or distracting background When speaking to someone in person, it can be annoying to watch your listener gazing around at things behind you or next to you. On Zoom, direct eye…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – DECEMBER 1, 2021 – Things to Know Before You Start Hiring a Sales Team Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success. -Henry Ford Building a sales team is always the most exciting, fearful and rewarding part of a sales leader’s career. You know that with the right hire(s) and plan, you could be standing at the threshold of an incredible time of growth in your company.  But where do you start? To get you moving, here are 4 things you need to consider, BEFORE you hire a sales team: 1. Know Your Sales Process: Take the time to document and consider your process PRIOR to hiring anyone. Understand where your customers are coming from now, and where…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – DECEMBER 1, 2021 -1 Authentic Communication in a Pandemic World The challenge to be an effective communicator in our COVID-19 pandemic world is not as much about what you say but getting people to listen. Isolation, distractions, and fluid circumstances make it hard for people to focus on one thing, let alone pay attention to you. Passive listening is more prevalent as video call participants check email and social media accounts during calls. Non-verbal cues that help us communicate and understand each other are obscure. It is hard to get feedback from a participant who turns off their video. Now we must frame our words more carefully and be more intentional about listening. Even in person, communicating with…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – NOVEMBER 30, 2021 – 2 Plan Your Work, Work Your Plan What are some possible strategies? You could devise plans to: Increase dollars spent in current products or services by current customers via increased volume. Has your customer’s business changed, making it more appropriate for them to purchase more from you? Make available (and then sell) new products or services to existing customers. Are your current customers aware of all of your offerings? They already buy from you, so this is often the easiest option. Add new customers. It takes more work to acquire new customers, but you are spreading out your risk by relying less on a few large customers. Allocate your sales resources more strategically to match your best resources…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – NOVEMBER 30, 2021 -2 Introverts: Working From Home Works Here are 3 ways introverts working from home can excel: Stay connected. Now that you and your colleagues are no longer working in a shared space, you have to establish strong connections in other ways. Working from home means you put an effort into making sure you all know where you are on a project or task. It’s a good idea to come up with a plan to communicate with your boss, manager, or others on your team daily, even if it’s just to check in or give an update on your progress. It could be as simple as a phone call or an email. Whatever method you choose, be…

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HARDISON’S TIPS – NOVEMBER 29, 2021 – Want Better Sales Results? -1 It seems obvious: a better sales plan yields better sales results. And yet, I’ve seen it in one small- to medium-sized business after another – they really don’t have a documented sales plan at all! Sure, they might have a general idea of wanting to sell more in the new year than they did in the last, but they have no concrete goals, no strategy for how to sell more, and no tactical level of planning to improve sales results. The good news is that sales planning doesn’t have to be difficult; you just need a – well, a plan! Here is a general blueprint for crafting an effective sales plan: Start with…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – NOVEMBER 29, 2021 -1 Introverts: Working From Home Works If someone had told us five years ago that 40 percent (or more) of the American labor force would be working from home in 2020, I don’t know that we would have believed them. Sure, the number of people working partially or fully remote has been climbing for years now. But until Covid-19 hit, the upward trend was gradual. Today, and perhaps for many more months still, we’re navigating a “new normal” while we run our businesses remotely, with team members connected solely through email, phone, and video conferencing. For some, the change has been a hard adjustment; people who thrive in busy work environments find it difficult to…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – NOVEMBER 28, 2021 Public Speaking and the Holidays The paid public speaking business is a notoriously seasonal one, with peaks in the spring and fall, and valleys in the winter and summer.  That means that the holidays are a great time for public speakers to catch up with themselves, refresh their messages (and slides if you use them) and make resolutions for better public speaking next year.  Depending on the circles you travel in, you may be called upon to give one of those curious relics from former times, the after-dinner toast or short speech on a festive occasion.  In the Victorian age, the after-dinner toast was a serious test of a public person.  At the great dinner…

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CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – NOVEMBER 20, 2021 -2 WHY STORYTELLING IN BUSINESS MATTERS The Stories That Matter Christopher Booker, the author of “The 7 Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories,” says a story will always fall into one of seven storylines: Overcoming the Monster Rags to Riches The Quest Voyage and Return Comedy Tragedy Rebirth What’s important for you to remember is that the people in your audience are all going through one of these plot types as they sit and listen to you. So not only is storytelling important; so is having more than one story you can tell. Ideally, you’ll have a story that fits each plot type so you can pick and choose which one to tell depending on…

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