HARDISON’S TIPS – SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 – Focus on Activity Management–2 To answer those questions, you’ll need to quantify your performance. As I note in my book, Beyond the Mountaintop: Observations on Selling, Living and Achieving, “Good sales data may cause you to change your behavior so your efforts are not wasted. Once you understand the activities you should focus on, you can devote more time and energy to these areas. Ultimately, it will help you make better decisions.” In other words, the right sales and sales management processes matter; but making sure you are following the right processes depends on measuring the right things. Measuring the Right Things Most salespeople and Sales Managers use metrics. Their CRM system provides snapshots of progress and performance. Unfortunately,…

Read More…

CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – SEPTEMBER 15, 2021 -1 Hybrid Work is Here to Stay. What Does that Mean for You? Working from Home+Office is Our New Normal A recent New York Times piece on hybrid work was called “Remote Work is Here to Stay“—and on the day that it was written, the isle of Manhattan—home to the two largest business districts in the U.S.—had 90% fewer people working in its office towers than a year before. Is this trend going to continue? The Chief Operating Officer of JP Morgan Chase claimed in a quote that there was “zero percent chance [of] going back to the office with 100 percent of the people 100 percent of the time” and zero percent chance of major corporations going fully remote. Which leaves us…

Read More…

HARDISON’S TIPS – SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 – Focus on Activity Management – 1 “Keep your nose to the grindstone.” “There is no substitute for hard work.” “Just do it!” These phrases (the first dating to 1532; the others attributable to Thomas Edison and Nike) would make you believe that all you have to do is work hard and be persistent and you will succeed. But there is another school of thought that says you should work smarter, not harder. Where these two ideologies meet you will likely find the principle of Activity Management. So, what is Activity Management? And how do using key indicators and metrics help you stay on track for sales success? Read on to find out… Activity Management Activity Management is, essentially, the principle of…

Read More…

CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – SEPTEMBER 14, 2021 Use a Simple Key Message to Make Your Most Important Point Why Does a Simple Key Message Matter? In Public Speaking Tip 19: Master the Instant Speech (It’s Easy!), you learned about a quick and easy-to-use format that makes any opinion or argument sound more polished. That format, the Instant Speech, begins and ends with a one-sentence statement called your key message. Your key message is an overview statement that tells listeners what you think about the topic at hand. Does that sound grandiose? Well, your key message is anything but. It should be simple, general, even obvious. That’s because the job of a key message is: Not to persuade, Not to impress, But to give your listeners a “preview of coming attractions” that…

Read More…

HARDISON’S TIPS – SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 – Effective Sales Leadership Training Delivers Results -3 They have already led sales teams to job satisfaction, productivity, and growth. They can teach new sales managers to incentivize their teams properly by illustrating the importance of recognition and enthusiasm. And more than anything, they’re adaptable and agile to changing environments. Because of their experience, they know that what worked last year won’t necessarily work today. They can also teach new managers how to understand the market, pricing, competition, and products and services. The Challenges SMB Owners Face When Implementing Sales Leadership Training Several things can hinder small business owners from having strong training programs in place. For instance, owners might not have experience providing training. In some cases, they…

Read More…

CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – SEPTEMBER 13, 2021 How To Ask for What You Want Public speaking — and effective communication in general — is always about preparation. So really, the title of this post should be… How To Prepare to Ask for What You Want When You Ask for What You Want, You’re Starting a Negotiation! You’re not asking for a favor. You’re not a supplicant, in a one-down position. Instead, you’re opening a conversation — a negotiation — so that you and the person you’re talking to can find common ground between what they want and what you want. The classic example of this is asking for a raise. In this situation, I want to maximize my income (or other benefits); and My manager wants to save the company money while keeping me…

Read More…

CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – SEPTEMBER 12, 2021 Looking for a quick and easy way to memorize an entire presentation quickly? Well, the solution to how to memorize a speech in minutes will likely surprise you. This article covers a few great tips about how great speakers make the presentation memorization process easy and stress-free. First, we will cover the big mistakes that most people make when they design a presentation that makes memorizing the presentation much harder. Forgetting what you want to say is a common phobia even among good speakers. So, the first step is to eliminate bad habits that make memorizing a presentation more difficult. Next, we cover a few memory techniques that are common among professional speakers. (These tips…

Read More…

CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – SEPTEMBER 11, 2021 Public Speaking Tips for Sales Teams Delivering Group Presentations Prepare Your Team Ahead of Time For many high-level sales presentations, purchasers want to hear from team members who they will be working with on the project. Please don’t let the first time that these folks speak in front of a group be when you have a big contract on the line. Get your team professional presentation training well in advance of the presentation. Talk About THEM, Not You Many presenters mistakenly cover a lot of detail about how great they (the presenters) are, how much experience they have, and how they are the best thing since sliced bread. The audience doesn’t care much about this…

Read More…

HARDISON’S TIPS – SEPTEMBER 10, 2021 – Effective Sales Leadership Training Delivers Results -2 Too few companies spend an adequate amount of time onboarding new employees. In the same way new salespeople require training to excel in their jobs, incoming sales managers need plenty of training in their new roles. Companies that allocated more than 50% of their sales training budget to working with new sales managers exceeded their revenue goals by 15% more than companies that dedicated less than a quarter of their budget to training. When sales teams feel better prepared, they come through with better production. The Negative Consequences of Inadequate Sales Leadership Training A team is a reflection of its leadership. In the case of sales departments, inadequate training has serious consequences: 1.…

Read More…

CHAMPION STRATEGIES – PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKSHOP – SEPTEMBER 10, 2021 Your ideas are part of your legacy—but only if you put them out into the world! Joni Mitchell once sang, “Nothing lasts for long,” and she’s right—but we humans want the best parts of ourselves to last for as long as possible. (And yes, the advent of a “big birthday” is what has me thinking about that.) Your legacy may include children, the work of a lifetime, generous deeds, or your name on a bunch of buildings. But there’s one type of legacy that’s easy to enhance—no matter where you are in your career and life: a legacy of ideas. What stops us from building a legacy of ideas? The wisdom and experience—the thoughts, observations, and encouragement—that…

Read More…