I’m excited to be joining Trustpointe for Sandler Sales Training. Duane Weber, Tim Roberts and Matt Nettleton are great guys. Looking forward to learning from them. My brother-in-law has transformed the sales process in his company using Sandler principles. I’m ready to do the same!
10
Dec 12
Peter Bregman – How to take back your life in 2013
Great video on taking back your time and your life from Peter Bregman, author of 18 Minutes.
09
Nov 12
Study: People Who Exercise Have Larger Brains Later in Life – Lindsay Abrams – The Atlantic
PROBLEM: The brain is a muscle, says every teacher ever. Their point is figurative, but the brain is like a muscle in the sense that it normally loses size with age — in some parts by as much as 25 percent.
METHODOLOGY: A long time ago, Scotland surveyed the intelligence of every Scottish child that had been born in 1936. More recently, 691 of those former children celebrated their 70th birthdays by filling out a survey about their social and intellectual pursuits and their levels of physical activity. Three years after that, they celebrated their 73rd birthdays by undergoing brain MRI scans at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The researchers assessed the brain images for physical signs of cognitive decline.
Study: People Who Exercise Have Larger Brains Later in Life – Lindsay Abrams – The Atlantic
08
Nov 12
Spending on IT Outsourcing on the Rise – CIO Insight
As businesses stabilize and expand IT budgets, IT outsourcing is on the rise, particularly in help desk support.
The percentage of the IT budget designated for outsourcing services is up 23 percent, on average, in 2012 over the prior year, according to Computer Economics annual outsourcing study, IT Outsourcing Statistics 2012/2013. The report also found Web/e-commerce systems and application development were the two most widely outsourced functions, and outsourcing in that sector is a mature service with a high adoption level, likely to grow relatively slowly, compared with other services.
Help desk and desktop support are the IT functions with the greatest potential for successfully reducing costs through outsourcing, while the functions with the greatest potential for improving service are desktop support and IT security. The study profiled outsourcing activity for 11 IT functions, including application development, application hosting, application maintenance, data center operations, database administration, desktop support, disaster recovery services, help desk services, IT security, network operations, and Web/e-commerce systems.
For each IT function, the company looks at how many organizations are outsourcing work and how much of their workload is being outsourced. “As our analysis shows, IT organizations are beginning to embrace cloud-based applications as well as expand outsourcing of data center operations. Other factors are also supporting decisions to outsource IT functions, including the ever-present desire to reduce costs,” the report said.
07
Nov 12
Why Sales People Actually Hate Leads | Fast Company
Warm or cool leads generated by marketing are typically just annoyances to sales people–ones that get in the way of their “real” work. Here’s how smart companies handle CRM and their marketing and sales teams to put a stop to the waste and increase revenue.
I have worked with many different sized companies helping them to scale their business. One of the key things I always look at is this: How does the sales force get leads, and what do they do with them?
Generating leads is at the center of most marketing mandates, yet most companies never really take full advantage of their investment in those leads. And when they think about scaling the business, they think they need to generate even more leads. I see too few companies invest in getting more revenue out of the leads they have.
One of the universal truths I have seen is that sales people basically hate leads that are generated by marketing. Unless, of course, the “lead” is ready to buy.
06
Nov 12
Baseline – Ten Ways to Keep Moving at Work
When you sit at a desk all day, you’re inviting a variety of health issues. Staying in one position for too long puts constant pressure on individual parts of the body. A sense of discomfort kicks in, and muscle tension increases. You can also damage your blood circulation and decrease metabolism and energy levels—especially after one of those 3 p.m. “cake day” celebrations. Sports scientist Jack Groppel, working with Wellness & Prevention, has overseen research involving the incorporation of regular movement into the routines of employees, with participants indicating positive results. More than one-third, for example, reported high energy levels in the middle of the day. Overall, workers say they also increased engagement and focus. With this in mind, Groppel and other experts suggest these 10 ways to get moving during the day. Johnson & Johnson launched Wellness & Prevention to encourage a healthier and more productive workforce.
05
Nov 12
How to Harness Your Brain’s Secret Efficiency | Entrepreneur.com
Do you answer emails while on a conference call, or make your to-do list while in a business meeting? You may think multi-tasking is the obvious answer to a jam-packed schedule, but Wellesley, Mass.-based business and wellness coach Margaret Moore, co-author of Organize Your Mind, Organize Your Life (Harlequin, 2011), says juggling multiple tasks places stress on the brain and negatively effects your job performance.
“Our brains were designed to focus all of its resources on one task at a time, be it a work project or a personal conversation,” says Moore. Rapidly shifting from a conference call to an email to a meeting means these tasks only get a part of the brain’s resources, and can result in sloppy work, making you feel dissatisfied with your accomplishments at the end of the day. “[When we focus on a singular task], our memory works well, we make fewer mistakes and we’re creative — even brilliant from time to time,” says Moore. Using the brain’s organizational software in the way it was designed can help you to feel more focused and productive.
She offers these tips to tap into your brain’s organizational efficiency:
1. Start your day with mind-calming activities. Just as a runner stretches their muscles before a race, your brain needs to warm up as well. Moore suggests engaging in activities that bring your mind to a sense of calm, whether that’s exercise, deep breathing exercises, listening to music, or just letting your mind wander by doing a crossword puzzle or reading the newspaper while you drink your morning coffee.
2. Schedule “do not disturb” time. Schedule focus periods throughout your day at the times when you’re most creative and strategic. Sustain your attention during those times, focusing all of your energy on the task at hand until you’re ready to move on to the next. Avoid checking your email while you’re working on a task and switch your phone to voicemail to avoid disturbances.
via How to Harness Your Brain's Secret Efficiency | Entrepreneur.com
02
Nov 12
Why Private Equity Is Not All Bad | Inc. 5000
Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign has turned a negative spotlight on private equity. But PE is a much needed solution to a void in the marketplace.
Imagine starting a business, growing it successfully over 5, 10, 15 years, and then reaching the stage where you need a partner to provide capital and help the company continue to grow. You might want to get some well-earned liquidity yet still retain some equity in the business to stay invested in the future. Debt financing may not be practical for you, as banks often require personal guarantees from entrepreneurs. This common scenario is where private equity can play a vital role.
Private equity brings a huge amount of capital to businesses that otherwise might not have the resources to grow, or to a marketplace that otherwise might not be able to fulfill the objectives of shareholders. Businesses, whether distressed or growing, often reach an inflection point where additional capital can serve a crucial need to either save the business or take it to the next level.
01
Nov 12
Inc. – How a Marathon Business Keeps Its Customers Happy | Inc.com
Want to own your industry? Don’t think vertical integration; think participant continuum.
Participant what? I know, that’s what I thought. But stick with me–this is a cool business strategy.
Here’s another in my series in which I pick a topic and connect with someone a lot smarter than me. (Check out some previous installments at the end of the article.)
This time I talked to Scott Dickey, the CEO of Competitor Group, a privately-held sports marketing and management group that owns and operates running, cycling, and triathlon events (including the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series) and magazines like Triathlete, VeloNews and Competitor. (Disclosure: I subscribe to VeloNews.)
From the outside looking in, you’ve created “synergy” (dislike the word but in this case it fits) between your various lines of business.
The events and the magazines/websites definitely feed off each other. We look at it as an ecosystem. We’re in the business of participant-based sports, not fan-based, so we see it as a participant continuum.
More of the Inc.com post from Jeff Haden
31
Oct 12
ZDNet – Why Amazon is within its rights to remove access to your Kindle books
There has been a fair amount of indignation directed towards Amazon over the last couple of days.
Amazon deleted Norwegian IT Consultant Linn Nygaard’s Amazon account and removed access to the Kindle books she had purchased.
Martin Bekkelund blogged how Amazon closed her account and wiped her Kindle. It offered no explanation as to why it had done so.
Although it smacks of poor customer service, Amazon is completely within its rights to do this. Its terms of service state:
All content included in or made available through any Amazon Service, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, and data compilations is the property of Amazon or its content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright laws.
All the books on your Kindle are not yours. They belong to Amazon. All that cash you have paid was simply to access these books on your Kindle. You have not paid to own the books. If you want to own books, pay for physical printed books and get Amazon to send them to you by post.
ZDNet – Why Amazon is within its rights to remove access to your Kindle books
