5 Tips For Using Visual Aids During A Presentation

When it comes to giving a presentation, visual aids are a powerful ally to have on your side. In fact, these days visual aids are pretty much expected to accompany any presentation. This is because visual aids add an additional, powerful dimension to presentations. Studies have shown that people retain information 55% longer when combined with sight and sound, which means visual aids can make a presentation twice as effective.

It's Not Enough To Just Have Visual Aids. You Need The RIGHT Visual Aids.

How you employ your visual aids during a presentation is just as critical as using them. To help ensure your next presentation meets with rousing success, take a look at the five tips we have put together below.

5 Tips For Using Visual Aids During A Presentation:

Tip #1. Use Only When Necessary: Overloading your audience with too many graphs, charts, images, videos and sound bites will turn out to be a far greater distraction than benefit. Keep the information you present visually streamlined. Visual aids should accent your presentation, not dominate it.

Tip #2. Choose The Right Visual Aid: There are many different kinds of visual aids out there, and just as many methods to display them. Selecting the right one is a crucial step in your preparation. Consider the size of your audience, the venue and how interactive you want the presentation to be. Visual aids and presentation styles that work for one group might not be right for another.

Tip #3. Practice Using Your Aids: In order for your presentation to go off without a hitch, you need to know how to operate your visual aids efficiently. Stumbling about trying to move forward in a slideshow or boot up an image or video will hurt your presentation -- not to mention waste your audience's time. So practice using your materials in advance.

Tip #4. Use Quality Visual Aids: Grainy pictures, blurry video or scratchy audio won't make a very big splash during your presentation. The media you use to accompany your presentation needs to pop if you want the presentation itself to do the same. Also, avoid using clip art. Clip art might have flown back in 1993, but nowadays it simply will not cut it.

Tip #5. Have A Backup Plan: Be ready for anything, especially when electronic devices are involved. If the bulk of your presentation relies on your visual aids, and you find yourself in a situation where the computer is being uncooperative, the projector has burnt out or power is lost, you need to have a contingency plan. We recommend creating hardcopies of your presentation to pass out just in case.

Executive Summary: Visual aids are a great way to give your presentation the extra sizzle it needs, but remember this: Just because you can include visual aids doesn't mean you should. Be particular in the media you select to accompany your presentation, make sure their quality meets a high standard and be sure to practice using your visual aids via dry run in advance. Beyond all this, have a backup plan. Life is full of twists and turns, and computers are notorious for being reliable one day and a mess the next. Don't let "technical difficulties" ruin your presentation.

5 Tips For Getting Promoted In 2011

Promotions are not just handed out arbitrarily. Employees who achieve are the ones who take action, who take matters into their own hands. In other words, promotions have to be earned not by completing your baseline expectations, but by showing initiative.

Showing initiative and actively striving to improve your work skills will invariably improve your work life in the process. Since 2011 is nearly upon us, what better time than now to start gearing up to make a much bigger splash in the New Year. To that end, we have put together five tips that will help you earn that promotion in no time.

5 Tips For Getting Promoted In 2011:

Tip #1. Keep Track Of Goals - Looking at the company's goals and your personal goals each morning is a great way to stay on top of what it is you hope to achieve in your career (beyond making a profit). When developing your personal goals, we recommend having a coworker review them and provide constructive criticism. You might even want to ask your supervisor to look at them.

Tip #2. Go Above And Beyond - There is a reason there are countless articles written about proactive employees. The people who go above their pay grade's expectations are the ones who get noticed. Dedication is a highly valued virtue. For example, something as simple as being the first one into work and the last one out will help make a name for yourself.

Tip #3. Seek More Responsibility - If you find your daily responsibilities no longer challenge you, speak up. Go to your supervisor and express an interest in contributing more to the company. They might not dole out more responsibility to you right away, but they will certainly take notice of your interest, and sooner or later you will undoubtedly find yourself juggling more and standing out as a result.

Tip #4. Assert Your Confidence - Confidence is an amazing, powerful quality. A lot of people are uncertain about displaying confidence in fear that it will be interpreted as arrogance. But when you know what you're doing and are sure of your skills and talents, there's nothing wrong with being assertive about it. Identifiable confidence is the trademark of a strong employee or leader.

Tip #5. Strive For Self-Improvement - Success in the business world demands adaptation. You need to be constantly learning in order to improve your existing skills. One way to go about this is to start a mentoring program with your boss or even the CEO. You could also hit the books again, so to speak, and take training classes. Whatever method you choose will send a clear message to your peers about your attitudes towards work.

Executive Summary: If you are serious about your professional life and want to achieve your aspirations, you need to take action. Organize your thoughts in goal form, push yourself to do more than what's expected of you in the work place and display your knowledge and expertise with confidence. Show your boss and your peers how invested you are in your job by showing initiative and dedication. Trust us, there's no faster way to a promotion than following these tips.

Tip #318: 5 Tips To Overcome Your Public Speaking Jitters

Overcoming Your Public Speaking Fear Will Enhance Your Career.

Though very many people shudder at the thought of public speaking, it is one of the best ways to enhance your career. And, in the business world, something every businessperson will have to deal with at some point or another. Instead of spending all your time sweating bullets, try taking your mind off the stress and worry by focusing on the five tips listed below.

5 Tips For Conquering The Fear Of Public Speaking:

Tip #1. Know Your Topic - The first thing you should do when approaching a public speaking presentation is get excited about your topic. Enthusiasm can be a powerful, driving force. What helps build enthusiasm, as well as a great deal of confidence, is learning about your topic until you know it inside and out. Enthusiasm, confidence and knowledge are the keys to combating public speaking fears.

Tip #2. Outline Your Speech - Even if you know all there is to know about your presentation topic, effectively communicating that information with good order, structure and flow might not be easy to do on the fly. Take the time to prepare accordingly. Draw out an outline with bulleted items to use as a loose guideline for your presentation's structure. Make sure all its components fit together nicely and logically.

Tip #3. Strike A Balance - In this case, a balance between having memorized your presentation and using bullet points as a jumping off point. On one hand, you do not want to come off sounding pre-recorded or overly rehearsed. But on the other hand, you do not want to struggle and stumble reaching for bits and pieces of information.

Tip #4. Get In Some Practice - Do a dry run of your presentation to help iron out any wrinkles. Use a friend, a family member or a peer as a test audience. It also helps to record yourself and listen to the recording later. Keep a pen handy, as you may want to note use of speech disfluencies - "ums," "likes" and "ahs." These are notorious credibility killers. Awareness will help minimize their appearances.

Tip #5. Engage The Audience - 50% of all presentations fall flat because a speakers just stands before their audience and runs through the presentation at full speed. Loosen up and have fun. Be conversational. Be natural. Speak slowly, articulate yourself, use emphasis and stress certain words. Remember, public speaking is just another form of conversation.

Executive Summary: The best weapon in your arsenal to combat the fear of public speaking is confidence. And really, confidence isn't all that hard to build up. The smartest thing you can do to help build confidence in preparation for public speaking is do your homework - research your topic until you are a relative expert. From there, just try to practice public speaking a handful of times to get used to how it feels to talk about your topic.

Tip #317: 5 Tips For Giving Better Feedback

5 Tips For Giving Better Feedback:

Tip #1. Be Specific, Balanced And Fair - The point of giving feedback is to elicit improvement or reinforce good behavior. That means your feedback cannot be vague or generic. The key to effective feedback is specificity. When giving feedback, go into detail. Specifically cite what did or did not work and offer suggestions where appropriate.

Tip #2. Don't Skimp On Positive Feedback - Negative feedback tends to be more common since mistakes, errors and problems stand out as opposed to things running smoothly. For this very reason, it is important that you find and praise the good things your employees do from day to day - even if it is something small. A little praise can go a long way.

Tip #3. No News Is NOT Good News - A common misconception among managers is that if they are not yelling or criticizing their employees, they should know that they are doing a good job. This simply is not true. From time to time, you will have to have a stern conversation with an employee, but in the interim, you should make the effort to actively support your team with positive comments on their job performance.

Tip #4. Shoulder Some Of The Responsibility - In other words, accept a small degree of blame when offering feedback. Using phrases such as "maybe I didn't explain this up front" or "maybe I didn't explain this well enough" is a good way to soften the blow. As a result, your employees will be more receptive to your feedback instead of being discouraged by it.

Tip #5. Come To An Agreement On Issues - If you are dispensing negative feedback, that means there is a problem or issue you wish to address. In these situations, it is imperative that both parties come to an agreement about the issue and that the feedback be an attempt to remedy things. A one-sided scolding will only sour an employee's mood, and certainly won't fix any problems.

Executive Summary: Good feedback that benefits your employees requires more than a simple "good job" and a pat on the back, or a vague conversation that things should have been "handled better." At the end of the business day, regular, positive feedback is extremely important to your employees. While positive feedback seems to be more challenging for most leaders to dispense, its value to morale is truly immeasurable.

5 Tips For More Effective Meetings

In the business world, having meetings is crucial to staying organized and keeping your team up to speed. However, if meetings are unproductive, they end-up wasting everyone's time. Worse yet, many of your employees will drag their feet about attending future meetings and, as a result, not approach them with the appropriate attitudes or vigor.

Productive Meetings Require Pre-Planning On Your End.

To maximize your next meeting, take some time and plan an outline of what you want to accomplish and then share it with any and all attendees. Not only will this be well received by all, but it could also mean the difference between an effective meeting versus one that was a complete waste of time.

To help ensure that you and your employees get the most out of you next meeting, we gathered five tips for you to review and implement.

5 Tips For More Effective Meetings:

Tip #1. Decide If You Even Need A Meeting - The purpose of a meeting is to exchange ideas, knowledge and of course come to a conclusion on the next step or steps to something you are discussing. That being said, before you arrange a meeting, decide if an e-mail or brief report can do the job. Not only will scaling back meetings help cut down on wasted time, but it will also make the meetings you have seem more necessary.

Tip #2. Prepare Objectives For The Meeting - You cannot hold an effective meeting if you do not know its purpose. Your objectives need to be focused - not overly specific, but not too broad, either. Try writing down phrases that require endings. For example: By the end of the meeting, I want the group to . . . Whatever you decide to end with will constitute an objective. Repeat this as necessary.

Tip #3. Provide An Agenda For The Meeting - If you want to get the most out of a meeting, you need to provide your employees an agenda that includes a brief description of the objectives, the topics and who will be expected to speak about what. Send the agenda via memo or e-mail at least sixty to ninety minutes before a scheduled meeting so your employees have time to familiarize themselves with it.

Tip #4. Take Notes And Mark Action Items - Everyone who attends a meeting should come equipped with paper, a highlighter and a writing tool. No one should be sitting and passively listening during a meeting. You and your employees need to engage meetings by taking notes and marking down action items, especially if they are pertinent or include a specific, assigned task.

Tip #5. Summarize The Meeting At The End - At the conclusion of the meeting, go around the group and have each employee provide a summary of what you covered and what their action items are. Obviously, this is why it is important to come to meetings prepared to take notes (Tip #4). Ending with a summary helps ensure no one missed anything during the meeting and serves as one final reminder about the priorities discussed.

Executive Summary: The first step to having effective meetings is deciding whether a meeting is even necessary. If it is, you need to have a clear idea of the who, what, where, when and why of the meeting beforehand. During the meeting itself, you and your employees should take notes about what is discussed and what action items are assigned. Then, at the end, you need to summarize the meeting and highlight the most important action items.

6 Tips For Handling Difficult Employees

Sooner or later, all managers must deal with a difficult employee - they are an unavoidable fact of business life. What is important to remember, however, is that a difficult employee is not necessarily a bad employee.

All too often, people associate "difficult" with "bad." This simply is not true. There are lots of circumstances that could lead to difficult behavior - stress at home or work, for example.

Therefore, if you find yourself tasked with handling a difficult employee, you will find the following six tips insightful.

Click here to watch a video on ways to handle a difficult employee

6 Tips For Handling Difficult Employees:

Tip #1. Evaluate The Issue - In other words, think before you act. One complaint is not reason enough to call an employee into your office for a verbal lashing. A clear understanding of the issue is required before you take any action, so consider all the relevant factors, such as the people involved and the details surrounding the situation.

Tip #2. Gather The Facts - Because the workplace is a social environment, there is bound to be rumor and hearsay - neither of which is reason enough to take action. As a manager and leader, your job is to be a mediator, to assess the situation fairly by gathering the facts. Hearsay is unreliable and easily refuted. Evidence, on the other hand, is undeniable.

Tip #3. Develop A Plan - The workplace is not the wild west - you cannot go into a situation "guns blazing." This will only exacerbate things further. Having a plan will give you more control over the situation and help maintain order and focus. Carefully decide when and where you will speak with the employee, how you want the meeting to go and whether or not others might need to be present.

Tip #4. Focus On The Problem - All too often, we let one negative aspect of someone define them entirely. This, of course, is a mistake. Just because someone is difficult does not mean they aren't good at their job. When handling a difficult employee, you need to focus on the problem, not the person. Otherwise the employee may feel like they are being personally attacked.

Tip #5. Hear Their Side - When speaking with a difficult employee, it is only fair to hear their side. Understanding the reasons behind difficult behavior is crucial to remedying them. Your job, as mediator, is to find the common ground and figure out where and how you can smooth the wrinkles over. This requires having as full of an understanding about the factors surrounding difficult behavior as you can.

Tip #6. Come To A Solution - Ultimately, your goal is to come to an agreement with the employee on how to solve the issue, otherwise it will continue to persist. The first step is for the employee to acknowledge the issue. From there, draw out a plan of action as to how it will be solved and make sure you follow-up with the employee to ensure that change is maintained.

Executive Summary: Remember, a difficult employee is not necessarily a bad employee, so focus more on the issue and less on them. This helps prevent employees from feeling as though they are being personally criticized. As a result, they will be less resistant to working out whatever is causing their difficult behavior. Once you do agree upon a solution, be sure to follow-up with the employee periodically and offer praise for their efforts.

4 Tips To Delegating Work Effectively

At some point or another, all of us must either delegate our work or accept delegated work. Nevertheless, navigating delegated work can be tricky, as it requires striking a balance between an existing workload and new work that has added weight to it. That being said, we have assembled four tips to help you and your peers delegate work with more ease.

Tip #1. Planning The Project - Proper planning is something far too many people overlook when beginning a new project. The best way to avoid hiccups down the road, and help its execution go off without a hitch, is to prepare ahead of time. Consider all the details, steps and resources required to tackle the project and then draw up an outline to act as a road map. Additionally, consider gathering the team together to get everyone's input before the project gets started.

Tip #2. Keep Communication Open And Constant - As a project progresses, if one step does not transition smoothly to the next, it is usually the result of poor communication; therefore, whenever a project is delegated to multiple employees, constant communication is crucial. And whoever is heading the project has the responsibility to not only keep the channels open, but also lead by example. Furthermore, they must maintain this level of communication until the project is completed.

Tip #3. Develop A Plan Of Action - On average, most people do not work on just one project at a time. That's why it is important to have a plan of action to ensure everyone is on the same page about a project's priority and where it fits in everyone's workload. Otherwise, you run the risk of your employees placing different priorities on their work, resulting in a breakdown in unity.

Tip #4. Proactive Follow-Up - No matter how well a project seems to be going you still need to consistently and proactively follow-up on its progress. And by taking a more proactive approach, it keeps the importance of the project on the forefront of everybody's minds and helps maintain unity during the project period. Conversely, the less communication you maintain, the less likely employees are to be on the same page.

Executive Summary: There is more to delegating work than simply dumping some of your workload on someone else's desk. At the end of the business day, no matter how you share the workload with other employees, responsibility for its completion still falls on your shoulders. Because of this, it is critical that you handle delegation effectively. By handling delegation in the manner we presented above, you can see your projects to completion with little to no complications.

6 Tips For More Effective Telephone Skills

While e-mail may be the new go-to method of communication for most people in business these days, phone conversations remain an integral part of business life.

Effective Telephone Calls Build Relationships.

There are countless benefits to keeping regular phone contact. For starters, phone calls have a more intimate touch than e-mails. This makes phone calls one of the fastest ways to build a relationship with your associates, prospects and clients. So naturally, businesses should want their entire staff to keep their telephone skills honed and sharp. To that end, we have come up with six tips designed to help anyone upgrade their telephone skills.

6 Tips To Strengthen Your Telephone Skills:

Tip #1. Exude Confidence - Your voice reflects your level of confidence, which is the phone call equivalent of a firm handshake or direct eye contact. The first step to strengthening your confidence is to make sure you know all there is to know about your product or service. Expertise breeds confidence, which will show during your conversations.

Tip #2. Exercise Clarity And Brevity - People only have so much time to spend on the phone, so it is important to keep calls short, sweet and to the point. To achieve this, it's best to have a preplanned agenda to follow for those important calls. Just be sure not to be too rigid in your structure - leave some flex room to keep the conversation casual.

Tip #3. Use The Person's Name - Using a person's name in conversation, especially more than once, is a great way to build rapport. The more at ease the person you are speaking to feels, the more receptive they will be to your phone call. Plus, it is a great way to remember a person's name. Conversely, sounding impersonal will cause someone to feel as though they are just another name on your big list of people to call.

Tip #4. Remain Enthusiastic - Enthusiasm is generally contagious. If you can remain enthusiastic during a phone call, there is a pretty good chance the person on the other end of the line will get as wrapped up in it as you are. Besides, how can you expect others to get excited about your product or service if you are not?

Tip #5. Add Some Humor - Being humorous helps keep things conversational and away from sounding overly formal, stiff or generic. Humor can be tricky, however. The right amount needs to be applied so that the conversation does not become saturated with it. Furthermore, humor needs to be in good taste, not to mention relevant. Random jokes will come off as jarring and strange.

Tip #6. Keep Your Cool - In other words, relax. While less intimidating than a face-to-face meeting, phone calls still make some people feel nervous. Instead of focusing on your apprehension, try to explore positive angles. All the while, take deep, even breaths to get oxygen into your blood and help you level out.

Executive Summary: Avoid getting too wrapped up in the ease and convenience of e-mail. As easy as e-mails are to compose and send out, they are just as easy for your clients or prospects to dismiss. That is why the good old-fashioned phone call is still the best way to build relationships. Phone calls are personal, engaging and require that both parties participate actively.

3 Steps To Conducting Your Performance Reviews (Part 2 of 2)

Last week, we kicked off a discussion about conducting employee performance reviews by talking about the first step managers should take: Issuing employee self-evaluation forms. We determined that the self-evaluations influence how well the actual reviews go, and that self-evaluations help make the review process more of a give-and-take experience.

Now we will wrap things up with the last two steps, which focus more on the actual employee performance review itself. Specifically, how you can make the review process less arduous by taking the time to prepare accordingly and how you need to implement an effective rating system that is easy to understand but still fair.

So, to help get the most out of your employee performance reviews, check out the final two steps below.

3 Steps To Conducting An Effective Employee Performance Review (Steps 2 & 3):

Step 2: Prepare For The Review.

One of the biggest mistakes managers make is rushing through employee reviews to get them over and done with. This, of course, benefits no one. It does not benefit your employees, and it certainly does not benefit your business. If you want to make the review process move quickly and easily, take the time to prepare beforehand. Not only will this help expedite the actual review process, it will also make it less laborious.

To prepare for an employee performance review:

• Review the employee's job description.
• Write an agenda for the meeting.
• Think about what you want employees to take from the review.
• Schedule reviews in advance; never spring them on an employee without notice.
• Review the performance measures you will use for assessment.

Step 3: Implement A Fair And Consistent Rating System.

Quantifying performance review data can be a difficult process. Arbitrary numbers and grades do not tell you a whole lot-what a "7" means to one person might be entirely different to someone else. The best approach to a rating system we have seen is the Unsatisfactory to Exceptional scale:

• Unsatisfactory: The employee's work is well below the minimum level of performance. The employee must make significant improvements to their work.
• Below Average: The employee's work meets some of the minimum levels of performance, but not all. As a result, the employee must immediately improve in some aspect of their work.
• Satisfactory: The employee's work meets all minimum levels of performance and meets all minimum levels of performance, even excelling in some areas.
• Above Average: The employee's work is above minimum levels of performance. The employee shows initiative and investment in the business' success.
• Exceptional: The employee's work exhibits superior levels of performance and their work has had a direct impact on the overall success of the company.

Furthermore, be sure to provide employees with a ratings key complete with short, 1-2 sentence descriptions of what each rating means, similar to our example above. This helps ensure everyone is on the same page as far as what a rating means exactly. The trick is to strike a balance between being too specific and being too vague.

3 Steps To Conducting Your Performance Reviews (Part 1 of 2)

About this time of year, most businesses begin to conduct their employee performance reviews. Typically, many managers do not enjoy conducting employee performance reviews, and to make matters worse, do not know the proper techniques to getting a review done properly.

Ultimately, performance reviews are an extremely useful tool for both employee and employer. Employees are able to gain insight on where they stand in the eyes of their manager, while managers gain the opportunity to address matters on a one-on-one basis.

To help make your employee review process go smoothly for everyone involved, we have listed below the three most crucial steps that need to be taken for an effective employee performance review.

3 Steps To Conducting An Effective Employee Performance Review (Step 1):

Step 1: Have The Employee Conduct A Self-Evaluation.

Before sitting down for the actual review, have employees fill out a self-evaluation form. This gives employees an idea of what they are in store for during the actual review. Furthermore, it gets employees actively thinking about the work they have done in the past year. Additional benefits of self-evaluations include:

• Involving multiple perspectives in the eventual performance review. Managers cannot remember everything, and even if they can, they only bring one perspective to the table.
• Alerting management of any disparities between what they think an employee's performance has been and what the employee thinks.
• Showing employees that the review process is one of give-and-take-that they have a say in the process.

The mark of a good employee self-evaluation form is the quality of its questions. Here are some examples of general questions to include in a self-evaluation form:

• What work did you enjoy the most and why?
• What skills and talents helped you achieve success?
• What was the most difficult or challenging work you have done?
• What results make you the most proud?
• What existing or new skills would you like to develop in the coming year?
• Are there any new projects or other assignments you would like to do?

Executive Summary: The first step in conducting employee performance reviews is to send out a self-evaluation form a few days prior to the actual reviews. This gives your employees time to prepare for the review by actively thinking about their work in the past year. A good self-evaluation form is defined by the quality of its questions, so take the time to develop questions that will benefit both the employee and your business.

9 Tips That Will Bolster Your Sales Efforts

Many believe the sales game has changed drastically in the last few years thanks to the Internet and the collapse of the New Economy. While it is true that businesses and salespeople have a lot more tools at their disposal nowadays, there are certain sales practices that are timeless. These fundamentals are the skills that the very best salespeople strive to perfect, because at the end of the day a sales tool is only as good as the salesperson behind it.

Good Salespeople Succeed No Matter What The Economic Climate.

Now, more than ever, businesses need their salespeople to pound the pavement, to hit the ground running and reach out to prospects. Consider this your refresher course on sales-Sales 101. These 9 sales tips will never go out of style and will make you money.

9 Tips That Will Bolster Your Sales Efforts:

Tip #1. Know Your Product/Service - Salespeople cannot hope to sell their product or service if they do not know it top to bottom, inside and out. That is why the first thing any salesperson should do is learn their product or service completely. There is simply no excuse not to be an expert on what you are selling.

Tip #2. Know Your Prospects - Just as salespeople should be educated on their product or service, they should also be educated on their prospects. Salespeople should have a target niche they are selling to, and should be able to engage them on level footing. Knowing your prospects will provide the sort of insight that helps close a sale.

Tip #3. Learn About Your Competitors - "Tire Kickers" are a type of prospect notorious for shopping around, for testing the water. Tire Kickers are the most likely to ask a salesperson about the differences between their product or service and their competitors'. That is why it is crucial for salespeople to know these differences as well as they know their own product or service.

Tip #4. Be Proactive; Take The Initiative - Never wait for the phone to ring, for a prospect to call you. Business will not just "happen," it requires initiative. Great salespeople are constantly networking, making calls and following-up on marketing campaigns.

Tip #5. Remember Your Existing Clients - Sales is not always about prospects. Your existing clients, the people you have already won over, are still just as valuable as ever. Keep them in the loop about any new offers, specials, discounts or products/services that might be of interest to them.

Tip #6. Cross-Sell Your Products/Services - Cross-selling products or services is another area of sales commonly underleveraged. So long as an additional product or service is relevant to a client or prospect, they will appreciate that you are looking out for them, and may just take you up on a promising offer.

Tip #7. Keep Track Of Sales Progress - Tracking sales results and how those results are achieved is an excellent way of creating a factual roadmap that shows which sales techniques work and which do not. The easiest way to do this is by using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software.

Tip #8. Always Follow-Up - Persistence is an essential trait for any salesperson. On average, prospects do not commit after the first phone call, e-mail or marketing touch. It takes multiple touches to nurture the seed of interest in a prospect's mind, and those multiple touches require follow-up.

Tip #9. Learn From Your Mistakes - Regardless of line of work, everyone should strive for improvement, including salespeople. One of the best ways to do this is to examine your past mistakes. Spend some time going over past sales efforts and exploring what went wrong and why in order to prevent repeating those mistakes in the future.

Executive Summary: Remember, bells and whistles and fancy technology are not the things that drive sales - it's the salesperson. Top producing salespeople continuously examined their sales skills and look for different angles to become successful. Ultimately, it is the disciplined salesperson who does the right things each day who wins the majority of sales.

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Made By Salespeople

In any work environment, mistakes are inevitable. But just because mistakes are unavoidable does not mean we should not strive for perfection. To that end, it is crucial to learn not only from our own mistakes, but also from the mistakes of others. This is especially true for salespeople as mistakes in a sales situation could result in the loss of sales revenue.

Many salespeople consistently make a handful of big mistakes - mistakes that could easily be avoided. So with that in mind, we put together the list below to help bolster your sales success.

The 10 Biggest Mistakes Made By Most Salespeople:

Mistake #1. Not Listening To A Prospect - This is easily the biggest mistake salespeople make when talking with a prospect. A great salesperson knows that sales is about listening and learning about a prospect's needs and wants. Solution: Ask a prospect a hard-hitting business question, then listen carefully to their response. If you don't understand it, have the person rephrase the question.

Mistake #2. Being On Autopilot When Selling - A salesperson who is on autopilot is an absolute turnoff to prospects - laying your sales pitch on too thick not only comes off as pushy and obnoxious but also insincere. Solution: Work on having a personalized conversation by asking business-related questions (see above). Do this and you will gain a greater understanding of their primary issues.

Mistake #3. Not Establishing Trust - Sales situations are a lot like dating; relationships need to be established by getting to know one another. Solution: Work on building a strong rapport with a person so they feel comfortable sharing critical sales data about their needs. Once done, a salesperson can gain a better understanding of how to position their product to solve their pain.

Mistake #4. Lack Of Preparation - When a prospect speaks with a salesperson, they expect him or her to be an expert on their product or service. Solution: Salespeople need to do their homework and come to every sales situation thoroughly prepared, knowing their product or service as well as their competition.

Mistake #5. Not Researching A Prospect - Just as a salesperson should educate themselves on their product or service, they also need to educate themselves on the prospect. Solution: One of the fastest ways to research a prospect is to go to their website before you make the call.

Mistake #6. Prejudging A Prospective Buyer - Prejudging a prospect is a surefire way to miss a sales opportunity or to start a sales call on a bad note. If you do, eventually it will get in the way of making a sale. One of the biggest mistakes people make is prejudging a person before they know their title or their relationship to someone who has decision-making authority. Solution: Assume everyone you talk with is an owner of the company or related to the person who does own the company.

Mistake #7. Going Off Topic - There is a fine line between being conversational, friendly and approachable and being an excessive chatterbox. The latter will not only eat-up valuable selling time, but will also give you a less-than-professional image. Solution: If you find yourself in a situation where someone is talking a lot about "non-business" issues, it is best to bring them back on track by saying, "So back to business for a minute..."

Mistake #8. Not Proactively Following-up - Not proactively following-up with a prospective buyer is one of the biggest mistakes many salespeople make these days. Solution: Do two things: (1) Invest in a marketing system for your business and (2) call your list of prospective buyers every 75 to 90 days - even it is just to say hello.

Mistake #9. Not Being Able To Close A Sale - It would be a huge mistake not to close a sale after going through all the trouble of courting a prospect and educating him or her on the value of your product or service. Solution: If a prospect seems sufficiently interested in your product or service, do not hesitate to ask them this: "When are you ready to get started with __________?"

Mistake #10. Not Actively Prospecting - There is no such thing as having too many prospects. Salespeople always need to be expanding their database of prospects, which requires devoting time to prospecting. If your database is not growing, sales will eventually plateau or even begin to dwindle. Solution: Make the time. It's as simple as that.

Executive Summary: As you can see, there is much more to sales than picking up the phone and telling people you offer competitive prices, great customer service or that you are a local or national resource. In fact, if that is what your sales approach is, you probably are not having much luck selling what you are selling. Today's economy has forced people to buy on the value you bring to their business. If you show every prospect you talk with today the value your products or services bring to their business, you will drastically improve your sales success.

10 Tips for Managing Your Boss (Part 2 of 2)

Managing Your Boss Will Improve Your Work Life.

As mentioned in Part 1, the hardest part about managing your boss is warming up to the idea. Since it goes against everything we have been taught about job boundaries, the idea of managing management can be uncomfortable. However, as the Harvard Business Review points out, the benefits to your work life make managing your boss a worthwhile endeavor.

10 Tips for Managing Your Boss (Tips 6-10):

Tip #6. Don't Make Assumptions - Your boss is not a mind reader. Whenever you turn to them for input, paint a complete picture of whatever it is you are presenting. Do so as if telling a story - start at the beginning, moving forward clearly and articulately while making sure not to leave out any details. Effective employer/employee interdependence hinges on effective communication.

Tip #7. Don't Be Afraid To Test The Waters - Obviously you should keep your boss in the loop, but most bosses do not want to be asked about every little detail. This is why management tends to be impressed when an employee shows initiative. Taking initiative (within reason, of course) helps alleviate some of your boss' workload while simultaneously showing independence and leadership skills.

Tip #8. Never Make A Promise You Cannot Keep - If you promise to deliver, you better step up to the plate. Trust is thin and delicate - hard to build up but easy to break. Sometimes you need to be open and honest about limitations. If too much is asked of you, inform your boss; sit down with them to work out priorities and details before proceeding.

Tip #9. Understand Different Work Cultures - There are four profiles commonly found in the work environment:

• People who like to control things
• People more concerned with people
• People more concerned with getting things done
• People more concerned with ideas

Knowing which of these profiles best fits your boss will go a long way in helping manage them.

Tip #10. Finalize Everything You Turn In - Treat everything you turn in to your boss as the final version. For starters, you cannot assume that your boss will check your work (facts, figures, data, spelling, etc.). So if an error does turn up, responsibility rests on your shoulders no matter what. There is also the matter of your boss' trust in your reliability, which you do not want to compromise.

Executive Summary:

In today's business world, smaller and more efficient business environments necessitate a new kind of team dynamic. While the roles remain the same, the relationship between a boss and an employee should be based more on sharing the decision making responsibilities. Helping your boss with his or her workload, especially those with a Type A personality, will help alleviate everyone's work stress. After all, happier management makes for happier employees.

10 Tips for Managing Your Boss (Part 1 of 2)

The modern office structure is no longer the rigid hierarchical structure it once was. Nowadays, there is a much stronger emphasis on the interdependence between employees and management. In other words, employees are expected - and encouraged - to be part of the decision making process with their boss.

Managing Your Boss Will Improve Your Work Life.

The hardest part about managing your boss is developing the right frame of mind to manage them. So many of us will find this unnatural at first as it goes against everything we were taught in the past. But once you do knock down those walls, the benefits will start pouring in for you.

10 Tips For Managing your Boss (Tips 1-5):

Tip #1. Contribute To The Decision Making Process - In order to expedite the decision making process, lend your boss a hand. Do this by specifically telling your boss what you expect and need from them, summarizing the options available and voicing your suggestion. Decisions are better made when multiple perspectives are explored.

Tip #2. Help Manage Their Time - Most bosses tend to juggle a lot of things at once. When this is the case, it is easy for something you need to slip through the cracks, as it may not be as big a priority for them as it is for you. Enforcing a deadline on your boss may seem like being insubordinate, but 90% of the time, they welcome the structuring.

Tip #3. Offer Suggestions When Asking For Opinion - This goes hand-in-hand with Tip #1. If a boss wanted to run the entire company alone, they would not have hired you. One of the best things you can do for your boss when you need their opinion is to come prepared with not only questions but also possible options or suggestions. The more prepared you are, the less time it takes to sort through whatever you are addressing.

Tip #4. Avoid Adding To Their Work Pile - Making more work for your boss does not benefit anyone. Information overload just causes undue stress, which leads to hasty decisions, and hasty decisions lead to mistakes. Condense data and bullet list information that you present to your boss so that they can quickly and easily process it.

Tip #5. Bring Solutions When Reporting A Problem - The ongoing theme to this e-tip is the idea of employee/employer being a two-way street. Such is true when facing problems. Most problems have several aspects to them. The trick is figuring out which of these aspects is what you need to bring to your boss' attention. Dumping the problem at large on them is tantamount to passing the buck.

Executive Summary: In today's business world, smaller and more efficient business environments necessitate a new kind of team dynamic. While the roles remain the same, the relationship between a boss and an employee should be based more on sharing the decision making responsibilities. Helping your boss with his or her workload, especially those with a Type A personality, will help alleviate everyone's work stress. After all, happier management makes for happier employees.