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6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About

This guest post is by Tom Ewer of Leaving Work Behind. Guest posting is a hot topic amongst startup bloggers. It is one of the most widely-adopted blog promotion strategies in existence, and has been made perhaps even more popular by the success of “serial” guest posters such as Danny Iny of Firepole Marketing. His [...]

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

6 Powerful Guest Post Tactics that No One’s Talking About

Get the first cup on the table as fast as possible

This morning, John Wall and I were discussing the merits and drawbacks of the diner in which we do Marketing Over Coffee each week. One of the hallmarks of good service at a restaurant is that things initially happen at a rapid pace. You get seated quickly and your first order of drinks or appetizers [...] Related posts:

How to Recover From a Social Media Hangover

“Hello. My name is Cori and I’m a social media addict. “Today is day 1 of my commitment to give myself a regular break from technology and the foggy, uncreative haze it can unwittingly lead to.” I was reading a post the other day by blogger Michael Brenner at B2B Marketing Insider, talking about getting [...]

Meet the Mother of All Processes

Guest post by John M. Bernard, author of the new book, Business at the Speed of Now, and Chairman and Founder of Mass Ingenuity. Imagine going to work in one of Henry Ford’s factories a century ago, proud that management referred to you a “hand” or a “hammer” or maybe even a “wrench.” The labels [...]

How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support

This guest post is by Matthew Setter of Malt Blue. How often do you find it happening to you? You discover an issue with your site, or one of your community members emails you to tell you about it, and soon you start to see tweets about it too. Maybe it’s as simple as an error [...]

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

How to Succinctly Report a Blog Issue to Tech Support

Twitter favorites power tips

When I first started working with Blue Sky Factory, I noticed something peculiar about the company’s Twitter favorites. It wasn’t actual favorite tweets at all – it was instead a collection of praise the company had received online. This was the brainchild of DJ Waldow, the community manager, and what started effectively as a content [...] Related posts:

The “New” SEO Secret Weapon

If you have a web site, you may have noticed one of two things about the traffic you get from search engines. Your search traffic may have dried up overnight, with once-healthy streams turning into a sad little trickle. Or you may have noticed a nice, steady improvement as you’ve climbed higher in the SERPs [...]

Top 10 Sales Training Realities versus What You Believed

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

It doesn't matter who the sales trainer is.

It doesn't matter what the content is.

It doesn't matter what the subject is but let's choose making cold calls for appointments.

It doesn't matter which sales process is being introduced but let's assume it is a simple one.

It doesn't matter which sales methodology is being taught but let's assume it is a good one.

It does't matter how long the training program lasted, but let's assume it is a full-day.

Belief - Most believe that after a day of comprehensive training salespeople will have the understanding, tools and experience to get on the phone, go out in the field, use what they learned and be effective.

Reality - After a day of training salespeople still have the old, worn-out, ineffective approach down cold. It's muscle memory. The new approach, even if they took notes and practiced it during training, even if the approach is highly effective, time tested and proven, is as strange to them as the thought of eating monkey brains for dinner. They're still using a modified version of their old approach rather than a modified version of the new approach. They are definitely not using the new approach as taught.

Most people don't understand that effective sales training isn't about what is being taught. Most sales trainers don't even understand what they must do to achieve results. Before your salespeople will make wholesale changes, several things must occur.

The first group of events are salesperson-facing and related to the sales force evaluation:

They must have their sales assessment results to fully understand the skill gaps need to be filled, the sales weaknesses they have, and how those issues are affecting their sales calls.
They must know how much better they can become, how much more revenue they can generate and how much more money they can earn by making the necessary changes.
They must be trainable (incentive to change) and coachable (not resistant to change).

The fourth event rarely occurs unless your sales trainer knows how to accomplish it:

4. Your salespeople must be change ready so they don't waste training time by resisting.

The fifth event is based on the expertise of the training and development consultant:

5. A customized, formal, structured and optimized sales process must be designed, introduced and demonstrated and buy-in must be acheived.

The sixth group of events is dependent on the effectiveness of the trainer:

6. The sales methodology must be introduced, demonstrated, discussed and role-played. Most sales trainers are capable of introducing and discussing but not demonstrating and role-playing to the degree that your salespeople see the power of the approach. An exercise to help the salespeople apply what was learned must be assigned.

7. There must be follow up training within 2 weeks, during which time the approach must be demonstrated and role-played again because nobody is applying exactly what was first taught. The reason for the lack of execution is that your salespeople have weaknesses which, until eliminated, interfere with execution. Take Need for Approval for example. That single weakness, which affects more than half of all salespeople, prevents them from saying, asking and doing what they learned whenever they believe that their prospect will no longer like them, approve of them, find them credible, smart or helpful. They can't push back, challenge or ask good, tough, timely questions due to a fear of being disrespected. This problem can continue to interfere for weeks and months and until it's eliminated, prevent execution of the skills being taught. Most sales trainers are completely blind to this problem and don't know how to fix it. In most cases, this is why the majority of sales training program fail to help most companies.

The next event is dependent on sales management effectiveness. Sales managers should have been trained prior to training the salespeople!

8. Salespeople must be coached by their sales managers each day, observed to make sure they are doing what was being taught, and held accountable for making appropriate changes.

9. Review and Repeat

10. Continue twice monthly for 8-12 months, while introducing new content and material each time.

How does this compare with your experience?

Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger: Part 2

This guest post is by Devesh of WP Kube. A few months ago, I wrote a guest post here called How to Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger. Today, I’ll go into some more detailed advice to help you speed up your site even more. If you’re a blogger, you already know about the [...]

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Make Your Blog Load Faster than ProBlogger: Part 2

2011 Was the Year of the Mobile Consumer, What’s in Store for 2012? Value.

Chris Silva, my colleague at Altimeter Group, released a useful report today that I wanted to share with you here. Mobile is important and I believe you know this. However, when we consider mobile, we often think about the experience when and where it begins. But, we often miss the opportunity to lead a more [...]

Performance Based Social Media at Social Fresh East

I have the pleasure of speaking to the Social Fresh East crowd today. For those interested, here’s the slides that I’m speaking about. Related posts: Social+Email Integration from Social Fresh Charlotte Social Media Job Search Presentation Slides Money is based only on faith Related posts:

How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]

Mid-December 2010: on my photography site, we launched a new campaign—our first ever 12 Days of Christmas promotion. The result was my biggest month of earnings ever up to that point. The idea was simple: offer discounts on 12 products over the 12 days leading up to Christmas. I used a mix of my own [...]

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

How I Beat my Best Month Ever by Doing Something Good, Better [Case Study]

Build your base to build your momentum

One of the most important lessons I teach to my students in the social media course I teach is that it’s vitally important to build your social base. We have so many platforms on which to market that if we try to be everywhere all the time, we’ll effectively not be anywhere. This is especially [...] Related posts:

8 Quick Tips for Writing Bullet Points People Actually Want to Read

It’s a Twitterized world, we’re just living in it. Blog posts, Tweets, quick videos, Google+, the Facebook Timeline, and tens of thousands of images pinned to digital boards are flying past us faster than we can read them. Faster than we can even scan them, depending on the time of day. What does this mean [...]

Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral

This guest post is by Nancy Sathre-Vogel of Family on Bikes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Surely Google Analytics was confusing my site with another, way more popular site. There was no way my visitor numbers could be so high! And yet they were. One of my posts had taken off and was [...]

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

Six Steps to Make Sure Your Site Is Ready to Go Viral

The Steps to Buying: remembering the human element

There are two distinct categories involving buying decisions: the behind-the-scenes issues buyers must manage internally to get stakeholder buy-in for change and for going outside their status quo for a solution and the solution-choice issues. We are all very familiar with the latter: that’s what sales handles so well. But sales does not handle the former at all: we are not there [...]

The Steps to Buying: remembering the human element is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

When was the last time you were your customer?

When was the last time you were your customer? You say you’ve got social media strategy. You say you’ve got great service. You say you’re customer-focused, customer-centric, and the customer is always right. When was the last time you tested it out? If you manage business for more than a sole proprietorship, then give your [...] Related posts:

7 Crucial Tactics for Writing a Wildly Successful Guest Post

We all know that guest posts grow blogs. But not many people realize that tactical guest posting grows careers. Most bloggers I see pump out these articles while reciting the mantra “quantity over quality”; there’s no real strategy and there are no real long-term benefits. In this post I am going to show you the [...]

Sales Strategy and Tactics - Thoughts from the Super Bowl

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

Watching the Super Bowl got me thinking about strategy and tactics.

In baseball, the strategy most often involves how the pitchers will exploit the weaknesses of the opposing teams' hitters but during the game itself, it's more about tactics.

In football, the head coach has a game strategy that is tweaked during the week and during the game itself, strategy continues to play a big part as plays are selected while personnel substitutions might be more tactical.

Both sports are team sports but baseball relies more on one-on-one battles - pitchers versus hitters - while football relies on each of the eleven men on the field executing perfectly in order for a play to succeed.

In my opinion, football is the sport based more on strategy while baseball is the sport based more on tactics.

Sales Leadership, roles performed by people with titles like Director of Sales, Chief Sales Officer and Worldwide VP of Sales, requires strategy. Sales Management roles, performed by people with titles like Branch Sales Manager, Division Sales Manager, District Sales Manager and Regional Sales Manager, requires more tactics. Even when managers conduct account strategies, more often than not, those strategies entail the use of tactics.

Sales Leaders are like the head coaches of football and sales managers are more like the managers on the baseball team.

The problem I observe most frequently is when sales leaders and sales managers do not take ownership of their respective responsibilities for strategy and tactics. We see sales managers unaware of what their salespeople are doing, where they are doing it, and who they are doing it with. We see sales leadership unable to get sales managers aligned on strategy, messaging, targeting, pricing and expectations.

If sales leadership can strategize like football head coaches, and sales managers take on tactical responsibilities, like a baseball managers do, we would see more effective, productive, consistent sales organizations.

Good Attention vs. Bad Attention

The confluence of the Super Bowl and its focus on immense ad spend, coupled with speaking at last week’s NetPromoter conference triggered a thought. Are there two kinds of attention (let’s call them “Good Attention” and “Bad Attention”), in the same way that there are two kinds of profits? We know that there are two [...]

7 Smashing Social Media Marketing Links

This week on The Lede … What really works on Twitter One thing social media copywriters should never do 9 productive social media hacks A reminder of the power of the original social media If you just can’t wait for The Lede every Saturday, and you want even more practical, useable links than the seven [...]

Season 2 Finale: How Yamaha invests in new customer experiences

This is it…the Season Finale! And, what a way to end Season 2 of (R)evolution…. In this episode, Yamaha shares what is by far the most expansive view of disruptive technology’s impact on business infrastructure and culture on the show to date. What you’ll see is a genuine discussion with Jeff Hawley and Rick Williams of [...]

Great Sales Management Advice from Football's Greatest

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

On the eve of Superbowl XLVI Weekend, an article in the February 3, 2012 issue of the Boston Globe discussed Patriots Coach Bill Belichick's place in football history. In the story, written by Michael Whitmer, Belichick says, "You do your job, take care of your business, and hopefully good things will happen.’’

Whitmer says it’s the same approach he takes with his teams and players, no matter what they’ve accomplished." Tom Brady, the Patriot's equally brilliant quarterback, is quoted as saying, “He treats minicamp like it’s the week of the Super Bowl. The pressure is always on. We joke, because every day he comes into the meeting and he goes, ‘Alright guys, this is a big day,’ and we always joke that he should walk in one day and say, ‘Guys, this day’s not super important. Whatever we mess up today, don’t worry, we can get to tomorrow.’ That’s how he approaches it, every day is meaningful, and I think as a player you come in and you really respect that, and you try to do your very best to accomplish the goals that he sets out every day. When we won those 16 games in a row in 2007, people would have thought we were 0-16 by the way that we were coached. He doesn’t care what you did last year, he doesn’t care if you made the Pro Bowl, as long as you can help us win this week.’’

Sales Managers could learn a thing or two from Belichick! Like:

Consistency
Past Performance is not a free pass for lack of performance today
You can always perform better
Accomplish the goals
Every day is meaningful
The pressure is always on

Go Patriots!

(photo credit John Biever on SportsIllustrated.CNN.com)

5 Tips For Making People See Things Your Way

The goal of any negotiation is to get the other side of the table to see things your way. Hmm, how are we going to make that happen? What you are going to have to do is to become skilled at finding ways to support the position that you are taking. In order to get [...] No related posts.

Smartphones, Tablets, PCs, The Devices People Use to Discover Information in Social Media (and when)

My friends over at bit.ly published an interesting graph that reveals the devices as well as the days/times that people use different devices and how and when they consume information. As you can imagine, it’s across the board, but as you can see, there are waves that every device follows, except the desktop. Desktops are [...]

Top 10 Things - The First Minute of a Sales Candidate Interview

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

In just the first minute of your interview with a sales candidate you should know whether you don't want that candidate working for you. Think about it. If you decide in minute one that this candidate is NOT for you, there are options. You can end the interview and find yourself an hour that you didn't expect to have. You can complete the interview for practice or you can do it to see if the candidate succeeds at winning you over during the remainder of the interview. If you can be won over after you have written a candidate off, that is exactly what you want in a salesperson.

What should you look for in the first minute that would suggest you don't want this candidate?

It depends on what you want in a candidate. Most clients provide me with wish lists. in addition to a candidate's sales ability, clients want the candidates to possess certain traits that appeal to the clients. Most of those traits are unnecessary. Many of those traits only serve to make the clients happy. Most of those traits don't help the salespeople sell more effectively. So they aren't necessarily the things you should look for in the first minute.

I have problems with candidates who exhibit any of the following 10 behaviors:

aren't prepared to begin the conversation
don't attempt to overcome my resistance
can't look me in the eye
don't answer my questions with direct answers
dress like s**t
fidget
get so nervous they break out in a rash
make excuses for their track record or jumping around from job to job
talk too loud
can't handle being challenged

I'm very impressed with candidates who are capable of these 10 things:

push back and challenge me without starting an argument
ask intelligent questions that aren't about benefits
talk concisely versus ramble
explain rather than claim
express rather than state
be memorable instead of forgetable
demonstrate their ability to succeed
distract me from my interview strategy
connect with me
[please provide us with the one thing you look for in an interview]

What’s Love Got to Do with It? The 3P’s of Identity

Guest post by Allison Cerra, author of Identity Shift With the 2012 Presidential election looming, there’s no shortage of polls to help narrow the field of candidates. I find a recent one from Fox News to be particularly fascinating. Among other questions, Republican primary voters were asked which Republican presidential candidate is most likeable and [...]

Before Your Company Hires a Sales Leader...

Understanding the Sales Force by Dave Kurlan

Everyone has a plan.

Some plans are better than others because they contain all or most of the necessary steps and sequence them in an appropriate order. Most plans have gaps where steps should be and the sequence doesn't lend itself to success.

One area where we see this occur repeatedly is when companies are about to hire a Sales VP or Director AND they want to evaluate their sales force too. For some reason, many choose to delay the evaluation until after the VP is in place when in reality, the evaluation should be used to help them select the new sales VP.

Sales VP's aren't like stretchy clothing where one size fits all. You must be able to choose a VP based on the needs of the organization. Some of those needs are well known but others, not so much. Take the quality of the sales managers that would report up to the VP, as well as the salespeople who report to those managers. Do the sales managers need to be developed? If so, what kind of help will they need? Do any or all of the sales managers need to be replaced? If so, what kind of experiences and skill sets are required? What about the salespeople? What caliber are they, where are the skill gaps, how many need to be replaced, what are their capabilities and what types of weaknesses are holding the organization back? Knowing the answers to these questions in advance help companies specify and select a Sales VP that has the experiences and skill sets to deal with all that is known.

The company has two choices:

Hire a Sales VP without regard for what the VP will inherit and whether or not the VP has the skill sets and experiences to take on what the unknown. Let the new VP take 12-18 months to observe and understand the issues and create a plan of action. Or
Evaluate the Sales Force, and inside of 30 days, discover all of the unknown issues that need to be addressed, the people that need to be replaced, the development that needs to take place, the gaps in skills, systems and processes, and use that to specify exactly what a new Sales VP must be equipped to deal with upon arrival.

With option 1, the company wastes 1-2 years and might still have made a mistake hiring the new Sales VP.

With option 2, the company uses the information from a sales force evaluation to make an intelligent hiring decision and provides the new Sales VP with the equivalent of 18 months worth of observation - only much deeper and wider than he could ever learn on his own - on his very first day.

All of this logic applies to a smaller company that needs to hire a Sales Manager.

Which makes more sense to you?

We can never understand a buyer’s buying environment

Sales people get confused when I suggest they can’t ’understand’ the buyer’s needs if they approach a sale with this outcome. Without everyone on board who will lend their voice to a possible solution, buyers cannot understand it themselves. And using the sales model, we can’t help: we’ll never understand what’s going on behind-the-scenes as they figure out who should be involved, what must be [...]

We can never understand a buyer’s buying environment is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

[Video] 3 Critical Questions You Must Ask Every Hot Prospect

Have you ever been called in to meet by a prospect that's all excited about making the change? They're busy meeting with vendors, looking at all their options. And, they want you to get a proposal to them right away -- or to do a presentation.

Stop, stop, stop! If you don't fully understand the why behind all this activity, you may be spinning your wheels for nothing.

1. Ask them, "Why, at this particular moment in time, did you decide that change was essential?" Find out what they say. Does it make sense?

2. Ask them again, "What's the business case for the change?" If your solution costs a lot or is tough to implement, they need to have a pretty strong business case. Do they? If not, showing your solution is premature.

3. Also ask them, "Why would you switch from your current provider?" I know that sounds bold – but the truth is, no one really wants to switch. Unless they have a good reason you may be wasting your time.

Don't be afraid to find out what's behind all this activity. Sometimes the truth hurts and they're not really a hot prospect. But you'll know before you invest tons of time. And, so it's worth it.

Foursquare in Context

If you're a regular user of services like Twitter or Foursquare, you've undoubtedly been met with skeptics and naysayers who wonder aloud, "Why would I want to tell anyone what I'm having for lunch?" or "Why would I care if someone is having a ham sandwich?"

Fair enough, but the inquisitors fail to take into account the all-important factor in any conversation, whether it's in person or online: context.

Context is what allows us to make sense of much of the world around us. "He's so bad!" could have two very different meanings, depending on the the rest of the conversation surrounding it. With that in mind, a ham sandwich may be more than just a ham sandwich. What if it's the best ham sandwich you've ever had? Or if it's at a restaurant that's offering a discount of 50% off all sandwich orders?

This new video helps to put Foursquare's services into perspective for people who wonder "What's the value of 'checking in'?" As if 15 million of them didn't already know...

As you can see, specials, discounts and a potential connection with those around us all converge within Foursquare to give a much more contextual purpose - one that over time, will be customized to your tastes and interests.

Now that's something worth sharing.

Please sit still this won’t hurt a bit…I have some questions…

Guest Post: Tim Foster, Sales Director EMEA, The TAS Group

Over the first month of this year, I asked a lot of sales people and their bosses a simple question; “What is the most difficult element of selling in 2012 and what will make or break your year?”. The same two answers came up frequently:

I can’t get access to the decision makers
Customers don’t follow through on their committed actions

These are not new problems, and not ones that seasoned sales professionals like to admit to themselves. But things have come to a head. For the last five years sales people have been…

Plan Your Next Negotiation, Negotiate Your Plan, Be Successful

When I’m working with negotiators who are trying to become better, they always ask me what the secret to moving to the next level is. For years I always told them that there was no “silver bullet” that would allow them to make the jump. It was just going to take a lot of hard [...] No related posts.

Social Media and Travel

If you're like me, you spend a good deal of time on the road. Whether it's at an airport, on a train or in a car, you're mobile and your digital life is mobile too.

The pervasiveness of tablets and smartphones (in addition to the already ubiquitous laptop) is growing daily. Just this week, Apple announced that it sold 37 million iPhones and 15.4 million iPads in the fourth quarter of 2011 alone. It means that more of us are doing things on the web (or mobile web, as the case may be) while we're on the go, and there are certain things those of us in the digital world look for when we travel - at least with regard to infrastructure.

The Airlines
To my knowledge, Southwest was the first airline (or at least the most prominent early on) to get involved with social media. Their blog, Nuts About Southwest, has been a perennial leader in the corporate blogging space. They've made great use of Flickr, YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and more and have always led with a very human and very customer-centric approach.

JetBlue made a name for itself in the social media space after a difficult travel situation thanks to severe winter weather in 2007. Their CEO David Neeleman was direct and honest in his approach, the video of him was sincere and emotional, and JetBlue made it clear that it put customers first. And to think that my colleague Morgan Johnston at JetBlue had started his job on that very day...

Delta got a late start in social media (and was the subject of its fair share of complaints, including a dramatic rant ), but now has @Delta and @DeltaAssist looking after its customers on Twitter. Not to mention some personal interaction from a certain member of the crew from their famous safety video.

That finger wag gets me every time.

The other airline that's going above and beyond in social media is Virgin America. Based out of Silicon Valley, they're in the thick of the action from a technology standpoint. And their use of Groupon, Loopt, Foursquare and more prove it. But their always-on monitoring is essential when it comes to catching consumer complaints, especially after their switch to a new reservation system last year.

Overall, customers want interaction - they want to be heard, certainly, but they also want action - when they take to Twitter to voice a concern. According to an eMarketer article, the expectation that a company will respond increases by age cohort from 38% of 18-24 year-olds all the way up to 65% of those in the 55+ age category. And it clearly matters in terms of satisfaction:

If you'd like to see a comprehensive roster of airlines on Twitter, check out @Kayak's list of some 160 or so.

Staying Powered - and Connected
I've been in the unfortunate circumstance of leaving for a trip without power cord for a device. There are two points of good news: many times, you can charge your phone directly from your laptop using a USB port; and quite often, the hotel will have a power cord for your phone that you can borrow from their lost and found collection (I was once told by a concierge that phone cords are like currency at most hotels).

There are a few gadgets that I'd recommend as well. If you're travelling internationally, it's essential to have an all-in-one adapter that has attachments for every major country's electrical sockets. And because the hotel where you're staying or the airport may not have many readily available sockets to charge your laptop, phone, tablet, etc., it's handy to have a cord with 4 outlets, an all-in-one charging station, or even a PowerSquid that will allow up to 5 others to connect. You'll be the most popular person at the airport! (Note on all of the links in this paragraph: http://cmp.ly/5).

Then again, a number of airports have recognized that passengers travel with gadgets and need places to charge.

Thanks, Delta!

If you happen to have a non-3G iPad or a laptop without an air card, you depend on local wi-fi networks for connectivity. I've been in my share of airports that have had plenty of network access, but I didn't want to spring for a Boingo account to get connected. For that reason, it's helpful to know which airports have free wi-fi. Here's a quick list for your reference:

Airports with free wi-fi:
Boston (BOS)
Charlotte (CLT)
Cincinnati (CVG)
Denver (DEN)
Fort Myers (RSW)
Honolulu (HNL)
Indianapolis (IND)
Kansas City (MCI)
Las Vegas (LAS)
Oakland (OAK)
Orange County (SNA)
Orlando (MCO)
Palm Beach (PBI)
Phoenix (PHX)
Pittsburgh (PIT)
Portland (PDX)
Sacramento (SMF)
San Antonio (SAT)
San Diego (SAN)
San José (SJC)
Tampa (TPA)
Washington Dulles (IAD)
Washington Reagan (DCA)

But it goes farther than wi-fi and charging stations. FareCompare has developed a list of the top 12 airports for social media power users, with a list of the top airports that are also known to take good care of their customers. I've reproduced the table here.

City	Airport Code	Twitter Hits	Outlets per Gate	Other Amenities
Atlanta	ATL	14.7 million	8.1	Charging stations, work desks
Baltimore	BWI	7.92 million	7.3	Charging stations
Dallas	DFW	2.7 million	7.2	Charging stations, work desks
Detroit	DTW	3.4 million	6.7	Charging stations, Boingo data ports
Fort Lauderdale*	FLL	120,000	2.65	Fast, free Wi-Fi
Los Angeles	LAX	153 million	5.3	Charging stations, internet kiosks
Minneapolis	MSP	2.11 million	Varies by terminal	Charging stations, iPad kiosks coming 2012-13
New York City	JFK	8.45 million	Varies; Terminals 2, 3, and 5 have the most	Charging stations, work desks, iPad kiosks
New York LaGuardia	LGA	1.05 million	7.2	Charging stations, iPad kiosks
Salt Lake City*	SLC	8.97 million	5.4	Charging stations, work desks
San Francisco*	SFO	110 million	13.6	Charging Stations, lounge areas, work desks
Seattle	SEA	6.68 million	2.7	Charging Stations, fast Wi-Fi

* Airport has free Wi-Fi

The Airports
I've had experience with some airports that are downright personal. For example, I traveled to Kansas City last year and was pleasantly surprised at the greeting and send-off that I got from the Kansas City International Airport (@KCIAirport) on Twitter:

Followed by a warm greeting waiting for me at home (@DTWeetin):

When you're travel-worn and checking in on Foursquare or commenting on a queue, sometimes it's heartening to realize that there are teams of people looking out for you. For example, Logan International Airport (BOS) in Boston has a team of five people handling their social media; @LAX_Official gives travelers in Los Angeles tips, newsletter and other helpful information. For a roster of over 130 airports on Twitter, see @Kayak's list.

What's your experience with regard to social media and travel? Do you have any other examples of airlines, airports or other entities who get it right, campaigns that resonated with you, or personal touches that made the difference in an otherwise difficult circumstance? Please leave a comment with your input.

Image credit: ~Oryctes~ (Flickr)

Dealing with Oops! Moments: Sales Lessons from Rick Perry

This not meant to be a political statement. It is simply commentary about what a candidate did - and what we, as sellers, can learn from it.

When Texas Governor Rick Perry entered the presidential race, he immediately soared to a front-runner status. But, it didn't last long due to his performance during the Republican debates.

For those of you who don't follow American politics, during the recent debates Perry stated that he'd eliminate three federal departments. When asked which ones, his mind went blank. He came up with two, but the third eluded him. For 55 seconds, he wracked his brain, babbled and even looked to his colleagues for a little help. (Check it out on YouTube.)

Finally, he sheepishly said, "Oops! I guess I blew that one." Yes, he did. But it didn't have to lead to his downfall. If I were coaching Rick Perry on his sales presentation, I'd offer him these two pieces of advice:

Prep for failure ahead of time.

When you have an Oops! moment - which you invariably will -- own up to it right away. Don't fumble around looking like an idiot. That was the real killer. Everyone's had that same experience, so they all feel for you.

Quickly use your humor to engage their empathy, own up to your fallibility and get yourself off the hook. And, above all, don't be sheepish.

So instead of bumbling around, Perry might have said, "As you can see, even the Governor of Texas is human - and forgets things now and then." We'd have all laughed and let it go.

Avoid using numbers unless absolutely necessary.

It must be Murphy's Law, but whenever you say you have three points to make, under pressure you tend to forget them. (Note: This is the voice of experience talking.) Instead, suggest that you'd make "several" changes or have a few ideas. That way, no one will know when you forget things.

About a week after the Oops! moment, Perry released a commercial in which he owned up to his humanity. I actually thought it was an excellent to address his major failure during the debate. But it was too late. And, combined with his other gaffes, it was just too much for the Iowa voters.

So what do you think? What other advice would you offer Rick Perry?

Please keep your personal politics out of this. We are analyzing the situation - not the candidate or his beliefs.

Do you really understand how your buyers buy?

For decades, salespeople scrunched their faces when I mentioned “how buyers buy”. I heard comments like: “I know what they need.” or “I understand exactly how they buy: price, price, price.” But sellers only close 7% of their prospects (and far, far less if using marketing automation). If you understand how buyers buy, why do you have less than a 40% [...]

Do you really understand how your buyers buy? is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

[Audio] 3 Big Sales Problems I See Today

Recently I was interivewed by the Sales Lead Management Association about some of the biggest problems I see today that are having a negative impact on sales -- and what can be done about them

What was my key focus?

- Management's failure to understand changing customer/behavior.
- Lack of sufficient digital assets to attract & nuture prospects.
- Improper training & tools for salespeople to help them succeed in the new sales environment.

You can listen to the download the interview below.

Download this episode (right click and save)

Sales Negotiators Know That The Devil Is In The Details

What is it going to take to make your next sales negotiation work out the way that you want it to? Do you need to go buy a bunch of negotiating books to learn the latest negotiation styles or negotiating techniques? Do you need to bring in a hired gun? Or maybe all it will [...] Related posts:

Video: Succeed By Bringing The Ghost Whisperer To The Negotiation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhCghNPv7Nk Dr. Jim Anderson explains why it can be so...
5 Tips For Selecting The Right Location To Negotiate In What’s your goal for your next negotiation? If you are...
Sales Negotiators Need To Know How To Use Regulations And Laws To Reach A Deal I can only speak for myself, but when I’m headed...

Help Buyers Choose the Buying Decision Team: a case study

Would you buy a house without discussing it with your wife or family? Would you even know all of the buying criteria without their input? Would you bring in a leadership training without getting the buy-in from the people who would be trained? Or know their criteria without their voices? Would you choose a web designer without [...]

Help Buyers Choose the Buying Decision Team: a case study is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Social Engagement Journey Video

Check out this fun little video on the Social Engagement Journey that our team in Seattle just put together.

Which B2B Social Network is Most Valuable?

In my blog post My Social Media Experiment, I bemoaned the fact that most of the focus in reporting on the Social Universe has been on B2C examples, and B2B use-cases are extremely rare. Also, it has been hard to know where B2B customers actually ‘hang-out’ in the Social Universe.

Over the last 18 months or so I’ve been trying some B2B models. The core philosophy has been to shape thinking, cultivate customers and earn permission to engage. We now have the answer to Which B2B Social Network is the Most Valuable? (see below) and through our various activities we have also…

Creating Sales Team Buy in Around Their Goals: How Managers Can Facilitate an Effective Conversation With Their Salespeople Around Attaining Their New Year’s Goals and Commitments

At this point, a good number of managers have already set their yearly sales goals and commitments for themselves and for their sales team. Whether these goals were sanctioned from the top, developed through a mutual collaboration between the salesperson and the sales manager, have been calculated by a formulaic process based on the salesperson, [...]

5 Tips For Selecting The Right Location To Negotiate In

What’s your goal for your next negotiation? If you are like 99.9% of the other negotiators out there, you want to have the other side agree to your requests while at the same time not having to agree to too many of their requests. Hmm, how best to make this happen? It turns out that [...] Related posts:

Video: Succeed By Bringing The Ghost Whisperer To The Negotiation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhCghNPv7Nk Dr. Jim Anderson explains why it can be so...
Video: 3 Negotiation Tips From The Master: Donald Trump http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KAyN-Rro7Nw Dr. Jim Anderson has discovered how Donald Trump has...
Yes, You Can Buy Now And Negotiate Later – But Be Careful… How do you feel about negotiating? If you really don’t...

[Video] How to Get More Prospects in Your Pipeline?

As sellers, we want to keep as many options open to us. We want to be able to pursue business with anyone who has the potential to buy from us. But doing this actually has a boomerang effect and reduces your sales effectiveness.

Here's what you need to do to get more hot prospects in your sales pipeline:

You must focus, focus, focus.

Focus on certain types of customers. Put together a campaign and go after law firms. Or, think about what the school districts might need. Or how about mid-sized manufacturing firms. The more focused you are the better your message resonates.

You can also focus on certain types of decision makers. Immerse yourself in the challenges faced by HR Directors and contact them. Or General Managers. The more focused you are, the stronger your messages.

Finally, you can focus on any one of your products/services. Rather than trying to sell the whole shebang, take just one of your offerings. What's it's value proposition? How does it help companies? What problems does it address? Craft a message around that.

The worst thing you can do is to try to go after a broad base of customers. You'll sound like a jack-of-all-trades and a master of none. Prospects want experts. So again, focus, focus, focus. Be the expert.

What do you think? Has focusing been effective for you -- or not?

Avoid the Delta of Disappointment

In a previous post, I recounted the returns companies get when they deploy a sales methodology, and also the reasons why many companies invest in methodologies only to see them languish in the abyss of poor adoption. I’ve written also about the value of a sales process, and the need to integrate both methodology and sales process in the CRM system. Through the work we have been doing with the Dealmaker Index Global Sales Benchmark study, we can now report the impact of applying all of these best practices together.

Dealmaker Index is a global sales benchmarking service that is free to all, where…

Get What You Want By Bringing A Purple Monkey To Your Next Negotiation

How did your last negotiation go? Did you and the other side of the table spend your time working through a long list of demands that the other side had made? Did you end up feeling as though you had negotiated for a very long time? The next time that you prepare for a negotiation, [...] Related posts:

Sales Negotiators Need To Know How To Use Regulations And Laws To Reach A Deal I can only speak for myself, but when I’m headed...
Video: Succeed By Bringing The Ghost Whisperer To The Negotiation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhCghNPv7Nk Dr. Jim Anderson explains why it can be so...

The One Sales Trend that Demands Attention

Guest Post: Bruce Wedderburn, EVP Channel & Enablement, Huthwaite Inc.

As we kick off 2012 with a heightened sense of optimism after the past few years, we all hypothesize what the new year will bring to our organizations, our people and our clients. And typical of this time of year there are no shortages of prognosticators who are allegedly spotting the trends that are going to take the sales and business world by storm. Having read many of these predictions and having had a chance to cross reference them against what we are seeing at Huthwaite as we look into 2012,…

[Video] What If You Couldn't Get Any New Customers?

Today's video is designed to get you thinking. Seriously thinking. If you're on a sales team, talk about it together. If you're on your own, explore the ramifications. What you discover may have a huge impact on your success this year.

And when you're done, please add your thoughts & comments below. Your ideas may stimulate us all to think at a higher level. Check out the video now >>

Video Script: If you've been in the sale profession for any length of time, you probably have a whole laundry list of assumptions about what it takes to be successful. But our marketplace is undergoing radical change. Our customers expect different things from us. In fact, they barely need us because everything they need to know is online.

These are the kinds of sales situations that get me thinking. Are we missing anything? Are we capitalizing on the trends? Should we be changing anything so that we can have a greater impact and more success with less effort?

So one of the things I want to do in the upcoming months is to pose some questions that'll get us thinking about our jobs differently. And the first question I'm going to pose is around new client acquisition. Now this is something I'm personally really good at. And it's where I do the bulk of my work with sales organizations.

But, what if -- next year -- you were told that you couldn't get any new clients. I'm serious. What if your income next year was 100% dependent on sales you generated from your customer base?

If that were the case -- if all you could do was work with your existing customers:

What would you do differently?
How would you approach your job in new ways?
What would you stop doing?
What would you do more of?

Think about it. What if you could only earn your income in the next 12 months from your existing customers? How would that change things?

And then, how could you take those insights and leverage them today to be even more successful? Think about it. It's a good idea.

What ideas did today's video stimulate for you? How can they help you get more business?

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For more fresh sales strategies, subscribe to the RSS Feed for this blog and sign up for for my Email Newsletter. Follow me on Twitter, connect on LinkedIn or friend me on Facebook. And, if your sales force needs help cracking into new accounts, check out my sales workshops at JillKonrath.com, email me or call me at 651-429-1922.
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Dealmaker Index Example Report

The Dealmaker Index has been running now since early November 2011 and we have been learning a lot from all of the participants. Here is sample report so that you can see the kind of information you can get if you participate in this free study. The report comes in four parts: Summary Infographic, Executive Summary, Detailed Analysis and Personal Dealmaker Index Report. The Executive Summary and Detailed Analysis components each relate to the company Dealmaker Index score, and the Personal Dealmaker Index Report is tailored to the individual who completed the study.

Summary Infographic

The infographic is a quick summary or dashboard…

Buyers don’t sit and wait for sellers

Around 85% of a buyer’s pre-purchase, back-end decision issues get addressed privately, outside of the seller’s purview, and a seller has no place at the table. Here is where we lose our sales – as buyers manage the internal politics, and the strategic/change issues – not because our solutions aren’t relevant or because we haven’t done a good job selling. The [...]

Buyers don’t sit and wait for sellers is a post from: SharonDrewMorgen.com

Revealing a New Ford in a New Way

Ford Motor Company has been at the forefront of social media for some time. The Fiesta Movement, the Explorer reveal on Facebook, Doug the Spokespuppet, Ford Social (formerly known as The Ford Story) and being the first brand on Google+ all stand as examples of Ford's success that spans from clever campaigns to a daily commitment to engage.

Ford played a significant part in how the automotive industry thinks about social media (and in some cases how large companies think about social media) and now, as we near the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), at Ford we have an opportunity to again reinvent how we give our fans a chance to engage in shared experiences around our brand.

The all-new Ford Fusion will be making its debut at NAIAS in January, but starting today, consumers have an opportunity to go behind the scenes at Ford to hear about how we've remade this mid-size car and see the car revealed gradually over the course of the next few weeks - including a chance to drive the car in slot-like environment. If you go to FordFusionApp.com, you can download an iOS or Android version of the app to experience it for yourself.

Each weekday between now and January 9, you’ll be able to launch the experience by finding and capturing a Ford logo using the mobile device’s camera. It works on any Ford logo - the one on your car, online, in print - this is one of the coolest features. The Ford logo will then appear on the screen as a button that starts the program. Operating like a video game, the app then allows consumers to drive a digitally camouflaged new Fusion on a track toward video clips that feature insights on technology and design from key Fusion team members.

You'll have a chance to unlock more vehicles and more worlds as the days progress, but it's only through completing the driving experience that you'll be rewarded with more content. Original music, the ability to change the view around the car and sharing functionality via Facebook and Twitter are all part of the experience. Over the course of the 19 weekdays from now until the reveal of the vehicle, more of the digital camouflage will be removed and additional videos will cover the design, technology, engineering, safety features and more of the 2013 Ford Fusion.

The video below will help you get a sense as to how it works. Be sure to pop over to FordFusionApp.com to get a copy for your iPad2, iPhone or Android device. And let us know what you think!

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Social Business 2012 Presentation

I’ll be speaking about social business strategy at the ASAE Technology Conference and Expo CIO Summit next week in Washington, DC. There are three key components to the conversation. 1) The Social Engagement Journey The Journey is the recognizable progression of social engagement capabilities that a large enterprise goes through on its way to becoming [...]

Infographic: 5 Companies That Are Rocking Social Media

This infographic was created by Voltier Digital, a content marketing agency based in Florida, specializing on the creation and promotion of impactful content marketing campaigns for businesses of all sizes.

We all know the usual names of companies that are doing well in social media. I thought it might be interesting to take a look at some of the lesser-knowns and why they've had success, either on an ongoing basis or with some one-off efforts that stood out.

And since infographics are all the rage, what better way to look at them? Of course, for SEO purposes, I've listed them here as well.

Dell is presented as a master in the art and science of listening.
Morton's made headlines with its surprise-and-delight effort with influencer Peter Shankman recently, but goes beyond that with helpful information regularly.
Unisys uses social media internally for effective collaboration and a boost to company productivity.
KLM is using Twitter and Facebook for real-time customer service and encouraging customers to submit ideas.
ABC is having fun with the way viewers can engage with their new show Pan Am by providing some goodies on Facebook.

Are there other companies that are doing some interesting things with social media that are worth talking about? Drop a comment in below.

Please feel free to share this post or embed the image on your own site. The code is provided below.

Copy and paste the code below to embed this graphic

This Week’s Social Business Jam

A number of luminaries participated on this week’s W3C Social Business Jam, including Doc Searls (pictured), Alex “Sandy” Pentland and the inventor of the web itself, Sir Tim Berners-Lee. A jam is “an online conversation among leaders in business, government and technology about the current state of social business, the future role that social technologies can play [...]

10 Coaching Questions Managers Use That Work In Any Conversation

Whether you’re a seasoned manager or just starting your career in management, one thing is for certain. When it comes to coaching, and more specifically, guiding a conversation with the artful and strategic use of well crafted questions, managers, regardless of age, location or experience, struggle with the right questions to ask when coaching. After [...]

Google+ Launches Brand Pages

Twitter Business Guide

I was recently introduced to a compact guidebook for businesses trying to get a sense of Twitter. The microblogging site that allows you to update in no more than 140 characters at at time is deceptively complex and nuanced - especially for a newcomer.

This short guide, entitled Twitter Business Guide: Communication and Marketing was written by Jean-Christophe Barré and Dr. Andreas Schroeter and in just 32 pages covers some of the things that may be keeping you and your business away from this platform.

For someone who is new to Twitter, this e-book will prove a helpful compass as you begin to explore Twitter. Everything from setting up an account to understanding the vernacular, the difference between communications and marketing with Twitter, and some of the tools you'll need to use to make it effective.

Please feel free to download and share this e-book, and by all means, if you have additional suggestions, please leave a comment.Twitter Business Guide

As with any tool or platform, this should be seen as just that. Twitter itself is not a strategy. You should be thinking in terms of how it integrates with the rest of your communications and marketing strategies and how it will help you attain your business goals.

Image credit: clevercupcakes (Flickr)
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Mashable Finds Loophole for Google Plus Business Ban

The irony of this post is, I was on the Mashable site following some others that had followed me on the Mashable Social Network when I noticed that Mashable itself was advertising for Mashable readers to “Join the conversation by adding Mashable’s Pete Cashmore to your Circles on Google+ .” The upper portion of the [...]

Social Sharing: Is Your Company Properly Branded?

There are many social sharing sites and if you wanted to count them it may take you all day to finally include each site in your count. Some of them are well known like Facebook, Twitter, Digg, StumbleUpon, and of course the latest darling of the dance is Google Plus. Social sharing has been evolving [...]

I’m already a Master Coach- NOT! The Danger of Positioning Yourself as Super Coach and the Power of Being Human. Part Three

In my last post which you can read here, I shared a template that any manager can use when beginning the process of enrolling or re-enrolling their direct reports in a coaching relationship. And as I had mentioned, after reading the template, you, like many of the managers who read this, may have one of [...]

How to (Re) Enroll People In Coaching. The Initial Conversation. Dissecting The Template. Part Two

In my last post which you can read here, I shared a template that any manager can use when beginning the process of enrolling or re-enrolling their direct reports in a coaching relationship. And after reading the template, you, like many of the managers who read this, may have one of these three common reactions. [...]

Beyond Badges – Getting more out of game mechanics

Leveling Up – A classic game mechanic best known in role playing games. You perform tasks and accumulate experience points, etc. towards raising your level. With the increase in level comes added benefits such as the ability to jump higher, a new weapon, or new content. We’ve seen this concept manifest in the real world [...]

Managers, Experiencing Coaching Resistance? How To (Re) Introduce Coaching To Your Team That Creates Buy In and a Safe Environment for Employees – And For You. Part One

As a manager, you may believe in the importance of coaching. And in my line of work, I know lots of managers who see the value in coaching their direct reports. However, there’s another population of managers who not only see the value of coaching their team but also realize how important it is to [...]

This Space Intentionally Left Blank

So obviously I haven’t been putting blog posts together recently. And that’s okay. I’m taking a little break from the “long form” stuff. I definitely subscribe to the idea that you can’t listen very well if you’re always talking, and I’ve been wanting to listen and read more. Pick up new ideas, get some fresh [...]

Unintentional Consequences

In answering a question I had been thinking about, here’s a fun little game of connect the dots. A German man with a typewriter is responsible for the entire existence of URL shorteners. Here’s how: 25 years ago, Friedhelm Hillebrand sat at typewriter in his home in Germany and typed out sentences and questions. Eventually [...]

Pivot Points

I was going to be a corporate lawyer. Honestly. I had taken the LSATs, was all set for law school and was about to get my business degree. It was go time. But then I bought a book. Specifically, I bought Small is the New Big, by Seth Godin. If you haven’t read it (you [...]

Lost on the Wilderness

If you haven’t seen it yet, take a few minutes and go check out The Wilderness Downtown. It’s an interactive film/music video by Chris Milk featuring the Arcade Fire’s “We Used To Wait”. It’s also the coolest thing you’ve seen in a browser in a long time. What Milk, Arcade Fire, and a team at [...]

A Statement Regarding Modern Media Man Summit

I have been struggling to write this now for 3 months. I have been cautioned, counseled about its content, prodded for its distribution, and have reached for publish and stopped a number of times. The tough things in life are never easy, and admitting failure or that you have done something wrong or even just [...]

Please add our current RSS feed

Sorry for the inconvenience. We recently moved to a new platform and thought all of our RSS subscribers canme over but, lo-and-behold, we were wrong! Here are the current RSS feeds for our sites:

Lead Me

I know you are working hard every day to make great things happen! The lyrics to this song are powerful. I have a feeling the words might apply to your life just as they apply to mine...

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Just Get Your Foot In the Door: Start Simple.

Crazy-busy prospects can’t handle complexity. They hate it when things are difficult to decode, decide or decifer. It grinds them to a screeching halt – which is the normal human reaction to being overwhelmed and stressed out. Because of the chaotic business environments we work in, simplicity has recently emerged as a key factor in sales success.

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10 Ways to Burn Down Burnout

Are you exhausted? ...feeling like you have lost your passion? Here’s a list of 10 things you can do to climb out of the rut and get re-energized!

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Identifying Your Path to Greatness

4 Questions for Identifying Your Path to Greatness...

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Go Get It!

Written by Ryan Collins I read a true story about a pessimistic railroad engineer who was let out of work early along with his coworkers. In the process of shutting down, he accidentally locked himself in a refrigerator car. Knowing his coworkers were leaving for the day and realizing the dangers of being trapped in freezing temperatures all night, the engineer began to panic! He yelled for help and banged on the door, but no one could hear him. Eventually, the engineer accepted his fate and “froze” to death. The next morning when the police examined the scene, they noticed something peculiar...

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Happy Memorial Day!

Form all of us here at One By One Media and to all of you that have given the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedoms, we give our thanks and we REMEMBER! I hope all of you have a happy and safe holiday. When you see that flag today, give it a salute and remember [...]

One By One Media Gets A New Look

Do you remember when you were a kid and you got those brand new pair of tennis shoes? I remember when I got my first pair of Chuck Taylor Converse. They were not too unlike the ones pictured here, but mine were white. I remember so vividly the fact that I thought I could run [...]

Sales Playbook Has A New Home!

We have officially moved to a brand spanking new website!Please join us: www.yoursalesplaybook.com and for the hearing impaired www.yoursalesplaybook.com Make sure you sign up to have sales playbook delivered to you inbox. Seriously dude . . .Rock on!

Content & Framework For Effective Mastermind Groups!

I received lots of questions last week with regard to how I set up my Mastermind Groups as well as ideas for topics for discussion. Let's take a look at both!Set up:6-8 people seems to work best. More than that and you have a bunch of "Type A's" interrupting the hell out of each other. Less than that and you may hear crickets on the phone.60-75 mins in length. More than that and you are starting

Walt Disney & The 3 Types Of People

John Maxwell tells an interesting story about how Walt Disney categorized people. According to Disney, there are 3 types of people: The first type is the Well Poisoner. The Well Poisoner discourages you, stomps on your creativity and tells you what you can't do. When I lost everything I had, I took on several jobs. One was at a local Italian Restaurant. These Bastards went out of their way to

Your Personal Board Of Directors!

Every now and again, life has a habit of giving us a "tap on the shoulder", that is, a moment that causes us to take notice and become more mindful. One of those moments arrived for me the other day as I was listening to a CD from Success Magazine. Darren Hardy asked a very simple but powerful question . . . "Are you where you thought you'd be when you began the last decade" The tap on the

The Excitement Of A New Year . . . A Guest Post From Neil Wood

It’s so exciting to have a clean slate – especially after experiencing 2009! I believe that most of us will refer to ’09 as “a year to remember!” Do you remember the book written about the maiden and final voyage of the Titanic? It was titled “A Night to Remember!” Many lessons were learned from the Titanic disaster! Others may prefer to title 2009 “a year to forget!” Either way, hopefully we