"...keeping you great" Ten Minutes with the Growth Guy
HEADLINES:
Negotiators Who Name Price First, Win!! We've posted a short video from Dr. Victoria Medvec's presentation from last year's Sales and Marketing Summit where she outlines this critical point -- you'll see it in the right hand column of our Gazelles.tv website. Take three minutes and watch this video -- attendees at last year's Summit have shared with me story after story how her four-hour program has made them millions of dollars and particularly her point about naming price first. There's a reason Goldman Sachs is one of her main clients -- and now her entire four-hour workshop is on an interactive DVD. John Ratliff, CEO of Appletree Answers, who had the fastest growing company in the 2007 Private Company Index (PCI), has been putting all his key leaders and managers through her DVD interactive course (also online) with great results.
Sales Superstar Checklist -- one of the complimentary tools for this year's upcoming Sales and Marketing Summit faculty is Jack Daly's "Sales Superstar Checklist." Jack, from my viewpoint, is the top sales management trainer. It's sales management (or lack of) that is at the root of most sales function challenges. I'm always excited to hear Jack -- it's like I need my yearly dose of "Jack." Here's a link to the tools.
"Five People you MUST Meet" Update -- I made a huge mistake in programming our IntroNetworks system which eliminated a bunch of obvious "matches." If you already posted your profile, please log back in and take a look at your push pin diagram -- there are likely several people in our network that are close matches to your interests, questions, etc. (those with pins in your "inner circle"). Take a look at their profiles and find out why there was a match. I, myself, found a critical match to a key question for our company -- that person has agreed to give me a hand in solving our problem -- thanks Jim. And if you haven't posted your profile, then take five minutes and join the "Gazelles Community" and find the five most important people you MUST meet -- for User Type leave as "Member" unless you're planning to attend the Sales and Marketing Summit, then make it "Member@Summit" since we're going to make physical connections at the event.
Long Lost Friend Found -- Brian Wolf, CEO of Baltimore-based Activus Technology Corporation, sent me this short note "I registered for the intronet your company put together. I want to thank you for doing so. While looking over some of the other members of the network, I came across someone I knew years ago but had lost contact with. We've been able to reconnect, and renew a friendship. Much thanks!"
FORTUNE Small Business Magazine Focus Groups -- FSB is going to run some more focus groups at the Sales and Marketing Summit -- a way to garner feedback from leaders of small to mid-size firms. Those that participated last year had a blast and enjoyed seeing how the "pros" run these focus groups -- let us know if you would like to participate in a focus group session -- they will run from 5:30pm -- 7pm Tuesday, April 22 in Orlando at the Summit.
Old-School Networking Best Practices -- Matt Heinz, Senior Director of Marketing for Verdiem sent me this note last week re: our networking system "Good stuff. I published a column this morning on old-school professional networking best practices, thought you might enjoy it given the topic..." -- thanks Matt. I particularly enjoyed his detailed list of activities toward the end of the article. BTW, Verdiem is a green technology company focused on reducing the carbon footprint of every IT device worldwide i.e. a way to manage the electrical usage of your various PCs. Check them out and "go green."
Why Not the Sales and Marketing Summit? -- during my "council" meeting Monday morning (you do have a "council" yourself -- if not read pages 114 -- 116 in Jim Collins book "Good to Great") the key question we explored was "given the competitive environment and the economic challenges and the importance of sales and marketing, we're surprised not EVERYONE in our network of 15,000 aren't attending the Sales and Marketing Summit." Even though we're on pace to have a record turn-out, it pales in comparison to our network. So I thought I would just ask you! Where ideas are the most important thing an executive of a growing company can provide the company, why aren't you taking two-days to hear from the top thought leaders and getting away from everyday challenges to give yourself some time to think? All feedback is appreciated.
