Professionalisms
Are You Putting Your Rock Star Customers To Work?
If you think of your customers only as buyers of your products or services, think again, says Bill Lee. By finding, nurturing, and leveraging your potential “Rock Star” customer advocates, you can put them to work selling, innovating, building your brand…and growing your business in the best possible way.
Community Relations And The Small Business
If you own a small business, good public relations is essential to its success. TJ Saunders shares five ways that you can develop positive relationships with the community that you serve.
Is Your Customer Communication Up to Par?
There is a need to communicate with clients, suppliers, partners, investors and most importantly customers. Customer communication is often overlooked in business. If you are looking for a way to increase communication with your customers, you need to know how to communicate.
Oops, My Bad!: Five Ways Your Business Can Improve By Admitting To Mistakes
Mistakes are a fact of life. No matter how much you try, you can’t completely avoid making them. And according to Michael Houlihan, they can actually help to improve your company’s effectiveness and reputation if you handle them well.
Finding The Right Words For Every Customer Interaction And Situation
As a service provider, it’s your job to give great service to all of your customers, but you know it can be really tough to do that. Renée Evenson, author of "Powerful Phrases for Effective Customer Service" offers 5 powerfully effective phrases to help you deal with difficult customers.
Five Tips To Climb The Corporate Sales Ladder
Climbing the corporate ladder can be challenging in any industry, and sales is no exception. David Mattson, CEO of Sandler Training, offers five tips for gaining the skills and experience needed to earn that coveted promotion.
7 Guidelines To Consider When Starting An eCommerce Business
Like any new business, setting up an eCommerce store involves an abundance of research, strategy, planning and business savvy. Tallya Rabinovich, CEO of IzzoNet, shares 7 important guidelines to consider when starting your own e-commerce business.
10 TED Talks Every Team Should Watch
While individual achievement can be great, sometimes it takes some serious teamwork to get things done. These TED talks explore the power of collaboration and offer tips and tools for better communication, productivity, and more.
Seven Things Your Customers Can Do Better Than You
If you think your customers exist solely to “buy your stuff,” you’re missing a huge part of the picture. Bill Lee, author of The Hidden Wealth of Customers, says your customers are uniquely equipped to influence your product development, sing your praises, and even close sales for you. He describes seven things they can do better than you.
Brand Innovation: 8 Ways To Amplify Your Brand Across Platforms Through Content Marketing
Content marketing isn’t just about creating as much stuff as possible. It’s about helping people innovate their lives through gifts of art, says Nikos Acuna, author of "Mindshare: Igniting Creativity and Innovation Through Design Intelligence". He suggests some ways that you can gradually build on your brand innovation platform.
The 10 Best Teams Ever Assembled (And What We Can Learn From Them)
Here's a definitive list of the best teams ever assembled, along with what each of them has to teach us.
Branding The Barefoot Way: How Worthy Cause Marketing Can Help You Grow Your Company
If you have a great product or service, a passion for giving back, and a tiny budget, guess what? You’re the perfect candidate for worthy cause marketing. By partnering with the right nonprofits, small and medium-sized companies can gain instant access to loyal customers, give them a social reason to buy… and have a lot of fun in the process.
Ten Questions To Help You Check The Vital Signs of Your Client Relationships
Many of us use annual checkups to keep tabs on our physical health each year. But Andrew Sobel says checking the vitals of your professional health is just as important. He suggests performing client relationship checkups.
10 Scientific Facts About Successful Teams
Team science encompasses a wide range of disciplines, such as cognitive psychology, business management, education, and sociology, among others, and explores the ins and outs of group dynamics. Here are 10 pointers for those who are involved in planning and managing teams.
8 Unexpected Ways To Promote Your Business
Whether you’re a business owner or a future entrepreneur, perhaps you’ll have some success using one of these eight unexpected ways to promote your business.
Priced To Sell: 10 Tips For Finding The Right Price For Your Goods
If pricing your products for profit were that easy, everyone would be doing it! Chip Averwater shares his advice to help you avoid costly mistakes and get ahead of the competition.
Seven Ways Leaders Can Unearth (And Neutralize) The Fear That Lurks Behind The Blame...
Are fingerpointing and responsibility dodging poisoning your culture? Mike Staver explains that fear-based leadership lurks at the heart of the blame game. He explains what leaders can do to overcome their own fears and find their courage — and help their followers do the same.
A System For Rapid Realignment
Dr. George H. Labovitz and Victor Rosansky, co-authors of "Rapid Realignment: How to Quickly Integrate People, Processes, and Strategy for Unbeatable Performance", believe that assessing and measuring realignment of an organization towards its goals helps to improve operational performance.
Inside Job: Why Dealing with “Difficult” Colleagues Will Lead to Happier Customers
When an organization’s employees aren’t happy, it’s unlikely they’ll be providing the kind of quality service that leads to happy customers. One of the fastest ways to create internal strife is to let “difficult” people go unchecked. Ron Kaufman teaches that the best way to handle these personalities is to help resolve the difficult situations they’re experiencing so that everyone at the organization has the positive energy needed to provide uplifting service to customers.
10 Reasons Your Facebook Ads Aren’t Working
If you’re using Facebook for your business, you may have noticed that your marketing attempts aren’t performing to the level you’d originally hoped. Here are 10 reasons why that might be the case.
8 Things You Should Never Do At The Office
In the workplace, there are many things you will do right. But suck it up and recognize: there are many, many things that you will do wrong. Check out these eight things you should never do at the office.
The ‘Moneyball’ Approach To Business Hiring
J. Allan McCarthy, entrepreneur and author of "Beyond Genius, Innovation & Luck: The "Rocket Science" of Building High-Performance Corporations" offers tips for creating championship teams in the business world.
17 Unspoken Rules Of LinkedIn Etiquette
Things are a little more loose on Facebook and Twitter, but LinkedIn is strictly professional, giving it a different kind of status when it comes to etiquette. Read on to learn about 17 unspoken rules of LinkedIn etiquette.
13 Habits That May Be Sabotaging Your Career
Some of your bad habits may actually be sabotaging your career. Whether it’s office gossip or playing around on Facebook, it’s time to kick these bad habits to the curb. Read on, and discover which bad work habits may be getting in the way of your next promotion.
8 Ways To Deal With A Boss You Don’t Get Along With
Not every boss in your career will see eye to eye with you on work issues, and some might have a management style that clashes with your personality. If you’re stuck in this position, try some of these tips for dealing with a difficult boss.
Accountability, Frugality Driving Pay For Performance Trend In PR
The recession has fueled a growing trend in the public relations industry – and not everyone’s happy about it. Penny Carnathan looks at how businesses try to save by avoiding monthly PR retainer fees.
The Rewired Workplace: Establishing Success Systems Right From The Start
As we navigate more information, more relationships, and more choices we need systems that help us be productive and successful to “rewire” the workplace to stay in control and improve productivity. Camille Preston, author of "Rewired: How to Work Smarter, Live Better, and Be Purposefully Productive in an Overwired World" offers some suggestions to lay the groundwork for success.
Creating Teams
Performance within groups typically does not just happen. Bruce Hodes, author of "Front Line Heroes", shares some basic truths about building teams.
Ten Tips To Keep The Season’s Distractions From Lowering Your Employees’ Productivity
It’s a phenomenon that employers dread: As the temperature rises in the summer, employees’ motivation levels tend to drop. Chip Averwater provides real-world insight on how to keep enthusiasm and productivity high, not only throughout the summer but all year long.
When Your Website Powers Your Business
Do yourself a favor, when you've made the decision to open your business or sell your product online, make sure you have ALL the tools to make it successful. And for Pete's sake, make sure you hire the right developer, says Joe Thomas of Left Brain Digital.