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Wouldn’t it be great if you gained so many customers, increased margins and filled orders so fast that your biggest challenge was keeping up with demand? There are a few easy and basic concepts – low hanging fruit really - to help you rise above your competition and give you an incredible advantage. It goes without saying – you need a great product or service! Your product must solve a real-world problem and be something that customers are eager to pay for. Most companies have thought about their value proposition in detail and have a product or service that is faster, cheaper or better than the competition. Unfortunately, a great product is rarely enough to make a company a commercial success. For the salesperson, a great product or service will simply not be enough to stand out from the competition and will not fill the sales pipeline on its own. In today’s world, every business, big or small, is trying to find ways to find the next magic bullet to help increase sales. Thousands of dollars are spent on marketing materials, such as websites, sales brochures, and logos. A few examples include companies implementing CRM software, training courses for sales staff and hiring consultants to create new sales approaches. In the never-ending quest to increase sales and progress to the next level, all of those things are incredibly important. However, these are not novel ideas. Your efforts to keep [...]

One lesson I have learned over the years is that if you want to run a successful business, you need a team to back you up. Even if you start the business on your own, you will need a team. The team members may not to be directly employed but you need them nonetheless. Financiers, investors, lawyers, accountants and other advisers. Later, your first employee and before long, a whole group of them. Before you know it you will a whole team towards the common goal you set for your company. Now, there are many traits a good leader must posses but in my opinion the most important one is that he or she can paint a clear and compelling vision. Good leaders can clearly communicate this vision to everyone involved. Doing so they create a group of people who just want to be part of this vision. But what sets apart a good leader from an outstanding one? I truly believe that inspiring others is the secret to become an outstanding leader. Whether they know it or not, I believe that people who achieve superstar status in their chosen field are very good at profoundly inspiring people and help them to grow to their full potential. So what does it take to become an inspiring leader? Here are the top ten traits I believe will make you an inspiration to everyone around you. People will admire [...]

Soccer. I am not a fan. Not by any means. Every four years though I get swept up a little bit in the worldcup fever. Who doesn’t? The excitement of two National Teams battling it out on the pitch to see who advances to the next round. The thrill of picking your favorite Team to see if they can make it all the way. The late nights watching the games and subsequent critique of all the plays. It almost sounds like we know what we are talking about. Right? Not this year though. I am angry. Angry at myself for sitting through the entire ninety minutes of even the most boaring of games. Even when it was clear after 10 minutes that the favorite is beeing run over, painfully believing it will turn around somehow. Germany out in the Group Stages. Outsch. Didn’t they win the Cup four years ago? Spain beaten by hostnation Russia. Portugal going home loosing to Urugay. Argentina loosing to France. Italy and the Netherlands. Hold on, that’s right, they didn’t even make it to the Cup this year. What is going on? While sitting in a traffic jam today I started thinking and wondered what happened to these supposedly unbeatable teams. Why did they loose? Is there a lesson for the business world? First thought I had. They need better players. Hold on, that can’t be true. They have the best players [...]