How do you make a great first impression? You need to project warmth first and then competence and be perceived as having both writes Harvard Business School professor Amy Cuddy in her new book Presence. Most people erroneously believe that competence is more important than warmth. Let's face it, when a prospective customer walks into your showroom, they want to feel confident that you have the skill to design their dream bath or kitchen. However, Cuddy claims that warmth or trustworthiness is the most crucial factor in creating a positive first impression. If a prospect does not trust you, there is no chance you will win the contract regardless of how talented you might be.
What are the keys to becoming more productive? According to a recent survey of nearly 20,000 readers of HBR.org, they are:
Amazon sells more than 550 private-label and exclusive brands on its e-commerce platform. Many of the private label offerings have been introduced in the last two years, creating shock waves throughout brick and mortar retailers and claims of unfair competitive advantages from manufacturers of everything from apparel to consumer packaged goods. Those initial fears that Amazon would devastate more established industries have proven to be unfounded. A recent Marketplace Pulse study of 23,000 products sold on Amazon found that consumers are not more inclined to buy Amazon private and exclusive brands even when Amazon elevates them in search results even though Amazon owns more than 50 percent of all online spending in the U.S.
Weekly, BKBG provides Shareholders with content in the Elevation Blog. The information in the Elevation Blog posts is likely of interest to your existing and prospective clients. The material is a tool that will help you appear on the first page of Google searches without having to pay for Ad Words, and you can use it to build your email list. Did you know that email marketing is one of the most cost-effective mediums to promote your brand? A recent study found that email marketing that works generates $50 in return on investment for every one dollar invested. With a 50 to1 ROI, it makes sense to build your email list. Here are several suggestions for doing so:
There may not be a more prophetic insight from Apple founder Steve Jobs than his statement, "Some people say, 'give the customers what they want.' But that's not my approach. Our job is to figure out what they're going to want before they do...People don't know what they want until you show it to them."
Today's job market is incredibly tight. Most anyone who wants to work can find a job. Unemployment levels are at their lowest levels in the past 50 years. The current environment places a premium on the need to provide a workplace and culture that attracts and retains best-in-class talent.
There are business benefits to laughter in the showroom. According to Alison Beard's Harvard Business Reviewarticle, Leading With Humor, laughter in the workplace reduces stress and boredom, increases engagement and well-being and spurs not only creativity and collaboration but also analytical precision and productivity.
Making cold calls is a fact of life for sales professionals. It's part of the job. However, a recent study found that nearly 50 percent of sales professionals are afraid of making cold calls. The primary reasons for cold calling reluctance are the fear of sounding like a sales professional and fear of failure, according to Weldon Long, author of Consistency Selling in an HBR blog post.
Nobel economics laureate Daniel Kahneman has spent his career determining how and why people make decisions. In his classic work, Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow, Kahneman relates that there are two broad types of decision making. System 1 is thinking fast; simply reacting without much thought at all. You really don't have to think a lot about how you commute to and from work. It's instinctive after a short period. System 2 is slow thinking that operates at a more logical level.
Seth Godin is one of the most admired and respected minds in marketing today. He is the author of more than a dozen books and publishes a daily must-read blog for anyone who runs a business. Seth is unique because he looks at the world through different lenses, continually challenging the status quo to take fresh new approaches that work more often than not. He was among the first marketing minds to understand that the way people purchase had changed and recognized that it is necessary to change messaging to effectively respond to the paradigm shift that had taken place.
