19 Inspirational Speeches in 2 Minutes!
Date: 9 August 2010
Empathy – unforgiveable gap in CEO’s communication skills?
Date: 3 August 2010
More cross – selling!
Date: 8 July 2010
With over 1,000 experts in over 20 countries worldwide, Intertrust has been setting the standard in trust and corporate services since 1952.
Intertrust helps their clients – whether they’re wealthy individuals, families or big businesses – to thrive business successfully.
Quality, personal service and attention to detail. That’s what the Intertrust mark stands for.
From 23rd until 25th June Intertrust’s Global Sales gathered in Zeist for their yearly Global Sales Academy.
Following on last year’s success in London, Ben Markslag was hired again to lead Professional Capital’s sales training for their new hires.
The existing Global Sales participated during 2 days in a newly developed sales game focusing at acquisition amongst Fortune 500 companies.
After finishing the sales game successfully the photograph shows this group’s enthusiasm to aim at even more cross-selling!
Has the study of account management become part of the life sciences?
Date: 18 June 2010
By Willem Verbeke
I regularly visit the University of Michigan (UoM) in Ann Arbor Michigan, USA. It is well known that the USA has been outsourcing many of their production to (mostly) Asian countries and many people have lost jobs. The USA needs to build a new economy, but the question is what the new possibilities are? One of the themes which the UoM has chosen to be a prominent, if not the dominant, part of their research is “life sciences”. In fact, this theme is their main research mission. One might wonder what Ross School of Business at UoM should do when that happens. To my amazement some people at the business school have taken up this mission seriously and started to think what it could mean for them. As we know within the business school already many professors have become interested in neuroeconomics. For instance, almost everybody knows that when people experience stress they produce hormones (cortisol to be specific). So could it be that when we better understand how and when people produce hormones, that we can then also better understand the behaviors of the salespeople and account managers?
Let’s take a look at an example, we look at account teams: when people within account teams work together they experience stress to some extent e.g., because there are conflicts especially about how to allocate time, to whom, and when. When stress develops more so does the build-up of cortisol, which invigorates the body to fight and remain busy. But account managers are defiant; they do not let stress rule their interactions. Therefore they show courage, but showing courage comes with the production of testosterone. As the body produces testosterone people become more alert, assertive and proud. To our amazement sports people who perform well, produce in competitive situations both cortisol and testosterone. Probably these two hormones regulate each other, but that is only a guess from my side. Currently we are investigating this issue, but if we want to look at the levels of these hormones (cortisol and testosterone), we need to test saliva of the salespeople. The analysis of the hormone levels found in saliva requires collaboration with people who know something about endocrinology. This close collaboration between business schools and schools of medicine is exactly what happens at UoM. So, will business school transform into the life sciences? Yes, to a certain extend it will!
Now back to the account teams: working within account teams is not always stressful. In fact, when teams work within competitive situations it also unites people. Has this something to do with hormones? Yes, indeed. When people share information and support each other they feel trusted and such feelings come with the development of oxitocine. By the way, this hormone is also produced when mothers breastfeed their children. In fact, some scholars already did add oxitocine artificially to a team and to their amazement there was more trust in the team e.g., people were more willing to share information.
As we realize that hormones play such an important role, we should do more research about hormones in sales. This is exactly what we do at the Erasmus University. But it all goes a bit further: salespeople, as they visit customers, need to look fresh which is quite understandable e.g., they should not look fat. So how can one reduce fat? The answer is that they should eat well, but also do sports. When people do sports, it affects their body metabolism and this in turn affects how ones brain operates.
I hope that this article helps one realize that selling can be studied from the life science perspective.
You want something? Go get it. Period.
Date: 11 May 2010
Dutch excuses to shut the shop…
Date: 29 April 2010
How would you like to buy a Z?
Date: 21 April 2010
Some Quotes about Sales and Motivation
Date: 26 March 2010
Ronald E. Osborn:
Unless you try to do something beyond what you have already mastered, you will never grow.
Mark Twain:
Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.
Ancient Samurai saying:
Warriors take chances. Like everyone else, they fear failing, but they refuse to let fear control them.
Zig Zaglar:
Every sale has 5 obstacles in principal: No need, no money, no haste, no desire and no trust.
Frank Lloyd Wright:
Selling is like riding a bike: You go forward, or you fall.
Unknown:
If you are not too expensive, you are problably too cheap
Unknown:
Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.
