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SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2007
FEATURESTORY
Reflections on Rewards: The world’s largest manufacturer of corrective lenses clearly sees the value of non-cash incentives
"It seems the first tendency for a firm, if employees are dissatisfied or unproductive, is to throw money at them. That's often not the best answer," says Scott Jeffrey, an assistant professor of Management Sciences at the University of Waterloo in Southern Ontario.
Jeffrey has done extensive research on goals, incentives and other aspects of employee performance management. His research has shown that non-cash incentives consistently produce better performance in workplace environments than cash...
PUBLISHER'SNOTE
A Topic That Always Manages to Surprise Me **
Wisdom from our Publisher, Mike Murrell...
SCRATCHPAD
Sales reps say it's unrealistic and a waste of time. Coaches and consultants swear by it. What's a poor sales manager to do?
Building a B.S. Detector **
Overcoming B.S. is essential to accurately qualifying a prospect and getting past gatekeepers to reach decision-makers. How can your salespeople detect lies and build in safeguards against them even when they can’t be detected? The article’s author, Robert S. Adler, a law and ethics professor at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School, offers some insights...
Slashing Prices? Get Something in Return **
Discounting is a fact of life in sales. Nearly every organization inevitably finds itself in a situation where discounting becomes a deal breaker...
Life Is Busy, Sell Relief **
Salespeople complain they can’t get enough face time with prospects these days because every company is trying to accomplish more with less and everyone is squeezed for time...
Do your words mean business? **
Your sales pitches – written and verbal – must be as compelling as they are convincing, and as clear as they are error-free. Allison Nazarian, President of Get It In Writing, Inc., a marketing copywriting firm in Boca Raton, Fla., offers tips for tuning up your message and increasing sales...
Get In Touch With Your ‘Inner Customer’ **
The purpose of customer alignment is to create new value for customers in ways that will add new value back to the company. But most salespeople — and sales managers — start the
planning process with unconsciously self-serving perspectives regarding what customers want and what will trigger their buying from them...
SALESU
Have The Wheels Come Off Of Your Sales Training Program?
Fixing it isn’t easy, but it’s worth it...
In Las Vegas, Sales Aren’t Left To Lady Luck
Harrah’s keeps its group sales approach simple, but that doesn’t mean training isn’t required...
Note to Self: Have Employees Put Their Training to Good Use
Jim Sollenberger is a wily human resources veteran who has forgotten more about how to run that aspect of a company than many HR directors will ever know. It’s no surprise, then, when he says he has found a differentiator that gives his company, Chicago-based Berlin Packaging, an advantage – one that helped produce a record year in 2006 and led to a sales growth rate that is triple that of the industry average...
Filet Mignon or A Better Sales Team?
We don’t mean to take the sizzle out of your steak, but the next time you plunk down the corporate credit card to cover a sizable dinner bill with clients, ask yourself if you
would trade that evening for a more skillful sales team...
MEETINGS&INCENTIVETRAVEL
Top Meeting Trends: Making Time for Fun, No-BlackBerry Zones and More **
It’s always worthwhile peering in on the top meeting trends as identified by Benchmark Hospitality International (www.benchmarkhospitality.com), an independent hospitality management company near Houston, Texas...
An Off-Site Take-Home That Will Actually Make It Home **
When Washington Mutual held an incentive trip for more than 2,200 participants at the Hilton Waikoloa Village on the Big Island of Hawaii, the company started things off right by providing each participant with a pair of custom-fitted Maui Jim sunglasses upon arrival....
A Do-It-Yourself Emergency Kit **
Randy Officer, Regional Sales Manager of Atkinson, Mullen & Rosso, a Philadelphia-based specialist in meetings and group incentive travel, offers these insights for do-it-yourself
meeting planners...
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GATHERINGSPOTS
Hail Caesars’ Expansion Plans **
A $1 billion expansion of Caesars Palace in Las Vegas will be highlighted by a new 263,000-square-foot convention center and a new hotel tower that will add 665 rooms...
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INCENTIVEPRODUCTS
Incentive Product Focus: Holiday Business Gifts (636KB PDF document. Requires free Adobe Reader)
Soon, business owners and managers across the country will ask themselves the same question: What can we use as business gifts? They’ll also ponder who to send gifts to and, perhaps most vexing, what the return on their gift investment is? Our assortment of holiday gift ideas can help you select something for the key names on your list. Pinning down the answer to the ROI question, however, is a trickier proposition...
Incentive Alley (752KB PDF document. Requires free Adobe Reader)
Take advantage of these exclusive offers to SalesForceXP readers on merchandise, gift card and travel incentives from our advertisers...
COACHES'CORNER
Time to Defrost the Cold Call: Lamenting the lost art of an effective sales tactic **
Whatever happened to the cold call? Whatever happened to calling a company up and asking for business? What happened to face-to-face meetings with potential customers? The more I
work with salespeople, the more I notice a trend away from this basic “meat and potatoes” style of selling...
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SFXPADVERTISERS
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