Ted Williams, one of the greatest baseball hitters of all times, once said that the secret to good hitting was getting a good pitch to hit. He could just have easily been talking about successful cold calling. The first step in effective cold calling is segmenting the marketplace. Just as you need to know your [...]
Posted tagged ‘Strategy’
A Cold Calling Sales Method
July 6, 2010Over the past few months, I have taken on the responsibility of sales through a cold calling project. To be candid, I have never been a fan of cold calling. My personal belief is that you grow sales from the inside out, that is, you leverage existing relationships to create warm leads that result in [...]
Completing the Leadership Assessment
June 29, 2010As with all interviews, and particularly interviews of this type, the key is to get to know the candidate. Therefore, as the interviewer, you must be engaging and energetic. Yet, you must also be a good listener. Always take notes during the interview. It will allow you to “mentally record” the candidate’s responses and then [...]
Establishing the Foundation for the Leadership Interview
June 22, 2010A leadership interview is a little more delicate. In fact, I would categorize this discussion as more of a conversation than an interview. There are several reasons why this is so. The candidate being interviewed is typically more mature. Usually, this person has managed departments or divisions, if not other companies. Therefore, this applicant is [...]
Determining the Candidate’s Leadership Profile
June 17, 2010One of the challenges in the interview process was the need to capture information in a meaningful way. The plan was to interview five candidates in one day and the risk of blurring responses, characteristics and attributes was fairly high. Effective data capture was therefore important. The tool that was built had a section for [...]
You can be efficient with things but you can only be effective with people
May 2, 2010I really love my clients…they are all so eclectic and so varied. They have a unique way of thinking and my role as their guide is always interesting, stimulating and challenging. This past week presented an unusual opportunity and I wanted to share it with you. It reminded me of one of my favorite management [...]
Problems vs. Opportunities
December 21, 2009The single greatest issue in addressing a client’s or colleague’s needs is understanding what we are trying to solve or manage in the first place. The reason this is so critical is because misunderstanding what the desired outcome is supposed to be typically results in the wrong solution. Here’s a simple example. If we want [...]
