What Makes You Stand Out ?

When I deal with the sales team of any organization, there is one specific question I like to ask that will tell me how skilled the salesperson is and how good their sales training has been. I ask the question in a private setting, just the two of us. Here is the question:

What are They Saying About You

If all things were equal … Would they pick your company to do business with? Would your customers recommend your company to a friend? Would the majority of your business come from referrals? Let’s get one thing straight … ALL THINGS AREN’T EQUAL. There are different levels of quality of products and different levels of customer service.

The Pick-up Line

In the world of dating, a successful “pick-up line” can make or break any chance of getting to strike up a conversation with someone you would like to meet. Below are a few examples of what some people thought were great "pick-up lines".

The Sophistication of Simplicity

Successful companies today are doing everything they can to simplify operations. Complicated policies, procedures, rules and regulations are being simplified, replaced or deleted. Subtraction is the exercise of genius … addition is the exercise of fools. Let me say that a different way: Simplifying is the exercise of genius… Complicating is the exercise of fools. So, SIMPLIFY your operations and your life every chance you get.

Preparation is Key

Georgia Tech invited 20 aerospace engineers and college professors to a paper airplane flying contest to see who could design a paper airplane to stay up the longest. A contest had also been conducted for 2nd-graders in the state of Georgia to see who could design a paper airplane and fly it the longest. The 7-year-old boy who won that contest was invited to Georgia Tech to compete with the aerospace engineers.

Recessions Are Great Teachers

Andy Grove, former Chairman of Intel, once stated. “Only the paranoid survives. Paranoids believe someone or some force is out to get them.” In this time of a thriving economy, companies have a tendency to relax and that, to me, is a big problem. Mr. Grove went on to say, “Success breeds complacency and complacency breeds failure.”