Top Sales Experts International have just released their very latest ebook.

It’s 147 pages, packed with articles from some of the foremost sales experts in the world. It will be on sale for $19.95, but you can grap a copy for free, that’s right for FREE here.

I haven’t got around to reading all the articles yet, but I have already found some gems in there:

Business Consultants, Strategic Orchestrators & Long-Term Allies
By Jonathan Farrington

A “Big Picture” View Blurs The Vision…..
By Christian Maurer

Don’t Get Referrals, Get Introductions
By Paul McCord

Are You Missing These Buying Signals?
By Skip Anderson

Recruiting A Sales Force That Sells
By Colly Graham

How To Successfully Cold Call For New Business
By Steve Martinez

Time Well Served!
By Tibor Shanto

Sociable! Selling Integrating Social Media Into Your Sales Process
By Shane Gibson

The Secret To Getting More Done And Making More Money
Aligning Your Activity With Your Objectives
By Karl Goldfield

Stop Blaming The Economy! Three Tough Questions
For Winning More Business In Today’s Soft Market
By Tim Wackel

To download this super ebook for FREE - just click on the widget below

Oh! and by the way, my own article is on page 109. Its called “Are You Selling Your L-Factor?” - Make sure to check it out

Btb Guest Author

Jerry Kennedy

This is an new venture for us. Once every month I will attempt to talk to a person in the know about selling or business. If you are interested - please let me know @ nialldevitt[at]btbtraining.com

The Btb Monthly Interview

Anne Perret is a Psychologist, Marketeer, Master Practitioner in Neuro Linguistic Programming and a director of Calyx Communications Limited, www.calyxcomms.co.uk, which provides specialist skills in bid management, sales management, bid writing, tender preparation, competitive tendering and responses to tenders

Me: Anne, is bidding selling?

Anne: You can tell what an organisation’s answer to this question is by how it manages its bids, tenders, proposals and responses to Invitations To Tender and Requests For Proposals (ITTs/RFPs). And by its win rate.

Those with a low win rate see bids as back office activity. Often bids are put together late because they are an add-on to the day job. Or it’s the job of a young graduate to write the bids. Sales people should be out on the road selling, not in the office writing. And a 20% win rate is the norm in their industry.

Me: How do the more successful organisations see things differently?

Anne: Organisations with high win rates see things differently. They regard responding to formal procurements as part of their sales function. And they take the business of bidding very seriously indeed.

Me: How involved should salespeople be in the process?

Anne: Their sales people are involved in bids, ensuring that every last piece of customer knowledge is fed into the bid strategy. And they are heavily involved in writing tender responses and presentations.

Me: Does the sales department always need to be involved in bidding or are there some exceptions?

Anne: Bidding brilliantly is part of a salesman’s job when that’s what customers require. It’s not an option or an add on – it’s an essential part of the selling toolkit.

Me: Thank you Anne, you re-confirmed what I have always believed.

In the News

Jonathan Farrington, our captain at TSE is confused, he thinks it’s Christmas and is giving away free places to TSE Masterclasses at his blog. - Make sure to keep an eye out, it’s on a first come first serve basis.

SLI (linkedIn)

We had our first Sales Leadership Ireland meet up yesterday in the Burlington. By all accounts, it was a success and the feedback has been excellent.  What surprised me, was not just the number of people that showed up - but the quality of these same people. I will be publishing a report of what transpired shortly.

We will be running another event soon, To join click here.

Btb Guest Author

Miriam Ahern

Face-to-face business networking is a much cheaper way to promote your business than advertising or PR. It is a low-cost activity where the pressure is on your time rather than on your pocket. It’s more effective than on-line networking as you build important personal relationships more quickly.

Nevertheless, meeting someone just once is unlikely to bring you new business. The key lies in repeat-encounters. However, the old maxim still holds – time is money. Here’s how to spend that time wisely:

Step # 1 - Determine why you need to network and set clear networking objectives for yourself

Action - List the main (important and urgent) objectives for your networking activities for the next twelve months. These objectives might be aligned to a personal or business plan that you have developed. Be very specific in terms of what you need to

do and why and when you need to do it. Use the SMART principle so that your networking objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.

Step # 2 - Audit your existing networks

Action - Make a ‘master list’ of your existing networks on one sheet of paper. Then, for each of those networks, take a blank sheet of paper and brain-storm that network. What you want to end up with is a set of individual lists of all of your active contacts within in each of your current networks. An active contact is someone with whom you have interacted during the last three months or so. If you are used to ‘mind-mapping’, that method makes this step really easy.

Step # 3 – Align your ‘master list’ to your new networking objectives

Action – Ask yourself this question. Are there other relevant groups of people that I need to network with to achieve my current networking objectives? If the answer is yes, your immediate mission is to identify, locate and engage with these new groups or individuals. Different networking objectives may require you to interact within different networking groups.

Step # 4 – Galvanise your existing networks into action

Action – In the context of your new networking objectives, review the names on each of the sheets that you have prepared for each of your networks. Are there other people available to you through those existing networks that you have not included in your list? For example, are there wider family members, ex-colleagues, or co-professionals with whom it would benefit you to acquaint yourself? Plan to connect with these additional people at your earliest opportunity.

Step # 5 –Re-educate your existing contacts

Action – Make sure that your introduction, or ‘elevator pitch’, is up to date. For many of us, the way in which we introduce ourselves may depend on which network we are interacting within. Make sure that if you have a ‘set’ of introductions that they are all freshly aligned to your networking goals. Do this in advance of any networking activities. Don’t get caught on the spot at events or meetings where you might get tangled in a long explanation about how or why you have changed your slant.

Step # 6 – Encourage your contacts to be your ambassadors and your sales reps!

Action – Make yourself memorable. One extremely good networker that I know carries a stunningly beautiful pair of diamond earrings in his pocket. Not so strange, really. He’s a master jeweller and a diamond grader. You should see people flocking around him when he’s in action. No-one ever forgets having met him either!

Use every available opportunity when you are networking to become involved in the event itself. Here are some suggestions:

Get to know your network organisers or facilitators

Volunteer to ‘buddy-up’ with newcomers at formal networking events

Become a connector, introduce your acquaintances to each-other

Offer to present a short talk on your subject(s) of expertise

Extend a special discount to fellow-networkers

Offer to be a table facilitator or host during round-table networking activities or exercises

Follow up a promising chance encounter with a one-to-one meeting over coffee or lunch

Relationships + Reputation = Referrals

Miriam Ahern is the founder and managing partner of Align Management Solutions – a consultancy specialising in organisational change and development. She also manages LINK! - Dublin City Enterprise Board’s Network for Start-up Businesses. Miriam is a regular contributor in the national media on issues relating to business management and human resources. She is a Certified Management Consultant and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers.

Mobile: + 353 86 234 2789

Office:  + 353 1 412 5890

www.twitter.com/MiriamAhern

www.linkedIn.com/in/miriamahern

Over at TSE

I am really looking forward to tomorrow’s roundtable “Harness the Power of Referrals”

Do you know what it takes to build a referral business?

Join five Top Sales Experts share their techniques that turn up the heat in prospecting by harnessing the power of referrals.

Joanne Black, Jonathan Farrington, Paul McCord, Steve Martinez and Nancy D. Solomon present this 60-minute roundtable on Tuesday May 26th.

Your current clients are your most under-leveraged referral source. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Learn where traditional referral training falls short, why it is so essential to understand your ideal client profile and recognize your ideal referral source, how to overcome referral roadblocks and how to develop a process that does “what it takes” to build a referral business.

The investment? $25.00  or $99.50.

HUH? You can become a VIP member of Top Sales Experts (at $25.00 for the entire year) and the Roundtables are FREE. If you’re not ready to become a VIP member then they are $99.50.

This is a meet event organised by the Sales Leadership Ireland LinkedIn Group. This is a not-for-profit initiative.

When: Wed, 03 Jun, 2009, Start time: 07:00 - End time: 09:00      Cost: 15 Euro

Where: Burlington Hotel, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin 4 ireland. View on Map.

Des: A practical look at how companies and sales people might respond to the current challenges and opportunities in the market.

SECTION 1: Interactive sessions with Speakers (45 minutes)

1) Introduction to Sales Leadership Ireland
- Niall Devitt, Beyond the Boardroom Training

2) “Removing the New Bottlenecks in today’s Sales Processes” – 10 minutes
Niall Devitt will lead a discussion on how sales challenges are always changing with changing markets, how to identify these changes and how to respond.

3) “Partnering into New Markets” – 10 minutes
Donagh Kiernan of Maidsfield Associates will present a case study of how corporate partnering is an effective method of entering new sectoral or regional markets.

4) “Engaging with Customers through New Media” – 20 minutes
Damien Mulley of Mulley Communications will discuss how new media can be used to communicate with your market and gain new business.

SECTION 2: Key Challenges Roundtables (1 hour)

Maximum attendees 30 – 3 round tables of 10

A number of identified Key Challenges in the industry today will be discussed and debated to share insights on how challenges can and are be met by members. The key challenges will be collected from the Sales Leadership Ireland - Linked-In Discussion Group.

Structure:
a) Introduce identified “Key Challenges” – (5 Minutes)

b) One “Key Challenge” will be assigned to each roundtable. Each table will select a spokesperson to chair a discussion and collect suggested actions to meet these challenges, taking notes on a flipchart page (30 Minutes)

c) Each table’s spokesperson will present their findings to the whole group (30 Minutes)

d) Session Summary and Close

COFFEE & NETWORKING

A session report will be submitted to the Sales Leadership Ireland LinkedIn Group Discussion

SIGN UP FOR THIS EVENT HERE

In case you haven’t been tuning in recently, the whole question of sales ineffectiveness was brilliantly raised by Dave Stein. It’s not just a great question for sales professionals; it’s frankly the ONLY question.

Dave rightly asks “The root causes of sales ineffectiveness are clear. There is plenty of sound advice about how to fix the problem. There is a proven path.  The answers are there for everyone to see. There are companies you can read about and observe that have achieved sales excellence.

So, recession aside, why is sales as a profession and function, losing ground?”

In three follow up posts, Sales Force Ineffectiveness, Conjecture of the Future of the Profession, parts one, two and three; Dave Brock does an excellent job in teasing out the issues.

In Part One, he talks about why “for too long, we have treated sales as a “black art”, that now “Customers can be more informed and less knowledgeable” and how “Consultative selling is difficult—it is disciplined, process based, and requires commitment and follow through on a sustained basis”.

In two, he observes that this is not just a sales problem” “Some of it is “business culture”—in general, some of it is “regional culture”—that is North American, European, Asian, and so forth. Some of it is “industry culture.”

Finally in part three, He resolves that these same difficulties also provide for “people who are or who are committed to becoming the highest levels of performance” - “opportunity for real progress and growth for sales professionals”.

He asks “how can we improve” “what can we do”. Dave believes that “each of us can take ownership in driving change”

“Whether you are a leader or individual contributor, becoming disciplined and process focused, committing to follow through on these, exploiting the tools produce results. Leverage these processes and tools, not because your management tells you to, but because they help you become more effective”

Collectively, these four posts are a MUST read, if you don’t have the time, MAKE the time – the reasons WHY are in the TEXT.

Now it’s not often, I take anything remotely resembled an issue with what Dave Brock says.

“To be honest—at least from an organizational point of view, I am tempted to point the finger at management—not just sales management, but corporate management”

Perhaps, it’s inexperience, or my youthful exuberance, but I am inclined to not just point my finger at senior management, but my entire hand, in fact right down to the tips of my toes. My entire being points in that general vicinity. Here why:

For too long, salespeople have been getting in the neck from management.

Yes, we may have a bad reputation and yes some of it may be deserved, buy ultimately the system is set up so that we always end up taking the heat. If the results don’t happen, who invariably gets the blame?

For years and years, salespeople get cast aside, replaced and cast aside again by companies. Rarely if ever, is it asked did this person get the right training? Did this person get the right support? And why did we hire this person again? Oh and by the way “who hired this person?

Dave says “I don’t believe change only comes from the top. I believe change comes from committed, passionate people at all levels of the organization” If a collective ownership of the result existed within organisations, I think Dave would be very right.

If some of the people entrusted with the sales leadership function in many organisations didn’t do their best to dodge and pass the buck, I think he would be right.

If salespeople weren’t forced to knock out huge numbers of calls and put in vast amounts of meaningless activities by ill-advised and badly trained sales mangers, I think he would be right.

If the wider business community and business leaders respected sales and salespeople, I think he would be right.

The point is this; the problem is in the way that the system is set up particularly with regards to responsibility. It makes it extremely difficult for salespeople to change the “science of selling” from within.

In my opinion, the buck stops and it STOPS squarely at the feet of some of our so called sales leaders.

In case, you missed my point - take a little inspiration from this recent article about HP

Btb Guest Author

Maureen Blandford

Perhaps you’ve heard about Merrill Lynch’s John Thain’s $1.22M office renovation, including $87K for an area rug? Preceded, of course, by AIG’s spending part of their bailout on spa treatments for execs. Nice. And then there was the Big Three auto execs flying corporate jets to Washington to plead for their share of the bailout. Next up: Citigroup. Led by an exec team that the NY Post calls “Citiboobs.”

In this Wednesday’s New York Times, Maureen Dowd asks:

“How could Citigroup be so dumb as to go ahead with plans to get a new $50 million corporate jet, the exclusive Dassault Falcon 7X seating 12, after losing $28.5 billion in the past 15 months and receiving $345 billion in government investments and guarantees?”

“Citiboobs,” indeed.

While I am appalled by story after story detailing greed, stupidity, and obtuseness in corporate leadership, and applaud the world’s righteous indignation over the executive termites who have caused irreparable damage to our many fine organizations, there’s a part of my business psyche that is pleased such horrid behavior is seeing the light of day.

For years (actually two decades), I have often felt horror at how the B2B version of Fat Cats (Marketers and the executives who support them) burn through $s on truly ridiculous marketing tactics, while the Working Poor (Sales orgs) struggle to do more with less.

An $8K shower curtain or an $87K area rug look like wise investments next to spending in Marketing I’ve witnessed over the years. At the same time that sales organizations have seen their training & coaching budgets shrink to next to nothing, marketers think nothing of dropping $100K on new logo development or color consultation. They produce brochures that are rarely read by target audiences. A few years ago, I witnessed a tech client approve a $200K photo shoot (in NYC, of course) for photos that easily could’ve been obtained for a fraction of the cost from one of many fine stock photo agencies.

Why are our field sales folks so often building their own sales tools (wasting valuable sales time), when their corp HQ folks are spending millions on marketing materials? Because much of the corp-produced stuff doesn’t meet real selling needs. Have you ever seen the garage of a pharmaceutical rep? Packed with marketing materials they don’t use.

Very briefly, corporate marketers have been trained solely in consumer marketing, not B2B. They’ve rarely actually carried a bag and consequently don’t understand that today’s great sellers are more about asking great questions rather than selling stuff.  Our marketing materials, if you’ve noticed, are packed with selling stuff. That’s not the kind of sales support we need today.

The dark side to this story is that many B2B Marketers have much in common with our ego-centric execs. They love to be wined and dined by Madison Avenue types and spend hours talking about things like shades of color and the emotions one shade or another evokes. And, this drives me crazy, marketers disdain sellers and sales organizations. Consequently, when a sales org tries to help a marketing org better meet their needs…well, they might as be talking to the hand.

Now, more than ever, responsible leadership will be open to a little righteous indignation over the imbalance in marketing and true sales support spend. If Starbucks is halting decaf brewing after noon in the hopes of saving $400M by the end of the year, I’m thinking leadership will be open to considering many cost-saving options.

Sellers and Sales Leadership: if you happen to have an internal marketing organization who supports your needs – Bravo! You can count yourselves lucky.

If, however, you’re not getting the support you need from your marketing organization, speak up. Consultative/Relationship/Collaborative selling is precisely what we need our sales orgs to be executing. But, it’s not easy. Features/Functions/Benefits selling is part of our DNA, having evolved over thousands of years.

To be effective in transitioning our sales folks over to great selling and ridding ourselves of bad habits takes time.  A sustainable sales support plan must include on-going mentoring, coaching, & training. For both sellers and sales leadership.

The good news here is that the investment needed for GREAT, sustainable sales support is a fraction of the budget that’s being wasted in B2B marketing today. For instance, marketing organizations executing a marketing plan that truly supports B2B selling could do a great job with about 60% of their current budget. I’d recommend redirecting some of the remaining 40% to on-going sales training needs (yippee!). And either saving the rest, or redirecting to HR efforts to hire and retain great sales people.

I’m giddy thinking about this: Sales folks supported by great training and marketing materials that help them move the ball down the field. Now – isn’t that worth some righteous indignation?

Maureen Blandford is CEO of the MindTime Group. Maureen helps her clients break through ineffective marketing strategies to develop tactics that work. Blandford combines her 20 years of practical expertise with her ground breaking theories to alert B2B decision makers to reallocate marketing dollars to a consultative selling motion. AT&T, NCR, The Iams Company, McAfee, Health Plus Technologies, PSC, are just a few of the many clients she’s worked with. Regarding her first book, Branding Doesn’t Work in B2B, Blandford says, “I’m doggedly determined to help B2Bs with a direct sales force understand that in B2B it’s people, and how they perform in the sales and delivery processes that have the greatest impact on current and future customers. Not Branding.

In the News

Paul McCord reviews (or should that be rightly pans a new book)

“The “what would Jesus do” close.  You use this close when your customer “is a Sunday go to meeting” type (throughout the book this level of respect for customers is demonstrated).  You acknowledge that you know he is a fine Christian and state that you understand that he wants to be like Jesus, just as every good Christian does.  You then tell the customer that you’ll give him your product or service free if he can show you anywhere in the Bible where Jesus said, “let me first ask my friend,” or “let me first ask my accountant,” or “I have to think about it.”  You point out that Jesus never had to hesitate to make a decision on his own.  According to the authors, after delivering this close, “The customer is stunned.  The master closer has made such a strong and truthful point, the customer doesn’t know what to say.”

HILARIOUS!!…….Can you believe this sales advice, this is not a joke - read Paul’s review here

This is a three-part post. Parts 2 and 3 are directly related.

Part 1 - Listen To

Last Thursday, after rushed home from a meeting and grabbing a quick cuppa, I settled down in front of my PC and signed into a TSE webinar called “The Sales Leadership Imperative”

I knew that this webinar was going to be good, because of the quality of the presenters.

Jonathan Farrington is Chairman of The Sales Corporation, based in London & Paris, and is a globally recognized business coach, mentor, author, and consultant.

Keith Rosen is the president of Profit Builders and is the Executive Sales Coach™ that top salespeople and managers call first to attract more prospects, close more sales and develop a team of top-performing sales champions.

Just over an hour later, I took off my head-set. My own knowledge bank had increased substantially. That wasn’t good, I thought – That was great.

Now, this is what self-directed learning is all about. As an established sales trainer, I consider myself to know a lot about selling, sales management and sales leadership. Yet, during this hour, I had learnt so much – there were simply some stunning insights.

The guys dealt with a range of sales leadership issues including:

• Identifying and leveraging the uniqueness of each member of the sales team.
• Connecting with and motivating your team during each interaction
• Recruit, retain and motivate top salespeople and turnaround under-performers inside 30 days

I would like to take this opportunity to recommend this webinar to you, in the strongest possible terms - it is simply TOP CLASS.

To join TSE, click here

To register for upcoming webinars, or to hear achieved webinars - simply click on the link below.

On Thursday April 30th 2009 at 6pm GMT, join TSE expert Christian Maurer for “Where is Your Revenue Growth to Come From?”

Part 2 – Join Up

Sales Leadership Ireland is a new LinkedIn group set up especially for Irish sales community. The focus of this new group is simple, to help sales professionals and sales leaders sell more.

We intend to network both off and on-line, we now have 124 members, and we want more; so if you are involved in sales and business development - please join us.

Part 3 – And Contribute

We have just put up our suggestions for our first SLI meet-up, The Changing World in Sales - “Buyers are not buying”

A practical look at how companies and sales people might respond to the current challenges and opportunities in the market.

SECTION 1: Interactive sessions with Speakers (1 hour)

Structure: 2 to 3 speakers on Key Topics providing practical information that can be applied quickly. 15 minutes each, generating interaction with the group with questions and discussion.

Some Suggested Key Topics:

- Removing the New Bottlenecks in today’s Sales Processes

- Bigger Pipelines, More Prospects, Better Qualification, Meeting Customer Needs

- Building New Channels to the Customer

- Engaging with Customers through New Media

SECTION 2: Key Challenges Roundtables (1 hour)

Structure:

A chaired session to identify the key challenges in today’s markets, assigning selected challenges to groups and to respond with potential solutions.

Steps:

a) Whiteboard / FlipChart suggestions from the entire group

b) Select top 4 or 5– allocate to groups, depending on numbers in attendance

c) 4/5 Roundtables/Groups decide on chairs/spokesperson

d) Discuss and FlipChart the suggested actions to meet the challenges

e) Spokesperson shares with the whole group

A session report could then be issued to the Linked Group Discussion.

So again, please join us on Linkedin, we would love to have you. Get stuck in and come along to our first meet up

I recently passed the 100 post mark on this blog.

To say that I have learnt a lot in between would be an understatement. To say that I have lots more to learn, would require an even bigger understatement.

It has been an enjoyable, frustrating and fascinating experience. I have gained readers; I have gained new customers and best of all I have gained many great new friends.

My posts have resulted in praise, in controversy, and in scorn. Readers have agreed with me strongly and readers have disagreed, with equal amounts of passion.

Perhaps, now is a good time to step back, and evaluate what has a 100+ posts taught me, about blogging and blogging for business.

Lesson Number 1 - Quality always Beats Quantity

With the amount of available information that is out there, you need to stand out from the crowd. To this end, it is always better to focus your efforts on the quality of your posts, rather than the quantity.

People now have a much shorter attention span, so to get them to actually read what you have written - requires that you offer something of real value. Spend enough time constructing each post, giving extra special attention to your headline (eye-catching) and your first paragraph.

Lesson Number 2 – Never Ever Sell

So many business blogs are merely a series or reworded advertisements for the particular business. It’s awful, awful, and awful and gives nothing of real value to the reader. Instead think Give! - give advice, give insight and give resource. Make your blog valuable, in the eyes of your readers.

So instead pose questions, stimulate debate, provide commentary, and invite other experts to write interesting posts. Remember, the more value your blog brings to your readers - the more lightly that these same readers will become your customers.

Lesson Number 3 – Popular won’t always mean Popular.

There can sometimes be a tendency to jump on a particular bandwagon, and post about what everyone else is posting about. While this can be sound strategy for more established bloggers - it is rarely sensible for new bloggers to follow suit. Where possible, try instead to come up with new ideas and new topics - or at least differing angles for your posts.

It’s perfectly OK to be controversial, so long as your opinions are considered, and that you truly believe in what you are saying. Be careful, because once you have committed a point of view to the public domain - you will need to be able to back it up.

Lesson Number 4 – Engage with Your Readers

The very best thing about blogs is that, they allow for you to engage and debate with your readers. If someone takes the time to comment and give their point of view, make sure to respond and thank them.

Don’t just engage with people through your own blog, instead follow them home to their blog and leave a comment. Reading and engaging with others bloggers, not only increases readership of your blog – but is a super super way of generating ideas for new posts. Be sure to credit the other person and invite them to continue to partake in the ongoing discussion.

Lesson Number 5 – Don’t Be Afraid to be Yourself

A big mistake many new business bloggers make is to try and write in a so called “professional manner” It’s much more important to try to be yourself and to let your uniqueness out itself in your writing. If you like a joke, well then - have a joke.

Don’t burden yourself with having to sound, or come across - all professional like. The most important thing is your message, and that you communicate it with language your readers will understand.

So it’s 100+ posts down, and hopefully many more to go.  I could say more, but I will save for it 200+.

Can I take this opportunity to say a BIG thank you, to the readers, to those of you who left such great comments, to those that republished my posts and to anyone from anywhere who ever stopped by.

Warning: By the way, blogging is bloody addictive and I still cant spell LOL.

Published by Niall Devitt @ BtbTraining  

Btb Guest Author

Frances Neeson

As a daily DART commuter I’m an avid reader of the Metro that is handed out every morning. Reading it last Wednesday on the way into work I came across an article reporting on the results of a survey done by Monster.ie about flexi-time. Monster found that just 1 in 5 employees in Ireland have full access to flexi-time with 62 % of respondents claiming they have no access to flexi-time at all.

I’ve been working in my present job since September and one of the things I enjoy most is the relaxed atmosphere in the office and the flexi-time policy in place. I’m an early bird so I prefer to come into the office early in the morning and leave early in the afternoon. The majority of the staff come in later and work later. There are core hours when we all have to be in the office which are between 11 and 3, but we can work our other hours however we like around this.

The main reason that I appreciate this arrangement is that in my previous job even coming in 5 minutes late or leaving 5 minutes early was a huge no in the eyes of management. Asking to work flexi-time most likely would have resulted with a resounding shout of laughter and two words which I won’t write here! From the results of the survey mentioned earlier it seems that this is the case for many employees in Ireland, despite all the benefits a flexi-time policy can bring to the workplace.

Personally I think the option to work flexi-time is a huge incentive and motivation for employees and a great morale booster. I believe the benefits of flexi-time far outweigh any negatives, the most common of which are the organization and logistics needed for it to work properly and the fear that staff members may abuse the privilege or could falsify records of hours worked if they are not supervised properly. However my own feeling is that employees are usually grateful for a flexi-time policy and will not engage in behaviour that could result in a return to “normal” working hours.

Here are a few of my favourite things about flexi-time:

• I actually get a seat on the train both coming and going to work and no longer have to spend 30 minutes squashed up against a complete stranger while people fight for any available space in the carriage.
• Coming in early in the morning allows me a couple of hours to do any needed work on my client accounts or prospect for new leads without feeling guilty that I’m sacrificing phone time.
• If I need to go to the doctor or run an errand I don’t have to ask my boss for time off or worry about squeezing it in after work.
• I have plenty of time to see my friends, my family and do all the hobbies I love.

There are also many benefits for employers and companies such as:

• Improved staff morale and job satisfaction. Most companies that offer flexitime report improvements in recruitment, absenteeism and productivity.
• Decreased levels of stress and tiredness in staff members.
• Increased staff retention and reduced turnover rates.

Having worked in both a company with no flexi-time policy and one that does offer flexi-time; I can whole heartedly say that for me flexi-time gets big thumbs up. Although I do see that for some companies, larger ones especially, it might be more difficult to implement, once managed and overseen correctly the benefits will very quickly become apparent. My experiences are all from the employees’ side and it would be interesting to know if employers and senior managers view it in the same way or if they have a completely different opinion on the topic. But for me, my answer to the question of flexi-time is a resounding yay!

Frances Neeson is a sales consultant with OfficeMetrics, leaders in office productivity. OfficeMetrics provides companies with the tools to increase productivity and performance and enable flexi-time and home-working. For more information go to the website: www.officemetrics.com or email frances.neeson@officemetrics.com

Over at TSE

Our Webinar series are well and truly rocking and rolling, and the response so far has been incredible. The great thing is that if time constraints mean you can’t listen in live, you can of course listen to the recording over and over.

Up next, “The Sales Leadership Imperative” with Jonathan Farrington and Keith Rosen

When it comes to these two gents - You know you really can’t afford to miss it!

Remember, readers of this blog qualify for discounted membership to TSE - Just click here.

Sales Expo 09 has being rescheduled for June 9th.

At the event there will be trade stands from CRM companies such as Sage, agencies such as Rightfit, Sales Trainers and Coaches, Telesales / Sales Lead Generation Companies and much more.

This event is being run to help sales professional’s boost their own motivation as well as network with like minded sales professionals so why not bring a sales colleague and network your heads off?

For more information please call Lisa on 01 236 6636

Parties interested in participating at the event with a trade stand call Niall on01 236 6636

Individuals Interested in Attending the Sales Expo ‘09:

Booking details below:

Date: June 9th
Time: 5.30pm - 8.30pm
Venue: Ballsbridge Court hotel (Formally known as Berkeley Court)
Cost: €20.00

01 236 6636 or email lisa@jobsonlinegroup.ie

Perspective is the difference between good decisions and bad decisions.

It is our faculty of seeing all the relevant data in a meaningful relationship. It includes our ability to rationalise, to see through and to solve problems,and is the driving force behind our entire decision making process.

How developed is yours?

Psychological studies show that our ability to form perspective is in fact not that developed at all. Experiments demonstrate that introducing only a few factors considerably weakens our decision making abilities.

This means that simple computer programmes outperform their human competition across various selection processes.You could even argue that this flaw in our grey matter and has been directly responsible for much human suffering, including wars, disasters and our current environmental mess.

So how can we learn to combat our weak perspective and in turn improve our decision making ability?

Here are some pointers:

• Commit all the factors to paper.
• Give each individual factor a rating.
• Look for evidence both for and against.
• Pay particular attention to evidence against.
• Get the opinions of others.
• Seek out people who will actively disagree and listen to them.
• Realise final decisions are dangerous decisions.
• Once a decision has been made, continue to look for evidence and evaluate.
• Realise that good decision making often means going back on decisions.

Published by Niall Devitt, Btb Business Training