Sales

Top pages Views for July/Augusts 2008

LeoCussons — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 05:10:18 -0600

It has been while since I have done this, due to a problem with my stats system, I must remember also do this on Work Connexions site. Any where here they are as chosen by you.

At number five:

How to sell a product simply but effective advice.

5. http://whooah.biz/2008/08/7-selling-skills-using-the-word-payment/

At number four:

Sales

Hopes and Dreams

LeoCussons — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 06:54:03 -0600

Hopes and Dreams -

It’s not rocket science but this being double o day with the Olympics on the eighth and all, something different.

Sales

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7 Selling Skills Using The Word Payment

LeoCussons — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 03:34:47 -0600

A customer is standing by the vacuum cleaner display. The Sales assistant approaches the customer and ask “are you looking for a upright or cylinder?”

Which letter best describes the selling skills?

Product knowledge know what you are selling.

Acknowledge customer- make eye contact

Sales

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Outlook as your CRM Tool

LeoCussons — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 06:31:25 -0600

Outlook as your CRM Tool - For many years I have used Outlook to manage my email and contacts. In fact it has been one of the main reasons why have I have not gone to Google mail. Outlook has some very nice features and tools that one can adjust to use for client management. In the address book it allows you to store a whole wealth of information. Set reminders, follow ups, tasks, names, companies, just about everything you can think of you might want to do as it is comes with the office package.

So when I cam across prophet software I thought it was very good idea. Building already on a strong platform they have managed to add and organise to some great tools. This is quoted from their website

Sales

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Is the Boss or Customer Always Right?

Lewis.Green — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:35:43 -0600

Is the Boss or Customer Always Right? -
No. But if you want to keep your job or that customer, you might want to carefully consider your options and put your brain in gear long before your mouth. Let me explain.

In my previous post, I talked about why a great hitter such as Manny Ramirez had to go. And compared the reasons why with employees who find they no longer or never did fit within their business culture, which led to their being asked to leave or deciding to leave on their own.

The same can be true when we challenge bosses and customers. Although we may be right, doing so might result in a check mark against us, even if we do so with sensitivity, respect and dignity. Here are two examples:

Management

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Guest Post - How to do a thirty-second elevator pitch

Wcx — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 01:53:14 -0600

Generating an effective elevator pitch is very straightforward if you remember some simple rules.

The first thing to remember is the metaphor is that you’re in an elevator, or as we would call it in the UK, a lift). You have to be short and to the point; you probably have no more than 30 seconds.

A good elevator pitch has the three ‘P’s:

PAIN
What is the pain or problem that you plan to solve?

PREMISE
What exactly do you do? What is your product or service?

You should be very literal; not just ‘we aim to transform people’s lives’ – you should say something like ‘we provide excellent coaching and training courses’.

PROOF
This is the hardest one. What proof do you have to back up your Premise?
You quote a happy customer case study, or explain your personal credentials and background

Sales

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Proposals that Wow Prospects

Wcx — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 03:26:36 -0600

Proposals that Wow Prospects - Recently a major corporation invited six consulting firms to make one-hour pitches for an EDI project. Five followed the same basic presentation: company background and experience, project team members and their qualifications, comments about billing practices, and a timeline. The sixth presenter began, We would also like to say a little about ourselves, but first we’d like to tell you what we know about the inventory problem that’s costing you $250,000 every year.
read more [Eyes on Sales]

Sales

Asking Past Clients for Referrals-Best Practice Tips

Wcx — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:08:15 -0600

Asking Past Clients for Referrals-Best Practice Tips - Recently, we decided to launch a referral campaign for one of our clients. They have just opened a new office in Texas, and would like to get the word out to past and present clients. Since we don’t specialize in direct mail type pieces, I turned to the one man I know who is the best in his field. Dean Rieck of Direct Creative.
read more [Eyes on Sales]

Sales

FREE Online Webinar: 5 Quick Steps to Recession-Proof Your Sales Team

Wcx — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 09:25:36 -0600

FREE Online Webinar: 5 Quick Steps to Recession-Proof Your Sales Team - On Thursday, July 24th at 1PM EDT please join Razi Imam and Landslide Technologies for a FREE online webinar!
Increasing pressure to improve performance and revenue, matched with uncertainty and dictates for buyers to cut costs are creating a “perfect storm” for salespeople and sales managers. How can you overcome these obstacles without going into a vicious cycle of discounting and decreasing margins? Register Today!

read more [Eyes on Sales]

Sales

What type of Sales Manager are You? TheSeven Types of Managers

Wcx — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:02:58 -0600

What type of Sales Manager are You? TheSeven Types of Managers - With all the efforts those who are managed, the mass, put forth in a regal and often last valiant attempt to salvage a once positive work environment, at the core of every unhealthy working environment is the toxic boss, manager or supervisor that breeds it. All roads go back to the manager. And if the manager isn’t willing to change, then it’s a safe bet that in the end, nothing will.
read more [Eyes on Sales]

Sales

Competitiveness of Sport used in Business

LeoCussons — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:56:04 -0600

Competitiveness of Sport used in Business -

We all like winners, We like people that excel at something. Sports people are a good demonstration of this. Last night I was watching the ladies Wimbledon Tennis. The game I was watching intrigued me due to the amount skill, dedication, pursuit, and always fighting for that last point. Here were two woman quite clearly prepared to do anything to get that ball over the net. People can say that women are less competitive than males but last night at Wimbledon nobody would have believed it.

Sales

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Avoiding the Void: How to Manage the Space Between Sales Calls

Wcx — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:52:36 -0600

A Great little article from eyes on sales Avoiding the Void: How to Manage the Space Between Sales Calls - Sales are not always won or lost because of what happens in a sales call, but in the void between calls. This article describes the four reasons why the space between sales calls puts your opportunities at risk and identifies three rules that will help you to bridge the void.
read more [Eyes on Sales]

Sales

The Real ROI of Blogging

Lewis.Green — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 02:59:50 -0600

I am a stickler for marketing and sales results. Everything we do should be measured, including our social media and social networking efforts. If what we do doesn't return ROI, we should stop doing it. Of course, to measure ROI, it must first be defined. I define ROI by asking the following questions...

Do our marketing efforts:

Create great customer experiences as measured by the happiness levels of our customers?

Result in loyal clients?

Result in revenues and/or profits?

Result in leads and referrals?

Result in getting us noticed?

If marketing results in one or more of the above and is greater than our investment as measured in time and costs, we should keep the strategy and the tactics to achieve that strategy and work to do it better and more profitably. The purpose of this post is to focus on blogging ROI, and to do so please permit me to share my firm's personal story.

Sales

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Work Connexions Logos

Wcx — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:33:48 -0600

Our logo may be downloaded (Usage is subject to agreement of terms and conditions see below) and used by anyone who is registered with Work Connexions and will also gain entitlement to premium advertising please use the feedback form to let us know when you have put it up on your site.

Work Connexions logo - Terms and Conditions for use

The Work Connexions logo device is a trademark of Work Connexions Limited. Correct usage of Work Connexions logo is vital. Please read the following terms and conditions before you use Work Connexions logo.

Ownership

Is the proprietor of the Work Connexions, and any copyright subsisting in and the goodwill relating to the Work Connexions logo.

Marketing

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How to Get Lower Priced Petrol?

LeoCussons — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:13:24 -0600

How to Get Lower Priced Petrol? -
See what you think and pass it on if you agree with it

We are hitting 123.9 a litre in some areas now, soon we will be faced with paying 2.00 a ltr. Philip Hollsworth offered this good idea:

This makes MUCH MORE SENSE than the ‘don’t buy petrol on a certain day campaign that was going around last April or May! The oil companies just laughed at that because they knew we wouldn’t
continue to hurt ourselves by refusing to buy petrol. It was more of an inconvenience to us than it was a problem for them. BUT,whoever
thought of this idea, has come up with a plan that can really work.

Please read it and join in!

Management

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What’s your best blog post worth - Competition Time

Wcx — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 06:16:52 -0600

Work Connexions is running the blog competition to raise awareness of the benefits of blogging for companies and businesses. Entrants will be judge upon Work related Topic, writing style, and content.

Work Connexions is offering $200 dollars for your best blog post. All you have to do is to go to www.workconnexions.com and submit your best blog post before 1 July 2008 and you will be automatically entered into the competition. Include a link from your website and you will qualify for one month banner advertising on any of our Wcx page rank 4 and above sites.

You have to submit the post as a blog on the site. That means that you have to create account and then post a blog. All blog posts within the date will be eligible for the competition.

Sales

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Who Is Your Audience?

LeoCussons — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 04:55:28 -0600

I am sure there are some people out there who interested in widgets and can spend twenty years talking about them. That is great if I need help to understand widgets I will go and visit a blogger or a professional who can help with that. The widget blogger has a defined audience he knows who it is and the widget lovers know who he is. One could say a perfect Marriage.

Fortunately or unfortunately depending on how you look at it. I have a wide lens and am interested in wide variety of subjects. Which is fine. For each subject I run a blog helping my users in just that area. The problem is business development is quite a big subject area, possible too big. So should I just focus on a few niches like sales, or telephone sales?

Sales

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Hard truths about medical entrepreneurs

John.Crippen — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 02:15:15 -0600

Hard truths about medical entrepreneurs

Sales

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Great Ideas Deserve a Helping Hand

LeoCussons — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:08:21 -0600

Great Ideas Deserve a Helping Hand - I have just been reading this morning about two companies on Tech Crunch, The first one last year won the Tech Crunch awards for best start up. The company in question is called Mint their website is about managing your finances and they do it very well. According to the stats they are getting ten thousand new users signing up per day. If that figure is correct than they have truly made a mark.

Sales

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Sometimes a one-page Web site is all you need

Wcx — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 05:11:57 -0600

Sometimes a one-page Web site is all you need - Marketing experts have preached for years the importance of businesses having a Web presence. Yet nearly half of small businesses nationally still do not have a Web site. Why is that? We know that some simply don’t believe in the power of the Web — at least as it relates to their own businesses. I won’t try to change their minds (at least not today). Instead, let’s focus on the small-business owners who do believe in the Web, but view creating a Web site as a complicated, time-consuming project that they are afraid to outsource. Yet they don’t have the time to do it themselves either.

Marketing

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Selling in a Down Economy Understanding Your Customer

Wcx — Tue, 27 May 2008 08:54:55 -0600

Guest Post From http://salesroundup.com

There are a few basic behaviors that top salespeople should follow in tough economic times to sustain their performance. First, make your customer’s goals your personal objectives. Demonstrate how your product or service will advance their ambitions. Only propose solutions that solve their business problems! Second, justify all proposals with payback beginning in the current fiscal year. In tough economic times every customer will be looking to save money. Third, and perhaps the most important, reduce their risk! This is especially acute in a down economy. No one wants to take on additional risk when times are tough.

This week Mike and Joe talk with Jeb Blount, author of PowerPrinciples and founder of SalesGravy.com about Understanding Your Customer’s needs throughout this turbulent period.

Sales

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How hard could it be?

Evel — Tue, 20 May 2008 06:31:36 -0600

During a break from trying to learn Photoshop CS3, (11 hours straight) I was checking out eBay and thought I would click on 'sell and item' just to see how hard it would be.

Guess what? It ain't. Check out my first 5 items.
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZevel666

These are amazing purses that my sister makes herself. She is the crafty one.

We will see how these go.

Sales

Web 2.0 Business and Product Development

LeoCussons — Fri, 16 May 2008 07:12:23 -0600

The number of adverts that I see for a business development manager, or a relationship manager in the papers and on job boards I find to be amazing. It would seem that every company has something to develop; even my local butchers spent half an hour telling me how there has been no free range chickens sold in this area for the last 20 years. Now he may be right, but it does not solve my problem. I tend to eat very little meat nowadays as it is so damn hard to tell where it came from, how was it kept, what it was feed etc… Was it allowed to wander around outside? Has it been properly hung etc? Of all the businesses, that I can think of my butchers would do very well with some product development.

Sales

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Ten Writing Tips to Create Blog Posts That Get Read

Lewis.Green — Fri, 09 May 2008 05:28:11 -0600

Ten Writing Tips to Create Blog Posts That Get Read - I felt a little weird creating that title, but if we want readers to visit our blogs, we need compelling headlines. And while the one above seems boastful, I know from experience that writers seek writing tips. And they are not looking for bad ideas but good ones. Hence the headline, and my effort below to share what works in writing a good post.

Okay, here is one writer's ideas. I haven't changed what I believe to be good writing in the past 30+ years, starting as a journalist, then editor, then publisher, then freelance writer and today a marketer/communicator. Hope these tips help.

Sales

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Is Social Media Evangelism Possible?

Lewis.Green — Thu, 08 May 2008 04:03:21 -0600

Is Social Media Evangelism Possible? -
I just got off a telephone conversation with Aaron Strout. We were discussing an upcoming IMCNE Panel called Social Networking & Web 2.0: What you need to know to use this medium to separate your company from the pack. I'm the moderator and Aaron is one of the outstanding panelists, alongside Laura Fitton, Scott Monty and Boston Business Journal technology writer Jackie Noblett.

Sales

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Successful Networking Step #1 - Determine Your Target Market

Wcx — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:01:10 -0600

In a recent Ezine article I declared that most business networking is a waste of time. However, the operative word in that statement remains “most.” Networking, when done effectively is an invaluable tool for business success. Still, networking is a process and thus a step-by-step approach ought to be followed in order to yield the most effective results.

The first step in successful networking deals with determining an appropriate target market to spend your networking efforts on. This determination will ensure that you don’t make one of the most common errors in networking; trying to be everything to everyone. Or, to put it another way, people often spread themselves too thin, by casting too broad of a networking “net.”

Sales

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Successful Networking Step #1 - Determine Your Target Market

Wcx — Wed, 07 May 2008 07:01:04 -0600

In a recent Ezine article I declared that most business networking is a waste of time. However, the operative word in that statement remains “most.” Networking, when done effectively is an invaluable tool for business success. Still, networking is a process and thus a step-by-step approach ought to be followed in order to yield the most effective results.

The first step in successful networking deals with determining an appropriate target market to spend your networking efforts on. This determination will ensure that you don’t make one of the most common errors in networking; trying to be everything to everyone. Or, to put it another way, people often spread themselves too thin, by casting too broad of a networking “net.”

Sales

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How to Business Blog Without Being Unprofessional

Wcx — Wed, 07 May 2008 04:18:42 -0600

How to Business Blog Without Being Unprofessional -
Writing on your blog is not gossip. While you could get plenty of traffic from your industry by spreading juicy titbits about your competitors and colleagues you will more likely grab yourself a bad reputation rather than more work or industry profile. Language can be an issue. I am not talking about swearing and such, most business people would know better than to drop bad language into a marketing tool. What I mean is tone and sophistication. You have to fit the voice to the audience.

Sales

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Is Social Media Good for Business?

Lewis.Green — Tue, 06 May 2008 13:08:01 -0600

Is Social Media Good for Business? -
This in not a new or an original question by any means but one that businesses are asking, including and especially the Fortune 1000 and other large and mid-sized corporations. I answered it twice for my small business, once here with a case study and once at MarketingProfs, which did a case study of my business's client base via social media.

Sales

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Offline Promotion to Make Money Online

CashQuests — Tue, 06 May 2008 02:40:35 -0600

In your quest to make money online, you have probably done an endless amount of Internet and perhaps email marketing. Have thought to do a little offline marketing to drive potential customers to your online presence?

While your business may lie solely on the Internet, there are still a lot of eyeballs you could be attracting with the right amount of offline presence. Things like fliers and stickers are good inexpensive ways to promote your site/blog/MySpace Profile or whatever. It’s all about targeting. Do you sell books online through Amazon’s affiliate program? Why not post some fliers or hand out stickers at or near libraries or bookstores? Some places have bulletin boards that are perfect places for this kind of marketing. Sending complimentary promotional items like stickers or t-shirts to existing customers can be a good way to get yourself some brand recognition.

Sales

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Comments and Links

LeoCussons — Mon, 05 May 2008 16:00:38 -0600

Comments an links - My mate Owen, over at the only network, Has a post about Analyze Backlinks
There is website that will tell you all the sites that are linking to you. It is well worth a visit as it will allow you to understand how effective your commenting is on other users blog. Key to gaining a good page rank is insuring that authority bloggers link back to. So commenting really is important for your blog. The rule of thumb here is the more links the higher the page rank. So get reading and positively participating.

Sales

Twitter Updates for 2008-05-04

LeoCussons — Mon, 05 May 2008 15:58:24 -0600

Twitter Updates for 2008-05-04 -

Time for some link love soon, really impressed that http://www.workconnexions.com has page rank of 4

Sales

Finding Your Passion

Lewis.Green — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:53:27 -0600

Five years ago, I left the corporate world behind forever. Although I was working my way up the ladder and my skills and experiences were in demand, my passion for working for a paycheck died.

This wasn't the first time I entered the world of entrepreneurialism. In 1983, I ran a small publishing, writing and consulting business, then returned to the corporate arena as an Executive Editor followed by a communications management position at first a large utility and then Starbucks. Unhappy, I left and built a communications consultancy. Again, recruited to fill a VP of Marketing position, I was lured back to the corporate world. That lasted six months.

Sales

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How Small Changes Can Make a Big Difference

Wcx — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:13:08 -0600

One of the requests that I often see on the Warrior Forum is for members to review a re-designed landing page and say whether or not it’s better than the old one. Clearly it’s good to get other peoples’ views on how effective a new landing page is but, at the end of the day, there’s only one opinion that matters: The opinion of your visitors.

A landing page has a specific job. It either has to get opt-ins or it has to get clicks on affiliate or buy links.

So the only real test of how good a landing page is comes from how successful it is at getting your visitors to do what you want them to.

I usually offer some thoughts, but I always encourage the questioner to test the pages against each other. Because that’s the only way you’ll really find out which is the most effective.

Sales

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Phishing and your Google Adwords Account

LeoCussons — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:18:31 -0600

Phishing and your Google Adwords Account - This morning I got an interesting email from Google warning for Adword users that they have been a number of security issues recently. Apparently users of the service have been receiving emails telling them that they are at risk to money being transferred from there account. To counter this they have to click on link which leads them to a false site (phishing) Where the site operator is able to get there account information when the user tries to log in. From the criminal perspective is clever scheme. What surprises me is that anyone who would be using Google ad words or administrating it is unlikely to be an internet novice. The problem must be widespread for Google to be emailing all of us. What does that say about their user base?

Sales

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How much Time do you Spend reading Blogs?

LeoCussons — Thu, 01 May 2008 02:50:33 -0600

Do you feel guilty if you are not regular reading other users Blog? With all the pressures of modern day life who do you pick and choose to read? If I am totally honest I do not do as much reading as I would like. When the day eventually ends there are still things that need doing and reading when you are tired is not effective. I guess quick scan in the morning is the best bet. I tend my self to take a look around lunch time. There are couple topics or writers that I have been following recently when that has run it’s course I will then move on. This question has been topically asked yesterday by Shoemoney, The most amount of comments for the least amount of work http://tinyurl.com/5h58yc
It does demonstrate just how relevant blogging is or not in the wider picture.

Interesting too how collectively similar topics will be discussed in blogsphere

Sales

What do I get at Work Connexions?

Wcx — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 02:15:32 -0600

Businesses are already benefitting from being part of www.WorkConnexions.com.

Being part of Work Connexions is easy - and the benefits you'll enjoy are huge.

Our customers tell us that being a Work Connexions member really works, with new customers being found within days of joining. It is Free to register with Work Connexions and for users who need a little more power, there is comprehensive advertising options.

Work Connexions Features

New customers and leads Work Connexions provides reciprocal feedback and has a high internet presence, providing the latest internet technology. We are the prime choice to really promote your business in an ever growing community.

Extensive visibility on Google and other major search engines. Our search-engine optimised site makes sure people can access your profile and site. We invest heavily to ensure that when people are searching for what you do then they'll find you.

Sales

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Very Clever Programming, The Best Marketing in the World

LeoCussons — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 02:07:57 -0600

HEMA is a Dutch department store. The first store opened on November 4, 1926, in Amsterdam . Now there are 150 stores all over the Netherlands . HEMA also has stores in Belgium, Luxemburg, and Germany . In June of this year, HEMA was sold to British investment company Lion Capital.

Take a look at HEMA’s product page . You can’t order anything and it’s in Dutch but just wait a couple of seconds and watch what happens.

This company has a sense of humor and a great computer programmer. I want one….

http://producten.hema.nl/

Sales

Why I did the 360 and Monetised My Site

LeoCussons — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 03:12:10 -0600

I am going to stick my hand in the fire and say that advertisements in blogging can offer a lot of benefits to the reader.

Traditionally I came from background that has never really been effected by advertising. Is that really possible in this day and age? Well sort of, most of my small or large purchasers are brought based on my own criteria or (critical assessments).

Now, it may be argued that as there is marketing happening most of the time at some level and I am being both directly and indirectly influenced by this also but that is a topic for another blog. So the question is why do I think advertising adds to blogs?

Well some of the answer is to be found if you are writing about ideas and concepts in your blogs then there are a lot of products that can appear in blog offering their services that would bolt on nicely to the content. After all this happens in the film industry all the time

Sales

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“All Marketers are Liars” Seth Godin Video at Google

Wcx — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:34:23 -0600

“All Marketers are Liars” Seth Godin Video at Google -
Seth Godin is the author of six bestsellers, including Permission Marketing, an Amazon Top 100 bestseller for a year and a Fortune Best Business Book. His newest book,The Dip, has already made the Amazon Top 100 and has inspired its own blog. Seth is also a renowned speaker, and was recently chosen as one of “21 Speakers for the Next Century” by Successful Meetings Magazine and is consistently rated among the best speakers by the audiences he addresses.

Seth was founder and CEO of Yoyodyne, an interactive direct marketing company, which Yahoo! acquired in late 1998. He holds an MBA from Stanford, is a contributing editor to Fast Company magazine, and was called “the Ultimate… (more)

He is also one of our recommended resources.

Sales

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