Many studies, such as Amen Clinics Research, illustrate the importance of a positive mind for physical health, mental health, creativity, productivity, focus, discipline, fulfillment, imagination, and dedication. All of these benefits have a direct impact on living more fulfilling lives and experiencing better results in business.

Brain scans show that a positive mind is much more active than a negative mind, and active in the areas critical for many of the benefits above. My focus here is on how to be more positive and if you are already in a positive state, how to enhance it further.

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Picture: Make sure you add one if you don’t have one on your profile yet. Headshot is best.

Personal Tagline: Write one, and update it. Click on the blue text, “What are you working on”  Maybe place your elevator pitch here?

Don’t Cut and Paste Your Resume: Describe experience/abilities.

Elevator Pitch: Make sure it is within your introduction section. You have 5 seconds to grab attention.

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“I absolutely believe that people, unless coached, never reach their full potential.” - Bob Nardelli, CEO, Home Depot

“Many of the world’s most admired corporations, from GE to Goldman Sachs, invest in coaching. Annual spending on coaching in the U.S. Is estimated at roughly $1 billion”. - Harvard Business Review

“Recent studies show business coaching and executive coaching to be the most effective means for achieving sustainable growth, change and development in the individual, group and organization.” – HR Monthly

“A major benefit of coaching is having someone who helps you see your strengths and weaknesses and uses them to accomplish your goals.” – Minneapolis Star-Tribune (more…)

Sales Interview Questions

I have posted sales interview questions for various sales positions below. These questions will be helpful when interviewing a sales professional or leader of any level.

(If you are a sales professional or sales leader looking for how to answer any question an interviewer could ever throw at you, please visit here!)

Sales Representative, Sales Executive, Account Manager, Account Executive, Sales Manager, District Sales Manager, Regional Sales Manager, Director of Sales, VP of Sales, Executive Vice President of Sales, Chief Sales Officer. (more…)

“When prospecting via phone and the contact picks up, do you ask for their time? Or do you go into your spiel?”

This question was asked on and below is my public answer:

This is a great question and there are many ways to approach this. Assuming this is a pure cold call and they are not expecting your call, the first thing I would recommend doing is put yourself in their shoes. What would you want to hear? How would you want to be treated? Start there and you might find your own answer…

Here are just some of the ways to approach it below, and the key is finding what works for you! (more…)

“strong consideration needs to be given to using external coaching programs to enhance internal results.”

“The study also indicates that using internal coaches to coach managers or executives is not correlated with coaching success. It appears that using external coaches for those groups is more effective and perhaps confirms that the higher cost of using an external coach may be well worth it.” (more…)

There was a great question posted on yesterday.  “What things do you refrain from saying to avoid sounding “salesy”?”  Below is my answer.  I will use the term “sales person” to describe anyone involved in using sales skills, i.e.-business owner, business leaders, sales reps, sales directors, etc.

I believe if you are your most authentic, natural, and genuine self, nothing “salesy” will come from your mouth.  The challenge is that many people think they need to be different, or act different, or say something different, than their natural self would say, to be a great sales person. (more…)

The question of whether a high level of empathy for a sales professional was an advantage or a disadvantage was asked on linkedin.com.  Below is my public answer to this question.

This is a great and interesting question! It looks like most people so far are saying that empathy is essential for sales people, and I agree!  I will expand on the concept and how to develop it a little further as it may be of help for those who want to enhance it. (more…)

In a study conducted by MetrixGlobal, LLC, the Return on Investment of coaching was calculated to exceed 500%.

A summary of that study can be seen below. (more…)

Jacksonville, Fla.–(Business Wire)–Jan. 4, 2001–Manchester Inc., a supplier of customized executive coaching programs, has released the results of a study that quantifies the business impact of executive coaching. The study includes data on executive behavior change, organizational improvements achieved, and the return on investment (ROI) from customized, comprehensive executive coaching programs. (more…)