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.

Below are a few approaches that may be helpful for you. Try them out and find what works for you.

Question the negative thought.
1. Ask yourself what it feels like to experience this thought?
2. How does it limit you?
3. What would be different for you and what becomes possible without this negative thought?
4. Flip the negative thought upside down to create a positive thought.
5. Consciously decide which thought feels better for you.

Acknowledge the negative thought.
1. Choose to separate yourself from the negative thought and view it as separate from your true self.
2. Notice your negative voice, (ie- “I can’t do this” or ”I will fail”) and then ask yourself what you truly believe.
3. Consciously decide which way of thinking is right for you.

Ignore the negative thought and tell it to get lost!
1. Tell your excuses or negative thoughts to go away and back off.
2. Then you can focus on what is most important to you.

Enhance your positive mind-set by asking these questions.
1. What is going well for me right now?
2. What keeps my energy going?
3. What values, natural gifts, or talents are present when I am feeling positive?
4. Who else can I count on to have positive energy?
5. Is there a place in my business or life, where I can tap into positive energy?
6. How would being more positive benefit me?
7. What changes can I make to put more focus on a positive mind-set?

Would you like to have more positive energy at your business? Learn more about my team building programs.

Spread positive energy throughout the world. Please share this with others who may benefit from reading this.

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.

Specialties: This section is where you put your most important keywords for SEO, and searches within LinkedIn. Make sure you use variations of the keywords as well, so you will appear in LinkedIn searches.

Additional Information: Add websites, (customize it, don’t leave it as “My Website” and it can help with Google page rank) Add awards, passions, other abilities. Round out your profile.

Recommendations: Write them and request them.

Answer and Ask Questions: You will get more clicks on your profile when you ask thoughtful questions or give helpful answers. Establish your expertise and credibility in a field.

Add Connections: This boosts visibility and when people scan your profile, they will look to see who you know in common. If you know someone in common, your profile is often viewed in a higher regard.

Profile URL: Make a custom URL, to reflect your name or tagline. (Edit-’Public Profile’ near the top) You can then add this custom URL to your website or email signature.

Groups: Join groups that you wish to participate in their discussions. Ask questions and answer questions there. Be aware that many of the groups have turned into job boards or free advertising. So if you start a group, make sure to specify the rules/regulations. Starting a Group for yourself can be a great way to network and drive business as well.

Applications: There are some great new applications within LinkedIn that enable you to post presentations, travel information, attach your blog to your profile and many other ways to add depth to your profile.

Here is my profile as an example: www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyulmer

Do you want to take your Linkedin Profile and Linkedin Results to the next level? Contact me for a free consultation or learn more about my Linkedin Coaching program.

Jeremy J. Ulmer, Professional Coach, Sales Coach, Sales Mentor, Business Coach, Life Coach, Executive Coach

“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

“Using [coaching] instead of sending executives and managers to seminars two or three times a year can be more beneficial to ongoing career development, not to mention less expensive…” – PC Week

“Coaching takes a holistic view of the individual: work, corporate values, personal needs and career development are made to work in synergy, not against one another.” – British Journal of Administrative Management

“Coaching started in the business world to help stressed out executives cope with their professional and personal lives, and it still thrives in the corporate environment. But, increasingly, individuals are turning to coaches for help with every sort of problem.” – Boston Globe

“If you want to build your business and at the same time have a rewarding personal life, you call a coach.” – Denver Post

“A personal coach can help you by getting you to spell out what it is that you really want and then working with you to make the changes that actually enable you to get there.” – The Vancouver Province

“A study featured in Public Personnel Management Journal reports that managers (31) that underwent a managerial training program showed an increased productivity of 22.4%. However, a second group was provided coaching following the training process and their productivity increased by 88%. Research does demonstrate that one-on-one executive coaching is of value.” – F. Turner, Ph.D.

“Xerox Corporation carried out several studies on coaching. They determined that in the absence of follow-up coaching to their training classes,  87% of the skills change brought about by the program was lost.” – Business Wire

“In a 2004 survey by Right Management consultants, 86 percent of companies said they used coaching to sharpen skills of individuals who have been identified as future organizational leaders.” - Excerpt from “What An Executive Coach Can Do For You” – Harvard Business School.

“Business coaching is attracting America’s top CEOs because, put simply, business coaching works. In fact, when asked for a conservative estimate of monetary payoff from the coaching they got… managers described an average return of more than $100,000, or about six times what the coaching had cost their companies.” - FORTUNE Magazine

“A coach may be the guardian angel you need to rev up your career.” - MONEY Magazine

“Across corporate America, coaching sessions at many companies have become as routine for executives as budget forecasts and quota meetings.” - INVESTORS BUSINESS DAILY

“Coaches are not for the meek. They’re for people who value unambiguous feedback. All coaches have one thing in common. It’s that they are ruthlessly results-oriented.” - FAST COMPANY Magazine

“I never cease to be amazed at the power of the coaching process to draw out the skills or talent that was previously hidden within an individual, and which invariably finds a way to solve a problem previously thought unsolvable.” - John Russell, Managing Director, Harley-Davidson Europe Ltd.

“.[A coach] is part advisor, part sounding board, part cheerleader, part manager and part strategist.” - THE BUSINESS JOURNAL

“[Executives should seek coaching] when they feel that a change in behavior-either for themselves or their team members-can make a significant difference in the long-term success of the organization.” - Marshall Goldsmith, Fast Company Columnist

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.

Personal Sales Interview Questions:

What are your long-term professional goals? And short term goals?

What do you do personally for your professional development?

What did you do this past weekend?

What kind of goals motivate you the best?

What is your greatest dream?

What was your most significant personal accomplishment?

What would you say your one or two biggest failures or mistakes were in life? What did you learn from them?

What are you passionate about?

What fulfills you?

What are your top values?

Work Ethic Sales Interview Questions:

Tell me about your last three days at work. Please fill me in from start to finish each day.

Tell me about an experience that demonstrates your work ethic.

What was your most significant professional accomplishment and what did it take to achieve it?

What were your goals for the past three years and did you meet them?

What is the reason for your past success?

Objection Handling Sales Interview Questions:

How do you overcome buyer objections?

How do you handle price objections?

What do you say when the prospect says everything looks good, except the price?

What do you say when the prospect says send me some information?

Sales Process and Sales Cycle Interview Questions:

What do you like and dislike about the sales process and why?

What type of sales cycle is most rewarding to you? A long cycle for a large ticket item or smaller and more frequent sales?

Describe a time where you used a creative approach in meeting a sales goal or making a sale?

What is your process to qualify your prospects?

What do you do to generate leads?

How do you ask for a referral?

Sales Management and Sales Leadership Interview Questions:

As  a  sales  leader, how  did  you  go  about  recruiting  your  sales  staff?

What  criteria  did   you  use  to  evaluate  your team members?

How  would  you  describe  your  sales  management style?

Rate your management skills on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 representing excellent management skills. Provide three examples from your past work experiences that demonstrate your selected number is accurate.

Tell me about a time when you reorganized a department or significantly changed employee work assignments. How did you approach the task? How did the affected employees respond to your actions?

When you have entered a new workplace in the past, as a manager or supervisor, describe how you have gone about meeting and developing relationships with your new coworkers, supervisors, and reporting staff.

Intangible Sales Skills Interview Questions:

Describe a situation with a client or prospect where you made a mistake. How did you handle the error?

What do you think are the most important skills in succeeding in sales?

What are your top three open-ended questions for initial sales calls?

What are your 3 greatest sales strengths or gifts?

What do you see as the key skills in opening new partnerships? (“Closing”)

Want Increased Sales Results and Productivity From Your Sales Leaders or Sales Executives?

Contact Me to learn more about Sales Coaching and the Coach Jeremy breakthrough Sales Workshop: Reprogram Your Sales Mind.

Sales Interview Questions

How Life & Business May Look Without Accountability

It is essential that when setting up accountability you cover these 3 simple, yet powerful questions:

1. What are you going to accomplish?
Make sure to get very specific.

2. By when will you complete this?
Date and Time.

3. What actions will you take to complete this?
You need to use your judgment here in terms of how specific this needs to be to ensure success.

4. How will I know it was completed?
There needs to be some follow-up process in place. What will the communication look like when the task/goal is completed? Email? Phone? A Report? Get specific.

These are questions you should ask yourself as well when setting any new task or goal!

I appear as a guest on the Cultural Fusion Experience Radio Show to discuss busines, sales, and so much more.  Music will play until ‘6:10′ when the interview begins. (You can fast forward)

Host: Yvette Dubel-Source artist & co-founder of Cultural Fusion-Art as Philosophy will be exploring issues related to creative expression and social/professional innovation. It invites you to use explorations of creative expression and the application of such to address the issues impacting your lives, as well as anything else that captures Yvette’s interest as an expression of the above plus concepts which have provided inspiration to “Cultural Fusion-Art as Philosophy”.

This broadcast is a part of the artist’s inquiry into Conceptual Process Art in Art as Philosophy. This show will offer an opportunity to learn about how this project is coming to understand Culture beyond ethnic, racial, or national origins. In addition audiences will be introduced to interesting ideas, enterprises and projects that are seeking to play a part in building a better world….more peace, more love, more abundance, more of the best of you.

Source: WIKI Summaries

In Built to Last, Porras and Collins learned that their prior beliefs were misfires. During a six year research process, they “unlearned” much of what they learned with large corporations’ successes. In place of former beliefs lays a new groundwork for what exemplifies visionary companies. Here are some of the former myths removed with their research:

• A great idea is needed to start companies
• Visionary organizations need charismatic leaders
• Maximizing profits is the dominate goal with visionary companies
• Visionary companies focus on beating competitors
• Hiring outsiders as CEO’s is the best way to spark an organization

Some of the core beliefs Porras and Collins discuss in Built to Last include:

• Preserving a core ideology
• The BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) concept
• Owning a cult-like culture
• Trying new things
• Refusing the idea of a “great idea” to start a company
• Consistent innovation

Read more about Built to Last at WIKI Summaries.

Learn about my coaching programs.