The sales professional is the one on the front lines.  They’re a lot like quarterbacks in football usually receiving too much credit and too much blame.

When credit is being dished out, you better make sure you’re taking care of the team that helped you close the deal.  Don’t ever lose sight of how you got to where you are, or else you’ll be receiving more blame than credit soon enough.

Be a strong leader and recognize the team that’s putting in work to make you look like an all-star.

Easy to sleep another hour.  Hard to stay up an extra hour.

Easy to stop running.  Hard to finish strong.

Easy to copy that deck.  Hard to create one.

How will you differentiate yourself today?

People (myself included) make the mistake of staying busy because they put too much on their plate.  We will confuse being busy with actually making progress; and because they both require energy, we feel tired from both equally.  When we overextend ourselves, we wind up exhausted and feel little personal gratification.   At other times, we go the extra mile to to dig deep to complete a single task or project; but our mental state is one of elation because we have tangible evidence of completion.

It’s been my experience that people are capable of phenomenal feats when they reach down for that little bit of lagniappe (a little extra).  They’re typically displayed in physical feats such as…wrestling terrorists from control of an airplane (Flight 93 on 9/11) or hitting a home run with a bum leg in the World Series (Kirk Gibson).  But, there are mental examples all around us as well.  A small business owner that turns his dream into a fully functioning business (Jeff Hilimire at Engauge) or a writer that starts at zero to end up at “1000 Million” books sold (Monica O’Brien).  It’s natural for us to talk ourselves out of work, but the ones that can overexert themselves that with that little bit extra will find personal success and gratification.

Do these 3 things when embarking on a new project…

1) Don’t Overextend Yourself...say “yes” only to what’s realistic.  You can always take on more later if needed.

2) Do Focus on what on the key items of the project first.  Don’t try to do everything at once.

3) Always Overexert Yourself…Workout call for 10 reps?  Shoot for 12.  Boss wants a 1st draft in a week? Shoot for 3 days.

Playing soccer, football and basketball through college required lots of strength, agility & conditioning.  The former 2 I didn’t mind; however, I hated the latter.  Ask anyone from my MBA class and they’d tell you I’m Type-A with a borderline case of ADHD, so running for 5 miles used to bore the hell out of me.  I used to have to talk myself into starting the run because I wasn’t looking forward to it until I learned about runner’s stride.  (For those of you who don’t know, runner’s stride is when you reach a point mid-run where you feel like you can’t be stopped and you find a nice groove.  It’s the same feeling as being in the zone or getting pumped while lifting.) Once I learned about runner’s stride, I put myself in the habit of just starting my run and not talking myself out of the run before even starting it.

When I get stuck or can’t get the proper focus on a problem, I just start it.  It always leads me somewhere good.

Have something to write?  Start typing.  Trying innovate on a project? Just begin.  Need a better beach body?  Do anything besides sitting.

The first time I heard the phrase, “Today is Opposite Day” was in first grade.  This kid Richard broke out the choice phrase during a game of Freeze Tag.  Richard was a slow poke, so he would simply yell, “Today is Opposite Day!” each time he was tagged.  Chris, the fastest kid on the field, would simply blow off Richard each time Richard may his declaration.  But, every time he got close to winning, Richard would unfreeze someone making it impossible for Chris to win.  By the time recess had ended, a winner had yet to be chosen; but Richard never lost.  In lieu of Richard’s boldness, we made a new rule, “No more Freeze Tag on opposite day.”  I always wondered why we didn’t make a rule that was simply, “No more Opposite Day…ever.”

This story recently crossed my mind on a long drive.  I realized how vital it is has been for me to do the opposite of what people expected.  Nothing great or exceptional ever seems to come from coloring inside the lines.  Richard never lost a single game of Freeze Tag.  He just kept figuring out how to survive.

What will you do to make today Opposite Day?

I love creating content, so I’ve been bouncing around the book Content Rules by C.C. Chapman and Ann Handley.  I also love business development, so this book is to serving a dual purpose.

One thing I’ve always attributed to my success in selling emerging technologies is in my ability to clearly communicate the value proposition to my clients without all the corporate rhetoric.  The bottom line, from a vendor’s perspective, is that there’s a lot of crap out there; so if you’re pitching a product, it had better change the world or improve what we already do…easily and quickly.

CC & Ann lay out 11 ways to create strong content.  If you’re in sales, I highly suggest you study these and incorporate them into your emails, texts and tweets.

1. Embrace Being a Publisher
2. Insight Inspires Originality
3. Build Momentum
4. Speak Human
5. Reimagine; Don’t recycle
6. Share or Solve…Don’t Shill
7. Show…Don’t just Tell
8. Do Something Unexpected
9. Stoke the Campfire
10. Create Wings and Roots
11. Play to Your Strengths

Cold emailing/calling provides about 15 seconds or less to grab the attention of a prospective buyer.  I focus on doing #4 and #7 well.  The rest will simply comes from practice.

Citi’s VP of Social Media, Anna O’Brien, echoes this sentiment in a recent blog post here.  She also offers some good tips for breaking through the door.

I purchased the Kindle edition of Content Rules here.

Last week, I was grabbing a drink with a close friend of mine that works on the digital team at an ad agency representing some major brands in the retail/CPG space.  Let’s call her Molly.  She has fantastic insight into their clients’ brands to help raise their game.  However, when I asked what her plan was for discussing with her boss, she said that she might bring it up in a meeting if the opportunity arises.

This troubled me because I didn’t understand why she wanted to sit on perfectly good ideas.  My advice to her was, “Get in there and show them what you have.”

Molly went on to tell me about how he was intimidating and knew people that had stopped working for him because of his authoritarian style.   I then proceeded to tell her that she needs to be her own best salesperson and make sure that she is heard.   I spend so much time calling on decision makers that it was lost on me that people are still intimidated by the higher ups, so I thought back to some of the things I used to relax for my big meetings.

Remember this when pitching anything (including yourself) to someone at a high level:

1)   Acceptance: Few people (men/women) get to a high level by being nice to everyone.  High-level positions require the ability to assess options and decide on one of them, which does not make for a friendly demeanor.  Most C-Level executives will be type-A, so acknowledge it and then proceed to illustrate your type-A by pitching your ideas.

2)   Breathe: You’re both human.  Focus on the idea that you’re speaking with another human being.  Don’t focus on his title or the office that you’re in.

3)   Mutual Interests: You both have at least one, which is to make money.  He needs to perform in order to keep his job and you need to perform to keep yours.  Show him how your ideas will make him more successful.  Don’t waste his time or yours.

4)   Confidence: Most C-Level executives are not lacking in this whether it’s real or fake.  When you make the move to present your ideas, make sure you own them.  Be prepared for any rebuttals that might come your way and don’t be afraid to say, “I’m not sure, but I will get back to you.” But make sure to get back to him.

BONUS…Make Him Think: Your goal should not be to get a 100% “Yes” on the first try.  It should be to get him thinking.  If you’re making him think and get a follow-up, then you sold him.  Make sure to follow-thru.

Last week, I attended Merkle’s impressive CRM Super Bowl (aka CRM Executive Summit) in SoBe.  Having worked with Merkle for just over a year now, I am always impressed with the strategies and tools they bring to the table for their clients.

2 common themes peppered throughout the conference were that this is the year that mobile and SaaS CRM platforms will take off.  Barry Judge, CMO of Best Buy, emphasized that the next 12 months would be the time that mobile hit.  I feel like I’ve heard that line for at least the past seven years.  With 2+ million iPads sold, the new iPhone 4, increased Android (Froyo) handsets and the upcoming release of Blackberry OS 6, it’s hard not to be wide-eyed at all the potential money making opportunities in mobile; however, there is still too much fragmentation amongst the market to scale at the level experts preach mobile hitting.  I don’t think 2010 will be the year mobile CRM climaxes…not even close.

SaaS CRM platforms are out in full force (I work for SaaS provider Dukky).   It really is amazing to see how the cloud has allowed companies to focus on niche CRM SaaS platforms.   Brands are starting to become more comfortable with having their valuable data run on the cloud enabling them to cash in on the speed and flexibility of running on the cloud.  Just look at the recent news about Enterprise 2.0 company Jive.

The next big thing will be technology that allows brands to channel all of this data into a few measurable and useful results.  It’s uncanny that we have all this individual user data, but brands are still marketing to them as mass demographics.  I don’t think the 30-second spot is dead (or the other traditional formats); but the decision makers are in denial about their business models.  Agencies and consultancies that focus on this change are going to be the Mad Men of the new generation.

Thoughts?

So now you have your Innovation Dream Team.  Are you being as effective as possible using your current tools to communicate and collaborate with your team?

I’ve written about the importance of communication when it comes to change management and/or innovation.  Below, I’ve listed some of the tools that I use because of their ease and effectiveness.

1. Google Talk – I send very little email because it’s time consuming and too formal for the majority of conversations.  Aside from instant messaging, the best features of Google Talk are: On / Off-the-Record Chatting, Free Voice and Video Chat & Instant File Transfers.  Also, Google Talk has mobile apps for the most popular mobile OSes including iPhone, Blackberry and of course Android.  If your group doesn’t have Gmail accounts, then you can easily sign up for one.
2. Basecamp – 37signals has a nice package of collaborative tools that are perfect for any organization from bootstrapped to venture funded.  Basecamp is their project management platform.  It allows you to manage multiple projects, assign certain users to certain projects and milestones.  The dashboard provides an easy to follow snapshot of everything that is going on within a project.  My favorite part is that I can subscribe via RSS or email to the reminders, so I always know where everyone stands.
3. Food / Drinks – Not “hi-tech,” but I’m a firm believer in getting away from my static habitat to increase productivity.  With my laptop and a mobile phone, there is nothing I can’t get done from a coffee shop that I can’t get done from my office.  Besides a change of scenery, it does 2 important things for my teams and me: 1) It provides an opportunity to talk one-on-one with team members about their concerns and/or accomplishments.  People like to be known other than a name on a screen and this helps achieve buy-in. 2) Change management requires innovation and innovation requires new perspectives.  A change of scenery always stirs my creative juices simply by having new surroundings.

What other tools are vital to your organization’s success?

Photo: liz burnunzio via flikr

I spent a few days at the Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition last week in Boston on behalf of Dukky. Despite the gloomy economy and the shrinking budgets of consumers and marketers alike, enthusiasm about the future of e-commerce buzzed. It seems we’re on the brink of a new frontier – thanks to emerging mobile technologies, wide adoption of social networking sites and a new consumer sentiment that prizes transparency and responsibility.

Here are the five most important e-commerce concepts I either learned (or remembered) while at IRCE:

1) Look at the mobile commerce space as the web of the early 90s: Mobile is changing the world. From the riots in Iran to the coupons in your local grocery store, mobile devices are changing the way we communicate, make purchases, spend our “free time.” Smart phones are 13% of the market now and growing to 38% in 2013. A lot more innovation is to come.

2) Focus on connecting consumers with your brand not your products: Under Armour’s vice president of e-commerce Mark Kuhns said their social media strategy is focused on creating a connection in their customers lives rather than just selling them stuff. It’s working.

3) Email, social & search should be integral in customer acquisition: Customers are spending more and more of  their time online. You need to go out and find them there. You’ll lose them if you don’t.

4) Many companies spoke about getting ready for the recovery instead of wading in the recession: Now is the time to innovate – it’s not the time to hole up and hide. We wrote more about innovation is key to keeping your marketing job earlier this month.

5) Be fiercely competitive and don’t be afraid to take ideas from the bigger players: Amazon is a great example – they started by just selling books and music, now they sell just about everything.
What are your thoughts on e-retail on today’s econcomy?

Taken from my post on Dukky