Coaches Corner | Promotional Consultant

Coaches Corner

Beyond E-Mail: Eight More Ways To Reach Customers
Author: Dan Rochette (January 2012)
Let’s face it—your customers and prospects are bombarded daily with all sorts of communications. How do you make yourself heard...Full Article

Step Up Now To Support Your Industry
Author: Anne Lardner-Stone (December 2011)
The promotional products industry is once again threatened by legislators who don’t understand the significant and cost-effective value of promotional products advertising...Full Article

Create Your Not-To-Do List
Author: Nicki Weiss (November 2011)
Elmer Leterman, author of a number of best-selling sales books, including Commissions Don’t Fall from Heaven, once wrote: “Human...Full Article

Align Your Actions With Your Ultimate Life Goals
Author: J. H. Hyun (October 2011)
In his commencement address to Stanford University in 2005, Apple founder Steve Jobs made the following statement. It pretty much...Full Article

The Top Five Things Your Boss Won’t Tell You
Author: Linda Byars Swindling, JD, CSP (September 2011)
One of the toughest things I did as a boss was fire someone—especially because I had been fired myself. To this day, I can remember waiting for my direct report to show up at work...Full Article

Hire The Perfect Employer: A Quiz To Sharpen Job-Search Skills
Author: Jim Beqaj (August 2011)
One out of 10 Americans is unemployed and millions are languishing in jobs they don’t like. The typical approach: Send a résumé, hopefully get an interview and passively answer questions while the interviewer reads your résumé...Full Article

Get The Decision Maker On The Phone
Author: Kevin Graham (July 2011)
To make sales, to close the deal, you need to speak to the decision maker. Here are nine proven techniques to ensure you connect: 1...Full Article

Delegation: From D’oh! To Oohh!
Author: Marty Stanley (June 2011)
“D’oh!” It’s what Homer Simpson says when something goes wrong. Why is delegation one big “D’oh!” for a lot of people? There can be some fear about delegating tasks or projects because without proper planning, a lot of things can go wrong...Full Article

Viral Marketing: Highly Contagious
Author: Ron Williams (March 2011)
Industry suppliers look for ways to distinguish themselves from the competition and promote their products to distributor salespeople, hoping they, in turn, will pass this information onto their clients...Full Article

Are You Too Successful? The Jerry McGuire Syndrome
Author: Richard Fenton and Andrea Waltz (January 2011)
It’s the last day of the month and Sheila Johnson is sitting at her computer, filling out the performance recap required from every salesperson in her company...Full Article

Work The Expo Crowds
Author: Roger A. Shapiro (December 2010)
For most of us, there are more expos, tradeshows and networking events than we could possibly attend. You can cull through thousands...Full Article

Win New Clients
Author: Marsha Londe (November 2010)
Price may be the premise of some Requests for Proposals (RFP)—exercises that businesses use to qualify vendors—but other RFPs genuinely...Full Article

Does Your Company Need More Umami?
Author: Jeanne Hollister Lebens and Linda Spevacek (October 2010)
What do great leaders and great chefs have in common? Both are more successful when they know how to create umami, a chemical reaction discovered by a Japanese scientist more than a century ago...Full Article

Beat The Competition
Author: Barbara Bergstrom (September 2010)
As you climb to the top of your field and are known as a skilled professional, you must first admit that school is never out. Conservatively speaking, there are at least five people who want your job...Full Article

The Secrets For Do-It-Yourself Public Relations
Author: Marsha Friedman (August 2010)
The cycle of marketing was once summarized in the story of the circus coming to town. If the circus is coming to town and you buy a billboard saying “Circus Coming to the Fairground Saturday,” that’s advertising...Full Article

Mind Your Manners: E-Mail Etiquette Differentiates You
Author: Roger A. Shapiro (July 2010)
When you started using e-mail, you probably just jumped right in. Most of us did. It was a wild, exciting way to communicate. People were banging out messages...Full Article

Lead and Motivate—Not Just Your Team, But Yourself Too
Author: Joelle Jay, Ph.D. (June 2010)
As a business leader, you know one of your key tasks is to keep your team motivated. To do so, you need to constantly remind your people of the company’s vision, hold them accountable to targets and goals, mentor them and support them in their work...Full Article

What’s Your Personal Leadership IQ?
Author: Joelle K. Jay, Ph.D. (May 2010)
As a leader, you likely know how to lead your company or department. But how are you doing in terms of personal leadership? This...Full Article

Mentoring 101: Grow Your Business By Helping Others Grow
Author: Roger A. Shapiro (April 2010)
In a tough economy, we have to revisit every strategy possible to create opportunities and profit. One approach that costs little, yet yields great rewards is mentoring...Full Article

Developing A Mindset For Prosperity
Author: Randy Gage (March 2010)
How can some people feel comfortable spending $5,000 a month for fresh flowers, while others hesitate to spend that much on a car?...Full Article

Motivating And Inspiring Your People In Difficult Times
Author: Chris Witt (February 2010)
Leaders today, more than ever, have to win people’s cooperation. And there are two main ways of doing so: motivation and inspiration...Full Article

Want Success In The New Year? Give Up The Bad Habits For Good
Author: Max Izenberg (January/Expo 2010)
“The unfortunate thing about this world is that good habits are so much easier to give up than bad ones.” — Somerset Maugham Being human, we are all creatures of habit...Full Article

Add Impact And Zing To Webinars
Author: Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE (November-December 2009)
Regardless of your public speaking experience, whenever you open your mouth, whether you’re talking to one person or a 1,000, you want to convey a specific message...Full Article

Add Impact And Zing To Webinars
Author: Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE (October 2009)
No matter what you level of public speaking experience, whenever you open your mouth, whether you’re talking to one person or a thousand, you usually want to get a specific message across...Full Article

You Snooze, You Lose—Or Do You?
Author: Zelda Greenberg (October 2009)
We have all heard the expression “the early bird gets the worm.” Well, not so fast. New studies suggest that perhaps it’s the late riser that actually catches the quality worm...Full Article

Earn Brand Loyalty For Life
Author: Brenda Bence (August-September 2009)
Bad Behaviors Can Damage Career, Finances All you have to do is look around to know brands are powerful. In fact, most people are so loyal to certain brands that they stick with them for life...Full Article

Would You Like Fries With That?
Author: John Boe (June-July 2009)
Take a cross-selling and upselling approach to boost business. While you may not have recognized it, the last time...Full Article

Winning Sales In A Losing Economy
Author: Don Schmincke (May 2009)
No one knows stress better than a salesperson who is trying to close deals during a global financial collapse. How is...Full Article

Kids Inc.
Author: Brian Sullivan (April 2009)
Three Lessons Kids Can Teach You About Business Success “My see,” were the words my two-year-old daughter Maggie used last week as she extended her arms toward an older woman sitting in the window seat on a spring break flight to Mexico...Full Article

Prove You’re Worth Every Penny
Author: Linda Bishop (March 2009)
Greg perched on the edge of his chair, holding his breath. If he made this sale, he’d be sitting pretty for the rest of the quarter. His client, Brenda, shuffled through a stack of manila file folders...Full Article

Mentoring: A Fulfilling And Growth-Building Relationship
Author: Kathy Goodin-Mitchell (JAN-FEB 2009)
Mentorship is a tried and true training process with roots dating to Greek mythology. When Odysseus left for the Trojan...Full Article

The Practice of Sales
Author: Dave Kahle (DEC 2008-EXPO 2009)
“Every profession expects the serious practitioner of that profession to continually seek out the best practices of...Full Article

Change Your Words—Change Your Life
Author: Jamie Lee Silver (AUG-SEP 2008)
Are you being held back from getting that promotion, starting an exercise program, finding that perfect mate—because of the words you’re using? You may not even be aware of the phrases you are using...Full Article

Leadership In The Face Of Change
Author: John Baker (JUN-JUL 2008)
Considering society’s bottomless access to information, our nonstop exposure to stimuli beamed from around the world and the unsettling aspects of a modern life lived in a global village, Heraclitus’ observation rings truer than ever...Full Article

Seven Signs Of Customer Service
Author: John Storm (APR-MAY 2008)
What sets you apart from other salespeople? Or, as Seth Godin says in his book Purple Cow, what makes you remarkable? Although there...Full Article

Behavioral Interviewing: Better Than Darts
Author: Kathy Goodin-Mitchell, SPHR (FEB-MAR 2008)
For most managers interviewing is a difficult process. Business owners and hiring managers often struggle with what to ask, what is legally allowed and how one can tell if the interviewee is going to be a good fit...Full Article

Is Your Corporate Culture Sick?
Author: John Storm (DEC 2007-EXPO 2008)
Throughout the years, I’ve discovered many people and organizations who suffer from a variety of innovation illnesses. In medical terms, these maladies can be diagnosed in traditional ways...Full Article

The Truth About Lying
Author: John Boe (OCT-NOV 2007)
Some people can’t tell a lie. Others can’t tell the truth. Unfortunately, most people can't tell the difference. Can you tell...Full Article

What Is Value?
Author: Erick Burton (AUG-SEP 2007)
One of the biggest challenges we face as sales professionals, is that we know our own products and services so well that we assume other people automatically understand us when we're talking about them...Full Article

Worrying About Retirement ?
Author: Peter D'Arruda (JUN-JUL 2007)
Perhaps you’re like many small-business owners who are nearing retirement and wondering how you’re going to get enough money into your 401(k) to actually afford to retire...Full Article

The Power Of Positive Self-Talk
Author: Brian Tracy (FEB-MAR 2007)
Perhaps the most powerful influence on your attitude and personality is what you say to yourself. It is not what happens to you, but how you respond internally to it, that determines your thoughts feelings and, ultimately, actions...Full Article

Write Right and Get Noticed
Author: Roger Shapiro (NOV-DEC 2006)
You sell a great product. But in the fiercely competitive promotional products business, it’s the ability to communicate your...Full Article

How To Become An Idea Hound
Author: John Storm (SEP-OCT 2006)
If you want to dig up new ideas, you need to think like a hound. I’ve always been a dog lover, having loved and lost at least five faithful pets—Peppy, Spot, Trooper, Pepper and Abby...Full Article

Leading And Motivating
Author: Brian Tracy (JUL-AUG 2006)
It’s been said, “Leadership is not what you do, but who you are.” This, however, is only partially true. Leadership is very much who you are, but it cannot be divorced from what you do...Full Article

Better Writing To Improve Your Sales Tools
Author: Roger A. Shapiro (MAY-JUN 2006)
Starting today, you can change the impact your written messages have on your buyers. Whether you pay an agency to crank out...Full Article

Five Strategies To Negotiate Any Sale
Author: John Patrick Dolan (MAR-APR 2006)
The sales negotiation process can seem like a miserable chore when the parties involved resort to underhanded tactics and sneaky methods to get what they want...Full Article