Having a CRM system doesn’t mean you no longer have to pick up the phone!

 

  In many types of businesses a salesman is required to close sales. This is not only true for big ticket items like cars and airplanes, but a myriad of different types of businesses too numerous to be named.

Even for most of the items on your grocery store shelves, a salesman probably was involved to get the supermarket manager or chain, interested enough to provide shelf space for that particular product at some point in time. Even though new automation marketing may provide prospect data and up to the minute d detailed information on how your prospects interact on your website, this information alone will usually not close the sale.

 

This is quite obvious basic information, of course, but no company with a CRM system (Customer Relationship Management) software should be unclear that the CRM software is merely a tool to provide additional data for the salesperson, and to help find the prospects who are ready, willing, and able to buy at the current time.

 

Face to face visits, (when possible), phone calls, Skype calls, webinar events, presentations, etc. are where sales are made. Everything else is just background to the actual sale. Sometimes the amount of data can be a little distracting, but keeping all eyes on the prize should prevent this.

 

The relationship between the salesman and the customer is the most critical one a business has, and all the advertising in the world, cannot substitute for the personal relationship that exists there.

 

Sales and marketing managers also need to make sure that this fundamental level of contact with the customer is taken care of. Tracking calls, visits, and all of these one-to-one connections with prospects is just as critical as the detailed information you receive from a CRM, if not of greater importance. CRM systems, once costly propositions restricted to entrerprise-level companies are now highly affordable, even for the smallest business.

 

For more information, click the link below. click here —-> Affordable Automation for Everyone  

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David

A Different Job Interview

I spent an interesting morning yesterday at the National Water sports Centre Holme Pierrepont. I had applied for work there and I was invited for a practical assessment. Unfortunately the weather system which resulted in the snow storm which shut down the East coast of the USA, was  passing
over the UK, so the winds were high with rain in the north.

There were a number of no shows so what had been planned to last a day only covered the morning as only one other person attended. We ended up only doing one practical test of building a raft and assembled a raft using four barrels, two long poles as six short and thinner poles and numerous ropes. We took our time and after 30 minutes built a passable raft, capable of carry four people. We were then made aware of possible safety issues where  limbs could become trapped. Three instructors them demonstrated a different design using four Barrels, the two long poles and just four ropes built in 5mins and once again pointing out areas to watch when assembling and using rafts.

The winds were still strong, above the limits of normal operations so no further tests were possible  but we were taken on a tour around the site viewing the Rowing course, Assault course challenge, E-combat, Sky trail, mini golf, Laser Tag and Segways. I was impressed with the Sky trail from a  safety point of view as users are permanently attached  to a track from start to finish and even toddlers can use a mini version, We also viewed the extensive sailing and canoeing equipment, safety boats, White Water area and Wake boarding set-up.

We finished up with checking our certificates and discussing work opportunities. One question  came to light was my lack of formal certification  versus years of experience. Which has the most value, ideally you need both. Rules and regulations in the UK require valid certificates, however no training can cover all eventualities and this  is where experience comes into play. The question for potential employers is it worth to spend time and money in training up experienced people or do they accept only those with certification.

I now have to wait a few weeks, as they have another weekend assessment to complete, before they will invite selected candidates for a more formal interview.

This afternoon, I continue my School Governor training, having been elected in December, I need to learn  more about how the education system works in the UK.

 

David Ogden
Helping Peaple Help themselves
Markethive,com/david-ogden

David

European Refugee Crisis

European Refugee Crisis.

There seems to be little action taking place to resolve the situation and now they are talking of changing the rules laid down in the Dublin Agreement, which states that those seeking asylum in Europe need to apply in the first country they reach,

The rules have worked fine for years, however numbers have increased including large numbers of economic migrants who have swelled the numbers and do not qualify for asylum. Last year Germany announced it would accept anyone who reached it border and this effectively destroyed any form of control, causing millions of people to cross from Turkey to Greece and North Africa to Italy, Malta and France, many without documents. European countries were eventually forced to temporary close their borders as they could not cope.

Germany has now admitted that it cannot cope with the 1.1 million refugees and in it fact does not even know where over half of them are because they only registered names and country of origin before allowing them to travel to the area of Germany they wished to live in to apply for Asylum and it is possible that some may have left Germany for other countries.

Immigrant are increasingly being accused of causing problems in countries they are living in including Germany and Sweden, probably the worse case being in Calais where some 150 broke through security fences and 50 of them boarded a ferry bound for the UK. They complain about living conditions in the “Jungle” camps both in Calais and Dunkirk but are unlikely to use new facilities under construction by the French Government at Dunkirk as they fear they will become internment camps.

The truth is that many immigrants will not be granted asylum as they are merely economic migrants and not refugees whose lives are in danger. Law and order has broken down what is need is for refugees to be able to register as asylum seekers either before they travel to Europe or on arrival. There needs to be a way to fast track applications, rejecting those who are economic migrant who should apply for visa's in the normal way

UK Asylum – If someone is at risk of being persecuted in their own country, they may go abroad and ask for asylum in another country. Granting ‘asylum’ means giving someone permission to remain in another country because of that risk of persecution.

In legal terms, a person who has asked for asylum in the UK and is waiting for a decision on that claim is called an asylum seeker. Someone who has received a positive decision on his or her asylum claim is called a refugee.

Although some asylum seekers might enter the UK illegally, once they have applied for asylum they are no longer ‘illegal’. Anyone seeking protection is entitled to stay in the UK while awaiting a decision on their asylum claim.

The right to claim asylum is in international law. Governments are obliged to provide protection to people who meet the criteria for asylum. The UK has signed these international laws and they are part of UK legislation.

David

Something Extraordinary Is Happening in the World, And Most People Haven’t Noticed

Source: www.medium.com | Original Post Date: December 16, 2015 –

Most of us haven’t quite realized there is something extraordinary happening.

A few months ago, I freed myself from standard-procedure society. I broke the chains of fear that kept me locked up into the system. Since then, I see the world from a different perspective: the one that everything is going through change and that most of us are unaware of that.

Why is the world changing? In this post, I’ll point out the eight reasons that lead me to believe it.

1. No one can stand the employment model any longer.

We are reaching our limits. People working with big corporations can’t stand their jobs. The lack of purpose knocks on your door as if it came from inside you like a yell of despair.

People want out. They want to drop everything. Take a look on how many people are willing to risk entrepreneurship, people leaving on sabbaticals, people with work-related depression, people in burnout.

2. The entrepreneurship model is also changing.

Over the past few years, with the explosion of startups, thousands of entrepreneurs turned their garages into offices to bring their billion-dollar ideas to life. The vortex of entrepreneurship was to find an investor and get funded — to be funded was like winning the World Cup or the Super Bowl.

But what happens after you get funded?

“Isn’t it absurd that we, 7 billion of us living in the same planet, have grown further apart from each other?”

You get back to being an employee. You may have brought in people not sharing your dream, not in agreement with your purpose, and soon it’s all about the money. The financial end becomes the main driver of your business.

People are suffering with it. Excellent startups began to tumble because the money-seeking model is endless.

A new way to endeavor is needed. Good people are doing it already.

3. The rise of collaboration.

Many people have figured out that it doesn’t make any sense to go on by yourself. Many people have awakened from the “each man for himself” mad mentality.

Stop, take a step back, and think. Isn’t it absurd that we, 7 billion of us living in the same planet, have grown further apart from each other? What sense does it make to turn your back on the thousands, maybe millions, of people living around you in the same city? Every time it crosses my mind, I feel blue.

Fortunately, things are changing. Sharing, collaborative economy concepts are being implemented, and it points towards a new direction. The direction of collaborating, of sharing, of helping, of togetherness.

This is beautiful to watch. It touches me.

4. We are finally figuring out what the Internet is.

The Internet is an incredibly spectacular thing, and only now — after so many years — we are understanding its power. With the Internet, the world is opened, the barriers fall, the separation ends, the togetherness starts, the collaboration explodes, the help emerges.

Some nations saw true revolutions that used the Internet as the primary catalyst, such as the Arab Spring. Here in Brazil, we are just starting to make a better use out of this amazing tool.

Internet is taking down mass control. The big media groups controlling news by how it suits best what they want the message to be and what they want us to read are no longer the sole owners of information. You go after what you want. You bond to whomever you want. You explore whatever you may want to.

With the advent of the Internet, the small are no longer speechless. There is a voice. The anonymous become acknowledged. The world comes together. And then the system may fall.

5. The fall of exaggerated consumerism.

For too long, we’ve been manipulated to consume as much as we possibly can, to buy every new product launched — the newest car, the latest iPhone, the top brands, lots of clothes, shoes, lots and lots and lots of pretty much anything we could our hands on.

Going against the crowd, many people have understood that this is way off. Lowsumerism, slow life and slow food are a few types of action being taken as we speak, pointing out the contradiction of how absurdly we have come to organize ourselves.

“With the advent of the Internet, the small are no longer speechless. There is a voice. The anonymous become acknowledged. The world comes together.

Fewer people are using cars. Fewer people are overspending. And more people are swapping clothes, buying used goods, sharing assets, cars, apartments, offices.

We don’t need all of that they told us we needed. And this consciousness of new consumerism can take down any company living on the exaggerated end of it.

6. Healthy and organic eating.

We were so crazy we even accepted eating anything! It only needed to taste good, and everything would be alright.

We were so disconnected that companies started to practically poison our food, and we didn’t say anything!

But then some people started waking up, enabling and strengthening healthy and organic eating.

This is only going to get stronger.

But what has this got to do with economy and work? Just about everything, I’d say.

Food production is one of the basic fundamentals of our society. If we change our mindset, our eating habit and our way of consuming, corporations will have to respond and adapt to a new market.

The small farmer is getting back to being relevant to the whole chain of production. People are even growing plants and seeds inside their homes as well.

And that reshapes the whole economy.

7. The awakening of spirituality.

How many friends do you have who practice yoga? What about meditation? Now think back, 10 years ago. How many people did you know by then who practiced these activities?

Spirituality, for too long, was for esoteric folks — those weird-like and mystic people.

But fortunately, this is also changing. We’ve come to the edge of reason and rationality. We were able to realize that, with only our conscious mind, we can’t figure out everything that goes on here. There is something else going on, and I’m sure you want to get hold of that as well.

You want to understand how these things work — how life operates, what happens after death, what is this energy thing people talk about so much, what is quantum physics, how thoughts can be materialized and create our sense of reality, what is coincidence and synchronicity, why meditation works, how it’s possible to cure some ailments using nothing but bare hands, how those alternative therapies not always approved by regular medicine can actually work sometimes.

Companies are providing meditation to their employees. Even schools are teaching the young how to meditate. Think about it.

8 . Un-schooling trends.

Who created this teaching model? Who chose the classes you have to take? Who chose the lessons we learn in history classes? Why didn’t they teach us the truth about other ancient civilizations?
Why should kids follow a certain set of rules? Why should they watch everything in silence? Why should they wear a uniform? What about taking a test to prove what you actually learned?

We developed a model that perpetuates and replicates followers of the system, that breed people into ordinary human beings.

Fortunately, a lot of people are working to rethink that through concepts such as un-schooling, hack-schooling and homeschooling.

Maybe you’ve never thought of that and even may be in shock. But it’s happening.

Silently, people are being woken up and are realizing how crazy it is to live in this society.
Look at all these new actions and try to think everything we were taught so far is normal. I don’t think it is.

There is something extraordinary happening.

Written by Gustavo Tanaka of www.medium.com

David

What can we learn from Lewis Burns about being an entrepreneur?

Lewis Burns is an artist, musician, teacher, philanthropist, and I'm sure he wears many additional hats,  but I do not know him personally.  We just connected recently on LinkedIn.

eigen foto

eigen foto (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

From his LinkedIn profile, it states,

"Lewis Burns is a Talbragar-Wiradjuri man born in Dubbo, NSW. He has been learning about his Aboriginal culture for as long as he can remember. He continues to practice and respect these life skills each day and still learns and grows from this ancient knowledge.

Lewis' love of his heritage is evident when you speak with him, and depicted even more in his Aboriginal crafts, traditional dancing, didgeridoo performances, mural paintings and teaching. He is very dedicated to sharing what he knows with others to help keep these customs alive. Lewis paints in traditional Aboriginal and contemporary styles.

He has exhibited and performed both within Australia and overseas with his handcrafted didgeridoos. Each piece of Lewis' artwork tells a story…..a story that will live on forever through the generations, as the artwork is handed down from one family to another"

So what can we learn about being an entrepreneur from him? 

  1. Be honest – Be proud of who you are, where you have come from, and be true to yourself.  Lewis Burns exudes his heritage in everything he does.    
  2. Be original  – Lewis Burns certainly has this covered.  He has an abundance of originality. His art shows a careful study and beautiful reflection of his obvious love of animals, and the natural environment. In this age of copy-cat Internet marketing and hype, Lewis truly stands out.
  3. Be ubiqitous.  Lewis is everywhere.  He is on LinkedIn.  He has a Facebook page for his business, Red Earth Gallery.  He is on Twitter, and Instagram. I invited him to MarketHive, (a new social network for entrepreneurs, membership by invitation only), and he joined right away.
  4. Be conscientious – Be a philanthropist as much as you can.  Give of your time and talents to less fortunate and disadvantaged groups.  Lewis shows boys at a local juvenile detention center how to make and play didgeridoos.
  5. Be a teacher – whatever your special talent and skill, learn to teach it to others to pass on your knowledge. In Lewis case, I think wherever he is, and whatever he does, he is teaching his love of his culture, his heritage, and his love of all things.

So, my suggestion for all new or experienced entrepreneurs is to purchase a didgeridoo from Lewis Burns, (they are extraordinarily beautiful), and one of his online courses on how to play it.  Then try to emulate him in everything you do, from your daily marketing, to your respect for your fellow man, and nature, and the divine in all things.

You will be a better person, and a better entrepreneur for it, and this world will also be a better place in which to live.

Note: See more on Lewis Burns on the social networks, and his website at:

http://lewisburns.com/

English: Various types of Didgeridoo. Top: A t...

English: Various types of Didgeridoo. Top: A traditionally crafted and decorated didgeridoo. Middle: A bamboo souvenir didgeridoo. Bottom: An undecorated traditionally crafted didgeridoo. Photo taken by myself in July 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

English: A demonstration of Australian musical...

English: A demonstration of Australian musical instrument 'didgeridoo' during 'December Night' celebration at Balboa Park in San Diego, California in 2009. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

David

Committed to Success

Commited to SuccessThe New year has now officially started with today being the first day of work for many people. Yesterday in church the sermon was about surprisingly about New Years Resolutions. Few responded on being questioned,to have made resolutions, including the Priest himself. I find it surprising that so few people are will to commitment themselves, to changes which can improve their lives.

 

I make resolutions most years and my track record of achievements is pretty good, I find that committing them to paper, helps to hold myself accountable. If you are interested in my plans for 2016 they are listed here

I pride my self as being a committed person.

“You don’t win an Olympic gold medal with a few weeks of intensive training. There’s no such thing as an overnight opera sensation. Every great company, every great brand, and every great career has been built in exactly the same way: bit by bit, step by step, little by little.” Seth Godin founder of Squidoo

I planned to retire at 55 but managed to retire at the age of 50 and became a full time Adventure competing in some of the longest and hardest expeditions races in the world, it took me three years of racing before finally being able to get my complete team across the finish line during a race in Amazonia,

I have always been a goal orientated person and can be quite controversial is someone stands between me and my dream. I have developed a happy disposition knowing I will do what ever it takes, both physically and mentally to achieve my goals

To help me achieve my New Years Resolutions this year, I need to enlist the help of some like minded people, who wish to improve themselves by working with me to promote a newly launched social neural marketing site called MarketHive.

MarketHive is an intuitive site with a FaceBook like look and feel, however it has been built from the bottom up to support budding entrepreneurs with a range of essential tools to maximise your marketing efforts.

 
David Ogden
Helping People Help Themselves
Http://markethive.com/david-ogden

David