Dennis' Blog

Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Business Success: 24 Famous Entrepreneurs Share their Top Strategies

Original article published on preneurdigest - http://www.preneurdigest.com/famous-entrepreneurs-top-strategies/

By Saheed Oladele - December 7, 2016

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Photo Credit: Pixabay / Ejaugsburg

17 min(s) read

Business Success is an offspring of several strategies and famous entrepreneurs who manage successful businesses have adopted one or more of these strategies.

Unfortunately, not all businesses yield to its applied strategy. Some work out while most don’t.

According to fortune magazine, nine out of ten startups fail.

U.S. Census bureau also reported that 400,000 new businesses are started every year in the USA, but 470,000 are dying.

Do these alarming figures insinuate that there are no successful businesses? Or perhaps, that their figures are extremely negligible? Maybe.

But, does that mean your “striving to succeed” business or startup is about to be among the “nines of tens” as highlighted by fortune magazine?

Or perhaps, among the 470,000 dying businesses as reported by U.S. census bureau? Absolutely not.

Each business has it’s own working strategy for success. This strategy is a function of the type of business, demographics of business, customers behavior, product type, etc.

I said “absolutely not” up there. Yes, that’s right. Why? Because I have varying answers to one of the most common questions asked by small business owners and startup founders…

…what’s the best strategy for business success?

This piece gathers in one place, top strategies adopted by some famous entrepreneurs to grow their businesses.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. I didn’t pick up their quotes somewhere. I took the time to ask each of them what their top strategy is.

They were all asked the same question, “What’s the top strategy for your business’s success?”.

Their responses are arranged in an alphabetically ascending order (A-Z) of the name of each famous entrepreneur.

I hope you’ll gain from it as much as I did. Happy reading!

Top strategies for business success from famous entrepreneurs

Alex Krohn of GTmetrix

Alex is the founder and CEO of GTmetrix

“The best strategy for us was focusing on simplicity. Make it easy for customers to use your product and you make it easy for them to see your value.

From our features, user interface, and organization of data, we strive to deliver something simple to understand, so that their interactions with us feel natural and organic.”

Andrea Loubier of Mailbird

Andrea Loubier is a travel addict, who is obsessed with spicy food. A third culture kid who is crazy passionate about entrepreneurial initiatives for women, improving the unification of online communication and building businesses from the ground up. Andrea is a thought leader for startups founded by brilliant women in Southeast Asia. She is the CEO of Mailbird.

“Hire the right people first and foremost, success is all about the people you hire and how they contribute to the bigger end goal of growing your business into an internationally recognized product and brand that makes people’s lives just a little, or a hell of a lot better.

That is the top strategy, finding the right people for your business. It doesn’t always mean the best, sometimes it means the most motivated, creative, flexible, or adaptable to rapid change. They contribute to the betterment of the entire team, never stop innovating the process, and continue to learn.”

Ashutosh Garg of Guardian Pharmacy

Ashutosh Garg founded Guardian Pharmacy in India in 2003 and grew it to the second largest pharmacy chain in India. He also brought in GNC as a partner to India. He exited from the company he founded in August 2016.

“For any business to succeed, assuming that the business idea is viable and the entrepreneur is well funded, the primary strategy for success is to put together a strong and effective management team.

Good teams have the capability to deliver in tough environments and against all odds that most Startups face in the early days. The entrepreneur has to lead from the front and ensure that the key management team members are managed personally and retained at all cost.”

Brian Halligan of HubSpot

Brian Halligan is Co-founder and CEO of HubSpot, a marketing and sales software company based in Cambridge, MA. He has co-authored two books and teaches at MIT’s Sloan School of Management.

“It’s important for today’s founders and CEOs to get up close and personal with customers to better understand their habits and motivations. Find out what motivates customers, where they get news, who they consult for advice, how they shop and buy, and why they ultimately purchase (or don’t).

Next, don’t compromise what you or your company stand for based on the opinion of others — always remain true to your foundational principles. Lastly, above all else, don’t sweat the small stuff — you’re going to make mistakes. Lots of them. As long as you learn from mistakes and course-correct while the problem is still small, it’s all part of the entrepreneurial journey.”

Christopher Gimmer of Snappa

Christopher Gimmer is a marketer and entrepreneur from Ottawa, Canada.Currently, he’s the co-founder and CEO of Snappa

“I don’t think there’s one formula or strategy that guarantees success. I think founders should focus on making daily progress and committing themselves to the journey. As long as you’re continuing to improve and make progress, you can’t lose.”

Cristian Worthington of MondoPlayer

Cristian is a founder of 5 startups with extensive experience in the software industry. Most recently, He is the CEO of MondoTag Inc., a company that has released a revolutionary new video technology that will change the way people discover and share video.

“In every business I’ve owned, there has always been one enduring question, “What are the customers thinking?”. Our job as entrepreneurs is to please our market, which is impossible if we don’t have a solid connection with our customers.

Using social media Content Marketing strategy, we’ve been able to engage our customers in ways we’ve never done before.

People are more likely to send a DM or message on Twitter or Facebook than send an email or make a phone call. The spontaneity of social media makes it the ideal tool for reading the minds of your customers.”

David Schneider of NinjaOutreach

David Schneider is the co-founder of NinjaOutreach, an innovative new Blogger Outreach software for marketers. He writes about business and entrepreneurship and enjoys travel.

“My top strategy is showing up every day and doing my work! Surprising, I know. But in reality, the hardest thing about being an entrepreneur is to show up every day, even on days when things are not going well, and get your work done.

And not just days, but weeks, months, and years. If you show up every day and work hard, you have a much better chance of success.”

Dennis Wagner of TheDennisWagner.com

Top Ranked Business Coach, Consultant, Serial Entrepreneur, Branding, Leadership, Sales, Management, Marketing, Social Media, SEO, Technology, StartUp, Advertising and Small Business Expert. President & CEO at TheDennisWagner. Drone Pilot at PeriscopeTV. Blogger, Contributor and Lifelong student.

“Top business strategy: We always put our clients’ true needs first no matter what. We never try to sell them anything that will not benefit them with a good (ROI) Return On Investment or improve their efficiencies beginning in days or weeks, not months or years.

We treat our clients as we want to be treated. They know this, and it helps us build a mutual trust. That trust is a huge key to success in any business relationship. When people trust you they will do business with you.

We help our clients implement a real-world business process that is proven to work and we have the data to back it up. Business is no longer a guessing game. You don’t throw several different forms of the process against the wall and hope it sticks. We use data to form a plan of action that will work the first time.

We then help the clients implement it into their current business model, we train their staff on the differences in process, explain the benefits, and teach them how to use it to help them be more successful in their day to day workload. No smoke and mirrors, just real techniques, campaigns, training, consulting and a process that works.

It makes it very simple when you put the clients’ need first.”

Gavin Armstrong of Lucky Iron Fish

Dr. Gavin Armstrong is a passionate advocate and activist against hunger and malnutrition, and the Founder and CEO of Lucky Iron Fish, a rapidly growing and widely respected B Corp-certified business.

“Hands down, not letting ourselves be guided by our predispositions and assumptions, and instead, making an effort to fully understand our customers’ needs and behaviors, was a true game-changer for Lucky Iron Fish.

Once we sought the help of trusted third parties in Cambodia to generate buy-in among our consumer base and integrated the fish into our brand and design — a symbol for luck in Cambodian culture — we saw adoption and persistence rates increase significantly.”

Gavin Edley of Vitalife Group

Gavin Edley is CEO of Vitalife Group, which includes Vitalife Health and Love Health Hate Waste. He also owns GavinEdley and the Udemy course ‘Fast Track Entrepreneur: Start Your Own Online Business’ – both of which are designed to help people start and grow their own business from scratch.

“Be adaptable. At the start of our business, I was quite idealistic in thinking I could impose my own plans and business direction on the market, but I learned very quickly that your business strategy had to adapt to the market.

Don’t be precious about your plans when starting out, expect them to change quickly, and be prepared to alter them in order to survive and thrive.”

Jeet Banerjee of JeetBanerjee

Jeet Banerjee is a 23-year-old serial entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, digital marketing consultant, and best-selling author.

“My top strategy is delegation. It’s tough for many business owners to put others in charge of tasks, but you have to know your strengths and weaknesses as an entrepreneur.

Find the things you’re great at and focus your time on that and delegate other areas of your businesses to other individuals who are great at it. By doing this, you put yourself in a position to grow faster and accomplish so much more.”

Marc Guberti of MarcGuberti

Marc Guberti is an 18-year-old entrepreneur, social media expert, and CEO of MarcGuberti.

“Social media is my business’ strong suit. My approach is to provide massive value on a consistent and frequent basis. When people reply to my posts, I reply back. Interaction is my golden rule. I interact with as many people in my audience as I can, and I’ll also interact with like-minded people outside of my audience.

These people then go to my social media profiles, learn more about what I do, and start reading through my content. I promote my landing page at least once per day depending on the social network to develop the relationship further. I constantly ask myself how I can grow my email list from my social media efforts.”

Mark Babbitt of YouTern

Mark Babbitt is the founder and CEO of YouTern.

“The strategy that has been the biggest difference maker for my businesses? Building community.

In today’s marketplace, no one wants to hear what you say about your business. Instead, they want to hear from your employees and existing customers. And some of the most influential organizations today are aligning those potential brand ambassadors in a community bonded by a common purpose.

From within those communities comes objective input about your product or service and innovative ideas that help your business compete. More importantly, members of the community become advocates of your brand by providing testimonials online.

Welcome to the ‘Testimonial Economy.'”

Nicolas Cole of NicolasCole

Nicolas Cole is an author, columnist for Inc Magazine, entrepreneur, and speaker. He has had work published in TIME, Forbes, Fortune, Business Insider, Entrepreneur, The Huffington Post, and more. He is a Top Writer on Quora with over 14,000,000 total views and is best known for writing about self-improvement.

“Give first and ask the third. I have been extremely fortunate to have built an incredible following online, and collaborated with some of the most well-known entrepreneurs and thought leaders in various industries.

And the reason for that is because I have always offered to share my own knowledge and extend my own network first. By looking for ways to provide value out the gate, people respond much more willingly than if you walk around asking people for things. It’s about giving. Give, give, give, and then find ways to collaborate that are mutually beneficial.”

Niraj Ranjan Rout of Hiver

Niraj is the founder of Hiver, an app that turns Gmail into a powerful customer support and collaboration tool. He works on programming, customer support and sales, and also contributes to design and UI.

“I would say one of the most important, yet often overlooked, success strategy is pure design thinking. The more your product decisions are generated from the thoughts and insights of your users, the more useful those decisions are going to be.

We hit the market with just a skeletal idea for Hiver and we used the data, feedbacks, and reviews from our initial set of customers to refine our product and add new features. This way of using design thinking and empathetic reasoning to constantly improve your product allows you to focus your efforts on building a solution that is actually needed by your customers, instead of building whatever and throwing it out into the market. It does wonders for your ROI as well.”

Richard Sheridan of Menlo Innovations

Rich Sheridan is the CEO of Menlo Innovations.

“When Simon Sinek delivered his famous “start with why” talk we realized we had danced on this dance floor for years, but were never fully specific about our why. We would eventually get to our why but we never started with why. When we did, it changed everything.We began speaking about a culture intentionally focused on the business value of joy, and that our joyful focus was external to the company, our

We began speaking about a culture intentionally focused on the business value of joy, and that our joyful focus was external to the company, our why was to end to human suffering in the world as it relates to technology by bringing joy back to the world of software design and development.

In December 2013, when my book Joy, Inc. hit the shelves, my talks around the world, and the visitor counts of people who make the trek to see our culture in action went through the roof. Now 3,000 to 4,000 people a year come to spend anywhere from 2 hours to five days studying us, learning from us, and engaging us to help us bring joy to their work cultures.

This is all fostered by a very intentional culture of storytelling where each story captures and retells a view of our systematic, structured and energizing way to deliver quality and delight to our clients who engage us to design and develop their software product or service. Now the fastest-growing parts of our business are cultural transformation initiatives from some of the largest companies on the planet.”

Sally Elbassir of Passport & Plates

Sally has been a traveler from the start. She boarded her first flight when she was just 10 days old and hasn’t stopped traveling since. She’s a firm believer that local food and travel experiences are the best forms of education. Sally shares her adventures and tips on Passports & Plates.

“As a blogger, I have to wear many hats. I’m my own content creator, marketer, business developer, and financial expert. Project management tools have been crucial in helping me organize my time and to-do list.

It’s easy to get lost in a never-ending to-do list, but by separating and prioritizing my project, I’m able to get urgent items done as soon as possible and save (or even outsource) less urgent items for later.”

Sam Hurley of OPTIM-EYEZ

Sam Hurley, Founder of OPTIM-EYEZ.

“My top strategy for success is building relationships. Without them, you will struggle. With them, your business will flourish.

Make the right connections with the right minds at the right time and actually invest in these people. In return, they will be more than willing to help you out when you need them. Business isn’t easy – but a solid network takes you to heights you would never have once imagined.”

Scott Eddy of MrScottEddy

Scott Eddy is from Miami, ex-stockbroker, now top 10 social media influencer for the travel industry.

“Be completely transparent. That goes for your business strategy with employees and clients. The transparency will carry over into your success.

Make it known that transparency goes for everyone. From the CEO down, it is a two-way communication street. When you implement it throughout the entire company, it becomes more about teamwork than about a focus on any one individual.”

Sean Smith of SimpleTiger

Sean is ‎Co-Founder, COO & Consultant at SimpleTiger LLC

“I’m convinced that the tighter you hold on to things, the worse they fall apart. That being said, hire when you’re exhausted, hire where you feel the biggest friction is, and let the person you hire have the autonomy to adjust that role and make the processes surrounding that role better.

This has been massive for us, and the growth of SimpleTiger.”

Sujan Patel of Web Profits

Sujan Patel is the co-founder of Web Profits, a growth marketing agency helping companies leverage the latest and greatest marketing strategy to fuel their businesses. He has over 13 years of internet marketing experience and has led the digital marketing strategy for companies like Sales Force, Mint, Intuit and many other Fortune 500 caliber companies.

“My top strategy is to work my butt off. Being an entrepreneur, you have your wins and losses, and neither come easy. Most entrepreneurs I see simply don’t work hard enough to see their ideas or dreams come true (or fail at it). So work hard, focus on executing and when you fail, because you will fail, get back up and keep going.”

So work hard, focus on executing, and when you fail because you will fail, get back up and keep going.”

Tim Hughes of Digital Leadership Associates

Tim Hughes is the co-founder of Digital Leadership Associates

“The top strategy is… To get close to your customer. Understand their wants and needs and personalize a service around it. Customers are also a great source of innovation, one of the services we offer, was suggested to us by a prospect and we now offer that to other companies.”

Warren Whitlock of WarrenWhitlock

Warren Whitlock is a digital business development strategist. He is the host of Social Media Radio and speaks frequently about social media marketing, online publicity and marketing, social networking and building lifetime value for rapid growth. He was also named one of Forbes’ Top 10 Social Media Power Influencers of 2013.

“Most entrepreneurs I meet are lacking in math and accounting skills.

Make sure you set goals with numbers that you know you can measure. Learn enough accounting to know the difference between revenues, gross profit, net profit, fixed and incremental costs.

Most important. Estimate the lifetime value of customer and cost of acquisition. You can always increase the value over time, but you won’t be around if you can’t pick up new customers at a profit.”

Wendy Keller of Keller Media

Wendy Keller is the CEO and Senior Literary Agent at Keller Media. Keller Media Inc. sells good books to major publishers worldwide. Having a good idea for a book is one thing. The agency has sold +1200 books since 1989, including 16 New York Times best sellers and 9 international best sellers.

“My “Top” Strategy: Listen harder. Ask more questions. Take — and review — your notes. Listening with your ears and guts will help you decide with whom you should — and how far you can take them toward their own goals; it will help you notice trouble (or troubled) clients before you get in too far to exit; it will help you give people exactly what they want in the way that they want it.”

Final thought on the top strategies for business success shared by famous entrepreneurs

In summary, as the famous entrepreneurs have revealed; resilience, transparence, determination, full customers’ understanding, simplicity, task delegation, consistently creating value, networking, pure design thinking, building a community, accounting skills, creating a to-do list, hard work, flexibility, outsourcing where and when neccesary, careful listening, teamwork, and continuity are top strategies for business success.

Apply these strategies and pilot your business to the dream land.

PS: If you found this post useful, kindly use the share button(s) to help someone else out there. Cheers!

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Business Rankings, Honors and Awards for November 2016

Once again, It is truly an honor to be recognized multiple times each year for the things that I am so passionate about, but that is not why I do what I do. I strive to help each and every person that I come in contact with to become more successful. Always leave people or things better than you found them.

Whatever it takes!

These continuous honors are not mine alone. I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by great people who constantly push me to be the best I can be. To all of the people who helped me along the way, "Thank you!" Here is to an even better 2017.

Sincerely,

Dennis Wagner

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 BUSINESS COACH

Ranked #1 Business Coach

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 MANAGEMENT EXPERTS

Ranked #1 Management Expert

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 BRANDING EXPERTS

Ranked #1 Branding Expert

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 STARTUP EXPERTS

Ranked #1 Startup Expert

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 MARKETERS

Ranked #1 Marketer

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 LEADERSHIP EXPERTS

Ranked #1 Leadership Expert

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 ENTREPRENEURS

Ranked #14 Entrepreneur

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 SALES EXPERTS

Ranked #1 Sales Expert

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 SEO EXPERTS

Ranked #2 SEO Expert

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 SMALL BUSINESS EXPERTS

Ranked #1 Small Business Expert

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERTS

Ranked #2 Social Media Expert

NOVEMBER 2016 TOP 100 TECHNOLOGY EXPERTS

Ranked #1 Technology Expert

Saturday, October 1, 2016

Social Media Marketing Budgets Are No Longer Optional For Online Success

It wasn’t that long ago that budgeting for social media marketing was pretty much nonexistent. Since the rise of the internet driven business model, a strong social media presence is essential to online sales success. In the past the bulk of internet marketing went to banner ads, PPC and email, however the overwhelming popularity of social media has caused a large portion of it to shift to that medium. In fact, four out of five companies increased their social media marketing budgets in 2015 and again in 2016. If you’re trying to figure out how much of your budget to invest in social media marketing, there are many factors to consider, but following the lead of successful companies as outlined below is one way to get a general idea of the numbers.

Step One: Set Your Total Marketing Budget

Because businesses vary so much in terms of costs and profits, marketing budgets vary greatly as well. Your marketing budget may depend on the size of your business, how long you’ve been up and running, what kind of expenses you have, and your overall profit margins. Your budget will also depend on needs. You need to consider the development of your brand in terms of websites, e-brochures, logos, email campaigns, sales presentations, and of course, ads. When starting your business, your marketing budget will need to be much higher in order to get your brand established as quickly as possible. Many small businesses set a starting marketing budget of about 20% of sales. However, once your brand has been established, this number can decrease over time. While you will still need to consider the ongoing expenses of promotions and advertising, you will likely be able to use many of the initial start-up materials you had created for a long time and you can take those out of the budget. In general, with businesses bringing in less than $1 million per year (net), they normally have a marketing budget between 10% and 15%. As the revenue increases, the marketing budget percentage can decrease. It all depends on how competitive your industry or local market is.

Step Two: Devote a Percentage to Internet Marketing

The next step in creating your budget is devoting a percentage of it to internet marketing. This includes online ads, email marketing, social media marketing, landing pages, blogs, and more. Really, any kind of business exposure done online can be considered internet marketing. Again, depending on your type of business, your internet marketing budget will likely differ from others. For instance, if your business is run solely through a website, you will probably need to dedicate most, if not all of your marketing budget to online marketing. However, if you are a local walk-in store with a small website online just for local customers or company image purposes, then you might want to dedicate only a quarter of your marketing budget to internet marketing, specifically to local search optimization.

Just to give you an idea though, in 2015, businesses dedicated an average of 35% of their marketing budgets to digital marketing. However, the forecast for 2017 shows that digital marketing budgets will be increasing as businesses dedicate less to other forms of marketing, such as print and radio ads. This increase could make digital marketing budgets well over 50% by the end of this year. Business owners say they are seeing a much higher return on their investment when investing in digital marketing versus more traditional means, which is likely spurring the change.

Step Three: Determine the Social Media Marketing Portion of Your Budget

While much of digital marketing budgets go to SEO in the way of content marketing, another major part of it should go to social media marketing as well. In fact, between SEO and social media marketing, businesses spent about 50% of their digital budgets on those two categories alone. In the coming years, businesses are expected to increase their digital budgets in the areas of social media, content, and SEO. This is because of the high rate of return on those investments. Marketers found a whopping 42% to 57% lead generation due to their efforts in content and social media marketing last year.

In 2017, the average business would be smart to allocate about 25% of their internet marketing budget to a great social media marketing plan. Remember though, this should be backed by a strong content marketing strategy, so your company has great content to share and discuss on social media, and so there is a reason for the customer to go from your social media page to your website for conversion.

Step Four: Monitor Closely and Adjust Accordingly

As previously mentioned, every business is different and so every business needs to do the work to determine the best possible budget for them. Once you set your budget and start executing your marketing plans, be sure to monitor the results often and carefully. When it comes to social media marketing for business, the potential rewards can be great. However, there can be changes in the market, in internet trends, and in the effectiveness of your campaigns in general. If you find your budget isn’t working, analyze why and make changes. If you find it to be more than successful, you can always decrease it and put those funds where they are most needed. It’s a good idea to keep an eye on marketing trends and costs to evaluate where you stand at least once per month if not more often.

If you’re not sure how to go about setting a budget for social media marketing, or if you’re not sure how best to allocate the money you have budgeted for it, please contact me. I will be happy to take a look at your business and budget and let you know what I think would work best for your specific business and how our Designers, Social Media Marketers, Content Creators and SEO experts can help you make it happen.

Friday, July 29, 2016

The 3 Biggest Differences Between a Sales Leader and a Sales Manager

Effective sales management can be the difference between a company that thrives and a mediocre one that barely stays afloat. Yet, many of the best sales managers still mistake the description in their job title for something that is even more crucial to sales success - leadership. If anyone thinks for even one second that just because someone is given the job title of sales manager that they naturally become a leader, you need to think again. Sales Managers manager things, Sales Leaders lead people.

Leadership may seem like a simple concept, but it is in fact so complicated that it perplexes many of us. After all, leadership is so much more than just endless positivity, pick me up speeches and a charming disposition, just as sales management is more than simply assigning tasks, overseeing those tasks and reviewing performance reports.

One of the best definitions of leadership, as applied to sales, comes from former president Dwight D. Eisenhower. Eisenhower described leadership specifically as “the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because HE wants to do it.” Another famous definition comes from Peter Drucker, considered by many to be the foremost authority of modern management. Drucker was quoted saying that “Effective leadership is not about making speeches or being liked; leadership is defined by results, not attributes.”

Let’s tackle the first definition. Any sales manager worth his or her weight in water can simply use their authority to get their reps and underlings to perform their required tasks. I think we would all agree on that, but do we really want to lead a group of professional adults through the use of fear? I would say No.

What that would do is create a sense of obligation, rather than ambition. Constantly asking reps to do things can create a culture of resentment. Additionally, it is unlikely that tasks performed in such a negative setting will be executed at a maximum level of quality. Therefore, true leadership must entail getting your followers to buy-in and fully commit. They must believe in you, respect you, and in the best cases they feel a desire to impress you.

On the second point, sales success is mainly a function of results - how much product did you sell? Was it more than predicted? Are your book of business, the company and its revenue growing? All your sales leadership means little to nothing if the results aren’t there. That’s exactly why the best sales managers and sales leaders are also numbers-driven, relying on the end results as evidence of their effectiveness. Running their organizations analytically and by the numbers allows them to make stronger decisions based on real data, not assumptions or instinct.

Sales Leadership requires more of a long-term vision, while sales management largely occurs on the front lines, or the down-in-the-trenches level, sales leadership is more about setting a higher-level, big-picture vision and direction. Sales leadership is about being strategic as you lead your organization and comes about as a result of the sales leader setting their vision into motion while defining the culture of the sales organization. After all, they do author the sales plans, define, implement and communicate sales processes and sales effectiveness drivers, and author the sales playbook that communicates vision, strategy, processes and tactics.

Lastly, sales leaders must empower their sales managers and sales reps in order for them to succeed. Many times the GM - considered the upper tier of sales leadership in most organizations will often step on the toes of their sales managers, preventing them from properly executing tactics. As the great Ronald Reagan once said, “Surround yourself with the best people you can find, delegate authority, and don’t interfere as long as the policy you’ve decided upon is being carried out.”

Sales management is more about day-to-day execution and coaching teams to sell more effectively than actually leading the team. Sales leadership must be the one who extracts full buy-in and commitment from all members of the sales team below him or her, to the point where everyone sincerely wants to follow this leader and they have the utmost confidence in his or her vision.

Sales leadership is very critical to both the short term and long term success of your business. Without great sales leaders, businesses would suffer or even fail. The greatest thing a true leader can do is to produce more leaders. While the sales managers are not as powerful, or as important to the overall success of your business, according to the experts, developing your sales managers into great sales leaders should be your ultimate goal.

Thank you for reading. Feel free to comment or add anything to the story. I look forward to getting others feedback.

Thank you,

Dennis Wagner

President & CEO
TheDennisWagner.com

www.thedenniswagner.com

https://about.me/dennis_wagner

Wednesday, July 27, 2016

5 Easy Steps to Building a Great Personal Brand

Your personal brand is how you appear to the others around you, It's how you appear to the world. Therefore, it serves to reason that a strong brand is preferable to one that is unpolished and boring.

Once people know who you are and begin to identify you with a specific area of understanding or expertise, you'll be well on your way to becoming the go-to person in your industry.

The BIG question is, how do you become more recognized? How do you build your authority and your following?

If you're looking to build your personal brand, here are five easy ways to go about building a brand you can be proud of.

1. Understand and be your authentic self.

Imagine how hard it would be to build a brand around your "fake" self. You would have to act a certain way, appear a certain way, and say certain things, regardless of how you felt about it. Some professionals suggest going about building a personal brand by shaping and molding what others see, but this is exhausting to maintain in the long run.

Your brand should be a reflection of who you are. Do you know what you believe? What you stand for? What your strengths and weaknesses are?

Never forget, that people connect with other people. If you don't appear to be a real person, or if it just looks like you're faking it, how likely do you think others are to trust you? Even if they do buy into your fake persona for a while, the slightest bit of inconsistency could prove problematic.

Building a personal brand is first and foremost developing an understanding of your true self, and then sharing that with the world. Take your masks off and don't be afraid of being vulnerable.

2. Speaking engagements.

If you're looking to build your brand, then you should be speaking on a regular basis. Naturally, this will mean developing your communication skills. If you speak in exactly the same manner others do, you will never stand out from the crowd.

Speak from a place of knowledge and power. Show that you know what you're talking about, and answer questions in a way that serves your audience.

Show that you are confident. Some may criticize or disagree with you. The important thing is to remain open to feedback. Thank others for sharing their views, and if the points they raised were legitimate, determine how you can improve and do better next time.

Speaking engagements are opportunities to be seen and heard. Start small, and keep building. You may not land high-quality speaking engagements off the bat, but if you keep swinging, you'll build your following and get invited to speak at bigger, more notable events and conferences. Buckle down and offer the greatest amount of value you possibly can everywhere you go.

3. Write thought leadership articles and participate in interviews.

Thought leadership articles and interviews establish your credibility. As with speaking engagements, landing the best opportunities takes time and effort, but if you remain open to what comes your way, pretty soon you'll be showing up everywhere.

Take a look at the press coverage we've received to date. Anybody who regularly hangs out online should be aware of many of the brands listed there, but even if they aren't, they probably know about publications and media outlets like Fox News and Time. This shows that others see you as an authority.

In addition to that, here's an example of an interview I’ve done, covering one of the topics FE International is most known for; selling websites.

Getting an "in" with the media, online publishers and publications can prove challenging. However, it is a powerful way to show that you know what you're talking about. Every outlet you build a connection with increases your brand authority.

Related: 9 Things True Thought Leaders Always Do

4. Build your online presence.

Do you know how you're appearing and coming across online? This is something you're going to want to monitor on an ongoing basis, and improve upon whenever and wherever possible.

Do you have social media profiles? If so, are they fully fleshed out with all of your information? Do they present you in the best light possible, and make you look professional? Are you using high-quality professional photography? Are you interacting with others and sharing their content?

Do you have a website for your personal brand? One of the best ways to rank in search for your name is to build a website. This gives you considerably more control over your online presence than social media. It can't hurt to add new content to your site on a regular basis, either. You can get a domain with this GoDaddy coupon for just 99 cents – so there’s no excuse to delay. Try to buy your own name if you can.

Don't forget to Google yourself regularly to see how you're coming across, how others might be perceiving you, and what they're saying about you. You'll have a tough time building a great personal brand without making a real effort to monitor and tweak it.

5. Remain a student of your industry.

No matter how well you know your industry or area of expertise, it would be wise to remember that things are changing at a faster rate than ever before, and you have to stay up-to-date with the latest changes and trends.

It takes time to build your personal brand. If you fail to stay relevant, all of your effort will be wasted. If you don't want to be discredited, then you'll want to keep a steady supply of articles, trade journals, blogs, and books on hand.

It also pays to learn new things, develop new skills, and to expand your knowledge. If you're not growing, then you're stagnating, and that's the last thing you want to do as an entrepreneur.

Odds are you already know how important it is to stay on top of your game, but a friendly reminder never hurt anyone.

As you begin to sharpen your personal brand, the right opportunities will start coming your way. People will begin to see that you're know what you're taking about, and they'll invite you to be a part of their stories or news pieces.

However, don't forget how important it is for you to have accomplished something yourself. You can't talk about what you haven't done, because that will take away from your personal brand. Be open about your shortcomings and weaknesses. This will make you all the more human and relatable.

Friday, July 15, 2016

Here Are 10 Ways Weak Managers Try To Bully You

1. A weak manager will tell you that your education and training is sub-par. Even though it was more than adequate when they hired you.

2. A weak manager will remind you that no matter how reasonable your ideas are, they are not in line with the company’s direction and therefore should be squelched. Even though upper management has never seen or heard anything about your wonderful ideas.

3. A weak manager will warn you that if you share your opinions with other people in the company, you’ll embarrass yourself.

4. A weak manager will tell you that you must funnel all communication through them, rather than directly to your intended recipient.

5. They’ll tell you not to speak at cross-departmental meetings, but to let them represent your department and its views.

6. A weak manager will rewrite your report or presentation and put their own name on it.

7. A weak manager will assign someone to train you on a subject you could teach, yourself.

8. They will swoop in and second-guess your work, making tiny corrections to everything you do so you’ll remember who’s the boss and who isn’t.

9. A weak manager will tell you that other managers have said negative things about you, to keep you off-balance.

10. Lastly, a weak manager will criticize you at every opportunity and never, ever praise your work – but when you succeed, they’ll praise themselves for hiring you!

These types of behavior results directly in uncommonly high employee turnover. That costs the company a lot of money once you consider recruiting, interviewing, screening and training. The cost is huge. If you are an owner or in upper management, and you have noticed an uncommon amount of turnover within a certain department I would start looking at the department as a whole from the top down. There is no place in any workforce for this type of behavior.

If your employer refuses to fix the problem and you consider yourself a valuable asset, start your job search immediately. If they give you grief over taking a couple hours off so you can interview with other companies, Quit! Don't allow them to drag you down, and stop wasting your time trying to lift them up.

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Price Doesn't Sell Product or Services, Up Front Value Does

Have you ever worked with that one sales person who asks the customer for their money right after the handshake? You know who I am talking about. They usually make the prospect so uncomfortable that it is nearly impossible to salvage a sale. Don't be like them. Let me explain.

You can absolutely sell more stuff by giving up front value to potential clients. I see the same mistake over and over all around the internet. Big Flashy Ads that say “if you pay me, I will show you how to do this or let me help you master this for X amount” are starting to be big turn offs. Plus, if you only have one tool in the toolbox, then you really have no perceived long term value to them.

With that in mind, I would seriously consider changing the way you sell online. Most all of the biggest brands and names in internet and social media marketing have already made these changes, my advice to you, is to follow suit. “Evolve or Die” as Craig Charles of BrainyQuote fame likes to say. From this moment on, if you are prospecting clients in any way, shape or form.. be it, online, in person, on the phone or whatever, you have to start giving them examples of up front value to prove why you are the go-to person for their needs.

Example: If you have a landing page up, with a free video offer for opting in, that’s a great start. But assuming once they see a 2 minute FREE video, you can immediately ask them for money to buy your stuff, is just insane. I guess you can, if you are the most persuasive writer ever, but for the other 100% of us, we have to take a few more steps before we can just ask for money. I think of internet and social media marketing, no differently then I think of face to face or phone marketing. I always put a human element to it. Try this, If you just met a random person on the streets that ask you for directions to the local Lexus dealership, just accross town, and you try to sell them your latest and greatest mobile GPS unit, you are going to miss a sale. Why? You missed the chance to prove your up front value by demonstrating how easy your mobile GPS unit is to use and how accurate it is, and you should have used it to offer them free directions and asking them if can you follow up with them later to see if they made it to their destination safely. Now that is VALUE ladies and gentlemen.

If your landing pages are converting but you are not getting sales, then you need to survey your list and find out why they did not buy. Don’t be afraid to ask them the tough questions like; Did I do something wrong? Was the video of any value to you? Did you learn anything new? or did I just plain suck? They will almost always be more than happy to give you all the feedback you need, and sometimes far more than you want.

If you are immediately asking for money at the end of your two minute video presentation, and they are not buying, you need to spend more time creating percieved up front value and bonding with your prospects. In this particular scenario, at least the landing page is converting and you are building an email list. If you want to improve your conversion rates almost immediately give everyone on your list something of real value that they can use instantly, something that will help them succeed. Give them additional videos, sales tips or branding merchandise that you have lying around so that they can see, first hand, that you are a valuable asset to them.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks for reading!