And the Employee of the Month Award goes to?

And the Employee of the Month Award goes to?

As most of you know, over the past 25 years, I have been a highly sought-after lecturer / motivational speaker on business success strategies (gleaned largely from lessons I learned by making boneheaded business mistakes over the past 25 years). Every organization’s success is built on (brutally beating down) the backs of its frontline employees.

Business experts like myself – and even experts not like myself – have long known that employee recognition programs are a powerful way to reward your employees for their efforts. These programs build loyalty and reduce turnover, while at the same time improving systems, reducing waste, increasing customer satisfaction levels and keeping trophy companies in business.

Thanks to innovative employee recognition programs, every year motivated employees find creative ways to eliminate redundancies, cut costs, improve efficiencies, and leapfrog over obnoxious rival suck-ups competing with you for that next promotion.

There are a variety of highly effective employee recognition incentives, from nifty restaurant gift certificates to prime location parking spaces to those popular Employee of the Month plaques in the lobby that list the name of the same employee, Lin Chong (left), every month from January 2003 through October 2010 except for two months in 2008 when she was briefly out for chemotherapy for a life-threatening illness. In each case, these highly motivating incentives cost their employer roughly the cost of one cartridge of black inkjet printer toner.

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Now You can be a Sales Superstar – Part Two of Two – by Sales Guru, Biff Biven

Now You can be a Sales Superstar – Part Two of Two – by Sales Guru, Biff Biven

Introductory Note from Tim Jones:

Below is the conclusion of our two-part series of Superstar Strategies for Super Sales Success, from the renowned Sales Coach to the Stars, Biff Biven, motivational speaker and author of the not quite best-selling sales primer Everything I learned about Sales I learned in Prison. In Part two, Biff reveals the remainder of his A to Z Secrets for Sales Superstardom, starting with the letter P.

If you missed last week’s Part One, or you just need a refresher on the letters of the alphabet, you can read it here.

Now back to the Biff Biven’s guest post, Part Two.

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Welcome back, evurbahdy. I’ve saved my best sales tips for the second half of the alphabet. So let’s get ‘er started.

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Now You can be a Sales Superstar – by Sales Guru, Biff Biven

Now You can be a Sales Superstar – by Sales Guru, Biff Biven

Introductory Note from Tim Jones:

For much of my career I have been in sales management. The first thing any new salesperson learns is the ABCs of sales. You know – Always Be Closing. Turns out, this is a totally five minutes ago approach. I’m delighted to have veteran sales coach and motivational speaker Biff Biven take the helm this week as my guest blogger, to tell VFTB’s readers about the NEW ABCs of sales. That’s Biff on the left.

Biff is proud to say he came just 3 credits shy of graduating from Rebel Yell Elementary School in Biloxi, Mississippi. He is a renowned expert on direct sales strategies, having done direct selling for several decades (on and off, when he was not collecting welfare checks or serving time). Some of his achievements include direct sales roles with KFC, McDonalds (where he once met Ronald), Stanley Steamer carpet cleaner, and Shucks Auto Supply, to name just a few of the 37 Fortune 10,000 companies he has worked with over the past 35 years. He is perhaps most proud of his current role with Dominos, where every day he is personally responsible for driving regional sales (in his 1987 two-tone Ford Pinto hatchback).

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Business Lesson #27: The Importance of Committees

Business Lesson #27: The Importance of Committees

donuts

Having more than 25 years of management experience under my belt (only 7 of which were catastrophically misguided), I periodically like to share a few pearls of business wisdom.  Some might argue it’s more like scraps of cubic zirconia.  Nevertheless, I feel morally bound to help others grow in their business or move ahead in their career. Today’s lesson: The critical importance of committees as an engine of business.   (more…)