Category Careers
Sell more effectively: Listen! People will teach you the best way to sell to them.
By Brian Tracy
Everyone likes to buy, but no one wants to be sold. People don’t like to feel that they are the recipients or the victims of a sales presentation. Most customers are independent in their thinking, and they don’t like to think that they are being manipulated, pressured, or coerced into doing anything. They like to feel as though they are making up their own minds based on good information that has been presented to them.
Sales Helper
The best salesperson is perceived as a helper who assists prospects in getting what they want and need. Remember, it is the perception of the customers that, more than anything else determines how the customer behaves toward a salesperson. You must do everything possible to appear to be helping rather than selling.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Careers, Growing a Business on September 28th, 2009
Ten companies that probably won’t cut jobs
By Douglas A. McIntyre
Layoffs at big companies are so common now that it is novel when a day goes by without Microsoft, Caterpillar, or Macy’s letting thousands of people go. There are a relatively small number of America’s largest companies which will almost certainly not have significant layoffs. One of them might close an office in Turkey, another could replace telephone operators with an automated system, but each is in a unique position that makes it highly unlikely for them to want or need to fire employees.
Some of the companies on the list are simply doing so well that they cannot afford to do without all the people that they have. Not only will these companies be unlikely to fire people but some may actually be hiring. The other firms included have large amounts of cash on their balance sheets and have elected to use the slow economy to develop new products and services to take share away from financially weaker competitors. A few of the companies on this list had modest job cuts last year. None of them were significant and are highly unlikely to happen again.
Cisco cut 3,000 of its 66,000 people last year. CEO John Chambers has said that the company plans to avoid job cuts. Cisco probably has as much or more cash on hand as any tech company in the US, holding $27 billion in available funds. The company is in the midst of a very rapid expansion into the server and data center business. That will require extra personnel and may involve acquisitions. Cisco is in several businesses which are nearly recession-proof and should continue to do well. Its core router operation is critical to building out broadband and systems for popular products like VoIP. The new stimulus package should give that business a bump up. Cisco is also in several sectors like video conferencing which may actually grow as business people cut back on travel.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Careers on February 24th, 2009
E-commerce salaries hold steady in 2009
A vice president of e-commerce in the U.S. can expect a salary of $155,700, with salaries ranging from $110,200 to $203,400, unchanged from a year ago, says the latest Guide to Online and Interactive Marketing Salaries from executive search firm Crandall Associates.
A director of e-commerce can expect an average salary of $105,900, with a low of $85,700 and a high of $142,300, Crandall reports. Directors of e-commerce who have been on the job for 1 to 3 years can expect a range of $78,500 to $89,900; those with 4 to 7 years experience, $92,300 to $118,700; and those with more than 7 years, $120,400 to $142,500.
A vice president of online marketing with 1 to 3 years experience earns $98,000 to $109,200, Crandall reports; while those with 4 to 7 years take in $108,200 to $128,900 and those with more than 7 years, $131,500 to $158,500. The highest reported salary in that position was $176,100.
This is the second year that Crandall, an executive search firm specializing in direct marketing since 1973, has published the Guide to Online and Interactive Marketing Salaries. It has published the National Salary Guide to Direct and Interactive Marketing, which covers direct marketing and catalogs, since 1980.
Posted by Tom Polanski in Advertising, Careers, Marketing on February 16th, 2009