Editor’s Note

Technology is changing our lives. The line between online and in-store shopping is blurring. Buyer habits have started to change in a whole new way and companies are worrying as to how to draw in and keep their consumers. Shep Hyken, in his article, Customers Buying Habits Are Changing, says that it is time for the retailers to acknowledge the change and adapt accordingly. If not, be prepared to watch your business die!

You Want Answers? ASK!: 5 most important characteristics of quality service

You might have been good at predicting customer behavior in the past, but remember that it is not what you think you know that is important. It is what customers think that matters, even if they are illogical or uninformed. Good service has nothing to do with what the provider of services believes it to be, unless these beliefs coincide with the attitudes of customers.

HCM Sales, Marketing and Alliances Excellence April 2017 Advertisers

Building Professional Reputation With Your Customers: Why is it important?

Here’s why. While they consistently reacted professionally, they never, ever pro-acted. They never came to me with an idea, never offered a suggestion that I didn’t first initiate. Never suggested a change for my benefit. I wanted someone to think about me, to hold my best interests up before their regular scrutiny, to extend themselves in order to keep me at the forefront.

From Awkward To Accommodating: Optimizing your role as a manager of a multigenerational team

Being a great sales manager is difficult when you have a team of sales people from the same generation with roughly the same skill level. It becomes even more challenging when you have to work with sellers from a mix of generations other than your own. With changing workforce demographics, many sales organizations are seeing manager and direct reportee miss-matches unfold in a number of different ways:

Why Is Harvey More Popular Than Your Brand?: Social media musings

Posts from Harvey the Bernese are my favorite on Instagram. I don’t have a Bernese and I don’t know Harvey’s family. In fact, Harvey lives in the UK and he alternates between running around outside in the mud and sleeping on the family couch. Yet Harvey has more than 12,000 followers on Instagram and receives loving notes from his human fans on a daily basis.

What Few Consultants Deliver That Every Client Wants: Top 6 tips

This gold rush mentality is understandable given that U.S. businesses spend an astounding $120+ billion on management consultants each year—and six times that amount on other advisors such as IT specialists, R&D companies, lawyers, and accountants. Hundreds of thousands of consultants are employed in firms ranging from “single-shingle” shops to global, mega-consultancies.

How Drucker Can Make You A Better Manager*: Do the most difficult thing - think!

Peter Drucker is known as “the Father of Modern Management.” He was certainly different than other management gurus. And by the way, he didn’t like that description of his work. His own choice was “social ecologist.” In case you are wondering, a social ecologist studies how societies interact and organize themselves. But there is a little more to it. Social ecology was a theory founded by an author by the name of Murray Bookchin.

Customers' Buying Habits Are Changing: Are you keeping up?

A recent article in RetailWire posed a question about virtual reality and if it will make brick-and-mortar stores less relevant. By the way, if you haven’t experienced virtual reality, you must. It’s incredible. You put on what looks like goggles and you see the most amazing three dimensional images and videos. Okay, back to answering the question. My response was that virtual reality and augmented reality are just enhanced ways of viewing and experiencing products online.

Why The Need To Build Relationships Is A Myth: Enable buying through change facilitation

In 1937, Dale Carnegie published his celebrated How to Win Friends and Influence People - the first book suggesting sellers build relationships. 1937: with primitive transportation, sellers found clients closer to home; telephones were emerging (FYI – Morse Code was preferred for 40 years after the telephone was invented!); marketing avenues were limited, as was advertising (Sears Catalogue, Life Magazine, The Farmer’s Almanac, the local paper or general store). Obviously, there was no technology, or global competition.