Comments for Information Today Europe http://www.infotodayeurope.com Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:01:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Comment on A blog post about the decline of blogging by US Inc. 500: less blogging, more Facebooking « Science Intelligence and InfoPros http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2012/02/02/a-blog-post-about-the-decline-of-blogging/comment-page-1/#comment-1991 US Inc. 500: less blogging, more Facebooking « Science Intelligence and InfoPros Wed, 08 Feb 2012 21:01:28 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?p=887#comment-1991 [...] http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2012/02/02/a-blog-post-about-the-decline-of-blogging/ [...] [...] http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2012/02/02/a-blog-post-about-the-decline-of-blogging/ [...]

]]> Comment on The co-operative spirit by Val Skelton http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2012/01/19/the-co-operative-spirit/comment-page-1/#comment-1937 Val Skelton Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:05:43 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?p=871#comment-1937 Further to this post, Emerald's Journal of Strategy and Management is making an interview with John Lewis Chairman available free online until 29th February 2012. Follow the link to their press release http://www.emeraldinsight.com/about/news/story.htm?id=3835. Further to this post, Emerald’s Journal of Strategy and Management is making an interview with John Lewis Chairman available free online until 29th February 2012. Follow the link to their press release http://www.emeraldinsight.com/about/news/story.htm?id=3835.

]]> Comment on Is relationship building the key to customer loyalty? by Jack Dempsey http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2011/10/10/is-relationship-building-the-key-to-customer-loyalty/comment-page-1/#comment-1590 Jack Dempsey Sat, 29 Oct 2011 00:30:52 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?p=708#comment-1590 Thanks for identifying this super articles. Both provide opportunities to dig in and assess sales. Part 1 - This is an excellent blog and should be circulated to sales managers and sales trainers throughout the country. The selling environment today is certainly very difficult. Techniques that worked over the past 5 years, past year or even yesterday are ineffective today, yet so many of the old skill sets remain in active use. Salespeople often confuse activity with effectiveness. If I have all these great relationships and work hard, that's all I’ll need to do. I'm active. I'm busy. The truth is that “relationship building” and “hard work” can also be great hiding places. Sometimes we need to step back to honestly assess how truly effective our activity has been from an actual sales success standpoint. Yes, we make some sales through relationship-building, and yes, we make some sales through other kinds of hard work. However… Here are some questions to consider: Are we achieving what is possible? Is our “success” actually underperformance? How many sales are we missing because of our old skill set? Because of the downsized and flattened nature of today’s corporate structures, companies need the skill set of a challenger. A challenger can be a strategic business partner without necessarily being on the payroll. Companies need all the help they can get in today’s competitive business environment – an effective challenger can help unlock the gap between current sales performance and what is achievable. Sales leaders – you must call out of all those great hiding places and old skill sets in your sales workforce and zero in on what is effective and ineffective. Sales trainers – you must ensure that you are training the right skills and the right mindset. Rehashing and reinforcing yesterday’s skills and behaviors will be costly for your organization. Part 2 - What keeps you up at night? Excellent insight - I had never thought about the impact of that simple question. Customers need their sales representatives to be strategic business partners. The goal of many salespeople is simply to generate a lot of sales to their customers. Salespeople who can transition from merely a generator of sales to a strategic business partner with their customers will ultimately produce more business at a higher level of profitability. Salespeople can do this by focusing on the customer’s true needs rather than on what can be sold to that customer. Salespeople who invest their time and energy in becoming a strategic partner with their customers will position themselves for success. Thanks for identifying this super articles. Both provide opportunities to dig in and assess sales.

Part 1 – This is an excellent blog and should be circulated to sales managers and sales trainers throughout the country. The
selling environment today is certainly very difficult. Techniques that worked over the past 5 years, past year or even yesterday are ineffective today, yet so many of the old skill sets remain in active use.

Salespeople often confuse activity with effectiveness.
If I have all these great relationships and work hard, that’s all I’ll
need to do. I’m active. I’m busy. The truth is that “relationship building” and “hard work” can also be great hiding places. Sometimes we need to step back to honestly assess how truly effective our activity has been from an actual sales success standpoint. Yes, we make some sales through relationship-building, and yes, we make some sales through
other kinds of hard work. However…

Here are some questions to consider: Are we achieving what is possible? Is our “success” actually underperformance? How many sales are we missing because of our old skill set?
Because of the downsized and flattened nature of today’s corporate structures, companies need the skill set of a challenger. A challenger can be a strategic business partner without necessarily being on the payroll. Companies need all the help they can get in today’s competitive business environment – an effective challenger can help unlock the gap between current sales performance and what is achievable.

Sales leaders – you must call out of all those great hiding places and old skill sets in your sales workforce and zero in on what is effective and ineffective.

Sales trainers – you must ensure that you are training the right skills and the right mindset. Rehashing and reinforcing
yesterday’s skills and behaviors will be costly for your organization.

Part 2 – What keeps you up at night?

Excellent insight – I had never thought about the impact of
that simple question. Customers need their sales representatives to be strategic business partners. The goal of many salespeople is simply to generate a lot of sales to their customers.

Salespeople who can transition from merely a generator of sales to a strategic business partner with their customers will ultimately produce more business at a higher level of profitability. Salespeople can do this by focusing on the customer’s true needs rather than on what can be
sold to that customer.

Salespeople who invest their time and energy in becoming a
strategic partner with their customers will position themselves for success.

]]> Comment on Is relationship building the key to customer loyalty? by Editor, Driving Retention http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2011/10/10/is-relationship-building-the-key-to-customer-loyalty/comment-page-1/#comment-1561 Editor, Driving Retention Wed, 19 Oct 2011 23:16:33 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?p=708#comment-1561 HBR doesn't try to indicate that relationship building isn't key to building customer loyalty, but rather that "it is the nature of the relationships that matter." Both B2C and B2B relationships are invariably P2P... individuals who desire to trust - at least on some level - the business (or sales rep) doing the selling. And that trust has to come from somewhere. Often that trust comes through new ways of thinking provided by "Challengers," but this fact in no way diminishes the importance of relationships as they pertain to customer loyalty. HBR doesn’t try to indicate that relationship building isn’t key to building customer loyalty, but rather that “it is the nature of the relationships that matter.” Both B2C and B2B relationships are invariably P2P… individuals who desire to trust – at least on some level – the business (or sales rep) doing the selling. And that trust has to come from somewhere. Often that trust comes through new ways of thinking provided by “Challengers,” but this fact in no way diminishes the importance of relationships as they pertain to customer loyalty.

]]> Comment on Email triage by Ian Wooler http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2011/04/11/email-triage/comment-page-1/#comment-636 Ian Wooler Mon, 11 Apr 2011 10:57:37 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?p=487#comment-636 Building on your 'stop burdening' point - one way to start managing your email inbox is to review your outbox. A health check of your outbox might lead you to: - remove yourself from distribution lists; - unsubscribe to things that seemed interesting at the time but are no longer useful; - reflect on how you send emails and your use of CCs and Bccs; - ask yourself, with the benefit of hindsight, was email the best communication channel to use in this instance; - stop sending emails to people you can see. Building on your ‘stop burdening’ point – one way to start managing your email inbox is to review your outbox. A health check of your outbox might lead you to:
- remove yourself from distribution lists;
- unsubscribe to things that seemed interesting at the time but are no longer useful;
- reflect on how you send emails and your use of CCs and Bccs;
- ask yourself, with the benefit of hindsight, was email the best communication channel to use in this instance;
- stop sending emails to people you can see.

]]> Comment on ‘Educated Change’ to build brands by More networking in 2011 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2010/12/17/educated-change-to-build-brands/comment-page-1/#comment-173 More networking in 2011 Tue, 04 Jan 2011 12:34:09 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?p=322#comment-173 [...] to make better use of the networking opportunities available to me.  After being taken to a great event by a friend in December, I have remembered once again the value of face-to-face conversations and [...] [...] to make better use of the networking opportunities available to me.  After being taken to a great event by a friend in December, I have remembered once again the value of face-to-face conversations and [...]

]]> Comment on Google and Yahoo announce 2010 top search terms by JabberCam http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2010/12/12/google-and-yahoo-announce-2010-top-search-terms/comment-page-1/#comment-152 JabberCam Fri, 24 Dec 2010 17:24:20 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?p=316#comment-152 Why is chatroulette top keyword of 2010? First because of the rising popularity of Andrey Ternovskiy's popular random video chat called chat roulette. Second because of people started to search for chatroulette alternatives and scripts to start their own service like http://www.omegle.com or http://www.jabbercam.com Strange that after 8 months, most people (maybe none of your friends) ever heard about chat roulette ... Why is chatroulette top keyword of 2010?

First because of the rising popularity of Andrey Ternovskiy’s popular random video chat called chat roulette.

Second because of people started to search for chatroulette alternatives and scripts to start their own service like http://www.omegle.com or http://www.jabbercam.com

Strange that after 8 months, most people (maybe none of your friends) ever heard about chat roulette …

]]> Comment on Getting more librarians published by Getting more librarians published « Information Today Europe list university http://www.infotodayeurope.com/2010/10/15/getting-more-librarians-published/comment-page-1/#comment-59 Getting more librarians published « Information Today Europe list university Fri, 15 Oct 2010 12:54:27 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?p=165#comment-59 [...] post: Getting more librarians published « Information Today Europe By admin | category: National University of Ireland MAYNOOTH | tags: international, [...] [...] post: Getting more librarians published « Information Today Europe By admin | category: National University of Ireland MAYNOOTH | tags: international, [...]

]]> Comment on About eNews by 10 interesting websites #6, as selected by Roddy MacLeod « Roddy Macleod's Blog http://www.infotodayeurope.com/about-enews/comment-page-1/#comment-11 10 interesting websites #6, as selected by Roddy MacLeod « Roddy Macleod's Blog Tue, 20 Apr 2010 14:46:52 +0000 http://www.infotodayeurope.com/?page_id=107#comment-11 [...] provides news, analysis and opinion on the information industry in Europe.  There’s also Information Today Europe eNews - a new, free eNewsletter for information and knowledge professionals in Europe, featuring news, [...] [...] provides news, analysis and opinion on the information industry in Europe.  There’s also Information Today Europe eNews – a new, free eNewsletter for information and knowledge professionals in Europe, featuring news, [...]

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