Tuesday, January 18, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
NFC Technology: 6 Ways It Could Change Our Daily Lives
http://mashable.com/2010/05/06/near-field-communication/
I had a meeting today with a group that is moving aggressively in the Near Field Communications field.
NFC's potential as a game changer for the mobile, out of home, print, in-store, and other media venues and forms is real and seeming at hand. In one fell swoop, NFC technologies can, when used strategically in the right venues, render SMS, Bluetooth, QR codes, etc obsolete in my opinion.
Its anticipated that there will be over 500 million smartphones sold worldwide in 2011. and over 100 million of them will be shipped with NFC readers installed. Google, Apple, and others are all positioning themselves to be at the forefront in this area. Mobile wallet, banking, electronic ticketing, to name just a few of the potential applications.
Your mobile device, the relevant device, just "tap and go..."
Keep your eyes open for more to come on this very interesting old, yet new technology.
Tim
I had a meeting today with a group that is moving aggressively in the Near Field Communications field.
NFC's potential as a game changer for the mobile, out of home, print, in-store, and other media venues and forms is real and seeming at hand. In one fell swoop, NFC technologies can, when used strategically in the right venues, render SMS, Bluetooth, QR codes, etc obsolete in my opinion.
Its anticipated that there will be over 500 million smartphones sold worldwide in 2011. and over 100 million of them will be shipped with NFC readers installed. Google, Apple, and others are all positioning themselves to be at the forefront in this area. Mobile wallet, banking, electronic ticketing, to name just a few of the potential applications.
Your mobile device, the relevant device, just "tap and go..."
Keep your eyes open for more to come on this very interesting old, yet new technology.
Tim
Friday, January 7, 2011
Back to basics; Sales 101 and your personal business plan
Yesterday I was asked to write a lengthly essay on my sales management philosophy.
As I got more involved in the process of putting my thoughts on to paper. I realized that now would be a great time to go back to the basics of sales, planning, etc. and to publish my thoughts on building a personal business plan to my blog for all to read.
One of the things that every sales person that I have worked with during the last 10 years will say, is that upon the outset of our relationship they received two things from me:
Getting up every morning and heading into your sales job with out a business plan would be the equivalent of getting into your car and driving from NYC to Los Angeles without a road map/plan (or in todays world a smartphone with GEO location or GPS app installed). While if you just head West you will eventually get close to your destination, your journey will not be the most efficient or rewarding. With gas rapidly approaching $4 per gallon unnecessary detours will be very expensive, and don't forget the fact that you will miss all of the really cool excursions along the way that you could have seen if you had only planned your trip in advance.
The same analogy applies to sales. In its simplest form sales is comprised of three main factors; Talent, Hard work, and Persistence. Talent is God given in its simplest form, and while we can and always should build and expand on our natural talent daily, if you do not have any talent or drive for selling there is not too much that you can do about it, (Thus the job of the person or team interviewing and hiring sales people to ensure at a minimum that your are only interviewing candidates that posses strong sales talent and drive).
Hard work, persistence and enhancing their god given talents are where I spend most of my time working with my team. This is where the business plan comes into its own. Using our road trip to LA analogy, if we drove our Turbo Porsche as hard and fast as we could without a plan, all we will do is waste more time and energy along the way. The plan is what helps us to maintain focus and be efficient, ultimately helping us to Drive more sales.
The key ingredients that I have always insisted on for any business plan are that it be:
It goes without saying that your plans daily goals must be written down for you to see and monitor your progress against all day long. I have always used a day timer, one page per day to write my goals down, but find more and more that I am copying them to my Blackberry. However to each his own as long as you can track and record and save your daily progress. For a sales manager its crucial that you insist that all of your team members have plans, and that you are involved in their creation and review to ensure that these plans are realistic and that they are followed every day. You do not want to micro-manage your team, but to be a part of the each team members plans creation and ultimate review as goals are met and exceeded.
Every company and division within a company has a business plan. Why not each sales person?
Those are some of my strong beliefs on one of the major factors that sets a great salesperson apart from an average salesperson. Assuming similar talent, the salesperson that has a plan/road map will ALWAYS have greater success and far less frustrations and worry than the salesperson who does not have a plan. The salesperson with the plan always know where they are now and where they are going.
Happy New Years to all
Tim Daly
Feel free to e-mail me your thoughts and comments:
tdaly@ingenuitymediaoutdoor.com
As I got more involved in the process of putting my thoughts on to paper. I realized that now would be a great time to go back to the basics of sales, planning, etc. and to publish my thoughts on building a personal business plan to my blog for all to read.
One of the things that every sales person that I have worked with during the last 10 years will say, is that upon the outset of our relationship they received two things from me:
- A personalized copy of the greatest sales book ever written
- A request and an offer from me to help them write their personal business plan for the upcoming year.
Getting up every morning and heading into your sales job with out a business plan would be the equivalent of getting into your car and driving from NYC to Los Angeles without a road map/plan (or in todays world a smartphone with GEO location or GPS app installed). While if you just head West you will eventually get close to your destination, your journey will not be the most efficient or rewarding. With gas rapidly approaching $4 per gallon unnecessary detours will be very expensive, and don't forget the fact that you will miss all of the really cool excursions along the way that you could have seen if you had only planned your trip in advance.
The same analogy applies to sales. In its simplest form sales is comprised of three main factors; Talent, Hard work, and Persistence. Talent is God given in its simplest form, and while we can and always should build and expand on our natural talent daily, if you do not have any talent or drive for selling there is not too much that you can do about it, (Thus the job of the person or team interviewing and hiring sales people to ensure at a minimum that your are only interviewing candidates that posses strong sales talent and drive).
Hard work, persistence and enhancing their god given talents are where I spend most of my time working with my team. This is where the business plan comes into its own. Using our road trip to LA analogy, if we drove our Turbo Porsche as hard and fast as we could without a plan, all we will do is waste more time and energy along the way. The plan is what helps us to maintain focus and be efficient, ultimately helping us to Drive more sales.
The key ingredients that I have always insisted on for any business plan are that it be:
- simple to follow
- realistic
- measurable every day
It goes without saying that your plans daily goals must be written down for you to see and monitor your progress against all day long. I have always used a day timer, one page per day to write my goals down, but find more and more that I am copying them to my Blackberry. However to each his own as long as you can track and record and save your daily progress. For a sales manager its crucial that you insist that all of your team members have plans, and that you are involved in their creation and review to ensure that these plans are realistic and that they are followed every day. You do not want to micro-manage your team, but to be a part of the each team members plans creation and ultimate review as goals are met and exceeded.
Every company and division within a company has a business plan. Why not each sales person?
Those are some of my strong beliefs on one of the major factors that sets a great salesperson apart from an average salesperson. Assuming similar talent, the salesperson that has a plan/road map will ALWAYS have greater success and far less frustrations and worry than the salesperson who does not have a plan. The salesperson with the plan always know where they are now and where they are going.
Happy New Years to all
Tim Daly
Feel free to e-mail me your thoughts and comments:
tdaly@ingenuitymediaoutdoor.com
Thursday, January 6, 2011
Unemployment at 9.6% in December: Look for the silver lining in this cloud
Gallup Finds Unemployment at 9.6% in December
In every rain cloud there is a silver lining. The potential opportunity such a large pool of workers represents for our economy is vast. With so many potential employees on the sidelines, there is a vast pool of skilled and educated labor available. Businesses need to find ways to capitalize on this pool of labor. Hopefully there will be some additional clarity from Washington regarding taxes and regulations, allowing business the ability to deploy some of the cash they are sitting on. Productivity gains can only go on for so long before hiring must take place again.
Nobody knows exactly what or where the next great opportunity will be that comes along, the next Google, the next Facebook, the next innovation that will enhance our lives. However rest assured its being developed as I write this.
Someone somewhere will capitalize on this opportunity, why not you, me? Its time to think of new ideas, innovations, ways that business; yours mine anyones, can capitalize on this resource for the benefit of all.
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