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selling-skills

Influencing Others Through Story; A Valuable Lesson from Game of Thrones
June 20

What inspires and motivates people to action? Here’s a hint: it’s not a PowerPoint deck filled with data points and analytics. Learning how to share a powerful story can positively influence others and help your ideas become memorable. Perhaps you need to promote a new idea or close that crucial sale. Learn how some of the most successful business ventures today got their start from sharing a powerful story and how you can make your own narrative work for you.

Because Executive Briefings & Meetings Don't Run Themselves
June 06
Executive briefings. Big sales meetings. Project pitch meetings. What do they have in common? The stakes are sky high. There’s a lot riding on them for you and your company — revenue, reputation, productivity. Do your people have, both, the presentation AND facilitation skills to ensure their success?

Read the blog to find out and to get your free Discussion Leader Self-Assessment Tool and Facilitator Checklist.
Want Your Presentation to Be Memorable? Follow the Rule of Three
May 09

Memory almost full. Imagine that warning flashing brightly on the forehead of every audience member. A successful presentation isn’t just about the speaker’s dynamic energy or their confident manner in front of an audience. Without compelling, easy to follow content, it doesn’t matter how comfortable you are in the spotlight. You and your topic will quickly be forgotten. So how do you ensure lasting, memorable impact? Learn how to be remembered by leveraging the ancient, globally relevant, and scientifically proven rule of three to focus your content, motivate your listeners, and make your executive presence shine.

Do Salespeople & Technologists Communicate Differently?
December 13
Do salespeople and technologists communicate differently? Is one group better at presenting than the other? Can the two ever agree on how to present or what info to share? Corporate Workforce Development expert, high-tech industry veteran, and former Mandel client Suzanne McLarnon shares the secret behind developing both sales and technical professionals into superb communicators.
Questions I Wish I'd Asked (How to Improve Sales Conversations)
June 07

What’s the secret to wildly productive first-time sales meetings or conversations with executives? Thought-provoking questions. Read the blog to find out why—and how to tell if YOUR questions are thought-provoking enough to make customers want to learn more.

The Power of "What If" Storytelling
March 15
A well-crafted story gives power to your ideas and recommendations like nothing else can. If there's one type of story every salesperson should have in their toolbox, it's the "What if" story. Read the blog to learn what a what if story is, how to tell one, and why it's so effective at connecting with customers and getting them to a decision faster.
Most Popular Skill-Building Content of 2017
December 28
As the year comes to a close, here's a look back at Mandel's most popular skill-building content of 2017. Whether trying to make a great first impression, give a persuasive presentation, or convince others to support your idea, how you communicate will be key to your success in 2018. To help you prepare, we’ve curated this list of the most downloaded skill-building content just for you.
The Secret to Connecting on LinkedIn
July 27
If you want to connect with more people on LinkedIn, I have a foolproof tip: Make a real connection. What I mean is, if you want to productively connect with someone—whether virtually through a social network or in-person—don't send a generic invite. They don't work. Read the blog to find out why, and what you can do instead to craft irresistible LinkedIn messages or networking emails that get results.
3 Tips to Help Salespeople Generate Higher Margins
October 27

Could your salespeople be eroding profit margins through excessive discounting? Or through unnecessary product, service, or contractual give-aways? Margin erosion usually stems from the failure to establish differentiated value early in the sales process. Here are 3 tips you can use to turn margin erosion into margin generation.

Are Your Sales Reps Failing to "ROI Justify" Their Proposals?
July 21

When prospective buyers ask sales reps to justify ROI, it's typically NOT because of a lack of data or information about your products and services. Rather, it's because they haven't quite fully bought into your sales messaging or your messenger. Read on to learn what customers are really thinking when they ask for ROI justification, and what your reps can do differently.


In Sales, Content *Delivery* Is King
June 23
You've probably heard the expression, "Content is king." And, it's likely your company has spent a lot of money creating content that supports successful selling. But even the world's greatest message or content will fail to persuade if your sales reps can't deliver it effectively. When it comes to sales performance, here's why content delivery is king.
Mismanaged Meetings: Stop Wasting Scarce Executive Time
April 28
Executive time is a scarce commodity. Why do meetings squander it? Because, too often, they fail to focus on the strategic issues that are most important to executives. They fail to drive progress on the decisions that need to be made in order to move your business forward. Here are 3 things you can do to change that and to insure your executives' time is well-spent.
Do You Demonstrate the Most Desired Interpersonal Character Trait?
November 12

What characteristic do we prize most in the people with whom we interact? Learn how our perception of this trait is influenced by communication skills.

Are Buyers Using Idea Voodoo on Your Sales People?
October 15
Did you know that 58% of B2B sales processes end in "no decision" rather than "won" or "lost"? Is "idea voodoo" to blame? Find out why it's so darn hard to get buyers to make decisions these days and what you can do to overcome it.

Is Your Organization Lacking the Key Catalyst to Successful Innovation?
September 17

If you think about it, your organization’s performance depends on its best ideas being turned into profitable innovations. Yet, 87% of executives believe major unexploited opportunities, ones that could make their companies market leaders, are overlooked. Why are so many companies struggling to innovate? (Hint: It's not a creativity problem!)

Sell the Problem...And, They Just Might Adopt Your Idea
August 20
Innovation can be challenging, because organizations — and the people in them — are almost hard-wired to resist change. If you want your ideas to get adopted, here are three things you should know before presenting them.
A Leading Cause of Pipeline Mortality
May 28
Your company, like most, probably invests in sales training that helps team members become more consultative, insight-driven, assertive, and challenging in their approach.  But, none of that training addresses a leading cause of pipeline mortality. This week, find out what could be causing your sales opportunities to die prematurely and what you can do about it.
How to Build Customer Intimacy One Conversation at a Time
May 14
I walked away from last month’s Association of Briefing Program Managers (ABPM) annual spring conference more convinced than ever that customer intimacy is the key to customer loyalty. Let me explain why, and also what you can do to build longer-lasting, more satisfying relationships with your customers.
Can Your Sales Team Get Executive Buyers to Say Yes?
April 09
Executives today are making or influencing more and more buying decisions (especially when it comes to technology).  Is your sales team ready to engage executives in conversations about the business challenges that keep them up at night?  This is where traditional sales training fails. Here’s how you can fix it.
Are Acronyms Hurting or Helping Your Communications?
February 26
I’ll be the first to admit that the proper use of acronyms can benefit listeners. First and foremost among the benefits is increased memorability. But, overusing acronyms unconsciously can be damaging and abusive to listeners. Here are 3 keys to using acronyms effectively in your communications. And, don't miss the fun and illuminating Mental Floss video on what many of our most-loved acronyms and initials really stand for.
Where's the Fire in Your Belly?
November 20
When you present to senior executives, you expect scrutiny. You know they'll be evaluating whether what you have to say is of value to them. But, there's something else they're looking for from you.... And, it's further proof that when the stakes are high, both what you say AND how you say it can make all the difference.
Selling Up: What Executives Want
August 21
Even though you yourself might not be an executive, you must come across in a manner that demonstrates you're confident, credible, and someone who understands the executive's world. Here's how to project executive presence when selling up.
Tough Questions: Keep Your Cool Under Pressure
June 05
Everyone has had to deal with questions that are difficult, asked in an angry voice, or just plain hostile. And, when you're caught off guard by such questions, it's easy to be thrown into a panicky state and not answer well, jeopardizing your credibility. Here's how to avoid losing your cool under pressure.
What if Your Salesforce Asked Better Questions?
May 29
By asking better questions, your sales team can engage in stimulating and productive customer conversations. A recent book demonstrated how a lesson from the elementary classroom applies to Fortune 1000 sales executives.
Are Your Sales Reps Presentation-Ready?
May 22
While customer-driven dialogue should be the goal of every sales meeting, make no mistake: there are key “moments of presentation” during these conversations that can determine your success or failure. The best sales people know when they need to shift gears and jump into presentation mode, and they do it well because it's a skill they've practiced.
Sales Leaders: What is Costing You?
May 15
Search the internet for pipeline mortality and you’ll only get a handful of hits and not one of them will have anything to do with the sales process. But my colleague David Mears, Mandel’s Chief Sales Officer, loves to use this term. The meaning is fairly obvious – it describes the potential deals put into the sales pipeline that never close, either lost to competitors or inaction. And David believes that many sales leaders are willing to accept pipeline mortality rates that are needlessly high and costly.
6 Essential Sales Communication Skills
March 20
Help your sales professionals master these six Moment of Truth Readiness Communication Skills needed to ensure that they're game-time ready and prepared for any interaction—virtual or face-to-face—with today’s buyers.
What Successful Sales Conversations Have in Common
March 13
For an interaction with a customer to be productive, three things must happen: (1) Customers must understand what you’re saying. (2) Customers must see the value in what you’re offering to them. (3) Customers must trust you, the person in the room speaking directly to them. Ensuring these three things happen takes more effort than you might expect—but the payoff is worth it.
9 Sales Questions to Help You Close Deals Faster
March 06
On any sales call, your goal is to get as much valuable information as you can from the client—information that can help you recommend a relevant solution or service, build trust, and close the sale more quickly. Here are 9 questions to help you gain the insight and info you need to build better relationships with clients and close deals faster.

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Mandel is the global communication skills training company for organizations that believe in unleashing the power and potential of their employees. As proven experts in the science of communication in a complex world, we help companies around the world discover new ways to help their people think and speak more effectively, and make every communication count.
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