Building Credibility with Senior-Level Customer Executives - Steve Bistritz - EyesOnSales

Building credibility with senior-level customer executives is a critical factor in developing lasting business relationships, according to two studies done by OnTarget and the Kenan-Flagler Business School at the University of North Carolina and the Center for Business and Industrial Marketing at Georgia State University.

These two studies focused on the relationships that professional salespeople developed with senior executives, from the perspective of C-level executives. The conclusion of the two studies: That becoming a trusted advisor to these executives should be a major objective for most salespeople involved in high value, complex sales campaigns.

So how is credibility developed over the long term?

The Top 10 Ways to Get Past Voice Mail and Reach More Decision Makers | Salesopedia.com

"If you make cold calls or follow up calls then you are probably well acquainted with voice mail. Voice mail is a vicious sale stopper and it isn’t going to go away any time soon. Knowing how to manage this electronic screen is vital for your calling success. The key is to leave a message only as a LAST resort. In the meantime, here are ten creative, proven and effective ways to get past voice mail and reach more decision makers."

The Diverse And Digital Workforce - Forbes.com

"The face of the workforce is changing. It is increasingly female, global and digital. To attract and retain the best and brightest talent to sustain your competitive advantage, you'll need to create a new work order. You will need a workplace that is much more flexible, interactive and connected to maximize the value of your increasingly diverse workforce. Oh, and like almost everything else, it should have been put in place yesterday. Women already make up half the workforce and are the primary or co-breadwinners in two-thirds of American households, according to the Shriver Report."

How Joblessness Hurts Us All | sardine blog

"Misery, it turns out, doesn't love company. Distressing new research shows that unemployment fosters social isolation not just for the unemployed but also for their still-employed neighbors. Moreover, the negative consequences last much longer than the unemployment itself. Policymakers have focused on short-term help for the jobless, but they must address these longer-term community effects, too.

Recent studies confirm the results of research during the Great Depression — unemployment badly frays a person's ties with his community, sometimes permanently. After careful analysis of 20 years of monthly surveys tracking Americans' social and political habits, our colleague Chaeyoon Lim of the University of Wisconsin has found that unemployed Americans are significantly less involved in their communities than their employed demographic twins. The jobless are less likely to vote, petition, march, write letters to editors, or even volunteer. They attend fewer meetings and serve less frequently as leaders in local organizations. Moreover, sociologist Cristobal Young's research finds that the unemployed spend most of their increased free time alone."

CSCW 2010: Research on Collaboration, Reputation & Social Media | Future Changes

"Papers from the 2010 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work (CSCW) have been published, and they cover topics including affiliation and reputation in social media use, honesty and trust online, interaction patterns, collaboration culture, and social inclusion.

There are 58 full-text papers available; I’ve highlighted eight that piqued my interest because of their focus on the development of collaboration culture in focused groups, individual reputation, gatekeeping practices, and collective longevity in online communities, and the distinction between familiarity and similarity in online relationships."

Are U.S. Colleges Failing to Meet the Demands of the Labor Market?

"A paper presented at the American Economic Association conference seems to indicate that American colleges are only 'moderately responsive' to the changing needs of the labor market."

17 Visionaries Predict Social Business Impact on the Enterprise | Socialmedia.biz

"The adop­tion of Web 2.0 and social net­work­ing accel­er­ated sig­nif­i­cantly over the past year, and it shows no sign of stop­ping. Global dig­i­tal word of mouth is dis­rupt­ing grow­ing swaths of busi­ness mod­els, and CEOs want to under­stand its oppor­tu­ni­ties and threats. Although the Web is resplen­dent with prog­nos­ti­ca­tions from social media gurus, the voices of enter­prise prac­ti­tion­ers are too rarely heard.

To rem­edy that, I’ve gath­ered the per­spec­tives of highly expe­ri­enced exec­u­tives who share their thoughts on how Web 2.0 is chang­ing their busi­nesses and mind­sets. They also share its lim­i­ta­tions and prob­lems. Keep in mind that each con­trib­u­tor wrote inde­pen­dently, and I have made no attempt to unify their views, although I will offer my analy­sis and con­clu­sions as well as the intrigu­ing back­story below. Here is a sam­pling of the group’s eclec­tic insights..."