David Mears

Think Before You Speak: Engineering the First 60 Seconds of Conversation

by David Mears

Securing an initial conversation with decision makers is tougher than ever. When you do finally get someone's attention or time, the first 60 seconds of your interaction are critical. Which is precisely why it's so important to think before you speak. To get the results you want, you must be intentional about how you engineer the first minute of your conversation. Read the blog to learn more.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Messaging Skills, Presenting to Executives, Sales Readiness

Attention. Grab It!

by David Mears

The average person’s attention span is shorter than a goldfish’s. That can make grabbing and keeping the attention of busy professionals a challenge of epic proportions. Here are 5 strategies to help you win the attention of an easily distracted audience. (Hint: Providing better information than anyone else isn’t enough.)

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills, Presenting to Executives

What Is the Antidote to Business Anxiety?

by David Mears

Business anxiety is high. Geopolitics. Trade. Cyber security. Uncertainty reigns. One former White House economist suggests we're living in an "age of anxiety." Ready-aim-fire approaches to addressing the disruptive changes ahead won't work. Instead, businesses need to be proactive. How? Equip your people with the skills needed to create clarity from chaos and decisiveness from uncertainty. Learn why clearer thinking and speaking is the antidote to business anxiety and what 3 skills your talent needs to not only survive this new era, but to thrive in it.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Executive Presence, Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills

3 Tips to Help Salespeople Generate Higher Margins

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Sales Readiness, Sales Training, Selling Skills

Are Your Slides Killing Your Sales?

by David Mears

Death by PowerPoint is real. I hear it all the time from executives and B2B buyers: “PowerPoint presentations do more harm than good.” Could your sales team's poor use of slides be killing your sales? Here are three things you can do to avoid "Death by PowerPoint" and deliver more powerful, precise, and persuasive sales presentations.

by David Mears

Briefing Center, Executive Presence, Presentation Skills, Presentation Slides, Presenting to Executives

Are Your Sales Reps Failing to “ROI Justify” Their Proposals?

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Sales Readiness, Sales Training, Selling Skills

In Sales, Content Delivery Is King

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Executive Presence, Sales Readiness, Sales Training, Selling Skills

Mismanaged Meetings: Stop Wasting Scarce Executive Time

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, In-Person Presentations, Presentation Skills, Presenting to Executives, Sales Readiness, Selling Skills

Mismanaged Meetings: Lessons from the Parole Board

by David Mears

What do business meeting attendees have in common with parole board officers? Both suffer from decision fatigue. The consequences? Productivity plummets. Decisions get delayed. Bad choices get made. Outcomes can be disastrous. How can you improve decision quality and productivity? Help your meeting leaders and attendees overcome decision fatigue with these three proven approaches.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills

Mismanaged Meetings: A Costlier Problem Than You Think

by David Mears

Is your organization stuck running mediocre meetings that fail to move the needle on important projects and business goals? You're not alone. Distraction and disengagement have reached epidemic proportions and it's killing the "Return on Meeting Time" of companies everywhere. What's the antidote? A common meeting communications framework. Here's why...

by David Mears

Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills, Project Management

Are You Paying the Hidden Price of Workplace Distraction?

by David Mears

The decision makers whose attention you're trying to get are too distracted to hear a word you're saying. The implication: having a great business idea is no longer enough. You’ve got to be able to present it in a way that GRABS attention and KEEPS it. Your ability to do that boils down to whether you can accomplish these 3 things quickly…

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Executive Presence, Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills

Do You Demonstrate the Most Desired Interpersonal Character Trait?

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, In-Person Presentations, Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills, Presenting to Executives, Selling Skills

Are Buyers Using Idea Voodoo on Your Sales People?

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Selling Skills

Millennials Want Feedback: What Will You Tell Them?

by David Mears

Millennials have surpassed Gen X to become the largest segment of the American workforce. Every company seeking to accelerate its performance needs to figure out how to engage and motivate this critical pool of talent. So, what is it Millennials want? And, how will you give it to them?

by David Mears

In-Person Presentations, Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills

Is Your Organization Lacking the Key Catalyst to Successful Innovation?

by David Mears

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!)

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills, Selling Skills

A Leading Cause of Pipeline Mortality

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Presentation Skills, Sales Readiness, Selling Skills

Measuring Training Effectiveness: Is Your Scrap Learning Rate Too High?

by David Mears

Clients often ask, “What’s the best metric for measuring training?” It can be difficult to tie communication skills training directly to cost savings or performance gains. Difficult, but not impossible. You just have to use the right metric. And, that means taking an honest look at how much of your training is going to waste.

by David Mears

Training Evaluation, Training Measurement

Can Your Sales Team Get Executive Buyers to Say Yes?

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Executive Presence, Sales Readiness, Selling Skills

In Business, It’s Personal…

by David Mears

It's just business - nothing personal." How often have you heard someone use that phrase to justify a decision based on the bottom line, even when that decision created pain and problems for employees or customers? It's called the "It's just business trap," and it can sabotage your organizations ability to succeed. Here's how to avoid it.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, Messaging Skills, Presentation Skills, Presenting to Executives

The Surprising Reason Your Leadership Program is Failing

by David Mears

Leadership gaps are a top business challenge today, despite strong corporate investment in leadership development. Why is that? Leadership development programs may be missing the most critical skill set of all...

by David Mears

Business Transformation, Change Management, Conversation Skills, Executive Presence, Leadership, Presentation Skills

Are Your Sales Reps Presentation-Ready?

by David Mears

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.

by David Mears

Conversation Skills, In-Person Presentations, Presentation Skills, Presenting to Executives, Sales Readiness, Selling Skills

INSIGHTS

Mandel Concepts

David Mears