Now available for civilian use --- assuring your safety, security and peace of mind. Unusual Name Tags, Medical DogTag (EMS Alert), Custom Luggage Tag, Unique Key Tags, Team Wear, Case and Equipment Tags, Cool Pet Tags

Jeremy recently appeared on the Predictable Profits Podcast with Charles Gaudet. Ep #54 – Jeremy Brandt, the founder of WeBuyHouses.com and the creator of five separate companies, joins the show this week to specifically discuss how to maintain productivity as an entrepreneur. Jeremy Brandt is a serial entrepreneur that has founded, funded, and run multiple […]

The post Jeremy Brandt Podcast – Predictable Profits appeared first on Jeremy Brandt.

Jeremy Brandt is a seasoned real estate investor who continuously works on finding ways to innovate and grow his business. Today, Jeremy and his team is taking advantage of different AI tools to improve his business, from streamlining processes to predicting market trends. Uncontested Investing Podcast Listen now to learn how AI technology can help […]

The post AI, Real Estate, & Business – Uncontested Investing with Tim Herriage appeared first on Jeremy Brandt.

http://www.digitalpoint.com/tools/
Webmaster tools & Search engine optimisation tools

A posting from Brand autopsy that really makes us think.

Do SomethingOne of the earliest business rules I can recall that made a HUGE difference in my professional style was...

Never present a problem to your boss without having a suggested solution ready. Don't be part of the problem, be part of the solution.In their book, Why People Business People Speak Like Idiots, Fugere, Hardaway & Washawsky take this lesson further. They call it... Do Something.

Here's an excerpt of the passage...

"...Never present a problem without actually doing something that represents a positive step to fix it. Even if it's nothing more than scheduling a trip to visit the disgruntled customer, do something. Show momentum toward and answer, even if you don't know what the answer is. There's a difference between bad news with signs of hope and bad news presented from the deepest pits of despair. You don't want to be the happy messenger, but it's not much better to be the hopeless prophet of doom."

For those passionate professionals wondering how they can position themselves for the next role at their organization this is one of those priceless tips.

For more tips on being better at your job, I highly recommend the book The Unofficial Guide to Power Managing by Alan Weiss. We've mentioned this before on Brand Autopsy... This book is so good you won't want to tell your co-workers you're reading it.

Continuation from my posting in http://www.livejournal.com/users/bryanong/:

White Hat
When you think of white, think of neutral. de Bono has categorized information as a neutral subject. The white hat has to do with data and information.
What information do we have here?
What information is missing?
What information would we like to have?
How are we going to get the information?
When you ask for white hat thinking at a meeting you are asking people to forget about proposals and arguments and to concentrate directly on the information. What information is needed, what is available, and how it can be obtained.

Red Hat
When you think of red, think of fire and passion. The red hat allows people to show their emotions on a subject, their gut feelings. People don't need to justify their statements. It is often important to get feelings out in the open, rather than have people at a meeting have hidden agendas, feelings, or misgivings. The red hat allows these feelings to be expressed, to come out in the open.
This is what I feel about the project...
My instincts tell me this won't work.
I like this, I don't like that. The idea is that these statements are known to be "feelings" and nothing more. Once they are stated, the meeting can move on to a more constructive approach.

Black Hat
When you think of black, think of negative, or caution. The black hat is for critical judgment. It points out what cannot be done. The hope is that the black hat role will prevent us from making mistakes.

Yellow Hat
When you think of yellow, think of the sun and sunny, positive thoughts. The yellow hat role is for discussing ONLY the positive view of problems and solution possibilities. The yellow hat looks for benefits (and feasibility), but must be logically based, not intuitive like the red hat.
We are often better with the black hat. We are good at seeing what won't work, as opposed to what will. Forcing ourselves to look only at the positive aspects can be very valuable, since otherwise we don't always move forward.

Green Hat
When you think of green, think of plants and growth. The green hat is for new ideas, for creativity, for new alternative solutions.
Could this be done in another way?
Might there be another explanation?
Does anyone have another idea? (See brainstorming)

Blue Hat
When you think of blue, think of the sky and an overview. The blue hat is the hardest one to understand. It deals with controlling the thinking process. The blue hat is often "given" to one person, who controls what hat will be "worn", hence controlling the type of thinking being used. The different colours don't always follow in the same order. Depending on the situation, and the mix of people, it might be better to let people get their negative thoughts out first, or their intuitive sense, and then use yellow or green to move ahead. The blue hat comments on the thinking being used, asks for conclusions, decisions, etc. The blue hat can move from person to person, or can be a chairperson.

Source

3 quotes that I believe in and have act upon:

"You get what you give"

"The solution to overcome fear is action" - "Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy."

“世界上最宽阔的是海洋，比海洋更宽阔的是天空，比天空更宽阔的是人的胸怀。”

Want to create new buttons for your blog or site? Try these sites out:
http://kalsey.com/tools/buttonmaker/
http://www.gtmcknight.com/buttons/

Good quotes from Brand Autopsy:

• Aspire to Be the Dumbest Person in the Room
• It's Impossible to be Happy Without Momentum
• The Antidote to Fear is Action
• Do What You Are

Wanna see how other websites look like in the past? Check out Wayback Machine for an archive of all websites since 1996. This is cool.

The Best Web 2.0 Software of 2005
http://web2.wsj2.com/the_best_web_20_software_of_2005.htm

David Herlambang's marketing blog. He's got some very interesting and good marketing related posting. http://www.marketingfirst.blogspot.com/

This is by far the best site to download three column blogger template. It has all the blogger templates and it is really easy to install. Most of the sites I've visited have very limited templates or either have problems or makes it very difficult for a beginner to install. Check Webtalks blog out.

Looking for free games to play online? Look no further, play free online games has a great archive of all games that you can play for free online. There's action, board/puzzle, casino, RPG, strategy and many more games. My favourite is their RPG section where they have more than 100 free RPG games to play.

Here is an article which tells you exactly how to unshrink wool.

When wool gets wet and warm, the fibres in the wool lock themselves together and don't want to let go, resulting in shrinkage (you can get wool warm or wet, but not both), which kind of makes washing wool garments a dangerous business.
To un-shrink the wool, soak the garment in warm water with a mild wool friendly soap for about 10 minutes. This unlocks the fibres in the wool. Then lay the garment out on some towels in a cool place. Stretch the garment out to its original dimensions. The stretching pulls the unlocked wool fibres away from each other. Once this is done relax and allow your wool garment to dry. The absence of heat from the drying process allows the wool fibres to set in place without locking together and shrinking the garment again.

Looking for a online casions resource site? Top 21 casinos is one good site that you should visit. Online casinos are the way of the future rather than going to the real casinos in person. Online casinos let you play your favorite games anywhere at any time. The best online casinos are out there, and normally you have to look far and wide for them, but not any more! Top 21 Casinos has taken all the searching away from you because they have reviewed and rated a huge range of The best online casinos, and presented to top 21 online casinos for you right here. This includes several objective reviews of top rated online casinos including those that accept U.S. players.

Here is an interesting Erotic Sydney Escort story which I got from this Sydney website
“So, what was she like?” I asked my friend David. Last night he’d hired a Sydney Escort for the first time. He’d been pretty nervous but at the same time excited about it beforehand, and now, he was speechless – almost. “Mind-blowing,” he kept saying. “Just amazing…I had the best time.”
Finally he came out of his dreamy state long enough to go into details about the previous evening’s sex encounter with Bryony from one of the top Sydney escort agencies. He’d gone to her city apartment and been greeted by Bryony, a green-eyed blonde with perfect olive skin, and an hourglass figure that included a fantastic pair of natural boobs and lovely tight ass, all clad in a sexy black lace negligee. David could hardly believe his eyes or his luck!
Bryony led him into the lounge, gave him a drink and asked him to tell her exactly what he liked. David had no trouble recounting his desires to this stunning and sexually available woman who was only to happy to accommodate him.. He handed over his money, confident of a good time.
He wasn’t disappointed. Bryony led him into the bedroom, slipped out of her negligee and gave him a massage that included a full body slide. It didn’t take long for David to get hard as Bryony gave him a blow job. She teased his cock, flicking it with her tongue before taking it into her mouth and sucking until David came.
Only half an hour had passed, so after a short rest during which time Bryony did a masturbation show for him, David climbed on top of her and slipped his cock into her warm, wet pussy and began to fuck her. She wrapped her legs around his waist, pulling him deeper into her vagina, fucking her harder until they’d both cum.
I made a note of the Sydney escort agency’s name and resolved to give Bryony a call.
Big Black Book which is based in Sydney has one of the best selection of sexy Sydney Escorts. Do check out this website! They also have a great list of strippers, erotic massage, adult stores etc.

SA median house prices. The biggest drop is within the Adelaide metro region. Regional SA prices have also dropped as well. With consumer confidence dropping, SA median house prices will continue to drop into the year 2009.
SA median house prices

Non Woven Bags Direct Australia directly manufacturers and imports eco-friendly non woven polypropylene bags commonly referred to as green shopping bags, green bags or eco bags to Australia.

Non Woven Bags Direct Australia chooses strong, premium quality non-woven polypropylene, an eco-friendly and non-toxic material used in surgical wear. Their non woven bags are 100% recyclable and washable, which is an easy and cost effective way to promote your business

They have 39 colours of non woven fabrics in stock. For orders of 10 000+, you may choose from any colour from the Pantone Matching System (PMS) range.

Our Non Woven Bags containers are directly shipped to major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide. When you order through Non Woven Bags Direct Australia, there are no hidden import costs and many businesses across Australia are happy dealing with them for their no hassle, cost effective business practices. Non woven polypropylene bags are also known as green shopping bags or green Bags. The more green bags you order, the less expensive the price. They can also supply their quality green bags to international markets directly from their factory in Shenzhen, China.

Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is: Investment Strategies for Lifetime Wealth - Natalie Pace

Build a better nest egg with 6 easy, sound strategies for 2009. The stock market lost 38% in 2008, but if you lost more than 20%, your problem wasn't really the stock market, it was the design of your nest egg. Storms occur in markets, as they do in the real world, but your home shouldn't be flooding every time it happens.

You know intuitively that your retirement plan doesn't work. Your nest egg has drowned twice now in the last eight years. You were elated with your returns in 1999 and then devastated when your assets imploded during the DOT COM bust of 2000-2002. Same thing when Dow Jones Industrial Average broke through 14,000 in October of 2007, only to drop below 8000 in 2008. If you had a healthy fiscal plan, your nest egg wouldn't be sinking all of the time.

And contrary to what your financial advisor may be telling you, the markets returned only 4% over the last ten years, not 12%. That was less than a percentage point above Treasury Bills, at 3.3% annual gains, with a whole lot more risk.

Sound Nest Egg Strategies:
Rule #1: Always keep a percent equal to your age. Modern Portfolio Theory, the cornerstone of a healthy nest egg, has been around for half a century and Harry Markowitz, the economist who wrote it, won a Nobel Prize in 1990. Many financial professionals are paid on commission to sell you mutual funds, so, if you weren't protected from the 2008 financial crisis, chances are that either 1) your guru just didn't know the theory, or 2) s/he wasn't paid to employ the theory, or 3) s/he had bosses who pushed sales hard and couldn't employ the theory, or 4) s/he was dumb enough to think s/he could outthink a genius Nobel Laureate.

Grade Your GuruYou wouldn't hire an architect whose buildings flood in a storm. Since there are so many ìprofessionalsî and ìpunditsî who are spouting off -- when in reality they drowned their clients' nest eggs in 2008 -- it's your job to take charge and design a better dream life. As TD AMERITRADE Chairman Joe Moglia says, "Nobody cares more about your money more than you do." Bears get lucky in bear markets. Bulls get lucky in bull markets. Sound nest egg strategies work in any market!

HOW TO GRADE YOUR GURU
Add up your losses. If you lost more than 20% in 2008, your guru isn't making the grade.
Check your allocation. If you didn't start 2008 with a percent equal to your age SAFE in Treasury Bills and/or high-rated bonds (GM, Fannie, etc. DO NOT QUALIFY), your guru isn't looking out for your best interest.

MY GRADES
NEST EGG: The pie charts and strategies outlined in Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is saved Bill (a handyman) and Nilo (an office administrator) Bolden's nest egg, while Nilo's bosses lost hundreds of thousands of dollars. Since employing my strategies, they haven't lost anything.

TRADERS:Before I give you the details on my track record this year, which was outstanding, please note that novices have no business trading individual stocks in this financial storm anymore than beginning surfers should race into the jaws of a tsunami. Don't trade individual companies in 2009 unless: 1) you know how to buy put options and have had a few years of successful trading long and short, and 2) are willing to take your profits early and often. Obviously, if you don't know what I'm talking about, you need to focus on sound nest egg strategies first and education second -- perhaps at my Get Rich and Enrich Retreat. (Check out the banner ad on the home page at NataliePace.com for more details.)70% of the companies I featured in my 2008 monthly article and stock report cards were winners. Of those winners, more than half (58%) were shorts, i.e., companies that we expected to go DOWN in value.

ACT NOW TO GET IN GREAT FISCAL SHAPE!
Blind faith lost you a lot of money in 2008. 2009 is poised to be another stormy environment in stocks, which means that if you don't pull your head out of the sand and get a better dream life plan, you're going to be get buried.

My Golden Nest Egg Formula
ALWAYS KEEP A PERCENT EQUAL TO YOUR AGE SAFE. Treasury bills are the safest investment today. (High-rated bonds, money markets and CDs are traditionally and will be again in the future.)

DURING RECESSIONS, OVERWEIGHT 15-20% ADDITIONAL INTO SAFETY. Cash is King in a recession, i.e. not losing is winning. You will not be stuck overweighted in cash forever. If the markets continue to drop in 2009, as they are poised to do, you'll be glad you employed this defensive strategy. And you will have cash to invest, while those around you are scrambling to hang on and/or are forced to sell low to cover basic needs.

REMAINDER IN YOUR NEST EGG SHOULD BE DIVERSIFIED INTO 10 ETFS. You will find detailed pie charts in Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is.

EMERGING INDUSTRIES, NOT DYING COMPANIES. General Motors and Ford Motor Company combined are worth less than one-tenth of Toyota Motor Company's $102 billion. It is not just that Ford and GM have more expenses. GM and Ford lost market share this decade because their gas guzzlers were far less popular than the fuel-efficient Prius and other Toyota models.

KNOW WHAT YOU OWN, i.e., not mutual funds. The top mutual fund holdings in the U.S. in 2007 included some of the most poorly run companies, including General Motors, AIG, Fannie Mae and Phillip Morris Tobacco Company. ETFs allow you to target sections of the stock market by size (small, medium and large), style (value and growth), industry (gold mining, clean technology, international, biotechnology, etc.) and more.

DON'T TRADE. If you don't know how to take your profits early and often and/or if you don't know how to buy put options, do not buy and sell individual companies at all in 2009. (Own companies you love in ETFs where you are more protected from the price fluctuations of any one individual company.)

If you used this 6-step formula and rebalanced only once a year (say in January), you could have captured your gains in 2000 at the NASDAQ high. Likewise, in January of 2008, you would have captured your Dow Jones Industrial Average gains before the major fall-off and redistributed. Identifying where your gains are coming from allows you to increase your assets and redeploy your holdings back into a sound, dream life blueprint – which is a combination of Modern Portfolio Theory, ETFs, common sense and basic investing recipes. These strategies and more are outlined in my book, Put Your Money Where Your Heart Is. Buy it now as part of your New Year; New You; New Dream Life! And be sure to forward this article to a dozen of your closest friends, family, clients and co-workers who need to get fiscally fit.

What is your sales organization doing about the current economic downturn? What will make a difference for your company? While the economic forecast may be “uncertain,” it is certain that our customers are reducing their budgets and spending more carefully, forcing their vendors to do the same. This economic challenge will accelerate the adoption of Sales 2.0 from a “nice to have” to a “need to have” philosophy. Companies that continue to sell the way they sold in the past will become less profitable or fail altogether. Customer preferences, the ever-rising cost of sales, and the availability of next-generation technologies are making change mandatory for companies that want to outperform the competition and minimize the impact of the economic slowdown.

What is Sales 2.0?
Sales 2.0 is not a new technology. It is the use of innovative sales practices to improve business results, creating value for both the buyer and seller, and is often enabled by Web 2.0 or next-generation technology. Sales 2.0 initiatives typically center on process and customer-engagement improvements to increase sales productivity. Sales 2.0 practices combine the science of measurable, process-driven operations with the art of collaborative relationships, using the most profitable and expedient sales resources required to meet your customers’ needs. The goal of Sales 2.0 is to produce greater, predictable, repeatable business results, including increased revenue, decreased sales costs, and sustained competitive advantage.

Sales 2.0 initiatives require changing mindset and adjusting sales strategies. A relatively simple Sales 2.0 practice involves selling more through video or web conferencing. This can be done by inside salespeople or by field salespeople who perform more of their jobs from their desks. Selling more efficiently should also mean selling more effectively, as many buyers now prefer to meet remotely via conference calls with video or web conferencing, and salespeople benefit from additional selling time that otherwise would be spent traveling. A traditional sales process that included three or four onsite visits might now have zero or just one face-to-face visit. The financial impact of reducing travel expenses can be significant and is easily measured, but the economics of giving your most expensive sales resources — your field salespeople — additional selling time is even more compelling.

Many products and services, especially those of relatively small to average value, can only be sold profitably with a remote or low-touch sales model. The definition of “small to medium orders” is different for every company, but they are generally those that fall into your bottom 50% in value. If ignored, these mid-market customers or transaction types are missed opportunities for organizations that rely solely or too heavily on a field-based sales model. And when they are sold through field sales, these smaller opportunities can derail focus and drain the organization’s profitability.

Another Sales 2.0 practice uses some “science” to accurately capture key market information and metrics such as average sales cycle, average deal size and sales-cycle conversion rates. By using a defined sales process and data analytics, you can determine how your sales force should be structured and which customers and transaction types justify the assignment of field account executives, inside salespeople, channel partners or no selling effort at all. Data analytics in this sense can range from rudimentary (pen and paper) to moderate (spreadsheets, CRM, and most reporting systems) to advanced (dashboards and on-demand sales intelligence). Rather than simply measuring the final result (revenue), a Sales 2.0 approach measures the effectiveness of every stage in your sales process by salesperson, giving managers the opportunity to provide targeted coaching. Data analytics also can be used to correlate and analyze the specific characteristics of your most profitable customers (size, industries, locations, buyer types, etc.) that produce the most revenue and profit. Sales and marketing leaders can then use this information to fine-tune your sales model and activities to ensure the loyalty of your most valuable customers and find more prospects like them.

How do I begin a Sales 2.0 initiative with limited staff and budget?
A key Sales 2.0 tenet involves experimentation, often through testing new process ideas and piloting new technology. Testing a new sales message, pricing options, new technology, or even a new sales process enables the organization to be innovative with minimal risk. Small pilot programs that use minimal resources enable ineffective ideas to fail on a small scale, while good ones can be rolled out more aggressively.

Becoming a Sales 2.0 organization requires that we proactively adapt and continually improve so we can become closer to our customers and weather the economic storm better than our competitors.

The backbone of your trade show exhibit displays is the trade show display company which plans and designs your trade show exhibit. You must look for an organization which offers wide range of options for you to choose from. They also assign experts for your project who will take care of every possible factor which can prove to be advantageous for the upcoming trade show.

While opting for a trade show display company you must check that their package offers international services so as to meet your increasing demands. Their package must also be flexible as per your needs. They should be ready to replace your exhibit rentals with custom exhibits whenever you feel like doing so.

Lastly, never forget to compare the prices of different trade show display companies so that you don't end up overpaying for your project.

Companies Missing Big Opportunity to Turn Customer Pain Into Competitive Gain, Says CMO Council Report

Despite overwhelming agreement on the importance of customer experience and word-of-mouth, senior marketers admit their companies are failing to take decisive, company-wide action to integrate customer voice and experience into key business and marketing processes, according to a new study by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council.
Sponsored by Satmetrix, the Net Promoter Company, the study, titled "Giving Customer Voice More Volume," revealed that a surprising 58 percent of the 480 executives surveyed said their companies do not compensate any employees or executives based on customer loyalty, satisfaction improvements or analytics. Some 38 percent said their companies have no programs in place to track or propagate positive word of mouth among customers. In addition, only 29 percent said their companies rate highly in their ability handle and resolve customer problems or complaints.

The CMO Council study underscores critical deficiencies in the way companies measure, optimize and leverage customer experience to drive loyalty, improve brand value and increase business performance and growth, including:

-- Insufficient availability and aggregation of real-time customer
experience data across touch points that should be shared across the
organization

-- Poor use of customer interactions to collect insights and intelligence
or maximize up-sell and advocacy opportunities

-- Lack of Internet processes and systems to track online word of mouth
and drive customer advocacy

-- Intermittent or deficient monitoring of customer experience that fails
to provide true and timely insights into problems and opportunities

-- Too few compensation programs tied to customer experience, loyalty and
satisfaction gains

"Customer experience is one of the most critical determinants of brand strength and business growth. Yet, most organizations and senior marketers suffer from major blind spots and gaps in the way they interact, handle and respond to customer issues or problems," said CMO Council executive director Donovan Neale-May. "CMOs must assume ownership for the customer experience and establish enterprise-wide measures and disciplines to ensure continuous improvement. We are missing a major opportunity to turn customer pain into competitive gain at every touch point through better use of web and contact center technologies and processes."

Customer listening, learning and leveling are critical qualities that need to be part of an institutionalized corporate culture, notes the CMO Council. Yet, survey data demonstrates that most companies are not taking advantage of these opportunities to drive company-wide performance improvement and business growth. Instead, most companies treat customer interactions around service situations and incidents only as a problem that needs quick resolution:

-- Only 38 percent of companies gather customer insight from customer
engagement situations.

-- Just 32 percent look for ways to turn problems into new sales
opportunities, and only 15 percent introduce new products or services to
further monetize the relationship.

-- Merely 17 percent use the opportunity to identify and cultivate
potential customer champions and advocates.

While companies have a long way to go in turning detractors into brand advocates, senior marketers are clearly aware of the importance of customer experience. In fact, 83 percent of respondents said it is either "essential" or "increasingly important" in driving brand advocacy and business performance. In addition, 84 percent said positive customer experiences and word of mouth have helped their brands and businesses grow. There were 44 percent of respondents who admitted that high-profile negative customer experiences had at some time compromised their brands.

Only 31 percent rate their company's commitment to customer listening highly, but another 35 percent say it is "getting better." Although 34 percent of respondents said their companies have made no changes to the way they track and analyze customer experience in recent years, it can be seen as a positive development that 45 percent of respondents say their companies have taken steps to better integrate and analyze customer data. Another 39 percent said they have increased personalization and intimacy in their customer communications, 20 percent say they have embraced intelligent Internet analytics and 18 percent are capturing real-time information at the "point of pain."

"Companies must become more sophisticated and committed to both leveraging customer experience as a key business metric and instituting company-wide processes that drive improvement," said Laura Brooks, Ph.D. and vice president of research for Satmetrix. "The Net Promoter Score has been proven to be the most reliable customer metric for business growth, but measurement is not an end in itself. Companies need to commit themselves to understanding the key determinants of their score and continuously strive to improve their customer experience competitiveness." Brooks is co-author, with Satmetrix CEO Richard Owen, of a new book, titled "Answering the Ultimate Question," that offers a new operating model for NetPromoter success.

Other key findings of the study include:

-- Nearly two-thirds of companies do not have a formal Voice of Customer
program in place.

-- Only 13 percent of companies have deployed real-time systems to
collect, analyze and distribute customer feedback.

-- While 74 percent say they receive customer feedback via e-mail, only
23 percent say they track and measure the volume and nature of these
messages.

-- Customer voice has gone online, but only 14.5 percent track word of
mouth on the Internet

-- Only 12 percent are using a word-of-mouth marketing platform to drive
online customer advocacy.

Avoiding the Blame Game Between Sales and Marketing
by Anneke Seley
coauthor, Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology

One of the strategic prerequisites of Sales 2.0 — the use of innovative sales practices enabled by technology — is the alignment of sales and marketing. Organizations often have different executives with separate goals, perspectives, and compensation-plan objectives running sales and marketing. This can lead not only to internal unrest but also to negative customer experiences or perceptions of your company, not to mention poor sales results. Those companies that engineer their organizations to guarantee sales and marketing cooperation, however, achieve both competitive advantage and improved revenue.

One company that exemplifies a high level of collaboration between sales and marketing is newScale (link to newScale.com), a company that offers IT service catalog and service portfolio management software solutions. This is due to the close working relationship and shared compensation-plan targets of the company’s EVP and head of sales, David Satterwhite, and VP of marketing, Mark Hamilton. Their partnership commitment is so strong that they not only co-develop integrated programs and practices, but they also make presentations as a team. These executives’ dedication to collaboration, elusive in many companies, earned them a market-leading position in its field, with more than 1.5 million users worldwide, including 20 percent of the Fortune 50.

David and Mark are evangelists of sales and marketing communication and collaboration at the top level.

They make it a priority.
Both believe alignment has a critically positive impact on both top- and bottom-line results and frees them to focus on making their numbers. They also stress that it is a prerequisite to a healthy and productive company culture.
David and Mark maintain their commitment to alignment by considering each other members of their management teams, attending the other’s management meetings, and holding weekly one-on-one meetings or phone calls. They treat the annual marketing plan as a customer proposal, with sales being the customer, and share staffing and head-count planning.

They develop shared rules of the road.
This includes assuming a positive rather than adversarial intent on the part of the other department, which they model at the highest level, and recognizing that they have a shared ultimate metric of success — revenue growth — on which compensation in both sales and marketing is based.
David underlines the importance of upbeat psychology, as well as personal relationships, in business. By coaching his sales team to give marketing staff the benefit of the doubt when something goes wrong and by helping them resolve conflicts through trust, he avoids hours of management “therapy” and keeps his group focused on sales effectiveness and efficiency.

They leverage each other’s strengths.
David contributes his sales instincts for what produces revenue, understands what motivates his customers to buy and his sales team to sell, and has highly developed skills negotiating and winning deals. Mark is expert at operations, systems, and processes, distilling and analyzing complex concepts, and seeding and growing markets.

They collaborate on designing and implementing sales tools and technologies.
Price lists, closed-loop lead processes, weekly sales tips, win/loss programs, and continual surveys of marketing-program effectiveness are some of the tools the company developed that have passed the sales “sniff test.” Because they are designed by both sales and marketing, they actually get used.
Mark describes the difficulty he faced getting newScale’s sales people to report on lost deals. Sales people like to celebrate successes, not dwell on failures. By documenting the deals they haven’t won, sales people may feel they bring attention to their weaknesses in sales process or skills. When he asked his marketing group to call “lost” customers, though, Mark uncovered a solution to the problem of engaging the sales team. The calls revealed that many customers weren’t lost at all, as they weren’t happy with their chosen alternative solution to newScale’s product. Though newScale’s sales team didn’t win these sales initially, these customers became part of the pipeline a second time through Mark’s calling program. The sales group happily adopted the program when they understood it as a sales campaign that could unearth recycled, newly qualified leads.
Mark also recognized an opportunity to improve lead qualification and pipeline building using products from Genius.com (link to genius.com), but he wouldn’t dream of signing up to try them without running the idea by the manager of David’s deal-development team. Genius’ products truly support a Sales 2.0 (link to phoneworks.com/sales20) collaboration between marketing and sales by allowing reps in both departments to track and act on important data on potential customers (such as who is responding to e-mail messages, and what web pages they are looking at right now and for how long). By including the sales team in the evaluation and decision-making process, Mark succeeded in bringing a valuable sales tool into the company that is enthusiastically embraced by the lead qualifiers.

As customer requirements and economic conditions change, the old way of selling — independently of or in contradiction to marketing efforts — doesn’t work. Sales 2.0, the evolution of the sales function, includes rethinking sales strategy, people, process, and technology. With a business strategy that emphasizes sales and marketing alignment and collaborative planning and execution, companies will stay competitive and achieve sales success.

Anneke Seley is the CEO and founder of Phone Works, a consultancy that helps large and small businesses build and restructure sales teams to achieve predictable, measurable, and sustainable sales growth. As the 12th employee at Oracle, she designed the company’s revolutionary inside sales operation. Her book, Sales 2.0: Improve Business Results Using Innovative Sales Practices and Technology, is available at online retailers including amazon.com, bn.com, booksamillion.com, and borders.com. For more information, visit www.sales20book.com.

MORE than 10.6 million Australians will receive cash bonuses under a $42b Government plan to boost the economy.

As the Reserve Bank prepares to announce another cut in official interest rates this afternoon, the Government has released details of its plan to support up to 90,000 jobs. It also revealed a $22.4 billion fiscal budget deficit will blow out to $33.3 billion by 2009-10.

Under the economic stimulus package:
FROM March, families eligible for Family Tax Benefit Part A will receive a $950 Back to School Bonus for each eligible child.One-off $950 payments will also be made to: AROUND 1.5 million single-income families who receive Family Tax Benefit Part B; FARMERS and rural-dependent small business owners receiving exceptional circumstances assistance;YOUTH Allowance, Austudy, Abstudy and Education Entry Payment recipients;FROM April, workers earning up to and including $80,000 will get a $950 tax bonus;THOSE earning $80,000 - $90,000 will get $650;PEOPLE earning between $90,000 - $100,000 will receive $300.

The Government will also: INSTALL free ceiling insulation in 2.7 million homes;CONSTRUCT 20,000 public and social housing dwellings and 802 Defence houses;DOUBLE the rebate to landlords who install insulation in rental properties to $1000 INCREASE the Solar Hot Water Rebate from $1000 to $1600;SPEND $850 million on fixing roads, building boom gates for rail crossings and building community infrastructure such as town halls, libraries and sport centres.

Schools will also benefit: ALL 9540 Australian schools will receive up to $200,000 for maintenance and building works; EVERY primary, special and combined Prep - Year 12 school will receive money for large-scale infrastructure such as libraries and multi-purpose halls;ABOUT 500 new science laboratories and language learning centres will be constructed in high schools.Meanwhile, businesses will be eligible for a share of $2.7 billion worth of investment tax breaks. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Treasurer Wayne Swan will hold a press conference this afternoon to discuss the plan and the budget and economic outlook.

The latest South Australia median house prices for December 08 is up. Overall, both metropolitan and regional areas have dropped in prices. With the worldwide economy deteriorating and the Australian economy moving into recession, house prices will continue to drop.

10 Tips for Effective Time Management
Does having "too much to do and not enough time to do it" sound familiar? If so, it's time to work smarter, not harder so you can increase productivity decrease stress and have more time for fun! Leading Brisbane recruitment-to-recruitment company, Galaxy Recruitment offers the following tips to help you get the most out of your time.

1. Set Goals and Plan
As the old saying goes, "by failing to plan, you plan to fail". Set your goals and develop a realistic plan for your direction.
2. Prioritise and use a To-Do list
Differentiate between the urgent tasks that produce short-term outcomes, and the vital tasks that produce long-term outcomes. Rank your priorities by numbers, colours, or symbols - use a system that suits you.
3. Learn to say "no"
It's a small word, yet many people find it extremely difficult to say "no"! By saying "yes" to everyone just to please them, you may end up overcommitting and letting them down instead. If it helps, remember to phrase your response so that you are saying "no" to the project and not the person. e.g "No, I can't take this project on right now. I simply don't have the bandwidth to complete the task properly."
4. Delegate
If you can, delegate routine activities that aren't part of your core competency. Remember you are delegating, not abdicating!
5. Avoid procrastination
Procrastination usually sets in when a task is perceived to be difficult to achieve. Try breaking your task into smaller milestones that you can satisfy systematically. Crossing off these smaller tasks as you complete them helps you make track of your progress and keeps the end outcome within sight.
6. Be flexible
Be realistic about your goals and allow time for interruptions, distractions and the unplanned "emergency" - they are inevitable.
7. Plan around your "Prime Time"
If possible, plan your tasks in accordance with the the time of the day that you perform at your peak. If you're a "morning person" plot your work schedule around fulfilling the challenging tasks during the day, and the more routine aspects of your work such as data entry, responding to emails or making telephone calls during the afternoon. If you're more of an afternoon or "night owl" reverse the order.
8. Keep a journal with you at all times
Always be ready to write down your best ideas in an instant - you never know when a killer idea might strike! Your journal should also be used as a goal-tracker that you can go through weekly to make sure you are on track.
9. Reward yourself
When you meet your goals and objectives, be sure to celebrate your success and achievements. A bit of positive reinforcement now and then serves to remind you why you are doing what you do for a living.
10. Effectiveness over efficiency
Although you should aim for both outcomes, try not to bog yourself down in processes if they add no value to the outcome. In the scheme of things, completing tasks effectively is much more important than doing things quickly.
Source: Galaxy Recruitment

A Victorian bather takes the plunge but finds an unwelcome surprise beneath the waves.

A bowdlerized version of Leonardo daVinci's man with four arms and legs performs cartwheels and other feats of gymnastics to the melancholy drone of flutes against an apocalyptic background of the 1952 test of the atomic bomb.

He just keeps on going and going...

A monster with a head for a body (original art by Ulysse Aldrovandi) descends a mountain in a painting by Giotto, then flies away.

A dancer wearing a burqa dances to middle eastern music, in front of the pyramids in Egypt.

A rabbi gets down to some disco

Shiva is associated with death and destruction, and so this animation of shiva dancing under the sea seemed appropriate as a response to the terrible tsunami of December 26, 2004. The symbol in the background is 'Om' which means peace.

Made for the Chinese new year of 2005, this animation of a flying dragon is accompanied by traditional chinese music. The dragon is believed to ward off evil spirits for the new year.

A dreamlike landscape of a sunset flickering in a lake is the scene for a slow dance by a couple of siamese twins as they discover a mushroom which miraculously extends.

A skeleton takes to the dance floor to some seriously hectic drum and bass beats.

An ancient egyptian God, Seth, conjures a magic mushroom into life, in the process invoking a yogi with butterfly wings.

An amorous Adonis waltzes amongst Victorian venuses who appear bemused as his pride comes before a fall.

A strange hybrid creature, a combination of an ostrich, snail, and woman, walks across a desert landscape.

An animated african iron sculpture of a woman, highly elongated, dances to the beat of drums.

Venus de Milo with wings and one restored arm takes flight though finds herself constrained within stone arches.

DepoIQ is excited to announce the launch of CrossView, a new AI-powered tool designed to enhance the review of deposition materials for complex litigation. This innovative platform leverages proprietary Behavioral AI to identify discrepancies and highlight patterns, enabling legal teams to conduct more precise and strategic analyses. "With CrossView, we’re empowering litigation teams to spot critical insights faster [PR.com]

PageLightPrime, a leading provider of innovative legal practice management software, is thrilled to announce the appointment of Alan Tuback as their new President. Tuback brings a wealth of experience and industry expertise to PageLightPrime, having previously founded and led Soluno. With a proven track record of success in the legal technology space, Tuback is poised to lead PageLightPrime to even greater heights. As [PR.com]

Loyd J Bourgeois Injury & Accident Lawyer has ranked 9th on Louisiana State University’s 2024 LSU100 list of fastest-growing LSU graduate-owned or led companies. [PR.com]

Via the Division of Labour, This BussinessWeek article, Innovation in the Age of Mass Collaboration, describes how a conservative mining company discovered gold by opening up its proprietary database on the Internet and offering a prize: The contestants identified 110...