Mind The Gap

9. The former CEO of Hearst Magazines UK, Anna Jones, has joined forces with the CEO of Love Home Swap, Debbie Wosskow, to create a £10 million ($12.2 million) VC fund to back female founders. The AllBright fund launched Monday and was founded to address the funding gap that exists between male and female led companies.

Source: Business Insider

#Leadership

Source: Austin Business Journal

Negotiation & Objection Handling in Sales

10 Tips for Getting What You’re Worth – Negotiation & Objection Handling in Sales

Source: Sales Hacker

Quote of the Week

"Overload is the way of work these days. It’s how the ambitious among us are hard-wired, and it’s quite dangerous, as my experience showed. But it’s also dangerous for us not to fully pursue — and give our all to — opportunities that move us forward. This is the dynamic tension we face in today’s creative economy.

If we want more, we have to give more, but we have to stay aware of what we might give up in the process. While it’s great to be ambitious, we must learn to listen for cues, step back and slow down the pace at times. We need to learn how to create space for both making a living and making a life."

                                                                          - Jonas Koffler, The New York Times

Are We A Fit? Calls

Realizing that I have been spoiled as a salesperson by having a full calendar of meetings, I've been reading up on ways to improve my prospecting skills. Here are three great tips from Nicola Brooks as seen on  Predictable Revenue:

1) Have a plan. It’s essential to have a plan for your call, even if it’s just a rough outline of some basic questions. It will give your conversation a direction and help you determine if there is a need for what you offer. Having some questions prepared in advance will also help you structure your call to find out some key factors:

• Are you speaking with a relevant decision maker or influencer, or is it someone with no authority or relevance?  “Can you please tell how you’re involved with  ____?”
• What is their current process?  “How are you currently handling ____?”
• Is there pain?  Is there a need or urgency for what you offer?  “If you could fix ____, where would that fall on your list of priorities?”
• Is there a decision-making process or project yet – or not?  If there IS one, what’s the timing of it?  If there is NOT one, how would it get started?  “Have you and your team discussed this, if and when it’ll be a priority?  Who’d be involved in figuring that out or implementing it?”
• Have a best next step to suggest. “Usually teams like to see a demo next.  At it, who should attend, so you can see it and decide in one go whether there’s something here or not?”

2) Connect with your prospect. Take a couple minutes to build some rapport with your prospect. It will give you some common ground and make the conversation flow. Even if it’s just talking about something as basic as the weather it will help you build a connection.  For example: what are you authentically curious to learn about them as a person or their work?  Or do you have something going on you can share with them that is interesting? 

7 Things Successful Women Never Do

This applies to men and women alike: 7 Things Successful Women Never Do

Today I will:
- Conquer my fears
- Itemize my accomplishments
- Move past mistakes

Source: Business Women Experts

SiriusDecisions' Demand Waterfall