Sales Executives

Welcome.

Welcome.

Ho-Ho-Ho!! Can you believe the man in the big red suit will be coming to visit one week from today 

Well, those of us as the NASP (NashvilleAssociation of Sales Professionals) Christmas Party this week had an early visit from Santa. But, for the rest of you, you will have to wait another week. And what does Santa have in store for you? Does your Christmas list include more sales for your company or more new customers.

We all know NOTHING happens until something is sold. No production, no shipping, no invoicing and, most importantly, no checks from customers! Everyone employed by your company is in sales- regardless of their title. Make 2009 the year that every single employee is fully trained on customer service and salesmanship. If you do, then your Christmas wish should come true!

And to all my extremely valuable clients and friends, we at Sales Executives hope you have meaningful time with your loved ones at this special time of year and that you make lasting memories for a lifetime.

Don’t forget the true meaning of Christmas and why we celebrate with such joy.

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and wishing for you the most successful New Year yet !!!!

Cindy Hazen

Welcome.

Are you a Scrooge boss?

The art of being a bad boss

Everybody has a bad boss story. But this one’s a doozy. It even won the “Most Outrageous” boss prize for the employee in Working America’s (an AFL-CIO community affiliate) third annual Bad Boss of the Year Contest.<

Joan of Kansas was asked by her boss to set up an outing for the entire company. She decided a Major League Baseball game would be just the thing—and about two months out arranged for discounted group tickets, carpools, and cash for snacks for the employees. However, when the big day arrived, it rained. Joan’s boss accused her of purposely picking that very day because she knew it was going to rain. He demoted her and cut her pay.

A few months later, this same boss asked Joan if she’d like to organize a picnic. When she declined, he went to the board and reported that Joan had refused to do the job.

Here are a couple of painful boss statistics from Working America:<

• More than one-third (36 percent) of American workers feel pressure to stay with their current bosses because of recent economic woes.

• The traits most often complained about when it comes to bosses are “laziness” and “dishonesty,” coming in at 13 percent each.

Make your New Year’s Resolution to be the OPPOSITE of this boss and motivate your people to their highest levels yet !

Three Tips for Handling Stress this last week before Christmas:

Three ways to ease your anxiety this upcoming week:

For many, the end-of-year wrap-up duties at work collide mightily with what should be pleasurable personal activities after hours, and pretty soon it all seems like work that will never get done. Here are three tips to help you navigate your personal obligations:

1. Aim for “good enough.” Stop striving for perfection. You’ll only drive yourself—and anyone else in your orbit—nuts. You can’t make everything ideal. No tree is perfect; cookies don’t have to be made from scratch. Do your best, then move on.

2. Prioritize your socializing. With all the parties and get-togethers going on during the holiday season, don’t feel obligated to attend every single function. Decide which events are most important both professionally and personally, and skip the nonessential ones.>

3. Divide the labor. Separate your to-do list into small, manageable chunks. Instead of exhausting yourself by trying to do everything at once, wrap one or two gifts every evening. Shop online during lunch breaks for 20 minutes at a time. Write five holiday cards each morning.

Great gift for snoozers:

Looking for something to rouse the sleepyhead in your life? For those who just can’t get out of bed without hitting the snooze button over and over again, try “Clocky.” It’s the brainchild of an MIT graduate student. Set the alarm for 7 a.m.and when the appointed hour arrives, Clocky, a robot-looking clock on wheels, rolls itself off the nightstand and onto the floor. Then it wanders around the room looking for a hiding place while emitting wake-up squeaking sounds. It’s designed to find a new hiding place every day so that users won’t know where to look—the idea being that waking up is less trouble than finding the alarm clock. For more information, go to www.nandahome.com.

Countdown to 2009:

This year is about to come to a close. Which means many of us will be spending New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day pursuing various traditional activities of our own creation or ones dictated to us by our cultural upbringing. New Year’s celebrations take many forms across the globe. Here are a few still practiced by some in the countries listed.

Brazil

Brazilians start the year by honoring the god of the sea. On New Year’s Eve, up to a million people in Rio de Janeiro visit the beach at night—dressed in white, lighting candles, and dancing. At midnight, fireworks dramatically signal the new year.

Denmark

Throwing dishes may be a sign of domestic anger in the U.S., but it means good things to the Danish at New Year’s. People save their broken or discarded dishes all year and throw them on their friends’ doorsteps. A lot of broken dishes on your doorstep indicates you have a lot of friends.

Japan

Japanese Buddhists visit their temples on New Year’s Eve and ring the temple bells 108 times to free people from the 108 earthly desires. They return on New Years Day to pray for prosperity and goodwill.
 

Spain

The Spanish make special use of the very last seconds of the old year. They gather around a chiming clock, and at each stroke of midnight, each person has to eat a grape, considered a food of good fortune. Each grape represents one month of the year. So if, for instance, the fifth grape is sour, May could be a difficult month to get through. All the grapes should be eaten by the last stroke of the clock.

ASK AN EXPERT! New Column for 2009.

What question would you like answered by a professional recruiter at Sales Executives? Or maybe you have a sales related question . .

Whatever area you would like us to specifically address, please send your question to:

Cindy@sales-executives.com.

If one of our team at Sales Executives can’t answer it, we will find an expert who can!

We look forward to your questions.