Networking with others can be extremely beneficial if you are interested and sincere in helping your group as well as yourself. If your networking results for the last year were mediocre then you might want to consider this: Are your shared leads mediocre in an effort to get a great lead from someone else? Be honest.

“The more I help others to succeed, the more I succeed.” – Ray Kroc

The reality of any networking group is that you will feel you’re giving more than receiving. In most cases that most likely is accurate. Does it really matter? I say give away! Become the “go to” person in your group. While good leads are extremely important so is relationships, trust, credibility, and so on.

When I help others by sharing leads without strings attached, at first, the magic happens. Network members become grateful and want to help. Then my group takes on its own life and becomes an essential sales-business tool. If this is not happening within your current networking group make some changes. Surround yourself with advocates you trust. Life is indeed too short to do otherwise.

Sales Networking That Works!

• Hand pick 5 “partners” that are trustworthy well entrenched networking professionals.
• Make sure they are connected to those that can help you evolve your network to a next level.
• Take them to lunch and explain clearly what you market and what type of networking leads you are looking for.
• Find out what they market and get a clear idea of what kind of lead they want.
• Offer first leads to this group through email or call them direct. Do not waste their time with pointless time consuming meetings.
• If they don’t reciprocate over time “fire them” and replace with a new member of your 5.
• Be consistent and proactive.

What is sales-business success without solid relationships? Entrepreneurs have a natural “lone wolf” inclination but successful owners and sales professionals find solid relationships tremendously beneficial. Networking groups should offer a place of solace, advice, and friendship. They should offer a place to build relationships. In any career there are always ups and downs. Look around, those that have strong relationships within their industry and other business partners fair better in hard times. Those that didn’t build lasting business relationships suffer. How do you currently contribute to building relationships within your sales network?

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

VOICEMAIL SUCCESS

First, and most important, don’t exceed 30 to 45 seconds!
This will prevent you from rambling on. It’s going to force you to laser in on a specific message.

4 Tips for Killer Voicemails

Tip 1 - Be brief and get to the point. Identify yourself and the purpose of calling. Give them a reason to reply. It needs to be something compelling that makes the listener want to get back to you for their benefit. Make sure you time stamp it as well.

Tip 2 - Always, always, always leave your phone number and your email address. There are people that feel more comfortable with email. Let them know that you check your email regularly.

Tip 3 - Don’t be vague… be specific on what your intentions are. If you need something specific then ask for it in the voicemail. I hate it when someone leaves a vague message. Typically I will not call them back. Rest assured I’m not the exception.

Tip 4 – And last but not least… always offer some pain if they don’t return the call. Loss of money, product, opportunity, etc..

Seems simple right? Actually it does take some planning and practice.

Create 3 Unique Voicemail Messages.
Keep leaving the same old voicemail messages every week… you can actually be reinforcing the wrong message. If voicemail one doesn’t resonate with them, maybe voicemails two and three will.

Practice Each Message 10 Times.
Practice, Practice, Practice… make sure you practice every voicemail a minimum of 25 times. Out loud. Hear yourself say it. You don’t want to sound canned or scripted, but more of a natural conversation.

Leaving a voicemail can be a successful tool if planned and implemented correctly.

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

Cold Calling is Dead – Long Live Foot-Blitzing!
Truthfully, true cold calling has been dead for eons. This new mantra is a little bit of a misnomer in my opinion. To prospect without researching and preparing has always been a waste of time. To randomly call on anyone that can “fog a mirror” is of course nuts. You should always have a purpose and a focused direction in any prospecting endeavor you take on. Intelligent foot-blitzing (not random door-knocking) can give you that edge over your competition in today’s market challenges. It can give you that personal touch needed to put a potential client at ease quickly that you could never have accomplished with a phone call or email.

“Anytime you do something out-of-the-box, something different, your prospects will remember you every single time that you call!”

Why Foot-Blitz? I can explain this in three words: Timing is everything. To be at the right place at the right time is difficult. How do you do this? It’s simple actually… you have to get out and meet with people. The more businesses you meet with the better the odds are of being there at the right time.

One of the ways you can accomplish this is to foot-blitz. Unfortunately, this type of prospecting strikes fear in most salespeople. Let me share with you my “tried and true” foot-blitzing program and let’s get rid of any reservations you might have.

Let’s Foot Blitz!

1. Get in front of prospects no less than 3 times. DO NOT SKIP THIS!

• Visit #1 – WARM: With foot blitzing you have 15 seconds to hook them! What’s your remarkable message?
• Visit #2 – WARMER: There is a good chance that the client will remember you.
• Visit #3 – HOT: They may reward your persistence by giving you a brief meeting to present your offering. Presentation ready? You have one shot!

2. You need to prepare. Challenge yourself to hit 10-20 doors within 2-3 hours per day, 2 days a week minimum! Expect 2-3 appointments that week and if that’s not happening, review your remarkable message.

Here are just a few of the preparations needed to keep from cold calling:

• Focus on a vertical market.
• Research like size companies in the area.
• Choose a building and/or area and make it yours.
• Have an enticing offer.
• Partner and get introduced to potential clients.
• Have ready references – Name drop.

Advantage: You will have the advantage over the person who is cold calling (phone and/or email) the same business. The customer will feel they know you now and can trust you more than a voice on the phone.

Example: “Ms. Smith you aren’t even my customer yet, and I came to see you and talked with you three times. Can you imagine how much better I will take care of you once you become a customer?”

3. It pays to be persistent. The most successful salespeople are the ones who impose strict rules and rigid schedules on themselves. Big hitters will tell you that the bulk of their sales came at the end of the day, after 20+ doors, when most people would already have quit. The more people you visit the more sales you will make. It’s all about timing!

Quick Tip: Treat the potentially small customer the same as the potentially large customer. You never actually know the size of the opportunity until you close the deal.

Remember: Smile, project confidence and energy regardless of how many NO’s you have already encountered. The next one most likely is the YES you were looking for!

Purposeful, planned foot-blitzing can really help in an insecure market. The advantage over a cold phone call or email is huge! When the weather is too hot or maybe too cold… what an advantage you will have over your “rainy day” competitors. Take control of your prospecting by adding this powerful program. Timing is everything and you can make the timing right!

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

4 Questions to ask yourself before you hire someone.

1.) Do you know what it takes to be successful in your industry today?

2.) If not… then how do you expect a newly hired sales professional becoming successful with your organization?

3.) Will your training be relevant?

4.) Is your pricing, offering, and presentation thought out and pertinent to today’s market? Are you still sales training using older techniques?

If any of these questions hit home, before you invest in a new sales person, make a change and give yourself and them a chance to succeed.

Understanding the preparation and responsibility with a new hire’s success is important but it is equally important to find the right individual in the first place.

Where do you find them?
Linkedin and Facebook are my favorites with “word of mouth” or networking a close second. Having url links in your status updates to your company site/blog for more detailed information on the offering is necessary.

Potential personality clashes?
After looking at their resumes and Linkedin profiles I usually have a pretty good idea if they can sell or not. My interview with them is not so much on if they can sell but more on how they’ll work with me and my team. One bad apple can indeed ruin the bushel. Also, let’s face it, the only way you can truly see their potential is hiring and working with them. If they’re trainable and excited then I’m usually in. Also I question heavily if they are just biding time until they’re personal project becomes successful. Waste of my time. Looking at all their social media accounts to see what’s going on with them personally can be enlightening.

Compensation plans conducive to selling and staying?
A better question is how much would you work for in today’s tough economy? Why would you offer the same pay plan used during a robust economy in a sour economy? Then complain because you can’t keep existing talent and/or find new. Think out of the box. Create a unique plan and make sure you spell out your goals clearly. You can always change the plan later when the economy changes.

Ramp up times today are very different than they were even 2 years ago. They are longer than ever. If you’re offering a salary then this is important to understand. My suggestion here is to look hard at a new employee the first 90 days. If there’s no sales mojo, spark, expediency early on… cut your losses. If confirmed activity is high then that’s different.

“In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative original thinker unless you can also sell what you create. Management cannot be expected to recognize a good idea unless it is presented to them by a good salesman.” -David Ogilvy

So many times hiring the next sales person to get “feet on the street” is not thought out fully. A truly great sales person hire can do so much for not only the bottom line but for the company’s reputation as well. Take some time and prepare and execute upon a plan and goal of hiring your next top ace sales professional.

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

Already Impacted?
Yes! Let’s look at a morning in the life of me…

First thing in the morning I virtually contact my global business connections through the use of Google Apps, Web 2.0, and Cloud Computing using social media. Some of these tools consist of LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, and Facebook all of which have storage and applications on the cloud. I then finally check my Google analytics, which of course is on the cloud, to see how my articles are doing on my website which uses virtualization.

“50% out of the 500 CIO’s surveyed plan to use virtualization.”

As I start my commute a potential client calls my office VoIP/SIP phone and through presence, location based services, and virtualization connects instantaneously to my Android Smartphone which I now can answer a few last minute questions before arriving at the office. As I arrive at my office I seamlessly finish the call back on my office phone without any interruption. I then receive an efax, using the cloud, signed contract and the deal is closed.

As you can see new technology has a tremendous impact on how I do business and my guess yours is similar.

Why should You Care?
Simply put… philosophies have changed. Instead of the IT Director asking for more technology to get things done they are now asked to get things done with less. Budgets are gone or much smaller than ever before. In other words no longer can companies get by with “do more with more” but now have to “do more with less”. So how does this work?

In a recent Morgan Stanley report they stated that 50% out of the 500 CIO’s surveyed plan to use virtualization. They also reported that that same amount planned on expanding their cloud applications. Why? Their reason was that they could “do more with less” with these business technologies. Instead of buying the typical suite of applications like Microsoft Office, Goldmine, Adobe, QuickBooks, etc. loaded locally, with upgrades, licenses, and compatibility issues, they now could have one application on a web based interface.

A great example of this is using Web 2.0 or rich internet applications like Google Apps to create, edit, collaborate, word processing, spreadsheets on the cloud. You now have much easier administration and up-times, lower server loads locally, and definitely less PC needs. Do more with less.

With cloud computing can come fear, uncertainty, and doubt for some business owners. If having local control is a requirement you can still do more with less. Let me explain…

Virtualization is beginning to play a huge role in corporate IT planning. Using products like VMware you could take as many as 63 applications and put them on one server. One customer case study saw their 70 servers go to 5. If that wasn’t big enough they saw a 45% reduction in their electric bill! Do more with less.

Another big break through is you can now house your voice (communications) system on a virtual server as well. This obviously has a tremendous impact on the bottom line. So everything is great right? Not necessarily.

Disruptive Technology
Disruptive technology is “innovations that improve a product or service in ways that the market does not expect” – Wikipedia.

How about the web? No longer can your website be a business card. Now everyone’s a competitor and small businesses can look larger and SEO better than their mightiest competitor.

Open source changed things overnight with Linux and Asterisk as examples. I know in the communications world this changed most company directions literally overnight.

“Cloud-based mobile applications are expected to rise 88% between 2009 and 2014”.

The combined consumer and enterprise market for cloud-based mobile applications is expected to rise 88% between 2009 and 2014, according to a study from Juniper Research. Gartner Group recently stated that “Enterprises in North America will be supporting more mobile phones than desktop phones by 2011” and we’re seeing this come true. Always on devices such as iPhone, iPad, etc. are changing enterprise plans instantaneously. And if that’s not tough enough to plan for… “The rate of obsolescence is outpacing the pace of change” – altimeter. What do you do with that information!

Holistic Approach
Holistic Approach, what is it? Well I can tell you Jerry Garcia didn’t dream it up and Al Gore didn’t invent it. It’s an answer to reactive company technology direction and purchases. Companies continue to buy PC after PC, server after server, and software after software, without long term thought to future costs and compatibility. Should a company expand their building or hire telecommuters? Should they buy more PC’s or look at thin clients? One case study I recently read stated that replacing PC’s with Sun Ray thin clients gave them a 1 year 70% ROI! Wrong decisions can cost thousands if not tens of thousands of dollars.

So what’s needed? A proactive, all encompassing holistic approach. You can’t expect your data guru to know everything about, cloud computing, virtual servers, communications and always on devices. Just as you need a business posse, attorneys, accountants, and advisors, you need a technical posse of field experts, consultants, internal managers and users. This technical posse needs to understand and participate in your 1,3,5 year plan. They need to understand that all new technologies affect all current technologies and all departments.

Here’s a real life scenario. A company’s sales department was tired of the downtime with their email, Word, Excel, etc. They started using Google Apps. They also had Droid based phones which integrated seamlessly and easily. The sales department had never been invited to the technology planning meetings. Now the IT group was out of the loop. They had no idea this had happened and they had budgeted for a different much more expensive solution and no mobile integration. Not good.

Your technology posse needs to understand the long term business philosophy as well. Technology needs to enhance and help achieve business success. It should be part of the company PEST (political, economic, social, and technological) and SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis.

I was involved in a sale where a particular customer had outsourced appointment confirmation and billing. At the eleventh hour they decided to get some advice (technical posse) and we were chosen to help. Bottom line… I was able to save this company almost $5,000 dollars a month with technology that they didn’t know existed.

Future Impact
Here’s something to think about. In 2014 “Worldwide mobile data traffic needs could increase to as much as 40 exabytes – Cisco”. That’s 40 billion gigabytes! In 2020 work and leisure will be seamlessly integrated. “Individuals will find themselves most productive when using the same tools for both work and personal purposes… – Forrester Research”. In 2045 “computers will vastly exceed human intelligence” – “The singularity is near” by Ray Kurzweil. In my case that’s not a big challenge.

It is speculated that technical advances are growing exponentially. One hundred years of accomplishments, twenty years from now, will only take one year!

It is important to understand how technology impacts business, today and tomorrow, by using a proactive, all encompassing holistic approach. By doing so you can do more with less and keep your bottom line healthy and your internal user’s happy.

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

1.) Assumed that we were all “buddies” and took personal liberties at my expense immediately in front of my boss. Also took on a very condescending tone. An “I will school you” approach.

a.) Made fun of my social media prowess. I update LinkedIn regularly and am very active with this product. It has helped me with credibility, sales, hiring, and marketing.

b.) Commented on me personally about my age and looks. “Wow, Chris, your picture must have been taken some time ago on LinkedIn because you look a lot older in person”. You could have heard a pin drop after that comment.

As the strong influencer in the decision of whether to take on this product, or not, I was not impressed and quite honestly ticked off. With that said I continued on and took one for the team in an effort to help my company make a good decision. Now with a very critical eye however.

2.) Didn’t fully understand our needs and our market. The presentation went on with a powerpoint presentation on their laptop. I’m thinking to myself at this point, why did they fly in to see us when a webinar would have been the same?

At first glance the product looked impressive but as in all products there were shortcomings. I made note of them of course (evil laugh). One big shortcoming was that we were looking more for an entry level product and they were presenting a more advanced product. Calling them out on this… they now had to scramble and try to show their other offerings that might be a better fit. Kludge at best and it appeared they had pretty limited product knowledge of these alternate products. Not all that confident inspiring.

3.) Didn’t address the competition that they were given a heads up about previous to the meeting. My boss had told them that I would need to be convinced as I had been pushing another product for some time. During the presentation I had asked if they had different specific features which they could not address. These were features that their competition had that I really liked. Disappointing.

4.) Didn’t bring any live product presentations to show. While powerpoint presentations have a place in the sales process seeing the product work live is ALWAYS better. In their defense they were willing to come back out and show the product live. Again… Why didn’t we do a webinar first?

5.) I will school you approach. Not sure why they took this approach as on my side of the table were over 60 years combined experience. Not really open to being schooled on anything.

With a little more homework and professionalism and a lot less casual and assumption, this meeting could have gone so very different. Have you found yourself in a similar circumstance? How did you feel?

Make sure you always put your best foot forward with professionalism and class no matter what the relationship is/was with the potential client. You would expect no less and neither do they.

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

There is also a credibility issue I have found when a new salesperson gets trained on a product to only find later that it’s not what I had trained on any longer. They now look at my sales manager abilities as less than. Frustrating.

What I prefer to train on are probing, non-interrogating, questions to find pains and repetitions. Then through research and presentations using technical, vendor, and manufacturer resources… uncover and present an up-to-date customized focused solution proposal.

With that said… in every team certain sales people want and “need” product detailed training or they feel “naked” in the field and have a rough time with confidence and ultimately sales success. I cave in and train on products and details as to not be viewed as a “terrible manager”. I introduce them to all the resources necessary to get to the “ones and zeros” of the products. They are now warm and fuzzy. And these professionals become my top sales people right?

What I have found, and suspected would be the case, is that these now technically product proficient salespeople are, too often, the worst salespeople. Why?

“Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.” – Oscar Wilde

Too Much Information
Please don’t get me wrong. I totally believe a sales staff needs product training. 100 to 500 foot level however. More importantly they need to understand the value proposition or end user benefit more than how it actually works. Here’s why…

The temptation to regurgitate too many features, overwhelming and confusing the customer, resulting in longer sales cycles and even lost deals, is just too great.

There’s also the temptation to use technical or product jargon in their sales pitches. Again, overwhelming and confusing.

Here’s an example… A sales person spent the first half-an-hour of an hour presentation on the intricacies of setting up the web conferencing product. The potential customer had to actually ask to move on with the presentation to get to the benefits for them. Not good.

Then there’s this… To simply point out that extra product attribute they may be so proud of, without any research as to their needs, could turn the prospect off and kill the sale. I have seen this time and time again in the field. Many times the new sales person, or even experienced sales person, miss this and can’t seem to understand how the deal went sour. So what’s the solution?

Keep it Simple and Focused
If you’ve read any of my articles you know I’m a big fan of simple and easy. Instead of educating the customer take the time to find out what their needs are. Don’t start spouting off products and product details that you offer. Of course you’ll need to be able to speak to your product when asked. Just don’t “build the watch when they ask for the time”.

Ask open-ended questions that allow your potential customer to reveal their real needs. Smart salespeople ask questions to uncover specific problems and align their products as solutions to those problems. That’s it!

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

As I started searching for various Kindle Fire apps in Amazon’s app store I quickly found that not all the choices I had become accustomed to were available. Even those that I did find were not ready for prime time on the Fire or any tablet for that matter. Maybe Google Apps Marketplace? While you can view apps in the Google/Android Marketplace from a Kindle you can’t install them from there. Hmmmm…

Was the Kindle Fire “ready to rumble” for business and sales use afterall? The hunt was on.

Kindle Fire Business and Sales Apps Options

So what are the options… if any?

Option 1: Of course I could always “root” my Fire and access Google’s Marketplace but that wasn’t my goal. Also, this process is not for the weak of heart and I wanted to drink the Amazon services device “koolaid”. What could I do with this $199.00 tablet using the services and apps offered by Amazon for sales and business?

Option 2: There are plenty of cloud applications that I could connect with using Kindles silk web browser. Even though there has been some negative press on this browser I found with a couple of tweaks it worked great for cloud connectivity. I am sure as this product matures it will be even better.

Speed up silk on the Kindle Fire: (Under Web | Settings)
1.) Turn off “enable plugins”.
2.) Un-check the “accelerate page loading” box.
3.) Switch over to “mobile view”.
4.) Make sure you have the latest 6.2.x update.

With that said… while easily accessing the cloud worked well I didn’t want to always be online. I needed some apps on my device that would work locally as well.

Option 3: A combination of both. After hours of researching it turns out the Kindle Fire is a very capable device for both local and cloud applications. I did ultimately find some new business/sales related solutions currently available and many app developers are working frantically to get their solutions Kindle Fire ready as I type. This for both local and cloud usage. Let me share a few of my favorites that I am currently using and are playing nicely with each other.

Note: The 1.17 GB for apps and 5.36 GB for content seems to be more than adequate space.

Top 10 Kindle Fire Apps

1.) TripIt – Travel App (Ad Free) – $1.99

Link: TripIt – Travel App (Ad Free)

My two cents: I have used this as a road warrior before on different platforms. This is a must have for anyone that travels for business or sales.

Description from TripIt: TripIt turns chaos into order by making it easy for anyone to:

• Organize trip details into one master online itinerary — even if arrangements are booked at multiple travel sites.
• Automatically include maps, directions, and weather in their master itinerary.
• Have the option to book restaurants, theatre tickets, activities, and more right from within the online itinerary.
• Safely access travel plans online, share them, check-in for flights, or print an itinerary.

2.) Quickoffice Pro – $14.99

Link: Quickoffice Pro

My two cents: I currently use Microsoft Office (work) and Google Apps (everything else). This is a tremendous tool to get all those resources into one easy to use location. Also, you can build Word 95 through Word 10 docs without owning Microsoft Word! Well worth the 15 bucks.

Description from Quickoffice: Anytime Office Editing. Create, edit, access, and share Microsoft® Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations, as well as view PDF files.
Cloud Compatibility. Our Connected File Manager offers integrated access to Google Docs™, Dropbox, Evernote, Catch, Egnyte, Huddle™, Box, SugarSync, and MobileMe™, so you can access, share and manage files on your device and the cloud.

3.) TouchDown with Exchange ActiveSync – $14.99

Link: Exchange By TouchDown

My two cents: While the email application that comes with the Kindle Fire is great for personal email accounts it doesn’t have a Microsoft Exchange integration. TouchDown is an easy-to-use application that gives you complete access to all those Office modules that you’re used to.

Description from TouchDown: With TouchDown, you get a desktop-like view of your corporate email, contacts, calendar and tasks on the Kindle Fire™

4.) Handrite Note Pro – $2.99

Link: Handrite Note Pro

My two cents: I now no longer bring my notepad for my initial meetings. I tried to use my EVO by typing in notes… but I always felt the potential customer thought I was texting. Now with using my finger for notes they think it’s cool and OK.

Description from Handrite: You’re in an important meeting or lecture when suddenly you realize–you forgot your pen or notebook! Or you’re at a party and need to take down a phone number or an e-mail address. Don’t trust your memory or try to scribble on a dry-cleaning receipt; the Handrite Note app is the solution you need. Rather than trying to frantically type notes on your device keyboard, Handrite Note allows you to write with your finger right on your Kindle Fire’s screen.

5.) Office Calculator Pro – $1.69

Link: Office Calculator Pro

My two cents: If you have anything to do with sales you need a solid calculator. I really like the “tape” feature. Designed for the Fire.

Description from Office Calculator Pro: Office calculator with a virtual tape, fixed point or floating point calculator, various rounding modes and percent calculation. This is a calculator optimized for office tasks.

6.) Alarm Clock Xtreme – $1.99

Link: Alarm Clock Xtreme

My two cents: As any road warrior knows… it’s great to have your own alarm clock. There are plenty of these type of applications available but I really like the clean interface of Alarm Clock Xtreme. Designed for the Fire.

Description from Alarm Clock Xtreme: Most reliable and highest rated alarm clock and timer for Android! Do you have problems turning off your alarm clock only to fall back asleep? Wake up gently and avoid accidentally disabling your alarm with Alarm Clock Xtreme. This alarm clock and timer includes features that prevent excessive snoozing and get you out of bed.

7.) Sound Sleep Deluxe Edition (Music Therapy) – $2.99

Link: Sound Sleep Deluxe Edition (Music Therapy)

My two cents: When traveling the strange noises of the hotel room always made it hard for me to sleep. This ambient music app takes that away.

Description from Sound Sleep: An Android music app that is designed to help you unwind and relax, so you can sleep more soundly. With low-speed alpha waves, the sounds will comfort your mind and help you to naturally and smoothly fall asleep. The app is easy to use, so you can simply let the soothing sounds carry you off into a deep and restorative slumber.

8.) PaymentMax: Credit Card Processing

My two cents: These folks say you can key in the information.

Description from PaymentMax: Payment Max merchant account services for credit card processing provides security, fraud protection, easy access to your funds and online reporting that can help your business grow.

9.) MightyMeeting: Present Anywhere Pro – $4.99 a month

Link: MightyMeeting: Present Anywhere

My two cents: I have it on good authority that an upgrade to support the Kindle Fire is in the works and is coming soon. It now is working flawlessly on the Kindle Fire!

Description from MightyMeeting: Storing your presentation material and videos in the cloud allows you to be able to impress that potential buyer you just met at the bar, or run a last minute demo, at a moment’s notice, even if you don’t have your desktop computer handy. Upload, download, send, and share all content through any computer or Web-enabled device. If you have Web access, you have your material!

10.) Last but not least… IT’S AN AWESOME eREADER!

I spend a lot of time reading magazines, white papers, and books on the latest technology and sales/business practices. My 4.3 inch EVO just doesn’t work for me even with the Kindle app. The Kindle Fire, however, is wonderful. These periodicals and resources are available locally and on the cloud and can be retrieved anytime. The 7” screen size is just right for my 50+ year old eyes. I’ve even configured SalesBlog! to let you convert and deliver my articles to your Kindle docs for later reading. Now there’s a bonus!

These are just a few of the applications available for both local and cloud use. I am sure there will be more as the Kindle Fire matures. Its popularity should back that up. All in all the Fire has become a simple, easy to use, sales and business tool for me.

Are there any applications you could add to this list?

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

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Qoate Simple Code Snippets: NEW Add code snippets to your posts easily, WordPress codex style. http://dannyvankooten.com/wordpress-plugins/simple-code-snippets/

Kindle This: NEW Sends a blog post or page to a user’s kindle. http://www.blogseye.com/i-make-plugins/kindle-this/

Copyrighted Post: Adds copyright notice in the end of each post of your blog. http://www.simplelib.com/?p=166

Contextual Related Posts: NEW Show user defined number of contextually related posts. http://ajaydsouza.com/wordpress/plugins/contextual-related-posts/

Font Resizer: NEW Font Resizer with jQuery and Cookies. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/font-resizer/

Recent Posts Slider: NEW Recent Posts Slider displays your blog’s recent posts either with excerpt or thumbnail images using slider. http://recent-posts-slider.com/

PostPost: NEW A plugin for users who wish to customize the content before and after every post on their blog and in their feed or in their pages. http://www.marketingtechblog.com/projects/postpost/

myReadMore – accessibility aid: NEW This plugin allows users to improve WP accessibility by customizing their read-more links with custom-unique links on all excerpted posts. http://www.wdmac.com/wp-plugins/myreadmore

hitcounter: NEW Enables You To Display How Many Times A Post Had Been Viewed By User Or Bot. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/hitcounter/

Download Manager: NEW Manage, track and controll file download from your wordpress site. http://www.wpdownloadmanager.com/

Advanced Random Post Thumbnails Widget: NEW Display thumbnails from random posts. http://wpservicemasters.com/plugins/advanced-random-post-thumbnails-widget/

Date in a nice tone: NEW Displays the amount of time since a post or page was written in a nice friendly manner. http://mark-kirby.co.uk/2008/date-in-a-nice-tone-a-wordpress-plugin/

Comment Rating: NEW Allows visitors to rate comments in a Like vs. Dislike fashion with click-able images. http://wealthynetizen.com/wordpress-plugin-comment-rating/

Breadcrumb NavXT: NEW Adds a breadcrumb navigation showing the visitor’s path to their current location. http://mtekk.us/code/breadcrumb-navxt/

article2pdf: NEW This plugin let your visitors download an article as PDF file – images, formats and tables included. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/article2pdf/

Contact Form Plugin: Plugin for Contact Form. http://bestwebsoft.com/plugin/contact-form/

Subscribe to Comments Reloaded: Subscribe to Comments Reloaded is a robust plugin that enables commenters to sign up for e-mail notifications. It includes a full-featured subscription manager that your commenters can use to unsubscribe to certain posts or suspend all notifications. http://lab.duechiacchiere.it/index.php?board=5.0

Simple Pagination: Simple Pagination allows to set up an advanced pagination for posts and comments. http://www.geekpress.fr/wordpress/extension/simple-pagination-pagination-avancee-wordpress-622/

Profile Enhancements

Delete Me: Allow specific WordPress roles ( except administrator ) to delete themselves on their WordPress Profile. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/delete-me/

Search Engine Optimization SEO

Smart 404: NEW Rescue your viewers from site errors! When content cannot be found, Smart 404 will use the current URL to attempt to find matching content, and redirect to it automatically. http://atastypixel.com/blog/wordpress/plugins/smart-404/

IndexSpy-WP: NEW Check if google indexed your pages/posts. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/indexspy/

Do Follow: NEW Removes the evil nofollow attribute that WordPress adds in comments. http://www.semiologic.com/software/dofollow/

All in One SEO Pack: Out-of-the-box SEO for your WordPress blog. http://semperfiwebdesign.com/

Google Integration Toolkit: Integrate Google services (Analytics, Webmaster Tools, etc.) with Your Blog. http://www.poradnik-webmastera.com/projekty/google_integration_toolkit/

Google XML Sitemaps: This plugin will generate a sitemaps.org compatible sitemap of your WordPress blog which is supported by Ask.com, Google, MSN Search, Bing, and YAHOO. http://www.arnebrachhold.de/projects/wordpress-plugins/google-xml-sitemaps-generator/

WP Original source: Adds Google original source meta tag to single posts and pages header for Google news publishers or regarding SEO. Let you define up to 5 URLs for sources, or add your permalink as the original source if you let the fields blank. http://www.wecho.com/blog/plugins-wordpress/wp-original-source-plugin/

Spam Anti Bot

SABRE: NEW Simple Anti Bot Registration Engine. http://didier.lorphelin.free.fr/blog/index.php/wordpress/sabre/

Project Honey Pot Spam Trap: NEW This plugin automatically scatters invisible links to Project Honey Pot spam traps throughout your wordpress blog to help catch and stop spammers. http://andrewensley.com/projects/project-honey-pot-wordpress-plugin/

JC-IPRestrictions: NEW Provides the ability to restrict access to your web site by IP address and/or IP network. http://www.joshcook.net/2007/06/jc-iprestrictions/

Akismet: Akismet checks your comments against the Akismet web service to see if they look like spam or not. http://akismet.com/

Utility Tools

Clean Options: NEW Finds orphaned options and allows for their removal from the wp_options table. http://www.mittineague.com/dev/co.php

GD Press Tools: NEW GD Press Tools is a collection of various administration, seo, maintenance and security related tools that can help with everyday blog tasks and blog optimizations. http://www.dev4press.com/gd-press-tools/

Exclude Pages from Navigation: NEW Provides a check-box on the editing page which you can check to exclude pages from the primary navigation. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exclude-pages/

Change Permalink Helper: NEW It checks the Permalink and redirects to the new URL, if it doesn’t exist. It sends the header message “moved permanently 301″. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/change-permalink-helper/

.html on PAGES: NEW Adds .html to pages. http://www.introsites.co.uk/wordpress/html-on-pages-plugin.html

WP Hide Dashboard: A simple plugin that removes the Dashboard menu, the Personal Options section and the Help link on the Profile page, hides the Dashboard links in the admin bar menu (if activated), and prevents Dashboard access to users assigned to the Subscriber role. Useful if you allow your subscribers to edit their own profiles, but don’t want them wandering around your WordPress admin section. http://kpdesign.net/wphidedash/

Page Restrict: Restrict certain pages to logged in users. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/pagerestrict/

Hide Admin Panels: Allows you to hide admin panels for a specific user and/or role. http://www.wpxpand.com/

Advanced Category Excluder: This plugin helps you to manage your content, RSS feeds, sidebar widgets, and fine tune where you want to display your posts, pages, links, link categories, or hide. http://ace.dev.rain.hu/

Delete-Revision: Delete revision post from Database. http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/delete-revision/

Email Immunizer: Protect email addresses and mailto links on your blog from email harvesters. http://guff.szub.net/2005/08/23/email-immunizer/

Redirection: Manage all your 301 redirects and monitor 404 errors. http://urbangiraffe.com/plugins/redirection/

User Role Editor: It allows you to change any standard WordPress user roles (except administrator) capabilities list with a few clicks. http://www.shinephp.com/user-role-editor-wordpress-plugin/

WP Auto Tagger: Automatically finds tags based on your post content. http://wordpresssupplies.com/wordpress-plugins/auto-tagger/

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com

Top sales performers don’t wait for a PIP (performance improvement plan) or otherwise to get motivated. They are in charge of their career. If they’re not hitting their own goals they’re making adjustments to do so proactively.

Let’s see if you’re in charge of your success.

1.) What do you do to further your career on your own without being told to?

2.) When you feel like things aren’t working out are you PRO-ACTIVE in looking for a new company or do you wait for the PIP?

3.) If you know the company you’re working for is having financial problems are you already looking for another company or are you waiting for the lay off?

4.) Are you actively PROMOTING yourself or are you waiting for someone to “notice” you?

5.) Do you update your resume regularly or just during unemployment emergencies?

6.) Does CHANGE scare the hell out of you?

“Take control of your consistent emotions and begin to consciously and deliberately reshape your daily experience of life.” -Tony Robbins

7.) Do you pro-actively ask others how you’re doing or do you wait for a review?

8.) Do your peers consider you the EXPERT in your field?

9.) Are you the WINNER that shows up early and leaves late?

10.) Is the company quota your GOAL or have you set your own higher quota?

If you’re not taking your sales career by the horns and riding it for everything its worth then you really have missed the point. Sales is tough but can be extremely rewarding. It takes a lot of guts and tenacity to be a great one. Don’t waste your time and your company’s time with a mediocre attitude and performance. Take control of your sales career.

Copyright © 2006-2012 Chris Lott and Lottspace. All rights reserved. Stock photos from 123rf.com