Spin It Lucky

It is very easy to fall into a trap with the customer by extending offerings beyond that of what the company infrastructure is able to supply in a reasonable timeline.

As a salesperson, you must manage the quality of the sales process. With this context of “quality deal management” in mind, the theme cannot be to do “whatever it takes to close the deal”. There must be a balance. That balance is achieved through managing expectations with the future cusotmer and with your own organization.

The deal in question must be evaluated and built around a solution that meets the goals of the customer, your company, and the ethics of the salesperson. If expectations are properly managed, the deal will adhere to these tenets and be beneficial for all parties. If communication is compromised, production capacity or delivery is stressed or the quality of the end product is sacrificed and the deal is not beneficial for all parties and may damage future business opportunities.

Many sales professionals argue that it’s their job to “load the cart” and the responsibility of the operations staff to figure out how to address the requirement. While too much business may be a good problem to have, proper deal management ensures that expectations are managed in a way that will not over commit a company’s operations resources regarding delivery and that the end product is what is expected by the customer within the designated delivery timeline.

Proper documentation will ease the strain of effectively communicating between the customer and the operations staff. Signed and executed documents including delivery specs, dates, item codes, product descriptions, etc. should always be a part of the process when passing the baton to another division of the company and should be maintained in duplicate in the sales folder documenting the project. The Benchmarks for ISO9000 certification from a process standard are good references when considering the handling of documentation within a sales force.

Good communication on all sides is the secret to effective deal management. I cannot stress enough that the salesperson should stay involved with both the customer and the operations/delivery team throughout implementation to ensure that there are no gaps in expectations on either side. Staying in constant communication with the customer allows the salesperson to solidify the relationship with the customer and to mitigate any communication issues or points for interpretation between the customer and the operations staff. Also, continuing communications from the sales person helps the customer to not feel like “just another number” and can almost always increase the chances for add on sales.

Integrity is the key element in deal management. Maintaining the respect of the customer and the operations staff involved will always offer the best-delivered good or service. Often times a delay or setback is better understood by a customer that has received good communications and straight forward answers from their solution provider. There is no substitute for a quality in the sales profession.

Brian is the Chairman and Founder of the the United Professional Sales Association (UPSA). UPSA is a non-profit organization headquartered in Washington DC that has addressed the concerns and challenges of individual sales professionals. Brian has authored the world’s first universal selling standards and open-source selling framework for free distribution. This ‘Compendium of Professional Selling’ containing the commonly accepted and universally functional knowledge that all sales professionals possess. The open-source selling standards have been downloaded in 16 countries by over 300 people. Over 30 people have made contributions.

Because UPSA is not owned by one person or any company, it is a member organization and guardian of the global standard of entry into the sales profession.

Find out about the membership organization and understand the processes and framework of professional selling at the UPSA Website at http://www.upsa-intl.org

Find out more about Brian at: http://ezinearticles.com/?expert_bio=Brian_Lambert

Or at http://www.brianlambert.biz

xMax is a recent innovation conceived by Florida-based xG Technology LLC. It piggybacks on radio signals to transmit wireless broadband data over long distances.

Although it is not yet widely available, xMax will (in theory) be much cheaper and more effective than WiMAX, and potentially bring wireless broadband internet access to less densely populated areas.

There are plenty of articles out there about how to prepare for Cisco exams. However, there are also things you can do to increase your chances of success on exam day during the most important part of the entire process — the time that you’re actually taking the test.

I’ve taken many a certification exam over the years, and helped thousands of others prep for theirs. Here are the five things you must do on exam day to maximize your efforts.

1. Show up on time. Yes, I know everyone says that. The testing center wants you there 30 minutes early. So why do so many candidates show up late, or in a rush? If you have a morning exam appointment, take the traffic into account. If it’s a part of town you don’t normally drive in during rush hour, you might be surprised at how much traffic you have to go through. Plan ahead.

2. Use paper, not the pad. Some testing centers have gotten into the habit of handing exam candidates a board that allegedly wipes clean, along with a marker that may or not be fine-pointed. You do NOT want to be writing out charts for binary math questions, or coming up with quick network diagrams, with a dull magic marker. It’s also my experience that these boards do not wipe clean well at all, but they smear quite badly.

Ask the testing center employee to give you paper and a pen instead. I haven’t had one refuse me yet. Remember, you’re the customer.

3. Use the headphones. Most candidates in the room with you understand that they should be quiet. Sadly, not all of them do. Smacking gum, mumbling to themselves (loud enough for you to hear, though), and other little noises can really get on your nerves in what is already a pressure situation. In one particular testing center I use, the door to the testing room has one setting: “Slam”.

Luckily, that center also has a headset hanging at every testing station. Call ahead to see if yours does. Some centers have them but don’t leave them at the testing stations. Wearing headphones during the exam is a great way to increase your powers of concentration. They allow you to block out all noise and annoyances, and do what you came to do — pass the exam.

4. Prepare for the “WHAT??” question. No matter how well-prepared you are, there’s going to be one question on any Cisco exam that just stuns you. It might be off-topic, in your opinion; it may be a question that would take 20 of your remaining 25 questions to answer; it might be a question that you don’t even know how to begin answering. I have talked with Cisco exam candidates who got to such a question and were obviously so thrown off that they didn’t do well on any of the remaining questions, either.

There is only one thing to do in this situation: shrug it off. Compare yourself to a major-league pitcher. If he gives up a home run, he can’t dwell on it; he’s got to face another batter. Cornerbacks in football face the same problem; if they give up a long TD pass, they can’t spend the next 20 minutes thinking about it. They have to shrug it off and be ready for the next play.

Don’t worry about getting a perfect score on the exam. Your concern is passing. If you get a question that seems ridiculous, unsolvable, or out of place, forget about it. It’s done. Move on to the next question and nail it.

5. Finish with a flourish. Ten questions from the end of your exam, take a 15-to-30 second break. You can’t walk around the testing room, but you can stand and stretch. By this point in the exam, candidates tend to be a little mentally tired. Maybe you’re still thinking about the “WHAT??” question. Don’t worry about the questions you’ve already answered — they’re done. Take a deep breath, remember why you’re there — to pass this exam — and sit back down and nail the last ten questions to the wall.

Before you know it, your passing score appears on the screen!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage (http://www.thebryantadvantage.com), home of free CCNA and CCNP tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages. Video courses and training, binary and subnetting help, and corporate training are also available. Pass the CCNA exam with Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933!

In your BCMSN / CCNP exam study, it’s easy to overlook some of the details of Spanning Tree Protocol (STP). After all, you learned all of that in your CCNA studies, right? Not necessarily! While some of the BCMSN material will be a review for you, there are some details regarding familiar topics that you need to learn. That includes the timers for STP – Hello Time, MaxAge, and Forward Delay.

You may remember these timers from your CCNA studies as well, and you should also remember that these timers should not be changed lightly. What you might not have known is that if you decide to change any and all of these timers, that change must be configured on the root bridge! The root bridge will inform the nonroot switches of the change via BPDUs.

Hello Time is the interval between BPDUs, two seconds by default.

Forward Delay is the length of both the listening and learning STP stages, with a default value of 15 seconds.

Maximum Age, referred to by the switch as MaxAge, is the amount of time a switch will retain a BPDU’s contents before discarding it. The default is 20 seconds.

The value of these timers can be changed with the spanning-tree vlan command shown below. Verify the changes with the show spanning-tree command.

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 ?

forward-time Set the forward delay for the spanning tree

hello-time Set the hello interval for the spanning tree

max-age Set the max age interval for the spanning tree

priority Set the bridge priority for the spanning tree

root Configure switch as root

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 hello-time 5

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 max-age 30

SW1(config)#spanning-tree vlan 1 forward-time 20

SW1(config)#^Z

SW1#show spanning-tree vlan 1

VLAN0001

Spanning tree enabled protocol ieee

Root ID Priority 32769

Address 000f.90e1.c240

This bridge is the root

Hello Time 5 sec Max Age 30 sec Forward Delay 20 sec

Bridge ID Priority 32769 (priority 32768 sys-id-ext 1)

Address 000f.90e1.c240

Hello Time 5 sec Max Age 30 sec Forward Delay 20 sec

Aging Time 300

Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type

—————- —- — ——— ——– ——————————–

Fa0/11 Desg FWD 19 128.11 P2p

Fa0/12 Desg FWD 19 128.12 P2p

Again, you should always take great care in changing these timers. Those defaults are set for a reason – helping to prevent switching loops!

Chris Bryant, CCIE #12933, is the owner of The Bryant Advantage, home of free CCNP and CCNA tutorials, The Ultimate CCNA Study Package, and Ultimate CCNP Study Packages.

For a FREE copy of his latest e-books, “How To Pass The CCNA” and “How To Pass The CCNP”, just visit the website! You can also get FREE CCNA and CCNP exam questions every day! Pass the CCNP exam with The Bryant Advantage!

Picture a beautiful sunny day one weekend in late spring in Perth, Western Australia. A climbing white iceberg rose is in full bloom releasing its sweet perfume into the still air.

Underneath that rose sitting on the footpath are a six-year old girl and four-year old boy, both with blonde hair, blue eyes and impeccably dressed.

They have a table, chair and umbrella set-up, with a little hand-written sign saying “Raffle Tickets For Sale Only $2″.

They patiently wait in the warm spring air. Then as people walk down the street, the six-year old confidently approaches them saying, “Hello, would you like to buy a raffle ticket, we’re raising money for our school!”

How could anyone refuse? This was my daughter Georgia as she sold raffle tickets and in a small way helped raise more than $30,000 for her local school.

What did I learn from my daughter’s entrepreneurial approach to helping raise money that will help put air-conditioning in the class-rooms of her 108-year old school?

Well, they are insights we can all apply to any sales situation, whether a multi-million dollar company, small business or not-for-profit fund raiser.

1. Enthusiasm.

This quality more than anything else is essential for sales success. My daughter had it in bucketfuls.

How is your enthusiasm for your job, product or organisation?

2. Organisation.

Good salespeople are well organised. My daughter was no exception with the chairs, umbrella, sign, tickets, pen and cash float for change.

Is your lack of organisation costing you sales?

3. Empathetic listener

Even though she’s only six, my daughter is a good listener. A value as parents we’ve tried to teach her.

4. Self-motivation

My daughter would still be on the footpath selling raffle tickets if she had her way.

Her level of motivation was exceptional and for her this was fun.

Are you still having fun in your job?

By the way, the ball for the parents was also great fun, as you can tell by the photo with my gorgeous wife (third from left) and other friends!

5. Competitive

Again, my daughter wanted to sell the most raffle tickets in her class and we had to hold her back!

Competition can be healthy for sales.

6. Goal Orientation

Again, my daughter had a goal to sell all her raffle tickets.

7. Initiative

I know it’s probably illegal to sell things on the front footpath without a licence, but again I was impressed with my daughter’s initiative.

8. Customer Orientation

My daughter always listened to the customer and approached them with a smile!

It is amazing that as we get older we forget these simple, proven techniques.

Thomas Murrell MBA CSP is an international business speaker, consultant and award-winning broadcaster. Media Motivators is his regular electronic magazine read by 7,000 professionals in 15 different countries. You can subscribe by visiting http://www.8mmedia.com Thomas can be contacted directly at +6189388 6888 and is available to speak to your conference, seminar or event. Visit Tom’s blog at http://www.8mmedia.blogspot.com

Creative Writing Tips -

By now you should have an idea that your theme has to reach its conclusion just as your story does. But our theme has to do more than reach its conclusion – it has to be reinforced in the end and by doing this, it will strengthen all that we have said in our story.

So if we took a theme…

‘Persist and in the end you will succeed’

And I showed my character working hard to achieve his goals, persisting, even if at times those goals seemed unreachable, then I would’ve showed that all his hard work did pay off in the end. By having him succeed, it would reinforce the theme that had been running throughout the story.

Let me further illustrate this point by giving you a more detailed example.

The theme is…

‘Persistence pays off’

The story is about a writer, who has been writing short stories for years, but has not succeeded in getting published yet.

In your story you will show his persistence with…

•How he makes time to write, even when his day is already full by his full time job and other responsibilities

•How his every thought is consumed by his writing

•Showing him sending story after story to publishers

•How he doesn’t let the fact that his family believe he’s wasting his time, distract him from his purpose

Simultaneously I will place him in win and lose situations – Losing when his stories are rejected – Winning when he receives encouraging notes from publishers.

And in those instances where he is winning, I will show gradually that resistance is starting to pay off, till I reach the end of my story where I will have one of his stories accepted for publication and thus bring my theme of ‘Persistence pays off’ to its conclusion.

By showing the reader how persistence is paying off, I would have reinforced the theme in my ending.

Is your theme reinforced in the end of your story?

As a ghost hunter and paranormal investigator, I have had my share of experiences with ghosts. I have also had my share of people asking me how I know it was a ghost that made those experiences happen. My response goes something like, ‘when I get my hair pulled, my shirt pulled or I get pushed and, when turning around there is no one there, it’s hard for me to say that it’s not a ghost. When performing an investigation, I know where the other members of the group are and the realization that I was touched by something that no longer exists as a part of this world, becomes very profound to me. It took an extreme amount of energy for that ghost to perform that action and he/she picked me to do it to. I feel very honored. It is not often that one is chosen for such an honor.

As I am able to discuss the effects of dealing with a ghost, I think it is proper at this point to discuss the possibilities of demons. First, let me make it very clear that in over ten years of performing investigations in buildings, graveyards and homes I have never come across anything evil or malevolent. I am not saying that there isn’t anything like that out in this world but it is not something that I have ever come across.

Personally, I don’t believe that such things exist. I also don’t believe that these things have anything to do with religion or God. You cannot demand them to go away in the name of the Lord. The Lord didn’t make them. How can you expect the Lord to take them away? Religion has nothing to do with any of these things.

Demonologists cannot take away things that are evil. Taking the word for what it is and means – demon is obvious in that it is something not from this world but -ology is “the study of”, therefore, demonologist stands for someone who studies demons. The word doesn’t stand for remover of demons. I have a difficult time understanding, let alone believing that someone…a human being can take away something that is made from evil. Standing in the middle of a room with a cross that has probably been blessed does not make evil leave. It does make the person performing this ritual and the person who lives in the house feel much better but it serves no other purpose.

The idea that someone can be possessed is not an impossibility I suppose, however, I find that more often than not, it is merely the “raging hormone syndrome”. This is a phrase I have coined recently to explain the pre-pubescent hormonal feelings that emerge from young children that are soon to be young adults.

Demons are beings from the underworld, beings that might have super powers or are able to make humans submit to its’ whims. Demons are beings that have been made up by placing them in movies and on television. In my religion, there is heaven, hell and purgatory. I have learned of hell and what it constitutes, that is, the raging fires that burn in hell and all who must remain there because they have sinned. I don’t know if there is a hell but I do believe that there is a heaven. I believe that there is an all-knowing God.

I think that there are plenty of explanations that are manmade or natural that will explain the demons that present themselves in our world these days. I believe it is more of a psychological or psychosomatic entity than an entity that can overpower a young person’s mind and make them do whatever they want.

Our world has so many pressures in it that we are no longer the easygoing people we once were. We live in a world of hate, war, famine and to deal with our family life diminishing before our eyes makes it harder and harder to be surrounded by positive energy. We need to go to extremes to make the negative energy remove itself from our presence and continue to allow the positive energy, which makes us happy and comfortable, continue to thrive in our lives. Hopefully we are able to continue this ritual and be able to grow in our spiritual and physical lives.

About the Author

Gloria Young has been a ghost hunter and paranormal investigator for over 10 years. She has dedicated her life to researching paranormal activity. She has written, “Faces of a Ghost Hunter” as well as three other books. She founded the paranormal research group, “Ghost Trackers”. She has co-produced two documentaries on ghost hunting. (www.ghost-trackers.org)

I was watching a movie last night, one of these very standard horror flicks, and there were two female leads.

One is conventionally pretty. You look at her and see no obvious flaws. She could appear in an ad in Seventeen Magazine, and fit right in.

The other lead isn’t pretty in any standard sense. Sexy, is closer to the mark, but not because she has any particular physical characteristic one would associate with that term.

She is just more interesting, magnetic, or what you could call, “watch-able.”

My guess is we’ll be seeing a lot more of her in forthcoming films, and much less of the pretty one.

Glenn Close, a very watch-able actor in her own right, whom I’ve seen on Broadway in two different productions, described Jeremy Irons, her co-star in one of them.

She said, “I like the way he disturbs the molecules when he enters a room.”

Wow, what a great definition of charisma!

Isn’t this what charismatic people do, whether we’re watching them in-person, or on TV or in a movie theater? Think about the great actor, Robert Mitchum.

Mainly, he was cast in bad-guy or shady roles, but still, he was generally likeable.

Today, Christopher Walken comes across the same way. Even when he’s evil, he’s fun to watch.

There’s only one word for that sort of unexpected appeal: charisma.

I’m convinced it can be cultivated. One way is through the study and practice of martial arts, yoga, and similar disciplines.

But if you’re hiring salespeople, or others who need to be effective with wide swaths of the public, be on the lookout for charisma. You can’t advertise for it.

But you can recognize it, and put their chemistry to work for you.

And then someone will be disturbing the molecules for a good reason.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone® and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC’s Annenberg School, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

Are you searching the marketplace trying to pinpoint the very best foreign currency exchange rates? The world of the internet is an exciting way to have a good look at what is on offer & purchase the very best option. In spite of this, it is surely not exclusively about looking around the optimum exchange rate – extra fees, commission and transfer costs may all make a fetching rate quickly terrible value.

In this sad period of world wide financial fluctuation you very much need to deal with an established company which you can trust – to not only acquire you the finest associate achievable at the sad era but furthermore to provide you with assistance and sound advice. Foreign Currency Direct has been noted in such respectable publications as The Sunday Time and The Observer as a market leading business with whom to associate when you are securing foreign currency. Consequently, you can be secure in the knowledge you’ll be dealing with a reputable, professional and greatly noted company. Trading in profitable foreign currencies can be an easy way to make some extra money.

Trading in foreign currency can often be a hard business – the rates forever change, so, if you don’t enjoy the ability to access to the latest info and expert knowledge you might well wind up forfeiting a lot of cash. Foreign Currency Direct are without peer when it comes down to dealing with exchange rates – in operation since 2000 the firm have gone from strength to strength.

Foreign Currency Directs exchange rates are based on live, second by second interbank’ prices (the price at which one particular bank sells to another) that are constantly quoted in real time, making them way more competitive than rates offered by less specialised banks and building societies.

The only thing you must do is open your account at Foreign Currency Direct & you can begin trading – you can obtain exchange rate quotations by telephone, if you take the offer you will get an email, fax or postal conformation of the contract.