Discover practical advice, inspiration, and insights to help you succeed in business and grow both personally and professionally.
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Head over to Cydcor Media for advice regarding business, leadership, and office life.
Communicating in a clear and effective way is always important, both in real life situations and especially in business communications. We converse so much that we often forget to stop and think about what we are saying. When communicating in a professional context, you need to be aware of the little nuances that are held in your words and actions.
Here are some tips for becoming an influential communicator:
Have a clear goal and benefits for all parties.
Transparency is important. The worst thing that could happen is having your conversation be misunderstood. Therefore, you will want to make a clear goal when talking with a client, or potential client. It also helps to make sure that you frame your message in a way that presents the benefits for that party.
With that said…
Know your audience.
Your audience is whomever you are communicating with. Who are they? What do they want? How do they speak? What do they know? Understanding your audience is incredibly important because it provides you all the information you need to tailor your communications to be the most effective for that specific person or group of people.
Knowing your audience makes it less likely that you will waste time explaining things that are already known, glossing over important details that you assume are understood.
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Be sure to ask the right kinds of questions
Learn to strategically drop “leading questions” that prompt longer answers than “yes” or “no.” This will help guide your conversation in a productive direction.
Ask important qualifying questions to ensure that your leads will turn into a prospect. Largely, you’ll be asking questions that are focused around answering these key questions: Can and will you be able to authorize on the sale? What can I do for you to close on this sale?
Naturally, you should take information you learned from your audience and tailor the question accordingly for them, but these simple questions capture the essence of what you need to find out from your prospect.
When you think of productivity, being constantly active might come to mind. But while always being in motion can improve your productivity at times, it can also lead to mindless “productivity” where you waste time doing something that you don’t need to do.
The real trick is to work intelligently. Great time management skills are the first step to becoming a smart worker. Here are some helpful time management techniques that will help increase your productivity.
Do regular reviews of your productivity and take action to resolve issues with your productivity. You might want to do reviews either weekly or monthly—not so often that you begin wasting time evaluating everything, but not so far apart that their benefit is diluted.
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Cydcor is excited to announce the success of our ‘Week of Smiles’ campaign, which served as a great opportunity for to work together to raise money for Operation Smile! Operation Smile is a children’s medical organization that helps children who have cleft lips and palates receive new smiles. It has offices across the country to raise awareness and funds. Cydcor is proud to be a part of the Operation Smile network.
Our ‘Week of Smiles’ has raised over $30,000 for Operation Smile. With these funds, doctors, volunteers and equipment will travel to an area where access to healthcare is difficult, providing screenings and surgeries for children. Cleft lips and palates can often make eating and drinking difficult, and Operation Smile looks to restore smiles and give those children a better chance at thriving.
At the beginning of 2014, Cydcor volunteers traveled to San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, where they were able to meet some of the individuals that directly benefited from their fundraising efforts. In about a month, another team of ours will be headed to Guatamla for our third mission. In all started In 2012, volunteers made a similar trip to Brazil, where more than 600 surgeries were provided to children. Cydcor is proud of its partnership with Operation Smile and plans to continue working with the organization in the future.
Once again, thank you to everyone in the organization who worked so hard with their fundraisers, we truly couldn’t have done it without you!
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Cydcor is gearing up for our annual R&R event, and this year we are looking forward to several days off for fun in the sun for attendees from the network of independent sales companies!
This year’s R&R Owners Weekend is being held in late October in Nassau, Bahamas, at the beautiful Atlantis Paradise Island. Our primary focuses are on rest and relaxation for the hundreds that will be in attendance and celebration of the successes of the past year.
Sales company owners will enjoy a weekend full of events, including themed meals, a Junkanoo-themed dinner, our 3rd Annual Talent Show, a private pool party with a DJ, and our 7th Annual Charity Tournament and Carnival! There will also be a beach volleyball charity game, which will fundraise for Operation Smile, an international children’s medical charity treating cleft lips and clef palates around the world.
We’ve already kicked off R&R 2014 with a Bahama-themed postcard caption contest, with the winning entry from Ryan Caugherty. Ryan won $100 toward food and fun by participating in our Facebook contest. Thank you to all who entered!
With water parks, nightclubs, “Paradise” beaches and dolphin swims, there’s no lack of fun options for our owners and their friends and families. We can’t wait to start packing!
For more information about Cydcor, head to our page on CareerBuilder.
What makes Cydcor the recognized leader in outsources sales services?. We interviewed Cydcor CEO, Gary Polson, President Jim Majeski and Chief Operating Officer Vera Quinn, to describe what makes Cydcor stand out in a changing sales market, and what qualities Cydcor has in both its team members and culture that makes it a world-wide powerhouse in sales.
“We are hard-wired as a ‘people-helping-people’ business. Developing our people, unleashing their potential is what excites us the most, we have a passion about, and we got to learn to be great at that,” says Cydcor CEO Gary Polson.
Learn for yourself about Cydcor’s commitment, quality, and integrity and how we wow our clients and employees. Watch and listen to members of the team leading Cydcor - a worldwide powerhouse in professional outsourced sales!
We are Cydcor, the premiere outsourced sales service provider. Find out more about Cydcor on CareerBuilder.
In 2010, Wayne State University began a research project that examined the baseball cards of players in the Major League from 1952. The study found that the researchers could predict the lifespan of the players based on their smiles. The players who smiled in their cards lived an average of 79.9 years. Those who didn’t smile lived an average of only 72 years.
UC Berkley did a similar study, examining the smiles of students in yearbooks versus their general well-being and success. The thirty-year study found that researchers were able to predict how successful a student would be based on how wide their smiles were in the photos.
The concept of smiling is universal, with studies conducted in Papua New Guinea with tribes completely disconnected from Western culture. These tribes were found to also attribute smiles to happiness, security and confidence.
So how can this knowledge help someone in a real world or workplace setting? Timothy Ketelaar, an associate professor of psychology at New Mexico State University that has run similar studies says, “Smiles can put you in a positive light by signaling that you’re friendly and trustworthy, and that you aren’t a threat to others.”
In fact, even sounding like one is smiling can be beneficial to building trust. Many call center companies train their employees to smile while they speak, as the act of smiling can alter one’s voice to a happier, pleasant tone which can translate over the phone to clients.
The act of smiling is also contagious, as one Harvard University study found. The research showed that when a person is happy or smiling, a person nearby has a 25 percent higher chance of becoming happier themselves.
These studies and results show that if you want to appear confident, calm and competent, smiling is a straightforward and universal way to display it. Tap into the simple superpower of smiling, and you’ll find yourself feeling better, building trust and establishing long-lasting, positive relationships.
Check out the Cydcor Sales YouTube page for more information about the work that Cydcor has done to benefit Operation Smile.
For more information about Cydcor, check out our profile on CrunchBase.
Jack London once said of creativity, “You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.” Waiting around for a spark of motivation or creativity isn’t always an effective option when you have clients to attend to. Sometimes you need to go out and find the inspiration yourself.
Being creative can be exhausting, and sometimes the best way to recharge is to step away from the project or task for a while. You might be surprised at how stepping away can aid in your creative flow. Focusing on one task can sometimes lead to a narrow-minded view and can impede your creativity. Exiting the task for a short while and returning to it can often lead to new ideas and a fresh perspective.
In the same vein, break away from your usual routine if you’re finding yourself stuck. See a movie in a theater you haven’t been to before, read a new book or visit a local park or beach in a different area than the norm. You might find upon your return the sense of familiarity can make it easier to sit down and pick up where you left off.
If you find yourself struggling with an idea, share it with someone else. Seek out a new creative perspective by having a team member comment on how they’d envision the project heading. Sometimes sharing the details of your idea can allow others to aid you in connecting the dots in new ways.
There are also many apps to help promote creativity. Take advantage of new technology and tools available, such as ways to store your notes, visuals to display your presentation, and brainstorming exercises to help you break away from mental roadblocks.
Always remember to take care of yourself, and rest when needed. Sleep can do amazing things for the mind, and some challenges are better undertaken after a good rest. Avoid tackling important projects until you get a proper sleep, so your mind can be up to the task.
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We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services.
An effective sales presentation is more than show-and-tell. You need to be strategic about how you present and illustrate an understanding of your client’s needs and wants. You also need to analyze the possible competition that client might be speaking to. It’s vital you have a clear pitch to present that demonstrates why your service or product is better, and why it is in the best interest of the customer to go with you.
The first step to a winning sales presentation is to know when to best present it. A common mistake is to launch into your pitch immediately. What needs to occur prior to a pitch is a brief discovery phase. Even if you’ve spoken to the client previously regarding their wants and needs, it’s important to clarify in person prior to the presentation to see if anything has changed. Perhaps they have recently met with a competitor or a part of their process has changed since you last spoke.
Speak directly with your client and ask questions to understand their challenges, desires and methods. You can determine from this conversation the best way to approach your pitch by understanding fully what they need, and whether you are able to adequately provide the solution.
Don’t get so wrapped up in your presentation that you stop paying attention to your client. Remember to look up, make eye contact, and look for body language that might signal they have a question or aren’t following you, such as a slightly raised hand or facial expression. Stop your pitch and let them ask a question. What they have to say is more important than what you have to say.
Always be courteous of your client’s time by being concise and to the point. Rambling at great lengths can often lead to an aggravated customer. Get to your key points and illustrate why the client will benefit from what you can offer.
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Dan Pink’s Puzzles of Motivation TED Talk asserts that the ways of “sticks and carrots” motivation is outdated and that people’s reaction to incentives has changed. To achieve peak efficiency in tasks, Pink suggests three tactics: autonomy, mastery and purpose.
Autonomy, in Pink’s definition, is “the urge to direct our own lives.” Mastery is “the desire to get better and better something that matters.” And purpose is “the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.”
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Pink references the early 1900’s, speaking on the scientific management premise that worked during a time period when work more than likely consisted of simple, boring tasks. Back then, managers deduced that in order to get people to take on these tedious tasks they had to incentivize them properly and monitor them closely.
Put even more simply, Pink says that business owners knew that in order to get the most production out of your workers, you rewarded behavior you wanted and punished behavior you discouraged.
As Pink notes, this suggests “human beings aren’t much different from horses – that the way to get us moving in the right direction is by dangling a crunchier carrot or wielding a sharper stick.” But according to Pink, this is no longer the case, and today people are motivated differently.
So what does motivate modern-day people?
Allowing autonomy to workers lets them feel and be more in control of their production. Some studies have indicated that letting workers hold themselves accountable for finishing tasks (rather than being micromanaged) and allowing for ‘creative’ days results in workers that are happier overall.
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Mastery allows employees to become better at something that matters to them. People like to extend themselves and develop their skills, and they also often enjoy working in an environment where learning and development are encouraged.
Purpose means taking steps to fulfill one’s natural desire to contribute to a greater cause. A person who understands their company’s purpose and vision and knows their individual role contributes to this vision is more likely to be happy at work.
Dreamers and entrepreneurs are separated by one simple thing: the ability to successfully execute an idea. Assembling the right team to implement an innovative idea takes a strong leader at the helm to make it a reality. The term ‘leadership’ has various definitions, and everyone will have an opinion on the qualities a great leader should possess. However, there are universal key factors that the most successful trailblazers should have.
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Confidence: Those put into leadership roles might worry that showing too much confidence can come across as egotistical or arrogant to their co-workers. A reality is that everyone wants to know and feel that their leader is both capable and secure in their decisions and knowledge. Showing confidence in your posture and presence along with using positive language is also vital. There is also poise in those leaders who are capable of saying, “I don’t know” to their co-workers. It takes great confidence for a leader to admit to not knowing the solution; it also requires having trust in their team to kick into gear and help out.
Communication: A trailblazer can have a lot of ideas, but are they capable of clearly expressing their thoughts effectively to others? Honing communication skills is vital, as you want to be able to succinctly designate and describe what needs to be done in order to produce the idea and meet the goal. Being unable to relate a vision to a team can lead to severe miscommunications and misunderstandings.
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Create a productive atmosphere that focuses on everyone’s communication ability. Open door policies, daily updates and check-ins—and making those in decision-making and planning roles available for discussion—can all contribute to a healthy interoffice environment.
Obligation: Lead by example. A leader has an obligation to stay committed to their goals, and there is no greater motivation for a team than seeing their leader get down alongside them and muscle into the workload. Proving commitment to the brand and idea can earn a leader respect among their workplace. Create a reputation for working hard and keeping promises.
We are Cydcor, the recognized leader in outsourced sales services. Check out our open job positions at the Cydcor CareerBuilder page.
A lack of motivation at work is a difficult problem for many. There are many elements that can contribute to it: perhaps you feel overwhelmed with many tasks or have personal and family stressors that make it challenging to come into work raring to go.
Get your motivation back by incentivizing yourself. Schedule something mid-day with co-workers, such as lunch or a quick trip for coffee. Make plans to do something fun after work, like a nice dinner or a meet-up with friends. Having something to look forward to is a great motivator to start your day off with a positive attitude.
If you’re struggling to feel productive, choose or create one goal that you can get excited about. It will be a lot easier to put time and energy into an objective if you’re invested in the outcome and not just going through the motions. You’re much more likely to be motivated towards something that you genuinely want to achieve, and starting and finishing such a project is a great way to transfer that momentum to other tasks.
Many feel they are great at multi-tasking; however, it can sometimes be difficult to get everything done when there are too many goals involved. Write down one priority goal each day. It is much easier to focus on one goal at a time, giving it your full attention. Don’t overload yourself trying to do several important asks at once—instead, prioritize. When you do complete your goal, check it off and move to the next one.
Your environment can be a sneaky de-motivator. Check your desk and office space for things that might be a distraction. A messy space can often pile on extra stress without us realizing it. Talk to your boss about different options available as well, such as changing to a window desk, organizing your area, or the possibility of working from home on some occasions. Sometimes a clean, refreshed environment can promote a better mind-set, thereby increasing motivation.