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In a sales-driven environment like Cydcor, meetings are powerful tools. Bringing people together to share energy and announcements is a good team. Since our business focuses so much on building personal relationships, our team members benefit from face to face communication whenever time allows. Sales meetings are the best vehicles to unite and energize your team, and make sure that important information is conveyed.
So how do you conduct effective sales meetings for your business? You must start by defining the purpose and structure of the meeting. Time is an investment from your team, so it is important to make an effort to make the meeting worthwhile. A solid agenda and time budget will keep meetings productive and focused. Sales meetings should not last more than an hour in order to make sure all information is retained and your team has time to get back to serving clients. Always make sure to start the meeting on time instead of waiting for stragglers. If everyone knows the meetings always start promptly as scheduled, they will make sure to hustle. This will also reward punctual team members with respect instead of making them wait.
Start the meeting with a high energy, encouraging talk. Be sure to thank your team for being there, and incorporate positive reasons why the meeting works. This will wake people up and make them feel appreciated. Express gratitude for the stand out performers. Let your team know how your vision is being executed and celebrate the things that are good. Do not focus on the challenges during sales meetings, rather focus on the purpose of the meeting, which is to motivate the team.
Move down the agenda in a timely manner and then reserve 5-10 minutes for questions or appreciations.
What’s the best meeting you’ve been to? What did you like about it?
Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn for more tips and inspiration.
This week, the Cydcor team highlights another Seth Godin treasure, Linchpin. For more Seth Godin wisdom, see our Cydcor review on Permission Marketing.
Description of this book: Linchpin was written by marketing expert Seth Godin, who believes that finding career success today depends on learning how to market one’s self. Linchpins are an upcoming role in the world of tech, start-ups and the age of entrepreneurship. The linchpins are those that come up with new solutions, break the mold, and foster creativity in companies. Linchpin is about learning how to break out of the systemic roles traditionally in the workplace and implement new ideas where you work. Often, the linchpins are the indispensable people in the background, empowering others, but staying out of the spotlight. They often have a less specific role in the company, but rather focus on specific needs as the work scape morphs and changes. Godin believes everyone has something brilliant to offer, and being able to harness that brilliance and bring it to the workplace can equal success and happiness.
Cydcor recommends this book to professionals because: Godin has written many bestselling books on how marketing works and how companies behave, this book is specifically how to manage your career and create success and satisfaction at work. Godin explains that everyone must strive to be a linchpin, to become indispensable, or suffer. The job markets today are focused on efficiency and creativity, so only those making the most impact will get ahead.
Our favorite part: “There are no longer any great jobs where people tell you exactly what to do”. Godin highlights the importance of taking initiative, learning to work autonomously and bridging those gaps between being managed and over-managing. Flexibility and motivation are the new keys to success.
Do you like our reviews? Follow Cydcor on Pinterest or other popular social media platforms for more inspiration and leadership advice.
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., April 4, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cydcor, the leading provider of professional in-person sales teams, raised and contributed funds for Operation Smile, a children's medical charity that provides life-changing surgeries to children internationally born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities.
Their donation helped to fund a recent medical mission to San Cristobal, Mexico, which took place in March with five top fundraisers from Cydcor and the company's network of independently-owned offices. This year's mission came on the heels of the 2012 mission to Rio de Janeiro. During the Mexicomedical mission, 99 patients were operated on and 125 procedures were performed.
"Having our friends from Cydcor with us was an exceptional addition to the experience. Each participant showed true passion for all aspects of the events taking place, from helping and playing with the children and engaging with families, to taking a hands-on role in setting up for the medical mission," saidCourtney Kass, Operation Smile development officer. "Their energy, focus, and hard work extended through their fundraising efforts to the final days of the mission. We're proud to continue our partnership and thank Cydcor for all that they do to help children worldwide through Operation Smile!"
In 2013, Cydcor and their network of offices held the first-ever "Day of Smiles," which raised approximately $100,000 for the organization – surpassing their$90,000 goal. It was the single largest fundraising effort that helped to fund the medical mission to Mexico.
"We saw firsthand the positive impact that Operation Smile has on the communities they support. In the short time we were on the mission, we developed bonds with the children and their families and we felt like we made a difference in their lives. It was a truly humbling experience," said Jim Siegrist, mission attendee and senior vice president of business development at Cydcor.
"We're grateful that our organization can play a part in making a big difference," said Cydcor Chief Operating Officer Vera Quinn. "We are close to raising funds to support a third mission and take heartfelt pride in helping these families who otherwise would have no way of obtaining life-changing surgery."
To help support Cydcor's fundraising efforts, visit www.operationsmile.org/cydcor. For more information on Operation Smile's global efforts, visit www.operationsmile.org, follow @operationsmile on Twitter, and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cydcor.
Want to learn more? Like Cydcor on Facebook and follow them on LinkedIn.
About Cydcor
Cydcor is the leading provider of outsourced, face-to-face Cydcor sales teams to a diverse client base of companies in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, office products, entertainment, energy, and financial services. Serving Fortune 500 and emerging market clients in the business-to-business, residential, and retail channels through in-store marketing initiatives, Cydcor works with a network of approximately 325 independently-owned corporate licensee (ICL) Cydcor sales offices, providing clients access to more than 4,100 sales professionals. The privately-held company is based inWestlake Village, California. For more information about Cydcor, go to www.cydcor.com.
About Operation Smile www.operationsmile.org
Operation Smile, headquartered in Virginia Beach, Virginia, is an international children's medical charity with a presence in more than 60 countries, whose network of more than 5,400 medical volunteers from over 80 countries is dedicated to helping improve the health and lives of children. Since its founding in 1982, Operation Smile has provided more than 200,000 free surgeries for children and young adults born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities. To build long-term self-sufficiency in resource poor environments, Operation Smile trains doctors and local medical professionals in its partner countries so they are empowered to treat their local communities. Operation Smile also donates medical equipment, supplies and provides year-round medical treatment through its worldwide centers.
In this installment of Cydcor Reviews, Miriam Caballero reviews Attitude is Everything by Jeff Keller.
Description of the book: This is the story of a lawyer who after practicing law for a few years, he realized he was not happy at all. He realized there were many things that he disliked and decided to change his job. In the process of finding what this new job should be, he realized there was more to do than just look for another job for him to do.
Throughout his struggle of finding the right job for him, he learned that in order for him to be happy, his happiness did not depend of his job. He learned that all this time the change needed to take place within him. This is where he learned that his attitude was the key factor to determine whether or not he would be happy or not.
Why Cydcor Leaders recommend this book: This is an easy read story many people could relate to. The author does a great job at giving examples of the negative thoughts he had based on the circumstances he was facing and the impact these negative thoughts had in his life. Once the reader is able to understand the struggles the author is explaining in his book, is easier to understand what the author is trying to explain. In this case, the message the author wants to get across is that in order to be happy, people must have a great attitude in everything they do. The author references a quote by Charles Popplestone, "You can't always control circumstances. But you can control your own thoughts."
Miriam's favorite part: My favorite part of this book is when he explains how "everyone starts with a clean mental window". The author explains that children view their life through a sparkling clean window. They are fearless and willing to get up no matter how many times they fall down. But there comes a point where life starts throwing dirt at their windows in the form of criticism, rejection, disappointments. This dirt starts to pile up and they no longer see life in the way they used to. They are not able to see things as they are and their attitude starts to change.
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif., April 2, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Cydcor, the leading provider of professional in-person sales teams, announced that the company is working with the Ventura Corporate Games to raise funds for Operation Smile, a children's medical charity that provides free surgeries to repair cleft lip, cleft palate, and other facial deformities for children around the globe.
Cydcor and its network of independently-owned sales offices have been actively fundraising for Operation Smile since 2010 and have currently raised enough for two medical missions - one to Rio De Janeiro and the other to Mexico.
This year will be the sixth year in a row that Cydcor is participating in the Corporate Games, which are held in Ventura, California. Cydcor is a two-time winner of the JD Probasco Spirit Award, 2013 Division-C winner and proud sponsor of the Corporate Games.
For the first time, Cydcor will be sponsoring the game of "Corn Hole," which will raise funds for Operation Smile. The Corn Hole games will now be a Team Unity Award event with championship matches held during Closing Ceremonies on May 10. Corporate Games participants can enter the finals by attending one of the below qualifiers:
"We're committed to fundraising until we reach our third goal of another medical mission," said Vera Quinn, chief operating officer. "The team members at Cydcor enjoy the Corporate Games. Coming together as a team to build relationships and continuing our efforts for Operation Smile are just a win-win."
There are three steps for teams to qualify for the Corn Hole championships on May 10:
To qualify a team for the Corn Hole finals, e-mail ksaville@cydcor.com. To donate, go to www.operationsmile.org/cydcor and click "donate now."
Want to learn more? Like Cydcor on Facebook and follow them on LinkedIn.
About Cydcor
Cydcor is the leading provider of outsourced, face-to-face Cydcor sales teams to a diverse client base of companies in a wide range of industries, including telecommunications, office products, entertainment, energy, and financial services. Serving Fortune 500 and emerging market clients in the business-to-business, residential, and retail channels through in-store marketing initiatives, Cydcor works with a network of 390 independently-owned corporate licensee (ICL) Cydcor sales offices, providing clients access to more than 4,000 sales professionals. The privately-held company is based in Westlake Village, California. For more information about Cydcor, go to https://www.cydcor.com
As a leader in outsourced sales, Cydcor knows how to create winning relationships with clients. Building trust is the foundation of a sales relationship. Trust takes time, effort, honesty and hard work for clients to feel comfortable with your delivery. Even in your career, moving up at work takes the ability to build trust and sell yourself to future managers or employers. Here are some tips from the experts at Cydcor for building trust in your professional life.
What are some ways that you build trust in the workplace? Tell Cydcor on Twitter!
Another great book, Cydcor reviews The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell.
Description of this book: Gladwell, a journalist and writer for The New Yorker magazine, is known for his comprehensive examinations of how change or success happens. The Tipping Point is an in depth look at how ideas get made into wildly popular companies, books or trends. Everything from television shows to teen smoking, popularity of ideas is modeled like an epidemic. There are carriers, those that evangelize the idea and get people excited about it. Malcolm Gladwell explains that there are three types of people involved in spreading an idea: connectors, mavens and salespeople. Connectors are people with a wide social network that are good at creating communities to rally for the concept. Mavens are knowledgeable experts that enjoy educating the public on their area of expertise. Salespeople are gifted at drumming up excitement for new things.
Cydcor recommends this book to future leaders and business people because: Gladwell has a talent for identifying key factors in how to make something popular. The biggest difference in an idea that fails and one that succeeds is knowing the right people to hand your idea to. Networking, knocking on the right doors and finding the people who will think the idea is “cool” is the best way to become a viral sensation. However, Gladwell also explains that ideas need to have “stickiness” factor that will help the important people spread it to others. Both of those factors also have to an in an environment where the idea and the people are relevant to current sentiment.
Our favorite part: "The success of any kind of social epidemic is heavily dependent on the involvement of people with a particular and rare set of social gifts."
Cydcor is a leading outsourced sales company that specializes in omnichannel sales. Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn or Twitter for more professional development advice. Want to work for Cydcor? Find our openings on the Cydcor Careerbuilder page today.
Description of this book: Delivering Happiness by Zappos founder Tony Hsieh is the story of how this young man created a new kind of company. Hsieh wanted to build a business that valued customers, employees, and investors equally. The CEO puts a strong focus on positive company culture, operating under the theory that a good corporate culture will let everything else fall into place naturally. A company of happy employees stay in the job longer, work harder and provide better customer service. Company success has to come from being unique and creating something people will get excited about. A focus on happiness not only attracted better talent, but gave Zappos a unique edge.
Cydcor recommends this book to leaders because: Hsieh has been able to build multiple companies in his career and has learned how to create a team of people that will work hard for his vision. Zappos now does over a billion dollars in sales annually. That is no small feat considering the competitiveness of online retailing. Future leaders should have a lot to learn about this company and take some ideas that challenge the norm of business leadership. Building a positive company culture can be a challenge and this book will lay it out for leaders.
Our favorite part: Zappos actually pays employees to quit. By giving them $2,000 to leave Zappos is they are unhappy, the company is less likely to retain team members who may be a negative influence on the work environment. That concept and other ideas.
Cydcor is a leading sales company that specializes in omni-channel relationships with customers. For more information on Cydcor, follow our Cydcor blog.
Last year, Cydcor raised over $270,000 for Operation Smile to help fund cleft palate surgeries for needy children around the globe. In July, the fundraiser surpassed $150,000, enough to fund a medical mission to another country. The mission involves sending doctors, volunteers and equipment to an area where access to healthcare is difficult, and provide screenings and surgeries for children. Cleft palates often result in complications eating, drinking and speaking, and many infants do not survive. Those that do often cannot attend school. Operation Smile hopes to restore millions of smiles and give those children a better chance at thriving.
This week, Cydcor volunteers are in San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico, meeting some of the people the money they raised are helping. In 2012, volunteers made a similar trip to Brazil, where more than 600 surgeries were provided to children. Cydcor is proud of their partnership with Operation Smile and plans to continue working with the organization in the future.
During the mission, volunteers have had the chance to spend time with the families of the children being operated on and see them through the transition of the surgery. Part of the strategy of Operation Smile is to assist facilities in the field to achieve the ability to provide the treatment of cleft palates and other facial deformities on their own.
You can make a donation to Operation Smile today and support this great cause. Help Cydcor fund another mission!
When an entrepreneur gets an idea for a business, investments need to be made into the idea to make it a reality. Investment is not only a reference to financial backing, but personal time, planning and energy. At Cydcor, we believe today’s job seekers should look to entrepreneurship for inspiration on making career decisions. Treating your resume like a business plan is the best way to create a career that is fulfilling. Starting out can be overwhelming, so it is important to plan and build a winning resume that will get the attention of the employers you want to work for.
Start out by deciding on the job you want the most, then work your way backwards. For example, if you want to be a chief executive officer of a sales and consulting company like Cydcor, then trace the step of the current CEO of the company you like and of its competitors. Learn what skills you need, such as leadership, communication, finance and project management. You can improve those skills through school or various projects. Make a list of skills you need, and the various job titles that will get you the necessary experience, all the way back to the beginning.
Here are some tips on investing in your resume and creating the career you want:
Want more inspiration, support or advice? Check out Cydcor on Pinterest for our all of our posts, reviews and other things we like to share to motivate our community.
In the digital world of today, most people are checking you and your business out online. Using social media can be an excellent way of building trust and supporting your brand. Cydcor uses a wide variety of social media platforms to reach various audiences and spread ideas. Here are some of our favorites and why.
Twitter is a great business tool. For no cost, businesses have access to a high performing platform to connect to your audience. As you work to establish yourself as an accomplished leader, with Cydcor or otherwise, social media can be a good tool to establish a strong network. Twitter is a great real time tool that will allow to easily spread news, ideas, blog posts and expertise to a wide variety of people. You can also use the # sign (a hashtag) to facilitate chats and answer questions related to a specific topic. You can follow Cydcor on Twitter here.
Facebook has a more relaxed feel to it. This platform is more about building community with people who already feel a connection to your brand. Facebook allows users businesses to post a variety of media and allows for each post to have comments, likes or the ability to share. Like Cydcor’s Facebook page.
LinkedIn can be great for recruiting an excellent team and finding other businesses to partner with. Built to be a professional networking site, LinkedIn shows information about companies and the individuals’ work experiences. LinkedIn shows to have a higher rate of interaction if you are promoting your blog or business related articles. Connect with Cydcor on LinkedIn.
Pinterest is a great place to collect ideas, inspiration and blog posts and present them to an active audience looking to share save those ideas. Cydcor has a variety of career-related Pinterest boards that are fun and interesting. Check out the Cydcor Pinterest Page.
What’s your favorite social media and how do you use it to promote your brand?