Discover practical advice, inspiration, and insights to help you succeed in business and grow both personally and professionally.
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At Cydcor, we believe in constant growth – and we hope you do, too! In our last blog, we explored how to grow into a new career. Now, we’re going to focus on what to do when you’re established in your career and want to continue improving.
It’s not all about fancy job titles and bigger paychecks (though we’d be lying if we didn’t say these are great perks to growth). Building on what you’re already accomplishing in the workplace will increase your impact, open up new opportunities, and lead to a more fulfilling life.
Let’s keep growing!
First things first: growth comes to those who can manage it. Improving your position at work means taking on new (and larger) responsibilities. If you aren’t handling your current tasks with excellence – are you really able to take on more?
You can dream of that raise or promotion, but if there are areas to improve in your current role, your current role won’t be improving either.
If you can handle the little things, you will prove trustworthy for bigger responsibilities. So take pride in your current role – because it can build into something awesome!
Before you move to grow in your career, take stock. How could you improve what you're already doing? In order to move up, you’ll need to step out of your comfort zone, encounter challenges, and put in some hard work. This can start today – so get to it!
As we discussed in our last blog, most people are thrilled to share what they know with others. If you're aiming to grow in your career – the best thing to do is pick the brains of those who are accomplishing what you seek to achieve.
Start forging relationships with people at various levels of your company. It doesn’t just have to be the CEO, even the person who’s only slightly ahead of you in the process of growth has something to teach you.
Use this insight to start creating a plan for yourself. Looking at the top brass of your company, what do you think that your final goal can be? Learning from your coworker that just got a promotion, what are the steps you can start making today to get there?
Taking the experience of others and complementing it with your unique goals for life, you can come up with a vision for how you see your career going.
Having a clear vision is powerful in its own right, but everything is stronger together. The next question to ask: how can you align your vision with that of your company and your coworkers (who have their own dreams, too)?
Collaboration is one of humanity’s greatest tools, so think on the many ways your growth can impact and accelerate the improvement of your surrounding environment. With aligned goals, you will become someone that your work family can depend on. When you invest in the visions of others, they’ll be inspired to respond in kind.
Growth is not a zero-sum game. This is the philosophy that has helped Cydcor grow into what it is today – and it will help your career journey, too!
As we’ve previously mentioned, improving your position at work means taking on more responsibilities. Many of us fall into the trap of sitting around and waiting for that to happen. The people who grow the quickest are those who proactively seek out opportunities to expand their role.
Saying things like “that’s not my responsibility” or “that’s not in my job description” won’t lead to growth. To move forward in your career, you have to be looking for ways to constantly be expanding your job description – not allowing your current role to box you in.
Look around – everyone could use a hand. Whether it’s being ready to fill in when someone is away or indisposed, or it’s coming up with a solution to a problem that your office has deemed unfixable, there are always ways to proactively grow.
In helping others, you will help yourself. Opportunities are always available – but only to those who are ready and eager to take them on.
The idea of taking the lead can be scary – but you can’t keep growing in your career until you’re ready to lead those who are in your current position. That’s why it’s important to start fostering this skill now.
Leadership skill doesn’t come from a fancy title or a promotion. It comes from humility, a willingness to share what you’ve learned, and from taking accountability for now just your work, but the work of those around you.
For more on this topic, stay tuned for our next blog!
In the meantime, we encourage you to continue seeking growth in your career, finding new ways to build on what you’ve already accomplished. The future will be bright – and it’s you who will be shining!
What do you want the impact of your life to be? We would all like to leave the world a better place – so how can we use our careers to make a positive difference?
This may at first be a difficult question to answer. We can often think of our careers as separate from the legacy we’re leaving behind. But with the right mindset and approach to living out your values, you can find your place on a team that aligns with your mission to better your family, community, and world.
It’s 2023. Our world faces many challenges, from climate change to poverty. With so much work to be done to leave a better world behind, our careers must play a role in how we act out our higher values.
This isn’t just the right thing to do – this will enrich your life and help you reach your goals. When motivated by a mission bigger than yourself, you can experience a life of fulfillment, hold the joy of generosity, and form deeper connections with the community and world that surrounds you.
So, what does a career with positive impact look like? Let’s explore.
Most careers revolve around bringing a product, service, or solution to people who need it. Therein lies the first way that you can build a meaningful career that serves as a net benefit. If you can take pride in what you are offering clients and customers and the business that you work for, you’re on the right track.
For the entrepreneurs reading who either have or are soon to start their own businesses, thinking about what you offer is critical. Remember, sales is about leading people to the things that they need, so the best success comes when your first mission is to enrich the lives of your customer or client base.
As an example, we can develop the best methods for clean energy, but if there’s no business set up around making it available to people, it cannot have any impact. We tend to think that creating positive change is a job best left for charities, missionaries, and the like – but when we look at doing good in this light, we see that every career can have a positive impact.
Whether you’re in sales, marketing, accounting, or anything else, by aligning with brands that are bringing products and services that better the planet, your career can have a positive impact!
Success in your career means that you will find more opportunities to give back. Whatever you do, there are always ways that you can share the wealth of your hard work with others.
This is something that we at Cydcor hold very dear to us. We believe that you can make a career out of caring and we continue to discover philanthropic efforts that allow us to impact both our community and the world at-large.
In a past partnership, we were able to raise nearly $1 million to offer free cleft-lip and cleft palate surgeries to children in underserved regions across the globe. These are life-changing operations, which brought healing to nearly 4,000 smiles.
As of this blog, we are currently working with Liberty Children’s home, a Belize-based orphanage.
In addition, our Neighborhood Leader Program helps the independent sales companies in our network direct their passion and talents towards great causes in their local communities.
Philanthropy offers you many ways to take the gifts that your career has grown and share them with those who need a helping hand. This can help you find fulfillment and leave a meaningful legacy.
We’d do anything for our families. That’s why it’s important to consider the people in your life when creating a career of positive impact.
Building wealth that brings comfort, opportunity, and wellbeing for your spouse, children, and other dependents is likely a major reason why you show up to work. We want to provide for the ones we love. Keeping this at the forefront of your values is a surefire way to unlock motivation on even the most difficult of days.
But it’s not just wealth most people want to give their family and friends. Time is the most valuable thing of all! When building a career of positive change and fulfillment, remember to leave space for you to enjoy quality time with those who matter most.
Once you’ve found a way to offer something better, get involved with philanthropy, and support your family, what’s next? The positive impact your career can have does not stop there!
With a fulfilling and meaningful career established, next comes the beautiful opportunity to pass your knowledge, experience, and wisdom onto others – so that they too can create an impactful legacy through the work that they accomplish.
When you teach others, your positive impact multiplies. Knowing that the people you teach will then build on that knowledge and teach others – well, there’s no better or easier way to change the world than that!
Whether you’re just starting out your career, or are simply looking for something more, take some time to intentionally think about the legacy you can leave behind.
Let’s all commit to careers of positive impact!
All customers are unique with different interests, priorities, and points of view. To engage customers and build rapport effectively, you must understand and appeal to what’s most important to them and adjust your sales approach accordingly.All customers are unique with different interests, priorities, and points of view. To engage customers and build rapport effectively, you must understand and appeal to what’s most important to them and adjust your sales approach accordingly.CLICK TO TWEET
Here are the best sales approaches for three types of customers in the B2B, retail, and residential channels.
How to sell successfully to B2B customers
Busy businesspeople don’t have time for a lengthy or complicated sales process that takes their attention away from running their businesses. In some cases, the people with whom you’re meeting may need to consult with other stakeholders. Be informative, not pushy as you guide them through the buying process — answering questions, addressing concerns, adapting to their pace, and arming them with the right information to make a decision. You’ll earn their trust and their business by serving as a strategic consultant who offers high-impact solutions, rather than as just another salesperson who’s pitching products and services. The key to a winning sales approach with B2B customers is demonstrating the ways your solutions can drive results and add value to their business such as:
How to sell successfully to retail customers
Retail customers often go to the store to do something specific, so you may be interrupting their task when you approach them about an unrelated product or service. For these types of customers, rapport and positive energy are important to make the interaction as pleasant as possible. Be friendly and initiate a conversation quickly and effectively. If you have to, help them find what they’re looking for first, so they can focus on your message. Once you have their attention, ask the right questions, address any concerns, and present customized solutions that meet their needs. Also, remember you’re representing both the product or service brand and the store brand, so your professional demeanor should enhance their reputations. A successful retail sales approach is about making the shopping experience enjoyable, so keep the following in mind:
How to sell successfully to residential customers
Many residential customers may be familiar with your product or service but lack the information, initiative or incentive to take action. The door-to-door sales approach is an effective way of reaching these customers who haven’t responded to mainstream marketing efforts. When approaching people at home, respect their personal space, be genuine and trustworthy, actively listen, and make an emotional connection. Their decision is as much about emotion and brand appeal as it is about value, so show that you truly care about helping them and their family — not just making a sale. Through face-to-face communication, you can respond to questions, educate them on their options, and share the compelling benefits of your product or service. Ultimately, your role is to personalize their buying experience and present a solution that answers these fundamental questions:
Using these sales approaches, you can create positive buying and brand experiences tailored to the unique needs of different types of customers in the B2B, retail, and residential channels. When done right, face-to-face interactions can help attract, delight and retain customers who feel heard, valued, and well-served — boosting not only sales, but also brand loyalty.
When global crises arise, it is the most nimble and flexible businesses that are best positioned to weather the storm. Maximizing results for your business involves using innovative and adaptable marketing strategies to drive the results you’d like to see. While Cydcor is best-known for high success rates in face-to-face sales, our omnichannel strategy and capabilities allow us to generate additional success for our clients to ensure incremental sales, market share growth, and territory penetration, reaching customers wherever they are and however they choose to buy. In this blog post, we’ll cover what an omnichannel approach means and how our approach can catapult your business and enable you to pivot even when unexpected challenges arise.
An omnichannel strategy aims to reach and communicate with the customer at multiple touch points. Unlike multi-channel marketing approaches, an omnichannel approach uses information about the customer collected at one touchpoint to inform and improve the communication with the customer at the other touchpoints. By offering multiple channels, this approach improves efficiency and boosts results for customer acquisition and retention, as well as long-term growth.
Several of the benefits that come from implementing an omnichannel strategy include developing best practices, building awareness, and gathering quality leads for your business. When it comes to developing pitch, scripting, and best practices, the testing process, whether it is done through in-person, digital marketing, or telesales, can help inform and improve the language used to present the product to the customer. Moreover, through digital sales, the entire sales funnel can be tested, which can be a great way to discover if the sticking point is related to benefits, pricing, or the offer.
Helping build internal awareness of competitive services is another way an omnichannel strategy can be effective. Through one channel, the team can discover what other products and services customers are already using, considering and what their preferences might be. This information can be given to another team who can retarget the customer with selling points that address those competitive issues.
Finally, gathering quality leads becomes possible when companies can reach leads through their preferred initial point of contact. Whether or not a sale occurs, the brand/service has now engaged with the customer and is beginning to learn about them. These insights help inform the sales approach through other channels and may even provide the opportunity to acquire or upsell customers later.An omnichannel approach can allow your business to lean on one channel when others are handicapped by economic, environmental, or social forces outside of your control.CLICK TO TWEET
Ultimately, what is learned via one channel can help make another stronger. It can allow your business to lean on one channel when others are handicapped by economic, environmental, or social forces outside of your control. Taking on an omnichannel approach also provides a strategic opportunity to recognize strengths and opportunities issues in other channels, and allows your brand other opportunities to reach customers in other channels. With this knowledge, Cydcor’s omnichannel capabilities can help maximize results for your business!
As you map out your future and determine the actions that will lead you to your goals, you may wonder how much of it is really up to you. How much control do you really have when it comes to setting and achieving goals? Afterall, there are things in life that just come down to luck, aren’t there? To those who are wondering if they should leave it up to fate to decide their future, remember this: fortune favors the bold!
The people of ancient Rome used to worship gods and goddesses. One of the most revered goddesses was Fortuna, the goddess of luck. The phrase “Fortune favors the bold,” originates with Fortuna, so though she is known as the goddess of luck; she really awarded favor to those with strength of character, those who took action, and those who took risks. To truly get what we want, we must choose our own fortune.
Every single day we choose:
What am I going to focus on today?
What are my goals for this year?
What do I want my life to look like?
Based on our strength of character, our action, and our willingness to take risk, Fortuna either smiles on us, or she does not.
Here are 5 ways to guarantee Fortuna will smile on you:
Don’t expect the gods to decide what your destiny should be. Choose it for yourself. Know it will happen, literally, write it down, and then decide to achieve it. Being lucky is really about being in the driver’s seat; writing your own happy ending and turning it into a reality.
Creating bold goals shouldn’t be a one-time deal. Don’t just write down your dreams, then put them away in a drawer and never look at them again. Goal setting should be a daily habit, like washing your hair. To get what you want, take out your goals and look at them every single day. Choose what you will do that day to bring yourself one step closer to those goals. Setting and achieving goals a commitment to yourself you’ll have to revisit and remake again and again. Goal setting should be a daily habit, like washing your hair. To get what you want, take out your goals and look at them every single day.CLICK TO TWEET
Nothing great has ever come to anyone who kept their expectations low. Think big. Get outside of your comfort zone, and be willing to take risks. Set ambitious goals and ask a lot of yourself. Without the genuine possibility of failure, true success is not possible.
Risk taking alone can’t rewrite your fortune. We all know risk takers who fall on their faces at every turn. You must show strength of character to make your risk taking pay off. That means having self-discipline, dignity, and restraint. It means planning and having, at all times, a vision for how you will turn risk into reward.
Without action, nothing and no one can ever move forward. Doing the work may be the simplest, yet hardest piece of the puzzle, but in order to get what you want, you must first get moving. Don’t just sit back and wait to get lucky. You must play an active role in your own life if you ever expect to create the kind of game-changing results needed to rewrite your fortune.
In the end, luck has nothing to do with it. The potential to write your own fortune in life is inside of you at all times. When you’re setting goals, choose to believe in them. Be willing to take risks, and decide that you will take the actions necessary to make those risks pay off. True strength of character comes from trusting in yourself and knowing you have the power to make fortune smile on you. So be bold, and start turning those dreams into realities.
When the road gets bumpy, don’t retreat. Remember that every challenge is an opportunity to learn, grow, and improve. While never easy, facing and embracing adversity can lead to success, making us stronger, and better equipped for anything and everything that lies ahead.
‘Tis a lesson you should heed,
Try, try again;
If at first you don’t succeed,
Try, try again;
Then your courage should appear,
For if you will persevere,
You can conquer, never fear;
Try, Try again.
Remember this poem from childhood? It’s a simple yet profound message to keep pursuing your goals, even if at first you fail. It’s a reminder to embrace and learn from setbacks because eventually, facing adversity can lead to success. As we all struggle with our fair share of adversity, remember that staring down obstacles can provide powerful lessons on the journey to achievement.
In sales, hearing “no” more than “yes” is par for the course, so this timeless message offers good advice. Hardship, adversity, and even failure can lead to bigger successes if you show courage, persevere, and work hard to reach your dreams — no matter what stands in your way. Hardship, adversity, and even failure can lead to bigger successes if you show courage, persevere, and work hard to reach your dreams — no matter the obstacles. CLICK TO TWEET
Consider these five lessons on how embracing failure leads to success.
In the iconic 1997 Nike commercial, “Failure,” Michael Jordan reflects on all the times he missed a crucial shot or lost a game as he walks to the Chicago Bulls locker room:
“I’ve missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times, I’ve been trusted to take the game-winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”
Today, Jordan is considered one of the greatest basketball players of all time. His admitted failures show that even the most successful people in the world have stumbled spectacularly. With the right attitude and perspective, failure can help you learn when you lose and get back up when you fall.
Whether you need to perfect your sales pitch, adjust your approach, or sharpen your skills, let each failure fuel your personal growth. Try these simple steps to take on challenges like a champion:
A 2018 survey of 160 business-to-business sales professionals by a leading sales training company finds that nearly half or more have a hard time on the job:
So, it’s no surprise that success in sales demands true grit. In her 2013 Ted Talk, Angela Duckworth, a psychologist and author of Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, calls this trait a winning mix of ambition, determination, discipline, and persistence:
“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future, day in, day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”
When things get tough, get tougher and grittier with these empowering strategies:
This moving story about Admiral James Stockdale brings this lesson home. Stockdale was the highest-ranking U.S. military officer held captive for eight years during the Vietnam War. Despite repeated torture, he rose above his grim situation to lead the POW resistance and survive unbroken:
“You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end — which you can never afford to lose — with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”
Jim Collins, bestselling author of Good to Great and numerous business and leadership books, calls this mindset the “Stockdale Paradox.” It describes how successful leaders achieve greatness by balancing optimism and positive thinking with realism and resilience in the face of adversity.
Applying this lesson, you can stay motivated and get out of even the deepest sales rut. Keep the following in mind to conquer a difficult challenge and prevail:
After the rocky, widely criticized launch of OWN, Oprah Winfrey recalls her pain and embarrassment over this public failure during the 2013 commencement address at Harvard. Humbled by the worst experience of her career, she shares how failure leads to success by showing you another way forward:
“Failure is just life trying to move us in another direction. … It’s really okay to feel bad for a little while. Give yourself time to mourn what you think you may have lost, but then here’s the key: Learn from every mistake because every experience, encounter, and particularly your mistakes are there to teach you and force you into being more who you are. And then figure out what is the next right move.”
As Oprah’s admits, failure hurts, no matter your previous successes. It can shake self-confidence and cause self-doubt. But don’t let failure throw you off track. Instead, accept it with humility in these ways:
Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people on the planet thanks to a risk he took when he was 30 years old. Betting on the Internet, he launched Amazon.com with the ambition to build “an everything store.” Today, Amazon is the largest Internet company in the world and ranked #5 on the Fortune 500 list.
Since then, Bezos has made even bolder bets, inventing wildly successful products and services that have offset countless failed experiments. According to Bezos, when you play it safe, you leave a lot of opportunity on the table. Taking risks can be scary, but trust in the payoff. He says in a 2014 interview:
“Experiments are, by their very nature, prone to failure. A few big successes compensate for dozens and dozens of things that didn’t work. Bold bets … that did work … pay for a lot of experiments. I’ve made billions of dollars of failures at Amazon.com. Literally billions of dollars of failures. … None of those things are fun. But they also don’t matter.”
You don’t have to be a billionaire like Bezos to make bold bets. Just think and act like an entrepreneur to seize opportunities that can help you reach greater heights of success:
As these five lessons show, how you respond to setbacks matters — whether you’re an elite athlete, a real-life hero, an influential celebrity, a successful entrepreneur, or just an ordinary person who wants to achieve extraordinary things. So, keep trying to be and do better. Have the grit and discipline to go the distance. Balance optimism with a healthy dose of realism to prevail in trying times. Be humble and teachable, but bold in your ambition and approach. By embracing these lessons on how failure leads to success, you can turn obstacles into opportunities, risks into rewards, and losses into wins.
In these challenging times, it’s critical for leaders to understand how to give their sales team members the morale boost they’ll need to navigate uncharted waters and succeed in the face of uncertainty. Salespeople already understand that hearing “no” more than “yes” is an unavoidable part of the sales process that can be hard to face, day after day. It takes grit and a thick skin to pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and keep moving forward with purpose. This constant pressure to bring your A-game every time can be intense. And that’s when things are going well. Add in new sales processes, health and safety concerns, and customers who have their minds focused elsewhere, and suddenly, just getting by has become more of an uphill battle than ever before. It is times like these that your team will look to you for strong leadership. They’ll need your guidance and they’ll need an example of strength and determination to fall behind. In these challenging times, it’s critical for leaders to understand how to give their sales team members the morale boost they’ll need to navigate uncharted waters and succeed in the face of uncertainty. CLICK TO TWEET
When things go wrong — missed targets, lost accounts, or failed deals — your sales team’s morale can take a hit, especially when outside forces beyond their control are standing in their way. Left unchecked, a dip in morale can quickly spiral downward and spread like a sickness.
Low morale breeds negativity that can impact productivity, performance, and ultimately sales. At its worst, poor morale can damage your internal culture, which is essential to attracting and retaining top talent and building motivated, engaged teams.
Need a morale boost? At the first signs of trouble, consider these eight ways to pull your sales team out of a morale slump before a temporary setback becomes a deeper rut.
Great teams have great leaders who lead by example. Make sure your attitude and behaviors as a leader reflect those you’d like to cultivate on your team. Help them visualize the opportunities ahead and get them excited about the future. They’ll look to you for encouragement to succeed, motivation to do their best, and inspiration to reach their goals, even if they occasionally stumble along the way.Great teams have great leaders who lead by example. Make sure your attitude and behaviors as a leader reflect those you’d like to cultivate on your team. CLICK TO TWEET
Set clear expectations to give your people focus, direction, and a definition of success. When mistakes happen or results fall short, talk candidly about what went wrong and how to get back on track. Be transparent about business challenges and how your team can work together to conquer them. Finally, have open dialog about the areas for improvement and invite team members to share their voice.
Team building isn’t just fun; it also helps build camaraderie and strengthen bonds. From competitive games to group problem-solving to social events, team building activities are an enjoyable, effective way to decompress, lift team spirit, foster collaboration, spark creativity, and generate positivity. For an extra morale boost, center team building around a meaningful cause to feel good by doing good — together.
Spend one-on-one time with your people to get to know them and understand what motivates them. When they share concerns, listen carefully and actively work with them to find solutions. Salespeople are under immense stress and pressure to perform. So, watch for signs of burnout— a shift in attitude, more negativity, or lower motivation and engagement — and reach out to team members when you spot them.
When your team is getting crushed, be the head cheerleader. Keep encouraging them and cheering your hardest no matter what the score. Setting clear expectations is a great start, but your team members also want to know that you have their backs when things get tough. Lift them up when they’re down and give them the support they need to win. Let them know their goals are your goals — and you’re with them all the way.
Morale and motivation falter when team members don’t feel set up for success. Ensure your people have the knowledge, skills, and tools they need to succeed by making training and development a regular part of your process. Invest in your most valuable asset — your team — to keep them learning, improving, and evolving. A focus on their growth shows you’re committed to helping them achieve their hopes and dreams for the future.
Part of being a coach is giving timely feedback that’s objective, constructive, and individualized to help team members understand what they’re doing right, what they’re doing wrong, and where there’s room for improvement. And don’t just give negative feedback. Provide plenty of positive feedback to keep people motivated. For team members who need more support and guidance, offer to be a mentor they can trust.
A culture where team achievements are genuinely appreciated and applauded makes people feel energized and excited to do their best work. Make sure to praise and celebrate efforts and improvements — not just wins — to keep the positive momentum going. Another way to ramp up the recognition is to give team members the floor, so they can share their secrets to success and hopefully, inspire their peers.
It’s understandable l for sales team members to feel confused and tentative. Don’t we all? As we forge ahead and try to try normalcy in our new way of life, remember these eight simple strategies to give your team members a morale boost for better performance, better sales — and a better culture.
Being an entrepreneur takes passion, persistence and perseverance to weather the highs and lows of starting and growing a successful business. The journey can grueling but rewarding if you have the will and stamina to go the distance. When you feel like you’ve hit a wall, dig deep to stay motivated and keep putting one foot in front of the other until you reach your goal.
Need a mental boost? Whether you’re a seasoned pro or an aspiring business owner, check out these inspirational quotes for entrepreneurs to refuel your inner reserves and kick your performance up a notch.
– Vera Quinn, President, Cydcor
Your success lies entirely in your hands. The world’s most accomplished people have the capacity to thrive despite setbacks and attain ambitious goals. Understand what it takes to achieve the success you desire and put in real effort to earn it. Every decision you make and action you take can get you to where you want to be. The only person who can determine how far you go, is you.
– Walt Disney, founder Disney
Successful entrepreneurs don’t wait around for opportunities; they seek and seize them. They possess a confident and driven mindset, act decisively, and fearlessly take on challenges that may keep others from even trying. Thinking and acting like an entrepreneur can help you do better, aim higher, and go further on the path to success.Resilience, the mental toughness and emotional strength to recover quickly from adversity, is a trait of exceptional achievers. So, worry less about doing things the safe way and focus more on finding your own way to break new ground. CLICK TO TWEET
– Richard Branson, founder Virgin Group
Entrepreneurs understand that falling flat on your face and getting right back up is the secret to success. People afraid of failing may rely on rules and tried-and-true methods in the search for a surefire recipe for success. But anyone who has won big knows that there’s no reward without risk. Resilience, the mental toughness and emotional strength to recover quickly from adversity, is a trait of exceptional achievers. So, worry less about doing things the safe way and focus more on finding your own way to break new ground.
– Adam Osborne, innovator of the first portable computer
Every great discovery, invention, or achievement has countless failed experiments behind it. Making big, bold bets that could fall short and are vital to succeeding in business at every level. If you embrace them, hardships and mistakes along the way can make you stronger and smarter — and your success that much sweeter.
– Reid Hoffman, co-founder LinkedIn
If you want to be successful, surround yourself with successful people. We tend to mirror the energy, attitude and demeanor of those around us. Watch and learn from people who set a positive tone and demonstrate the mindset for success through confidence, mental fortitude, emotional maturity, and perseverance when things get tough.Whatever distractions and difficulties come your way, remember why you get up every morning and focus on what truly matters. The payoff is worth it. CLICK TO TWEET
– Bo Bennett, founder eBookit.com
Success isn’t just how much you earn or what title you hold, but also how much you’ve learned, grown, and moved closer to fulfilling your “why” — that unshakeable inner purpose that motivates and drives you. Whatever distractions and difficulties come your way, remember why you get up every morning and focus on what truly matters. The payoff is worth it.
– Gary Polson, CEO, Cydcor
Doing the right thing is a sign of character and the foundation of any success worth having. Character means not compromising your integrity to win at all costs. It means keeping your word and delivering what you promise. It also means telling the truth, rather than embellishing facts or withholding information, and taking responsibility for mistakes. Finally, it means caring about people and lending a hand when they need help. With character, you’ll gain respect, trust, and influence that can win friends and fans for life.
If you need a spark of motivation, just remember these inspiring entrepreneur quotes on what it takes to succeed — empathy for others, decisive action, resilience, courage to fail, a mindset for success, inner purpose, and strong character.
At the heart of Cydcor’s culture is the tenet of “people helping people.” Cydcor stands behind this idea by fostering a work environment that promotes both personal and corporate philanthropy and by offering team members a paid volunteer day each year to serve a cause that matters to them. Our service mindset is grounded in the concept of servant leadership, which focuses on empowering and developing our people, building a better company, and giving back to the community.
One example of how we’ve put this mindset into practice is Cydcor’s Philanthropy Club, founded by team members to provide employees with corporate philanthropy and volunteering opportunities throughout the year. Here are just some of the ways Cydcor’s Philanthropy Club has made a meaningful impact on the community in 2019:
March: Pizza Sale — Liberty Children’s Home
Liberty Children’s Home is a sanctuary in Belize that offers a safe, loving environment to more than 40 abused, abandoned, and neglected children — some with special needs or suffering from HIV or AIDS. At a Leaders Meeting in March, team members sold Costco pizza with all proceeds donated to Liberty to support learning, activities, medical care, facility improvements, and basic needs like electricity, clothes, and food.
April: Crayfish Removal
Team members partnered with Mountains Restoration Trust to help preserve and protect the streams and creeks of the Malibu Creek Watershed by removing invasive, non-native crayfish. Harmful to the ecosystem of the Santa Monica Mountains, crayfish prey on native species, reduce water quality, and worsen creek bed erosion. Prior to our arrival, scientists set more than 100 traps along a stream bed in Oak Park. Cydcor volunteers removed crayfish caught in these traps and cleaned up trash along the banks. Additionally, they measured the size of caught crayfish to help record and collect data.
May: Special Olympics Regional Spring Games
Special Olympics of Southern California provides year-round sports training and athletic competition in a variety of Olympic-type sports for children and adults with intellectual disabilities. Philanthropy Club participants volunteered at the Ventura County Special Olympics Spring Games held at Oaks Christian Highschool, featuring swimming and flag football competitions. Responsibilities included coaching, time keeping, score keeping, and cheering in the stands to show Cydcor spirit and support for local athletes.
June: Heal the Bay
For 35 years, Heal the Bay has been mobilizing communities across Los Angeles to protect the California coastline, restore waterways, and advocate smart water policies. Cydcor volunteers gave time at a monthly Heal the Bay event to pick up trash along a Santa Monica beach. After a full morning of cleanup, the team enjoyed a group lunch in Venice, a popular beachfront community.
July: Learn Earn Return
Learn Earn Return is a nonprofit organization focused on providing students and teachers with the necessary school supplies for a successful school year. Team members collected and donated items that might otherwise have been a heavy financial burden to students and their families, such as backpacks, composition notebooks, wide-ruled paper, glut sticks, scissors, rulers, and more.
September: Operation Blankets of Love
The Philanthropy Club held a volunteer event for Operation Blankets of Love, a leading animal welfare and emergency relief nonprofit organization that provides food and critical supplies for more than 12,000 animals a year in shelters, in rescue groups, and with pet owners experiencing homelessness or another hardship. Cydcor volunteers collected blankets, towels, toys, and other badly needed pet supplies donated during the event.
September: Pet Adoptions
Team members partnered with L.I.F.E. Animal Rescue, a nonprofit organization that rescues homeless or abandoned dogs and cats and places them in permanent, responsible, and loving homes. Cydcor volunteers supported L.I.F.E.’s weekly animal adoption event at a local PetSmart to help pets find their forever home.
October: Alzheimer’s 5K
Team members joined their local Walk to End Alzheimer’s® 5K, an Alzheimer Association event held annually in more than 600 communities nationwide to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer’s care, support, and research. Participants walking in the Westlake Village, California 5K surpassed their goal of $500 by raising $1,788. Cydcor matched donations of $500.
November: EARTHS Thanksgiving Food Drive
Cydcor volunteers supported the annual Thanksgiving Food Drive of the Environmental Academy of Research Technology and Earth Sciences (EARTHS) Magnet School in Newbury Park, California. Individual and department donations provided holiday favorites, canned food staples, and grocery gift cards to help 100 local families in need enjoy a Thanksgiving meal.
The contributions of Cydcor’s Philanthropy Club show the positive difference that employee-driven corporate philanthropy and volunteering can make on our schools, neighborhoods, and charities. Through community service, our team members embody Cydcor’s culture of “people helping people” by uniting behind a shared purpose, collaborating to overcome challenges and accomplish goals, and serving causes that matter.
Cydcor is taking steps to reduce its impact on the environment. In keeping with one of Cydcor’s core values “to do what’s right, not what’s easy”, the company has made a commitment to adopting greener practices to reduce the amount of daily waste its team members produce.
Team members gave up individual desk trash cans, turning instead to new centralized receptacles with sorted options for paper, plastics and aluminum, composting, and traditional waste. The new receptacles help team members be more thoughtful about how much they consume and increase recycling.
Gone also are all disposable coffee pods, paper cups and lids, and disposable plastic water bottles. Cydcor replaced them by gifting team members with more environmentally friendly reusable ceramic coffee mugs and glass water bottles.
Cydcor kicked off its new initiative with a green ribbon cutting ceremony to unveil new beverage machines to replace all single use machines. With these moves, Cydcor seeks to reduce what it estimates as 4.4 pounds of waste per person per day. Multiplied by Cydcor’s approximately 200 team members, that’s 880 pounds of waste per day. By implementing a recycling and waste reduction program, Cydcor believes it can reduce that number to 264 pounds, a 70% decrease!
Cydcor’s leadership fully backed the adoption of greener practices, and the company sees these as some exciting first steps toward reducing Cydcor’s carbon footprint and doing more to protect the Earth. Cydcor continues to look for new opportunities to become even more environmentally friendly and the company plans to make additional moves toward sustainability in the future.
Sales is a critical part of your marketing mix, and the goal has always been to grow your fledgling sales pilot into a fully optimized arm of your business. Things look like they’re going well, and you’re anxious to take your sales growth to the next level. But, where do you begin? What are the steps to successfully grow your sales operation, and how do you know if and when it’s even the right time to scale? Check out Cydcor’s guide on how to scale your sales program below to ensure your sales pilot can grow along with your long term business goals.
Reduce Ramp Up Time So You Can Start Earning:
Scaling any sales program, be it face-to-face, digital, or telesales, can be a slow and tedious process, especially if it isn’t well-planned. Instead of addressing issues as they arise, make sure to have all your ducks in a row with thorough strategic planning and testing. This upfront work can save you a lot of time and heartache on the backend and ensure your new program can become profitable as soon as possible.
Define your implementation plan, accounting for getting any needed software systems and equipment in place and running well prior to launch, hiring and training staff, and testing for glitches.
Create a good launch timeline that’s realistic, noting specific benchmarks you’ll need to hit before moving to the next stage. Trust, but verify things are on target by revisiting and adjusting this timeline as needed to ensure you’re on pace.
Document all your current processes so they can easily be repeated by new teams. Make sure your sales pitches and scripts are solid, well-tested, and formatted for distribution as part of training materials for new sales managers and sales reps. Create a roadmap for training new sales people or account executives so that the process can be easily repeated. Meet frequently with all teams to ensure everyone is on the same page.
Make Certain You’ve Got the Right Tools:
As your company builds and perfects its inside sales or outside sales programs, software and hardware needs will most likely begin to reveal themselves along the way. Sales organizations should be sure to document these needs as they go. You can also partner with an experienced sales service provider like Cydcor, whose experts can recommend software, data analysis tools, and equipment, as well as help your organization test, build, and scale a custom sales strategy and program to meet your needs.
As you’re mulling over software and hardware options, be sure to invest in systems that has the flexibility to grow as your program grows so you will not need to shift platforms to accommodate your expanding business requirements.
Be Sure It’s the Right Time to Scale:
It’s easy for fast-growing organizations to get so caught up in the momentum that their leadership forgets to consider whether they’re ready and prepared to scale up. Before your company starts investing in scaling its inside sales programs, the marketing team and sales leaders should examine whether certain KPIs are there to suggest that scaling will be successful and a deliver ROI.
Is your sales program profitable? If it is not, or if it is not hitting a reasonable target, such as a certain number of transactions or new customers acquired per week, it may be a better choice to keep the program small until results have been proven and are likely to be sustainable.
If your sales teams are selling on behalf of a third party, do you have the client’s commitment to scale? Ensure your growth plans are in line with your clients needs, expectations, and willingness to invest in new growth.
Hire the Right Team:
Before you scale up, you’ll want to feel confident you have the best possible team in place as a well as a plan to maintain the quality of service and high level of performance you expect. To put together a great team, you’ll need to implement a hiring process that sets clear expectations of the job task and ensures team members fully understand what they are being hired to do.
Hire based on personality. Sales skills can be taught, but you’ll need to find people who can work well with each other and the customer and who have the desire to perform and succeed. Finally, compensate your team fairly but appropriately, and make certain to set clear career path expectations for team members and make sure they understand what success looks like.
An effective sales program can play a critical role in your customer acquisition and revenue growth efforts, but scaling your sales program is a complex process, and it must be done right in order to ensure success. Careful planning, research, acquiring the right tools, and an effective people management approach can help bring your organization closer to achieving its goals. But juggling all these essential components can be extremely challenging. That’s why many organizations look to experts in building and growing successful sales programs like Cydcor. Find out how Cydcor can create and scale a customized outside sales program designed specifically to achieve your organizations customer acquisition and revenue goals.