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Cydcor Reviews is a website dedicated to recommending business-related books to professionals and aspiring entrepreneurs. Learn more about Cydcor by checking out our page on Flickr.
About Pitch Anything: An Innovative Method for Presenting, Persuading, and Winning the Deal by Oren Klaff
Delivering an excellent pitch to potential sales clients doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Enter Pitch Anything author Oren Klaff, who knows a thing or two about making a sale. Over the past decade and more, Klaff has utilized his pitching method to raise more than $400 million. In Pitch Anything, Klaff describes his formula to help any business professional with any sale pitch.
According to Klaff, crafting and executing the perfect pitch isn’t art; it’s more centered on science. By applying the latest scientific findings and discussing real-life examples, Klaff describes how the brain makes decisions and responds to sales pitches. By learning how the method works and what you’ve been doing wrong, it’s much easier to understand how a successful pitch is done. Whether you're presenting to new investors, locking down some new business, or even negotiating for a higher salary, Pitch Anything has you covered when it comes to perfecting the pitch.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this to future leaders:
Learning the method of a successful pitch isn’t too difficult, but many people fail the first step: getting the attention of potential buyers or clients. Attention requires the combination of two things working together: desire and tension. Not only do you need the person to be interested in what you’re selling, but you also need them thinking that they would be lucky to have the product or service. Be sure to let the client know that you have the best service or product and that they would be missing out by not buying. You have to be passionate about what you are selling and get other people to be passionate about buying.
Pitch Anything has great insights on how the brain processes simple information and how to take advantage of this with clients. Klaff has done the required research to prove his points, while still bringing something new to the table.
Our favorite part:
The sales method that Klaff discuses in Pitch Anything is simple to understand and apply. The “STRONG” method of pitching can be put to use immediately by any business professional. The steps include setting the frame, telling the story, revealing the intrigue, offering the prize, nailing the hookpoint, and finally, getting a decision. Applying these tactics and strategies will help to engage and persuade the person you’re pitching to, and you'll find more agreement and support than you ever thought possible.
Integrity means that you have high moral principles and follow professional standards. Simply put—to practice integrity in the workplace you can’t just talk the talk—you have to walk the walk. A lack of integrity can lead to poor decision-making and have a negative influence on your work and your employer.
Integrity Begins With You
Be well groomed at all times. Keep your work area and your car neat and clean. This habit shows that you care about the impressions you make as a representative of your company. Clients and colleagues will see that you respect your employer’s values and are a responsible person. If you make a promise you must keep it. It proves that you’re a dependable person. Only agree to provide services that you can actually deliver. Don’t over promise. If you do something wrong, fix it as soon as possible.
How Do I Show Integrity at Work?
You have to be honest and ethical in all of your actions if you want to practice integrity in the workplace. Understand that you’re a role model for your colleagues, clients, and vendors. Be consistent about how you apply your ethical standards. Rely on facts at all times in your interactions at work. Never make excuses or avoid sharing bad news. Integrity requires that you speak up when you notice a practice or behavior that diverges from the company’s ethical standards.
Practice Company-wide Integrity
Practicing integrity at work provides positive outcomes for your company. However, you need to understand how your company practices integrity. Become familiar with your company’s core values and use them as a guide for developing your workplace integrity. Allow your team members to share their concerns about anything they see as going against your company’s values. Encourage an atmosphere that supports honesty and fairness.
Integrity Welcomes Risk
Every decision you make will involve some elements of risk. You must be willing to take a risk in order to achieve excellence and be competitive. If there are objections to your suggestions, remain positive. Gaining support from team members and stakeholders requires effort. Do the work. Ask for input from all participants and encourage them to share their concerns.
Practice What You Preach
Your behavior at work must offer a good example for your team members, colleagues, customers, and your community. Recognize your own skills and appreciate the contributions of others. Share your experience with your team and help them to develop their own integrity in the workplace.
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The leading provider of outsourced sales teams, Cydcor is dedicated to helping business professionals worldwide reach success.
Choosing the right words is key to creating a successful resume in 2015. But even before a hiring manager sees your resume, an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) could reject it. It’s estimated that nearly 75% of applicant resumes don’t make it through this automated scanning process. At Cydcor, we value all resumes that have been written well, and showcase the experience we're looking for.
Hiring managers may not understand your “passion” or you skill as a “problem-solver” if you do not explain how you demonstrated this in a work setting. You need to make sure your resume shows how you increased company profits. Use your resume to tell how your record-breaking effort contributed to your team’s success.
Start With a Summary
Your resume needs to let the hiring manager know that you’re the right person for the job and are worth being contacted for an interview. Get the hiring manager’s attention by identifying your relevant experience in a well-crafted summary at the beginning of your resume.
Numbers Tell the Story
Use numbers to define your professional accomplishments. Numbers add focus and scope to your work history. Answer questions like these with facts and figures:
Use Keywords
Highlight keywords in the job description and compare them to related keywords in your resume. If there is a 70-80% match, then you should apply for this position. Only about 20% of applicants applying for a specific job are actually qualified for the position. Online tools like Jobscan analyze how well your resume matches the job description.
Keep It Relevant
Employers want to hire people with relevant experience. Keep your resume to 1 or 2 pages by cutting any experience that is over ten years old.
Get Creative—Within Reason
Colored fonts will make your resume stand out from others—but don’t get carried away. Consider at two-color system—black and one other color, like blue. Test these colors on various screens and printers if possible. You want to make sure it’s easy to read. But before investing too much in design, study the company’s website and get a feeling for their culture to determine if a creative resume will work in your favor.
Cydcor has previously written about Toxic Employee Traits That Can Slow Progress, but it's also important to mention how to continue career progress. You will never advance simply by sitting at your desk, answering emails, and filing reports. A promotion is earned. Achieving a promotion isn’t an impossible goal. But to get there you need a good plan. The following suggestions are your starting points for success.
Evaluate Your Skills
You wouldn’t have been hired if you weren’t good at your job. But are you producing enough positive results to earn a promotion? Before you request a promotion, evaluate your job performance. Ask yourself the hard questions—face your fear.
It’s Not All About You
You will never achieve success by yourself. Your colleagues are an important part of your advancement. Study what they do. Understand their pain points. Improving their productivity is a leadership skill and contributes to your chance for promotion.
Write Your Future
Write the story of your career. Imagine where it will lead. This exercise provides a private place to draft new possibilities for your work life. It’s a safe place to practice taking risks. Don’t waste time creating a fantasy about wealth and power. Your career is serious work.
Become the Resident Optimist
Don’t get distracted by the inevitable complaints you hear during the day. Is it hard to do? Yes, sometimes it is. Everyone has bad days. But remember this: negative is easy, positive is hard. Don’t complain—explain. Don’t spread rumors—educate. Build a reputation for being constructive, informed, and open-minded.
Your Evaluation Happens Every Day
Do you ever feel invisible when your workload is building up? During these times remember that your supervisors are taking note of how you manage stress while you reach your goals. If you feel stuck in a negative take time for a mental stretch. Many corporate leaders find insight and get reenergized when they meditate.
Ask For Help
Sometimes you’ll come across a problem you can’t figure out. You need to be brave enough to ask for help. Find a mentor. Build a resource team from various departments. Share the problem. You will be remembered solving problems with creative strategy. Never ignore the wealth of institutional experience at work.
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Welcome to Cydcor Reviews, a website dedicated to recommending interesting and insightful books to business professionals wolrdwide.
About First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently by Marcus Buckingham and Curt W. Coffman
Managers come in all shapes and sizes, and everyone has their own style of doing things to reach their goals. No manager is the same as any other, but many managers share the same traits: the ability to break any past rules and try new ways of thinking to reach the results they want. Marcus Buckingham and Curt W. Coffman have put together a book based on a study by the Gallup Organization made up of 80,00 managers in 400 different companies. Their findings present an enormous, in-depth study of great management, including those who did well at turning employee talent into real performance.
The main point found in First, Break all the Rules is that the key to attracting and retaining the best employees is excellent management. This book explains how the best managers use the talent of employees to set the bar for skills and experience, create clear expectations, and motivate and develop people to their full potential.
Why Cydcor Reviews recommends this to future leaders:
Management is difficult to narrow down to a set of guidelines and best practices. Often, what works at one company doesn’t work everywhere else. This book presents a firm belief in an excellent principle of management that works: focus on the strengths of people to achieve the wanted results. Building a perfect team from scratch usually doesn't work because it’s difficult to find the right people for the right role. First-line managers are the key to an organization’s success. They are the vital link between company shareholders and employees. What separates a great manager from a mediocre manager is the ability to recognize and develop talented individuals right from the initial point of employment. Buckingham and Coffman do an excellent job of conveying their study’s findings in a way that is easy to understand but still insightful.
Our favorite part:
The essence of the data found in this book forms the four keys of great managers. These key points state that managers must find the correct match between talent and roles, turn talent into performance, concentrate on strengths and not on weaknesses, and assign roles to employees that give them the greatest chance of success. First, Break All the Rules also dives into the 12 questions that give organizations the information they need to attract, focus, and keep the most talented employees. The authors group these questions into various categories and explain why they are important to keep in mind.
Finding new ways to manage a business is something that’s always on the mind of a leader. There will always be new things to try, but meditation, a practice that’s been around for thousands of years, can bring a new kind of thinking to leadership. Meditation can provide a better way to manage ourselves. A few minutes in the morning or evenings is all that is necessary to help bring the right thoughts to center and to help a person focus. Apple CEO Steve Jobs was famous for it, and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner does it, too. Meditation is something to be taken seriously if you are looking to improve your mind.
A bad day, or news we don’t want to hear, can put a damper on our state of mind. To prevent this from happening, leaders should take ten minutes during the day to meditate. Regardless of your approach meditation, it is just important that you make time for it. It helps get your day back on track, and is a good start to clear your mind.
As a leader, you may find times that its necessary to be brave. Whether it’s going into an important meeting or giving a motivational speech to the team, it’s important to have a confident mindset. Meditation can help get rid of negative thoughts during high intensity situations. By learning to ignore any negative thinking, worries about what could go wrong go away.
Letting go is difficult when there are so many plates spinning at once. So many times, leaders get stuck in a certain way of thinking that prevents them from seeing the whole picture. Meditation can change this way of thinking. It allows a person to attack problems with a different perspective. By getting rid of past thoughts and clearing the mind, answers to questions will appear naturally.
Like most things, it will take effort and dedication to reap the benefits of meditation, including an increase in calmness. You can also have better control over emotions. The key is to learn to focus on finding your own way instead of adopting someone else’s way of thinking.
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Cydcor is pleased to announce a photo contest that will be held the week of our Operation Smile event, the “Day of Smiles!” Anyone participating in the event will have the opportunity to submit a photo on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram wearing their Day of Smiles t-shirt, using the hashtag #DayofSmiles. Entries will automatically be entered into a drawing to be featured in Cydcor's monthly newsletter!
There will be three winning categories: the best action shot, the most creative, and the best group photo. Winners will be announced on Cydcor’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/CydcorLLC) as well as on Cydcor’s Instagram (@Cydcor) and on Cydcor’s Twitter (@Cydcor) on Wednesday, June 10th. Be sure to follow Cydcor’s Facebook page for additional information regarding all the fun taking place at during Day of Smiles.
This contest will run from Wednesday June 3rd, 2015 (10:00AM PST) until Tuesday, June 9th, 2015 (11:59 PM PST). Winners will be announced at any time after noon PST on June 10th, 2015.
See you on #DayofSmiles!
Terms and Conditions (Facebook)
Post a photo on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook wearing a Day of Smiles t-shirt using the hashtag #DayofSmiles anytime from Wednesday June 3rd (10:00AM PST) until Tuesday, June 9th (11:59 PM PST) and you will be automatically entered in the Day of Smiles contest. To be eligible, entrants must be (i) at least 18 years of age and (ii) a member or affiliate of a Cydcor independent corporate licensee or an employee of Cydcor. Multiple submissions per participant are allowed. Profanity or inappropriate language or images, as determined by Cydcor, in its sole discretion, will be disqualified. There will be a total of three winners. The categories to win are: the best action shot, the most creative, and the best group photo. The winning pictures will get to be featured in The Leader magazine in the July 2015 issue. The winners will be selected by Cydcor, in its sole discretion, and announced via Cydcor’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/CydcorLLC?ref=hl) as well as on Cydcor’s Instagram (@Cydcor), and on Cydcor’s Twitter (@Cydcor) on Wednesday, June 10th any time after 12:00PM PST and no later than 6:00 PM PST. This promotional offer is not intended to create a partnership, joint venture, co-ownership or other association between Cydcor and the participant.
This promotion does not have a connection with Facebook in any way and is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. By entering the contest, participants agree to fully release Facebook from any and all liability.
Terms and Conditions (Instagram)
Post a photo on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook wearing a Day of Smiles t-shirt using the hashtag #DayofSmiles anytime from Wednesday June 3rd (10:00AM PST) until Tuesday, June 9th (11:59 PM PST) and you will be automatically entered in the Day of Smiles contest. To be eligible, entrants must be (i) at least 18 years of age and (ii) a member or affiliate of a Cydcor independent corporate licensee or an employee of Cydcor. Multiple submissions per participant are allowed. Profanity or inappropriate language or images, as determined by Cydcor, in its sole discretion, will be disqualified. There will be a total of three winners. The categories to win are: the best action shot, the most creative, and the best group photo. The winning pictures will get to be featured in The Leader magazine in the July 2015 issue. The winners will be selected by Cydcor, in its sole discretion, and announced via Cydcor’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/CydcorLLC) as well as on Cydcor’s Instagram (@Cydcor), and on Cydcor’s Twitter (@Cydcor) on Wednesday, June 10th any time after 12:00PM PST and no later than 6:00 PM PST. This promotional offer is not intended to create a partnership, joint venture, co-ownership or other association between Cydcor and the participant.
This promotion does not have a connection with Instagram, Inc. in any way and is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Instagram. By entering the contest, participants agree to fully release Instagram from any and all liability, and agree to Instagram’s terms of use.
Terms and Conditions (Twitter)
Post a photo on Twitter wearing a Day of Smiles t-shirt using @Cydcor and the contest hashtag #DayofSmiles anytime from Wednesday June 3rd (10:00AM PST) until Tuesday, June 9th (11:59 PM PST) and you will be automatically entered in the Day of Smiles contest. Users who do not use @Cydcor or the contest hashtag will not be entered to win. To be eligible, entrants must be (i) at least 18 years of age and (ii) a member or affiliate of a Cydcor independent corporate licensee or an employee of Cydcor. Participant may not create multiple accounts to enter the contest – the creation of multiple accounts will make participant liable to have all accounts suspended by Twitter. Any participant found creating multiple accounts to enter the contest will also be disqualified. Multiple submissions per participant are allowed; provided, however, that the participant posts a different tweet each time. Participants may not post the same tweet repeatedly (no duplicate tweets). Posting duplicate tweets is a violation of Twitter Rules and jeopardizes search quality. Profanity or inappropriate language or images, as determined by Cydcor, in its sole discretion, will be disqualified. There will be a total of three winners. The categories to win are: the best action shot, the most creative, and the best group photo. The winning pictures will get to be featured in The Leader magazine in the July 2015 issue. The winners will be selected by Cydcor, in its sole discretion, and announced via Cydcor’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/CydcorLLC) as well as on Cydcor’s Instagram (@Cydcor), and on Cydcor’s Twitter (@Cydcor) on Wednesday, June 10th any time after 12:00PM PST and no later than 6:00 PM PST. This promotional offer is not intended to create a partnership, joint venture, co-ownership or other association between Cydcor and the participant.
This promotion does not have a connection with Twitter in any way and is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Twitter. By entering the contest, participants agree to fully release Twitter from any and all liability, and agree to read and abide by Twitter’s Rules.
Big bank accounts aren’t the only thing that millionaires have in common. In order to find success, millionaires have to fully develop traits including courage, vision, and passion. Millionaires use a different line of thinking than everyone else. It’s not just about money, but life as a whole. Since thoughts have an effect on actions, people who want to one day be a millionaire should have the mindset to do so. Here are a few traits that many millionaires share:
Vision
Millionaires are creatives who are constantly seeking the next master plan. These people not only have big dreams, but they also believe that those dreams will one day come true. As such, wealth seekers should set lofty goals and not be afraid of uncharted territories. Professionals need to be constantly scheming about the next step and never dwelling on the past.
Passion
In order to fully reach peak potential, people need to be passionate about what they do for a living. Being able to enjoy work allows a person to build discipline and work their hardest every day. Ask any millionaire, and they’ll tell you that they enjoyed their journey to the top, no matter the difficulty. They believed in what they were doing and knew they really had something to work with. Find that passion, and one day you will realize you’ve loved what you’re doing for years.
Salesmanship
How are your sales skills? Millionaires are constantly pitching their concepts and plans, trying to sell others on the idea. Many millionaires also have well-developed social skills. Being able to converse with anyone and tell their side of the story makes things a lot easier. Developing sales skills, either professionally or on the side, can add a lot of weight to their business abilities.
No Fear
No one wants to find out they haven’t been successful with their latest endeavor. Most of us are afraid of failure. The thought of failure brings about a negative reaction and immediately brings up our insecurities. However, being afraid of failure also creates a fear of changing things. Nothing ever grows in the comfort zone. Millionaires know that failure is an essential part of success. We learn many things from falling down, but what matters is how we get back up. For millionaires, failure is just one step closer to real success.
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Cydcor is the worldwide recognized leader in outsourced sales teams and customer satisfaction.
When a business can deliver quality customer satisfaction on a regular basis, they tend to have a greater advantage over the competition. A good experience with a company encourages consumers to go with them again and builds company loyalty. When customers are satisfied, so too is the company that provides for them. Building customer satisfaction and reducing customer overturn is a long and sometimes difficult process. Taking the time to focus on boosting employee satisfaction can help drive sales by providing a friendly, professional, and engaging customer experience.
Listening is key to effective customer satisfaction. Not only does it have potential to boost profits, but it shows that you genuinely care about customers. Listening to their words and tone can tell you many things about the target audience of your business. If you can’t respond immediately to their inquiries, be sure to provide a timeline for response and make a note in to do so. Following up is also key to checking for customer satisfaction and completion. Customers have an expectation of the kind of attention and service that is delivered to them. Always strive to deliver quality results.
Excellent employee training can help customer satisfaction quite a bit. Customers can often tell the difference between an untrained employee who doesn’t care much about their wishes and one who provides consistent service and unmatched attention. Companies need employees who are flexible and can understand why customers are buying their services or products. Unfortunately, customers tend to get a company representative who cannot see the big picture with the company’s goals.
Intuitively, people who are at first exposed to customer satisfaction findings believe that the way forward is to examine individual customer responses and deal with each of them in turn. Salespeople understandably want to visit customers who have given them a low score and put them right. However, this isn’t the best approach. Professionals should take a look at the overall score of client feedback and use that to go forward. Typically, employees make the same mistakes with all customers, and these can be corrected easily. Looking at the whole picture and not just a section will always get you farther.
Building customer satisfaction isn’t an easy road, but it can make professional lives much easier. The way forward is to deal with problems within the system and not just focus on individual issues. A company should always seriously look into how they want to handle customer satisfaction. The company that puts a larger emphasis on this tends to do well.
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Making the most of feedback, positive or negative, is a crucial skill for professionals, especially those that are on the Cydcor team. In order for us to grow, we must know what we’re doing right, but also we need to know what we can improve on. It can be tough to accept feedback because it’s coming from an outside source. We’re used to doing things a certain way, and when someone says it should be done in a different manner, we can get defensive. Accepting feedback isn’t the easiest task, but with experience, we can make the most of it. Here are three steps to accepting feedback:
Listen. Be attentive and listen carefully to what this person is saying. This communicates that you value the feedback, and it ensures that you understand the feedback being provided. Everyone deserves to be heard, so always give people a chance.
Assess. Either the feedback will support the work you’ve been doing, or go against it. If it’s positive, then you have earned another supporter. If it’s critical, you either go with it or go against it.
Negative feedback can hold within it a lot of useful information that is simply too valuable to ignore. Sometimes even when you agree with the contrary feedback, you will be inclined to defend your position. Don’t waste time on this sort of defense! Accept the feedback, analyze its value, and apply it.
Act. If you ask for feedback but do not apply it, then there wasn’t much reason to ask for it in the first page. Take action as soon as possible after you receive feedback, and show your appreciation. If we aren’t able to at least consider some changes after receiving feedback, there’s no point in hearing it at all.
A key thing to remember about accepting feedback: it is one opinion coming from another individual's perspective. It is up to you thoughtfully reflect about it, compare it to other feedback you have received, and do something about it. It’s extremely difficult for us to see ourselves as others see us, but it’s also very important that we don't allow blinders to get in the way of opportunity. As you learn more about yourself, feedback will become less painful. You will learn how to put it into a larger perspective and how to use it to better yourself for the future. Feedback is honestly one of the best gifts to receive from colleagues, and us at Cydcor always try to make the most of it.
A few sentences will rarely ever change our lives for the better. It’s up to us to go out every day and actively seek a better self. Words are just words, but when applied to our behavior in life, they can create a new meaning. The following are excellent quotes that are meant to not only inspire, but to help others think about the potential they have within. In Cydcor’s opinion, these are the most inspirational quotes ever spoken:
“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.” – Napoleon Hill
Putting things off until later or waiting to start a positive habit on Monday never gets us anywhere positive. Time is never going to be perfect; take action today to start seeing results.
“Do What You Can, where you are, with what you have.” – Teddy Roosevelt
Many people fall victim to feeling helpless, so Roosevelt makes a good point. Doesn’t matter who you are, where you’re located, or how much wealth you have. Do anything you can to keep yourself growing toward positive habits.
“Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.” – Arthur Christopher Benson
Changing habits and things you don’t like about yourself is key, compared to just moving to a new place. Although there will be benefits to starting somewhere new, no real change can happen if you don’t look in the mirror and see what needs to be changed first.
“The creation of a thousand is in one acorn.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
This quotes is largely focused on potential. We tend to look at tough situations and automatically think there’s not much to work with. The potential of each little step we take to better ourselves means a lot. The moral of the story is that big things come in small packages.
“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” – Ayn Rand
Never worry how life is going to working out. The only thing we ever need to worry about is if we are putting in the necessary effort. Ayn Rand makes an excellent point that it should never be a question of if what we’re doing is the correct path. Trust in yourself and never let anything get in your way of fulfilling your dreams.
“Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
This is a great quote that speaks to taking the action necessary for any situation. If change is what we seek, it’s required for us to put in the effort. Never just dream about where you could be; get out there and get where you want to be today.