How to Become a Great Salesman

salesmanIt could be stocks, cars, widgets, ads, stereos, it doesn’t matter: there’s a high percentage of you that will ‘get’ to experience possibly this less-than-glamorous career path.

“The word ’salesperson’ conjures up a lot of stereotypes,” says Jeffery Fox, a Harvard Business graduate and founder of Fox & Company, an award-winning marketing consulting firm. ‘It makes me think of Glengarry Glen Ross. That is NOT a good example of a sales person. It can be a school teacher selling students on writing, parents selling a kid on cleaning a room - it’s more than just sales.”

In his book Secrets of Great Rainmakers, Fox goes to great lengths to differentiate between a normal salesperson and a rainmaker, who is a salesperson that “sells the most, makes the best, and does it during any condition.”

The good news? Fox can make you rain - or is that reign?

Is becoming a ‘rainmaker’ easy? Is it teachable?

The best sales people are actually modest, quiet and ask a lot of questions. That’s something that can be taught. But it’s hard for schools to do. Very few faculty have the necessary battle scars; they come from an academic-oriented mindset, a lot statistics. That’s not what I teach. Read More »

A Business Lesson for Communication Majors from Jim Cramer

Jim CramerBusiness majors shouldn’t be the only people having fun with money!

Although communication majors go to school to do “dumb artsy” things we shouldn’t be afraid to get informed and jump into the investing arena.

Jim Cramer from MSNBC’s Mad Money will share with us a few investing tips so when we enter the “real world” we too can be rolling in the green.

Here’s how to start making Mad Money:

Should we be optimistic about money?
I’m advocating that stocks are great - I mean multi-year great. I see many years of tremendous opportunities to make money outside of your paycheck… I want to emphasize that people should be investing furiously from when they are 15 to when they are 65. Read More »