StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 21b – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Selling Your Price

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 21b – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Selling Your Price further explores how the Action Selling process is used to help clients understand they are not purchasing a commodity product but rather one that is highly differentiated by the value you and your company offer. During our discussion, Duane Sparks, author of Selling Your Price: How to Escape the Race to the Bargain Basement and Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • why buyers come to perceive products and services as commodities
  • why salespeople fall into the trap of accepting their client’s assertions that their products and services are commodities
  • what salespeople can to do differentiate their products and services
  • how salespeople can deal with buyers who are highly trained and skilled in negotiating on price in order to avoid the race to the bargain basement

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable selling skills insight Duane shares in Selling Your Price and this special edition podcast, please visit his company’s Sales Training or Sales Management site. To discover why this selling skill is so effective at maximizing sales productivity, purchase Duane’s book: Selling Your Price.

Complimenting Selling Your Price, are Duane’s four other books on the consultative sales process including:


Read a Summary of the above Sales Books.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Duane Sparks, author of Selling Your Price, is Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based strategic sales training company that has trained and certified more than 350,000 salespeople in more than 3,000 groups in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has written five sales books, personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions and continues to engage in the business and art of the strategic sales process. Read Duane’s full biography and the history of Action Selling Sales Management Training.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:54 — 42.5MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 22 – An Interview with Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 22 – An Interview with Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management explores how executives should approach project management in order to enhance alignment and accountability to their organization’s vision, mission, goals, and values. During our discussion, Michael Bender, Founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers and author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management: Learn How to Apply Best Practices shares his insights regarding:

  • a process for aligning projects with the organization’s vission, mission, goals, and values
  • frequency for rebalancing the corporate project portfolio
  • criteria and method for evaluating whether or not to discontinue a project
  • importance of accounting for unbudgeted activities when evaulating a project’s cost

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Mike shares in A Manager’s Guide to Project Management and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his Ally Business Developers website (www.AllyBusiness.com). Mike’s book, A Manager’s Guide to Project Management, published by FT Press can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Michael Bender, author of A Manager’s Guide to Project Management, is Founder and CEO of Ally Business Developers, a consortium of world-class business, organizational, and professional development experts. Michael’s leadership and project and program management experience contributed to projects including the Hubble Space Telescope, NEXRAD – the Next Generation Weather Radar, and air traffic control systems for the United States, the United Kingdom, and Taiwan. He is an American Management Association speaker and guest speaker at DePaul University and the Project Management Institute. To read Mike’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 40:04 — 55.1MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 21a – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 21a – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling explores the Action Selling process, a method for establishing and building business relationships; enabling sales professionals to better engage and understand their client’s needs in order to provide greater value and increase sales. During our discussion, Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling: How to sell like a professional, even if you think you are one and Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • why selling is a profession and not simply an activity
  • five fundamental decisions individuals go through before making the final purchase decision and how the Action Selling process addresses each
  • the most important skills for effectiveness in selling
  • how a salesperson sells him or herself
  • how salespeople can help their client overcome ‘buyers remorse‘ once a purchase commitment is received

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable selling skills insight Duane shares in Action Selling and this special edition podcast, please visit his company’s Sales Training or Sales Management site. To discover why this selling skill is so effective at maximizing sales productivity, purchase Duane’s book: Action Selling.

Complimenting Action Selling, are Duane’s four other books on the consultative sales process including:


Read a Summary of the above Sales Books.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Duane Sparks, author of Action Selling, is Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, a Minneapolis-based strategic sales training company that has trained and certified more than 350,000 salespeople in more than 3,000 groups in the system and skills of Action Selling. He has written five sales books, personally facilitated more than 300 Action Selling training sessions and continues to engage in the business and art of the strategic sales process. Read Duane’s full biography and the history of Action Selling Sales Management Training.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 28:49 — 39.6MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 20b – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 2 of 2

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 20b – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 2 of 2 explores how leaders can enhance their organization’s alignment and accountability through question-based leadership. During our discussion, Gary Cohen, Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners and author of Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions shares his insights regarding:

  • a process for determining what questions to ask for a given situation
  • attributes of good questions
  • impacts of asking too many or too few questions and how to identify when that point is reached
  • how to incorporate questions into one’s leadership style

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Gary shares in Just Ask Leadership and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his Just Ask Leadership website (www.JustAskLeadership.com) and the CO2 Partners website (www.CO2Partners.com). The values assessment discussed during the podcast can be accessed at www.CEOTest.com. Gary’s book, Just Ask Leadership, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, is Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners, a Minneapolis based executive coaching and consulting firm. Gary is renowned for his work as the President and co-Founder of ACI Telecentrics, a company he took from 2 to 2,200 employees and a peak of $32 million in annual revenues. Under his leadership, ACI grew at an average compounded rate of over 50 percent for almost 13 years and was recognized as one of Venture Magazine’s Top 10 Best Performance Businesses and Business Journal’s 25 Fastest Growth Small Public Companies. Gary is frequently interviewed on leadership issues by many of today’s leading publications including USA Today, the Washington Post, and Business Week. To read Gary’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:37 — 42.1MB)

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StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 20a – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 1 of 2

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StrategyDriven Podcasts focus on the tools and techniques executives and managers can use to improve their organization’s alignment and accountability to ultimately achieve superior results. These podcasts elaborate on the best practice and warning flag articles on the StrategyDriven website.

Special Edition 20a – An Interview with Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, part 1 of 2 explores how leaders can enhance their organization’s alignment and accountability through question-based leadership. During part 1 of our discussion, Gary Cohen, Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners and author of Just Ask Leadership: Why Great Managers Always Ask the Right Questions shares his insights regarding:

  • what question-based leadership is
  • quantitative and qualitative benefits realized by those using question-based leadership
  • how question-based leadership drives organizational alignment and accountability
  • importance of identifying the decision-maker for a given situation

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable insights Gary shares in Just Ask Leadership and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from his Just Ask Leadership website (www.JustAskLeadership.com) and the CO2 Partners website (www.CO2Partners.com). The values assessment discussed during the podcast can be accessed at www.CEOTest.com. Gary’s book, Just Ask Leadership, can be purchased by clicking here.

Final Request…

The strength of our community grows with the additional insights brought by our expanding member base. Please consider rating us on iTunes by clicking here. Rating the StrategyDriven Podcast and providing your comments online improves our ranking and helps us attract new listeners which, in turn, helps us grow our community.

Thank you again for listening to the StrategyDriven Podcast!

About the Author

Gary Cohen, author of Just Ask Leadership, is Partner and co-Founder of CO2 Partners, a Minneapolis based executive coaching and consulting firm. Gary is renowned for his work as the President and co-Founder of ACI Telecentrics, a company he took from 2 to 2,200 employees and a peak of $32 million in annual revenues. Under his leadership, ACI grew at an average compounded rate of over 50 percent for almost 13 years and was recognized as one of Venture Magazine’s Top 10 Best Performance Businesses and Business Journal’s 25 Fastest Growth Small Public Companies. Gary is frequently interviewed on leadership issues by many of today’s leading publications including USA Today, the Washington Post, and Business Week. To read Gary’s full biography, click here.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:29 — 43.3MB)

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