StrategyDriven Podcast Special Edition 21c – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Questions: The Answer to Sales

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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 21c – An Interview with Duane Sparks, author of Questions: The Answer to Sales explores how asking questions enables salespeople to better understand their client’s needs and align their product or service offerings to fulfill those needs; establishing the salesperson as a value-adding consultant rather than a commodity seller. During our discussion, Duane Sparks, author of Questions: The Answer to Sales and Chairman and Founder of The Sales Board, shares with us his insights and illustrative examples regarding:

  • why questions are important to building client trust and engagement
  • what gives salespeople the right to ask clients probing questions
  • avoiding the trap of immediately delivering a sales pitch
  • formulating The Best Questions
  • structuring questions so to convey a deep understanding of business and industry issues

Additional Information

In addition to the invaluable selling skills insight Duane shares in Questions: The Answer to Sales 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: Questions: The Answer to Sales.

Complimenting Questions: The Answer to Sales, are Duane’s four other books on the consultative sales process including:


Read a Summary of the above Sales Books.

Final Request…

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About the Author

Duane Sparks, author of Questions: The Answer to Sales, 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: 31:49 — 43.7MB)

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Meet Arlene Johnson, author of SuccessMapping

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Now more than ever, everyone from students to CEOs need a plan for lasting and meaningful success. Filled with inspiring anecdotes and focused on actual achievement, Success Mapping cuts through doubt and confusion with a simple yet rigorous set of actions.

In August, we were privileged to host Arlene Johnson, Founder and President of the Sinequanon Group and author of Success Mapping: Achieve What You Want…Right Now!, on the StrategyDriven Podcast. During our interview, Arlene shared her insights on how to identify personal success blockers, create a life strategy, and execute the actions necessary to realize your vision of success.

Success Mapping describes how to identify the eight success blockers that are keeping you from achieving all you can. As you head toward a career or life goal, your Success Map engages you with motivational exercises and checkpoints to mark your progress. As you develop your Success Map, you will learn how to:

  • Focus energies on exactly what you want to achieve
  • Seize opportunities and leverage personal strengths
  • Make wise decisions and take actions with no regret
  • Collaborate with others for needed support or resources
  • Manage change to prevent self-sabotage
  • Create a Success Map for what you want in your life and career!

Success Mapping ensures that you take the necessary steps to create your own life strategy and follow it through to success. No more excuses. Believe in yourself and get started. Success Mapping will guide you, step-by-step!

Meet Arlene Johnson in Person!

Where:
Barnes & Noble – Minneapolis
801 Nicollet Mall
Minneapolis, Minnesota

When:
Thursday, October 29 at noon – 1 pm

RSVP: [email protected]

“I love this book! It’s the perfect guide for achieving success in the twenty first century. Don’t open it unless you want to change your life.”

Sue Dark
CEO DeepNines Technologies

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Arlene shares in Success Mapping and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from her Success Mapping website, (www.SuccessMapping.com). Arlene’s book, Success Mapping, can be purchased by clicking here.

About the Author

Arlene Johnson, author of Success Mapping, is Founder and President of the Sinequanon Group. Arlene is an internationally known speaker, author, and consultant with more than two decades of experience in executive leadership, change management, and sales performance coaching. She serves as trusted advisor to many Fortune 500 clients including American Express, Hewlett-Packard, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Texas Instruments, and Lockheed Martin. To read Arlene’s full biography, click here.

StrategyDriven Resource Management Best Practice Article

Resource Management Best Practice 4 – Ongoing Assessment of the Market Availability of Strategic Resources

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Market changes can make once plentiful resources scarce. The recent retirement eligibility of Baby Boomer generation workers and the relatively small size of the follow-on Generation X workforce represents one example of a market change that is creating a shortage of experienced workers in many industries. While this change could be readily anticipated, others such as government sponsored large scale infrastructure projects which consume significant quantities of materials, heavy equipment, and personnel are less predictable. Thus, it is important for organizations to identify needed strategic resources and assess their market availability on an ongoing basis.

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Additional Resources

Trade associations and industry groups are often a good source of refined information regarding resource availability. Many provide Congressional testimony and make other public presentations; making this valuable information publicly available. Remember, other industries competing for like resources may be supported by similar organizations providing a view on these resources also. Consider these data sources especially if no industry specific studies are available.

Absent this refined information, a wealth of raw data can be obtained from government sources such as:

Leadership Inspiration – Attitude of Success

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“Our attitude is the primary focus that will determine whether we succeed or fail.”

John C. Maxwell
Evangelical Christian author, speaker, and pastor and author of more than 50 books including The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership and The 21 Indispensable Qualities of a Leader: Becoming the Person Others Will Want to Follow

Meet Arlene Johnson, author of SuccessMapping

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Now more than ever, everyone from students to CEOs need a plan for lasting and meaningful success. Filled with inspiring anecdotes and focused on actual achievement, Success Mapping cuts through doubt and confusion with a simple yet rigorous set of actions.

In August, we were privileged to host Arlene Johnson, Founder and President of the Sinequanon Group and author of Success Mapping: Achieve What You Want…Right Now!, on the StrategyDriven Podcast. During our interview, Arlene shared her insights on how to identify personal success blockers, create a life strategy, and execute the actions necessary to realize your vision of success.

Success Mapping describes how to identify the eight success blockers that are keeping you from achieving all you can. As you head toward a career or life goal, your Success Map engages you with motivational exercises and checkpoints to mark your progress. As you develop your Success Map, you will learn how to:

  • Focus energies on exactly what you want to achieve
  • Seize opportunities and leverage personal strengths
  • Make wise decisions and take actions with no regret
  • Collaborate with others for needed support or resources
  • Manage change to prevent self-sabotage
  • Create a Success Map for what you want in your life and career!

Success Mapping ensures that you take the necessary steps to create your own life strategy and follow it through to success. No more excuses. Believe in yourself and get started. Success Mapping will guide you, step-by-step!

Meet Arlene Johnson in Person!

Where:
SMU Barnes & Noble – Dallas
3060 Mockingbird Lane
Dallas, Texas

When:
Tuesday, October 20 at 5-7 pm

RSVP: [email protected]

“I love this book! It’s the perfect guide for achieving success in the twenty first century. Don’t open it unless you want to change your life.”

Sue Dark
CEO DeepNines Technologies

Additional Information

In addition to the incredible insights Arlene shares in Success Mapping and this special edition podcast are the additional resources accessible from her Success Mapping website, (www.SuccessMapping.com). Arlene’s book, Success Mapping, can be purchased by clicking here.

About the Author

Arlene Johnson, author of Success Mapping, is Founder and President of the Sinequanon Group. Arlene is an internationally known speaker, author, and consultant with more than two decades of experience in executive leadership, change management, and sales performance coaching. She serves as trusted advisor to many Fortune 500 clients including American Express, Hewlett-Packard, Blue Cross and Blue Shield, Texas Instruments, and Lockheed Martin. To read Arlene’s full biography, click here.