If you want to become a more productive entrepreneur, doing more usually isn't the answer. Here are ... [+] five ways to prioritize what you spend your work time on, and how to get more out of those hours each day.

Theres an old adage about what its likerunning your own businessyou only have to work half a day, and you get to choose which 12 hours they are. While the work load often comes in waves, anyone whos tried their hand at entrepreneurship can attest to the truth of that statement.

It can be surprising for an ill-prepared entrepreneur when they find out just how much work actually goes into getting a business up and running. Many might not be able to manage the additional workload and stress that comes along with being responsible for your own income each month.

With an estimated 50% of businesses failing in the first five years,a lot of those failingscan be attributed to mistakes by founders. Things like not having a sustainable business model, the wrong go-to-market plan, or not accurately anticipating cash flow needs often find their roots in overloaded and overstressed founders that unintentionally let the wrong things slide.

If you want to be a peak performer and focus on whats most important for your business, youll need to build strong habits and take advantage of the tools you have at hand. To shed some more light on this topic, I recently spoke withSam Taggart, founder of theD2D Experts, to gather some of his recommendations for achieving maximum productivity as an entrepreneur.

Many entrepreneurs and CEOs insist on planning for their day during the morning. But the Ivy Lee method, pioneered in 1918, suggests a slightly different approach. At the time, Charles M. Schwab was the head of the Bethlehem Steel Corporation, and he was a highly driven CEO that was always seeking new methods of increasing productivity.

When Schwab contacted consultant Ivy Lee and asked him for assistance, Lee simply asked for 15 minutes with each of his executives. Schwab would pay nothing unless Lees conversation workedbut if his executives saw a boost in productivity, Schwab would pay what he thought it was worth.

Lee gave the executives a simple plan to write out the six most important tasks for the next day as they finished up their work during the eveningranking them in order of importance. When they came to the office the next day, theyd tackle them in order of priority and push any unfinished work to the following day.

Schwab and his executives tried this routine for three months, and he was so delighted that he paid Lee $25,000 for his recommendationover $400,000 in todays money. Not bad for a few 15-minute conversations.

Lees method works for a few reasons. For one, its simple enough to stick to and form a habit around. Writing out your to-do list the night before also helps declutter your mind and leave work at work, so that when you come back in the next day, youre ready to start immediately. Finally, the six-task limit forces you to pare your activities down to just the absolute essentials.

Experiment with this productivity method yourself for a month and see if the results measure up. If it was worth $400,000 to Charles M. Schwab, it could work wonders for you too.

Stanford University did extensiveresearch on multitaskingin 2009. They found that far from being more productive at certain tasks, heavy multitaskers actually performed worse across the boardeven in areas researchers expected them to outperform their more focused peers. Most striking is that multitaskers werent able to slow down and focus on a single task at hand.

Were so focused on doing everything, that we often do nothing, says Taggart. If you constantly keep switching tasks, you dont realize how much time youre wasting just getting back into the groove. Setting uninterrupted time aside for important tasks is crucial to your overall productivity.

If youre a compulsive email checker or are constantly dealing with distractions, it might be time to turn over a new leaf and try to forge a more distraction-free work environment for yourself. Create some time away from the hundred things that can make you less productive and really focus on your most important work.

According toone Salesforce survey, 51% of top-performing sales teams focus on customer retention over simply aiming for more immediate sales. If youre in B2B, that divide is even more pronounced, with 79% of business buyers saying its critical their sales contact be as a trusted advisor who adds value to their business.

I do a lot of sales training, and one of the things Ive noticed is a lot of salespeople just dont come across like they care what their prospects are saying, explains Taggart.

Youd be shocked how often I go in and record someone on a sales call and theyre just straight up talking over the person, not listening to what they say. Its a mindset thingtheyre more focused on what they can get out of it than building a relationship, even if that relationship is brief.

Peak performance means making the most of the people you already have a foot in the door with. That means viewing your prospects as mutually beneficial relationships, rather than just seeking to get as much as you can out of the sale.

Anyone whos worked a day in their life knows there are some hours where you just breeze through your to-do list, and others when youre struggling to finish even the most simple of tasks. Did you realize that theres a threshold in the day, after which point your time is all but wasted at work?

That threshold is likely a little different for everyone, but you need to be aware of it. A paper byJohn Pencavel of Stanford University published in 2014makes it clear that hours and output have a nonlinear relationship. Above about 49 hours of work per week, productivity began to plummet dramatically during the study. Pencavel also noted that a rest day made for a more productive remainder of the week.

Ive come to learn this lesson in my own work over the years, too. As a blogger, I can usually sit down on a Monday morning and write a blog post thousands of words in length without ever stepping away from the computer, yet by Friday my thoughts just dont flow as easily.

Working a lot when youre an entrepreneur is understandable, and sometimes unavoidable. But dont neglect to get your rest whenever possible. Use your downtime to intentionally supercharge the hours you do spend on the clock.

It can be easy as an entrepreneur toattempt doing it all yourself. It had to be me, you justify to yourself. Someone else mightve gotten it wrong.

However, learning how to hand things off, either to teammates or the right automation tools, will unshackle your working hours. It allows you to focus only on the tasks youre best at, instead of spending time on work youre ill-suited for.

Learning how to hand off aspects of your job is one of the keys to being an entrepreneur, says Taggart. No one in this line of work can do it all themselvesthere arent enough hours in the day. The stress will destroy you. Entrepreneurs use every resource available to them, and that includes people just as much as it does technology or money.

Becoming a peak performer takes a lot more than just these five pieces of advice. But if you methodically apply them in your day-to-day work, you may find that youre capable of greater output than you ever imagined. Just be sure youre not engaging in work behavior that runs counter to achieving your most meaningful goals.

Create new, productive habits and pair them with pursuing the right idea this new yearand youll be well on the way to becoming a successful entrepreneur.

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5 Ways To Reach Peak Performance As An Entrepreneur In The New Year - Forbes

Tesla has begun the process of merging the roles of its sales and delivery employees, four current and former employees told Business Insider. The employees asked for anonymity due to a fear of reprisal from the electric-car maker.

Announced internally in October, the initiative, called One Motion, is designed to give each customer a single point of contact when buying a vehicle, the current and former employees said. That means one employee would handle sales, paperwork, and delivery. (At Tesla, a delivery can involve driving a vehicle to a customer's home, or guiding a customer through the final stages of the buying process at one of the company's delivery centers.)

Screenshots of an internal website viewed by Business Insider that include information about One Motion list the following six steps sales and delivery employees should take with potential customers: "connect & understand," "build value," "ask for the sale," "checkout," "support," and "delivery."

"You are the primary owner of the customer's experience up to and beyond the moment they become an owner," a video published on the website and sent in a text to Business Insider says.

The merger between Tesla's sales and delivery departments was in its beginning stages as early as July, when a former salesperson said delivery employees at his location were receiving training to sell cars.

"We've been told in no uncertain terms that we are one team and we will all be doing the same job," he said at the time.

But the transition is not yet complete. A current delivery employee said she has not yet received formal sales training, and a current sales employee said she has yet to deliver any vehicles this quarter. Both employees said they aren't sure how One Motion will be implemented.

One current and one former salesperson expressed skepticism about One Motion, saying it's better to let employees specialize in the tasks that are best suited to their skillsets.

"In practice, it took half, if not more of my productive time and tied it up in paperwork, scheduling, vehicle walkthroughs, customer complaints," the former salesperson said. "Essentially, they took somebody that could have dedicated 100% of his time to selling cars and basically chopped that time, effectively, in half."

Tesla did not respond to a request for comment.

Unlike other automakers, Tesla owns and operates its own stores, rather than outsourcing sales to third-party dealerships. The demands placed on the company's delivery department have grown over time, as Tesla has set quarterly delivery records in eight of the past nine quarters, and expects to do the same in the fourth quarter of this year.

Tesla has in the past recruitedemployees from a variety of departments to deliver vehicles at the end of a quarter, suggesting that the company's delivery staff has at times not been large enough to handle peak workloads. In one case, CEO Elon Musk even asked for assistance from Tesla customers.

Combining the roles of sales and delivery employees is just the latest change in what has been a tumultuous year for Tesla's sales operation. In February, the company said it would close most of its stores, though it partially reversed that announcement a few weeks later when it said it would close only low-performing locations.

Tesla has also changed the compensation structure for its sales employees multiple times and shifted from Salesforce to a proprietary customer-relationship-management system.

Are you a current or former Tesla employee? Do you have an opinion about what it's like to work there? Contact this reporter atmmatousek@businessinsider.com. You can ask for more secure methods of communication, like Signal or ProtonMail, by email or Twitter direct message.

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Tesla has announced major overhaul of sales and delivery teams - Business Insider

When scaling a sales team, it's incorrect to assume that hiring more salespeople will equal more revenue.

First, the duties of each role and how success will be measured should be well thought out and documented. Based on that, new hires must be placed in positions theyre well suited for in relation to their skills and ambitions. Furthermore, new applicants should fit within the culture of their sales team and the company as a whole.

But this only scratches the surface when it comes to building an all-star sales team. We heard from 18 sales managers who shared how they grew their teams while positioning employees for career success.

Kevin Kearns, senior vice president of Grubhubs restaurant network, said the food delivery platforms sales team is all about recreating success.

By documenting and repeating certain key processes like seeking specific traits in applicants and developing a playbook of best sales practices the sales staff is able to hire talented individuals and set them up for successful futures at the company.

Whats your blueprint for building a sales team? How did you identify these keys and how have they made an impact as you build a team?

In the past year we doubled our sales organization. Our goal is achieving both efficiency and effectiveness throughout the sales organization. For efficiency, we have removed barriers that get in the way of selling time, eliminated red tape to get deals done and set metrics that our teams need to achieve each day.

For effectiveness, we have streamlined our sales process to be consultative and value-focused, created a detailed playbook based on best practices of our top sellers and built a recognition program that keeps our teams energized each day. To round it out, we have built a culture of excellence, which includes recognition programs celebrating top performers and specific performances, and created a sales council that address areas of opportunity on behalf of their colleagues.

We executed a discovery process and identified key areas of opportunity across areas like sales process, market coverage and many others. We identified issues in each category and prioritized our action plans based on what had the biggest impact. We also structured our management team to be primarily focused on rep development.

"Hires now get a full month of onboarding and hands-on coaching...

When scaling, how do you ensure your team doesnt lose the elements that made it so successful in the first place?

Instead of hiring the way we always did, we needed to figure out how to bring on talented individuals at scale. To do that, we evaluated the traits of our best sellers and created a hiring profile and interview process that was replicable and increased the likelihood of a great fit. Once on board, instead of ad hoc training and shadowing, we reinvented the training process to be more effective. Our new hires now get a full month of onboarding and hands-on coaching, which is significantly more robust than in the past. We also invested in our trainers, all of whom have been successful sellers at Grubhub. The data shows our new hires are more productive than ever and we have reduced turnover in the first six months.

In terms of culture, we bring all new sellers into our headquarters to observe first-hand the winning attitude of our team. We then pair sellers with mentors that exhibit the habits of success within our team. Finally, we constantly reinforce the cultural attributes that make our team great: teamwork, professionalism, high performance, effort, fun and customer obsessed.

Director of Sales Development Brian Mullin said Sprout Social wants its sales team to do more than meet quotas. The company wants staff to feel like they have a voice, and feel comfortable making their opinions heard.

To that end, Mullin said employee feedback at the social media management platform is incorporated into everything from training to building company culture.

Whats your blueprint for building a sales team? How did you identify these keys and how have they made an impact as you build a team?

Building a successful team starts with identifying key traits your top performers exemplify. We articulate a vision for our people that inspires them to do their best work and reach for more than they thought was possible. Every person on our team has a unique reason for choosing Sprout to start or continue their career, but regardless of the reason, that commitment is something we value and show gratitude for.

"We base our hiring processes, training and culture off of the feedback from our employees.

When scaling, how do you ensure your team doesnt lose the elements that made it so successful in the first place?

The strength of our culture is foundational to why our people love coming to work everyday and its important that our individual contributors feel like they have a voice in the decisions we make as a business. We focus on encouraging feedback across all levels of the organization. When team members are able to openly share their thoughts and ideas, it promotes trust, drives innovation and strengthens their commitment to doing their best work. We base our hiring processes, training and culture off of the feedback from our employees if they arent bought in then its all for naught.

ReviewTrackers VP of Sales Jeff Pearlman said despite aggressive hiring goals, the customer feedback software platform only brings a new salesperson onboard if all hiring managers are a hell yes. This ensures that they only hire top performers who are highly self-motivated.

Whats your blueprint for building a sales team? How did you identify these keys and how have they made an impact as you build a team?

It all starts with hiring the right people. We look for people who are curious, collaborative and competitive. Our culture avoids micromanagement at all costs, which means the people we hire must be autonomous and highly self-motivated. To build on those strengths, we make sure we have the right training and support system in place so that every rep has the correct tools and training to succeed. We also have a scaling compensation plan that rewards over-achievers as well as a clear career progression plan to make sure the team knows exactly how to earn promotions.

Most of this was identified by myself and my sales management team based on successes and failures in previous roles. For example, in one of my past jobs I saw multiple top performing reps who had exceeded their quota be placed on performance management for not making enough calls. These double standards never made sense to me, and they were a driving force behind how we look at metrics.

"Our culture avoids micromanagement at all costs, which means the people we hire must be autonomous.

When scaling, how do you ensure your team doesnt lose the elements that made it so successful in the first place?

The key is to make sure we have the right support system in place. When we started our hiring push this year, we evolved our training model from a scrappy, startup-based new hire training model to a comprehensive curriculum, which included several weeks of training from multiple leaders from across the company. We are also fortunate to have a great group of individual contributors who are highly competitive but also help each other and share sales best practices. This model allows new reps to have mentors while they continue their ongoing training.

When it comes to hiring, we follow the mentality of its either a hell yes or its a no. This is hard to do in a tough market with aggressive hiring goals but as long as we stick to this, we know we will bring on the right people and not sacrifice our culture.

VP of Sales in the Americas Dan Costanzo said building an atmosphere of trust and continuous learning at pricing softwarecompany Pricefx is the key to sales success. And that goes for sales leaders as well as new account execs.

Whats your blueprint for building a sales team? How did you identify these keys and how have they made an impact as you build a team?

I look for self-empowered individuals who demonstrate a sense of urgency and a passion for delivering value to customers. In doing so, they reap not only personal success, but also a high degree of professional satisfaction in being part of a collective effort felt by customers, colleagues and the market. The best way to identify these characteristics is by gaining a sense of candidates professional values and personal initiative.

"The best way to learn and grow as a professional is through learning from my peers.

When scaling, how do you ensure your team doesnt lose the elements that made it so successful in the first place?

Ensurethat candidates are well-grounded in the values of the founders. I have always believed that the best way to learn and grow as a professional is through learning from my peers, so building an atmosphere of trust and continuous learning is very important to me.

As the VP of Sales at Chowly, which integrates third-party delivery platforms with restaurants, Tom Lawton does his best to pay attention to his individual team members. This means understanding understanding what motivates them individually and collectively as well ashearing what changes theyd like to see to sales protocols.

Whats your blueprint for building a sales team? How did you identify these keys and how have they made an impact as you build a team?

While I dont believe there is a cookie-cutter blueprint to building and scaling a successful sales team, I do believe there are key factors to ensure the team has the opportunity to be successful.

As a sales leader, creating a strong collaborative culture is the first thing I set out to do. You spend more time during the week at work with your team than you do with family and I am very intentional in building a team environment that supports that. After building that cultural foundation, you learn what motivates individuals and teams, so you can identify which levers to pull in certain situations. This could mean additional bonus incentives for a given time period, or collaborating with marketing on a specific message we want to spread to drive additional leads.

Next, I really drive home understanding the science and art of sales, like knowing how many touch points, conversations and scheduled pitches it takes to close. Combining that with what you say, how you say it and your mindset throughout the entire sales process brings the formula of the science plus art to life.

I believe that while hiring is very critical, retaining your sales reps is even more important.

When scaling, how do you ensure your team doesnt lose the elements that made it so successful in the first place?

I believe that your team carries the culture as you scale. Ensuring that you never stop learning and continue to take in as much feedback from your team as possible as you scale is important. Every time we onboard someone, we ask for as much feedback as possible to ensure the next time, we get better as a leadership team.

I want to ensure everyone has a voice as we grow. We hold quarterly meetings on any sales-bible rule changes the team would like to vote on. We create certain criteria but ultimately, the team adjusts the "settings" so we have 100 percent buy-in and alignment across the organization.

While hiring is very critical, retaining your sales reps is even more important. From managers and directors to VPs, I want to make sure that when we hire someone, we give them every possible chance to succeed.

A quarterback cant succeed if theyre told to act as a teams punter. BigTime Softwares Senior VP of Sales Michael Morrison believes that putting people in positions where they can succeed based on their skills is key to building a successful sales team.

In order to do that, he said its first necessary to determine the specific skills needed for success in each role.

Whats your blueprint for building a sales team? How did you identify these keys and how have they made an impact as you build a team?

When I build a sales team, I always start by researching and quantifying targets. Understanding who prospects are, where to find them and how to best engage with them is essential to organizing the most effective team.

Based on over 20 years of experience in sales, I believe the second step is putting the right people in the right roles by establishing the critical skills and competencies for each position on the team. This ensures that you are hiring, training and evaluating talent based on the most relevant criteria.

The final step is execution and iteration based on the key performance indicators of the business. Are team members achieving their goals? Why or why not, and what can leaders do to help?

"A formula of regularly celebrating wins while learning from losses helps to foster an open and transparent culture.

When scaling, how do you ensure your team doesnt lose the elements that made it so successful in the first place?

This is accomplished by putting people first. Whether its training or hiring, you must establish practices that ensure that you hire individuals based on the right criteria and that you are providing them with the environment and the resources to be successful. This, along with a formula of regularly celebrating wins while learning from losses, helps to foster an open and transparent culture where people can contribute, develop and grow as the organization scales.

Commercial Sales Manager Jordan Gorosh and other leaders at TripActions encourage their sales teams to put both themselves,and the customers, first.

Gorosh said users of the business travel booking platform are a priority and striving to meeting their needs is a foundational value. However, employees are also pushed to invest in their own professional needs by advancing their skills through the companys continual learning framework.

Whats your blueprint for building a sales team? How did you identify these keys and how have they made an impact as you build a team?

The DNA of any sales team is built on its people and we place a strong emphasis on making sure each person is a cultural fit for the organization. Our core value of putting the user first is tied intrinsically to our sales team, and its leaders cascade that value throughout the team early and often. As weve grown and scaled our team to match that growth, keeping our users top-of-mind ensures were finding the right people who will own our mission and beliefs.

"We center our teams around the concept of continuous learning...

When scaling, how do you ensure your team doesnt lose the elements that made it so successful in the first place?

We center our teams around the concept of continuous learning, accountability, real-time feedback and personal reflection. Each TripActions employee is trained to use our debriefing and continual learning framework to ensure that no matter how fast were moving, were taking the time to learn for our own sakes and the sake of the business.

Have you ever struggled to find your keys, with no recollection or roadmap to even narrow down the search (did you leave them in the kitchen or on your desk)? Onna helps you find what youre looking for, no matter where it is, within a digital landscape. We recently spoke with Russ Grant, VP of revenue, about why understanding how they support businesses is key in growing their sales team.

Whats your blueprint for building a sales team? How did you identify these keys and how have they made an impact as you build a team?

There is no blueprint, unfortunately. Each company needs to understand its market, buyer and internal team, and base their hiring plan off of those audiences. We serve such a huge potential market. Near-term, we are focused on building value for mission-critical applications for legal, compliance and IT teams and companies.

Building a team at our stage is truly about diversity. Different approaches to the sales process, ways of thinking about the industry and team interaction all play into our hiring decisions.

"Training, onboarding and culture are all constantly a work in progress.

When scaling, how do you ensure your team doesnt lose the elements that made it so successful in the first place?

Weve set out with a plan for scale. How do we support a business a thousand times our current size? This helps us make decisions in context and set expectations for the amazing people were bringing on.

Training, onboarding and culture are all constantly a work in progress. We dont pretend to have a perfect mold. Were also building an international team, so we have to simultaneously look for ways to integrate and enable every employee for success. Even if its a new role, we ask employees what they feel they need to succeed.

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How to Build And Scale A Successful Sales Team - Built In

Governor wants to restore 7% rate, where it was before his predecessor struck a deal with lawmakers to soothe hike in gasoline levy

Nearly two years after New Jerseys sales-tax was dropped to 6.625%, the tax cut remains a subject of debate between Gov. Phil Murphy and legislative leaders from his own party.

Murphy has long been a critic of the cut, which has cost the state budget more than $500 million a year at a time when bills for things like public-worker pensions have been rising.

The revenue loss has also made it harder for Murphy, a first-term Democrat, to boost funding for mass transit, community college tuition aid and other things that he campaigned on in 2017.

But many lawmakers, including Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester), have steadfastly defended the sales-tax deal they cut with former Republican Gov. Chris Christie, which dropped the rate in two stages from 7%. They also resisted Murphys attempt to reinstate the old rate in last years state budget proposal, citing voter concerns about New Jerseys generally high tax burden.

The battle was rejoined just last week when Murphy called the tax cut a gimmick, in response to the latest education-funding proposal put forward by Sweeney. That drew a sharp response from the Senate president, who accused Murphy of seeking a $1 billion tax hike a figure that incorporates the revenue boost stemming both from repealing the sales tax cut and implementing the true millionaires tax the governor has championed as a way to bolster funding for K-12 schools.

At 6.625%, New Jerseys sales-tax rate falls below the highest in the nation, a distinction that goes to California, at 7.25%. The two-step reduction that occurred between Jan. 1, 2017 and Jan. 1, 2018 also pushed New Jersey below several other states that have a 7% rate, including Mississippi, Rhode Island and Tennessee.

Other factors mitigate the impact of the sales tax on households. New Jersey exempts many products, such as clothing and groceries. And, for the most part, local governments in the state are not permitted to levy their own tax on retail sales.

In all, New Jerseys sales-tax policies ranked 30thout of 50 in the latest State Business Tax Climate Index released in October by the Washington, D.C.-based Tax Foundation. That ranking is much better than where the state lands in the right-leaning organizations analysis when excise taxes are added to the equation. New Jersey sits at 42ndout of 50 in that expanded category, due largely to a significant increase of the state gas tax that was part of the same bipartisan deal that triggered the minor sales-tax reduction.

Yet Murphy has regularly criticized the tax swapapproved by Christie in 2016, arguing that most residents havent noticed any difference at the cash register.

Last week, Murphy again raised the issue, suggesting that restoring the 7% sales tax was preferable to Sweeneys proposal to allow some communitiesto offset reductions in state education aid by exceeding the current 2% limit on annual property-tax increases.

At that time, he also suggested again that raising the income-tax rate on earnings between $1 million and $5 million could yield even more money for public education and obviate the need for property-tax hikes.

Sweeney and other lawmakers have steadfastly resisted the governors push for a true millionaires tax, a key to Murphys tax-policythat hes estimated would raise more than $500 million each year.

Before middle-class property taxpayers have to again take it on the chin, we should be asking our wealthiest residents to pay their fair share through a millionaires tax and undoing Governor Christies tax gimmicks, including the sales tax reduction, Murphy said.

In response, Sweeney accused Murphy of once again seeking a major tax hike.

His proposed $1 billion tax hike wouldnt put a penny into overfunded districts under the school funding bill, Sweeney said, referencing the way state tax revenue is divvied up among district in the state.

While the dispute over tax policy is likely to continue on in 2020, the state could soon be facing another revenue crunchthanks to a deal on taxes that Murphy, Sweeney and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin (D-Middlesex) struck in 2018. The states top-end corporate-tax rate was increased temporarily to forestall the possibility of more broad-based tax hikes or deep spending cuts. But the temporary surcharge will begin phasing out on Jan. 1, with the rate dropping from 11.5% to 10.5%.

At the same time, the states projected pension contribution is expected to increase by roughly $750 million, to around $4.5 billion, in fiscal year 2021, which begins July 1. And right now, theres no agreed-upon plan in place to fund the higher pension contribution, other than hoping for continued growth in overall revenues.

Some groups, including the left-leaning New Jersey Policy Perspective, have also called for a reinstatement of the 7% sales tax.

In fact, a reportissued by the think tank last year also called for an expansion of the types of services that are subject to the sales tax as the economy continues to shift from the production of goods to services. Under NJPPs plan, services like real-estate management, loan brokerage, data-processing, limousines, chartered flights, accounting and bookkeeping would lose their current sales-tax exemption.

Christies sales-tax cut still barely registers with low- and middle-income families in New Jersey because items like clothing and groceries remain exempt from the sales tax, said Sheila Reynertson, the NJPP senior policy analyst who authored the report.

Instead, it primarily benefits the wealthiest residents in the state who have the most disposable income to spend, and robs the state of over $600 million in revenue that could be invested in areas proven to grow the economy like strong public schools, transit infrastructure, job training, and much more, she said Tuesday.

See the article here:
Murphy and Sweeney Continue to Spar Over Cut in Sales Tax - NJ Spotlight

Sales Training Market research Report is a valuable supply of perceptive information for business strategists. This Sales Training Market study provides comprehensive data which enhances the understanding, scope and application of this report.

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Global Sales Training Market Size, Status and Forecast 2024 1 Market Overview 2 Manufacturers Profiles 3 Global Sales Training Sales, Revenue, Market Share andCompetitionby Manufacturer 4 Global Sales Training Market Analysis by Regions 5 North America Sales Training by Countries 6 Europe Sales Training by Countries 7 Asia-Pacific Sales Training by Countries 8 South America Sales Training by Countries 9 Middle East and Africa Sales Training by Countries 10 Global Sales Training Market Segment by Type 11 Global Sales Training Market Segment by Application 12 Sales Training Market Forecast 13 Sales Channel, Distributors, Traders and Dealers 14 Research Findings and Conclusion 15 Appendix

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Sales Training Market Technological Advancement, Growth Rate, Demand and Top Key Players: Action Selling, IMPAX, BTS, Imparta, The Brooks, DoubleDigit...

The holiday season is here and there are rafts of new associates manning registers and helping stores handle swarms of shoppers. But how are these associates finding their seasonal roles? Many retailers already use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in their recruiting systems for hiring the best and brightest seasonal help. Human resource tasks such as screening and hiring are more efficient and accurate thanks to the AI envisioned a few years ago and in operation today.

Nevertheless, landing a good employee is only the first step in making this season a winning year for shopper loyalty, conversions, and same-store sales. Once hired, every new employee instantly becomes a brand ambassador and critical resource for shoppers exploring the store, possibly for the first time. That good hire must quickly become a great ambassador or the bad news will travel fast. According to Andrew Thomas, founder of Skybell Video Doorbell, it takes roughly 40 positive customer experiences to undo the damage of a single negative review.

Read More: The Future of Works Most Crucial Component: Artificial Intelligence

Great ambassadors need help getting started and AI is about to tackle the problems of spinning up new employees.

New and existing employees serve the customer best when they are energetic, motivated and supported. Training is seldom effective in bringing out these essential human characteristics because they are an in-the-moment-every-moment responsibility. These human behaviors do not fit easily in a classroom when the real challenge occurs on the retail floor. Whats needed for behavioral support is continuous attitudinal awareness, gentle encouragement, motivational nudging and a supportive buddy who is always available.

Employees represent the company best when they know the products, have clarity of the brand and timely exposure to proven Sales messages a daunting challenge for a new employee in an industry where training time is costly and the Sales floor is frequently chaotic. Retailers need to know exactly which information needs reinforcing, who needs to hear the information, how much information they can digest when the best time to deliver it is and in which location the information makes the most educational impact.

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The obvious vehicle for delivering both support and education to new employees is clear and continuous communication with veteran employees. Unfortunately, our 1950s walkie-talkies and our high-tech heads-down smart devices do not solve the problem nor fit the retail floor. The former clutters the ear with mostly irrelevant chatter, while the latter destroys both situational awareness and shopper rapport.

Whats needed is a conversational platform powered by Natural Language Processing that connects employees with each other or with the information available in the company IT systems on the spot, without having to rely on a screen. Using intelligent mediation within the communication platform assures each employee gets the best information, at the right time, in the right location.

Once a conversational platform replaces the old walkie-talkies, regular mobile devices become occasional-use, specialized tools. The AI platform learns the environment and transforms the employees measurably improving associate effectiveness and the shopper experience. Todays conversational platforms are able to add AI that dissects conversations and directs information to specific employees, at specific times, in specific locations. This information may be anything from the name of the customer approaching them to collect an online order in the store, a register backup call (with the opportunity to instantly respond), or an accurate technical answer to a question from an expert group anywhere in the world.

The conversations enabled between employees across the store contain the full context of what they know and offers management insight into how they share when they inspire, and where they perform the best. The conversations contain solutions.

AI is a natural progression in the evolution of conversational platforms for mobile store team members. The platforms available today connect employees, groups and IT systems using intelligent mediation while simultaneously collecting data for measuring performance. It wont be long before AI overlays these platforms with deep analytics of employee behaviors, derivation of critical messaging, and quantum leaps in shopper experiences.

Read More: The Future of AI: More Automation and Less Empathic Interaction

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Seasonal Associate - AiThority

It's a $4 million, three-year effort to identify sustainability strategies for our industry a freestanding entity in our Austin newsroom where well experiment with innovative ways to fund journalism, model best practices, and mentor dozens of our would-be peers.

by Evan Smith Dec. 2, 201912 PM

Here at Texas Tribune HQ, the last couple of months have been ... interesting. First we mounted our biggest and most successful ideas weekend ever: 450 speakers, nearly 9,000 registrants, $2.3 million in gross revenue. Then we announced plans for a massive investigative journalism strike force in partnership with our pals at ProPublica: five years, more than $8.5 million spent on deep-dive reporting, and eleven new hires. Then we celebrated the tenth anniversary of our launch a legit milestone. Then we told the world that our editor-in-chief and chief audience officer are leaving the nest to start the next great nonprofit news org, creating two openings on our masthead that will be among the best jobs in the business.

Today Im excited to share the latest big news from the Tribune: Were creating our first-ever revenue and training lab a freestanding entity, housed in our Austin newsroom, where well experiment with innovative ways to fund local news, model best practices that we hope will benefit the entire ecosystem, and mentor and coach dozens of our would-be peers. Rodney Gibbs, currently our chief product officer, will shift from that role to become the executive director of the RevLab, as weve already started to shorthand it. Hell soon be hiring a handful of people to join him in this noble pursuit of sustainability strategies for our industry.

The RevLab is a nearly $4 million, three-year initiative, and it will be funded by philanthropic support over and above our annual raise for operations. The good news is were already more than 60 percent of the way there: The Facebook Journalism Project has generously made a lead gift of $2.5 million to fund our earliest work part of its overall commitment, announced in January, to spend $300 million to help local news organizations grow and thrive. Well raise the remaining $1.5 million from any number of generous organizations and individuals who believe, as we do, that were more all more thoughtful and productive citizens when were better informed and more civically engaged.

Of course, the Tribune has been in the modeling-of-best-practices business for a while now. Going back many years, weve been regularly hosting groups of news entrepreneurs idealistic, visionary, eager to serve their communities who want to better understand our approach to our work over the last decade. Theyre interested in lessons learned, mistakes made, unexpected successes. They ask to tour our office, see our budget, spend time with our department heads. They hope to absorb the sales pitch to our members and donors: that this is as much or more about strengthening our democracy as it is about enabling great journalism. They ask to appropriate the tools and products weve built for their organizations. And they seek our guidance on the technical challenges all newsrooms face when it comes to realizing the full financial value of their work.

They dont assume we certainly dont that we have all the answers, but we may have some that apply to their situation back home. Were happy to be a resource for our fellow travelers. We welcome them into our midst whenever they call, and all of this consulting and sharing, from day one through today, is free (it always will be). The creation of the RevLab is a formalizing of this process. It will allow us to dedicate time to and train our focus on helping more start-ups and even some existing orgs think creatively about the future of local news.

This is great news for the Tribune and, we think, for journalism. Were honored to do this work and cant wait to get started. Watch this space for more on the RevLabs launch, job postings, and the ways communities around the country can benefit.

Perhaps it goes without saying but producing quality journalism isn't cheap. At a time when newsroom resources and revenue across the country are declining, The Texas Tribune remains committed to sustaining our mission: creating a more engaged and informed Texas with every story we cover, every event we convene and every newsletter we send. As a nonprofit newsroom, we rely on members to help keep our stories free and our events open to the public. Do you value our journalism? Show us with your support.

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T-Squared: Were creating our first local news revenue and training lab - The Texas Tribune

Ryan T. Sauers has spent 25 years leading and/or consulting with printing, graphics, promotional and visual communications related organizations. Ryan is President of the independent consulting firm, Sauers Consulting Strategies, founded in 2010.

Key areas of focus of the firm include: sales training, marketing strategy, personal branding, leadership development and organizational change.

Sauers is a frequent national speaker and columnist. He has been recognized as one of the top 80 CMOs in the world and achieved the top designation of Certified Marketing Executive through Sales and Marketing Executives International.

Sauers is an adjunct university professor teaching leadership and communication courses to current and aspiring leaders. He is a Certified Myers Briggs, DiSC and Emotional Intelligence Practitioner (one of few in US to achieve all 3 rigorous certifications related to human communications, personality & behavior).

Sauers is working on his Doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership and hosts a radio show in Atlanta (Marketing Matters). He is author of the best-selling books Everyone is in Sales and Would You Buy from You? More info at: RyanSauers.com

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The Keys to Successful Sales Training - Printing Impressions

When I meet with training departments and their leaders, often our conversation turns to very specific business imperatives, such as leadership or skill development needed within the organization. I believe each person has the ability at a foundational level to either fight or accept change and challenge. Accepting change and challenge develops the core of being receptive to any type of training or coaching or mentoring.

Too often, organizations will spend money on training leaders and employees tactically specific to their job requirements. While this is important, there could be a missing piece. What if we trained and coached employees to develop a positive relationship with change and challenge? What if we utilize something called perspective-based coaching that fuels employees' minds positively on a consistent basis, using coaching questions to help them develop a positive and proactive relationship with change and challenge? Wouldn't these employees become more coachable and approachable? Would this help leaders become better coaches because the recipients of their coaching would be more accepting? Would training departments have better opportunities to work with management as training reinforcement partners if employees were more accepting of both training and coaching, as they would have more opportunity to work effectively together?

At my company, we have programs that actually fuel people's minds positively by either having them read a positive story or view an inspirational video. The key is to use messaging through stories and video, getting people to gain perspective and then to actualize that perspective by answering coaching questions, such as the following:

What have you learned about yourself?

What have you learned about yourself that you're committed to improving?

What actions could you take to positively move forward based on the lesson you completed?

What perspective have you gained that you think will successfully position you to become a great teammate?

Let's get specific. Years ago I had a young salesperson I was coaching who was extremely resistant to feedback, coaching or any type of assistance, for that matter. Needless to say, we needed him to improve his sales numbers, but we took a different tack. Instead of focusing on selling skills, we focused on developing the person. Each week we had him read a positive story that only took two to three minutes or watch a video that was inspiring, such as a military reunion. In addition, we asked the employee to journal what he learned about himself that he was committed to improving and what actions he would take. Last, we asked the employee to perform a random act of kindness once a week that demonstrated something thoughtful for another employee at the company.

Something very interesting happened. The employee began to develop more positive relationships at work, which in turn developed a more positive outlook for this employee to come to work more positively. The employees more positive relationships converted to people who were more willing to help this employee improve his sales. After 11 months, this employee improved his sales by over 40% with no tactical sales training or coaching having been done.

Often, we are focused on the job and its duties, when in fact we need to develop employees' core foundational behaviors and attitudes that allow them to accept change and challenge. This will translate to more of a willingness and acceptance of tactical training and coaching.

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Are We Coaching And Training Too Tactically? - Forbes

Absurdly Drivenlooks at the world of business with a skeptical eye and a firmly rooted tongue in cheek.

Working in retail is hard.

It's especially hard during the holiday season as frenzy rises and tempers fray.

Retailers set enormous goals for the season. For many, it may represent a considerable part of their annual revenues.

This means employees have to be maximally engaged.

For some, though, there are now additional concerns.

At Target, for example, employees are going through sudden, additional training.

It isn'tsales training.

It's active-shooter training.

As Business Insider reports, the retailer has expanded its active-shooter drills to most of itsemployees, where previously it had been confined to some managers and security personnel.

Target tried to make it sound very matter-of-fact:

We enhanced our emergency preparedness and response training, as we do every year, and expanded active-shooter training this fall to include all of our stores, distribution centers, and headquarters team members.

It isn't mere routine, though, is it?

In so many parts of the world, retail employeeswould be aghast that theyhave to prepare for someone walking into their store with an automatic weapon, ready to fire indiscriminately.

I grew up over the water, where there was no thought of guns in daily life.

I know I won't persuade you that it's possible to live in a society where being armed is utterly abnormal.

I know that there are many cultural and political reasons why the U.S. is so embedded in the gun ethos.

I also know how aggressively and callouslygun lobby groups try to maintain an atmosphere of fear in order to sell more weapons.

I quite understand, therefore, why Target has taken this painful step.

Please imagine, though, the emotions of Target's employees.

They know that a shooting could happen at any time, anywhere.

Once, though, retail employees were trained to deal with shoplifters, not murderers.

Now, their already difficultjobs are made increasingly precarious by the thought that something truly terrible might happen.

It's not as if Target is alone in offering such training.

It's just that as we come upon what's supposed to be a time of happiness, as these employees are working in a business that has become increasingly volatile, they have yet anotherworry.

Someone, somewhere might think this isn't right.

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

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Target Is Asking Employees to Take the Sort of Training No Employee Should Ever Have to Do - Inc.