NZSALES MAY | ISSUE 94
Finding the Core Competencies for Sales Success
NZ’S E-MAG FOR SALES LEADERS | WWW.NZSALESMANAGER.CO.NZ
From the Editor W
riting this on the day of the big Wellington ‘wet’, and having endured the worst of the traffic chaos, I’ve had plenty of time to exercise my powers of resilience, patience and being adaptable to a situation totally beyond my control.
There’s not much you can do when stuck in traffic unable to turn round. It’s often said that the skills needed to succeed in sales are life skills, and today was a good test of some life skills! In this issue, the second part of Steve Evans excellent article explores the competencies for sales success, which include
resilience and adaptability. If you are hiring now or in the future, the article provides a very useful reference for how to find evidence of the competencies in your candidates. Jill Konrath’s thoughts on wearing the black clothes should get you thinking too. What colour is your ‘power suit’?
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ABOUT Short and sharp, New Zealand Sales Manager is a free e-magazine delivering thought provoking and enlightening articles, and industry news and information to forward-thinking sales managers, business owners and sales professionals. 02 |
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contents
MAY
THIS MONTH'S MUST READ...............................................................................................................6 FINDING THE CORE COMPETENCIES FOR SALES SUCCESS
INTERVIEW....................................................................................................................12 SALES SYNDICATE SELLING A PRICE INCREASE..........................................................................................16 DEALING WITH DIFFICULT PEOPLE............................................................................................20
TWO MINUTE TOP-UP.......................................................................................................................24 CAN WEARING BLACK REALLY GIVE YOU A SALES EDGE?
QUICK FIX..........................................................................................................................................26 It’s not what you sell, it’s how you sell
WISE WORDS....................................................................................................................................27 BOOK REVIEW...................................................................................................................................28 Zero to One by Peter Theil
CALENDAR.......................................................................................................................29 THE CLOSE........................................................................................................................................30
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MUSTREAD
Finding the Core Competencies for Sales Success
Following on from the article in the last issue of NZSM, Hiring Your Next Superstar, Steve Evans explores the core sales competencies, and suggests interview questions to evaluate them.
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et’s assume you have embarked on the three steps to improving your decision making in selecting the candidates most likely to perform in the role. 1. Knowing what you are looking for 2. Raising your game in interviewing 3. Backing up your selection decision
In order to address points one and two, getting a firm grasp of competency or behavioural based interviewing is a must. To achieve this, you will need to invest in at least a one-day effective interviewing training session with a reputable provider. However, if you are about to interview sales candidates before you can get trained, then the absolute basics of the competency based interview is to explore specific examples of a candidates' experiences to date. Insist on specific occasions when they have faced situations critical to success in your business, find out how they handled those situations and what they learned from the experience. Then ask them how they applied that learning in subsequent similar situations. Try to dismiss any attempt by the candidate to brush over your requests for examples and talk in general or hypothetical terms, and the candidate brought back to the question at hand. Based on the work of Professor Steve Poppleton, author of the highly effective Poppleton Allen Sales Aptitude Test (PASAT), the core competencies associated with success in a sales environment are listed below. I have also suggested initial interview questions to explore each candidate's experiences, skills and behaviours in that competency.
The competency based interview is to explore specific examples of a candidates' experiences to date. Insist on specific occasions when they have faced situations critical to success in your business, find out how they handled those situations and what they learned from the experience. www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz |
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MOTIVATION High performers are motivated by targets. They tend to set personal targets above those set by their employer and enjoy having their performance measured and see success as the results of their efforts.
Q's
Describe the sales performance targets set for you in your current job.
Do you think they are reasonable and achievable? What personal targets do you set for yourself over and above those set by your manager? How have you performed against these targets?
EMOTIONAL RESILIENCE & STABILITY How does the candidate deal with setbacks and rejection and still get up the next day without being daunted by the previous days disappointments? This also relates to accepting criticism, being consistent in dealing with others, not exhibiting jealousy and not letting home life affect work life.
Q's
Describe an occasion where you lost a big sale to a competitor. How did you motivate yourself to get back into the marketplace the next day?
What did you learn from the experience?
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RELATIONSHIP BUILDING & MAINTENANCE The importance a candidate places on establishing new relationships and maintaining profitable relationships with existing clients. This includes how others see them. For example, are they warm, approachable, genuinely interested in others? Do they seek agreement and progress in their working relationships?
Q's
Take me through the process you use to establish an effective working relationship with a new prospect or client, and illustrate your answer with actual examples. Give me another example of how you maintain strong, profitable relationships with existing clients
CHANGE MANAGEMENT & SPOTTING UNPLANNED OPPORTUNITIES
CONTROL & INFLUENCE
High performers thrive on change, get excited about new ways of doing things, actively seek out and respond to unplanned opportunities. They are more likely to embrace professional and personal development on a regular basis.
Q's
Q's
Describe an occasion where you spotted an unplanned opportunity to make a sale. How did you take advantage of the situation? What was the outcome? What was the last major change you experienced at work? What role did you play in bringing that change to fruition?
Not to be confused with manipulation, successful sales people can control situations and influence people through being observant, attentive, interesting and bending the occasional rule in order to reach their objective. Describe an occasion where you had to stretch your influencing skills to get a result. What did you do to overcome that clients concerns or objections to your proposal?
PLANNING, ORGANISING & CONSCIENTIOUSNESS No trust equals no sale. So how better to generate trust with a new prospect and reinforce trust with existing clients than to demonstrate your meticulous attention to detail, deliver on promises on time, remember personal and business details of your clients and turn up on time and be prepared. Sales staff who place high value on planning and organising, coupled with strong conscientiousness quickly establish trust
Q's
Give me an example from your job that demonstrates your meticulous attention to detail, planning and organising skills.
Find another example of how you have prepared for a sales meeting or presentation for a big client.
What benefits did that change bring to the business?
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SELF-ASSURANCE
ATTENTIVENESS & ADAPTABILITY
Showing confidence in a broad range of situations helps sales people to be persuasive, responsive to clients’ requests, relate well to different people and take responsibility for the advice and decisions they give that affect others.
The X-factor in sales effectiveness can be the subtle way in which some sales people listen to the words and phrases their clients use. How they take in their non-verbal communications and seamlessly adapt their behaviour to match and compliment the behaviour of others. These are the sales superstars who understand and react to the knowledge that people buy from people they like.
Q's
Describe an occasion where you felt ‘out of your depth’ in your sales job. What did you do to overcome that situation? Find another example of where you have been asked to meet important clients at very short notice. Take me through the steps you took to prepare and deliver to this client.
Q's
Talk me through what you pay attention to when meeting a prospect for the first time.
Find an example of where you have formed a working relationship with someone who has a very different outlook on life to your own. How did this person differ from you? How did you adapt your approach to appeal to this person? What affect did your adapted approach have on your working relationship?
This article is no substitute for raising your game in interviewing through competency based interview training, but ought to give recruiting managers a flavour of the competencies and behaviours associated with success in sales. The insight to which competencies are most applicable to your business, and the type of questions that uncover whether each candidate has the potential to be a high performer in your business. •
www.peoplecentral.co.nz
Steve Evans of People Central helps businesses to attract, recruit, retain and develop talented individuals and teams. Visit Steve’s website at www.peoplecentral.co.nz 010 |
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Sales Syndicate
Sales Syndicate helps increase sales management confidence and results by providing a unique peer to peer approach to ongoing coaching and development in Sales Leadership. 012 |
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Tell us about Sales Syndicate’s new sales management programme. What is it and why is it different? The Sales Syndicate sales management programme is simple and unique. We facilitate monthly half day meetings where like-minded sales leaders will meet and work together to gain knowledge and hands on input to the issues and challenges they face as sales managers. The participants of the programme are made up of individuals from non-competing companies who meet up in the second week of every month. The first half of the morning long session is an hour and a half of continuing education in an area directly connected with the role of sales management (see the Curriculum topics listed to your right). The second half is focused on the participants, where they update and discuss issues that are affecting them in their roles. Peers are invited to give feedback, advice and share experiences that may help participants better overcome their sales management issues. Sales managers are also provided a quarterly coaching session to implement positive change in their organisation.
SALES SYNDICATE CURRICULUM • Commission plans • Motivating teams • Sales leadership • Sales model • Pipeline management to implement positive change in their organisation • Recruitment • Account management plans • CRM design and use • Sales Meeting content and management • Health and wellbeing
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"Ongoing improvement in sales management knowledge, positive and tangible impact on the sales team’s performance, networking with other sales leaders, benchmarking against your peers, all which should lead to increased company revenue."
Why did you create the programme? What key problems does it help Sales Manager’s solve? We have long known that Sales Management is a complex and challenging role with issues such as recruitment, pipeline management, incentive plans, systems and leadership all providing consistent headaches for sales leaders. We have created Sales Syndicate to reduce these headaches, to remove the isolation that sales managers feel and to provide them with an ongoing opportunity for capability improvement. We want to challenge sales managers with different pathways that they can implement back into their companies but also allow them to make their own choices without following a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Sales Syndicate is providing an opportunity to learn through facilitated sessions with guest speakers, coaches and importantly to learn from fellow participants from different industries in a peer to peer environment. 014 |
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What positive outcomes can participants expect to get from being a part of the Sales Syndicate programme? Ongoing improvement in sales management knowledge, positive and tangible impact on the sales team’s performance, networking with other sales leaders, benchmarking against your peers, all which should lead to increased company revenue.
Who are the key people involved in your team? Miles Valentine, who among other career highlights was the founder and CEO of Zeacom which he grew into a global business employing 200 people including 45 sales staff and eventually selling the company for $40m in 2012. Miles has always led the sales functions of every business he has been involved in and has been in pretty much every selling situation imaginable. Mike Stokes was most recently the Sales and Marketing director of The Icehouse which during his 7 years at the company experienced significant year on year growth. Mike not only led the sales and marketing functions of the business to considerable growth but also worked alongside hundreds of companies looking to grow. Both Miles and Mike bring real world experience from past roles as sales people, sales managers and managing directors and are extremely passionate about providing a platform for improvement for other sales leaders.
Having had Sales Management experience yourselves, what is the biggest mistake you made early on and what did you learn from it? Both of us have made our fair share of mistakes. Like most sales managers we’ve learned a lot of our lessons the hard way (on the job). Miles: One of my biggest mistakes was not being selective enough when choosing channel partners particularly in the United States where quantity of resellers does not guarantee sales success. Mike: One of the biggest mistakes that stands out for me, was as an early sales manager thinking it was also my role to be the best sales person in the organisation. I now know the number one priority as a sales manager should be coaching and providing the platform for your team to be the best they can be.
In your opinion what is the number one attribute (not skill) people need to develop to be a successful Sales Manager? One of the most important traits you need to develop to be a successful sales leader, is to be hungry for knowledge and to be coachable. Learning can come from multiple sources and successful people are usually very good at looking and listening at alternative options before making a decision about what they choose to implement. Embracing change and having a healthy dose of energy and drive will also never go amiss.•
www.salessyndicate.co.nz
If you have the desire to significantly improve as a Sales Leader and want to increase your sales team’s results, get in touch with Miles or Mike here: www.salessyndicate.co.nz www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
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Selling a Price Increase Words by Mark Hunter
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ven the most sales savvy among us has had to fight back the nerves that materialise whenever we are faced with telling a customer about a price increase.
Talking about it never makes for an easy conversation. When discussing a price increase in a business-to-business environment, it is important to remember that our customers have probably had to have the same discussion with their customers. A company exists only as long as it earns a profit, and it can only do that if it delivers a quality product or service at the right price. This means that the key to any conversation about raising the price is to emphasise that such an increase will ensure product quality. As you begin to prepare your strategy for communicating a price increase, ask yourself the following questions:
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the customer take your 1 Does product/service and add a standard percentage increase in price when selling to their customers? If this is the case, you can point out that your customer will make more money by taking a standard percentage of a higher amount. percentage of the 2 What customer’s business is your product/service? If the percentage is small, tell them that the amount of increase is only a small percentage of their total business. If the percentage is great, then you can emphasise that the price increase is necessary to maintain the level of product quality necessary for them to serve their customers.
3 Has the customer faced any other
price increases from other vendors? If so, try to identify what some percentages of the other increases have been. If yours falls into the low end, then you can point out how your increase is comparatively smaller than that of many others. If your increase is at the high end, you can either explain how yours is the only one you expect to take or that you wouldn’t be surprised to see others coming back to take another round of price increases.
does the customer view you 4 How and the products/services you sell?
If you have a quality reputation and record, then you can emphasise that the increase has been carefully thought through and it is only being taken to ensure continued quality. If you have a spotty record with the customer, then you should stress how the price increase will allow you to begin addressing some of the issues in question by allowing you to improve the overall quality of service they have been receiving. Naturally, it is important to make sure all comments are backed with a commitment to follow-through.
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Will the customer raise an issue with the price increase? Be prepared to show documentation of how your costs have escalated and how other companies are experiencing the same increases. (An example is the increasing cost of oil, which has forced any company that uses petroleum in the manufacturing or transportation of goods to most likely increase prices.) When having this discussion, be sure to show empathy for the customer, but remain firm in what you’re saying. If the customer senses any hesitation on your part, they will likely try to exploit it in the form of a price concession from you. Also, be prepared to share steps that your company has taken in an attempt to avoid a price increase. This can include ways you’ve already cut costs or how the price increase is the only way to maintain the quality and service the customer expects. A final point to emphasise is the time lag between this price increase and the previous increase. Having information available concerning the rate of inflation during that specific period may also help diffuse the issue.
6 Why does the customer buy from you? Knowing this will allow you to
reinforce these points when talking about the price increase. You should also have ready at least two key needs of the customer that your product or service satisfies. Be sure all of your strategic information about the customer is up-to-date before a price increase is announced.
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How much business is at risk from the customer? We can sometimes get carried away thinking that if we raise prices, we’ll lose the customer, even though this is rarely the case. Think through what steps the customer would have to take to move to another vendor. Many times the work involved in moving is not worth the effort, and thus the business is less at risk than thought. www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz |
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A company exists only as long as it earns a profit, and it can only do that The following Sales Presentation are the best practices to employ if it delivers a tips when executing a price increase: quality product THE CUSTOMER LEAD-TIME. Provide the customer with enough or service 1 GIVE notice to allow them to make adjustments in their information systems at the right and to exercise at least one more order at the existing price. price. This 2AVOID SHOWING FAVOURITES. Pricing integrity is always essential, means that but especially so during a price change. Do not treat particular the key to any customers more favourably than others in pricing during an Different pricing levels are fine as long as they can be conversation increase. logically defended so that a customer who is not receiving the price about raising break can understand and accept the price change. the price is to 3 DO NOT ALLOW YOUR CUSTOMER TO FIND OUT ABOUT A PRICE INCREASE emphasise FROM YOUR INVOICE. Any changes in pricing must come from the that such account executive or a person of high position within the company. regarding a price change should only appear on an an increase Information invoice after every person involved has been personally notified will ensure sufficient time should occur in the price increase timeline to allow at product quality. least one invoice to contain a note of the pending increase in price. 018 |
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5 BELIEVE IN THE PRICE INCREASE. In order to be paid what you 4
MAKE SURE EACH CUSTOMER SERVICE REPRESENTATIVE AND ANYONE ELSE WHO COMES IN CONTACT WITH THE CUSTOMER Is fully aware of when the price increase is going to be communicated. One of the most significant possibilities for confusion is when the customer hears conflicting information from different departments. Everyone in customer service needs to be fully aware of the price increase, the reasoning behind it, and the logistics for implementation. They should also be provided with a FAQ guide to ensure that when customers do ask them about elements of the pricing increase, they can share accurate information.
are worth, you must charge what you are worth. Although this is not something that can be explicitly communicated to the customer, this general sense is what sets apart the best practice companies and high-performing sales professionals.
6 INSTITUTE AN OPEN PHONE/OPEN-DOOR POLICY. Any time a price
increase takes place, it is important for all senior executives to be willing to answer a phone call from a customer or to make phone calls to key customers. For successful consultative selling, nothing sends a stronger signal to a sales organization than seeing their senior executives on the front-line when dealing with a price increase.
7 BEFORE AND AFTER THE PRICE INCREASE, MONITOR THE SALES
PATTERNS OF YOUR INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMERS. It is important to quickly catch any changes that occur as a result of the price increase.
During the 1970s and 1980s, price increases were common and expected. In the past several years, however, we’ve all grown used to lower inflation and the overwhelming impact of Wal-Mart’s philosophy on pricing. Today, price increases are again growing more common and acceptable as long as they are well thought through and not seen as a way to merely increase profits. Because they are an inevitable part of business today, we can’t let ourselves avoid dealing with price increases. Instead, we should seek to use them strategically to increase our selling potential. •
www.TheSalesHunter.com
Mark Hunter, The Sales Hunter, is a consultative selling expert committed to helping individuals and companies identify better prospects, close more sales, and profitably build more long-term customer relationships.
Dealing with Difficult People Words by Allan Smith
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t’s a hard life as a sales person – customers with ever decreasing budgets, sales managers with ever increasing targets. Sellers have always had to deal with difficult people (aggressive buyers, demanding customers, obstinate internal colleagues) but these days, people seem to be more 'difficult' than ever.
One of the questions we often get asked is “How do I negotiate when the other side are aggressive, rude or just nasty?” We have four key tips that will help when the going gets tough. 020 | www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
First things first. Do not get sucked in. The basic ruling emotions of love, hate, fear, lust, and contentment originate in the most basic part of our brain. We humans have three layers of brain, the brain stem, limbic and neuro cortex. Over millions of years of evolution the core brain stem, often referred to as the reptilian brain, has been superceded. Layers of more sophisticated reasoning have been added upon this foundation to make us smarter than the rest of the animal kingdom.
How do we manage the situation when put under this kind of pressure?
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RECOGNISE THE BEHAVIOUR. First question to ask yourself; ‘is it a ploy or is it natural behaviour?’ The answer to this may also depend on whether you are negotiating in a ‘contract’ or ‘relationship’ situation. If the other side is trying to rile you so you feel uncomfortable and may give in more readily, understand what they are doing. If you react to provocation, it is likely to encourage more of the same from your adversary. Stay calm and engage our higher brain systems. Let them go through their rant. Stay quiet and do not engage.
Trouble is that when we are threatened, frightened, lied to, insulted, cheated or treated badly, all this sophistication peels away and the reptilian (or reactionary) brain kicks in.
Once they have finished, summarise their key concerns to show you have been listening and making notes, maybe ask them to go through their concerns again. Be professional. It is very difficult for someone to maintain an aggressive stance for long, particularly if you are calm in response. Resist the temptation to score points.
Once this has happened we lose control of our emotions and sense of perspective, we dig in, fight back, raising the temperature even further, and the negotiation spirals out of control. Or even worse we retreat into our shells and run from the problem, simply giving in. The fundamental fight or flight mechanism.
Fighting back will not in our experience advance your immediate interests and may damage the long term relationship. Moreover, if you are dealing with people who use this tactic, they may be used to using it and be good at it. Better to reframe the negotiation on terms you find more amenable.
If we give in, we reward the bad aggressive behaviour, and by doing so we teach the other side that treating us badly gets results. If it works, they will keep doing it. In fact, many aggressive and unpleasant negotiators got that way by winning concessions after whipping the other side into submission, by (in corporate speak) taking all the skin in the game. So stay in control. Easier said than done, right!
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MAKE ANY MOVEMENT ON YOUR PART, CONDITIONAL. Negotiation is a trading process. Of course, you will have to make concessions if you are negotiating, but make sure that any movement is only achieved if they do something for you too. And get the language right. Put any conditions that you have on making movement clear, specific and up front before making any offers. It is important to make sure that your conditions and offers are realistic. Unrealistic, barking mad proposals that work for you, but not them, will cause even greater aggressive behaviour. Emphasise that the concession offered is because of the logic or content of their argument, not the tone or manner of its delivery. This will help highlight the fact that you have observed, assessed and not been influenced by the adversarial manner. www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
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BUY TIME TO THINK. In the traffic of a hard and aggressive negotiation, it can be incredibly difficult to maintain calm and control. You need to create time to think rationally and decide whether you can negotiate, where your flexibility can be, and importantly what you can trade in return. If you are negotiating with a team, use the other players in the team to buy time by asking them to summarise the position the negotiation has reached. Plan to take breaks in large and difficult negotiations to consider your strategy and clarify objectives. Time out can help you focus on what you want and need and take some heat out of difficult negotiations.
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DO NOT, AND I MEAN DO NOT, JUST GIVE IN. Giving in is the worst thing you can do, because guess what will happen next time? Sometimes the pressure will be on you and you will be made to feel responsible for delaying or deadlocking a deal, so the temptation is just to say “yes”. Two problems here. Firstly, there will be a very real risk that you then have to live with a deal that you should never have agreed to. Second, the next negotiation will simply be more of the same. So buy time. Take a break, meet and discuss strategy for dealing with this behaviour with your colleagues. But don’t surrender.
www.scotwork.co.nz
Negotiations are a part of our everyday life; we all negotiate pretty much all of the time. Coming across a difficult and aggressive negotiator is not that unusual, they are everywhere. Such people believe that negotiation is about conflict and often use war terminology (“ready for battle…?”). Remember the words of Sun Tzu in The Art of War; ‘the supreme art of war is to defeat the enemy without fighting’. Engage your higher level thinking systems and stay in control, keep asking questions and explore ways of coming up with solutions that you can both live with. Losing your control will make you appear unprofessional, giving in will be seen as weak. Training your brain for these situations requires intensive expert coaching, in controlled situations that emulate real-life. Check out our courses or speak to our consultants to find out how we do just that. •
Alan Smith is an Associate Director with negotiating experts Scotwork. 022 |
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TWOMINUTETOPUP
Can Wearing Black Really Give You a Sales Edge? Words by Jill Konrath
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fter the third round of the 2015 Masters, Phil Mickelson told a CBS interviewer that he'd be wearing black on Sunday. When asked why, he said:
A
BLACK MAKES YOU BOLDER
The truth is, aggressive doesn't always mean hostile. Mickelson certainly wasn't thinking about punching Jordan Spieth in the nose or throwing his club into the crowd after a bad shot.
My only saving grace was that I finally kicked my own butt. I took action, even though I wasn't feeling strong, aggressive or bold. And I discovered that I didn't die when I did it.
Cornell's research shows that one reason players wearing black uniforms get more penalties is because they seek out more opportunities to be aggressive. Much of that has to do with selfperception. Players feel that they need to step up and act more formidable when they wear black uniforms. Timidity doesn't work “It helps me get more aggressive. in sales either. Yet, I have to admit that I feel that way sometimes -Studies have shown that when and it's totally related to self-perception. NFL teams wear black they have I've hesitated to initiate contact with senior executives because more penalties.” Turns out, he's right. Here's the link they intimidated me. I've waited an eternity to call people back because I'm scared they'll say no. I've been afraid to raise my to the actual research done by prices because prospects might not want to pay more. I've two Cornell professors in 1988. agonized over narrowing my target market, fearful that I'll lose But what does this have to do with sales? And why in the world an opportunity. I don't like feeling that way, but I think it's normal. Maybe I should have worn more black clothes. would you want to be more 'aggressive' -- especially when no one likes pushy salespeople? BOLDNESS LEADS TO A SALES EDGE
On the contrary. I became stronger each time I stepped into my fears -- and more aggressive, in a nice sort of way. I think it's all about forward progress.
Instead, he wanted to play boldly, with lots of initiative in the energetic However, I can also assure you that if I ever get into a Masters of pursuit of his goal. Timidity was not Sales Tournament, I'll be wearing a black power suit. If it gives me a an option for him. competitive sales edge, I'm all for it. •
www.jillkonrath.com/sales-resources
Jill Konrath is the author of three bestselling sales books: Agile Selling, Selling to Big Companies and SNAP Selling. She's a frequent speaker at sales meetings and conferences. Check out the tons of free sales resources on her website:
www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz
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QUICKFIX
CV Tips
Here’s three must do’s to help you get the sales job you want: 1. YOUR CV IS REPRESENTING YOU. This means no mistakes, unexplained long gaps in your career history, and it must be well formatted. This is one of the most important document’s you own so get help with laying it out if you need it. 2. TELL WHAT YOU ACHIEVED, NOT JUST WHAT YOU DId. All sales people are essentially doing the same thing, so if you just say what you have done, you will not stand out from the crowd. Tell the recruiter why they should hire you by describing your achievements. 3. ARE YOU LOOKING FOR ANY JOB, OR THIS JOB? A lazy ‘circular’ CV and cover letter will be likely filed in the bin, so do your research and tailor each application to the position and opportunity. ●
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WISEWORDS
“The way you see people is the way you treat them, and the way you treat them is what they become.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe German Writer & Philosopher, 1749-1832
RESOURCECORNER
Zero to One
If you want to build a better future, you must believe in secrets
T
he great secret of our time is that there are still uncharted frontiers to explore and new inventions to create. In Zero to One, legendary entrepreneur and investor Peter Thiel shows how we can find singular ways to create those new things. Thiel begins with the contrarian premise that we live in an age of technological stagnation, even if we’re too distracted by shiny mobile devices to notice. Information technology has improved rapidly, but there is no reason why progress should be limited to computers or Silicon Valley. Progress can be achieved in any industry or area of business. It comes from the most important skill that every leader must master: learning to think for yourself. Doing what someone else already knows how to do takes the world from 1 to n, adding more of something familiar. But when you do something new, you go from 0 to 1. The next Bill Gates will not build an operating system. The next Larry Page or Sergey Brin won’t make a search engine. Tomorrow’s champions will not win by competing ruthlessly in today’s marketplace. They will escape competition altogether because their businesses will be unique.
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Zero to One presents at once an optimistic view of the future of progress in America and a new way of thinking about innovation. It starts by learning to ask the questions that lead you to find value in unexpected places. ●
By Peter Thiel
EVENTSCALENDAR
DATE
NAME
PLACE
COMPANY
19 May
Sales Basics
Auckland
Geewiz
19 May
Cold Calling and Prospecting
Auckland
Top Achievers
20 May
Sales Management
Auckland
Geewiz
27 May
Advanced Serious Selling
Auckland
Geewiz
29 May
Sales Management
Auckland
Top Achievers
4 June
Sales Seminar
Wellington
Top Achievers
10 June
Sales Accelerator
Christchurch
David Forman
16 June
Sales Basics
Auckland
Geewiz
16 June
Cold calling and prospecting
Auckland
Top Achievers
23 June
Overcoming Objections
Auckland
Top Achievers
24 June
Strategic Sales Leader
Auckland
David Forman
24 June
Sales Management
Christchurch
Geewiz
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