20 Humorous Leadership Lessons. Aviation Wisdom

My flying days are well behind me but back in the 1980's I was a pioneer in the ultralight movement, the poor cousin grass roots segment of sport aviation. I recently found this document on my computer from back in that era. It brought a smile and some wonderful memories. There are lessons here for leaders in every walk of life. Enjoy as you read and think about how these can be applied within your profession.

20 RULES OF THE AIR (also for leadership on the ground and in the boardroom)

1. Learn from the mistakes of others. You won't live long enough to make all of them yourself.
2. Good judgment comes from experience. Unfortunately, most experience usually comes from bad judgment.
3. You start with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience. The trick is to fill the bag of experience before you empty the bag of luck.
4. Confidence is usually the feeling you have just before you understand the situation.
5. Keep looking around. There's always something you've missed – inside and outside.
6. Every take-off is optional. Every landing is mandatory. It's always better to be down here wishing you were up there, than up there wishing you were down here. You cannot control prevailing conditions.
7. Never let an aircraft take you somewhere your brain didn't get to five minutes earlier.
8. The ONLY time you have too much fuel is when you're on fire.
9. Both the altitude above you and the runway behind you are of no use at all.
10. Stay out of clouds. The silver lining everyone keeps talking about might be another airplane. Reliable sources also report that mountains have been known to hide in clouds.
11. When in doubt, maintain your altitude. No one has ever collided with the sky.
12. The probability of survival is inversely proportional to the angle of arrival. Large angle of arrival, small probability of survival and vice-versa.
13. A 'good' landing is one from which you can walk away. A 'great' landing is one after which they can use the plane again.
14. There are three simple rules for making a smooth landing. Unfortunately no one knows what they are.
15. Helicopters can't fly; they're just so ugly that the earth repels them. The dictionary should define the word ‘helicopter’ as ‘mechanical contradiction’.
16. If all you can see out of the window is ground that's going round and round and all you can hear is commotion coming from the passenger compartment, things are not at all as they should be.
17. Always try to keep the number of landings you make equal to the number of take offs you've made.
18. In the ongoing battle between objects made of aluminum going hundreds of miles per hour and the ground going zero miles per hour, the ground has yet to lose.
19. Remember, gravity is not just a good idea – it's the law, and not subject to repeal.
20. There are old pilots and there are bold pilots. There are however no old bold pilots.

I survived a plane crash in my aerobatic biplane and several of the key lessons, the things that saved my life, were in this top 20 list. We tend to remember things through repetition or emotional impact. Humor is therefore a good way to create emotional connection to ideas you wish to retain in yourselves or others. Make work a fun place to be but also one where commitment and competence are the hallmarks of execution.

QANTAS is one of the world’s great airlines and my article about flight QF32 has had approximately 200,00 people read it in LinkedIn Publisher. The leadership of Captain Richard de Crespigny and the teamwork on the flight deck is truly inspiring. If you haven’t already done so, read the QF32 article here. It highlights how genuine leadership averted an Airbus A380 disaster.

Back in the 1980's, these were reportedly true exchanges between QANTAS pilots and ground crew engineers. Back then, pilots would log notes concerning problems or concerns for maintenance engineers to address after a flight. These exchanges were generally known as squawks and after attending to the issue, maintenance crews were required to log the details of the action taken. These are from a bygone era with propeller aircraft servicing regional routes but never let it be said that engineers lack a sense of humour. P = The problem logged by the pilot, and S = The solution and action logged by the engineers.

P - Left inside main tyre almost needs replacement. S - Almost replaced left inside main tyre.

P - Something loose in cockpit. S - Something tightened in cockpit.

P - Dead bugs on windshield. S - Live bugs on backorder.

P - Autopilot in altitude-hold mode produces a 200-fpm descent. S - Cannot reproduce problem on ground.

P - Evidence of leak on right main landing gear. S - Evidence removed.

P - DME volume unbelievably loud. S - Volume set to more believable level.

P - Friction locks cause throttle levers to stick. S - That's what they are there for!

P - IFF inoperative. S - IFF always inoperative in OFF mode.

P - Number 3 engine missing. S - Engine found on right wing after brief search.

P - Aircraft handles funny. S - Aircraft warned to "Straighten up, Fly Right, and Be Serious."

Be relentlessly inquisitive and competent, stay humble and maintain a sense of humor – these traits will take you a long way in life.

Now it's your turn: When have you leveraged humor in your career? Who were the most humorous people you worked with? When did humor diffuse a business problem? Please share below.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Philo Nordlund

Lost In Translation. Funny True Miscommunication

The world is wired for miscommunication and it’s especially problematic when we cross cultures or use shorthand social media and e-mail to communicate. But this is not a new problem created by digital communication. Every time we met someone and every time we talk or write, we must ensure we communicate positive intent to build trust and understanding.

Effective communication and language translation involves far more than converting words and phrases from one language to another. We must convey intent. In the early 1980s, computer programmers were developing some innovative translation software but came up with some peculiar results:

• From English to Russian, back to English: ‘Out of sight, out of mind’ ended up: ‘Invisible idiot’.
• From English to Japanese, back to English: ‘To be or not to be, that is the question’ (from Hamlet) ended up: ‘It is, it is not, what is it?’

In the 1990s, international marketers had some monumental cross-cultural miscommunication blunders concerning brand names and slogans:

• Swedish vacuum-cleaner manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American advertising campaign: ‘Nothing sucks like an Electrolux’.
• Australian brewer, Castlemaine launched it's XXXX (‘four-ex’) beer in the USA using their trademarked jingle ‘I can feel a four-ex coming on’ which had proved so successful in the Australian market. Unfortunately the company was unaware that XXXX was the brand name of a successful American condom manufacturer!
• The name Coca-Cola in China was first rendered as Ke-kou-ke-la. Unfortunately, the Coke company did not discover, until after thousands of signs had been printed, that the phrase means: ‘Bite the wax tadpole’. Coke then researched 40,000 Chinese characters and found a close phonetic equivalent, ‘ko-kou-ko-le,’ which can be loosely translated as: ‘Happiness in the mouth’.
• Also in Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan: 'Finger-lickin’ good' came out as: 'Eat your fingers off’.
• In Taiwan, the translation of the Pepsi slogan: ‘Come alive with the Pepsi Generation’ came out as: ‘Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead’.
• Ford had a similar problem in Brazil when the Pinto flopped. The company found out that Pinto was Brazilian slang for ‘tiny male genitals’. Ford pried all the nameplates off and substituted Corcel, which means horse.
• When Parker Pen marketed a ballpoint pen in Mexico, its advertisements were supposed to say: ‘It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you’. However, the company mistakenly thought the Spanish word ‘embarazar’ meant embarrass. Instead the advertisement said: ‘It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant’.
• In Italy, Schweppes Tonic Water was wrongly translated into Schweppes Toilet Water.
• An American t-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired: ‘I Saw the Pope’ in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed: ‘I Saw the Potato’.
• And the funniest; American chicken-man Frank Perdue's slogan: ‘It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken’, got terribly mangled in another Spanish translation. A photo of Perdue with one of his birds appeared on billboards all over Mexico with a caption saying: ‘It takes a hard man to make a chicken aroused’.

I swear this is true. I was once in Asia and had a meal in a restaurant with a client. At the end of dinner I paid the bill and as we left I thanked the waitress who had served us. She responded with broken English: “We like to pleasure you.” We both burst into laughter as we got outside.

If you want to bridge any communication gap and build rapport, here are my ten tips.

1. Have a firm, warm and friendly handshake. Sounds obvious but one-third of people I meet have a crap handshake. The most common problem is breaking eye-contact while still shaking my hand. The second-biggest problem is either limp-fish or gorilla grip – both are bad. Be aware that for some Muslim women, they cannot have physical contact with a man in public who is not their husband.
2. Positive eye contact, especially for men who should keep their eyes above the shoulders. But don't drill a hole through the other person’s skull with your laser-like intimidating glare. The only time you should break eye contact is to take notes. Note that in some cultures in Asia, and also for traditional Aboriginal people in Australia, averting eye contact is not rudeness, and is instead a sign of respect.
3. Talk with appropriate pace and tone. Don't gabble; don’t drone. Lower your voice if you’re a ‘high talker’. Avoid talking in an Irish, Scottish or Australian accent – no one has a clue what you’re saying!
4. Be thoughtful in your manner and accurate with your language. This is especially important in dealing with senior people.
5. Dress like them and, especially for ladies, wear nothing that is distracting. By all means be feminine but not sexual in any way – you’re better than that. Your value is in who you are, not in how you look.
6. Smile and ensure congruent body language. If you’re excited, tell your face about it. Your body-language should match your words.
7. Paint word pictures and give real examples – relevant true stories that draw your audience into what you can do for them.
8. Actively listen to understand and ask open insightful questions
9. Focus on the other person’s needs and personal agendas. It’s all about them and all they really care about concerning you, is what you can potentially do for them.
10. Display good manners and treat business cards with respect. This is especially important when dealing with those from another country. I once sat in a meeting and the sales rep for the potential supplier started picking his teeth with my boss’ business card – true story.

If you embrace these ten tips when you meet people for the first time, they won’t be able to do anything other than like you – you’ll now have the chance to earn their trust and build a relationship. But before they meet you in the flesh, they see you online – probably on LinkedIn. What’s your photo and persona like in digital and social? It’s important, first impressions stick. Make no mistake; LinkedIn is the new business card, but it’s exchanged in advance of meeting face-to-face. Your LinkedIn profile needs to highlight what you’re all about, not your title, qualifications and work history. It will show social proximity and credibility – whether you’re a person worthy of their time.

I have a collection of funny miscommunication clips on my website here. You can also see some very funny ‘lost in translation’ signs from Asia, click here. This is a classic Monty Python miscommunication clip.

Now it’s over to you. What are the funniest miscommunications you’ve experienced as you’ve operated cross-culture? What techniques do you use to ensure you connect and avoid miscommunication?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image Photo by Flickr: Sébastien Bertrand

My Last Post On LinkedIn!

This is my last post on social media or blogging of any kind in the foreseeable future. It’s been a tweetin wild ride but I've made a fortune in social selling and I'm retiring to become an organic farmer and micro-brewer. But I’ll also be working with Professor Neil Rackham to create his biography and document the history of modern selling.

All this became possible with just 4 months of manic activity in LinkedIn where I made enough money from Social Selling to pursue my dream of living on an organic farm in Tasmania to brew a revolutionary beer infused with beetroot juice. It's a Blue Ocean strategy inspired by an Australian juicing documentary that I saw in 2013. Now I've literally 'bought the farm' to start a healthy alcohol revolution. Tasmanian Red Beet Beer will be potent in vitamins and antioxidants to transform the inner-health of millions while masking digestive realities, eliminating any stress caused by visible blood in the stool or urine.

But back to Neil and the book we will co-write in Tasmania on the farm. The tome will be titled: The Consolidated History of Modern Selling – From SPIN to Social Solution Challenger Value Selling With All You Need To Know To Sell Succinctly In The Digital Age.

Neil visits Australia regularly and I remember him telling me the story of when he bought a Driza-Bone coat in Adelaide many years ago while on a wine pilgrimage down under. He has a love of the country… and goats, but not in any sort of inappropriate way. Goats are an important part of the blue ocean strategy because they weed and fertilize the farm and they’re much cheaper than importing child labor from the third world. The goats on the beetroot farm will live on blackberries, themselves fertilized by the hops left over from the beer brewing process and goat fecal pellets. It’s a virtuous organic circle of goats-cheese-fertilizer-beer-blackberry-love-goats.

During the day, Neil and I will walk the hedgerows of blackberry bushes and beetroot stalks with loyal goats in tow, positing the future of B2B social selling spiced with challenger solution value techniques jacked with back-to-the future ninja warrior social principles. Every evening we'll riff over organic red ale gazing down the valley with Tasmanian Devils howling in the distance.

Organic beer will be the fuel for our writing; but Neil was initially skeptical about the benefits of beets and he told me that beet-beer is only a benefit if it solves a specific problem articulated by drinkers.

The SPIN Selling courses I attended earlier in my life enabled me to nail the perfect response: "Imagine that you're being intimate with someone and they ask you if they're bleeding. You can provide great comfort in simply telling them you're sure it's just the coloration of the beets. But the benefits are not just psychological, beets can do for beer what red grapes did for wine, but without the tannin. Guinness pioneered with black but now the new black is a darkish red."

Neil had nothing in response and then I hammered it home: “The benefits of combining beer and beets are compelling! We all know that with enough beer ugly people appear to be attractive but the properties of beets provide clarity amidst the fog of inebriation. Surely everyone would like the ability to articulate their wisdom in a more compelling way while also uninhibited by intelligible thought processes at the end of a rollicking good evening at the pub.” He was speechless. No objections – closed.

I plan to spend many evenings on the porch with Neil in Tasmania on the micro brewery beet farm with our goats, ideating the future of B2B professional solution social selling. Mentor and mentee masticating on goat cheese, chugging beet-beer, ruby red lips waxing lyrical about the tremendous cottage industries that are micro brewing and sales training.

Only wankers drink Corona with a pretentious little lime wedge shoved in the top but we'll each have a beet stalk hanging out of our brew which is actually the most nutritious part of the plant and provides valuable fiber... another benefit on top of your nasal hairs being caressed by the beet foliage as you sip away. Using your tongue to maneuver the stalk to the side while swallowing provides a playful challenge and the whole experience truly engages all of the senses to deliver a genuine drinking solution and the ultimate customer experience.

Every morning we will emerge from the homestead a little hung over and milk the goats before checking on the micro-brewery copper vats. Then we'll stroll back to dig-in to writing the book. When we need a break we'll turn to poetry... most people don't know that Neil is actually a poet and it's one of the reasons he was invited to contribute to The Challenger Sale (see page 82) with his SAFE BOLD sonnet. I've entered us into a poetry competition at the local town pub where we've instigated the Community Poetry Night and we've already made it to the final with this.

All that is told is not Twitter,

All blogs in LinkedIn are not lost;

The told that is true does not wither,

Deep beet roots are not reached by the frost.

From the likes in social we'll be woken,

A goat from the thickets shall spring;

Reviews and shares shall be spoken,

The crownless again shall be king.

The publican, Mike Blunt, is quite sophisticated and I helped him optimize his LinkedIn profile on the basis that we all sell naked these days on social. Now the other 17 people who live in town, plus the 43 who dwell in the shire, can see his personal brand and comment in his LinkedIn group about why he prefers eloquent pros instead of karaoke or open mic nights with people singing off-key. My first act of philanthropy will be to provide WiFi for the whole town so that we can end face-to-face talking and drive real connection through social.

I've begun ghosting his profile to drive engagement and we're promoting "Professor Neil Rackham – International Poet Laureate Sales Anthropologist" as the major draw-card. I'm confident we can quadruple numbers – who says there's no ROI in social. Mike has no idea and reckons the only social feed that matters is a good T-bone counter lunch sold to a mini-bus tour group. Goodbye and farewell for now. Thanks for following my posts here in LinkedIn over the last 4 months and keep an eye out for Tasmanian Red Beet Beer and Neil's biography later this year... I am not fit to tie his sandals but it's such a privilege to serve the sales training industry in this way.

Sayonara ~ TJH (12:01am April 1, 2015 in Auckland, New Zealand)

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: David Goehring

3.4 Reasons Humor is Explosively Powerful For Leadership

I have a weird sense of humor... it's a gift from my father that I treasure. On April Fools Day this year I published my last ever post in LinkedIn with the gracious permission of Professor Neil Rackham... and some thought it was for real. This month I was published in Sales Mastery Magazine with this satirical piece on Artificial Intelligence Dark Social creating sales career apocalypse.

According to Professor Diculous, “By linking all social platforms together through APIs and metadata tags, dark social can power AI cyber-selling.” When asked what it will mean for the selling profession, Diculous responded, “All the elements are now in place and I predict 65% of inside sales roles with be replaced by AI Cyber Sellers (AICS) by 2018. Many sales people will have to turn to burger-flipping to make a living.”

The second generation robot will become a complete AI salesbot, travelling to customers using a Google Car to deliver Challenger insights. The bot will effectively build rapport during presentations where the audience is handicapped by PDSP (Physically Disengaged by Social Platforms), which is spreading at epidemic proportions.

I then interviewed Professor Harold Diculous (Rodney Marks) on camera and I'm currently publishing a series of 14 satirical videos on social selling here.

Any time that you have to stand in front of an audience and deliver... take some deep breaths to slow your heart-rate before you stand up; then walk calmly to the podium, look them in eye and smile... grin like an idiot – it's liberating. Deliver your opening few sentences from memory. Know your content and avoid endless boring slides. Here is a great video by Don McMillan on how NOT to use PowerPoint.

If you want to get the audience in the right frame of mind, especially when running internal meetings, consider playing a video to help them to unfold their arms and lighten-up. Whenever I run training courses I open with this, announcing that "it's business time." Lots of laughs... especially from the ladies... even when I present in America.

There are many funny and inspiring videos on my website so feel free to browse here to then go to YouTube and source your own ice-breakers for meetings. And finally, here is the award winning poem from my last ever post in LinkedIn:

All that is told is not Twitter,
All blogs in LinkedIn are not lost;
The told that is true does not wither,
Deep beet roots are not reached by the frost.
From the likes in social we'll be woken,
A goat from the thickets shall spring;
Reviews and shares shall be spoken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Picture above is Sir Les Patterson, Australian cultural attache.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by Flickr: Dai Zaobab - Spinning buugeng

10.9 Reasons Selling Is Easy

Like any other science, selling is easy – all you’ve got to do is be good with people and know how to read personalities. Are they a driver, expressive, analytic or amiable? Are they Type A, Type B or type-casted? It doesn’t matter... just nail their learning style – auditory, visual or kinaesthetic – adapt how you communicate.

The latest thinking in NLP and Challenger domination enables you to inject insight through ideation to completely change the game. All you need to do is ensure that you don’t offend them with any cultural gaffs; which means always keep your eyes up, never mention anything to do with The Middle East, the age of the Earth or L. Ron Hubbard. 

Once you’ve established rapport, all you have to do is understand their business; engineer value, navigate the political power-base, discover their evaluation, selection and procurement process... while also creating a bias for your solution. It’s just like shelling peas – simple!

But never mention the competition… except the “do nothing” competitor, the one of apathy or the status quo... that competitor needs to be hammered relentlessly with your outrageous ROI claims.

Now, you might need a few tools to help you execute, but they’re all straightforward too. CRM integrates with ERP to deliver SFA. Do a few courses to ensure you understand SPIN, Efox selling, Tareget Account Selling (TAS), blue sheets, gold sheets, green sheets, RSVPselling, BATTLEPLAN, and The New Solution Selling. Mash them all up into your own epiphany of sales process enlightenment, then use data analytics to provide gazillion reports to while away the day – it will help you avoid rejection on the phone.

The big winner among all of this is "qualify deals properly", and do it so that you know all of the acronyms.

Then book-end qualification with the hammer-time of closing techniques, like the alternative choice close, the assumptive close, the stutterer’s close, the Arnie close... "I'll be back... if you don't sign."But the best one is the “I’ve got pictures of you with a goat!” close. Be creative, as creative as you like!

Mash them all up – your boss will have no idea what’s going on, and he’ll be throwing resources at you for deal pursuit like you’re about to get acquired! But always sell the future in mind by using design thinking to create optimal customer experience.

Embrace question-based selling, it’s just like numbers-based accounting

Support the entire customer life cycle through territory analysis, segmentation, targeting, micro-marketing, lead nurturing, events, research, account and opportunity planning, qualification – just like we talked about – discovery, core planning, collaboration, bid management, close plans, negotiation techniques, customer on-boarding, service and renewals, bring them all together with complaints, get reference – everything! Are you seeing how easy selling really is? On top of the basics, which we’ve just covered, you simply need to manage up – always look busy and stressed all the time! Tell your boss you’re dominating the white space! By the way, that’s the part of the market that will never buy anything from you, but don’t tell him that. 

Learn how to say, “It’s strategic,” and say it with gravitas every time you’re challenged about wanting resources for something that is a long-shot.

Lastly, embrace the paradigm of social selling; the new ABC of selling is always be connecting. LinkedIn is the new publishing, introduction, referral platform, Google+ is the new Google Juice, Twitter is the megaphone of amplification. Facebook? Well, it’s for old people. Monitor all the social platforms that matter and be where your customers are, but make sure that you jump in with relevance and context! Get upstream through social listening 56.8789643% of the way through the buyer’s process!

Well, that’s it really, plain and simple. You can do it – I believe in you!

Ooops! I forgot to mention how important it is to be masterful with 100-slide PowerPoint to bedazzle your audience, using your melodic NLP droning to tune their alpha brain waves into the subconscious need to purchase something from you. Great tips here from Don McMillan. Pay special attention to where the term 'bullet point' came from.

If you're a sales manager, then the last thing to know is that it's super important to innovate in the way you train the team. This is a cutting edge mash-up of Wizard of Oz meets Jeff Slutsky Sales Magic... strap yourself in to be entertained and educated all at the same time. Imagine the impact of immersing your team in this assault on their senses on day three of your sales kick-off. The awards night was the night before and they'll be even more receptive in their hung-over state.

Hope you laughed and as Zig Ziglar used to say, “See you at the top!”

The truth is that selling is far from easy. If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

What Do You Do... Guaranteed!?

Wow... and now backwards... WOW! I just discovered Joel Bauer on YouTube. He is a sales trainer extrordanairre. I wouldn't dare reject his business card after seeing the video embedded here. It has received 2.5 millions views and if this video doesn't make you smile... you're working too hard.

"My business card is THE tool! It took me 25 years to design and it won't fit in your rolodex... because I don't belong in your rolodex!!!" Joel Bauer

I can't say that I relate to Joel's style of delivery but maybe he could team-up with Grant Cardone to 10X the opening of every sales call with the next big thing in business cards... maybe an Adobe Flash 'pop-up' integrated within a LinkedIn profile?

A good friend of mine, John McInerney, sent me the business card of Dick Burley, aka Justin Wright. He is someone who also guarantees a whole bunch of outcomes... I certainly hope that Dick doesn't combine all of these pursuits in the one client engagement... he would make a hell of a mess.

But back to the amazing Joel Bauer... here is another one of his videos with indispensable wisdom on how to pack a suitcase for uber-effective business travel. I must now buy a jacket just like his that fits my laptop and pop-up business cards in the inside pocket... along with my hair drier, pillow and travel blanket... so handy when you're on the road. I dare you to watch this all the way to the end and then send me your top 60 travel tips.

But amidst the 'over the top' approach and advice from these sales legends, there is actually an important point to be made. Have you stopped laughing? (I laughed so hard my socks got wet). Are you ready for something serious here?

We need to be clear about 'our promise of value'. What outcomes do we deliver for those we serve?

Everyone in sales and marketing needs to stop talking about themselves, what they do and how they do it; to instead transform the approach to lead with why a conversation should matter to the buyer.

This 'why' narrative needs to be front and centre in your LinkedIn profile because 75% of buyers research the seller online and the #1 place that they find us is in LinkedIn. Is your LinkedIn profile at the standard that it needs to be to support the agenda you want to set by sharing insights that are relevant to your market? Do you show the right kind of values to attract and engage new clients? This guy has the right kind of approach.

Finally, here are the world's top 30 most innovative business cards... but none of these come close to the sheer mastery of Joe Bauer. How are you innovating your LinkedIn profile to make it stand out from the crowd?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main Image: Flickr

Ten Reasons Selling Is Easy! The 'Goat Close' Trumps All Others.

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B2B enterprise insight challenger solution selling has never been easier. Anyone can simply pull all the elements together by paying close attention to everything in this 4 minute video. But can you execute?

The goat close has some ethical challenges but hey, Challenger Selling is the new new selling... it's far more effective than the Arnie close (I'll be back).

I forgot to mention how important it is to be masterful with 100-slide PowerPoint to bedazzle your audience, using your melodic NLP droning to tune their alpha brain waves into the subconscious need to purchase something from you. Great tips here from Don McMillan. Pay special attention to where the term 'bullet point' came from.

If you're a sales manager, then the last thing to know is that it's super important to innovate in the way you train the team. This is a cutting edge mash-up of Wizard of Oz meets Jeff Slutsky Sales Magic... strap yourself in to be entertained and educated all at the same time. Imagine the impact of immersing your team in this assault on their senses on day three of your annual sales kick-off. The awards night was the night before and they'll be even more receptive in their hung-over state.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website: www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo by:  www.peta.org and iStockphoto.com/smileus

How To Create Your Personal Brand

Before you embark down the path of 'social selling' you must first stop using LinkedIn as your online CV and instead create a strong personal brand as the foundation upon which you will attract and engage a credible network and prospective clients.

This is important because 75% of buyers use social media to research sellers before engaging (Source: IDC) and 74% of buyers choose the seller who first provides insight and value (Source: Corporate Visions). It begs the question: What do people see when they find you online? Do they see a transactional pushy sales person with a profile designed to secure their next sales role or do they see a warm professional person offering insight and value?

No-one wants to be sold to but we all value assistance in making the right buying decision – we want to manage our risk and ensure best value.  Here are the essential things you need to do with your LinkedIn profile to cover the foundation of creating a credible personal brand to enable social engagement:

1. Disable notifications to your network when changing your profile (account / privacy and settings/ turn off your activity broadcasts). This is important because you will be making lots of changes and you don't want to be bombarding your network as your change and refine your profile.
2. Ensure your photo is a friendly close-up head and shoulders shot. It needs to be in focus and well lit (without a bright background). Note that my profile photo has been updated compared with the screenshot a few points below. I moved from 'professional power' to professionally friendly.
3. Instead of your title and company, have a headline under your name that describes what you do for customers. What's the difference you make for clients?
4. Have a Summary panel that describes the business value you deliver and the values by which you operate. Write it in the first person and don't be too over the top. This helps to create trust and set the agenda even before a single word has been spoken or an e-mail exchanged.
5. Complete your contact details and personalize/shorten your LinkedIn profile link (the URL that takes people to your profile). This link should be included in your e-mail signature.
6. Encourage people to both endorse and recommend you for skills that matter to potential clients rather than employers.
7. Move your employment history to the bottom of the LinkedIn page (panels can be dragged up and down when you hover over them).
8. Create three Publisher posts as this fills the panel in your LinkedIn profile as per the illustration below (again note how I've changed my photo).

Aim for 600 to 900 words in your posts (that's just over one page in Word) and here are three topic categories to stimulate your writing:

• Proactive objection killers.  List the common objections you recieve and then adopt the positive counter position. As an example, this post helps set the agenda for a recruitment consultant about why the customer needs to meet with them and take the time to define and explore 'cultural fit'.
• Insights that hook interest. What are your potential customers concerned about in the areas of risk, commoditization or disruption? This post talks about disruption and the need to have the right culture internally to remain relevant even if you dominate a market.
• Something topical that leverages current events. I published this post within 30 minutes of Harrison Ford's plane crash hitting the news.

Once you build this foundation you're ready to identify the thought leaders (as regarded by your target market) who you will begin to follow in LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with to ‘curate’ their content and share with your network. You can begin to be a "forager for the tribe", as Michael Hyatt describes it, to be a content hub for relevant quality information about a topic domain or industry. You then have a reason why people should connect with you because you provide insight and value relevant to those in your network.

By changing your LinkedIn profile to be a personal branding microsite, you enhance the way you sell but with no downside for future career change with potential employers.

Personal brand reputation has always been important and even before the internet it was possible for it to be trashed. This very funny Budlight advertisement highlights how Jim Scott's social profile was destroyed. It's so much easier for brand damage today in the era of mobility and social media.

Seriously, think very carefully about what you post in Facebook even if you do regard it as a social platform for your personal life separate to LinkedIn for business. It's all one big discoverable pot for those who want to see past the persona you've carefully created.

Does your LinkedIn profile show why people should invest their time, energy and personal credibility connecting with you?

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website:www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo from Flickr.

Unbelievable Example Of Technology Providing Direct Access. Technology Tips!

Automation is changing everything but are you using it well? Watch this short video and be astounded at the power of the 'internet of things' when harnessed for unbelievable user experience with the world's leading technology keynote speaker!

"It even unlocks my car... and the only one with access is me!" That's the funniest advertisement I've seen this year and thanks Andrew Vorster for sharing it at a conference we were both speaking at.

But seriously, do you understand the unintended consequences of embracing technology and social media platforms? Have you methodically gone through your LinkedIn settings to ensure that your competitors cannot track your interactions with customers and prospects? Ever wondered about the 'anonymous' views you've had of your profile? It's always a recruitment consultant or competitor.

"There's always unintended consequences with new technology. But worse, there are dire consequences of ignoring the relentless march of commoditization and disruption."

Real professionals understand how to use and maintain their tools. They do the basics masterfully and they innovate to remain relevant. 90% of buyers do NOT respond to cold outreach. Less than 3% of cold calls yield a result, and e-mail marketing gets lost among all the other spam in their inbox. Achieving cut-through requires finesse. Get serious about how you use LinkedIn and other social platforms to engage and provide value.

Here's a video interview I did with the professor of social selling highlighting the dangers of a hapless approach to LinkedIn. I removed this water skiing photo from my own LinkedIn profile immediately following the interview.

If you smiled or valued this article, please hit the ‘like' button and also share via your Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook social media platforms.

If you valued this article, please hit the ‘like' and ‘share’ buttons below. This article was originally published in LinkedIn here where you can comment. Also follow the award winning LinkedIn blog here or visit Tony’s leadership blog at his keynote speaker website:www.TonyHughes.com.au.

Main image photo from Flickr.