Yesterday, Ron Shapiro was interviewed by WBAL radio about his upcoming book: Perfecting Your Pitch: How To Succeed In Business And In Life. To listen to the interview and read more from WBAL click: here

 Shapiro Negotiations Institute Announces Founder Ron Shapiro’s New Book, Perfecting Your Pitch, Written to Help Readers Prepare for Life’s Challenging Conversations Expert Negotiator, Sports Agent and New York Times Best-Selling Author Shapiro Releases Perfecting Your Pitch: How to Succeed in Business and in Life by Finding Words That Work   Baltimore, Md., Nov. 19, 2013 - Today, Shapiro Negotiations Institute (SNI), a premier global performance improvement firm, announced the release of founder Ron Shapiro’s new book, Perfecting Your Pitch: How to Succeed in Business and in Life by Finding Words That Work. Shapiro, best known for his representation of more Major League Baseball Hall of Fame players than any other agent, focuses on how to tackle difficult conversations head on in his latest work. Shapiro is the co-founder of SNI, which has trained over 350,000 people in sales, negotiation and influencing skills. His techniques have helped resolve a national symphony orchestra strike, facilitate solutions to human relations problems, and reconcile disputes in the government and corporate worlds. "We’ve all found ourselves in delicate situations - perhaps an important conversation with a spouse, customer or boss … Days later, we might imagine the salient points we wish we had made if we’d planned ahead," Shapiro writes in Perfecting Your Pitch. Perfecting Your Pitch offers 40 model scripts to help readers make a budget request, interview for a job, end a relationship, or talk to children about divorce. Using real-life examples, Shapiro walks readers step-by-step through the crucial, but simple, process of creating effective messages. This systematic approach to difficult conversations reduces stress and helps overcome fears to dramatically increase the chances of effectively achieving desired results. New York Times best-selling authors Daniel Pink and Adam Grant, NBC Anchor-at-Large Ann Curry, head coach of the SuperBowl XLVII Champion Baltimore Ravens, John Harbaugh, and T. Rowe Price Chairman Brian C. Rogers have, among others, provided endorsements for Shapiro’s latest title, which follows his three previous books, The Power of Nice: How to Negotiate So Everyone Wins - Especially You!; Dare to Prepare: How to Win Before You Begin;and Bullies, Tyrants, and Impossible People: How to Beat Them Without Joining Them. "Perfecting Your Pitch covers a staggering array of life situations, from salary negotiations to personal relationships, in which a wrong word or an inept phrase could mean the difference between success and failure," says Daniel H. Pink, author of To Sell Is Human and Drive. "Sometimes you only get one chance to ask for what you want or express how you feel - and this book is the perfect guide to help you make the most of those opportunities." To learn more or to purchase Perfecting Your Pitch, visit http://www.shapironegotiations.com/Perfecting-Your-Pitch.html. The book is available now in print and ebook formats from Amazon and Barnes & Noble.   About Shapiro Negotiations Institute Shapiro Negotiations Institute is a premier global performance improvement firm focused on sales, negotiation and influencing. The focus of SNI is on maximizing its clients’ ability to create mutually beneficial and profitable long-term relationships with peers, vendors and customers, both internal and external to the organization. SNI’s success is built on helping professionals at all levels use a systematic approach to get more accomplished, faster and with a higher degree of effectiveness. By taking years of lessons learned in real-life situations, SNI digs into specific industry and client challenges so that its tools and techniques can be used immediately and repeated with precision. Follow SNI on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook or learn more at http://www.shapironegotiations.com.

The good news is that these days, thanks to modern meeting-based software tools and technology, the amount of people suffering from PowerPoint overdose has significantly decreased. In fact, getting the most out of your annual sales meeting can be both fun and less of a headache. In this article we’re going to look at tips you can use to transform critical annual sales meetings into powerful allies against the hypercompetitive and fast-paced marketplace. It’s about keeping attention, giving crucial updates to your sales team, directing focus, priming the wheels for the year to come and inspiring better performance. Let’s get to it. Tip #1: Condense & Consolidate It’s literally impossible to keep the human mind engaged at a certain peak level for long. Ask any college professor. Furthermore, the surface intellect can only take in so much information at once before complete loss of focus. Don’t try to stuff every little bit of information in. Cherry-pick the most important, the most relevant and the most inspiring information for the audience. To keep the momentum going make sure you aren’t repeating the same information over and over again. All that does is waste time and attention spans! Stick to the point. Stay on topic. Listen to your guy and when the room begins to get heavy, lighten things up by moving forward. Stay aware of the clock, but don’t get caught looking at it. If this is your first rodeo, keep a watch somewhere that you can see it but no one else can. As long as you continue to advance the conversation and progress in a timely manner, you’ll get solid results. Tip #2: Employ Unexpected Formats There’s really no reason to dim the lights and give a generic PowerPoint presentation anymore. This is the age of virtual meetings and unprecedented conference room software. There are applications around like for example, iMeet, that can add some interaction. In reality the sky is the limit. If you’re going to incorporate some video, that’s great but don’t choose something dry. What’s wrong with a little music? Bring in a guest speaker via Skype, include social media aspects (LinkedIn posts), layer in some audio and employ software that adds contemporary spice to an old business tradition. Remember that the more senses you ask your audience to use, the more into the experience they’ll be. And, the longer the impression afterwards will last. What you’re saying really matters! Tip #3: Personalize the Presentations Engage your sales team on a personal level without letting things go too far. Make sure to provide time, or intermingle it throughout the presentation, where they’re voices and opinions can be heard and discussed. A more organic dynamic can go a long ways to getting to the real nitty gritty. When you present numbers, don’t deliver them as cold data. That’s hard work in action. That’s blood, sweat and tears. Involve the folks that those numbers represent. They’ll pay far better attention that way. Getting feedback is a way to personalize presentations and turn hard facts into interesting conversations that can really bring out the best. No one likes an informal info-dump, so personalize it and watch how much more fulfilling it will be for everyone involved.

Customer relationship management (CRM) is evolving almost on a monthly basis. What it’s taken to get here is almost unbelievable in terms of programming, technological progress and boundary-pushing software innovation. Over the last few years enterprise has been adapting to this tsunami of information, learning how to filter it and implement what they learn. The utilization of business-based metrics is absolutely critical in our modern hypercompetitive environment where 70% of the consumer journey takes place online. Within a few years from right now hundreds of millions of people will join the internet marketplace as well. By then, CRM efficiency will have increased ten-fold. Here are the three ways to increase the amount of bang you get for your CRM buck moving forward. #1) Develop a Holistic Data-Driven Approach Part of bringing your CRM systems to their full potential is allowing the data to become a transparent part of everything. From top to bottom the business needs to become holistically data-driven. That’s not to say completely cold. It means that hard data needs to be at the forefront of all sales and marketing decisions. The sales team is likely accustomed to this mindset already, but how about everybody else within the organization? All internal activity can be tracked now, and used to increase efficiency. Measure. Train. Optimize. Because data now governs the marketing world, both online and otherwise, it must be layered throughout all initiatives and mediums. #2) Choose 5 Primary-Focus Points It’s almost too easy to drown in information. Or, spend a fortune on digital mountains of data that at the end of the day your organization really doesn’t need. Instead of trying to overwhelm yourself into metrics oblivion, choose 5 primary focus points. Don’t think you’re stuck with the five you choose, because to survive these days takes consistent adaptation. Start simple rather than going for the most complicated and expensive forms of tracking information. When choosing which metrics to focus on, ascertain which provide the most insight and bridge the most gaps between you and your clients or customers. What provides the most visibility, and accountability? Three of the big hitters for modern companies are going to be volume, overall and specific sales funnel conversion rates and the speed at which platforms are expanding. #3) Merge Sales & Marketing Forces Because the sales and marketing environments are progressing as the modern world does, it’s important to define them as you go. Where is the line between them? As Bonnie Crater puts it, "Have clear definition of stages, steps, processes, and hand off. Be sure they are well understood and documented. It is time for sales and marketing to become BFFs." CRM is quickly becoming one of the most powerful and influential tools for modern businesses. No brand can expect to "wing it" and compete without serious CRM. Everything is being tracked, and this information is critical! Through implementing these three tips and then growing as your CRM grows, you can get the most out of it.

As an authoritative training and consulting firm it’s our business to be up on trends that directly influence our clients. Because we travel all over the world to provide training, our perspective on where things are going as we head into 2014 is rather unique. Here are the three most important sales training trends to keep an eye on. Trend #1: In-depth Ideal Customer Models Welcome to the era of big data. Sales trainers today can show their trainees how to get digital mountains of information on ideal clients and customers that simply wasn’t there 3 years ago. This emerging ability of sales forces to learn about their customers and deliver product/service information in new and creative ways is fueling a more inbound sales model. Capturing leads and new accounts these days has less to do with outbound techniques, and more to do with using the power of information to draw ideal clients into sales funnels. Vast tracking data makes it easier to pin-point customer needs. This in turn allows companies to see drastic improvements in upsell and cross-selling numbers. Teams can use this customer information to approach them for more than one angle at a time. Trend #2: Social Media Integration Social networking platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and especially LinkedIn are making their way into sales training as a matter of course. Where does social media begin and the sales funnel begin? Internally and externally social media is playing a bigger and bigger role in modern consumerism. Social media connects sales representatives with each other, with management, with all the varying departments within the organization and with customers. Externally social media is a battlegrounds where brand expansion takes place. Sales training increasingly teaches business leaders and sales people how to leverage thse networks. Social media is an incredible resource for customer insight and analytics. In the right hands this information translates into higher performance and a more effective sales team. Trend #3: Efficiency Focused & Bottom Lines Speaking of effectiveness. That’s the name of the game across the board. This is an age of ultimate efficiency from the way we run our businesses and fuel our cars, to how we heat our homes and expand a bottom line. Nearly every conventional sales training technique has been sliced and diced to suit a fast-paced hypercompetitive marketplace. According to a CSO Insights Trend Report that came out in 2012, revenue is the absolute #1 concern moving into 2014 on the minds of sales executives. Effectiveness used to mean the sheer amount of customers who could be reached through traditional methods. Now, it’s about the quality (efficiency) of these connections. It’s about conversion rates. Rather than 10,000 worthless leads, what matters are the higher converting 5-10%. To grow revenue, modern organizations and enterprise are investing vast sums of capital into training. So far the broad market ROI speaks for itself. There’s no question that quality training leads to unprecedented performance for most outdated sales models.

Even if you are actively pursuing habits that generally contribute to success, some of your habits may be preventing you from truly excelling in your field. Over the last month, we’ve been studying the common traits that are shared by the world’s smartest people. Today, we’re going to look at some of the habits that those highly intelligent people share that actually hurt their success. As we’ve discussed before, brilliant people usually have habits such as reading, self-discipline, goal-setting, and metacognition. Often, harmful tendencies such as drinking too much, using drugs, losing sleep, and being prone to anxiety accompany those positive habits.   1. Drinking Excessively The health risks associated with alcohol are no secret, which makes it even more surprising that smart people are often more prone to binge drinking. One study found that children with high IQ scores are much more likely to binge drink frequently as adults. This behavior seems all the more bizarre considering that these intelligent individuals are more likely to be incredibly aware of the risks associated with alcohol consumption. Even though this habit is linked to highly intelligent people, it’s important to get help if you are struggling with alcoholism. Begin by identifying situations that trigger your urge to drink and make a conscious decision to start avoiding those types of situations. If you have a serious problem, take action now by joining an AA group.   2. Using Drugs A massive British Cohort Study discovered that children with high IQ scores were also much more prone to drug use as adults. Smart boys were found to be twice as likely to use illicit drugs as adults, while intelligent girls were actually 3 times likelier to abuse drugs as adults. It’s crucial to get rid of a habit like drug use in order to fulfill your full potential in your field. Begin by making a decision to initiate change in your life and then seek professional help.   3. Losing Sleep Several different studies have reported that children with high IQ’s generally go to bed later as adults. Unfortunately, unless they are also able to sleep late the next day, those intelligent individuals are losing sleep. Without a regular sleep pattern that allows you to get enough rest each night, you may suffer from health problems such as impaired memory and increased stress levels. In order to ensure that you are functioning to the extent of your abilities, make sure to develop habits that allow you to get full nights of sleep.   4. Being Anxious A recent study found that people with higher IQ scores often suffered from generalized anxiety disorder. Although this study also suggests that anxiety could actually be a natural by-product of high intelligence, it is important to learn how to control your anxiety in order to enjoy a more positive and fulfilling life. Take control of your anxiety by sorting out things that you can deal with and then letting go of your worries about issues that are beyond your control.

Businesses are searching for a more effective way to conduct leadership training using virtual environments. Learning in virtual environments has many benefits, as training sessions can be led completely online and a wide range of simulations can be created for more effective lessons. Read on to learn more about how virtual environments are being used in leadership training, why companies and organizations are benefiting from this new movement, and how you can implement these strategies at your organization.  Effective Leadership Training & Virtual Environments A recent study conducted by ON24 and Training Industry, Inc. uncovers the importance of effective leadership training for organizations and discusses how virtual environments allow them to create more effective, efficient leadership training. Overall, leadership training is an estimated $2 billion industry in the U.S., which means maximizing ROI in this area is critical. While the organizations in the study were investing about $684 in leadership training per employee, the largest obstacle to the effectiveness of that training was sustaining its impact over time. However, for organizations that use virtual environments for leadership training, those undergoing the training rated it as more effective. Furthermore, the study found that effective companies invest 44% more in leadership training than ineffective companies. This study shows that effective leadership training is important for business success, and using virtual environments leads to more effective training. How Virtual Environments Are Being Used When virtual environments are used for leadership training, this training is most commonly conducted through simulations. In the military, simulation-based training is used to both practice and develop the skills that soldiers need to succeed. There are many advantages to using such simulations in leadership training. Simulation-based training is beneficial because it can be completely customized to meet the needs of the trainee. Furthermore, research shows that it is helpful for those undergoing such training to watch themselves perform tasks in the virtual environment, as this allows for greater reflection on the process. Building Virtual Teamwork When it comes to virtual leadership training, the most important element is building virtual teamwork. However, there are a few challenges faced by virtual teams that are important to keep in mind when implementing these strategies at your organization. Communication: While virtual communication can be difficult, there are a number of tools that your organization can utilize to alleviate this challenge. The key is to ensure that you are using the right tools for each individual situation. Trust: Building trust can also be a major challenge in building virtual teamwork, particularly when team members come from different cultures. It is important to ensure that the manager in the situation invests in relationships with the virtual team and is prepared to work with individuals from diverse backgrounds. Management: Finally, managing virtually can also be a significant challenge. Fortunately, studies have shown that employees who work from home actually work harder, which means that less management is necessary.

For those who succeed in the business world, having a solid negotiation strategy is critical. However, negotiating can be a difficult skill to perfect. There are many common mistakes that are made during the negotiation process, from poor planning to making incorrect assumptions about the other party. With the following five tips, you will be able to hone your negotiation strategyand ensure that you are able to make deals that benefit your business. 1. Don’t Assume It’s a Fixed Pie One common mistake made during negotiations is assuming that the other party will only be willing to negotiate so much. Also referred to as assuming the pie is fixed, this mistake is frequently made when both parties actually want the same result. By assuming that the other party will only meet you halfway, you could be missing out on getting the whole pie. Margaret Neale, the director of two programs teaching negotiation at Stanford, has found that about 20-25% of the students in her class make this mistake during negotiations. 2. Understand Cultural Differences Another common mistake that you can make in your negotiation strategy is failing to take cultural differences into account. When entering negotiations with individuals from other countries and other cultures, making a foolish mistake because you do not know the culture can cause you to lose the trust of your adversary. For example, in some cultures, making eye contact is a sign of trust, but in other cultures, it is a sign of aggression. 3. Focus On Cooperation When it comes to your negotiating strategy, there are two main tactics you can take: zero-sum games vs. cooperation. While zero-sum games are combative and ultimately lead to worse results for both parties, cooperation helps businesses establish a positive relationship that leads to win-win negotiations. By keeping your negotiations positive and maintaining a tone of cooperation, you can ensure better results. 4. Don’t Ask Yes or No Questions A good strategy to help you succeed when negotiating is to ask open-ended questions rather than yes or no questions. This is because open-ended questions allow the other party to reveal more information about their wants and needs. Understanding what the other party wants out of the negotiation and where they are coming from will put the situation in perspective and help you come to a better solution. 5. Take the Time to Prepare Last but not least, never underestimate the importance of taking the time to prepare for your negotiations. Good negotiators not only do their homework on the other party, but they also make a detailed plan for how the negotiation will play out. You should always have a good idea of what your priorities are for any negotiation as well as how you can alter those priorities, if necessary, to come to an agreement that works for both parties.

How can you be sure that training is effective and efficient if there’s no system in place to evaluate it? No serious VP of sales, VPs of Training, or even VPs of HR want to be responsible for shelling out tons of cash on worthless training. Workplaces are more dynamic than they used to be. Workforces and sales teams are completely new animals from what they were just five years ago. In this article we’ll cover a solid approach to training evaluation, and then provide some tips on how to implement it. Kirkpatrick’s 4-Level Training Evaluation Model Believe it or not, this training model was actually first published by Donald Kirkpatrick way back in 1959. But, miraculously, it’s still as effective today as it was back then. Of course there have been updates since then, but the core levels are still the same. They are:   1. The Reaction: You need to set up a completely anonymous way for your trainees to provide honest and upfront feedback. How are they reacting to the training and why? Did they consider it valuable? Was it on-topic? Was it relevant? Was it useful in their own subjective opinions? You need to know how the training was received on the personal level.   2. The Knowledge Impact: Training includes learning new skills. It means being exposed to new information. A good trainer knows exactly what the trainees need to learn, and with that said, will know how much of it was actually learned. How have skills improved? Have their talents improved, or worsened? After training, how much has their knowledge-base increased and what kind of results is that translating into or not?   3. Post-Training Behavior: If training has been effective there should be a concise change in behavior. Do the trainees seem more confident, prepared and inspired? Or, do they seem more confused than ever? Furthermore, if there hasn’t been any change in behavior at all, then the training was a complete waste. Either that or they haven’t been given a chance to demonstrate their new skills yet.   4. Objective Results: We’re talking about objective and concrete outcomes here. Not only in terms of the bottom line or for the business, but for the employees and general atmosphere as well.   Training Evaluation Tips Right, so with that framework in place let’s go over the most heavy-hitting tip when it comes to each of the four levels. We’re going to cut right to chase, but you’re encouraged to do a little research into Kirkpatrick’s system. Level 1 Tip: Because reactions are subjective, identify how you plan to gauge them. Perhaps the most important thing to know is whether or not the trainees felt it was worth their time and helped them become more valuable people. Level 2 Tip: This is all about setting specific evaluation criteria. To be effective it involves having an idea of where people really are before the training takes place. It’s about really getting to know your trainees. Design a relatively easy but effective "testing tool" that you can discover precise stating points with. Level 3 Tip: Like reactions, behavior can be tricky. People aren’t always honest with it, but remain guarded at work because the environment may not be designed to cultivate new behavior. Interviews help. Regular observations and tracking helps. Just remember that positive training experience leads to changes in behavior, but trainees must be able to demonstrate their new skills. Level 4 Tip: Noting has changed. It’s still all about three things: 1) bottom line results, 2) overall morale and 3) employee retention. But, #3 can be so incredibly costly these days vs. what it used to be. Effective training reduces turnover!

Negotiation plays a role at every level in the world of business, making it a critical skill for all employees to learn. While the basic rules of negotiation: clear communication, good eye contact and body language, and a focus on objectives are typically familiar to most employees - they are, after all, the starter skills for negotiating a raise - more advanced negotiation skills can help get your company to the yes you want to hear. These five skills each address an often overlooked part of the negotiation process that can really affect negotiation outcomes. 1. Be aware of power differentials. One of the biggest challenges for upper-level employees participating in negotiations is to see the position of the person with less power. Being the person with more power in a negotiation does not automatically mean you will get what you want, particularly if you are unable to take the perspective of your negotiating partner. When the person with power takes a step back towards a more equal position, negotiations go more smoothly. 2. Emphasize the needs of the other party. Don’t assume that you know what the other party needs, but do make sure that those needs are communicated clearly and prioritized. Part of emphasizing those needs is listening closely enough to understand the nuances of the other party’s position. Once you know what your negotiating partner needs, it is easier to move forward because the different possible compromises within the negotiation become clear. 3. Avoid forced extroversion. Many people think that the most important characteristic of a powerful negotiator is extroversion, leading some naturally introverted people to put on a show that benefits no one. Rather than acting like someone you’re not, introverted negotiators should draw on the unique skills of their own personality. Additionally, others can usually tell when you are faking extroversion, and when they do, you will appear as untrustworthy. 4. Emphasize thoughts as much as feelings. Because so much of negotiating is focused on taking the perspective of the other person, negotiators can sometimes get caught up in the particular emotions invoked by the process - stress, feeling like you lack power, annoyance, frustration, and so forth. While feelings are important, trying to follow the intellectual logic of the individual you are negotiating with is just as critical. Don’t get so caught up in the emotional side that you lose sight of intellectual insights. 5. Help them get to "yes." When you show up to a negotiation, make sure you’ve done all the advance groundwork that will make it clear you care about the person or company you are negotiating with. The more you know about their position and what they will need from you to say yes, the easier and more amiable the negotiation process will be. Additionally, by keeping your ears open for the pauses in the negotiation process, you can pinpoint the parts of the process blocking the other party from getting to that all important "yes."