There are certain personality traits and characteristics that enable an individual to be successful at sales. Temperaments, ways of approaching people, and even external appearance can all be a huge influence on a salesperson’s efficacy with clients. Most of these traits are applicable to more than sales, too; they’re valuable life skills that will travel with you throughout your career. Being Self-Aware  To understand the way others perceive us, we must first understand ourselves. Being self-aware and identifying our emotions is a useful skill at work and in life. Salespeople have the inherent ability to read their own and others’ emotions, which allows them to adjust their response. Once you can identify how you respond to certain stimuli, you can work on changing your actions, if necessary. Think about how you react when you don’t understand something. Do you get mad? Do you make a reasonable effort to wrap your head around it? Or do you change the subject? Salespeople know ahead of time how they tend to react and what type of reaction will elicit a positive response in a given situation. Solution Oriented Salespeople are adept at solving problems; that’s what makes them so good at their jobs. When a salesman pitches an idea or product, they must first identify a problem for which the product offers a solution. They convince the person by explaining how the product or idea works to make their life easier. In the event that a customer has a complaint or a pitch goes sour, they know how to solve that problem, too. Understanding is the foundation for problem solving. To effectively solve a problem, you must first understand the nature of it. Optimistic  Optimism isn’t limited to salespeople. It is a healthy outlook everyone should embrace. Optimistic people are more confident, and confidence gets you everywhere. The key to becoming more optimistic is to thoroughly analyze your emotional response to situations. Imagine you wake up in the morning and stub your toe getting out of bed. You can either think: "oh great, it’s going to be that kind of day," or you can think: "at least I’m wide awake now!" It’s this type of decision in your perception that alters your entire day. Assertiveness  Being assertive doesn’t mean being aggressive. There are plenty of ways to convey your assertiveness without coming across as arrogant. When a customer tells an assertive salesman they would like to think about the offer and get back to them, the salesman will often ask for a specific time and date to follow up. This isn’t as passive as simply saying "okay," and it’s less aggressive than saying "it’s now or never." It is both firm and accommodating. Sources: http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/04/12/the-unexpected-secret-to-being-a-great-salesperson/ http://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/5-traits-of-highly-successful-salespeople.html http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/65984

During a negotiation, each side has deep interest in seeing their desires come to pass. Sometimes compromises that leave all parties completely satisfied can be made, but there are cases where issues leave one side at a deficit. This can create resentment or increase conflict. It is important for negotiators to reach their end goal while still maintaining amicable and fruitful relationships with those in opposition. Learn how to effectively communicate your point while utilizing tact and diplomacy to preserve your professional connections. Demonstrate Emotional Control  Emotional control is our ability to recognize our own emotional response to situations. People who have a higher level of emotional intelligence can identify and control their emotions. Additionally, emotional intelligence allows us to recognize the way other people respond to situations. An effective negotiator easily recognizes personal emotions before they come to the surface, and he or she knows how to elicit and manage a response from the other side. This allows them to negotiate with tact. Because they understand emotion, they know how to manipulate the situation without offending anyone. Listen Attentively  Everyone wants to be heard. Experienced negotiators know how to talk, but they also know how to listen. When you truly listen to someone, you establish a bond while learning about his or her needs. In turn, you can understand each side with clarity and how to bridge any remaining gaps. Attentive listening not only garners respect from the opposition; it prepares you to offer solutions. Show Assertiveness  Assertiveness and tact go hand in hand. When negotiating, you don’t want to be seen as passive, but you also don’t want to be perceived as overly aggressive. The essence of negotiating with tact is to make your point without making the other person angry or intimidated. Learning to be assertive entails finding the balance between passiveness and aggressiveness. A firm handshake, confident eye contact, and a demonstration of your intelligence should accomplish this nicely. Keep the End Goal in Mind  Before going into a negotiation, clearly define your goals. This may mean writing them down and thinking about how to achieve them. Negotiators step outside themselves and see the big picture. Because of this, they are also able to forecast possible objections to their arguments and come up with solutions. Prepare your responses to possible objections, so you can demonstrate to others that you respect their opinions and considered their needs, as well. Sources: http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/tact-diplomacy.html http://www.forbes.com/sites/christinapark/2015/01/09/eight-powerful-negotiation-tips-for-introverts/ http://www.how-to-negotiate.com/interpersonal-communication-skills.html

In any situation, the appropriateness of cursing, slang, and other forms of taboo language always hinges on questions of time, place, and manner. With all forms of persuasion, context is crucial. In the context of negotiation, emotionally charged appeals can be a slippery slope, most often better to be avoided. There are always exceptions, but consider this. In the wrong context, swearing may constitute bullying, emotional abuse, or sexual harassment. Slang terminology can either imply a spirit of inclusion into certain social groups, or exclusion. It can be taken as a sign of respect, or it might imply a reductive, dismissive attitude toward the audience. It all depends. So, while it may sometimes be true that cursing, and slang language have their appropriate time, place, and manner in the world, a negotiator who feels like that rhetorical style is the most persuasive approach probably needs to brush up on their sales negotiation training, or risk cursing themselves later for failing to perfect their pitch the right way. As a word of caution, before you go into a negotiation armed with a slang vocabulary, make sure you know your audience, your message, and the real meaning of the language you’re going to use. Here’s an infographic to help with that.

What, no webinars?!? For more than three years, I’ve been analyzing the adoption of webinar marketing throughout the B2B world. One trend that sticks out is how few companies host webinars in comparison to other types of content. Time and time again, I’ll go to a vendor’s site looking for more information, and I’ll find a blog, a white paper and possibly an eBook. Often, I’ll find a webinar, but not always. And if there’s a webinar, it’s almost always hosted with other forms of content as well. The B2B Content Marketing 2014 Benchmarks, Budgets & Trends - North America report confirms my discovery: although 93% of B2B marketers generate content, only 62% host webinars. This amazes me. Webinars are widely recognized as one of the most, if not the most effective digital marketing technique. They are consistently rated as more effective than blogs and white papers. So, I wonder why webinars are always the ultimate piece of content that marketers get to creating after all the lower-engagement pieces are out of the way. What accounts for this strange disconnect? What’s your excuse? Trust me, I’ve heard all the reasons why marketers aren’t hosting webinars. It’s a foregone conclusion that a "lack of time" and "producing enough content" are two of the largest challenges marketers face when it comes to content marketing. And indeed, webinars are perhaps the most demanding in both these categories. In a recent webinar I cohosted with Brian Massey of Conversion Sciences, Brian shared a study he conducted showing that nearly 70% of marketers spend 6 hours per webinar just creating content. A recent study I did illustrated that 93% of marketers spend another hour on the landing pages, notifications and other logistics. 20% spend more than 7 hours! I understand how difficult it can be. We live in a day and age where marketers must wear many, many hats. Once upon a time we simply had to be creative. Then came HTML, SEO, CRM and dozens of other acronyms, and now we also have to be corporate publishers. What’s next? It’s certainly overwhelming. But in all the hustle bustle, I see almost no logical pattern to what content companies create first, what they save for last and what content they make excuses for. Which leads me to a question that marketers have for too long infamously asked: "Are we just guessing?" Content creation strategies: bottom up vs. "the cascade" Ben Franklin once said that out of adversity comes opportunity. In Brian Massey’s case, adversity came from a webinar he hosted more than a year ago. The webinar software completely broke down in front of a large audience, and Brian was unable to switch slides as he spoke. He should’ve just stuck to blogging and infographics, right? Wrong. Instead, Brian converted the webinar into blog posts, a slide deck and a podcast. Brian’s approach is in direct contrast to what I normally see: a bottom-up content strategy. This strategy entails the creation of many small, low-engagement pieces of content, with the hope that this eventually results in a single high-quality piece of content like a webinar. Here’s the problem: this bottom-up approach is haphazard and unpredictable and may or may not even lead to high-engagement content, despite requiring as much if not more time than it would have taken to create high-engagement content in the first place. What Brian discovered is that despite webinars taking more time to create than most other forms of content, they also contain the ingredients to easily convert into other forms of content. A survey he conducted showed that 78% of marketers had access to a slide-based webinar presentation done by an expert at their company in the past year. That’s an untapped gold mine. Brian now regularly transforms all of his webinars into blog posts, infographics and eBooks, often generating thousands more leads than the webinar alone achieved. Brian calls this "the content cascade." I call it the cure. What do you call it? Not sure how to get started turning webinars into other content assets? Start here. Photo credit: Diego Fernandez via Flickr

This year the mobile workforce is predicted to grow to 1.2 billion people, reports VDC Research Group. And that makes sense - mobility in business is beneficial for both the employer and the employee. Everyone benefits from added flexibility; employers get more out of their employees whenever they need them, and employees enjoy tending to personal lives and work interchangeably. In celebration of Telework Week, we’re sharing best practices, facts and success stories about mobile work. To kick us off, consider these tips about working from home, the road and elsewhere. When working from home… Create a workspace. Sitting down at the same place to get your work done at home cues your brain in the same way walking into an office does. In that place, you focus on work. Creating a quiet space with all the tools you need to get your job done will increase your productivity at home. Get dressed. Not only does a morning routine help you wake up and prepare for your day, but taking the time to look presentable helps you mentally transition to professional you. And since more and more companies are adopting video conferencing for their online meetings, colleagues and customers will still see you even when you’re not in the office. Working from the road… Equip yourself. Chargers, ear buds and Wi-Fi hotspots are the road worker’s best friend. Never put your devices in checked luggage, and plan what work to get done when and where so that you’re always prepared. Choose your spot wisely. If you’re going to be taking video conferences while traveling, a bustling coffee shop might not be the best place to work. Locate and set up in places that make sense for your workday. Your workplace may change depending on your to-do list. Plan time to recharge. No one can do great work continuously without a break. Add the stress of traveling and navigating a new place to your plate, and your brain will want to tap out. So plan to enjoy a walk or dinner out without your email inbox as your companion. When working from anywhere… Communicate more frequently. No matter where you’re working from, when you’re working with people in different places, more communication is always better than less. This doesn’t mean you need to call or email your team constantly. Just be sure to update your team when project statuses change and milestones are met so everyone stays on the same page. Where do you work? Got any tips on how to work successfully from outside the office? Send your tips to us on Twitter: @gotomeeting. Photo credit: Citrixonline via Flickr

The Telework Week celebration continues today with some statistics that illustrate why flexible work styles are good for people and businesses. Citrix research suggests that more than one-third of knowledge workers no longer work in a traditional office. And those flexible work programs are shifting our perspective. You may have even heard people saying, "Work is no longer somewhere to go. It’s a thing you do, from anywhere." The numbers don’t lie: studies show that teleworking positively impacts both employers and employees happiness for the better.  With benefits like lower turnover, better work-life fit and improved productivity, who isn’t smiling about flexible work? On that note, here’s the breakdown of flexible work benefits for companies and employees. Work Is Not a Place: Benefits of Mobile Workstyles for Business and People from GoToMeeting   Are you a flex worker enjoying the benefits of telecommuting? Send us your tips on twitter: @citrix Photo credit: Matt Crawford via Flickr

Happy Telework Week! At Citrix, it’s been a crazy, no-holds-barred, no-one-shows-up party all week. The offices are roaring with silence as employees get their work on somewhere else. You could say we’re telework animals ‒ over 85 percent of our employees work remotely at least once a week. Now if you already know what Telework Week is, you can skip this paragraph. If you haven’t heard about it yet, pull out your notebook please. It’s an annual event organized by the U.S.-based Mobile Work Exchange that encourages individuals and businesses everywhere to telework. People promise to do so, and then the organization tallies up the total impact. As of today, we’re sitting at over 160,000 pledges - a new record! - which comes out to almost 14 million dollars and 18 million pounds of pollutants saved. We love seeing numbers like these, because we’re firm believers that workshifting works. But what we love even more than cold, hard data is seeing our customers take part in the mobile workstyles movement. The video below is from Mark Sebell, founder and CEO of Creative Realities. His company does innovation consulting worldwide, which means they’re often globetrotting to meet with clients. They also used to travel to meet with prospective customers, often at their own expense. So they decided to start using GoToMeeting instead. We’ll let Mark explain the difference it made for them: Why travel when you can telework? Mark’s story makes that clear. It’s a win-win for him and his clients. The only ones who seem to be losing out are the airlines. (We’re sorry, airlines.) Now remember, today is Friday. Today is also the last day of Telework Week 2014. So it’s the last chance you have to shamelessly share links and stories and other stuff with your office-bound colleagues about the benefits of workshifting. Then next year, you guys can join us for Telework Week. It’ll be a blast ‒ we promise! Photo credit: Jenn Vargas via Flickr

Thanks to all who attended our GoToMeeting: Audio & Webcam Best Practices webinar on February 4, 2014. We appreciate all of the positive feedback and the excellent questions about audio and webcam best practices. Here are the key takeaways from the webinar − the answers to your GoToMeeting audio & webcam best practices questions. 1.  When should I enter my audio PIN? You can enter the audio PIN whenever you’re connected to the meeting, but we recommend doing so right away for the best audio experience. One of the main benefits to inputting the unique Audio PIN while in a GoToMeeting is so the organizer can mute you in-session. This is especially important when the team is experiencing audio feedback. At any time, you can enter your PIN using your phone’s keypad by pressing #[the unique Audio PIN]#.  2.  In what format are recordings exported? Videos files are exported in.wmv on PCs and in .mov on Macs. You’ll need editing software if you need to convert your recording to other formats.  3.  How many participants can share webcams at once? You can have up to 6 web cameras showing on screen in a GoToMeeting session at one time.  4.  How do I share my presentation and webcams at the same time? Share your screen with meeting participants by pressing the "Show My Screen" button, and turn on your webcam by pressing "Share My Webcam." If you are working on two monitors, click on the drop-down menu under "Share My Screen" to select one or both of the screens you want to share. 5.  Can I turn off notification beeps for when attendees join and leave the meeting? Yes. Organizers should select edit under the audio panel and uncheck "Play Entry/Exit Chimes." You can also turn off on-hold beeps. 6.  Which webcams do you recommend using with GoToMeeting? Here is a list of webcams that work the best with GoToMeeting. Some of you also asked questions about features in GoToWebinar and GoToTraining, which are part of the Citrix collaboration suite along with GoToMeeting. Both GoToWebinar and GoToTraining contain features that are not available in GoToMeeting because they are meant to facilitate communication and participation in much larger events. So, if you find yourself looking at your Control Panel and wondering why you don’t see certain features, make sure to check that you are using the right service for your online event needs. 1)  Where is the "Raise Your Hand" feature? The Raise Your Hand feature is only available in GoToWebinar and GoToTraining, since those tools are built for larger audiences. In GoToMeeting, the best way to hear from participants is to use chat and unmute. 2)  Is there a timer function to let you know how much time you have left in the meeting? GoToMeeting does not have a timer feature because GoToMeeting sessions will not cut off if you run over the scheduled meeting time. Only when an organizer chooses to end a GoToMeeting will a session officially end. If you missed our webinar reviewing the best practices for GoToMeeting audio and webcams,  you can watch the recording here. For more customer insights and conversations about this webinar, you can search twitter for #GoToMeetingWBR. Photo credit: Citrix Online via Flickr

Effective online classes come down to providing interactive course design and effective content delivery, according to award-winning training consultant Cindy Huggett. So when you want to improve your courses, think about what part needs improvement: is it your content delivery or your course makeup? Below are three of Cindy’s 10 tips for better online training. Interact from the start. When students enter your virtual classroom, they should notice the interactivity from the start. Wave hello via webcam and leave the lines open for small talk. If your group is small enough, personally say hello to each participant and ask everyone to introduce themselves in a few sentences. If you start engaging from the start, the momentum will stay as you go. Engage an unseen audience. Unless you’re in a very small group training where everyone has their webcam on, your audience is unseen to you and the other participants, so use every engagement tool at your disposal to keep your participants engaged. Have attendees share their webcams to ask questions or share work and use polls and surveys to test and get feedback on the content. Use each session as a design review. The best way to improve your training course is to keep looking for ways to improve it. At the end of each session, verbally ask for feedback from participants and add at least one question on course feedback to the post-event survey. Who better to help you improve your course than the people taking it? Read Cindy’s seven other tips for improving online trainings. Photo credit: James F Clay via Flickr

GoToMeeting got its start in Goleta, California, home to gorgeous mountains, fantastic beaches and amazing avocadoes. Our team has since grown and spread around the globe, but lots of us still work and live here. So we were thrilled when the city decided to use GoToMeeting to host their first online public forum. The City of Goleta, along with Spohn Ranch Skateparks, invited the community a couple weeks back to join an online meeting and view the design for their proposed skatepark. Around 15 people participated, sharing their thoughts on the project. "This is the first time we’ve tried this," said city analyst Claudia Dato in the Santa Barbara Noozhawk. "A lot of the future users of the skatepark are technology-savvy, so it seemed like a good way to reach some of the kids." GoToMeeting proved to be perfect for a virtual tour of the park. The skate planner zoomed in, zoomed out, following the routes folks could take as they skate the small but solid layout. On each ramp and installation, he stopped and drew with the highlighter tool, showing just how someone could hit the feature and then roll on to the next. Although the park is still a ways away from construction, the skaters of Goleta were glad to get a sneak peek at the ramps, bars, pipes and pads. And on our end, we’re glad that our virtual meeting technology could help make the new skatepark a reality. Image credit: Spohn Ranch Skateparks