Wake Up! 4 Ways to Become a Morning Person

CBS MoneyWatch By Amy Levin-Epstein Are you a morning person? Up and running by the time it takes you to open your eyes and turn off your alarm? Wait...you don't need an alarm, ever? Then you probably don't need to read the following -- but feel free to forward it to any friends who aren't so bright-eyed in the wee hours. If you're relying on a combination of Starbucks, brain-blasting alarm clocks or a sympathetic partner to pry you out of bed in the morning, read on for some eye-opening tips from sleep experts: Give yourself something to look forward to. Sure, if you love your morning activities - whether it be a pleasant commute, lively morning meeting or friendly school run, you might hop out of bed. But for those of us who have tasks we dread scheduled first thing, getting up and at 'em can seem like a terrible idea. Making a nice breakfast for yourself the night before can motivate you. "A person can train themselves to dread the mornings if they see it as the beginning of pain and suffering. Similarly, you can condition yourself to pop out of bed if the morning is associated with something pleasurable," says psychiatrist and sleep specialist Tracey Marks, M.D., the author of Master Your Sleep. One recipe to try: overnight oats. Basically, they're oats prepared ahead of time and served cold, making them perfect for the hot summer months. Open your blinds ASAP Your instinct may be to pull the pillow over your head to get a few more seconds of snooze time, but that's only going to hurt your effort to become a morning person, says Kevin Gregory, vice president of Alertness Solutions, a scientific research firm. "Light exposure is the key to the timing of your body clock; getting sunlight early in the day can help push your clock and timing of your typical sleep period a little earlier," says Gregory. If you have time, go for a short morning walk or jog. The combination of light exposure, fresh air and increased blood flow will send an indisputable signal to your brain that this is the time to be up--and eventually, it will remember that message. Read: You'll be a morning person. Make yourself very, very tired Sounds crazy, right? But driving yourself to semi-exhaustion (we're not advocating aiming for narcolepsy here) can help reset your clock. "For a period of several days, restrict your sleep by forcing yourself to wake up an hour [even] earlier than usual; sleep pressure will build up and make it easier to get to sleep earlier," says Gregory. Now that you're falling asleep earlier, waking up early will come more naturally, and less painfully. Try lights and/or drugs If these simple steps aren't helping, there are more sophisticated solutions. Chris Winter, M.D., medical director of the sleep medicine center at Martha Jefferson Hospital in Charlottesville, Va., recommends light therapy devices, melatonin and alertness medications to his patients. The lights turn on timed to your body's circadian rhythm (e.g. our internal clock) and gradually changes it by replicating daylight. Melatonin, a homeopathic remedy, can induce sleepiness, helping you get on a healthy sleep cycle. And other drugs, like Provigial and Nuvigil, promote wakefulness, which may also help reset your body's natural patterns. Talk to your own doctor about which of these, if any, may help you.

Have You Heard About Social Media’s Latest Killer App? It’s Called Television.

TVNewsCheck SALES OFFICE by Abby Auerbach Social Media + Broadcast TV = Killer App A TVGuide.com study found that more viewers chatted and tweeted while watching live TV during the past season and the top 10 most popular "social shows" are all aired on broadcast networks. Such social viewing is giving rise to a new metric, social impressions, that bolsters the gross ratings points. Stations are also discovering the value of tying local programming in with the Facebook and Twitter. Have you heard about social media’s latest killer app? It’s called television. According to a TVGuide.com study, social media discussions about television shows drove more live viewing and second-screen engagement during the 2010-11 television season and, interestingly, the top 10 "social shows" all aired on broadcast networks. They are: 1.NCIS 2.American Idol 3.Criminal Minds 4.Glee 5.House 6.Fringe 7.Bones 8.Castle 9.Smallville 10.Law & Order: Special Victims Unit What’s interesting is that Idol is the only non-scripted program to appear on the list. The rest are broadcast network dramas, ranging from the general appeal (Criminal Minds) to the niche audience (Fringe). These programs all share a similar trait: they all represent “appointment viewing” for their fans. And more and more, those fans prefer to watch their favorite shows live rather than time-shifted. That way, they are able to participate in the social world of the program instantly — where they can go online and passionately discuss the program they’ve just watched without fear of “spoilers.” Not only do these highly-rated shows deliver committed audiences, but overwhelmingly, these viewers go online and act as social ambassadors for a program. Seventy-seven percent report that they use social media to share their love of a show; 65% use it as a platform to help save their favorite shows; and 35% use it to try to introduce new shows to their friends. But don’t look for them to be Tweeting or chatting on Facebook during a program. Only 24% of the respondents who use Facebook to talk about these shows do so during a broadcast — while 68% of them go to Facebook to discuss it afterwards. (Twitter has a slightly more active in-program commentary, with 47% tweeting during a broadcast.) The phenomenon of social media/television interaction has not gone unnoticed by advertisers. Along with the usual statistics, a new metric — social impression — is beginning to play a role in deciding where ad dollars go. Social impressions are more than just the number of posts on Facebook and Twitter, according to Networked Insights. The company has developed a formula that includes conversation volume, page views, frequent visitors and the traits of the posters and forums where the discussions are happening. Media buyers can use such formulas to expand schedules by purchasing multiple shows with lower gross ratings points (GRPs), but with higher social impressions. The more dedicated the fans of a show are, the more impact their social media presence has. Maureen Bosetti, EVP of broadcast and buying for Optimedia US, recently told Media Daily News that social media considerations allow “us to tap into sponsorship opportunities across multiple platforms and amplify our client’s message where consumers are most engaged.” The social media effect is also showing up in the strategies of television stations. Gannett Broadcasting has done a number of marketing promotions on its NBC affiliates built around late-season entry, The Voice. The result? Most of those six Gannett stations in the top 25 markets are ranked either first or second in the time period during which the show airs. And latenight local programming, for virtually all of Gannett’s 11 NBC affiliates, has seen noticeable bumps in the ratings. Can local television broadcasters take advantage of the social media/television interaction to directly benefit one of our greatest assets: local news? Last year, Hearst Television commissioned a local TV news study from Frank N. Magid Associates. The study revealed that local television ranked highest among all news programming in driving purchases of products and services; furthermore, the study showed that viewers were far more engaged with advertisements on local television news than with ads in newspapers or on radio. Imagine the possibilities of marrying those already high levels of engagement for local television news with the power of social media tools. Jen Lee Reeves, new media director, KOMU Columbia-Jefferson, Mo, did just that when the devastating tornado hit nearby Joplin. As she reported on PBS.org’s Mediashift: “When the tornado hit, our Facebook fans knew they could trust us to coordinate and share important information.... Some of the conversations I had with our Facebook audience led to our morning show coverage.... It's an example of how a commitment to social media can help encourage ongoing conversations between a newsroom and its community.” Broadcast TV + local news + hyper-local social media — now there’s a killer app.

The 8 Most Crucial Sales Skills

bNet By Geoffrey James | Publishes for this Edition May 4, 2012 A while back, I posted a list of five critical sales skills based on a conversation Duane Sparks, author of the bestseller Sales Strategy From The Inside Out: How Complex Selling Really Works. I then asked Sales Machine readers if they felt that there were some additional skills that ought to have been on the list. They identified three, and I identified one. Here’s the complete list (with Duane’s original skills marked with an asterisk *): • SKILL #1: Building the Buyer-Seller Relationship*. Salespeople need to develop a better understanding of the buying process that customers actually follow-the real decisions they make, and when they are made. Then salespeople need to match their sales process with the customer’s buying process. When this is done, salespeople begin to walk arm-in-arm with the customer as they arrive at the best possible solution. • SKILL #2: Planning the Sales Call*. Most companies today lack a well-defined sales process. Very few have documented the sales practices that lead to strong commitments from customers. As a consequence, salespeople don’t plan sales calls properly. For instance, every call should end in some kind of commitment from the customer-an agreement to do something that will move the process forward. • SKILL #3: Asking the Right Questions*. Most salespeople do not ask the right types of questions, even if they prepare questions prior to the sales call, which most don’t. The impact of poor questioning skills is enormous. It leads to resistance in the form of stalls and objections, bad presentations that offer improper solutions, failure to differentiate from the competition-and missed sales opportunities. • SKILL #4: Business Acumen. If you’re going to help your customer become more successful you need to know how businesses work in general, how your customer’s industry works, how your customer addresses their target market and how your firms offerings can help them better serve their own customers. Without business skills, you’ll never have the credibility needed to sell • SKILL #5: Actively Listening. Sales pros miss important cues and information by talking too much themselves and their products. It’s much more important to shut up and let the customer talk. Yes, you should guide the conversation, but then listen and digest properly we learn so much about what the customer really wants, so that you can position your offering appropriately. • SKILL #6: Presenting Meaningful Solutions*. Most salespeople claim that this is the skill they are best at. In fact, we as managers tend to hire people who have “the gift of gab.” In reality, quality is far more important than quantity when it comes to making presentations. When salespeople zero in on presenting only specific solutions to previously agreed-upon needs, they rarely fail. • SKILL #7: Gaining Commitments*. If you really think about it, the only reason to employ salespeople is to gain customer commitment. Yet, when asked, most salespeople admit that this is their weakest skill. Research suggests that almost two thirds of salespeople fail to ask for commitment on sales calls. Any effective sales training program must have a solid solution for this problem. • SKILL #8: Managing Your Emotions. The way sales pro explain to themselves the causes of their successes and failures is vitally important. Developing a style that sees adversity as temporary and isolated builds the mental toughness, emotional resilience and patience to bounce back from setbacks and be proactive when the time is right.

Local TV Broadcasting Advertising Revenue Dipped 7.8% in 2011

BIA/Kelsey report In 2011 stations took in $17.9 billion in broadcast ad revenues, compared with $19.4 billion in 2010 -- the fall off due to the weak economy and dearth of political advertising. With the return of heavy political spending this year, revenue will rebound 10% this year to $19.7 billion, the research and investment firm says. By Staff TVNewsCheck, May 1, 2012 7:51 AM EDT Local TV broadcasting advertising revenue dipped 7.8% in 2011 from the previous year, due to the sluggish economy and the dearth of political advertising typical of odd-numbered years, according to BIA/Kelsey's quarterly Investing in Television Market Report. In 2011, stations took in $17.9 billion, compared with $19.4 billion in 2010. "Local advertising industry revenues typically rise and fall depending on the political year," said Mark Fratrik, VP-chief economist, BIA/Kelsey. "Advertising income for local television is trending upward [in 2012] and showing signs of rebound, with a good first quarter for many public television companies. Still, the 2012 over-the-air television advertising market is not what it was 11 years ago." With the return of the heavy political spending this year, BIA/Kelsey sees broadcast ad revenue rebounding to $19.7 billion this year, up 10% from 2011 and up 2% from 2010, the last "political" year. Stations' broadcast ad revenue is still way down from 2006 ($22.8 billion) and, in its five-year forecast, BIA/Kelsey doesn't expect stations to attain that level again. It pegs 2016 broadcast ad revenue at $21.8 billion. The good news for broadcasters is that their digital media are beginning to make significant contributions to total revenue. In 2011, BIA/Kelsey says, television stations earned $535 million from digital, an 18.7% jump compared with $450 million in 2010. It forecasts digital revenue will grow at a compound annual rate of nearly 45% over the next five years and hit $1 billion in 2016. So, broadcast and digital revenue combined in 2016 will match 2006 broadcast revenue. "Local television stations are establishing increased expertise in packaging, pricing and selling cross-platform and multi-device ad-supported content services for their viewers," said Rick Ducey, BIA/Kelsey's managing director and program director of video local media. "We anticipate greater utilization of smartphones and tablets for engaged audience experiences with local streaming video content including news, weather and sports monetized both by advertising and sponsorships." According to BIA/Kelsey's U.S. Local Media Forecast (2011-2016) and local market ad spending analysis, Media Ad View Reports, the local advertising ecosystem continues to be dominated by traditional media, with stations' share at 13.9% of $132.8 billion in 2011 and 14.3% of $151.3 billion in 2016. In order to grow revenues, stations should concentrate on local-direct revenues instead of relying on transactional share says Dr. Philip Jay LeNoble, CEO of Executive Decision Systems, Inc. Littleton, CO.

Auto Spending will Grow 14% in 2012

Advertising Age -- May 1, 2012 - 9:58 am ET Stephen Williams NEW YORK -- As the U.S. auto industry motors toward a broad recovery, Borrell Associates forecasts that national and local advertising spending will rise nearly 14 percent in 2012, to $30.8 billion, and that about 40 cents of every media dollar will be channeled toward digital. According to a report prepared by the Virginia-based consulting firm that tracks local ad spending, the trend toward digital media -- at the expense of print, radio and direct mail -- will continue "largely unabated." CEO Gordon Borrell said the firm foresees the industry, including dealers and dealer associations, spending $11.9 billion on search buys and online banner ads, and trending toward repurposing manufacturers' agency spots for local video usage "tailored to their own purposes." The $11.9 billion figure marks an overall increase of 39 percent from 2011. "Gone are the days when broadcast advertising dominated the top of the buying funnel," stated a summary of the report. Among the factors contributing to Borrell's findings are greater availability of co-op advertising budgets, and the movement of targeting marketing to reach potential buyers via their mobile devices. According to Borrell's prognostications, nearly 90 percent of the additional dollars -- or an estimated $3.7 billion -- will be earmarked for digital. The spending data examined trends for 11 marketing channels: newspapers, radio, TV, cable, magazines, outdoor, cinema, online, direct mail, directories and telemarketing, and examined spending patterns by five types of auto advertisers: manufacturers, franchised dealers, independent dealers, dealer associations and private-party sellers. The report conservatively forecasts total sales of light trucks and cars of 13.5 million units (the U.S. sales rate was 14.5 million during the first quarter). But the report says higher gas prices and restricted credit could cause some "speed bumps." Most of the automobile ad spending will occur in the May-to-August frenzy as dealers push Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day sales. This differs significantly from other businesses, which tend to advertise in late spring and into the fall as the holidays approach. Read more: http://www.autonews.com/article/20120501/RETAIL03/120509992#ixzz1tejvc8PV

What to Look for in a Star Salesperson

Inc. Online by John Warrillow As a business owner you may be a great salesperson but a lousy sales manager. So remove yourself from the equation by hiring a self-directed salesperson. "You need someone with a built-in polish that matches that of your target customer." The other day I spoke to a business owner who had given his new salesperson a sales target of $1.2 million. When I asked the owner how his new sales rep was tracking to his goal, the owner admitted the salesperson had not closed a single piece of business in his first six months on the job. In other words, the seven-figure target was a joke, and the salesperson would be lucky to hit 10 percent of his plan by year's end. So whose at fault? Surprisingly, it's probably the business owner. Most business owners make great salespeople but terrible sales managers. As the owner of your company, you're probably your business's best sales rep because you have miles of credibility, you know your industry and your product, and you can sell based on the depth of your experience. Almost by definition, your salespeople are going to have less industry knowledge than you, so they need a different set of skills and experiences to draw from. What's more, you're probably not going to give them the support they would get from a traditional sales manager. A sales manager's job is to make his or her salespeople successful. Good managers meet regularly (at least weekly, if not daily) with their reps to discuss their progress. They have their salespeople prepare a sales funnel and manage their numbers. Great sales managers think of sales as a simple game of managing their reps' numbers. For example, they might know that 100 leads typically yield 10 meetings, which will convert to three proposals, which will result in one sale. Instead of hounding their reps for a sale, the best sales managers focus on the status of the funnel, making sure their sales reps have the right number of leads and meetings, which they know—if they just work the system—will result in the right number of sales. As business owners, we usually make crappy sales managers. First of all, we're rarely so process-oriented to have the patience to work a system like the best sales managers follow. Second, we're too busy putting out fires to meet regularly with our sales reps; something else always comes up. Third, we're too optimistic. Our glass is always three-quarters full, which leads us to develop unrealistic budgets and set salespeople up for failure before they even start. Given our inherent weakness for managing salespeople, what should we business owners do if we can't afford a sales manager but need someone to replace us as the company's salesperson? My suggestion is that you work under the assumption that your employee won't get the traditional management and support most salespeople need, so when hiring your first salesperson, consider only prospects who could work manager-free. One of the things I notice when I look back on the winning salespeople I have hired is that they were all self-directed. In other words, they didn't need a lot of hand-holding from me. When it comes to expectations of sales staff, there is a big distinction between large and small businesses. In a big business, salespeople work under many layers of sales management. Sales managers design the territories, targets, sales process, support material, and offers. All salespeople really have to do is follow the system, and they will usually achieve a decent level of success. In fact, some of the best-performing salespeople in a large company are primarily just good at following a system. In a small business, none of the infrastructure exists. Budgets are largely a guess, territories are blurry, and what could laughingly be described as a sales process is really just a series of habits the business owner follows unconsciously. And that is why finding a salesperson who is self-directed is so important. Self-direction is the ability to wake up in the morning and know what to do without being told. The self-directed salesperson gets up and puts together a call sheet with a mix of hot prospects and cool leads that need cultivating. When advancing a prospect to the point of making a decision, he or she blocks out the world's noise and puts everything else on hold until the sale gets over the finish line. The self-directed salesperson doesn't need to be told to complete a weekly funnel; it's always rolling over in his or her head. And a sixth sense tells this type of sales rep just where and what to work on. Here are three things to look for to increase your odds of finding a self-directed salesperson: 1. Experience Working Remotely Salespeople who have succeeded while working remotely have demonstrated an ability to be productive without constant coaching or supervision. It takes a special breed to work from home without the camaraderie of an office environment. Look for people who have met a quota while working independently. 2. A "Polish" That Mirrors That of the Audience It's important for salespeople to mirror the sophistication of the audience they're selling to. Without a sales manager to coach your new recruits on the "soft stuff," you need someone with a built-in polish that matches that of your target customer. If your target prospect is a senior banker, then you want a salesperson who looks comfortable wearing a suit and speaks and writes at a university level. By contrast, if you're calling on residential plumbing companies, you want your sales rep to be a little more Tim Horton's than Starbucks. Don't bother hiring a greenhorn who you think you can coach—you will have neither the time nor the patience. 3. Competitive Streak Unlike in a big company, where daily sales huddles, contests, leader boards, and promotions provide a constant set of external motivators, the manager-free salesperson has to source motivation from inside. Therefore, look for salespeople who are naturally competitive. On a CV or in a job interview, the competitive salesperson will tell you how they ranked among other sales reps in their organization, and you'll see their desire to compete show up in the list of sports they play or hobbies they participate in. If you've tried and failed to hire your first successful salesperson, don't lose hope. Replacing yourself as your company's best salesperson is hard work and requires you to find a special breed of individual who can sell without the traditional infrastructure available in most sales organizations.

How to Improve Your Struggling Sales Team

Inc.com Tim Donnelly Trying to get your sales team back on track? Forget the pep-talk. Experts suggest sales management and training techniques that can improve your company's sales. "At the end of the day, people don't leave bad companies. They leave bad managers." - Brent Adamson What do you do with struggling salespeople? It's a problem that's vexxed multi-national corporations and start-ups; assistant managers and presidents of boards. It's simply hard to know when to pull the trigger on removing underperforming team members when it could be that the staff just needs a little guidance, encouragement, or training to get back on track. A little professional nudge in the right direction is a more economical choice over the time-consuming and expensive process of hiring a replacement sales representative. Many sales professionals would rather give their struggling sales people a chance to improve and bring their results up to company standards. When you're trying to figure out whether your sales team can get back on track, first try these expert strategies on how to lift sales team out of the profit gutter. Step One: Install a Great Sales Manager You can't have someone overseeing your sales team who is nothing more than a glorified cheerleader, says Liz Wendling, owner of Insight Business Consultants and Sales Coach For Women. You need to employ a manager who is not only willing to engage the team, but to also identify weaknesses and work directly with sales staff to overcome their challenges. "It's not somebody who can just pat somebody on the back," she says. "They do pep talks, and pep talks aren't enough for some salespeople." Many companies make the mistake of promoting their top salespeople to manager positions, but often the most skilled salespeople don’t have the coaching dexterity needed to effectively guide a whole team. In fact, research by the Corporate Executive Board says sales representatives strongly prefer coaching to come from their direct supervisor. "By far unless the direct supervisor is perceived as owning that coaching, the coaching is likely to have relatively minimal impact," says Brent Adamson, senior director. "At the end of the day, people don't leave bad companies. They leave bad managers." Additional Resources: How to Hire a Sales Manager Step Two: Implement One-on-One Coaching Sales coach Jeremy J. Ulmer, who lists among his credentials twice being ranked the No. 1 sales performer at two global Fortune 500 companies, says the first step to improving sales is talking directly to the team to find out what struggles they are facing. What makes their jobs difficult? What could they do better? What could they be provided with to do better? "Sometimes they're very open and they tell you a lot of things," he says. Other times you will have to pry a little by asking how they're managing time, what an average day looks like and to describe how they run sales call. Then he picks one problem at a time to work on to get better results. That sometimes means removing technological distractions and giving additional management support. Several experts recommend pairing low-performing sales representatives with successful ones. Ulmer says that strategy was a better learning experience at his first sales job with Xerox than the company's 10 weeks of official training. Sometimes Ulmer will put a sales team on a strict schedule so they are making sales calls during dedicated blocks during the day, instead of sporadically throughout all work hours. Limiting the coaching to specific groups of employees is often more effective than spreading it around the company as a whole, says Matt Dixon, managing director of the Corporate Executive Board. "Coaching is not meant to be democratic," he says. Too many managers fall back on what he calls "spreadsheet coaching," where the focus is on whether the sales staff is hitting its numbers. Instead, you should be working closely with the individual sales representatives to understand the context of the problems. "When it comes to coaching, they're so focused on that number and hitting that quota, they lose sight," he says. "The way that you do that is not focus on those outcomes but focus on behaviors." Michael J. Galante, who runs TheSalesCoach.com, creates what he calls a Performance Improvement Plan for each ailing salesperson he meets. It's essentially a battle plan to help the employee assault obstacles to productivity. Often times, the problem is a lack of follow through, which leads to fizzling sales momentum. Having an action plan helps keep track of things like that that might otherwise be overlooked, he says. "That's why I try to document," he says. "I can show the sales person or manager that there's some growth or some success." Step Three: Put Your Team on a Sales Diet Like anyone leading an unhealthy lifestyle, a sales staff sometimes needs a "sales diet" of sorts to get some perspective on challenges. Wendling recommends giving struggling employee a smaller stack of calls to work through. They'll can gain confidence and avoid the burnout of intense extended sales pitch efforts. Then, work with them to dissect the sales calls to note areas for improvement: Do they have good rapport and conversation skills? Are they moving through the pitch at a natural pace or steamrolling right to the point? Setting individual benchmarks can help put people on the right track to success, especially if you are forced to put sales staff on probation until performance improves. But it's important to keep a balance between realistic goals and creating too much performance anxiety. "They could see (the office) as this daunting place they have to go. That could scare a lot of people off," she says. "With that internal pressure, sales people wind up making desperate calls, stretching the truth, lying to customers just to get sales." Suggested Reading: What to Do When A Sales Representative Misses Quota Step Four: Looking to the Future, Hire Smart It's an obvious piece of advice, but one worth repeating, Galante says: the best way to handle lackluster sales represtnatives is to not have them in the first place, or to at least identify them early. "It's really important for the management team to avoid this situation," he says. "Stay on top of the rep's performance, intervene before they become the worst sales person or significantly underperforming." Adamson says companies need to sit down and figure out a map of the behaviors that drive success before doing any hiring. "If you've got a profile of the behaviors to drive success, you'll make sure people more likely to be aligned to great behaviors," he says. Wendling says your company's expectations should be communicated during the job interview so candidates know what's in store. You can test their skills by including in the interview exercises that force them to think on their feet; or by sending them off with a homework assignment to see how they can prepare for a big task. But when all else fails, you may have to come to grips with trimming the sales team of dead weight. Data collected by the Corporate Executive Board show that companies tend to spend too much time coaching the top 20 percent of performers and trying to improve the bottom 20 percent. But focusing on the core middle 60 percent of the sales force is the best way to improve your profits. "For true under performers, no amount of good coaching is going to make them better at their job," Dixon says.