CEO Archives - Wayne Kurtz

Unstoppable Curiosity – Success Ideas for Life and Business

After hearing from my employees and readers over the last several years commenting on my blog, it’s time to finally summarize the best of the best blog posts in one eBook. These 70 short chapters will highlight the most popular blogs from the last 12 years. The most important component is that this summary will add value to your life and business. If you implement one of the ideas, it might be life changing just as it has been for our family, friends, colleagues and team members.

5 Questions to Ask Yourself When Scrubbing Your CRM System

The almighty CRM (customer relationship management) system is the hub of client and prospect information for most businesses. There are numerous CRM systems used by individuals and organizations including SalesForce, Infusionsoft, Hubspot, Insightly, Zoho, Pipedrive, PipelineDeals, etc. The number of CRM systems continues to trend upward especially with inbound marketing becoming more and more prevalent.

2016 Calendar Tour in 4 Steps Adjust, Revamp, Retool for 2017

As we all roll into the New Year, consider taking a tour of your 2016 calendar and build a +- Review Sheet. It may offer insights to what to do more of and less of in 2017 to keep your emotions in check.

1 Simple Sales Question to Ask Customers in Final 60 days of 2016

Build momentum into 2017 by asking your top 3 customers what it would take to get an incremental increase in business within your specialty. Ask about what your competitors are doing and how you can assist for a small percentage of increased business.

Texting and Connecting with Your Customers

The common customer communication practice after a meeting is to follow up by phone call or email. However, with the growing trend of business (not just personal) texting, with the simplicity and exceptional open rate results, more companies are including it as part of their overall marketing plan. Sending a photo with the text when thinking of a customer can provide better overall connection and personalization.

Become a Better Presenter, Writer, Salesperson by STANDING UP

As the business world has evolved to more discussions around the health benefits of standing with the stand up desk station and sitting in front of the computer classified as the “New Smoking”, have you considered how standing up can help your presentations, writing and sales results, beyond the health benefits? “New research from Texas A&M University showed a 46% increase in worker productivity by standing up.”, IIE Transactions on Occupational Ergonomics and Human Factors. They looked at two control groups for 6 months and productivity was measured by how many successful calls each group made from stand up desks vs. sitting.

Be Concise with your Next Speech and Procrastinate

If you have an upcoming presentation, investor pitch, platform talk or round table, consider redrafting your talk to make it much shorter and concise. Yes this is common sense, but it’s very difficult to do. If your allotted speaking time is for 10 minutes, draft your presentation to be completed in 4 minutes.

Entrepreneurs – Having Trouble Raising Capital? One Reason Why

One of the ongoing challenges many founders will face at some point is the dreaded capital raise beyond friends and family. I have not met many entrepreneurs’ who actually enjoy the idea of going out to the market and asking for money. This year has been a typical year for us evaluating over 100 capital raise deals and most will never get funded for one specific reason – the PASSION is not directed to what matters most – EXECUTION.

What’s Your Accountant Doing for Your Company? – Top 10 Questions to Discuss With the Up Coming Sept. 15th Tax Filing Deadline

September 15th is the time of the year that US corporate tax payers rush to get the final numbers to their accountants for the filing deadline (assuming they extended the returns with the automatic 6 month extension – IRS form 7004). It’s similar to the stress of April 15th individual tax filing deadlines. In many cases owners never fully analyze and disseminate the information from the corporate P&L and the corresponding tax return.

The Branding Pyramid and 21 Brand Monitoring Ideas

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