Business Ideas For Smes And Start Ups

I really enjoyed recording this podcast with Hugh Gilmore, a sports psychologist working with the British Weightlifting and athletic teams. I first crossed paths with Hugh 7-8 years ago whilst we were both offering different levels of support to the Queens University Sigerson team. On a recent podcast I heard Hugh talk about the comparisons with sport and business in terms of creating culture and a high performance environment. In this episode we cover a lot of territory - the difference in culture and traditions to the theory of motivational interviewing. Hugh talks about how he helped to create a thriving culture in British weightlifting and gives some first class insights into his area of expertise. He has his own podcast 'Eight % Mental' and runs workshops occasionally on these very subjects. He was incredibly generous with his time - we spent 4 hours chatting, most of which could have made it onto the podcast and definitely hope to get him back on before the year is out. I hope you enjoy listening

Changing culture in an organisation doesn’t happen over-night. Attitudes and behaviours within an organisation are deep rooted and change takes time. Being adaptive, flexible and innovative are ‘ticket to entry’ behaviours for most organisations these days – brand values need to be reflected in individual and collective behaviours. Sounds straight forward yet there is often a clash between the desire for innovation and change and the prevailing culture. Capacity for change varies from individual to individual yet everyone wants to feel that their work is at the very least valued. In this episode of the Shift Control Podcast, I talk to Kevin Young from Inmynd an organisation dedicated to personal and corporate transformational change. I have known Kevin for a few years and I am delighted to get him onto the podcast and this episode should make interesting listening for those business leaders who are considering or are on the cusp of cultural change within their organisation. It will also make great lis

This podcast is a reflection on why some people engage in sales training successfully and why others don't. It's as easy to be the accused as it is the victim but my question is what really motivates business and business owners to engage with sales coaches if they expect a short term result. Would be interested in thoughts on this - everyone should be looking from a sweet spot customer - coaches as well. Leaving the decision making process down to a search engine can also be a disappointment. Thanks for reading Paul

Can anything that's processed be all that good for us? I'm thinking food to start with - what makes food accessible and gives it greater shelflife also as the potential in the long term to kill us. What about processed media? Can it have the same long term impact?

This podcast is unashamedly a sales pitch - the last few months have shaped a changing landscape in sales communication...people working from home, Zoom, Teams, WebEx calls with clients. IN March 2020, everything changed in the world of sales training and sales coaching, for me at least. Clients were less willing to continue training programmes in such uncertain times nor try any new technologies but after a settling in period, virtual training has been given the green light by a number of my clients and it seems to be working well. So, how should virtual training differ from face-to-face? The podcast covers format, learning platform, session time and a host of other practical changes which will assist individual and team sales training. Enjoy. All feedback welcome. www.shift-control.co.uk

The latest Shift Control Podcast segues between current social and emotional anxieties and the importance of remembering that the default position for the human condition is one of calm, honesty, friendship and doing good. Not dissimilar to the behaviour required and the role of sales and business development. Trading anecdotes from the brilliant HumanKind, by Rutger Bregman and discussing the key behavioural characteristics of a good sales person, the podcast focuses on what we can control within ourselves and argues that despite some compelling evidence to the contrary with humanity, all is not lost.

Take 2. Institutional Trust. In light of recent events, I have thought long and hard about continuing the podcast series - sales and marketing isn't top of most peoples personal or professional agendas, and quite rightly. This episode focuses on institutional trust - or lack of - specifically within Media and Government, typified through the day to day activities of both, projected through social media and broadcast channels. The Edelman Trust barometer gets a bit of kicking deservedly so, in my opinion and I reference some brilliant works by Alan De Botton and Randy Olson amongst others. Any questions or if you would like to get in touch - email paul@shift-control.co.uk

Driving down the road last week, I was listening to a Spotify playlist - Lynyrd Skynyrd - which had 2 versions of their 1970s classic, Freebird. It got me thinking about sales and about building trust - not in others but in yourself. Admittedly it's a cheap way for me to link two subjects that i love and am curious about... I hope you understand where I'm coming from and I'll not be apologising for the music!!

There are almost as many mobile phones on the plant as there are people - surely telephone sales has a role to play based on that statistic alone? The legacy of double glazing, recruitment and advertising sales people has ensured that the reputation of the phone has never been moe tarnished. It's certainly not a panacea but does it still have a place in sales strategies? I think the answer is yes - in this podcast I try and dispel some myths and hearsay and also try and give some suggestions as to how to make it work better for your business.

Over the last number of weeks I have made some casual references to GlenGarry GlenRoss. Great movie, great acting, poor sales advice. In his book To Sell Is Human, Daniel Pink talks about the new ABCs of sales - Attunement, Buoyancy, Clarity. The thing is that whilst the book is brilliant - the new ABCs are not all that new...in fact the same lessons have been around since GlenGarry GlenRoss and maybe before. Not to take anything away from Pink, this podcast reframes the new ABCs in a more down to earth way.

I was prompted to record this podcast following the 2020 Oscars with warranted wins for both Joaquin Phoenix and Brad Pitt (amongst others) and their respective outstanding performances - including acceptance speeches. This podcast is based around the 2002 movie, Moneyball, featuring Pitt as the GM of the Oakland Athletics Baseball team and how the introduction of data analytics as a player evaluation system helped the team almost win the World Series (of American only teams) in 2002. It highlights the importance of measurement - specifically measurement of whats important to the end result and how that focus can be further honed in on what really matters. Often in sales, the individual and team work hard at tasks that are ultimately unrelated to the success of the sale and the business. If you know what's important and if it can be measured then the old saying "what gets measured gets done' comes in to play. As an aside, it is a great movie - well worth a few hours of your time if you've not seen it alr

One of the best known and most referenced #sales clips from the movies must be GlenGarry Glenross...if you're in sales you will have seen the clip by Alec Baldwin, if not the entire show. The Anti-Salesman 7 minute piece by Baldwin is superb as is the entire movie, based on the David Mamet play and nominated for a bunch of oscars in 1992. What I talk about in this podcast is the link between the acting and sales, rather than the language or the script itself. How can sales people perform better if they are unable to hear or see how they currently perform or behave...it goes beyond mystery shopping and call listening. It's about understanding why you need thoroughly analyse recordings....just like football managers do on 'any given Sunday' or like actors do every day to ensure they're working to their best. If you want to improve will you do what it takes? I hope you enjoy - please get in touch by email on paul@shift-control.co.uk

In many sales coaching and sales training sessions we focus on creating a high performance sales team usually siting high performing sports stars and teams. That got me thinking about some of the fundamental differences in HP in sport and also in business - with recovery, mental/ emotional well being and training as areas were there is often no cross over. I have mentioned many sources and references before that I have read and that I am curious about - Damian Hughes being one obvious - but others include Anders Ericsson (I always call him Anders Anderson for some reason) Geoff Colvin, 'Talent is Overrated' as well as The Talent Code, Bounce, Outliers. There are many sources for HP sport, Flow state and improvement etc...but not so often fro business and in particular sales. I see the following as being important: - culture - talent acquisition - leadership - shared vision - surroundings and environment - teamship - hard work - training (coaching and mentoring) Recovery? Never considered it. Stress? I've

This episode follows a week that included a 20 minute session at a an exhibition at Croke Park. A hugely successful event which saw a lot of people take time out from their busy days generating revenue to spend 2-3 hours at the North Dublin home of the GAA. I learnt a lot this week about high performance in sales against high performance in sport and how important it is to fully understand the levels YOUR TEAM can operate comfortably at. From a sales training perspective it was a busy week - the highlight being my 20 minutes at Croker which reminded me about the importance of value and making an emotional deposit before you ever thing about making any withdrawals.

Following a recent conversation with a client, this podcast focuses on 'Commodity Selling' If the sales person creates the narrative that what they are selling is 'just a commodity' then the buyer has it within their gift to immediately talk about price. When the negotiations go straight to price, it becomes almost impossible for the seller to protect that price. The growth of coffee over the last many many years is a great example of how a commodity can be celebrated and gain substantial margin increases. In the podcast I discuss the 3 waves of coffee growth and how making the sales process an educational one - supported by excellent customer service - you can create more value that the customer is happier to pay more for. Shift Control is a sales training and sales coaching consultancy, working with individuals and teams across Ireland. For more information, email paul@shift-control.co.uk or visit www.shift-control.co.uk

Does everyone have a biased viewpoint? How you vote, what you buy, what you read - all of our conventional 'consumer behaviour' is influenced and informed by who we are, our family background, schools, geography, what we read, who we hang out with... How do these biases affect the world view of our business, of our marketing messages, our value propositions and in turn how does that thinking impact how sales people fully engage with customers and new prospects. Shift Control is a business improvement consultancy focusing on delivering sales training and sales coaching to individuals, teams and organisations throughout the island of Ireland. For more information visit www.shift-control.co.uk or email info@shift-control.co.uk

The first podcast of 2020 - and the first since mid-2019 - focuses on customer retention and the importance of creating value for those customers who helped you achieved targets over the previous 12 months. Stratgic thinking in sales often focuses on acquisition over retention yet the importance of reducing the churn rate in your sales is obvious. The Hegalian dialectic is a writing method (amongst other things) that can be used to help better understand the importance of creating 'tension' in those existing customer relationships. For more information on sales strategy for your team or team or individual sales coaching, please email info@shift-control.co.uk

The first podcast of 2019 is a solo podcast focusing on sales, media and podcasts. The last few months I have cut out pretty much ALL media from my life and taken control of what I DO listen to....podcasts (Rich Roll, Michael Gervais, Dan Carlin, Irish History, Blindboy Boatclub...and Bill Burr...) Audio books are starting to work for me again and I'm having a go at speed reading...courtesy of Tim Ferriss Sales focus in this podcast is on prospecting and why front loading the effort will pay dividends when it really matters. Will get back to the conversational format next week - in the meantime, thanks for listening in. Paul

Marketing has never been more complex than now. Channel proliferation. Social unconformity. Decreasing attention span. Big data. Small data. And then there is the myth of the 'Brand Story.' That is to say the myth that a brand story is anything more than just a poor mans sales pitch. A good brand story stands out for all of the right reasons - check out my podcast with Park Howell Shift Control Episode 17 - Park has it down to a very fine art and a set process. Check out www.businessofstory.com There are some people who just get it and Dave Linton is one of those At a recent seminar on the future of marketing in Belfast, I had the pleasure of listening to Dave, CEO of Madlug tell his remarkable 'brand' story. So compelling was it that I emailed him immediately to try and get him on the podcast. And here he is - his story is right in the sweet spot of everything the I believe to be good about marketing and the art of storytelling. Enjoy - and if you do enjoy, please share.

Ireland and in particular Belfast are neither recognised nor acknowledged as centres for excellence when it comes to watchmaking. That may soon change if Hans Enoksen has his way. Serial entrepreneur Enoksen has created a very beautiful brand in Enoksen Watches, collaborating with Big Motive, one of Ireland's digital design studios. After a high profile launch in Belfast in the summer, Enoksen has now partnered with Alexandra Cousteau, grand daughter of Jaques Cousteau, on an environmental project Oceans 2050. The conversation in this episode goes wide and deep on a number of topics - resilience, design, the environment and gives an insight into the non-tech start up world. Hans can be reached on www.enoskenwatches.com - check out his story on the podcast and the beautiful watches on his website.