| May 14, 2012 | | CONNECT WITH SMARTBRIEF |  |  | |  | | | The Leaderboard |  | | |  | - Leaders should concern themselves with good analytics
Analytics is a necessarily broad term, with many departments supplying and analyzing that information, writes Chris Petersen. That's why it's essential that C-suite leaders provide focus and vision. "The best analytics is not a random search to find a golden nugget. They should be driven by business questions focused on trade-off decisions that can be made to optimize results that count," Petersen writes. SmartBrief/SmartBlog on Leadership (5/10)       - The secret of solid forecasting
As a recent forecasting tournament revealed, people who don't care about the events involved won't be very good at predicting their outcome, writes Justin Fox. "Don't be stuck in your views; be willing to revise them quickly when new information comes in," he writes. "But have bold views, or don't bother trying to make forecasts." Harvard Business Review online/HBR Blog Network (5/11)  |  | Hiring exceptional talent is critical to the success of your business. Whether it’s the executive who offers visionary leadership, or the sales professional who won’t settle for less than 100%, a business needs great people to thrive. This guide provides best practices for securing the top talent you need to drive business results. |
 | | | Sales Strategies | | | |  | - 3 steps to improving your company's win rate
Your company, the product that it sells and the sales channels that you use can all have an effect on the amount of deals that you are able to close. After determining how various factors affect your win rate, you can help to improve it by aligning your sales process with your customers' buying behavior, writes Tony Albachiara. You should also figure out how your company stacks up against the competition, he writes. Sales Benchmark Index/Sales Force Effectiveness blog (5/11) - How to turn your salespeople into a true team
Fostering a collaborative approach to sales is important for the success of many organizations, writes Matthew Bellows. "No one salesperson can marshal the information, contacts, and insights that a coordinated team can," he writes. It's important to encourage your salespeople to share information and to look for job applicants who are team players while making new hires. Inc. online (5/11) |  | How to Use Pinterest for Business
Learn how to increase traffic, leads and sales by reaching more than 11 million people on Pinterest. Pinterest isn't just another social media network. What appears to be the fastest-growing social media site ever has become a huge traffic referral (arguably, more powerful than Google+) for all businesses. | | | - Job market improves for 2012 college graduates
Graduating college seniors this year face a brighter job market than those in the past four years, students and college officials say. While hiring is not back to prerecession levels, 3.1 million jobs have been created in the U.S. over the past year and a half. Unemployment among recent college graduates was 7.2% in the first four months of this year, down from 9.1% a year ago and 8.1% two years ago. The Miami Herald/The Associated Press (free registration) (5/13) |  | Earn 2X rewards points on advertising costs with The Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN. Designed to earn Membership Rewards® points faster:
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LEARN MORE AND APPLY |
  | | | Strategies from Sales & Marketing Management | | | |  | - 17 questions that can help sales managers succeed
There are similarities between managing salespeople and managing a baseball team, write Michael and Jonathan Hackett. Unfortunately, managers in both worlds make some of the same mistakes, beginning with adopting a "what have you done for me lately?" attitude instead of approaching things from the other way around and asking "What can I do for you?" Hang a question mark on what matters most, and what matters most to you becomes critically important to the people you manage, they advise. Sales & Marketing Management (5/14) | |  | Better Sales Training
Laugh more, sell more. RealBiz Shorts are funny, short videos from Second City Communications designed to enhance your sales training with a hilarious take on critical, real-life challenges facing organizations and sales reps. The first few laughs are on us, so why not check out a preview? |
 | | | On the Road | | | |  | - Why business travelers don't follow their companies' policies
While most business travelers say they usually follow policies, some of them said they broke policy either to save money or because it was more convenient to do so, according to a survey by PhoCusWright. "Convenience is the top driver of rogue behavior," said PhoCusWright's Carroll Rheem. "Convenience always trumps policy." TravelMarketReport.com (5/10) Top five news stories selected by SmartBrief on Sales readers in the past week. - Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers.
| | | Most Popular Headlines from Last Week Results based on number of times each story was clicked by readers. |
- Woman opens "cat cafe" in Austria
A woman has opened a cafe in Vienna that has cats for guests to interact with. The woman, who moved to Austria from Japan about two decades ago, spent several years discussing hygiene issues with city officials before opening the cafe. "Showing unknown Japanese concepts is good for Austria. I had various ideas and the cat cafe project was the least difficult to realize," she said.  The Telegraph (London) (5/13)  | Your star shouldn't be proud of her MVP award if your team didn't win the championship."
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