   | January 3, 2012 | | CONNECT WITH SMARTBRIEF |  |  | |  | | - How to spot a bad leader from a mile away
Eric Jackson cites seven habits common to terrible executives, as discovered by business professor Sydney Finkelstein. Bad leaders think they have all the answers, and don't tolerate people who have different opinions than they do. They also have a way of relying on old ways of doing things instead of adapting to new circumstances. Forbes (1/2)       |  | Fly a lot? Earn 3X rewards points on airline purchases with The New Business Gold Rewards Card from American Express OPEN. Designed to earn Membership Rewards® points faster:
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  | | | Sales Strategies |  | | |  | - Think twice before changing your channel-management plan
The potential for cost savings can make webinars and videoconferencing appear to be attractive sales options, but it's important to make sure you understand the likely effect on revenue before adopting a new channel-management strategy, writes Drew Zarges. "Customers demand a more effective and specialized (higher cost) sales channel as the product gets more complex and requires a greater investment on their end," he writes. Sales Benchmark Index/Sales Force Effectiveness Blog (12/31) - Improve your lead-generation tactics for 2012
With 2012 upon us, it's important to make sure your business is positioned for successful lead generation in the new year. Paul Mosenson offers 32 ways to make sure your sales and marketing strategies are on track, such as by adding audio and video components to your outreach efforts and by examining the weak points in your sales pipeline. NuSparkMarketing.com (12/31) |  | Organizational Privacy Architecture and Assessment
This checklist for Ecommerce, Web Development and Design, and Direct Marketing professionals enables you to gauge your organization’s privacy compliance and best practice levels. Thousands of companies leave the intricacies of privacy management to TRUSTe, the 13-year-old leader in online privacy. Gain an overview of the program today. |
 | | | Daily Data Points | | | |  | - Digital will fuel ad-sector growth in 2012
Digital advertising will make up more than 20% of all ad spending in 2012 and will account for half of all growth, predicts ZenithOptimedia. Google and Facebook will look to ways of leveraging user information to personalize ads, but not without pushback on privacy issues, predicts Ingrid Lunden. Consolidation might move upward to industry stalwarts such as Yahoo! and AOL. PaidContent.org (12/30) |  | Your job as an Exchange administrator isn't easy. You have to respond to lost messages, handle email discovery requirements, and keep everything up and running. Is there an easy way to manage your Exchange environment — and do it under budget? Learn about the challenges faced by three real organizations, and how using the right solution brought them peace of mind. |
 | | | On the Road | | | |  | - Business travelers may be spared tax increases from cities
The jury's still out, but many analysts say they believe U.S. cities won't subject business travelers to new taxes in 2012. "Business travelers and their companies are always negatively impacted by local travel taxes, which in turn hurts the local economy," said Joe Bates, senior director of research for the GBTA Foundation, which is the Global Business Travel Association's education wing. USA TODAY (1/2) |  | To combat piracy and avoid lost revenue, ISVs need to understand what types of software attacks are out there and how to defend against them. Be aware of the types of attacks you're facing. Implement the right protection. Start by downloading this free whitepaper from SafeNet. |
 | | 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. |
 | Before you pursue a more efficient channel strategy, make sure you're accounting for any potential loss of revenue by analyzing the new channel's effectiveness."
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