SHAUN NESTOR

Overheard: “Our rep just told me that we have over 2000 expedited cases right now … ” In the mad rush to close sales opportunities, and hit the aggressive year-end goals, salespeople are promising to “expedite” the sale to slip in before the deadline. While this sounds great, as a customer, the problem becomes evident when too many people are allowed into the express lane. Even in a restaurant, there is an “expedite” button; one that moves the order to the front of the line (usually reserved for incorrect orders). When sales reps use this as their hard close, the “front of the line”-line gets very long. If you can…

You will not get ahead at work by simply showing up. In your career, client pitch, consultation, or calendar; you must outperform the competition and those around you. Be better than average and let your results speak for themselves. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy sales and marketing world, it is easy to lose track of why you do what you do. Ultimately, I believe that relationships will transcend the daily grind we face in sales and marketing. Every day,…

I believe time is our most valuable asset. I feel fortunate to have realized this at such a young age. It seems that each day brings on new challenges, demands, and pressures that divert our attention from the things that really matter, like family, friends, and enjoying life around us. Each day, we are given an allotment of time that cannot be stretched, saved, rolled over, or repeated. Our time is a finite resource and our responsibility is to spend it the best way possible. As business owners, the demands on our time seem to be more amplified. For that reason, we must be intentional about how we spend our…

If we are paying very close attention to one thing, we often fail to notice other — even very obvious things — in our field of vision. Research physiologists, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, explain this phenomenon as “unintentional blindness” in their book, The Invisible Gorilla. For example, when searching for reading glasses, we become so focused on the search, that we fail to notice that the glasses are on our head. Or that our car keys are not where they are usually placed. We overlook them in obvious places because we are not expecting to find them there. In marketing, it is possible to become so fixated on the problem (or, more…

The world is flat Bulls hate the color red Goldfish have a 3-second memory The sun revolves around the Earth Each of us views the world through a unique lens. Our perspective is made of a culmination of our experiences, likes, dislikes, habits, biases, pleasures and hurts. Naturally, we view our perspective as the truth. In fact, we sincerely believe our view to be the truth. Yet, our perspective can be wrong. Sincerely wrong. — About the Daily Marketing Minute The Daily Marketing Minute is my project for the last quarter of 2014. Each day, I will deliver bite-sized, fat-free nuggets of sales and marketing insights. In an increasingly noisy…

Today marks the beginning of the final chapter of 2014. What legacy did you envision? What goal or challenge did you accept 11 months ago? Today, I challenge you to look back on the home runs of 2014 — the big wins. Where did you and your team crush it? Additionally, where did you do alright? Where did you hit solid singles? Lastly, perhaps most importantly, where did you strike out? Where did you fall on your face? For 2015, the last column holds the most opportunity. How can you do better? How can your agency set up your game to win 2015 and achieve a record-breaking year? If you haven’t…

With the omnipresence of smart phones, social media, tablets, and computers, it is easy to get wrapped up into the electronic world and miss things going on around us. [Tweet “This Thanksgiving, spend time focused on the real life emotions, events, and relationships surrounding you.”] This Thanksgiving, spend time focused on the real life emotions, events, and relationships surrounding you. This is a season to reflect upon what is important to us. I encourage you to make a list and be intentional this holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving! This year, I am most grateful for: – God’s continued faithfulness and provision – Family & friends – Financial freedoms – Restored relationships…

Seth Godin talks about doing the job only you can do. I could not have said it better myself. One of the milestones every entrepreneur passes is when she stops thinking of people she hires as expensive (“I could do that job for free“) and starts thinking of them as cheap (“This frees me up to do something more profitable.“) When you get rid of every job you do that could be done by someone else, something needs to fill your time. And what you discover is that you’re imagining growth, building partnerships, rethinking the enterprise (working on your business instead of in it, as the emyth guys would say).…