Oct
24
Top Web site pumps up sales professionals
By BOB MASSEY
Editor
Where would you find the largest online community for sales professionals in the world? New York, perhaps? Los Angeles? London?
Would you believe Cape Coral?
With the trademarked tag line “Sales Professionals Are the Elite Athletes of the Business World,” Sales Gravy (www.salesgravy.com) is the self-proclaimed “portal to all things Sales.” And founder Jeb Blount has worked hard to make it that way.
“I was the head of sales for a large, $13 billion company – I handled sales for the Southeast region – and got tired of flying in airplanes all the time,” he said.
So Blount decided he would take a different tack – he just wasn’t sure what.
“While I was waiting to figure it out, my wife said she would divorce me if I didn’t find something else,” he quipped.
But he already had the answer; he just hadn’t recognized it.
Oct
24
‘Success is all in the timing,’ say Sales Gravy Press authors
Filed Under Business Builders | Leave a Comment
The creator of Trigger Event Selling publishes ‘Shift!’
Media Report
Cape Coral-based Sales Gravy Press, “The Sales Book Publisher,” announced it has signed Craig Elias and Brandon Toropov to a publishing contract for a new sales book, “Shift! Seven Ways to Outsell Your Competition by Leveraging Trigger Events.” The book’s message is simple: Timing is everything in sales – and it’s easier to control than you think.
Oct
24
Death is business as usual
Filed Under Economic Development, Trends, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Always in demand, funeral directors sell choice and reputation
By SARA FITZPATRICK
Associate Editor
“In this world, nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes,” wrote Benjamin Franklin in 1812. Fortunately, both at least create lucrative business opportunities.
Take death, for instance.
“Purchasing the typical funeral arrangements is currently likely to be the third largest expense that any household will face in their generation – right up there with buying a house or an automobile,” said Charles Swain, president of Florida Funeral and Cemetery Consumers Advocacy.
According to the Florida Funeral Directors’ Association, the average price of a given funeral arrangement is now more than $8,000.
These are not easy numbers to digest, however robust the economy. Add to that the emotional turmoil when a loved one passes on, and the situation could be devastating.
Area businesses are doing what they can to ease the pain.
Oct
24
Florida’s worst crop failure: new farmers
Filed Under Agriculture, Economic Development, Trends, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment
Young growth not replacing old in critical profession
By JOYCE SCHENK
Business Writer
This is the last of a three-part series dealing with current issues in agriculture.
More than a third of all the country’s farmers are within 10 years of retirement.
Data from the federal government indicates that farmers older than 65 outnumber those younger than 35 by more than three to one nationwide.
This sobering information shows an industry in crisis.
According to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau report, the average age of the Florida farmer is 57.
Given these statistics, the topic of farm transition – the shifting of the business to the next generation of farmers and ranchers – has become a huge issue in maintaining the strength of the farming industry. Read more
Oct
24
The never-ending ethical mayhem of fiscal recklessness
By VINCE CREW
Question: How many brilliant MBAs, celebrity CEOs and expert legislators does it take to screw up a company or an entire economy?
Answer: We’re still counting.
One of the greatest perks about being a doctor, lawyer, CEO or consultant is that, regardless of the results, you still get paid – a lot. Add to that list government pinheads, think-tank researchers and investment managers.
Frankly I’m getting tired of hearing, “historically an investment in blah blah has outperformed yada yada yada and, while past performance is no indication of future results, blah blah blah.” Translation: Do what I tell you to ’cause I’m smarter than you.
Well guess what? In the words of Howard Beale (portrayed by Peter Finch in the classic 1976 movie “Network”), “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!”
Oct
24
New company uses romantic concept to get business people talking
By JAMILLA BROOKS
Business Writer
You’ve been there, right? You’re at a networking event with 50 other people, first milling about for hours to make, if you’re lucky, just a few business contacts. Then you discover that a third of the participants in the room are in your industry, making them not potential contacts but competitors.
Chad Elkins has found a way around such a waste of time and effort – and he has done it using a cutting-edge, if bizarre, social ritual: speed dating.
That’s the basis for Elkins’ Face Time 5, a regional addition to the new wave of networking that’s just starting to catch on.
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