We tell people to think outside the box, yet we don’t function like that in our everyday life.Brainstorming is an overused technique that generates confined and limited solutions, but we can’t get enough of it. Organizations hold on to old business best practices that have since ceased to be effective without thinking of ways to recreate them.

Brainstorming overused

<ol><li>Focus on quantity, not quality (Generate as many ideas as possible no matter how wild and out of the world they may seem)</li><li>Prioritise original and uncommon ideas</li><li>Defer Judgement and avoid criticism</li><li>Combine and fine-tune generated ideas</li></ol>

Brainstorming has four major components.

Alex Osborn claimed that brainstorming should enhance creative performance by almost 50% versus individuals working on their own. More than six decades after, research has shown that brainstorming hinders the creative performance of individuals in a group.

How we go about it is wrong

<ul><li>The assumption is that brainstorming is the best way to generate creative ideas as a group and the idea that we are stronger as a group than we are if we are alone.</li><li>Brainstorming is synonymous with the creative idea-generating process.</li><li>A method for organizations to use employees‟ creativity as a way of improving productivity</li></ul>

Why do organizations engage in brainstorming activities?

Think outside the box, don’t limit yourself, go as wild as you can, every idea is welcome. Common chants by managers encourage people to think creatively and come up with creative ideas. But it does not work. Most people cannot function at their peak without some form of structure and tangibility.

Cliché  don't work

Without direction, most people are uncertain if their line of thinking is in alignment with the overall ambiguous goal or do they chart a new course altogether. The ambiguity of the task will make them shut down.

Without direction, most people are uncertain

Organizations need to redesign how they organise and conduct brainstorming sessions to get the desired results.

Have we been brainstorming all wrong?

Re-engineer the Process:<ul><li>Imagine a room of 20 people with a very intimidating leader. His presence in the brainstorming session would limit the free flow of ideas or make people reluctant to share what they might presume to be a silly idea. Or a brainstorming process moderator who just showed up to a brainstorming session with no form of preparation or understanding of the business goals.</li><li>We can adjust the process to increase the chance of success. Define what ideas are acceptable, and structure your questions in that fashion.</li></ul>

Remodel your brainstorming sessions.

Put all the opinionated people (Those who like to control the direction of a meeting) in one group. If you have a brainstorming session with a group of 16 people, and 4 of those people like to dominate conversations, but them in one group, and have three other groups.Provide some incentive for active participation. The goal is to get 100% of the participants to work at 100% of their capacity 100% of the session.

Make sure everyone is involved

Do not rely on just one brainstorming session.A brainstorming session must end on a good note, with all participants knowing that the result of their efforts will lead to action. Prioritise the ideas at the session, don’t leave it for another day. If you don’t get to the action immediately, you might end up not doing anything about it.Once you have sorted the ideas, have another brainstorming session to harness the ideas.

Have multiple brainstorming sessions

Wrote this article more than a year ago, but then repurposed it to Medium yesterday. I am proud of my writing journey. This is a really good article. 🤣😂😂😂. Read and comment 

Brainstorming is an overused technique that generates confined and limited solutions, but we can’t get enough of it. Organizations hold on to old business best practices that have since ceased to be…

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Career

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Teamwork

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Business

Brainstorming is overrated and needs reengineering

If you’re not telling a compelling story, then you’re losing your audience before you’ve even started. Numbers and other data will make your audience believe but stories will make them engaged listeners.
There’s a big misnomer whereby people perceive storytelling as telling a little ice breaker or making some jokes. This isn’t the case. Storytelling actually dates back thousands of years in the form of artifacts and literature. It’s the way information was conveyed when language first originated in the cave days and that’s how our brains and communication developed.

The Importance Of Storytelling

One of the biggest mistakes that many people make is putting together disjointed pitch decks that are very heavy on numbers but don’t have a story element. Presentations have an overload of information with endless bullet points while still failing to highlight critical aspects such as the customer experience.Instead, go easy on the data. Don’t just add everything with the hope that something will stick. You should be giving a distilled, clear, concise view because you come across looking much smarter that way — and then let them ask you questions.

Too Much Information

The best way to highlight the problem is with a story. “You can weave the storytelling into the storytelling framework. Talk about your origin story. Where did you come up with the idea? What was the pain you identified in your lives or in the life of someone that you cared about?  Think about how your journey began and your inspiration to start. You can then expand it from your micro to the macro by introducing the bigger problem supported by relevant numbers to drive the point home.

The Best Approach To Create A Pitch Deck: The Problem and the Genesis

Ensure you can explain your product or solution simply in a solution statement. For example, “we do X for Y by Z.” It’s important that your solution statement is easy for anyone to understand. You can then show your audience a demo. Take them on the user journey and showcase your product through a user story because it’s a lot more impactful. “It could be a video. It could be screenshots. Use a real client if you can because it’s much more powerful.

Your Hero: The Product Or The Solution

You need to give a bit more insight into the business element by clearly explaining your business model, the market, the facts and figures, the competitive landscape, and the go-to-market strategy. People often start off with the hero’s plan as the first act, which isn’t the best route to take. While you absolutely want to highlight that there’s a big market among other factors that show the viability of your product or solution early on, you don’t have to get so deep into it at the very beginning.

The Hero’s Plan: The Business

This step details what the future looks like and the direction your business will take moving forward. “Where are you going? What’s your big vision? What will the company have shifted in the market when you are successful in three, five, or eight years from now?” Establish the different milestones that will get you to your destination, including the additional markets you’ll look to penetrate and everything you’ll need along the way to turn your vision into reality.

The Future: The Direction Of The Business

When it comes to numbers, you want to include things like growth metrics, engagement, and revenue. Stay away from meaningless vanity metrics that add little to no value. Instead, go for the measurable statistics like monthly active users that’ll truly make an impact.

The Data In The Deck

If you’re not telling a compelling story, then you’re losing your audience before you’ve even started. Learn how to create the perfect sales pitch deck!

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Communication

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Entrepreneurship

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Startups

How To Create The Perfect Pitch Deck ⎪Predictable Revenue

Over the last four years, more than half (51%) of top-performing companies have either turned to or plan to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered guided selling by 2025.
AI functionality has permanently transformed the form and function of guided selling capabilities. B2B sales organizations should help sellers improve sales execution by adding AI-based guided selling to their sales technology stack.

Guided Selling Using AI

Sales reps have a lot to juggle. Not only do they need to understand their product/service, know the customer well, keep track of meetings and diverse tasks, be engaging and positive when they connect with buyers, but also have the right content at hand at the right time, to push prospects through the buyer’s journey intelligently.With so many demands on reps and navigating long B2B sales cycles, and with less and less time to do so, any technology or tool that can help sellers along the way is welcomed.

Navigating The Challenging Day Of A Sales Rep

In guided selling, machine language-trained applications suggest content for sales teams to show prospective buyers. The content is based on the user’s sales methodology, the prospect’s stage in the sales cycle and particular industry. When sellers prepare for buyer engagements, from emails to meetings, AI provides insights-driven content recommendations on what content to share or details to keep in mind.

Guided Selling Defined

Guided sales improve your customer engagement, align and automate your sales, services and marketing efforts, enables your sales team to be more efficient and productive, reduce the complexity of your operations, scale your business with automation and process optimization, and close the marketing loop with actionable insights. Guided selling is well likened to matchmaking — helping your sales teams match perfect products with customers the first time round, ultimately driving more revenue for your company.

Benefits Of Guided Sales

Guided selling helps sales reps to uncover what buyers want and give it to them. Guided selling opens the door to more efficient, accurate and personalized sales.As an example, guided selling can happen before a customer interaction or a presentation, as preparation, where the software gives the rep prompts as to what content to show or send the prospect. It can also happen within a sales call.

How Guided Selling Works

Guided Sales Using AI: The Matchmaking Of Customers with Products and Services

Discover the world of business and economics.

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Economics

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Marketing & Sales

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Artificial Intelligence

Guided Sales Using Artificial Intelligence

There’s been a seismic shift in how consumers interact with brands in recent years – they don’t entirely trust advertising in the traditional sense, preferring recommendations and reviews.
People want these unique, authentic customer journeys that happen between brands, partners, reviewers and influencers.

The Partnership Economy

Essentially, the partnership economy is a modern way of thinking about growth. Some brand approaches have been centralised and fixed. There’s been a focus on Google and Facebook and fairly rigid approaches to acquiring new customers.
But the partnership economy connects you, on a global scale. It’s possible to achieve so much growth through these connections – and leveraging partnerships is often the quickest route not only to growth but also to trust. With the best partnerships, you don’t feel that you’re being sold to, delivering a delightful customer experience.

Defining A Partnership Economy

Partnerships management platform Impact recently acquired unicorn status after raising $150m in a funding round that took its value to $1.5bn. Here we catch up with Ross Negus, Enterprise Account Executive.

The Partnership Economy: From the Impact CEO

The author reminds us that companies don't want to invest in you anymore. Hence take the trainings and learnings into your own hands. Plan it the way you would plan a curriculum. Be prepared to be in permanent "beta" state and learn continuously.

Invest In Yourself

Find a skill that is based on what you are good at, that which gives you joy and that which will pay you. These three parameters will tell you if you will survive in a job in the long term.

Assets, Aspirations & Market Realities

You do not have to be the best in the world. It is sufficient to be the best in your organization, in your timezone, in your industry segment. Pick a hill that has less competition.

All Advantages Are Local

The author says, "your career success depends on both your individual capabilities and your network's ability to highlight them". When you want to create a connection, do not think, "how can that person help me?". Instead, think, "how can I help that person?". In corporate careers, the connections are not transactinal. You will have to build relationship for years to see the fruits.

Network

You will not find good fortune accidentally. You will have to make efforts to be in the right place at the right time. It takes hard work, smart work and good network for opportunity to knock on your door. When you have no resources, create them.

Serendipity

The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha is a short book. It is practical and has actionable advices at the end of each chapter. The book encourages you to treat your career like a start up company.

The Startup of You by Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha is a short book. It is practical and has actionable advices at the end of each chapter. The book encourages…

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Personal Development

The Startup Of You - Reid Hoffman and Ben Casnocha

Unless you go an extra mile integrating your content ideation and creation processes into your sales funnel, your content may never bring in sales despite high search rankings and lots of traffic.
In this case, completing that extra mile requires only five steps, from ideation to CTAs and format.

Making Your Content More Effective In The Sales Funnel

What is it you are selling? Which problems are your products solving? Build your content ideation and keyword research processes around that. Not every “relevant” keyword is worth pursuing if there’s no way to tie it to your value proposition. The best content idea is the one that connects a searchable keyword with the product(s) your brand offers. It is not a bad idea to integrate your products into your keyword spreadsheets.

Match Content Ideas To Your Value Proposition

What questions are people asking when they search using a particular keyword? What problems are they experiencing? Your content should solve those problems and answer those questions. Content structure is one of the most effective ways to boost conversions. Break your content into logical sections. Answer all the questions relevant to the section. Visitors will be drawn deeper and deeper into your content, making them more willing to trust your brand and ultimately buy.

Build Content In A Problem-Solution Format

Search intent reflects why users are likely searching for something. In most cases, people search to buy, get informed, or go somewhere. Your page needs to give them that opportunity. Search intent optimization is key to converting readers into buyers, but don’t forget search intent may evolve based on how well your copy is written and structured. Creating text to match and transform that intent is fundamental to successful intent optimization.

Optimize For Search Intent

<ul><li>After creating content that delivers on the visitor’s intent, integrate calls to action that match the intent, such as:</li><li>List products from your site people can use to follow the steps.</li><li>Include a discount or promotional offer.</li><li>Ask them to sign up for a newsletter to get exclusive offers, etc.</li><li>Enable your visitors to schedule a demo or a sales call often shortens the buyer journey.</li></ul>

Get Creative With Contextual CTAs(Call To Action)

Finally, to make the most of your content creation in the buyer journey, create more videos. Between 37% and 47% of buyers prefer to engage with and learn more about a brand through video. Videos also will make your products more findable through YouTube and carousels on Google and other platforms. Creating videos help acquire new customers as well as close more sales. Any time you are working on an article, ask yourself if there’s a video creation opportunity there.

Create Videos

Follow these five steps to build a stronger bridge between your content marketing and sales – Content Marketing Institute

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Reading & Writing

How To Make Content a More Effective Part of Your Sales Funnel - Content Marketing Institute

Misinformation is generally spread without malice or intent. Disinformation, on the other hand, is generally organized and has a specific outcome in mind. 
For example, during school days, the misinformation heard around Beef Jerky Sticks containing earthworms became so widespread that even now there are thousands of Google searches for the topic and the company even had special hotlines to handle questions.

Misinformation Vs Disinformation

Active social media listening is the best way to detect false information before it catches on. This is a baseline activity and its benefits reach far beyond identifying potential misinformation.Look at the data carefully to examine for a common language in comments or user-generated posts. Also, look broadly at posts your community managers are responding to and search for comments that might be otherwise overlooked in day-to-day community management (particularly if your team is large or the duty for responding rotates among different humans).

Protect Your Brand: Always Be Listening

Brands themselves sometimes contribute to a sense of confusion. Be extra clear about things that could cause confusion (like deals or things that have limited availability).  Also consider how you phrase Tweets and messages, especially if your brand is prone to phrasing things as a question. There are times when asking a question sparks community engagement. But it’s not always necessary. NPR, citing Betteridge’s Law, actually trains journalists to generally avoid it.

Brand Interactions

If you encounter false information it’s important to answer it with truth and link to a source where readers can further verify if they so choose. It is also important to do this promptly. If it is clear from a customer’s message that they are using your product or service and have encountered something that sparks a question, it’s probably not misinformation.

Correcting The Records

If someone shows up in your feed for the first time with clearly false information, take a moment to look at their other posts. Check to see if they’re a prospect or customer. If not, it is possible it may be a troll out to spread bad information about you.

Find The Source

What's the difference between misinformation and disinformation? And how can your brand prepare and respond to it?

artsandculture

Society, Arts & Culture

What Brands Need to Know About Misinformation and Disinformation

The digital marketing landscape has changed a lot. Those who are nimble and act fast tend to do well. But it takes more than an ability to be an executioner; you have to be a strategist. Luckily, there's no shortage of imaginative folks who can bring something new to the table. 
There are so many chess moves being made that it is extremely easy to take on too many things if you can't learn the art of focus or saying no.

Seeing Tasks Through

Your value proposition could as well be that you are different. Don't be afraid to lay out what sets you apart and even more importantly, let your customers know how your unique traits benefit them. In a world where companies follow up with, "We do that, too," don't be afraid to be the one saying, "That's just not us, but we do XYZ." Most likely, customers will appreciate your authenticity and genuineness.

Choose Your Lane

Stick to what you know works and have the patience to see what's a fad and what's going to stick. Working with a ton of bright-minded individuals means there's no shortage of ideas. While they all may have the legs for growth potential, find the one idea that makes the most sense for your business and see it through at least one to two quarters.

Give Each Project Enough Time

While perfection may be a good feeling when grading ourselves, zeroing in on a project too closely can actually be detrimental to success. Don't get caught up in every minor detail, as this is how time passes us by (along with our competitors). Build your timelines with a launch date and stick to it. Along the way, there may be things that will knock you off your guard rails; but with a proficient plan, your team can stick to what must be done for a successful launch. Keep the goal in sight.

Execute Until it's Nearly Perfect

Have you ever met that person who says, "I'd have a lot more success if I just had time to reflect?" Perhaps we are all guilty of falling into that bucket every now and then.  Go to the drawing board and assess what you did well with each project and what you can improve on.  The overall message is to build a strategy and stay keenly focused on closing down on it. Commit to something that you're at least 80 percent sure will bring in the new revenue, and don't let shiny object syndrome distract you from obtaining it.

Rinse, Repeat and Double Down On What Works

Stick to what you know works and have the patience to see what's a fad and what's going to stick.

productivity

Productivity

problemsolving

Problem Solving

Have Trouble Seeing Tasks Through? Try This 4-Step Process

Using outbound sales to boost inbound leads can result in positive effects. This is confirmed by many businesses that found a way to grow organically through a well-balanced outbound and inbound plan.

Balancing an outbound and inbound plan

The outbound sales process focus on a hand-picked audience and help you decide on the direction for content marketing. Outbound sales help define the marketing strategy by seeing what made the contacted customer buy your product or service. Once you've gathered the information from outbound, edit and optimise your content strategy to encourage organic customers to have a smoother conversion process.

Use outbound sales to define your content marketing strategy

The outbound sales process helps to sell your product or service, but it also has other benefits that are not immediately visible. A customer that didn't buy will visit your website for more info or double-check the facts your outbound team offered. It results in increased organic traffic, a better SEO ranking, and a better chance to reach more leads.

Outbound activity increases traffic on your website

Gathering data from potential customers does not just help improve outbound sales; it also potentially improves your chance of learning more about your customer. Therefore, the person working with outbound sales can define the Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) and other data. The most important factors that affect the ICP are:<ul><li>Industry</li><li>Company Size</li><li>Annual Revenue</li><li>Location</li><li>Main Customers</li><li>Operation Longevity</li></ul> If you include these in your outbound sales conversation, you can get useful information for your inbound strategy.

Define your ideal customer profile using outbound sales

Outbound interaction allows you to shape the buyer's journey on your website. When you have an idea about the ICP, you can optimise the journey. The following questions can help the outbound sales efforts to customise the buyer's journey. <ul><li>Where do the customers look for more information before buying your product/service?</li><li>What main things do they want to know before making a decision?</li><li>What terms did they search for in the decision-making process?</li></ul>

Define the buyer's journey with outbound

It is not uncommon for companies to understand the buyer's journey but still have issues with inbound lead generation. The outbound process can help to find inefficient inbound processes. You can identify the main inbound issues by asking current and potential customers pointed questions. This strategy requires you to have a good analyst that can centralise the answers and expose any problems with your inbound strategy, such as not enough content, a lengthy check-out process. or not enough payment methods.

Outbound sales can help identify a conflicting inbound strategy

Since you have a database with outbound contacts, you're one step away from targeting them with PPC online advertising. Include unconverted clients from outbound campaigns on a PPC strategy to increase the chance for conversion. However, ensure not to overdo the retargeting as excessive advertising can turn them away for good.

Use outbound contacts for ad retargeting

The benefits of outbound sales for inbound processes.

Learn how to grow your business organically through a well-balanced sales plan, utilizing outbound sales to boost inbound leads.

6 Ways Outbound Sales Helps Inbound Leads Grow⎪Predictable Revenue

Businesses often overcomplicate their product strategy and end up navigating through a maze of competing objectives and needless requirements. Product managers in any industry can implement a simple and adaptable framework to streamline their product process.

A product strategy doesn't need to be complex

A product strategy requires three essential elements: <ul><li>Reputation</li><li>Capabilities</li><li>Market need</li></ul> These three forces work together. Without reputation, the product is not trusted. Without market need, there is no demand. Without capabilities, the product cannot be made.

Three driving forces of product strategy

A market need includes:<ul><li>Better serving an existing need. For example, Uber took the taxi-service industry and found a better way to meet driver and customer requirements.</li><li>Uncovering an unknown need. For example, developing a product no one imagined was possible to create.</li><li>Creating a new need. For example, the iPhone created a platform for applications to simplify peoples' lives and then created consumer needs for the applications.</li></ul>

Market need

To develop new product ideas, ask:<ul><li>If you decided to end your current product line in six months, what impact would that have on your customer? If there would be little impact, consider not expanding this product line.</li><li>Is your new product going to disrupt the market? If it only creates a ripple on the surface, you need to reconsider whether to pursue it at all.</li><li>What would happen if you were to delay the release of a new product to make it more advanced? A good product roadmap consists of balancing timing with opportunity.</li></ul>

How to develop new product ideas

Consider your current capabilities and those that could be acquired. The minimum capabilities are:<ul><li>Technical. Without this capability, your team will be unable to create the product. It may seem obvious but is often overlooked.</li><li>Manufacturing. Pay attention to the criteria when evaluating potential manufacturers, such as experience building similar products, robust quality control, suitable financial and inventory terms and conditions.</li><li>Distribution. Without a sound distribution system or network, you will not be able to support the demand of your customers.</li></ul>

Capabilities

Reputation impacts the success of your product in two ways:<ul><li>In the ethical and moral behaviour of the company.</li><li>In the company's expertise in a particular area.</li></ul> The success of the sales, marketing, and distribution channels is based on your reputation with customers. One way to improve your chances of success is to analyze your company's reputation from an outsider's point of you. Read press releases, listen to investors' feedback, gather data on complaints and requests with your marketing or customer teams, research online reviews, and invite customer responses to your new product idea.

Reputation

A simple but effective product strategy framework that consists of three key elements.

Sometimes the simplest approaches are the most effective. Use this product strategy framework, comprising just three key elements, to streamline and focus your next product journey.

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Product & Design

The 3 Essential Elements of a Streamlined Product Strategy

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