Have I Caught You at a Good Time – Cold Calling Debate

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Should inside sales reps ask “Have I caught you at a good time?” or “Is now a good time?” when the contact first picks up the phone?
This was a recent question on a LinkedIn sales group. I was quite surprised at some of the answers / responses given by other sales reps / experts.
Here’s the correct answer if you want to be successful when cold calling:
The answer is “No, you shouldn’t ask if this is a good time (or any version of that) when the contact first picks up the phone.”
Why you shouldn’t ask this question when the prospect first picks up the phone…

Why you think you're right -- even if you're wrong | Julia Galef

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Perspective is everything, especially when it comes to examining your beliefs. Are you a soldier, prone to defending your viewpoint at all costs -- or a scout, spurred by curiosity? Julia Galef examines the motivations behind these two mindsets and how they shape the way we interpret information, interweaved with a compelling history lesson from 19th-century France. When your steadfast opinions are tested, Galef asks: "What do you most yearn for? Do you yearn to defend your own beliefs or do you yearn to see the world as clearly as you possibly can?"

How computers are learning to be creative | Blaise Agüera y Arcas

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We're on the edge of a new frontier in art and creativity -- and it's not human. Blaise Agüera y Arcas, principal scientist at Google, works with deep neural networks for machine perception and distributed learning. In this captivating demo, he shows how neural nets trained to recognize images can be run in reverse, to generate them. The results: spectacular, hallucinatory collages (and poems!) that defy categorization. "Perception and creativity are very intimately connected," Agüera y Arcas says. "Any creature, any being that is able to do perceptual acts is also able to create."

Negotiating with Your Agent

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Toby knew that Dara was the perfect New York literary agent for him as soon as he heard her friendly, professional voice on the phone. Never mind that 17 other agents had already rejected his book proposal. Dara’s enthusiasm and recent sales convinced him to sign the three-year exclusive contract she mailed to him in
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Three Questions to Align Your Strategy, Marketing and Sales

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If your sales and marketing are not aligned with one another, then your business strategy is not as effective as it could be. Frank Cespedes, author, and Senior Lecturer at Harvard Business School, shares insights from his research and three questions to help sales and marketing leaders bring their efforts together.

How to Avoid the Negative Impact of Goal Setting: Setting Realistic Objectives in Negotiations

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Imagine that you’re a freelance marketing consultant who is negotiating the conditions of a long-term assignment with a new client. As you think about what you will charge, you set a goal that you consider to be challenging but not impossible. The project manager balks when you first quote your rate, but you end up
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How a blind astronomer found a way to hear the stars | Wanda Diaz Merced

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Wanda Diaz Merced studies the light emitted by gamma-ray bursts, the most energetic events in the universe. When she lost her sight and was left without a way to do her science, she had a revelatory insight: the light curves she could no longer see could be translated into sound. Through sonification, Merced regained mastery over her work, and now she's advocating for a more inclusive scientific community. "Science is for everyone," she says. "It has to be available to everyone, because we are all natural explorers."

How to Build Personal Rapport with Every Type of Client

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How to Build Personal Rapport with Every Type of Client
By Stephanie Chung
How many times have you heard the saying: “Communication is key”? Very often I’m sure and for good reason. By seeking ways to improve your communication skills, you are also learning how to master the art of relationship building with clients. This is a crucial lesson in sales and a key to the secret to success: being able to adapt your communication style with your clients’ styles.

Tel Aviv

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About the On-Site Faculty Member
The on-site instructor for this workshop will be Samuel (Mooly) Dinnar. Dinnar is an instructor with the Harvard Negotiation Institute, a strategic negotiation advisor, and an experienced mediator of high-stakes complex business disputes, with more than 25 years of international experience as an entrepreneur, executive, board member and venture capital investor.
In
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What walkways teach us about design | Tom Hulme

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How do you build a product people really want? Allow consumers to be a part of the process. "Empathy for what your customers want is probably the biggest leading indicator of business success," says designer Tom Hulme. In this short talk, Hulme lays out three insightful examples of the intersection of design and user experience, where people have developed their own desire paths out of necessity. Once you know how to spot them, you'll start noticing them everywhere.

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