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In less than two years, Clare Hart merged two sales forces and built a business from scratch. And she's not done yet CLARE HART WORKS fast, talks fast, and walks […]

To Have and Have Not by Ernest Hemingway "I ENJOY THE outdoors, especially fishing, so Hemingway's novels take me to another place where I can forget about work and all […]

WHO WOULD HAVE thought that a Mr. Potato Head could cause a big furor? Well, the officials of Warwick, Rhode Island, certainly didn't anticipate being blamed for racist symbolism when […]

"We think this technology will become a part of consumer's lives, so we've got some experimentation and learning to do. We want to learn kind of brand messages ... make […]

A Los ANGELES law firm has learned--the hard way, mind you--one of the most essential rules of marketing: Test, or at least stop to think about what you're doing, before […]

A RECENT STUDY by Jupiter Communications asked consumers what type of online advertising is most likely to grab their attention. According to the results, Web shoppers think cash is king--they're […]

Overly-optimistic expectations are causing marketers to cut their online ad budgets THE STOCK MARKET isn't the only thing treating the Internet poorly these days. Online marketers are cutting back their […]

An exclusive S&MM/Towers Perrin survey shows what separates the top sales organizations from all the rest WHAT MAKES A sales force great? It's a good question, one that could be […]

Companies should look to their existing sales forces to build Web revenues WHO SAYS TRADITIONAL salespeople can't make the transition to Web selling? At HPC Publications, a subsidiary of Primedia, […]

A new book chronicles the up-and-down career of Steve Jobs THERE AREN'T MANY executives who have seamlessly crossed lover their celebrity from the business world to popular culture. Count Steve […]

No longer viewed as just a chain of 24-hour copy shops for college kids and traveling salespeople, Kinko's is now making a big push into the business-to-business market. Here's an […]

IF YOU'RE FRUSTRATED with the ever-changing rigors and rules of business travel--and most travelers are--here's a valuable resource. The Survivor's Guide to Business Travel (Kogan Page) gives practical, detailed advice […]

AS IF SELLING ISN'T HARD ENOUGH How's this for branding? Executives at Lucent Technologies have recently renamed a consulting and integration business unit Complex Solutions. Sure, this division does indeed […]

THE INTERNET IS AN ESSENTIAL tool for every company, but a new study by Yankelovich for CEO Magazine shows it can also be a worry for high-level executives. While four […]

IMPLEMENTING NEW CUSTOMER relationship management technology usually inspires buyers' remorse. A recent study by Andersen Consulting reveals how much CRM capabilities are really worth. Below are 21 capabilities found in […]

At least one salesperson still believes in the power of face-to-face selling THE SCENE: SILICON Valley. Morgan Hill, California, a sleepy suburb of about 30,000 residents, to be exact. This […]

PLAY BY THE RULES EXECUTIVES WHO ARE heading out to the golf course with salespeople or clients this summer might want to make sure they're ready to play by the […]

CORPORATE EVENTS HAVE the potential to be big bores. One way to make sure your next meeting is memorable is to hire speakers who will keep the audience's attention. The […]

TRAVEL POLICIES AROUND THE WORLD HOW DO YOUR company's travel policies stack up against those from businesses around the globe? The OAG Business Travel Lifestyle Survey asked nearly 3,000 executives […]

E-MAIL IS NOT a substitute for personal contact when dealing with major or minor customer service problems. A national survey of 900 sales and marketing professionals discovered the most effective […]

With an aggressive public relations and sales strategy, Jupiter Communications has fast become an Internet power broker. It's also a highly successful business, on pace to grow contract sales 75 […]

From selling on the Internet to finding and retaining their top sales reps, executives are facing more daunting challenges than ever. Here are the five biggest hurdles, and how managers […]

LEAVE THE AV EQUIPMENT AT HOME If you're getting tired of lugging around audio visual equipment--or paying too much to rent a hotel's--here's another alternative: NetworkAV.com has brought together hundreds […]

Three books that should be on your reading list this month The Customer Century: Lessons From World-Class Companies in Integrated Marketing and Communications, by Anders Gronstedt (Routledge) For the past [...]

MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES, as every sales and marketing executive knows all too well, is a tricky task. What people want from their jobs differs from person to person, and figuring this […]

A NEW WEB ICON Any doubts that Internet products have reached a marketing level saved for cars and soap can now officially be laid to rest. Internet upstart Ask Jeeves […]

WHILE TODAY'S YOUNGEST workers seem to be getting rich off long days on the Internet, it's actually older generations that are most apt to describe themselves as workaholics. The chart […]

"Increasingly, the center of the marketing universe is the customer. It's the customer who sets the rules and the marketer who responds." --ROBERT WIENTZEN, president and CEO of the Direct […]

Houston, TX THEY SAY THAT everything that's done in Texas is done big. Well, some new doings in Houston are certainly helping to keep up the Lone Star State's mammoth […]

As a hard charging and motivational leader, football coach Dan Reeves knows how to prepare and train successful teams. He now sets out to win a Super Bowl, which he […]

How to keep an office free of workplace abuse GARY NAMIE AND his wife, Ruth, started The Campaign Against Workplace Bullying, a nonprofit organization, in 1998, after Ruth left a […]

WHEN A PRODUCT becomes a simple commodity to its customers, it loses value. It can, then, quickly be copied by a competitor and sold at a lower price. If a […]

THE FOLLOWING CHART shows the percentage of adults who say they would be motivated to improve their work performance if their employer offered them one of these noncash rewards worth […]

Baltimore, MD WHEN JOSH MARTIN moved to Maryland from Chicago five years ago, he was quick to question the business prospects in the area. Today? Well, let's just say that […]

As selling becomes more complex and technology drives change, managers are increasingly turning to consultants for help. That can be a disastrous mistake. Here's how to avoid the many pitfalls […]

A new novel takes Corporate America and its marketing practices to task THINK OF THE last meeting you took part in. Any ideas actually come from it? Any concrete conclusions […]

With its unparalleled atmosphere of teamwork--both inside the sales and marketing organizations and with customers--Johnson Controls' Automotive Systems Group drives 20 percent annual revenue growth It's a mild western Michigan […]

PHOENIX, ARIZONA THE BUSINESS CLIMATE in Phoenix these days is about as hot as the temperature. The area ranks first in the nation among the top 22 metro markets with […]

The global and technological marketplace is forcing companies to align these departments THE WAR BETWEEN sales and marketing departments has been waged forever. It's a never-ending struggle for mutual respect […]

AN INTERNATIONAL EXPANSION has a way of really changing the face of a company. Just ask the Ridger Chemical Corporation. When this Allentown, Pennsylvania, maker of industrial process chemical products […]

THE HOME TO the more than 100,000 students of the University of Michigan has become more than just a college town in the past decade. It is now a flourishing […]

THE NEWS DIGEST FOR SALES AND MARKETING EXECUTIVES FASTER, FASTER, FASTER! Marketers must adapt to today's quicker technology - or risk losing their jobs WITH TECHNOLOGIES SUCH as the Internet, […]

THERE'S BEEN more change for the West Systems Corporation in the past eight years than in its first 72. The difference: mass consolidation in some of the industries it sells […]

HEADQUARTERS: Palo Alto, California PRODUCTS: Personal computers, printers, and software RESULTS: HP grew overall revenues 11.6 percent in 1997 to $42.9 billion. HP has made its biggest moves in 1997 […]

A GREAT SALES force is usually enhanced by the quality of the products it sells. For Pfizer Inc., the New York-based maker of pharmaceuticals and medical products, that's certainly been […]

Marketers must adapt to today's quicker technology--or risk losing their jobs WITH TECHNOLOGIES SUCH as the Internet, intranets, and databases becoming as common as the telephone in most offices today, […]

Andy Cohen How companies are coping with the continent's economic woes AS BANKS AND companies in Asia are trying to recover from the downfall of the Yen and other area […]

Andy Cohen THE CULTURAL PACE IS SLOW. But the business deals are fast. And frequent. And fruitful. Welcome to Boulder, Colorado, where laidback ski bums mix with pressure-packed corporate execs. […]

How sales managers can spark their reps to a strong first quarter JACK McMAHON HAD seen it before. Complacent salespeople. Tired and lazy sales tactics. An overall unwillingness to give […]

CAN A CASUAL joke turn into a full-blown motivational campaign? To his dismay, Scott Schwefel thinks so. Schwefel, CEO of Benchmark Computer Learning, told his sales staff that he'd shave […]