How far can you and your team improve, right now? 10% 20% 30% higher?

You'll be pleased to know that I am still utilising the invaluable tools that you gave me and I am just about to use them to coach someone who wants to embark on the perilous road into management. I hope that you will be proud that the impact that you have made on my life and working practices are being passed onto others so that they too can grow.

Business Unit Manager, Government Department, One year later.

Paul Burr

About Paul Burr

Paul has been coaching professionals for 11 years.

read his full profile…

Beowulf Blog

7 key traits of CEOs who break through those wretched "Corporate Firewalls"?

Submitted by Paul Burr on Thu, 26/08/2010 - 19:34

I've seen a wide variety of researched estimates of the average tenure of a CEO. They range from 2.5 to 7+ years. I don't know many private investors who are that patient. The last two CEOs I met, gave themselves considerably less time to make their mark; 1 year and 6 months respectively.

CEOs seem to have a honeymoon period of around 18 months. By the end of which, if things aren't significantly better, the 'marriage' will probably not last.

A chat with Professor Colin Coulson Thomas prompted me to write this blog. Colin, author of Winning Companies:Winning People, is Chairman and fellow Boardmember of Cotoco Ltd (www.cotoco.com).

I cover some of the highlights of our discussion and my own personal observations.

How do top salespeople sell new products and services to new customers fast?

Submitted by Paul Burr on Wed, 25/08/2010 - 18:26

As well as sell, salespeople have to market themselves well too. They need to be confident, passionate, competent, knowledgeable, motivated, curious, articulate, great networkers, show self belief, practice sensibility and stay cool under pressure. That’s quite a lot to demonstrate and when they meet a new customer, for the very first time, they need to get all of the above about themselves fast!

NEW-NEW: So how can salespeople go about selling a ‘new’ product (or service) well to a new customer?

How do you keep your salespeople up to date?

Submitted by Paul Burr on Thu, 06/05/2010 - 19:17

Imagine you’re in corporate sales. You have 400+ (I’ve been quoted this) items in your email and your in-mail grows by the day. What should you read? Can’t decide? Take a day off from selling or delete them all?
Imagine you have a portfolio of say 20 products and services to sell. How do you keep up to date with what is important and relevant? You can only assimilate a tiny fraction of what is available – but is it the right fraction? How would you know? How would the people sending that information know?
Now imagine you have a portfolio of over 600 products and services. What chance, of keeping up to date, have you now?

Transform Farmers into Hunters

Submitted by Paul Burr on Thu, 29/04/2010 - 13:26

Since the current economic climate began, organizations have been downsizing, reshaping, restructuring, removing layers of management, centralizing, decentralizing… you name it. As conditions worsened the focus has gone from cutting costs to cash survival (+ cutting costs). I’ve observed that no-one has been harder hit than SME businesses where, even in good times, cashflow has always been a bit of a juggling act.

So we are now three years on. Customers and vendors who get on well have stuck together through the mire. They’ve shared the pain. What’s next?

Learn to Love and Be Loved in Return (Make your Relationship Last) Published 10th March 2010

Submitted by Paul Burr on Wed, 31/03/2010 - 10:44

This month sees the launch of Learn to Love & Be Loved in Return, published by www.bookshaker.com . Just this week I received feedback that make the trials and tribulations I caused and received, whilst writing the book, worthwhile.

The Perfumed Pigs of Sales Reporting that Make Senior Management Angry

Submitted by Paul Burr on Mon, 29/03/2010 - 19:05

I’ve experienced sales reporting issues in a number of organizations. There have been a couple of root causes…

  1. There is a lot of work keeping the material up to date and whilst this may be worthwhile for the very top tier accounts, it’s an overkill for the rest. Something faster and more appropriate is required.

Learn to Love and Be Loved in Return (Make Your Relationship Last) - due for pubication soon

Submitted by Paul Burr on Thu, 14/01/2010 - 10:41

Stop Press: You can read an extract at www.learntoloveandbelovedinreturn.com .

The Book’s Promise
Love brings the most joy and causes the most stress in our lives. Learn to Love and Be Loved in Return guides people how to enter into a relationship and make it last. It provides new and profound insight into the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of relationships. It discerns love from its disguises (not-love). The reader finds out what needs to happen, beyond love, for two people to come together and stay together in a relationship that flourishes. The book is filled with self coaching tips and easy-to-follow steps; a how-to guide that helps the reader go for what they set out to achieve in love and in life.

About Beowulf (extract from my forthcoming book, Learn to Love and Be Loved In Return)

Submitted by Paul Burr on Thu, 12/11/2009 - 16:18

Many people ask me about the name Beowulf and where did it come from. Here follows how and why I came to choose it to name my company.

In 1997, I read The Heart Aroused by David Whyte. I found I had to read many paragraphs twice, so beautifully are they written. David, a poet and writer, dedicates part of his life to helping businesses whose people have sacrificed their souls to the corporate alter - to rekindle the flame and passion from the embers that once shone so brightly. David devotes a chapter to the ancient poem Beowulf. Inspired, I created Beowulf Consulting Limited........

How do you get "something new" talked about in the boardoom and raise curiosity?

Submitted by Paul Burr on Thu, 29/10/2009 - 14:28

I was researching the value of Cloud Computing. It's still new in boardroom parlance.

I’ve been working with a global IT supplier who, when introducing new advanced technologies, met many issues in getting value, trust and inspiration across to its customers. Here are the issues they encountered:

1. Only a small number of salespeople knew how to generate trust, articulate value and inspire action with senior executives in “big clients”

2. The rest avoided selling the new thing because they didn’t know how to do 1.

Stress and Conflict Resolution + Two Self Coaching Tips

Submitted by Paul Burr on Mon, 19/10/2009 - 19:07

(Working notes from my book About…. Love, Relationships And The Stuff That Holds You Back.)

Relationships create the biggest source of joy and sadness (love and hate, mercy and severity) in our lives. People uplift one another. People upset one another.

We get out of synchronisation and foster anger, sadness, fear or guilt. We cannot see through the emotions that cloud our mind. We limit our learning. Nor do we open ourselves up to see through the darkness in our own psyche that our unconscious mind protects us from. This darkness manifests itself in repeating patterns.