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the sales compensation plan is Batman, the sales contest is Robin.
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Mark Roberge (The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million)
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Musk became increasingly frustrated with the company’s practices, especially the way it relied on an aggressive sales force that was compensated by commissions. “Their sales tactics became like those schemes that go door to door selling you boxes of knives or something crappy like that,” Musk says. His instincts had always been just the opposite. He never put much effort into sales and marketing, and instead believed that if you made a great product, the sales would follow.
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Walter Isaacson (Elon Musk)
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The danger with traditional commission-based sales models is that they create two different cultures: a company culture and a sales culture. The employees in these two cultures are compensated differently, think differently, care about different things.
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Tony Fadell (Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making)
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Phyllis, then seventeen, had grown into a lovely girl, although she was still in school uniform.
Thus, Hera made it known that her beautiful daughter`s virginity was once more for sale & she had set the asking price at twenty thousand dollars. She would use the proceeds from the sale to clear her debts, & the surplus, she would give to Vicky in compensation for the three thousand dollars she had paid four years earlier to preserve Phyllis` virginity.[MMT]
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Nicholas Chong
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The standard of living attained in the most advanced industrial areas is not a suitable model of development if the aim is pacification. In view of what this standard has made of Man and Nature, the question must again be asked whether it is worth the sacrifices and the victims made in its defense. The question has ceased to be irresponsible since the “affluent society” has become a society of permanent mobilization against the risk of annihilation, and since the sale of its goods has been accompanied by moronization, the perpetuation of toil, and the promotion of frustration. Under these circumstances, liberation from the affluent society does not mean return to healthy and robust poverty, moral cleanliness, and simplicity. On the contrary, the elimination of profitable waste would increase the social wealth available for distribution, and the end of permanent mobilization would reduce the social need for the denial of satisfactions that are the individual’s own—denials which now find their compensation in the cult of fitness, strength, and regularity.
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Herbert Marcuse (One-Dimensional Man: Studies in the Ideology of Advanced Industrial Society)
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Insurance Adjuster Tom We have studied your case and we have decided the policy applies. That means you’re entitled to a settlement of $13,600. I see. How did you reach that figure? That’s how much we decided the car was worth. I understand, but what standard did you use to determine that amount? Do you know where I can buy a comparable car for that much? How much are you asking for? Whatever I’m entitled to under the policy. I found a secondhand car just about like it for $17,700. Adding the sales and excise tax, it would come to about $19,000. $19,000! That’s too much! I’m not asking for $19,000 or $18,000 or $20,000, but for fair compensation. Do you agree that it’s only fair I get enough to replace the car? OK, I’ll offer you $15,000. That’s the highest I can go. Company policy. How does the company figure that? Look, $15,000 is all you’ll get. Take it or leave it. $15,000 may be fair. I don’t know. I certainly understand your position if you’re bound by company policy. But unless you can state objectively why that amount is what I’m entitled to, I think I’ll do better in court. Why don’t we study the matter and talk again? Is Wednesday at eleven a good time to talk? . . .
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Roger Fisher (Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement without Giving In)
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In West's guide, rule-of-thumb guidance comes in two formats that most valuation experts recognize:  Percentage of annual sales: If a business had total sales of $ 100,000 last year and the multiple for that business was 40 percent of annual sales, the price based on that particular rule of thumb would be $ 40,000.  Multiple of earnings: An earnings multiplier makes the most sense to prospective buyers. It directly addresses the buyer's motive to make money: to achieve a return on investment. In many small companies, this multiple is commonly used against what is known as seller's discretionary earnings (SDE), which are earnings before accounting for the following items: • Income taxes • Nonrecurring income and expenses • Nonoperating income and expenses • Depreciating an amortization • Interest expense or income • Owner's total compensation for one owner/ operator after adjusting the total compensation of all owners to market value
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Lisa Holton (Business Valuation For Dummies)
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Business Owner Planning
Business owners have additional and complex Retirement Planning needs.
Counting only on the sale of your business requires tremendous luck and success.
If business owners consider the business as simply one asset among many, then they should seriously consider additional assets such as:
-Executive Bonus Arrangements
-Nonqualified deferred compensation plans
-Qualified retirement plans
-General investment portfolio
Motto for Business Owner Planning
As I look back on thirteen years of entrepreneurship, I can see that the best and smartest thing to do is to have a plan with the end in mind and you in mind. The time still goes by and time is expensive. That sentence is really a whole book and you should or will understand sooner than later, hopefully.
That would have looked like business succession planning. Proper business succession planning requires sound preparation in order to have a smooth and equitable transition. Financial, tax and legal planning are all necessary for a success.
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Annette Wise
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In the aftermath of Antietam, Lincoln’s course would appear to have been set. Yet with the deadline approaching for his proclamation to go into effect, he held out one last gesture to the rebellious states through a special message to Congress in December 1862. The president had outlined a proposal for gradual compensated emancipation in March. Now he sought to establish the specific parameters for this proposal. Undoubtedly, he hoped to demonstrate his sincerity in offering any slave state that wished to do so a chance to experience a slower-paced transition from slavery to freedom. As a way of bringing a close to “our national strife,” President Lincoln suggested the adoption of amendments to the Constitution allowing for gradual compensated emancipation. He set January 1, 1900, as the date by which all slaves ought to be freed and offered owners recompense through the sale of Federal bonds for the liquidation of their assets in human property.
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Brian Steel Wills (The River Was Dyed with Blood: Nathan Bedford Forrest and Fort Pillow)
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In my experience, most sales shortfalls reflect either an inadequate product or a disconnect between the product and the target market. In other words, what you're offering doesn't resonate with the people you expected to like it. A strong product will generate escape velocity and find its market, even with a mediocre sales team. But even a great sales team cannot fix or compensate for product problems.
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Frank Slootman (Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity)
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1. How many practice transitions and/or sales have you been involved with? 2. What do you feel are your strong points in providing transition/brokerage services? 3. What do you charge for appraisal and what do you include in your appraisal? Can I see a sample appraisal and listing document? 4. Is your appraisal contingent on signing a listing agreement? 5. How long do you estimate it will take to transition/sell my practice? (But remember never to get stuck on their initial estimate. They have no control over the market and the myriad factors that come into play over timing.) 6. How are you compensated? Does the fee increase if I sell the A/R? 7. Do you charge the buyer a fee for any reason? 8. Do you have any literature that will help me better understand the transition process and how I can better prepare myself for it? 9. Can you furnish a list of your five most recent sales and/or transitions of buyers and sellers? In
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Brian Hanks (Selling Your Dental Practice: The Complete Guide to a Successful Transition)
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Are we expanding our sales force appropriately to match needed sales growth and market penetration? 2. Are our reps properly trained, and what is the lag time between training and an effective rep? 3. Is our compensation package and awards program sufficient to attract and retain high performers? 4. Is our field sales forecasting system functioning properly to anticipate negative trends? 5. Can we continue to leverage the sales expense line without damaging sales? 6. Is our expense budget tracking system effective? 7. Are we accurately monitoring sales force morale? 8. Is our pay schedule competitive?
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John R. Treace (Nuts and Bolts of Sales Management: How to Build a High-Velocity Sales Organization)
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Leadership and Culture” may seem like a vague or general catch-all phrase. Let me offer some questions to guide you down the path and to set the stage for upcoming chapters on this important first piece of the framework. What does it feel like to be part of your company’s sales team? Is it a high-performance culture? Why do you feel that way? Are team members laser-focused on goals and results? What’s the vibe in the sales department (whether it is local or based remotely)? What does accountability look like on this team? How often, how big, and how loud are victories celebrated? Is the manager leading the team or just reacting to circumstances? Are sales team meetings valuable? Do salespeople leave those meetings better equipped, envisioned, and energized, or drained and discouraged? Do members of the sales team feel supported, valued, and appreciated? Does the existing compensation plan make sense and does it drive the desired behaviors and results? In what ways is the manager putting his or her fingerprints on the team? How much of the sales leader’s time is devoted to non-sales activities and executive and administrative burdens? What’s the level of intensity, passion, and heart-engagement of team members? I don’t believe that anyone would doubt that we can create significant lift in a sales organization by improving the answers to these questions.
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Mike Weinberg (Sales Management. Simplified.: The Straight Truth About Getting Exceptional Results from Your Sales Team)
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Often, much of the pressure (to execute a transaction) comes from brokers whose compensation is contingent upon consummation of a sale, regardless of its consequences for both buyer and seller.
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Mark Gavagan (Gems from Warren Buffett: Wit and Wisdom from 34 Years of Letters to Shareholders)
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What is the most important goal the company needs to achieve? Customer count? Profitability? Customer success? Market share? New product distribution? New market penetration?” Then ask yourself, “How can the sales compensation plan be aligned with this goal?” Do not underestimate the power of the compensation plan. You
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Mark Roberge (The Sales Acceleration Formula: Using Data, Technology, and Inbound Selling to go from $0 to $100 Million)
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The highest value provided by sales personnel is to help customers make choices when there is uncertainty and risk. This event is known as the “point of persuasion.” The purpose of sales compensation is to reward seller success at the point of persuasion.
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David J. Cichelli (Compensating the Sales Force: A Practical Guide to Designing Winning Sales Reward Programs)
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Sample Target Total Cash Compensation Policy: Set the TTCC for each job at the 60th percentile of market practices as presented in the annual industry survey. Payouts for poor performers will be equal to the 25th percentile of pay; top performers will earn payouts equal to or greater than the 90th percentile of labor market rates.
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David J. Cichelli (Compensating the Sales Force: A Practical Guide to Designing Winning Sales Reward Programs)
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If the prices rise in a continuous manner and if the borrower as a result gains a supplementary profit from the sale of the merchandise which he bought with the borrowed money, he will be disposed to pay a higher rate of interest than he would have paid in a period of stable prices; the capitalist, on the other hand, will not be disposed to lend under these conditions, unless the interest includes a compensation for the losses which the diminution in the purchasing power of money entails for creditors.
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Ludwig von Mises (The Austrian Theory of the Trade Cycle and Other Essays (LvMI))
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DISTRIBUTION. Where is it sold to the ultimate consumer? What middlemen are involved? SALES. Who is selling it for you and how are will they be compensated? PRICING. What do wholesalers and retailers and consumers pay? PRODUCTION. How do you make it? RAW MATERIALS. Where do you get what you sell? POSITIONING. How do the ultimate users position the product in their minds? MARKETING. How do consumers find out about it? BARRIER TO ENTRY. How will you survive when competitors arrive? SCALABILITY. How do you make it bigger?
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Anonymous
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From 1980 to 1993, the Fortune 500 industrial firms shed nearly 4.4 million jobs, more than one out of four that they previously provided. During that same period, their sales increased by 1.4 times and assets by 2.3 times. The average annual CEO compensation at the largest corporations increased by 6.1 times to $3.8 million.
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David C. Korten (When Corporations Rule the World)
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Many will argue that there is nothing morally wrong with sex work, and it should be legalized, protected, unionized, and fairly compensated for those who freely choose to seek employment in this sector of the economy. Sex work existed long before the advent of capitalism, it continued to varying degrees throughout the state socialist countries, and it will no doubt exist in some form well into the future. But overt sex work, as well as the subtler forms of commodified sexuality for sale, is the result of an economic system that provides little material security for women, and encourages all people to turn everything they have (their labor, their reputations, their emotions, their bodily fluids and ova, and so forth) into a product that can be sold on a market where prices are determined by the caprices of supply and demand. This form of amorous exchange is not sex positive empowerment for women, but a desperate attempt to survive in a world with few social safety nets.
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Kristen Ghodsee (Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism: And Other Arguments for Economic Independence)
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And here is the crux: hospitals agreed to follow, and in return demanded financial compensation—they negotiated with the leader about their terms. This is a naive approach to followership. The IT firms, on the other hand, played a smarter game. They not only negotiated with the leader for the financial assistance that would help their sales; they also negotiated for the inclusion of meaningful use—an imposition not on the leader, but on the behavior of other followers. They shaped the long term-governance of the ecosystem when the rules were still malleable. Smart.
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Ron Adner (Winning the Right Game: How to Disrupt, Defend, and Deliver in a Changing World (Management on the Cutting Edge))
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John sat down and looked at the ceiling. “So, they can’t work it out because . . .” “Because you’re sending two very different messages about what matters most.” At the highest level, the words were clear: “Get the new product to market quickly.” But one of the reasons the company struggled to get there was that their compensation, recognition, and reward systems weren’t aligned with the strategic goal. The sales team’s compensation and bonus structure required time from engineering to solve customer issues with the older products. Time they couldn’t get until they yelled. Misaligned systems undermined everyone’s progress and resolve. Once they realigned their compensation and performance evaluation systems to support the strategic goal, everyone could work together.
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Karin Hurt (Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates)
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A strong product will generate escape velocity and find its market, even with a mediocre sales team. But even a great sales team cannot fix or compensate for product problems.
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Frank Slootman (Amp It Up: Leading for Hypergrowth by Raising Expectations, Increasing Urgency, and Elevating Intensity)
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Six critical questions to ask your Guy 1. How are you paid? Fee-only advisers receive no compensation from the sale of investment products. All others do. You can’t count on an adviser who gets a significant portion of their pay in sales commissions. Period. Leave if they are not fee-only. 2. Do you have any conflicts of interest that influence the advice you provide? Financial advisers who are registered representatives get paid to sell insurance or annuity products promoted by their brokers. Ask how they choose the investments they recommend. Ask them directly how they are paid. 3. Will my assets be housed with an independent custodian—that is, a bank that is not selling the investment products? “Yes” is the only acceptable answer here.
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Teresa Ghilarducci (How to Retire with Enough Money: And How to Know What Enough Is)
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That was because of the uptick rule. The rule was part of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (rule 10a-1). It specified that, with certain exceptions, short-sale transactions are allowed only at a price higher than the last previous different price (an “uptick”). This rule was supposed to prevent short sellers from deliberately driving down the price of a stock. Seeing an enormous profit potential from capturing the unprecedented spread between the futures and the index, I wanted to sell stocks short and buy index futures to capture the excess spread. The index was selling at 15 percent, or 30 points, over the futures. The potential profit in an arbitrage was 15 percent in a few days. But with prices collapsing, upticks were scarce. What to do? I figured out a solution. I called our head trader, who as a minor general partner was highly compensated from his share of our fees, and gave him this order: Buy $5 million worth of index futures at whatever the current market price happened to be (about 190), and place orders to sell short at the market, with the index then trading at about 220, not $5 million worth of assorted stocks—which was the optimal amount to best hedge the futures—but $10 million. I chose twice as much stock as I wanted, guessing only about half would actually be shorted because of the scarcity of the required upticks, thus giving me the proper hedge. If substantially more or less stock was sold short, the hedge would not be as good but the 15 percent profit cushion gave us a wide band of protection against loss.
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Edward O. Thorp (A Man for All Markets: From Las Vegas to Wall Street, How I Beat the Dealer and the Market)
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This is why the goal of shareholder value maximization and the compensation approach that goes with it are bad for shareholders. The very executives who must achieve the goal realize that they can’t. Talented executives can grow market share and sales, increase margins, and use capital more efficiently, but no matter how good they are, they can’t increase shareholder value if expectations get out of line with reality. The harder a CEO is pushed to increase shareholder value, the more the CEO will be tempted to make moves that actually hurt the shareholders.
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Roger L. Martin (A New Way to Think: Your Guide to Superior Management Effectiveness)
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1. If you’re starting a new sales organization, do not offer traditional monthly cash commissions. It’s best to have everyone in your company compensated in the same way—so offer salespeople a competitive salary and sales performance bonuses of additional stock options that vest over time. Stock provides a built-in incentive to stick around and invest in long-term customers who are good for the business. 2. If you’re trying to transition to a relationship-driven culture, you may not be able to kill traditional commissions right away. In that case, any stock or cash (stock is still preferable) that you give as a commission should vest over time. Pay 10–15 percent of the commission at first, then another tranche in a few months, then another a few months after that, etc. If the customer leaves, the salesperson loses the remainder of their commission. 3. Every sale should be a team sale. So if you have a customer success team (the team that actually delivers, sets up, and maintains whatever is sold to the customer), then it should sign off on every deal. Sales and customer success should be under one leader, in the same silo, being compensated in the same way. In this setup, sales can’t just throw a customer over the fence and never think about them again. If there’s no customer success team, then sales should work very closely with customer support, operations, or manufacturing—create a board of people to approve each commitment.
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Tony Fadell (Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making)
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MANAGING THE CURRENCY WELL-MANAGED Policy makers bluff, conveying that they will never allow the currency to weaken much. When they do devalue, it’s a surprise. The devaluation is large enough that the people are no longer broadly expecting the currency weakening more (creating a two-way market). POORLY MANAGED Policy makers are widely expected to allow a currency weakness, causing more downward pressure on the currency and higher interest rates. The initial devaluation is small, and further devaluations are needed. The market expects this, causing higher interest rates and inflation expectations. CLOSING EXTERNAL IMBALANCES WELL-MANAGED Tight monetary policy causes domestic demand to contract in line with the fall in incomes. Policy makers create incentives for investors to stay in the currency (i.e., higher interest rates that compensate for risk of currency depreciation). POORLY MANAGED Policy makers favor domestic conditions, and monetary policy is too loose, putting off domestic pain and stoking inflation. Policy makers attempt to stop the outflow of capital with capital controls or other restrictive measures. SMOOTHING THE DOWNTURN WELL-MANAGED Use reserves judiciously to smooth the withdrawal of foreign capital while working to close imbalances. POORLY MANAGED Rely on reserve sales to maintain higher levels of spending. MANAGING BAD DEBTS/DEFAULTS WELL-MANAGED Work through debts of entities that are over-indebted, making up the gap with credit elsewhere. POORLY MANAGED Allow disorderly defaults that lead to increased uncertainty and capital flight.
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Ray Dalio (A Template for Understanding Big Debt Crises)
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A good metric changes the way you behave. This is by far the most important criterion for a metric: what will you do differently based on changes in the metric?
Drawing a line in the sand is a great way to enforce a disciplined approach. A good metric changes the way you behave precisely because it’s aligned to your goals of keeping users, encouraging word of mouth, acquiring customers efficiently, or generating revenue.
Unfortunately, that’s not always how it happens.
At one company, Alistair saw a sales executive tie quarterly compensation to the number of deals in the pipeline, rather than to the number of deals closed, or to margin on those sales. Salespeople are coin-operated, so they did what they always do: they followed the money. In this case, that meant a glut of junk leads that took two quarters to clean out of the pipeline—time that would have been far better spent closing qualified prospects.
Of course, customer satisfaction or pipeline flow is vital to a successful business. But if you want to change behavior, your metric must be tied to the behavioral change you want. If you measure something and it’s not attached to a goal, in turn changing your behavior, you’re wasting your time. Worse, you may be lying to yourself and fooling yourself into believing that everything is OK. That’s no way to succeed.
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Alistair Croll (Lean Analytics: Use Data to Build a Better Startup Faster)
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The new mobility would create major dislocations. A shift from “mobility as a product” to “mobility as a service” would result in a significant drop in new car purchases by individuals. What would grow instead would be fleet purchases. Since the cars would be used not 5 percent of the time, but 70 or 80 percent of the time, the numbers of fleet sales would not compensate for the lost personal sales. The traditional automotive supply chains, involving thousands of companies around the world, could be disrupted not by trade wars but by innovation and technology, including robotics and 3D manufacturing.
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Daniel Yergin (The New Map: Energy, Climate, and the Clash of Nations)
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4. Be ready to handle the subject of salary. If the subject of salary comes up during the interview, the general rule is to try and avoid it until an offer has been made. This is because the greatest leverage you have is after the job offer but before acceptance. However, you may have no choice but to discuss salary when asked about your salary requirements or salary history. You must know, in advance, the salary range for the job you are seeking and then provide a realistic range; “I would expect the job to pay between $30,000 and $40,000, and I believe, based on my value to your company, we can agree to an amicable number.” Or “Over the past five years, my salary has been between $80,000 and $93,000. I plan to make a significant contribution to your sales efforts, so my starting salary is less important than the ability to demonstrate to you that I can produce results. And I am sure when you see the results I can produce, my salary will reflect those contributions.” Once again, I emphasize that if you know your value and how you can contribute in a notable way, you’ll feel in control when negotiating a win-win compensation arrangement.
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Jay A. Block (101 Best Ways to Land a Job in Troubled Times)