Focused attention is today’s greatest commodity and brain science teaches us a brilliant way to harness it. When you observe people watching a presentation, do you notice how some periodically […] Continue Reading
How to Ensure Your Next Project Will Be a Resounding Success: the Career of SBR’s Principal and What She Learned Along the Way
In conversation with Sharon Roberts, it is easy to be captivated by her story. The trajectory of her professional life and the impact made by each stop on her journey […] Continue Reading
Fewer Options. More Sales.
Anyone who has ever gone to the grocery store knows this scenario well: you turn the corner of the breakfast foods aisle and find yourself confronted with hundreds of different […] Continue Reading
Thanksgiving is Long Over, But the Need for Gratitude in the Workplace Continues.
Thanksgiving is the only official day of the year when friends and family gather to share their thanks and appreciation for one another. Why is it that we assign this [...] Continue Reading
Is it Time to Blow Up Your Sales Plans? Leveraging an 11th Hour Course Correction.
If you run a sales operation, you know and love the challenge of devising plans to achieve a business goal in the midst of numerous competing factors. While some people […] Continue Reading
What Chocolate and Prune Juice Can Teach Us About Shopping for Health Insurance.
In a 2004 study, researchers assigned participants to consume a snack – either chocolate or prune juice. Half of the participants consumed the snack immediately, while the others had to […] Continue Reading
HBO’s Silicon Valley Gives an Invaluable Reminder: Get Outside the Company Bubble and Talk to Real People.
All summer we’ve been geeking out on the latest season of HBO’s Silicon Valley. This week’s episode highlights a challenge companies face when looking to simplify their products, sales, and […] Continue Reading
Getting Less by Expecting More: “Multitasking” Behaviors Are Stifling Call Center Agents
Multitasking has been under scientific scrutiny since the 1960’s. Diverse and web-centric channels for work and play have questioned the brain’s ability to do more than one thing at a […] Continue Reading
Write Your Marketing Communications for Kids (Not Grownups)
Anyone who has spent time around kids knows that the incessant “Why” query is applied to just about everything. But asking “Why” isn’t just a way to annoy adults. It’s […] Continue Reading
Happy Valentine’s Day!
Honoring Valentine’s Day is our chance to say how much we ❤ and appreciate our clients, colleagues and friends. We are not alone. With people in the U.S. spending some […] Continue Reading
Are We Still ‘Mad Men’ at Work? Skill, Stress & The Modern Office
“Mad Men” came to a close last May but we still find ourselves referencing the series whenever we think about business life in the days of yore. The show had a […] Continue Reading
Anomalisa Paints a Sad Portrait of the Customer Service Industry
A movie that probes the human condition using the customer service industry as a loose backdrop? Why not! This week, Team SBR went to see Anomalisa, a stop-motion animation film […] Continue Reading
What Tetris Teaches About Breaking Through Procrastination
There are a number of creations from the 1980s that we would prefer to keep locked in the antiquity closet (shoulder pads and side ponytails come to mind). But our […] Continue Reading
Build a Memory Palace to Deliver Your Next Presentation
I once heard a statistic that humans fear public speaking above death. In his standup routine, Jerry Seinfeld once said, “This means to the average person, if you go to a […] Continue Reading
51,150,000 Turkeys
The great philosopher Cicero reminds us that, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all the others.” On November 26th, nationwide we will gobble 51,150,000 turkeys […] Continue Reading
Brainiest Innovations Come From Playtime @ Work
As Thoreau tells us, “It is not enough to be busy…the question is: What are we busy about?” Lately we have been busy on our clients’ most active season leading […] Continue Reading
5 Ways to Boost Your Call Center Communications Right Now
If you’ve been in the call center business for more than two minutes you know that the word “scripting” is about as detested as background noise. For the most part […] Continue Reading
Agents Are Saying What? A Guide to Secret Shop Your Call Center
Anyone in the business knows that call center management is a demanding (if not a thankless) profession. Irregular call patterns could require immediate staffing changes, one-off questions can stifle a manager’s […] Continue Reading
How Our Judgments (Not Just Personality) Shape Behavior at Work & Home
Companies frequently use new hire assessments as a way to predict a candidate’s potential performance. Over the years we have come across many assessments, from behavioral to personality and IQ […] Continue Reading
14 Year Flashback + 14 Lessons Learned
Today, 14 years ago, SBR opened our doors seeking to optimize performance and revenue for our clients in the complex product arena. Last week we celebrated with Team SBR. This [...] Continue Reading
Use Procrastination to Your (Sales) Benefit
It was during the busy holiday season when we were working with a healthcare client. After a long day at the vendor’s site, Sharon (our Principal) was daydreaming on the drive [...] Continue Reading
Grapes Are Smarter Than You Think
As a company constantly on the move, SBR relishes every opportunity to visit San Francisco – and what trip to the Bay Area would be complete without wine tasting in […] Continue Reading
Happy 4th of July
Stars + stripes + fireworks! All of us at SBR wish our colleagues, communities and friends a happy Independence Day.
Takeaways from Sales 2.0 San Francisco
It doesn’t take much to get Team SBR to the West Coast. This time we met up with sales industry trailblazers at the Sales 2.0 Conference in San Francisco to [...] Continue Reading
What Can Best New Restaurant Teach Us About Sales?
A few weeks ago Miami’s Dolce Italian won Bravo’s latest series, Best New Restaurant. While salivating over the dishes, we couldn't help but applaud the use of secret diners to [...] Continue Reading
PACE Conference 2015
Todd Muscatello, Sharon Roberts and Lisa Fiondella at PACE conference in Atlanta. SBR never turns down a chance to talk about one of our favorite topics: the intersection of sales and [...] Continue Reading
A Plane, a PowerPoint & an Ugly Baby
You know the excitement at having an entire row on a plane all to yourself? On a recent flight, we were just about to settle into our three-row transporter when [...] Continue Reading
Embrace Rejection!
Ask any salesperson and one of their biggest fears is being rejected. In fact, cast a wider net and many people fear rejection in other areas: Asking a girl on a [...] Continue Reading