A high touch and consistent approach to sales management and training can significantly improve the selling skills and techniques needed by your organization’s sales professionals. A clear understanding of buyer/seller rapport, sales call planning, questioning and listening skills, presentation skills and closing strategies will drive the top line results for any business.

The goal is to achieve a solution driven sales approach to your customers most pressing needs. To find those pressing needs, go get some real marketing muscle.

To master the art of selling, the following three adverts are required viewing. They are brought to you by the very serious, big brand folks at IBM. Big Blue knows a thing or two about how to target the right customer. Watch each spot back to back - too funny. We all know a Bob Hooey or two in the real world of corporate sales. Did we mention that they’re too funny?

So, are you a farmer of a rancher? Now go sell something!

Well … we weren’t too sure about this one. But it’s a Friday and we’re always interested in a well rounded perspective. You know …. both sides of the coin so to speak.

You should not watch the following video if you are offended by foul language. Or if you take yourself or your marketing news and information too seriously for that matter - really - skip this one.

For the open minded, it’s pretty funny stuff about those in the world of marketing and advertising. And it’s true how you can re-frame just about anything when you think like a marketer.

This is ‘Bill Hicks on Marketing” and it is COMEDY. Nuf said! View at your own risk!

There’s a new annoying new character in the car insurance world (buh-bye Geico Gecko) called the General (a poorly animated 3D character). He’ll claim to save you big money on auto insurance on his website. It’s pretty annoying that this company basically stole the whole ‘cute-image’ of Geico’s Gecko and I am supposed to trust a 3D General animation with my car insurance. As a consumer, I can tell the company didn’t pay much to have the 3D General made which means they probably won’t care much about me either as a client. This ad is just horrible and annoying on top of that.

Have you seen John Madden naked lately? Neither have I and I certainly do not want to. Imagine what you would do if you were a parent and for Christmas you bought your kid a copy of Madden NFL 07 from Circuit City and when he popped it into his XBOX 360 he saw naked people? That’s exactly what happened to a 14 year-old whose parents bought him the game.

The kid’s parents called Electronic Arts (the game’s creator company) which is investigating the incident and giving the kid a new game for free.

What’s with this flying cars and flying in general trend lately? I see a Chevy driving around on buildings, a truck being tossed by the Loch Ness Monster, a woman buying a guy’s dry cleaning, and people going to the airport.

As the creator and host of the ‘Twilight Zone’ and ‘Night Gallery, Rob Sterling also appeared in this creepy Radio Shack commercial with little boys.

If you’re like me, you spent New Years sitting at home with a box of Cheetos and Vic’s Vaporub watching YouTube’s New Years Celebration (ok, so you’re not like me then eh?). Chevy sponsored a YouTube hosted New Year’s celebration this year with Warner Music Group artists performing to ring in the New Year. The ‘almost-live’ experience entailed artists uploading their videos right after performances to the website. Even some of the years most popular video-bloggers were featured as New Years Resolutions and encouraging others to upload their own.

The Consumerist is hosting a survey in which you can vote for your favorite ‘Fake Marketing Blog For 2006′. The contestants which you can vote on are McDonald’s “4Railroads” and “McMillionWinner”, Wal-Mart’s “Wal-Marting Across America Blog” and Sony’s “All I Want For X-Mas Is A PSP Blog.” At the time of writing this, Sony’s FLOG is in first place.

Quaker and KellogÂ� will be launchingÂ� a new ‘chocolate’ version of their Life and Special K cereals which are traditionally aimed at ‘health-seeking’ breakfaster monsters. The belief the companies are trying to convey is that chocolate isn’t as unhealthy as it is made out to be by integrating the flavor into their cereals. Both cereals will be advertised as a late night snack for health conscious individuals who want to satisfy a chocolate-y craving. Available now in the midwest (select stores), the Special K Chocolatey Delight and Life Chocolate Oat Crunch will be available nationwide early next month.

This is one of those weird ads from the ‘Best Rejected Advertising’ website from the BenQ Taiwanese electronics manufacturer which was stopped from circulation in China. The ad was seized because many complaints objected the depiction of the boy in the ad emerging from the rubble of a post 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center.

Obviously, many people were highly offended by the ad and the slogan of the ad. The company did not make a public apology for the ad mostly because they never thought that is what the ad depicted.

XpressDirect has launched this new innovative print advertising campaign to promote its’ services which are a true delight to watch. Although the imagery is innovative, the only downfall is that UPS and numerous other delivery services have used the age-old “delivery whenever and wherever” over any landscape idea before.

To exaggerate the idea of the campaign and wish to bring more innovation they use landscapes such as Antarctic, Islands, and Moutain Ranges to point out that they will deliver “whatever it takes.”

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Ikea has made a hilarious effort to promote its’ “Sultan Mattress” by focusing on the benefits of getting quality rest. The colors in the ads are a little bland but the comedy is superb.

The various ads could have used other subtle changes to make this campaign completely rock. As you can see, the backgrounds and colors remain very consistent while only the people and facial expressions change from one ad to the next.

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It’s been noted that Lou Dobbs‘ climb through the cable news ratings has taken a page from the Fox News playbook — that is, a crusading arrogance under the guise of “fair and balanced.” So it’s not terribly surprising that CNN would cough up some loose ad change to tout Dobbs to part of Fox News’ Post-reading audience. Still, it’s an unusual alliance between News Corp. and CNN.

Can someone tell me what Stephen King weird developed this commercial for Zune MP3 Players? After watching this video goblin give birth to a baby zit ball I wanted to go to the bathroom and check my face for pot marks and craters.

What were the creators of Star Wars thinking when they came up with the C-3PO Underoos - Underwear that’s fun to wear for girls!

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