#AskPeshev 164: Productive Conversations

What are your most productive business-related conversations this past week? What percent of your time is spent in these conversations or in seeking out opportunities for fruitful business talks?Leaders and managers are estimated to spend 60%-80% of their time in some type of conversation with others. Among these conversations, I’d say the most fruitful ones are those that:

• landed deals

• turned conflicts into resolutions

• brought people together

• built connections

If you lack any of these, it’s time to re-evaluate how you run your business talks or perhaps, spend more time in productive conversations. Speaking of which, I had a very productive interview with The Current on preparing for the holiday traffic spikes. Check it out along with the other featured articles this week! 🚀Mario

 Business Strategy  

CFO: Putting Value at the Center of Your Strategic Plan

How far would you get driving your car, but by looking only in the rear-view mirror? That’s what managing a business without a strategic plan amounts to. As a CFO of a midsize company, it’s easy to put planning aside while you confront everyday issues and challenges. Yet when it comes to moving forward in the right direction, a solid strategy is as vital to your business as a clear windshield and reliable GPS are behind the wheel.Read more… Management MIT Sloan Management Review: Five Ways Managers Can Help Prevent Quiet QuittingBy now, you’re likely acquainted with the term quiet quitting. Informally defined in a 17-second TikTok video by user Zaid Khan, quiet quitting refers to restricting efforts at work and not going above and beyond one’s job duties. The video quickly launched the term into the business zeitgeist — where it’s found surprising staying power.Read more… Recruitment HBR: Competing in the New Talent MarketMany business leaders are asking when the workplace will get back to normal. If by normal, they mean “2019,” the short answer is “never.” And that might be a good thing. Blame, or credit, Covid-19. The pandemic accelerated three workplace trends that were already under way: the search for meaning, the desire for flexibility, and the pace of technological transformation, which has enabled hybrid and virtual work but also is fundamentally changing jobs and the skills required.Read more… Marketing Forbes: Don’t Pull The Plug: Shifting Marketing Approaches In An Economic DownturnRethinking marketing, sales and advertising strategies to address today’s realities is key for long-term success. Marketing during an economic downturn—or dare I say, recession—comes with unique challenges, not the least of which is many clients’ knee-jerk reactions to put all marketing on hold and pause advertising. Yikes!Read more… Sales Entrepreneur: 3 Reasons to Double Down on B2B Lead Generation (Instead of Winding Down) in Q4Q4 has just begun, and the pressure is on. You have just under three months left to hit your sales targets to end the year with a bang. But there's just one problem: Businesses are starting to reach the end of their budgets. They're tightening up their spending, making them harder to convert.Read more… Featured Story of the Week What Are the Most Productive Business Talks?Excluding personal topics around common interests (which is actually the case in most real-world conversations), business talk often revolves around specific pain points or new opportunities that are lesser known. In terms of problems, there are dozens of common business pain points that tend to be evergreen – matters around management, recruitment, marketing, sales, strategy, legal, and accounting.Read more…The Current: Site Down Means No Sales. Get Prepared for Holiday Traffic SpikesThe holidays are peak season in commerce, and the shopping season is only getting longer. The Black Friday kickoff extended to Cyber Monday, which in turn became a kickoff to Cyber Week. This year, Walmart and Target have already announced plans to move Black Friday deals up to the beginning of November. A month before that, those retailers joined Amazon in holding early holiday kickoff events. This brings a duality: Brands and retailers will be mounting more sustained campaigns. At the same time, they could be seeing more spikes in traffic.Read more…