These are some of the pictures from one day training in Holcim Serbia. on “Personal Selling Skills”. Great company, great people.

I just came back from Montenegro. Two weeks of sales and customer service improvement program for Montenegro Stars Hotel Group. The program consisted of 8 full days training and 3 days of consulting. It was hard work, but we had so much fun too.

I had such a wonderful time. Weather was perfect, sea water conditions were perfect, pool had water that didn’t smell of chlorine, all in all, hotel Splendid was magnificent. But most important of all, the people were great.

This is the most memorable training experience I had ever had. Bright young, energetic, positive, people. I can only say, Montenegro will have great future when this young people come to their age.

Coffee breaks were fun too

For the weekend we went to KOTOR

This was the view from my hotel room

What can I say? … I LOVE MY JOB

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Today there was a founding session of Serbian management consultants association. I was voted member of the board of directors (5 members). Today was a festive day, but what lies ahead is hard work to make consulting and consultants accepted and respected in Serbian business environment.

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Few days ago I was able to try a new mobile gadget, Huawei Telenor mobile internet 3G modem. What can I say? Finally its worthy to have a laptop. Before it was dial-up, than it was wireless, now it is 3G freedom. No more looking for hot spots or cafes’ that offer free internet. And it works, all 3 Mbps of it, and remotely (and affordable). Finally we can fulfill our old dreams of working on the beach (or in the park, or in the woods, or wherever we like).

Last Saturday I enjoyed so much. In Novi Sad for Crest Home company we did one day interactive training “Retail Selling Skills”. Let these pictures tell the story about great people I met at Crest Home.

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Great news!!! On the fourth regional conference on contextual advertising and search engine marketing in Zagreb “Web::Strategija 4 - Izgubljeni u kontekstu” McCann Erickson Public Relations agency from Belgrade wan Golden Award “Web Strategije za izvođače web marketing kampanja“ (web strategies for marketing campaign). The on-line PR campaign “Allen Carr’s Easyway To Stop Smoking Widget“  was created and implemented by my dear friend Miloje Sekulic e-PR director of McCann Erickson PR agency. The main innovation was the introduction of desktop Widget and the viral effect it created. I am so glad about Miloje.

Last week we went to Kragujevac and in their Business Startup Center held one day “Innovation and Internet Business” training. Wonderful audience! Miloje and I have had a great time.

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The most prestigious daily newspaper in Serbia “Politika” in its special edition (insert) on branding has published my article. The whole insert is about BrandFair conference that is currently taking place at Belgrade Fair. The title of the article is “Poverenje u najbolje” or “Confidence in the best”. They have even signed it “Miodrag Kostic Poslovnaznanja.com”. Also there is one more of my articles on laws of branding on the second page. You can click on the picture below to see the higher resolution. (Note: its written in Cyrillic alphabet)

Today I have interviewed a true marketing legend. Scott Bedbury, marketing genius who has personally shaped branding history with legendary concept JUST DO IT for Nike. As with other really great people, I have enjoyed it so much. Like my interviews with Isac Adizes and Jonnas Ridderstrale, this was exceptional experience. Words that I can use to describe him are simplicity, clarity, deep insight, powerful effect on people.

Tomorrow at BrandConference I am going to attend his one day seminar. I can not wait to see him in action.

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Did I have a great time working at A2B Express Delivery company? Just look at these photos.

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Last weekend together with Miloje Sekulic I went to Prijepolje. In cooperation with ATHAUS Consulting Agemncy we held two day “Sales Communication and Internet Business Training” for “Young people office in Prijepolje”

In short, we have enjoyed our work so much. Young, bright people who were interested in what we were doing was greatest reward for our efforts. I am looking forward to coming back to Prijepolje soon.

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I was in ATB Sever Subotica company this week. It was for many years past, and it still is one of the major electric motor industries in Serbia. We did Customer Service training for their sales support department. We had lots of interactive workshops, role-plays and three full days of training for two shifts (morning and afternoon) went flying by. I just didn’t feel the time passing. Also Subotica is a beautiful, specially at this time of the year when they were decorating it for Christmas, so I had good time all along. I have to say thanks to my hosts in ATB Sever for their hospitality, and opportunity to work with their wonderful people.

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Interesting event few days ago in O3ONE gallery in Belgrade, I must write about. Carlsberg bear company has introduced new corporate web site www.carlsbergsrbija.rs on press conference for local media. It was good friends and good bear. As was to be expected, the web site is excellent, highly professional with lots of interesting content on bear and bear drinking. It’s a good sign for Serbian internet that global corporations like Carlsberg are localizing their corporate websites to suit domestic bear drinkers needs and offer top quality web content.

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I had a great teaching experience last Sunday at in-house training in Filly Farm pharmacies. There were about 50 participants from their pharmacies around Serbia. We had “Retail sales and Customer service training”. They were so wonderful so I was able to get lots of interaction even with such a large group. My compliments to their human resources selection. No wonder they have such a great customer service. I love my job, I worked and at the same time enjoyed myself.

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There was a wonderful event taking place on 14.10.2008 in Opera&Teatru „Madlenianum“, in Zemun, the conference “Funky Busine$$ – Modern business philosophy for increasing the profit” – with Dr Jonas Ridderstrale.

For those who hasn’t read “Funky Business”, it is one of the most popular business books of all times. The book is currently ranked on 16th place of the most popular business books of all times, and it is a must reed book.

Dr Jonas Ridderstrale was magnificent. No wonder he wan the 9th place in the Thinkers 50 publication for most influential management gurus in the world and has being proclaimed as No.1 Management Thinker in Europe. I even had the opportunity to interview him for Profit magazine. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life.

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At www.funkybusinessubeogradu.com I read the statement about the organizer, and wanted to visit there web site www.qualitypharm.rs This is what I found: Untitled document, QualityPharm web site under construction:

The only information about them I was able to find on the web was:

 QualityPharm je prva i jedina specijalizovana kompanija fokusirana na alternativne i inovativne marketinške strategije i biznis konsalting u farmaciji.

 Or in English: QualityPharm is the first and only specialised company focused on alternative and innovative marketing strategies and business consulting in pharmacy.

My questions are:

1. Should internet marketing be considered as one of the alternative and innovative marketing strategies?
2. How do they consult their clients on communication strategy when they do not have a web site.
3. Are they intuiting so hard for their customers that they did not have time to build their corporate web site?
4. Did they focused on pharmacy because they know much about the Serbian pharmaceutical industry, or because its where most of the easy money in marketing is?

I have to admit QualityPharm has done great service to Serbian business community by bringing Dr Jonas Ridderstrale as speaker at “FUNKY BUSINE$$ – Modern business philosophy for increasing the profit” , but I have to write this because I am sick and tired about marketing GURUs who offer alternative and innovative marketing strategies and do not have their own corporate web site.

It’s the same as when I wrote, a while ago, about Hochegger Srbija PR agency, who at a time. claimed would become leaders of our communication industry in Serbia and did not have a web site.

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Last few weeks I was enjoying myself doing my old profession – web consulting. We had wonderful opportunity to create and implement On-line campaign for Edgios search project soft-lounch (alfa testing) in Serbia. This is a very serious venture capital story with over 1 million US$ initial investment. Here is the screen shot of how it looks like. You can find it on: http://www.edgios.com/

Edgios is a large-scale distributed search ‘cloud’ that offers higher-quality search results. Users participate in the cloud by downloading the Edgios personal search software, and connecting that software to the net. Edgios does not use a centralized search index of the Web, located in a massive data center, fed by an algorithmic ‘crawler’. Instead, it has an index that’s built by users, for users, and it employs a fully distributed index residing in memory and on the disks of computers that are part of the search cloud.

The reason Serbia was chosen for soft-launch campaign is because Edgios has been founded by Dr. Borislav Agapiev, who grew up in Belgrade before moving to the US in 1985. Also the technology that makes Edgios possible has been developed entirely in Serbia, by a team of extremely talented and bright young developers.

 You can download it here, please enjoy it!

As freelance journalist of Profit Magazine I have attended the opening of “HoReCa EXPO International Hotel and Hospitality Exhibition”. Excellent event. Well organized, lots of interesting things to see. Among many exciting events, Café and Bar magazine is organizing competition in Flairtending, the barmen technique of exhibition and acrobatics with bottles and other bar equipment.

(Mr. Goran Petkovic, State Secretary for Tourism, opening the fair)

I would like to announce the concert of Kosovo Choir from North America in Belgrade on August 24 th, 2008 in Belgrade Ethnographic Museum at 8 pm. One of the choir singers is my brother in law Miroljub Petrovic from Canada. I have met some of the choir members and their conductor Rick Zivic, and they are just wonderful people. They sing Serbian spiritual music (in Serbian language) and amazingly most of them were born and raised in USA (Serbian is not their native tong). I am sure we will all have great time listening and watching their performance on August 24 th.

Few weeks ago as we have been developing our Sales Academy project, I have noticed a need for specific service on Serbian business education and consulting market. Most of the companies do not have a plan on how to organize sales and systematically approach the problem of selling. So we have compiled the list of 50 questions (each one with dozen or more sub-questions). We made it into template form for the training “Create your sales plan“, and we also do it as a consulting project.

We go to the client and together with their sales force find answers to specific questions. First we gather all the necessary information on company, sales, organization of sales, selling process, sales relations, sales information, sales management, marketing. Than we start building the sales action plan: how to prepare for sales, how to realize selling process, and how to evaluate sales results.

Anyway, it is a great tool for sales managers to look at their sales organization, see where it is now, decide where they want to go, and how will they get there. Here is the list of these questions. Find the right answers and enjoy profitable sales and happy and loyal customers.

1. What is your business about?
2. What is your business environment?
3. What is your competitive environment?
4. What are the main business goals of your company?
5. What is the business strategy of your company?
6. What are the main sales goals of your company?
7. What is the sales strategy of your company?
8. What are the individual (measurable) sales goals of your company?
9. What are the timetables (deadlines) to accomplish sales goals?
10. How is your sales force organized (sales organization)?
11. What are your current sales activities?
12. What are your sales results (sales parameters)?
13. What are the phases of your selling process?
14. What are the steps of your selling process?
15. What are personal selling skills and experience of your sales force?
16. How are relationships with other company departments?
17. Who are your stakeholders (who will cry if you die)?
18. Who are your strategic partners and strategic alliances?
19. How do you gather sales information (intelligence gathering)?
20. What are the information on your clients?
21. What are the information on your market?
22. What are the information on your competition?
23. What are the information on your industry?
24. What are the information on your products/services?
25. How do you manage relations with your potential clients?
26. How do you manage relations with your existing clients?
27. How do you perform and manage customer service?
28. How do you measure-record your sales results?
29. What is your sales reporting (recording) system?
30. What is the SWOT analyses for your company’s sales?
31. What is the SWOT analyses for your products/services?
32. What is the marketing strategy of your company?
33. How would you fulfill your sales goals (essence of your sales plan)?
34. How would you organize your sales force (sales organization)?
35. How would you measure and control fulfillment of your sales goals?
36. How would you carry out your sales support actions?
37. How would you establish strategic partnerships and alliances?
38. How would you gather sales information?
39. How would you carry out strategy and tactics of gaining new clients?
40. How would you create communication channels to new customers?
41. How would you carry out strategy and tactics of CRM?
42. What would be the steps of your selling process?
43. How would you create loyalty programs for your clients?
44. How would you plan and create your sales budget?
45. What would be your sales action plans (timetable)?
46. What are the actions and timetable to create sales department?
47. What are the actions and timetable to maintain sales department?
48. How would you measure-record your sales results?
49. Who would control (and how) you control sales action execution?
50. How would you perform evaluation of your sales plan execution?

50 questions + 50 answers = better sales + more profit