deiricmccann.comDeiric McCann – Home | Deiric McCann

-- ABOUT SPEAKING MY BOOKS IN THE PRESS HOME LEAD OTHERS LEAD YOURSELF LEAD SALES BLOG Select Page “Deiric has made a bottom-line impact on me and my business in two different areas. The first is via his considerable expertise in sales, as a very gifted, engaging and irreverently funny expert presenter at our annual Profiles International conference. The second is as the co-author of ‘Leadership Charisma’, a very practical, thoroughly researched and well-written ‘how-to’ book that every person who wants to become a more effective leader should read – and heed. Deiric McCann has my strongest professional endorsement” Russ Minary, Brand & Talent Management Thought Leader Deiric McCann I joined Profiles International in 1998, initially as National Director for Great Britain & Ireland, and since 2004, as Executive Vice President with responsibility primarily for development of Profiles’ European and SE Asian operations. I directly support our partners (trainers, coaches and consultants) in growing their businesses – especially through helping their clients to develop more effective leaders. I have written 4 books: Winning Business Proposals (3 editions since 1994), The Customer Continuum & The Business Bathroom Bible. I also co-authored 40 Strategies for Winning Business and Leadership Charisma (2011). Over the last 20 years I’ve also had more than 1,000 articles published worldwide. In 2012 I completed an intensive post-grad Diploma in Business & Executive Coaching with Smurfit Business School (UCD), graduating with ‘distinction’, and formalizing my years of ‘on the job’ coaching experience. My real passion is speaking – there’s nothing I love more than speaking to large groups on subjects I feel passionate about – e.g. Leadership Charisma, Mindful Leadership, and Building Resilient Leaders. Latest Articles from the Blog Creating Your Own Business Proposal Templates Writing Business Proposals Business proposal templates are really pretty straightforward to construct. Before we look at that in detail let me ask: have you arrived at this page without reading the module on proposal design? If so, then I’d strongly suggest you review that module of the FREE Business Proposal Course – this page refers to some concepts and points raised in that module, and the ideas discussed here will make more sense having covered that module. Once you have settled upon suitable styles for each of the key design elements in your business proposal you are in a position to create your own proposal template should you wish to do so. If you do decide to create your own proposal template then there are three options at your disposal: From a Blank Document This is the most time consuming approach – you start with a totally new document and begin, one-by-one, to create and save all of the style elements for your business proposals. From an Existing DocumentIf you have business proposals with styles that you have found effective then you can create a proposal template from that document with a few simple clicks of your mouse. From an Existing TemplateMost word-processing programs come with a business template selection for different purposes – but most do not include a specific business proposal template.If you have a business template that simply needs a little update and adjustment to turn it into a proposal template then this is a very straightforward processFor example, you could take the copy of the template used to illustrate my Business Proposal Course, which I will shortly provide... read more KEEP MOVING FORWARD Lead Yourself Goals don’t always follow a straight line from creating to completion. What do you do if you’re pursuing a treasured goal and something outside of your control (like the economy, for example) knocks you so off-track that your goal seems suddenly unachievable? Last week I spoke on Leadership Charisma at the HR Summit & Expo in Dubai. While there I got to hear a talk by Adrian Gilpin, Chairman of the Institute of Human Development. If you ever get the opportunity to hear him speak don’t pass it up – he’s a first class speaker. He’s also author of “Unstoppable: The pathway to living an inspired life” – which I just bought and intend to review here in the next few weeks. When things go off the rails it’s not unusual to get so frozen by worry that your goals start to look impossible and you can no longer clearly see how you’re going to get from where you are now to where you need to be. Gilpin very accurately characterizes worrying as ‘negative goal setting’ – visualizing and focusing upon the very results you do not want to achieve. Do something – anything! At one stage he asked the audience to review how they approach solving crosswords puzzles. It turns out that we all follow pretty much the same approach. Typically we first identify the corner pieces and isolate them – creating a general frame for the finished work. Then we separate out all of the edge pieces and start to assemble those – completing the frame and creating the context for the remaining pieces. Then we start sorting the remaining... read more HOW GOOD IS YOUR SALES FORECAST? Lead Sales Selling In Tough Times – I Deals are stalled; business decisions slow in coming – your sales forecast looks a little shaky. We have all been afflicted to some extent by the knock-on effect of the recent economic slowdown on pending sales decisions. Your products and services are still as good as they ever were – or even better, right? You’re still doing all the right things you ever did to close business and yet it’s just not happening for you the way it did before the economy dipped. A famous definition of insanity describes it as “doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting a different result”. If you’re still trying to sell the same people the same propositions as you did in the good times then the economy may have made you a little temporarily crazy– let’s get sane together! I don’t know it all – but in this three-instalment series of posts I’m happy to share what I’m doing with my teams to get on top of this challenge. First, I suggest giving your sales funnel a makeover before investing any more sales time and energy – identify your best opportunties and then focus upon them, and them alone. STEP 1: CLEAN UP YOUR SALES FORECAST Take a hard look at all of the opportunities on your current sales forecast – be ready to be very critical in qualifying their likelihood of becoming real business. Categorise every opportunity under one of these three headings: 1. Business that can be won in the short/medium term if the right things are done These are the opportunities where there... read more CHARISMATIC LEADERS PERSONALIZE THEIR VISION Lead Others Charismatic leaders make others want to embrace their vision and adopt it as their own. It is this ability to create a truly shared vision that makes the charismatic leader so appealing to so many people – this is how charismatic leaders achieve the high levels of employee engagement that drive their superior results. In the last post we discussed how charismatic leaders do two things to make their visions appealing to the people who work for them and dramatically increase employee engagement: They make the work involved important and inspiring – they create a genuine sense of mission They answer the all important question: “What’s In It For Me?” (WIIFM) Halfway there We’ve already looked at how the charismatic vision is simply the corporate vision interpreted in such a way that for each member of your team there is the almost spiritual payoff coming from the feeling that one is working towards to something greater than themselves and their everyday concerns. But charismatic leaders also the more personal and practical payoff for their people that comes from answering the WIIFM question. As a charismatic leader you must customize the overall vision so that each and every member of your team sees specifically what making it come to...