Calling all sales heads - Happy New Year, it's 2017! (It's not yet late to say this now.)

You and your team might have quite a hangover from last year, but now you have to line up all the projects you have for this year. Then you will look at your current sales strategy, and think to yourself, "It's still effective, right?" To determine that your strategy fits for 2017, here are a few questions to ponder:

• Do you earn? Has your company's revenue increased?
• What do your staff feel? Have you asked your sales staff to take on the customer's shoes even for a moment to see if they will be pleased with the plan?
• How's your competitor doing? Take a look at your competitors and check if they had a different move that can help you adjust your strategy.
• Take a look at your surroundings. Trends differ from time to time, and chances are, what people like now may not be the same as before.

By taking these questions into mind, you can ask yourself if the sales strategy you have is still fit for 2017. If not, then we have something special just for you.

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The Sales Leadership Masterclass is now open to accept future sales leaders aiming to exceed their targets this 2017! Led by its resource speaker, International Sales Expert and Author Tom Abbott, this Masterclass is the top sales seminar you need to see!


The Sales Leadership Masterclass will be held on Friday, March 31, 2017 at the Tower Club Makati. Reserve your seats by calling Ex-Link Events at (02) 633-0153 or 643-3887. You can also contact them by texting 0920-924-2532 or 0920-981-4376; or through email at info@exlinkevents.com.

We are receiving a lot of emails and phone calls inviting us to bid or have a meeting with different companies that wanted to use events as their marketing and communication platform to achieve their objectives this year.

Now before anything else, why do companies need an event management company to handle their event requirements?

Let me show you why.

1. A Group Focus on Your Event

Most companies don’t have an in-house staff focus on handling the event requirements of the brands. This means that it is an additional burden to staff that is already juggling other critical tasks. In this scenario, the quality of the event may suffer, and the staff’s other roles and responsibilities also will be affected.

When you hire a professional event management company, you are creating a group that will focus on the success of your event.

Besides this, they are experts whose main purpose is to manage events – the reason for their existence.

2. Cost Effectiveness

The event manager most of the time may give you savings in a lot of the requirements of the event.

The simple reason is that they have a vast network of supplier partners that they have an existing relationship.

Event Managers command these suppliers to give them discounts without sacrificing the quality.

A lot of case studies have been documented about companies deciding to do their event requirement on their own, and ending up paying higher because they have no bargaining power with suppliers.

3. Quality of Actual Event

Most of the times, hiring an event management professional ensures the high quality of your actual event.

The reasons being they are focusing on this craft, they have a vast experience on event executions, it is their passion.

Compared to in-house staff that only handles the event because he or she has no choice, and even consider the assignment an additional burden, awarding your event to an event manager is a wise decision and healthy to your brand events.

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In Summary, I hope that you are now convinced on the merits of hiring an event management company. I guarantee you that this doing this will empower you to do more, and maximize your company and staff strengths.

Hiring an event management company is the best option to allow you to focus on what matters most, and that is engaging with your invited and potential clients.

According to reports, the Philippine economy is said to grow by 8% this year. Know how this will happen - and see President Rodrigo Duterte - at The Manila Times' 5th Business Forum this February 10, 2017 at the Marco Polo Hotel in Davao City.

Aside from President Duterte as the keynote speaker, Secretary of Finance Mr. Carlos Rodriguez and World Bank Lead Economist & Program Leader Ms. Brigit Hansl are confirmed for the said event.

Learn "The Philippine Economic Outlook for Peace Toward Sustainable Prosperity" at The Manila Times' 5th Business Forum. Reserve your seats by calling ExLink at (02) 633-0153 or 643-3887; SMS 0920-924-2532 or 0920-981-4376 or email info@exlinkevents.com now.

The Sales Leadership Masterclass is now open to accept future sales leaders aiming to exceed their targets this 2017! Led by its resource speaker, International Sales Expert and Author Tom Abbott, this Masterclass is the top sales seminar you need to see!

What makes this Masterclass the best one for your team this year?

• Experience: Our resource speaker has 15 years experience with global market leaders like SingTel, Tissot, Fuji Xerox, Julius Baer, and more
• Hardcore: As a sales representative of the Canadian Scholarship Trust Plan had a closing ratio of 100% with zero policy cancellations,
• Pro salesman and speaker: He is a member of the Association of Professional Speakers Singapore, Canadian Professional Sales Association and Marketing Institute of Singapore, 
• Inspiration: He serves as an inspiration for sales pros due to his curiosity in making things better, and
• Committed: He is passionately committed to evolving the sales, sales leadership and social selling process of organizations in Singapore, Asia-Pacific and worldwide

The Sales Leadership Masterclass will be held on Friday, March 31, 2017 at the Tower Club Makati.

Reserve your seats by calling Ex-Link Events at (02) 633-0153 or 643-3887. You can also contact them by texting 0920-924-2532 or 0920-981-4376; or through email at info@exlinkevents.com.

Before the holiday season has struck, Ex-Link Events celebrated its 15th year in the events industry through the OFW & SME Business Christmas Expo held at the Megatrade Hall 2 of SM Megamall last December 21 to 23, 2016.

Among the activities held at the hall for three straight days are the musical performances by the Center for Pop Music, the Psalm of David Harmonic Orchestra, Children's Joy Foundation and the Kawayan7 Modern Bamboo Band; the Business Plan Competition Finals and the Student Entrepreneur Exhibit of Junior Achievement of the Philippines, and the inspiring talks done by successful OFWs-turned-Entrepreneurs during the "OFW Ako: Paano maging Happy and Rich for Good?" session.



Guest speakers Mr. Roderick "Spud" Eduarte of BRIDZ of Genius Brain Integration Singapore, Mr. Von Ryan Reyes of King's Care Laundry and Ms. Grace "Gracia Amor" Hizon of Diary ni Gracia share their heartfelt talks on business and success for OFWs, and were appreciated by the attendees.


Alongside the activities, various brands showcased their products and services throughout the Expo.


Ex-Link Events gives its thanks to its supporters Department of Trade and Industry (especially to Assistant Secretary for Regional Operation Ms. Ameenah Fajardo for gracing the event's opening), the Junior Achievement of the Philippines, the Center for Pop Music Philippines, the Rotary Community Corps, the Congressional Spouses Foundation, the Rotary Club of Mutya ng Pasig and the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration.


Special thanks as well to our media partners Sun.Star Cebu, Malaya Business Insight, BusinessMirror, The Manila Times, Star Music, What's Happening, Diary ni Gracia, PSST.ph, Wazzup Pilipinas, YuneOh.com, Pisig Ad Network, and InfoTxt.

You're an aspiring salesman, and the first task your interviewer told you to do is to sell a pencil/pen. You take a look at the one interviewing you, and you take a look at the object. What will you do?

Last time, we dug deeper from a Quora question - let's do it again with this question-and-answer:

Read John Kaufman's answer to What are some of the best responses to "Sell me this pen/pencil" in a job interview? on Quora

If you noticed, the "pen" isn't just a pen - it could be a stapler, a scissor, so on and so forth - but what mattered in the answer posted is that good salesmen know what they're selling, but asks their customers first on their needs.

Filipinos are much more shy nowadays that they'll go online to check the reviews and how-tos before going to the place itself and ask the thing directly. But, in some cases, their research might have its faults and they end up with the wrong product still. This is the bright time for salespeople to explain the product well.

Considering the lesson in the answer, let's get back to the question. How will you sell a pen to a potential customer? If you have any other ideas aside from the answer posted above, let us know in the comments section.

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The Sales Leadership Masterclass is now open to accept future sales leaders aiming to exceed their targets this 2017! Led by its resource speaker, International Sales Expert and Author Tom Abbott, this Masterclass is the top sales seminar you need to see!


The Sales Leadership Masterclass will be held on Friday, March 31, 2017 at the Tower Club Makati. Reserve your seats by calling Ex-Link Events at (02) 633-0153 or 643-3887. You can also contact them by texting 0920-924-2532 or 0920-981-4376; or through email at info@exlinkevents.com.

...and not the other way around - especially in elevator pitches.

We stumbled upon this question on Quora, where someone asks the best way to shut down a sales call quick.

Read Craig McClarren's answer to What is the best way to quickly end a sales call? "I'm not interested, but thank you," rarely works, and I'd prefer not to be rude if possible. on Quora

The one who answered the question ended up getting annoyed, and resorted to entertaining himself by entertaining the telemarketer and not the other way around.

For the telemarketer, we understand that it's hard to haggle with people who, chances are, shut themselves up whenever there's an offer. For the customer, it's bothersome most of the time.

We can apply the same context to the elevator pitch, where you get to introduce your product or service to them in a short span of time. You'll know from their faces or emotions that they're not interested.

One of the things that can attract their attention is to actually entertain them, as plain words are not enough. Here are the usual tips in entertaining the potential customer:

• Show them something. Flyers, are effective: It saves time to explain things, it contains the things the people need to know, and they can easily share it.
• Try a different approach. "It's not what you say, it's how you say it." This phrase has been said and done in marketing, customer experience, so on and so forth. Your idea might be great, but it can be better with a different approach. 
• Generate a happy vibe. Before you get in touch with your potential contact, make sure that you have a positive vibe running within you - so much that it can be passed to your contact, which might increase the possibility of them getting back to you.

With the right tools and a positive attitude, you are now ready to entertain your customers. Just so you know, in case you persist to those specific targets and they just won't give back, it's time to look for another set - you don't need to keep looking at the usual doors when there's a million of them.

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The Sales Leadership Masterclass is now open to accept future sales leaders aiming to exceed their targets this 2017! Led by its resource speaker, International Sales Expert and Author Tom Abbott, this Masterclass is the top sales seminar you need to see!


The Sales Leadership Masterclass will be held on Friday, March 31, 2017 at the Tower Club Makati. Reserve your seats by calling Ex-Link Events at (02) 633-0153 or 643-3887. You can also contact them by texting 0920-924-2532 or 0920-981-4376; or through email at info@exlinkevents.com.