I’ll admit it; the last couple of months I have been engrossed in Pinterest somewhat – Shhh don’t tell my family, they think I have been “working”. In reality I suppose I have been, working that is. Whenever I am introduced to new online concepts, I consider what it may mean to clients or how they can leverage it. Have you been invited to join Pinterest? Do you know why it might benefit your business?

As a blogger, I can say that I have two images pinned from my blog, and those two pins have spread quickly to make Pinterest the fourth largest “search engine” traffic to my blog. At the same time it’s important to consider why some bloggers, artists, photographers or business owners might be put off by Pinterest and possible copyright infringement. For me anyway, knowledge is power, and Pinterest may be a very viable source of increased website traffic.

Below I will explain the basics of what Pinterest is, and why your company may benefit. I will also explain how your company may be able to leverage Pinterest for a bigger bang by including it in your overall social media toolkit and give examples of a couple of companies that are using Pinterest well.

I have worked successfully from a home office in various sales roles in the past, and there are many benefits from working at home; however, there are also many dangers.

Sales managers and sales professionals need to be aware of potential pitfalls.

Avoid the following dangers and you will be able to create a highly productive home office environment.

Never Shutting Off The Work
One of the main problems with working from home for sales people is that you are technically always at work. It becomes very hard for your mind to separate your free time and your work time. This can result in an unbalanced life-style and addictive work behaviors. Some common negative habits that are formed consist of constantly checking emails, always taking calls even during non-working hours, and working well into the night.

Twenty-four hundred years ago, Aristotle described the three elements needed to move an audience--logos, pathos, and ethos--the intellectual appeal, the emotional appeal, and the speaker’s character and charismatic appeal. These classifications are just as applicable for today’s salespeople as they were back then. In today’s marketplace, where little difference exists between products, Aristotle would advise salespeople to employ not only logos, but more importantly pathos and ethos to persuade today’s customer to buy.