by Jesse Norman

The date of July 4, 1776, has other claims to fame, of course. But while Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Benjamin Franklin and their fellow revolutionaries were meeting in Philadelphia to publish the Declaration of Independence and launch a new nation, across the Atlantic a private gathering of even greater intellectual distinction was in progress.

David Hume was dying. Slipping away fast; so fast indeed that in February he told his great friend Adam Smith that he had "fallen five compleat stones". Hume had installed himself some years before in the New Town in Edinburgh, in a house big enough "to display my great Talent for Cookery, the Science to which I intend to addict the remaining Years of my Life". Now, knowing he was near his end, he had gathered Smith and a few other friends around him for one last dinner in company.

But although Hume's famous fleshy frame had gone, his sense of humour no less renowned had not. When Smith complained that evening at the cruelty of the world in taking him from them, Hume replied: "No, no. Here am I, who have written on all sorts of subjects calculated to excite hostility, moral, political, and religious, and yet I have no enemies; except, indeed, all the Whigs, all the Tories, and all the Christians."

With Thomas Hobbes, Hume has good claim to be considered the greatest philosopher ever to have written in English, while Smith is widely regarded as "the father of economics". But even these descriptions underplay the measure of their achievements, for Hume must also be counted one of the greatest of historians, and Smith with equal justice the father of sociology. John F Kennedy once remarked to a dinner of Nobel Prize winners that theirs was the most extraordinary collection of talent seen at the White House since Jefferson dined alone. But in intellectual terms even Jefferson is pretty thin gruel compared to the cornucopic abundance of Smith and Hume.

In many ways they were the original odd couple. Hume, the older man by 12 years, was worldly, open, witty, full of small talk, banter and piercing aperus, a lover of whist, a gourmand and a flirt. Smith by contrast was reserved, private, considered and often rather austere in his public manner, though he could unwind among friends. Despite, or perhaps because of, these personal differences the two men became firm friends, and their ideas the central intellectual engine of the Scottish Enlightenment.

In The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought, Dennis Rasmussen, an academic at Tufts University, tells the story of their friendship well. Fourteen nicely-judged chapters take the reader through the overlapping lives of the two men, including such incidents as Hume's notorious falling-out with Rousseau, through to the natural climax of their friendship at Hume's death, and Smith's own demise 14 years later.

At the same time, Rasmussen dexterously weaves in an account of the two men's ideas that is, on the whole, accurate, meticulous and wide ranging. The result is not a work of original scholarship for that, one should look to James Harris' recent life of Hume, or to Ian Simpson Ross' life of Smith 20-odd years ago but a short and lively book that sustains the interest not merely of the general reader but the specialist to the end. That is a considerable achievement.

As the title suggests, within the narrow confines of 18th-century Scotland, Hume and Smith lived rather different lives. Hume was a philosophical prodigy. His first book, A Treatise of Human Nature a masterpiece was written when he was in his mid-twenties, and published in three volumes in 1738-40. In a last autobiographical memoir, Hume remarked sardonically that the work "fell dead-born from the press". In fact, however, it was respectably received, especially given the youth and obscurity of its author, the astonishing intellectual ambition of its ideas, and their rich potential to give religious offence.

But the Treatise certainly did not discharge Hume's hopes for it, or for himself, and such was his self-confessed "yearning for literary fame" that over the next 30 years he recast and extended many of its leading ideas in other works of philosophy, built a considerable reputation as an essayist on political, economic and moral topics, attracted a vast amount of religious scandal, was lionised in the literary salons of France, and made a fortune with his bestselling History of England in six volumes. And as he did so, first Edinburgh and then Glasgow universities achieved the notable distinction of turning down one of the greatest thinkers of this or any age for an academic job.

Smith's life, by contrast, was the very pattern of academic uneventfulness. He went first to the University of Glasgow, then to Balliol College, Oxford which he much disliked for its indolence and Scotophobia then after a short interval back to Glasgow as professor. Later he toured France as tutor to the young Duke of Buccleuch, before finally taking a position as Commissioner of Customs. Over 40 years he published The Theory of Moral Sentiments (1759) and An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations (1776), and very little else.

Not that Smith was idle; far from it. He endlessly revised these books, and in his later years confessed to having "two other great works upon the anvil; the one is a sort of philosophical history of all the different branches of literature, of philosophy, poetry and eloquence; the other is a sort of theory and history of law and government". But neither work satisfied him, neither was completed as old age and the grind of the customs business bore in on him, and near his death he instructed his executors to burn them, and perhaps other works unknown, which they did. Miraculously, two fairly full sets of students' notes of Smith's lectures on jurisprudence have survived. But Smith was almost as close-handed in the volume of his published output as Hume was lavish.

The same is true of their private letters. For all their closeness as Rasmussen notes, they moved over the years from "Dear Sir" to "Dear Smith" and "My Dear Hume" to "My Dearest Friend" at the end, an epithet uniquely reserved for each other the two men never lived in the same city, and actually saw rather little of each other. In other circumstances one might expect that fact to be a spur to correspondence. Yet we have just 56 letters between them almost three-quarters of them by Hume and not much sign of many others lost.

It is a small and sometimes splendid correspondence, which ranges from gossip, political news and personal recommendations to brief moments of high philosophy. Among its gems is a wildly funny romp after the publication of The Theory of Moral Sentiments, in which Hume in London alternately deflects and teases Smith in Glasgow as to how his book has been received. But 56 letters in 25-odd years of acquaintance is a meagre basis from which to write any biography of a friendship, let alone an intellectual one. Especially since, with a couple of modest exceptions, there is no place at which Hume and Smith engage in anything that might with any real justice be described as an argument.

So instead one must turn to the two men's works themselves. Yet here too there is a problem, of a rather different kind. This is that, with the exception of his History of England, Hume had all but stopped writing and publishing by the time he first met Smith. Far more than any other thinker, Hume is Smith's imagined interlocutor; there are few pages of Smith in which one does not sense the shadow, if not the influence, of Hume; indeed, it would not be too much to call Smith, for all their numerous points of difference, a disciple of Hume. Thus the flow is heavily in one direction.

Take the two problems together, and it is hard to escape this conclusion: we cannot tell from the letters how far the friendship by itself shaped Smith's thought; and, at least as regards their published works, we can be pretty certain that Smith did not shape the thought of Hume.

Rasmussen's book is not well served by its subtitle, then, catchy though it is; and the problem is all the more evident because one looks in vain for any substantial discussion of the ways in which modern thought has in fact been shaped by Hume and Smith. There is something that could, with some shortcuts and elisions, be called "Hume-and-Smith", and that combined body of thought has had a profound influence on the way we think and act today. But this book barely addresses that influence, even in outline.

Let us briefly remind ourselves why this matters. At the heart of the two men's thought is a perhaps the great Enlightenment project. This is to set out what Hume describes in the introduction of his Treatise as a "science of man": a unified and general account la Newton of human life in all its major aspects, derived from a few basic propositions, covering not merely mathematics and what would now be termed the hard sciences, but philosophy, religion, political economy, jurisprudence and the arts, and able in principle to serve as the basis for every other branch of human knowledge. Crucially, this science of man was to be based on observation and experience not on natural law, divine inspiration or religious dogma.

In Hume's coolly sceptical hands the test of observation and experience led to a series of devastating critiques and empirical reconstructions, notably of the ideas of a transcendental human self or soul, of unobservable laws of causation and of divine justice. Smith is less purely philosophical, more positive and constructive, and more focused on the unintended results of human action: The Theory of Moral Sentiments argues that moral values are derived from human empathy working through interpersonal comparisons, The Wealth of Nations that markets, indeed commercial society, derive from the human instinct to truck and barter.

There are areas peculiar to each man, and real disagreements between them, notably over justice, in relation to which Hume emphasises utility and Smith injury. But their overall approach is the same: to deflate the claims of religion, if only by implication, and substitute for them general explanations based on recognisable human practices, emotions and habits. The result, a century before Darwin, is an evolutionary understanding of a vast range of moral, sociological, political and economic phenomena that is both recognisably modern and astonishingly powerful, marking every field it touches. Its full measure has yet to be taken.

Such ideas appeared to leave religion by the wayside, and it is not hard to see how they would excite the ire of the authorities. In fact Hume may have been more agnostic than atheist, but it made no difference at the time, and he was regularly denounced. The ever-circumspect Smith seemed to have escaped this fate, however, until "A single, and, as I thought, a very harmless sheet of paper, which I happened to write concerning the death of our late friend, Mr Hume, brought upon me 10 times more abuse than the very violent attack I had made upon the whole commercial system of Great Britain."

As Rasmussen shows, Hume had the last laugh on his opponents. He died a philosopher's death, cheerful and unperturbed to the last, and no one much begrudged him it, or the posthumous publication of his brilliantly subversive Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. But Smith's encomium of Hume, superbly written and full of pathos and paganism and Socratic overtones, brought the roof down on him. It was an act of love as well as of truth, perfectly befitting their friendship.

Prospect

The Infidel and the Professor: David Hume, Adam Smith, and the Friendship that Shaped Modern Thought, by Dennis Rasmussen is published by Princeton University Press. Jesse Norman is a British Conservative MP and the author of a biography of Edmund Burke (2013). He is writing a book about Adam Smith, to be published next year.

Prospect, distributed by the New York Times Syndicate

Link:
David Hume and Adam Smith, two men who refined the idea of the Enlightenment - The Australian Financial Review

KAHOKA, MO. It was the first full day of the Clark County Fair, and over at the concession stand Emily Reyes was reading the novel Ulysses, raising her head every few paragraphs to look out through the window.

Same as ever, she thought. The old oaks along the midway. Ron from the Lions Club with the ice cream tent. Marvis selling tickets in the shade of the grandstand, where the demolition derby was the biggest draw. Emilys younger brother Cyrus was going to be in it Cyrus, who, along with her parents and most of Clark County had voted for Donald Trump, a reality Emily was now preparing herself to face.

She was 22 and home from a liberal-arts college near Kansas City, where she had majored in English and cross-cultural studies, spent a semester in Germany, worked a summer with refugees in Greece, and met and married a Guatemalan man who would be arriving tomorrow. She kept reminding people that she was Emily Reyes and no longer Emily Phillips Yes, Ray-ez, she kept saying. It means kings in Spanish, so Im royalty now.

Her father liked to say that his daughter had attained peak enlightenment, a sarcastic jab that Emily knew pointed to a larger truth. Her worldview had changed since she left Kahoka. She had voted against Trump. She had become increasingly worried about the country since the election. And at a moment when the phrase cold civil war was being used to describe the nations seemingly irreconcilable differences, coming home was beginning to feel like crossing over to the other side.

Emily looked around the concession stand she would be running with her family for the next three days: a long counter where she had put her iPhone speaker next to the paper cups; a shelf where she had put her bag of Starbucks coffee next to the tubs of ketchup; a fan blowing air that smelled like cows and sugar.

All the way home, she had thought about how she was supposed to act in this place she loved but now felt so conflicted about. How was she going to talk to people when every conversation seemed to slip into arguments about the fate of America? How was she going to get along for three days at a county fair?

She put down the novel about a young Irish man searching for meaning on an ordinary day in Dublin and began making some jalapeo poppers. A white-haired farmer in denim overalls arrived at the window.

Small cup of coffee, he said.

Its Starbucks! Emily began, realizing as soon as the words came out that Starbucks was of course a symbol of the urban elite liberal, which was exactly what she did not want to seem to be. She poured him a large cup of coffee and slid it across the counter.

***

She had always been known here as Keith and Connies daughter, the fourth of five children, an introvert who grew up absorbing the conservative values of a place where patriotism was the guy who parachuted out of her dads Cessna with an American flag on national holidays. Kahoka, population 2,007, was a town in the rural northeastern corner of Missouri where almost every person was white, most were Republican and many were Trumps, an old Kahoka family name that has no relation to the president.

The Clark County Fair had been the main cultural ritual for 136 years. Every summer, it was the 4-H kids and the cows, the trailer-size rides, the open art show paintings of backyard flowers, the campers huddled around the crabgrass edges of the fairgrounds. At election time, the fair was also a venue for politics. Last year, a huge Trump banner hung inside the commercial building where the Clark County Republican sign usually was, and here and there, Make America Great Again hats replaced the usual John Deeres. Nearly 3 of every 4 voters in the county went for Trump. The fair was the living, breathing example of his rural Midwestern audience.

Emily had been going since she was a girl, and had always looked forward to the feeling of ease, the lull while the corn was rising, the unhurried conversations. But nothing felt easy to her since the election, especially conversations of the sort that she had learned could arise here.

She had tried talking to her parents during other visits home, telling them that a vote for Trump was a vote to deport your future son-in-law. She had tried with Cyrus, and their relationship had only suffered. She and her best friend Hannah had decided not to talk about Trump at all because of the strain the subject had put on their friendship. A sister-in-law had told Emily that she had become difficult to talk to lately, self-righteous and angry.

Now she had to figure out another way. She turned on some Bob Dylan at a low volume, opened Ulysses and settled into a folding chair, advancing 10 pages before Hannah arrived to help. Hannah Trump was her maiden name. Her uncle ran Trump Trucks. An aunt ran a bed-and-breakfast called Trump Haus. Her brother played football and was booed at an out-of-state game recently because of the name Trump on his jersey. Emily silently reminded herself not to mention Trump.

They began making biscuits and gravy, talking about an old high school classmate studying at the University of Missouri.

She was asking me to help her work on a project about diversity in small towns she wants to know about any racial targeting, Emily began.

You may not see my opinion Emily, but around here a college degree is not as needed, Hannah said.

Emily tried bringing up an English teacher they both had.

Remember we took that class from him, contemporary issues? And we had to pick an issue and talk about it? It was so good for us kids, Emily said.

Yeah, he said he was conservative but he was more liberal, Hannah said.

He made me love literature, Emily said.

Hannah slid some biscuits into the oven.

Two minutes, she said.

They talked about other classmates, one who was a lawyer in Arizona, another who was a hair stylist in Los Angeles, and then Hannah considered Emily.

Youre different, but probably not so different as you think, she said.

What do you mean? Emily said.

Youve always been different than everybody else. A lot of people who grew up here want to get out, but youre different in that you like coming home, said Hannah.

Emily decided not to spoil the moment by explaining how complicated home was to her now, how difficult it was to understand how Hannah could vote for a person who had demonized the Syrian refugees and immigrants that Emily now considered her friends, or how a liberal arts education really was worthwhile because it had taught her how complicated the world could be, or how all of this related to her growing concern about the country. She let the conversation wane.

We need some music, Emily said. What do you want to listen to Hannah?

Anything, Hannah said, so Emily turned on some country music, and when Hannah left to take care of her dog, she went back to Ulysses.

She was on page 246 when her husband Cristian arrived, a relief because he understood everything about this situation. He was 22 and a natural diplomat, an immigrant from Guatemala who grew up from the age of 8 in a mostly white corner of southwestern Missouri where Trump had gotten 72 percent of the vote. He wore a T-shirt with a huge American flag, and assured Emily he was in full PR mode.

He was chopping potatoes when Emilys brother Cyrus arrived to help with lunch and began talking about a friend of his who was in the military. The friend had told Cyrus he agreed with Trumps attempt to ban transgender people from the service. Cyrus was saying he agreed with Trump too.

It just costs too much, he said, dropping potatoes into hot oil.

Its not true, began Emily, feeling her anger rising, then deciding to stifle it. I mean, some people think that. But.

She retreated to the sink to wash dishes.

Im not allowed to serve in the military, Cristian said.

Why? said Cyrus.

Im not a citizen, Cristian said.

Cant you go to training camp? Cyrus pressed.

Emily sensed the conversation veering toward an argument and tried for a distraction.

The fries! she said.

Oh! Cyrus said, dumping the charred potatoes into a paper boat.

They look good, Cristian said.

Try one, Cyrus said, and Cristian did, and they moved on to talking about a sick cow Cyrus had to take care of, and the car he was driving in the demolition derby.

Hey Em, are you going to watch me in the demo? Cyrus said.

Id love to if I can get away, Emily said, calming down, and after Cyrus left, Cristian said to Emily, Its like how do you say anything without offending him? and Emily said, Yeah.

Maybe the best path forward was avoidance, Emily thought. Avoid Trump, avoid all related controversial subjects. Talk about biscuits and fries and the demolition derby and appreciate what Kahoka was, not what it wasnt.

She ate a tenderloin. She ate a fried peach pie. She and Cristian shared some Lions Club ice cream, which was mysteriously good, and after a while, she began to feel more relaxed.

They decided to drive to the grocery store for supplies, pulling out of the fairgrounds and under the wrought-iron arch that said Clark County Fair, 1883.

They turned onto a two-lane road and got stuck behind the only traffic, a man on a riding lawn mower. Emily looked out the window as they inched along. A cornfield. A decaying brick bowling alley. Trump Haus.

I forget, she said, referring to the slow pace of home.

Back at the stand, they unloaded the potatoes and buns and were talking about how fried tenderloin is sort of like the Spanish dish chicharron, when Emilys father arrived, red-faced and sweating from the farm, and began talking about how the expected rain hadnt fallen.

We were supposed to get three inches, Keith Phillips said, working on the french-fry slicer. We got about a quarter inch.

Soon, Hannah arrived and she and Keith began comparing rainfall totals, talking about the scourge of Japanese beetles this year and whether global warming was a factor, which Keith thought was overblown, like so many things, including all the anxiety over Trump, and for that matter all the talk about divisions in America.

Emily listened, spraying ant killer on the line crawling across the counter.

Its a self-fulfilling prophecy, Keith went on. Everybody agrees to be divided. Where if you just let the walls down, talk and just be open, you soon realize you have a whole lot more in common.

Emily wiped the counter, listening to her dad rather than engaging him, or arguing about global warming, or explaining how hard it was to understand why her father the person she considered one of the most generous people I know could vote for a man like Trump, whose character seemed his opposite.

She stayed quiet and took orders at the window. And when there was a nice long lull later in the evening, instead of bringing up any of those things, she started talking about soda.

Were a Pepsi family, Emily said.

Ive been seeing a lot of those glass bottles of Coke made in Mexico using real sugar, said Cristian.

When we were in Nicaragua, Keith said, referring to a mission trip he took there once, they had these coolers full of grape pop and it was so good.

***

And that was how conversations were going, not only at the concession stand but all over the Clark County Fair.

At a moment when Trump was making news almost every day, when the Trump campaign was under investigation for possible ties to Russia, when some Americans were still rooting for his agenda and others were convinced that his presidency amounted to a national crisis of historic dimensions no one seemed to be talking about Trump at all.

In the very heart of Trump country, no Make America Great Again hats were in sight. No Trump T-shirts. No Trump bumper stickers or placards.

When asked, people said the standard things Trump voters have been saying, that the president should stop tweeting so much, or Congress should give him a chance, or that he was always the lesser of two evils. Then they went back to talking about how good the corn was looking, or the car crash yesterday, or which garden photo won the open art show.

Sitting in the shade of the grandstand, Marvis Trump, a member of the fair board and owner of Trump Haus, had her theory. She had supported Trump, she said, and for a while, she even had a Trump sign up at her house because it irritated her liberal daughter-in-law. It was a lot of fun, she said, but sometime around Easter, she said, that feeling faded.

Probably the funs over now, she said.

The smoke from the election, its gone out of here, said Karl Hamner, another fair board member, idling in his golf cart for a moment before zipping down the midway.

And that was one way of understanding the 136th annual Clark County Fair, as a return to normal at a moment when nothing in America was normal. That was how Emily wanted to feel. She wanted the kind of ease she had with her family and friends before all of this, before college, before Germany, before meeting Syrian refugees in Greece, before everything became more complicated and almost everyone she knew and loved voted for Trump.

Hear from rural voters in Ashtabula County, Ohio, as they describe the most important issues to them. (McKenna Ewen,Whitney Leaming,Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)

You guys been down to the cattle show? she said to a man in jeans and boots.

Hot out there? she said to a man in a John Deere hat.

In the evening, Emilys dad arrived to help with the dinner rush, and when she asked him a question about the tenderloin batter, he said, Should someone reading Ulysses be asking that question? and Emily let it go.

When Hannah arrived and joked that the only reason Emily was reading Ulysses was because she wanted to say she had read Ulysses, Emily kept her mouth shut.

She put Ulysses on the shelf by the ketchup tubs. She ate a homemade doughnut. She stirred barbecue sauce into the pulled pork.

Soon, her mother arrived to help, and with all of them there chopping potatoes and frying pork, Keith said, We got the Phillipses here and we got the Trumps! What more do you need?

Emily thought maybe father was right. Maybe this was all that was needed after one of the most divisive elections in U.S. history the Phillipses, the Trumps, fried meat and the Clark County Fair, the same as ever.

Then Cristian arrived with the new Reyes wing of the family. His mother Ana and his older brother Oscar had driven two hours from their home in Iowa to visit, and now Emily rushed outside and hugged them.

Because Ana and Oscar spoke little English, and Emily spoke little Spanish, they mostly smiled and nodded in silence, and when the dinner rush was over, Emilys parents came outside to say hello.

Ana gave Emilys mother a gift shed brought for her, a glass serving dish.

Emilys mother gave Ana the cake shed made for her.

Oh thank you! Its beautiful, said Connie.

Oh, thank you, said Ana.

Thank you for coming, said Keith, and seeing all this, Emily felt relieved.

This was what she wanted, too, for Cristians family to feel welcome, especially here and especially now. And that was how the second day of the Clark County fair ended. In the heart of Trump country, it wasnt the Phillipses and the Trumps but the Phillipses and the Reyeses lingering a while in the grass.

***

On the third day of the fair, Cristian had to drive back to Kansas City, and said goodbye to Emilys mother at the concession stand.

Thanks for everything, he said.

No, thank you, Connie said, hugging him as Emily looked on.

It was the last big night of the fair, demolition derby night, and soon the midway was busy and people were lining up at the concession stand, where Emilys dad was working the fryer, and Emily and her mom were taking orders at the window.

Mom, can we cut the tenderloin in half? said Emily, who had decided by now that the best way to get along was to stick to fair talk and see what happened.

Yes we can, said Connie, who sometimes wished she understood her daughter better.

The truth was she was amazed by how much Emily seemed to know, and was also self-conscious when conversations turned to politics or global issues, because she had never finished college herself.

As Connie put it, Sometimes Im like, Oh, I didnt know that I didnt know that. And sometimes the impasse made her feel sad because as a mom, you want your kids to think youre cool, and then she moves four hours away and things change. But.

In the calm before the rush, Emily turned on some Louis Armstrong, and as Connie made a pulled pork sandwich she said to her daughter, You know that song Losing Cinderella?

I dont listen to country that much, Emily said.

Come on, you know it I heard it at church, and it made me cry, Connie said.

I dont know it, Emily said, turning back to the window.

The rest is here:
T H E H O M E C O M I N G - The Washington Post - Washington Post

This article was originally published on the Knowlarity blog.

Its tempting isnt it? The thought of closing a deal with an enterprise customer?

You earn substantial revenues, which might run into millions of dollars. You also add a well-known company to your customer list and this reputation makes it easier for you to close other deals.

However, selling to enterprises is extremely complex and far more difficult than winning deals with mid-sized companies or startups.

What Makes Enterprise Sales Tougher?

Here are just a few challenges of enterprise sales:

You dont just sell to one or two people. An enterprise deal will have several decision makers. Additionally there will be several people who you might never meet, but who will have considerable influence over the decision.

You will have to speak to a dozen or more people from different departments, attend several meetings and deliver multiple presentations.

And all this will take time. It usually takes at least 3 months to close an enterprise deal and might even take a year sometimes longer!

How can you successfully navigate all these complexities of the enterprise sale, and win the business?

Asking the Worlds Leading Authorities on Sales

To find out, we asked 47 of the worlds best known sales experts about their advice on how to win at enterprise selling.

Who are these experts?

Most of them are consultants, trainers and coaches who Fortune 500 companies go to, when they want to learn about sales.

Many of these experts have been recognized by Forbes, TopSalesWorld and Salesforce as the worlds leading authorities in sales.

Many are bestselling authors in the field of sales

Some of them are in executive roles in Training Industrys Top Sales Training Companies of 2017.

Others are CEOs and senior leaders of companies who have had years and even decades of experience in selling to enterprises.

What these Experts told Us

Our experts gave us several tips of the multiple aspects of enterprise sales

1. How to accurately identify the prospect companys needs, even if they dont explicitly tell you.

2. How to identify companies that would be most likely to buy

3. How to identify the right decision makers within a company to approach

4. How to build relationships with the decision makers

5. How to position your offering for maximum impact

6. How to know who you are competing with for the deal

7. How to do better than your competitors

8. How to objectively assess if the deal is going in your favor or not

9. How to manage a sales team focused on enterprise prospects

Here are our featured experts (in alphabetical order of last names)

Enterprise Sales Tips from 47 Top Sales Experts

Steve Andersen

Performance Methods business is primarily focused on helping our clients become more strategic to their most important customers, and so our work brings us into contact with many organizations that are trying to advance and close difficult sales with large, complex and demanding customers. When we take score and separate the winners from the losers, several factors repeatedly stand tall again and again. The most successful salespeople and account managers that we work with always seem to:

o Develop sponsors and supporters up and down the customers organization before the sale (these sponsors and supporters understand the sellers unique value and are willing to talk about it).

o Align their objectives with the objectives of the customer during the sale (which requires doing your homework, exploring possibilities and visioning success with the customer).

o Stick around after the sale to ensure that value is realized by the customer and that their relationship is expanding (activities that frequently point them in the direction of their next sale).

I recommend that contemporary salespeople consider taking this longer-term view when engaging and selling to large, complex organizations. Sure, it requires an investment of time, but the ROI will be a much higher win rate, and more repeat business within these accounts.

Bob Apollo

Selling to large enterprises is inherently more complex than selling to start-ups, scale-ups or the mid-market. There are more stakeholders involved (some of them may be invisible to you), and their procurement and approval processes often derail otherwise promising opportunities. In many cases, your most significant competition is not other vendors, but the convoluted and often opaque decision making process itself. This can be particularly challenging when you have limited sales resources.

Before investing large amounts of time and effort on such projects, you need to carefully assess not just whether you have a good solution fit, but also company fit whether the organisation has a track record of buying from vendors with similar profiles to your own. Its too easy to be seduced by the allure of winning a big brand without taking into account your realistic chances of actually doing business with them.

Naomi Assaraf

CMO and Co-Founder, CloudHQ

For larger enterprise deals, my advice would be 3 tips, in order:

1. Make sure theres a need and a budget.

2. Understand the process and track your time goals.

3. Dont waste time building relationships with anyone whos not the decision maker.

Irene Becker

Chief Success Officer, JustCoachIt

The most important tip I can offer is understanding the arena in which you will be playing and the players involved.

Enterprise buyers tend to be more risk adverse and will be looking for what is tried and true, for results that have been achieved with other enterprise clients. The average decision maker in enterprise-level organizations would want to minimize failure. Therefore, if you do not have a list of other enterprise customers, you would encounter difficulty in convincing them that you are the right fit for them.

While you might not be able to compete with other vendors in terms of an enterprise customer list, there are other things that you could do, to make a more convincing case:

o Stress how working with a smaller company like your yours can have benefits that a larger company cannot offer such as better service levels, faster deployment, access to your top management, etc.

o Rather than send a younger person to a sales meeting, send your senior leadership. That will make the decision makers feel important. Your senior leaders will also be able to have far more convincing sales conversations.

o Try to build rapport with the decision makers at a personal level. Relationships and credibility go hand in hand.

Butch Bellah

National Sales Manager, Bulls Eye Brands Inc.

"When selling to larger organizations there are a few things to remember in your sales process. For example, the wheels may turn a bit slower than in a smaller company and it may take a bit more time for each step of your sales process the prospect controls. For example, if you are waiting for the prospect to respond with data or information, it tends to take them longer to gather it and clear it for release. Understand it just takes a little more time and red tape to clear on your way to the sale. However, one thing Ive found is while you may think every one of your competitors is calling on the Big Fish or the major players in your category thats not always the case. Ive seen many times where competitors either were intimidated, didnt want to go through the extra work a large account required or simply thought there was no way they could earn the business. Its like the old story about the prettiest girl in school. Every guy thinks she has a date Friday nightand she sits home alone because no one called."

Steve Benson

Founder and CEO, Badger Maps

"Selling to enterprises involves sales cycles which are far longer than selling to small or mid-sized organizations. Deals usually take a minimum of three months to close and might take up to a year or more, depending on the nature of the industry and your product. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges of enterprise selling is to assess the performance of your sales activities. A far longer sales cycle makes it necessary for you to apply completely different benchmarks to determine how well you are doing.

These revised benchmarks are important for both the sales manager as well as the sales reps.

Sales reps would want to determine how well things are going. They would accordingly modify their approach, do more research to understand the company better, connect with other decision makers within the organization or adapt the offering to suit the organizations needs better.

Similarly, the sales manager would want to keep track of the status every single of of his/her opportunities. How is a particular opportunity progressing compared to other opportunities in the pipeline? If its not going so well, how can things be improved?

How are the sales reps performing? Do they need any coaching on how to address a specific situation? Do they need any help from other departments like the product team to understand how to position the offering?

Is a particular opportunity worth pursuing, or would it be a better idea to invest time and resources on others that look more promising. Having the right metrics and benchmarks in place make it far easier for you to answer these questions.

You companys sales leaders should determine what the ideal metrics and benchmarks should be, based on past experience, industry standards and inputs from the sales reps. You should also define the different stages of the sales cycle and make them easy to identify. These stages should ideally be reflected in your CRM and should not necessarily be the stages that you have defined for opportunities with smaller organizations.

You should also clearly define the indicators of progress from one stage to another. You can define an advancement in terms of events such as a meeting with a key decision maker, a demo, an integration test with their engineering team, etc.

Make sure that these definitions are adhered to when you determine your progress. Its extremely important to be honest with yourself about how the deal is progressing and not be overly optimistic because of a gut feeling. The more accurate your assessment is about the opportunity, the more easily you will be able to take a decision to invest more or less resources behind it, and therefore increase your overall conversion rates."

Kirsten Boileau

Head of Regional Engagement and Social Selling, SAP

"At SAP, we have discovered that social selling can play a vital role in winning enterprise accounts. Social selling has several aspects to it. Lets talk about how one of these aspects, social listening, can be used to get enterprise deals.

Successful salespeople know the importance of listening very carefully to what their buyers say. Social listening is the contemporary version of paying attention to your buyers so that you can understand them better. It can be used to gather invaluable insights about the current issues a particular company is facing and what sort of solutions they are looking for. Going through social media accounts of the key decision makers of a company will help you understand what matters to them professionally and personally. You can use this information to frame your pitches in the context of issues that are topmost on their mind and in sync with their beliefs and expectations.

Here are a couple of examples in which social listening can be used to gather valuable information, position your offering and build key relationships.

In one instance, our salespeople used social media to identify the decision makers in a target account. They found out that one of the key decision makers was unfavorably disposed towards SAP. However, they also discovered that this person was a huge sports fan. They knew that they would need to win him over to get the deal. They decided to include a lot of sports analogies in their sales presentations in order to build rapport and help him relate better with the offering. That certainly had the intended impact and they were able to win the account.

In another instance, Freddie Borsellino, one of our Success Factors account executives, used social selling to win a significantly large deal. He used LinkedIn Sales Navigator to build a relationship with the HR managers at a certain company. Through social listening, he was able to learn that they were looking for another solution in addition to what SAP was pitching to them, and that they were already evaluating vendors for that solution. That solution also happened to be something that SAP offers. Freddie took the opportunity and approached them with a proposition to evaluate the SAP solution as well. He was able to close the deal and increase the value of the combined deal size by 50%. Without social listening, he would not even have been aware that they were looking for a solution.

Social selling has played a key role in our enterprise selling at SAP. We have trained more than 7,500 sales and marketing professionals in social selling techniques across the company. We have developed a training program internally and have more than 200 trainers who are certified in the SAP approach to social sales. It works, and therefore, we continue to invest in it!"

Jeb Brooks

President & CEO, The Brooks Group

"To win in todays complex sales environment, your salespeople must shift their mindset and approach from tactical to strategic. Real success goes beyond making a one-time sale, to developing a long-term partnership and business strategy with your clients and prospects. Its about selling far beyond the initial order.

To become a strategic resource capable of driving change, salespeople need the skills to position themselves as experts. They need the in-depth knowledge of your customers organizations, buying process, industry, and the concerns of individual stakeholders within the organization.

Sure, buying committees are larger than ever before. Procurement is playing a more strategic role. And, because buyers can easily get the information they think they need on their own, its harder for salespeople to share relevant information with prospective customers.

Therefore, in order to drive change inside of your customers business, your salespeople must position themselves as expert consultants. Its about going beyond product knowledge to convincing prospects with industry news, research, and subject matter expertise. Its about demonstrating business acumen so clients trust the solutions they recommend. Its about providing thought leadership that stimulates conversation and improves credibility. Its about presenting value to effectively differentiate your solution from the competition.

Oh! And thats only the beginning!"

Bill Carmody

"Over the past two decades, the major shift in selling to large enterprise companies is the migration from 1 or 2 decision makers to as many as 8. On average, 5.4 people are involved in todays B2B purchase decisions according to CEB. The biggest mistake most sales people make is targeting only one of those decision makers. Today, you need to be at least moderately versed at social selling in order to identify all the key decision makers. LinkedIn is the obvious choice for the US market, and so I interviewed Mike Derezin, VP of LinkedIn Sales Solutions to see what tips he had to give. (Hey, why not go to the source, right?)

You can read the output of my interviews in the following two Inc articles on the subject: LinkedIn on the 3 Best Ways to Attract Your Ideal Customer and 4 Ways to Boost Your Social Selling Profile (Courtesy of LinkedIn). While there are several free ways to to leverage LinkedIn, the pros eventually break down and purchase a monthly subscription to Sales Navigator. Thats because LinkedIn does all the sleuthing for you. You put in the name of a company and title youre after and it will build you a list of the 5 to 8 likely decision makers you need to connect with.

Rather than sending a bulk generic invitation to all of them, you need to spend time on their profiles. Everything you need to know about how to sell to them is right there for the taking if you just take the time to do a little homework. Most people will not only share their career path, but also keen interests. As a bonus, head on over the Facebook and do some Google searches to see what else you can find out about each of your prospects. Youre looking for a common connection that will help you build an authentic connection. You dont start with the hard sale that turns everyone off. Instead, look for common ground such as youre both into coaching a particular sport or are part of the same group on LinkedIn. From there, look for ways to add value first. GIVE before you ever ask for something. I know you feel the sales pressure, but that smell of desperation will repel the very people youre trying to attract. Instead, look for authentic ways you can be helpful and just do it. Thats the best way to connect and being a real relationship. Large Enterprise sales take time. If you think youre going to close in 30 days, think again. The average sales cycle is between 3 to 6 months. This sales process is a marathon, not a sprint, so be prepared to invest heavily to land the business. If youre not prepared to do that, stick to smaller companies until you have enough income to support an investment in a larger enterprise."

Jim Cathcart

Remember there is no such thing as selling to an organization. ALL sales are to individuals within the enterprise. They must see you as a more appealing solution source than others. A big part of this will be in showing how much you understand them and what matters to them. Know their systems too, discover how they make decisions like this. Be easy to say Yes to.

The person who drives the decision to buy from you is your champion within the enterprise. Care for that person well, and keep in mind that career paths change and so does corporate leadership. If you are seen as only that persons solution source then you may lose the account if the decision leader changes. Connect well with as many people as you can, not just one clique or team.

Kevin F. Davis

"When responding to a lead of some kind, you dont know what step of the buying process your prospect is in. So an important question to ask is, What steps have you taken thus far in regards to making this decision? Are you the first supplier this prospect is talking to, or the third? It makes a huge difference.

If youre the first, you have a chance to influence the buying criteria in your favor. If youre the third, you know they are in the comparison stage. Acknowledge that, and ask about the earlier stages of their buying process. What problems do you have that you are trying to solve? And then, Other customer have also told us about an additional issue such as this. Your goal here is to identify at least one additional customer need that they dont currently recognize they have. Thats the best way to go from worst position to first position, late in the buying cycle."

Craig Elias

"I have three tips for selling into large enterprises:

1. Start locally by developing a relationship with the nearest regional or district manager and reduce the risk they take on buying something from you by selling something them small that compliments what they have instead of trying to replace something they already use.

2. Make sure that sale delivers real results and then upsell that person while you cross sell to other locations of the same division. Once you have multiple locations as customers work your way to a national contact for a national contract. Only then can you take your track record to sell to other divisions or other countries.

3. All of what I just said goes out the window if there is a change in the national decision maker. Now go straight to them AND do it as soon after they get the job as possible. Heres why:

According to a DiscoverOrg report, 80% of decision makers who are new in their job make decisions about the big changes/purchases they are going to make within their first 90 days. The same report also says that they spend $1 million+ on to new initiatives within this period.

Essentially, people who are newly appointed to a role and are dissatisfied with the status quo have the highest likelihood of making a purchase. Conversely, the data also shows that if you try to approach a decision maker beyond this window, your likelihood of closing the deal falls dramatically. Therefore, look for trigger events like new appointments and approach them as soon as possible."

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47 Top Sales Experts Share their Best Enterprise Selling Tips - HuffPost

FLORENCE -- Some University of North Alabama students in the College of Business' professional sales program are getting a firsthand look at what a sales job is like.

Students in the advanced sales class and others involved in marketing student organizations are selling spots on a discount card geared toward UNA students and employees.

The card -- called Mane Benefit -- is like a store discount card, but instead of giving discounts at one store, it opens up savings to multiple businesses.

The card is a key tag card and will be available to all UNA students and employees.

It is going to be the job of UNA sales students to find businesses and sell them on being part of the program. It is experiential learning that will give students the experience necessary to be a success when they enter the sales workforce, said Tim Butler, a UNA marketing professor and director of the Steele Center for Professional Selling.

"There are very few sales programs that offer the students real sales experience," Butler said. "This is that experience. It is a very different task than us generating a scenario in the sales lab."

The discount program is patterned after a program at Stetson University.

Students are being trained on the product now and have generated a list of businesses that are popular in the university community. Three packages will be offered to businesses to participate. Businesses that buy-in can pick the discount offered.

The lowest level -- $149 one time payment -- puts the business on the Mane Benefit website and provides signage that shows the business is part of the program. Higher levels include those same benefits, and social media and on-campus promotion of the business.

That revenue offsets the start-up costs for the program. Any profits will be used to promote student success through scholarships and professional conferences.

Butler said the nominal costs to businesses will be made up by increased revenue as students and UNA employees are motivated to patronize a business that is offering a discount. A local restaurant and hair salon have already signed on.

A database of 300 students has been created after just one event on campus. Students solicited contact information for those students so they will be the first to know when the Mane Benefit discount card is available.

Taylor Parker, a new sales major at UNA, said getting students to buy-in was simple for two reasons -- the discount card is free, and most students are eager for a price cut.

"Being a student myself, I don't have a lot of money," Parker said. "Students like discounts. When I went up to students, the first question they would ask is 'How much is it?' When I said it was free, they were like 'Sign me up.' Students are super eager about it."

The rest is here:
Sales class getting real-life training - Times Daily

When having a conversation about sales problems, I might remind you about the folly of only taking cash (depending on the type of business). I might also remind you to eliminate the tedious & annoying out of your buying process. There are cases where thats useful, but mostly it isnt. But not today. Today, Id like to remind you of the value of training your sales team.

Heard of Quora.com? Quora is a website where you can ask questions. Many times, youd never have access to those who answer: world-class subject matter experts. If you asked an airplane question, you might hear from an engineer who helped design it & three commercial pilots who fly it.

Why Quora? Because I found a Quora question pertinent to this discussion: What can businesses learn from the military? It reminds me of the not well informed Why dont non-profits run like a business? question, but this is a much better question.

A Marine named Jon Davis who deployed to Iraq & Afghanistan answered: Training. His answer breaks down like this: 1) A detailed process to track progress. 2) Regular job specific training. 3) An annual schedule to ensure standards are met. 4) Find & reward teachers. 5) Ignore the training them to leave myth. 6) Discipline.

If those six items are checkboxes can you check any of them?

Ive recently met several folks who work in the car business. The one I wrote about last week is the only one Ive encountered recently who knew the product well. I dont mean he could wake him in the middle of the night & tell me (blindfolded) how to change a timing belt. I mean he didnt have to run to the showroom to find out the horsepower for a vehicle whose manufacturer makes cars with only two engine choices across the entire product line.Yes, it happened.

This isnt a sales team failure. Its a management failure.Are you preparing your salespeople to succeed? Product knowledge isnt what sells cars. Rapport is. Guiding me to a special value (car thats been on the lot too long) because it pays more than a mini (minimum commission) doesnt build rapport.

A question about the value of rapport: Whats worth more to you, getting that special value off the lot, or creating a relationship that provokes me to return every x years to buy only from you for the rest of my vehicle buying days, while also encouraging my friends to do so? You decide.

Sometimes product knowledge is critical: Can you help me find a good red wine? The salesperson who knows less about your product than most prospects will struggle & reflect poorly on your business. You need someone who understands the problems your prospects want to solve & how your solutions address them.

One of the best parts of the answer Jon gives relates to on-boarding. He describes how the military trains recruits and leads them. He then compares that to the training that most businesses provide: haphazardly, if at all, and with little ongoing mentoring which unfortunately matches my observations over time.

You probably hire experienced people so theyll step in & become effective quickly. Do they do it the way you want it done? Did they learn a completely different way of doing what you do? What if you dont want them to do it that way? How will they learn your proprietary way of doing things?

Dont assume an experienced new hire has mastered the systems, machinery, methods, and processes your business uses to succeed. Learn from their experience, but train / mentor them.

No matter what, the last thing you ought to be doing is turning them loose on your customers, prospects, products, and services and simply assuming that everythings going to work out. Maybe it will. They might survive, or get by, or be good enough. Did you exert all that effort to find just the right person only to toss them to the lions with the expectation that theyd get by?

How much does it cost each time you have to replace a poorly trained salesperson who failed? How much does it cost to keep someone not as effective as they could be because they had to learn your ways by the seat of their pants?

Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a strategic, operations or marketing problem? SeeMarks site,contact him on LinkedInorTwitter, or email him atmriffey@flatheadbeacon.com.

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Training: Improves Sales, Improves Ops - Flathead Beacon

Hes the master of negotiation who believes firms can learn from Brexit talks. Lizzie Murphy met Tony Hughes, CEO of Huthwaite International

Weve been chatting for almost an hour when Tony Hughes casually mentions that hes a former trampolining champion.

I was British Colleges and Universities Champion, I think. Its a long time ago now, he says dismissively.

It was his love of sports that initially led the chief executive of global sales training company Huthwaite International to start his career as a teacher and then ski coach.

He trained at Wentworth Woodhouse, a teacher training college near Rotherham, close to what is now Huthwaites headquarters at Hoober House.

This house was a hall of residence, he says, gesturing around the meeting room we are sitting in. I met my first wife at college and she lived here. In fact, her bedroom was my first office when I started working at Huthwaite.

It was whilst teaching a Huthwaite director to ski, that his eyes were opened to the possibility of a potential new career as a sales and negotiating expert.

I didnt know what he did but he turned up to coaching in a big car and he seemed to have a lot of money so I thought it might be a good idea, Hughes laughs.

He was initially turned down for a job at the company but two years later he joined as a trainer and later led a management buyout of the company.

People often say, how did you get from teaching to this? In sports coaching you have a best practice model and the idea is how do you get people to do that model? Thats exactly what we do (at Huthwaite). Coming into it wasnt difficult, he says.

Huthwaite International trains companies around the world to sell and negotiate to the highest level.

Its clients include IBM, HP, Siemens, Fujitsu, UPS, Ericson, BT, EY, Royal Mint. It trains 30 of the top 100 companies in the world as well as charities and SMEs.

What makes it different to other firms is that it uses verbal behaviour analysis to develop methodologies which it uses in its training programmes to teach the skills for successful sales or negotiations.

Hughes says: Really, the training comes last of all. We would never start with a training product and then do some research to back it up. Thats very back to front for us. Were not commercial opportunists.

The companys founder undertook the biggest global study into effective negotiation and created the SPIN Selling model in 1988, which changed what people thought about selling and how they approached it.

By analysing 35,000 sales calls, researchers found that by developing the right questioning skills, salespeople could increase their sales by 20 per cent.

Now Huthwaite, which has a 7.3m turnover and 521,000 pre-tax profit, is exploring what artificial intelligence (AI) can do.

The size of the SPIN study, access to observe and cost have meant it could never be repeated in the same form so Huthwaite is working with a US company and using theirAI technology and conversation intelligence platform to do in hours what it took 10 years to achieve. Its giving us the first opportunity in over 30 years to not only revisit the research but on an unprecedented scale, says Hughes.

According to Hughes, Brexit is an important platform for companies to learn about their own negotiation capabilities, particularly when it comes the messages sent by each party.

The Brexit talks so far show that negotiating skills are no easy task when concerning a high-risk deal, he says.

Someone made a mistake in saying to our negotiators and Prime Minister very early on that no deal is better than a bad deal, says Hughes. If youre working in a business, thats probably true because you can go somewhere else.

Britain doesnt have an alternative so how can we walk away from it?

He adds: Negotiating in public is impossible. To go to the whole world and say this is what were going to have as our target in a negotiation is always just going to be a soundbite. You can only recover from it in a negotiation behind the scenes.

Im not sure they will be getting feedback about how they negotiate. They will get lots of feedback about what the numbers are and whether they are right or wrong but not about how they use and manage them.

Asked whether he would describe himself as a good seller and negotiator, he pauses. I think Im quite good at it but you can believe your own publicity too much in my job because people trust you.

I always did quite well before I was a CEO and thats how I managed to do the MBO but you dont want to promise more than you can deliver.

They say good sales people make terrible buyers because they are far too lenient when they buy something. Does this apply to Hughes?

Probably, yes. Im always told I should negotiate harder, he admits.

The one thing that annoys me is when you go to countries where its expected that you should barter in a bazaar because a) I dont like horse trading anyway and b) Its taken you half an hour to save 25p when you could have been better spending the 25p and using the half an hour to do something different.

Hughes, who has a grown-up daughter, owns a livery yard at his home in Upper Denby, West Yorkshire, overseen by his partner, Sam. They have 17 horses, five of which are theirs.

The 58-year-old describes himself as adventurous. He enjoys motorcycling and other outdoor pursuits. This week he is going on a skippers course for motor boats.

It all comes back to the PE stuff. I enjoy getting out and about, he says.

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Profile: Tony Hughes - Yorkshire Post

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An exciting opportunity for an experienced, proactive, results-orientated sales manager to join an established, global B2B online publisher.

CW Research (CWR) provides the global business community with the facts and perspectives it needs to achieve safer chemicals in products. We provide a 360 degree view of this agenda, impartially reporting on the actions and opinions of all stakeholders in our community. Our company has a strong shared sense of purpose, fuelled by motivated staff who want to make a difference with their work.

Were looking for experienced individuals with drive, enthusiasm and passion. In return, youll find CWR a stimulating place to work and progress your career.

The role:

Joining our commercial team at an exciting time - the company now celebrating its tenth anniversary year and continuing to enjoy strong year-on-year growth - youll be at the heart of our B2B sales operation, driving sales growth across our premium subscription information services, conferences, training and advertising products, globally.

Our sales growth in each of the last two years has averaged 30%, and we are projecting a similar rate in the current financial year. Our subscription products enjoy annual renewal rates in excess of ninety percent.

Reporting to the Sales & Marketing Director, the role will suit a mature individual with a solid background in sales management who is capable of working effectively with product, management and sales teams to develop our sales operation and ensure we take full advantage of the commercial opportunities ahead.

Responsibilities:

Managing a team of 7 Account Managers, you will be responsible for:

Requirements:

Applicants should have a minimum of 3 years B2B (consultative) sales experience and must have successfully managed a sales team focused on telesales and/or account management activities. Any experience in B2B publishing and/or high value information products/services would be welcomed.

To be considered for this role you will also need to demonstrate the following skills and attributes:

Applications:

Please send your CV by email to richard.butterworth@chemicalwatch.com, along with a covering letter.

Continued here:
Sales Manager - Chemical Watch (subscription)

Celebrating your 3-day weekend in San Diego, is filled with laid back events that will allow to relax, and distress from your busy lives. This weekend is all about family BBQs, spending time with friends, and of course, enjoying your Monday off!

Start your weekend off at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego at the Labor Day Weekend NIGHT SWIM. This is the only place that you can go to that has a night swim this Labor Day in San Diego. Starting at 9pm on Saturday, you can purchase tickets at the door for $20. Enjoy the music, and the good vibes that will be surrounding you at this exciting underwater event.

The only peer pressure you should have this weekend, is to have as much fun as possible, to embrace having a 3-day weekend. The Pier Pressure Yacht Party will take place on the Inspiration Hornblower, at boat with a 1200-person capacity, which means this party is bound to be huge. There are three different decks, completed with a sky deck, a main stage, and a lounge. Party all Sunday long starting at 2:30pm and going to 7:30 pm. Spend your day relaxing on a boat, embracing your long weekend.

If you are interested in discovering the local bars in San Diego, enjoy the Labor Day Club Crawl. Join the crowd of 100 other locals, and tour the Gaslamp district with this large group of fun individuals. Free shots will be provided as a welcome gesture, also included will be exclusive drinks, free entry, and enjoy some of San Diegos best hot spots. On September 3rd you can enjoy American Junkie, Omnia, and Fluxx. Dance the night away with 100 of your new best friends, while enjoying your extra long weekend.

Enjoy a nice and relaxing brunch at Issa Brunch. Start off your weekend on the patio, enjoying the the San Diego sun, and the fresh breeze. Enjoy the extensive breakfast list, while sipping on your mimosa (or champagne with a splash of orange juice). Come enjoy this brunch special that will give your long weekend, a little kick of excitement.

Watch the sky light up with fire works and lights, at the 1812 Tchaikovsky Spectacular. From September 1st through the 3rd, you can listen to the San Diego Symphony as they fill your night with relaxing music, and fireworks in the background. From 7:30pm through 10pm, you can listen to relaxing music and spend the perfect night out with your family. This concert is bound to end your summer in the best way possible.

Spend the weekend drinking mimosas, partying at the Hard Rock Hotel, or enjoying an elegant concert with your family. San Diego is offering many diverse opportunities this weekend, so its your job as a local to take advantage of it. Spend your long weekend doing what you want to do, because Tuesday will come sooner than you know it, and creating a weekend of fun activities and memories to look back on, will make going back to work, that much easier.

Read more:

Guide to San Diego Labor Day Events - San Diego Entertainer Magazine

We are the music-makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams,

You will hear everything from jazz to instrumental folk to breezy pop to world fusion and even a hint of new age on Soothe, and it all goes down silky smooth.

--Bill Binkelman, Zone Music Reporter

Music has the power to transform our lives and hence the world.

As I drove to work the other day my mind was spinning with all the things that were going wrong with a remodel of my new yoga studio. It was not the way I wanted to start my day. I knew just the antidote: turn on some heartfelt, relaxing music and center myself in my breathing. I chose the new album Soothe by Shambhu and it did the trick!

Reviewer Bill Binkelman from Zone Music Reporter describes the music: Soulfulness runs throughout each track on Soothe like a slow, lazy brook winding its way through a forest, at times burbling over rocks, and other times flowing serenely with sunlight shimmering off the gently rippling surface.

Soothe not only uplifted my own spirit but I started using Shambhus music as a peaceful backdrop for the yoga classes that I teach. Then I got curious about how Shambhu was able to convey a feeling of calm serenity in his music.

Shambhus adult life has been rooted in spirit. He discovered meditation in college and over time he was inspired to transform his rock style into a serene, instrumental flow that Feng Shui Mommy blogger Bailey Gaddis described as mind medicine.

I was jamming with musicians in New York when I met drummer Narada Michael Walden. He had just connected with meditation guru Sri Chinmoy and his students - guitarists John McLaughlin and Carlos Santana. Narada invited me to meet his teacher and learn meditation. Sri Chinmoy saw music as inspiration, not entertainment, and he encouraged music as a soulful expression of meditation. 18 months later I joined and found myself jamming with Carlos who played a quiet and expressive guitar music. When he played, listeners had their eyes closed, they explored the music inside the silence, and the music expressed a calmness. When we played acoustic guitars as a duo, I could feel my soulful heart. I loved it, and I later brought that experience into my own music.

My music is ideal if you want to unwind and clear the mind. While recording my albums, I dive into my own silence so the music embodies a calm, clear, and beautiful feeling - like a vacation in sound.

Soothe features many great instrumentalists who create a symphony of calming sound, with Shambhu at the helm on acoustic and electric guitars. Musicians include Michael Manring on bass, Jeff Haynes on percussion, Frank Martin on piano, Paul McCandless on reeds, Premik Russell Tubbs on soprano sax and wind synth, George Brooks on soprano sax, Ravichandra Kulur on bansuri flute, Kristin Hoffmann on vocals, Todd Boston on steel guitar, and Gurumurthy V on tabla.

Shambhus music invites the listener to participate in a dream for a better world, which will be created by individuals striving for their own betterment. His music is a pathway of sound into the ocean of love that each of us has within. His message is one of peace and the potential of each of us to reach into the realm of heart and soul.

And that brings me back to music makers and their effect on the world. I quoted

from Ode by Arthur O'Shaughnessy at the beginning of this writing. Further along in his poem, written in 1888, he writes:

For each age is a dream that is dying, Or one that is coming to birth.

Visit ShambhuMusic.com to listen and buy! Download the title track from Soothe free at soothecd.com.

Go here to see the original:

A 'Soothe' Moment in a Hectic World: Behind The Music of Shambhu. - HuffPost

PUBLISHED: 17:30 04 September 2017 | UPDATED: 17:59 04 September 2017

Ralph Blackburn

Jenny Thompson the owner of Liana's Tea Shop at Langtons House

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Lianas Tea Shop served its first pot on August 13, with an opening ceremony featuring Havering Mayor Cllr Linda Van Den Hende and four other councillors.

Owner Jenny Thompson, who named the business after her middle name, told the Recorder: I finally wanted to get my dream achieved.

I wanted to do something different.

And the tea room, beautifully set in Langtons House, Billet Lane, Hornchurch, has had a successful month, with lots of customers making advance bookings for September.

Jenny said: When people walk in, it is a very relaxing atmosphere, just to come in and listen to vintage music, which isnt over bearing.

The shop is beautifully decorated, with floral cushions and vintage ribbons tying the jars holding the tea leaves.

The tea sold includes the classics of English breakfast and Earl Grey, as well as rarer fruit flavoured specialties and cinnamon chai flavours.

Jenny also serves sandwiches and homemade cakes, which are available in vegan and gluten free varieties.

We also take donations for customers to be able to feed the ducks in the courtyard, she added.

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'Relaxing' vintage tea room opens in Hornchurch - Romford Recorder