Manchester City 0 Liverpool 1

MANCHESTER, England: Steven Gerrard scored an early penalty to hand Liverpool an important advantage in their League Cup semi-final with Manchester City as the visitors came away from Eastlands with a 1-0 first leg lead.

Liverpool, who have won the League Cup competition a record seven times, are seeking their first trophy in six years and are now favourites to advance to the final against Championship opponents Crystal Palace or Cardiff.

Liverpool were beaten 3-0 by Manchester City eight days ago in the EPL clash, and this victory could not have come at a better time.

Liverpool was awarded a penalty in the 11^th minute after back-up centre-half Stefan Savic, only playing because of the absence of Kolo Toure on international duty and the suspension of Vincent Kompany, had clearly brought down Daniel Agger at a corner.

Gerrard struck low past fellow England international Hart and into the left-hand corner in the 13th minute.

That goal was the culmination of a spell of concerted pressure and, after four minutes, Hart saved with his legs from Andy Carroll.

And, moments before the penalty, a Gerrard corner picked out Stewart Downing, lurking on the edge of the area, for the winger to unleash a superbly-struck volley, Craig Bellamy steering the shot towards goal and Hart making a stunning reflex save.

City's controversial forward Mario Balotelli summed up the hosts unease, looking out of sorts throughout the first half, being dragged away from an altercation with Charlie Adam and, finally, being replaced by Italian manager Roberto Mancini after 40 minutes without it being immediately known whether or not he was injured.

It was not until his departure that City finally had a meaningful chance, Balotelli's replacement Samir Nasri having a 20-yard shot pushed away by Liverpool keeper Pepe Reina in the 43rd minute and James Milner shooting over from 12 yards after fine work by Micah Richards.

City maintained their improvement after the restart with Martin Skrtel making a superb tackle to stop Sergio Aguero in the area before Martin Kelly's disastrous back pass fell straight to the City forward who rounded Reina but, having been pushed wide, could only chip over the open goal.

Nasri's 59th minute corner was met by Richards for another City chance, this one saved impressively, at the second attempt, by Reina.

Then Nasri's pass sent through Aguero who expertly took three Liverpool defenders out of the game only to curl his 18-yard shot straight at Reina.

Substitute Edin Dzeko's pass allowed Nasri a look at goal, and the opportunity to shoot well over from 20 yards, and Reina had to react quickly to beat Gareth Barry to a near-post cross.

But City could come no closer to an equaliser than Aguero's injury-time header from a Nasri cross which cleared the Liverpool crossbar by some margin.

Hurray Liverpool!

Singapore’s Sad Return To Malaysia Cup

An ill-prepared Singapore LionsXII team lost to Kelantan in last night’s Malaysian Super League opener in front of 7,209-strong home crowd at Jalan Besar Stadium.

Kelantan played an intelligent absorb and counter-attack game while Singapore did all the running and attacking. Just as the visitors appeared to be growing comfortable with the Lions’ offensive stride, the home team struck in the 34^th minute.

A free-kick from the right was met by veteran defender Baihakki Khaizan, and his header bounced past Kelantan goalkeeper Khairul Fahmi. The goal sting Kelantan into action, and in the 44^th minute, they equalised.

A high ball was floated into Singapore’s six-yard box, Baihakki missed the header, and the ball fell to the unmarked Norshahrul Idlan who duly shot past goalkeeper Izwan Mahbud. The match was 1-1 at half-time.

In the 80^th minute, goalkeeper Izwan made contact with his hand with an incoming Mahmoud Ghadar (one of four Kelantan’s imported player) as they challenged for a stray ball. Referee Nafeez pointed to the spot and Mahmoud sent Izwan the wrong way to claim a 2-1 win for Kelantan.

Singapore LionsXII played badly last night. They attacked but defended poorly. There was little off-the-ball running. Their first touch was poor, passing was inaccurate, and shooting was hesitant. When presented with a chance at goal, instead of shooting at first touch, they opted for two or three touches. They don’t know how to volley.

Tactically, Kelantan played a sound game. Absorbed the LionsXII’s attacked, and launched counter-attack. Singapore played a poor tactical game. After leading 1-0, Singapore players are still attacking. That’s suicidal. In the second half, they ran out of steam, and the off-the-ball running were non-existence.

Even at 1-1, the LionsXII were still attacking and leaving huge gaps at the back. No wonder they lost. We need players who can think. We need a skipper who can direct the players on the field. Football is both a technical as well as a tactical game. We must know when to attack, when to hold back, and when to defend. The LionsXII have poor technical and tactical skills. They will lose many more matches in the coming weeks and months.

When Singapore won two successive Tiger Cup Asean Football tournaments, they did it with foreign players. They did it with Chinese players. They did it with foreign coaches. The success formula was written.

But sadly, FAS abandoned this Success Formula, and went back to the old formula; local school boys, local coaches, no Chinese players, no foreign players, no foreign coaches. And they fail miserably, in the SEA Games, World Cup qualifiers, Asean football tournaments, and surely, the Malaysia Cup.

The FAS President has no clue on how to move Singapore football forward. He should quit immediately, and let someone with the success formula run the FAS. Singapore football needs foreign talent, Chinese players and foreign coaches.

Why Sales Training Fails

Sales organisations of all types spend a huge amount on training their sales people each year. Research shows, however, that most training has little impact in the long term. Here we look at what needs to be done to make sure training works - and the new generation of training approaches.

　

If you’ve ever wondered why your sales teams struggle to consistently achieve sales targets despite investment in sales training, development and management, you’re not alone.

Despite their best efforts most organisations are failing to achieve their full potential from sales training due to four main reasons;

1. Most sales training has at best a short-term effect on performance because of a failure to consistently implement, apply and reinforce what is learnt.

2. Sales managers (often top sales achievers themselves) lack a proven methodology to be truly effective at getting top performance from their sales team.

3. Salespeople often find it difficult to maintain the correct balance between prospecting, presenting, negotiating, closing and client nurturing which can lead to sales ‘feast and famine’ and lost opportunities.

4. Sales leaders and managers find it hard to run sales meetings and sales training sessions that are relevant, motivational, and impactful for both highly experienced and inexperienced salespeople at the same time.

So how do sales leaders address these critical issues of skill and knowledge if 'traditional' sales training approaches simply can't offer the level of flexibility and interaction needed to embed learning?

The answer lies in designing and providing a new generation of development toolkits which sales managers can use with their teams. These toolkits can give the manager total flexibility to address the specific development needs of his or her team based on the situation at the time. In addition, they should provide the opportunity for a high degree of team interaction as well as best practice learning materials which can be delivered in a fun, energetic and bite sized fashion.

Global oil giant, Shell, amongst others, is at the forefront of using such systems to empower their field sales managers using a new system called 'The Sales Activator®'. The creators of The Sales Activator® say it has been specifically designed to address the critical shortcomings of 'traditional' sales training. It's a self contained system which gives the sales manager the tools, framework and learning content to take charge of their sales team's development on an ongoing basis.

Commenting on Shell's experience of using The Sales Activator® to overcome the weaknesses of sales training, Elza Muller - Learning and Development Manager at Shell - says; "People learn without realising and get the added benefit of learning from additional input from delegates who have years of experience. It can be done as and when there is a team meeting - no extra resource is required. The coaching role can be shared across teams, within teams spreading the skill of coaching [and] the business manager is present dealing with the system and context issues around training."

Why is a Salesperson like a Refrigerator?

Let me ask, have you heard the joke about the light being on inside the fridge? You know, where you were asked to open the door of the fridge and voila, the light was on. Now I know you know the light only comes on when you open the door. But the refrigerator is always on! It has to be to do its job.

Top sales professionals, like fridges, are always "on". This is especially true for those who need to prospect to find new clients.

One individual I know worked many years as an electrician for a major U.S. automobile manufacturer. At the suggestion of a good friend, he decided to pursue a sales career in the financial services industry. This was a pretty major change in vocation; he went from dealing with watts and volts to handling people’s investment and insurance needs.

Was he a success? Well, in his first full year he shot up to becoming the top rep in North America for his company. To prove he was not a one hit wonder, he repeated this feat his second year, and yes, the third year too! To this day, he remains one of the top reps with his company.

So how did an electrician, now a salesman, become so successful? If you ask this modest man, he will say "It's simple really, you do the best you can for your client, and you always have to be on."

To meet this gentleman, you would know someone with an insatiable appetite for learning. He wanted to know everything he could about financial planning and the products he represented. He was a keen student of his sales manager and a constant observer of the successful reps around him. He was a sponge.

One day, I asked him what he meant when he said being "on". He told me "To be successful I have to meet a lot of new people. I have to be able to tell them quickly what it is I do and how I can help them." He went on to say, "I look at everyone as an opportunity." "When I go to the super-market I look for the longest line and stand in it, I know I’ll have a chance to strike up a conversation with the person in front of me, and the person who comes behind me." Talk about captive audience.

I marvelled at one story he told me about when he went shopping for a bed cover and pillows. After he completed his purchase he thought, "I've done business with you, you should do business with me." He proceeded to book an appointment with the sales clerk who had sold him his pillows. He also asked if she would introduce him to her manager and the other sales clerks. He left the store that day with five appointments booked in his day timer.

Why? Because he was always "on".

Top sales people maintain a laser like focus combined with a strong desire to succeed.

Don't be as cold as a refrigerator, but do think about being "on" all the time.