The Customer-Centric Gap Selling Approach

Based in Chicago, Zariq Siddiqui oversees the sales and marketing of nutritional products as a member of the Abbott Laboratories, Inc. team. With a strong interest in sales strategy, Zariq Siddiqui enjoys reading books on the subject, including Gap Selling: Getting the Customer to Yes.

With a problem-centric approach, Keenan formulated gap selling on two fundamentals. First, people don’t usually change habits or buy products until their present situation is no longer tenable. The second is that the salesperson can influence such change so long as they fully understand the purchaser’s current and future states before introducing the product.

Rather than being a “glorified order taker” who relies on fickle buyers, the gap seller positions himself as a value creator who connects closely with the buyer. By helping the customer understand their current state, he also defines the obstacles preventing the person from achieving a sought-after future state.

Understanding this gap is where the sales focus lies, rather than endlessly pushing a product. Not only does this get to root causes and benefits applicable to the customer’s life, but it respects the buyer and does not leave the taste of one having been sold something one does not need.

Heifer International Helps Small Farmers Worldwide

Zariq Siddiqui is a director of sales with Abbott Laboratories, a leading healthcare company headquartered in Chicago. Away from work, Zariq Siddiqui enjoys golf, exercising, and attending Broadway shows. He is also involved in philanthropy and supports charities such as Heifer International.

Through involving local farmers and their communities, Heifer International works to end hunger and poverty while supporting sustainability. As of 2022, the charity has reached 21 countries including India, Mexico, the United States, and Kenya. The charity reaches its mission by investing in livestock and agriculture and mentoring individuals on how they can build a small business with the final goal of obtaining access to supply chains and markets. Through Heifer International, the families helped can earn a steady income while also contributing positively to ending the world’s hunger crisis in a meaningful and sustainable way.

Heifer International has been engaged in many projects, including the East Africa Dairy Development Project, which aimed to improve the quality and quantity of milk production for dairy farmers in Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, and Tanzania. Launched in 2008, Heifer has helped 230,000 dairy farmers improve their businesses by creating an industry network where farmers can perform quality tests, and ultimately send their milk to nearby dairies. This project stands as one of the leading market-oriented projects in the region.

Goldendoodle – An Ideal Family Pet

A healthcare industry sales professional drawing on more than two decades of experience in the field, Zariq Siddiqui directs all sales training, analytics, and operations at Abbott Laboratories, Inc., a Chicago-based pharmaceutical company. During his leisure time, Zariq Siddiqui enjoys outdoor activities, such as running and hiking. He also takes good care of his two Goldendoodles.

The Goldendoodle is a “designer” dog breed that came into existence in the 1990s when a golden retriever crossed with a poodle for the first time. The Goldendoodle, also called Groodle, is an inherently smart and easily trained breed. Goldendoodles typically have an even temperament, bark rarely, and are affectionate. It is natural for this breed to get along with owners, their friends and families, and other dogs, all of which makes the Goldendoodle an ideal four-legged family member.

Goldendoodles prefer to spend the vast majority of their time in the vicinity of their owners or other friendly individuals. If separated from humans for a long time, the breed can develop separation anxiety, typically caused by boredom and fear that may arise when they are left alone. A typical consequence of separation anxiety is destructive behavior.

If you plan to leave your Goldendoodle alone at home for a few hours, keep it busy with some interesting activities while you aren’t around. You can strategically hide treats around the house for the pet to find while you are absent. Also, make sure its toys are reachable in safe places. You can also leave a radio on, since the sounds from it can help keep the animal calm.

Exploring the Dysfunctions That Arise in Corporate Teams

Based in Chicago, Zariq Siddiqui serves Abbott Laboratories as sales director responsible for nutritional products. With a focus on self improvement, Zariq Siddiqui takes inspiration from business authors such as Patrick Lencioni.

In The Five Dysfunctions of a Team – A Leadership Fable, Lencioni begins with a fictional narrative about a West Coast tech startup called DecisionTech. The reader follows the journey of Kathryn, the newly appointed CEO of the two-year-old company, as she seeks to build an effective organization. In the process she addresses core issues of commitment, trust, conflict, accountability, and results.

Trust is particularly vital, as it provides the springboard for entering into conflicts that generate a sense of involvement. When an employee feels integrally involved in a project or corporate mission they also become more accountable, which is a prerequisite to giving one’s full effort toward attaining a desired goal. Naturally, these interrelationships take on significantly more complexity within a group dynamic, where the team must unify around common goals and work through dysfunctions that inevitably arise to achieve results.

A Brief Review of Jim Collins’ Book, Good to Great

Zariq Siddiqui is the sales director at Abbot, a global healthcare company that serves customers in 150 countries. In his role, Zariq Siddiqui carries out several responsibilities, including sales training, operations, and analytics. To be a more effective leader, Mr. Siddiqui has read many management books, including It’s The Manager, Emotional Intelligence for the Modern Leader, and Good to Great.

Written by Jim C. Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t is a bestselling management book published in October 2001 by HarperCollins. In the 320 page book, Collins delves deep into how some good companies managed to grow and achieve tremendous success because of visionary leaders, the right company culture, embracing technology, and hiring the right people. Some of the companies mentioned in the book that made the transition from good to great include Abbott Laboratories, Gillette Company, Kroger, Philip Morris, Walgreens, and Wells Fargo.

Good to Great also contains a commentary on companies like Bank of America and Upjohn, which Collins says had the opportunity to become great but didn’t because of, among other things, poor leadership decisions. It further discusses companies that started the transformation to be great, like Chrysler, Harris, and Rubbermaid, but they couldn’t sustain their efforts to become great companies.

The book has sold over four million copies and has been referred to as one of the best management books by many CEOs and senior executives, including those of Fortune 500 companies.

What is It’s The Manager About?

A resident of Ohio, Zariq Siddiqui studied forensic science at the State University of New York. He currently serves as the sales director of Abbott Laboratories Inc.; previously, he worked as the company’s nutrition products senior manager. Much of Zariq Siddiqui’s library consists of books about developing one’s leadership style, such as Jim Clifton and Jim Harter’s It’s The Manager.

It’s The Manager was published in 2019 at Gallup Press, as a collaboration by Jim Clifton, the chairman and chief executive officer of the analytics corporation, and Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist. The book is recommended and dedicated mostly to entrepreneurs and people that work in HR, providing eight decades of Gallup information and research. In addition, It’s the Manager’s appendices and strength-assessment tests give HR executives exercises to improve their services and performance.

The book addresses the fact that only a few companies in the U.S. use and practice modern personnel management, a practice that is highly beneficial nowadays and could change workplace culture. It also showcases insights into employee motivation, such as having communicative and committed leaders, a comfortable income, and a continuing sense of purpose and growth in their profession. Finally, It’s the Manager explores how modern-day managers are adapting to evolving workforce factors such as the gig economy, remote work, and AI.

Emotional Intelligence for the Modern Leader Concepts and Traits

An experienced businessman from Ohio, Zariq Siddiqui is the sales director of Abbot Laboratories. At the firm, he oversees sales training, analytics, and operations. Zariq Siddiqui reads business books such as Emotional Intelligence for the Modern Leader by Christopher D. Connors to enhance his services.

Emotional intelligence is highly important in today’s business as it can allow the leader to understand each member of their team and make them thrive individually and as a team. It can help a leader influence others and push them to become better. One important aspect of emotional intelligence is self-awareness. A leader first has to know everything there is to know about themselves, control their emotions and feelings, and only then aspire to help others or guide them.

Another aspect is self-management which means that a person can manage their time and commitments and not give up when things become negative or look out of control. Motivation is the third factor of emotional intelligence, and it is how a person or leader can motivate themselves to do a job and improve.

Fourth and finally is empathy, which is an appreciated quality nowadays as people can put themselves in another person’s shoes. In this way, they can understand them and treat them correctly in each situation. This can be done by listening carefully and connecting with others.

Five Dysfunction of a Team Concepts and Summary

A Dublin, Ohio resident, Zariq Siddiqui graduated from the State University of New York and holds a bachelor of science in forensic science. Zariq Siddiqui is the sales director of Abbot Laboratories in Chicago, Illinois. In his free time, he likes to read business books such as Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

Five Dysfunctions of a Team features the attempts of the main character, Kathryn, to help her business team achieve more and become more. Kathryn became the leader of the company after the chairman sought her and put her in charge. At first, Kathryn seems destined to fail as she is now old, knows considerably less about the firm’s technology than the other executives she has to lead and no one wants to work under her command. To help her team, Kathryn uses five concepts: trust, conflict, commitment, accountability, and results.

Firstly, no team can work together without trust. Without trust, it would be as each member of the team is working for themselves and not for the benefit of the team. Kathryn asks each member to tell a story so that everyone can know each other better. The second concept is conflict, in which the members of the team confront the ideas of the others so that they can come up with the best plan for the firm. The third, commitment means that each person should get to say something when they are confronting each other and that each opinion matters.

Accountability is a concept that enables each person to hold another accountable for their actions so that all members can do their job properly. Finally, when the team has completed all the steps, it can work better and provide better results.

Unbound Assisting Families in the Philippines Affected by Volcano

Senior executive Zariq Siddiqui works as a sales director at Abbott Laboratories. Community involved, Zariq Siddiqui supports the work of Unbound, an organization that helps families around the world living in poverty to become self-sufficient.

Unbound is very active in the Philippines, where it supports families in underserved areas. In early January 2020, however, the lives of many of the families it supports in the country were disrupted when Taal Volcano began spewing ashes. The volcano is nestled on an island on Lake Taal, 45 miles from Manila. The threat of volcanic activity sent hundreds of thousands of people living around Lake Taal packing, including 438 Unbound support recipients.

Thankfully, toward the end of January, the Philippine government lowered the threat level and families began making their way back home. However, for many of them, life will not be the same. Volcanic ash has considerably impacted their crops and livestock. There are also health risks associated with returning to the area. Unbound is working closely with its teams in the Philippines and donors to support these families as they rebuild their lives. It is also appealing to well-wishers to make donations through its Disaster Response fund.

How Sponsoring Someone Through Unbound Works

With 20 years of experience in his field, Zariq Siddiqui serves as a sales director at Abbott Laboratories Inc., where he oversees sales training and operations. Throughout his career, Zariq Siddiqui has given back to the community through charitable support to agencies like Unbound.

Formerly called the Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, Unbound is committed to improving the health, education, and economies of individuals and communities around the globe. To aid its cause, Unbound invites individuals to sponsor children, teenagers, and elders, with sponsorships beginning at $36 a month. The funds are used to pay for an individual’s basic needs. This empowers not only the individual but also his or her family. Unbound achieves this through its on-the-ground staff members, who attempt to lead each sponsored individual through the steps necessary to reach self-sufficiency and generate their own income.

Sponsors can connect with the people they help by registering an account through the Unbound website. Options include beginning a correspondence with the person, seeing his or her photo, and receiving updates about how Unbound’s initiatives are making an impact around the world.