Four words can have a big impact: Trust is not reputation. But what does that mean? This year especially it seems the two words have been thrown around interchangeably for some time. I took a look back at the last time I addressed the difference of the two words and how their definitions got confused along the […]
Transparency, most of us would agree, is a positive thing. And disclosure is an obvious way to get there. But transparency and disclosure are not the same thing. And confusing them can actually harm transparency. So – what’s the difference between disclosure and transparency? Transparency and Trust Besides “able to transmit light,” the dictionary defines transparent […]
If you’re in an advisory or sales role, you probably strive to be a trusted advisor to your customers. After all, if your customers trust you, tons of things start to go right, and you find yourself in a highly favored situation. But there’s a paradox: if you set out to be relatively favored by your customer – […]
You’ve heard about “the dog and pony show,” the “beauty contest,” or perhaps “the shoot-out.” Maybe you just call it “the pitch.” The term is more common in some industries – advertising, executive recruiting, some law firms – but we’re all familiar with it. Typically it’s thought of as an event – a somewhat formal presentation […]
Interesting thing happened this week. Even though I’ve been at this business game for some time now – there are still these little gaps, where I fall victim to a little thing that I like to call the “trap of high self-orientation.” I started to doubt, to question if I had said or done something that […]
Most salespeople love athletic metaphors. For example, consider these well-known maxims: No pain, no gain The harder you try to hit the ball, the worse you do. Note – these two platitudes express precisely opposing points of view. So – which is the right answer? Is it effort – or form? Is it grit – or ease? Many […]
Twelve-step programs are commonly known as ‘recovery’ programs – a structured approach to getting out of a problem situation. But what if you turned that perspective on its head? What if you saw a program – particularly one with twelve steps – as something to advance you from an already-good situation to an even better, new […]
The plaintive question suddenly took me back a few decades. I remember feeling exactly as the person described it: What am I supposed to do? On the one hand, I genuinely want to do right by my client. At the same time, my firm is depending on me to drive revenue there. They’re not asking […]
It may be the dirtiest little secret in professional sales. The lie we all love to tell ourselves. The truth we just hate to face up to. What secret/lie/truth is that? The myth of the subject matter expert as key to sales success. Sources of Mythology about Subject Matter Experts There is no shortage of […]
Would you like your clients to trust you? Presumably you would. And in order to trust you, they must feel that trusting you is a low-risk proposition. They must feel you are trustworthy. Most firms get that. So, most firms go about trying to appear trustworthy. (The better ones, of course, actually try to be […]