This is part 3 of a three-part series. If your organization offers multiple service offerings, you may find this series of interest. Part 1 – What’s at Stake Part 2 – What Goes Wrong Part 3 – How to Get it Right In Part 1 I said that cross-selling was the single biggest growth opportunity […]
This is part 2 of a three-part series. If your organization offers multiple service offerings, you may find this series of interest. Part 1 – What’s at Stake Part 2 – What Goes Wrong Part 3 – How to Get it Right In the first part of this series (link above) I suggested that “cross-selling […]
This is part 1 of a three-part series. Part 1 – What’s at Stake Part 2 – What Goes Wrong Part 3 – How to Get it Right If your organization offers multiple service offerings, you may find this series of interest. What is Cross-Selling? Definition: Cross-selling refers to two kinds of sales relationships with […]
Trust has been a main discussion point for most of my career. Trust in business, trust in selling, trust in relationships. Increasingly, people are discussing how trust in business and in organizations (or the lack thereof) is starting to affect how we all do business and people are starting to wonder how it will affect the […]
A workshop participant recently said something that instantly took me back a few decades. I remember feeling exactly as he 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. […]
This week sees the publication of a new book I want to bring to your attention. It’s by Frank Cespedes, a professor at Harvard Business School, and an old friend from our mutual consulting days. The book is called Aligning Strategy and Sales, and it might have been called “The Massive Business Gap Sitting Right […]
Jacob Morgan is the author of the newly released, The Future of Work: Attract New Talent, Build Better Leaders, and Create a Competitive Organization (Wiley). He is also the principal and co-founder of the future of work consulting firm Chess Media Group and the FOW Community, an invite only membership community dedicated to the future […]
I’m starting to believe that the biggest obstacle to increasing trust in business is the conceptual confusion that exists around trust itself. We literally cannot agree on what we are talking about. The latest case in point: Public Company Accounting Oversight Board (PCAOB) Chairman James R. Doty, keynoting on the subject of Integrity at the Seventh Annual […]
I heard it again today. I hear it in almost every workshop I do, and in every – bar none – big company sales organization I work with. It sounds like this: I believe in trust and relationships, but it’s a luxury problem. Here in the real world, the pressure’s on. I don’t have time […]
It began with a trip to an Audi dealership. I liked what I saw, and was ready to buy. Then the dealer ran the CARFAX report. I’d had a side-bump accident two years prior that popped the driver-side windows and door panels, and knew that would cost me some trade-in value. But I wasn’t prepared for, […]
You’ve graduated from Question Obsession 101. You’ve learned not to pepper clients with endless questions or craft that perfect “Keystone Arch Question” expecting miracles. You’re focusing on relationships, creating insights, and empowering clients. But have you fallen into the next trap? The Answer Trap. Many consultants who overcome question obsession swing to the opposite extreme, […]
Question Obsession: The Silent Sales KillerMay 6, 2025 - 5:00 pmHave you counted how many questions you ask in your typical client meeting? Do you find yourself carefully crafting the “perfect” question sequence before every sales call? Are your meeting notes filled with question frameworks rather than real insights? If so, you may be suffering from Question Obsession—a condition that’s quietly sabotaging your client relationships […]