Differentiation. It’s one of the two generic competitive strategies. You’d think it’s a no-brainer. If everyone sells coffee in supermarkets based on price, invent Starbucks. If water is free from the faucet, invent Perrier. If fund performances are undifferentiated, invent index funds. So, if your industry ranks near the bottom in trustworthiness – why not invent […]
(This post is written jointly with Ago Cluytens, and will appear jointly on both our sites.) Ago: Recently, Charles H Green (I get to call him Charlie) and I had a heart-to-heart about three seismic shifts that are completely changing the way buyers and sellers relate. Even though we live on different continents and have […]
King Kong vs. Godzilla. The immeasurable force and the immoveable object. The mountain and Muhammed. To these historic pairings, add Manti Te’o and Lance Armstrong, in the roles of trustor and trustee respectively. (For those outside the US, Te’o is a college football player whose girlfriend tragically died – and was then revealed to be a hoax, who never […]
Oh it’s brutal, all right. But it’s not honest. Real honesty is empathetic. Here’s how. I suppose you could be honest in a vacuum – but who cares? Was Robinson Crusoe honest? Until Friday came along, that was just a silly question. You can’t be usefully honest, except in relation to or with someone. Honesty Implies […]
Dilbert on trust and lying: Scott Adams nails it. With a sledgehammer, as usual. The pointy-haired boss is ethically clueless, and blatantly so. We all get the joke, much the way we get the old George Burns line, “the most important thing in life is sincerity – if you can fake that, you’ve got it […]
Quickly now – which are the least-trusted professions and occupations? If you think about it a moment, you’ll probably make pretty good guesses. Now for a tougher one: which profession is the most trusted? This one, I find, less than half of respondents get right. Your Profession Conveys an Image of You The annual Gallup […]
I wrote a good blog post at this time six years ago, and haven’t improved on it yet. Here it is again. Happy New Year. —————– My unscientific sampling says many people make New Years resolutions, but few follow through. Net result—unhappiness. It doesn’t have to be that way. You could, of course, just try […]
This week, as we get ready to say goodbye to 2012, we’re going to be posting some of what we call “Golden Oldies,” great posts from our Trust Matters vault. We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday and wonderful New Year. ————————————- In trust-based selling, the default mode of presentation is transparency. In […]
This week, as we get ready to say goodbye to 2012, we’re going to be posting some of what we call “Golden Oldies,” great posts from our Trust Matters vault. We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday and wonderful New Year. —————————————– Trust, in case you hadn’t noticed, has gotten “hot” lately. But […]
It may be hard to imagine, given the horrific events of Newtown Connecticut, but violence of almost all types has been declining rapidly in the US and around the world. That’s the story in the book The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined, a sweeping psycho-historical view of human nature by Harvard psychology […]
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 […]