Don’t Focus Just on Skillsets
It's become a truism: you can't manage what you can't measure. (Actually, it's quite a debatable proposition.) A corollary is that therefore what matters are observable behaviors, hence the essence…
The Traveling Salesman? Or the Prisoner’s Dilemma?
The Prisoner's Dilemma is a classic conundrum in game theory. It purports to explain why two people might not cooperate, even if it is in both their best interests to…
If Selling Is Too Hard, You’re Doing It Wrong
Salespeople are frequently fixated on athletic metaphors. Try these two: No pain, no gain The harder you try to hit the ball, the worse you do. So – which is it?…
Why Your Clients Don’t Trust You – and How to Fix It
Do your customers trust you? Be honest, now, this is not an in-house survey. Do they believe what you say? Will they cut you a break if you goof up?…
Relationships or Metrics? I Haven’t Got Time for Both
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…
Warren Buffet on Envy and the Seven Deadly Sins
Envy--the one deadly sin you should really do without
Being Right is Vastly Overrated: Part II
Dare to be you; everyone else is taken anyway.
Trust and Martin Luther King Day
Today is Martin Luther King Day, a United States holiday. Much has been written about the holiday, and about King. I won't attempt to add much, other than to highligh…
The Butterfly Effect Redux
You don't have to be woo-woo to appreciate the extraordinary ripples that connections engender.
Outsourcing Loyalty, and other Oxymorons
When business talks about relationships, all too often it comes out sounding mechanical. Even oxymoronic. A few examples.