Culture Beats Scheme
Culture will beat scheme every day.” – Chip Kelly As a rule, I try not to contribute to the sports is a metaphor for life view. It is already oversubscribed. But, there is an exception to every rule and I … Continue reading →
Checking Conventional Wisdom to Empower Introverts
This blog is a follow-up to the last post where I reviewed Susan Cain’s Quiet: The Power of Introverts in World That Can’t Stop Talking. It was twenty short years ago when we started working with the Jungian model that … Continue reading →
Review: Quiet by Susan Cain
In Quiet – The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking, Susan Cain recounts her personal journey from Wall Street lawyer to acclaimed writer with a burgeoning consulting practice. Along the way, she learned to leverage her … Continue reading →
Gilding the Carrot
Did you know there is an industry out there that will match extrinsic rewards to a company’s culture and thereby drive performance? They call themselves “full service incentive firms” and claim to motivate and help retain employees with items like … Continue reading →
Sell Me This Pen II: The Answers
In the last post, we raised two questions that emerge from the closing scene of the film, Wolf of Wall Street. In it, Leonardo DiCaprio’s character is introduced to a small group as the world’s greatest sales trainer. He approaches … Continue reading →
Sell Me This Pen
In the closing moments of Wolf of Wall Street, Jason Belfort, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, is introduced to a small group as the “world’s greatest sales trainer”. This title is newly minted as the one time Wolf of Wall Street … Continue reading →
Business Lessons from David & Goliath
Malcolm Gladwell has now written four best-selling books: Tipping Point, Blink, Outliers and the recently released, David & Goliath. If you are unfamiliar with Gladwell, I commend him to you. His contribution is to capture interesting research and then relate … Continue reading →
Breakthrough Selling Models: Thumbs Down
Until the late 1980s, common sales practices were to push product Features-Advantages & Benefits (FAB) and then to try to manipulate a “Close” by employing clever scripts. Some of the best companies in the world (GE, Xerox, IBM, and Exxon) eventually … Continue reading →
Rank & Yank Should Be Yanked
Usually credited as a Jack Welch idea, Rank & Yank refers to an employee evaluation system where workers are ranked against one another and those who are graded lower are then yanked from their jobs; as in fired. Proponents claim … Continue reading →
Portfolios: A Novel Way to Assess Selling Competencies
This blog is intended as a companion to the previous one, One Size Does Not Fit All, where we make the case for sales education designed to fit different skill levels. It is prompted by a common challenge we face … Continue reading →