Yogi Berra, one of my favorite philosophers, once observed, “Predictions are difficult, especially when they are about the future.” Now that 2012 is in the past, let’s look back and see how I did with my Twelve-for-Twelve predictions. First, the … Continue reading →
Recently, I delivered a program on negotiations for a sales team where one of the C-Suite executives wanted to drop-in and talk about his own skills as a negotiator. While I was emphasizing skills required in large scale business-to-business (B2B) … Continue reading →
There are two classic plays on selling: Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman and David Mamet’s Glengarry GlenRoss. The former won the Pulitzer in 1949 and the latter won the same honor some thirty-five years later. Glengrarry will be back … Continue reading →
I grew up on Long Island along with a baseball team named the New York Metropolitans. They were managed by the legendary Casey Stengel who was one of those special individuals who spoke his own language: Stengelese. Woeful performance after … Continue reading →
I guess there is a part of me that has long wanted to say, “Harvard gets it wrong.” The cover to recent Harvard Business Review gives me that opportunity. The Secret to Smarter Sales is not the carrot as depicted … Continue reading →
Do you remember the book, All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten? In it, author Robert Fulghum recounts important life lessons from kindergarten like: play fair, don’t hit people, put things back where you found them, clean up … Continue reading →
Over the years, I have written in the SST1 Newsletter on personality type and presidential politics. The basic theme has been that the more Extraverted candidate wins. Our first analysis goes back to 1996 when our SST® (Successful Selling to … Continue reading →
My time as an independent consultant (I started in 1994) roughly coincides with the explosion in technology. Back then, many were just getting around to web sites, e-mail and aspiring to be a paperless offices. Today, of course, e-mail communication … Continue reading →
Putting modesty aside and acknowledging my optimistic nature upfront, here are my predictions for 2012. One: Packers Win the Super Bowl – This may sound safe, but remember the Phillies? Two: Civil War in Iraq – Someone smarter than me … Continue reading →
My wife, Rebecca Durst, owns Rinaldo’s Barbershop located in downtown State College. Perhaps her name rings a bell since she has been quoted in media outlets far and wide as reporters have swarmed the area covering the alleged Penn State … Continue reading →