You are browsing the archives of 2008 January.

This is the first in a 10-part series, How to Be a Better Sales Manager. It’s my belief that the sales manager is underserved. There’s plenty of training and coaching available for sales people, but managers, the unheralded heroes of sales success, are all too often left to their own devices. These posts are designed […]

Realtor Lucas Lechuga runs a popular real estate blog called Miami Condo Investments. After running a negative post on a high profile Miami property, Opera Tower, Lucas and his former firm were hit with a lawsuit by the developer for the incredible sum of $25 million. I say former firm because Lucas was terminated yesterday […]

Experts differ on whether we’re heading for a recession, in a recession, or averting a recession. Does it matter who’s right? Whether you’re an entrepreneur, sales rep, or sales manager, you have to plan for worst-case scenarios. And in this case, the worst could be pretty bad.
How do you work your way through bad times? […]

Ironically, outside the box thinking has been so highly praised by so many people for so long, its superiority to inside the box thinking has become conventional wisdom.
Today, it goes without saying that outside the box thinking leads to smart business decisions, and inside the box thinking leads to dumb ones.
However, I would argue that […]

The Age of Conversation, released last year, was a unique - and by now famous - group writing project spearheaded by Gavin Heaton and Drew McLellan.
The pair has teamed up again to bring authors together to co-create a sequel. This time, the topic will be selected by vote. Choices are -

Marketing Manifesto
Why Don’t People Get […]

For you cartoon enthusiasts out there, here’s a new page of business cartoon thumbnails, which I pulled together from my archives.
I’ll be adding images to the page, so please remember to check back from time to time.
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There are lots of metrics you can use to measure your blog’s performance - traffic, Technorati rankings, number of comments, subscriptions, etc. But one thing I’m noticing on my blog (I hope it’s a trend and not a blip) that doesn’t show up in statistics is an evolution from comments to conversations.
I appreciate every comment […]

What do you do when you hit a brick wall? When you’re in the middle of a tough project and feel like throwing in the towel? When you just can’t muster the strength to make another cold call?
I like to think about David and Goliath. (The cartoon above was created for Bill Welter at Adaptive […]

Hallelujah! Cliff Atkinson’s extraordinary book, Beyond Bullet Points, instantly converted me from a PowerPoint detractor to a PowerPoint enthusiast.
Why?
Because the BBP method of creating PowerPoint presentations turned my conventional thinking about PowerPoint on its head. And, as the cartoon above illustrates, conventional PowerPoint thinking is woefully inadequate.
We’ve all experienced the boredom of a PowerPoint presentation […]

This series of posts will help you avoid (or cure yourself of) six really bad sales habits.
Worst Bad Sales Habit 1 - Winging It. Fond of shortcuts? In sales they lead straight to failure.
Worst Bad Sales Habit 2 - A Freeze on Cold Calls. Hey, life is good. Why make new calls? Why indeed.
Worst Bad […]