I wrote a very long post about Amazon.com's decision to defend selling a book on how to be a pedophile without getting in trouble on the Kindle digital text platform. I decided not to publish my post. Instead, a few short thoughts. … [Read more...]

Hiring your next superstar salesperson is no easy task. It is a challenging position to hire for, in part, because of just how difficult it is to predict a salesperson’s success once they are hired. When hiring for many other positions, past performance is a good indicator … [Read more...]

Don’t let the title fool you; this post isn’t about overcoming objections. It isn’t about never saying die. It’s about understanding the nature of nurture. … [Read more...]

You have heard them all before: “Our people are our greatest assets,” and “What differentiates us is our people.” The list goes on and on, and while many companies and their people walk this walk, enough others don’t that you are cynical. You say things to yourself … [Read more...]

On Tuesday nights at 8:00PM Eastern on Twitter, two super-smart friends I met at SOBcon last year, Lisa Petrilli and Steve Woodruff, host Leadership chat. You can follow or participate by following #leadershipchat. Last week’s topic was courage and leadership. The first … [Read more...]

It is sometimes difficult to release—or fire—people. Other times, even though it may be difficult, you can’t wait to release someone, usually because their behavior is so bad that you can’t wait to remove them from your team before they infect others with the crud that is … [Read more...]

Business-to-business sales go through a natural sales cycle (and buying cycle). There are some factors that can compress the time it takes to move an opportunity from target to close, and some factors that can extend that time. A salesperson with an effective process and who … [Read more...]

My friend and partner, Dave Brock at Partners in Excellence, wrote a post two days ago entitled Are You Coachable? If You Aren’t, You Won’t Make It! There is no reason that you need to let the horror story that is Dave’s post happen to you or someone you love. Great … [Read more...]

“No man ought to win a victory who is not willing to run the risk of defeat.” Ulysses S. Grant It is easy to get trapped by your fears. It’s easy to conjure up all kinds of negative beliefs about how your dream client is going to respond to your request for whatever … [Read more...]

I am the proud of father of twin girls. Being part of a big family, I wanted to keep the twins together in school, so they could look after each other, like my brothers and sisters and I did when we were children. My plan was working well (or so I thought), until I went to … [Read more...]