One of the best salespeople I ever managed wasn't at all what you'd expect.

She wasn't particularly attractive. She wasn’t gregarious, didn’t have any real sense of charm, and didn’t possess any natural charisma. No one naturally gravitated…

The fastest way to improve your number is to help your clients and prospects make the improvements that they need to make. The fastest way to help them do that is by developing yourself, especially your business acumen and situational knowledge,…

Your salespeople are better than you think they are. They deserve more credit than you sometimes give them.

The job your salespeople do is more difficult that you think it is. Selling is more difficult now than when you did it. It’s much more…

Before you make a major withdraw from a relationship, make sure you have made more than enough deposits to cover it. Then, once you’ve made that withdraw, immediately start making deposits to rebuild your balance. Re-read your Stephen Covey every…

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.

If you are competing by creating a higher…

The exceptionally smart people I know are also exceptionally curious. They are always hunting for and exploring new ideas.

One of the first questions the curious will ask you is what you are reading. See my friend Jack Malcolm, and I dare you try…

Stop trying to sell product and start focusing on how you help your client with business outcomes.

Stop trying to talk features and benefits and start developing the business chops that is business acumen and situational knowledge (You need to…

Things go sideways sometimes, even when you do your very best. Here's what you can do before that happens.

Don't Make Promises You Can't Keep: Your client stakeholders are listening to the commitments you make. They are keeping track, and later…

Pick any three Sunday morning political/talk/current events shows, like Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace, Meet the Press with David Gregory, or Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. Watch the ones that share your brand of America's political parties…

The reason you don't have the results you want today is because you didn't do what you needed to do some time ago. The pain may be new, but the root cause is old—maybe dog-years-old.

The action that you want to take today to get results now are…