A recent article in Vanity Fair, about how history will judge Trump’s presidency, struck me as having definite parallels to how clients judge us in the sales and presentation process. In the first of six short essays written by different historians, Jon Meacham, presidential scholar and biographer, wrote, “Without historical context, without humility, without empathy, he’s (Trump) what the author …
One of the only things worse than no sale is when, after an agreement, the buyer changes his mind. I had two buying experiences recently, one positive and one negative, that pointed up how to avoid getting into that position. The first happened on our holiday trip to the Montreal Jazz Festival last week. “Are …
Most people send Christmas greeting emails that get lost among hundreds of others. Far fewer use Thanksgiving as a wonderful opportunity to get in front of clients and share genuine gratitude for their business. And, please, don’t send a mass mailing! When you personalize each one, you will be surprised at how many appreciative responses you will receive. …
Malcolm Gladwell in his book Outliers studied many successful people from the Beatles and Bill Gates to concert violinists and concluded that it takes roughly ten thousand hours of practice to achieve mastery in a field. Whether that number is correct or not, the larger point is that there is definitely a correlation between practice and success. Yet I find …
As the summer winds down (all too short), I would like to recommend “Making Modern Toughness” to you, a short article by David Brooks in this week’s New York Times. Its serious intention is to provoke thoughts on what makes people resilient in life (it is not what you think). But, as I read it, …
Is there anything that beats the excitement and emotion of watching the Olympics? All that discipline, amazing performance, and athletic grace! Wow. What’s also fascinating are the infinitesimal differences in scores that separate gold, silver and bronze winners. In business, with products and services being very similar, small differences can make the difference between winning and …
I watched a supposed communication pro deliver a webinar recently on successful presentations that was arguably one of the worst presentations I have ever seen. She rambled. She took forever to get to her key points. Her pacing was off. She didn’t seem to know her own slides. She peppered her remarks with “ums.” You …
Sports teams huddle. One senior publisher always wears a pair of stilettos. Another executive thinks of his kids. All of these people are performing a ritual prior to giving a high stakes presentation, demo, performance, or speech. They do this for luck, for confidence, and for focus. Sounds silly, but, hey, it works for …
Last week’s blog “The Simplest Way to Win Business” was also a LinkedIn Pulse Post where it got an extraordinary number of views (just under 3000) and 5X the number of likes of my previous Posts. No one was more surprised than me! The content wasn’t techie. The idea wasn’t new. The topic wasn’t controversial. …
Fast Company rolled out its list recently of 20 predictions for the next 20 years. The digital and scientific predictions were not surprising, but what was surprising was #12. Tucked between “Medical Training Will Be Re-written” and “Entrepreneurship Will Not Be For Everyone was #12… “Human Empathy Will Be Central” “It’s not just doctors who …
What do a girl scout and a CEO have in common? They both depend on old fashioned skills and smarts for success. Katie Francis, 13, sold 22,200 boxes of Girl Scout cookies this year, breaking the world record she set last year. Secrets to her success? Smile (No one likes to buy from a frowner) …