Last week, I did a speech with 100 or so business owners and their top sales staff in the audience. During the portion of my session on the importance of being present with customers and showing them you care, an audience member raised his hand and stated the...

My friends, the calendar has turned once again, and the year has entered the fourth quarter. We have 13 weeks this year.   The ultimate outcome of most games, and most years, is determined in the fourth quarter.   Have a strong one, and you’ll exceed plan. You’ll...

I will tell you the secret to selling more.   Because people ask me. They say, “So, what’s the secret?”   This is the secret:   There is no secret to selling more.   There is no silver bullet.   There is no magic formula.   There is only the work.   I...

I was doing a keynote speech for an association event last week. My two-hour session started at 8 A.M., and some people drifted in somewhat late. Understandable, given the early hour. The later it got, the more I gently called attention to the late arrivers, with...

There are many times throughout the week that we think about picking up the phone to call a customer or two but do not.   We avoid it.   Or we get busy. Another call, or fire, comes in.   Or we send an email instead.   Or we need to drive somewhere. We could make the...

The upside of proactive phone calls to customers and prospects: It’s simple, but the competition isn’t doing it. Want to stand out from the crowd? Call humans. Be a human. (More on humans below.)  The customer will be happy to hear from you. We assume she won’t be, we...

Some days, I can't believe how much people pay me to teach their staff how to use the phone. But, the fact remains, almost all of us shy away from making phone calls, almost always.   Why? Because we don't want to be rejected (into our ear). We don't want to impose on...

A fascinating thing happened last week.   I was leading a half-day workshop for the Renaissance Executive Forum in New Jersey. We did an exercise where the participants were asked to write out as many of their product and service offerings as they could get on paper....

A fascinating thing happened last week.   I was leading a half-day workshop for the Renaissance Executive Forum in New Jersey. We did an exercise where the participants were asked to write out as many of their product and service offerings as they could get on paper....

With fantasy football season upon us, I went to see its impact on our economy. Fortune says that fantasy football costs $17 billion per year in lost productivity in the U.S.   Big number, right? Bigger than many economies around the world.   In the same search, I saw...