Gina is a super smart twenty-six year old. She just got her doctorate from Yale University. She wrote her doctorate thesis on the market evolution of a cutting edge tech product. Ultimately, Gina sees herself in academia, but she’s taken a sales job with an established high-flying tech startup that produces the product she did her thesis on Read More...
A team of academic researchers once asked Bear Bryant why Alabama football was so successful under his tenure. Bear Bryant's reply: “Because I love my players, and they love me.” The researchers were skeptical. Alabama football, like any team, was measured on wins and losses. The researchers theorized that the team’s won-loss record (or the amount of love they had for their coach) might not be the most useful measure or motivator for individual players Read More...
The battle over cold calling rages on. Is cold calling a necessary part of being a salesperson? Or should a good salesperson never be cold calling? The battle continues because the answer is contextual. Both of the above statements are true, depending on context. Whether cold calling is useful depends on your situation, your industry and your product Read More...
Many years ago, my boss’s boss stopped me in the hallway. “Congratulations,” he said. I heard you had an application signed with Cargil. I was concerned. Since he knew the application had been signed, he would expect the transaction to close. “Well, it's not closed yet. Maybe wait until the money is in the bank to congratulate me Read More...
We were expecting no one when the door bell rang at my mother’s house. I opened the door. The air was brisk, the wind was strong, the sun was burning bright. Standing at my mother’s front door was a young brown skinned man, wearing a frayed white oxford and dark blue pants that were slightly too big for him Read More...
In the wee hours of the morning of May 5th, 2009, I spontaneously had to give a presentation on selling to a large room full of my old colleagues. There was no time to prepare. Speaking off the cuff, I gave an entertaining and interesting performance. I managed to poke fun at the bosses, and deliver some relevant content Read More...
"The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do, and not doing it." I'm a recent convert to Michael Porter's principal for strategic action. It solves the common problem inherent in unclear goals. If top line strategy and objectives are ambiguous or unclear, then mission creep sets in; we can justify lots of activities in the pursuit of those loosely defined goals Read More...
In the card game of gin, each player tries to group his hand into three of a kind, or a run of three or more consecutive cards of the same suit, until all ten cards in the player's hand are part of a straight flush or three of a kind. My grandmother - I called her Nana - was a great gin player. The end of the game would always find her holding the cards I needed to win Read More...
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