Can you Develop an Internal Champion?

Educating our customers we often believe is the path for sales success. We rely on that old Henry Ford saying, “’If I had asked people what they wanted, they would have said faster horses”, that puts us in the teacher position, a feeling of superiority and control. It leads us down that path of manipulation Read More …

Can Lean lead to Better Intuition?

One of the most difficult things to teach people is intuition. Even when you say, “How to become more intuitive?” it seems to have this mystical sound to it. In Gary Klein’s book, The Power of Intuition: How to Use Your Gut Feelings to Make Better Decisions at Work, he discusses the ability to recognize Read More …

The Helping side of SD-Logic

One of the reasons I like the thinking that accompanies Service Dominant Logic is where it places organizations in relationship to the customer. It removes the organization from being an expert at the outset and focuses us on both giving and receiving help instead of the context of help is required. That mindset is a Read More …

Sales will rescue the Influence Marketers

In the Sales and Marketing world, we are judged by few other things more than our ability to influence others. We not only have to influence customers, often we have to influence our organizations to respond to the needs of those darn customers. There are more books written about influencing than anything else in sales. Read More …

The Concept of Helping

I am a big fan of Edgar Schein and his new book, Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling, is an excellent read and highly recommend it. However, I believe that you will be better prepared if you read Schein’s previous book on Helping: How to Offer, Give, and Receive Help. A Read More …

Put an Emphasis on Evaluation and Monitoring

What I like about the Outcome-Based planning approach is the emphasis it puts on evaluation and monitoring. I like to think of it as the area that makes you smart. Organizations are always trying to create a future state, a place they want to be. This is often done in isolation away from customers or Read More …