Blog
When Playing it Safe is Dangerous
Sometimes playing it safe is the most dangerous thing you can do. They say that if sharks are not on the hunt and moving forward constantly, they will die. It sounds incredible until you stop a minute and think about it. In fact, I view business like this: If you are not growing, you are dying. If you are not […]
Developing Great Employees
The biggest problem most of my clients face today is a shortage of good people. Actually, it is a problem common to all industries, right now. A Five Guys restaurant in Washington, stood ready to open for over a year before it actually opened, because they could not find enough people to staff it. Another company in that same state […]
Good Trade Show Or Bad Trade Show, It’s Up To You
After attending the IPC Apex Expo trade show a few months ago I came to realize that there are two kinds of people: those who just come here, set up their booth and expect things to happen (and then blame the show organizers when nothing does), and those who make things happen and who think it was a great show. […]
How To Hire The Best
One of the questions I am most frequently asked is how can you tell who is going to make a great salesperson? How can you tell? What are the characteristics to look for in a person that will indicate that this person is bound for greatness in sales? What are you going to look for in that person that will […]
Selling Against Price
I hate this subject. I don’t hate it because I’m scared of it, but rather because it reminds be that most of our customers pride themselves on their ability to find the cheapest products in the world to put into their products, which they also claim are the best in the world. How exactly does that work? Does a […]
Never Forget That It’s People That Buy Your Stuff!
I know we sell technology, and technology is based on facts, on data, and on physics. That is all true, more than true actually. So being technical, and many of us being engineers or operations people (not me), we tend to want to deal in facts, the black and white of reality, that’s where we live after all. Now this […]
It’s Only Common Sense: Selling Against the Big Guys
There has for some time now been and ever growing gap in annual revenue numbers between the large international board shops and the smaller local board shops. While most of the smaller North American shops are in the under $50 million-a-year revenue range, the big guys are now hovering around the billion-dollar range-a-year range. There are a few exceptions for […]
The All Powerful Referral!
Someone talking about how good you are is so much more powerful than you saying how good you are. A customer praising your product, is so much more credible than you telling people you have great products. And, a customer going on and on about your extremely great service will help you grow your business much more than anything you […]
Don’t Burn Those Bridges! (Ten Rules to Live By)
In sales and in life for that matter you are only as good as the people you know, work with and are friends with. You are only as strong as your affiliations. You have to know and be willing to work with everyone if you are going to be successful life. So with that in mind embrace every bridge […]
People Don’t Like To Be Sold, They Like To Buy
I just finished reading Jeffrey Gitomer’s The Sales Manifesto, and I loved it. In fact, I was so inspired by the book that I read it twice. Not only that, I just ordered a box full of copies to give out to some of my clients’ salespeople. This little red book is so powerful that I would urge all of […]
