Just before dark each day a Fox visits our property and drives our dog, Dinger, crazy. If you don't know Dinger, you can learn about his listening skills in this article. Last week, the Fox stole Dinger's green ball, brought it home to his own…
You finally have that big new 4K flat screen mounted on your wall but now the movie you are streaming isn't sharp because your inconsistent internet connection negatively affects the resolution and the big screen makes it even more obvious. Bringing it...
Among all the product shortages we have experienced in the past ten months, there has been no shortage of crappy movies. It's almost like the movie studios decided to release all the movies filmed in the past several years that weren't ready for ...
Two Holiday traditions in one. In mid-December each year, my family spends the weekend in Boston and we enjoy the Boston Ballet's production of the Nutcracker. At the same time each year I repost a seasonal favorite, an article I first wrot...
I won't suggest that a cup of coffee will make you more alert and more effective. It's much more helpful than that. This is another Bob story. Bob was on a sales call and the prospect told him that they were looking for the lowest…
I'm going to share the story of a real salesperson and his current, real opportunity, but change the names of everyone involved. I hear stories like this every day but this particular one happens way too often. 2 months ago, Bob agreed to a $25,0...
Biases drive decision making. You have them. I have them. We all have them. Most of the time those biases are fine but when it comes to hiring, and specifically sales hiring, bias can get you in a heap of trouble. While some bia...
I just love it when our lawn looks gorgeous - thick, lush, and green, green, green. Getting it looking that good requires fertilizing, aerating, thatching, over seeding, and frequent mowing, all things better suited to the landscaping company tha...
At this point, most salespeople have accepted that the majority of their sales "calls" will take place over Zoom or similar video platform. However, accepting the reality of video selling, and maximizing that video selling for effectiveness, are ...
When your computer isn't functioning the way you expect you may notice how sluggish and unresponsive it is - a symptom of the real problem - so you need to look more closely. I'm on a Mac so I open up the activity monitor to…
The lettering above the dials of our LG washing machine (pictured above when new) have worn off. I went online believing I could get a replacement decal and while LG does not provide replacements, they will replace the entire front panel fo...
The shit show known as 2020. Many of us have heard that term used to describe this uniquely strange year. Despite everything unusual about 2020, there have been some normalcies too. We celebrated births, birthdays, anniversaries, Moth...
We use remote deposit, a terrific convenience for depositing checks from the desktop without going to the bank. The only problem is that the software that runs the check scanner isn't compatible with the Mac OS. It only runs on Windows so w...
Most companies don't understand that crappy customer service is really a sales issue. When a company's customer service is thoughtful, helpful, kind and thorough, that great customer service actually serves the sales organization. It become...
Would you fly on a huge jet from Minneapolis, Minnesota to St. Paul, Minnesota, usually a 15-minute drive? Would you take a train between intersections of the same city block, usually a 2-minute walk? Would you take a bus to the bottom of your driveway...
I don't really care whether or not you like, approve of, tolerate, or agree with President Trump and/or the issues he stands for. Doesn't matter to me. And you shouldn't care what I think of him or which side of that invisible center line I...
Last week we moved our son into his dorm to begin his freshman year of college. The college President's opening remarks were virtual, so we joined the Zoom stream from our hotel room and listened in. He had some really useful things to share with...
TToday we'll discuss how to measure sales effectiveness of different salespeople despite there being so many variables to confuse the matter. You can scroll directly to that topic or, if you don't mind, please read my 3 paragraphs of context. In ...
During our first of its kind Independence Day weekend, I thought about a lot of things that loosely tied into sales effectiveness and while they could all be articles in their own right, I decided to write one article tying them all together. I've been...
Would you like to start a business? Can't figure out what business to start? I have three ideas for you: In the past four weeks, I have tried and tried and tried to get a glass company to replace the tabletop for a large outdoor…