Redundant systems and a co-pilot who can take over if the pilot suddenly becomes ill have made commercial flight safe and efficient. Long-haul flights even carry a second crew, ensuring there are enough qualified people to do the job of flying no matter what occurs. Sports teams also have redundant people as they plan for inevitable injuries and fatigue by having a second and even third string of players ready to take the field at a moment’s notice.

These types of redundancies are…

Preparation in selling is often overdone or overrated. Surprised? If too much emphasis is put on preparation, salespeople focus more on what they have planned instead of what actually happens in the meeting with a buyer.

Today, I watched a sales veteran I work with conduct a masterful sales meeting. Alex’s mastery had nothing to do with what he planned on selling or what he planned on saying.…

Organizations often struggle to connect vision to action. I’ve seen it many times in my advising and consulting work. Regularly, organizations take their entire leadership team off to a beautiful, inspiring place—a ski resort in Utah or beachside in the Bahamas—and they spend days or a week coming up with a great strategy. Then when I check in with them a few months or even a year later, I hear that no action has taken place on the vision since that leadership retreat. At…

To Lead or Persuade, Master the Art and Science of Asking Effective Questions

When you are in selling situations, do people from time to time ask you to repeat what you’ve just asked them? If the answer is yes, chances are you are using too many words. You are causing people to think too hard about your question, when you’d rather have them thinking about their answer.

I have noticed this pattern not just with salespeople talking with…

The major airlines and many other types of companies have a problem in common—both want to be more competitive, yet, perpetuate the very business practices that keep them stuck in coach class. Southwest Airlines, on the other hand, is the perfect case study of the positive impact of new and improved best practices that have won the hearts and minds of many…

Some would say we are currently in a candidate driven market. While true, it’s always a candidate driven market. The perceived shift from a buyers’ market to a job seekers’ market is a myth often spoken of in the staffing and recruiting business. Even the very best of firms won’t fill every job, yet, they can find assignments or jobs for quality candidates regardless of market conditions. Candidate acquisition and retention always rules the day.

While building a strong…

Why did the man in business attire suddenly drop his pants in the middle of the “B” Concourse at Atlanta’s international airport? That’s a question many of us in the terminal were pondering yesterday. I decided not to stick around to see the outcome of his odd choice as there are some things I just don’t need to see. And this was one of them.

Most of us avoid…

On this Labor Day in the United States, may your day be filled with a complete lack of labor and a full day of relaxation. And may you take the spirit of reduced labor with you when you return to the office. Reducing labor intensity at work is a worthy goal for all. The time it saves can be invested wisely — on employees, customers, or even on more time off.

I've heard it said you are what you eat, which, if true, makes me a vegetable since I eat so many! While I get the concept of our bodies being impacted by what we put in them, what deserves just as much attention is something equally important — what we put in our heads.

Persistent thoughts become pervasive beliefs and some of these reek of inaccurate…

Sitting next to a pair of salesmen at the Birmingham, Alabama airport last Thursday, all they talked about was what they were going to talk about. Yes, I was eavesdropping, yet, I couldn’t help myself given their subject matter.

For 45 minutes, these men, most likely in their mid-30′s, focused on all of the points they were going to make when meeting…

Doing the next right thing can save lives, even if you’re not an “official” rescuer, such as a firefighter or police officer. Antoinette Tuff, bookkeeper at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, successfully talked a gunman in to turning himself in this past Tuesday. He had entered the school with an assault rifle and 500 rounds of ammunition.

As Tuff shows us, Radical…

Every episode of the popular Star Trek television series introduces some kind of threat to the Starship Enterprise. When that threat occurs, Captain Kirk immediately orders “Shields Up” to protect the vessel and minimize any potential damage. The shield even has all kinds of gee-whiz modifications depending on the kind of attack they’re under.

Because of the negative reputation of…

When a prospective buyer says “no” it is not always a refusal to do business with you. In many cases N-O really stands for one or more of the following:

• Not the Official:  You’re talking to the wrong person, so of course you’re getting a “no.” This is your opportunity to get to the official decision-maker with true buying…

In chatting with a colleague a few days ago, we both agreed that all of us, including people who are highly successful, experience doubts and fears. The difference between those that have tremendous success and those that do not is whether or not the negative thoughts turn into a cerebral flogging.

Often, stinking thinking begins after a mistake, poor outcome, or disappointment of some kind, and it’s quite normal that the first thought is less than positive. Highly successful people,…

Imagine if your baseline belief is that life is a blessing and we’re supposed to live in a state of gratitude, appreciation, and celebration. Imagine that, as a Sales Yogi (a practitioner of Sales Yoga) , you:

• Appreciate your accomplishments.
• Embrace challenges as an opportunity to stretch and grow.
• Cultivate energy generated from successes and use that to fuel your…