We are constantly managing the barrages on our time. Constantly struggling with the fact that the day gets away from us and there is just not enough time to get everything done. One of the things I hear a lot from my clients is that while they feel they can take ownership of the actions
When I was working for American President Lines in Atlanta, Georgia in the late 80’s I worked with a good friend of mine, Bob Sappio. Bob was district sales manager, and I was district Operations manager. Bob was trying to close a very big retail account, looking to take the business from our biggest competitor.
Many years ago, Jack Moore was a salesman for Lance. He had a truck and sold and delivered crackers and peanuts and snacks to stores. One day, Jack was visiting his fiancee, waiting for her outside the hospital where she worked. A man walked up to Jack, who was leaning against his car, waiting. “That’s
Going that extra mile for your customers has many different faces. At the end of the day, we have to realize that there is always a choice that our customers have; there is a lot of competition – the products and services we sell have to be good; they have to be reliable. But we
How often should Talent Review meetings occur? Once a year is realistic, although I have found that once this process really becomes engrained in culture, it is part of management agendas 2-3 times a year with one of those times being a dedicated talent Management meeting Should Talent Profiles (internal resumes) include a photograph of
It’s all about relationships. When I started out as a sales rep in New York in 1984 (!), my friend and colleague, John Motley and I were tasked with creating an inside sales desk. We were to call on customers that were not assigned to sales reps via the telephone and make the sales and
One of the workshops I just love to give is one on Temperaments and Interaction Styles. This is fascinating stuff forged over 25 centuries of study going back as far as Hippocrates in 450 B.C. Zing forward to 2013 and people still really enjoy learning about the Myers Briggs based 4 types of temperaments and
I recently gave a webinar on Values-Based Leadership for members of SAMA, (strategic Accounts Management Association). We explored the imperative of values based leadership in the need for corporations to move towards a balance of financial and social profit. We discussed Shared Value, a business approach whereby corporations build business models that leverage their core
The founder of my boarding school, John Corlette, gave a speech, entitled “Our Lives are what we make of them” An excerpt of that speech: Within a few years all you people will be leaving school and setting out on a new chapter in your lives, and it is not going to be as different
One of my clients, Nima Pourshabh, is CEO of Formafina.com, an incredible business that includes internet high brand flash sales as well as b-2-b retail sales and distribution in Brazil. Nima and i were talking about how important it is to stay flexible, to respond quickly to what works and what doesn’t work. He was