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Individual  [ in-duh-vij-oo-uhl ] – a single human being, as distinguished from a group. Contributor [kuhn-trib-yuh-ter] – a person who contributes money, assistance, etc. Let’s put them together shall we?  A single human being, who contributes money, assistance, etc…, feels under appreciated don’t you think? I originally began writing on this subject with the sales professional in mind and then thought, that’s too exclusive.  You see, all individual contributors, regardless of SIC, deliver the goods for organizations daily. There is lots and lots of attention paid to leaders these days.  When I hang out with my peers, we all, generally speaking,…

Issac Asimov, in his sci-fi classic I, Robot said; “You just can’t differentiate between a robot and the very best of humans.”  Well, Issac, I dug the book, and on this part I will disagree.  Are we ready to give up being human beings already?   Richard Branson once said “We are human beings, not human doings.”  And yet, there’s a trend right now to automate pieces and parts of one of the most compelling and personal approaches to improving a human’s performance and condition: coaching. It may be well intentioned based on recent surveys; it certainly is getting a lot…

Meet Ian.There have been many famous ones.  The most famous Ian of course is Ian Fleming.  This according to several websites, not just my adoring fanship for all things 007.  Many are actors like Ian McShane and Ian McKellen.  And there are the musicians like Ian Anderson and an obscure college fave of mine: Ian Dury. This Ian, the one that inspired this blog, is Ian the Hurricane.  A wicked and destructive force of nature that swept through my state recently, taking with it 102 lives (so far) and racking up a current cost range of $65 – 100 billion…

When I was a kid, there were constant, ubiquitous public service announcements (or PSAs) that admonished kids for playing with matches because of all the forest fires we could and would start given to our proclivities as, well, kids.  It ignored the part about first being in a forest which for most of us was only when we went camping with the family which, in most cases, was not in a forest. And what if there is a forest? And we can’t see if for all the trees in there??!! I digress. Back to Smokey. His message was one of…

Meetings with clients are essentially back on!  Whether in person or over the phone and video, it’s happening. And if you’re like most people, you get in, cover what you want – and hopefully what the client or prospect wants – and get out.  It’s just like driving through Rhode Island. So why the hurry?  Years ago when hardware was king and one could still make money selling PC’s and peripherals at the corporate level, I had a sales leader who very successfully created new business with some very large financial companies in an extremely competitive and difficult marketplace: the…

Enterprise.  To explore strange new worlds. To seek out new life, And new civilizations. To boldly go where no (wo)man has gone before. OK, shameless homage to one of my absolute favorite shows of all time, and totally applicable to the strangely elusive, ever confusing and hugely rewarding enterprise sale.   This moniker, the enterprise account, is widely misunderstood and misused.  Sort of like the term coaching.  Is it really an enterprise account or just a big logo where one is selling to a small corner of the “starship”?  Merriam-Webster defines Enterprise in a variety of ways.  Interestingly enough, all of…

Famed instructor, caddie, golf (and life) coach Harvey Penick, tapping into his fabulous wisdom to golf and life, said “That’s the thing about golf; outside of the USGA rule book, there are no indisputable ways the game must be learned or played.”   I gave his thought some thought recently as it applies to the game of sales.  Why do sales leaders go by the “rules”? Penick also believed that the game was best learned from the back to the front. Meaning that in and around the green was the most important part of the game and then you worked back…

I just spent two days with a wonderful crew of young sales professionals early in their journey.  My first onsite trip since January 2020! We spent time breaking down and building up the sales conversation, learning how to connect, the ways we make impact, and the different types of listening skills required to be truly human centric. OK, sounds awesome; so what’s the problem?  The problem is the misuse of energy when having conversations.  Wut? What I mean – quite simply – is the economy of being conversational.  Let’s get to it. Filler Language Let’s start with “filler” language as…

While lamenting the introduction of oatmeal into my diet, I noticed that my sage wife cooked hers in the microwave without any safety precautions on the bowl to prevent it from making an exploding exit to every interior surface of the ubiquitous appliance.  I mentioned this clear oversight, stating my oatmeal creations require a sheet of clinging wrap (made of kevlar) to prevent a near nuclear holocaust each time I fearfully close my eyes and hit START when preparing this vexxing of breakfasts. “Your problem is you fight the oatmeal, trying to get it to conform to your cooking processes…

If you ever watched this series, you know that anti-hero title character Ray Donovan is a man of very few words.  So much so that most of the other characters in any given scene mention it to him directly.  Ray is mostly a “do-er,” he is rarely vulnerable and we only learn what he thinks when he dreams or has a memory via flashbacks. What is intriguing about his conversation trait is that other characters end up carrying on many of the conversations with themselves, often realizing what they want to do or be.  We don’t have to be Ray…