Can You Move the Ball?
I played varsity basketball and ran varsity track in high school. Track practice was simple—I was a sprinter, so I would run a quarter mile for stamina and 30 yards for speed. Then the race itself was over in ten
Income Investment
We rent the same house at the Jersey Shore every year. Between the prior week's tenants leaving and our arrival, the owners (who live here in another house) check everything out to make sure the cleaning crew has been thorough,
It’s the Service Level, Stupid
I tried to place an $800 order yesterday on the website for TrainWorld in Brooklyn, where I've purchased trains in person before. The site hung up at the final pay option, repeatedly. I called and a bored woman told me to
The Benefit of the Doubt
No one is perfect, and every organization will make mistakes. The key is not to try to achieve perfection, but to achieve such an excellent and trusting client relationship that you're given the benefit of the doubt when there is
Get Paid
Your customers' problems are not your problems. Too many consultants who work with small businesses allow their buyers to delay payments because of poor cash flow or other issues they've brought on themselves. Once you do that, you're at the
A New Idea to Generate New Ideas
Someone was talking about a client's "global IT leader" yesterday. I immediately began to wonder why clients don't have "global IP (intellectual property) leaders." Why don't organizations create more accountability for creating new ideas, innovation, and original approaches to delight
Entrance
When you walk into a buyer's office, who are you? Are you a business expert who is evaluating whether or not this prospect makes sense to work with, or are you a scared sales person trying to avoid losing business
To Tell the Truth
Ask yourself this tough question, you don't have to share your candid response with anyone: When you sit down with prospective buyers, how do you think they see you? As a vender? As a salesperson? As a commodity? As someone who should be talking
How to Make Two Million Bucks
If you see one true buyer a week (50 annually), and convert half of them (25) to clients, and your average project fee is $50,000, that's an annual income of $1.25 million. And if you are successful doing that the
The Mighty Fall
GE was just removed from the Dow Industrial Index, one of the original members. That's how quickly weak leadership and poor strategy can ruin even the largest business. This used to be the stomping ground of Jack Welch. The executives