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A great form of flattery is to be prepared when you meet someone. It is a respect of their time and their work when you have done research on them before you have met and can dialogue about their concerns and pursuits. I would say it is a discipline and
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I have written a lot about entrepreneurship and how it is increasingly becoming the norm. The main reason is that companies are getting smaller, not bigger. We used to go to big companies because that is where the tools were to work and collaborate. Furthermore, our society was about mass
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Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn't have the power to say yes. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt It sounds like Sales 101 to have to tell a salesperson to ensure they are dealing with a decision maker. However, this mistake is unfortunately common. When you are dealing
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In the not too distant past I remember working at organizations where there truly was a paper trail. There were organized file cabinets and people to manage those files. The paper and the people were interconnected. For some it was a sort of job security. We didn't know
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Major industries thrive off of the one eternal connection point we are all drawn to - the power of suspense. Hollywood, book publishing, news media and radio all understand how to create a gap in the mind of their audience. It is part of storytelling and we are all drawn
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Sometimes selling to a stranger becomes more strained than it needs to be. There's too much talking and not enough action. Talking about what you do rather than starting to work together can erode the sales cycle. One of the ways to build trust quickly is to work
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"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." ~ Red Adair "In every area of life there is a cheaper alternative but don't forget the bitterness of poor workmanship stays long after the
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"When you change marketing strategies, you lose all the frequency you've worked so hard to attain. And you have to start over." ~ Seth Godin One thing about marketing that is for certain is that it is difficult to change someone's mind. Therefore, a brutal
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A mistake that entrepreneurs and small business owners can often make is to hire for a function. You have a specific job that needs to get done but if you bring on someone just for a function, this can create a lot of grief later. When I look at talent,
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Have you ever noticed what happens when you start selling someone without permission or trust? The tension in the air seems to thicken immediately. When you don't have permission and you start selling prematurely, this is a violation. We don't like to be sold or feel
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When new markets arise, there are always copycats that take an original idea and capitalize on it. Look at the second and fifth movers that are copying Square on merchant payments. They could have started much earlier on this concept, but Square simplified the process, worked with the thick bureaucracy
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There are different types of customers. Some truly do value high performance and can recognize value and are more than glad to exchange cash for services. There are some customers that want everything above board and explicit on every deal. They exchange cash for services in more of a regimented