Our Blog
We pride ourselves on staying up-to-date on the latest research and information available – so we are always bringing fresh, innovative and significant ideas to our clients. Immersing ourselves in the latest thinking, coupled with our vast experience in the industry, gives us a robust capability when it comes to effective learning design and delivery. We share our unique point of view through our blog.
Do Your Homework – and Throw It Away!
I was a good student. I did my homework on time, studied zealously for tests, and actually read everything I was assigned to read. Math was a hard subject for me, so I took summer classes to try to coax my brain into grasping all those black-and-white formulas and...
What We Resist Persists
Experiential learning is a deep challenge that leads to rich rewards.
Death of a (Macho) Salesman
In Arthur Miller’s 1949 play Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman embodies the common American salesperson of his time. Much has changed since Miller brought this character to life, yet the overly macho way people talk about sales remains the same—and it’s time for a...
Trust: A Salesperson’s Ultimate Blindspot
The following is adapted from Moving from Models to Mindsets. In business, trust is everything. Customers assess your behavior one way if they trust you, and another way if they don’t. If you talk about your products and services with a customer who doesn’t trust you,...
Being the Expert Can Be Risky in Sales
The following is adapted from Moving from Models to Mindsets. Having deep expertise in your products along with great confidence about this knowledge is a source of strength for any salesperson. However, having expertise and “being the expert” are different,...
Why Staying Curious Can Help You Win Sales
Preschool kids ask their parents an average of 100 questions a day. By middle school, they’ve basically stopped asking questions.[1] Curiosity is a lost superpower. So how does this happen? First, you’ve had terrible role models. When you were a kid, your parents...
How to Pick Up on Rapport Cues that Other People Miss
Almost every conversation is an opportunity to build rapport. To do so requires the salesperson to listen harder for rapport cues. On a recent call with a customer, it was clear that he had picked up a cold. We were supposed to talk for thirty minutes, which is not a...
Why Sales Is as Much an Art as a Science
The following is adapted from Moving from Models to Mindsets. Sales is both a science and an art. When working with sales managers, it’s a lesson we can’t emphasize enough. Too often, sales training methodologies, especially those regarding conversations for...
Storytelling in Sales: Whose story are we telling?
In sales, storytelling is all the rage right now. In fact, from what we’ve seen, teaching storytelling to salespeople has significantly increased in the last five years. We all know there is power in stories, but did you know that listening to someone share an...
Beware of the Book First People
Many training companies begin with a book. A thought leader, a researcher, someone with passion and dedication takes their energy and writes a book. They focus on dysfunctional teams, leadership principles or driving sales performance. So far, so good. Then they...
Sympathy Gets a Bad Rap: The inauthenticity of empathy
Empathy has been a hot topic. Wherever you go in the learning space—from preschool to the boardroom—teachers and leaders are stressing the importance of empathy. The growing number of millennials in the workforce have changed the emotional make up of our corporate...
Eat or Like the Oatmeal – The Use of Leadership Authority
I met with a newly minted leader and long-time colleague, who is both highly collaborative and highly engaging. He cares about his people in a visceral way. I congratulated him on his promotion while warning him that there was the potential for him to fail due to a...