Within your organization, you may have noticed that top performers are meticulous planners. They understand that success doesn’t happen by chance and, as a result, they spend time at the beginning of the sales process preparing a well-thought-out strategy for “planning to win.” In our previous article, we explored the importance of understanding what matters most to your customer’s key stakeholders, and the types of questions that can help you discover and align their objectives and challenges with your solutions and unique business value.

In November of last year, I spoke at the CX NXT - Customer Experience Summit in Dubai on the topic of failure, fumbles, and fiascos in customer experience. Now, we can all learn from failures, but rather than just doing a talk about service and experience mishaps and what we can learn from them specifically, I wanted to try and elevate the discussion to illustrate that failure is inherent in every organizational system and is something that we need to both acknowledge and do something about.

When it comes to living your best life, Albert Einstein — notorious as the greatest physicist and genius of his time, and possibly of all-time — probably isn’t the first name you think of in terms of life advice. You most likely know of Einstein as a pioneer in revolutionizing how we perceive the Universe, having given us advances such as

“Most people feel meetings are not as effective as they could be,” says Abrahams, a lecturer in organizational behavior at the Stanford Graduate School of Business and host of Think Fast Talk Smart: The Podcast. “However, it is possible to have well-run meetings that are productive, that you look forward to, and that good things come from.”

Hannibal crossing the Alps to surprise the Roman army. Charlemagne’s conquest of Western Europe. The Allies’ D-Day invasion of Normandy. These are the powerful images conjured by the word “strategy” – military maneuvers using smart tactics to secure victory. But strategy isn’t just for winning wars. There’s a famous saying that goes, “Most people spend more time planning their summer vacation than planning their lives.”

Micromanagement isn't just a corporate buzzword, but if you haven’t experienced it personally, you might not fully understand just how negatively it can affect employees. You also might be micromanaging without even realizing it. Here’s how micromanagement affects individual employees, teams, and organizations. What is Micromanaging?

It's that time of the year when many people are thinking hard about how to be better. Either to be new and improved or to work smarter, if not harder. For salespeople, that means focusing on what has been—and will likely remain—the biggest challenge: not just keeping their clients, but finding new ones. I wrote will likely remain because of one trend in particular. Salespeople must find new ways of remaining vital, as I've written here before.

Empathy is a key concept in business today, especially in sales management. Some would say it has become a buzzword, but many experts agree that empathetic leadership enhances sales team motivation and performance in big ways. I suggest there is an element of truth in both views. The challenge is in the execution. Many sales managers have the wrong idea of what empathy really entails.

Losing customers without any plan to mitigate the situation is a surefire path to ensure your business goes under. If you’re seeing a decline in customers, there could be various reasons for why that’s the case, like poor customer service, inconsistent pricing, or lack of training for your sales reps. Digging into why you’re losing customers doesn’t need to be a big mystery to solve. However, understanding why you might be losing customers is essential so you can create and implement a plan to recover and retain your clients.

What do sales leaders look for when hiring a salesperson? To find out, we asked sales leaders at some of the most innovative companies in the world – Gong, LinkedIn, IBM, Salesforce, Equifax, and others – that exact question via our How I Sell newsletter. And interestingly, there was a lot of overlap in their answers. Many of the respondents used the same words over and over again.

The workplace is undergoing a radical transformation. Generational shifts, technological advances and economic turbulence have created an environment where traditional corporate ladders no longer inspire talent. Today’s employees prioritize purpose, growth, and human value over impressive titles and managerial power. In the past, successful careers meant ascending narrow departmental rungs, starting from the mail room, and gradually working your way up to an executive corner office.

In today’s world of intolerance, conflict, and divisiveness we would all benefit from more kindness and emotional intelligence. And some organizations are truly trying to build these skills. In research cited in HBR a while back, we learned that 20% of U.S. companies now offer empathy training to their managers and leaders. That’s a great beginning. And as a leadership and culture coach, I applaud it.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask . . . for once I know the proper question, I could solve the problem in less than five minutes.” So said Albert Einstein, arguably one of the greatest minds of modern times.

Customers can be unforgiving in the marketplace with lots of competition across industries, that’s why it’s imperative as a business owner to make sure you are providing a memorable experience. Award-winning speaker, author, and skills trainer Patricia Fripp once said, "It's not your customer's job to remember you; it's your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don't have the chance to forget you."

Have you ever searched for an item on Amazon and you not only found the item you were looking for, but found around 100 variations of the same product. They appear to be the exact same thing but since there is a huge difference in price, you look closely and learn that the cheapest products are Chinese rip-offs that don’t work, don’t last, and don’t include the same features.

As part of my financial planning business, I offer free introductory meetings. Recently, a potential client indicated in her pre-meeting questionnaire that she would like to have two times her current salary in retirement. To avoid boring you with math, let me just say that this is fairly impossible in most situations. For a basic example, if you earn $100,000 per year and want to have $200,000 in retirement you would need to have approximately $5 million invested, which is fairly difficult to accumulate using a $100,000 salary.

As we step into 2024, the landscape of sales is evolving rapidly, shaped by technological advancements, shifting consumer behaviors, and the ever-changing business environment. Let's delve into the key sales trends that are set to define the year ahead, drawing insights from various research papers and my own observations.

As I approach my 100th birthday, I’m often asked for advice on how to succeed in business and in life. I have a pretty standard set of advice that applies to most circumstances. It’s worked pretty well for me, and it’ll work pretty well for any other person who uses my methods. I don’t claim that they’re perfect for everybody, but I think many of them contain universal values and can’t-fail ideas.

In a recent interview with podcaster and former monk Jay Shetty, Dalio distilled his decades of experience into a five-step process, promising a map for success that's as effective as it is simple. The beauty of it is that you don't need to be a Wall Street genius to apply it. Anyone with the will and determination to succeed can use it as a guide to navigate their own journey.

Someone in your life has probably uttered the clichéd (but true) wisdom that “you can’t buy more time.” The art of managing the seconds, minutes, and hours we have at our disposal is a lifelong project—but what if we’re looking at things all wrong? What if, instead of focusing on building time management skills, we started bolstering our energy management skills?