To Sales Managers who want their teams to sell more

Are you giving your sales team what they need?

Closeup portrait of a confident businessman

You’ve probably heard the expression before… if people don’t get things done it’s either because they don’t know what to do or they don’t know how to do it. Good sales managers know that setting a goal (what to do) for the team is important to drive success. But the best sales leaders know there is more to it […]

How to respond in the face of conflict

3 Steps to better outcomes

Man Thinking

Conflict was the next topic for the class. I asked for a volunteer to stand next to me and make a fist. With no other directions to my volunteer, I made a fist and placed my knuckles directly against his. Slowly I pushed my knuckles into his with greater pressure. As I leaned more into his fist […]

Part 2 of 2: Why should the Audience listen?

3 questions to define your starting point

car navigation gps

My wife calls me at home and says, “Russ, I’m lost! Must be solar flares or something because neither of my gps devices are working. I need you to give me directions so I can get home.” Before I can give her any directions, what is my first question for her? “Where are you?” That’s right! It […]

Part 1 of 2: Why are You Speaking?

Video - 3 Questions to define your purpose

I was heading back to LAX to catch my flight back to Houston and my Senior VP called to ask how my sales meeting with my customer went. I said, “I think it went pretty well.” After a long pause, he replied, “What the hell does that mean?” Based on my Senior VP’s response I […]

Do you make these logical mistakes?

3 effective ways to reason with others

Albert Einstein

Have you ever had a prospect become non-responsive right before you close the sale? Have you ever experienced a failure and wondered how you could’ve prevented it? You can avoid the potential paralysis of these situations by leveraging three forms of reasoning. I’m not a scholar of classic rhetoric and I don’t pretend to be one on […]

The Best Way to Pick a Fight

The importance of opinion and truth

This past election cycle brought out the worst in many of us, including the candidates, at times. One observation I had is the candidate’s use of rhetoric to persuade. One logical fallacy they both used was presenting opinion as truth. The truth may hurt, but unchecked opinions can mislead. Both Hillary and Trump (as well as the […]

7 Ways to Kill Your Company’s Culture

Without regular attention, we can all fall guilty to these

frustrated young man

My student pulled me aside during our break to ask me a coaching question with regard to her recent classroom presentation.  “When I was speaking, did you notice anything peculiar about how I was speaking?” When my students present for the first time, I often pick up on distractions in speech or body language, but doing […]

The most effective way to create a persuasive message

4 steps to persuade your audience

The salesman at my front door held out the vile and said, “Fill this with some water from your tap and I’ll show you what you’re drinking.” The football game wasn’t on for another 20 minutes so I was game. I also had a question in my head, “What am I drinking!?” After returning the tap […]

Empathy quote from John Maxwell

Who else wants their team to be more motivated?

4 leadership responsibilities to encourage the team

Team Business Meeting

I recently finished the book, Change Anything by Kerry Patterson on how to create lasting change. Patterson and his team discovered 6 key elements required to achieve transformational change. When we think about changing our habits most of us think it all depends on will power. “If I’m strong enough, I’ll be able to make this change.” Patterson points out […]