Word Count: 1,605Estimated Read Time: 6 Min. Cutting through the noise to connect with and convert a prospect to a customer is one of the biggest challenges facing sales and marketing teams today.  The noise is everywhere.  Visual.  Auditory.  Olfactory.  … Continue reading →

Word Count: 1,298Estimated Read Time: 5 Min. Salespeople will do just about anything to close a sale.  They will brave cold calls to hardened gatekeepers.  They will send email after email after email to prospects hoping to elicit a response.  … Continue reading →

Word Count: 1,700Estimated Read Time: 7 Min. Overcoming Price’s Square Root Law Productivity is defined as “the measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (the output) against the inputs used to produce those goods and … Continue reading →

Have you felt that not everyone at your company or organization is equally productive? Some – a few – are significantly more productive than everyone else combined. While that observation is anecdotal, it occurs a lot. So much so that it has even been studied empirically by a professor at Yale University who found that it is, in fact, a real phenomena and dubbed the theory Price’s Law. Anyone who leads or manages a department, division, business or organization should know Price’s Law. (FYI… Price’s Law has nothing to do with the price of goods and services.)

To find out why Price’s Law matters, click here. Continue reading →

When people think of generosity, they think of money. But generosity is not tied to money at all. Generosity is about giving more of something (time, attitude, effort, control, and yes, even money) than is strictly necessary or expected. But at work, generosity can be an underlying force that can mean the difference between success and failure for employees and employers alike. Here’s how to look at generosity as a business skill that everyone should embrace.

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Word Count: 1,323Estimated Read Time: 5 ½ Min. Ask 50 people what is the single most important task or behavior a person can do that is required to be successful and you will likely get 50 different answers.   Last week, … Continue reading →

Billions of words have been written on the topic of success. Articles define what it means and what it takes to be successful. Books wax poetic about the skills needed to be successful. Podcasts drone on about the qualities required to be a winner. Motivational speakers natter endlessly about what tasks help maximize achievement. But, let’s face it, no one is perfect. No one has all of the skills tied to success. No one epitomizes all the qualities associated with successful people. No one spends every minute of every day on success-oriented tasks. So what if we could boil it down to just four essential skills and behaviors for success? That would be a Superfecta.

Here’s our Superfecta for Success. Continue reading →

Companies go to great lengths to recognize employees who have been with a company for many years and loyal customers who faithfully support the business. In the U.S., companies spend over $40 Billion a year on tenure-based recognition programs for staff who stay with an employer for five years, 10 years, 15 years, 20 years, etc. And, they spend about $50 Billion a year on customer loyalty programs. But do such programs work? When and how should an organization express gratitude to their devoted employees and faithful customers?

Here’s what research indicates about appreciation, gratitude and recognition in business. Continue reading →

Over the last few months, we’ve looked at how a multitude of unconscious biases – the ones we don’t know we have – affect the hiring and management process. But, among all of the biases in hiring and management, one of the most common now — thanks to rise in remote work — is Proximity Bias. Proximity Bias is all about familiarity, and despite the saying, familiarity does not breed contempt.

Here’s why. Continue reading →

In business, there is a need to be nimble and make quick decisions. Delaying often results in missed opportunities. But to hasten the decision-making process, the human brain takes mental shortcuts and makes deductions. We create social stereotypes about groups of people; beliefs that stem from the need to organize and categorize our social world. The problem is that, while they help with making snap decisions, these blanket judgments are not always fair or logical. They can often be narrow-minded and insensitive. In business, these unconscious biases can undermine a company’s genuine desire to function ethically and morally, and can also miss out on top talent. One common unconscious bias is Attribution Bias… which basically boils down to assuming the worst in others. This can really taint the hiring process.

Here’s why. Continue reading →