The Most Important Decision ‘We choose our spouses. We choose our bosses. We choose our friends. We choose the people who work with us. We choose our nannies. We choose our lawyers. We choose our doctors. It is definitely worthwhile investing in learning, because this is not rocket science, but it requires discipline.’ Claudio Fernández-Aráoz Claudio … Read more
I know plenty of financial advisors who would love to spend a few hours reviewing my investments, cash position, investment goals and helping me make a realistic plan. I know how much I spent on food, travel, housing, school in the last month, year and if I did the sums I could calculate a rough … Read more
At dinner last night, I was talking with my father about my sense that we have had a collapse of trust in the institutions of the western democracies over the last decade. A good society has a sense of fairness. I feel that this sense of fairness has been lost. There is a widespread intensifying … Read more
There are 3 objections that must be overcome to get somebody to buy: 1. why buy anything 2. why buy from me 3. why buy now Why buy anything? The first objection is showing that not taking action is not a viable option. The problem must be made explicit and brought to the full attention … Read more
When we all end up doing what nobody wanted to do I was out at a dinner with a large group of friends recently. At the end of the night I overheard two people talking about a local beach party. One said “these beach parties are a big thing here in Spain.” The other said … Read more
When I worked at Accenture, we were often in the business of identifying the existing business processes and then analysing how we would enable these processes with technology. Sometimes it was putting a mobile phone purchase process onto Siebel CRM, sometimes it was putting insurance sales onto SAP ERP. A senior partner used to say … Read more
Rory Sutherland tells some wonderful stories about the power of framing. If you want to be persuasive, you must get good at framing the argument. Good framing shifts the argument to a playing field where you can achieve your ends and the other can feel that they have gotten a good deal. Prices are not … Read more
I came across this paragraph in a blog post by sales professional Grant Cardone. “No one buys a $57,000 watch to tell time. People buy things to solve problems. The cost of the item isn’t what matters. Once the buyer is able to see the problem the product solves, their decision becomes much easier to … Read more
There is a power tool in negotiation. I would say this is the single most useful tactic that I use in my years of selling (I sell private jets among other high value products). It is not competitive, it is not aggressive, it is not avoiding anything. It does not require massive intellectual development, years … Read more
Question for you: What do you have as your description line in your LinkedIn profile? Mine says “Moving People to Action” What does your LinkedIn Description say? I see several varieties of description. Some people just put their job title: “VP Marketing at Corporation Inc”. Some people an abstraction of their past experience “Experienced … Read more