Category: Dialogue
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Sales: What is your Painful Problem to Solve?
What is your painful problem to solve? Sales is not about describing your product, your process or your friends. It is about explaining to the buyer a problem that they have, and giving them a glimpse of a world where that problem has gone away. What would it feel like to live in a world…
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No one buys a $57,000 watch to tell time
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…
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You have to Ask
This week I was teaching a 2 day course on Personal and Organisational Leadership. Stefan flew in on Monday to organise the logistics for the course. I met him at the Hilton Diagonal Mar hotel to take him for dinner at my favourite tapas restaurant in Barcelona: Cerveceria Catalana. We jumped in my car and…
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Sun-Tzu’s 5 Factors for Victory and 5 Attributes of a Leader
I just watched Thomas Hyunh speak about his lifetime obsession with Sun-Tzu, the 2,500 year old Chinese General, at Authors@Google (video at the bottom of this post). Sun-Tzu was only 30 years old when he led the smallest region of China to victory over the largest region. This victory made him famous, and made…
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The Real Reason Why Audiences Love Reality TV
I was watching the UK version of the TV show “The Apprentice” a few months ago. This particular week’s challenge was to sell caravan and camping equipment at a trade show. Early on, there was a key decision to make: Which model of caravan would the team try to sell? Now, this was a trade…
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Conformity and Submission to Authority (“Willful Blindness”)
I am sitting in the auditorium at IESE Business School listening to Margaret Heffernan speak about her book “Willful Blindness”. She is a wonderful speaker, sharing both clear framework of ideas and specific personal experiences. I have scribbled about 5 pages of notes on her material, but will limit this blog post to discuss two…
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What’s your Metaphor?
As I listen to the conversations around me, I hear many uses of metaphor: “Dublin is a maze”, “Anna has a flood of new ideas”, “Business is war”, “John is a waste of space”, “An MBA is a passport to a new career”. Metaphors are supremely powerful communication devices. They allow us to understand something…
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How to get Attention: The 7 Triggers of Fascination
When I step on stage to speak, I get 8 seconds before the listener decides how to categorize me: worth attention, or time to check my mobile email What are your first words? When I meet someone at a conference, a party, an event… again – we have 8 seconds. Catch attention, or the other…
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7 Typical Challenges of Weak Communicators
7 Challenges of Weak Communciators These are 7 challenges that can be overcome if you take the time to improve your communication skills. Some have very quick fixes, others require considerable practice to turn into strengths. I lose people’s attention easily People agree, but then do nothing People avoid my phone calls (… at least…
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10 Things we Hate about Bosses
10 things that employees surveyed last year by the Great Place to Work organisation said contributed to poor management: Lack of Recognition and Appreciation – employees who believe that managers do not really appreciate the work, energy and effort put in during their days and sometimes evenings Poor Communication – employees want to find out…