Evaluating sales talent is a tricky business, but your success depends on it. To appreciate the impact, consider professional sports teams that do a lousy job of evaluating talent. Here in Chicago, our Cubs and Bears have endured epochs of ineffectiveness because they picked the wrong Read More

Having assisted small, medium and large organizations on marketing projects for a number of years, I’ve watched the same mistakes occur over and over. To be sure, marketing is an inexact science, but if you avoid these errors, your chances of success increase dramatically. Unwillingness to Read More

The biggest obstacle to making money is fear. When it comes to pricing, most sellers go in low. They’re afraid of being hit with a price objection. They’re afraid of a competitor embarrassing them with a much lower price. They’re afraid of jeopardizing a relationship that Read More

People always advise us to “work smart,” but how do we do that, specifically? Indeed, all work is not created equal, and just because you are laboring mightily doesn’t mean that your business is prospering. As a matter of fact, hard work can actually impede success. Read More

A new idea can transform a business from good to great. Why are there so few great companies? Because most don’t know how to build a culture of creativity – and all too many build cultures that suppress creativity. So then, is your business mind nurturing Read More

When you realize a customer is holding you back instead of pushing you forward, it’s one of the most bittersweet growing pains you’ll ever experience. Justifiably so, companies hate to fire a customer. First, there’s the dollars-and-cents part: nobody likes to forego revenue that’s already in Read More

Extremism in the Defense of Marketing is No Vice  Taking a controversial editorial position attracts attention and gets people talking about your brand. It’s a risky strategy … but for some, it works. The key to making it work is making it authentic. Most people are Read More

Dear Successful Entrepreneur, Why do you give away your expertise? This question has baffled me for years. You know the value of your expertise because it didn’t come easily. You’ve accumulated wisdom that only comes from scoring big wins and suffering crushing defeats. You’ve forgotten more Read More

Even if you’re as dumb as a box of rocks, don’t sweat it. You can be just as successful in business as the guy with the 150 IQ – in fact, the odds might even be in your favor. In this post, I’ll point out a Read More

As the content specialist for a Chicago marketing firm, I worry when companies talk about “establishing thought leadership.” For some firms, the desired strategy for a thought leadership campaign includes every tactic in the book except one: thinking. However, many small businesses* have big ideas, great Read More