Are you trying to figure out what your customer wants?  Well, some fancy marketing person may try to get you to segment your customers into all kinds of “graphics”.  Do you want to target customers of a certain income level?  How about gender?  Age?  Or perhaps 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

“I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse.”  That one line from The Godfather is arguably the greatest and most quoted movie line ever.  Aside from being a memorable movie quote, it’s also a real-life negotiation tactic that’s been used in business for centuries. The Read More

Small business owners have enough to deal with in their retail sales operations than to be an expert in the payments industry as well. But if you have been reading the latest marketing hype, you would have been led to believe that a “Brave New World” Read More

Recently, I was waiting in Penn Station during rush hour for my nightly train home, when I witnessed what was perhaps the worst sales strategy. For those not familiar, Penn Station during rush hour is like a bull rush – thousands of people running in all Read More

From eighth grade until about a year ago, I had an alarm clock, the same alarm clock, sitting by my bed. It was white with big friendly green numbers and a very painful alarm sound. Tragically, that alarm clock fell off my nightstand one day when Read More

Interviewing a new employee is sort of like a first date. Everyone tries to put their best foot forward and it can take weeks or months to discover what that person is really like or if they are a good fit. So, to make it easier Read More

PR is helpful in creating exposure for you, your business and/or your products and services. I have been on both sides of the PR process (as a client and as part of the media receiving pitches) and it seems that as media has evolved, many PR Read More

The economy has been tough for a while and many businesses have been struggling, put out of business and more are likely to exit soon. If you have a competitor that is struggling, on their way out or has already exited, their misfortune can create an Read More

We hear quite a bit these days about the increased digitization of the business world. Indeed, as technology continues to improve, many businesses are conducting more and more activity over the Internet, allowing for higher efficiency and more convenience than ever before. What we hear less Read More