Reading Time: 2 minI always find it interesting when the data shows the opposite of what I expect. It could be something like Simpson’s Paradox, which is just so weird, or the idea that expert poker players fold 3x more often than an amateur player. In Adam Grant’s book “Give and Take” he shares a study from Neil […]
Trust
Lead with reputation and legacy, not business
Reading Time: < 1 minThere are a lot of situations where it feels you should quickly steer conversations toward business, but that’s almost never the right way to go. Even if you’re at a business-focused event, keeping the conversations more personal and other-focused will lead to better long-term results. Gary Vaynerchuk can be a polarizing person, but I appreciate […]
Responsiveness can be as important as price
Reading Time: 3 minPeople value money but they also value time, and if your service can be faster and/or more responsive customers are willing to pay more. Disney’s “Lightning Lane” (formerly “FastPass”) is proof of this — millions of people pay billions of dollars every year just to get in the park, and a huge percentage of them […]
Thank you for your time
Reading Time: 2 minIf someone invests time with you, whether it’s to help with a project, move a sofa, or just go to the movies, it’s appropriate to thank them for their time. They willingly gave of themselves, and deserve a bit of thanks for it. What if you steal their time, though? Can you still thank them […]
A trusted partner?
Reading Time: 2 minI get a lot of spam in my inbox every day, and I’m sure you do too. Most of it is just blatant spam, but there is still a subset of it that thinks that it’s just “cold marketing” — which I still categorize as spam. I think a lot of that comes from folks […]
Humility can help you seem real
Reading Time: 3 minStarting back in 2006, Dos Equis ran a series of commercials featuring “The Most Interesting Man in the World”. If you’ve not seem any of then before, here is an example: When reading Robert Carnes’ book “The Story Cycle“, he made an interesting note about these videos and the bit of humility they always showed […]
No organization is perfect
Reading Time: 2 minYou see it on Facebook with other people, and on LinkedIn with other companies – “wow, they have everything together”. We’ve learned over the years that a perfectly manicured Facebook feed often isn’t very truthful, but it can be trickier to see that in other organizations. If you see a group that puts out good […]
When your filter bubble works too well
Reading Time: 2 minOver the past decade or so, most people have been building a filter bubble around themselves — only seeing the content that they want to see, and hiding everything else. Sites like Facebook do it quietly and automatically, meaning you have to really fight if you want to keep a nuanced view of the world. […]
More content leads to shorter sales cycles
Reading Time: 2 minIf the sales cycle with your company seems to be getting longer and longer, that may indicate a lack of content production on your part. Without solid, regular content, people can’t get to know and trust you until they’ve had direct conversations with you. While those conversations are essential in every case, if you can […]
Love is greater than hurt feelings
Reading Time: 2 minDespite the title, I’m not advocating for being a jerk, but I also think there are times when some hard truths that lead to hurt feelings can be a good thing. In Annie Duke’s excellent book “Quit“, she shares some insight on this from Daniel Kahneman: When I asked Daniel Kahneman what he thinks the […]