The other night I was watching TV with my wife when another Pharmaceutical advertisement came on. I can’t really tell you what it was selling because I was extremely interested in the feelings it conveyed while describing potential side effects. There were beautiful images of lakes surrounded by beautiful lush…
I was listening to an interview last night with Baron Baptiste. He is the founder of the Baptiste
Vinyasa Yoga school, the author of several books and was on the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles Coaching Staff. In the interview he said something that I believe we can all remember. (I
paraphrase):
Our language shapes our world. The phrase, “I want to…” is different than the phrase, “I am ready to…”
…
Should we just give it away? A good friend of mine Tom LaRotonda sent me a Ted Talk the other night by
Amanda Palmer. She has been a singer in a variety of bands including the Dresden Dolls. Her video was on the Art of Asking. But I think it really showed the value of Connecting.
She tells the story of how she used to be a street performer, earning the change thrown into a hat during the day, in order to supplement …
I had the opportunity to listen to a TED presentation titled “Want to Help Someone: Shut Up and Listen”, by Ernesto Sirolli. He was speaking about the challenges he had when he first started
working in developing countries distributing aid and “helping” people develop crops and businesses. He could not understand why; for example, the natives would not plant gardens. His team would
demonstrate and the crops would …
Far too often many sales people are so focused on getting the deal or communicating their message that they don’t hear the comment that sold the deal. Then they talk ourselves out of it.
Typically what has happened is even though they put on their consultative selling skills and asked questions and “listened”, they allowed their thinking to get high jacked. They heard something and
while the buyer was talking they allowed their thinking to chase down a thread of thought. Perhaps they heard the buyer start talking about the challenges she is …
Recently my Toastmaster friend Jim gave a speech on Reticence and asked us the question, “what happened to it?” He did a great job of showing how it has apparently
disappeared as he shared the story of the flight where the lady (a stranger) next to him told the story of her urinary tract infection. Yuck. Or the other gentleman who asked him about the
military’s “Don’t ask don’t tell” policy, and then proceeded to regale Jim with the …
