So the year has started badly. You thought all that start of year pent up demand would have you rocking. But sales are thin and the funnel is pretty darn dry. You’re beating on your outside sales team and they are doing everything they can with their customer base. Or worse yet you don’t even […]
Leaders Never Lie!
Must have Leadership Qualifications Are you the kind of leader who can inspire his troops to follow him through hell? Or the kind of leader that couldn’t get his people to follow him across the street to a free buffet? I have had both in my life and believe me the former is always better […]
Is You Company Customer Focused?
When was the last time you sat around with your team talking about how you could produce better products and services for your customers? I mean doing things better, making the customers experience extraordinary and putting the “wow” factor in your products. I would guess never. We are all so busy just trying to meet […]
Great Leaders Do These Things
I once had a boss who wanted to sit in his office all day, never participate in any meetings and then ask us, his managers, to write long tediously detailed reports and give them to him so he would know what was going on. In short he wanted to know everything we were doing without […]
The Perfect Customer
If only… If only our customers understood us, Oh, what a wonderful world that would be! We have spent a great deal of time in this column talking about the perfect sales person, and the perfect fabricator and the perfect customer service person, so I thought it would be interested, and only fair, to write […]
Time Tested Methods That Cause PCB Companies To Crater
I know it sounds pretty brutal but hey I have to use any method I can to get your attention, because the fact is if you don’t change your ways you will go out of business in the next twelve months. Don’t get me wrong, there are opportunities out there, more of them than there […]
Kindness Is A Killer App
“There is only one rule I know of and that is to be kind.” – Kurt Vonnegut And I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Vonnegut. Anything else is a complete waste of time. Fighting and feuding with people is not only counter-productive but exhausting. Lawsuits are detrimental to your health. Holding a grudge is like drinking […]
Think Different
Remember when Steve Jobs came back to save Apple from the brink of disaster, and the first thing he did was launch an ad campaign that featured people who changed the world by thinking differently? He featured famous people from Bob Dylan to Albert Einstein to John Lennon and many others all of them bright, […]
There Is Only One Way To Succeed And That Is To Always Give It Your Best
One of my favorite sayings is “when you wake up in the morning if you are not ready to change the world, then don’t bother to get out of bed.” Do you ever think about changing the world? Do you ever think about being the best you can be…the best in the business? This kind […]
Remember Who Is Really Doing The Work
Those of us who have spent our lives in sales, sometimes forget who really matters. As we pursue those elusive orders or solve problems, meet challenges, and soothe angry customers, it is easy for us to forget those who are really doing the work. The ones who are back at the shop, sweating it out […]