James B. Lee was a legendary Wall Street banker and one of the world’s greatest dealmakers. Called “Jimmy” by those who knew him, if you were to read his resume or review his accolades you might expect a real-life version of the infamous movie character Gordon Gekko. For example, he combed his hair slicked back …
Continue reading “3 Things I Learned From Wall Street’s Most Successful Dealmaker”
According to behavioral psychologists, rewards are more attractive to us the closer we are to receiving them. Further, humans have a tendency to “discount” equal or even greater rewards when not available until the distant future. Why does this make sales hard? Because especially in many instances we are asking our prospects for immediate sacrifices, …
Continue reading “How The Psychology of Rewards Impacts Our Success In Sales”
After reading the title of this post you might be thinking, “Sounds easy” or “I already do that”. Present some impressive sounding numbers about ROI or COI so the people making the decision can understand the value, right? Wrong! According to the Karla Starr and Chip Heath, authors of “Making Numbers Count”, simply sharing numbers …
Continue reading “Want To Close More Deals? Make Your Numbers Count.”
“People buy on emotion and justify with logic.” This is a familiar phrase many sales professionals agree with. However, much less agreed upon is what this statement means, and just how to use this information to be more successful. What gets in our way? First, the mere notion that emotions are the primary drivers of …
I am full believer that salespeople, more than anything, help facilitate change. For this reason, I was greatly interested in Katy Milkman’s new book, “How To Change, The Science of Getting From Where You Are To Where You Want To Be”. Happily, I was not disappointed. It did not take long to find an incredibly …
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In his recent work “Charisma, The Microsociology of Power and Influence”, sociologist Randal Collins provides a fascinating analysis of what makes someone truly charismatic.
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If you negotiate right, you can be the most powerful person in a discussion. But traditional schooling does an awful job showing you it’s possible.
I’m excited to share this new interview with Kwame Christian on Negotiate Anything, the top Negotiation and Conflict Resolution Podcast in the world, also ranked #6 among all management-related shows on Apple Podcasts.
It’s easy for management to blame salespeople when negotiations conclude with value left on the table. But what they often fail to realize is that selling and negotiating are fundamentally different skill sets requiring fundamentally different behaviors.
Saving Face 