Posts in Skills
7 Tricks to Avoid the Assumption Trap

Sales trap: Assume you know what they want. Problem: If you assume that you know what they want or where they are in the sales cycle, then you start asking questions and giving information that may not fit with where they are at.

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Just Tell Me the Price

"Just tell me the price." "How much does it cost?" "All I want is your best price." "Can you just give me the price?" "How much is it?" "All I am looking for is a price." "What is your best price?" "How much?"

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The Perspective of the Scale-up CEO

Beyond their qualities, skills, and character traits, here are a few demographics: they tend to be younger (most sources place the average between the late thirties and early forties), they have a technology background, and they were not in business during the last recession in 2007/2008.

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How to Only Make Good Decisions

What if we encounter decision fatigue with our doctor, with the admissions officer handling our application, or when fundraising for a startup? What if we observe it with ourselves? After a day of many decisions, we are less patient when asked to make another, we take less time to consider the impact, and the decision turns out to be not as good as those made earlier in the day.

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How To Get Out When Stuck Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Capital investments are postponed. Operating costs are constrained. And, perhaps most importantly, headcount is reduced. It’s a tried-and-true response to an economic downturn.

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Don’t Go Where the Wind Blows You

To be deliberate means to think or talk something through carefully — it also means weighted and measured, the pace and art of careful decision-making. If you choose deliberately, you make a very conscious, intentional, well-thought-through choice.

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Top-Notch Soft Skills Eat Experience for Breakfast

And top-notch soft skills eat experience for breakfast: According to Forbes, 94% of recruiters believe that top-notch soft skills outweigh experience when it comes to promotion to leadership positions.

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Pivoting or the Art and Science of Moving to Plan B

Changes and adjustments are a natural part of operating a business. A business is always looking to optimize sales funnels, cut costs, and better understand the needs of its customers. In some situations, though, it may take more than slight refinements to keep a business going.

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‘We have No Budget’ – How to Overcome the Client’s Stone Wall

budget is a scarce resource! There are always more opportunities to spend than there is budget available. And so, companies and their decision makers prioritize and spend on what brings the greatest value. Or at least what they perceive brings the greatest value…

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The Value of Reliability

We also value people that ‘just work.' Margot Anderson puts it this way: “We place great importance on people … who are able to deliver consistently good results time after time and who can be depended upon to deliver on commitments and promises. Fundamentally they make life … easier, more enjoyable and more rewarding.”

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