BLArticle®
The personal touch of a blog; the informative touch of an article.
It’s Online Training Knocking
I want to be emphatic when I say this: I have never been a fan of online training. This form of training has been knocking at my door for years, and I’ve done a magnificent job of hiding under my sheets - hoping the knocking would stop! I have been bred to present...
Imaginary Friends
It’s pretty difficult to live our lives without having to deal with high-pressure situations. Perhaps it’s a critical interview, an important presentation, or a key sales call. You showed up with a lot on your mind - usually too much on your mind. You tried chanting...
Follow The Leader
This past weekend, we were all treated to some amazing golf as the United States won the Ryder Cup. The Ryder Cup is a golf tournament played every two years, and it pits the best golfers from the United States against the best golfers from Europe in a series of...
The Sum Of It All
There’s something special about having a dog in the house. I grew up in a family with dogs, and we raised our kids with dogs. Sadly, our sweet dog Zoey passed away about eight months ago, and the house just hasn’t felt the same since. So, we’ve decided to begin the...
Why Sales Training So Often Fails
Part Four The failure to properly sales train our sales forces can be attributed to a handful of different factors. In this final entry of this BLArticle® miniseries, I’ll finish telling you what has created this problem, and exactly what can be done about it. We...
Why Sales Training So Often Fails
Part Three The failure to properly sales train our sales forces can be attributed to a handful of different factors. In this four part BLArticle® miniseries, I’ll not only tell what has created this problem, I’ll show exactly what can be done about it. We desperately...
Why Sales Training So Often Fails
Part Two The failure to properly train our sales forces can be attributed to a handful of different factors. In part II of this BLArticle® miniseries, I’ll continue with my explanation of what has created this problem. I’ll also show exactly what can be done about it....
Why Sales Training So Often Fails
Part 1 The failure to properly train our sales forces can be attributed to a handful of different factors. In Part I of the miniseries, we’ll be looking at one of the most important issues that can affect sales training: Problem #1: Confusing “Product” With “Process”...
“Who Do You Know?”
Many salespeople will not argue about the need to ask for referrals. Like so many necessary and supposedly simple tactics, few people can actually explain to you how to do it. They’ll just tell you that “it’s easy,” and “just do it.” There is, however, a right way and...
Something Lost – Something Gained
They say that in every life a little rain must fall. This is a story about a man and his father, and a little bit of rain… In the spring of 2003, my family and I came face-to-face with what most would call a disaster. Our disaster was defined as a severe fire...
The Fallacy of Learning From Your Mistakes
“I could have told you, but you had to learn this lesson on your own.” How many times did you hear that phrase as a child, or as a young adult? How many times have you heard it as an adult? I’m not very fond of that phrase. Wait, that’s not strong enough: I detest...
Six Words That Will Calm Your Nerves
When you speak for a living, you get all kinds of questions. One of the most common questions has to do with conquering the fear known as “stage fright.” One of my answers to how one can address that fear is this: “Do anything a few thousand times and you’ll no longer...
The Words Between The Words
Let me set the stage for you: You are about to walk into a high-pressure situation, and there’s a lot riding on the conversation that’s about to take place. This isn’t just any conversation, but one that requires you to find the courage to ask for something from...
Finding Your Communication Rhythm
I’ll never forget the first real job I ever had. At age sixteen, I was an usher at Roth’s Seven Locks Movie Theatre in Potomac, Maryland. I proudly wore my red and black blazer and manned my flashlight like a pro. Leaning on the back wall of the theatre, I also saw a...
The Power Of “What If?”
I was raised by a salesman, and you could say that selling is in my blood. Between boy scouts, sports teams, and school clubs, I have sold a bunch of different things. I have sold light bulbs, first aid kits for cars, doughnuts, fertilizer, toothbrushes, and I sold...
The Squirrel Syndrome
It turns out you can learn a lesson or two from a squirrel. When you stop and think about it, the squirrel is a pretty amazing animal; nature thought about almost everything when putting this furry creature together. Squirrels are fast, strong, agile, clever, and the...
I’d Rather Be Up By Two Than Down By Two
It happens all the time in sports. One team is playing well, coasting along, and everything they do seems to be working. Then, in the blink of an eye, the momentum changes. Everything that was once effortless becomes strained and unnatural. The harder that team works...
With All Due Respect, Please Sweat The Small Stuff
I’m well aware of Richard Carlson’s book, Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff... and it’s all Small Stuff. It’s an inspirational book, and it became one of the fastest-selling books of all time. It was published in 135 countries, and it spent over 101 weeks on the New York...
Want To Crush Your Next Presentation?
Think Like A Juggler! You may not know this about me but once upon a time, I was a pretty darn good juggler. I could juggle in a weave, in a circle, off the floor, off the wall, around my back (a crowd favorite,) off my knees, and off my head. As my pièce de...
The Transition Sandwich
Through the years, I’ve upset my share of audiences by telling them how overrated product knowledge really is. Product knowledge allows you to competently provide another individual with your solutions to their questions, but it doesn’t necessarily allow you to dazzle...
“Rob is an expert not only in the art of influence,
but also in human nature.”
~Ken Blanchard,
coauthor of The One Minute Manager® and Trust Works!