dwagner

Today I was a little bit saddened. The place I have been going to for quite a while, the one that had great Reuben sandwiches, repeated a mistake they had previously rectified (see The Right Thing Is Smart).

Today my sandwich was overdone and the bread was hard and rubbery… the normal care and attention to details was not there. Now to be honest, the last few have not been that consistent.

Because I have been going there pretty regularly for several years I can’t help but feeling betrayed somehow, especially considering my previous experience. The owner/operator had to have known […]

Have you been to a sales seminar or training course in the past few years? Consultative selling is all the rage and it seems like the wisdom is to call high. Sure they might direct you downwards, but start at the top. Become a trusted advisor. That is the path to sales success.

This is harder than it seems for so many reasons. First it's really hard to get the CEO's or a senior VP's time. They have gatekeepers. Then when you do, you have to be able to add value quickly, or they will push you aside for more pressing issues. […]

In my last post, I discussed what makes a good long-term partnership work. In this one I will look at the more fundamental question, “Why partner in the first place?”

The world is a big place. The amount of information available is growing rapidly. It’s become impossible for one organization to be an expert in everything. Even the largest companies have come to this realization.

For smaller companies partnering may be essential. It may be very difficult for a small company to provide enough breadth (skills and experience) to go against larger companies for big contracts. In many cases, if you […]

It sounds like a bit of a cliché, but in reality a good business partnership is a lot like a good marriage. This applies to individuals in a single business or one or more businesses partnering in the marketplace.

Since people have a propensity to look at the world through a "What's in it for me?" lens, this is also how most partnerships end up working.

In marriage, if you have a "What's in it for me attitude?" then I would suggest your marriage is doomed from the get go. Sure you need to get something from it, but the marriages […]

Longer term business planning (strategic planning) is something that tends to easily get pushed aside by the realities of running the day to day aspects of a business. Three scenarios come to mind:

1. When things are good you are so busy keeping up with customer demands and delivering on promises that planning for the future just doesn't seem important. Hey, "you are now successful and you've "arrived" at the end". 

2. When you are just starting up (assuming you don't have infinitely deep pockets) or if you've hit a bump, then you are focused on cash flow issues and it becomes hard to see past […]