The Journal
Tools & frameworks for leaders.
Field notes on coaching, strategy, and leading well — written by Jay and selected colleagues.
What Great Leaders Do
Recently, a colleague and I had a conversation about leadership. He referred to a blog post where the question was asked, “Would people still follow you if they didn’t have to?” An intriguing question to be sure. I challenged the question by asking, “Why are so many leaders focused on getting people to follow them?”…
What To Do When Sales Won’t Cooperate
It happens. You’ve done everything right. You invited them in. You listened. You’ve gone on sales calls, sat through demos, listened to their customers. You’ve created a qualification model that gets them qualified leads according to their definitions. You’ve worked with them to create a demand generation process that aligns with their way of doing…
Will Fear Stop You?
I had a great conversation with a friend yesterday. We were talking about the “what’s next” journey… you know, that conversation where you look into the future and plan the next step of your career or life or existence or whatever. My friend brought up the topic of fear, which is a natural and all…
Unfortunately, What B2B Marketing Can Expect in 2014
Welcome to the beginning of a new year, the time when the B2B marketing pundits and prognosticators offer you their predictions on what we can all expect to see over the next 12 months. As in years past, we’ll see some of these things come true, and we’ll see some conjecture remain just that…conjecture. When…
Don’t Try to Please Everyone
I was reminded of this story recently, a fable of Aesop. The moral? “If you try to please everyone, you’ll lose your ass” (OK, that’s my paraphrase of the moral, but it works). The Man, the Boy, and the Donkey A MAN and his son were once going with their Donkey to market. As they were…
The Hot Dog Story
My first boss, Jack Loftin, used to tell a story as a way of keeping us salespeople motivated during the recession of the early 90’s. He called it “The Hot Dog Story” (see below). Although the story’s message is “just keep selling”, I think there’s also an angle here for marketing people who are constantly…