like Seth Godin. His books are smart, his stories captivating and his ideas compelling. Most of his ideas.Recently he posted advice on his blog that B2B sellers should start selling in the middle rather than the top. There are 4 reasons why this advice is wrong:

It's a great reminder for everyone on three ways to dominate your market. At the same time - and one thing I didn't talk about in that speech - if you really want to be the dominant player in your market you MUST ask for referrals.

While eating out (too much) last week it struck me that we have a simple solution to some tough problems in our grasp. It starts with.....Restaurants cutting down on portion sizes which will:

There is ALWAYS money for what what people want to buy. Money is not a financial issue, it's a priority issue. And, if anyone tells you that people are not spending, remind yourself that they are wrong. Then find new people to talk to.

Working hard to stay positive? Then you need to minimize the effect Life Suckers have on your life.

In order to help your team get past their fear and ego, I suggest focusing on referrals as a sales strategy. Have a referral blitz, a referral campaign or a referral contest. Motivate your team to get referrals through healthy competition, prizes and financial incentives, or just accolades for having the most referrals in the business. Make referrals an important piece of your sales plan and incentivize and reward your team to get them by ensuring that you're rewarding them accordingly.

Thanksgiving has me thinking about all that I am thankful for:

Have you ever worked hard to close opportunities and then, after you've finally inked the deals, you realize that your pipeline is dangerously empty? This is that trap - we work hard on one part of our pipeline and other parts suffer.

As a Canadian living in the US it was interesting to watch the election unfold this week. I have no horse in the race so I can watch with a different view point. As I see it there were 2 major winners:

Are you putting systems ahead of customers? Are your processes too cumbersome? Are they at risk of eroding good will and revenue?

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