Hi,

It’s been a while and I hope that life has been good for you. Last week I accepted a new challenge and made a brief announcement on LinkedIn.

That’s it. If you miss me or need me, call or reply.

Otherwise, see you on the other side.

Rick

I’ve been having some pretty interesting conversations, lately.

Jill Konrath, Trish Bertuzzi, Lori Richardson, Katharine Derum and I talked about Intimidating Women, Sales Rock Stars and Me. Everybody commented and I heard that it’s been posted to in places where I’m not allowed. Katharine also shared Jill Konrath Movers and Shakers. I’m planning on making some noise in 2014.

Earlier this month, we asked the question, Should Sales Reps Be Blogging? that spurred another lively discussion. Look for more on that in 2014 as I get more salespeople guest blogging for me. Incidentally, if you’ve got an article in you that’s dying to get out, let me know.

Finally, I just read and article that Matt published Incorporating Dreams Into Your Small Business this morning. I couldn’t have written this article better myself and I suggest that if you’re not following his process, you should start today.

Happy New Year!

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Elaine bought a glass based lamp with sea glass in the base and a downhill skier cut out in the lamp shade and sent it to them via UPS for Christmas. Sometimes I think that UPS throws packages that say “fragile” harder than those that don’t and the lamp base broke. Elaine spoke with the owner and found that he had more in stock. So, on Saturday, 1/5/13 Elaine and I drove up to the Whimsy Shop in Kennebunkport to buy a replacement and carry it to Utah.

I originally published this article on another blog on 8/30/2011. I hope that you like it here.

I was summoned to jury duty on  Monday, 3/28/2011. I’ve been called several times, but never put on a jury until that day. At first, I resisted serving, but as the first day progressed, I got into it. It was a medical malpractice case, but more importantly it was two lawyers trying to sell the jury their ‘version of the facts’ as truth.

Now, I grew up watching shows like Perry Mason and the Defenders, maybe because my parents watched them, but when I got to choose, I watched L.A. Law, the Law & Orders, The Practice among others and still watch Harry’s Law, The Good Wife and several shows like The Mentalist, Body of Proof and Castle where the plot’s about figuring out who did it.

My experience in March was nothing like anything that I ever saw on TV. There were no ‘rabbit out of the hat’ surprises. There were no emotional confessions. There were no emotional outbursts whatsoever. It was really quite boring and I was disappointed because I don’t think that I’ve ever seen a bored juror on TV.

Although there were several sales lessons, I’d like to focus on two.

First, the lawyers asked questions and asked questions and asked questions. Some of the questions seemed repetitive, but were asked to see if the witness changed their answer. Some questions were asked against the backdrop of prior answers to prior questions. When the lawyers changed topics, they prepared the witness by saying, let’s explore… and paused to change papers, etc. Then started another drill down. They seldom said anything unless they were introducing evidence and when they wanted to summarize, they asked, so if I understand what you’re saying….. Is that right?

You want to learn how to use questions? Serve on a jury.

As you might expect, the jury was instructed not to discuss the case nor form any opinions until the case was given to us for deliberation and interestingly, that’s the way it happened. The second lesson happened in the deliberation room. Both sides called in experts for testimony for their side. All the exhibits and charts were fact filled and well done. However, several members of the jury thought that an expert that got emotionally involved or defensive about their credentials, position, expert fee, etc. was less credible.

I’ve intentionally left out details and as to whether I was talking about the plaintiff or the defendant because it didn’t matter. Both sides spun the facts and evidence to their benefit which, to me, means that the facts didn’t determine the verdict. The verdict was determined by how much the jury ‘bought’ the lawyers’ and experts’ interpretation of the facts and that the lawyers’ and experts’ presence affected the jury’s view of the facts.

How good are your questions and how good are you at asking them?

How cool and in the moment are you in the heat of a sales call?

Monday’s article, “How to be a Sales Rock Star in 2013” is probably going to be one of my most popular articles of 2012 even though it’s only going to have been published for one week at years end. If you haven’t read it, you may want to do so now to have it as a backdrop for this article. The United States has been ‘in business’ for a few hundred years and has weathered hurricanes, earthquakes, the Great Depression, wars, etc. Many have died, but some ended up better off than before the catastrophe occurred. Every time I turn on the news, I’m hearing that we are approaching a “Fiscal Cliff” and that people should worry. Respectfully, I don’t know how it will turn out and I don’t care, because I, for one, won’t die. I’ll use the opportunity to do what I do best and that’s definitely not ‘hunker down’ and prepare for bad times and interestingly, my sons, my clients, my closest associates aren’t hunkering down either. Each one of them is getting ready to have 2013 be they’re best year ever.

This came as a joke. Please read it. Then re-read the title. Then comment if you wish.