The Possibility Of Opportunity

So many times, we are so immersed in what we are doing that we don’t have time to lift our heads and open our eyes and our minds to the possibility of opportunity. This can be a problem since being open to opportunities is crucial for success in sales as it is in all of […]

It’s All About Customer Service 

Customer Service as the Face of a Company No matter how you look at it, it all gets down to customer service, and I mean great customer service. If you think about your own experiences for a minute you’ll come to realize that it’s all about how the people you are dealing with, the people […]

No, These Are Not The Worst Of Times

It seems that for whatever reason people want to say that these times are worse than any other. People say we are heading for a recession and that we should all be scared of what is going to happen. When I ask salespeople what is going on out there they tell me that their customers […]

We Are The Alchemists

  I recently talked to a board shop owner who had a customer visit from a large military OEM. There were four younger engineers in the group and they had never been in a PCB shop before. When they were invited to tour the facility, they were actually stunned at the amount of equipment, people, […]

Listening Again and Again

Every now and then I feel the urge to write about listening. Yes, that great art, of not only listening but going the extra mile and hearing. I know that I have done a column on this subject before, actually maybe about once a year. But it still needs to be brought up, maybe for […]

It’s Just Not Common Sense

I’ve been reading a slew of customer service books lately which is always something I enjoy. Since starting in this business eons ago I have spent a lot of time thinking how we could do things better. Actually, I spend a lot of time thinking about how everything could be better, not just service but […]

The Way Life Will Be

Or rather the way life is becoming. I recently read a book titled “2029: Guide to the Future” by futurist Oleg Tumarkin. In the book the author talks about what he predicts life will be like in the year 2029. But what is interesting is that he wrote the book in 2018 – pre Covid […]

It’s Time To Fail

  The kindergarten teacher is looking over the shoulder of a little girl drawing a picture. When she asks the little girl what she is drawing, the little girl answers, “I am drawing a picture of God.” The teacher, surprised, says, “But no one knows what God looks like.” The little girl replies, “They will […]

Allow Me To Be Generous

I just reread a book titled The Go Giver: A little story about a powerful business idea. Full disclosure this was the third time I read this book and I plan to read it annually going forward. It’s not a big book, only about one hundred and fifty pages (my kind of book!), but it […]

Things Are Looking Up!

Looking forward to the future Have you thought about that much? Most of the companies I know have led “led lives of desperation,” to quote my fellow New Englander Henry David Thoreau. Most of the time more concerned about making payroll than buying that new piece of equipment, more worried about pesky Quality issues than […]