Daniel Pink has become one of the more important and influential business writers active today. His previous book, “Drive”, outlined and detailed the complex forces at work in the realm of human motivation, particularly in the business arena. He uses information and findings from university based research to support his conclusions, rather than anecdotes or personal experience. In his new book, “To Sell is Human”, he does the same for sales. Resistances In my work as a consultant, I universally hear the objection, “I don’t want to be a salesman.” I think there are several levels to this, … [Read more...] about Selling Part 1
Customer Service and Marketing
Communications and Personality Styles
Effective communication is a vast topic, with many aspects. Effective communication can defuse tense situations, improve relationships and foster greater mutual understanding and regard. My next several posts will address these, with particular attention to verbal communication and personality styles. Personality Styles One thing to remember in this discussion is that any style descriptor generally represents the default status of that person, but we can respond differently given different circumstances or necessities. It’s not a fixed quantity or characteristic, such as eye color. The … [Read more...] about Communications and Personality Styles
Goals
Goal setting is a highly useful exercise in practice management, but can be daunting for several reasons. Goal setting is by no means unique to the chiropractic profession; it’s in common use in corporate settings. It just goes by another name: earnings guidance. Large, publicly traded companies have entire departments devoted entirely to creating accurate sales and earnings projections for the coming quarter and year. Stock prices are frequently a measure of the accuracy of the projection, not necessarily by the overall company performance. Why bother with goals? For clients who are not … [Read more...] about Goals
The Learning Staircase
When learning anything new, there are four distinct phases to progress through. They tend to be steps, rather than a continuous climb. That’s why I like the concept of a staircase better than a curve. This applies when gaining new expertise yourself, and also when training other personnel. Step 1: Unconscious Incompetence, Bliss This is the phase where you don’t know what you don’t know. It’s always the starting point, and typically does not cause any distress. It’s more a sense of false satisfaction. It’s typically short-lived, but a pure and calm sensation. As soon as a conflict develops, … [Read more...] about The Learning Staircase