How many of us think that hearing YES to a proposal is the end of the sales process? Rich Delaney is doing a webinar this month on the Art of Negotiation and he and I both agree that one of the toughest lessons a salesperson has to master is when to close. But there’s another trap I will talk about shortly.

Man, things are looking BAD out there! If you listen to the morning news (or as we call it Morning Mayhem) we are a nation of gunslingers, arsonists, car crashers and miscreants. The stock market is shaky, the economy is plummeting and war is waging. RUN!

I wonder how many people clicked on this article because of the title. What if I was going to tell you NOT to grow your business – would you think I was crazy, or lazy or both? However, growth for growth sake has proven the downfall (or at the least, pitfall) of many a corporate giant – Starbucks being the most recent in the news, Google a close second.

Met another great guy who went to work one day to find someone else sitting in his office chair. Hand over the keys, the laptop, the cell phone – here’s your hat, what’s your hurry?

This is the second story Barb and I have heard in one week about folks suddenly finding themselves jobless – and in some respects, clueless.