Just when we think we've grasped what's happening in business, something changes to disrupt the precarious balance. It may occur in the economy, an industry, a region, a particular market, or technology that alters even the most flexible business plan.

Establishing a strategy, then staying with it, was possible for most businesses until the last decade. Planning a year or more in advance was relatively easy. Ups and downs would occur but with a high degree of predictability. Hitting sales and revenue targets was almost a natural outcome.

Selling in every industry and every size of business is changing so radically...

If you're in sales, you can identify with this situation - about two weeks after starting a new job, you begin to doubt your decision. You detect a widening gap between what you were told to expect and what actually occurs. After only a month on the job, you conclude, 'I think I made a mistake.' You're probably right, because salespersons seem to be more prone to selecting the wrong job. Too often, their profession's tendency to stress the positive and minimize negative factors extend into their approach in choosing a job.

DOES YOUR WEB SITE HAVE PEOPLE SAYING lsquo;WOW!? by Maribeth Kusmeski These seven questions can help you evaluate the WOW! factor on your Web site: Does your sit...

INVENTORY YOUR ASSETS by Mitchell Axelrod Take an asset inventory, using the attached worksheets to lift your leverage-ability and vault your value-ability. The first is a Business Streng...

Focus on attracting customers not making sales.
With effusive CEO testimonials and countless articles and books describing how companies have transformed themselves into tightly focused, totally energized commerce machines, it would seem that change should be easy. But let’s face it: If it were simple, there’d be more of it. Even when the evidence for change is compelling, most companies continue to cling to the known and the familiar.

PUTTING THE RIGHT PEOPLE IN THE RIGHT PLACE: EXECUTE! by Chris Burand The cover of a recent issue of Fortune boasted a picture of a small army of spiffily dressed, famous CEOs under the tit...

SALVAGING CLIENTS/PROSPECTS IN A STAGNANT ECONOMY by John R. Graham It's taken a couple of years to figure out just what's happening in the economy, but the picture now ...

THE 10 BIGGEST MISTAKES IN HIRING by Don Phin Employee turnover, wrongful hiring, sexual harassment, violence in the workplace, employee theft ... the list goes on. A lot can go wron...