Articles & Resources
Browse articles, guides, and downloads.
The Sales Engine and How We Build It. The Basics. At a certain point in consulting, you start realizing you’re doing the same thing over and over again, even if you didn’t mean to. You see that most companies need the same things, to different degrees. So in an effort to make my own life…
Read More
Manager, Do Your Job. The 5 Tasks A Manager (Or Small Business Owner) Must Do The most important work of a manager’s role is usually neglected. Why? Perhaps it’s because the manager believes they “hire adults” and “don’t have time to babysit.” It could be a misunderstanding of modern leadership. It could be that they’re…
Read More
When Your Skill Set Holds You Back. Dr. Jim Kestenbaum has been in my life for the better part of 10 years. A boss hired him to work with me for a year, and the sessions we engaged in changed the course of my career, how I worked, and how I saw myself. Because of…
Read More
4 Days in a Heart Hospital And my new 10 rules for life that resulted. *Note: if discussions that touch on spirituality in any shape bother or offend you, this might. ** Notes 2 and 3: If you’re looking for something about sales, or strategy, or people management, you’ll be disappointed. Ditto if you want…
Read More
Board Game Strategy for Sales and Business. Sales are mostly checkers, and everything else is chess. My firstborn, my 10-year-old son, whom I love, just recently finished going 10-1 against me in chess. In fairness, I’ve never played before he taught it to me in stress-free chess, or something like that. In some fairness, he…
Read More
The Manager’s Concern Is it in the right place? A solid manager I coach recently shared a challenge he has right now. Him: “I was just given our number for the year.” Me: “And?” Him: “It’s big. It’s really big.” Me: “Ok. How do you feel about that?” Him: “I’ve got concerns, man.” Me: “Do…
Read More
When to use email? At least in sales. At least once a week, a sales coaching client will send me a note that reads, “Adam, can you look at this email from (fill in the blank)? I want to win this account, but am not sure how to respond.” Sometimes, the seller will include an…
Read More
How to do compensation? At least for sales. In the last 8 weeks, four companies have asked me about compensation design for salespeople. The reasons for the conversations varied from company to company. In one case, the role the CEO had imagined for sales had changed, and he needed to invest more in post-sales service….
Read More
Three (New?) Ways To Pursue Your Customers. That Your Competitors Probably Are Not. Someone asked me to address a group of CEOs and owners on sales and growth in early January. Not a big deal, usually, as I’ve done this so many times before. Show up with a canned talk, adjust the slides a little,…
Read More
Sales Kickoffs are Usually a Waste How to fix that? Twice in the last 3 weeks, I’ve been asked about running sales kickoffs. How to organize them, structure them, what to cover, the whole 9 yards. Here’s the blunt truth for most companies, from startups with 5-person teams to middle-market companies with teams of 20+….
Read MoreLEARN MORE ABOUT NORTHWOOD GROUP
Next Steps
Book a free consult to discuss your situation. Or, if you prefer, you can call us at: 512-293-6497.