Category: Selling

Winning the Content Game

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18 COMMENTS

Amazon doesn’t know it, but its delivery drivers are unwitting participants in a game that my son Evan and I have been playing for the past several months. Here’s how it works… Like most of us, Evan orders a lot of things on Amazon; he might get two or even three deliveries in a single week. And Amazon, you may have noticed, now has its drivers take pictures of the packages after leaving them at your door. The pictures appear with the delivery confirmation emails. Since Evan shares our Prime […] Click to read more…

Lessons From a Toaster

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23 COMMENTS

When it comes to household appliances, I am not usually prone to blanket generalizations. But, in this case, I am going to make an exception: My toaster is way smarter than my coffeemaker. You may find this surprising, since coffeemakers, with all their bells and whistles, are the alpha males of the small appliance community: sleek, powerful, sexy. Toasters, on the other hand, have been around forever – I guarantee you that Harry Truman owned one. And they have barely changed in decades: a couple of vertical holders for the bread […] Click to read more…

Questions Are The Answer

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28 COMMENTS

It was a terrific question, and one that I had not anticipated. I was standing in the Price Chopper supermarket parking lot, talking to Earl, a soft-spoken, older man who had driven down from New Hampshire to consider buying our 2012 Toyota Highlander. I had just countered his offer, when he paused and asked, “If you were selling this car to a family member, what other things would you fix or tell them about before you did?” Like I said, a terrific question. Not only was it unexpected, it turned an impersonal […] Click to read more…

Fire Up Your Business

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9 COMMENTS

I don’t mean to brag, but my town’s fire department has an exceptional logo:  Two axes, a ladder, and what appears to be a snake climbing a stripper pole (see photo below). It’s so wonderful in fact, that I have decided to give all my fire safety-related business to them. That’s correct.  In the unfortunate event of a fire in my home – any time of day, any day of the year – I will seek help from the Upton, Massachusetts Fire Department and nobody else. Now, I can’t see you […] Click to read more…

Emotional Rescue

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22 COMMENTS

(Listen to this post, here.) Unlike many of my married, male friends, I do a fair amount of the household grocery shopping. Not because I’m so wonderful, mind you (although I am distractingly good looking). Rather, it’s because years ago, as a first-time father, I realized that a trip to the grocery store came packaged with 60 minutes of diaper-free peace and quiet. And so, all these years later, it’s still an activity I share with my wife, Linda. But, as you’ve probably noticed, grocery shopping today is a totally […] Click to read more…