In his new book about psychology and economics, Thinking, Fast and Slow, author Daniel Kahneman writes that objective observers are “more likely to detect our errors than we are.”

What a relief! We all know prospects don’t buy until they believe they have a problem, so it’s reassuring that salespeople can still play a vital role in pointing them out.

But believing a problem exists only initiates the great trifecta for buyer motivation—believe-care-act! So simple to say, but so hard to execute. Within those hyphens lurks heaps of uncertainty. For example, what happens—as it often does—when prospects don’t perceive their problems with the same clarity we do?

Well, we ask questions. We uncover pain, and figure out what keeps...

“We are taking the best gear, the best technology on the market to date and giving it to guys known to stab us in the back . . . These are the same people killing our guys.”

A Marine Medal of Honor recipient, Sgt. Dakota Meyer, wrote that in an email quoted in The Wall Street Journal (Decorated Marine Sues Contractor, November 29, 2011).

If you’re following this story, you already know that Sgt. Meyer is suing his former employer, BAE Systems, alleging that they “retaliated against him after he raised objections about BAE’s alleged decision to sell high-tech sniper scopes to the Pakistani military. He...

If you’ve ever wondered how a benevolent god could have invented PowerPoint, watch Rick Perry say “oops!”

I know it’s painful. But please--just one more time. And I’ll forgive your instinct to reach for your keyboard to press the PgDn key, fantasizing that “Department of Energy” will mercifully fly in, left-to-right onto a large screen in front of him. I had the exact same urge.

The same urge I had when I watched Herman Cain self-destruct in his discussion of America’s actions regarding Libya. He attempted to answer the question, “did you agree with President Obama's handling of Libya?” without the benefit of a blinking cursor dutifully waiting for him to type “Libya policy” in a search window. Eeks! With just four hours of sleep, he had to answer the...

Looking for your next sales achiever? Here’s how one sales manager I worked with tackled the challenge:

“The perfect salesperson is one who has a new car, a mortgage, a stay-at-home wife, a baby, and another one on the way.”

Translation: “Motivating people isn’t my thing.” Sure, workers who exist in consumption traps bring motivation to the job, but they also bring plenty of problems, including stress. Is that profitable? Is that sustainable? And, does that create happiness for anyone? Maybe I’ve asked these questions in the wrong order.

Thirty years ago, few executives worried about the correlation between personal happiness, physical and mental health, and on-the-job productivity. In the early 1980’s, I sat in hours-long meetings when cigarette packs and lighters occupied space on conference room tables the way Blackberries and iPads do today. Where I worked, not smoking was considered anti-social. “Sure, go ahead and light up! If...