For the last four years, we’ve seen one of the best economies in the history of our country. Growth has been exponential, sales have come as fast as you could write them up—and all kinds of bad habits were covered up. When things are going well, there is little sense of urgency to look under…

When you have ambition, it’s easy to feel like you can take on the world. There’s always the temptation to feel like you deserve the promotion or the position of influence that someone else has—and anyone who doesn’t see it is just plain wrong. Sound familiar? A couple years ago, I was talking with a…

Do you feel like you are constantly banging your head against a wall? It’s easy to run into a tough situation and resign yourself to thinking, “that’s just the way it is”. That’s a victim mentality that stalls out careers and kills the ability to lead well. Effective leaders in any field have the ability…

Broke salespeople smell funny (according to Dave Ramsey in “Entreleadership”) and I tend to agree with him. There is a certain vibe when someone on a sales team is desperate to make a commission—and customer’s can smell it. Now, before you get out the torches and pitchforks to tell me about how difficult money can…

My good friend Tim Rethlake always says, “Sales is the best paying hard job and the worst paying easy job” and it’s the truth. In our industry, it’s easy for installers or service techs to imagine that the life of a salesperson is full of wining and dining, sleeping in and doing the least amount…

If you’re like most of us in the hearth industry, you’re strapped for time. I mean, who has any of it—especially in the middle of November? Do you want a sales team that is radically effective in what they do? To the point where they close so many sales, you have to go out and…

Most businesses make life very difficult for their customers, but they don’t know it because it’s what they’ve always done things. Year after year of training and selling the same way creates a tunnel vision that people just can’t see past. The problem is that the market has changed dramatically over the last 10 years…

If you’re like most business leaders, you are constantly strapped for time. It seems like everyone relies on you for the final answer and no one else is able to make a decision for themselves. Most days start with an idea of what you need to do and, day after day, that plan is dismantled…

Do you ever feel lost in the shuffle? There are times when it’s hard not to in this industry—especially as we get into the winter months. If you’re like most business leaders, you have more days than you’d like to admit where you get home at 9pm and can’t remember what you even did that…