The Pedestal Group

Putting our clients where they belong

Specialization Doesn’t Have To Be Scary

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There is a really interesting discussion going on in a group I belong to on LinkedIn about how to bring together Marketing and Sales.  It is really interesting how separate these two functions can get and yet they are vital  to one another.  For most of my clients, it is impossible to have marketing and sales separate because it is all managed by the same person.  But even here, the message can be lost. One of the biggest areas where this happens is specialization.  You spend a great deal of time working out your niche market making sure your value proposition is clear and straight forward.  You put your message in the places where your clients are, and you go to work generating leads.  And then, it happens.  The sales part of you starts to stress that you are “missing out on sales” because you […] Continue reading

Sales and Hostage Negotiations – Similarities?

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Hearing Gary Noesner talk to Lanigan & Malone on Majic 105.7 about his new book, Stalling For Time: My Life As An FBI Hostage Negotiator, I felt compelled to get it. After all, hostage situations require communication skills on steroids.  I was fascinated to learn how much of these situations are like any other business transaction and face the same challenges. Lesson 1 – Internal communications make or break a transaction. In case after case, things went smoothly or not based more on the internal communication than anything else. If the tactical group wasn’t on the same page as the negotiating team, you ended up with situations like Waco, Tx. If everyone was on the same page, as a news-viewing public we don’t remember the cases because they went so smoothly and worked out in the end. I can recall many deals that were made […] Continue reading