“It occured to me why my eyes glaze over when getting technical about stuff (yes, stuff). Doc Searls enlightened me. Scary, yes? Here is why. I equate jargon with noise. I realize that, often, jargon is the language of the subject. However, usually jargon takes place of the subject. The ’stuff’ takes back seat to the medium.”

“…I really do know a lot about email both technically and from a business sense. I keep seeing a few common mistakes that people make and a failure to leverage email as a marketing medium. Here’s some suggestions.”

“What happens when you’ve made all the money you ever thought you’d want? Do you retire? Change careers? Or change yourself?”

“Forget what you’ve always been told about how mentoring arrangements should work. Here’s one woman’s unsparing look at the pleasures and perils of the workplace’s most complicated relationship.”

“Religion breeds fanatics. We’ve all seen that. And if it works for a bunch of crazies, why not make it work for your product or service? Can you possibly adapt a system that has worked flawlessly for thousands of years to your business? Do you want to have customers chanting your name endlessly?”

“…I really do know a lot about email both technically and from a business sense. I keep seeing a few common mistakes that people make and a failure to leverage email as a marketing medium. Here’s some suggestions.”

“As the economy rolls on, IT sales myths still permeate technology and professional services sales forces trying to hit their forecasted sales quotas. Like urban myths, many of these business beliefs just continue to proliferate without identified authorship or business validity.”

“Many prospects base buying decisions on perception — not price. This may come as a surprise to salespeople who are still closing on price alone. Salespeople who know the secret of appealing to a buyer’s perception of value close more easily, more often, and with greater customer satisfaction than those who hawk low price as a product’s main attraction.”

“Are you often tossed into impromptu client meetings where you have to explain complex system architecture or application components to business people? Do you get blank stares and aimless glances at handheld devices? If so, read on; this article provides some advice on communicating complex technical concepts to nontechnical folks.”

“A number of smart businesses are realizing that the organizational characteristics that lead to their successes — such as agility, decentralized decision making, and fast growth — have made their Web sites unworkable through poor development processes and inconsistent user experiences. This frustrates any attempt by visitors to find meaningful information.”

“When a client asks if you can do something in a meeting or on the phone, don’t say yes or no immediately, even if you think you know the answer. Listen to the problem to get a full understanding of the issue. Repeat the problem back to the client to make sure you’ve got it straight, then respond that you need time to review the request. By reviewing the suggestion after the meeting, then explaining your recommendation — including proposed alternatives if the original request can’t be implemented — you set the precedent that there’s a process to follow.”

“It goes without saying that creativity and rule breaking go hand in hand. To invent the new, you have to challenge the old. If you just follow conventional thinking, all you’ll ever be is conventional. The economy, too, is being challenged as we move away from manufacturing and into the new ‘creative economy.’ Here, intellectual capital is king…”

“With the emphasis recently on Customer Relationship Management (CRM), it seems there’s a customer love-fest in the making. It’s an orgy, almost: Every company wants a close relationship with me, and they want one with you, too. They want close relationships with their business buyers and suppliers. Of course, as the name spells out, what they really want to do is “manage” these close relationships. There’s one small thing missing from all this talk about customer relationships, both on and off the web. Not every customer (and, in particular, not every business customer or supplier) wants a close relationship, nor do they want to be managed.”

“Everyone’s mental switchboard is on overload. People everywhere talk about being distracted, being unable to finish projects, even being unable to sit still. Anxiety and concentration can’t co-exist. Being nervous — being jittery — means being unfocused. In an increasingly complex world, we’re all yearning for simplicity.”

“The field of battle: your online business. On the one side, right-brained marketers; on the other, left-brained technology folks. Both have the same objectives, but boy, do they speak very different languages. To make sense of it and find the common ground, you really need someone on the order of a United Nations interpreter, right?”