So What Happened To The January Newsletter?

It's late! We're actually going to publish the Mastering Technical Sales Edge next Tuesday - January 13th. But there is a really good reason, and it's worth explaining and it points out the power of making a change.

December 2013 was a crazy busy month for the company, which - coupled with a death in the family - didn't allow a lot of time to enjoy the holidays with my family and celebrate Christmas. It was all too hectic and rushed. So one of my 2014 resolutions was to improve my work/life balance. Now I think I have one of the best jobs in the world, and although I travel a lot (150,000 miles in 2014), I really do get to spend a lot of time with my wife, Allison, and with two of my children. Just not before and during the Christmas of 2013.

I vowed I would do better. And instead of a vague "do better" I made a series of micro-resolutions. (See Book of the Year - Small Move, Big Change for more details). One of them involved not working on certain days or when my wife was off work. Circumstances meant that I spent a lot of wonderful time with friends and family - and didn't write. Hence the late delivery. It's a good reason. The good news is that one of my 2015 micro-resolutions is that I will blog/write at least twice per month. (Instead of saying I will blog more - which means nothing.)

There is already some new content on the website. You'll find my annual list of suggested 2015 New Years Resolutions For the Sales Engineer. (Which also apply for the Year of the Sheep) I'm also going to take another look at The Technical Win which is a term I absolutely hate and think drives a wedge between sales and sales engineers.

During February I'm going to write something up about useful presales metrics and the fallacy of metrics. Books on the list over the next few months include The Power of Habit by Charles Duhigg and Wiser (Making Groups Smarter) by Prof Cass Sunstein. If there are any other books out there you'd like to recommend to me please email or leave a comment.