I had a simple yet profound experience with a customer support person the other day. It reminded me of something we should all be doing regularly with our clients.

I was online trying to troubleshoot an issue with my Mac (yes, I did the Big Switch earlier this year after a gazillion years working with PCs).

There’s a long-standing epidemic that extends to just about anyone who has attended consulting skills training. You might even be asymptomatic—in other words, you don’t realize you’re suffering. Read on to find out what it is and what to do about it.

The problem, as was recently identified by Charlie Green on the TrustMatters blog, is question obsession.

You may be totally bought into trust-building as the ultimate differentiator for people in professional services but wishing for a way to convince others to see it that way. Or you may find yourself wishing for a refresher on why trust is so important to your work. Either way, this week’s tip will help.

Consider the following scenario, a variation of which was offered in The Trusted Advisor.

I recently got to be on the receiving end of a poorly-delivered message, and in this case the likely impact for the bearer of the bad news is no future business with me. Read on to find out what he could have done (and what you can do) to be sure bad news doesn’t cost so dearly.

A few tips ago, I mentioned that I’ve always said the best litmus test for the true effectiveness of any sales training—or sales methodology or process or whatever—is to imagine your clients being privy to everything that’s communicated. E-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g. Try this simple test to see how you fare.