Communicating Respect: Give A Little To Get A Lot
Posted On February 7, 2022 BY Dean Brenner
As a speaker, it’s always important to project authority. Whether through a mastery of detail, a clear understanding of your audience’s needs, a strong speaking voice or a poised stance at the front of the room, showing that you have expertise and confidence can go a long way toward persuading your audience. But there’s another […]
The Importance of Staying in Touch
Posted On August 4, 2021 BY Dean Brenner
We had a great interaction this week, a story worth sharing. We heard from a guy who had been in one of our workshops in 2010, back when he was with one of our biggest client companies. He left that company in 2011, which is probably the last time we had any contact with him […]
Persuasion Tips: Make Your Audience Feel the Problem
Posted On July 14, 2021 BY Dean Brenner
Getting people to listen to you in today’s modern workplace is hard enough. We write about that challenge all the time. But once you get people to hear you, your challenge is not over. Getting people to hear you is a great first step… but only a first step. The next step, which may also be the […]
The Self-Evident Truths of Communication Today
Posted On May 7, 2021 BY Dean Brenner
What does the world of communication look like right now? What are the barriers to getting our point across today, at this moment in time? There are a bunch, and none of them are inconsequential. Truth #1: The world continues to be a really noisy place. There are lots of people and things competing for attention span and mind share, and […]
The Art of Negotiation (as taught by a four-year old…)
Posted On April 2, 2021 BY Dean Brenner
(Author’s Note: I was recently scrolling through our archive of old blog posts. And I came across this one, which I wrote in 2014. It is a simple story about an interaction with my then-four-year-old son, where he outmaneuvered me at the frozen yogurt shop. But as is often the case, the simple story illustrates […]
See the Whole Board
Posted On March 29, 2021 BY Dean Brenner
I think about communication in a very specific way. Communication (or rather great communication) is not a series of memorized steps, standard moves, or a list of tips and tricks. No, I think about it much differently than that. Rather than a series of memorized steps or standard moves, great communication is really about questions and […]
Classic Persuasion Mistakes, Part 2
Posted On November 3, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
Let’s continue our discussion of classic persuasion mistakes… here’s another one that we see all the time. If you want to persuade someone to take advantage of an opportunity, don’t spend all your time trying to demonstrate all the upside, how unbelievable the idea is, and how they would be crazy if they didn’t do […]
Classic Persuasion Mistakes, Part 1
Posted On November 2, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
My colleagues and I spend just as much time changing the way people think about communication as we do anything else. Better communication is not about new tips or tricks (here is a line I hear in workshops a lot… “I am looking forward to getting some new tips.” Wow, does that drive me nuts.) […]
Do You Know Who I Am?
Posted On October 23, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
I have been going through our blog archive quite a bit lately. We have been writing in this blog for nearly 15 years, so there is a lot of old content to review. Today, I share one with you that I wrote and posted in August 2009. We are resharing it today because unprepared, one-size-fits-all […]
Building Customer Relationships When We Can’t Meet
Posted On July 22, 2020 BY Dean Brenner
Building connection and relationships with our clients is the coin of the realm in business. There are lots of important inputs that lead to business success. But our clients and the relationships we build with them are the most important input of all, by far. It’s not even close. And as we all now know, […]