Chicago and Seattle will be the first test markets for Starbucks' new Via instant coffee. The company said today that it plans to start test-marketing its instant coffee in those cities on March 3, with the goal of rolling them out nationwide in the fall. CEO Howard Schultz went on CNBC this afterno...

American Apparel "almost went bankrupt" before Xmas according to internal emails allegedly stolen from CEO Dov Charney's porn-based advertising/clothing empire. Now the SEC is eyeing the company, according  to the New York Post, based on the emails. Back on Jan. 15, BNET noted that American Apparel...

by Jerry Acuff You don't need to be Warren Buffet to predict that we are in for some rocky economic times. However, while hard times create challenges, they also create opportunities for sales professionals who know how to take advantage of the situation. Here's my view. Few things matter more in ti...

Economists call them "inferior goods" and they are fast becoming a hot commodity. Inferior goods are simply the kinds of low-priced alternatives that people turn to during hard economic times. And not only the poor. "We're seeing more Mercedes and BMWs in Wal-Mart parking lots, and Wal-Mart shoppers...

The news: Anemic retail sales in April shouldn't surprise anybody. Any gain was attributed to Easter happening in March this year, creating one more weekend trading day in April 2008 than in 2007. If you combine March and April, the Wall Street Journal said, sales rose 1.1 percent, right in line wit...

Selling is hard work, but it's even more difficult when the sales team starts exhibiting dysfunctional behavior. Here are the seven major sins of sales teams, along with some advice on how to cope: OVERCONFIDENCE. When everyone wants to make big numbers, there's a tendency to sell too much, too quic...

If your sales success isn't where it ought to be, you may be operating under the weight of one or more persistent (and pernicious) myths about selling. Here they are: Myth #1. All qualified prospect are potential customers. Truth: Only certain prospects should and will buy. If your lead qualificatio...

A clever commenter on my recent post about Tony Robbins provided a link to a key scene from the 1992 movie Glengarry Glen Ross as a humorous counter-example to the Robbins video. The clip is worth watching, first because of the hammy acting (cue the thunderstorm, Fred!) and second, because it's so r...

For the second holiday season in a row, Nintendo has botched forecasted demand for the Wii game system, leaving frustrated potential buyers clutching at -- well, nothing. Is it really this hard this hard to forecast? In a new blog on Harvard Business, Yossi Sheffi says all companies including Ninten...