A few weeks ago, I attempted to buy a product at the local store. I like to support them. They didn’t have what I needed in the store closest to me, but did at two different stores ten miles away. I was previously told to get it the fastest, have it shipped to the store. So I did.

A week later, the product had still not been shipped and I reached out to customer service. After they went through the script, I asked if they could reach out to the store and ask them to ship it. They told me it was not in stock and I’d either have to wait or cancel the order. I asked them to cancel it and ordered the product on Amazon while waiting for the cancellation to be processed. I hung up and called the store to see if the customer service rep lied to me. He had, it was in stock. And my order from Amazon arrived from the east coast two days later.

The experience was a prime example of a sales repellent department in action. Many blame Amazon for their sales falling short while seldom looking inward to see what is getting in the way of doing business with customers. Taking a hard look at how easy or hard it is to do business with you will be gold.

Do you have a sales repellent department? If so, it is time to make a change before your customers do!

At a recent performance, I sat in the audience trying to figure out what was missing. The performance was technically strong, but I wasn’t moved. As each act ended, the audience clapped politely. But there wasn’t a point through the evening where the audience stood and clapped with enthusiasm. It took me a while to put my finger on it. While the performance was technically strong, it lacked passion. And passion is that thing that is the difference between something being fine and being a wow moment.

Having passion in your organization will make the difference between doing just ok and being high-performing. Is passion showing up in your organization? What would it look like if it did?

It has been an epic battle. The birds vs. me, vying for the strawberries in my in the backyard. And for a while, the birds were winning. Literally eating every single nearly ripe berry before I could pick them. Round one involved placing chicken wire over the patch, secured by stakes. The birds still got under the chicken wire, even if they were slightly too big to fit. So far, I’m winning round two which involves bird netting secured by short stakes. I think they might still be getting a few around the edges.

At every turn, the birds have found a path to what they want. They are clever. And they are singular in their mission to get the strawberries. They are the competition.

And they are very much like competitors in the business world. When competitors are clever and focused, they will push you to up your game to stay competitive. They will force you to work for it. And they will constantly keep you on your toes. That’s why it is important to have good competitors. You’ll have better products and service your customers better.