Devoted to branding and building and protecting brands

Jack Welch, the guy who used to run GE and is now a contributor to Business Week, knows something about sales. And salespeople. His take on the special talent of people who star at selling? It boils down to empathy with customers. In other words, being able to see every deal through their customer's eyes. And where have you heard that before? If you answered "Right here on this blog!" go treat yourself to something nice. Back to Welch, whose weekly BizWeek column is written in a breezy, albeit tough-minded, style in collaboration with his wife, Suzy: "The best salespeople hate 'the postman model.' No offense to letter carriers, but best salespeople love to get off their set route in search of product and customer opportunities." Memo to anyone whose title, or whose boss's title contains the word "marketing": think of yourself primarily as a "customer" person, not a "marketing" person. It will make you a vastly better marketing person. And it will keep you "off your set route".