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IF IT'S A YES/NO DECISION, WHAT'S THE THIRD CHOICE?
The Silent Third Choice—The Kiss Of Death.

The vice-president had the decision-making skills of a squirrel crossing the road in traffic. Should the department have a sales meeting this quarter or not? Should the meeting, if one were to be held, be held off site? And if it were to be off site, should it be in the Sheraton or the Regency? And was a keynote speech called for, and if so, who would give it? Oh, excruciating were the decisions demanded of the vice-president

The first decision—should there be a sales meeting or not—called for a simple yes/no answer, but Marion VP, agonized over the choice, managed to find a third alternative. Simply postpone the decision. Do nothing.

Eventually this decision amounted to a "no" vote but before it got to "no", things began to happen. Morale plunged, for example, because many in the department who keenly believed in the importance of a sales meeting began to feel frustrated, then fouled, when meeting plans failed to gel.

There was muttering at the coffee station. Mutiny at the fax machine. Faith in Marion VP's leadership eroded a few more degrees.

The failure to make a decision is, in itself, a decision. A simple yes/no choice almost always has a silent third partner—the option to do nothing. And the consequences of this third choice are not always understood or appreciated. It can be "the kiss of death."

Each of us makes hundreds of decisions each day, most of them quite small and insignificant. But we also have the opportunities to make hundreds of decisions by default—that is, to put off making a responsible choice. It may be helpful for those of us with the decision making skills of a squirrel to understand that there is going to be a result no matter which choice we make—including the choice not to decide. And it might be helpful to run a catastrophe report as part of the decision making process: "If I don't make a decision, what is likely to happen?" The results that one contemplates could be the perfect spur that makes you choose whether to say yes or no.

WHAT YEAR IS IT?
After All, It's the Twenty-First Century.

We all grew up in the 20th century. We pronounced years—such as 1907—thus: Nineteen 'oh' seven.

This is the year 2007. Most people pronounce it this way: Two thousand and seven.

There is an inconsistency here. Why aren't we calling the year Twenty 'oh' seven?

Two Thousand and seven trips easily off the tongue, but as the calendar pages turn, the date will be less easy to say if we continue with this new method of date expression.

Two thousand and eleven...two thousand and seventeen—it gets clumsy.

Why aren't we saying twenty 'oh' seven, twenty eleven, twenty seventeen? It worked in the twentieth century, why not in the twenty-first?

THE NEXT GENERATION OF SPAM
Now It's Your Office Telephone

DON'T LAUNCH A SURPRISE ASSAULT ON YOUR OWN TROOPS
Communicate first with your sales force.

If you have a new ad campaign, a new press release, a new direct mail program or a new anything else that is going to the general public (ie your market), tell your sales force about it before it hits the markets or the mails first . Nothing is more embarrassing to a sales pro than having a customer say, "Hey, I saw the ad for your new product and..."

"Ad? What ad? What product?

Don't you guys ever talk to each other?"

It's common courtesy. It's common sense. Give your sales teams a playbook.