In order to think like a customer, imagine that you are that customer describing to a third party your business objectives (or personal needs) and the resources you'll need to achieve them. Now as a supplier to that customer, isn't that what you would love to know about your customers' view of their future?

This month's white paper, Think Like Your Customers: Listening to Learn Your Customers' Perspectives discusses how to accomplish this critical task.

We noticed an interesting phenomenon at this year's Summer Olympics. Many of the U.S. teams, which were comprised of top flight athletes, failed to win the Gold, or in some cases even a medal. (In events where the team had to play together to win, as opposed to using a combined score of individual contributions like in "team" gymnastics).

Consider Men's Basketball, Women's track 4x relay, Men's track 4x relay, etc. Each of these teams had what are arguable the best "players" in the Olympics on their team, and yet they failed to achieve the Gold. Why?

We believe that in most (if not every) case, it is because they were not a team, but rather a collection of individuals put together and called a team. Putting people together and declaring them a team, does not create a high performance team, no matter the talent and skill of the individuals.

Consider this year's NBA finals where the Detroit Pistons, playing as a team, beat the LA Lakers, comprised of some of the top talent in Basketball. The Lakers players refused to play as a team. The US Men's Olympic Basketball "team" was coached by Larry Brown of the Detroit Pistons. Even he, renowned for creating true teams in the sport of basketball, could not get these over-hyped, self-interested, yet talented people to play as a team. The result, a fight for Bronze.

The Men's Track 4x Relay team lost the Gold because of a faulty baton pass. The four fastest men on the planet couldn't lose except when they needed to be a team...during the baton pass. How many times do you think they had practiced the team part of their event...the baton pass? The answer: only twice!

When needed, do you create true teams in your company, or just put together the "best available people," declare them a team, and expect outstanding results? Feel free to read for the first time, or re-read our white paper, Why Teams Don't Perform.

Creating and sustaining high performance work teams is a problem most of us face...continually. You've hired the brightest, and perhaps even "the best" based on their track records or, for the entry-level folks, an absolutely raging, flag-waving potential. But will they "work" (read: produce required results) for you? And will they do it together, effectively, efficiently, synergistically?

If you'd like to learn more about how you can build, manage, and maintain consistently better performing teams, visit our Teamformance^® website by clicking the link below.

A while back we had the privilege of working with a company whose market had changed on them. The change, which occurred over time had caused them to slip from the #1 position in their market to a company struggling to achieve its goals.

The process of getting this company back in alignment with its market was an exciting challenge for us and for them. If you'd like to read more about this challenge and the process of re-engineering marketing to align with market conditions, click the link below.

Many of you have read Mitch's book, The Secret To Selling More. If you liked it and found it valuable, we'd appreciate it if you would take one or both of the following two actions:

• Recommend the book to a friend or colleague;
• Go onto amazon.com using this link and write a review

The trade paperback version of The Secret To Selling More is due for release in November. We'll give you more information next month.