I’ve been thinking about KISS almost everyday lately and this recent post by Jason Guthrie has got me inspired to share why I feel it is such a big necessity in business development and client relations.

I have removed several words from my own “client relations” vocabulary through the advice of friends, colleagues and books I have read over the past few years. These words tend to put the client on edge, and especially for a new client, can form a barrier across the relationship that you are trying to form with them.

Ever had a client zone out during your new biz presentation or ever lost your own concentration in the middle of a pitch meeting? If so, then Guy Kawasaki’s 10/20/30 Rule of PowerPoint could be your saving grace! Its an easy to remember system that is sure to help you get right to the point of your presentation and lose the fluff. The gist: “a PowerPoint presentation should have ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points”.

A new issue of design in-flight is out with an article, by yours truly, on the topic of doing work for family and friends.

Besides having a killer smile, TJ provides some great tips for giving time-limited presentations.

It’s not about Us vs. Them, it is about providing a solution that solves a problem.

Are you committing conversational terrorism? “The intent of detailing and naming these insidious tactics is so that the reader may AVOID USING THEM, to quickly recognize if someone else is using them, and for fun.”

Peter Flaschner is working on a short PDF document that would help bring our web clients up to speed on terminology and expectations for web design and he wants to know what you wish your clients knew, in the hopes that this will make all our jobs just a little bit easier by helping our clients understand some of the ins and out of what we do.
found via Unbeige

I have come to realize that there are two, no maybe three, distinct looks of Dan. There is corporate Dan, designer Dan, and everybody’s best friend Dan.

Scott Nelson, VP Distinguished Analyst of Gartner, provides some valuable suggestions for A CRM Resolution for 2006.