When you think about it, that’s the essence of management. It’s how solid families and friendships function. It’s how sports teams succeed in drafts and trades, and it’s how we make good neighbors (or, at the least, avoid being bad neighbors). Gitomer’s common sense approach governs a whole host of our relationships and shows us that sales doesn’t exist in a vacuum.

The Trump administration argues that this is a constitutional issue rather than a move on healthcare policy, as the federal government cannot spend money that Congress has not authorized it to spend.

Business owners and executives know that’s an important step, but too many ignore the same analysis of their overall brand. Some think their brand is as clear to everyone else as it is to them; others just don’t think it’s a priority.

The goal here is to get a sense of what your brand actually is right now, and the way to get there is to commit to honesty. Brutal honesty. If it’s clear that employees aren’t in love with the company, admit it. If the community thinks they’d be better off without you, don’t lie to yourself about it. If customers think you’re great, but that you’re overpriced, accept it.

That sort of wellness checkup should be done every year or two -- but it shouldn’t be limited to things like HR and benefits administration. You should be auditing your brand, too, and the HR aspect can serve as a model you can apply more broadly to your company.