It was 1989. Robert B. Cialdini was a 43-year-old college professor and self-proclaimed "patsy" – he answered every phone call, even during dinner, and patiently listened to the telemarketers on the other end of the line. And then he would inevitably buy something.

But every time he made a purchase, he felt taken advantage of, embarrassed, and utterly disinterested in ever buying anything from that company ever again.

It's been said that opposites attract, and Hollywood has certainly provided society with myriad mismatches of two people with vastly different personalities and styles who have gotten along swimmingly: Laverne and Shirley, Oscar and Felix, Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett... just to name a few.

These pairings have proven to be entirely entertaining... and exceedingly financially beneficial as well. Each pair has somehow found the key to successfully working together towards a common goal, capitalizing on each others' strengths, and not giving up their unique perspectives in the process.

You say "tomato" ... and some of your employees start thinking about a glossy, red (or sometimes yellow), edible fruit that is often mistaken for a vegetable. Others start humming an inane tune that will be stuck in their heads for days. A few get hungry.

But if you're lucky, a couple employees will understand that you were actually referring to Pantone 18-1660 TCX, which is the color of your new product and a color commonly referred to as "tomato red."

The sales team is often one of the largest components of a company. You might think, then, that this many people should get that much more work done for the organization... but unfortunately, not all sales teams work together in the ways they should in order to make this idea a reality.

The biggest problem most sales teams face is a lack of communication and the inability to fully understand one another. While it's easy to write these miscommunications and misunderstandings off as just "personalities that shouldn't be working together," that's often only an excuse that avoids responsibility for fixing the issue... and it creates a dysfunctional environment for the whole team.

Smoothly functioning sales teams are great... but ineffective problem solving is a common issue that can turn the strong fabric of your team into little more than useless bits of thread. If this sounds familiar, perhaps you should take a look at the goals of your sales team.

You're a visionary. You worked hard, paid your dues, and helped build the business – sale by sale, click by click.

It was fun... way back then.

Now you're leading the business, responsible for hiring smart and talented people, setting ambitious goals, and training your employees to succeed.

And you're doing it. Day in, day out, you spend your time working on your business.

Imagine how well it would be doing if you spent your time working in it.

There's a point in development that every company hits sooner or later – a wall in their growth and sales that they just can't seem to bypass. After you've grown for awhile, your ability to succeed is no longer dictated purely by how well you advertise your products; it's directly affected by elements like sales training meetings, how much you can improve your approach, and how you communicate with your customers.

What will you say to your revenue goal when you finally meet it?

You've got options. You could go with something zen, like, "Namaste." Or maybe you'll go with the masculine, celebratory fist bump?

Or you could just say "Nice to meet you, but I gotta go now!"

After all, revenue goals are made to be met and moved beyond, and to do that, you've got to put yourself out there, have a plan, and work a sales process that puts you in position to achieve your goals.

Have you ever actually listened to stories about customer service? If so, you've probably noticed that most of them ultimately come down to one of these two formats:

• I did not get the help I needed, and felt like the store was just treating me like a problem.
• The employees went out of their way to help me solve my problem and made sure I got the help I needed.

It's fairly obvious which of these situations is more likely to win a customer over and bring them back to you in the future.

In 1982, a little league team from Kirkland, WA, won the Little League World Series by defeating a team from Taiwan.

It was a remarkable victory. No American team had won an international Little League World Series Championship in more than 10 years. Taiwan had been riding a 31-game winning streak. Few gave Kirkland much of a chance.

But the players and coaches knew they were prepared for success. They had practiced hard. Coaches had meticulously tracked each player’s progress and helped them improve. They kept things simple.

And then, they won.