I don't like generalizations. In fact, I think that people who just banter around canned phrases and slogans, as in the case of many sales trainers - really limit themselves and their clients.
Take the case of the "80-20 Rule" - how many times has that been thrown around - with little if no research on the part of the speaker. I was pleased to see an article about the story of how that quality control idea from the 1940's got into common language in many sales and marketing strategy meetings. Matthew Syrett writes about it and is most interesting - especially when he talks about the general assumptions made when discussing this theory. See for yourself, and think twice before throwing that one out blindly again.
Here's another one: I've heard dozens and dozens of folks quote Wayne Gretzky as having said, "You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take." - my understanding is that he never said that - but just for fun, I'm going to get to the bottom of this one....
