We've all had "that's what I should've said" moments. After a discussion is already over, the perfect one-liner, ideal comeback, elegant analogy or consummately constructed point occurs to us. The one parlay that would have made our argument. Golfers have a name for the do-over of a shot that didn't go where they wanted, the Mulligan Read More...
The face-to-face meeting with a client, especially the first one, is the single most important event in the sales process. Stumbling block #3 in new client meetings (see #2 Robot) is the monologue. When you’re excited about what you or your product can do for your new client, it takes discipline not to explain it right away Read More...
The face-to-face meeting with a client, especially the first one, is the single most important event in the sales process. Stumbling block #2 during meetings with new potential clients (read #1-No Traction) takes on the business mantra: "It's not personal, it's just business." If you lose a piece of business with a client to a competitor, does it feel personal? When a startup entrepreneur gets angel funding, do you think it feels personal? When you’ve invested ten years building a team, does it feel personal when that team succeeds or fails? No matter what we think or say, part of being human is that most things that happen to us feel personal Read More...
The face-to-face meeting with a client, especially the first one, is the single most important event in the sales process. Not screwing it up is a useful thing. There are five big mistakes to watch out for in that all important first meeting with a potential new client. They are 1. No Traction, 2. the Robot, 3 Read More...
“That reminds me of French Impressionism in the late 1800’s.” “What are you talking about?” said my future client. “In the second half of the 19th century,” I continued, “the annual Paris Salons controlled the commercial art world. If you didn’t go to the academy and paint in the traditional romantic style, you couldn’t get an exhibition at the Salon Read More...
Gina is a super smart twenty-six year old. She just got her doctorate from Yale University. She wrote her doctorate thesis on the market evolution of a cutting edge tech product. Ultimately, Gina sees herself in academia, but she’s taken a sales job with an established high-flying tech startup that produces the product she did her thesis on Read More...
We were expecting no one when the door bell rang at my mother’s house. I opened the door. The air was brisk, the wind was strong, the sun was burning bright. Standing at my mother’s front door was a young brown skinned man, wearing a frayed white oxford and dark blue pants that were slightly too big for him Read More...
"The victorious strategist only seeks battle after the victory has been won, whereas he who is destined to defeat first fights and afterwards looks for victory." Sun Tzu 300 BC I hesitate to quote Sun Tzu's classic Art of War because it reinforces the analogy that business is like warfare, an assumption to which I don't subscribe Read More...
Demonstrating value is an integral part of any client meeting. It's being useful to your client. It means that they are deriving benefit from their interaction with you. From the salesperson's point of view, the ideal demonstration of value is explaining how your product or service can solve a problem for your client Read More...
If your job has a sales component to it, sooner or later you’ll step into the question of whether to sell to a friend. The question can be framed by two competing perspectives. "I always sell to friends. We already have a level of trust, and friends are the easiest people with whom to do business Read More...
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