Many times I have seen a sales person spend hours laboring over a presentation, packing it full of details, statistics, examples, graphs and graphics, pictures and hope. Yes, lots of hope, that the presentation will be so outstanding and cover every conceivable variable or objection that the customer will fall in love with the product...Read More

There’s a certain comfort zone and preference most people have with the term “Marketing” versus “Selling”. Try telling someone “You’re going to start selling” and imagine what that reaction is versus telling a business owner or employee “You’re going to start marketing the business now.” Which one makes you a little sweaty or anxious? Selling...Read More

Most small businesses don’t yet have a sales team. All the “selling” has been shouldered by the owner from the launch and through the growth of the business and that owner wears way too many hats. For successful businesses, at some point, the owner decides that growth requires sharing that “sales” hat and then seeks...Read More

You can say it in many ways. You can define it in many terms – from the technical to blunt: CASH FLOW is KING for small business. The ability to survive and the opportunity to thrive for a small business both hinge on access to available cash. Surviving means you have the necessary cash to...Read More

As progressive sales practitioners we work hard to get our clients focus on articulating and demonstrating their value to earn more sales. Recently, a business owner I’ve met several times, let’s call him Mr. Discouraged, approached me at an event and he said to me, “Look, I read your blogs and I’ve been doing this...Read More

“Just the facts, ma’am” – is the iconic line parodying detective Joe Friday from the old show Dragnet. Meant to demonstrate the character’s dry approach to interviewing witnesses, sometimes I feel like I’m meeting a live “Joe Friday” when I’m approached by someone trying to sell me a product. No context, no perspective or relevance...Read More

If you’re looking for great competitive advantage in your selling efforts, this practice will help you convert more prospects to customers and attract your ideal buyers: Sell to REAL PEOPLE, not ROBOTS. Seems kind of obvious, right? But in our zeal to mechanize the sale process so we can pave the road to riches ....Read More

This week marks the start of the last quarter of the year for most businesses. There are holidays, parties, vacations and lots of fun to be had between now and 2016 but don’t think that letting off the gas now and coasting is going to get set you up to grow and compete next year....Read More

  When was your first or most impressive blow of rejection? Was it being picked last for kickball? Denied by your crush for a date to prom? Not getting in to your first choice college? Or losing a job to a more qualified candidate? Most of us have complicated and powerful associations with rejection that...Read More

“Opt In” or “Subscribe Here” . . . we have come to expect a certain level of value when we surrender our email address to a company and expect some unwritten {and also written} rules to be followed and a significant exchange of something worthwhile to us in response to handing over our email address....Read More