I’ll admit, I’ve done it before. In my sales career, I’ve been frustrated and tried to get a buyer to respond with something compelling but in my haste, I’ve sent the – “Just Checking In” email. Have you received one of those? Or sent one? Hi Bill, How’s everything going? I’m just checking in to...Read More

Every December in Memphis, TN, thousands of people descend upon the city’s Downtown area to participate in the St. Jude Marathon. Runners run or walk a 5k, 10k, half, or full marathon and raise funds to support the mission, research, and children of St. Jude. This year’s marathon weekend raised over 12 MILLION dollars! It’s...Read More

Ask anyone how they determine who to pick for their Fantasy Sports team and they’ll tell you it’s all about the “stats”. Performance metrics are the best indicators of future success. Stats are kept for each play, each hit, tackle, pass, catch, whatever the sport if an athlete moves, it’s tracked so they can make...Read More

A while back, we participated in a great business expo hosted by the local chamber. At The Selling Agency booth, we asked people to “Give us their best pitch” about their business. And . . . we offered to record it for them and email them the sound bites. There was a specific point to asking...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

“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

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

I told a story yesterday about the process of how I named my consulting firm, “The Selling Agency”. This came from excellent feedback {EVERYONE needs outside perspective} from a really smarty pants colleague who pushed me to really focus on what the experience, core competencies and key deliverables would be for my clients: Quickly closing...Read More

Sellers have traditionally focused on buyers’ price and budget as their biggest obstacles. Guess what, your first {and sometimes biggest} hurdle is Time. On any given day, the average person makes thousand of decisions – both consciously and in “auto-pilot” mode. We make over 200 decisions every day just about FOOD! {Pancakes, French Toast, or...Read More

As you get busy putting the finishing touches on this year and planning for the next, it’s easy to get lost in the numbers. Yes, it’s critical to measure wins, losses, margins and profits so you can build budgets and projections, but don’t forget to spend some time planning the sales messages you’ll communicate to...Read More