A sales process is just moving people through a pipeline. There's a typical progress that people go through, on the journey from stranger to customer. It might start with filling out a form on your website, or giving you a call, or requesting a quote, or walking through your door. Unless you sell on [...]
Sell Them What They Want, When They Want It The day was hot, and I was exhausted from running five kilometers. The Rugged Maniac obstacle course was filled with mud pits and climbing nets. After 37 minutes on the course, I was thirsty. As soon as I crossed the finish line, I was handed [...]
Create a pre-designed proposal template you can customise for every new client “Can you send me a proposal by the end of the day?” When I started my first web design agency in 2010, this question forced me into upgrading my business. I had only made four websites at that time, and a new client [...]
Selling feels sleazy when you ask for commitment too early On the same day, I received a party invitation and a sales pitch. One of them made me very uncomfortable, and the other did not. The sales pitch was on a used car lot. I happened to be walking by, and on a whim, I [...]
Sell to the heart before trying to convince the mind On my third day stranded in the airport, I began to make bad decisions. The kids were hungry — again. The healthy snacks my wife prepared had run out yesterday. The food choices near the gate looked appetising, despite the behaviour problems that we know [...]
Sell to small groups of your most qualified prospects Every time a coin landed in my guitar case, I smiled and sang, ‘Do you have a couch for me? I’m looking for a couch for free.’ In 1997 I lived as a street musician for a year. I hitchhiked across North America and survived off [...]
Sales gets you where you want to go. Marketing is why you want to get there. Meme by Alex Bogusky Does selling feel sleazy to you? If so, there’s a good chance you don’t understand the difference between sales and marketing. Using the example above, these two signs give you very different reactions. In the [...]
Selling is only pushy if you haven’t done enough pulling. Photo by Camrocker on iStock My first sales job was selling donuts door-to-door. Every Saturday morning, I would knock on the doors of strangers, introduce myself, and make my pitch. Within a few minutes, the stranger would either hand me five bucks, or shut [...]
“Gratitude is the single most important ingredient to living a successful and fulfilled life.” - Jack Canfield Without gratitude, life is just bleak. You can be rich or poor, healthy or sick, lonely or loved, but only appreciation will assign value to that which you possess. James Clear, an expert on making habits, uses the power [...]
Jobs are so scarce right now, and employers are so hesitant to outlay capital, that the standard default worth of any given salesperson is straight commission. Go out and sell my stuff for me, and I’ll give you a piece. It sounds nice in theory; performance based pay means you’re not carrying any dead weight [...]