When I was a kid, we had to learn to use the encyclopedia to look up information. The school library had a couple of sets and it seemed like a vast world of knowledge. Of course, sometimes I’d want to … Read More
proposals
Referrals in the Internet Age… Let Me Introduce You
Referrals are the best leads. That’s why some of our favorite words to hear as business owners are, “let me introduce you to someone who might need your help.” Depending on who you ask, they are 2x, 5x, or infinitely … Read More
Use Pictures to Improve Your Proposals
They say a picture is worth a thousand words and that can certainly be true when it comes to proposals. Don’t add pictures for the sake of adding pictures, but if you can use illustrations to advance the story, that … Read More
The Hero’s Journey
I spend a lot of time here on the 2 most important rules for proposals, which is really a version of The Hero’s Journey in short form: A proposal is a story, not a brochure. The hero of the story … Read More
Language Traps
I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about how storytelling is important for sales (and marketing), and particularly the way language helps construct our reality, which means it can also lead us into traps. For example, how … Read More
Canyons and Bridges
When you’re selling, you want to close the deal quickly. But when you’re buying, you want to make sure you’re doing what’s right for you, which can be particularly hard if you don’t have a lot of expertise in the … Read More
Will the end of the movie business end your business?
In my last post, I made the seemingly preposterous claim that every business is a media business. Some people agreed, some people disagreed, but the hypothesis definitely caught people’s attention. So, it might be worth asking, what’s happening with the … Read More
Every Company Is a Media Company
Congratulations! In addition to your regular job, you also run a media company because every company is a media company. “That’s ridiculous!” We’re a consulting company, or a software company, or a law firm. Or we manufacture widgets. “We’re the … Read More
Language and the Pursuit of Happiness (and Business)
Chalmers Brothers’ book, Language and the Pursuit of Happiness has a lot of interesting things to say about language and how it shapes our lives, both internally and our relationships. To start, he points out that we live in language … Read More
Pricing pressure? It could be your proposal
I’ve heard a lot of people complain about how their market is getting commoditized and how there’s no way to achieve good price points. What happens when we look at the proposals the sales teams are sending out? They’re terrible. … Read More