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
sales
ROI Calculators
Now you can embed ROI calculators in your lead magnets (or proposals). ROI Calculators are popular online because they promise to help your prospects discover just how valuable your offerings are. However, this promise is often unrealized because: Online calculators … 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
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
Zombie Deals: the obstacle to sales that you have hidden in plain sight
We have enough obstacles to sales but we often add big obstacles without meaning to. I’m talking about the undead, “zombie deals” in your pipeline. They never close and they never die, but you spend lots of time and energy … Read More
How to turn a sales conversation into a proposal
How many times have you had a great meeting with a prospect, had the prospect ask you for a proposal, think, “I’ve got this one”, and then sit down and realize the proposal isn’t going to be as easy as … Read More
12 Secrets of Successful Sales Conversations
You’ve finally got a meeting scheduled with your prospect. (If you missed them, you might want to read about how to get more people to convert on your site, and when to call them to get an initial conversation.) I … Read More
Respond Quickly to Web Leads (or Lose Deals)
How critical it is to respond to web leads quickly? I may sound like a broken record, but research from InsideSales.com and Harvard Business Review indicates that if you can respond within 1 hour, you get 60X more conversations than … Read More
What I learned selling services
Like a lot of people who accidentally became consultants, I got started because I was really good at helping companies solve certain kinds of problems that they had trouble solving themselves. Like a lot of people who start consulting companies, I … Read More