I always hated “sales”. The stereotypical sliminess. The used car salesman trying to push junk on someone at an information disadvantage. When I joined the software world, I found plenty of these people. But I also found that the most … Read More
Small Business Owner
When you should absolutely not discount your proposal or quote
I got a call from a customer recently asking about whether to discount a proposal. The brief background: after some great initial conversations, the prospect had asked my customer to create a proposal for a mid-sized project. The initial discussion … Read More
What Small Business Owners Should Learn from Apple
Apple earns praise for churning out cool gadgets and generating mountains of cash. The company has also created a whole industry of pundits and authors trying to tell people what they should learn from Apple. As much as I don’t … Read More
How can I make clients respect my time?
We all get frustrated when other people don’t respect our time. Unfortunately, many small business owners and freelancers, people who are already short on time, find themselves in situations where their clients aren’t respecting their time. How many meetings, discussions, … Read More
The Real Election Lesson for Executives, and Why Most of Them Won’t Pay Attention
This morning, Americans of all political leanings can come together an rejoice that the presidential campaign is over. While pundits and policy wonks will discuss the campaign endlessly in the days, weeks, and months to come. They will talk about … Read More
What you do versus what your customers want
Want to include in a post? Here’s the embed code: <br /> <img src=”http://mimiran.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/What-we-do-what-they-want-Venn-diagram.005.png” mce_src=”http://mimiran.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/What-we-do-what-they-want-Venn-diagram.005.png” width=”540″></p> <p>What you do versus what your customers want Venn diagram – An infographic by the team at <a href=”http://www.mimiran.com/small-business-owner/what-you-do-versus-what-your-customers-want/” mce_href=”http://www.mimiran.com/small-business-owner/what-you-do-versus-what-your-customers-want/”>What you do versus what … Read More
3 Reasons to Improve the Way You Price Your Services
A lot of consultants, designers and other service providers ask me about pricing. They usually start by saying that larger competitors are charging $X, say $200/hr, so they feel they should be cheaper, say $125/hr. “Is this right?”, they ask. … Read More
Small Business Owners Think They Suck at Sales, but They’re Wrong
Like many people who started a business based on their area of expertise, I had no idea how to actually run a business, especially when it came to sales. I heard that a “pipeline” was helpful. I heard you were … Read More
Can You “Have it All”? Of course not.
A recent cover story in The Atlantic called “Why Women Can’t Have It All” has generated a huge amount of buzz (see the debate at The Atlantic, on Slate, and on any Facebook wall with young, ambitious people who have … Read More
Easy up-selling and solution selling for small business sales
Sometimes, we are our own worst enemies. (In previous posts, I’ve discussed how we often start discounting before we even know if the buyer thinks we are too expensive.) Today, I want to talk about making sure your buyers know … Read More