The commodity risk…
Quick question. What do you do and is it what you’re known for? And if you are known, what’s your reputation? Is it as a generalist, specialist, expert, authority or someone in [...]
25
11, 2020
20
11, 2020
Why camels are a great metaphor in business
Camels. I think they’re pretty ugly and they spit. But that aside they’re one of the most resilient creatures on the planet. They survive in stinking hot deserts all [...]
18
11, 2020
The Camel and the Unicorn
The Camel and the Unicorn. One has been around for millions of years and will continue to do so. The other is a mythical creature symbolising magic and miraculous growth. Which one [...]
12
11, 2020
Hitting the ground running in Jan 2021
It's almost the end of the year. What you do now will set you up for a great 2021. You either relax and take a break after all your hard [...]
10
11, 2020
Reboot, revitalise & thrive in 2021
Well, it's November and it's almost the end of the year. It's mission critical time! Why? Because it's the time where you either set yourself up for a great 2021 or you [...]
6
11, 2020
Do you stand out?
Look around you. Unless you have a completely unique product or service which is highly unlikely, you’ll have myriad competitors. So what distinguishes you from all of them? The answer [...]
3
11, 2020
Developing Your USP
Every business faces competition. Just Google your service offering and I’m sure there’ll be hundreds, if not thousands of results. So what separates you from everyone else in your category? What is [...]
29
10, 2020
Outcomes NOT process!
When speaking with potential clients one of the biggest mistakes we can make is espousing our value in vague or verbose terms. Which means we don’t clearly and succinctly articulate [...]
28
10, 2020
Articulating your value
As we all buy on emotion and justify our decisions with logic, we need to present our value to a potential client in both left brain (quantifiable) and right brain (emotional) terms. [...]
22
10, 2020
Check-up from the neck up?
I love this quote from the late Zig Ziglar. “Your attitude not your aptitude will determine your altitude in life.” This is especially true in tough times like we’re facing [...]
20
10, 2020
Which camp do you fall into?
In conversations with business owners in the time of Covid-19 I’ve been struck by two completely different attitudes. Some said “Woe is me. It’s really difficult and I’ve lost most of my [...]
15
10, 2020
Life is too short to…
As business owners, life is too short to work with people we don’t like, don’t appreciate the value we provide and are just painful to deal with. One of [...]
13
10, 2020
Knowing your “why” isn’t enough…
Simon Sinek popularised the importance of knowing your “Why”. This is especially important when you’re in business. Because when times get tough, as they inevitably do, it’s crucial to know what’s driving [...]
8
10, 2020
Moving from crisis to opportunity and choice…
Every crisis and period of disruption such as Covid-19 has seeds of opportunity within it. As a leader you can either curl up or you can double down and figure [...]
6
10, 2020
What do your clients value?
Sales has got a bad rap. Most think it’s about ramming your message down someone’s throat, having clever comebacks for objections and continually trying to close. Frankly nothing could be further from [...]
1
10, 2020
How the 80/20 rule will help you prospect more effectively
Commercially smart business owners understand the concept of leverage and the 80/20 rule. Concentrating 20% of your effort to give you 80% of your results. In sales this translates to [...]
29
09, 2020
Structuring your sales conversation
There are only two reasons we buy anything. We either want to get rid of a problem or we want something we don’t have yet. Your job in sales is to lead [...]
24
09, 2020
5 critical questions you must ask every prospect
In sales I’m sure you realise the importance of qualification. Whether a prospect has a need or not. Which starts with prospecting, a number’s game. You have to sift through [...]
23
09, 2020
How the 80/20 rule applies to lead generation
Commercially smart business owners understand the concept of leverage and the 80/20 rule. Concentrating 20% of their effort to give them 80% of their results. In sales this translates to 20% of [...]
17
09, 2020
How to warm up prospects
There are very few professional consultants who like cold calling. In fact, I’d say 99.9 percent hate it and would do anything to avoid it. But the reality is unless [...]
15
09, 2020
Opening the door to new clients…
Many business owners express confusion regarding the roles of marketing, prospecting and selling. While they are distinct activities, think of them as three “safe tumblers” locking the door to a stream of [...]
10
09, 2020
Tread your own path…
It’s an understatement to say we live in uncertain times. The pandemic has thrown a spanner in the works for a huge number of people. We have no idea what [...]
8
09, 2020
Courage, confidence & conviction
A very successful business mentor of ours was fond of saying, “Business is easy, but people are complicated”. Put another way, we are all skin-bags of emotions. And our emotions can either [...]
3
09, 2020
The sales drama triangle
Are you familiar with the drama triangle? It’s a social model of human interaction developed by Stephen Karpman in 1968. And it has a lot of applicability in sales situations. [...]
1
09, 2020
Underwear tightening guarantees!
Perceived risk is one of the greatest barriers to a sale. Will I get what was promised? Will it work? What will my family, friends, co-workers, bosses think? Will the supplier stand [...]
24
08, 2020
Will you accept this challenge?
I have a direct challenge for you. I want you to raise your prices. And keep doing so until you find major resistance from your prospects. And yes, I can [...]
24
08, 2020
Is buying from you a risk?
As a consultant, perceived risk is one of the biggest barriers to a sale. Especially when you’re charging on a times and materials basis. Your clients are worried the project cost will [...]
20
08, 2020
How are you choosing your clients?
If you’ve been in business for a while I’m sure you’ll have clients you love to work with and those you wish you’d never taken on. So what makes the [...]
18
08, 2020
What if they’re not ready to buy yet?
In our webinar series on “How to attract high value clients without pushy sales tactics” we emphasise there are two types of prospects. Those that are ready to do business right now [...]
13
08, 2020
Are you making these 2 common sales mistakes?
What do you do when a prospect expresses interest in your product or service? How do you handle the conversation? Could you be inadvertently be making two major mistakes which [...]
7
08, 2020
The power of positioning!
In business it's not who you know but who knows you. If you're well known as an expert in your market, potential clients will seek you out and ask if [...]
4
08, 2020
Flawed thinking – which stunts your growth
If I were to ask you who your market was, how specific would you be? Would you say, “potentially everyone”, or could you narrow it right down to specific people experiencing specific [...]
30
07, 2020
Are you communicating at cross purposes?
Any salesperson worth their salt knows we all buy on emotion and justify with logic. From complex to completely transactional, impulse purchases, emotions drive buying decisions. And it doesn’t [...]
29
07, 2020
3 fundamental questions…
Every business needs to answer 3 fundamental questions. Who is your market? What message from you will make them sit up and take notice? Can you get traffic? e. get your message [...]
23
07, 2020
What advice would you give your younger business self?
What advice would you give to your 11 year old self? I’ve been watching a group of successful people do just that. We’ve been in business 20 years, which got [...]
21
07, 2020
The toughest lesson we learned….
Many businesses don’t have a clear concise message. And can’t identify a market segment who will resonate with what they have to offer. One of the hardest lessons to learn in professional [...]
15
07, 2020
A dumb business killing mistake!
There’s an old saying, It’s not what you know it’s who you know. However, I firmly believe in business it’s not who you know but who knows you. Imagine you [...]
14
07, 2020
The 8th wonder of the world…
Compound interest is considered to be the 8th wonder of the world. It leverages your money with exponential growth as long as you keep reinvesting your returns. The power of your positioning [...]
9
07, 2020
Why taking a piecemeal approach is dangerous
A big mistake we see is when businesses take a piecemeal, ad-hoc approach to client acquisition. Which means they struggle to have a steady stream of incoming clients. To consistently [...]
7
07, 2020
Time for “Cheese”?
Swiss couple Christian & Yvonne import, manufacture and mature Swiss Cheese in Queensland. Barbara and I have been clients for a number of years. Their cheese is excellent – but that’s not [...]