Drop your agenda
When speaking with a potential prospect drop your agenda. Never go in with a pitch. You have absolutely no idea if they have a problem and that even if they do, they [...]
26
02, 2021
23
02, 2021
You’ve been banned!
What would you do if your one method of communicating with your prospects and clients dried up, overnight? How would you cope? It’s a question a heck of a lot of businesses [...]
16
02, 2021
Are you coming on too strong?
To chase or not to chase, that is the question! As a young man trying to attract interest from the opposite sex, I made a lot of mistakes. The biggest [...]
30
01, 2021
Why you shouldn’t answer the price question….
What do you do when a prospect calls you out of the blue and one of the first things they ask you about is what you can do for [...]
6
01, 2021
Zig’s Wisdom…
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could “build it and they will come”. Unfortunately that only happens in Kevin Costner movies. In business if you wait around for clients, you’re likely to [...]
17
12, 2020
The most dangerous number in your business…
I grew up watching Lost in Space. Just about every episode had Dr Smith getting up to no good and the Robot waving his arms with Danger, Danger, Danger. Which [...]
11
12, 2020
The circle of client acquisition
Who would have believed the Lion King is a great metaphor for business. Particularly the lyrics of the circle of life. I’ve taken the liberty of modifying it slightly so [...]
4
12, 2020
Why you should NEVER send proposals UNLESS…
Have you ever sent a proposal only to never hear from the prospect ever again? Crickets. Your prospect ghosts you. If so, listen up. Let me paint a common picture [...]
1
12, 2020
Small hinges…
The new year is rapidly looming. What will it bring? None of us can predict the future. But we can learn from history. Now is a great time to sit back and [...]
26
11, 2020
Is your message jumbled?
I have a couple of questions for you. What do you know and is it what you are actually known for in your market place? Most of us have a [...]
25
11, 2020
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 [...]
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 [...]