Sales

There is a big irony in sales. That is, you can’t sell anything unless your prospect wants to buy. Sure, you can badger someone into buying, but that is a) highly unlikely [...]

“Our revenue has dropped significantly. It’s getting harder to penetrate accounts. Our salespeople aren’t performing.” I hear this a lot when working with new clients. I ask how long the salespeople have [...]

I've spent decades working with professionals from various consultancy fields, such as Accountants, Financial Planners, Engineers, and IT specialists. Most loved the technical aspects of delivery. And hated having to sell those [...]

What are your clients really buying? It’s tempting to say your product or service. But is that really true? Sure, your product or service has to fulfil a need. Provide an outcome [...]

As buyers when dealing with an unknown vendor, most of us most of us have a natural level of suspiciousness. Unless we know the brand’s positive reputation or we’ve received a recommendation [...]

The art of true leadership is developing a framework that has people genuinely wanting to come with you on your journey. It's not about coercion, which only breeds resistance and resentment. Let's [...]

In sales one size definitely doesn’t fit all! Every organisation is different. So who you initially target is critical. There are two schools of thought. The first is to target the highest [...]

One of the fundamentals in any sales conversation is your own conviction, and your own passion for what you do. Because passion and conviction and enthusiasm are infectious. And while [...]

Recently watched the movie “The current war” about the competition between Thomas Edison and George Westinghouse around the viability of DC and AC current. Westinghouse made a profound observation. “The value of [...]

Which would you prefer? Having to constantly prospect for new business, have lots of meetings and hopefully win some business. OR Have your ideal clients come to you asking how you can [...]

If you sell technical solutions one of the biggest mistakes is to sell your technology.  Huh?  But surely that’s what your clients are buying? They’re not! Over 30 years working with technology [...]

You sell a SAAS service and have just received a lead asking for a demo.  What you do next is crucial to winning the business. One of the biggest mistakes we see [...]

One of the easiest and neglected ways to increase sales is to go back to your current and old clients. Think about it this way. You’ve already built up a relationship and [...]

Muhammad Ali famously spruiked himself – “I am the greatest”.  Which is fine if you’re a world-famous boxer trying to intimidate your opponent.  But it’s hardly something to emulate in a sales [...]

Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus is a classic book by John Gray.  In it he describes how both sexes interact.  I’m going to put this into a sales context. [...]

Last week coaching a technical team moving into sales roles, I stressed their job was to bring insights to clients. Highlight issues clients might not know they have - yet! That they [...]

Sales 101 teaches the importance of features and benefits.  But before you talk about them, you need to identify the value an individual stakeholder is looking for.  And they're going to be [...]

If you provide any form of consulting, one of the most neglected (and arguably easiest) ways to grow is to go back to your previous clients, telling them what else you can [...]

Ultimately sales is a people business. We want to buy from people we like and trust. So most sales training focuses on people skills. How to create rapport, make people comfortable with [...]

Would you challenge a client if you firmly believed they were going down the wrong path? How about a prospect during a sales conversation where you know they’re barking up the wrong [...]

The biggest impediment to a sale is the status quo! It’s often easier to live with something than spend the emotional energy on changing. Even if it’s in your best interest to [...]

There’s an old axiom that a confused prospect never buys.  Well, the same applies to us as vendors. The first sale is always to ourselves. If we’re confused as to the problems [...]