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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]