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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
What do you do when a prospect says “no”?
What do you do when a prospect says no. How often should you keep following up? When do you give up and call it a day? The answer may surprise [...]
How to become distinctive…
You may have noticed we’ve been running Zoom sessions on how to get more clients in 90 days without pushy sales tactics. The feedback has been great. Which is lovely J However, [...]
Do you have deep compassion for your prospects?
When coaching people in sales, we stress the axiom, “I don’t care how much you know until I know how much you care”. We all want to feel heard [...]
5 keys to success in business
There are only 5 keys to success in business. You must have a clear problem you solve for a specific market Your market must know you exist. They must believe you can [...]
How to take charge of your sales pipeline
There are only two ways you can get new clients on board. One is to wait for them to find you. The other is to actively search them out. [...]
Why pre-meeting positioning is critical
You’ve got a meeting with a potentially high value prospect. It’s happening in a few days. What you do now to position yourself in your prospect’s eyes will make all the difference [...]
Why you should prospect…
Do you like prospecting for new business? Go on, be honest. If you’re like most of us you may well hate the thought of it. But that means you’re missing [...]
The myth of “build it and they will come”
I’m sure you’ve heard phrases like… “Content is king”. So you write articles, create videos, put posts on every form of social media in the hope that prospects will contact you and [...]