Sales & Marketing

The Customer Connection, Part 1

Whether in life or in business, we share the planet with others. And it’s only through successful personal interaction that we achieve our goals. And the way to successfully interact with others so that we succeed is quite simple: Help THEM to succeed. This approach works in all aspects of life, and it will bolster […]

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Five Easy “Be’s”

Swarming prospects with sales pitches is easy. But real connected selling is much harder, since it involves relationships – even if short-term – with people who universally want to be treated fairly and respectfully just like you do. You’ll never win over a prospect you’ve not allied with. And according to Zig Ziglar, sales requires

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Why You Are Losing Sales, Part 1

While many reasons contribute to losing a sale, the top reason by far is simply not following the selling process. Like a dancer who doesn’t know the steps looks foolish on the dance floor, a sales person not following this process appears disjointed and unprofessional, loses connection with the prospect, and forfeits the sale. Mike

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Can We Agree?

Making the sale ultimately requires the customer’s agreement to the product, price, terms, delivery, payment method, and to you. To get to this ultimate agreement requires a series of smaller agreements along the way that build toward the close of the sale. The sooner in your presentation you start building this pattern of ‘yeses’ the

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Willing to Try and Able to Buy….

Willing to Try and Able to Buy…. This is the mantra of prospect qualification. If either quality is missing you’ll never make the sale. A prospect – even one with a LOT of money – who’s unwilling to try your product cannot really be considered a prospect. Instead they’re merely a disinterested party. And it’s

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Everyone Listens to Station WIFM….

  This long-ago learned mantra has served me well throughout the years: Everyone listens to station WIFM…What’s In it For Me? It seems every sell sheet lists features and benefits but, while important, does anyone really care? Most people instead want to know what problem it’s solving plus how well and how cost-effectively it will

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Simply Selling

A lot of “experts” will gladly take your hard-won dollars and sell you “powerful” information in the form of books, videos, and seminars, promising to teach you successful selling strategies. But I wonder why if indeed those strategies are so successful they aren’t instead using them to actually sell something, rather than just hawking the

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