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The act of seduction is not always about romance and sex; it happens in sales all the time. I remember going after a deal many years ago where the buyer was trying to seduce me into lowering my price in exchange for more business the following year. But guess what? I said no! I had fallen for…
If you want to differentiate yourself from the competition, you have to play your own game, not the game everyone else is playing—which is doing whatever the customer is asking to make the customer “like” you. The old saying that people do business with people they like is only true to a point. What is more true…
When you lose a sale, whose fault is it? Is it the customer who doesn’t know what they want or need, the competition who gave the customer an offer they could not refuse, or the customer’s unwillingness to fire a long-time vendor? Or do you blame the lost sale on the most common explanation of…
Use your smartphone to increase sales —and I don’t just mean by dialing prospects. This two-minute video demonstrates an easy way to use your phone to do the selling for you and increase your Impact! As a Sales and Leadership expert, I assure you that the time you invest in using this tool will deliver big results.
What does your pipeline look like? What percentage of your pipeline does your biggest account represent? A few years ago I was in Sao Paulo, Brazil, doing a keynote on negotiations. During the break, a CEO of a small company that produces automobile parts approached me and complained about the purchasing agent of a major automobile…
This past Saturday I cheated! I fell off my no carbohydrate diet with a trip to the bagel store. I ordered and then proceeded to one of the two cash registers to pay for my order. The first register was directly ahead of me, but customers were waiting there; the second was around a corner, and it had no…
A while back I had the honor of being the emcee of a two-day team-building program featuring two NFL legends, one of which was Joe Gibbs, former head coach of the Washington Redskins. In interviewing Coach Gibbs, I asked him if past behavior was a predictor of future behavior. His answer was a resounding yes! When I…
A key executive for one of my clients passed away recently, and although I tried desperately, I could not make my travel arrangements work out properly to get to the funeral service. To make matters even worse, the morning of the funeral I realized I had forgotten to send flowers. I immediately called a florist,…
Some people think the big idea will always remain unattainable—and for those people, it will. But as a Sales and Leadership expert, I promise you that big ideas are meant for implementation. Here are five tips for creating your own big idea to Impact! your markets and achieve exponential results: Create a Vision—Before calling on…
It’s easy to spot a big idea because it’s usually followed by the thought that it will never happen. In The Science of Getting Rich, published in 1910 (find the free e-book online), Wallace Wattles examines what separates those who make it big from those who always seem to fall short of their goals. According…
In June 2014 I had the opportunity to provide some concluding remarks and summarize my year as president of the National Speakers Association at their annual convention. The year had been the journey of a lifetime, and it was also my best year in business. I felt like I was on the top of the world…
What happens when a customer says no to you? What do you do? Ninety percent of salespeople accept no as an outright rejection and just move on. But that is the worst thing you can do! In doing so, you disqualify yourself from numerous sales. Why? Because a good sales executive will encounter between three…
As our society has become more polarized politically, many people have started talking about the term confirmation bias to explain what is going on. The term basically means the tendency to look for information that confirms our existing beliefs and to ignore the information that challenges our beliefs. Our confirmation bias leaves us stuck in…
Michael Lewis’s 2003 bestselling book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game, which inspired the 2011 film Moneyball, examined the Oakland A’s baseball team and their general manager’s approach to assembling a team that could compete, despite its comparatively low payroll. A’s manager Billy Beane introduced baseball to sabermetrics—“the application of statistical analysis to…
None of us in sales escapes the occasional “no.” The power lies in understanding what each customer or prospect means when they say it. Once you know that, you’ll know what to do about it. Here are five typical reasons a customer/prospect says no and the appropriate solution for each: Reason 1—Bad Timing No matter…
Do you get frustrated when your prospects or customers do not return your calls? I know I do. I may be a Sales and Leadership expert, but when I don’t get a return call, I still review what I said to figure out what I need to change in order to get better results. Remember: Your customers and prospects are…
Does your organization know how to support a sales hunter? As a Sales and Leadership expert, I have noticed that this relationship can be a complicated one—on both sides. Below is a letter written by a hunter to management that addresses typical issues hunters face. The letter is meant to raise issues hunters should address to gain the support they…
When is change the ingredient necessary to success? Do you have the guts to call for a change the way Nick Saban did in Monday night’s College Football Playoff National Championship? His quarterback, Jalen Hurts, who has been working for him for two years and amassed a record of 25 and 2 wasn’t producing in…
When my 23-year-old daughter Amanda started her job in New York City on October 1, she decided to join the company gym and be there at 6:45 every morning. That means leaving for work every morning before 5:45 a.m. to drive the 30 minutes to catch the 6:15 ferry to the city. I figured this wouldn’t last long. Boy did she prove…
For the past thirty-five years I have used option selling to help close business. and neuroscience reveals why this works so well. It boils down to choices, engagement, stress, and risk aversion. Traditionally, sales people go for the trial close and just offer one solution. If the prospect does not feel the risk is low enough…