“Why don’t you write up a proposal to [deliver whatever a prospective client is about to hire you or your agency to deliver to them] with a budget and send it over to me to consider?” This one sentence creates more anxiety, angst, fear and self-doubt in the hearts and minds of freelancers, coaches and agency …
The human brain analyzes 11 million information inputs every second hence, why every moment of attention is a gift. We’ve all heard that the human attention span is now shorter than a goldfish (total BS, by the way, and here is the proof). Still, the truth is that humans today are overwhelmed with information, inputs, …
Embarking on negotiations is akin to stepping onto the dance floor. It requires finesse, intuition, and a deep understanding of the steps that lead to a dancing-with-the-stars quality performance. Welcome to Part II of my contract negotiation tactics and strategies series. If you missed Part I, Contract Negotiation Strategies: The Science Of Getting What You …
I recently listened to Barbara Winters, VP and principal analyst at Forrester, to discuss how Gen Z and Millennial B2B Buyers are reshaping the buying process and what companies should do to succeed with these buyers.And what she had to say, kind of blew me away. Honestly. Here’s why.When I wrote The Invisible Sale, I …
Today’s post is the final installment of our three-part series — LinkedIn Sales Prospecting for Introverts. If you missed the first post, Building Connections That Matter, or the second post, How To Leverage Content Marketing Strategies On LinkedIn To Attract Qualified Prospects, feel free to read those before continuing on to today’s post, Introvert-Friendly LinkedIn …
Today’s post is the second part of our three-part series — LinkedIn Sales Prospecting for Introverts. If you missed the first post, Building Connections That Matter, feel free to read it before continuing on to today’s post, LinkedIn Content Marketing Strategies for Introverts. It’s ok, I’ll wait . As an introverted business development professional, you may …
Introverts, rejoice! Sales prospecting doesn’t have to be a daunting task, and LinkedIn, like other social media sites, offers the perfect platform to help you build meaningful connections and leverage your introverted strengths. As a fellow introvert, I’m here to share a few practical tips that have worked for me and others in the business …
The world of sales prospecting has changed dramatically over the past decade. Traditional prospect badgering approaches to business development are giving way to digital sales strategies, especially virtual selling skills-based tactics, forcing businesses to evolve to succeed in today’s fast-paced digital landscape. This guide will provide the tactics and insights necessary to master digital sales …
As a business development professional, your PowerPoint presentations should communicate more than just information. They should aid your efforts to build a trust-based relationship with your prospects. Only some salespeople have ever been taught how to design a PowerPoint pitch deck that not only delivers information but also fosters a genuine connection with their audience. …
At a minimum, social media, email, and texting are the new phone. They’re both inbound and outbound marketing tools to contact and communicate with sales prospects. Are they always the best phone to use for all contacts? Certainly not, but they do allow you to call more prospects in a day than you’d likely be …
Competitive differentiation is crucial to delivering compelling sales pitches that close quickly and generate higher margins. When sales prospects view you, your organization, and your product or service as something extraordinary—and not just a commodity — you can avoid price concessions as your primary tool to win more business. Suppose you’re lucky enough to have a …
A few months ago, we published, How To Sell Your Agency’s Services Even When You Hate Selling, where I shared a 5-Step process to enable any advertising, public relations or digital agency owner or business development director to immediately sell more effectively AND actually enjoy it. Over the last few months I have had a ton …
The Problem: Research shows that worldwide B2B buyers are increasingly moving towards DIY buying processes that eliminate the salesperson entirely. In a Gartner Research pre-pandemic survey of 750 B2B customer stakeholders involved in complex “solutions” purchases within their organization, customers reported spending only 17% of their total buying time interacting directly with supplier sales teams. …
With virtual selling becoming the norm vs the exception, it’s never been more important to understand how to leverage digital channels like email to nurture at scale. However, a quick Google search for “best sales nurturing email templates” quickly reveals a glaring issue in every nurturing template you’ll find — none of them are truly …
All B2B content falls into one of two content classes: there is 1st-Click Content (the kind you’re most familiar with) and 2nd-Click Content, the kind most B2B marketers are not yet producing but should be, to truly arm their Sales Teams for social selling success. But not all 2nd-Click content is created equally and today …
If you’re a solopreneur, freelancer, or independent consultant, every minute of every day that you spend chasing business that doesn’t convert is wasted. Regardless of how you actually bill for your services, at the end of the day, you sell your time. And those minutes you spent chasing business that didn’t convert into a new …
Is there anything worse than a boring PowerPoint presentation? Actually, yes, a poorly designed one. And according to Microsoft, it’s costing companies big.
...B2B Sales leaders need to rethink how they manage their sales organizations in terms of content, data, technology, processes and people to effectively compete in today’s social distanced, hybrid work; self-servicing world. Today and in the future, the best informed bird wins the sale. Why?70% or more of buyers are conducting pre-purchase research online50% or more …
Have you ever been at a networking event and met someone you really hit it off with, but there was just something off-putting about them that made you hesitant to work together? They had the connections, the skills, the product, the charisma…but man, their breath just stank? Now, the nice, reasonable guy in me would …
“What are the best ways to build rapport with customers or prospects during a virtual sales call or meeting?” – a great question answered in this post.
...On a recent virtual selling webinar we delivered one of the attendees asked “Do you have any suggestions on how to cut through the high-volume message clutter and information overload suffered by potential prospects?” Rather than limit my answer just to that individual, I thought I would share it with you too. So here are …
This week, the Wall St. Journal proclaimed “Business Travel Won’t Be Taking Off Soon Amid Coronavirus.” In the article, numerous CEO’s remarked they intend to maintain a smaller travel budget, field fewer face-to-face sales calls and in general, continue leveraging the efficiencies of virtual selling for the foreseeable future, if not forever. This shouldn’t come …
NEW Research strongly suggests that Social Selling and digital sales tools, which have been steadily becoming more central to successful sales prospecting over the last 10 years will continue to dominate post Covid-19 outbreak. Read More…
...Coronavirus has turned the world, especially the sales world, upside down. Traditional sales methods like face-to-face selling and in some cases, even phone sales, have been rendered pretty much useless. Increasingly sales reps are relying instead on email, social media outreach and video-conferencing. But while our tools today are somewhat different, our sales & marketing …
Are you a first time Zoom user? If you’re like any of my friends, chances are the answer to that question is YES. Or maybe your team has chosen Facetime Calls, or GoToMeeting or Google Hangouts or Skype or any host of other video calling platforms to meet during this time of social distancing. It …
Recently I ran across and interesting discussion on LinkedIn about the effectiveness of cold calls — or maybe better stated — lack of effectiveness. One comment in particular jumped out at me and really got me to thinking about a future where the cold call could again be an effective outbound sales prospecting tool. Every …
Marketing has always had its 4P’s, and now Sales has its 5P’s – a proven relationship first approach to consistently closing more deals with less work.
...Should solopreneurs, freelancers and consultants focus on becoming famous or the most noted authority in their category in order to drive future business growth?
...The single biggest mistake sales teams make today is focusing exclusively on prospects and ignoring these social agents who will introduce you to prospective customers both offline and online.
...Is Patience simply a virtue or is there real profitability in a patient sales prospecting/closing approach?
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