Tips & articles on selling
“Personality” assessments have been positioned as business tools for many years. From Myers-Briggs, to DiSC, to the recently popular Colors, these supposedly help us better understand and communicate with others—including sell to them. Before covering why such tools are often counterproductive in selling, I want to address their unintended darker side. […]
Benefit statements are a staple of sales and customer service. This article focuses on some of the nuances, including tips for teaching others to create their own benefit statements. Reminder: There are myriad ways to express benefits but they fall into just six categories: convenience, save money, increase money or value, peace of mind, appeal to [...]
Features and benefits: a sales and service basic, right? Yes, expressing benefits is a fundamental skill but that doesn’t mean pros don’t need refreshers. Here’s a mini-lecture on why working on benefit statements is a good idea: There are now more opportunities for expressing benefits. We’re communicating via text and chat and email and webinar and [...]
Consultants often have trouble with selling. The process feels awkward, the skills seem undesirable, results are poor -- this can snowball and affect consultants' confidence in their own expertise. The good news is most consultants already have what's needed to sell more confidently, comfortably, and successfully. This article covers four common challenges and how consultants can [...]
Ah, communication! We want to communicate clearly and effectively...but we can inadvertently send the wrong message. Here are common words and phrases that can trip us up. I'll start with "just" and "actually" because using them purposely does not cause problems -- using them as a verbal habit does. "Just" We use the word "just" to [...]
It’s mid-March, mid-June, mid-September, or worst of all: late November. Your sales numbers are not where you want them to be. Hot prospects have cooled off. Your manager is pushing like mad. You feel like your brain and confidence are crawling through thick mud. That, my friends, is supposedly a choke, to which I say baloney! [...]
