Archive for Tag: #salescoaching

Your product isn’t the problem: your sales offering might be

Your competitor isn’t always beating you because they have a better product. Often, they have a better sales offering. Sometimes they respond faster. Explain better. Follow up consistently. Make buying easier. Remove friction. Keep their promises. Or they do all six—or, more likely, a combination of some of these. Sales is rarely just about what

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Challenge the customer: push back to add real value

If you just accept what the customer says you aren’t adding value. Challenge the customer. Push back. Respectfully. Let’s unpack that. Challenge the customer: being agreeable isn’t the same as being useful “I want a drill.” “Sure, here.” “Jaza tank” “Sawa, nifungulie.” “I want a Money Market Fund.” “Sure, fill out these forms.” Yes, I

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Writing and selling: the surprising skills they share

What does it take to write a weekly blog for years? The same thing it takes to thrive in sales: patience, discipline, persistence, and a willingness to face rejection. Writing and selling are remarkably similar. This article is the 151st in the writing of Sales Pitch! It makes me reflect. Did I know what I’d

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Selling is not tricking: how to win with integrity and trust

Selling is not tricking—it’s helping. It’s selling with integrity. Today I’ll play Agony Uncle and respond to some queries and feedback I’ve received over time. “Your tricks work” I’m sad. I’m sad because I have been misunderstood. You see, I have been excitedly told by some ardent followers of this blog that they have used

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Successful selling is a friendship…with benefits

Chances are that marketing has already made the buyer attracted to the possibility of a friendship. But selling is a friendship with benefits. What she now wants to know is, “What benefits accrue with the friendship?“ To begin with, it’s not about your product. It’s never about your product. And just so we are clear,

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Bridge the gap: understand what buyers mean, not say

It is the seller’s job to remove the jagged edges in communication, creating a warmer relationship with the buyer and making the sale easier. Custoommunication is a complicated thing. Even when you correctly hear what the other person said, it may not be what they meant. Effective customer communication means learning to decipher the meaning

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Internet age selling: why “i’ve always sold this way” is dead

Internet age selling requires a fundamental shift. It’s not Uber that’s the ‘enemy’; it’s the Internet dummy! Parity access to information fundamentally changes how selling is done today. We are in the Information Age. Insisting, “This is how I’ve always sold and it’s always worked,” just won’t cut it. Analogue and digital are terms bandied

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What Valentine’s Day teaches us about selling

With intense emotion fused into the day, logic is suffocated, need becomes craving, and price is deemed irrelevant Valentine’s Day selling teaches powerful lessons. Learn how emotion, preparation, and understanding pressing needs can transform your sales approach. Pause. This is a sales column, not a relationship one, so let me stick to the point. What

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Selling against the grain: why stoic discipline wins in sales

“Selling against the grain requires a kind of stoic discipline that most people never develop. It means swimming against the tide when everyone else is going with the flow. It means planning when others are winging it. It means standing firm when society tells you to be someone else.” The foremost formidable challenge selling faces

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Here’s how to break the sales-back office stalemate

“Re sales-back office stalemate, remember that back office is there to help, not hurt you—they are a customer just like the paying one.“ The sales-back office stalemate is a scene straight from a cockfight. Back office sees sales as a necessary evil, and Sales sees back office in the same light. Yet the two must

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