I spent a summer working as a lifeguard and, I’ve got to tell you, it was a pretty great job! Mostly I would twirl my whistle around my fingers, first one way, then the other. When kids were running, I’d yell at them, “No running on the deck!” The whole summer, I didn’t have to…
There are no bad clients… ~Jason Swenk I heard Jason say this on a podcast recently, and I stopped in my tracks and rewound to listen to it again. There are no bad clients… “Of course there are bad clients, Jason! You ran an agency; you should know that!” Just listening to him say that…
I’m known for making amazing spreadsheets. I can whip up a spreadsheet that helps to illustrate a financial issue, or helps leaders to plan for the future, in no time. I have a color code that I use so folks don’t mess up my formulas. The charts that I create are clear and easy to…
The meeting I was having with my client kept getting interrupted. Every 8 minutes, someone would walk in with a question or something that needed his immediate approval. This parade didn’t seem to bother my client; in fact, I think he kind of liked it. He felt important and involved in the details of the…
What if you worked ALL DAY with clients who LOVE what you do, who are fully engaged in the process, and who want more from you in every meeting? What would that be like? There’s a secret formula to attracting those kinds of clients, Raise Your Prices! When you substantially raise your prices the only people…
Most people start their business with a broad target. We throw some things up against the wall to see what sticks. Our biggest fear is that no one will buy, and so we try to sell to everyone! By trying to be everything to everyone, we weren’t the perfect thing for any client! Plus, we…
2020 started with protests in Hong Kong, then bushfires in Australia. In the US, we had impeachment hearings and an over 1000 point drop in the stock market. Then came COVID and shutdown/quarantine, which sent millions of workers into a long work-from-home (with children “e-learning”) experiment. That was just the first quarter. Since then, we’ve…
So we’ve qualified our leads, then we discovered the scope of their issue and educated them about the implications it has for them, now it’s time to close the deal. Do you: A. Send a proposal via email and wait for your prospect to call? B. Give your prospect a call, “Just to follow up…
I was helping my friend move into their new house. Like many houses in Chicago, the wiring in this house was antique. The inspector had told him to call an electrician before he moved in, but he wasn’t sure it was needed. The plugs all worked, the lights came on, that’s enough, right? While we…
When you are responsible for sales, you have only one currency to spend — your time. So, it’s incredibly painful to spend time with a prospect and then find out that they don’t have the money, or they don’t see the value in your services. It’s especially painful when you’ve invested time with a prospect, created…