I’ve been having a great time getting on the phone with some of you this last week. I heard about moving houses and offices (and the upheaval that brings). I heard about hiring and firing teams, about businesses that had tough years, and businesses that are on fire and are having their best year ever….
We’ve talked previously about how important it is to find more significant, scarier problems. My father used to say it this way; ”No one gets hired to tell a client to take his vitamins. You hire an outside firm when you have an artery spouting blood and they need a tourniquet!” Dad had a way…
After our last email where I offered Nedra Rezinas my best advice for kick-starting her business development engine I got one reply that really surprised me. In my answer to Nedra I said, “…the only thing you can control in the sales process is the top of the funnel…” and talked about how to get…
Cold is not usually a positive association. Cold coffee. Cold weather. Cold attitudes. Not many people will jump up and down with excitement when you’re describing something cold…unless it’s ice cream. The same goes for cold leads. They’re not the easiest to work with–and you need to find a way to warm them up while prospecting without…
“In the age of the Internet, caller ID, and email, how do we sell? How do we reach prospects in a way that will convince them to work with our firm? I don’t think we can just go bang on doors anymore, but I’m not sure what to do instead…” On the one hand, the…
One of the most common representations of the sales process is a funnel. We don’t expect all of the prospects that go into the top of this so-called funnel to turn into sales. In fact, a good sales process has a systematic way to determine early on which prospects will likely to convert into sales…
In the early days of your business, you probably had the time and motivation to get to know every customer personally. You didn’t just provide exceptional customer service, you “connected” with your customers in a way only small businesses can. But as the head of a growing business, you can’t do it all anymore. Now…
The creative services business requires managing and selling a rather unpredictable product – people. But, this doesn’t mean your business and its success must be equally unpredictable. Creative services companies can realize steady growth and success – even with the uncertainty and variability that accompanies managing and selling people’s services. Here are four key strategies…