He’s a great guy, Rodrigo. He’s a senior exec in a very successful European company. We’ve worked with him for a couple of years and done some good stuff, we’ve earned a place at his table, if you like. Rod’s a demanding, reliable and honest business contact and friend. So we were over in his city…
It’s a really good question for presenters. Every slide, every story, every image, every point. Ask yourself ‘So what?’ because it will lead you to shorter, more focused and more powerful messages. And it’s worth reminding ourselves that it’s always the question that the audience will be asking themselves at some stage during your speech. …
Yes it is, it really is…. Selling professional services is different to selling ‘stuff’. You are selling an intangible, a relationship, trust. I’ve seen the greatest salesman in the world reduced to blubbering wrecks as they try to close a consulting sale whereas some of the most introverted analysts within my organisation make great salesmen;…
(Updated 17 October 2009) Selling anything requires trust, you need to trust the brand, the salesman or (preferably) both. Why do you buy stuff? This is a digression from the focus of selling professional service but bear with me, when did you last buy a car? Who did you trust, the brand or the car…
In the last 3 months we’ve been trying something a bit different in our campaigning for new business- we decided to follow our own advice, which is rare for consulting firms, in that we decided to run a really narrow campaign, rather than the ‘we can do everything in our space’ marketing so common in…
There’s a gene missing in many professionals who have spent years building their skills. That gene is the “telling anyone who’ll listen that you’ve a skill that you’re proud of, and if they ever need that skill, they know where you are” gene. We just don’t tend to spend enough time getting out there and…
We’ve just been told it’s the end of the ‘nice’ decade and the business of business is about to get tougher, much tougher. Selling has been easy with such strong growth but we’re moving into a buyers market , a strong headwind for all of us with responsibilities–are you ready to “pitch into the wind”?…
On the occasions that you really don’t have time to prepare properly, you might like to start by asking the people in the room some questions about what your they’d like to hear from you and a maybe even give them a “menu” of options with timings for them to choose from. What if the…