Should you sell to someone’s wants, or to someone’s needs? It’s a much-discussed topic in sales. Some say you should sell to wants, not needs. Others say exactly the opposite. And some say you should sell to both. Clearly the case cries out for a good definition. I checked in with the well-known sales consulting […]
A lot of time is wasted debating the relative merits of “hard” and “soft” skills. The right response is almost always “both,” and “it depends.” I want to focus here on the “both” part. There is a growing belief – particularly in tech and in consultative professions (and everything is becoming both tech and consultative) […]
I got an email. It was from a 50-ish owner of a small CPA firm – call him “Jose” – with three competing offers to buy his practice, and a few complicating life factors. He wanted advice, and wondered if we could talk. I don’t do much coaching or consulting, and he almost surely couldn’t […]
The Prisoner’s Dilemma is a classic conundrum in game theory. It purports to explain why two people might not cooperate, even if it is in both their best interests to do so. It turns out that the solution to The Prisoner’s Dilemma is also the solution to a great many sales problems—those in which your […]
Bad things happen to good people. Some of those people live the rest of their lives defined by those bad things. Most people would agree that it’s better to overcome those bad experiences, and move on (not to say it’s easy to do so). A life fueled by resentment is a life wasted. The question […]
“An expectation is a pre-meditated resentment.” So goes one interesting saying aimed at managing our own expectations. But what about managing others’ expectations of us? Have you ever done a small extra favor for a client, just to show your good will, and then ended up getting called out for not doing it repeatedly – even […]
Few decisions in business have such dramatic effects on customer perception as how you handle your pricing – in particular, when and how you offer discounts. People may evaluate your products, or your service offerings, by averaging out multiple experiences. But drop your price just once, and see how hard it is to recover. For a […]
We all suffer – some of us more than others – from the fear of getting ‘stiffed’ by our soon-to-be client. Fortunately – or maybe not – there is a plethora of lawyers just waiting to sell you protection. Of course, your soon-to-be-client has tapped into the same infinitely deep pool of legal imagination. Maybe it’s just […]
A lot of casual bloggers out there – and a few not-so-casual writers, even some famous people – are fond of quipping about trust in ways that at first blush sound wise. But often, these aphoristic musings turn out on closer inspection to be untrue. They are pop wisdom, bubble gum sayings, reflecting a failure to apply critical […]
Nowhere am I so desperately needed as among a shipload of illogical humans. –Mr. Spock in ‘I, Mudd’ The iconic Mr. Spock from Star Trek was half-Vulcan, half-human. It’s the former we first notice in Spock – Vulcans are governed entirely by logic and rationality, unencumbered by emotions. But it’s his human heritage that takes Spock from […]