Here’s a “Golden Oldie” post from 2011. Has anything changed in the passage of five years? —————————————– Trust, in case you hadn’t noticed, has gotten “hot” lately. But much of it sounds very vague—soft, fluffy, nice-to-have, the buzzword du jour. I’d like to do my part to make it real. To me, that means breaking it down […]
Do you hate selling? Do you distrust salespeople? Do you find the whole concept, premise and purpose of sales to be somehow distasteful? You are far from alone. Even the dictionary is loaded with secondary and tertiary meanings of “sales” that suggest selling is considered manipulative, conniving, even morally offensive. This revulsion toward sales isn’t […]
What is it about selling? It can sometimes leave a bitter aftertaste the mouth – whether you’re the seller or the buyer. Why is that? I think it comes down to a few things – but mainly how we approach the sale and what we bring to the relationship between buyer and seller. You may […]
To kick off the new year, we thought we’d look back at one of our more popular eBooks: The Dos and Don’ts of Trust-Based Networking. It’s the fifth in the our Trusted Advisor Fieldbook series by Charles H. Green and Andrea P. Howe. Each eBook provides a snapshot of content from The Trusted Advisor Fieldbook, which is […]
It’s that time of year again – resolutions. We all start to assess how we can improve on the last year. I wrote a pretty good blog post at this time nine years ago, and I haven’t improved on it yet. Here it is again. Happy New Year! —————– My unscientific sampling says many people make […]
Why is it that, when it comes to sales within a service-based industry, the very thought of selling seems to leave a bad taste in one’s mouth? Below, we dive into why the fear of sales creeps up on those of us “rewarded” with the extra task of “business development.” Let’s dig a little deeper […]
Most salespeople will agree – there is no stronger sales driver than a client’s trust in the salesperson. Further, the most successful route to being trusted is to be trustworthy – worthy of trust. Faking trust is not easy – and the consequences of failing at it are large. But is it possible to know […]
Establishing trust is not a one-way street. Trust takes risk. And that risk doesn’t just come from your clients taking a leap of faith when you hand them a proposal and a firm handshake. To build trust, especially with your clients, YOU have to take the risk too. So, you want your clients to trust […]
We learned in grade school not to lie (probably just a bit after we’d already learned how to lie – sometimes you have to know a vice before you can see the virtue that counteracts it). But even if we learned it – the lesson didn’t seem to stick. (Check daily newspaper headlines). As we […]
In B2B sales, having a clearly developed and clearly stated value proposition is unquestionably important. This is especially true for large, complex, or intangible offerings. In fact, some experts go so far as to suggest a value proposition is the key component of successful sales. And most would say that a value proposition is at […]