In his recent Harvard Business Review article, “The End of Solutions Sales,” Matt Dixon reported the results of a study of 20,000 salespeople around the world. The study grouped salespeople into five distinct profiles: 1. Challengers: These are salespeople with a provocative point of view that they’re not afraid to share with a customer. They
Early in his coaching career, my friend and fellow coach, Jason Westlake, took six executives deep into the Amazon for an unforgettable coaching/jungle experience. He spent several weeks before the group arrived working with scientists in a remote area that has been barely touched by civilization. Here’s how he described his first night there: I
“I don’t want to cold call,” Robert, a financial advisor in Michigan who I’ve been working with, began. “But I don’t know how to fill my time.” We were discussing Robert’s second career, which he has told me that he loves, but for which he just hasn’t been finding enough clients. “Let’s start with the
Throughout my years as a coach and sales trainer, I’ve noticed a sad but interesting phenomenon: Professionals sometimes fail on purpose. A few years ago, I asked a group of coaches who were attending the event at which I was speaking how many of them were there because they needed more clients. All 47 of
I’m not a big fan of the ‘elevator speech’, because it often leads to a cutesy, stilted, ‘salesy’ presentation of what we do. It’s confining, like the elevator it’s designed to be used in. I’ve been helping professionals for years to understand the importance and liberation of what I call their ‘audio billboard’. If someone
Burt, an independent financial planner who was already making a good living, was looking for a way to further increase his sales. With my coaching help, he started a marketing (“prospecting”) program that was based on my Client Magnet discipline, paying attention to the fact that clients are usually tuned to radio station WII-FM (“What’s
