An old saying…with a new take That old saying about selling iceboxes to Eskimos might be considered outdated as well as culturally insensitive, but it’s still relevant. Of course, at its heart is the notion that the last thing you need if you live in an igloo, is a refrigerator. But it’s not unlike what we […]
Tough buyers…Easy solutions? The second cousin to buyers’ objecting might well be those difficult personalities we occasionally need to engage. Those can vary from the aggressive type who tries to steamroll you, to the super timid buyer on the other end of the spectrum who’s afraid to make decisions. It can also include that particularly […]
Price and…Selling it Price is a funny and often underrated benefit. That’s right, a benefit. The fact is we all associate price with quality. If something’s too cheap, we’re inclined to think it’s also of poor quality. Inversely most buyers see high price as an indicator of quality. Of course that doesn’t mean they’ll buy […]
Good idea…Now sell it! We always try to offer a really strong favorable attention getting idea to open that sales call. Oddly however, we’ll sometimes struggle to follow on with a sales presentation that builds on and develops that idea. It was clearly interesting enough to let us move to that next level, so it […]
Time to listen…Time to switch? Ever heard the baloney line that sales objections are just the buyer saying, “I want (or need) to know more”? Well, you know better. Almost certainly the simple truth is that they’re just trying to fend off your effort to sell them. But there is a small kernel of truth […]
Cold, freezing and…dealing with it Yep, it’s cold out. And while keeping your sidewalk cleared so the neighborhood Karen doesn’t “remind” you, there are the cold weather business issues do deal with as well. Like taking that titration kit in the house at night and of course the occasional detergent popsicle to deal with. There […]
Can great times…be a problem? It’s might seem like a bit of an oxymoron to say that great times can be damaging to the bottom line. How can that be? After all if sales are booming and profits are exceeding expectations what could possibly go wrong? The problem: simply that human nature being what it […]
Perfect or good…a tricky choice? Striving for perfection is always a good thing. If we were in hospital prepping for heart surgery, we’d sure agree that we’d want the surgeon fixing that wonky heart valve to be thinking that way! While aiming to achieve perfection – even in the everyday is laudable, if it’s seen […]
Resolutions and…better goals New Year resolutions. We often make them too optimistically and later realize they’re not achievable so we write them off – maybe even before we’d really begun tackling them. Business goals can fall victim to the same problem. But if we’re disciplined about creating goals that are believable, achievable and measurable we […]
Budgeting made…Easy (er) If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll still end up somewhere. The “where” is the question. When it comes to how 2025 will end up, we may or may not like the destination. But the chances of liking it are measurably better if we have a reasonable plan (budget) to get […]