Posts Tagged ‘Relationships’
Customers Aren’t Widgets
I’ve always thought sales is more science than art. I believe selling is a set of disciplined processes, many of which can be “engineered” to optimize our ability to engage the right customers/prospects, with the right conversations, at the right time. Whether it’s a recruiting/onboarding process, talent management/people development, account/territory management, opportunity/deal management, pipeline/forecasting, prospecting,…
Read More9 Surefire Ways to Make Your Customers Happy
There is an oft-told legend about how Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos likes to make sure there is an empty chair at every company meeting: the chair represents the customers, so the most important ‘person’ is always ‘in the room.’ It’s the kind of visual stunt that sets apart great leaders from good ones, and also…
Read MoreAre You Building High-Level Business Relationships?
In the world of entrepreneurs and startups, high level relationships are everything. You can’t start a business alone. You need partners, team members, investors, vendors, and customers. But people don’t realize that all relationships are not the same. There are people you only recognize on the street, business friends, and then close friends whom you…
Read MoreGetting the Most Out of Your Mentor–Mentee Relationships
As you already know, the internet is chock-full of advice on how to boost your career success. While most of these are helpful (I’ve written quite a few myself), they seem to largely focus on how to find success by yourself. But what about finding success through others? Isn’t that equally, if not more, important? That’s…
Read MoreAccount Management: The Challenges of Incumbency
Account Based Everything is a huge topic these days. Everyone is account focused, they want to grow their relationships, increase penetration and grow revenue. Developing our accounts is a huge opportunity. There’s huge amounts of data outlining the differences in sales time and cost between growing an existing relationship and acquiring net new logos. Growing…
Read MoreThe Best Way to Say No to Potential Clients
No: a two-letter word that is easy to spell, hard to say and even more challenging to accept. No one enjoys being at the receiving end of the word ‘no.’ It might lead to feelings of rejection, inferiority, resentment or self-pity. These are negative emotions that you don’t want people to associate with your brand…
Read MorePaying Attention to the Personal
My home state of Louisiana has suffered a tremendous blow from the flooding of August 2016. While this has not been reported on as much as we would like, it is now finally a generally known fact across the country. So it was a nice touch recently when a vendor called me and instead of immediately…
Read More4 Ways to Build Trust with Customers That Can Transform Your Business
“Make hundreds of dollars a week just by stuffing envelopes.” Remember that tiny ad that used to run regularly in virtually every newspaper’s classified ad section? I suppose a fair number of people answered the ad, otherwise they would have gone extinct quite quickly. However, most of us didn’t take the bait. Why? Because we…
Read More7 Ways to Find Your Mentor
Running a small business is hard work, and having the right mentor can mean the difference between struggling and succeeding. A mentor has the connections that you haven’t yet developed, and is able to see a few more steps into the future with relative ease. Everyone could benefit from a little more guidance, so it…
Read MoreAre Your Sales Suffering Due to These Common Faults?
If I make a mistake even a big one, as I’m typing this article, I can simply select the text, delete it and then correct it. You don’t always have that ability in sales. If you make a mistake, you can easily lose a sale or perhaps even an account. Let’s look at two…
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