James B. Lee was a legendary Wall Street banker and one of the world’s greatest dealmakers. Called “Jimmy” by those who knew him, if you were to read his resume or review his accolades you might expect a real-life version of the infamous movie character Gordon Gekko. For example, he combed his hair slicked back …
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According to behavioral psychologists, rewards are more attractive to us the closer we are to receiving them. Further, humans have a tendency to “discount” equal or even greater rewards when not available until the distant future. Why does this make sales hard? Because especially in many instances we are asking our prospects for immediate sacrifices, …
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After reading the title of this post you might be thinking, “Sounds easy” or “I already do that”. Present some impressive sounding numbers about ROI or COI so the people making the decision can understand the value, right? Wrong! According to the Karla Starr and Chip Heath, authors of “Making Numbers Count”, simply sharing numbers …
Continue reading “Want To Close More Deals? Make Your Numbers Count.”
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When I was growing up, the Christmas holiday season meant watching the classic movie “It’s A Wonderful Life” every year as a family. For those who have not seen it, the famous third act and emotional climax involves the character George Bailey determining his life is no longer worth living due to a progression of …
Continue reading “It’s A Wonderful Life In Sales”
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After starting a new B2B enterprise sales role I was pleased to discover three great new books on the topic. “Selling Above and Below the Line” by Skip Miller, “Selling Is Hard. Buying Is Harder.” by Garin Hess, and “Mega Deal Secrets” by Jamal Reimer each take a different approach to navigating a modern enterprise …
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“People buy on emotion and justify with logic.” This is a familiar phrase many sales professionals agree with. However, much less agreed upon is what this statement means, and just how to use this information to be more successful. What gets in our way? First, the mere notion that emotions are the primary drivers of …
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If you negotiate right, you can be the most powerful person in a discussion. But traditional schooling does an awful job showing you it’s possible.
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It’s easy for management to blame salespeople when negotiations conclude with value left on the table. But what they often fail to realize is that selling and negotiating are fundamentally different skill sets requiring fundamentally different behaviors.
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In his recent book “Think Again ” Adam Grant examines powerful ways to influence with others, especially those who are convinced their way is best. In explaining how we can foster greater interpersonal rethinking, Grant describes how doctors and counselors often use a technique called motivational interviewing to spark impressive rates of attitude and behavior …
Continue reading “Adam Grant and the art of persuasive listening”
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