business strategy

When I work with someone who says, “I paid $40,000 for coaching in the last two years and I didn’t get any benefit,” often the reason isn’t related to the quality of the mentor or the client’s “coachable” score. Instead, there’s a mismatch between the mentor and the mentee’s desired business model. [Read more…] about The Case of the Mismatched Mentor

Last night I braved the arctic weather to hear a talk by Daniel Pink, best selling author of Drive, A Whole New Mind and now his latest,
To Sell Is Human .

Pink is a really good speaker; he does repeat phrases at times and he plays to the crowd. Well;, it was cold and late in the day and people were looking for a laugh; this guy has the timing of a stand-up comic. If you get a chance to hear him, it’s worth the trip. He managed to cite research and keep the audience riveted (admittedly, we were a self-selected group of bibliophiles).

His first point isn’t surprising, yet few of us have considered it. In the old days (pre 1980, say) sellers had power. For instance, if you wanted to buy a car, you’d go to the showroom. The sales rep would quote you a price. You (and possibly the sales rep) would never see the manufaacturer’s invoice price of the car.

Today, he says, we walk in with price lists from every dealer in the area (and maybe outside the area). We know if there’s a glitch that’s worth bargaining over. “Even my 80-year-old mother,” he said, “can find the invoice price of a car.” So now the playing field is level, with the customer possibly holding the upper hand.

Here are some takeaways –

– More people are in sales jobs than in ALL branches of US government including local, national and military. Fifteen million Americans work in sales. And nearly everyone else has some element of sales – defined as getting others to do what we want them to do – in their jobs or businesses.

– Ambiverts are more successful in sales than introverts OR extroverts; in fact, extreme introverts or extroverts are nearly equally effective.

– Our challenge now isn’t problem-solving, but problem-finding.

– Success depends on creating a pitch that engages your audience, improvising to recognize and respond to offers, and serving customers well.

– Effective selling depends on perspective-taking, which is not the same as empathy.

As I look over my notes (yes, I was scribbling away) I was surprised how much substance he delivered…yet he got everybody eager to read the whole thing.

The line was long and the night was frigid but I’ve got the book on order…and thought I’d pass this info to you, too. When you click on the cover image, you can buy directly from Amazon via my associates account.

Enjoy!

Pamela Bruner is an internationally known business coach who creates a synergy of solid marketing with EFT principles.   Here are some ideas she is graciously sharing with us:

The Information Con Game by Pamela Bruner

It used to be that information was scarce. You had to go to a library, or pay a researcher, to discover the nuggets of gold that you needed to know.

Now ‘Google’ is a verb, as in ‘I’ll google that to find the answer.’ My 73-year old mother has figured out she can type in ‘How do I ___?’ and google will give her not just one, but 173,234,432 answers.

Because information was so scarce, in the old days (say before 1995) it was treated as precious. If you went to the trouble to get information, you treated it as valuable, and you made use of it. Now information is easy to come by. That would seem to be great, but it’s led to a new problem that I call the Information Con Game. [Read more…] about Guest Post by Pamela Bruner: The Information Con Game