Life isn’t math
You’ve heard (I’m almost sure) that you can do whatever you want to achieve. All of that with formulas on: Exponential growth Compound interest Constant growth Time value 10% of the TAM (Total Addressable Market) Dividing how much money you want in a year and divide it by hours Reach You being in front of “more opportunities” Sending more proposals/quotations Etc. There are more nuances to that. The important thing here is: unlike math, a formula won’t apply to all of the scenarios to bring…
An example of assumptions
If you find hard to come up with what assumptions look like, I’ll play guineapig for you. 🙂 Brand and Marketing consultants Focus on choosing brand or marketing as strategic OR tactical. It’s all about storytelling. Focus on experiences —selling experiences. It’s about convincing people. Look for product-market fit. Try to create their “own” category Will help you build your “category of one” Will build you a monopoly of one. Bill by the hour. Take price, cost and rate as the same thing….
Codifying your magic
To you, it’s as easy and natural as breathing. It just happens. Feels like magic. To others, that very same thing is unthinkable of —or at least VERY, very hard to do. When you codify this magic though, this superpower can be shared with others. When you codify it, you can leverage on it, as nobody else/very few will have it. When you codify it, you stand out. What’s that ONE thing that nobody else can do as you do?
A set of assumptions
What are the assumptions in your industry / niche / specialization / market? How does your market show up? What are the common expectations of your market? What are the common misconceptions your market has? What do they expect from you and your competitors? Etc. I’d love to hear about what you face everyday. And tomorrow get to ask you the second part to this question. 🙂
What books
What books are you reading this year? I’m curious to know which ones you find interesting. On my side, here’s my list (so far): Learn Your Lines by Jonathan Stark. What to say when you’re put on the spot by prospects, so that you can build trust and confidence. The Creative Act by Rick Rubin. An insight on how Rubin sees creativity. Sales Pitch by April Dunford. How to approach sales from a point of helping your prospects to buy. Regeneration: The Future of Community in a Permacrisis World by…
An approach on filtering your prospects
We talk (ok ok, “I” ????) about sales, the process and how all of this things work around. How to approach the sale, how to filter if prospects are good fits, how to identify early signs for us to walk away, how to talk money, etc. But have you really found something that sums it all? Or that at least gives you some guidance around that process? I know I’ve had to look and collect from different places to make one coherent thing. Would you be interested into having some sort of anti-guide/no-bs…
More is… more
You’ve been told or heard “less is more”. As in the belief that simplicity and clarity will always mean more, by taking off what’s not necessary. However, what if it’s not less, but actually more? More focused More thoughtful More defined More effective More intentional It’s about finding more clarity, more focus so that you can bring simplicity. You get rid of the irrelevant extras. You cut to the chase. And you’re clear.
Working on the sale —as a process
Have you got your own sales process/checklist? This week I ran into a RFP template process checklist. It gave great insights on how to see certain things when preparing / training Sales for improving numbers and reaching your goals easier. However, in this whole checklist, they talked about: customer fit costs competitor analysis differentiators potential objections roadmaps prep proof of competence and case studies make it look good make it sound and read compelling Yet, there was never,…
How do you experiment?
How do you explore… New approaches? New products and services? New models? New content? New ways of working? Do you go there at all?
When you’re with your competition…
Could you sit down next to your strongest competitor and have a conversation that feels like this? Where your prospective customer, your competitor and you are at the same table. where you see if there’s a right fit for you and your customer. Where you say what you’re amazing at, and what you’re not. And if it’s not the right fit, recommend them to go with your competitor? A conversation that looks, feels and goes like this ????? It doesn’t feel like “losing” business to me. It feels like…