Articles
Explore over 350 articles that will help you grow your client relationships and improve your personal effectiveness.
Misconceptions About Using Questions in the Sales Process
Advice abounds on "asking good questions" during the sales process. I believe much of it is confusing or even misleading. My clients and readers have enjoyed Power Questions, but have asked for more detailed guidance about the use of questions specifically in sales and business development. In response, I have just published a short ebook entitled Power Questions to Win the Sale. It's available in all ebook reader formats. My next few blogs are based on it. Here are some examples of what I mean by misleading advice about asking questions:
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How to Get More Leads from Your Network
"How do I get more leads out of my network?" That’s a question I get asked a lot these days. Everyone has lists of contacts. Everyone has past clients. Some of them may need what you offer—right now. But how do you make the connection in a way doesn’t feel like you’re a door-to-door salesman? How do you get someone interested in having a meeting with you? (The quick answer is your answer to the same question: What gets you interested in meeting with someone who offers a product or service?) Addressing this challenge is not as difficult as it may seem. In this newsletter I’ve laid out a very straightforward set of principles and strategies that will help you create new leads out of your network. First, there are four principles that should guide you:
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Strong–and Weak–Questions to Win the Sale
Not all questions are created equal. I recently wrote two short ebooks, distributed through my publisher John Wiley & Sons, which go into very specific detail about thoughtful questions you can use at every stage of the sales and client development process (Power Questions to Win the Sale and Power Questions to Build Clients for Life). Here are my reflections about "strong" and "weak" questions that you can use in your business development efforts.
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How to Become More Empathetic
How empathetic are you? Empathy is a fundamental quality of great trusted advisors, and it’s worth engaging in a moment of self-reflection to see if and how you can improve your empathy. Here are nine ways you can improve your empathy. In this post, I share the first five:
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How Useful Is Your Account Planning?
Does your organization have a client account planning process? If so, let me ask you some questions about it:
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How to Broaden Your Client Relationships
How do you broaden your client’s perception of your capabilities? This is a complex problem. Clients tend to pigeonhole their providers and put them in little boxes. Often, they are not even familiar with all of what you can offer. .
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12 Relationship Principles to Help Take Your Business to the Next Level
Over the last several years, I’ve been assembling what I call “The Relationship Principles.” These are observations about powerful practices that will help you build a vibrant network of contacts, engage with others, and build trusted relationships with all of the key figures in your life. If you are interested in really implementing these principles, you should subscribe to my free 12 week course, "The Relationship Principles." Each week, for 12 weeks, you'll receive a detailed description of each principle and a set of action steps to help you put it into practice. If you'd like to get this free mini-course, click here to enroll.
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How to build Peer Relationships with Your Clients (Part 3)
To become a client’s trusted advisor, you must be viewed as a peer. In my last two posts I talked about the importance of demonstrating professional acumen and C-Suite behaviors. In this post I explain the importance of values alignment for a senior executive who is bringing someone into their inner circle.
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