Skip to content

Sales performance ... they make it sound so easy.

Clive Griffiths
Clive Griffiths
— 1 min read

Sales performance ... they make it sound so easy.

But it's not ... for example, take some of the bog-standard sales advice you'll hear for expertise-based services:

-- Relationship first.
-- Lead with insight.
-- Leverage emotions.
-- Position as a peer.

It's in all the
books. And it's good stuff. But what happens when you've done all of those things and ...

-- Proposals disappear into a black hole.
-- Previously receptive clients start ghosting you.
-- Sure fire deals stall and suddenly go cold.
-- A dreaded 'we need to delay' email arrives.

And you don't know why, or what to do.

Well, the why. It's probably because you've left a vital part of the sales process to chance. Your client needs you to help them make the decision.

And someone who knows their way around sales would tell you this ... don't leave your client's decision-making to fate.

All that work on relationships, insight, emotional leverage, and positioning expertise ... useful ... but it's not going to move things forward when your deal is stuck.

And then what to do.

My recommendation is to learn how to become a professional mind-maker-upper. That means leading your clients in a collaborative, and calmly assertive way ... toward a decision.

That's what the best business developers do and you can too.

LinkedIn PostsLI-2023

Related Posts

Members Public

Proposing value, not activity.

What inspired yesterday’s post about value? Well... I’d just been reading a proposal. Actually it was more like a situation diagnosis report and statement of work with a price at the end. Nothing like the investment business case it needed to be. That's something I’ve

Proposing value, not activity.
Members Public

Structural Tension

What inspired yesterday's post? It's great when your LinkedIn post gets some interaction. People not just saying "attaboy" but adding and deepening the dialogue. Thanks to those who took time and did. Here's some background. Perhaps explaining why it's difficult

Structural Tension
Members Public

The part-time, poor relation.

In the majority of consulting firms the people who do the work are the ones who have to sell it too. That dual role creates an advantage and a tension. The advantages The advantages make consultants attractive to clients. Insights based on experience. The consultant can talk about the reality

The part-time, poor relation.