This is one of my best podcast interviews so far (even if I say so myself). And it’s not because I was so brilliant but because my guest is a world class sales training guru. I don’t even say that much during the interview so what does that tell you?
Anyway to the point, if you [...]

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The other day someone was kind enough to give me a lead for a company that she thought was looking for some marketing help. I followed up within a couple of days and very quickly experienced one marketing problem. The person who answered the phone sounded irritable; as if my call was an interruption of [...]

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(Check out my upcoming Referral seminars!)
Referrals are a great method of prospecting but most businesses do not have a plan to maximize their referrals. They just let them happen in a random fashion. But why leave it to chance?
The benefits of referrals are that your closing ratios are much higher when someone has recommended you. [...]

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As you put together your sales prospecting plan, give some thought to strategic alliances. Working with a other companies who have

Complementary products or services
And target the same customers

can be a win win for growing leads, referrals and personal introductions. The way it works is that you are leveraging each other’s sales and marketing efforts. [...]

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(The following is a summary of the key points from the PBA Cornerstones seminar on Jan 10th. Jeff Schneider, Bill Dolan and myself were presenters)
Networking should be an important component of your sales prospecting plan. Most business people get involved in networking at some point or another but very few are strategic about it. [...]

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I had the pleasure of being a speaker at the Portland Business Alliance’s Cornerstones today. Cornerstones is aimed at small business owners and managers. Jeff Schneider of Sandler Sales Training was the lead speaker with myself singing harmony (so to speak!). Bill Dolan from Spirit Media was our very capable moderator.
The topic was “Creating Your [...]

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I read an interesting article in this month’s Marketing Management. It was about a study recently published by Rodrigo Guesalaga of Emory University’s Goizueta Business School that looked at the involvement of top level management in closing sales deals.
For small companies, often the top level management is the sales manager and the finance manager and [...]

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Our pastor at church today made a comment in his message that marketing people only want to sell you stuff. He said, “They want to make you buy even if you don’t want it”. Initially I thought well that is a bit cynical but on reflection, perhaps that is the way most people see marketing.
I [...]

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As most of you know, I am a Duct Tape Marketing Coach. As part of being in the Duct Tape network I have the ability to be able to sell the Duct Tape materials. I know it sounds self-serving to make a big deal out of this but I think the materials are excellent. [...]

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