Thursday, December 29, 2016

Do you impress me? 50+ Things about You That Will



You do not need to impress me, and you do not need to impress anyone else.  Yet, it (almost) always feels good when we impress others, but do we always know what it will take?

This is probably a good exercise for all of to do, but honestly, it occurred to me that this would make for an interesting discussion topic…and exercise.  Imagine asking other people what about others impress them.

In no particular order, here are some of the things about you that impress me:

You do an exceptional job of listening.
You took time to get to know some things about me in advance.
You are quick on your feet.
You think things through thoroughly.

Tuesday, December 27, 2016

7 Top Reasons You’re Not Getting Sales



Are you getting enough sales?

If you’re like most business owners and managers, you’re always looking to find ways to get more sales.

Lately, I’ve been trying to help different contractors get appointments to try getting work, and some of them seem to be better than others.  So, of course, I try to figure different reasons for sales doing well…and reasons they do not.

I definitely get more frustrated by lost opportunities, and I spends my time (maybe too much?) figuring out potential ways me and my team can improve.

From my (limited) experience, here are the most common reasons I see sales opportunities slip through the cracks.

1. You’re too expensive
2. You’re too slow
3. Your timing isn’t good enough
4. You’re not special enough
5. You’re not trustworthy enough
6. You don’t understand what they want
7. It’s too hard to buy from you

Let’s take a look at some of these a little more closely.

Monday, December 26, 2016

Someone wants you to join their business? Some Questions I (Want to) Ask



If you’re in business long enough, people will eventually approach you and ask you to join their business…either an established business or a new business idea or concept.

Some proposals will be better than others, and what they are proposing MIGHT be good.  However, there are plenty of bogus deals out there.  There are also some bogus people, whether they intend to be that way or not.

Ultimately, I need to figure whether this is a business venture that I want to pursue (a) at all, (b) with this person, and (c) at this time.

Here are several questions that are important to me, no matter the business proposal:

1. Why are you so excited about this opportunity?
2. What do you see me bringing to the table for you?
3. What keeps you from doing all of this yourself?
4. What makes you think there is a demand for this?