Words
The Sunday Dispatches archive...
The relationship frame and business development hokum
There’s a lot of business development hokum out there, especially when it comes to ideas on how best to win consultancy projects. It's so easy to waste a lot of time if you apply the wrong marketing and sales approaches. Consultancy is a high-touch game, and
How to alienate prospects
I have an exclusive, priority email address. I only give it to people I know, like and trust. This week I received an email to that address from a stranger. The subject line read "Let Us Take On the Risk Clive". Exactly like that, with no space between
The secret of the puppy dog sale
I know. The headline reads more Enid Blyton than sales story. Perhaps more on writing headlines next week ... until then ... Once upon a time, before laser printers were popular, office documents were printed on very noisy daisy wheel printers. Ridiculously noisy, so much so that the most popular add-on
Going against gravity
It's hard to do, but escaping the gravitational pull of delivery work is important if you're going to fit in sales activity. Here are three ways get motivated: 1. Quarterly. Imagine looking back at the end of the quarter, what has to happen for you to
Are you interesting, or interested?
As a consultant you've probably felt the pressure to impress clients. Here are some of the patterns I see consultants fall into when they bow to that pressure: 1. Pitching the process. We want prospects to value how we get the work done ... no matter what the issue
The power of simple listening
Earlier this week I was given a 'damn good listening to'. There was something big playing on my mind and I wanted to work it out. I bumbled and rambled for around 90-minutes. My listener offered me time and space to think things through. Perhaps 3 or
Are you doing value-subtraction?
Last week someone hijacked my weekly nugget of wisdom. They turned the concept I wrote about into a full length blog post on their site. Unfortunately they hid my nugget inside a boulder of padding and promotion. They did what I call value-subtraction. Padding is just one example of
How many £20/hour tasks are you doing?
You know what I’m talking about, those jobs where you find yourself thinking “why am I doing this” ... but then you do it anyway. But, it's low reward work. The time spent on these jobs is time you could invest in business development. Look at it this
Can this executive buy?
Some executives have the power to make decisions. Others evaluate and make recommendations for their boss to consider. These recommenders can say no, but they can't say yes. That being so. Who do you want to spend your time with?
It's worth paying attention to attention
Pay attention while you listen. Framing, paraphrasing, analysing, summarising. Those all come later. Attention first. Pay attention while you speak. Notice your tone, pace, volume ... and how these affect others listening to you. Pay attention to your internal dialogue. That's the voice inside that distracts, interrupts, and meta-