Bestselling author Chris Voss has negotiated some of the most difficult deals in history. As a lead negotiator for the FBI, he found himself in more than a few life-and-death situations. From his career in the FBI to his transition to being a business consultant, Voss consistently used a tactic to gain a powerful edge […]

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard a frustrated seller complain about a prospect, “Sheesh, I’ve explained how we can help them a million times and he still doesn’t get it.” Uh, my friend…exactly who is it, that doesn’t get it? That would be you. Albert Einstein said “If you can’t explain it […]

“Hey, could you be more salesy?” Never in my decades in sales has a customer ever asked me that. “Andy, we’d really like to buy your product. But, you’re just not salesy enough. Could you please be more salesy?” This is the one question a buyer will never ask you. That’s right. It’s the one […]

Imagine that you’re on a sales discovery call and it’s going really well! You’ve built rapport, identified an urgent need for a solution and established that your prospect meets all your technical requirements. But the most crucial part of the call typically occurs during the last couple minutes. In this highly competitive business climate, you can’t end your […]

The Scout motto is “be prepared.” But perhaps that should also be the motto for SDRs. One of the biggest mistakes SDRs make is not adequately preparing for sales calls. Sure, there isn’t time to extensively research every sales prospect. But suppose that a key decision maker at one of your target accounts filled out a contact […]

The philosopher Socrates was famous for asking disciplined questions of his students in order to provoke thoughts, help them analyze concepts and get to the truth of issues. Socrates knew where he wanted his students to arrive. But rather than simply lecturing them, he realized that it was possible to lead students to an epiphany by asking a systematic […]