Posted: August 18, 2014 | Categories: Sales

I remember a tireless mantra from my first sales training class:  Evidence defeats skepticism.  Let me take this one step further:  Selling added value defeats price objection.  There are few things that can derail a sale more than price objections.  If we let ourselves get caught in that trap, we may get stuck.  Let’s face it, if price were the only concern, every time we looked at a parking lot, we would see only the least expensive cars.  This indicates that price is not the only concern our prospects have.  So what do our prospects really want?  That is what we have to find out.Read More…

Posted: August 17, 2014 | Categories: Leadership

Several years ago I was coaching a team on negotiating skills.  Their company manufactured assembly machines and the average ticket was over 600K.  One day, one of their key clients called them and asked for the blueprints to one of the machines they were manufacturing.  Dave, the sales rep, knew what that meant:  They were shopping around and wanted to give the prints to another vendor to look at.  Dave didn’t want to give up the prints, but he kept thinking, “The prints are theirs.  They have paid for them.  I can’t be selfish”.  With painful reluctance, he let go of the prints.Read More…

Posted: August 17, 2014 | Categories: Presentation skills

Some people fear public speaking.  Others love presenting before a group.  Whether you love it or hate it, there is one thing you must know:  You must prepare and over-prepare.Read More…

Posted: August 9, 2014 | Categories: Leadership

I’ll never forget that day.  It was one of the most important defining moments of my life:  I was in 6th grade and had just started the second week of class.  Our teacher, Mrs. McGinnis, had a very special announcement:  She said, “We are going to have an exciting project that we are starting today:  It is a class magazine.  It will contain all the events and highlights of the class plus special stories and other contributions from the class members”

As I listened to this, I thought, “That sounds like a lot of work.  I don’t think I’m interested”.  Then came the clincher:  Mrs. McGinnis concluded by saying “I am pleased to announce that the editor is going to be Steve Brainerd”  Hmm… No problem, I thought.  I can talk her out of it.Read More…

Posted: August 6, 2014 | Categories: Leadership, Self-Improvement, Team Building

Have you ever come up with a great idea to solve a problem only to have it shot down right away?  If this happens to us enough, we could become discouraged and hesitate to share a future idea.  Good teams respect the principle of “idea fluency”.  Everyone should feel comfortable and confident in sharing their ideas.

If we have a good idea that we believe will solve an important problem, we need to prepare ourselves to sell our idea.  That requires that we work through these four basic problem solving questions that have been time tested for over 100 yearsRead More…