Last week’s Puzzler began: A partner at a “white shoe” New York investment bank (now out of business due to the recent financial unpleasantness) was preparing his deal team for a dinner meeting with a client’s executive team, all men, 50-ish years old. The team was working on its first transaction for the client. … Read more »
In which we’re challenged to recommend a strategy for an X-treme prospecting game. A partner at a “white shoe” New York investment bank (now out of business due to the recent financial unpleasantness) was preparing his deal team for a dinner meeting Read more »
In which we’re reminded to check and double check things we hear from clients during a complex sale. I came to call it the “$300,000 Sure Thing” at a time when $300,000 was a significant sum. During a project with a large bank, thanks to my client’s relationship with her CEO, I began … Read more »
….In which we remind ourselves to understand how our clients are measured so we can help them be successful. My children’s’ rooms are disheveled. This state has been an ongoing source of friction between the children and their mother who will, for days at a time, ignore the dishevelment and then, without any apparent triggering … Read more »
In which we are reminded to fit special promotional offers to our clients, not the reverse. It came as a little bit of a shock. I was wrapping up a telephone conversation with Edith, a customer service representative at a clothing company from whom I buy winter outdoor clothing on line. My dad and I … Read more »
In which we are reminded that “overcoming objections” is not consistent with collaborative, partnership, trustworthy selling. Read more »
In which we are reminded that five spoonfuls of sugar before the medicine is better than one. My mother’s brother, Jack, was a banker. Let me rephrase that. A Banker. Capital “B.” Born in the early 1900s in England, on the wrong side of the class divide, he rose to become branch manager of a … Read more »
In which we learn to open communications with prospects using something THEY are interested in. So, my first child is at college now. First year. Good news and bad news. I haven’t heard from him much. He doesn’t return my phone calls. Doesn’t reply to my text messages. Doesn’t write back when I email him. … Read more »
In which we are reminded that not every prospect is worth our full attention. When I heard Al Hirt (jazz trumpet player popular in the 1950s and 1960s) play the song, "I Can’t Get Started," as a 10 year old, I fell in love with that song and the horn. Read more »
In which we are reminded to mind our prospects and clients why they wanted to talk to us in the first place. Remember the line, "When you’re up to your a** in alligators, it’s easy to forget the objective was to drain the swamp"? Early one morning last week, I began reading a proposal we … Read more »
We Are Seriously Social.