psychology

“Help”, Don’t “Sell”

Yesterday I met with a very smart, conscientious guy who takes great pride in helping his clients. He said, “I know I have to get better at sales, but I hate it!” So I recalled my journey. “Selling” is not … Read More

The Sales for Nerds Signed Bookshelf Giveway

I’ve been lucky enough to have a bunch of awesome authors come on Sales for Nerds, and Aaron Ross recently recorded his 2nd interview, for the new edition of From Impossible to Inevitable. I asked if he had any signed … Read More

Create a Weekly Calendar

If you feel really busy, but by the end of the week you haven’t done the main thing you set out to do on Monday, you may need a weekly calendar. I have to admit, I only started doing this … Read More

fuel for nerds not pancakes

My best productivity hack

Is anyone’s life slowing down? Work isn’t slowing down. Life isn’t slowing down. How do you handle it all? I’ll share a few things I do, including the simple, most useful, best productivity hack I’ve discovered recently. Get Control of … Read More

Language Traps

I’ve spent a lot of time on this blog talking about how storytelling is important for sales (and marketing), and particularly the way language helps construct our reality, which means it can also lead us into traps. For example, how … Read More

Canyons and Bridges

When you’re selling, you want to close the deal quickly. But when you’re buying, you want to make sure you’re doing what’s right for you, which can be particularly hard if you don’t have a lot of expertise in the … Read More

Will the end of the movie business end your business?

In my last post, I made the seemingly preposterous claim that every business is a media business. Some people agreed, some people disagreed, but the hypothesis definitely caught people’s attention. So, it might be worth asking, what’s happening with the … Read More

Before you do your 2017 strategic planning…

It’s almost that time of the year again, when people start 2017 strategic planning. Before you do, look at this chart, from WaitButWhy.com.   Each row is a year and each box is a week. While planning for next year … Read More

Raise Prices, Marc Andreesen, Reuben Swartz

“Raise Prices” Marc Andreessen says you should

Silicon Valley legend Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) was on Tim Ferriss’s (@TimFerriss) podcast recently, and Tim always asks his guests what they would put on a billboard. Marc said two words: “I’ve got one, I’ve actually thought about hiring a skywriter to … Read More

Technical pain, business pain, life pain

12 Secrets of Successful Sales Conversations

You’ve finally got a meeting scheduled with your prospect. (If you missed them, you might want to read about how to get more people to convert on your site, and when to call them to get an initial conversation.) I … Read More