As a small business owner, it’s hard to juggle everything, but having a weekly planning calendar helps. It’s easy to feel busy without making progress on what’s most important. You can get to the end of the week and wonder … Read More
training
Our own beliefs are the biggest sales obstacle
Sales is hard for anyone, but especially when you start your own professional services business, your own beliefs are often the biggest obstacle to sales. I started with some strange, self-limited beliefs about sales. Over time, I realized that I … Read More
The professional services sales trap
Professional services people can be great at sales (and marketing), but we often struggle. Why is that? I think it has to do with the “professional services sales trap”, which actually sets your own expertise against you. In the last … Read More
How to do sales proposals the right way
If you’ve read this blog for a while, you know there’s a lot of material on proposals. I’ve also done a lot of coaching and consulting on proposals. Each time, I tell myself I should really put this content in … Read More
Nail Your Marketing Message
Who do you help? What’s different about your approach? How can you get this message to resonate with your audience? Try this simple “Mad Libs” style marketing message generator. Just plug in values in the blanks. Play around. See if … Read More
Pricing pressure? It could be your proposal
I’ve heard a lot of people complain about how their market is getting commoditized and how there’s no way to achieve good price points. What happens when we look at the proposals the sales teams are sending out? They’re terrible. … Read More
“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
Don’t limit yourself on price
If you’re reading this blog, you probably know the dramatic profit impact of small price improvements. (For a company running at 10% net margin, a 1% price improvement increases profit by 10%.) Yet even when companies want to improve pricing … Read More
SaaS University: Maximizing SaaS Revenue
If you’re in the software industry, don’t miss SaaS University in Dallas, January 26-28. With over 30 sessions, this event provides the best opportunity for folks in the SaaS community to learn, share, and network. Get early bird pricing through … Read More
Change the world $27 at a time
I’ve never done this before, but today I’m going to plug the Grameen Foundation‘s “$27 on the 27th” campaign. For those of you who don’t know, the Grameen Foundation is a microlending institution that helps poor women in developing countries … Read More