Tag: persuasion

Have you ever felt uncomfortable with sales? Or maybe you have found yourself feeling awkward at a networking event? Perhaps your marketing activities just...

Your strategy is your objective for the pitch and the tactics and specific actions you employ to achieve that objective. A great way to get the objective clear is to imagine the pitch is over and you have won. If, at the company's next board meeting, the selection committee were asked to succinctly explain why they selected you, what would they say? We call this The "Board Room" Statement. For example, your Boardroom Statement might be: "We selected them because they had good ideas and enough experience to do the job, but more so, a level of enthusiasm and desire to work with us that none of their competitors could match."

Salespeople acquired a stereotype for foot-in-the-door, sell-your-mother-for-a-dollar moral bankruptcy long before Zig Zigler cartwheeled his way into the public consciousness. But if salespeople appear a hardened bunch it's because they spend their days on the front line. And let's face it, if salespeople fail, no one gets paid. It's about time we cleared society's pedestal of entertainment celebrities, precious artists and fatuous egomaniacs. At long last, it's time to hail the salesperson!

Getting your way once is easy. It's repeating it that's hard. So how do you rate on the enchant-o-metre? We asked three pros if...