Remember the old “pop quiz” when you were in school? Wasn’t it a great feeling when you were prepared with all the answers? On the other hand, it was a real drag when you were caught off guard and didn’t have a clue. Read more (members only)

The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission regulations governing the National Do Not Call Registry went into effect nationwide in the U.S. in October 2003. The FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule covers calls made across state lines Read more (members only)

Offering free samples to prospective clients is a powerful method of increasing the know, like, and trust factor that makes people buy. When you are selling a professional service, potential clients have no way to see, feel, or taste what you will actually deliver. Read more (members only)

We spend a significant amount of our sales and marketing effort on filling the pipeline with prospects and following up with them. With a full pipeline and consistent follow-up, you are bound to make plenty of sales, right? Well, much of the time that’s true. Finding the right people to contact, Read more (members only)

A question I often get from clients and students goes something like this: “I’ve been collecting marketing ideas… and I have a drawer full! I also have a stack of promising leads I’ve accumulated. And I know it’s important to stay visible, so I do a lot of Read more (members only)

When you’re selling your services and find that you’re getting appointments but not making sales, your sales presentation itself may be the culprit. To improve how you present yourself and what you do, be prepared with a presentation script. Read more (members only)

As a professional selling your own services, you may believe that you feel uncomfortable about calling prospective clients on the phone because you’re not a “real” salesperson. But studies reveal that up to 40% of full-time salespeople experience episodes of call reluctance that are serious enough to threaten their careers. Read more (members only)

It often happens that we follow up with prospects multiple times without getting a response. If you call them, email them, and send them letters, but you never get through or hear back, at what point should you scratch them off the list and move on? The rule I’ve always used to make this decision is: evaluate the value of the potential sale. Read more (members only)

“I have plenty of work coming in,” one of my clients told me, “but I’m not getting paid enough. Every project seems to take longer than I anticipated, and I end up putting in a lot of unpaid hours. How can I fix this?” Read more (members only)

A common mistake service professionals make is to focus on nice-to-have benefits in their marketing messages. But in order to get your prospects to respond, it’s not enough that they might want what you offer. It has to be something they are willing to spend money on, and they must be able to justify that purchase to themselves and others. Read more (members only)

Recently, I spoke with a friend who says he has the greatest job in the world, because essentially, his service sells itself. He works for an organization that helps students of any age get a graduate degree through well-known and highly respected Read more (members only)

I often wonder how the practice began of pretending to be someone else in order to market your business. You know what I’m talking about — it’s the marketing face, the selling voice, that you often put on in order to attend a networking event or make a sales call. Who taught you to do that? Read more (members only)