The way to make sure you're investing your time wisely vs. doing “free consulting” is simply to make each of these points of contact an opportunity to move your sales process forward.

A final aspect of the psychology of time is timely response to emails and phone calls. This is truly a habit worth developing for several reasons:

•It shows respect and courtesy
•It proves your responsiveness even before the sale is made
•Sometimes, it’s just a practical matter of the first response gets the sale


If you show your willingness to invest your time and attention, prospects are more likely to respond with a willingness to invest their time – – and money – with you.

The psychology of choice

When it comes down to the wire, salespeople who have made a habit of studying sales techniques never offer a ‘take it or leave it’ deal.

It’s simply too easy to say no, and if you didn’t handle the rest of your sales process flawlessly, almost any reason to say no will look pretty appealing to your prospect.

If you always offer options, you shift your prospect’s mindset to considering WHICH, not WHETHER!

And it reinforces your status as a professional who customizes choices, simplifies options, and filters a lot of the ‘noise’ that the prospect has heard in the past. You’re customizing options based on the prospect’s situation. One size fits o

The psychology of urgency

Another typical sales scenario involves the salesperson doing everything right – until after the first appointment. Then, suddenly, the emails stop, messages don’t get returned, and the lead runs cold, leaving you scratching your head wondering how that nice, friendly, responsive, involved prospect dropped off the face of the earth.

Does that ever happen to you?

What you’ve just experienced is a good sales process gone bad for the lack of a key ingredient: urgency.

As Stephen Covey says, there is a big difference between the “urgent” and the “important.”

In everyday business, the urgent category includes soothing angry clients, “putting out fires,” production stoppages, surprise inspections or audits by regulators, labor problems, media blowups, and things of that nature.

The important category includes things like making employees feel appreciated, upgrading to new office technology, listening to someone’s ideas, increasing your industry knowledge, developing good corporate citizenship (charitable, environmental, etc) and so on.

Guess which category is at the top of every executive’s agenda each morning when they walk in the door?

If you’ve positioned the product or service you’re selling as a “nice to have” instead of a “have to have,” – or even better a “have to have now” – your leads will run cold. Simply put, buying from you (even if it’s important) takes a backseat to the urgent matters of the day.

If you as a salesperson haven’t identified the pain, then you will get a less than urgent response. If you walk up to someone on the street and they have a nail sticking out of their knee- they would have a high sense of urgency to have the nail removed. This is the same with the prospect. When you can identify their “nail” they will want to move on it quickly.

In my seminars, I ask people to think about these questions:

•Why is it urgent for the prospect to ACT NOW?
•What is the incentive?
•How can you create meaningful deadlines?
•How is buying both an important *and* an urgent issue?


Again, I’m not going to supply you with gimmicky stock phrases or clever comebacks, but rather suggest that you spend some time and energy thinking about how to intelligently and professionally address legitimate buying obstacles such as “We have no budget,” “We have no need for this product/service,” “We’re happy with who we’re using,” and “This is bad timing for us.”

I don’t believe in the process of “overcoming objections” – sounds too much like fighting. And if salesis a battle, you’re going to lose.

One method I like to use is simply turning objections into objectives. In other words, if you can intelligently address the objection in terms of reaching a goal, agreement, or solution that addresses the problem, you will be well on your way to collaborating with your future customer on buying your solution.

For example, if the objection is “it’s too expensive,” you can show, in clear dollars and cents terms (and using numbers supplied by your future customer!) how your solution will save money, generate sales, increase profits, reduce costs, etc.

You’re turning the price objection into a value objective.

The psychology of time

A lot of sales trainers suggest using the personal touch: handwritten notes, personalized gifts, etc.

We think these are powerful tools, but for different reasons. Whether a note is typed or handwritten makes little difference in and of itself. Whether the note comes with a small gift (personalized or not) also doesn’t really matter.

It’s really about giving time and attention. That is what makes you distinctive.

Let me give you an example. As you may have guessed by now, I’m a speaker, author, and seminar leader. As such, I’m a prospect for a wide variety of businesses – presentation equipment, publicity, advertising, direct mail, courseware, and e-learning suppliers all want a piece of me.

Recently, I put my name in at the website of a reputable radio PR professional who has been getting great results for people just like me. I filled out her online form, attended part of a tele-seminar that she sponsored, and then a few days later received a handwritten note together with 2 name-brand lollipops.

Some background you need to know:
1.I’m a sucker for handwritten notes. They never fail to amaze and impress me.
2.I have a small ego. I love to be told my books are filled with valuable and practical insights or that my ideas incited someone to take action.

Now, here are some problems with this story:
1.Her handwritten note said “Your book sounds perfect for radio.” I never gave her details of “my book.” And I have 5 books.
2.The tele-seminar was one step above terrible. Her guest was a pompous twit and the information in the first 10 minutes was so negligible, I hung up. How tough would it have been to send everyone a post-seminar email or form asking for feedback? Then she could have targeted people who loved the tele-seminar, or at least addressed the shortcomings with people, like me, who didn’t.

So, how does all this apply to you and your business? Simple. The lesson is: put in the TIME to make the sale, add personal meaning to your relationships, and make yourself stand out from the crowd.

For example, when you follow up with a well thought-out handwritten note, it shows the investment of your TIME.

I recently facilitated a six month Leadership Development program for 37 people. Afterwards, I sat down and wrote 37 thank you notes by hand. In each note, I tried to personalize a comment. I sealed the envelopes with red wax and my stamped monogram.

It wasn’t that I am crazy about wax and monograms; it’s the fact that I wanted to send a note that was different than any they had ever gotten. The response was tremendous.

Investing time is another way you will separate yourself from the crowd. What’s the best way to invest your time? Choose as many as you like from the following list:

•Spend time listening
•Spend time customizing solutions
•Spend time following up
•Spend time supplying valuable information addressing your client’s needs and agendas (personal and professional)
•Spend time making your buyer look good to his or her boss
•Spend time referring business to your future client’s company
•Spend time dropping by for no reason and drop off lunch or donuts

A lot of salespeople are leery of doing this work for several reasons. Excuses and objections include:

•I can’t get enough information to do this
•This is free consulting – I need to make sales!
•Why would I waste all that time on a single prospect?
•This sounds like a lot of work


My responses:

•You can get this information
•It’s easier than you think
•Yes, it does take some work
•Welcome to your J-O-B!

The way to make sure you're investing your time wisely vs. doing “free consulting” is simply to make each of these points of contact an opportunity to move your sales process forward.

A final aspect of the psychology of time is timely response to emails and phone calls. This is truly a habit worth developing for several reasons:

•It shows respect and courtesy
•It proves your responsiveness even before the sale is made
•Sometimes, it’s just a practical matter of the first response gets the sale


If you show your willingness to invest your time and attention, prospects are more likely to respond with a willingness to invest their time – – and money – with you.

The psychology of choice

When it comes down to the wire, salespeople who have made a habit of studying sales techniques never offer a ‘take it or leave it’ deal.

It’s simply too easy to say no, and if you didn’t handle the rest of your sales process flawlessly, almost any reason to say no will look pretty appealing to your prospect.

If you always offer options, you shift your prospect’s mindset to considering WHICH, not WHETHER!

And it reinforces your status as a professional who customizes choices, simplifies options, and filters a lot of the ‘noise’ that the prospect has heard in the past. You’re customizing options based on the prospect’s situation. One size fits on

In my seminars, I ask people to think about these questions:

•Why is it urgent for the prospect to ACT NOW?
•What is the incentive?
•How can you create meaningful deadlines?
•How is buying both an important *and* an urgent issue?


Again, I’m not going to supply you with gimmicky stock phrases or clever comebacks, but rather suggest that you spend some time and energy thinking about how to intelligently and professionally address legitimate buying obstacles such as “We have no budget,” “We have no need for this product/service,” “We’re happy with who we’re using,” and “This is bad timing for us.”

I don’t believe in the process of “overcoming objections” – sounds too much like fighting. And if salesis a battle, you’re going to lose.

One method I like to use is simply turning objections into objectives. In other words, if you can intelligently address the objection in terms of reaching a goal, agreement, or solution that addresses the problem, you will be well on your way to collaborating with your future customer on buying your solution.

For example, if the objection is “it’s too expensive,” you can show, in clear dollars and cents terms (and using numbers supplied by your future customer!) how your solution will save money, generate sales, increase profits, reduce costs, etc.

You’re turning the price objection into a value objective.

The psychology of time

A lot of sales trainers suggest using the personal touch: handwritten notes, personalized gifts, etc.

We think these are powerful tools, but for different reasons. Whether a note is typed or handwritten makes little difference in and of itself. Whether the note comes with a small gift (personalized or not) also doesn’t really matter.

It’s really about giving time and attention. That is what makes you distinctive.

Let me give you an example. As you may have guessed by now, I’m a speaker, author, and seminar leader. As such, I’m a prospect for a wide variety of businesses – presentation equipment, publicity, advertising, direct mail, courseware, and e-learning suppliers all want a piece of me.

Recently, I put my name in at the website of a reputable radio PR professional who has been getting great results for people just like me. I filled out her online form, attended part of a tele-seminar that she sponsored, and then a few days later received a handwritten note together with 2 name-brand lollipops.

Some background you need to know:
1.I’m a sucker for handwritten notes. They never fail to amaze and impress me.
2.I have a small ego. I love to be told my books are filled with valuable and practical insights or that my ideas incited someone to take action.

Now, here are some problems with this story:
1.Her handwritten note said “Your book sounds perfect for radio.” I never gave her details of “my book.” And I have 5 books.
2.The tele-seminar was one step above terrible. Her guest was a pompous twit and the information in the first 10 minutes was so negligible, I hung up. How tough would it have been to send everyone a post-seminar email or form asking for feedback? Then she could have targeted people who loved the tele-seminar, or at least addressed the shortcomings with people, like me, who didn’t.

So, how does all this apply to you and your business? Simple. The lesson is: put in the TIME to make the sale, add personal meaning to your relationships, and make yourself stand out from the crowd.

For example, when you follow up with a well thought-out handwritten note, it shows the investment of your TIME.

I recently facilitated a six month Leadership Development program for 37 people. Afterwards, I sat down and wrote 37 thank you notes by hand. In each note, I tried to personalize a comment. I sealed the envelopes with red wax and my stamped monogram.

It wasn’t that I am crazy about wax and monograms; it’s the fact that I wanted to send a note that was different than any they had ever gotten. The response was tremendous.

Investing time is another way you will separate yourself from the crowd. What’s the best way to invest your time? Choose as many as you like from the following list:

•Spend time listening
•Spend time customizing solutions
•Spend time following up
•Spend time supplying valuable information addressing your client’s needs and agendas (personal and professional)
•Spend time making your buyer look good to his or her boss
•Spend time referring business to your future client’s company
•Spend time dropping by for no reason and drop off lunch or donuts

A lot of salespeople are leery of doing this work for several reasons. Excuses and objections include:

•I can’t get enough information to do this
•This is free consulting – I need to make sales!
•Why would I waste all that time on a single prospect?
•This sounds like a lot of work


My responses:

•You can get this information
•It’s easier than you think
•Yes, it does take some work
•Welcome to your J-O-B!

The way to make sure you're investing your time wisely vs. doing “free consulting” is simply to make each of these points of contact an opportunity to move your sales process forward.

A final aspect of the psychology of time is timely response to emails and phone calls. This is truly a habit worth developing for several reasons:

•It shows respect and courtesy
•It proves your responsiveness even before the sale is made
•Sometimes, it’s just a practical matter of the first response gets the sale


If you show your willingness to invest your time and attention, prospects are more likely to respond with a willingness to invest their time – – and money – with you.

The psychology of choice

When it comes down to the wire, salespeople who have made a habit of studying sales techniques never offer a ‘take it or leave it’ deal.

It’s simply too easy to say no, and if you didn’t handle the rest of your sales process flawlessly, almost any reason to say no will look pretty appealing to your prospect.

If you always offer options, you shift your prospect’s mindset to considering WHICH, not WHETHER!

And it reinforces your status as a professional who customizes choices, simplifies options, and filters a lot of the ‘noise’ that the prospect has heard in the past. You’re customizing options based on the prospect’s situation. One size fits o

A lot of sales trainers suggest using the personal touch: handwritten notes, personalized gifts, etc.

We think these are powerful tools, but for different reasons. Whether a note is typed or handwritten makes little difference in and of itself. Whether the note comes with a small gift (personalized or not) also doesn’t really matter.

It’s really about giving time and attention. That is what makes you distinctive.

Let me give you an example. As you may have guessed by now, I’m a speaker, author, and seminar leader. As such, I’m a prospect for a wide variety of businesses – presentation equipment, publicity, advertising, direct mail, courseware, and e-learning suppliers all want a piece of me.

Recently, I put my name in at the website of a reputable radio PR professional who has been getting great results for people just like me. I filled out her online form, attended part of a tele-seminar that she sponsored, and then a few days later received a handwritten note together with 2 name-brand lollipops.

Some background you need to know:
1.I’m a sucker for handwritten notes. They never fail to amaze and impress me.
2.I have a small ego. I love to be told my books are filled with valuable and practical insights or that my ideas incited someone to take action.

Now, here are some problems with this story:
1.Her handwritten note said “Your book sounds perfect for radio.” I never gave her details of “my book.” And I have 5 books.
2.The tele-seminar was one step above terrible. Her guest was a pompous twit and the information in the first 10 minutes was so negligible, I hung up. How tough would it have been to send everyone a post-seminar email or form asking for feedback? Then she could have targeted people who loved the tele-seminar, or at least addressed the shortcomings with people, like me, who didn’t.

So, how does all this apply to you and your business? Simple. The lesson is: put in the TIME to make the sale, add personal meaning to your relationships, and make yourself stand out from the crowd.

For example, when you follow up with a well thought-out handwritten note, it shows the investment of your TIME.

I recently facilitated a six month Leadership Development program for 37 people. Afterwards, I sat down and wrote 37 thank you notes by hand. In each note, I tried to personalize a comment. I sealed the envelopes with red wax and my stamped monogram.

It wasn’t that I am crazy about wax and monograms; it’s the fact that I wanted to send a note that was different than any they had ever gotten. The response was tremendous.

Investing time is another way you will separate yourself from the crowd. What’s the best way to invest your time? Choose as many as you like from the following list:

•Spend time listening
•Spend time customizing solutions
•Spend time following up
•Spend time supplying valuable information addressing your client’s needs and agendas (personal and professional)
•Spend time making your buyer look good to his or her boss
•Spend time referring business to your future client’s company
•Spend time dropping by for no reason and drop off lunch or donuts

A lot of salespeople are leery of doing this work for several reasons. Excuses and objections include:

•I can’t get enough information to do this
•This is free consulting – I need to make sales!
•Why would I waste all that time on a single prospect?
•This sounds like a lot of work


My responses:

•You can get this information
•It’s easier than you think
•Yes, it does take some work
•Welcome to your J-O-B!

The way to make sure you're investing your time wisely vs. doing “free consulting” is simply to make each of these points of contact an opportunity to move your sales process forward.

A final aspect of the psychology of time is timely response to emails and phone calls. This is truly a habit worth developing for several reasons:

•It shows respect and courtesy
•It proves your responsiveness even before the sale is made
•Sometimes, it’s just a practical matter of the first response gets the sale


If you show your willingness to invest your time and attention, prospects are more likely to respond with a willingness to invest their time – – and money – with you.

The psychology of choice

When it comes down to the wire, salespeople who have made a habit of studying sales techniques never offer a ‘take it or leave it’ deal.

It’s simply too easy to say no, and if you didn’t handle the rest of your sales process flawlessly, almost any reason to say no will look pretty appealing to your prospect.

If you always offer options, you shift your prospect’s mindset to considering WHICH, not WHETHER!

And it reinforces your status as a professional who customizes choices, simplifies options, and filters a lot of the ‘noise’ that the prospect has heard in the past. You’re customizing options based on the prospect’s situation. One size fits o

For example, when you follow up with a well thought-out handwritten note, it shows the investment of your TIME.

I recently facilitated a six month Leadership Development program for 37 people. Afterwards, I sat down and wrote 37 thank you notes by hand. In each note, I tried to personalize a comment. I sealed the envelopes with red wax and my stamped monogram.

It wasn’t that I am crazy about wax and monograms; it’s the fact that I wanted to send a note that was different than any they had ever gotten. The response was tremendous.

Investing time is another way you will separate yourself from the crowd. What’s the best way to invest your time? Choose as many as you like from the following list:

•Spend time listening
•Spend time customizing solutions
•Spend time following up
•Spend time supplying valuable information addressing your client’s needs and agendas (personal and professional)
•Spend time making your buyer look good to his or her boss
•Spend time referring business to your future client’s company
•Spend time dropping by for no reason and drop off lunch or donuts

A lot of salespeople are leery of doing this work for several reasons. Excuses and objections include:

•I can’t get enough information to do this
•This is free consulting – I need to make sales!
•Why would I waste all that time on a single prospect?
•This sounds like a lot of work


My responses:

•You can get this information
•It’s easier than you think
•Yes, it does take some work
•Welcome to your J-O-B!

The way to make sure you're investing your time wisely vs. doing “free consulting” is simply to make each of these points of contact an opportunity to move your sales process forward.

A final aspect of the psychology of time is timely response to emails and phone calls. This is truly a habit worth developing for several reasons:

•It shows respect and courtesy
•It proves your responsiveness even before the sale is made
•Sometimes, it’s just a practical matter of the first response gets the sale


If you show your willingness to invest your time and attention, prospects are more likely to respond with a willingness to invest their time – – and money – with you.

The psychology of choice

When it comes down to the wire, salespeople who have made a habit of studying sales techniques never offer a ‘take it or leave it’ deal.

It’s simply too easy to say no, and if you didn’t handle the rest of your sales process flawlessly, almost any reason to say no will look pretty appealing to your prospect.

If you always offer options, you shift your prospect’s mindset to considering WHICH, not WHETHER!

And it reinforces your status as a professional who customizes choices, simplifies options, and filters a lot of the ‘noise’ that the prospect has heard in the past. You’re customizing options based on the prospect’s situation. One size fits o

The way to make sure you're investing your time wisely vs. doing “free consulting” is simply to make each of these points of contact an opportunity to move your sales process forward.

A final aspect of the psychology of time is timely response to emails and phone calls. This is truly a habit worth developing for several reasons:

•It shows respect and courtesy
•It proves your responsiveness even before the sale is made
•Sometimes, it’s just a practical matter of the first response gets the sale


If you show your willingness to invest your time and attention, prospects are more likely to respond with a willingness to invest their time – – and money – with you.

The psychology of choice

When it comes down to the wire, salespeople who have made a habit of studying sales techniques never offer a ‘take it or leave it’ deal.

It’s simply too easy to say no, and if you didn’t handle the rest of your sales process flawlessly, almost any reason to say no will look pretty appealing to your prospect.

If you always offer options, you shift your prospect’s mindset to considering WHICH, not WHETHER!

And it reinforces your status as a professional who customizes choices, simplifies options, and filters a lot of the ‘noise’ that the prospect has heard in the past. You’re customizing options based on the prospect’s situation. One size fits one.

The psychology of stories

One of the most powerful sales tools you have at your disposal is storytelling. Or more appropriately, storyselling! So how can you use stories when working with future customers? All this requires on your part is the initiative to begin gathering stories by talking with your existing customers. Very simply, talk to your customers about their experiences with your products and services. You’re sure to gather some powerful and persuasive stories. Focus on things like:
•A previous customer’s purchase and how the product helped them.
•A previous customer’s problem and how the product/service fixed the problem.
•A previous customer that had the same concerns/hesitation as your current customer, and how the outcome ended up positive.
•A previous customer’s experience with a certain product/service that didn’t work out and what happened as a result. (This can help lead to the product that would be more appropriate for your customer.)
•A previous customer’s “success story” with the product/service.
•Your own (or someone you know) experience with the product/service.


If you think about it…you are storyselling all the time with friends and family, “selling” them on why they should or shouldn’t go to this or that restaurant, use this or that product, etc. Think about the commercial you see on TV, where they guy says “I was so impressed, I bought the company.” That is a story! Using stories when selling is a powerful opportunity to communicate with your customer in a meaningful way. The human brain is hardwired to quickly understand, interpret, and get the most information from stories. Not sure if storyselling is worth learning? What if we told you that one of the greatest “storysellers” of all time is investment billionaire Warren Buffet and that one of his most valuable skills lies in tapping into the "gut reaction" of different types of clients through stories? The psychology of risk

What can you do to minimize the risk to the prospect of buying your product or service? Look at all the products out on the market that offer risk-free, money back guarantees.

In today’s “do more with less” business environment, many economic decision-makers have a new top priority – and it’s not “making the very best choice.” It’s “not making a mistake that will cost me my job.”

How can you reassure someone with this mindset that buying from you is smart and safe and risk-free?

Do you offer guarantees, warrantees, refunds, make-ups?

In my seminars, we spend some time exploring how you might do one better than minimizing risk – and eliminate it altogether.

Some of the ideas that seminar participants generate for their specific businesses are outrageous, some are plain impossible – but a good number are brilliant and immediately implementation-ready!

Ask yourself the following questions:
•How can I provide a free version of my product or service?
•What can I learn from the auto industry’s new trend of “the 24-hour test drive”?
•What does the buyer have to lose if they buy from me?
•What do they have to gain?
•How can I ensure the buyer’s success – not just their satisfaction?
•How can I employ the concept of risk-reversal – meaning that the risk is all on my side if they don’t achieve success?


When most sales training programs talk about overcoming objections, they usually don’t discuss the real objections that are in most buyers’ minds. These are things like:

•I don’t trust you
•I don’t believe this will get the results you say it will
•This sounds too good to be true
•If this works, I would have heard of this solution already
•Who says so besides you?


You should understand (and expect) that people probably will not trust you in the beginning of the sales process. They have been sold stuff all their lives “against their will.” They bought the steak knives, the insurance, the Girl Scout cookies, the raffle ticket, or the car and regretted it later. (OK maybe not the cookies.) Trust has to be earned over time.

To address these aspects of buyer resistance, you can use a battery of smart sales tools. You may be using some of these already, but the more you pile on, the more effective they will be.

Start to collect, use, and document:
•Customer testimonials (letters are good; audio and video are even better)
•Awards and industry recognition of your product/service
•Press clippings and articles mentioning you or your clients using your product/service
•Objective, fact-based side-by-side comparisons with competing products/services
•Cost analyses and comparisons between using your product/service, using the competition, doing it themselves, and doing nothing


All of these items will help reduce risk, build credibility, and pave the way for an easier, more collaborative solution-based sale.

Your job as a sales professional is not changing people’s minds (that’s extremely hard to do); your job is to help them make a good decision.