BD 101: What Doctors Can Teach Us About Pitching

by Scott

The first thing a Dr. says when you step into his office usually goes a little something like this:

“So tell me what’s a matter?”

Only after you answer this question can the Dr. treat you.

 

But what if he didn’t ask this question? Say you injured your ankle playing hoops. After three days of trying to tough it out, you head to Dr.’s office for treatment. When you finally get a chance to see the doc, he just starts putting your arm in a sling?…he tries to fix a problem you don’t have.

Business development and sales people make this same mistake all the time. I know I have.

You finally get that meeting. All you want to do is tell them how awesome …
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How to End A First Pitch and Owning the Sale

by Scott

Your pitch goes perfect, the guy on the other side is fired up…this one is in the bag!

But what unfolds is different than what you expected. Your emails go unreturned. Your calls are ignored. You’re left scratching your noggin at the radio silence.

This ever happen to you? It has to me plenty and in retrospect it could have been potentially avoided.

Usually you start by pitching one person. What I’ve come to realize is that even when this person is the decision maker they still might need to get buy-in from multiple people. This could be the rest of their team, an adjacent department, or even the CEO. It’s great to make this person you’re champion, but that doesn’t mean you …
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Sales: Get to A Resolution

by Scott

I heard our VP of Sales Adam Liebman say something a few weeks ago, that I think is very important for all Sales/BD people to understand. Sometimes it’s just as important to get to a no than a yes. Why? It’s in your time’s best interest. Every moment you spend on a deal that’s never going to happen, is time you could be working on one that will. Thus, the faster you determine that someone isn’t buying, the more you can focus on people that are. The idea is to get to a resolution as fast a possible without jeopardizing a positive outcome. It’s an art that can only be learned through time and experience and is more appropriate …
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Guerilla Tactics: Selling A Skillshare Class Case Study

by Scott

I thought it’d be cool to expose some of the less obvious tactics I used to get people to sign up for my Skillshare class. A tweet here and there just doesn’t cut it for the young and hungry. Sometimes you need to put the warpaint on.                     

Email Signature and Inbox Special Ops

I use my email signature like a strategic weapon. I change it frequently and at times even cater it depending upon who I’m emailing. I’ve found it extremely effective for nudging people to look at something without looking like a tool. Within that vein, I went beast mode in large email groups that I’m involved in to try to drive …
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