Category Archives: Uncategorized
Your Number One Job is To Sell
“The purpose of a business is to create a customer.” Peter Drucker Some financial service professionals seem to believe that they are paid for what they know. This is a big mistake. The reality is that you are paid for persuading people to buy from you. You may understand the technical details of your product; you…
Hunters vs Trappers Which is Better?
There are basically two ways to build a successful financial services business: the hard way as a hunter or the easy way as a trapper. What’s the difference? Hunters are product centered; they concentrate on anything that moves. In the process, they invest a lot of time and energy but get little return on their…
Pound That Rock… and Thrive
NBA team, the San Antonio Spurs is one of the most successful sporting franchises in the world. Since 1999 they have claimed five NBA titles and 22 overall division titles; they have won at least 50 games in 18 consecutive seasons. The Spurs’ staple is the concept of ‘pounding the rock’. The adage refers…
Why Aren’t You Doing More Business With Your Existing Clients?
“It never ceases to amaze me that companies spend millions to attract new customers (people they don’t know) and spend next to nothing to keep the ones they’ve got! Seems to me the budgets should be reversed!” – Tom Peters My clients often ask me whether there’s a quick and effective way to achieve…
Eat a Live Frog and Thrive
There’s more than one way to eat a frog. Learn how to do the hard things first and your business will thrive. Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day. Mark Twain Several mornings each week I wake up at…
Why a 100% Retention is Bad for Your Business
Every year my neighbour prunes the rose trees in her garden. Every cut results in new growth that will eventually bear flowers. She knows that pruning is a must-do chore that keeps her roses healthy. In a similar way, professionals should regularly prune their client base. It’s a ‘must-do’ for you, to promote growth and…
Accountability Equals Growth
Do you want to unlock the secret to producing superior growth? The key is simply to make sure that everyone is involved in the right activities, at the right time. If you want to get everyone on board, and build a high-performance team, you must create a strong culture of accountability. One of the…
Want to drive growth? Focus daily on these four activities
Time management is a challenge at times for all professionals, with demands from existing clients it’s very easy (tempting) to get caught in the service trap and spend less time on selling. Of course, this often results in poor sales pipeline activity and ultimately declining revenue. Top professionals guard the time by structuring…
My 10 favorite non-fiction books 2017
My reading in 2017 has helped me make (a little) sense of the world this year. Here are my 10 favorite non-fiction books, in alphabetical order by author. Mortimer J. Adler, How to Read a Book Originally published in 1940, readers will learn when and how to “judge a book by its…
Prospecting Your Biggest Headache or Greatest Opportunity?
“You earn 90% of your commission for finding the person and 10% commission for selling them.” Walter J. Shields Prospecting for new business is a never-ending job, the lifeblood of any successful business. You may be able to delegate other activities but not prospecting. Prospecting is the most important part of the sales process. Depending…
