065 David Newman on Marketing for Consultants

I got introduced to David Newman through Ellen Melko Moore (check out her episode on using LinkedIn effectively) and have loved his newsletter and webinars, so I asked him to join me on Sales for Nerds because he has a wonderful way of explaining marketing concepts in “plain English” that’s not only clear and compelling, but also entertaining, cutting through the haze of B.S. that fogs up most marketing advice.

But David took a long, strange path to get here, getting weeded out of pre-med, then earning a theater degree (one of my regrets is not returning to this in the interview), before getting into consulting and training.

In this episode learn:

  • How David learned to listen to people who were trying to give him money (and how that transformed his business and accounts for 98% of his revenue). This also gets back to the importance of having real-life conversations…
  • How and why he moved from corporate training to helping other consultants.
  • How we built a thriving business despite terrible timing (starting out on his own right before 9/11, publishing a book on speaking right before COVID) and struggling to find his niche at the beginning.
  • Why he (and you) needed help (“nobody does anything great alone”).
  • How to stop treating sales and marketing with disdain, while avoid the “ickiness” that comes from treating service sales like product sales.
  • How to avoid “same-o lame-o” websites and create compelling proposals.
  • How to separate yourself from the bad consultants who have burned your prospects in the past (“clients rarely get a chance to commoditize consultants– consultants are too busy doing it themselves”).
  • How to be an effective “professional irritant” (“if you don’t risk turning some people off, you can’t turn anyone on”)
  • How to market well (and be referable): make sure your prospects and partners know exactly what you do, and can repeat it. (“If you’re not repeatable, you’re not referable.”)
  • Why great copy isn’t written, it’s “listened”

And again– we’ve actually got video for this episode. See below…


Audio only…

The Wine

David enjoys some Spindrift Pink Lemonade seltzer, while Reuben enjoyed some Willful Pinot Noir from Willamette Valley, Oregon.

Books and More

Do It! Marketing. Just go get David’s book. (Just do it, you might say…)


Where to find David

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com, the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”. You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Note, speaking of “plain English” proposals, you can also get your “Fill in the Blank” Consulting Proposal Template.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Michelle’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including tracking referrals, maintaining relationships through conversations, and more.


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064 Michelle Tillis Lederman on Forging Genuine Connections

Michelle Tillis Lederman worked in the finance department, crunching numbers, until a chance trip to Japan and an interesting coaching experience led her to launch her own business, helping people connect with each other better.

The “recovering CPA” has written several books, and her latest, The Connector’s Advantage: 7 Mindsets to Grow Your Influence and Impact was what led to this conversation.

In this episode learn:

  • How to achieve your goals faster, easier, and better with help from your connections (and feel better along the way)
  • How to bring your natural strengths and “unique charms” to conversations, instead of trying to force yourself to be someone else (especially helpful for introverts)
  • How to find points of connection
  • How to be stay in a place of curiosity and openness instead of jumping to conclusions, and why this is so important
  • How to keep connections alive and healthy, without being fake
  • The importance of picking up the phone and calling people, even if you’re busy (yes!!!)

Plus, Michelle takes notes as our conversation leads to ideas for 2 blog posts. 😉


And again– we’ve actually got video for this episode. See below…


Audio only…

The Wine

Michelle had a bottle of Poland Springs. 😉 With summer in full swing in Texas, Reuben switched to white, a Ribbonwood Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand.

Books and More

The Connector’s Advantage: 7 Mindsets to Grow Your Influence and Impact. A nice, quick read, with plenty of practical advice.

It’s also a nice compliment to Matthew Pollard’s book, The Introvert’s Edge to Networking (listen to Matthew on Sales for Nerds here).


Where to find Michelle

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com, the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”. You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Michelle’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively, including tracking referrals, maintaining relationships through conversations, and more.


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

063 Diane Helbig on how to Succeed without Selling

Unlike most of us, Diane grew up with a father who was “everything good about sales”. Yet she still hated the thought of going into sales.

Learn how she overcame that fear and followed in her father’s footsteps as an honest, authentic, problem-solving sales rep.

Diane, is an author (see book recommendation below), advisor, award-winning-speaker, host of the Accelerate Your Business Growth, member of the Newsweek Expert Forum, and the National Small Business Association Leadership Council.

(As a side note, we have been trying to schedule this interview for a while, but I needed time to get around to reading Diane’s excellent book, Succeed without Selling, and when we finally had an interview scheduled, Diane lost power.)

In this episode learn how:

  • Diane changed her perspective on selling so she could be herself.
  • To understand what prospects actually need, so you don’t assume everyone is a prospect.
  • To network effectively not to sell, but to build your community.
  • To define your target market and research people.
  • To get introductions.
  • To go for the conversation, not the sale.
  • To use LinkedIn effectively (do you have your high school on your profile?).
  • To be “you”– if people do business with people they trust, how can they do business with you if you’re not authentic. (“Stop lying!”)
  • To ask budget questions.

And again– we’ve actually got video for this episode. See below…


Audio only…

The Wine

Diane had a glass of 19 Crimes Snoop Cali Red (just look at this bottle). Despite the name, 19 Crimes is an Australian brand, playing off the crimes that could get English people deported.

Reuben had a glass of Chateau Bucasse from Madiran, Gascony in the southwest of France. It’s 60% Tannat (see wikipedia entry here), 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cab Franc. If you have a Costco membership, grab a bottle for $14 (it was recently featured on ReverseWineSnob.com as a great deal).

Books and More

Succeed Without Selling: The More You Think About Selling, the Less You Will Sell. A wonderful book– check it out. It’s an easy, practical read, and I wish I’d read this when I was starting my consulting practice, instead of some of the “hardcore” sales books I read, that asked me to be someone else, instead of leaning into who I am.


Where to find Diane

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com, the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”, (Mimiran also makes it easy to track and grow referrals). You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Diane’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively.


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

062 Reuben Swartz on MEGA Positioning, your secret superpower

Reuben Swartz, Host and Chief Nerd

Hi, I’m back with another solo episode, because I’ve spent so much time recently talking with people about positioning that I wanted to do an episode on it.

So many people struggle with sales and marketing, because they have created a high degree of difficulty for themselves by not taking advantage of positioning.

In this episode learn how:

  • To focus your messaging on your ideal clients
  • How to overcome FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) when you narrow your niche
  • “MEGA” Positioning, the world’s cheesiest marketing pneumonic:
    • Magnetic (and what people get wrong about it)
    • Easy (because this is the dial you use to make sales and marketing easier or harder)
    • Gorilla (how to make yourself the 800 pound gorilla of your market)
    • Authentic (you’ve got to be true to yourself)
  • How to create your Superhero Name and tell your Origin StoryHow to use “The Bar Test” to check your messaging and make sure it resonates
  • Why strong positioning with a narrower nice leads to more leads, not less
  • How to develop your positioning when you get “stuck”

Try the Mission & Positioning Tool for free.


The Wine

Chateau Satarney Pinot Noir from Burgandy, 2015. Yum.


listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com, the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”, (Mimiran also makes it easy to track and grow referrals). You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Alan’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively.


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

061 Alan Weiss on Million Dollar Consulting

Alan Weiss is perhaps the original consultant to consultants, author of the seminal Million Dollar Consulting (and dozens of other books on business and life).

Million Dollar Consulting was my lifeline when I started consulting, so I’ve always wanted to Alan to come on Sales for Nerds because if you haven’t read his stuff, you need to hear his advice.

In this episode learn how Alan:

  • Turned around a money-losing division early in his career, with a brain dead simple tactic you should be using now.
  • Realized that hourly billing was unethical.
  • Saw how tech consultants become a “pair of hands” instead of a “brain” and commoditize themselves
  • Asks questions to move up the corporate ladder to decision makers.
  • Taps into the emotional needs of buyers so they can take action (“logic makes people think, emotion makes people act”).
  • Uses a “helping” instead of a “selling” mindset to interact with decision makers as peers.
  • Builds a verifies trust quickly.

Also, Alan notes that there are a lot of excellent consultants who can’t market and a lot mediocre consultants who are great at marketing. Most consultants are too timid– they try not to lose business instead of going aggressively to win business.

Alan also offers a simple 3 step plan for building pipeline.

  1. Call everyone you know. “Don’t hide behind email.” Can I get an “amen”? Ask for referrals. (Want an easier way to do this? Try Mimiran, the CRM for solo consultants who hate “selling”, with Call Mode included in free and paid plans.)
  2. Treat networking as a process to set up subsequent meetings. Forge connections, don’t aim for sales.
  3. Host events that offer value to your ideal client. (Virtual or in person.)

When you get meetings with prospects:

  1. establish a trusting relationship– offer value from the start
  2. look at the client’s issues (not just “pain”)
  3. create conceptual agreement on what needs to happen– objectives, measures, and value
  4. “pour cement”– offer to have a proposal for them the next day, with a meeting scheduled to review it the following day. Ask if there is anything other than fees that would prevent them from selecting one of the options you will give them.

Plus, learn:

  • Why buyers care about more than saving money and avoiding pain.
  • How to uncover the personal objective behind every business objective.
  • Signs the client trusts you
  • Why doing things internally is harder and more expensive than hiring you
  • Why businesses need to keep climbing
  • How to be a peer and not a subordinate
  • Why Alan is optimistic about 2021 and why you should consider volatility and disruption offensive weapons

And again– we’ve actually got video for this episode. See below…


Audio only…

The Wine

Alan enjoyed Marietta Cellars Armé cabernet (which has a little merlot, malbec, and petit verdot blended in). This goes for about $26 from the vineyard and Alan says it will go well with any steak. Reuben had some Franciscan cabernet sauvignon (looks like it was a cab interview).

Books and More

Million Dollar Consulting (now in its 5th edition!). Read this if you haven’t already, and check out Alan’s author page, with dozens of books. I won’t list them all here, but definitely check out Alan’s new book, Your Legacy Is Now: Life is Not a Search for Meaning from Others — It’s the Creation of Meaning for Yourself.


Where to find Alan

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com, the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”, (Mimiran also makes it easy to track and grow referrals). You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”. (Including the more powerful than ever Free Edition.) Mimiran can help you implement a lot of Alan’s ideas not only more efficiently, but more effectively.


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

059: Bob Burg on how to be a Go-Giver

Bob Burg, the Go-Giver

Bob Burg is the co-author of The Go-Giver (along with several other books), a former Gold Gloves champion, and so much more. Bob started off with a book called Endless Referrals.

Bob notes that people connect with “stories” more than instructions. Bob wanted to take the premise of his first book– Endless Referrals, which was that all things being equal, people want to refer people they know, like, and trust, and turn it into a story or parable. Bob, in his modest way, says that the best thing he did for that book was get John David Mann as the co-author to make it more of a story.

After boxing and college, he was a broadcaster on a TV show, but knew that wasn’t for him, so he got into sales. He floundered because he didn’t have any real training. Found some books in the book store, which was harder to do back then, and his sales results started to improve.

Bob believes that you can achieve anything (within reason), if you have a predictable, improvable system.

People who say they don’t like “selling”, don’t like what they thinking selling is.

“Selling is discovering what the other person does need, want, and desire, and helping them get it.”

Bob Burg

“The old English root is sellen, which means “to give” (or “to give for money”, see more on the etymology here).

Bob believes that sales people are needed more than ever, they’re just not needed as information dispensers.

The Trade Secret is giving… being a go-getter– a person of action, is great, just don’t be a go-taker.

Shifting your focus from getting to giving– constantly and consistently providing immense value to others– will give you great results. Nobody is going to buy from you because you have a quota, or even because you’re a nice person– they buy from you if it is in their interest.

In the book, Bob and John introduce the 5 laws…

  1. The Law of Value– give so much more in value that you price. The buyer and the seller both profit from the exchange.
  2. The Law of Compensation– your income is determined by how many people you serve and how well you serve them.
  3. The Law of Influence– your influence is determined by how abundantly you place other people’s interests first.
  4. The Law of Authenticity– the most valuable gift you have to offer is yourself. Hard to show up as ourselves if we can’t identify and embrace your strengths. 3 weaknesses (ignore, mitigate, changed)
  5. The Law of Receptivity– the key to effective giving means staying open to receiving. Horrendous messages… Giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin (not giving and taking– that’s different). Have to be willing to price appropriately.

Bob notes that all 5 laws are congruent with human nature– you’re not trying to make yourself or someone else someone beyond human capabilities.

Bob thinks we absorb a lot of unhealthy messages about prosperity, that the way to achieve wealth is to be dishonest and/or mistreat people. He recommends some other folks to counteract this, like Randy Gage, Bob Proctor, Sharon Lector (Rich Dad, Poor Dad), Ken Honda (Happy Money).

A lot of people feel they aren’t good at sales because they’re not big talkers– but selling from listening, not talking.

To get started being a go-giver, build on your successes. Ask “how can I add value to other human beings?”


And again– we’ve actually got video for this episode. See below…


The Wine

Reuben had some 2106 Chateaux Chemin Royale from Bordeaux.

Bob had water.

Books and More

The Go-Giver: A little story about a powerful business idea, by Bob Burg and John David Mann.

Endless Referrals: network your everyday contacts into sales, by Bob Burg.

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie.

Think and Grow Rich, by Napoleon Hill.

Psychocybernetics, by Maxwell Maltz.

The Magic of Thinking Big, by David Schwartz.

How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams.


Where to find Bob

  • Burg.com. Read the first chapter of any of Bob’s books. Also check out the podcast, a blog, social links, and a free mini course on “selling the go-giver way”.
  • LinkedIn
listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com, the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”, (Mimiran also makes it easy to track and grow referrals). You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”.


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

056: Ellen Melko Moore helps you create a Supertight brand on LinkedIn

I got introduced to Ellen Melko Moore when someone suggested I take her free LinkedIn Profile Audit. I was skeptical (naturally) but decided to give it a go. I was impressed and immediately invited Ellen to Sales for Nerds. (If you’re reading this, you should book a free audit session, too!)

Ellen was on the path to become an English professor, but after a bachelor’s degree, a master’s degree, and a lot of work towards her PhD, she realized she was on the wrong path. She loved writing and teaching, but not the politics.

In this episode, learn how Ellen:

  • Figured out how to get paid to to talk about great books (and why I still have a great book sitting unread on my bookshelf).
  • How her “supertight” branding for this venture landing her a consulting gig with Oprah.
  • How she ended up on TV, and what that taught her about communication, especially coming from academia.
  • How this led her to help other people create “Supertight” brands, and why she focuses on LinkedIn.
  • Learn about the “Bitchslap of Truth”– no I’m not making that up

Here’s some of what Ellen covers in this episode about building a great brand:

  • The first rule of branding (via Dan Kennedy), and why Ellen thinks “Sales for Nerds” is a “Supertight” brand. (What do you think?)
  • Why you shouldn’t worry about your brand ruling people out– you should focus on making it strong enough to rule people in. (Note that even toilet paper marketers target certain niches– so unless your offering has broader appeal than toilet paper, you need to niche, too.)
  • It’s often hard to target your brand effectively, because you’re close to it, you don’t want to miss out, and emotions are involved. Get help, from a professional, from a friend, from a peer, etc. (Ellen quotes the stat that 10,000 people per day are moving into consulting or coaching– we don’t know if this is true– and most of them won’t make a lot of money. If you’re one of those people, make sure your brand stands out.)
  • If you want to have a successful brand, focus it on a subsegment of the market that you can help that has ATP (Ability-to-Pay) and ETP (Eagerness-to-Pay). You can often find people with one or other (or neither), but you need both.
  • People tend to buy from the first expert who educates them– why not have your LinkedIn profile do some of the work?
  • Plus, my bonus tips on expanding or narrowing your niche: expand if sales are too easy, contract if sales are too hard.

Learn some simple, powerful LinkedIn tips:

  • How to optimize your profile– and why it’s probably hurting Ellen’s eyeballs and heart. Make it more about your ideal clients and less about you. It’s about “teaching, not marketing.” Make sure you use the About section to give a “state of the union” for your ideal client.
    • Take the time to follow Ellen’s advice here— she’s already helped me improve me profile a bunch, with more to do, but if you check out my LinkedIn profile, you can see I’ve put into action some of her advice.
  • How to send and process connection requests (you wouldn’t walk up to someone in real life and say “you’re amazing– you want to buy my stuff!” but people do this on LinkedIn all the time), plus how to get Ellen to automatically accept your request.
  • How to use content effectively, including tips for video (and why most content falls flat)

The Wine

It was too early for Ellen, but Reuben had a glass of Furthermore Pinot Noir from Sonoma.


Where to find Ellen Melko Moore

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com, the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”, (Mimiran also makes it easy to track and grow referrals). You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Want a way to make sales and marketing fun, without being “salesy”? Try Mimiran, the CRM for elite solo consultants who love serving clients but who hate “selling”.


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

050: Michael Greenberg shows us how consultants can use podcasts for sales and marketing

Michael Greenberg comes from a long line of entrepreneurs on both sides of his family. But his parents didn’t want him to be an entrepreneur. He dropped out of college, enrolled in a coding bootcamp and joined a startup, but it didn’t turn into the next big thing.

In this episode, Michael shares some wisdom on staring a consulting practice and how to use podcasts to do guerrilla sales and marketing, including:

  • How to know if you’re ready to start a consulting practice on your own.
  • Why startups and small companies often hit the wall and stop growing.
  • Who to invite on your show to boost your own authority and exposure (and get leads).
  • How to get great guests, either locally (not so feasible right now) or virtually.
  • How to plan a “story arc” across multiple episodes that not only gives your listeners a coherent narrative, it also forms the basis of other forms of content, including e-books and book books. (Hmm, maybe I should I be doing a better job here.)
  • How to have a conversation with guests that doesn’t feel like a sales pitch and doesn’t feel awkward for you or your guest. (The podcast is really about selling you, not your services.)
  • How to prepare questions and segues to keep your interviews flowing smoothly.
  • Why you shouldn’t worry about promoting your podcast too much.
  • How to plan your initial podcast launch, including how many episodes you need, and how to use “Allied Guests” to set you up for success.
  • How much time you need to invest in a podcast-based marketing strategy.
  • Plus, get Michael’s very Sales-for-Nerds-friendly tip for helping nervous CEOs before a VC pitch.

Enjoy, and feel free to suggest how I could use Michael’s advice for Sales for Nerds. 😉

The Wine & Whiskey

I got to enjoy some Cooper Jaxson Pinot Noir from California, and Michael had Bernheim Original Kentucky Straight Wheat Whiskey, which apparently has a distinct, smooth flavor because of the wheat. (Hmmm, I need to try that.)


Where to find Michael…

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com (the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”). You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Also, if you can get a free “fill in the blank” hero proposal template. Remember, a proposal is a story, not a brochure.


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

049: Damian Thompson on sales mistakes small business owners make

Damian Thompson

Damian Thompson is founder and Chief Training Officer for Salesability, focusing on sales training for small business owners who don’t like sales. Sounds like the kind of guy we need to have on Sales for Nerds!

Damian started out selling newspapers, then did door-to-door sales in college. After college, Damian’s first “real” sales job was in enterprise software security. Then he’s help big companies set up a new sales office in foreign countries. He “burned the suit and tie” in 2011 and started trying to build his own business online. He moved to the Philippines, and started building an outsourced sales business. But it was hard. Then he did some copywriting and lead generation on demand, but was doing sales coaching to pay the bills.

Finally, he realized that he should focus on the sales coaching, with a particular attention to skilled creators who are reluctant sales people. Because they don’t like it, they don’t treat it with respect, so they never get really good about it. Their passion keeps them afloat, but they never build the sales process to grow beyond themselves, then they make the “$100,000 mistake” but hiring a savior salesperson, who then fails, because they were never setup for success. Here’s more of what Damian learned…

Damian’s definition of a real business is having revenue come in that you don’t have to touch.

Damian says there are a lot of charlatans like Grant Cardone. There’s also a lot of noise from SaaS companies like Steli Efti from Close, Aaron Ross from Predictable Revenue (see Aaron’s interviews on Sales for Nerds here and here) that doesn’t necessarily apply to the typical small business. Most sales training is run for big companies selling to other big companies.

Sales is a process– there’s no such thing as a natural born sales person. Once you take it on as a process, engineers can be great at sales.

There’s no such things as multitasking– time management is a huge problem for founders who struggle with sales.

Make sure you do prospecting every day, even when you’re busy with other stuff, or your pipeline will dry up and you’ll be in big trouble.

What you shouldn’t doing?

  • Trying to automate too much. You can’t automate empathy or insight. Mass cold email is terrible.
  • Fear the telephone. Pick up the phone (or Zoom or Skype) and call people. “Email for marketing, the phone is for selling.”
  • Charge too little. Everyone expects to be on time and on budget. Getting the first dollars is always the hardest– because they have to trust you. Note that you’re not selling your time– if you spent a lifetime learning to do something quickly, that’s valuable. It’s about the goal you help them reach.
  • Fail to sell against the status quo– by failing to establish consequences for inaction. Damien uses a personal example– I’m trying to lose 15 pounds– I know how to do it and I even tell myself that I want to do it, but I’m not doing it.
  • Skipping over the early qualification stages to try to speed to the end of the sale. Don’t ask “just enough questions to write a proposal.” Then you end up harassing the wrong prospects, and you’re constantly following up without giving any value, and you decide you hate sales.
  • Not having a system for sales. You are in control– just because someone asks you for something, doesn’t mean you have to give it to them. Don’t be not in control. Don’t let your prospects bully you.
  • Taking time with the wrong prospects. These people are happy to waste your time.
  • Not setting up sales reps for success. Typically when business owners hire operational help, they know how to do the process they’re hiring someone to do. But in sales, they don’t have a process, so they hope that a magical sales person will fix everything, but they’re not set up for success.

You have to “go the gym” every day. Your personal trainer can’t work out for you. You have to spend time on sales.

And you have to ask decisively for the next step. For example, you ask a web lead for a 20 minute call. But what happens at the end of that call? Is it a proposal? If so, do a live proposal review and schedule it on the call. Then what happens when you present? You ask for the business. Sometimes they say yes, sometimes they say no, but have a decisive next step for the “I have to think about” people.

Always ask for a meeting until you get a yes or no. If someone isn’t willing to get on a call with you, will they give you thousands of dollars? There’s nothing you can do with sales skills to sell something to someone who won’t get on the phone with you for a few minutes.

The person who wins is usually the most honest. So if you feel like you’re getting brushed off, make sure they have permission to say “no” without hurting your feelings. (And then ask what you could have done differently.)

Here’s the question to ask: one a scale of 1 to 10, and you can’t say 7, how big a problem is this? If they say a 6 or below, it’s not worth pursuing. If they say 8, 9, or 10, ask for more information on why.

Now go PICK UP THE *$@& PHONE!!! Or Zoom or whatever. (Here are some tips on doing video calls— especially important since face to face meeting are off the menu for now.)

The Wine

I got to enjoy some Chateau Fongaban Bordeaux from Puisseguin-Saint-Emilion. (In the episode, I mistakenly pronounced, or tried to pronounce it with an ‘R’ instead of an ‘F’ and the beginning– you can look at the label and decide if that’s a reasonable mistake.)


Where to find Damian…

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com (the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”). You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Also, if you can get a free “fill in the blank” hero proposal template. Remember, a proposal is a story, not a brochure.

If you’ve ever struggled with a proposal, check out the “official” Sales for Nerds online course on Sales Proposals the Right Way (coupon link for listeners).


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):

048: Amos Schwartzfarb on how to sell more, faster

Amos Schwartzfarb was an English major turned rock climber who accidentally stumbled into entrepreneurship and sales.

Now, with 6 startups under his belt, and with experience advising dozens more as the head of TechStars Austin, he’s distilled major sales lessons into his book: Sell More Faster: the Ultimate Sales Playbook for Startups (which was part of the Sales for Nerds bookshelf giveaway).

In this conversation, we talk about the strange path Amos took to sales (even by the standards of this podcast), and some of his early struggles with sales, and what helped him get much more effective.

We also dig into the W3 framework (who?, what?, why?) that Amos lays out in the book, including:

  • When to narrow or broaden your niche
  • The difference between customer development and sales, and when and how to do each one
  • Why the important part of “what?” is what are they buying, not what are you selling
  • The importance of “digging the hole”– doing the actual work, and what that means


The Wine

We got to enjoy some Qupe Syrah from Santa Barbara county. Highly recommended.


Where to find Amos…

listen-on-apple-podcasts-sales-for-nerds

Where you can find Reuben: @Sales4Nerds, @Mimiran, Mimiran.com (the easy CRM for people who are awesome at serving clients and would love some help getting more, but hate “selling”). You can also  listen on Overcast, or Subscribe on Android, or Player.fm.

Also, if you can get a free “fill in the blank” hero proposal template. Remember, a proposal is a story, not a brochure.

If you’ve ever struggled with a proposal, check out the “official” Sales for Nerds online course on Sales Proposals the Right Way (coupon link for listeners).


Get alerted when there are new episodes (1x/month):