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Win Without Pitching®: Thinking

Navigating the Sale

Can We Dial This Down, Please?

I’ve always known about this pervasive problem but the true size and severity of it never fully dawned on me until recently. Almost everyone commits this error in sales conversations and it’s awful to behold. I probably do it too but I don’t notice it. 

Everyone is talking too much.

Flip (the bird to) the Script

At Win Without Pitching we use a model that views the sale as a series of four conversations, each with its own objective and its own framework for navigating to that objective.

Payment Terms, On Your Terms

Payment terms are right below price on the list of important items you will negotiate. On one hand, I think some creative firms don’t think creatively enough about using payment terms to get an otherwise tricky deal done, but on the other hand, some larger clients can be ruthless at imposing arduous terms on their agencies and other suppliers. Let’s look at how to leverage the former and defend against the latter.

Are RFPs the Spawn of Satan?

I’ve written previously on the steps creative firms should take, but here I’m suggesting we finally call bullshit and throw out the RFP altogether.

More Better Vetting

Qualifying is the act of vetting. In a qualifying conversation, the agency vets the lead to see if this prospective client and their project is a good fit for the firm, and the client vets the agency to see if their expertise is a fit for them and their project. That’s how it should work.

The Role of Models In Your Firm

If you run any business of expertise you will come to rely on all sorts of models. The longer you are in business, the larger your model toolbox becomes.

Are We Having Fun Yet?

It’s been a couple of years since I fully delegated the sales function at Win Without Pitching but last week I found myself taking a few sales calls. I logged off of each one with an overwhelming sense of exuberance. “That was fun!”

I wondered how many other people felt the same way. At the end of the week I posted a twitter poll asking, “Is selling fun for you?”

Everything Can Change In One Conversation

The Flip is our name for the moment in the conversation between you and a prospective client when you move, in their eyes, from the position of lowly vendor to the more lofty one of expert practitioner.

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