Win Without Pitching®: Thinking

Navigating the Sale

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.

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.

Leading Through Disruption

Enough time has passed now I can tell this story without naming names.

How Assuming Can Cost You Time and Money

You never want to make assumptions in the sale. If you feel yourself assuming something, you need to lean into that and ask a question about what it is that you are assuming. Because when you make assumptions in the sale, it will likely lead you down a really long and expensive path.

Five Alternatives to Cutting Price

The subjectivity of value works both ways. Value is highly personal and subjective but it is so to all parties on both sides of the buy-sell divide. Just as two different clients considering the same offering from the same firm will assign different value to that offering, so too will two different salespeople trying to sell that offering.

Selling in One Lesson

Your power in the sale is a function of having your desirability be greater than your own desire. Makes sense, right?

How and When to Talk About Your Firm

One of the things that creative firms need to let go of is the need to present. It’s one of the proclamations in The Win Without Pitching Manifesto. “We will replace presentations with conversations.”

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