3 Impeccable Selling Strategies

In Part 1, I shared about “Chuck” the wedding DJ and his cocky approach to salesmanship. While it’s important to be skilled in tooting one’s own horn, it must be done in such a way that it doesn’t seem conceited and therefore repel prospective clients.

But wait! There’s more …

Selling products via infomercials is a multibillion-dollar industry. While I don’t necessarily agree with all of their (often cheesy) tactics, we can learn at least a few things from their success. The leaders in this industry seem to have mastered the art of strategic bragging. In the quick sections that follow, we’ll take a look at 3 leading sales strategies and discuss how to make them work for you.

1.     Show, Don’t Tell

Infomercial presenters do an incredible job of showing us the features and benefits of their products. In Dan & Chip Heath’s book, Made to Stick, “The curse of knowledge” is addressed. The concept is this: [Read more…]

Knowing When and Where to Toot Your Own (Business) Horn

(Part 1)

If you Google strategic bragging, it appears my friend Sally Strackbein coined the phrase. And while its use has brought a chuckle to many a room, it’s a serious concept. After all, no one likes a “Me Monster” and I have found that if you must brag, you might as well be strategic about it.

My recent search for a wedding DJ has provided a great example. As it turns out, I’ve found that many professional DJs aren’t able to express their emcee-expert-party-guide personalities over the phone. Instead, they come across as rather awkward and uncomfortable. Go figure. I’ve chalked it up to this: They must need a microphone and an audience to come alive. However, one of the seven DJs I interviewed over the phone had no trouble expressing himself.

This guy – we’ll call him Chuck – referred to himself as “The DJ to the celebrities.” He said he’d [Read more…]