Category Archives: Sales

The ignorant blunderbuss approach to sales and marketing

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Jon Stow

Knowing our abilities and our limits My business is helping people with their tax issues, and finding help to support their businesses. I know a lot about how to do that, and that is down to hard work, training and … Continue reading →

Posted in marketing, Sales | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dealing with time-wasters and tyre-kickers

Posted on June 6, 2013 by Jon Stow

Many of us who offer professional services get enquiries from people who do not really want to buy. The problem has been the subject of a debate among several of my colleagues and friends, and we have different ways of … Continue reading →

Posted in Business planning, Sales | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Adapt, change or your business will die

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Jon Stow

I have had my own business for nearly eleven years. It hardly seem possible. However, it is not the same business I started. In the beginning I hardly used email to correspond with clients. It wasn’t that I was an … Continue reading →

Posted in Business planning, Sales | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Broken tools, new toys and business

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Jon Stow

Sometimes tried and trusted methods stop working, and we hardly notice because we carry on out of habit. That is what happened with me and breakfast networking.  It took a while for it to dawn on me that I was … Continue reading →

Posted in Business planning, Sales | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Selling our services through others

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Jon Stow

Part of my business is to facilitate services to other businesses which they may provide to their end-client. I am good at selling services to my own clients ( though I say it myself) because I know the value of … Continue reading →

Posted in Sales | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

More time-sheet follies

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Jon Stow

Hammering home my point about time sheets, remember how much we are selling in terms of our know-how. For those hung up on charging for time spent on each job, if you must think about time, remember how much of … Continue reading →

Posted in Business planning, Sales | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Dealing with yesterday’s men and women

Posted on December 3, 2012 by Jon Stow

  Old times In 1970 the Labour Party published a poster during the General Election describing the Tory opposition as “Yesterday’s Men”. It was a short-lived element of the campaign and was withdrawn very quickly. The Labour Party lost that … Continue reading →

Posted in Business planning, Sales | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

My thanks to Zig Ziglar

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Jon Stow

Zig Ziglar died this week. He was described in a report in his local Dallas newspaper as a motivational speaker. Yes, he was that, but to most of us who have read his books he was the guy who taught … Continue reading →

Posted in marketing, Sales | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Content marketing versus selling, in the flesh or on-line

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Jon Stow

  Death of a Saleswoman I was at a business show the other day and saw that a well known software company was running a presentation entitled “How to increase revenue into your practice”. Naively, I thought that this would … Continue reading →

Posted in marketing, Sales | Leave a comment

Selling our knowledge as a small business service provider

Posted on November 20, 2012 by Jon Stow

  They can’t do what we can Having knowledge, an expertise, is to have a highly valued asset. It is up to us to exploit it as well as we can. If we are service providers there are two ways … Continue reading →

Posted in Business planning, Sales | Tagged , , | Leave a comment