The Price War Winner is the Loser

Some years back I worked as a sales coach for one division of a large services company where there were several hundred outside sales reps. The Division President, who recruited me for this job, was a stern fellow who refused to put up with any monkey business. When...

Examining and Eliminating Excuses

I (Doug) have always been a fan of the TV series, The Middle. I remember one episode when after returning home from a shopping trip, Frankie told the salesperson she would “think about it.” Brick asked his mom when they would be going back to get the item they had...

Why Do Prospects Tell Me NO?

About five years ago my wife and I were watching TV when a commercial appeared for a brand-name water filtering system where not one word was spoken. In pantomime fashion, a guy poured like amounts of red wine into two containers of water and then ran them through...

Objection Fallback Responses

Ron Carlson, ex-professor at Cal-Irvine and short story writer, gave an interesting talk to a group of people one day. He asked this group to recall when they first hit adulthood. What did they think their lives would be like and what was their Plan A at that time? He...

Deal Appeal

As a typical everyday consumer, you may have trouble routinely determining the price of many products and services purchased in today’s economy. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to determine whether you’re getting ripped off, so most people really dislike...