Category Archives: Love and Selling

3 Ways to Avoid Overconfidence

Why is failure so often a surprise? Why are we often shocked and/or unable to explain what happened to our plan? Why are we so overconfident? In love, it happens more than half the time: Most relationships where we thought we had “the one” don’t end in marriage, and half of marriages end in divorce. […]

Showing Clients the Love on Valentine’s Day

Love and Selling Book Icon

It’s almost Valentine’s Day, which for a lot of people means an opportunity to refocus on loved ones and show the love in a special way.  Doesn’t V-Day hold the same opportunity for sellers? Why not take a moment this week and show your customers and prospects the love? Taking the advice of the World’s […]

Sales is NOT a Battlefield

I disagree with Pat Benetar. I’m going to just presume that you know who Pat Benetar is, but if you don’t, here’s her Wikipedia page. Full Disclosure:  Here are several true facts (not alternative facts!) about the relationship between Pat Benetar and me: There is no actual relationship between Pat Benetar and me.  We have […]

Running in the Cold Reminds Me of Love

Just the other day, I threw on some of my warmest gear and went running in the cold.  And I mean COLD – the air temperature was -4 degrees Fahrenheit (-20 Celsius for my international friends). While I was stumbling through a five-mile (8K) festival of frigid, I had some time to think. Many of […]

Getting REAL With Leads Gone Cold

Remember that one prospect?  The one who seemed so promising at first? You hit it off immediately.  They were looking for someone like you.  Your timing was right.  You had a great first meeting, then perhaps another, and then…. Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch. ** crickets chirping ** Now, if this was a real-life, love relationship, what […]

The Myth of the Extroverted Closer

When I started hiring and training salespeople twenty years ago, the profile was salespeople with “drive,” “closers.” “Go-getters” who are “aggressive.” Then the psychologists got involved and replaced those dinosaur words with more evolved, academic terms like extroversion, ego drive, and perseverance. I have just worked with a client whose hiring profile included these very […]

Can You Really “Build Walls” Around Your Customers?

#2 in a series: From “Love and Selling”: In business, love is often thicker than water. When customers love their sellers, personal loyalty often trumps loyalty to a product or service. They justify emotional decisions with logic and data. They even put vendors through empty RFP processes where the decision has already been made . […]

The World’s Most Underrated Sales Expert

The World’s Most Underrated Sales Expert | Dan Smaida | Pulse | LinkedIn Here’s an excerpt from my book “Love and Selling” and a topic I’m passionate about – how to make relationships work better in sales.  In the book, I go deeper into how to apply Chapman’s work to your own selling…and all your […]