Sales For Nerds

How do you show appreciation for your best clients and partners? In this episode, Steve Buzogany from The Appreciation Advocate discusses how to turned around his real estate sales career and turned his gift for gifting into a whole new business, and how you can apply those same techniques to build deeper relationships, get more referrals, and better clients. Find Steve at AppreciationAdvocate.com. For a system to track referrals, and the business you get from them, plus lead magnets, proposal automation, e-signature, and more, without the complexity of enterprise CRMs, check out Mimiran, the fun, "anti-CRM" for independent consultants.

Wayne Mullins, founder of Ugly Mug Marketing and author of Full Circle Marketing: Tranform Your Marketing & Turn Customers Into Evangelists stops by Sales for Nerds to help you focus marketing on what gets results, not what's prettiest or shiniest. Learn how he grew a landscaping business with donuts (and other marketing tricks), why sales and marketing have to work together, how to get more referrals, and more. Brought to you by Mimiran, the fun, "anti-CRM" for independent consultants who love serving clients, but hate selling, which will help you implement a lot of Wayne's advice, but can't deliver donuts.

In this episode, former management consultant turned referrability expert Jay Kingley explains why he doesn't like referrals (seriously), and how to get the right kind of referrals. Jay shares how he became the partner with the best sales results, despite hating sales and the usual client entertainment song and dance. Plus, learn why 98% of people have the wrong format for their elevator pitch, and what to do instead. Sales for Nerds-- see show notes for all episodes. Track referrals, including how much business you get from them with Mimiran, the fun, "anti-CRM".

You don't want "word-of-mouth", you want to put words in people's mouths, so they say the right things about you when you're not around. Michael Roderick shares how he went from high school english teacher to Broadway producer in 2 years, by getting people to say (good) things about him when he wasn't in the room. Michael shares his A.I.M. principles for referrability and how the L.E.S.S. pneumonic helps you be more memorable.  

If you feel stuck at a job, or even in your own business, wondering why you don't have the passion for it anymore, Franklin Taggart, host of the "Your Own Best Company" podcast, can help you find the right path to create a business (and life) that's engaging and fulfilling (and profitable). More info and full show notes at www.salesfornerds.io. Want a system to help you create and nurture business relationships and have fun doing it? Check out www.mimiran.com, the fun, "anti-CRM" for independent consultants.

Join guest Mark Firth as he shares his journey in digital marketing (and around the globe, from London to Bogota to Florida), and how he realized that posting on social media didn't give long last results. But YouTube's algorithm is different, and can help you connect with an audience. Find out more at www.salesfornerds.io. And check out Mimiran, the fun, anti-CRM for independent consultants at www.mimiran.com. 

Doubling your revenue seems like a big task, but in this episode, Michael Buzinksi, author of The Rule of 26, shows you how you can improve 3 key metrics by 26%, to double your business. He also discusses the order to address the different metrics, and how to handle common problems. Of course, this advice pairs well with Mimiran CRM for independent consultants. Get the show notes and other links at SalesForNerds.io.  

Hourly billing is the industry standard, but it creates perverse incentives for consultant and client. Jonathan Stark is a former software developer turned consultant, and host of the Ditching Hourly podcast. He shares his journey from realizing how hourly billing was hurting his firm to making more money with better clients and more success with value-based fees. He covers how to get more money upfront, how to set the prospect's mind at ease, even at higher price points, and much more. Catch this episode and more at https://www.salesfornerds.io. To implement some of the ideas in this episode, including offering multiple choices for prospects in one proposal, check out Mimiran, the fun, "anti-CRM" for independent consultants: https://www.mimiran.com. 

Corrie Loguidice was set to inherit the family business, but a series of traumatic events led her to change course and strike out on her own. Applying the lessons she had learned as an art major (you read that right) and a marketer, she built her own consulting practice and now helps other professionals leave the corporate world to start their own consulting businesses. Learn how to do this the right way, straight from Corrie.

Julie Brown lauched never thought of herself as a master networker or professional speaker, but when someone asked her to give a talk on networking and the room was packed and people in the audience asked her to come talk to their firms, she knew she was on to something. In addition to being a captivating speaker, Julie puts in the "work" to build the "network". Learn how you can do that the right way, the authentic way, without feeling slimy or overwhelmed, and having fun the whole time.

We communicate not just with words but with tone and body language. Voice coach Cynthia Zhai discusses how we can communicate confidently by being intentional about voice. We can't all sound like Morgan Freeman, but we can improve how we talk to be more effective.

As business owners, we spend a lot of time trying to make our minds more productive, often without considering that our minds are connected to our bodies. If we don't take care of our bodies, we miss out on joy and productivity, and we load up on stress. Ashley DePaulis, who helps large organizations prevent burnout and turnover, is here to give you tips that will make not just your business, but your life better.

If you read the business news, you might think that you have to start a business by dropping out of college, or you're too late. But Rick Terrien, who did start a successful business while in college, and now runs the Center for Ageless Entrepreneurs, shows you that it's never too late, and that you should be planning to start a business in your later years.

Melisa Liberman loved working at a big consulting firm. But life had other plans and she ended up an independent consultant. She talks about how she struggled with the mindset shift from employee to business owner, and how you can make the leap much faster and with les stress.

Will Russell never set out to start a marketing agency, and as an introvert he wasn't excited about sales and marketing. But he knew his strengths and weaknesses, and created a spreadsheet to track his activities and their results. Almost everything he tried failed. But one tactic worked very well. Learn what he did and whether it will work for you.

David Newman, owner of Do It Marketing, teaches you how to market effectively as a consultant-- something he struggled with himself. Stop commoditizing yourself-- most consultants do such a good job of this that clients barely get a chance.

Most solo consultants make selling way harder than it has to be. If you'd like it to be easier, make sure you take advantage of your secret superpower: MEGA positioning. Learn how in this episode.

Bob Burg, co-author of The Go-Giver, comes on Sales for Nerds to talk about how to do better by giving more, and the 5 laws from his book-- the laws of Value, Compensation, Influence, Authenticity, and Receptivity. Plus, Bob (rightly) takes me to task for not being precise with words, and we have a great conversation.

What have we learned from 2020? Too much and not enough. I have to bring politics into the podcast, I talk about the importance of talking (and listening) and share my simple advice for 2021.

Angelique Rewers has bought corporate services from consultants, sold them to corporate clients, and now teaches others how to do it right. Learn her story and how to avoid the common mistakes small firms and solo consultants make when selling to big companies.