The only thing smarter than their emcee was…
Ahoy!
Two days ago, I was honoured to MC a book launch for Peter Turner and Sueanne Carr, co-founders of Customer Frame.
The dynamic duo have been colleagues of mine, clients of mine, friends of mine, and my firm was also one of their first clients when Customer Frame launched … now they have turned their decades of customer-led wisdom into a book revolutionary roadmap to business growth and happiness.
In the left hand picture you can see all my notes hanging out of this extraordinary guide, so do yourself a favour and click here to secure your copy. Join the movement, better support your customers, and thank me later.
And this week’s focus on Sales doesn’t stop there:
- Blackboard Fridays Episode #10 introduces the Sales Hourglass, because funnels and pipelines miss the point
- TalkWalker Alerts are the simple tool I use to create more sales opportunities
- Your AI Tool of the Week uses the second definition of ‘Tool’ that I promised you would feature…
1. Blackboard Fridays Episode #10
All models are wrong, but some are less wrong than others.
In Sales we talk of the Pipeline, which I don’t think was ever accurate because pipelines tend to be the same width at the start and at the end. The Sales Funnel may be more accurate, shrinking in width on the way down, but as a model for sales it’s a failure because at the end we lose all those opportunities … as they wash away.
That’s why I use the concept of the “Sales Hourglass” — bringing people in, taking them through a journey where they become clients, and then also building on the relationship for the long-term. When you want to increase your revenue, simply turn the hourglass around and have all those relationships run through again.
Nice model, sure. So how does the Hourglass give practical actions that build sales in a small business?
Watch this week’s video or read the article here to find out.
2. TalkWalker Alerts – My Secret Sales Tool
The Pitch: “Monitor your brand name, competitors, events or any other topic across the web”
Not every piece of software I recommend needs to include Artificial Intelligence. And given the focus of this week’s AI Tool (see below), I decided to also share this tool I’ve been using for years.
TalkWalker, like Google Alerts and others, lets you set up Alerts for people and company names so that you receive an email whenever they are mentioned online. This is essential for your reputation management – so your first priority is establishing an alert for your name and your business.
The sales secret sits in the Engagement and Extension elements of the Sales Hourglass. I have an alert set up for dozens of my alumni clients, and add new alerts every time I deliver a new client proposal.
Do you know how many times I’ve been the person to tell a business owner they were featured in a news article, slandered on social media, or simply congratulated them on an announcement, event, or book launch?
Do you know how much good will is engendered when you demonstrate such a commitment to relationship that you know those things about new or old customers? And you can make the magic happen with this link in just a few minutes. Do it immediately.
3. RizzGPT – AI for Complete Tools
The Pitch: “Real-time Charisma as a Service (CaaS)”
Student and engineer Bryan Hau-Ping Chiang has built a monocle that displays ChatGPT responses, giving you answers when you get stuck in a job interview or tongue-tied on a date.
This isn’t a serious product … but it could be. Whether it’s a monocle or an earpiece, imagine having an AI coach prompting you in every sales meeting, recruitment meeting, or networking function.
Fraught with danger or ripe for comedic effect? Right now you just know someone is writing a remake of the Steve Martin film Roxanne, itself a remake of the classic play Cyrano de Bergerac where a nasally-gifted poet secretly provides the words for a friend to woo the beautiful maiden.
“Your nose was on time, but your artificial intelligence prompt was fifteen minutes late…“
Learn more about RizzGPT here.
Until next week, with genuine love that requires no prompting,
Jacob Aldridge
International Business Advisor
PS: Did someone forward you this email? Get your own copy (and sound smarter than them next Friday) by subscribing here.
