Why You Should Ignore that RFP

Members-only premium content Rainmaker Report Vol. 7 No. 25 - June 22, 2011  Follow Us  Like Us  LinkedIn  RSS               Complimentary Webinar: Become a Masterful Virtual Presenter In this age of technological distractions, catching and keeping someone's attention during presentations is more important than ever. Join us to learn: * The top 3 things webinar audiences expect * 5 "use it now" tips to increase engagement * The biggest mistake presenters make Register for this Complimentary Webinar From the RainToday Store Case Study Ebook: 10 Content Marketing Success Stories Mastering Rainmaking Conversations Ebook How to Find Your Future Clients: Making Lead Generation Work for Your Firm Make Your Marketing Work: How to Pick ROI Winners and Avoid Losers   How Clients Buy: Benchmark Report on Professional Services Marketing and Selling from the Client Perspective To be successful in growing your service business, it is not enough to know how to market and sell; you have to understand how your clients buy. To help you demystify the professional services purchasing process, we asked more than 200 buyers how they find out about potential service providers and what factors influence their decision to choose one provider over another. Download the Report Inside This Issue - Articles Open Access until June 29, 2011   Why You Should Ignore that RFP - By Michael W. McLaughlin   Terrible Sales Ideas We're Addicted To - By Dan Waldschmidt  Sell to the 'Old Brain' and Increase Sales Results - By Colleen Stanley The Most Important System for Your Business: A Marketing System - A RainToday Podcast with John Jantsch  Investment Firm Turns to Partnerships with Competitors to Grow Business - A RainToday Case Study by M. Sharon Baker  Upcoming Events: Turn Your Marketing into a Powerful Lead Generation System - A RainToday Webinar with John Jantsch, June 28 The Key to Building a Successful Referral-Based Practice - A RainToday Webinar with Paul McCord, July 14 View all upcoming events > To get access to all RainToday.com webinars and teleseminars, become a RainToday.com member. This Week on the RainMaker Blog: Develop a Following and Grow Your Business 3 Rules to Building a Value Proposition that Sells Like Crazy  >> Read all RainMaker Blog posts Why You Should Ignore that RFP - By Michael W. McLaughlin, Contributing Editor RFPs may work for buying airplanes, office supplies, or spare parts, but they fail as a tool for buying professional services. Your best option is to ignore them and focus on opportunities where you can work with decision makers to uncover the true problem and offer a solution. If you must answer RFPs, follow these guidelines. Click here to continue. Advice for Handling RFPs How to Manage the RFP Process to Your Advantage The Most Dangerous Letters in Sales Are RFP Webinar Next Week Turn Your Marketing into a Powerful Lead Generation System Join bestselling author and consultant John Jantsch Tuesday, June 28, as he teaches you how to turn your marketing into a simple system that delivers powerful results. You'll learn: Why strategy is more important than tactics  How to build a content blueprint How to create a total web presence How to generate and convert more leads Register Today Terrible Sales Ideas We're Addicted To - By Dan Waldschmidt It's time for a sales process overhaul. Salespeople have become addicted to hollow phrases and people-less selling processes. They have adopted conventional wisdom and selfish behavior as guide posts for their activity. And when that's not enough, they let social peer pressure determine what they do and who they are. Want to change all of that? Start with these eight terrible sales ideas. Click here to continue. Sales Practices to Avoid Say No to Unethical Sales Practices  7 Bad Habits of Highly Unsuccessful Salespeople Sell to the 'Old Brain' and Increase Sales Results - By Colleen Stanley If sales professionals want a true competitive advantage, they must understand and apply the neuroscience behind how and why prospects make buying decisions. That means selling to the "old brain" and preventing buyers from having fight-or-flight responses. Here are three ways to help you do that. Click here to continue. The Neuroscience Behind Buyer Behavior >>Getting Through to Your Buyers' Crocodile Brains The Most Important System for Your Business: A Marketing System - A RainToday Podcast with John Jantsch If you don't have a clear marketing strategy and system, you limit your firm's growth. Flitting from one marketing tactic to the next simply won't work. You need a strategy that gets buyers to "know, like, and trust" you and to then "try, buy, repeat, and refer" your services. Listen as John Jantsch, author of Duct Tape Marketing and The Referral Engine, discusses how to get started creating a marketing strategy and system that drives sales. Click here to listen to the podcast. Investment Firm Turns to Partnerships with Competitors to Grow Business - A RainToday Case Study by M. Sharon Baker It can be difficult for small companies to get funding to grow their business, so Dan Page and a partner launched Funding Strategy Partners to help. Despite the need for such investment services, the start-up still had to find customers. Rather than go down the traditional marketing path for new companies, the firm turned to partnerships with competitors. The effort was a success, landing them 12 customers in nine months and more referrals than they can handle. Click here to continue.  New Book Rainmaking Conversations: Influence, Persuade, and Sell in Any Situation Conversations make or break everything in sales. Every conversation you have is an opportunity to find new prospects, win new customers, and increase sales. The Wall Street Journal bestseller Rainmaking Conversations by Mike Schultz and John Doerr provides a proven system that will help you master the art of the sales conversation so you can close more deals, bring in more revenue, and be more successful. Purchase Your Copy Today               Publisher Mike Schultz mschultz@raintoday.com General Manager Erica Stritch estritch@raintoday.com Editor/Inquiries Michelle Davidson mdavidson@raintoday.com Advertising Info Reach an audience of consulting, technology, financial and other professional service providers from the world's largest firms to solo practitioners, and everything in-between. Visit us for contact information and a current media kit at: http://www.raintoday.com/mediakit.cfm   Copyright © 2011 RainToday.com. All Rights Reserved. You received this newsletter at this address: ignoble.experiment@arconati.us as part of your membership to RainToday.com or because you are subscribed to our newsletter. Get this from a friend? Sign yourself up! Forward to a friend See email online White list us Need to unsubscribe? 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