Cash and conviction are the outcomes of any good sales conversation. We all need cash and we all need conviction.
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I love sales. I love the thrill of the conversion. I love the dance of me having a solution and selling it to someone who has a problem that I can solve.
Teaching clever people to be commercially smart is what we teach at Business School. One of the great ironies of clever people is that they are often not clever at being commercial. They overthink, overdress, and overwork. They get stuck in all the possibilities and miss the one right under their nose. Many end up selling nothing to nobody!
Overthinking:
This is a privilege of the clever. So many thoughts and so little time. Expanding, considering, and living in a pond of possibility will stop you from being commercial.
Overdressing:
Are you overworking your dough? Are you paralysed by perfect? Spending too much time on something is not smart. Get it good and get it going. Most people will never want the perfect cluster that you could create. They want a simple solution and they want it now. Waiting to find the perfect name for your program, waiting for the brochure to be right, and for the book to be written are all signs of procrastination. I love Elizabeth Gilbert’s definition of perfectionism from her book, "Big Magic”:
“I think perfectionism is just fear in fancy shoes and a mink coat, pretending to be elegant when actually it's just terrified. Because underneath that shiny veneer, perfectionism is nothing more than a deep existential angst that says, again and again, 'I am not good enough and I will never be good enough.”
Overworking:
The cluster strategy is simple. It is effective. It is brilliant. It teaches us to be constantly creating smart solutions - to test something in the world every 90 days. It is the best sales solution for this constantly changing world.
The cluster strategy teaches us to find an idea that someone values. To find someone who cares and to find a way that you and they prefer to work.
We offer something we know, to someone who might need it in a way we like to work. Brilliant!
To test if a cluster is worth selling, try saying out loud:
"I’m selling (what), to (who), (how), for ($). The problem this solves is...."
Cash and conviction are the outcomes of any good sales conversation. We all need cash and we all need conviction. The wonderful thing about this is that cash brings conviction and conviction brings cash.
Go sell something!
Lisa O'Neill
CEO
