by JoachIm de Posada, Ph.d.
Faced with an uncertain global economy,
speakers, trainers and consultants are finding they can’t continue selling as usual. They
must enhance their selling skills so they can
close more business. To accomplish this goal,
speakers need to discard ineffective selling
skills and adopt an entirely new model that
will take sales to a higher level.
The following trilogy, some of which is
based on personal experiences, underscores
the importance of going with the flow and
readjusting your sales approach accordingly.
1fish for business: Attract
clients with new bait. Clients
enthusiastically met speakers’
demands between the late 1980s
and the late 1990s. Fishing was
plentiful as speakers rowed their boats
(presentations) out to sea, and the fish
(clients) jumped aboard. Speakers just had
to decide which fish to keep, and make sure
they remained inside the vessel. Small fish,
which were considered discounted business,
were diplomatically rejected or referred to
another speaker.
The best fishermen were the speakers who
caught the best fish, but there was plenty
of fish for everyone (or, at least, for speakers who were halfway decent). Incompetent
speakers or poor marketers have always had
trouble staying in business.
When the calendar turned the page to the
21st century, the fish stopped jumping into
the boat. Some hid in the reeds or swam
away. Other had been caught before, and
they didn’t want to get hooked again.
The bait that speakers used to lure the
fish no longer works. In the current marketplace, fishermen are coming home empty
