Entries by Brian Ahearn, CMCT®

An Education in How to Apply Persuasion to a School Levy

Many years ago I wrote a blog post that was one of my best read. It even caught the attention of Jeffrey Gitomer and he ran it in his weekly Caffeine Ezine. The article was called 700,000 Great Reasons to Use Yellow Sticky Notes. It showed how we took a concept from the book Yes: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to be Persuasive and implemented […]

Drive for Show, Putt for Dough

My wife is a heck of a golfer. She’s the poster child for the power of golf lessons and practice. About ten years ago, she was a very average golfer, shooting between 100 and 110. After years of lessons, practice, and consistent play, she’s transformed her game to the point where she consistently shoots in […]

What’s in a Name?

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.” That famous quote comes from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. Juliet utters that line to Romeo as she makes the point that no matter his name (he was a Montague and his family was at odds with Juliet’s family, the Capulets) […]

Setting the Stage for a Successful Sales Call

Have you ever been interrupted at home by an unexpected salesperson ringing your doorbell? You know the type—the kind who shows up unannounced and launches into a pitch before you’ve had a chance to blink. If you’re like most people, it’s not your favorite experience. So, here’s the real question: Why do salespeople do this […]

“Improv” Your Sales with Improv Comedy

For Jane’s 50th birthday, her big surprise gift was an eight-week workshop on Improv comedy for the two of us. Believe me, she was surprised! I thought it would be a great to experience it together, that we’d meet interesting people, and that we’d laugh a lot. Mission accomplished on all fronts! The course concluded with a show […]

The Psychology of the Sales Cycle – Referrals

For the most part salespeople don’t have a great reputation. This is so because many people feel they’ll be pressured into buying something they don’t want or need by someone who is manipulating them. I teach sales and don’t always like dealing with salespeople because most of the time they don’t add value to the transaction. If someone can […]

The Psychology of the Sales Cycle – Closing

I remember when I was young and single I would go out with friends and see pretty girls, but rarely had the gumption to go up and talk to them. The reason was fear of rejection. Nobody likes that feeling so we do what we can to avoid that possible self-inflicted wound. In the same way I was […]