The Bill'isms Glossary

"Happy Has a Short Shelf Life": For those operating daily within existing client relationships, you have to anchor the value you and your firm are providing everyday. Resist the desire to reflexively jump at every client request - rather take the time to seek clarity and always come back to the client with context, especially if it's a negotiation. 

"Break Some Dishes": In sales, if you want things to be different, you can't be afraid of change. Achieving something often involves things going wrong and encountering difficulties.

"Mean More to Clients": Meaning more to clients is about being more relevant and valuable than your competition to your customers. 

"You'd Rather Have a No Than a Maybe": When managing a sales pipeline, it must be real or take it off. With a "no" you can free yourself and move on to another opportunity. 

"Equal Business Stature": What you achieve by enhancing your business acumen in your client's chosen field. You don't have to be a CFO, just have empathy for the pebbles in their shoe. 

"It's Your Time Too": Too many business people surrender themselves when they get that all important meeting with a senior exec. If you prepare, and you have insights to offer, ask for what you want. Get what you need from YOUR time investment. 

"Avoid the Melt": When you leave a sales call, the experience you created is like a fine ice sculpture. It looked wonderful at the party, but started to melt as soon as the guests left. Keep your follow-up relevant and pointed to avoid the "melt".

"Clients Like to Hear Their Name in Lights": When in conversation, play back the critical spoken words of your client or prospect when shaping your recommendations. People love to know that you listened to them.

"Value is Role and Industry Specific": Most salespeople sell to a body across the desk. The that body has a day job and works within an industry with opportunities, pressures and challenges. A CFO in Aerospace & Defense cares about different things than a CFO of a Consulting firm. Bring relevant industry insights to the role in which you are connecting. 

"The Proposure": Too many salespeople rush to creating a proposal for their clients. At early stages, any price you include will be too high. Instead, create a proposal without the money that sells your approach, not the financed amount. Proposal + Brochure = Proposure. 

'Rough Layouts Sell Better that Finished Ones": A line from Paul Arden's book It's Not How Good You Are, Its How Good You Want to Be., finished proposals can be too final too soon for the client. If they haven't had time to influence it or socialize it internally in their organization, they will likely reject it. This is the reason for the "Proposure."

"Plan Hard, Sell Easy": For client meetings, prepare in such a way that you are prepared to be spontaneous. There is no guarantee on how a meeting will go, but you can guarantee how you can influence it's outcome. 

"Zero to 80 Will Get You a Ticket": Long presentations, those that are 80 pages in length for example, will not reach their intended outcome. The average attention span lasts 20 minutes and 20 slides takes an hour on average to present. So 80 slides is the wrong number.