Colleen Francis

Tending Your Client Garden By Colleen Francis

A business is like a garden: it needs consistent attention if it’s going to grow. And if you want your business to thrive, your clients need to be nurtured. Have you ever wondered why a relationship with a client who loved buying your product or service... Read >

Pipeline reviews: asking tough questions to close more business

Music teaches us valuable lessons we can apply to a sales organization. An accomplished musician will tell you that one of the most important skills they need to have in their profession is the ability to listen to the music. It’s not enough to just play ... Read >

Don’t Just Sit There: 5 Strategies for Proactively Getting Testimonials

Don’t Just Sit There: 5 Strategies for Proactively Getting Testimonials Chris and I try to stay pretty active – running and hitting the gym regularly. I have to admit I chuckle every time I see one of those infomercials on T.V. You know the ones, p... Read >

The Trust Return on Investment, Part 2

In our previous article, we looked at the extremely interesting study by Nielsen who measured Consumer Trust in Advertising Channels. Essentially, they looked at the various ways that a business delivers its message to prospects, and determined the deg... Read >

The Trust Return on Investment, Part 1

If you are like most organizations, your marketing budget has been squeezed and squeezed as customers become tighter with their spending and competitors become more and more fierce. This means that more and more, the return on marketing investment need... Read >

Socially-focused selling: spread the word and grow your market

Socially-focused selling: spread the word and grow your market Success in sales doesn’t just happen. It’s the product of a lot of hard work. However, this entails more than adopting time-honored ways of finding new prospects and closing more deal... Read >

Getting things done without giving up what matters: how I balance my professional and personal li

Getting things done without giving up what matters: how I balance my professional and personal life. “How can you be so productive in your business and still have time to enjoy a robust personal life?" That’s a question I’m asked often, a... Read >

Be a stealth fighter: what to do when your prospect or customer goes silent

Be a stealth fighter: what to do when your prospect or customer goes silent It can feel like a soul destroying experience. You leave phone message after phone message with a prospect or an existing customer, and seemingly for no reason at all,... Read >

When it Comes to Testimonials, Looks Count!

So you've gone through the effort... collecting testimonials and putting them onto every web page, right next to your page copy to provide that critical social proof. You're all done, right? Not so fast. Ask yourself: how do the testimonials look? I do... Read >

Three Must-Have Testimonial Types!

With written testimonials there are three versions you want to include in your materials. The good news is that you don't have to get three testimonials from each client. You just need to know how to chop up a letter effectively to create the format yo... Read >

Can’t Get No Satisfaction? Be interesting and show interest in others.

In sales, it can be tempting to think about your existing customers as loyal and satisfied, simply by virtue of the fact that they’re doing business with you more than once. Don’t trick yourself into that kind of thinking! Loyalty and satisfaction find... Read >

53 Ways to Use Testimonials

Unsure how to use rave reviews in your business? Here are 53 ideas every business can implement to help your customers sell for you! In the biographies of all your team members. “Clients say the following about Colleen......" In the biographies of... Read >

The draft approach: the secret to closing more proposals in less time

“Never let the final proposal be the first proposal they see." This is advice that I have given many times in Engage webinars and at sales training sessions to salespeople in organizations both large and small, and I’m often asked to explain in more de... Read >

One step ahead: taking control of every sales relationships so you are closing on every conversation

It has often been said that among the many musical talents of renowned jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie was his skill for blending harmony with the unexpected. He himself summed it up best by saying: “It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play."... Read >

Get Into Gear

Get Into Gear Honest sales people don’t “pitch" prospects or sell features and benefits. They don’t pressure with limited time discounts and offers. Most important they don’t talk as much as they listen. They pay attention to their client’s need... Read >