She Thinks Big Podcast

How To Leverage Your Network To Create More Clients Are you doing what you need to do to leverage your network? When’s the last time you asked for a connection/introduction from someone in your network? Keep reading to find out how to leverage your network to create more clients! Geraldine Carter of She Thinks Big…

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What Do You Love About Sales?

Love sales discussion with Nikki Rausch of Sales Maven

Do you love sales? When you think of the word sales, what comes to mind? What do you love about sales or the selling process? Have you found ways to enjoy selling? The Red Carpet Guide to Visibility and Influence DTV Livestream host Joie Gharrity and co-host Super Boomer Caren Glasser chatted with me recently.…

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Steller Life Podcast

selling made simple

Soulful Selling Made Simple Many people misunderstand what it means to “sell”. When you have a limiting belief around selling, you struggle to grow your business. And even more important, you miss out on working with people whose lives will improve as a result of what you offer. Read on to learn about selling made…

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One Way To Improve Your Sales Presentation

When was the last time you found yourself listening to a sales presentation where the person was talking so fast, you couldn’t even follow along? Maybe you tried to stay engaged but ended up feeling frustrated. At some point, you shut down completely and just waited for it to be over. A common misstep people make when giving a…

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Why Pricing Shakes Your Confidence & How To Fix It

pricing, sales maven, confidence

What shakes your confidence when selling? Is there a particular thing that happens between you and a prospective client that causes you to question your offer(s)? Do you know how to fix it? Is it pricing? One of the most common things that shakes people’s confidence in the selling process is receiving any kind of…

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Whose Responsibility Is It To Make A Clear Offer?

whose responsibility is it

Have you ever been in the position where you didn’t understand what was being offered and the seller reacted in a negative way towards you? So whose responsibility is it to make an offer clear? You might be able to make a case for both the seller and for the buyer depending on what position you…

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Grow My Accounting Practice Podcast: Authentic Selling

Growing my accounting practice podcast authentic selling

Authentic Selling: The Ultimate Sales Method Have you heard the term, authentic selling? Do you know what it means? More importantly, are you able to do it when you’re selling? Last week, I had the great honor of discussing this topic in detail as well as giving some important tips to master the selling process…

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How To Prioritize & What To Focus On

How To Prioritize

When it comes to sales-related activities do you ever struggle with how to prioritize? How about what to focus on, ever feel overwhelmed and confused because there’s just so much to do? These are two of the topics that are frequently asked about and discussed with my clients. Frankly, who doesn’t want or need more…

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Condescending Clients: How To Handle Them

Condescending clients sitting on a throne

Do you ever wish you had a strategy on how to handle condescending clients? Every once in a while when selling, you’re bound to come across condescending clients who don’t treat you with much respect. When you run your own business you may decide to fire these types of clients. However, there are times when…

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3 Ways To Say No & Mean It

ways to say no

Do you find it difficult to tell someone no? Have you ever told someone no and had them become aggressive or push back because they want you to buy their product/service? Finding ways to say no and mean it can be difficult. Telling people no can be uncomfortable. Many times people will say things they…

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Client Acquisition: One Irrefutable Way To Get More Clients

Client Acquisition Sales Maven

Would you be interested to learn one irrefutable way to get more clients? Client acquisition is one of largest expenses for many businesses. Seriously, who doesn’t want more clients? A few weeks back out of the blue someone contacted me about becoming a private coaching client. When I asked how she’d heard about my work, she…

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The Assumptive Close Selling Technique

assumptive close, sales help, sales tips

Have you heard of the assumptive close selling technique? Do you know when to use it? How about when not to use it? There are situations where using the assumptive close technique will ruin your chances of earning the business. Understanding how and when to use it will greatly impact your bottom line. First, for…

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How To Sell To Women

How to sell to women

Do you wonder how to sell to women? Does selling to women require a different strategy than selling to men? Do you treat your male clients differently than you treat your female clients? Learning how to sell to women is a vital part of your sales growth. A few weeks ago I attended a conference…

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Successful Selling At Vendor Events

Trade Shows, Vendor Events, Selling, Nikki Rausch, Sales Maven

How successful are you selling at vendor events? (This is an excerpt from an article published in the Business Among Moms Holiday Guide 2017 and posted on the BAM Blog, the full article can be read here) Do you show up to your event with a selling strategy in place? Investing time and money into…

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Effective Networking: 5 Tips For Success

sweet spot

Networking when done effectively is an excellent way to grow your business. It’s economical (in most cases) and allows you to build strong client relationships. Here are five tips you can immediately implement into your next networking event to help effective networking. Effective Networking Tip 1: Have a plan before you walk into the event. Take…

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Why Your Ideal Client Isn’t Buying From You

ideal client, sales maven, sales help, sales tips, sales strategy

When’s the last time you were frustrated because your ideal client wasn’t buying from you? Maybe you’ve spent a lot of time and money mapping out who they are. Yet, that type of client still isn’t showing up and buying. There’s a simple, yet crucial step many people miss when identifying their ideal client. This…

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There’s No Shame In This Game

Selling, Nikki Rausch, Sales Tip, Communication, Opt-in Offers, Shame

Shame – it’s one of those emotions that can paralyze people into inaction. When’s the last time you felt shame in your business? Was it when you were asking for the sale? Maybe it was when someone was telling you how much they need your product/service but couldn’t afford your “high” prices. Shame is one…

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Too Much Education: Are You “Educating” Clients Out Of Buying?

too much education

When’s the last time you caught yourself saying, “I’m not a salesperson. I just want to educate people.” Could giving too much of an education of your product or service actually be hindering your business? People say this when they hear I’m a sales trainer/coach, “I’m not a salesperson, I prefer to educate people.” Most people…

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Are You The Exception To The Rule?

When’s the last time you convinced yourself that you are the exception to the rule? And more importantly, when you think of yourself as the exception, is it a positive in your life/business, or is it a negative? It’s almost amusing at this point how many times people explain to me why they are the…

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Phrases To Avoid When Telling Stories

phrases to avoid

Phrases to Avoid When Telling Stories: How often do you tell stories in your business? For many people, storytelling is a key skill in the art of effective selling. Learning how and when to tell stories has been instrumental in my success over the years. It’s a skill that I now encourage and work on with…

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The Neglected Gift In Sales & How To Overcome It

gift sales

Which do you prefer, receiving a thoughtful gift or giving a gift that someone will cherish for years to come? Maybe in the last few months, you’ve done a favor for someone that to you seemed insignificant. Yet, to the person on the receiving end, it felt like an enormous gift that made a huge difference…

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How To Price A Product Or Service

Business woman deciding how to price a product or service

When deciding how to price a product or service, it’s all about confidence. You know that old saying, “It’s not what she said, it’s how she said it.”  How many times have you gotten yourself into a sticky situation by the “how” you said something? A frequent topic clients want to discuss is what they…

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Potential Clients: Why Chasing Clients Doesn’t Work

potential clients applauding after a sales presentation

Potential Clients: Do you like to be chased? For instance, if someone right now said to you, “I’m going to chase you,” would you prepare to run? And, would it be kind of fun? Would you enjoy it? In the selling process when you’re chasing after clients, it’s usually because they are running away. When this…

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Building A Community For Your Business

sweet spot

Do you ever find yourself feeling disappointed that the important people in your life don’t take much interest in your business? Maybe when you started out you thought your friends and family would be great supporters and maybe even clients. A few months or even a few years into your business you’ve probably found that…

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A Big Mistake In Your Speech Pattern

a big mistake

When you think about what you offer to your clients, do you consider yourself different from your competitors? Chances are your experience, your style and/or your approach makes you stand out from the crowd. How do you talk about your uniqueness? Do you end up having to explain yourself multiple times because people don’t get it…

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Avoid Attachment When Selling

avoid attachment

Avoid Attachment: When’s the last time you worked hard to earn a client’s business only to be told you didn’t get the deal? Were you disappointed, frustrated, or even ticked off? It sucks to work hard for someone and have them not understand the value of what you’re offering. Buddha has been quoted as saying,…

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How To Create Curiosity About Your Business

create curiosity

Have you ever noticed the difference between how you call a dog vs. how you call a cat? Many times when people call dogs, there is excitement in their tone and an almost frantic pitch to their voice, “Come here boy, come here boy…” When calling a cat, we tend to take a different approach.…

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Handing Out Business Cards Doesn’t Generate Business

What not to do when selling, handing out business cards, savvy selling, savvy sales tips, rapport breaker, sales,

Have you noticed lately people handing you multiple business cards? Maybe its just me but this is happening more and more. These people say things like, “Here take a few business cards and hand them out to anyone else you know that might want to work with me.”  Oh boy, who told people this is…

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The Silent Credibility Killer

credibility, sales questions, pricing questions, charging clients, talking money with customers

It’s been said time and time again, people buy from people they know, like and trust. In order to build trust with clients, you need to be credible. Do you give your hard earned money to someone you don’t believe in, don’t trust, or question if they know what they’re talking about? When you ask…

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Phrases That Repel Clients

Client Retention, New Clients, Customer Acquisition, Savvy Selling

Do you ever get tired of people telling you what you “should” do or what you “must” try? It’s become a popular tactic on social media, and if you’re anything like me, it’s off-putting and repelling. I worked with a client recently who didn’t understand why people stopped interacting with her on Facebook. When we…

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A Picture Is Worth Thousands Of Dollars

Sales Tools, Savvy Selling, Rapport Building, Selling

You’ve heard the saying, “A picture’s worth a thousand words.” Here’s a new one for you, “A picture is worth thousands of dollars.” Or at least it has been in my business, and there’s a good chance it can be in yours as well. Do you already have a professional picture of yourself depicting the…

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Getting Told “No” Sucks

Getting Told No, Closing Business, Savvy Selling

It’s true; it sucks when a client you want to work with tells you “No.” Maybe you’ve worked hard to earn their business. Maybe you know your product/service is a good fit to solve their problem and meet their need. Maybe they have a large network of contacts and would be a potential referral source for your…

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The #1 Mistake When Talking Prices

talking prices

Talking prices is one of the more common struggles my clients face. Talking prices can be uncomfortable, especially when clients ask for a discount. Learning not only what to say but how to say it is crucial to your success. In the Savvy Selling tele class I teach simple techniques on this topic and many…

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Business Building: 1 More Reason To Charge For Your Services

business building

Of course, there’s the most obvious reason we charge for our services; if we gave everything away for free, we’d go out of business. Free services are not great for business building Here’s one more reason not to give away your services for free when you’re business building; there’s little to no value in the…

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Your Internal State May Be Costing You Clients

internal state

Before you walk into a meeting with a prospective client, do you take a moment to collect yourself? To really hone in on your internal state? If you’re not checking on your internal state, you may be costing yourself clients. In my NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) training, we spent a lot of time focused on state…

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You’ve Got The Look: It’s All In The Eyes

eyes

When’s the last time you heard, “The eyes are the window to the soul?” What would be your guess as to how many songs have been sung about the eyes?  Here’s just a few that come to mind:  “Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You”  – Franke Valle “I Only Have Eyes For You,” –…

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What’s The Value Of Doing Favors For Clients

doing favors for clients

How many times this month have you found yourself doing favors for a client? Doing favors could be making an exception to your normal policies/procedures, offering a discount, tailoring a program, or doing something extra for the client. Did you specifically let your client know they received a favor? Notice, the question is “Did you…

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When A Client Asks For A Discount

When a client asks for a discount

Discounts, Savings, Special Offers Are you a fan of a good bargain? I am, I love a good deal! Now, flip it around. When your client asks for a discount, do you dread responding? For those thinking, “Oh, I hate when a client asks me for a discount” or “Dang it, now if I don’t offer a…

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How To Respond To Questions While Creating Curiosity

Respond to questions

Do you know how to respond to questions while creating curiosity? Where would you rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on your level of curiosity? (1 being “not curious by nature,” 10 being “I gotta know more!”)? Year’s ago, I learned a communication technique that involved using the phrase, “I’m curious.” After…

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Client Preference: Take What’s Offered

client preference sales maven

Have you ever had an interaction with someone where you felt compelled to share the story with others afterward? Last week, I was contacted by a salesperson, and the communication between us was so interesting that I’m sharing it in hopes you find some useful tips to apply to your client interactions. It’s such a…

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“Just Kidding”: Is It A Rapport Breaker?

When someone makes a negative comment to you and then follows up with, “Just Kidding,” do you believe them? Do you ever wonder if some part of what they said when they said “just kidding,” they actually meant? I was in the audience at an event recently, and the speaker singled out a person in…

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What Goes Around… Comes Around

what goes around... comes around

How long has it been since you either said or heard said: “What goes around… comes around?” Consider this phrase “what goes around…comes around,” and how you might use it to impact your business/sales in a positive way. For instance, let’s take referrals.  Have you ever given a referral to someone only to have them…

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My Name’s Not “Dear”: In Business Nicknames Aren’t Cute

nicknames cute

Nicknames aren’t cute in the business world and won’t build your rapport. Rapport is like a bank account. You’re either making a deposit, or you are making a withdrawal in each client interaction.  Do all that you can to build up your rapport “bank” balance to keep the relationship strong and moving forward.  We all know…

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I’m New: New & You

I'm new

Learning to do something new can be uncomfortable. It requires change.  Most of us internally groan a little when we have to “change” something.  My long time teacher and NLP trainer use to quote, Mark Twain when talking about change, “The only person that likes change is a wet baby.”When we’re in front of a…

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Slinging Mud: Are You Muddying The Water?

Muddying The Water

Are you muddying the water in sales? Many salespeople are. Here is what Nikki Rausch, your sales maven has to say about it. Imagine you’re thirsty. All you can think about is a nice refreshing glass of water.  You’re craving it; you know how good it’s going taste when you get your first sip.  Now…

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“Does That Make Sense?”- A Nicer Way To Ask

does that make sense

How often do people ask you this question, “Does that make sense?” How often do you ask people, “Does that make sense?” I admit this comes out of my mouth way more often than I would like. You might be wondering why I would suggest another way to phrase this question. Here’s why you want to avoid saying “does…

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