The art of selling

Have you seen the film Forgetting Sarah Marshall? It’s good, in a sort of mid-noughties kind of way.

I’m specifically thinking about the scene where the main character is getting a surf lesson from the laid-back surfer dude. 

Okay, it’s not the most up to date film reference, or the most perfect metaphor, BUT it pretty much sums up our approach to sales. Just like doing something by not doing something… sort of… we try to do sales without doing sales. The art of selling without selling, I guess.

I’ve never liked sales. Or being sold at. It makes me itch. 

But I guess our business is all about selling. Is that massive cognitive dissonance? Or maybe it reflects some deeper misconceptions about selling? Or maybe I’m just over-thinking this?

Whatever. The way we think about selling our own services also sits at the heart of how we approach bid writing for our clients, whether it’s on a contract that’s small, large, simple or complex. 

We strip out the sales flannel. We show. We don’t tell. We think about what the customer needs in the future, not about making what’s happening today look shiny. We are about the evidence, the insight and the solution. You need all these things to justify a bid, or a pitch. That’s what works.

Creative. Authentic. Credible. They are our watch words.

And they spell CAC don’t they?

See, I told you we weren’t great at sales.