Most of us are willing to fight fires; it’s a smaller subset of people who are capable of noting the presence of a roaring blaze that might soon cut off all escape routes without allowing it to distract them from their laser-focused effort to fight an even more urgent fire.

Executives only have so much time in a week and a heckuva lot to oversee. So, they keep a tight filter on what they do and don’t pay attention to.

Connective questions are an effective way to do this. They start by saying: When you shared… was that related to…? So, how does this compare to when you said…? This sounds like when you…

You only have a legitimate opportunity when you can answer these two questions while working with your champion: What happens to this contact if they don’t buy my solution? What happens to this company if they don’t buy my solution?

It’s like Blaise Pascal once said, “I would have written a shorter letter, but I didn’t have the time.” People want the 50-word email, but with all the value of a 200-word message.

Here’s an example of the good and bad. Don’t say: “Excel spreadsheets are prone to errors and take up too much time with manual data entry. We’ll replace those spreadsheets to automate your quarterly forecasting.” Then proceed to whip through a bunch of colorful dashboards you can build out. Instead, say: “Forecasting key accounts is subjective and

Words feel too permanent to let stand uncorrected. That’s why Cunningham’s Law, named after the wiki inventor (think Wikipedia, a collaborative online publication), says the best way to get the right answer isn’t to ask a question; it’s to write down the wrong answer.

One more way to help buyers move toward their vision is to make a first-time decision look like a repeat choice. When you can show congruity between a decision you’re asking them to make today and the decisions they’ve already made in the past, you’ll decrease their resistance to change.

Building a business case is the sales process. Every other activity flows from the business case.