Full disclosure, David asked me to be a part of it–and I told him I’d promote it to our blog readers.

There are something like 13 trainers/speakers/experts. I can’t vouch for the value of every one of them, but there are thirteen hours of content. You will be able to find something of value (in mine, I revealed a couple of things you may not have heard from us before).

It begins next week–there are three teleseminars/day.

COST: It’s free to be on each call. Or, you can pay $67 and own them all–all 13 hours. (The thing I like about this is that if you don’t like what you’re hearing, hang up and move on!)

Register Here.

Sure, there are the jerks from time to time, but rarely.

The thing that makes these people cool is their ability to extinguish their egos and look at themselves…and how they can change their own skills to accommodate the market.

They come to us and say, “What I’m doing seems to be working OK, but I want to break down my game to see what’s really possible.”

Now is that cool or what?

And I’ve noticed lately that my response to the question of “What can I do better?” is “Become an expert in your niche.”

I’ve seen this work time and time again, where a top salesperson takes what they know about the problems they solve—the solutions they bring, the trends facing their customers—and they create “expertise around that.”

That could be in the form of published articles, live seminars, webinars, speeches or podcasting (my favorite). The list is forever. But whatever it is, it must share your insight with your prospect base so they can see what they’ll be missing if they decide NOT to call you.

That’s what really separates the high achievers from the also-cans: The ability to think differently about their business in a way that changes the very game they play—the ability to create an environment where they’re calling you—pleading with you—to help them.

So as you’re planning 2009, get creative. Take this post; pass it around to the powers and say, “How can we really change the game in 2009 by how we show up?”

Be an expert. Be a knowledge worker. (You already are that, but maybe your knowledge isn’t packaged right.) Be a subject matter guru. And watch people line up to buy.

If you need some private coaching on how to do this, my schedule has some openings over the next 60 days. If you’re interested, fill out the box below. Tell me what your issue is and what you want to accomplish in 2009.

He had been asked in for an RFP for a prospect he had NO relationship with. The other two vendors in on the deal had done business with the customer so my client’s chances were slim–slim that is, if he went about it the traditional way. (I’m not pessimistic–I’m realistic about how sales people spend their time chasing unlikely opportunities).

I told him one sales strategy to use and the only way to stand out is to NOT QUOTE!

WHAT??!! Right.

Go in and be “verbally skeptical” about their willingness to award the business to an unknown quantity. First off, that’s how he felt. Secondly, it’s true. He told the prospect that in his own soft way.

You want your prospect selling you–not you selling him.

What do you suppose happened? Right. They pulled him back in–convincing him to quote and telling him all the reasons that the other quotes weren’t any good. Do you think that would have happened if he would have merely responded to the RFP? Of course not. They would have told him nothing.

But their pain was they needed to get the job done right–and he had the solution to that problem.

You see, in sales training work, sometimes the best thing is not to sell–not to convince–not to try. Let the customer bring you along. Let him sell you. I talk about that in Same Game New Rules. You’re happier because you don’t have to compete on the same terms as everyone else.

And they’re happier because they want you badly. We’ll podcast on that sometime soon…giving you the whole story.

STRATEGY is hard, and most business books that have tried to explain it haven’t made it easier. I like the idea that the traditional strategy is dead.

I prefer these three books, all of which I’ve purchased.