Unless you’re in sales, this won’t be that relevant to you.

I watch an interview with Oren Klaff and finished his book last week. In less than a day, I adopted some of his tactics and have seen enormous changes in how my pitches are received.

Over the last three weeks, I’ve cold approached more than 180 businesses and pitched about 50.  When I read Klaff’s book, a lot clicked. His method is all about controlling the frame of the meeting. His book is sort of like The Game for the conference room.

The main thing I have been able to API right into my performance is the idea of time contraints.

The customer, in my case larger businesses in San Diego, are used to the vendor kissing their ass so hopefully they make a sale. There’s an underlying neediness in most sales people that makes the customer a little uncomfortable but also know that they are in control. One way to to make these people 1. feel at ease and 2. know that you are in control is to immediately impose a time constraint. Say, “I have another meeting after this, so I’m going to  stay for 15 minutes, then I have to go.” It doesn’t really matter how long I stay, but everyone knows that my time is valuable and they are now working on my schedule. After a strong performance/pitch on Thursday, I had one of the top law firms in San Diego reassure me that they are a respected company and that they pay their bills on time.

I added these tactics in two days and have barely explored what this power will bring me. The main question is how does that increase sales and get more people eating our food. That’s what I’m working on next.