We can rewire our brains to achieve more.

This week, it’s about how to sell, stay positive when our backs are against the wall, and more than that, stay together.

Ask people how you can help them, without expecting anything in return.
It’s still a shocker to me how things roll when you first offer to give.

In today’s Storyletter:
• Sell more – Push VS Pull
• Building in Public
• Fun stuff – Weekend vibes

Key learning

Most sales calls fail before they even begin.
Why? Because most people are so focused on closing, they forget to connect.

Most companies spend most of their time on marketing, getting more leads to the top of the pipeline. They also forget it’s all about closing more sales, not getting bigger numbers.

Over the course of the last three months, I’ve spent a great deal of time helping companies improve their sales capabilities, and they all make this one mistake:
They push instead of pulling.

They focus too much on getting a sale instead of building the relationship. While most salespeople spend hours preparing, days learning, and months crafting their skill, they forget to measure the most important thing: emotions.

Every salesperson knows a discovery call is the same. You hype yourself before it starts. You get ready. You know all the information, the data.
They — the potential client — know you want to sell, probably at all costs, no matter what.
They have a problem. You have a solution.
Now let’s dance.

So why do most salespeople go on the call and lose the sale?

What if it’s not a sales call?
What if it’s a real discovery call?
And what if your goal is to hype them just as much as you are about your product or service?

If they came to buy and you sold them, you served them.
If they had a budget and you found a solution, you served them.
If they just came to look and they bought — that’s sales.
If they had a budget and they spent above it — you made a sale.

It’s not about convincing them.
It’s about helping them convince themselves.

To create the right environment, you need to prepare a few things:

• Agenda – People love framing. It helps them know what to expect.

• Set the stage – Control the situation. You lead the way, all the way. From asking questions to managing expectations, make sure you are in control — or they will be.

• Plant the seed for the next call (relevant for discovery calls) – Do this before you even start presenting your product.

• Craft your one rhetorical question – If you offer them these things, they have to say yes. This takes out doubt, solves a problem, and turns the discussion from “if” to “how.”

• Speak with confidence – Record your calls and eliminate any hesitation.

• Repetition – What’s the one thing you must repeat so they understand your solution is the best for them?

• Prepare the final few minutes – Don’t let them lead. Close the meeting with clarity about what happens next.

We’re not looking for any sale.
We’re looking for the right sale.

You don’t need to throw everything at your audience.
You need to give them just enough to ask for more.

Review this again and let me know how you feel about it.

Need help?
Reply to this email and let’s chat.

Building in public

Horribly wrong

I think sometimes things need to go horribly wrong for you to learn something new. The war with Iran was hard for me in terms of concentrating, but it also made me work smarter.

The situation didn’t impact me at all. Or so I thought.
My sleep slowly became lighter, I started waking up with every noise around me, became more alert, and with that, less focused, tired, and overall, who wants to create marketing content when war makes everything feel so irrelevant?

So my focus became routine.

Waking up early every morning, going to a coffee shop (if one is open), having a latte, logging in, and getting to work.
The plan was 2 to 3 hours a day of uninterrupted work.
This became 3 to 4, and between you and me, it’s more than most of us usually get.

Between calls, meetings, working from home, and other stuff, we are not the most productive workers.

Slowly, I noticed I was using the outline I created six months ago in Thailand. Only this time, it was to help cope with stress and lack of sleep.

Here’s where my week becomes interesting:
Daily creation is between 9 and 11 every day now, at least four times a week.
I focus most client meetings, lead discovery calls, and other external conversations on two full days (Monday and Wednesday. Note: my work week in Israel starts on Sunday, so make your changes if you need). I also added a few hours on Thursday afternoon before we sign off for the weekend.

I allocate client work to the in-between meetings. I’m now structuring each contract into a full timeline so it becomes easier to plan time for meetings and deliverables.

The rest of my time is allocated to business growth: writing, thinking, team meetings, and other stuff.

When our backs are against the wall, that’s when we often find the strength to create our best work.

Clients
Had a great week with two clients pitching. One at a conference in San Diego, the second to potential clients in Holland. Both were a big success.
Some great work on customer journey, showing potential, and two other clients seeing bottom-line increase week over week.
Same marketing, same budget, same team, different message.

Just for Fun

Weekend Vibes - Enjoy

🎧 Music
This week’s newsletter was created while listening to this Chill House playlist
YouTube – Flavour Trip

🎬 Housing
Would you live here?
Tokyo’s strangest apartment building

🍿 The Running Man
Once in a while comes a movie I really look forward to watching.
The Running Man (2025) trailer

Resources

💡 The Business Storytelling Guide - A complete guide on how to implement storytelling to improve your business quickly. Available here 

📕 My Amazon best-selling book F*ck The Slides - How to Create a Winning Pitch. Available here: Kindle/Print/Audio

📺 My YOUTUBE Channel: Interviews, tips and some fun content Available here