Engage customers by sparking curiosity.
Transform your message with a course + practice community.
What you get
1 - Quick Start
Rapidly learn Spark Selling™ basics. Transform your outreach to provoke customers' curiosity, engage.
Quick Start Lessons are transcribed and include: Sales Copywriting Primer, Deprogramming, Subject Line Crash Course, Using Questions to Provoke Response, They Responded. Now What?!, Responding to "Not Interested", Simple Ways to Shorten, and Making a Target List.
2 - deep dive
Cement your new habits, prevent old ones from sabotaging. Strengthen email and LinkedIn copywriting and voicemail scripts.
You'll leave the Deep Dive provoking more conversations by being 100% customer-centric. Other courses include:
- Pursuing warm, inbound leads
- Making the most of LinkedIn
- Sequencing Messages
… And more!
community
You are investing in a practice group -- not a "program." We are life-long learners dedicated to inventing and practicing better communication habits.
Our core success principle is curiosity. Our premise: Persuasion is dead. Our philosophy: Help people convince themselves.
We are addicted to communicating effectively – in all settings. Telephone / voicemail, social media, email, video & multimedia.
Fostering curiosity can aid outcomes in all contexts -- professional
and personal. Family and friends? Yes. Existing customers... service provider negotiations? Yes and yes.
Membership also gives you
Peer coaching community
Share & learn from other sellers in our private member Forum. Help & be helped. Crash-test your message ideas in the Peer Review group. Borrow tactics & get inspired from colleagues
Member Huddles
Mastermind with members. Take new ideas from fellow members and apply them to your outreach challenges. Give critical feedback to colleagues in return.
Access to Jeff
Get personalized help from Jeff -- in any situation. Cold outreach email, follow-up, message sequences, replying to already engaged customers, reviving 'gone dark' prospects, voicemail help.
You bring the challenging situation, Jeff brings his best recommendation... considering the context of your challenge.
Provocation Formulas
Immediate access to seven (7) of the latest provocation techniques in template format... ready to be customized and tested.
You'll get current mental trigger tactics working today.
Proprietary Reports from Jeff
Get insights you won't find anywhere else.
Sourced from Jeff Molander's research and our community's experience.
Workshop Archives
Witness colleagues being coached.
Borrow ideas, apply & test.
Videos are organized by sector.
Software, IT, networking, professional services, financial services, healthcare, recruiting, specialty products and more!
Spark Sellingtm Quick Start
About Your Coach
Jeff is on a mission to transform how you communicate with customers. He is addicted to understanding what makes people want to start conversations with strangers. When he's not working you'll find him hiking, fishing and with his family.
He is an authority on current, effective Conversation Enablement strategies and founder of Communications Edge Inc. in 1997. He is a coach, father and creator of the Spark Sellingtm communication methodology—an unusually effective way to start and advance conversations with customers.
In 1999, Jeff co-founded what became the Google Affiliate Network and Performics Inc. where he helped secure 2 rounds of funding and built the sales team. He's been selling for over 2 decades.
What causes engagement has changed.
So must your outreach strategy.
What worked before:
- proving you know about customers' business challenges;
- appearing credible, trustworthy;
- sharing quality content, value (making deposits) or education.
What works now: The scent of value. Sparking curiosity.
Customers engage when they sense you may be worthwhile.
This is why 98% of sellers aren't earning conversations. They don’t know how to spark curiosity. Consistently.
Our members speak.
Justin Cromer
Dir. of Sales, Event Management Solutions Group
At first I was skeptical...
At first I was skeptical about the Academy. But collaborating with like minded professionals is always going to be a better way to get conversations started with customers.
The difference between the Academy and other sales training options is community.
Jeff Castle
Bus. Dev. Lead, Ambipar Response
It was painful. I was "that guy..."
... (which I didn’t want to be) in everyone’s inbox. Because my old messages generated (small) results I stuck by them -- like some kind of kids blanket I couldn't let go of. Even though I knew it was filthy, full of holes and fit for the trash... and screamed desperation.
Jeff and the community's tough love were enough to make me change. Once the results came I realized -- I would no longer be “that guy” and neither would my team!Six months ago I opened conversation with a prospect using a classic Spark technique. Today that prospect is a client. They signed a large, three year framework agreement. This is my biggest win to date.
Skip Freeman
Team Lead, BASIS
I didn't want to pay for this advice.
I thought 'who are these guys and are they legitimate?' I followed for about a year, then began to see our prospects' behavior was changing--and fast. I still hesitated. Because I still didn’t want to pay for advice I was getting free via LinkedIn posts, blogs.
But then I invested, joined a workshop... and saw how to transform messages right before my eyes... short, snappy, focused, hard-hitting emails. Today my team is better at prospecting because they are believing in the idea of provocation. I'm glad to continue investing in your membership.
Lucy Merrick
Account Executive, MODULR
Doubled my response rate.
I’ve doubled my response rate thanks to your coaching. I would say it’s at 80% now. I’m adjusting to talk less about us and more about the customer… especially focusing on what their competitors are doing with us. I think this is a bit more conversational and less salesy. I never ask for a meeting straight away and this is also helping.
The difference is community.
Discover fresh, community-vetted communication tactics.
Practice privately. We constantly invent new strategies. No, we don't share them on LinkedIn or blogs.
Reinforce. Practice and perfect sales communication skills. Get better at starting and advancing conversations.
Invest in your future. Stay current. Help colleagues and be helped. Partner with life-long learners.
faq
We believe in helping people persuade themselves—rather than trying to persuade.
Spark Selling™ is a community-based practice, not a "program."
In the past, you were forced to choose which sales guru to follow.
Now you have a choice. We are an international community of researchers and practitioners. We don’t tell you “do this because it worked for me back when I used to sell.”
We suggest, “Try this tactic. Because it is working, currently, for sellers in your industry.”
Spark Selling™ methodology places communication technique at the root of success in sales. What drives sales productivity? What drives sellers to produce new customers at highest levels?
Having a communication edge. Better skills.
Confidence. You'll love prospecting... or loathe it less :) and become confident again.
Because you'll be good at attracting buyers to problem-solving conversations. You'll be using an effective, repeatable, fun communication technique. You'll be good at applying psychological triggers to help qualified customers feel an urge to start and/or continue discussions.
You'll practice a better way to communicate. One that feels more natural than regurgitating marking prose or...
Persuading, coercing, pushing value or "educating" as a means to persuade
Faking sincerity to earn trust
Talking about yourself, pushing others away
Our core success principle is curiosity.
Our premise: Persuasion is dead.
Our answer: Instead, help others to convince themselves using genuine curiosity.
Results come in hard and soft form. You'll receive more (email/voicemail) response from prospects and enjoy prospecting more. Typically, diligent students see measurable results in a few weeks.
More importantly, by sticking with this new approach, you will become skilled at re-inventing new communication approaches when old ones stop working. All based on core success principles. This is where people usually have difficulty and fall back on old patterns. Not any more :)
View other customer testimonials as proof of the technique.
Three reasons. Because:
1) 20% of success is making you aware of knowledge. 80% is helping you transform entirely—by customizing know-how to your situation. Success takes practice and reinforcement of new habits.
2) Effective conversation-starting tactics working today don't last. Thus, we flex. We adapt, reinvent.
3) "Superior communication skills" is not a program. It's a practice; an evolving skill. We are all learners and teachers... constantly iterating new techniques based on guiding principles.
If you have difficulty appreciating the above the Academy is probably not for you.
Being above average at starting conversations with buyers requires "keeping the saw sharp"—over time. Your targets change. So must your communication technique. Example: When one email or calling technique stops working can you switch to a second? Confidently?
Our community helps you switch tactics when it's time. We help each other form better communication habits that feel natural. These skills are based on success principles, allowing for adaptation over time. Today, being at the top-of-your-game means adapting to a changing environment.
Spark Sellingtm is an evolving communication practice, not a program. We keep each other's skills razor sharp.
Bottom line: The Academy is a commitment to continuing excellence.
Pull with curiosity
Join us. It's a new way to think about sales outreach.
A Personal Note
There's this idea... that a piece of advice is a way to unlock success. While it may 'work' for the person giving the advice, the circumstances and variables making it possible are subjective -- making repeatability unlikely.
Books. LinkedIn posts. Google searches and blogs. We're thirsty for better ways. But what if, instead of valuing "this worked for me -- it'll work for you too," you tried something different?
Consider seeking inspiration, principles and a unique philosophy. Use these to set goals, choose a strategy and execute tactics.
This isn't a popular way forward. Because it leaves the creativity and work to you -- and makes you responsible for the results and effects.
Most will choose a fix or a hack, a ritual to perform, a metric to compete for and an easy excuse.
With or without our help you'll make the best choice. But why work alone?
Let's transform how you communicate with customers. Our members are good at starting, and forwarding, conversations. They're always getting better. Because they evolve the practice.
Transform your outreach. Join us.
Curiosity changes everything. Prove it to yourself.
