Helen Dowling

When you’re speaking to a potential client—whether it’s over the phone, Zoom, or Teams—there’s one simple thing that makes all the difference: 📅 Get the next step booked in the diary. You’d be surprised how often this doesn’t happen.People end the call saying they’ll “send over a proposal” or “follow up next week”… but without … Read more

Over the past few days, we’ve turned down a couple of potential clients. Now, saying “no” is never something we enjoy doing. After all, we’re in business to help people grow theirs. But in these cases, the fees offered were far below our standard rates. And here’s the thing: it wasn’t about us not liking … Read more

How do you reduce the chances of a prospect not turning up to a booked appointment? It’s one of the biggest frustrations in sales – everything’s set, your diary is full, and then… silence. No-show. After working on thousands of appointments for our clients, we’ve tested dozens of methods – and here are the ones … Read more

When it comes to lead generation, one thing becomes clear very quickly — not everyone defines a lead the same way. At Exceptional Thinking, a “lead” isn’t just a name or an email address. It’s not someone who’s filled in a form or connected on LinkedIn. To us, that’s just a contact — not a … Read more

Back in 2010, we were offering a bit of everything—blogs, email marketing, social media, even a few appointment-setting services—but with no real process behind it. Then, during a training session, we heard one idea that changed everything. The trainer explained how he was using LinkedIn to book appointments—and it instantly clicked. It reminded us of … Read more