A client took me and a few others deep-sea fishing once, departing from Montauk at the tip of Long Island (something I will never do again). We departed at 3 am and it took five hours to get to our “station” at the tip of the continental shelf.

The best part of the trip (which of course was another five hours, in the rain, to return) was the fact we saw three whales sound at various times perhaps a half-mile away. Here is the definition of a whale sounding:

Whales make sounds for communication, navigation, and foraging. They use a variety of sounds, like clicks and whistles, to find food by echolocation, socialize with other whales in their pods, find mates, and stay oriented in their environment.

It occurred to me I wasn’t watching something rare, but something going on all the time that I was otherwise not in the right position to see. They are communicating, taking nourishment, appraising their environment, and socializing.

Which means, by way of the metaphor I’m obviously building, that you need to make it your business to go where your largest clients and prospects will be, not discovering them by accident but rather by plan. Publish in areas they read, attend what they attend, hang out where they do, learn their habits and spend a few bucks if you have to at a networking or fund-raising function. This is how you “elevate” your sales. You don’t publish in some training magazine if you want to influence executives, nor should you go around with a dozen initials trailing your name like ants at a picnic to gain credibility. You need referrals not “certifications.”

When you do see a whale sound, you don’t mistake it and if you’re looking in the right direction you can’t miss it. You can see them from a half-mile away. © Alan Weiss 2025

A Whale Sale™

A Whale Sale is more than a big deal; it’s a defining one. It changes revenue, reputation, and reach, positioning your company at a higher level of influence.

The Whale Sale Strategy teaches organizations to secure and grow transformational clients through disciplined executive access and strategic alignment.

Drawing on Lisa T. Miller’s experience advising hospital C-suites and Alan Weiss’s expertise in enterprise growth, it provides a proven framework to build influence, close complex deals, and sustain long-term impact.

This approach reframes selling from transactions to alignment, and from chasing opportunities to architecting them.

It is designed for leaders and teams pursuing growth through intentional, high-value client relationships that transform both reputation and enterprise value.

The Whale Sale™ Experience

A unique professional experience that brings together strategic and tactical sessions for leadership teams pursuing complex, high-value relationships.

You’ll learn how to identify, access, and align with executive buyers, utilizing frameworks developed by Alan Weiss, PhD, and Lisa T. Miller to advance your organization’s market position.

Email Lisa Miller at Lisa@lisatmiller.com or schedule a time here: Schedule a Call with Lisa

Some years ago, I was hired to deliver a keynote speech for a group holding its conference at the River Rock Casino in Richmond, near Vancouver. I arrived at the front desk at about 10 pm the prior evening due to flight difficulties.

The desk clerk said, “The host organization has reserved a small suite for you, but since we’re packed and you’re only here tonight, I’m going to upgrade that.” I thanked him and headed for my room sans bellman.

As usual, when I opened the door, I couldn’t find the right light switches, but I groped for a few and found a couple of cavernous rooms. I found the master bath, brushed my teeth, and went to bed. When I awoke in the morning, with the sun streaming in, I found that I was in a “suite” with eight rooms, including a billiard room, kitchen, conference room, two other bedrooms, and four full bathrooms.

When I checked out, I asked the morning clerk what kind of room I had come from. “Oh,” he said, “that is one of our ‘whale suites.’” He went on to explain that the casino carefully developed very wealthy Asian clients who would fly across the Pacific on private planes and stay for a week or more, often gambling millions of dollars during their stay.

Hence, my focus in marketing on “whales.” But to me, these are relationships—the WhaleSale™—where everyone wins. The “house” is not holding superior odds in our case. We need these kinds of sales to raise our revenues, margins, valuation, and to create less labor and far more discretionary time. But the big suite and the limos and the free meals are how you carefully support the whales you’ve attracted.

The harder skill and greater requirement is attracting them in the first place, with better offers, higher brands and repute, and manifest value.

Whale sales are not merely large revenues. They are also a composite of the size of the sale, the frequency of purchase, and the duration of the relationship. They are ongoing, evergreen relationships with positive inertia: In this case, the tendency of a delighted, high-investing client to remain a delighted, high-investing client. (The opposite, of course, is the tendency of an object at rest to stay at rest.)

Early in my career, I focused on significant clients, such as Merck, Hewlett-Packard, Calgon, the LA Times Group, and others, which provided hugely diverse buyers in an atmosphere of investing in external resources so as not to breathe their own exhaust. With Merck, alone, I earned $2.5 million over 12 years, and an identical amount from their referrals and the credibility they provided me. Adjusted for inflation, that’s $12 million in today’s dollars, or a million a year from just one client source. (My 1992 best-seller, now in its sixth edition, is Million Dollar Consulting.)

Lisa T. Miller and I are collaborating on how to make the WhaleSale a realistic, natural undertaking for almost any type of organization. You don’t have to be a whale yourself to do this, but you do need to be comfortable prowling the oceans….

Alan Weiss, known as “the rock star of consulting,” has written 54 original books, with 16 additional editions, appearing in 15 languages.

Alan Weiss, PhD | Consultant, Speaker and Author