I’ve noticed something interesting about small-to-medium businesses across industries: Many are not very specific when describing their target client. This is a major sales roadblock, especially for B2B companies. You have to precisely define who your ideal client is and what they care about before you can engage them in a sales conversation. Who [...]
Obstacles to growing a business are not always monetary. Issues that restrict a company’s ability to grow are sometimes related to the wrong value proposition (i.e., focusing on your business offering, not on the customer’s needs). How do you know if you have the right value proposition that removes obstacles to growth? And if not, [...]
Starting a company is hard work. Keeping it running properly is even harder. You live your life in a swirl of competing priorities; on any given day, you’re likely to be launched sideways by an unexpected hiccup. So, how do you keep revenue growth on track and predictable while dealing with a myriad of other [...]
Depending on when you're reading this, there are limited business days left in 2019. Wouldn’t it be great to use that time to help your company get a fast start to the best sales ever this coming year? Here are five things to do now to guarantee your best sales start to 2020 revenue. 1. [...]
Anytime you’re in the game with the clock running down, strategy matters. With only about 40 business days left in 2019, you may not have time to run the full sales cycle. What you can do is home in on qualified prospects already in the pipeline. Ask yourself these strategic questions to figure out which [...]
Reason #8 – Lack of a Defined Sales Process Are you struggling to get some consistency to your sales results? Is it difficult to predict with any certainty when deals are going to close, or if they are? Are your revenue forecasts hit or miss? In Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, Alice gets lost (on her way somewhere) [...]
Reason #9 -- Performance reviews either don’t occur, or are ineffective. What to do? Ah, the dreaded 'annual appraisal.' Can't find too many people who really love them, can you? Even the best ones can be painful to give or receive. But - people need to know how they are doing, right? When your child does something stupendous, you [...]
My friend Angie Segal, an ActionCOACH in Maryland, sent these to me in her recent newsletter. With her permission, I share them with you as valuable insights for strengthening your business relationships in the year ahead.... The 10 important words to say: I apologize for our mistake. Let me put it right. The 9 important words to say: Thank [...]
Reason #10 -- Sales training can be ineffective, despite it all. So how does one actually get better? Don't bother with training if you don't have a plan to reinforce what is learned; over 80% of training material is forgotten after 90 days. Sales team effectiveness is built in the field -- observe your sales reps [...]
