The Competitive Advantage

May 12, 2020

Do you have a defined sales process? No?! Ignoring it is a HUGE mistake!

Imagine you have responsibility for revenue growth at your firm and you finally decide to pull the trigger and convert a couple of your senior Project Managers to the Seller-Doer role. Congrats!

Now what? Well, one of the items you’ll need to cover in their training is to help them understand your firm’s ‘sales process.’

Sales process?! It’s not a term or a concept used very often in our industry… but it’s critical to your selling success. And here’s why…

May 4, 2020

Selling Success Requires 2 Things… a Good Sales Rep and a Better Sales Manager

8 Keys for Effective Sales Management

I was chatting with an industry colleague this past week and he mentioned he had just repositioned two of his Project Managers into Business Development roles… one as an account manager and one to go after new business.

And then he said something that really surprised me and even made me smile. He said, “This process has made me realize that I’m no sales manager!”

Wow! He is literally the first person in Market Research I have met who has said that. Out loud. Don’t get me wrong… there are a ton of really bad sales managers in our industry – he’s just the first one to admit it.

April 21, 2020

Stop hard selling during the pandemic… use these 9 ‘soft touches’ instead.

I’ve been involved in a number of industry conversations lately around the topic of ‘selling during the pandemic.’ As the uncertainty grows, firms want/need to continue to sell, if only to maintain their business.

For many, however, the inclination is to be too proactive… that is ‘sell harder, sell faster.’ The reality is, though, that the opposite approach will have a much more positive impact.

January 28, 2020

How to Create a Sales Commission Plan for Seller-Doers

I attended the Insights Association’s CEO Summit last week (by the way, if you run a business and have never been – put this event on your “must do” list!) and by far, the topic that generated the most audience engagement and questions was around sales commission plans.

So, for those of you who were not there, here are a few guidelines as you think about your seller-doer team…

October 8, 2019

Setting 2020 Sales Goals? That Big Revenue Number is NOT Enough!

For those firms that take the time to set annual sales goals, they generally think in terms of a BHAG… a Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal! That is, “What lofty revenue number can we achieve next year?” And that’s fine. Employees need that target to work toward. To inspire and drive them.

In fact, it was about this time, last year, that I wrote a blog post on how to set those annual sales goals. Click Here to read it.

But those big goals are not enough!

August 20, 2019

Want to host a GREAT sales meeting? Follow this blueprint.

Recently, I had the pleasure – and privilege – of being hired by Merrill Dubrow, President & CEO of M/A/R/C Research, to be a guest presenter at his national sales meeting in Dallas. The other guest presenter was Ryan Barry with Zappi, so I was in pretty good company.

It’s been a long time since I’ve been part of such a well-organized, educational and enjoyable sales meeting. And while I wasn’t there for the entire event, what I did see provides a solid model for how to structure and host an effective sales meeting.

July 16, 2019

How to Maximize Your Time as a Seller-Doer

Does your firm subscribe to the seller-doer model for business development? That is, are there leaders and managers in your firm who, in addition to their primary roles, are also tasked with responsibility for revenue growth? If you answered ‘yes,’ then your firm is like the vast majority of others… the seller-doer model is, by far, the most popular sales structure in the MR industry among small and mid-sized firms.

Popular, yes. But also, incredibly challenging because…

June 11, 2019

All Clients Are Important, But Large Clients Matter More.

We like to think that all clients are important… and they are. Our goal is to do good work for all clients and deliver a high level of service to each of them… and we strive for that every day.

But the fact is… your large clients are more important than your small clients!