The Competitive Advantage

February 28, 2017

Hey Sales Rep… Your Manager Should be Fired!

I receive “cold call emails” all the time…. I guess as President of the company, I’m a magnet for salespeople. Fine… it comes with the territory.

But this past week, I received a sales email so bad that I had to share it (names are being withheld so they don’t die of shame!).

October 26, 2016

Stop Setting Stupid Sales Goals… Think Small Instead

I had a boss (the company Founder) several years ago who would set the annual sales goals for our company… without much regard for what was really happening in the marketplace. The trouble was – and no surprise here – that he set ridiculously high goals (think 50%+ growth or more). Then, the rest of the team would jump through hoops to re-do all of the plan and budgets… all the while knowing that there was no way in hell we would come close to achieving those goals.

That’s NOT how to do it.

October 18, 2016

Your Key Accounts Need More Love!

Here are 6 ways to make that happen.

In the 4+ years we’ve been open, I don’t think I’ve spoken with a single research firm that doesn’t have 40-50-60% (or more) of its revenue tied up with just 3, 4 or 5 clients. Losing a small client is bad enough, but losing one of these ‘Key Accounts’ can be devastating. So, what can you do to ensure this doesn’t happen to you?

October 11, 2016

The Secret to Sales & Marketing Success? It’s Right in Front of You.

Maximize revenue growth by leveraging your sales database.

There are two kinds of sales prospects – those you know (and who know you) and those you have yet to meet. However, too many sales & marketing initiatives focus on trying to uncover more of the latter.

I submit, however, that the opposite (focusing on those you know) is a more efficient and more effective way to grow revenue.

Think of it this way… you’ve spent a ton of time, money and effort trying to increase the number of contacts in your sales database. Now it’s time to leverage all of that work.

August 30, 2016

They’re not just clients… they’re people!

Think about each of your top 4 or 5 clients. Collectively, they’re likely worth 50-60-70% of your firm’s revenue…. or more!  And I’ll bet you could tell me how much revenue each generates, which services or products they’re buying from you and some details about each of their last few projects. That’s good.

Now think about your key contact at each of those clients – what details do you know about them? No, not their title or their biggest challenges at the office – though those are important. But… are they married or not? What about kids? Their hobbies or favorite sports team? Where they went on vacation last week? And so on… and so on.

Don’t think knowing that kind of thing is important? You’d be wrong!

August 16, 2016

Listen up salespeople… “Your voice mail messages are AWFUL!”

Last Wednesday, I came back to the office to find a voice mail message on my office phone. It was one left by a sales rep (and I use that term loosely) who wanted to connect with me. Without giving away the firm, here’s the message…

After introducing herself, she said, “We have a lot of experience working with firms like yours. I’d appreciate the opportunity to have a short conversation to see if we might be of service to you.” Then she left her phone number and hoped I would call back. That was it.

We can debate the value of leaving phone messages, but here’s what happened (or didn’t happen)…

July 26, 2016

Creating a sales training agenda? Don’t miss these critical topics.

Congratulations! You just hired a new sales rep… or maybe a couple of them. Maybe they’re even the first ones you’ve ever hired. And you’re anxious to get them trained and “on the street!”

So, what’s your sales training agenda look like? Like most firms, you’ll focus on all of the different services they will be selling… making sure they know exactly what you do. That’s a good start, but you’re missing a lot. Make sure to include these critical topics as you’re putting your training agenda together…

July 12, 2016

3 Proven Summer Sales Tactics

Summertime is often a slow time for businesses, in general… and for sales efforts, in particular. Clients and prospects are on vacation, their business is slow so they’re not in the buying mood, there are very few conferences and networking events scheduled this time of year and so on. So, what’s a sales rep to do, especially if they still have sales goals to achieve?

Below are three ideas to help minimize the summer doldrums and stir up some sales action…