Sales

Tailor your sales pipeline for superior prospecting

It costs seven times the blood, sweat, tears and dollars to win a brand new client than it does to maintain an existing client. Heard that one before? A million times, I bet. This old adage has become so oft trotted out that most of us no longer even know where or who started it. Or if there is any empirical supporting evidence. And even if there was, so what? We all also know that sales effort is all about RoI and so the relevant ratio is revenue (or profit) for cost invested – not just cost READ MORE ›

By Glenn Guilfoyle|Sales|

How measuring lag can boost sales

Most businesses have an accurate handle on the length of their sales cycle - the time that elapses between a lead being qualified and the closing of the deal. If your total sales cycle is six months, or three months, or twelve months, what does that mean and what can you change to improve results? Should you measure anything else, and if you did, what would you change? The answers lie in the detail - but only a little way in. Simply reverse the usual logic and think about time from the buyers' perspective and not the READ MORE ›

By Hugh Macfarlane|Sales, Velocity|

How to re-engage with customers by saying goodbye

We’ve spoken about Funnel Logic and the way we manage work-in-progress using a sales funnel. One of the critical things in this process is keeping your funnel clean, as there’s nothing worse than a clogged funnel. A clogged funnel contains expired opportunities. These ‘dead’ opportunities cause problems by giving you a false sales forecast, obscuring how much work you need to devote to each stage. This is especially hazardous when it causes you to neglect topping up your funnel with new opportunities. We suggest you purge prospects that have spent too long at a particular stage. Of READ MORE ›

By Eddie Smith|Sales, Velocity|

Maximising the propose to close ratio

Many selling organisations are submitting an increasing number of proposals, in the hope that this will lead to an increased number of sales. But, proposals don’t always close. So, how can you fix a low propose to close ratio? Don’t rely on the proposal document Relying on the proposal to do the persuading is inherently flawed. The client has to want your solution before the proposal is submitted. Back to the funnel Our Funnel Management thinking maps buyers at 3 stages in the sales funnel: Defining the problem; Determining available solution types; and Choosing the best supplier. READ MORE ›

By Eddie Smith|Sales|

Sales and Service: Healthchecks on customer interfaces

The medicos tell us that it is good fundamental health and wellbeing practice to undertake a regular health assessment. You know the stuff………blood pressure, cholesterol, weight: height ratios, lifestyle questionnaires etc - a simple and quick way to ensure our all-important health and wellbeing is on track. The same principles apply to B2B sales organisations. The sales process is mostly conducted out in the market and not within the walls of your office, so the process is often not visible, and you may not be able to readily see whether it is working effectively or being implemented READ MORE ›

By Glenn Guilfoyle|Sales, Strategy|

Does my bum look big in these jeans?

There are some questions that simply shouldn’t be answered. Consider the fear cast into the hearts of men the world over when they get asked this prickly question: “Does my bum look big in these jeans?” A yes response is often followed by the sound of items being thrown across the room. The much safer NO response turns out to be not so safe when one’s spouse looks in the mirror and declares “you were going to let me go out looking like this” and then again the sound of items being thrown across the room. It’s READ MORE ›

By Brett Bonser|Sales|

Striking the right balance of sales and service

A good sales professional not only finds new win-win opportunities to sell additional products or services to meet the customer’s evolving needs, but also takes personal accountability as the “go to” point of reference for all issues relating to ordering and delivery of the customer’s requirements. The balance depends on the nature of your product or service, the buying cycle set by your customers, your organisation’s physical infrastructure (eg the presence of a dedicated customer service team), whether the Sales Exec is expected to hunt for brand new customers as well as account manage, the degree to which “service” READ MORE ›

By Glenn Guilfoyle|Sales|

Selling skills for a changing market

With greater demands now being placed on salespeople, the need for improved selling skills has never been higher. Typically, as organisations look for ways to remain commercially competitive, many try to strip costs out of their business. Overheads are usually the first place they start, and unfortunately, the inclusion of selling costs within this category means that sales resources are often the first to feel the pinch. With added pressure put on individual sellers to perform, the best way for sellers to deal with these pressures is to ensure that their selling skills are at the highest READ MORE ›

By Eddie Smith|Sales|

The attributes marketers need to be revenue marketers

In the past few months a cool new term has appeared on my radar. That term is, “revenue marketer”. Wish I had thought of it first. It defines a new level of marketing professional. While I’m energized by the term, sadly, I’m concerned that too many B2B marketers don’t have the right perspective and skills to play in this new league. My latest exposure to the term was at an event in Austin hosted by Marketo, a marketing automation platform vendor. Speaking at the event was Debbie Qaqish , Chief Revenue Marketing Officer of The Pedowitz Group, READ MORE ›

By Chuck Besondy|Sales, Skills, Strategy, Velocity|

Ask ‘why’ five times

This is the method Taiichi Ohno, pioneer of Toyota production systems, recommended to get to the root cause of a problem. My thought was that this principle could serve well in sales. In specific, it can be used to find out whether an opportunity exists and if it is real and worth your while to win. I am aware that good sales people know the power of questioning buyers over providing them with a laundry list of features and benefits. The ability to ask pertinent questions comes from preparation. Preparation is more than amassing information. I suggest READ MORE ›

By Christian Maurer|Sales|