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Someone Has To Write It
In the last week I’ve had at least five conversations about the importance of content to support the sales and marketing process. It’s probably a result of the Making Marketing Work webinar we held last week, but the resistance seems to be the same with everyone.
We talk about the importance of content, the strategy to direct the content and the incredibly positive impact this approach has on sales results. Inevitably, the person I’m discussing this with acknowledges the weaknesses they have without it, and its benefits. Then I get the “but.” As in, “But, someone will have to write the content, and keep it fresh and up-to-date.”
My response? “Damn right someone has to do that!”
What do they expect? Look, we live in an incredibly intense and competitive marketplace today. There’s tremendous pressure on margins and differentiating is tougher than ever. Do people really think they can accelerate profitable growth, scale a company and maximize their equity value without expending significant effort?
Companies that do not have an adequate marketing cultivation system suffer extreme limits to their sales ability. Our research demonstrates that the results of sales efforts are reduced by 30 – 70%. The most direct way to doubling your profits isn’t hiring more salespeople, it’s implementing an effective cultivation program. But, yeah, that takes time and effort.
If you’re struggling to find the resources to support the effort, here’s my recommendation: allocate the expense of a salesperson to support the effort. Think about it, if you’ve got 3 salespeople and you eliminate 1 to implement such a program, you’ll still come out 25 – 50% ahead.
Full disclosure – my company develops, implements and/or manages marketing cultivation programs for small and mid-market companies. The reason we do it is because of the impact we’ve seen when a company has such a program versus what happens when a company doesn’t.
To Break Your Growth Barrier – Sell Through Capacity
Having owned and run multiple small businesses, I know, firsthand, that managing capacity is one of the most difficult challenges facing owners and executives. It’s taken me years of trial and error to learn an important lesson to consistently growing a business – you must sell through capacity.
I’ve learned that capacity is often an illusion at best and an excuse at worst. When small and mid-size companies start thinking about capacity, they take their foot off the proverbial gas pedal.
Two negative things occur when that happens:
You eliminate your margin for error by doing this. In my experience, executives and [...] Continue Reading…
Harness The Power of Effective B2B Marketing
In July of 2011, I wrote a somewhat controversial rant as to why marketing just doesn’t work for the vast majority of small and mid-market (SME) B2B companies. As John Wanamaker famously said, “I know half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, but I can never find out which half.” If you’re involved in a small or mid-market B2B company, you probably wish you were only wasting half.
In our experience, those companies that even do marketing not only find that half of their marketing efforts are a waste, but the half that is having impact is [...] Continue Reading…
The Key To High Margin Sales
I don’t know about you, but Varuca Salt was my favorite character in Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory. “I want an oompa loompa, and I want one now.”
I think of her virtually every time I work with an entrepreneur on their go-to-market approach. “I want more high margin sales, and I want more high margin sales now.”
The biggest frustration in building an effective go-to-market approach is simply the time that it takes. Recently I had a prospect ask one of my references, “Why does the process [referring to our process] take so much damn time? What can’t they [...] Continue Reading…
Is Your Business Ready For Growth?
11 months ago I released my eBook, Successfully Growing In A Recovery. I announced the release of the book with a blog post titled, The Great Recovery. The post turned out to be somewhat controversial, as many readers and business executives expressed their belief that I was, at best, premature in my call.
I tried to remind these executives that, too often, we confuse “recovery” with “expansion.” Recoveries are very bumpy and are quite treacherous. As I share in the book, recoveries can be even more dangerous than recessions if not handled properly.
The main thought I shared was that great [...] Continue Reading…
Getting 2012 Off To A Powerful Start
Welcome back! And welcome to all the new readers of this blog. The word seems to be spreading as the traffic here has virtually doubled in the last four weeks.
For those new to the blog (and as a refresher to those loyal readers), I’d like to make sure you know about three resources we have to help ensure that 2012 is your best yet.
Fast Growth Tips. Every week I’ll share a tip, insight or observation into successfully growing your business. We’ve already shared 7 insights to making your lead generation efforts work. Currently we’re in the middle of sharing [...] Continue Reading…
A Key To Getting Your Sales Off To A Fast Start
During last week’s webinar 5 Keys to Getting Your Sales Year Off to a Fast Start, I shared that a major difference between top performing salespeople and average ones is how and what top performers measure and track.
Top performers are maniacal when it comes to measuring and tracking key performance criteria. Average performers measure and track grudgingly.
An even bigger difference is what they measure. Average performers (and their managers) over emphasize activity and/or results. The primary reason for this is that it’s very easy to measure either of these.
The problem with measuring activity is twofold:
All too often the activities [...] Continue Reading…
Finish Your Sales Year Strong
Sure enough, a day after I present our webinar 5 Keys to Getting Your Sales Year Off to Fast Start, my friend and advisor happens to send her newsletter out reminding everybody that if you think that nothing happens the next two weeks – you’re thinking just like your competition.
Master Door Opener Caryn Kopp, shares several valuable thoughts on making the next two weeks productive. It’s well worth the read.
My favorite point: Often time that hard-to-reach decision maker who never has time for you, is probably more relaxed and chatty than normal.
Download her article, act on it and you’ll [...] Continue Reading…
The Difference Between Good Salespeople & Great Ones
Yesterday, as I was conducting some sales training for a client, we were talking about the importance of understanding your customer and I was sharing some tools we use to help companies and salespeople gain a better understanding (feel free to download it).
I could tell from the look on a few people’s faces that this was something they hadn’t done before. So, I shared a fundamental insight I’ve gain through 20+ years working with thousands of salespeople.
The biggest difference between great salespeople (who earn 2 – 10x what good salespeople make, and take far more time off as well) [...] Continue Reading…
Getting Your Sales Year Off To A Fast Start
With more demands, fewer resources and tremendous competition, it’s tough for salespeople to focus on critical actions that get big results. On December 13th, we’re hosting a webinar The 5 Keys to Getting Your 2012 Sales Year Off To A Fast Start. We’re going to share our insights from working, firsthand, with more than 5,000 salespeople. We’ll be highlighting the key actions that allow the great ones to get more traction – with less effort. We also have a bonus for attendees (watch the video to learn what it is).
Here’s a preview:
RSS Readers that don’t see this video [...] Continue Reading…
The Key to Differentiation: Be Bold, Be Different
Sunday, while watching The Washington Redskins (finally) win, I saw an interesting ad from Chevy. I have to admit that it tugged at my heartstrings a bit.
It told the story of a family who tracked down their father/grandfathers original 1965 Chevy Impala SS. The emotional message was, “More than a car…a Chevy.”
I’m not sure how effective the ad will be in selling more cars, but I certainly hope its effective with the management and senior leadership of GM, and other companies. See, the thing that created an emotional bond between Dad and his Impala, is that, like it or [...] Continue Reading…
Do You Have The Guts to be Great?
Today, the Washington Capitals fired their coach, Bruce Boudreau. The fastest coach to win 200 games is fired with 201 wins.
My first reaction was a little shock. How could you fire a coach who turned the team around, and has one of the greatest win/loss percentages in history?
Then I realized that’s the cost to be great. The management of the Capitals isn’t satisfied with the best record in the regular season. Success is winning The Stanley Cup. As good as Boudreau has been it’s become clear he wasn’t the guy who would get the job done.
Before you write this [...] Continue Reading…
Happy Thanksgiving – Enjoy
It’s that time of year again. Have a great Thanksgiving and make sure you take some time to consider all of the great opportunities we have.
Here’s my tribute to Thanksgiving:
I love this time of year. We’ve got the 3-F’s: friends, family & football. There’s the wine, the turkey, the stuffing, the wine. It’s great fun.
And I have a tradition at this time of year that I would like to share with you. I often write about how the old paradigms of business, sales and marketing are letting businesses down. Well, today, I’m not going to get that deep. Today, [...] Continue Reading…
Changing Behavior
As we prepare for the holidays, thought naturally turns to what needs to happen to make 2012 better than 2011. Assuredly, executive will look at many actions, and create grand plans to improve those actions.
The danger is that the improvement focuses on changing behaviors above all else. Here’s my caution:
Trying to change behaviors without addressing
the systems, structures and strategies?
The key to improving behavior is to ensure that your systems, structures and strategies are aligned together and towards your aims. What’s great is that when those three areas are aligned, behavior and results take care of themselves.
Sales Webinar: 5 Keys To Starting Your Year Fast
If you’re a salesperson you know how special the months of January through April are. Four uninterrupted months, when your customers and prospects are back at work, focused and ready to do business.
Your performance in the first four months of the year will determine how good 2012 is.
The 5 Keys to Getting Your Sales Year Off to a Fast-Start
Join us on Tuesday, December 13th at 2pm EST, we’ll share the secrets we’ve learned working with the best salespeople in the world that allow them to get their year off to a tremendous start. Once again, we are waiving the [...] Continue Reading…