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Find ideas to align your marketing and sales enablement to grow your revenue.
Bring The Right Clients Into Your Funnel: Filtering Criteria
Every business shares similar struggles: there aren’t enough hours in the day, a limited marketing budget, maybe only a few sales team members. It’s important to filter through clients and projects to ensure that goals are being met as efficiently as possible....
The Two Critical Bridges for Revenue Growth
To get from Canada to the United States in eastern Ontario, you need to cross the St. Lawrence River. When you cross the Thousand Islands Bridge, it’s like you are crossing two bridges. In between each bridge is an island. If you only cross one bridge, you get stuck...
Are You Tired of Peaks and Valleys in Your Sales Funnel?
Does this sound familiar to you: Your company’s monthly sales results look like a roller coaster at Six Flags. You're up one month, then down the next. You have a great quarter, and then the next you drop off. Why do we experience the roller coaster ride with crazy...
Is Your Pipeline Based on Opinion or Fact?
When we sit down with our prospects for a first initial meeting, we often discover that they don’t have a defined sales process or experience that they are guiding prospects and clients through. This can be challenging for a couple reasons: It’s difficult for managers...
How Customer Experience Can Create Strategic Advantage
To hit your goals you need competitive advantage. How can you create strategic advantage in your competitive marketplace where imitating competitors seem to frustrate your efforts to differentiate? The answer for strategic advantage comes through customer experience....
How To Create a Great Client Experience in a Virtual World
I look forward to visits to the Apple Store. As a fan of the brand and a tech nerd, visiting any Apple facility is a joy to me. (I even went out of my way to see the visitor center at Apple’s corporate headquarters last time I was in Silicon Valley.) So, last week...
How To Protect Margins and Thrive In 2021
2021 is a make-or-break year for many businesses. Right now we need to do everything we can to protect our margins while also growing revenue. Here are three ways that you can make that happen. 1. Focus on Cross-Selling Most great companies deliver outstanding support...
How Do You Reach And Connect With A Disconnected Buying Committee?
There is a reason school kids have been working in groups - that is how they are going to work in business! The more people in the decision making group the harder it is to make a decision. So it's even tougher when you've lost touch with your buying committee. And...
Does Your Business Have Repeatable Processes to Follow?
If you look around any successful entrepreneurial business, one thing you will consistently find are processes. Well-defined and documented processes for operations, administration and finance are paramount to driving growth. That said, if we look to sales and...
Are You Setting Achievable Revenue Goals?
There's a delicate balance between setting aggressive revenue goals and achievable revenue goals. Of course you want to grow your business, but it is helpful to have some reasoning behind raising the bar to accelerate year over year revenue growth. The same concept...
Client Experience is more than a Vibe
When I say “client experience,” what comes to mind? Take 30 seconds to ponder that question before you read on. Let’s get a bit more specific and go back in time 5+ years. What sort of experience do you recall having with a taxi cab? Compare that to the experience...
Why Do You Need a Content Strategy?
Content is at the heart of sales and marketing communication. As Darrell Amy says in his book Revenue Growth Engine, content is the fuel that feeds the sales and marketing processes that drive revenue growth. Implementing a content strategy ensures that your Revenue...
The Convergo Approach Series: Sales and Marketing Processes
The Convergo Approach Series Part 1: The Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency Part 2: A Strategic Approach Part 3: The Lens of the Ideal Client Experience Part 4: Sales and Marketing Integration Part 5: Sales and Marketing Processes B2B companies often...
The Convergo Approach Series: Sales and Marketing Integration
The Convergo Approach Series Part 1: The Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency Part 2: A Strategic Approach Part 3: The Lens of the Ideal Client Experience Part 4: Sales and Marketing Integration Part 5: Sales and Marketing Processes It is no secret that...
The Convergo Approach Series: The Lens of Ideal Client Experience
The Convergo Approach Series Part 1: The Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency Part 2: A Strategic Approach Part 3: The Lens of the Ideal Client Experience Part 4: Sales and Marketing Integration Part 5: Sales and Marketing Processes Considering the...
The Convergo Approach Series: A Strategic Approach
The Convergo Approach Series Part 1: The Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency Part 2: A Strategic Approach Part 3: The Lens of the Ideal Client Experience Part 4: Sales and Marketing Integration Part 5: Sales and Marketing Processes There's no better way...
What’s a Method You Can Use to Coach Your Team?
You may be a new manager, someone people come to for advice, or a seasoned manager looking for some new tips to help employees. Coaching is a great skill to have on your toolbelt, but how do you do it and which model should you use? There are many coaching methods out...
How To Market and Sell What Your Buyers Are Actually Buying
Originally published on Revenuegrowthengine.net. For those who are obsessed with their products, the superiority of their business, or the beauty of their brand, this statement contains a hard pill to swallow. As great as your products are, as experienced as your team...
Should I Hire a Marketing Person for My Company?
A lot of our clients find us because they feel like they have some sort of gap in marketing that they’re hoping to get some help with. Whether they are looking to hire a marketing person, assess their existing marketing program, or for ongoing consulting services,...
The Convergo Approach Series: What’s the Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency?
Marketing agencies help you execute a plan. Or, in the absence of a plan, they create pretty things for you like websites, videos, and brochures. Most of the time, this doesn’t have much to do with your sales team or your company goals. Convergo helps you create the...
Why Alignment is Key to Change and Adoption
You may be asking yourself why you should stop and align with your team before you get going on quarterly projects. This is a great question! Your people are the heart and soul of your organization and projects. When starting any new project or initiating any change,...
How Do You Create Content That Buyers Want to Read?
Our clients often ask how they can create or write content that their buyers actually want to read. In truth, you can spend a lot of time reading articles on how to craft the perfect headline, how to structure your content or how to write so that busy people can get...
Three Ways Your Company Values Can Improve Marketing and Sales
Smart companies that use EOS® incorporate values to guide strategy and people decisions. Values also provide a foundation for effective marketing and sales. 1. Allow Your Values To Refine Your Ideal Client Profile There are 7.8 billion people on the planet. There are...
How Much Should You Invest in Marketing?
My wife and I were just discussing what we might do for fun next summer. The possibilities are endless! We might go to the mountains, music festivals, mountain biking or the beach to name a few. Figuring out where to spend/allocate/invest time or money is something...
How To Make Prospecting a Priority
Of all the things your dealership could do in the next year to grow sales, what could move the needle more than anything else? In the book Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink tells a story that rings true in our industry. The CEO of a pharmaceutical company had all kinds...
3 Filters for Your Ideal Client Profile
Creating a profile of your ideal client is an exercise that serves many purposes for any business that has limited resources (which is all businesses, right?). Especially in a B2B business, it is much more efficient and profitable to acquire, manage, and delight a...
The Power of “The List” to Grow Revenue Faster
One way to grow your EOSⓇ business faster is to attract and cross-sell ideal clients. These are the types of clients that appreciate what you do and can buy everything that you sell. Unless you have a limitless marketing budget and massive sales team, trying to sell...
Is an Inbound Marketing Strategy Right for My B2B Business?
The concept of inbound marketing in its purest form is beautiful! You create relevant content targeted at “personas” and distribute it on digital channels with compelling calls-to-actions hoping your “personas” will find you on. And “Voila!” the leads start flowing...
What is the Quickest Way to Grow Revenue?
We are in the business of helping EOS® companies grow revenue. Over half of the businesses that come to us with that goal in mind are wanting to do so by generating more leads. As we work with clients to develop an initial Revenue Growth Plan, it typically becomes...
How to Put the Marketing Strategy from your V/TO™ to Work
The four elements of the Marketing Strategy component of the Vision/Traction Organizer™ of the Entrepreneurial Operating System® provide a fantastic framework for growing your business. If you don’t remember off the top of your head, the four elements are: Your target...
The Top Question For Business Leaders: What Business Are We In?
Harvard Business School professor and the father of modern marketing, Theodore Levitt, asks a powerful question that every business leader, sales representative and marketing manager must answer: What business are you in? The answer to this question will determine the...
What We Can Learn From T-Mobile About How To Keep Customers and Grow Revenue Following an Acquisition
The reason to buy a company is to take what you purchased and grow it. Unfortunately, what often happens is that companies let the customers of the companies they acquired slowly get picked off by the competition. Instead of growing the new base of customers, the new...
How to Move the Needle on the 2 Most Impactful Sales Pipeline Metrics
Want to grow revenue faster? Increase your pipeline velocity by reducing the friction between stages. How do you measure this? Here are two sales pipeline metrics to look at that can make a huge impact on your top line on the P&L: Conversion Rate: The % of clients...
Why Your Sales and Marketing Teams Need an Outomes Framework
As we have previously written, Buyers Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Outcomes. I see a perfect example of this as I look out my window into my driveway. I bought a car to get to the places I need to get to support the outcomes that I need: Enjoying our home in the...
Now Is Not the Time To Shut Down Your Growth Engine
Now, more than ever, we need to keep our growth engines running. Sales must maintain activity levels. Marketing must keep the digital lights on. This is not the time to slow down or stop. This past week I've talked with many leaders that are facing hard choices. I've...
How to Conduct An Effective Virtual Meeting
4.7 million people work from home in the United States [source]. The need for collaboration and meeting with co-workers does not go away when people transition to working from home, so it is no surprise that products like Zoom Meeting have realized huge growth. The...
What I’ve Learned About Working From Home a Home Office
Last week I was reminiscing about my first home-office job with my former boss, Cary Butler. Back in 1997 when I accepted a position as a district manager for Toshiba, the first step was to set up a home office. I remember when the UPS driver rang my doorbell to...
Prospect More Effectively with Sales Sequences
Originally published at the Revenue Growth Engine One touch simply doesn’t cut it in today’s world. Salesforce.com research found that it takes 6-8 touches with a prospect to get an appointment. Sirius Decisions found that it takes 8 to 12 attempts to reach a decision...
Five Critical Sales and Marketing Processes For Driving Revenue Growth
Ask any management consultant and they will tell you that processes are the key to an efficient business. We find processes in departments throughout a business like finance, H.R., service, production, and fulfillment. Why is it that when it comes to revenue growth,...
Why Great Companies Need To Grow Revenue
Yesterday morning at Dallas Love Field, I crossed paths with a guy I know who leads a sales team for a $10 million company. Over breakfast at Cantina Laredo (love this place!) I shared my concept behind the Revenue Growth Engine. We talked about his team and their...
Why We Like Working With EOS/Traction Companies
Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of leading many management teams through Revenue Growth Workshops to make a plan to drive organic revenue growth. My favorite companies to work with are ones that use Gino Wickman’s EOS (Entrepreneur’s Operating System)...
Five Keys To More Effective Sales Prospecting Results
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Buyer’s Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Outcomes
What you sell and what your clients buy may be two very different things. We think we sell products and services. What our clients really buy is outcomes. Theodore Levitt, the father of modern marketing put it brilliantly: “People don’t buy drill bits, they buy...
How To Make Your Message Appetizing in a Bland Market
Having grown up in Canada, I love maple syrup. I remember Saturday mornings at the sugar farm. Each spring right as the snow was beginning to melt we’d head out into a grove of maple trees. Each tree had a spigot with a small bucket attached. Sweet sap would drip into...
What Would Happen If You Told Your Prospects What Types Of Clients You Want To Serve?
This week I’ve been creating the website content for the new suite of services our team here at Convergo will roll out this summer (can’t wait to launch this!) It's got me thinking about what our ideal prospect looks like. We all have ideal prospects. These are the...
Why You Probably Need a Marketing Automation System
With today’s decision makers and influencers scouring the web for information during the buying process, digital marketing has become an undeniably important partner in revenue generation. While I will always be the first to affirm that salespeople create, build, and...
Sales Leaders and Company Owners: The Sad Costs of Not Investing In Marketing
Recently, I was talking with one of my business partners here at Convergo. He’d talked with a business owner about moving from a tactical to a strategic approach with their marketing. In principal it sounded good. However, when presented with a relatively modest...
Sales Prospecting With a Positive Attitude
Consistent prospecting is essential for sales success. Without a steady stream of prospects, the funnel dries up. Then you end up taking desperation deals and flipping your base. Effective prospecting requires a positive attitude. The challenge is that if there is one...
What Would You Do If 100 Prospects and Customers Were Lined Up Outside Your Business Right Now?
Imagine if you had 100 people lined up outside your business right now. What would you do? Certainly, you’d send someone out to greet them. You’d ask how you could help. You’d get the prospects involved in sales situations. You’d do your best to answer customer...
The Importance of Looking Trustworthy
“People will accept the advice of insight sellers only to the extent that they trust them.” - Mike Schultz & John Doerr, Insight Selling Trust is a critical component to sales success. In their buyer research, the authors of Insight Selling learned what we know...