by Bill Poole | Feb 26, 2019 | EOS
“Execution is the single greatest market differentiator. Great companies and successful individuals execute better than the competition.”
– Brian P. Moran, The 12 Week Year
If you want to be successful in growing a company as a business owner, or growing a territory as a sales rep, you need to execute consistently. You can have a great vision, amazing products, and all kinds of great intentions. But the marketplace only rewards ideas that get implemented.
Execution needs to happen in the three core areas of your business that touch your clients and prospects. Let’s consider each of these in turn. (more…)
by Bill Poole | Feb 19, 2019 | Sales
In the office technology industry I serve, we talk about Machines-in-Field (MIF). Every 3-5 years the leases on these machines expire or the machine wears out. Sales reps “flip the MIF” when they upgrade customers to new equipment.
MIF-flipping plays a critical role. After all, we need to maintain our customer base. However, we also work in a mature market. That means that average selling prices are dropping faster than cost of goods. Each year the delta between sales price and cost gets squeezed a little tighter.
What does that mean?
Companies and sales reps that have historically depended on MIF-flipping will suffer a slow and painful decline.
Some businesses are counteracting the revenue decline by purchasing more MIF to flip. The top line revenue of these businesses look good, but ultimately, these businesses will also feel the pain. (more…)
by Bill Poole | Jan 29, 2019 | Sales
Every (smart) business and sales professional wants to sell more to their current clients.
In my favorite marketing book, Getting Everything You Can From All You’ve Got, Jay Abraham shares the geometric principle of business growth. He says there are only three ways to grow a business.
- Get more customers
- Sell more things to current customers
- Increase the frequency of purchase
The problem is that most businesses only focus on #1. When it comes to #2 and #3, cross selling to current clients usually gets lip service, a page buried on the website, and maybe a specialist. Unfortunately, that’s where the gold lies.
If you only do #1, focusing all your effort on new logos, your business will grow linearly. From a sales perspective, 15% growth requires 15% more new customers. It’s important work and hard work, but 15% growth won’t get anyone too excited — especially if you had to discount products to convince new customers to buy into your business.
The profitable and dramatic growth happens inside your current customer base by cross-selling additional products and services. This is especially true in mature industries where profit margins on the core offering are dropping. In this scenario, the question we should be asking is, “How can I sell more things to current clients where I have a trusted relationship?” (more…)
by Bill Poole | Jan 15, 2019 | Sales
How consistent is your sales team at bringing in net-new business? Without a consistent stream of opportunities entering the top of the funnel, the end-of-month results will be disappointing. Instead of net-new, the revenue will be primarily be from flipping the MIF.
A process is a series of steps for a repeated outcome. Processes bring predictability, efficiency, and consistency to net-new business.
Every business has processes:
- Service processes like service call entry and ticket management ensure happy customers.
- Financial processes like order fulfillment and collections ensure a controlled financial environment.
- HR processes like on-boarding and benefits administration ensure compliance and happy employees.
While businesses have all kinds of critical processes, when it comes to generating net-new sales, it’s often hard to find documented processes in place.
Without processes in place, business becomes chaos. (more…)
by Bill Poole | Jan 2, 2019 | Resources
There are only two types of prospects: those who are looking for your products and services, and those who aren’t. If you want to grow sales, you’ll need to find ways to connect with both groups:
- Prospects who are actively looking for solutions to their problems need to be able to find your dealership online.
- Prospects who aren’t actively looking for a solution need to be strategically interrupted by your sales team. (more…)
