The Pitfalls of Being Too Familiar with Key Accounts: How Stagnation Leads to Sales and Profit Declines

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In the role of Strategic Account Manager for large accounts, building strong relationships with key accounts is essential. However, there’s a fine line between familiarity and complacency. While maintaining a close connection with large customers is crucial, becoming too comfortable can lead to stagnation, resulting in a decline in sales, profits and missed opportunities. The number of key account salespeople hitting, and exceeding plan has been declining for years. In this article, we explore why being too familiar with key accounts can be detrimental and provide ten telltale signs that indicate you may have crossed that line.

Any relationship if taken for granted will become stale and ultimately vulnerable.

I was coaching a strategic account manager recently and they shared the concern their relationship with the buyer has seemed to sour and go stale and the buyer is not open to discussing new opportunities or sharing challenges. Below are some of the questions I asked that ultimately led me to write this article.

Tell me about when you first were assigned this account. She shared when she first was given this large account is was so exciting! New people to meet at the customer as well as internally on the strategic account growth team. She shared she met with the main buyer and decision maker, and they were very clear about their expectations , needs and how they wanted to be served. The customer shared their vendor scorecard for their business, and they worked together on a plan to improve their scores and increase their share of wallet. Awesome I shared.

How long ago did you become this accounts’ strategic account manager? I was asked to lead this customer in 2019.

What have you seen in growth the last twelve months? Although most of our large accounts had increases, this customer’s sales had no growth.

What are some new challenges your customer has faced in the last 6-12 months? They have not shared any concerns.

How often do you formally meet and discuss your customers’ business, your products and new products and services? We meet formally two times a year, but we probably talk three times a week.

When you talk what do you discuss? Most of the conversation is about orders, when they will be shipping, why an order shipped late and so on. Sometimes we discuss what our competitors are doing.

What have your top two competitors been doing? Both my top two competitors have new account managers in the last 3 months and both their companies are launching new products and services that is taking a lot of the buyer’s time.

Has your company launched any new products or services in the last six to twelve months? Yes, but they are not moving as fast as we predicted and that soured the buyer’s trust.

How many key relationships do you have in this account? That’s hard to say…the buyer and the procurement manager for sure and our company has several relationships with service, shipping, receiving quality as so on.

Just you, how many relationships have you built over the years in this key account? The buyer and the procurement manager and some people in quality and accounts payable.

How would you rank your depth of relationship with people at this account? Are you an acquaintance, vendor, or seen as a trusted industry advisor? Honestly, a vendor is all the Buyer wants and an acquaintance with others.

Who else are key decision makers in this customer? She listed at least six new names and new roles.

Is there any reason you could not reach out to each of them and ask to interview them to better serve their business? Oh no, my buyer would not like that, everything must run through him.

Has he specifically said he does not want you learning how to better serve this account? No

What could you do to interview these new people and make your buyer happy? I could ask him to help me interview these other leaders in the organization.

Great idea and what could you do to build trust with your buyer as you interview his other team members? Let him know how each conversation went and share what they share with me?

What do you think you could do to better understand your buyer and his needs this year? I could interview him and share what other accounts like him are doing in general terms not to violate our NDAs.

Perfect!

We talked for 30 more minutes and worked on persona-based questions to ask the various business leaders she identified. We agreed it would take her 60 days to interview everyone while also managing the account.60 days ended two weeks ago, and we had a follow up call. She has discovered five new ways to help her key account, shared them with the buyer and the buyer is acting like an internal champion to help her. She is now meeting monthly to discuss the business and not just the status of orders and we are currently working with her buyer to develop a key account growth plan.

What happened?

In my opinion the salesperson had grown too familiar with the customer and the relationship was stale and way too shallow.

I can say this because I experienced this in the 1990s when Walmart was my key account. Luckily a new buyer shook me out of my complacency back then.

Are any of your key account relationships grown stale?

Below are some danger signs to consider for your accounts.

The 10 Danger Signs of Stagnation at Large key Accounts

Lack of Inquisitiveness: When you stop asking questions and seeking to understand your customers’ evolving needs, you risk falling behind. Markets change, competitors innovate, and customer preferences evolve. Failing to stay curious about your clients’ challenges and goals can lead to missed opportunities to offer tailored solutions and maintain a competitive edge.

Stale Relationships: A stagnant relationship is a dying relationship. If your interactions with key accounts have become routine and predictable, it’s a sign that you may have become too familiar. Customers crave novelty and value partners who bring fresh ideas and perspectives to the table. Neglecting to inject energy and creativity into your interactions can result in disengagement and, ultimately, lost revenue. Stale relationships lack a key account growth plan and you meetings feel more like going through the motions.

Too Few Relationships : As a strategic account manager you must build your relationship matrix with decision-makers and influencers in your key account. Salespeople who only build one or two relationships are vulnerable to key account managers who build a wide and deep key account relationship matrix. Quick Assessment? How many relationships do your strategic account manager have in each key account? If it’s less than five your relationship is too familiar and vulnerable.

Limited Exploration of New Opportunities: If you find yourself sticking to the same tried-and-tested strategies without exploring new avenues for growth, it’s a red flag. Innovation is key to staying relevant in the marketplace. Whether it’s introducing new products or services, entering untapped markets, or adopting emerging technologies, a reluctance to embrace change indicates complacency.

Overreliance on Past Successes: While past successes can be a source of confidence, relying solely on them can hinder future progress. If you frequently reference past achievements to justify your approach without considering current market dynamics, you may be resting on your laurels. Remember, what worked yesterday may not work tomorrow. Adaptability is essential for sustained success.

Limited Engagement Beyond Transactional Interactions: Healthy relationships with key accounts extend beyond transactional exchanges. If your interactions primarily revolve around closing deals and fulfilling orders, you’re missing out on opportunities to deepen connections. Invest in building rapport, understanding your clients’ broader business objectives, and offering value-added services that demonstrate your commitment to their success.

Failure to Grow Share of Wallet: A strategic account managers role must grow your unfair share of the customers wallet in your product or service category. If your share of wallet has not increased in the last 12 months your relationship is too familiar.

Resistance to Feedback or Criticism: Complacency breeds defensiveness. If you find yourself resistant to feedback or dismissive of constructive criticism from clients, it’s a sign that you may have become too comfortable in your position. Embrace feedback as an opportunity for growth and improvement. Actively seek input from key accounts to identify areas where you can enhance your offerings and better meet their needs.

Decline in Customer Satisfaction or Retention: Ultimately, the litmus test for whether you’ve become too familiar with key accounts lies in their satisfaction and loyalty. Monitor indicators such as customer satisfaction scores, retention rates, and feedback to gauge the health of your relationships. A decline in these metrics suggests that your approach may be falling short and warrants a reassessment of your strategies.

Decline in Net Profit by Customer: As key account managers your role is to grow your share of wallet and uncover challenges and problems your key accounts have and help them solve them. You must challenge how you serve the account and strive to be more effective and efficient. When done consistently and correctly your key account net profit by customer will increase. If your net profit by customer is declining you have grown too familiar with the account and you risk your terms of trade are adding too much to the cost of sale and your customer is not experiencing the value, you expected for the investment.

While fostering strong relationships with key accounts is essential for business success, it’s imperative to guard against complacency. Being too familiar with large customers can lead to stagnation, resulting in a decline in sales and lost revenue. By remaining vigilant for signs of complacency and continuously striving to innovate and add value, you can ensure that your relationships with key accounts remain dynamic, fruitful, and mutually beneficial in the long run.

Have your key account managers grown too familiar with their accounts?

Do your Strategic Account Managers have the consultative sales skills to uncover unresolved key account problems?

Do your key account managers have a relationship matrix or just one or two relationships?

Let’s schedule a call and discuss how we can help your key account managers drive explosive growth at strategic accounts.

Avoiding a Sales Eclipse: Recognizing the Signs and Protecting Your Revenue

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Here in Cleveland Ohio everyone is excited about the eclipse. As luck would have it the Cleveland and surrounding areas will be perfect to experience a total eclipse. Hotels are hosting visitors from around the world. Local cites have organized Eclipse events and parties and even our children have a day off from school. My wife even bought me a shirt to wear that says..”hello darkness my old friend” From what I understand, it will take an hour to have a full eclipse and we will have darkness for three to four minutes then another hour for the eclipse to disappear.

I was speaking with a business owner this week and I shared his sales problems, and I called it a “sales eclipse”.

His revenue has declined for the last few years and his gross profit margins have decreased as well. He shared he has lost a few large customers over the past twenty-four months and his team has not closed a new customer in some time. To me that’s a sales eclipse. I wrote this short post to help others who may be experiencing the signs of a sales eclipse.

In sales, staying attuned to the needs and challenges of your customers is paramount. Failure to do so can result in a phenomenon known as a “sales eclipse,” where your competitors outshine you by understanding and addressing customer needs better. This can lead to a decline in revenue, diminishing profit margins, and missed opportunities.

Recognizing the signs of a potential sales eclipse is crucial for businesses to pivot and adapt effectively.

Here are six signs to predict if you’re at risk of experiencing a sales eclipse: Stagnant or Declining Revenue:

Decrease in Revenue

One of the most obvious signs of a looming sales eclipse is a consistent decline in revenue over time. If your sales figures are plateauing or decreasing year over year, it’s essential to investigate the root cause. Are your competitors capturing a larger share of the market? Are customer preferences shifting? Understanding the reasons behind revenue trends can help you proactively address any impending challenges.

Decreasing Gross Profit Margins:

A decline in gross profit margins indicates that your pricing strategy may be losing its effectiveness. If your competitors are offering more value for a similar or lower price, customers may be inclined to switch loyalties. Analyze your cost structure, pricing models, and value proposition to ensure that you remain competitive in the market without compromising profitability.

Loss of Key Accounts:

Losing key accounts to competitors is a clear indicator that your team may be out of touch with customer needs. When clients choose to take their business elsewhere, it’s essential to conduct thorough post-mortem analyses to understand why they made the switch. Gathering feedback directly from departing customers in win loss interviews can provide valuable insights into areas where your organization may be falling short. Decreased Customer Satisfaction Scores: Monitoring customer satisfaction scores and feedback is crucial for gauging the effectiveness of your sales efforts.

A decline in Customer Satisfaction:

Indicates that your products or services no longer align with their evolving needs or expectations. Regularly interviewing customers and soliciting feedback can help you identify areas for improvement and make necessary adjustments to prevent a sales eclipse.

Lack of Innovation or Adaptation:

In today’s marketplace, businesses must continuously innovate and adapt to stay ahead of the competition. If your organization is resistant to change or fails to embrace emerging trends, you risk falling behind and experiencing a sales eclipse. Encourage a culture of innovation within your company, foster collaboration across departments, and invest in ongoing training and development for your sales team to ensure they remain agile and responsive to market shifts.

Wrong Sales Mindset :

Are your salespeople focused on helping and serving their customers or hitting their sales goals and commission targets? One of the quickest ways to break a relationship with a customer is for the salesperson to let their needs over shadow the needs and challenges of their customers. Decision- makers can smell commission breath a mile away. Do your salespeople lead with the intent to serve? I challenge you to listen how they speak with their customers and about their customers. We can quickly assess the beliefs and mindsets of your sales team with a sales assessment.

Recognizing the signs of a potential sales eclipse is the first step towards safeguarding your revenue and market position. By staying vigilant, actively engaging with customers, and remaining adaptable in the face of change, you can mitigate the risk of being eclipsed by competitors and sustain long-term success in the marketplace. Providing your team with clear expectations about helping customers consultatively and not “selling them” to hit their commission targets is key.

Remember, understanding and addressing your customers’ current needs and challenges is the key to avoiding a sales eclipse and staying ahead of the curve.

Is your team experiencing a sales eclipse?

Staring at it in hopes it just goes away will only damage your vision for the future.

Putting on dark glasses and hoping things will return to normal soon is not a strategy.

Let’s schedule a call to discuss how your team got to this point and how to quickly drive explosive growth in the future.

The Top 10 Sales Problems and How to Fix Them

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The role of sales is critical to the success of the organization and challenges are inevitable. From generating leads to closing deals, sales professionals encounter a myriad of obstacles that can hinder their success. Identifying these issues and implementing effective solutions is crucial for maintaining a thriving sales operation. Having helped teams fix sales problems for over 37 years I wanted to share what I have observed as common sales problems and how to fix them.

Here are the top 10 sales problems and strategies to overcome them:

1.Lack of Qualified Leads: Without quality leads, sales efforts are often wasted. As I share in my training on identifying your ideal customer, we do not want salespeople contacting anyone who can fog a mirror. We want to spend our time focused on reaching out to current customers and prospects that have a high probability of having problems and challenges we can solve. To address this, we must focus on refining your target audience and implementing robust omnichannel lead generation strategies such as content marketing, social media outreach, and networking events. Additionally, invest in lead scoring to prioritize prospects most likely to convert.

2.Ineffective Sales Communication: Poor communication can result in misunderstandings and missed opportunities. Can your salespeople clearly and succinctly share your companies’ value proposition? As we work with sales teams it is not unusual to assess the team and find as high as 70% of the team cannot share a strong value proposition. Provide comprehensive sales training to your team, emphasizing active listening, effective discovery and qualifying questioning techniques, and clear articulation of value propositions. Encourage regular communication and feedback within the team to foster collaboration and alignment.

3.Difficulty Differentiating from Competitors: In crowded markets, standing out from competitors is essential. Here we want your sales team to understand your distinctive competence. We want to answer the question: Why do customers buy from us? Conduct thorough market research to understand your competition and identify unique selling points. We highly encourage the teams we work with to conduct voice of customer research. In this research our team will ask what your product or service does well? What competitors do you buy from? Why don’t you buy those products or services from your company? In these critical customer and prospect interviews we quickly gather answers to the questions we need to answer. Keep in mind as well the reason someone bought from you five years ago is often much different than why they buy from you today. We must capture the “why” for today. Tailor your messaging to highlight what sets your product or service apart and emphasize the value it delivers to customers today. Work with your salespeople and help them be able to share your value statement conversationally. Equip your salespeople with success stories and case studies that support your value statement.

4.Long Sales Cycles: Lengthy sales cycles can drain resources and impede revenue generation. Long sales cycles also impact the mindset of your salespeople, and we must address this quickly when it occurs. Do you have a formal sales process? Are your salespeople using it or are they skipping steps. For example, it is not unusual to see salespeople act transactionally since the pandemic, skipping rapport, discovery and qualifying. When they skip these steps, the sales cycle becomes long, and close rates decrease. Build a formal sales process and train your salespeople how to use it. Update your CRM to follow the formal sales process and hold salespeople accountable to following the process in your weekly coaching sessions. Streamline the sales process by identifying and addressing common bottlenecks. In an earlier post I referred to places in the sales process where sales stall as roundabouts, the sales spins and spins but does not go anywhere. Implement sales automation tools to expedite administrative tasks and nurture leads more efficiently. Additionally, focus on building strong relationships with prospects to accelerate decision-making.

5.Lack of Sales Alignment with Marketing: When sales and marketing teams aren’t aligned, it can lead to disjointed messaging and missed opportunities. You can quickly determine this is happening when your marketing tea says something like we delivered 123 leads last week and sales shares none of the names we were given were leads. Often, we find what marketing believes is a qualified lead is not a sales qualified lead. Foster collaboration between sales and marketing departments by establishing shared goals and KPIs. Encourage regular communication and feedback to ensure both teams are working towards common objectives. When I led a team that trained the world’s largest companies in product management, we highly encouraged marketing to interview customers and make customer visits. Marketing time with customers helps marketing deliver leads to sales and not just lists.

6.Failure to Adapt to Changing Market Dynamics: Markets are constantly evolving, and sales strategies must evolve accordingly. Do you have an outdated value proposition? Is what your salespeople are saying to customers and prospects no longer resonating with your customers of today? Stay abreast of industry trends, customer preferences, and competitive developments. As mentioned earlier we recommend our clients conduct voice of customer research and make at least two customer interviews per week. Continuously assess and adjust your sales approach to remain agile and responsive to market shifts. For example, today over 75% of the sale process is over before a buyer speaks with a salesperson. We must have a strong web presence and digital marketing strategy that leverages the key words and phrases to help customers and prospects find our site. Sales teams also must be updates with new sales tools, processes, and training.

7.Inadequate Sales Training and Development: Continuous learning is essential for sales success and improving sales effectiveness, yet many organizations overlook training and development initiatives. It is not unusual for a prospect to call me and ask if I can attend a meeting and train their team. Can I attend and deliver content that will help their team? Yes. Is this the best way to train salespeople? NO! I encourage each client to first assess the skills of their salespeople, sales managers, and sales leaders. Then collaboratively we work together and design a spaced stacked learning experience that is designed for retention and deliver the maximum ROI on your training dollars invested. In our training we offer interactive virtual training with application exercises for each skill. We recommend investing in ongoing sales training programs that cover product knowledge, sales techniques, and industry trends. Provide opportunities for skill development and career advancement to keep your sales team engaged and motivated. If this feels daunting it does not need to be. It starts with understanding the skills of your team and delivering training to close skills gaps we discover. We must deliver training that is retained and applied in their daily activity. Once we have created a strong sales skill foundation, we can deliver specific training based on needs sales managers observe. For example, one client I trained a year ago has asked I deliver key account planning and business acumen training. Another client prefers to use sales books. We have the sales team read books like SPIN Selling, Trusted Advisor, and many more. One client asked I share monthly You tube videos that reinforce and refresh sales skills. Other clients ask we create sales scenarios for sales managers to use in their sales meetings for salespeople to practice specific skills. Top preforming salespeople are trained and confidently drive explosive growth in revenue and gross margins, ( if you would like to learn more about sales training you can download a white paper here)

8.Resistance to Embracing Technology: Technology can enhance sales efficiency and effectiveness, but some sales professionals may be resistant to adopting new tools and processes. Offer comprehensive training and support to help your team embrace technology solutions such as CRM systems, sales automation software, and analytics platforms. Highlight the benefits of these tools in streamlining workflows and driving results. The quickest way to help your sales team embrace and use new tools is to clearly articulate the benefits to them. Salespeople , from my experience often resist new tools because they feel it is one more way for ‘big brother” to watch me. Help them see the new technology to improve their results and compensation.

9.Inconsistent Sales Performance: Inconsistency in sales performance can be demoralizing and detrimental to overall success. We refer to it as roller coaster revenue or random acts of sales. One very strong sales month or quarter then one or two quarter with sales results struggling. Implement a performance management system that sets clear expectations, tracks progress, and rewards top performers. Provide coaching and support to underperforming team members, identifying areas for improvement, and offering targeted training and development opportunities. As buyers have become must more sophisticated, the old days of random acts of sales do not work. We must have a formal sales process with specific leading indicator KPI’s.

10.Lack of Customer Focus: Ultimately, sales success hinges on understanding and meeting customer needs. Do your salespeople have commission breath? Buyers can smell commission breath from a mile away. What is the salesperson’s intent in speaking with the decisionmaker? Are your salespeople reaching out to ideal customers and trying to help the customer solve common problems or are they selling to hit their goals and commission? Salespeople who take a consultative approach, build business relationships, and collaboratively suggest solutions become top performers. Salespeople with commission breath take a transactional approach and decisionmakers can feel it. Cultivate a customer-centric culture within your organization, emphasizing empathy, responsiveness, and a commitment to delivering value. Encourage active listening and solicitation of feedback to continuously refine your products and services to better serve your customers.

Addressing these top sales problems requires a combination of strategic planning, effective communication, and continuous improvement.

By proactively identifying and resolving these challenges, organizations can empower their sales teams to achieve greater success and drive sustainable explosive growth.

A few questions for you to consider….

Do your salespeople have the skills to meet their goals?

Are your customers satisfied or unhappy with how your sales communicates with them?

Do sales and marketing in your organization have the same definition of a lead, opportunity, and prospect?

Can your sales team clearly share your value proposition and is it still resonating today?

Are your salespeople trained and equipped to sell consultatively or do they have a bad case of commission breath?

What impact would it have on your revenue and gross margins to have a trained sales team that grows organic revenue by more than 20%?

What impact would it have on your net income if your salespeople improved their skills selling based on value and not just a transaction based on price?

Let’s schedule a call if you would like to assess your sales teams’ skills today and develop a plan to close any sales skills gaps, we discover.

Key Considerations When Improving Sales Effectiveness: Sales Skill, Mindset Coaching, Sales Process, Systems, and Sales Manager Training

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Improving sales effectiveness is a multifaceted endeavor that requires attention to various aspects of the sales process, from individual skill development to organizational strategies. In today’s competitive marketplace, companies must continuously refine their approach to sales to stay ahead of the curve. Market-leading organizations are investing in sales enablement and improving sales effectiveness. Think about how much your business has changed in the last few years. We must understand our customers and adapt how our teams serve customers in the future. It is not a one-and-done exercise but a continuous process.

Here are key considerations to keep in mind when aiming to enhance sales performance:

Understanding your customers and markets today: Market-leading organizations continuously research to understand their customers and markets better. As I shared in my books, Driving Explosive Growth and Voice of Customer, knowing your customers is crucial in driving increases in revenue and profits.

Why do customers buy from you?
Why do they also buy from competitors?
What share of your wallet do you have?
What is their buying process for solving new challenges today?
What criteria do they need to make buying decisions?
Are your customers satisfied or preparing to defect soon?
Do you know if your customers refer others to you?
What are the top challenges your customers are facing today?

These questions and more will help your team meet your customers’ needs today and improve your sales effectiveness.

Sales Skill Development:

Invest in ongoing training programs to develop and enhance the core selling skills of your sales team, including professional prospecting, discovery and qualifying skills, consultative selling, objection handling, negotiation, and closing techniques. As we assess sales teams to prescribe the training and coaching, they require, closing skills continue to rank very high as needed training.
Tailor training sessions to address specific areas of improvement identified through sales effectiveness assessments, performance evaluations, customer feedback, and sales metrics analysis.
Provide opportunities for role-playing exercises, real-world simulations, and continuous learning to reinforce skill development and promote a culture of continuous improvement.
Foster peer-to-peer learning.

Mindset Coaching:

Recognize mindset’s critical role in sales success and incorporate mindset coaching into your sales training programs.
Help sales professionals cultivate a positive attitude, resilience, and confidence to overcome challenges and persevere in the face of rejection.
Encourage a growth mindset that fosters a belief in one’s ability to learn, adapt, and improve over time rather than a fixed mindset that limits potential.

As we assess teams today, we often find limiting beliefs like the need to be liked more significant than their need to be respected, or they have a fear of talking about money, or they believe asking for the order is manipulative when asking for the order will help salespeople better serve their customers.

Sales Process Optimization: Evaluate and streamline your sales process to remove unnecessary steps, reduce friction, and improve efficiency. Map out the customer journey from initial contact to conversion and identify areas where bottlenecks or inefficiencies occur. When a sales team designs and incorporates a formal sales process, it often sees a lift in revenue of 15% in the next six to twelve months. Following a formal sales process helps salespeople understand their customers’ needs and challenges and collaboratively design solutions with their customers. We have seen close rates increase by 30% or double in some cases.

Implement technology: Solutions such as customer relationship management (CRM) systems to automate repetitive tasks, track interactions, and provide insights for informed decision-making. CRMs help salespeople give better service to their customers and prospects while empowering sales enablement to identify key insights to improve overall sales effectiveness.

Sales Systems Integration: Integrate your sales systems with other departments and functions within the organization, such as marketing, customer service, and finance, to ensure alignment and collaboration. Leverage data analytics and reporting tools to gain visibility into sales performance metrics, revenue forecasts, and customer insights. Enable seamless communication and data sharing across platforms to facilitate a unified customer engagement and support approach. Power BI dashboards give salespeople actionable insights, help remove random acts of sales, make sales more of a science, and drive more predictable results.

Sales Manager Training:

Equip sales managers with the skills, knowledge, and resources they need to lead and support their teams effectively.
Provide training on coaching and mentoring techniques to help managers develop the talents and capabilities of their sales representatives.
Foster a culture of accountability and performance excellence by setting clear expectations, providing regular feedback, and recognizing and rewarding achievements.

Our data reinforces salespeople today want to be coached led and valued not micromanaged. Training your sales managers will improve your sales results and employee engagement and retention.

Next steps?

Improving sales effectiveness requires a holistic approach encompassing sales skill development, mindset coaching, process optimization, systems integration, and sales manager training. By addressing these fundamental considerations, organizations can empower their sales teams to achieve peak performance and drive sustainable growth in today’s dynamic business environment.

Do you desire to improve sales effectiveness in your sales organization?

We recommend the following ten steps to improve sales effectiveness:

Voice of customer research – understand customer satisfaction, net promotor score, and the current challenges your customers, prospects, and markets face.
Conduct Sales Effectiveness and Improvement Analysis – what sales skills and beliefs support your strategic growth, and what ones must improve so your sales team can execute the sales and profit growth plan?
Deliver training
Deliver coaching
Establish KPIs to measure what matters
Develop a regular meeting cadence of talking about things that matter to the business
Develop your managers and leaders
Update your strategic growth plan based on market conditions today
Frequently monitor transaction data
Make continuous learning part of your culture.

Let’s schedule a call if you would like to explore how to improve the sales effectiveness of your sales organization.

Reprogramming Your Sales Mindset: The Key to Driving Sales Growth

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Mindset is everything in becoming a top-performing salesperson. Your beliefs, attitudes, and perceptions shape your actions, determine your Success, and ultimately impact your sales results. Whether you’re a seasoned sales professional or just starting out, understanding the power of mindset and learning to reprogram limiting thoughts is essential for achieving sustained sales growth. Teams often assess sales skills and prescribe training, but by training sales managers to coach and coach the team to correct mindsets, teams will see the revenue and profit growth they desire.

1. The Power of Mindset in Sales:

Your mindset influences every aspect of the sales process, from prospecting to closing deals. A positive and growth-oriented mindset can help you overcome challenges, handle rejection, and stay motivated despite setbacks. Conversely, a negative or limiting mindset can help your performance, leading to missed opportunities and growth in sales.

As we assess sales teams, we discover sales skills gaps, often what we refer to as “head trash.” Head trash is a belief that limits the salesperson’s future Success. Sales skills can usually be corrected with training application exercises and improved systems, processes, and selling tools. When we discover limiting beliefs, it requires a focused coaching program that can often take twelve to eighteen months( from my experience) to improve.

2. Identifying Limiting Beliefs:

Limiting beliefs are deeply ingrained thoughts or assumptions that prevent you from reaching your full potential. They often stem from past experiences, fear of failure, or negative self-talk. Common limiting beliefs in sales include “I’m not good enough,” “No one wants to buy from me,” or “I’ll never hit my targets.” Recognizing and acknowledging these beliefs is the first step towards reprogramming them.

Common limiting beliefs we discover working with sales teams today include….

The need to be liked more than the need to be respected.
Difficulty discussing money. ( Particularly as the size of the order increases)
Call reluctance due to fear of rejection.
Sending a quote is a closing technique.
Sales is manipulation.
Customers do not value what we sell.
Our prices are too high.
I cannot sell a price increase.
Our competitor’s product or service is superior.
Cold calling is bothering people.
My sales manager does not understand sales today.
Building multiple relationships in key accounts will hurt my relationship with the buyer.
I don’t believe in our sales plan strategy.
If I ask discovery and qualifying questions, it will hurt my relationship.
My sales goal is unrealistic

strong>3. Reprogramming Your Mindset:

Reprogramming your mindset involves replacing limiting beliefs with empowering ones that align with your goals and aspirations. This process requires self-awareness, intentionality, and consistent effort. Remember, you may have built your limiting beliefs over your lifetime, and it will take time and commitment to have the right mindset.

Here are some strategies to help you reprogram your mindset for sales success:

Challenge Negative Thoughts: Whenever you catch yourself thinking about a limiting belief, challenge it with evidence to the contrary. For example, if you believe that no one wants to buy from you, remind yourself of past successful sales interactions or positive customer feedback.

Practice Affirmations: Affirmations are positive statements that reinforce desired beliefs or behaviors. Incorporate affirmations into your daily routine to counteract negative self-talk and cultivate a mindset of confidence and abundance. For instance, repeat statements like “I am a top-performing salesperson” or “Every rejection brings me closer to a yes.” If they haven’t bought yet, I must explain value better.”

Visualize Success: Visualization is a powerful tool for reprogramming the subconscious mind. Take time daily to visualize yourself achieving your sales goals, closing deals, and surpassing targets. Engage all your senses and imagine the feeling of Success in vivid detail. When I was the sales training manager for Timken, a multibillion-dollar bearing manufacturer, our trainees designed vision boards of what sales success would mean in their lives.

Seek Growth Opportunities:

Embrace challenges and setbacks as opportunities for growth rather than failures.
View each rejection or obstacle as a chance to learn, adapt, and improve your skills.
Adopt a growth mindset that focuses on continuous improvement and resilience.

Surround Yourself with Positivity: Surround yourself with positive influences, whether supportive colleagues, mentors, or inspirational content. Avoid toxic environments or negative individuals who reinforce limiting beliefs and drain your energy.

>strong>3. Measuring Success:

As you work on reprogramming your mindset, track your progress and celebrate small victories along the way. Measure Success not just in terms of sales numbers but also in terms of personal growth, resilience, and mindset shifts. Keep a journal to record positive experiences, breakthroughs, and insights gained through the process.

Next Steps

Your mindset can be your greatest asset or your biggest obstacle in sales. By reprogramming limiting thoughts and cultivating a positive, growth-oriented mindset, you can unlock your full potential, drive sustained sales growth, and give your customers a better buying experience. Remember, Success in sales is not just about what you do but also about how you think.

First, we must identify the limiting beliefs your sales team has along with any sales skills gaps they have.

Then, we must prescribe training and coaching over several months, and in some cases, a year, to establish the right sales growth mindsets.

Last we must train and coach your sales managers and leaders to coach salespeople through limiting beliefs.

What limiting beliefs could your salespeople have?

How could these beliefs be hurting their goal attainment?

How would it impact your bottom line to identify and correct the “head trash” your salespeople are carrying around?

What have your salespeople shared in meetings that demonstrate sales mindset challenges?

Let’s schedule a call if you’d like to talk about the sales mindset.

Understanding Who Your Company Needs: Consultant, Coach, Trainer, or Facilitator

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In the rapidly evolving world of business, external expertise can provide an invaluable lifeline to companies striving to scale and maximize profitability. Depending on the unique requirements and challenges of your business, the solution may lie with a Consultant, Coach, Trainer, or Facilitator. Each of these professionals brings to the table unique strengths tailored to handle distinct areas of your business. However, understanding when and how to engage with each can be a conundrum. This article aims to provide a clear understanding of the roles these professionals play and guide you in making an informed choice.

Understanding the Different Roles

The Consultant

A Consultant is an external professional who provides expert advice in a specific area such as operations, technology, management, strategy, sales strategy, marketing, or human resources, among others. They draw from their rich knowledge pool and extensive industry experience to solve complex business challenges and offer solutions that propel growth.

Consultants can provide objective, fresh perspectives and innovative solutions that might not be immediately apparent from within the organization. They conduct an extensive analysis, provide detailed action plans, and may even assist with the implementation.

However, it’s essential to remember that a consultant’s role is usually temporary, and project based. While they might help you navigate a complex business situation or overcome a significant hurdle, they usually do not contribute to capacity building within your team or foster long-term capabilities.

The Coach

A Coach works on a more personal level, acting as a catalyst to drive individual or team performance. They work closely with their clients to understand their strengths, weaknesses, goals, and challenges. They then provide guidance, feedback, and accountability to help individuals or teams improve performance, develop new skills, and reach their potential.

The power of coaching lies in its ability to trigger lasting change and foster personal and professional growth. By focusing on individual or team development, a coach can substantially enhance overall productivity and efficiency within the organization.

However, coaching requires a significant commitment of time and energy from both the coach and the individual or team involved. It’s not a quick-fix solution to pressing business problems but a longer-term strategy for performance improvement and talent development.

The Trainer

A Trainer’s role is centered on skills development. They design and deliver training programs aimed at enhancing specific competencies within your team. Whether it’s technical knowledge, soft skills, or understanding and implementing a new process, a trainer can equip your team with the needed skills.

The effectiveness of a trainer often hinges on their expertise in the subject matter, their ability to engage the audience, and the team’s motivation to learn. If used correctly, a trainer can significantly improve the performance and productivity of your team. However, bear in mind that the impact of training can sometimes be hard to quantify and may not provide an immediate solution to complex strategic issues.

The Facilitator

A Facilitator is an expert in guiding group processes. They ensure that meetings, brainstorming sessions, workshops, or team discussions are productive and inclusive. They’re skilled at navigating group dynamics, encouraging participation, managing conflicts, and helping teams reach a consensus.

Facilitators can help you make your team interactions more effective and efficient. They foster an environment where every team member’s input is valued, leading to better decision-making and more inclusive and collaborative team culture.

However, their focus is primarily on the process, not the content. While a facilitator can help ensure smooth processes and effective communication, they generally do not provide advice or solutions related to specific business areas.

Deciding What Your Business Needs

Choosing the right professional – Consultant, Coach, Trainer, or Facilitator – necessitates a thorough understanding of your business’s current status and future aspirations. Making the right choice requires a multi-faceted examination of your business. Here’s how to go about it:

Identify the Challenges

Begin by assessing your business’s current challenges. Is your company facing a strategic obstacle that requires expert advice? Or perhaps there’s a lack of essential skills or knowledge within your team hindering your progress. Maybe it’s a case of inefficient meetings and decision-making processes, or a need for individual performance improvement. Identifying the challenges will help point you towards the suitable professional – Consultant, Trainer, Facilitator, or Coach.

Define the Objectives

What are you aiming to achieve? Do you wish to implement a new strategic initiative, enhance the technical skills of your team, improve team cooperation, or boost individual performance levels? Your objectives will play a critical role in determining the kind of professional expertise your business needs.

Evaluate Business Size and Industry

The size and industry of your business can also significantly influence the decision. A small startup might benefit more from a Consultant to guide through the initial setup and growth challenges, while a well-established enterprise may need a Facilitator to enhance team collaboration and decision-making effectiveness. Similarly, the industry in which your business operates might require specific expertise – a technology company might need a Trainer to teach new programming skills, while a sales-oriented business might need a Coach to improve sales techniques and boost team performance.

Consider Long-term Goals

What’s your vision for your business? How do you see your business evolving over the next few years? Your long-term goals can help determine which professional will bring the most value. For instance, if your goal is to rapidly scale your business, a Consultant with expertise in growth strategies might be ideal. Conversely, if your goal is to create a culture of continuous learning and improvement, investing in a Trainer or Coach might be more beneficial.

Reflect on Resources

Lastly, consider your available resources. Each professional comes with their costs, and while they can provide significant value, it’s vital to ensure that their services align with your budgetary considerations. Take into account not only the direct financial costs but also the time and energy your team will need to invest to work effectively with these professionals.

Conclusion

Consultants, Coaches, Trainers, and Facilitators each bring unique value to your business. Understanding the distinctive role each can play is crucial to ensure you harness their expertise effectively to support your business’s growth and profitability.

Making the right choice requires a balance of different considerations, always keeping in mind that the primary aim is to add value to your business and drive it closer to its goals. It’s not about just hiring an expert but about finding the perfect fit for your unique business needs. Doing so will help you make the most of their skills and contributions, driving your business to new heights of success.

Let’s schedule a call if you would like to explore the best person to help your team achive next level results. As a Scaling Up Coach I often help coach teams who want to design a strategy to scale much faster than their industry averages. Often in this process we assess the skills of the sales team to ensure they have the skills to execute the strategy we design. Once we assess the team we often find skills gaps and we deliver sales skills training, a formal sales process, and coaching.

Weathering Economic Unpredictability: Strategic Planning Steps for Challenging Times

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In an era defined by its volatility and uncertainty, with markets fluctuating at an unprecedented pace, strategic planning stands as an indispensable guidepost. As an essential process that paves the way towards actualizing a vision by translating it into comprehensive goals and a sequence of actionable steps, strategic planning goes beyond mere organizational formalities. It’s a vital tool for survival, a roadmap that ensures firms remain on course amidst challenging circumstances.

Understanding the Importance of Strategic Planning

Amid the waves of uncertainty and change, strategic planning becomes an anchor, grounding businesses and enabling them to ride out the storm. This comprehensive planning process orchestrates a unified vision, primes the organization for upcoming challenges, and ensures efficient resource allocation aligning with the business mission. By threading together organizational objectives and tactics, strategic planning fabricates a coherent, robust pattern that guides the company towards its desired goals.

Steps to Creating a Strategic Plan in Uncertain Times

Economic turbulence and unpredictable circumstances call for a comprehensive strategic plan that goes beyond the norms. The approach requires being diligent, resourceful, and creative. These indicators provide you with real-time feedback, allowing for adjustments to be made along the way. Regular performance reviews should be scheduled to ensure strategies are having the desired impact, with tweaks made where necessary to optimize outcomes. This iterative process ensures your strategic plan stays relevant and effective, even amidst changing circumstances.

Here is an extended exploration of the steps to create a strategic plan:

1. Situational Analysis

Situational analysis is the first step in creating a strategic plan, especially in uncertain times. This involves a comprehensive review of the current economic environment, market trends, competition landscape, and potential opportunities and threats that might impact your business. It’s like taking a snapshot of what’s happening in your industry and broader market to identify the forces affecting your business.

An in-depth situational analysis goes beyond surface-level trends, seeking to uncover underlying factors and forces shaping the industry. This includes analyzing customer behavior patterns, technological advancements, global economic trends, and regulatory changes that could significantly impact your business. Recognizing these factors allows you to position your business to capitalize on favorable conditions and minimize the impact of adverse scenarios.

2. Identifying Core Strengths and Weaknesses

With a clear understanding of the external landscape, shift your attention inwards to the inner workings of your organization. Recognizing your strengths and weaknesses allows you to leverage your core competencies and address areas where your business may be vulnerable.

It’s about objectively assessing your resources, capabilities, processes, and structures to ascertain where you stand. Are your current resources capable of executing your planned strategies? Where are your vulnerabilities? What aspects of your operations are most affected by external changes? These are questions that should guide your introspection. This process might also involve benchmarking against competitors to understand your relative market position.

3. Setting Realistic Goals and Objectives

Informed by your detailed internal and external analysis, the next step is setting realistic goals and objectives. These should be closely tied to your company’s overarching vision and mission.

Your objectives need to be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. They should provide a clear direction for your team and be framed in a way that allows progress tracking. Whether it’s enhancing operational efficiency, increasing market share, or innovating product lines, each objective should be clearly defined and broken down into actionable tasks.

4. Develop Strategies and Tactics

Once you have set your goals, the next step involves crafting your strategies and tactics – the ‘how’ to your ‘what’. Your strategies should map out the major steps needed to reach your objectives, while the tactics detail the specific actions that will bring your strategies to life.

At this stage, it is essential to consider the resources needed for each action, including staff, materials, technology, and budget. Ensure that the devised strategies and tactics are realistic and align with your available resources. This might involve re-allocating resources or identifying potential partnerships to bolster your strategic initiatives.

5. Establish Metrics and KPIs

Finally, your strategic plan should outline how progress will be measured. Defining key performance indicators (KPIs) allows you to assess how well your strategies are working and make necessary adjustments. These metrics should be linked to your strategic objectives and provide insights into your overall business performance.

Flexibility in Strategic Planning

Flexibility is an integral part of strategic planning, especially in times of uncertainty. When external conditions shift unpredictably, a rigid strategic plan can prove to be a pitfall. Instead, embracing adaptability allows your business to pivot quickly, seizing opportunities and mitigating risks that arise.

Strategic plans should be treated as living documents, open to evolution and refinement in response to changing market dynamics. This involves being open-minded, willing to challenge assumptions and prepared to make adjustments when necessary. A dynamic approach to strategic planning involves regular plan reviews. By assessing plan performance against set KPIs and considering new market intelligence, you can refine your strategies as needed.

Moreover, fostering a culture of agility and resilience in your organization is vital. This includes embracing innovative thinking, encouraging proactive problem-solving, and cultivating an environment that views change as an opportunity rather than a threat. A flexible mindset at all organizational levels helps drive swift, effective action when the unexpected occurs.

Flexibility in strategic planning is not about constant, aimless change. Instead, it’s about being well-prepared and responsive to external changes, allowing your business to navigate uncertainty while staying on course towards its objectives.

Conclusion

Embarking on the journey of strategic planning amidst uncertain times may seem like navigating through uncharted waters. However, with meticulous analysis, well-defined objectives, and a commitment to flexibility, it’s not only feasible but also vital for guiding your organization towards its goals. Despite economic unpredictability, a well-structured strategic plan acts as a sturdy anchor, keeping your business stable amidst turbulent times, ensuring survival, and laying a sturdy foundation for future success.

By adhering to these strategic planning steps, businesses can transform challenging circumstances into opportunities for growth and improvement. It’s crucial to remember, survival in the business world is not about being the strongest or most intelligent; it’s about being the most adaptable to change. So, arm your organization with the formidable power of strategic planning and consider each change as a steppingstone towards success.

Would you like a strategic plan assessment and tune-up if needed?

Let’s schedule a call to ensure your strategic plan is designed to deliver the results your shareholders expect.

Fishing in the Right Pond: Strategies for Attracting and Retaining Your Ideal Customers

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In the vast ocean of potential customers, not every fish is your catch. Understanding and targeting your ideal customers is critical to your company’s growth and profitability. One of the most effective and efficient ways to grow sales and profits is call on your ideal customer profile. This article will guide you through the process of identifying your ideal customers, recognizing the non-ideal ones, and maintaining your focus even during challenging times.

Crafting the Ideal Customer Profile

Attracting and retaining ideal customers is crucial for business success, and it begins with crafting an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP). An ICP is a detailed description of your perfect client, the one most likely to benefit from your product or service.

Creating an ICP starts with identifying key demographics such as age, gender, location, occupation, and income. This basic information helps identify who your product or service is likely to attract. Then, delve into the psychographics, which explore attitudes, interests, lifestyles, and behaviors of your customers. Understand their pain points, goals, aspirations, and purchasing habits.

The final step in crafting an ICP is aligning it with your company’s offerings and values. Identify your product or service’s unique selling points and how it solves customers’ problems or enhances their lives. Consider your company’s values and how they resonate with your ideal customers. Remember to revisit and refine your ICP as your business evolves and you gather more customer data.

Understanding Your Ideal Customers

Understanding your ideal customers goes beyond creating an ICP. You must comprehend why these customers are a perfect fit for your business. This involves understanding their specific needs, the industry they operate in, their size, and their purchasing ability. Consider what makes them ready to buy, their brand loyalty, or their ability to influence others in their network.

Understanding your ideal customers also means recognizing their value beyond a single purchase. Ideal customers engage with your brand over the long term, provide repeat business, and may refer new customers. They can enhance your brand’s reputation, contribute valuable feedback, and help build a community around your products or services.

Comprehending the unique characteristics that make these customers an ideal fit for your business is crucial. These could be their specific problem or need that your product or service can address, their industry or market in which your company has expertise or competitive advantage, or their size and budget capacity for regular purchases of your product or service.

Ultimately, recognizing your ideal customers isn’t merely about knowing their characteristics, but understanding why they’re the perfect match for your business. This insight guides your marketing and sales efforts, ensuring that you’re reaching out to the customers who are most likely to drive growth and success for your business. We recommend conducting voice of customer research, so we clearly understand why some of your most profitable accounts buy from you as well as the buying process and criteria they use. Once we understand your current high profit customers, we can target other possible accounts that a similar to them.

Identifying Non-Ideal Customers

Recognizing non-ideal customers is just as important as knowing your ideal ones. These customers may have characteristics that make them a poor fit for your business, leading to issues such as reduced profitability, strained resources, or misaligned expectations. Some common attributes of non-ideal customers may include a lack of budget, mismatched values or goals, unreasonable expectations, or a history of poor payment habits. We use a net profit by customer analysis to identify those 20% or so of customers leaking profits each time you serve them.

By identifying and understanding these traits, businesses can make informed decisions about which customers to engage with and which ones to politely decline. Developing strategies to disengage from non-ideal customers, such as offering alternative solutions or referring them to more suitable providers, can help maintain a healthy customer base that supports your company’s long-term success and growth.

Staying True to Your Strategy: Avoiding Compromises During Tough Times

The business world is riddled with uncertainties, and it is not uncommon for organizations to face occasional revenue downturns. During such challenging times, the pressure to keep the numbers ticking might lead some businesses to compromise on their ideal customer strategy, accepting orders from non-ideal customers. However, this tactic may prove detrimental to the long-term health of the business.

When businesses compromise on the quality of customers, they invite what’s referred to as ‘bad orders’. These are orders that might bring immediate revenue but could lead to losses in net profit over time. They could result from servicing customers outside of your specialty or those requiring excessive resources and effort, ultimately hurting your profitability.

Moreover, bad orders can impact more than just your bottom line. They can create additional strain on your sales, service, and support teams, leading to lower morale and productivity. This can erode your team’s focus and capacity to service the ideal customers efficiently, ultimately affecting customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Maintaining a disciplined focus on ideal customers during tough times is thus critical. Even though this approach might not immediately inflate revenue, it ensures sustainable growth and profitability. It maintains internal resources’ effectiveness and upholds the company’s reputation for quality, reinforcing the business’s strategic alignment and success. It’s a testament to the adage that, in business, quality often trumps quantity.

Strengthening Sales Discipline: Why Salespeople Shouldn’t Compromise

Sales discipline is a cornerstone of business success, and it’s critical that sales teams stay focused on serving ideal customers. When salespeople compromise and chase non-ideal customers, it can lead to a host of issues including strained resources, diminished service quality, and potential damage to the company’s reputation. Each bad fit customer might bring immediate revenue, but the cost of servicing them often outweighs the benefits in the long run.

Instead, by maintaining a disciplined approach, salespeople can ensure they’re building valuable, long-term relationships with customers who are truly a good fit for the company’s offerings. This not only enhances customer satisfaction but also bolsters the company’s bottom line and ensures sustainable growth.

Ensuring Good Order Alignment with Your Overall Strategy

All orders are not created equal. Evaluate each one based on its strategic fit and profitability. Prioritize orders that align with your company’s goals and objectives.

Consider implementing a process to review and approve orders for strategic alignment. This will help ensure that your company stays focused on serving your ideal customers and doesn’t get sidetracked by orders that may provide short-term revenue but lack long-term value.

Conclusion

Attracting and retaining your ideal customers is like fishing in the right pond: it’s more productive, satisfying, and sustainable than casting a wide net in the wrong waters. It’s a discipline that requires focus, consistency, and occasionally, the courage to say no.

Don’t compromise on the quality of your customers, even when times are tough. Stick to your strategy, stay true to your values, and keep your eyes on the prize: a loyal, profitable customer base that values what you offer as much as you value them.

So, invest in creating and targeting your ideal customer profiles. Not only will this help you avoid the pitfalls of bad orders, but it will also guide your company towards long-term profitability and growth. Happy fishing!

If your team would like to assess if your sales team is fishing in the right pond with the right bait, to catch your ideal customers let’s schedule a call.

Seven Innovative Ways to Drive Strategic Growth

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The lifeblood of any company is its ability to grow and expand. Without growth, a company will eventually stagnate and die. This can be difficult for business owners, as it requires creativity and innovation. This blog post will discuss seven innovative ideas for company growth. Some of these may be familiar to you, while others may be new concepts entirely.

Diversification

Renew and update your business model

Voice of Customer Research

Focus on Customer retention

Invest in technology

Expand your Marketing Efforts

Sales Training and Coaching

1) Diversification.

One way to ensure growth for your company is to diversify your products and services. This can be done by expanding into new markets or developing new products that appeal to a broader customer base. By doing this, you are not putting all your eggs in one basket, so to speak, and therefore reducing the risk of stagnation.

Diversification can be difficult as it requires detailed market research and a thorough understanding of your target audience. However, if done correctly, it can lead to significant growth for your company.

Some ideas for diversification include:

Expanding into new markets
Developing new products or services
Offering customized solutions
Focusing on niche markets
Expanding your business through Franchise Direct to reach and increase your customer base

2) Review and Update Your Business Model.

Another way to spur growth for your company is to review your business model. This means taking a close look at the way you do business and seeing if there are any areas that could be improved. This could involve anything from streamlining your processes to changing the way you market your products or services.

Reviewing your business model can identify areas where you may be losing money or customers. Once these areas have been identified, you can then take steps to rectify them, leading to increased growth for your company.

What should you keep doing?

What should you start doing?

What should you stop doing?

3) Capture the Voice of Your Customers:

Think about all the changes businesses have gone through during and post pandemic. How much has your business changed? Market leading organizations are conducting voice of customer research to better understand how buyers buy, what criteria they are using today to make buying decisions and understand your customers overall satisfaction. We recommend having a third party conduct this research to remove the concerns with bias. However, we recognize some clients cannot afford to engage our firm, so we wrote an eBook to help you Leverage the Voice of your Customers to increase revenue.

4) Focus on Customer Retention.

Acquiring new customers is important for any business, but it’s also important to focus on retaining the customers you already have. This can be done by providing excellent customer service and developing long-term relationships with your clients.

In one study 89% of CEOs shared having strong relationships with their clients is key to their success but sadly only 24% of those CEOs provided sales skills training on how to build business relationships.

Focusing on customer retention can ensure that your current customers remain loyal to your brand. This loyalty will lead to word-of-mouth marketing, which is one of the most effective forms of marketing. In turn, this can lead to increased growth for your company.

Some ideas for focusing on Customer Retention:

Developing long-term relationships with clients
Offering excellent customer service
Focusing on customer satisfaction
Building a solid brand identity
Leverage data and build win-win
Build multiple relationships with key account decision makers

5) Invest in Technology.

Technology is always changing, and it’s important to stay ahead of the curve. Investing in new technology can improve your products and services, making them more efficient and effective. This can lead to increased growth as your customers will be more satisfied with your offerings.

It’s important to note that you don’t need to invest in the latest and greatest technology; sometimes, simply investing in updating your current technology can be enough to spur growth.

Some ideas for investing in technology:

Audit your current sales tech stack
Updating your current technology
Investing in new software or hardware
Automating processes
Improving website design

6) Expand Your Marketing Efforts.

Another way to encourage growth for your company is to expand your marketing efforts. This could involve anything from increasing your budget to launching a new marketing campaign. By developing your marketing, you will reach a wider audience and generate more leads, which can lead to increased sales and growth for your company.

Some ideas for expanding your marketing efforts:

Increasing your advertising budget
Update your value message by business persona
Launching a new marketing campaign
Investing in digital marketing
Developing a social media strategy
Speak in the language of your customers
Market solutions not products

7) Sales Training and Coaching

Buyers have spoken and 33% chose not to work with salespeople today and the numbers are growing. In one study 85% of buyers shared they expect a salesperson to connect the dots between what they sell and how it can impact the buyers bottom-line. Sadly, less than 15% of salespeople do this today. In a one-hour meeting with the average sales rep how many minutes were valuable to the buyer and or decisionmaker? SIX! Only six minutes because salespeople show up, throw up and they pitch slap their customers when they should be having conversations that lead to revenue.

Some ideas to train your salespeople

Complete a sales effectiveness assessment
Identify sales skills gaps
Train salespeople to close gaps
Equip sales managers to coach the new sales skills

In conclusion, there are many ways to encourage growth for your company. By implementing some of the ideas listed above, you can take your business to the next level. So, what are you waiting for? Get started today and see the results for yourself!

As always if your tea needs help let’s schedule a tie to chat.

Sell More: Become a Modern Seller

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Are your salespeople seen as “just another rep” or a strategic partner who brings insights and delivers value? Are your salespeople focused on finding unresolved problems with their accounts or commission junkies needing their next fix? Amy Franko’s new book: The Modern Seller will help your salespeople understand what buyers want and need in a salesperson today. The Modern Seller accurately depicts what the sales landscape is like today and provides 5 practical tips to help your salespeople drive top results.

How are your salespeople today differentiating your product and or services in a sea of seemingly similar services?

I think we all can agree buyers today are more knowledgeable. With a click of a mouse they can find product features and benefits, competitors, pricing, and your customer’s comments. It’s now all out there and buyers are skilled at finding it quickly.

So how does your company win?

What if how your salespeople sell became your point of differentiation and value for your customers?

If you want your salespeople to differentiate themselves in our often crowed and highly competitive markets they need to become: Modern Sellers.

What is A Modern Seller?

A modern seller is recognized as a differentiator in their customer’s business and the value of their product or service isn’t fully realized without them. A modern seller ‘s customer sees the work they do together as strategic to their competitive advantage”

Amy Franko

Who wouldn’t want their salespeople seen as: “strategic to their customers competitive advantage”…right?

How do we help “sales reps” evolve into modern sellers?

The author shares 5 dimensions of modern sellers today.

Agile

Entrepreneurial

Holistic

Social

Ambassador

For example the Entrepreneurial dimension is critical to sales success today. You want your salespeople running their area of responsibility as if were their own business. You want them making decisions on how to spend their time to drive the greatest return. Our sellers today must have a balance between strategic thinking and executing to be a top performer today.

The Author unpacks each of the dimensions and shares not only why it is important today but also how to do it. She provides spreadsheet tools your sales teams can use like how to calculate: Loyalty Value and Lifetime value.

In The Modern Seller Amy Franko shares practical insights regarding what behaviors our salespeople must have today to be seen as strategic parts and trusted advisors by their customers.

I highly recommend you add The Modern Seller to your sales library and apply its 5 principles with your sales team.

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