Do you have concerns with your company’s performance, but can’t seem to pinpoint the source of your struggles?
The problem might just be with the way you think. According to Chad Levitt of News Sales Economy, many businesses simply adopt losing strategies and beliefs that inevitably hold them back. The best way to overcome this obstacle, he writes, is to identify your wayward truths and rid yourself of them. Here are some notable examples, as outlined by Levitt: You assume that your business is too small to have an online marketing strategy.…
The summer months are often associated with slow sales and stagnant processes.
But if you’re a businesses that values sales throughout the year (and why wouldn’t you be?), it may be prudent to take proactive measures to mitigate the oncoming slump. Sales blogger Lori Richardson has a few tips to do just that, such as: Be goal-oriented. The weather may be warmer, but your sales are likely to get colder if you don’t focus your company. Make sure that salespeople aren’t straying from a best practices process and sticking to the prescribed sales methodologies.…
The RFP (request for proposal) process can be a hassle for applicants and purveyors alike.
So what if there was a way to sidestep the process and immediately move to negotiations? There may be, writes marketer and developer Matt Heinz, if you’re able to win over the business without firing a single bullet. An RFP, more often than not, is used to dig up the best available offer for a project (in the government’s case, it’s usually used to find the lowest qualifying offer). Heinz says that companies looking to avoid an RFP process…
If it isn’t broke, you shouldn’t fix it.
But for all sales processes, a time will invariably come when it is absolutely necessary to fix your best practices process. There are countless telltale signs that will make your arrival at this juncture plainly obvious: weak sales numbers, inefficiencies and a changed market, to name a few. If an audit of your sales process reveals some significant developments in recent years, you’ll need to make some adjustments, says sales pundit Dave Brock. Here are some important questions to ask: Has the sales…
By the time some startups get in a position to capitalize on the business infrastructure they’ve created, many have no idea how to make money.
While they were busy ensuring that their model was conducive to scaling a business, and handling the details, they lost sight of the bigger picture. All startups have to possess funds in order to maintain the business. Former Digg lead architect, Joe Stump, says that most startups never learn how to make money until they’re relying on their ability to generate revenue to stay afloat. Instead of looking at revenue…
Ever feel like your value proposition draws more crickets than coos?
When this becomes commonplace, a change is likely necessary. But the first step is often the most arduous to decipher because you have to understand the source of your problem. Bob Croston, sales support and marketing expert, says that most companies mistakingly assume that a value proposition must be a statement of intent. It’s not. It’s a three-part proposition of value, he explains. Here are its parts: It must resonate. In order for it to stick with your potential customer, you…
A teleprospector’s job can be grueling at times.
They can expect to make somewhere in the range of 80-100 calls a day, according to Brandon Stamschror. But only 8-19 of those calls will result in a prospect being uncovered. That means that a large majority of the calls will not end well. This, naturally, leads to the first trait of a standout teleprospector: determination. Because of the nature of the job, persistence will be indispensable. When a standout teleprospector encounters a lot of flack, they have the sort of mindset that allows them to push through it. They…
For a company reliant upon B2B sales, intricately understanding the thought process and steps that precede a B2B purchase is crucial.
To aid in that capacity, Baseone, a London-based B2B marketing strategy firm, recently released its annual “Buyersphere” report. The report surveyed approximately 1,000 businesses about their approach to a B2B purchase. And some of the report’s findings were a bit surprising. One of the main points revealed was that
social media ranks low in terms of channel importance to market research. Search engines, at 65 percent, were most commonly used to gather…
In the workplace, it’s important for everyone to have a shared language.
But if you’re lugging up a report teeming with metrics inside of it to your boss, you’re going to create a language barrier. At the C-level, you need to speak in terms of ROI. While the wealth of information about the inner workings of your content marketing strategy is immensely valuable and indispensable to you, this isn’t as important to your boss. As such, you must translate that report into a brief assessment of ROI. How is the sales process being improved? How…
It may seem obvious, but you need to be able to keep astride with your competition in order to be able to attract customers. If it’s clear to the marketplace that your opponents are scoring victories over you, customers will interpret this in a number of ways. Naturally, none of these will be favorable in terms of an assessment of your company. Most business want to create a competitive advantage by improving their competitive positioning. But repeatedly losing out to your competition is a competitive disadvantage. When a customer believes that you’re losing in the market, they assume it’s for a good reason. Perhaps you…
