Let’s talk about your sales and profit margins. How effective do you think your Sales and/or Marketing messages are? Are they compelling and converting leads in to opportunities and opportunities into customers with strong and healthy margins? At what rate? And at what cost to acquire a new customer? (If you don’t know your conversion...Read More

Guest Post by Selena Silvestro, Director of Ground Floor Strategies at The Selling Agency and weekend warrior baseball fan in the bleachers. Read on for first-hand sales advice for Small Business Owners, Solopreneurs, and Sales Pros in Small Businesses: Every business lives and dies by its ability to build revenue. Unfortunately, roughly 80% of businesses...Read More

Many businesses in a B2B channel get their start by filling a need or having a solution that provides a jump on the market. Or maybe, you, as the owner, took your experience and started your business with a front loaded customer base that followed you. However your business got started, there comes a time...Read More

We’ve descended into total “ball” season, folks: football, baseball, the other “football” affectionately known as soccer, and even volleyball. In our house with two sporty kids, right now we’re either playing a game, practicing for a game, watching a game, or talking about a game. I’m writing this post after my daughter’s volleyball practice tonight...Read More

Last post we started the series, “Selling for Non-Sales People” to give a framework and roadmap for those of you who may be business owners, bankers, lawyers, consultants, fundraisers, directors, or anyone who doesn’t have the term “Sales Pro” in their professional title. Everyone is in sales in some capacity – selling ideas, services, influence,...Read More

Last week I was working with a business owner on her sales process. She had engaged a prospective new client and we were discussing the next steps to close this large opportunity. She was nervous, understandably, and she really wanted and needed this account and all the working capital and credibility it would bring. In...Read More

This post evolved from a conversation with a colleague, Gina Trimarco, of Pivot10 Results, a leadership, sales, and service trainer, a studier of people, and a fantastic business sage. Gina uses analogies and metaphors in much of her training and coaching so I challenged her to take part in our March Madness Business blogging and...Read More

Earlier this year, my friend and super sales trainer, Alice Kemper asked me my thoughts about the term “Sales Playbook”. I had shared with Alice that we build these often and help our clients execute these plans and she’s heard the term frequently lately and wanted to know if it was a “buzz word” or...Read More

Last week, part 1 of Rocking Your Resolution, we talked about how most Resolutions die a quick and sad death – like a fruit fly circling a banana. WHY? Well there are many reasons, but you can break it down into two main reasons most resolutions fail: 1) You make the wrong resolution 2) You don’t...Read More

Most small businesses don’t yet have a sales team. All the “selling” has been shouldered by the owner from the launch and through the growth of the business and that owner wears way too many hats. For successful businesses, at some point, the owner decides that growth requires sharing that “sales” hat and then seeks...Read More