Even with great leadership, as your business grows you may notice the increasing tension between working “in the business” – your day-to-day operations – and working “on the business” – developing future revenue strategy, creating policies to support business performance and dealing with compliance issues.

Eventually, your company will benefit from ‘outside’ executives and/or ‘independent’ directors whose experience will help you work “on the business”. They can bring valuable experience to guide your organization through different revenue growth stages.

When someone gives a referral, it is an honor and a gift. Every company wants and needs more referrals to grow profitable revenue. Referrals convert better, close faster, and have a higher customer lifetime value than any other type of lead.

Referrals are preferred over salespeople.

More and more buyers are avoiding salespeople during the buying process. Sales reps, according to Forrester, tend to prioritize a sales agenda over solving a customer’s problem.

If organizations don’t change their outdated thinking and create effective sales models for today’s digital era, Forrester warns that 1 million B2B salespeople will lose their jobs to self-service e-commerce by 2020.

Salespeople Must Adapt

Salespeople must adapt to new culture and the new world of media to research, prospect, and network by sharing educational content and answering questions. As a result, they’re able to build relationships until prospects are ready to buy. "Solve the customer's problem" must become a mantra.

Adding a B2B Referral Strategy

A revenue growth plan dependent 100% on referrals will probably remain a dream, but achieving greater referral success doesn’t have to be out of the realm of possibility. If have satisfied customers who find value in your product and services and if you have a high Net Promoter Score – you may be closer to a referral engine than you think.

Each year annual sales quotas and long-term goals are set. While they are important, when too focused on the end game, it is easy to take your eye off the pipelines. To keep new leads coming into the pipeline, also set manageable prospecting goals.

Last week I attended the “Getting the Deal Done Breakfast Conference” in Bellevue, WA. The topic was: “The Importance of Strategy and Culture in Middle Market Companies and Deal Making.”  The conference was outstanding with 100 attendees benefiting from the expert panel, keynote and networking.

Each day your business is evaluated by potential buyers, people using social media, publishers, critics, competitors, and employees. In the new world of media, much is revealed… for better or for worse.

There is an opportunity to be nominated for an award, but as people look at the opportunity, they are not able to think of any company or person who “deserves” the award. Or they might be thinking “Nominations take time and effort. No person or company I can think of is worth that much effort”.

Here are examples of awards you can be nominated for – or you can nominate another:

• PSBJ's Innovation Awards
  
• Leaders in Health Care Awards 2017
• SBA Small Business Award Nominations for Hawaii Open for 2017
• National Small Business Week Awards
• Small Business Person of the Year
• 100 Best Companies to Work For Awards 2017
• 2017 Washington Manufacturing Awards
• Stevie Awards for Sales & Customer Service

There are many associations and chambers of commerce that offer annual awards to recognize the outstanding achievements. Those people or businesses who receive awards are rewarded… with more business. People like doing business with those who have achieved success.

Some will not care about the award in and of itself as they serve not for fame but for purpose (and profit). They still recognize awards as a symbol of how their team is serving well.

Below are questions to ponder and answer. Use this opportunity to “raise the bar” with the mindset of “Good enough today is not good enough tomorrow.” The thoughts below will help you move your “good” to a new level.

“In strategic planning it is important to discuss key performance indicators (KPI). ... The first step to determining your KPI is to understand the difference between lagging and leading indicators. The second step is to define and monitor your business indicators. Lagging and Leading Indicators.”  - May 27, 2014 - Project Times

Both leading and lagging indicators can occur at approximately the same time and there are circumstances where the leading and lagging indicators may not be easily identified. Today we will review definitions, examples and how to recognize the differences. By doing so, we hope to help you improve Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to make better decisions.

 UPDATE:  11-22-2016   In a ruling Tuesday, U.S. Court Judge Amos L. Mazzant III of the Eastern District of Texas barred the U.S. from implementing the new overtime rules, saying the new revision improperly created a salary test for determining which workers fall under the Fair Labor Standards Act’s so-called “white collar” exemption.  Read the court ruling here.  This puts the following information on a temporary hold. 

On 12/1/16 a new FLSA rule by the Department of Labor will require you to either pay an exempt (salaried) employee an hourly rate along with overtime pay or increase their pay to meet the new threshold limits of $47,476.

Under the proposed rules, the minimum salary threshold would increase from $23,660 per year ($455 per week) to $50,440 ($970 per week) in 2016. The current “highly compensated employee” exemption would increase from $100,000 to $122,148 per year. According to the DOL, as many as five million American workers who are currently exempt could become eligible for overtime protection.

To get a sales team to perform beyond expectations, we focus on these five essentials: 

• Characteristics of a High Performing Sales Team
• Hiring Best Practices – building the best team
• Data Mining – providing the right data
• CRM – the right tool for your organization
• Training - the ongoing need