A targeted marketing strategy has the potential for generating far more revenue than a generalized mass marketing approach. However, proper targeting is contingent upon segmenting your audience into distinct groups that share the same needs or characteristics.
Nobody wants to have a ‘networking conversation,’ especially those who are at the highest levels of business. They are hungry for real conversations and real relationships. It has to be authentic, genuine and sincere.” - Rich Stromback
Even with a plethora of information, books, classes and generous experts, rooms are full of people who have yet to develop excellent communication skills (and who you prefer to avoid).
It appears the top 20% of your sales team are closing 80% of the deals. This reality of 80-20 performance, where approximately 20 percent of salespeople produce approximately 80 percent of sales, can be disappointing. (Though it validates Pareto’s Principle).
Pareto’s Principle was named after Vilfredo Pareto (1848-1923), an Italian economist who observed that for certain economic conditions, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
Instead of accepting Pareto’s Principle as a standard, I would prefer to see your team perform with excellence. Inspiring and leading a team to break away from average can be difficult if they are following the crowd and paying attention to what ‘everyone’ follows. I learned firsthand the importance of a network, excellent habits and a mindset of high standards when I grew a business from $4 million to $16 million over the course of four years.
Today I want to share thoughts, habits, and mindsets that help many to be a top 5% sales professional and potentially break Pareto’s Principle.
Knowing the secret to effective marketing to grow sales and drive profit is often elusive, even to the those with expert marketing skills. DISC Assessments can help you have better insights into the minds of your marketing and sales team, customers and prospects. Today I would like to share with you the importance of DISC Assessments for growing revenue.
The process of customer acquisition is critical to success, but often many leap first without a process in place. Without direction and strategy, the early stages of customer acquisition may be misdirected, resulting in lost time, money, and resources, as well as shaky profits. This is especially true for new businesses trying to get a foot in the door as they compete with well-established companies. The wrong customer acquisition strategy can be costly.
Sales forecasting is not simply a necessary evil mandated by finance. The best sales leaders use revenue forecasting as a tool to manage the business, support strategic decisions, and allocate resources. Estimating sales accurately for the upcoming 12 months gives your organization foresight into where your income is really coming from and when. Sales forecasts drive decisions related to:
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.
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 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.
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.
“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.
