The sky is falling!
We’re living in unpredictable times, that’s true. But I’m fed up with the doom and gloom merchants out there who talk everything down (and who certainly aren’t entrepreneurs). Nobody knows what’s going to happen in the future. So, don’t let uncertainty stop you from
Food for thought (or at least to drink)
Do you remember proper milk? As a child my grandparents lived next door to a dairy farm and we’d get our milk in a jug, straight from the cows. Drinking this milk was an altogether different type of experience to nowadays. The milk was creamy throughout. The whole jug
Staying sane in the mad world of sales prospecting
I meet a lot of consultants who get extremely frustrated by the prospecting process. The things which they’d like to be predictable aren’t; the conversations that seemed to have gone very well stall; the opportunities that they’re told are high-priority disappear; and the people they’re trying
4 things to do to improve next year’s sales
These can be done at any time of year, but starting at the run up to year end makes a lot of sense. 1. Identify 20 key relationships you need to nurture. Come up with a plan for each. 2. Throw away your Powerpoints for a month. Focus on conversation,
They're just not that into you
You know those suspects and prospects? The ones you're chasing. You've sent them several emails, left voicemails, sent a text ... yet nothing happens. Well here's the thing ... they're just not that into you … because they’re not motivated enough. Before reading more,
How do you start a sales sprint?
How do you start a sales sprint? Just choose one aspect of your sales process to accelerate. You can achieve a lot in 13-weeks. You can strengthen your pipeline, convert more proposals into projects, build a bigger network. First things first. Evaluate your current commitments. Then eliminate all non-critical activities
Package your message like a zombie attack consultancy
Here's a formula for articulating what you do, what it means for the prospect, and why that's desirable. 1. We (do or are) xxxxx .... 2. ... which means that yyyyyyy ... 3. ... the advantage you get from that is zzzzzzzz. Simple isn't it? Well trained sales
Stretching sales performance targets
A previous brief explored how a rough-cut sales analysis is used to identify business development risks and opportunities. Now we'll look at setting a performance goal to increase your biggest project fees. To do this jot down the five biggest projects you won last year. Next to each
How to do a rough-cut sales analysis
For most consulting firms sales analysis comprises deals won / sales revenue / target. This absolute, binary, success/failure measurement is lacking. It's what bean-counters like but it's totally useless for deciding how to improve performance. Instead of this, I encourage you to analyse at a more granular
Why inequality is good for sales
It's politically correct to treat people equally. That may be a good thing for society, it's not a good model for sales. When you analyse it you'll probably find 70-80% of your profits (and perhaps revenues) come from 20-30% of your clients. The biggest