Colleen’s Blog

I have a question for you. Do you really know where your revenue comes from? Most businesses can probably answer that question pretty quickly. It's obvious, right? Not so fast.

Is your business experiencing wild swings in revenue? This may surprise you, but relaying too much emphasis on closing business for your sales team is actually counterproductive to increasing your revenues. What?! Let me explain.

I'm not ready to stop sharing the Wells Fargo fiasco and what it means for us as professional sellers. Today, we are hearing about sales targets. The average American has 3 accounts at their bank. Wells Fargo decided to set 8 accounts per person as their target. Why 8?

In an endless ocean of sellers that are often selling similar products and services, making your business or organization stand out is of the utmost importance. Being seen as a thought leader is, in today's world, one of the best ways to not only differentiate yourself from everyone else, but to have buyers chasing after you instead of the other way around.

We're now well into Q2. Are you ready to help your team accelerate their success? I’ve been working with organizations and helping transform their sales teams for the last year. In all cases, these are companies looking to grow faster than the market and at an accelerated pace than their current growth path. Here are their keys to success:

Supermodel Linda Evangelista famously said that she would “not roll out of bed in the morning for less than ten thousand dollars.” It was a smart business move on her part. Ten thousand dollars was her minimum profit per shoot. Your Sales Radar must also have a minimum profit, a minimum profit per client. This is the number, expressed in either revenue or margin, that you will not work for less than (or as the Queen might say, “the number for less than which you will not work”). Clients above this minimum can either stay as service accounts or be reclassified as growth accounts. Clients below it must be fired.

For the most part I have had nothing but extraordinary service while in the UK. These hotel and taxi practices are not difficult to replicate nor are they expensive to implement. They will encourage repeat business and increase profits from referrals. Why aren’t more service providers catering to customers in this way?

I have a question for you. Do you really know where your revenue comes from? Most businesses can probably answer that question pretty quickly. It's obvious, right? Not so fast. Recently, we've been involved in a very large sales reorganization. There are three sales teams, a channel sales team, a field sales team and an inside sales team. It was always assumed that the field sales team was the main revenue engine. After all, they were the ones going out, finding leads and closing business. But, we uncovered something interesting...