Category: Sales Management
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Ideal Clients Are Not Always Ideal
It is easy to describe ideal clients/customers as being … well… perfect. As in:– Easy to identify and find digitally– Already know they have a problem or challenge– Currently looking for solution options– Funding approved– Ready to buy While some of these attributes ARE available, they alone are not likely to sustain your growth goals,…
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Limits of Product Design
It is nearly impossible to design and build a product that will sell itself millions of times over! Great product design IS important. But Sustainable and growing revenue streams are built by stories, connections, and relationships of marketing, branding, and sales professionals. Period. Revenues can be generated without them. However, the default arena is PRICE – which is heavily slanted toward…
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Marketing and Sales Relationship
I like to describe the relationship between #sales and #marketing to be that of heads and tails of a coin (or front/back of a dollar bill). In many situations, #CEOs seem to have systems and structures in place to measure sales. Marketing can and should be designed to compliment and enhance their sales processes. Places where they feel a lag, struggle,…
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Connect more than conquer
We use numerous references to war, battle, and conquering when discussing #business – #sales in particular. These suggest that business is about gaining advantages over customers and buyers that only benefit us. That sure doesn’t sound like the best type of relationship we can create! #21stCentury business and sales models are about building beneficial connections…
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Meet customers wherer ever they are
2 April 2018 We have all types of customers in all types of places. #CustomerService is about catering to their needs. Internal #customers (like #CEO, #manager, and other departments) have different needs than external customers (#consumers, #clients, #shareholders, shippers, etc.) The one common thing is that they all crave personal attention and recognition. Meeting them…
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Consider Your Audience
Why do most marketing, communications, and sales pitches fail? They lack connection to the audience. Sellers try to stay in control of the conversation and present what they think are the most compelling reasons to buy. Often it is the same reasons to every audience. Before my sales career began; I spent a couple years…
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The Power Of Systems In Marketing
Contrary to beliefs throughout the industrial age; marketing and sales are not interchangeable words. Independently, they seem to be infinitely complex and divergent, but when blended together properly they blend create powerful synergies. Described separately and in overly-simplified terms; ‘Sales’ is about creating and maintaining a relationship that results in a transaction. ‘Marketing’ is about…
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More Than ‘Closing Deals’
Sales is a complex process; not a destination or single event. It is about solving problems, introducing new ideas, building and maintaining relationships. In just one word, sales is about TRUST. While I do see the temptation to pay sales people a percentage of the end result (deals they close); I feel that this…
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What Every Entrepreneur Needs To Hear
NO ONE CARES! No one cares about your newest technology; your office décor, open floor plan, pet policy, or employee perks. No one cares about how much funding you have received, CEO salary, business valuations, or analyst predictions. No one cares about your warranty, customer service rating, latest promotion, or even sales price. We don’t…
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Modern Sales: Facilitate The Purchase
This is the second part of an article started (here) earlier this week. 3. DESIRE: to wish, long for, crave, or want. Decisions are driven by emotions and deep desires. It has been said that there are only two reasons that people make purchases: To feel good; and To solve a problem. Though these get expressed…
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Modern Sales Is About Facilitating The Purchase
The most important thing to remember about sales is that it is both a process, with a definite start and a finish, and an art form with endless opportunities for expression. Thanks to the popularity of the Internet; the flow and availability of information dramatically changed the way people buy (impacting both B2B and consumer…
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Strategies For Growing Your Business
When asked; most people claim that growing their business requires either New Customers or New Products. While these are indeed viable strategies; they are perhaps the most expensive. They might look at the above image and see themselves (or the company) as the character with megaphone and the others as customers. CHALLENGES WITH NEW CUSTOMERS…
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There Is No Value In Your Product
Value is not a rational computation of the parts, labor, talent, skill, connections, associations, etc. that go into making a product. It has almost nothing to do with the product itself; and even less to do with the various features you might have incorporated into it. Value – defined as relative worth, merit, or importance…
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Where Leadership Begins
Leadership begins with, “I have an idea…” There is no definitive ending point, because the end is not the point of leadership. The point is to incorporate the resources to bring an idea to life and nurture it through maturity. Crucially, the idea never belongs to a single person. Rather, it belongs to the entire…
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Powerful Communications: Grammar & Timing
Last week we discussed the power individual words have on your communications and how a simple exercise can help focus your communications. But great communication is not only a matter of what words you say; it is impacted by the manner in which the words are composed, as well as the how they are delivered. In this…
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Words Have Power
The purpose of communication is to help someone else to understand something in your mind. At the beginning of 2013, I started the foundation for my own communication strategies when I published Law Of Communication. I suppose this time of year is ideal for me to think about communications. While few other animals have sophisticated…
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Policy Schmolicy
I just read a report from US Travel Assoc. claiming that the reason travelers skipped out on 38Million trips in 2013 (resulting in a negative economic impact of $35BILLION – $9.5Bilion specifically to airline) was the hassles associated with flying. Some of the listed hassles include baggage fees, flight cancellation/delays; and security lines; and they…
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Motivation vs Inspiration
As both words indicate a cause for action; they are often used interchangeably. May this be a simple guide that helps you choose between them. Motivation is an external influence – typically from a person with authority or power. In marketing; we often use tactics like discounts, sales, gift-with-purchase, and loyalty programs to motivate customers…
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Selling Valuable Experiences
Every business strives to deliver value. Many even say so in their brand/company name, mission statement, and/or tagline. We are bombarded by the word hundreds, if not thousands of times each day – so often that we de-value and ignore the word itself. Like the adage says about beauty; Value is in the eye of…
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Marketing In The Wild
Looking at animals’ physical characteristics; it is often easy to see how they evolved to thrive in different environments among fierce competition. A cheetah; with its long, flexible spine, narrow (yet deep) chest, and a slender head indicates it is built for speed and attacking nimble prey. While lions; with significantly more muscle mass, broader…
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Completing the Service
A couple weeks ago; I enjoyed a perfect summer evening at Louisville Slugger Field – one of the best ballparks in the entire sport. There was a good crowd (always helps when you go with friends) and though we lost; there were plenty of hits, runs, homers, as well as some errors to keep the…
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What IS your Brand?
Brands are usually associated with a unique mark or logo emblazoned onto an item. But your Brand is way more than your logo. It represents a structured system of beliefs about the company, the products, the people, the customers, and the experience they can expect across all interactions. This structured system of beliefs can help reduce…
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Becoming Attractive To Your Audience
To YOU, this deep sea Anglerfish might not be particularly attractive. Under this light, is likely not very attractive to the fish upon which it feeds. But these anglerfish live so deep in the ocean that sunlight doesn’t reach. To stand out among the darkness, the fish use an appendage just above the large mouth…
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Advice For College Students
Yesterday I was fortunate to participate in my 3rd Sales Alumni Panel at University of Louisville College of Business. 6 other Alumni gave their morning to share wisdom, advice, and experiences to attentive students about to graduate. My 3-minute story began with… “I remember this program when I took this class and how the panelists…
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Grow Your Business Through Networking, Not Karaoke
Networking events are not for making sales pitches and closing deals. They are for meeting and connecting with other people. Sometimes you meet some really great prospects, but as most networking events are put on by an industry organization; you meet a lot of your competition – or at least people who already believe,…
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Marginal Impact – How A Change In Operations Becomes Great Marketing
The dictionary refers to marketing as the total of activities involved in the transfer of goods from the producer to seller to consumer or buyer, including advertising, shipping, storing and selling. Marketing is not something that is done TO a product; it should be part of every aspect in business. Years ago, I was working…
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Backpacks And Presentations
I have enjoyed camping and backpacking for the majority of my life. I am a proud Eagle Scout, and as you might imagine; have amassed a large collection of gear to handle a variety of seasons and styles of camping. A recent impromptu trip provided me with the following observation about the similarities to presentations.…
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Keys To Successful Sales
One of my former professors invited me to speak briefly to this his Personal Selling class. There was no recording of it, but here is essentially what I told them. Sales is not about earning commissions, targeting prospects, or meeting goals and quotas. When you think about it in the big picture; Sales is simply…
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Managing Your Talent In 3D
Many business managers claim to have either the wrong talent, or an overall shortage of talent within their organization. They are constantly looking outward and spending precious resources on new opportunities when perhaps the best talent lies dormant, right in front of them. After working in and for a variety of organizations across several industries;…
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Mind Share
Big companies often talk about Market Share – what percentage of a particular market segment or demographic they ‘own’ (typically measured by purchases made), or at least what percent of the market is purchasing their products. I suppose this approach works for commodities. But what if you have virtually zero market share, or do not…
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Field Guide To Market Penetration
One of the problems with marketing a new idea or product is that it often takes vast amounts of time to get through the diffusion curve of any given audience. It can take years, or even decades to properly communicate brand attributes throughout an audience. Another problem is in the complexity and subtlety across industries.…
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The Power of Personalization
Who says hand-written thank you notes are a thing of the past? As you can see, I just received a personalized, hand-written, hand addressed thank you card from a new friend, Darrell. I must admit that my pulse quickened a bit when I saw the hand-addressed envelope amidst the junk mail and bills. I have…
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Customer Abuse or Good Marketing?
On my way to an appointment the other day, I saw this sign in front of a business. My first thought was noticing that someone put a fair amount of time and talent (compared to what I could do with a chalkboard) to draw the anchor, write the message, and outline each of the characters…
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Thinking Small to Grow Your Business
Normally; I am a fan of thinking and dreaming BIG. But when it comes to the type of business most people own (millions of businesses with less than 100 employees), it sometimes helps to think small in certain areas in order to grow. The ‘small’ I am referring to is in building relationships with the…
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Knowing Your Strengths
One of my favorite mythological stories is that of Achilles – this mortal man, favored by the gods, was dipped in the river Styx and therefore given a unique suit of invisible armor that protected him from harm. Story after story are told about how he was honored for his skills, passions, and strengths. Because…
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Gardening Tips for Your Business
Now that spring is upon us – the days are getting longer; temperatures are on the rise; and many of us take to our gardens to make the best of this fertile time of year – it is important that we mimic some of these activities in our businesses. Here are a few Spring-time ideas…
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Prepared for Luck
Growing up, I was fortunate to have a Boy Scout troop based at my grade school. My older brothers were in scouting and I joined as soon as I could. I made friends that have lasted more than 25 years and learned many skills that I use on a daily basis. I am very…
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Business as Usual, Underwater
There have been a great many references comparing sales professionals to sharks. Sharks are fearless, swift, determined, efficient and always on the move. I doubt there are many businesses that wouldn’t benefit greatly from the boost in revenue from a sales shark. Along with great strengths come equal weaknesses. Sharks (in water and business) tend to…
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Delivering Value
Every business strives to deliver value. Many even say so in their ‘mission statement’ or company tagline. We hear the word ‘value’ thrown around hundreds of times each day. So often, in fact, that we tend to ignore it, abuse it, neglect it, taken it for granted, or otherwise … de-value it (pun is intended).…
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Shifting Margins
I love to watch movies in the theater! And no movie is ever complete without a great friend, popcorn, and a drink. If you go to the Mega-plex you’ll likely pay $30 for the tickets, and another $7-10 for refreshments. A $40 investment to enjoy watching what took $40 Million to make – what a…
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Just Like Riding a Bike
A couple of weeks ago; I ended a 15 year void of riding a bicycle. I have moved houses 5 times with this bike without ever riding it – so even after I decided to start riding again; it needed some serious TLC. I arranged a local shop to do the tune-up and convert tires…
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Your Business Playbook
One of the things I find most fascinating about football season is how easily it parallels to our businesses. Though it is not always as formal; each of our businesses has a regular season – where we perform the majority of work that makes us money; as well as an ‘off-season’ – where our focus…
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Versatility Leads to Value
Until 1886, Aluminum was incredibly difficult to separate from the rock it was bound to, making it more expensive than both silver and gold. Once a new method of extraction was perfected; the price of Aluminum plummeted, while its demand and value continue to grow. Aluminum remains so valuable because it is used every day…
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Uncomfortable with Change?
Our ability to change is limited to our tolerance of being uncomfortable. If we just leave it at that; I doubt many would willingly volunteer to push the limits of their own comfort. Most of the time we judge our discomfort only in the short-term, as we see it take shape as a fear of…
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Importance of Profits
Profits are a functional result of intelligently designed business systems that are effectively executed, it is not a ‘bad word’ or the telltale indication of illegal or unethical behavior. A Profit Plan is just as important as an operations budget, sales/distribution strategy, or even the design and production of the actual product! Yet in talking…
David R Frick 