September 3rd, 2010 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the September 1, 2010 edition of BPI News!

In this issue, we talk about variables that contribute to your sales success.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

P. S.  Is it time for your Business Health Check?  Call us now at 617-532-0918 and lets chat about completing a Business Health Check-Up to get you ready for 2011.

========================================================

Selling IT in the Eye of the Storm

by Paul DiModica

Selling IT successfully is based on more than just your skill and knowledge as a salesperson or your firm’s advertising budget. It is more integrated than that. You are not a silo who inherited a sales quota which was calculated in the back room. Instead, you are a recipient of the success or failure of your firm’s marketing, strategy and product development.

IT salespeople do not operate or sell in a vacuum.

When consulting with clients to determine why their IT firms either did or didn’t hit their forecasted sales numbers, we have observed a pattern of five primary variables that contribute to the result.

For you to sell IT successfully as a quota-carrying salesperson, you are dependent on these five business variables. Some are your responsibility; others are the responsibility of your company.

When all five of these business variables are present and both the sales team and management team are continually trying to map this approach as a coordinated effort, individual IT salespeople hit their assigned sales quota.

When one or more of these variables is missing, individual IT salespeople stumble and are held accountable for lack of corporate revenue.

Below are five variables that contribute to the ability to hit your sales quota:

1. Your individual sales effort and sales skill;

2. Your market demand analysis and prospects’ needs;

3. Your knowledge of the product and/or service you sell;

4. The qualification of the buyer with whom you are dealing; and

5. The strength and competitiveness of the product and/or service you sell.

So, in the eye of your sales quota storm, what should an IT salesperson do?

First, determine if you are maximizing the three variables which are in your control as listed above (effort, IT knowledge and dealing with qualified buyers). This is a personal assessment that only you can calculate. Don’t look at your management for input on this - it is between you and yourself.

Second, if you decide you are not giving 100% in all of these areas, develop a personal MAP (Marketing Action Plan) to adjust your performance in the areas that need additional improvement and then commit to it.

If after an honest assessment you conclude that you are giving 110% in each of the three controllable areas you are responsible for and you still cannot hit your sales quota, then rest assured it is not your issue.

When the salesperson or the company fails to deliver the business variables which they control, the imbalance causes the storm to overpower the company and then everyone fails.

Selling IT is like living inside the eye of the storm. Peace and stability can only happen when all business variables co-exist to create a perfect selling environment of calm.

“It takes more than just luck to grow your business”

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

How to Increase Your Proposal Acceptance using Webinars

August 19th, 2010 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the August 15, 2010 edition of BPI News!

In this issue, we talk about using webinars to improve your proposal win rate.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

P. S.  Is it time for your Business Health Check?  Call us now at 617-532-0918 and lets chat about completing a mid-year, Business Health Check-Up.

========================================================

How to Increase Your Proposal Acceptance using

Webinars

by Paul DiModica

“Half the world is composed of people who have something to say and can’t . . . and the other half who have nothing to say and keep on saying it.” Robert Frost

Using email often reduces the closing ratio of salespeople because when they send their proposals electronically to prospects, it often disappears into an invisible land where salespeople scramble to follow-up for confirmation and prospect feedback. Management and salespeople use email as a delivery method for proposals for a host of reasons including time restraints, convenience and prospects that reside at geographically distant locations.

Negotiating in person is always better, but when it is not financially or logistically feasible, instead of just emailing your proposal to your prospect, you should provide them a Webinar Proposal first. By using webinar proposal, you force your prospect to walk through your proposal page by page allowing you deal with sales objections as they happen, instead of invisibly by email.

When your proposal is ready, call your prospect and tell him that you would like to go over his proposal in detail. If they say, “just send it” and they will get back to you, respond “I appreciate that input, but my firm always presents the proposal by webinar first to make sure it meets your needs, and then we follow up with a written document.”

Webinar Proposal Guidelines

1. Keep your webinar proposal to 10 slides or less.
2. During the presentation, show high level information of your detailed proposal including your offering description, your reference slide, a high level operations slide, the investment slide, and the conclusion page of why they should buy.
3. Do not show detailed technical or operational information during your webinar proposal. Instead, save that data for the follow-up email proposal.
4. Write down the top ten sales objections you anticipate hearing during the webinar proposal presentation and prepare your answers.
5. After you have finished the webinar proposal presentation, only then send your traditional email proposal.

Use this format, and you will close more deals by managing sales objections proactively as they arise, instead of reacting to follow-up email or phone calls.

1. “Negotiation depends on the right communication.” Art Windell

“It takes more than just luck to grow your business”

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

Measuring Your Sales Strategy I.Q.

July 9th, 2010 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the July 2010 edition of BPI News!

In this issue, we talk about Sales Strategy.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

P. S.  Is it time for your Business Health Check?  Call us now at 617-532-0918 and lets chat about completing a mid-year, Business Health Check-Up.

========================================================

Measuring Your Sales Strategy I.Q.

by Paul DiModica

Selling is a “Zero Sum Game.”

Someone wins and someone loses.

When developing your sales process (as a corporation or as a quota carrying salesperson), you need to decide if you are going to use a premeditated (proactive) sales process or a reactive sales process to manage your zero sum game outcomes.

A “premeditated sales process” is characterized by:

• knowing which targeted accounts are sought by name or demographic profile;
• understanding why they will buy; and
• using a written sales process.

A “reactive sales process” is characterized by:

• waiting for inbound leads;
• trying to sell everybody you talk to;
• not knowing why prospects buy from your firm; and
• having no documented sales model process that takes clients through action steps.

Which is your firm’s selling process?

Premeditated or Reactive?

In a sales survey by BDM News, 83% of salespeople surveyed (almost 2,000 respondents) indicated they did NOT believe their firm used a market study or market research to calculate their sales quota based on demand.

Without identified sales territory market potential, the lack of business research forces quota carrying salespeople and VP’s of Sales into a “Reactive Sales Process” unless they take corrective actions and prepare to manage their sales quota.

To sell more, you must plan more.

To sell more, use a technique of Value Forward Selling called “Risk Management”.

Key accounts, SMB prospects and targeted buyers always seek to minimize their risk when buying products and professional services. Risk management should then become a premeditated sales process tool to use when you sell.

On the first pass, most prospects (at the management level) are skeptical. They just don’t believe you or any other salesperson. It’s nothing personal. There are just too many salespeople.

So, help them manage their perception of buying from you.

8 Prospect Risk Management Techniques

Here are some guidelines to prepare for prospect risk management:

1. When competing against big companies, manage the risk by focusing on your strengths. Use the “bus analogy” when competing against them, “Large firms bus in and out their lead team and usually have no practice manager continuity, while our team remains the same throughout the relationship.”
2. Never wait for a prospect to ask about your firm’s background. Always supply details in advance. If the following variables are positive, you will want to provide corporate information including the number of employees, years in business, clients’ names and annual revenue. If these variables are negative (i.e., losing money, no installations, customers hate you), then don’t bring it up and focus on the other methods listed.
3. The greater the competition, the more risk management information you must deploy to balance perceived fear. Do not be passive when competing against established players - go after their largeness as a weakness. Never negatively sell; instead, communicate your value aggressively.
4. Never have your CEO or VP of Sales go on a first sales call. It makes your firm look small. CEO’s and VP’s of Sales are big guns held in reserve to be used when needed, not on the first sales call. Having CEO’s go to your first client meeting only works when your firm is a Fortune 500 and you are meeting a Fortune 50 C-level executive.
5. If you are VC-funded and have new product or service, name-drop your VC’s relationships.
6. If you are a small or startup firm and have Fortune 1000 C-level executives on your board of directors, say “our team includes . . .” and name-drop their positions and the company names with which they are associated.
7. To manage the prospect’s fear of buying something other than what was shown in a demo, it is always a good idea to have a client feature/service sign-off sheet for any demonstration. This protects the salesperson from the client’s demo amnesia and protects the client from being oversold.
8. Never represent your firm as a generalist. Always be a specialist. Generalist firms are always perceived to be large and slow. Specialist firms are perceived to be more customer centric.

Selling is a premeditated sport. Don’t shoot from the hip. Help your prospects purchase by managing their fear of risk.

If you manage the client’s needs, you will manage the sale in a premeditated sales manner and you will sell more.

If you ignore the client’s risk issues, you will lose the deal.

Remember, the client’s perceived risk is your sales risk.

“It takes more than just luck to grow your business”

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

Linking Business Elements in Your Sales Strategy Implementation

May 29th, 2010 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the June 1st, 2010 edition of BPI News!

In this issue, we talk about Linking Business Elements in Your Sales Strategy Implementation.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

P. S.  Is it time for your Business Health Check?  Call us now at 617-532-0918 and lets chat about completing a mid-year, Business Health Check-Up.

========================================================

Linking Business Elements in Your
Sales Strategy Implementation

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

Most sales strategy implementations fail because they do not link vital business requirements to drive results.

It’s easy to say “I want my sales team to hit their 2010 sales quota”, but . . .

• Is your sales strategy linked to a compensation plan that induces specific sales results?
• Do you have a documented sales process that educates your sales team how to find, propose, and close prospects?
• Are your marketing and operational departments linked to the success of the sales department?
• Does your sales strategy focus on engaging prospects and customers to see your business value through a “value forward” method? In other words, does your prospect experience your business value before the sales team talks with them?

Like a balanced scorecard, the key to sales success is using a sales model that links four specific elements together to help your sales team implement your sales strategy. The four elements are: 1) training the sales team, 2) developing a premeditated sales process that is replicable, 3) providing prospects with value forward identification, and 4) providing the sales team with financial incentives. Below is a diagram to illustrate.

When these four sales elements are linked together, each area reinforces the corporate goal of increased revenue.

When these four elements function as individual silos by design or by hap stance, it is unfair to expect your sales team to hit their sales quota.

If you focus and align just the sales process, you can sub-segment this area into Business Sequence and Cultural Sequence. These two areas parallel each other when developing your sales process. Your Business Sequence becomes the sales methodology you seek to have deployed and the Cultural Sequence is the perspective you wish to influence. These two areas need to be linked together to end at the same place. If you ignore one, the other will fail and the goal will not be met.

So, when developing your sales process, focus on linking the action steps needed to the enforce outcome and you will increase your success.

Linking is the key to execution . . . not hope.

“It takes more than just luck to grow your business”

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

Selling IT in the Eye of the Storm

May 8th, 2010 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the May 7th, 2010 edition of BPI News!

In this issue, In this issue, we talk about variables that contribute to your sales success.

Call me at 617-532-0918 and lets discuss how the BPI Strategy Group can help you accelerate your business growth in 2010.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

========================================================

Selling IT in the Eye of the Storm

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

Selling IT successfully is based on more than just your skill and knowledge as a salesperson or your firm’s advertising budget. It is more integrated than that. You are not a silo who inherited a sales quota which was calculated in the back room. Instead, you are a recipient of the success or failure of your firm’s marketing, strategy and product development.

IT salespeople do not operate or sell in a vacuum.

When consulting with clients to determine why their IT firms either did or didn’t hit their forecasted sales numbers, we have observed a pattern of five primary variables that contribute to the result.

For you to sell IT successfully as a quota-carrying salesperson, you are dependent on these five business variables. Some are your responsibility; others are the responsibility of your company.

When all five of these business variables are present and both the sales team and management team are continually trying to map this approach as a coordinated effort, individual IT salespeople hit their assigned sales quota.

When one or more of these variables is missing, individual IT salespeople stumble and are held accountable for lack of corporate revenue.

Below are five variables that contribute to the ability to hit your sales quota:

1. Your individual sales effort and sales skill;

2. Your IT market demand analysis and prospects’ needs;

3. Your knowledge of the IT you sell;

4. The qualification of the buyer with whom you are dealing; and

5. The strength and competitiveness of the IT you sell.

So, in the eye of your sales quota storm, what should an IT salesperson do?

First, determine if you are maximizing the three variables which are in your control as listed above (effort, IT knowledge and dealing with qualified buyers). This is a personal assessment that only you can calculate. Don’t look at your management for input on this - it is between you and yourself.

Second, if you decide you are not giving 100% in all of these areas, develop a personal MAP (Marketing Action Plan) to adjust your performance in the areas that need additional improvement and then commit to it.

If after an honest assessment you conclude that you are giving 110% in each of the three controllable areas you are responsible for and you still cannot hit your sales quota, then rest assured it is not your issue.

When the salesperson or the company fails to deliver the business variables which they control, the imbalance causes the storm to overpower the company and then everyone fails.

Selling IT is like living inside the eye of the storm. Peace and stability can only happen when all business variables co-exist to create a perfect selling environment of calm.

“Remember, revenue capture is not solely the salesperson’s responsibility — it’s the company’s responsibility.” Paul DiModica

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

Is The Economy Managing Your Business?

March 8th, 2010 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the March 7th, 2010 edition of BPI News!

In this issue, we talk about how to survive in this current economic environment and managing your business in a recession.

Call me at 617-532-0918 and lets discuss how the BPI Strategy Group can help you accelerate your business growth in 2010.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

========================================================

Is The Economy Managing Your Business?

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

9 Key CEO Recession Tips to Successfully Guide Your Business Through the Next 12 Months

According to some experts, we’re gradually coming out of the recession.  According to others, we are still in it and will be for many more months.  No matter which of the experts is correct — will you make it? Is your business shrinking? Will you be here in 2011?

The stimulus package is not working. It did not address housing valuation issues, the small business lending issues or the small business new job creation issues.  So, what are you going to do? You could turn yourself into a bank and apply for TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) funds (no strings attached) or you can take control of your business and manage it!

Here are 9 key CEO recession tips to successfully guide your business through the next 12 months to help you manage your business.

1.      Make decisions. In a recession, thinking too long about anything . . . is a NO decision. Don’t kid yourself — time lost in a recession is wasted time. The recession is not waiting for you. It’s a downhill steamroller, so a key business action step to be successful is to analyze your next steps and then do it.

2.      Take action steps with speed. Once you have decided to make changes, move quickly. Time is more than money, it’s your survival.

3.      Cut costs. Where? Any overhead that does not directly or indirectly add corporate revenue should be cut such as company cars, tradeshows, direct mail that fails, after-hour parties, or travel to prospects who are not qualified.

4.      Choose new business verticals. Are you selling blue shoes to a red shoe market? Is your current business vertical not buying? Change. Adapt and become something different. Will your product or service work in a new industry? Do you know? If no, find out quick. Don’t go out without a fight. The best business verticals in a recession are Energy, Federal Government, Healthcare, Utilities, and Pharmaceuticals.

5.      Develop better marketing. Do you calculate marketing return on investment? Are you doing the same marketing you did last year? STOP! It’s a new world order. Don’t repeat poor marketing because you need leads. Develop new marketing based on the recession.

6.      Improve team productivity. You’re in a recession. If you have employees who are not working hard and are wasting time, money and office space, fire them. Are you running a business or a country club for the unemployable! This is not a time to pay Ringo (the loyal puppy dog down the hallway), John (the I am late all of the time service rep), George (the I will not cold call salesperson because I think I am too senior) and Paul (the son-in-law, you owe me manager). Employees need to work harder or employers should find someone who will.

7.      Generate better financials. Costs are up, revenues are down - do you know your numbers. If not, then the recession will eat you.

8.      Provide sales training. I know your sales team is made up of professionals but when was the last time your firm actually invested in professional sales skill training for your staff? This is a tough economy to be successful . . . everybody can use new training. Reading one book 5 years ago is not sales training.

9.      Act professional, not entrepreneurial. This is not a time to be emotional about your business. Yes, you have invested untold years of sweat and blood into the business. Stop loving your business, instead manage your business and make the tough decisions.

Follow these recommendations and you can weather the current economic storm. Ignore them or take too long pondering their value and you might not be here. . . next year.

What worked last year will probably not work this year. It’s up to you!

“Remember, revenue capture is not solely the salesperson’s responsibility — it’s the company’s responsibility.” Paul DiModica

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

Do You Have an Integrated Revenue Capture Business Model or Are Just You Just Scaring Prospects Away?

February 2nd, 2010 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the February 1, 2010 edition of BPI News!

In this issue, we talk about how to create an integrated revenue capture program.

Call me at 617-532-0918 and lets discuss how the BPI Strategy Group can help you accelerate your business growth in 2010.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

========================================================

Do You Have an Integrated Revenue Capture Business Model or Are Just You Just Scaring Prospects Away?

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

* Are your sales costs increasing per sale?

* Does your marketing scare prospects away?

* Do you have products or services that no one is buying?

* Are your revenues down?

If so, then you may have a decentralized revenue capture approach where your strategy, marketing and sales process are not aligned as an integrated revenue capture program.

In my previous life, before starting this company and others, I was VP of Strategy Worldwide for an $800 million public company called Renaissance Worldwide. This was the company that bought Renaissance Solutions, the consulting company owned by David P. Norton, author of The Balanced Scorecard.

As VP of Strategy, I worked for the CEO and the board of directors to evaluate and make appropriate recommendations on the strategy, marketing and sales process of ten (10) operating business units we had. Our operating units included internet start-ups, acquired businesses, and organically grown divisions.

Using the balanced scorecard approach, I identified that many of our business units had a decentralized revenue capture process because their departments were not linked to a common goal or aligned symbiotically to each other. Not that the management teams were consciously trying to build barriers of cooperation between departments, but it occurred due to their individual corporate goals, compensation plans and the team members inability to understand the other department’s functional operational attributes.

This lack of functional operational interdepartmental knowledge and lack of alignment forced departments, even with good intentions, to work as business silos.

Four Truths Many People Ignore

1. Corporate Strategy is based on research of what prospects will buy, not what you want to sell.

Just because you bought a company, created a new offering, or spent $10 million on development to create the greatest widget in the world, it does not mean you have a market for what you sell.

Buyers only care about themselves.

2. The marketing department ’s primary goal is to help generate qualified leads for sales . . . that’s it.

Yes branding, third-party analysis research and beautiful tradeshow booths are important, but they are just tools to ultimately increase revenue.

Marketing must have ROI or it is a wasted investment.

3. The sales department must sell new business.

Yes, selling existing customers is important, but to grow top line revenue where you will not be dependant on your existing customer’s ability to buy . . . you need to hunt for new business as a premeditated approach. By focusing on the lifetime value of deals, you can reduce sales capture costs.

Hunt Now or Be Eaten Later!

4. If your departments are not aligned together by goals, key performance indicators (KPI’s), compensation plans and parallel knowledge of the operational tasks of the other departments, then you have a decentralized revenue capture process.

Revenue capture is a company responsibility . . . not the sales departments.

Take The Revenue Capture Scorecard Alignment Test

Here is a quick assessment of a much larger assessment test we give to help you decide if your team is focused on revenue capture as an integrated group or if are they operating as independent silos.

1. Does your company create (or acquire) new products or services based on market demand?

__Yes   __No

2. Does your sales team have separate sales quotas for business from existing customers and business from new prospects?

__Yes   __No

3. Is your marketing department paid based on the number and the quality of their leads they generate?

__Yes   __No

4. Are your sales quotas or targets calculated based on mathematical demand models?

__Yes   __No

5. Do your senior marketing executive and your senior sales executive have a team metric then need to reach together?

__Yes   __No

6. Are your marketing managers paid based on corporate department sales increases?

__Yes   __No

7. As a business to business company (B2B), does the marketing department report to the VP of Sales?

__Yes   __No

8. Do the sales, marketing and strategy departments meet at least four times a year to discuss successes and failures to date and document action steps required by each?

__Yes   __No

9. Does your senior management team assign specific measurable metrics to the strategy, sales and the marketing department managers and is their performance discussed at executive meetings?

__Yes   __No

10. Are your sales team members evaluated on how quickly they follow-up on sales leads given to them by the marketing department?

__Yes   __No

11. Does your marketing department go on sales calls at least twice a year to understand the sales process?

__Yes   __No

12. Has your marketing team researched why prospects buy, why they don’t buy, and how your firm creates value?

__Yes   __No

13. Do you have a written corporate strategy for all department heads to review as needed as a corporate guideline?

__Yes   __No

14. Does the sales team have a written step-by-step sales process to guide the marketing department on what communication deceives they need create for each sales cycle step?

__Yes   __No

Scorecard Answers:  1. Yes; 2. Yes; 3. Yes; 4. Yes; 5. Yes; 6. Yes; 7. Yes; 8. Yes; 9. Yes; 10. Yes; 11. Yes; 12. Yes; 13. Yes; 14. Yes

“Remember, revenue capture is not solely the salesperson’s responsibility — it’s the company’s responsibility.” Paul DiModica

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

Aligning Strategic Decisions Based On Primary Problem Issues, Not Secondary Problem Effects

January 16th, 2010 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the January 15, 2010 edition of BPI News!

2010 is  here. I left the New Year’s Resolution article up a bit longer than normal to give you time to think about the critical business decisions you must make - those you have to make now and those still waiting to be made down the road.

In this edition, we discuss making some of the strategic decisions every CEO must make.

Call me at 617-532-0918 and lets discuss how the BPI Strategy Group can help you accelerate your business growth in 2010.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

========================================================

Aligning Strategic Decisions Based On Primary Problem Issues, Not Secondary Problem Effects

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

Are you faced with answering questions like:

• Do you need to budget additional funding to hire more people?
• Do you need to hire more salespeople?
• Should you merge with a competitor?
• Should you expand into a new market?

Answers to each of these questions results in strategic decisions that have a company-wide effect on your operating business model. At times, they are made in a responsive manner where your judgment is adjusted to address your firm’s immediate business issues.

But aligning those business decisions with identified strategic goals can be difficult if your decision process is reactive to the causes and effects of daily corporate operations.

To run a company successfully, senior management must have the footwork of a professional athlete, the accounting savvy of a CPA and the sales skills of an international negotiator.

Management needs to understand the environment in which their business decisions are made to determine the correct business decision based on their corporate objectives.

So — how should management make strategic decisions?

Executive decisions should be evaluated based on the cause and effect model of the event being reviewed.

Are you addressing the primary problem (the cause) which was created or are you addressing the secondary problem (the effect) which is the outcome of the primary problem?

Often executives find themselves reacting to secondary problems which were created by a primary problem. If the primary problem is not identified and allowed to recur over and over again, then secondary problems (often more identifiable) result.

Here’s some common scenarios that are associated with secondary problems:

• If your key account project work deal is off schedule, do you blame the lead implementation manager?
• If sales are down, is it the sales team’s fault?

Each one of these events has a cause and effect impact and must be evaluated from a stand-alone point of view. Your strategic decisions should be based on logical corporate goal alignment instead of reaction to an immediate crisis.

Generally, most strategic business issues can be positioned into two separate categories.

1. Primary Problems which cause the business pain and must be fixed or secondary problems will occur.
2. Secondary Problems which are the effects (or outcome) of the primary problem and are often viewed as the main problem in crisis management.

By addressing and adjusting the primary problem, you are able to prevent and remove future recurrences of various business issues.

Many times, just fixing the secondary problem forces the business issue to repeat itself.

Example
Let’s say Company A has had a high turnover rate in their sales department (voluntarily and involuntarily) due to constant adjustment for lack of sales. However, they have a very marketable product for all sized companies regardless of the vertical and their actual cost to provide is minimal. When launching the product, Company A arbitrarily determined that it could be sold for $8,000 to a market of 1,000,000 potential clients. In the year since the product launch, they have been able to sell only 1/10% of the market (or 1,000 clients). Prospect responses were good, but objections included concern that the product’s value was not in line with the cost. A decision was made to drop the price to $3,000 and they were able to sell 1% of that same market (or 10,000 clients) during an equal timeframe. The lower entry point allowed them to sell small firms as well as large.

The Primary Problem was that the product was incorrectly positioned and overpriced for the market. Secondary Problems arose which included a lack of sales and high turnover in their sales staff. The result was an increase in sales by 10% and an increase in revenue by 25%.

When dealing with day-to-day business issues, use the following actions and steps to evaluate your decision alignment process more succinctly and determine if you are trying to fix a primary problem or a secondary problem resulting from the primary problem.

Remember, general business issues that repeat themselves (after you have made adjustments) are usually secondary problems of a larger primary problem which has yet to be addressed.

4 Action Steps to Identify Primary and Secondary Business Problems:

1. Start with identifying a business problem. Determine if the problem is a recurring issue, e.g., lack of sales, delay in releasing product, etc. If it is a recurring issue, then you have probably only identified a Secondary Problem - the effect rather than the cause.
2. Try to assess what is causing the issue identified above. This will be the Primary Problem, e.g., product is incorrectly positioned, other priorities get in the way of releasing new product, product doesn’t work as well as competitors’ product, etc.
3. After the Primary Problem has been identified, adjust and align. The Primary Problem will continue to effect your operating model until you make adjustments and align your decision with your corporate goals.
4. Create contingency actions to prevent the Primary Problem from affecting your model in the future. Audit and manage. Make sure that the Primary Problem is kept in check in order to prevent Secondary Problems from arising.

Focus more on responding to business issues from a cause position rather than an effect position and you will align your business decisions more accurately with your corporate goals.

“I have to be wrong a certain number of times in order to be right a certain number of times. However, in order to be either, I must first make a decision.”
- Frank N. Giampietro

“Remember, revenue capture is not solely the salesperson’s responsibility — it’s the company’s responsibility.” Paul DiModica

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

Top 10 New Year’s Business Resolutions for 2010 . . . Without Getting a Headache!

December 1st, 2009 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the December 1, 2009 edition of BPI News!

2010 is almost here. Have you thought about your New Year’s resolutions?  In this edition, we give you a few to ponder.

Call me at 617-532-0918 and lets discuss how the BPI Strategy Group can help you increase your revenue in 2009.

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

Walt

========================================================

Top 10 New Year’s Business Resolutions for 2010 . . . Without Getting a Headache!

by Paul DiModica, CEO - Value Forward Network

It’s that time of year again when sales teams are assigned their company’s new compensation plans, sales quotas, and job responsibilities. It’s that time of year when sales managers start looking to hire new salespeople and sales executives start looking for new jobs.

It’s that time of year when management teams huddle in the backroom, order pizza, strategize their corporate goals, and develop new business concepts while simultaneously designing marketing materials that will make them look like an industry player.

So, as the New Year approaches, we all make New Year’s resolutions that are both personal and professional. We write on our magical list that we want to make more money, exercise more, get a better job, or lose the extra pounds that have hung around the last few years.

Yet studies show that most people do not have a personal success plan or even a business plan (a sales plan is not a business plan) and that by April of each New Year, most people have failed to live up to their New Year goals.

So, will you be prepared to reach your goals?

Traditional New Year’s resolutions include get out of debt, get a new job or work from home, save more money, exercise, get organized, learn something new, and reduce stress. At the Value Forward Network, we work with CEOs and senior executives to increase their professional and corporate business performance. To help our many readers, we have provided a list of the top ten recommended New Year’s “business” resolutions modified from the traditional ones you might have already seen or made.

Follow them and you will be healthier, wealthier and wiser in 2010.

Are the following resolutions tough? You bet they are. Am I being too aggressive in my observations? Maybe. But these are New Year’s resolutions. They are designed to make you reach for strategic and tactical goals that will make you more successful.

2010 is up to you!

Top 10 New Year’s Business Resolutions

1. Be a better leader. As the CEO or president of my company, I will not let ego drive my business decisions. Instead, I will substitute business logic, research and input from others.
2. Base my business decisions on research. As the CEO or president, I will not make up my team’s annual sales quota or target assignments in the backroom. Instead, I will calculate their goals based on a mathematical sales capture model that also looks at market opportunity size by territory.
3. Invest in my business. As the CEO or President of my company, I will invest in outside sales training, marketing, and strategy advisement for my company, because I really don’t know everything and without increased revenue capture . . . we don’t need our other departments.
4. Accept accountability. As a salesperson, I will not blame marketing, the services group, operations/engineering, or my boss when I do not hit my assigned sales quota. Instead, I will be a mature salesperson and accept it’s my responsibility to be successful within the corporate environment I operate in.
5. Invest in myself. As a salesperson, I will stop being cheap, accept that sales is my chosen career, understand that I am a professional, and actually invest my own money in career training to become more successful (at least 1% of my gross income a year).
6. Learn something new. As a salesperson, I will finally admit that I don’t know everything and will actually try to learn some new sales methods, strategies and techniques to increase my success.
7. Make more money. As a salesperson, even though I hate to cold call, I will cold call at least 40 new prospects a week, every week — because cold calling is still one of the best ways to hunt for new business and make more money.
8. Be more productive. As a marketing department manager, I will focus on generating qualified inbound leads for my sales team first, work on branding second, and create brochures third.
9. Reduce stress. As a sales management executive, I will not manage my team by emotions. Instead, I will manage my sales team by business metrics that are realistic and can be documented.
10. Help others. As a manager of operations, engineering or corporate services delivery, I will stop blaming the sales department for client engagement problems and start working with them in tandem to deliver what I said we can do.

One Extra New Year’s Resolution

To work at what I like doing — not just what I have to do.

“Remember, revenue capture is not solely the salesperson’s responsibility — it’s the company’s responsibility.” Paul DiModica

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

TWITTER: BPIStrategy

Do You Feel You Are Pushing a Rock Up the Hill to Close More Business?

November 5th, 2009 Posted in Newsletter | No Comments »

Welcome to the November 1st, 2009 edition of BPI News!

In this issue we discuss Closing More Business.  If you would like to attend a How to Grow Your Business seminar or have it presented to your Executive Team, call or email us today and lets make it happen!

As always, I look forward to your comments and thoughts.

If you would like to have this newsletter delivered to your mailbox via email, please send an email to newsletter@bpistrategy.com and include your name, company, phone number and email address. We will add you to our mailing list.

Walt

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Do You Feel You Are Pushing a Rock Up the Hill to

Close More Business?

by Paul DiModica

In Greek mythology, there is a legend that the gods became mad at a criminal by the name of Sisyphus, the son of the king of Thessaly. As punishment for his deeds, he was sentenced to continuously roll a boulder up a hill for eternity.

Trying to move forecasted sales opportunities forward can feel that way. Here are 8 action steps you can take to move business deals ahead.

1. Find your prospect’s pain and be a doctor!

In today’s economy, prospects are buying products and services that improve corporate earnings. It is the pain that gets the funding. Clients are paying for surgery, not band-aids. During your client discovery conversations, you must focus on finding the prospect’s biggest pain so you can be a doctor and fix it with your product or service. If you don’t know what your prospect’s biggest wound is, then you will not get the deal. People are spending money, but only on high priority projects. Be the doctor, find the pain, and fix it.

2. Talk to prospects with titles of VP or higher.

Mid-level managers and directors in small privately-owned firms and Fortune 1000 companies are not the decision makers. Bypass them immediately and go directly to VP’s or above. My general rule of thumb in sales is, if the person you’re dealing with does not have at least a VP title, then you do not have a qualified prospect for your sales forecast.

3. Hand-deliver every proposal and discuss it in person.

When selling products and services, set up an appointment to hand-deliver your proposal and discuss the business details. Email and overnight delivery services have reduced the personal closing techniques and sales skills of salespeople during the last fifteen years. You need to walk through the proposal in person with the prospect to keep the one-to-one relationship perpetuating forward as you deal with the prospect’s objections. Hand-deliver all proposals and you will close more deals.

4. Offer pricing options over time to initiate purchases.

Companies need to offer better financing terms to their prospects to spur purchases. As long as you are comfortable with the prospect’s business viability, stretching payments over time (while delivering the product or service on the original schedule) may close a tabled deal.

5. Cut up your offering into time pieces.

Another method to reduce the prospect’s up-front investment is to cut your project’s price point into smaller more digestible pieces. Find out what your prospect’s current budget cycle is and spread their investment over multiple fiscal quarters (i.e., Phase 1 during Q2, Phase 2 during Q3, etc.)

6. Turn your product into a service.

At times, companies postpone capital investments that have been assigned as a budget item because of their perceived high cost. To bypass the capital budget item issue, turn your product into a service and sell it as a cash flow investment option (i.e., selling application software as a multiple-year license that is paid monthly, etc.).

7. Offer a discount that is attached to a specific date.

Giving customers a real discount to close business by a specific date may push a hesitating buyer to invest now instead of later. However, it must be a real discount and the date needs to be enforced. Letting the client buy later at the discount price makes you lose all credibility. (P.S. Remind your CFO that discounting to get revenue is better than having no revenue.)

8. Give a bonus and add value.

People who make buying decisions are just like you and I. They buy houses and cars and vacations. Like you and I, they want a great deal. One way to repackage your price point is to give something for free (tied to a purchase date) that clients value highly (i.e., sell an 18-month maintenance agreement for a 12-month price or give them a free service, etc.).

Selling has never been easy. To grow sales, successful firms need to modify their corporate business model to maximize revenue. These eight suggestions should help.

“A mediocre salesperson tells. A good salesperson explains. A superior salesperson demonstrates. A great salesperson inspires the buyers to see the benefits as their own.”
Anonymous

Walter Wise
President & CEO
BPI Strategy Group
617-532-0918

www.bpistrategy.com

A great salesperson inspires the buyer to see the benefits as their own.” –Anonymous