I look forward to visits to the Apple Store. As a fan of the brand and a tech nerd, visiting any Apple facility is a joy to me. (I even went out of my way to see the visitor center at Apple’s corporate headquarters last time I was in Silicon Valley.) So, last week...
2021 is a make-or-break year for many businesses. Right now we need to do everything we can to protect our margins while also growing revenue. Here are three ways that you can make that happen. 1. Focus on Cross-Selling Most great companies deliver outstanding support...
If you look around any successful entrepreneurial business, one thing you will consistently find are processes. Well-defined and documented processes for operations, administration and finance are paramount to driving growth. That said, if we look to sales and...
There's a delicate balance between setting aggressive revenue goals and achievable revenue goals. Of course you want to grow your business, but it is helpful to have some reasoning behind raising the bar to accelerate year over year revenue growth. The same concept...
When I say “client experience,” what comes to mind? Take 30 seconds to ponder that question before you read on. Let’s get a bit more specific and go back in time 5+ years. What sort of experience do you recall having with a taxi cab? Compare that to the experience...
Content is at the heart of sales and marketing communication. As Darrell Amy says in his book Revenue Growth Engine, content is the fuel that feeds the sales and marketing processes that drive revenue growth. Implementing a content strategy ensures that your Revenue...
The Convergo Approach Series Part 1: The Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency Part 2: A Strategic Approach Part 3: The Lens of the Ideal Client Experience Part 4: Sales and Marketing Integration Part 5: Sales and Marketing Processes B2B companies often...
The Convergo Approach Series Part 1: The Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency Part 2: A Strategic Approach Part 3: The Lens of the Ideal Client Experience Part 4: Sales and Marketing Integration Part 5: Sales and Marketing Processes It is no secret that...
The Convergo Approach Series Part 1: The Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency Part 2: A Strategic Approach Part 3: The Lens of the Ideal Client Experience Part 4: Sales and Marketing Integration Part 5: Sales and Marketing Processes Considering the...
The Convergo Approach Series Part 1: The Difference Between Convergo and a Marketing Agency Part 2: A Strategic Approach Part 3: The Lens of the Ideal Client Experience Part 4: Sales and Marketing Integration Part 5: Sales and Marketing Processes There's no better way...
Originally published on Revenuegrowthengine.net. For those who are obsessed with their products, the superiority of their business, or the beauty of their brand, this statement contains a hard pill to swallow. As great as your products are, as experienced as your team...
Marketing agencies help you execute a plan. Or, in the absence of a plan, they create pretty things for you like websites, videos, and brochures. Most of the time, this doesn’t have much to do with your sales team or your company goals. Convergo helps you create the...
Smart companies that use EOS® incorporate values to guide strategy and people decisions. Values also provide a foundation for effective marketing and sales. 1. Allow Your Values To Refine Your Ideal Client Profile There are 7.8 billion people on the planet. There are...
My wife and I were just discussing what we might do for fun next summer. The possibilities are endless! We might go to the mountains, music festivals, mountain biking or the beach to name a few. Figuring out where to spend/allocate/invest time or money is something...
Of all the things your dealership could do in the next year to grow sales, what could move the needle more than anything else? In the book Extreme Ownership, Jocko Willink tells a story that rings true in our industry. The CEO of a pharmaceutical company had all kinds...
Creating a profile of your ideal client is an exercise that serves many purposes for any business that has limited resources (which is all businesses, right?). Especially in a B2B business, it is much more efficient and profitable to acquire, manage, and delight a...
One way to grow your EOSⓇ business faster is to attract and cross-sell ideal clients. These are the types of clients that appreciate what you do and can buy everything that you sell. Unless you have a limitless marketing budget and massive sales team, trying to sell...
The concept of inbound marketing in its purest form is beautiful! You create relevant content targeted at “personas” and distribute it on digital channels with compelling calls-to-actions hoping your “personas” will find you on. And “Voila!” the leads start flowing...
We are in the business of helping EOS® companies grow revenue. Over half of the businesses that come to us with that goal in mind are wanting to do so by generating more leads. As we work with clients to develop an initial Revenue Growth Plan, it typically becomes...
The four elements of the Marketing Strategy component of the Vision/Traction Organizer™ of the Entrepreneurial Operating System® provide a fantastic framework for growing your business. If you don’t remember off the top of your head, the four elements are: Your target...
Harvard Business School professor and the father of modern marketing, Theodore Levitt, asks a powerful question that every business leader, sales representative and marketing manager must answer: What business are you in? The answer to this question will determine the...
The reason to buy a company is to take what you purchased and grow it. Unfortunately, what often happens is that companies let the customers of the companies they acquired slowly get picked off by the competition. Instead of growing the new base of customers, the new...
Want to grow revenue faster? Increase your pipeline velocity by reducing the friction between stages. How do you measure this? Here are two sales pipeline metrics to look at that can make a huge impact on your top line on the P&L: Conversion Rate: The % of clients...
As we have previously written, Buyers Don’t Buy Products, They Buy Outcomes. I see a perfect example of this as I look out my window into my driveway. I bought a car to get to the places I need to get to support the outcomes that I need: Enjoying our home in the...
Now, more than ever, we need to keep our growth engines running. Sales must maintain activity levels. Marketing must keep the digital lights on. This is not the time to slow down or stop. This past week I've talked with many leaders that are facing hard choices. I've...
4.7 million people work from home in the United States [source]. The need for collaboration and meeting with co-workers does not go away when people transition to working from home, so it is no surprise that products like Zoom Meeting have realized huge growth. The...
Last week I was reminiscing about my first home-office job with my former boss, Cary Butler. Back in 1997 when I accepted a position as a district manager for Toshiba, the first step was to set up a home office. I remember when the UPS driver rang my doorbell to...
Originally published at the Revenue Growth Engine One touch simply doesn’t cut it in today’s world. Salesforce.com research found that it takes 6-8 touches with a prospect to get an appointment. Sirius Decisions found that it takes 8 to 12 attempts to reach a decision...
Ask any management consultant and they will tell you that processes are the key to an efficient business. We find processes in departments throughout a business like finance, H.R., service, production, and fulfillment. Why is it that when it comes to revenue growth,...
Yesterday morning at Dallas Love Field, I crossed paths with a guy I know who leads a sales team for a $10 million company. Over breakfast at Cantina Laredo (love this place!) I shared my concept behind the Revenue Growth Engine. We talked about his team and their...
Over the past few months, I’ve had the privilege of leading many management teams through Revenue Growth Workshops to make a plan to drive organic revenue growth. My favorite companies to work with are ones that use Gino Wickman’s EOS (Entrepreneur’s Operating System)...
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What you sell and what your clients buy may be two very different things. We think we sell products and services. What our clients really buy is outcomes. Theodore Levitt, the father of modern marketing put it brilliantly: “People don’t buy drill bits, they buy...
Having grown up in Canada, I love maple syrup. I remember Saturday mornings at the sugar farm. Each spring right as the snow was beginning to melt we’d head out into a grove of maple trees. Each tree had a spigot with a small bucket attached. Sweet sap would drip into...
This week I’ve been creating the website content for the new suite of services our team here at Convergo will roll out this summer (can’t wait to launch this!) It's got me thinking about what our ideal prospect looks like. We all have ideal prospects. These are the...
With today’s decision makers and influencers scouring the web for information during the buying process, digital marketing has become an undeniably important partner in revenue generation. While I will always be the first to affirm that salespeople create, build, and...
Recently, I was talking with one of my business partners here at Convergo. He’d talked with a business owner about moving from a tactical to a strategic approach with their marketing. In principal it sounded good. However, when presented with a relatively modest...
Consistent prospecting is essential for sales success. Without a steady stream of prospects, the funnel dries up. Then you end up taking desperation deals and flipping your base. Effective prospecting requires a positive attitude. The challenge is that if there is one...
Imagine if you had 100 people lined up outside your business right now. What would you do? Certainly, you’d send someone out to greet them. You’d ask how you could help. You’d get the prospects involved in sales situations. You’d do your best to answer customer...
“People will accept the advice of insight sellers only to the extent that they trust them.” - Mike Schultz & John Doerr, Insight Selling Trust is a critical component to sales success. In their buyer research, the authors of Insight Selling learned what we know...
Stephen Covey says that highly effective people put the “big rocks in first” because if you don’t do the important things first, they get crowded out by the smaller things. The biggest rock for any sales professional is prospecting. It’s the #1 driver of success and...
Today is the 30th anniversary of the world wide web! Nothing has changed the sales profession more than this technology. As I reflect back over my 26 years in sales, allow me to offer some observations on how the internet has changed sales for good. 1. From Brochures...
“Although discipline demands control and asceticism, it actually results in freedom.” - Jocko Willink Jocko provides helpful insight for sales professionals and leaders in the final chapter of Extreme Ownership : Discipline Equals Freedom. If you want the freedom of...
“Execution is the single greatest market differentiator. Great companies and successful individuals execute better than the competition.” - Brian P. Moran, The 12 Week Year If you want to be successful in growing a company as a business owner, or growing a territory...
In the office technology industry I serve, we talk about Machines-in-Field (MIF). Every 3-5 years the leases on these machines expire or the machine wears out. Sales reps “flip the MIF” when they upgrade customers to new equipment. MIF-flipping plays a critical role....
"All the storytelling we do requires frequency. You’ll try something new, issue a statement, explore a new market… and when it doesn’t work right away, the instinct is to walk away and try something else. But frequency teaches us that there is a very real dip--a gap...
Every (smart) business and sales professional wants to sell more to their current clients. In my favorite marketing book, Getting Everything You Can From All You've Got, Jay Abraham shares the geometric principle of business growth. He says there are only three ways...
Both sales professionals and companies have brands. In our world of overwhelming options and distractions, a brand becomes shorthand to communicate things like: You’re in the right place You can trust me In his book, This Is Marketing, Seth Godin says that as...
How consistent is your sales team at bringing in net-new business? Without a consistent stream of opportunities entering the top of the funnel, the end-of-month results will be disappointing. Instead of net-new, the revenue will be primarily be from flipping the MIF....
There are only two types of prospects: those who are looking for your products and services, and those who aren’t. If you want to grow sales, you’ll need to find ways to connect with both groups: Prospects who are actively looking for solutions to their problems need...