Many entrepreneurs believe that selling the features, benefits and ROI of their product will be sufficient for their success. While this is often true, it is, just as often, not true. Buyers can fear change and hate risk. And the fear of change and the introduction of risk can often counter the potential gain in [...]
"Only I can sell my product" Early-stage company growth stalls for many reasons. Many companies falter at the scale stage of development (going from 4-5 customers to 100). Many founder/CEOs tend to blame lack of funding, slow market acceptance and other factors on lack of growth or inability to scale. However, a main [...]
Entrepreneurs who lack a sales background (most entrepreneurs) often do not fully appreciate all of the things that need to be in place before a company can commercially succeed and grow. As the saying goes: “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will take you there”. A structured and comprehensive sales audit, [...]
If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well - Albert Einstein As an entrepreneur, you are always selling…prospects, customers, employees, investors, partners, market influencers. Always!!! But selling a new concept is tough enough and often the technology is complex enough to understand. A great CEO will simplify this complexity as [...]
Not everyone automatically “gets” your product. That’s a pipe dream. When selling through a distribution partner, you need to make sure that you address the fundamental questions that your partner’s sales people have about your product before you even have a chance of success. But not proactively addressing and communicating the answers to these questions [...]
Many entrepreneurs want to disrupt their markets. They want to revolutionize their industries. They want to provide a radical change in the way a problem is solved. They believe that the market will rush to their wonderful and new solution. But there is one major problem. People often fear change and they hate risk. And [...]
Many entrepreneurial CEOs are frustrated by sales (or the lack thereof). And, once they hire a sales resource are often frustrated even more by sales, or lack thereof. Often, these entrepreneurial CEOs come from the product side and do not have sales or sales management experience. This makes it even more challenging and more frustrating. [...]
The sales forecast is the most important document you can produce on a regular basis. And, for most companies, is the lifeblood of the organization. For an unfunded company, it often is the guide to whether the company can even make payroll. But, many companies still do not produce one. Or, if they do, it [...]
SaaS organizations should strive to be metrics driven. They should want to understand these metrics and manage their businesses to them. But there are many metrics to consider…and all are important. There are valuation metrics, sales metrics, marketing metrics and pure financial metrics. There are, at least, 30 key metrics that SaaS companies should use [...]
A key document (and also step in the sales process) for B2B organizations is the Statement of Work or SOW. This is a document that specifically describes how the implementation will be handled including deliverables, roles and responsibilities, time frames, costs and payment terms. So, why the SOW? There are many reasons for (and uses for) [...]