Articles

Visionary Leaders and Vulnerabilities

Article by , July 25, 2019

We live in an age of remarkable products and services from inventive thinkers with lofty ideas. These visionary leaders, who don’t think or work like anyone else, have started businesses based on novel concepts, and those whose achievements greatly impact society are afforded special status.


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The Value of Alignment: Sales, Operations & Finance

Article by , July 25, 2019

Alignment might sound like a fluffy concept, but it delivers bottom line results. Our most successful clients have achieved the most substantial results from alignment. Although SIOP (Sales, Inventory, Operations Planning) gets a wrap as a technical topic, in our experience, it is the alignment portion of SIOP that delivers the bacon! For example, in […]


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Putting Sales Velocity into Action: Sales-Cycle Speed

Article by , July 25, 2019

Sales velocity is a powerful metric that every sales leader must know inside out. While it measures how fast you’re making sales and earning revenue, it gives you something even more valuable. You gain an understanding of the relationship between the four key activities that comprise your sales velocity: opportunities, deal size, closing rate and sales-cycle speed.


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Putting Sales Velocity into Action: Closing Ratio

Article by , July 25, 2019

To help you understand why the buyer is buying from you, here are the answers you must obtain from every customer: Why they will choose you over your competitors; (their buying criteria) What they want to accomplish by buying your product or service; and (what they are trying to improve or solve) What’s the value they associate with what they’re buying. (what is their desired ROI) So how do you get those answers? With improvements to three tactics.


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Visionary Leaders

Article by , July 25, 2019

Visionary leaders like to walk among the clouds, devoting themselves to the future, the impossible and the things that could be. Unfortunately, businesses must be run with both a widescreen view and in-the-trenches focus, so pure visionaries with only big-picture mindsets are vulnerable to losing track of their enterprises.


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Don’t Get Taken Down by the Unexpected

Article by , July 25, 2019

In every sales territory and in every organization, there’s a hidden danger: one that has the potential to be lethal if left unchecked. It emerges only when “the unexpected” occurs. That’s usually something big and potentially destabilizing. It could take the form of a sudden severe weather event, a change in management, a shift in organizational priorities in your client’s company, or even a downturn in one or more sectors of the economy.


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Putting Sales Velocity into Action: Deal Size

Article by , June 24, 2019

So far in this series on sales velocity—which is all about understanding how fast you and your team are making sales and earning revenue—we’ve talked about what you need to do more of. More opportunities earned, for instance, means a bigger, healthier sales pipeline for your business.


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Values-Based Authentic Leadership

Article by , June 23, 2019

Companies can no longer be impersonal buildings where employees show up each day, carry out their duties and shut off their brains before going home each night. The most successful leaders know that employees want a rewarding work life—an environment that cares for them, values their contributions and gives them a chance to learn and grow.


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Pricing & Profits: It’s Not All About Revenue

Article by , June 23, 2019

According to CFO Magazine, Amazon’s profit doubled to a record $3.6 billion in the first quarter yet reported its lowest growth rate in quarterly revenue since 2015. In today’s Amazonian environment, subscription services such as Amazon cloud and Kindle services as well as disruptive forces such as the 3rd party seller services (clients worry about […]


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Putting Sales Velocity into Action: Opportunities

Article by , June 18, 2019

In this series, we’re looking at sales velocity: measuring how fast your team is making sales and earning revenue. The reason it’s one of your most important metrics—and predictors—of success is that it gives you the flexibility to make adjustments in four key areas: opportunities, deal size, win/lose rate and sales cycle time.


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