Business Deals - The Whale Hunters

March 18, 2011

The Shortest, Most Relevant First Outreach

Today I was reading the blog post by Sam Richter on Jill Konrath’s blog about sales intelligence. It reminded me about all the time I devote to researching prospects. I’ve been asked before what I do to prepare for a call, so I thought it would be helpful to document some of the searching that can help you get your foot in the door. Afterall, sometimes getting that first contact is the hardest part! See some of my advice on prospect research below. The goal is to send off or call with the most high impact outreach possible.

March 14, 2011

Big Deals in Professional Services: 9 Strategic Considerations

Today’s Guest Blogger is Joseph Olewitz . Joseph has been there & done that in the area of new business development. In addition to being CEO and Principal Consultant at 22nd Story Strategies, Inc., Joseph currently shares experiences deriving from years of pitching large professional services deals on his Intentional Growth blog. As I […]

March 11, 2011

The Leadership that Drives Culture Change: 7 Critical Initiatives

Making a commitment to hunt whales is the beginning of a dramatic cultural shift. It’s more than just a new business development strategy. Embarking on this process successfully requires vision, planning, implementation and personal development from everyone involved, particularly the CEO.

February 25, 2011

Showing Your Client Gratitude

Nothing makes a stronger statement to your clients than “thank you.” Thank you is part of the customer experience. “Thank you” demonstrates appreciation, builds loyalty, and personalizes the relationship. After all, if you are not truly grateful for your client’s decision to enter into a business relationship with you, it is only a matter of time before your client will realize you expect their business and you don’t value it. “Thank you” is the easiest and most sincere way to initiate your gratitude for the opportunity to establish and continue a valued business relationship.

February 22, 2011

Is Everyone in the Same Boat on Sales?

Are sales professionals trying to sell out of fear instead of quality? It seems they sell to “stay alive” just because they want to keep their jobs. More than ever, this is when we need to be sure everyone is on the boat! Sales team members can’t be expected to sell alone. If we expect sales professionals to land bigger deals, then we need to send them out with the tools to be successful, and the most powerful one, is a full boat!

February 21, 2011

Today’s the Day! Embrace Your Growth Strategy

What’s your growth strategy? (If you’re reading this, I hope its whale hunting.) What are you employing to take your business to the next level? Whatever your strategy or tactics, I think it really all starts with a “think big” mentality/philosophy. You have to first embrace a philosophy of growth before you start work on anything else. Some resent conversations have left me convinced some businesses don’t want to grow. Or, rather, their fear of change is bigger than the desire for growth. Now is not the time to be afraid of the future.

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February 14, 2011

Constantly Improve Your Sales Process

Unlike the majority of the sale optimization posts out there, we’d recommend not focusing on lead management, some sort of funnel, or your web traffic. That’s not whale hunting. Instead, focus on mapping a process to go after bigger customers. Once you have exact steps and players at each step defined, go about making incremental improvements to what’s working. As Scott said in his article, you should focus more on what’s working than on what’s not working. A truly great sales process will come from continual improvement of what’s working… not just fixing what’s broken.

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February 8, 2011

How to Overcome a Whale-Sized Loss

To mitigate the risk of losing, small companies must become incredibly disciplined about vetting new business opportunities against their target filter. The more selective you become about pursuing new business the greater your close rate will be. Don’t waste your time going after new business that isn’t a good fit and therefore you will have a low likelihood of winning.

January 24, 2011

How to Get Your Green Light (and Stop the Fear)

In a recent article on Entrepreneur.com, Tom Black gave this piece of advice: Understand the sales process. A sale happens, he says, when there’s a transfer of feeling and when you bring people to a point of decision. Of course, we’re all about sales process, but sometimes, even when you’ve done everything right you get […]

January 6, 2011

Top Ten Small Business Trends from SmallBizLabs

The 2011 edition of the Top Ten Small Business Trends from Small Business Labs is a must-read for small business owners. Several of the trends will surprise you, and understanding all of them will position you for greater success. In the coming days, I’m going to look at these trends one by one and suggest what […]

September 20, 2010

Greg Chapman on How Whales Think; How Whales Buy

We had an outstanding interview with Sitewire president Greg Chapman on last week’s Expert Series Call. Greg offered compelling insights into how executives in large companies approach and complete their buying decisions. Two highlights: Purchasing Agents. Greg explained that the decision-making processes for buying goods or services inside of big companies are changing dramatically. Although […]

August 26, 2010

Can you deliver what you sell?

For a long time, I’ve been exhorting clients to be certain that the sales team is selling what the operations or implementation team plans to deliver. In the past couple of weeks, The Whale Hunters team has been on the receiving end of that potential mismatch, which compels me to write about it again. Here’s […]

Big Deals in Professional Services: 9 Strategic Considerations

The Leadership that Drives Culture Change: 7 Critical Initiatives

Showing Your Client Gratitude

Is Everyone in the Same Boat on Sales?

Today’s the Day! Embrace Your Growth Strategy

Constantly Improve Your Sales Process

How to Overcome a Whale-Sized Loss

How to Get Your Green Light (and Stop the Fear)

Top Ten Small Business Trends from SmallBizLabs

Can you deliver what you sell?

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