I started the day with Alltop to see what my favorite bloggers were talking about. I found a link from Guy Kawasaki to an article about story-telling–what intrigued me was the title: 7 Deadly Sins of Business Storytelling. It’s based on Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith’s book, The Dragonfly Effect. And it was a coincidental topic, since The Whale […]
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.
Should you take a small piece of business in hopes of getting more later? Not usually.
After my last post about a content strategy, Merlin U Ward [Twitter @merlinuward] asked me, “What about media aggregators?” An “aggregator” is someone (or in most cases today a set of software tools) that gathers content produced by others and makes it available to people who want easy access to good filtered content on that topic. […]
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.
There are huge businesses to help individuals with sales technique, but I’ve always found some of the best business advice can come from good friends and mentors. Sometimes it just takes a small, quick reminder to get us started for the week ahead. What sales advice can you share with us? We’d love to hear from you.
As we teach companies to become whale hunting organizations, we talk about what it means to be hungry for new business and what it means to have that same warrior spirit. Think about your team, and ask yourself, “Do I have the right people on the bus?” For small businesses that aspire to be in fast-growth mode, it’s a critical question.
To manage the handoff between sales and delivery, you may want to start with a checklist. The checklist is the next step up from a to-do list because it creates organizational process. That’s one of the reasons that The Whale Hunters Process™ works—we help companies build the bridge between what’s sold and delivered through process. Communication is great and can always be improved. Process on the other hand can be standardized, written down, charted out, and taught without the risk of mis-interpretation
Today we are pleased to feature a guest post by our friend Chris Conrey. You’ll enjoy Chris’s blog Conrey is for Closers. Thanks for joining us today, Chris! Breakfast is the most important meal of the day; that’s beaten in our heads from kindergarten onward into our adult lives. It gets your day started off […]
Today I’m pleased to feature a guest post from Chris Conrey. Chris Conrey is a professional salesman with a passion for technology. Between client calls you’ll find him writing, reading, or thinking about sales and technology. Read more from Chris on his blog, Conrey is for Closers. You’ve been successful in sales before, why change? […]
Hi there! I’m starting a new blog feature today that I call “The Sunday Show.” Each Sunday I’ll post a podcast with a Whale Hunting concept or tool to help you in the week ahead. I know that many of us use some time on Sunday evening to get your thoughts and to-do lists organized […]
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 […]