This article summarizes the philosophy and key tenets of the whale hunting metaphor for large account selling. It distinguishes how Whale Hunting differs from other methods of selling and growing large customers.
Let me ask you this: have you ever felt that in order to get in the door at a big company you should offer to do a test or a trial run or a very small project in order to prove yourself to them? I actually had an experience like this only a few years […]
Thanks to Connie Kadansky, the Sales Call Reluctance Coach, for a great interview on Blog Talk Radio about how to know more to sell more. Connie says, “Even with the recent Brexit vote, you cannot deny that we are a global economy. Keep your chin up and be the visionary!” We talk about my new…...
Corporate philanthropy has been around for hundreds of years. From the town groceries running a line of credit for local families to the local merchants who sponsor Little League to the corporate giants who established the Lilly and Rockefeller and Carnegie and Gates Foundations as well as many others, companies find ways to align…...
What kind of return on investment can you promise to your customers? If they buy your products and services, how is that going to impact their bottom line, increasing revenues and/or decreasing costs? And how fast can they realize that return? If you have that kind of offer to the market, you might consider building […]
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Too many small companies try to be all things to all people. Well, we can do this, and that, and the other thing too! Why not offer all of our things to all of our people? The problem is this: if you do all kinds of things, no one will think of you when […]
In my continuing series on differentiating your brand, I’m writing today about references and how you can develop them as a powerful way to stand out from your competitors. I’m not talking about testimonials from happy customers here; I wrote about that idea yesterday. References can be distinctly different from testimonials in positioning your brand […]
A new report from CSO Insights is their This research study–19th in CSO’s series–looked at more than 100 metrics and garnered responses from 1200 companies. Essentially, this piece is a summary of the study, with more detailed information on various metrics available through CSO Insights–industry specific responses, for example. What always strikes me about the […]
Is timeliness an important part of your service? A good way for small companies to differentiate is by using their agility and flexibility to deliver goods and services faster than their competitors do. The more complex your service, the more a timely delivery may be a great selling point Of course, you have to be […]
Focusing on the outcomes of your work for customers can promote a clear differentiation from competitors. All buyers are interested in the end result–what will it look like/feel like/be like when you are done? This image (known as a 3D Knowledge Model) represents a future state where a number of disparate entities are aligned around […]
Everyone’s heard of a “niche” market as one way to differentiate your company from others. Perhaps you sell business-to-business, and you sell only to schools, or to salespeople, or to entrepreneurs, or to HR Directors, or to manufacturers. Or you sell to consumers, perhaps to men, or to teens, or to lawyers or gardeners.You might […]