Early on in building my distributorship to $20 million (I sold that business in the early ’90s to focus on our franchise model), I realized there were only four activities that would make me wealthy. Today at Proforma we call these the 4 Pillars of Success. Earn new customers. Sell more to current customers. Hire…
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When we first started franchising Proforma in the late 1980s, most people in our industry scoffed at our business model. So, we reached out to people outside our industry to start building our franchise concept. In the late 1980s, there was no internet! So we relied on advertising in business publications and attending “own your…
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Years ago when I was growing my small distributorship, I secured an initial sales appointment with the operations manager of a jewelry retailer with about 100 stores. I have little recollection of what we discussed back then during that first sales call. All I remember was that, after a seemingly good conversation, he asked me…
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I hear many people make excuses for postponing selling or giving presentations because they are concerned that they aren’t quite ready. Not being ready is a bad excuse for postponing success. The concern I often hear is that people don’t feel ready because they are worried their sales pitch or presentation won’t be perfect. Typically,…
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We have all experienced walking down the street and tripping on a crack in the sidewalk. There are only two types of responses to this experience. The first type of response is to blame the person who owns the home for not properly maintaining their sidewalk and fixing the crack. The second type of response…
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Let’s take a quick look at the three zones in which most people operate: comfort, growth and danger: Now, let’s take a look at how these zones apply to your sales efforts. In sales, the accounts that we are most knowledgeable about are in our comfort zone. We are comfortable with their size, and with…
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Whether you watched the Oscars or not, by now everyone has heard about the big mistake. The last and most important Oscar for best picture was awarded in error to the wrong film. By the time the error was caught and corrected, two producers of the non-winning film had already given their acceptance speeches, and…
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There’s nothing worse than spending countless hours brainstorming a new marketing campaign only to have it flop. But thankfully, your clients probably never had a marketing disaster as big as these. Recently, Reddit users put together a list of the worst marketing mistakes of all time, and I’m sharing some of the top ones with you. 1.…
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Let’s talk about what I call “calculator-itis.” My definition of “calculator-itis” is when business owners and sales reps continue to charge customers the same margins year after year without any routine, timely reviews. Continuing to charge customers the same margins over time doesn’t make sense because our value to customers grows as our expertise grows,…
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As business owners and sales reps, we love to hear “yes.” Yes to scheduling new appointments. Yes to earning opportunities for quotes and proposals. Yes to winning new business. We love hearing “yes.” However, business owners and sales reps are going to hear “no” many more times than they hear “yes.” So, it’s time to…
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