Posts tagged: drive revenue

Keeping Your Sales Funnel Full

Posted on March 6, 2012

By Steve Gruber

In businesses whether big or small, it is important to continue to “hunt” for new business opportunities and keep your sales funnel full.   This goes for both established companies and start-ups. Since starting VA Partners in 2006, this is one of the biggest challenges we have seen companies face.  In established firms, we have seen the sales process become more of an account management function vs a new business prospecting function.  In start-ups the challenge is more acute, what happens in many cases when a new client is landed, it is “all hands on deck” to get that client up and running; during that period everything else grinds to a halt including the sales funnel.

The risk in not actively keeping your funnel full in this situation is pretty simple. In start-ups, you simply won’t have any new revenues coming into to keep the lights on. In established firms, you put yourself at greater risk if one of your core client(s) leaves you for whatever reason (i.e. technological shift, gone out of business).

I know of a situation where a company has been at risk:

We have a customer, that when we started with them they had one large client that comprised over 95% of their revenues. This is a dangerous position for any firm. When their client was acquired there was concern that the operations could be consolidated or cut back. We were brought in to help them diversify their revenue base and so far have successfully grown them from one client to over 40 over two years.

A few key tips if to help keep your sales funnel full include:

  • Put a consistent amount of effort into the sales process on an ongoing basis – dedicating time for new business
  • Ensure the sales team is motivated and compensated to sell
  • Identify activities that help drive new sales and measure them accordingly – activities could include cold calling, meetings, proposals, demos
  • Have a regular sales funnel review process – pay attention to opportunities further up in the funnel not just near the bottom

If you need assistance growing your sales funnel, driving new revenues and mitigating your risk, feel free to contact me.

2 Comments - Posted in Sales Strategy, Sales Tactics, Steve Gruber Tagged with: , , , ,

Getting Started with Twitter? Start using Twitter in your sales strategy

Posted on February 9, 2012

by Stephanie Goodman

Getting Started with Twitter is a tedious task for many and not because it is a tricky marketing platform but rather, because they are millions of resources out there telling people how to use Twitter in all different ways. In order to provide a foundation for getting started, we put together a Whitepaper on Getting Started with Twitter. For those interested in what kind of valuable information our whitepaper provides, we have put together a summary, found below, for our readers:

Individual vs. Company Profile. What is the difference and why might you need two different accounts? In this section we outline the reasoning and advantages of having two profiles that provide and interact on different topics or focus on different industries/interests.

Why do I need to be on Twitter? With many social media platforms out there – such as Facebook, Linkedin and Google+ – many ask why they need to spend more of their time on Twitter. We address the quantitative and qualitative benefits of having a personal profile, company profile or both.

Creating a Twitter handle. Your Twitter is seen and used by everyone interested in you so your Twitter name needs to reflect your identity or purpose for using Twitter. Here we provide some tips and examples on how to formulate your Twitter handle and what to avoid.

Goals to measure. Having an abundance of information at your fingertips is great, and learning how to use that information is even better. Start measuring your success on Twitter by understanding how it drives traffic to your website and how many people are interacting with you.

Sales and Twitter. It is true, you can drive your sales by using Twitter. Utilize Twitter to become a thought leader, value generator and a better sales professional.

The Basics of a Twitter Account. This section addresses such things as: What is a Twitter handle? What should my following strategy be? What should I be tweeting about and how often? What is a list? What is ReTweeting? What is a hashtag?

Tools for Twitter. No one expects you to be at your computer 24/7, so we suggest tools we use to stay connected to our Twitter account and activities.

Additional Sources of Information. If you’re still looking to brush up on your social media knowledge, we suggest several books, blogs and websites that can help you enhance your efforts.

Interested in downloading our Whitepaper on Getting Started with Twitter? Download your copy here.Visit our Twitter page for some insight into what we’re tweeting about and who we’re connected to.

0 Comments - Posted in Marketing Tactics, Social Media, Stephanie Goodman Tagged with: , , , , , ,

Quantifying your business benefits helps you sell more

Posted on December 1, 2011

by Mark Elliott

One of the ways to strengthen a value proposition is to use quantifiable benefits.  The reason to do this is that it helps customers and prospects understand what the actual impact could be for their organization.  It is especially helpful when trying to sell to the C-Level within an organization.  We have written a recent blog on selling to the C-Level. Not convinced? Which point sounds stronger to you?

  • We helped a financial services firm increase customers and revenue

                                                                           OR

  • We helped a financial services firm increase customers from 1 to 40 and more than double revenue

The 2nd one is more powerful and it happens to be from a VA Partners success story.

If creating quantifiable benefits was easy everyone would be doing it, but it is easier than organizations think.  Here are some tips to help you quantify the benefits of your solution.

Focus on the right metrics.  Your benefits should help to support benefits for revenue, decreasing cost/expense, improving employee productivity, or avoiding something bad.   For more detail check-out a recent blog on this.

Start tracking things.  Look at information that supports before and after.  One of the metrics many companies want to track is the increase in page views.  By using a simple free tool like Google analytics you can track your page views, so why not do it.

Follow-up with customers. Sometimes you are not aware of the impact of a solution with a customer until after it is rolled out.  Follow-up with your clients and work with them to help understand and quantify the benefits they have realized.  Most customers are happy to do this and can use that information internally to support a successful project.

Estimate the benefit.  Sometimes it may be difficult to get an exact number for the benefit that your solution can provide.  In that case use an estimate and the specific inputs.  Be conservative so to better defend the solutions benefit.

The Value Proposition is one of the most important sales tools.  Quantifying the benefits that you can provide makes it even stronger.  Take the time to try and quantify as many as you can and good luck selling.  For more information on sales, marketing, social media, and startup events, sign-up for our monthly newsletter.

1 Comment - Posted in Mark Elliott, Sales Strategy Tagged with: , , , , , , ,

Are You Utilizing Social Media for Sales Prospecting and Lead Generation?

Posted on November 29, 2011

by Stephanie Goodman

One question often asked by many C-level executives and those in the corporate world is “How do I know Social Media is working for my company?” The answer is simple: you have to execute a strategy and then measure that strategy. If you’re still unsure about the value in social media for marketing and sales, take a look at how many of your prospects, clients and competitors are on social media and then re-evaluate your reservations. Two weeks ago I sat in on a webinar from HubSpot that explained how leads are generated through social media. For those who are still unclear about how sales have anything to do with social media, I suggest you take a look at the important arguments I took from the webinar.

Social Media is NOT a buzz word

First and foremost, we must remember that social media is not a buzz word (or term). Although many sceptics still exist, social media is here to stay. How do we know? It’s impact on marketing, business, PR, customer service and basic customer service has expanded so rapidly that people do not use social media as the “last resort” to communicate with others, rather, social media has made its way to top of mind for many businesses.

What is a lead?

A lead is essentially a proxy for sales. Leads are those that show interest in your service/product/company or are people who you have a connection with and believe will have an interest in your service/product/company. A lead is the first step to a sale. By using social media, leads are being generated in a different way than they were with traditional marketing. Lead generation is now about the transaction of information. A company is sharing information that will hopefully entice a prospect enough that they respond to it; prospects can respond by Re-Tweeting, sharing your information or commenting on it. One thing to keep in mind is that you cannot predict how people are going to find you. What you need to focus on is giving them plenty of ways to find you. In saying this, social media marketing is not linear nor should companies treat it this way.

How do I turn a lead into a sale?

Measure, measure, measure. Use a social media monitoring tool to track who is looking at your information, how long they are staying and what they are saying (if they are saying anything at all) about it. Here is an example:

If your company posts whitepapers on their website, share it – via social media – with others. Take a look at your Google Analytics and see who is coming into your website and what they are looking at. The next thing you need to do is start researching. Research the company, their service, goals, employees, etc. and match them with the services you provide to see if you may be able to help them. You already have an introduction to the conversation with them: I saw you downloaded/shared our whitepaper…

The ultimate goal is to get people to your website; the more content you create, the greater your chance of website visits. Are you still on the fence about the quality of leads through social media? Think about it this way, the prospect that clicked on your link or shared your information is already interested in what you do and can provide. Once the interest is there, the hard part is over.

For more information on how Social Media can help enhance your Sales efforts, take a look at our Sales Prospecting with Social Media and feel free to send any further questions you may have.

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Running on All Cylinders – How VA Partners Helped Thomas Solutions Grow from 1 to 40 Customers

Posted on October 27, 2011

by Steve Gruber

Over the last 5 years we have had 50 clients and one of these clients, Thomas Solutions, was recently featured in the Toronto Star. Thomas Solutions is a 40 year old company that specializes in work truck rentals and leasing, manpower services and cartage services.  We started with Thomas Solutions about 2 years ago and at that time they had one very large customer that comprised over 99% of their annual revenue and no website.  Our goal was simple, diversify the revenue base and improve their visibility.  We were to accomplish this by growing sales and by increasing Thomas’ mindshare in the market.  We focused our efforts specifically on the work truck rentals and leasing business as it was the most scalable, repeatable and offered the best returns.  Today, Thomas Solutions boasts over 40 clients and has doubled its work truck rental and leasing business.  A few of the key successes include:

  • Helping to double revenue and grow customer base from 1 to over 40 clients
  • Active sales funnel with more than 50 additional opportunities and growing
  • Developing a target database of over 750 companies and growing
  • Running successful marketing campaigns for Thomas in two key markets comprising of print, radio, TV
  • Developing a corporate video and video testimonials for use on the website and in customer presentations
  • Working with our PR partner to secure two articles in tier 1 national papers – The National Post and Toronto Star

Thomas Solutions success was built on using Venture Accelerator Partners ‘Sales and Marketing Fast Start Plan’.  It entailed alot of hard work and support from not only Thomas’ General Manager and senior leadership group but also our team and our partners.  From a sales and marketing perspective though, I wanted to highlight some of the key steps we undertook to get to this point as I believe they are valuable and can be transferred to almost any business to help achieve success.  They include:

  • Working with the senior management to develop a sales and marketing plan that looks at past successes, the value proposition, core competencies, human and capital resources to identify what markets to focus on
  • Refining the value proposition with a focus on addressing client business pain in quantitative means – basically building a compelling and quantifiable business case
  • Targeting of specific markets and companies where the Thomas model has the most likelihood of success
  • Utilizing a CRM system to manage the customer and prospect database which is also used for a variety of marketing and sales purposes (Newsletter, direct mail)
  • Providing prospect research, cold calling, targeted emails, follow ups and proposals to end clients
  • Understanding where to use marketing to help support the sales effort and create brand awareness and staying power; and being able to try in some cases a few different options
  • Executing the actual sales and marketing work with precision and dedicated effort and feeding back learnings into the messaging
  • Providing ongoing support so the momentum is not lost

I think ultimately the development of sales and marketing plan with actionable items and then the execution of that plan is what makes our relationship with Thomas Solutions a success.  If you have a need for sales and marketing assistance to help get your business moving in the right direction, please don’t hesitate to call.  We would love to help.

2 Comments - Posted in Marketing Strategy, Sales Strategy, Steve Gruber Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , ,