Butler Street

Time and time again we speak with sales leaders who refer to their salesforce as “hunters” and “farmers.” I believe these are outdated, over-simplistic stereotypes designed to drive the wrong behavior.

I was recently participating in a training session designed to help transform the way sales organizations approach the business of client acquisition. As the discussion progressed, the topic turned to holding the rest of our sales teams accountable to the discipline of activity and performance and eliminating an “optional culture.”

Not all satisfied customers are loyal. In fact, according to Bain and Company, 60% or more of customers who disappear, score themselves as satisfied or very satisfied just prior to switching suppliers! The good news is that you have a choice.

Butler Street has announced its 2018 Best of Print & Digital Award Winners. Winning companies are selected based on their NPS.

Did you ever really sit down and review why you didn’t close a deal, win a contract, hit your forecast or achieve your annual sales target? I mean a truly introspective look at what you “thought” would happen versus what “actually” happened. I realize that we all admit that we learn from our mistakes, but do we really change our behaviors to expect different outcomes?

In a 15-minute meeting, Bill’s life changed dramatically. Bill had just lost his largest account, Lassiter Logistics, resulting in a $1.5 million loss in revenue to the company and $90k in commissions to Bill. “How did this happen?” he asked himself repeatedly in a state of disbelief. “They loved me!” Did they?

A relationship that is more like a rope than a string is much stronger and helps to reduce overall client risk.

While wins are certainly an important benchmark to track, let’s think more about the opposite metric — the time it takes to Lose.

It’s not hearing about leadership, or relating to the inspiring stories that create strong leaders. It boils down to 3 fundamentals.

By applying these key sales lessons you will walk away with the exclusive orders – at higher rates than were in place previously.