Colleen’s Blog

More than ever, you need a proven approach to sustain your business now and position it for success in the economic recovery that’s coming. Even with everything difficult that is happening in the world right now, there’s some good news on the business front.

“We didn’t see it coming.” That’s what an exasperated client of mine said to me recently when they lost not one, but two big accounts due to unforeseen internal changes within each customer’s organization.

These days, my clients are concerned about two significant barriers holding them back from hitting their sales targets. You’re likely facing these as well.

I've been working on numerous consulting projects recently, and I’m incredibly frustrated with clients who lost business for no other reason than they didn't see it coming.

Your greatest sales success will come when you stop using seller-focused pipelines in your sales process. As I explained in the previous article in this series, that old approach—while still common—is mired in assumptions that simply aren’t true anymore.

Do members of your sales team freeze up at this key moment?

Are you sharing the same messages today that you were sharing a year ago with your clients? Are you approaching them with the same value propositions, teaching them the same things, or providing them with the same insights today as you were a year ago?

Imagine you're preparing a delicious meal and you're short on olive oil. Would you add vinegar to make that oil go further? Of course not! Those are complementary ingredients, not interchangeable ones. You can shake them together but soon they'll separate.

In earlier times—let’s call it 2018—it was common for sellers to be exclusively in control of their sales pipeline. They built it and moved prospects through it based only on inputs that mattered to their organization. However, just because those seller-focused pipelines were popular didn’t mean they were effective!

You need to get familiar with this important sales alignment. Did you know that customers that receive exceptional customer service are 86% more likely to reorder than those who have a subpar experience?