Colleen’s Blog

Chris and I spent an afternoon scuba diving with the team at Key Dives. What an exceptional experience they created for everyone on the boat! And, as usual, I can distill a number of lessons that you can use to grow your business from my experience. Here are the top three: 1) Expertise matters but it must be captivating as well. The captain of our boat was a commanding and authoritative man, but also fun and likeable. He had charisma and rapport with his crew and guests that made you want to listen to him. Diving is fun but also risky, and the briefings are critical for everyone's safety. Our captain held the entire boat with rapt attention. As a contrast, when was the last time you saw a flight attendant receive 100% attention to their preflight briefing? Lesson: Bored customers learn nothing (and buy nothing).

I'd like to share a few thoughts with you. When traveling, working with clients and in my everyday interactions, I am always staying receptive to potential lessons that could benefit you.  In case you were wondering, here is what has been on my mind for the last week. Some of them may seem obvious at first, but the number of sales leaders who are neglecting these simple ideas is staggering. Don't let it be you!

Is your business experiencing wild swings in revenue? This may surprise you, but putting too much emphasis on closing business is actually counterproductive to increasing your revenues. What?! Let me explain. Every time one of your sales reps closes a sale, they should be adding three to four more leads to your pipeline. When you’re concentrating too much on closing business, it detracts focus from gaining new leads. Before long, you will have no new leads to close business with, and this is what causes swings in revenue or sales whiplash...as I like to call it! Not to worry, if you feel your team has fallen victim to laser-focusing on closing while sacrificing new leads, there's a solution. Are you wondering how you can attain consistent revenue?

Is your sales team actively seeking out referrals from your current client base? According to recent studies, 78% of happy clients want to give out referrals. Yet only 8% of salespeople actually ask for them. Can you see the disconnect? It doesn't take a math genius to figure out that many salespeople are missing out on key opportunities to increase their sales and grow their businesses. How many of these opportunities are slipping through the fingers of your sales team? I understand the intimidation factor, but the truth is in order to achieve and maintain any kind of success in sales, you have to push through the intimidation and ask for referrals anyway. They are such a powerful tool to grow your customer base, and not having your team ask for them often enough is doing a major disservice to them and your business. Here's the truth, you will always get a rejection if you're asking for referrals the wrong way. Just like anything else, being successful with gathering referrals requires strategy. <-- Click To Tweet Consider this quick strategy to get the ball rolling:

Sales is an interesting game. You never know when the most (seemingly) minor slip up can cost you. <-- Click To Tweet Because of this, I want to highlight a few common, and not-so-common mistakes so that you can build awareness around them. Take time to read though each item on the list and consider the consequences of making such an error in your own business. The more real it feels to you, the more likely you are to take it seriously and avoid making it in the future. If you've already made a mistake highlighted in the list, relearn the lessons associated with it. A mistake is only a mistake if you don't learn from it.