Customers

What Makes a Sale? The first time this happened I was surprised. I was talking with a client and his team about tracking their lost/won ratio in sales. They were doing $5M a year in revenue and the owner (my…

NOT political - it's about marketing. Good marketers consider the problem to be "How can convince people to buy what we sell?". Great marketers take a different approach. This post was inspired by the most recent article by Cedric Chin.…

Read this Before you Hire an Agency - or a Person. [Warning - this post will be nerdier than usual.]. The Output of Marketing is Leads. SOURCE: And leads are the input to your sales system. To systemize your production…

Revenue doesn't come from where you think it does. One problem I run into when helping clients adopt Output Thinking is that entrepreneurs often don't go deep enough. Here's what I mean. If you ask where does revenue come from…

The answer will surprise you. The output you want from customers is revenue. And you spend time, money, and effort, to find those customers and close a deal. This is typically called marketing & sales. But they won't pay you…

To systemize your sales and control your company's future you have to understand the buyer's journey of your potential customers. All buyers go through the same 4 stages on their way to purchasing. They key is to learn those stages…

Blame Dysfunctional Systems. I've gotten a lot of new subscribers recently so I'll do a quick introduction. First WELCOME. I help business owners systemize their companies in three ways: This newsletter, it's free. Subscribe if you haven't already. I post…

Nothing happens till you sell something. Sales is the process through which somebody who could be a customer becomes a customer. Let's unpack that. I'll capitalize the relevant words in parts of that definition. Sales is a PROCESS … That…

People who are not seasoned in sales often think discounts are more powerful than they are. As a result they end up giving away things they don’t need to. Here are some tips on using discounts. Rules for Giving Discounts.…

As soon as I ask that question, I’m sure several aspects of your product come to mind that define quality. In this piece, I want to challenge those thoughts. Andrew Sullivan points to Matthew Yglesias about the benefits of inferior…

It only has 2 Questions: Would you recommend this to a friend? Why or Why not? This is a slightly modified version of John Mariotti's approach. I added the phrase "to a friend" because it adds an emotional element to…

Most sales people think they are in control and they move prospects through the various steps toward a sale. I'm suggesting that you think backwards - and look at the process from the buyer's side. The buyer goes through 4…

Wow. That title ought to get me some hits on the Google - doncha think? But really this post is about ... How to Treat Your Customers Right. And about how I got get free drugs from people who are…

Right after I tell you that you have a lot of bosses comes this article by Joel Spolsky about Seven Steps to Remarkable Customer Service. That's Seth Godin's definition of Remark-Able: Being so good, people remark. Takeaways: Fix every problem…

I was asked by the owner of a Micro-ISV (that a very small independent software vendor) how exactly should he spend his time marketing and selling. He knew he should devote more time to it, but he didn't know what…

The job of a manager is not to control people. And it's not to cut costs. It's to set up an environment that allows people to do their best. By environment, I don't mean cushy chairs, beautiful artwork, free food…

I saw a commercial last night on TV. A guy was pasting up billboards of women dressed in swanky clothes. As he turned away to get the next poster, the women in the ones he'd already posted winked and waved…

Not all your customers are good to have. Some are great. Some actually cost you money. Some are just so-so. Dharmesh Shah has some good ideas on ranking your customers. His post is geared toward software companies. For other types…

While we're on the subject of customer service, let me tell you about my BBQ grill. I got my first Weber at a garage sale. It served me for several years. When it finally rusted out I decided to buy…

Most people don't think - they just think they think. Here are some interesting ideas about how decisions are made. (The first three come from a book about web site design by Steve Krug called 'Don't Make Me Think'). People…