Posts Tagged ‘qualification’

When higher conversion equals lower sales

Monday, July 7th, 2008

I’ve discussed in the past that an assumption that underpins the design and management of most sales processes is that conversion (rate) is the primary driver of sales.
The Sales Process Engineering method recognises this assumption as erroneous.
In most all sales processes, opportunity flow (volume) is the primary driver, not conversion.
It’s quite easy to see why.
Imagine […]

Major cause of low sales

Monday, July 7th, 2008

Here’s a question
If we were to classify the potential causes of low sales into three categories:

Market and offer mismatch (wrong market, wrong offer or both)
Lack of appropriate channels for customer to hear about us (promotional channels) or to buy our products (sales channels)
Sales management (managing the sales pipeline)

Which do you think tend to be the […]

Is there such a thing as ‘customer profitability’?

Monday, July 7th, 2008

[Note: the following post concludes with a challenge. I hope you’ll consider proposing a solution!]
I can’t stand it anymore.
If I hear one more (otherwise intelligent) person mention the concept of a ‘profitable customer’, I’m going to scream!
The concept of a ‘profitable customer’ is as big a nonsense as that of a ‘profitable sale’, or a […]

Baptism by fire: a sustainable competitive advantage or else!

Monday, July 7th, 2008

I spent a couple of hours with a Sydney-based insolvency practitioner last week. He visited to request assistance with his marketing. (Yes it’s okay, Ballistix is still solvent!) Because this was my first meeting with a potential client I waited a full 10 minutes before challenging the viability of his business model. Fortunately, my guest’s […]

Why sales training can decrease conversion rates!

Sunday, July 6th, 2008

Question: What’s the primary driver of conversion rate? Answer: In most cases, it’s not sales skill! The primary driver is most often what we call Opportunity Cycle Time: the time it takes to close an opportunity. What that means is that, if you want to improve conversion rates, you should look for a way to […]