Category Archives: Sales / Traction

Ep. 148 – New Year’s Resolutions for Your Business: Part 1

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-2A new year bring with it the promise of a fresh start, both for you and your business. For many entrepreneurs out there, this means it’s time to start getting serious. Are you ready to stop “playing business”? Are you ready to get out of the mindset of working “in your business” and start working “on your business”? If so, today’s podcast is for you.

Host and business coach Tom Ryan talks about his business resolutions for this year, from “stop doing” to “start doing” goals. As always, Tom is joined by producers and co-host Jason Pyles. Continue reading →

7 Steps For Getting Great Results From Initial Consultations

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IMG_2329Running a small company is a lot of work, particularly when you run a one-person shop as a freelancer or consultant. At that scale, every client counts. When a new prospective client crosses your path, it’s only natural to want to give them plenty of time. Meeting face-to-face, perhaps sitting down for an hour over a cup of coffee, seems like the right way to have an initial consultation. From a sales perspective, however, it’s absolutely wrong.

More accurately, it’s ineffective and inefficient. Spending an hour on your initial consultation, only to find that you’re a bad fit for each other, represents more than a sale that didn’t happen. It also represents an hour that you can’t charge for, and couldn’t spend finding new clients. When you bill by the hour, time is money. Continue reading →

Ep. 142 – Sale Deconstructed: Initial Consultation Approach, Part 2

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-5When you’re billing by the hour, every moment you spend talking with a potential client matters. That’s one reason why those hour-long initial consultations can be so frustrating, particularly when they don’t result in a sale. Is there an alternative? Have you been doing it wrong this whole time?

In this episode, host and business coach Tom Ryan continues his seven-point plan to make the most out of an initial consultation. As always, Tom is joined by co-host and producer Jason Pyles. Continue reading →

Rethinking The Initial Sales Consultation

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IMG_2329One of the best things about being a business coach is that I get to meet a lot of entrepreneurs in a wide variety of fields. I’m often struck by how diverse the local business community is, and by how similar their needs are when it comes to growing those businesses. My background is in working with high-growth startups — tech, manufacturing and service companies, mainly — but recently I’ve started to work with smaller, more creatively focused businesses. To my surprise, it turns out that both types of company have a lot of things in common. No matter what industry you’re in, some challenges are universal.

Recently, I was talking with the owner of a one-woman graphic design firm, and she was telling me about her struggles with landing clients. She was spending a lot of time meeting with prospective customers, but not landing as many of those job as she wanted to. Despite her best efforts, she just wasn’t getting enough business. Continue reading →

Ep. 141 – Sale Deconstructed: Initial Consultation Approach Part 1

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-4Meeting with prospective clients can be a time-intensive process. It can also be a frustrating one, particularly when those meetings don’t result in a sale. There are few things more disheartening than spending an hour talking over coffee with a potential client, only to have them give their business to someone else.

In this episode, host and business coach Tom Ryan discusses a seven-point plan to make that initial consultation both more efficient and more likely to result in a sale. As always, Tom is joined by co-host and producer Jason Pyles. Continue reading →

The Profitable Mindset, Part 1: Creating A Clear Path To Profitability

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-B-5Profits are pretty simple to understand. It’s just revenue minus expenses. If you make a lot of sales and manage your expenses well, your business will be profitable. So why do so many entrepreneurs struggle when it comes to creating profitable businesses?

To start a successful business, you need to have a really solid understanding of how your business is going to make money. This means constructing and stress-testing your business model from a profit-focused perspective. Here’s something you might not realize: Most entrepreneurs never bother to do this. Continue reading →

5 Reasons Every Entrepreneur Should Learn Sales

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-B-5Cash is the lifeblood of your business. It’s how you keep the lights on, your employees coming in every day, and your mortgage paid. How does your business get cash? You sell your stuff — those products or services that constitute your business. No sales means no cash. No cash means no business.

If sales is so important, why is it that so many entrepreneurs shy away from the sales side of their business? If you don’t have a background in sales, it’s all too easy for sales to seem intimidating. Sales means facing rejection, and calling people who don’t want to talk to you. It involves asking people for money. It’s seems easier just to hire someone else to take care of it. Continue reading →

Ep. 121 – The Business Power Pitch Deconstructed: Part 5 – Traction

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SIBP-Blog-NEW-2Serious investors all want to see the same thing when they look at your business. It isn’t a great idea, although can certainly help capture their attention. It isn’t a great business plan, or a brilliant marketing campaign. What investors want to see is traction.

What is traction, and why does it matter so much. In this episode, host and business coach Tom Ryan explains the basic forms of traction — from sales to user adoption — and why they matter when it comes to creating a killer pitch. As always, Tom is joined by producer and co-host Jason Pyles. Continue reading →

Getting Started With Professionalization, Part 2: Sales, Service and Marketing

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IMG_2329When people ask me about which process in their business they should professionalize first, I inevitably tell them to start with sales. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m a big believer in sales, and it’s no coincidence that I tend to give it the highest priority. A refined and professional sales process is an asset that will deliver great returns for your over and over again throughout the life of the business.

Why start with sales? Because it’s hard to uproot and replace an entrenched sales system — even one that doesn’t work very well — and every day you wait, the more difficult it becomes. If there’s one thing you want to get right as early as possible, it’s sales. Continue reading →

Ep. 110 – The Fourth P of Sales: People, Part 2

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FourPs-ImageIn this final installment of the “Four Ps of Sales” series, host and business coach Tom Ryan nails down the two remaining concepts in hiring a great sales team: Skill sets and compensation. Learn why hiring the right person with the right skills for the sales system is often the best long-term strategy, and why it makes sense to hire for your level of compensation, rather than adjust compensation to hire a specific person.

To catch up on the “Four Ps of Sales,” check out: Overview; “Process” (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3); and “Performance”; “Pay” (Part 1 and Part 2); and “People” (Part 1). Continue reading →