As you know, I very much prefer the solution to the problem, and not the problem itself. Just as positive psychology deals with what makes people happy (as opposed to what causes our myriad dysfunctions), my revenue growth work focuses on the great things you’re doing right, capturing it in your customers’ words, and then making your people aware of it in order to change their behavior slightly to dramatically grow sales.
But it has been interesting to observe over the years with my clients that the impediments to revenue growth are consistent from company to company. Here they are then, in list form — the top 13 killers of revenue growth (and a project with me addresses and fixes every one of these):
A reactive culture.
Not communicating enough.
Fear.
Discomfort. (It’s ours, not our customers’!)
Perceiving yourself as a commodity.
Not asking for referrals because of the last three issues above.
Emailing instead of calling.
Leaders who believe their sales staff spends far more time on the phone than they actually do.
Salespeople behaving as order-takers.
Keeping prices steady for years and years.
Nine out of every 10 dollars coming from repeat customers, to the exclusion of prospects.
Resistors in the ranks. Vocal resistors especially.
A lack of internal accountability.
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Last week’s Revenue Growth Video looked at the surprising and fascinating close rates of the did you know question and quote follow-ups.
And a recent Revenue Growth Video is about doing joyful work.
Want to grow your business? Sell more to existing customers? Infuse your culture with the positivity of your happy customers? Implement a simple but powerful selling system based on your great value as opposed to reducing your prices? Reply to this email or call me at directly 847-459-6322.
My latest book, The Revenue Growth Habit, is the reigning, defending 2015 Sales Book of the Year (as selected by 800-CEO-Read).