On this episode of Grow My Revenue, I share several personal experiences I've had recently around trust, how to listen (and how not to) and why honesty truly is the best policy. Listen in for all of that and more on today's show.
Are you using your current CRM for the best possible benefits to your business? Joining us to shed light on the world of CRMs is Zvi Band of Contactually, a CRM on the market today.
Zvi is here to talk about the secrets of the CRM industry, the biggest mistakes people make when networking, and the false metrics so often used to measure performance. He gives the nitty-gritty details on all of and more on today's edition of Grow My Revenue.
If you've ever crafted a business plan you know how time consuming the process is. Have you presented your plan to someone for funding, only to discover they didn't read past the Executive Summary? That's what happened to our guest, Ebong Eka,
He spent countless hours creating business plans in the late 90s while seeking funding for various ideas. And all of the VCs he presented to didn't read past the Executive Summary and only cared about four main areas. He outlines those areas on this episode and in his latest book called Start Me Up! The No Business Plan Business Plan.
Today on this edition of Grow My Revenue, we'll talk about those four areas, the major mistakes businesses make when crafting business plans, as well as how to approach your pricing model. He also shares what his EKAnomics offerings are all about. You're going to learn a ton from Ebong Eka!
Today's episode with Tina Bean, the co-founder of VisiStat and KickFire. The origin of this conversation is a bit unusual: it started out as an interview for an article I was writing. As we talked I realized there was so much valuable information that I had to share it with you on the show.
As you most likely know, VisiStat and KickFire are two valuable tools that provide in-depth information and predictive intelligence for companies around the world. Today we spoke about the different ways her companies see the world of predictive intelligence and which tools are most valuable for which companies. You'll learn so much from Tina on today's episode of Grow My Revenue!
When you think of networking what do you think of? Big events full of people who are really just there to get more leads for themselves? If you do, you're in good company. Most people dread networking events, mixers and the like.
One man who is changing that is Derek Coburn, our guest for today's episode. He is the de facto expert on the topic of networking and how to build your own valuable network. He's also the best-selling author of Networking Is Not Working, and the founder of Cadre, the most respected networking group on the planet.
On this show we'll talk about mistakes most people make when trying to build their network, how you can build valuable connections (without going to mixers) and how to create an amazing network for your clients that leads to more business for them and for you.
When it comes to networking, Derek has seen it all and has the wisdom to prove it.You won't want to miss his actionable insights on this episode of Grow My Revenue!
Listen to this episode and discover:
- The two most common networking mistakes according to Derek.
- Why handwritten notes to new contacts are a bad idea.
- What are the differences of networking 1.0, 2.0 and 3.0?
- Why Cadre is called an "un-networking group".
- How to know when to be a good connector and when to be a good curator.
- And so much more!
Episode Overview
When most of us think of networking we think of crowds of people stuffed into a ballroom or restaurant, all with the same intention: get more leads for their business. Some of these groups are better at bringing in people who actually care about other participants, but those are in the minority.
Someone who has found a much better way of growing a network and creating lasting, valuable relationships is Derek Coburn. Derek's networking group in the Washington DC area, called Cadre, is a shining example of how networking can be used to foster partnerships, business relationships, expanded networks and even friendships.
As someone who has had success in his chosen field, financial planning, Derek had been to many different networking events and groups. He had paid a lot of money for some, but even in those he didn't necessarily find that people were there for anything other than themselves.
Discover More at http://www.ianaltman.com/business-cast/
Have you ever had a deal stall or fall through, but you weren't sure why? That's a frustrating yet very common experience for many C level executives. The good news is there are two simple questions that can eliminate most, if not all, of those scenarios. On today's solo show I'll be addressing what those two questions are.
In my experience, these questions are not asked often enough but when they are they provide a pathway to dramatic growth in any business. On this episode of Grow My Revenue find out what the questions are, how to ask them and when to ask them.
Listen to this episode and discover:
What to say when price comes up in the conversation.
How to seek the symptoms of why someone would switch, versus demographics.
What to do if you know there are reasons people wouldn't do business with you.
How my recent purchase of a Tesla relates to today's topic.
And so much more…
Episode Overview
Recently I was talking to a client of mine about a deal that had stalled for them. They were trying to come up with a good strategy to pursue this account and wanted to review that strategy with me. I asked them a very simple question first: Why do you think the client would switch from what they are currently doing to you?
We were on a conference call together and there was silence on the other end! And then the sales person in charge of this account gave a candid answer by saying he thought they would switch because of reasons X, X and X. He had good explanations for why they'd change.
But from his response it was clear those were his thoughts on why they'd change, not actual reasons anyone had gathered from the client. So I told him we want to find out the client's actual reasons, and we want to know for sure why they'd change.
The lesson there: if you don't know why your client would change from whatever they've been doing to you there's a good chance you aren't asking the right questions during the sales process. That is where you start: get a true understanding of why your clients would switch to you. And you do this as early as possible in the sales conversation.
You also want to know why they wouldn't switch to you - the second key question to answer. For example one of my clients does amazing work and they are involved with a client who has huge project on the horizon.
On this episode of Grow My Revenue I explain why it's important to address these topics early on, how to deal with the issue of price and why you shouldn't be the first person to bring up the topic of price. Also find out why it's important not make assumptions, but to find your client's answers on today's show.
Knowing when to talk to the right person, how to talk to them and why are all key components of securing a new client, and maintaining that relationship. Our guest for today has used predictive sales intelligence to gather all of those components for his business, and for his clients. As a result he took his $4 million design firm and transformed it into a $25 million advertising agency in two years - yes two!
Dave Currie joins this edition of Grow My Revenue to talk about how predictive sales intelligence has helped him do that, how you can use it as well as the most common mistakes people make when pursuing sales opportunities. This is an episode worth your time and attention so listen, take notes and take action!
Listen to this episode and discover:
- How to know when it's the right deal at the right time, and why timing matters.
- Proactive vs reactive business development: what are the differences?
- What does Dave mean by "market of one"?
- What is the easiest way to grow your business?
- How often does his company update the prospects they are tracking?
And so much more!
Episode Overview
Dave Currie's agency, The List, is now a privately-held company with 80 employees. With a headquarters in Atlanta and another office in New York, they serve both the United States and the United Kingdom. For those two markets they offer actionable sales intelligence, for anyone who sells to national advertisers or their agencies.
Actionable sales intelligence is predictive sales intelligence that businesses utilize to know when to approach their key prospective clients, how to approach them, who to approach and why to approach them. The how and the why are often overlooked, but are necessary to ongoing organic growth.
The List itself uses this approach and is a shining example of its efficacy. They've produced 25% growth year over year - and that is true organic growth, not from acquisitions. Dave explains this growth has been a result of a quest they began four years ago. They tapped into and fully utilized the power of building the right ecosystem to provide predictability and consistency in lead generation, which ultimately led to growth in sales.
When they had fine-tuned that model within their own agency they took it to their clients. Today that's what they educate and provide in the marketplace.
Dave explains the process in greater detail on this episode. He also explains why it's more important to get the right deals at the right time than to simply get more deals. According to Dave when conditions are right there are triggers in any industry that cause a change in need. If you can track what is happening in prospective customers' businesses you'll see indications that they are more ready to buy than the rest of the market.
Finally we wrap up with a discussion on the greatest lesson he has learned in his time in business, and why the days of the "one to many" marketing and sales approach is long over. There's all of that and so much more on today's Grow My Revenue with Dave Currie.
Discover more: http://www.GrowMyRevenue.com/business-cast/
If someone had spent thousands of hours in the start-up world, particularly in the world of raising capital, would you be interested in what they had discovered? Our guest for today, Mark Modica, is just such a person.
Mark is here to talk about the fundraising patterns he has recognized, what the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs are making when seeking funding, and how to know which type of investor to seek out at which stage of your business. With Mark's catalogue of knowledge on investing and capital raising this is one episode of Grow My Revenue you won't want to miss!
Listen to this episode and discover:
Is all revenue created equally?
How he got an evaluation of $80 million on less than $1 million in revenue.
Do you have to have more customers to get a higher evaluation?
Why raising too little capital is a common mistake.
When should you sell a company?
And so much more!
Episode Overview
The first misconception Mark lays to rest is the idea that all revenue is created equal, something I have said and continue to say to my clients. He explains that it's not so much the amount of revenue or growth as it is your customer base.
For example when he was CEO of Pivot 3, a company in the surveillance market, they grew their revenue in casino market. They could have gone very deep into that market but decided to branch out into other markets so they would have a bigger customer base. They went after clients in industries like airports, transportation, etc. Instead of trying to grow their revenue faster, they grew wider at a slower pace knowing that winning in numerous markets would increase their evaluation.
Some of the other myths Mark busts on today's show are allowing the market to dictate your company's worth, and allowing profitability to be the primary form of evaluation. Rather than allowing the market to dictate your evaluation you have to be able to tell a better story about your company and show the long-term value in what you are offering. Doing so will increase your value in your investors' eyes and allow you to ask and receive more money.
When it comes to evaluations, profitability is the lowest form according to Mark. The bigger a company is the harder it is to show tremendous growth. He breaks it down like this: in the first stage of your company you are creating your brand. In the second stage you are growing your brand, and this leads to the fastest growth. In the third stage you're profitable because you are leveraging your brand.
Discover more at http://www.ianaltman.com/business-cast/
Have you heard other business owners say they can't grow because of the economy? Often people will blame the current state of the economy for their lack of ability to expand, or even for their loss of business revenue.
On today’s episode we'll hear from one woman who never had any economic downturn impact her revenue growth: Kristina Bouweiri of Reston Limousine is here to talk about how her company has become a juggernaut in her industry, how she's expanded their business even during several economic downturns and the importance of treating everyone like family, from employees to clients.
Kristina has some undeniably valuable lessons to share, including how they became the #1 wine tour operator in Virginia in 2015. You're going to want to hear that and more on this episode of Grow My Revenue.
Listen to this episode and discover:
How do they market to their limousine clients and why is it applicable to you?
Why have they offered Wi-Fi in their cars for 8 years?
What is the one idea that grew her business by 27%?
Why she has gotten rid of her daily tasks.
Why has focusing on the community been so beneficial for her business?
And so much more!
Episode Overview
Krisina Bouweiri's original plan after college didn't include anything remotely resembling the limo business! After earning a degree in international affairs from George Washington University, she planned to go into the foreign service.
During her senior year she interned with a non-profit focused on helping to raise the status of women in Africa. When they offered her a job she accepted and spent a few years in that role. Eventually she decided to come back to the US where the only job she could find was a straight sales commission role. On one particular sales call she met her future husband, William Bouweiri. William is the founder of Reston Limousine.
When Kristina first started with Reston they had 5 cars and 100% of their business was corporate. They didn't do weddings, wine tours, proms, etc. So the first market she expanded the into was weddings: She felt she could handle it and was happy to work with brides, unlike her husband who hadn't wanted to deal with them previously!
Her second expansion was into government contracts. One day a man knocked on their door and asked if they would make a bid for a government contract. His offer was that if they won they'd hire him as a driver. They went for it and won that contract, naturally hiring him also.
The light bulb went off for Kristina: she thought there must be more contracts like this one. She soon found out every government agency in the city had its own private shuttle service to shuttle employees between buildings and to work from the Metro. For the next 10 years she went after that market, and won 90% of bids that went out from their company. Doing so is how they went from 5 cars to 100 cars.
But in the process they no longer qualified as a small business; in the shuttle bus industry you have to be a small business to win government contracts. So she diversified the company again and moved into hospitals, universities, tourism, corporate shuttles, and residential shuttles, She went looking for business wherever could it could be found.
On today's episode Kristina explains more about her diversification efforts, including why she initially resisted getting into the wine tour business! She also gives a detailed account of how one particular strategy of inviting current clients to lunch grew Reston Limousine by 27% during a time when other companies were losing business.
That is a story you don't want to miss out on! Tune in for that plus other applicable insights you can use in your business on this episode of Grow My Revenue.
Discover more at http://www.growmyrevenue.com/business-cast/
Have you ever been talking to a potential client and asking questions, only to have them say they didn’t know the answer? What was your response - did you think they were telling the truth or just trying to get out of answering the question all together?
On today’s episode of Grow My Revenue I'll be talking about the three possible reasons you may hear "I don't know" and what to do in this exact scenario. I'll also be giving you the ideal formula to use case studies to create third party validation, why no doesn't mean no for all time, and much more on this show!
Listen to this episode and discover:
How can you tell quickly which opportunities are the right ones for you?
What to say if you’ve discovered you’re talking to the wrong person in an organization.
How can you peak and retain a potential client's interest?
What are the common pitfalls most companies make with case studies?
How do you use case studies to their greatest impact?
And so much more…
Episode Overview
Imagine this setting: you're talking to your client and are using the same side selling approach. As you continue to talk you get to the issue and impact components when the potential client says they have no idea of the impact this issue is having on their organization.
What do you think is really happening here? Do they actually not know the answer or is there something else at play? The truth is there are three reasons they’ve told you they don’t know.
The first is they really do not know the answer. They may not have thought about the impact of this issue before so they don’t have that information and they genuinely don’t know.
The second reason is they do not trust you with the answer. It’s possible you haven’t built up enough of a rapport with them and they don’t trust you with this information. They think if you know how impactful this issue is in their organization you will raise your rates because you know they need you. As a result they become guarded and don’t want to give you the information.
The third reason is they don’t want to look ignorant to you. They think they know the answer but aren’t totally sure so they’d rather say they don’t know then give you wrong information and have to correct themselves later.
On today’s episode I’ll explain how you can find out which of these reasons applies to your potential client, and how you can respond based on the reason behind their answer. I’ll also explain how to tactfully find out if you’re talking to the wrong person with the organization, and what to do if that's the case. Also on this show I give the effective way and not so effective way to use case studies to create third party validation.
Discover more at http://www.growmyrevenue.com/business-cast/