Category Archives: Sales Matters

Posts in this category relate to activities and operations intended to increase demand for what an organization offers its customers.

Finance Matters, Sales Matters

What to think about when deciding to Bid/No-Bid the deal of a lifetime.

September 22, 2015 Peter DiGiammarino Leave a comment

TO: Board of Directors

FROM: CEO

SUBJECT: Input on an opportunity to bid for a strategic project

I just got off the phone with the President of the top player in our target vertical market west of the Mississippi:

Opportunity: They are going to let an RFP in two weeks to six or fewer strategy consulting firms.

Scope: Strategy, culture, change management, marketing, and messaging. (Yes; they’ve combined it all; and Yes they want one winner to be their partner as they transform).

Budget: Over $1M in first-year contracted services.

Term: It’s a multi-year award.

Qualifications: It’s right up our alley, the CEO know us (me) but has never been a client, our lack of local presence is a good thing because they want a firm with great experience and NOT just someone local.

Process: Responses will be due six weeks after the RFP is issued, and orals will be in two months with the winner selected by year-end.

Please share thoughts on how to think this through. We want to win as always and this has big implications for our firm if we do win. We have NOT decided to bid. We will do a bid/no-bid process once we see the RFP.

Your guidance in advance is most welcome. Continue reading What to think about when deciding to Bid/No-Bid the deal of a lifetime. →

Grow, Sales Matters

A framework for sales in a services business.

September 1, 2014 Peter DiGiammarino 1 Comment

There are many ways to drive sales in a services business. The hardest is to convince a new prospect to hire your organization to perform new work. Once you have a client, though, it is far easier to:

Extend and expand contracted work to provide even greater value.

Find and develop new opportunities to deliver value in other parts of the same organization.

Find similar organizations that would benefit from doing what has been successfully done already.

Most service organizations dramatically under-play opportunities to deliver more value to existing clients and to deliver for new clients what has already been successfully delivered for another.

Click the figure above to view a graphic that shows how to juxtapose the roles of New Account Sales, Project Management, Account Management, and Solution Offering Management in a way that provides a solid foundation for steady revenue growth.

Manage to Lead, People Matters, Sales Matters

“Extra Revenue” vs. “More Revenue” … Read all about it!

June 18, 2014 Peter DiGiammarino Leave a comment

When a sale comes in ahead of expectation or when revenue and profit exceed plan, a leader may refer to extra revenue or extra profit which runs the risk of sending the wrong signal to employees. Continue reading “Extra Revenue” vs. “More Revenue” … Read all about it! →

Sales Matters

How to form and ask good questions of customers and prospects to create and expand the opportunity to deliver great value.

February 14, 2013 Peter DiGiammarino

Good questions of customers and prospects can dramatically increase the odds of developing opportunities to deliver value. Questions that engage and that allow the customer or prospect to reveal and expand their realities and the opportunities to provide value are ideal.

It takes conscious effort to plan for, create, and to make the most of opportunities to engage. The best practice is to think ahead, develop a collection of stock questions, and pay attention to find, cultivate, and take advantage of opportunities to engage.

Below are characteristics of well-phrased questions followed by some examples.

A well-phrased question:

Is not answerable in a single word, i.e. it is open-ended and inspires an engaging dialogue on a broad agenda.
Builds credibility and demonstrates Continue reading How to form and ask good questions of customers and prospects to create and expand the opportunity to deliver great value. →

Grow, Manage to Lead, Sales Matters

How marketing can turn a prospect into a customer.

July 13, 2012 Peter DiGiammarino Leave a comment

A good way to think about marketing is to consider it a four-stage process that goes from Prospect to Customer. Each stage has a program of marketing activities that move a prospect along the path to a sale.

Attract activities make a broad audience of possible prospective customers aware of the selling organization and promote its Capture activities.

Attract activities include advertising, brochures, industry events, public speaking, published articles, press mentions, mailings, etc.

Capture activities increase a prospect’s knowledge of the selling organization through a value-added relationship and tie directly to Convert activities. Continue reading How marketing can turn a prospect into a customer. →

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