9 Sales Metrics to Increase Your Sales Territory Success – Plan Like Alexander The Great

by Paul DiModica Alexander the Great was born sometime around 355 BC in the area of Macedonia near Greece. While still in his early teens, Alexander grew to become a fearless and aggressive strategy-based leader who sought to conquer the whole world. After wining the battle of Granicus (his first battle), his reputation spread quickly [...]

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Developing and Mapping Your Sales Process

by Paul DiModica Developing a sales process that is successful, replicable, and measurable is one key to growing your firm. Like six sigma models, the correct sales process is designed to minimize and eliminate business errors that reduce your sales operational deficiencies and increase corporate profitability. Having corporate revenue success is not always a proven [...]

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Lost Sales Analysis For Greater Sales Management Success

by Paul DiModica   One of the best sales tools available to CEO’s, VP’s of Sales and sales managers when evaluating salespeople and sales performance is the use of a lost sales analysis metrics program. The lost sales analysis is more effective than percent of quota attainment as a measurement tool, because it measures not [...]

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8 Ways Management Teams Lead Their Companies and How It Affects Their Sales Teams

by Paul DiModica  Working with ten of thousands of salespeople and hundreds of companies during the last eleven years, at Value Forward Group we have identified 8 common types of management styles. These management descriptions are not always reflective of the company size but more on how they manage their firm. Each of the 8 [...]

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Are You A Fireman Always Putting Out Fires?

by Paul DiModica  Salespeople love leads – inbound, tradeshows, networking. Leads, leads and more leads . . . that’s all we want. But the management of those leads and how they are handled is important to their sales success. When selling prospects, there are several options to managing the prospect as a lead opportunity. You [...]

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How to Use Cross-Selling Techniques to Increase Sales

Posted by Kevin McCann on August 16th, 2011
cross-selling

by Paul DiModica 

To increase sales performance and customer account lifetime value, cross-selling is a key business tool that when used correctly can close complicated sales opportunities, eliminate competitive issues, and create a “visual value” of your market differential.

But when cross-selling is deployed incorrectly, it can confuse buyers, delay sales cycles, and sometimes induce prospects to ask for discounts. So, the management of your cross-selling offer and packaging is strategically important to make cross-selling a successful sales tactic.

15 Techniques to Make Cross-Selling Work

  1. When selling prospects, always have them complete an assessment questionnaire (20-50 questions) to help determine what type of packages you can wrap and offer to them.
  2. Cross-selling should be a pre-developed company-wide technique, not an individual salesperson’s option to close one deal.
  3. Develop at least three packaged offers with specific price points targeted at prospects based on their title (the VP of Marketing Package at $50,000, the Marketing Manager Package at $8,000, etc.).
  4. In cross-selling, timing is important. Do not use cross-selling as a loss leader during the pre-sales process if the prospect has not selected your firm yet. Instead, use cross-selling as way to close the deal by adding value or to increase profit per sales. Add value; don’t discount.
  5. Always offer three different pricing options with the middle offering being your targeted goal of your average sale (i.e., Option A for $10,000, Option B for $20,000, or Option C for $30,000).
  6. Name your cross-selling offer based on the title and industry that you are trying to sell to (i.e., the Executive Operational Assessment for $50,000). Remember, sell blue shoes to blue shoe buyers.
  7. To increase your cross-selling success, package all services as a product. This makes it more digestible for prospects to buy.
  8. Bundle products and services together as one offering for a flat price, spreading your gross margin over the entire price.
  9. Make cross-selling time dependent. (i.e., if the prospect makes a decision to go with your firm by September 1 and you would give them 14 months of support for the cost of 12 months).
  10. Always have “visible” cross-selling packages that tease prospects to seek you out, but also have “hidden” packages that you hold in reserve to use as a negotiation tool when needed.
  11. Never offer more than three cross-selling options to existing customers or new prospects. Too many options confuse buyers and extend sales cycles. Less is better.
  12. Analyze your customer purchases for the last 24 months and develop specific packaged cross-sell offers based on their needs, not yours. Mine your current customers for premeditated sales opportunities.
  13. Always offer a “one sheet” brochure of your packaged cross-selling offer.
  14. Develop a planned cross-sales program based on a 12 month timeline where you contact existing customers on scheduled dates to offer them a pre-packaged offer that is time dependent.
  15. Develop cross-selling packages based on sales objections. The “Your service costs too much” sales objection gets offered Option A; the “I am going to make the decision next month” sales objection gets offered Option B.

Cross-selling is a premeditated revenue capture model. To sell more, develop a proactive approach where your cross-selling is a planned sales process . . . instead of a reactive process.

“A mediocre salesperson tells. A good salesperson explains. A superior salesperson demonstrates. A great salesperson inspires buyers to see the benefits as their own.”
Anonymous

 

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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It’s Time to Play Like a Champion

Posted by Kevin McCann on August 9th, 2011
PlayLikeAChampionToday

by Kevin McCann

It’s Time To Play Like a Champion from Kevin McCann on Vimeo.

I often talk about tools and methods of how CEO’s can improve their businesses by integrating strategy, marketing and sales – and we offer numerous answers and breakthroughs for our clients in this area.

However, today’s article is going to be different.

  • We have all seen the news. Last week the stock market dropped 500 points, yesterday, it dropped 634 points.
  • The same is happening in the overseas markets.
  • The US just lost several of our ELITE Navy SEAL Team 6 members in Kabul, Afghanistan
  • RACE RIOTS are breaking out in London as I shoot this video

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Enough is enough!!

It’s tough enough to stay focused on your day with technology constantly blasting emails, instant messages, text messages, phone calls, advertisements at you with blinding speed

But now you ALSO have to deal with CONSTANT NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT EVERYWHERE YOU TURN??

The time is NOW to take control of how you personally react to the seemingly endless stream of bad news.

It’s time to BE THE INSPIRATION YOU ARE LOOKING FOR – RIGHT NOW!

I want to share a story with you:

An amazing thing happened to me this weekend. I was at a client appreciation event with my family that was put on by my wealth manager and his staff in a beautiful lake setting.

1/2 way through the day, a woman that I didn’t immediately recognize walked up to me and my wife and said it was great to see me again and asked how was I doing – etc.

She then reminded me that she had seen me speak when I had given a presentation to 100+ of her colleagues a couple years ago. She then proceeded to tell me the story of how a topic in my speech gave her the inspiration and strength that enabled her to give the speech of her life – when it mattered. That speech was her father’s eulogy at his funeral.

She proceeded to tell me that he had just passed away the day or so before I had given the speech and she was given the task of presenting the eulogy – but had no idea what she was going to say.

I inspired her to give the speech of her life – and I had NO IDEA I was doing that.

My intention was to inspire and provide valuable information to those 100+ people to help make them more efficient and productive in their daily roles. And – I was able to inspire someone to have the strength and fortitude to give the speech of her life.

Let me turn the tables for 2 seconds here and share with you how I was recently inspired.
I was with my family at a semi-professional baseball game last week and got up from our seats with my son to go and get some refreshments.
As we were walking down the ramp toward the refreshments, my son and I approached and walked past a Man and his son, apparently doing the same thing as us. Only this man was on crutches and was struggling a bit to keep up with his son. It turns out he was on crutches because he only has one leg – yet there he was, at a baseball game with his son, having a great time, laughing while he was chasing his son to get more popcorn.
This inspired me to realize that I am not my circumstances. I can choose to view ANY SITUATION HOWEVER I WANT – THAT IS MY CHOICE.

So The MORAL HERE? You get more of what you look for. If you are looking to be miserable, you will find it – believe me – there’s enough of that out there.

But if you are looking to be inspired, if you are looking for others with a positive outlook, with optimism – YOU WILL FIND THAT TOO. IT’S OUT THERE – sometimes you may have to look a little harder, but it is out there.

I read a great article in USA Today by Steve Strauss titled “Why only small business can save America”

http://www.usatoday.com/money/smallbusiness/columnist/strauss/2011-08-08-small-business-can-save-america_n.htm

The fact is this country needs you and me more than ever right now to stay focused and upbeat and continue to drive this country to greatness.

The time is NOW to change your language if it includes terms like:

“I can’t do”…..
You CAN do anything that you put your mind to and focus on!

“They made me feel like”…..(you control your feelings – NOBODY can make you feel ANYTHING that you don’t want to FEEL)
You are not a VICTIM!

“The economy is why I can’t succeed”….(if you are waiting for the economy to get better, you may not be here next year. It’s Time to Take Action NOW!)

The question you need to ask yourself is “How would I behave IN THIS SITUATION at my best?”
“Who do you have to be in every situation to inspire others”
Believe me, when you least expect it, people are looking to you for inspiration even though they are not telling you.
In order to INSPIRE OTHERS, you must first be INSPIRED.

Today is the day that I make my personal stand to no longer tolerate mediocrity. We need to come together and create a legacy for our children and do it by PROVIDING AS MUCH VALUE AS WE POSSIBLY CAN and to BE OUR BEST EVERY DAY.

I carry this Notre Dame towel on my golf bag to remind me to “Play like a champion today”. I am yanking this off my golf bag and hanging it in my office to remind me of the importance of today’s message.

I hope I have given you something today that INSPIRES you to go out and BE YOUR BEST, especially now.

We’re counting on you. The country is counting on you!

Now go out and Play Like a Champion Today!

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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Measuring Your Sales Strategy I.Q.

Posted by Kevin McCann on August 9th, 2011
brain

by Paul DiModica 

Selling is a “Zero Sum Game.”

Someone wins and someone loses.

When developing your sales process (as a corporation or as a quota carrying salesperson), you need to decide if you are going to use a premeditated (proactive) sales process or a reactive sales process to manage your zero sum game outcomes.

A “premeditated sales process” is characterized by:

  • knowing which targeted accounts are sought by name or demographic profile;
  • understanding why they will buy; and
  • using a written sales process.

A “reactive sales process” is characterized by:

  • waiting for inbound leads;
  • trying to sell everybody you talk to;
  • not knowing why prospects buy from your firm; and
  • having no documented sales model process that takes clients through action steps.

Which is your firm’s selling process?

Premeditated or Reactive?

In a sales survey by BDM News, 83% of salespeople surveyed (almost 2,000 respondents) indicated they did NOT believe their firm used a market study or market research to calculate their sales quota based on demand.

Without identified sales territory market potential, the lack of business research forces quota carrying salespeople and VP’s of Sales into a “Reactive Sales Process” unless they take corrective actions and prepare to manage their sales quota.

To sell more, you must plan more.

To sell more, use a technique of Value Forward Selling called “Risk Management”.

Key accounts, SMB prospects and targeted buyers always seek to minimize their risk when buying products and professional services. Risk management should then become a premeditated sales process tool to use when you sell.

On the first pass, most prospects (at the management level) are skeptical. They just don’t believe you or any other salesperson. It’s nothing personal. There are just too many salespeople.

So, help them manage their perception of buying from you.

 8 Prospect Risk Management Techniques

Here are some guidelines to prepare for prospect risk management:

  1. When competing against big companies, manage the risk by focusing on your strengths. Use the “bus analogy” when competing against them, “Large firms bus in and out their lead team and usually have no practice manager continuity, while our team remains the same throughout the relationship.”
  2. Never wait for a prospect to ask about your firm’s background. Always supply details in advance. If the following variables are positive, you will want to provide corporate information including the number of employees, years in business, clients’ names and annual revenue. If these variables are negative (i.e., losing money, no installations, customers hate you), then don’t bring it up and focus on the other methods listed.
  3. The greater the competition, the more risk management information you must deploy to balance perceived fear. Do not be passive when competing against established players – go after their largeness as a weakness. Never negatively sell; instead, communicate your value aggressively.
  4. Never have your CEO or VP of Sales go on a first sales call. It makes your firm look small. CEO’s and VP’s of Sales are big guns held in reserve to be used when needed, not on the first sales call. Having CEO’s go to your first client meeting only works when your firm is a Fortune 500 and you are meeting a Fortune 50 C-level executive.
  5. If you are VC-funded and have new product or service, name-drop your VC’s relationships.
  6. If you are a small or startup firm and have Fortune 1000 C-level executives on your board of directors, say “our team includes . . .” and name-drop their positions and the company names with which they are associated.
  7. To manage the prospect’s fear of buying something other than what was shown in a demo, it is always a good idea to have a client feature/service sign-off sheet for any demonstration. This protects the salesperson from the client’s demo amnesia and protects the client from being oversold.
  8. Never represent your firm as a generalist. Always be a specialist. Generalist firms are always perceived to be large and slow. Specialist firms are perceived to be more customer centric.

Selling is a premeditated sport. Don’t shoot from the hip. Help your prospects purchase by managing their fear of risk.

If you manage the client’s needs, you will manage the sale in a premeditated sales manner and you will sell more.

If you ignore the client’s risk issues, you will lose the deal.

Remember, the client’s perceived risk is your sales risk.

 

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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The 7 Stages of Prospect Commitment You Need to Manage

Posted by Kevin McCann on July 21st, 2011
commitment

by Paul DiModica

  • Are you managed by your prospects?
  • Are you projecting your needs onto prospects — hoping they will buy?
  • Are you held hostage to the small size of your sales pipeline?

To sell more products and services, it is important to manage prospects — not have them manage you. Selling is a profession where you must subliminally drive the prospect to appreciate the time limitations you have in selling and getting them to take action steps to buy.

To increase your sales success, you must move your prospects through the seven stages of prospect commitment and help them fix their business issues.

The buying cycle and the selling cycle
are always different.

So, to sell more, you must manage the prospect’s buying expectations.

You can combine some of these expectations (listed as stages below) and shorten your sales cycle even faster, but if you do not manage ALL of these expectations, you will not close the deal.

7 Stages of Prospect Commitment

  1. Prospect Attention - Capturing the prospect’s attention happens when you successfully cold call, network, or respond to an inbound lead by making contact with an appropriate prospect who has economic approval to buy.
  2. Prospect Disbelief - Prospects automatically tend to disbelieve you on the first pass for the simple reason you’re a salesperson. Use your knowledge of their business model and business pain to break through their disbelief filter and “prove” that you sell your offerings as a business tool which can help their business.
  3. Prospect Value Identification - Based on your firm’s unique sales value proposition, you must position yourself and your firm differently from your competition and get the prospect to verbalize the difference.
  4. Prospect Action Step Commitment - To sell more prospects, you need to drive them to make “action step” commitments not “verbal” commitments. Has a prospect ever told you “we are going to sign the Purchase Order in December” and then not respond to any of your calls or email inquiries until April of the next year? Prospects need to show action steps that move your sales cycle forward to prove you should spend time with them.
  5. Prospect Time Management Commitment - To close deals, management must commit their time for your product or service review, demo’s, executive briefing, and contract negotiations. If you have a prospect who will not commitment their time, then they are not ready to buy.
  6. Prospect Financial Commitment - There is an old Sicilian saying that my grandfather (a successful entrepreneur) use to say “No money? Call me when you have a nickel in your pocket.” Spending too much time on a prospect because they “should” buy or “will” buy sometime in the future will not help you hit your sales quota (or target) now. Prospects must make a financial commitment by giving you their budget or confirming your investment is affordable, otherwise you are just making friends – not customers.
  7. Prospect Decision Commitment - The goal of every sales cycle is decision commitment. It’s one thing to take a prospect through 6 steps and at Step 7, they buy from someone else. It’s another for the prospect to decide NOT to buy from you or your competitors. You must force prospects to make a decision or else you are wasting your time with professional lookers.

Prospects must prove they are buyers through commitments . . . not just words.

Many salespeople “project” these steps as being completed before they have actually happened and end up incorrectly making an assumption that the prospect is going to buy.

Once you have networked or cold called your way into the beginning of your sales cycle with a prospect and established there is a business need for your product or service, give them a “Client Briefing Document” (after Stage 3) as a preliminary sales tool. It is a quick way to establish and manage prospect commitments.

A Client Briefing Document is a written outline of the expected sequence steps for your firm to sell and the prospect to buy. It should include dates, action steps, and timelines for each part of the sales cycle needed for the sales transaction to be completed from your end including forecasted time for product or service review, contract negotiations, etc. In short, it lists each step so both the vendor and the buyer know what is expected.

In sales, this is a tool called an anthropomorphism.

Anthropomorphisms assign human characteristics or actions to be taken by non-human things like the theory of sales steps.

By listing human steps in a Client Briefing Document, you can gently “push” the prospect through the 7 steps of commitment.

Use a Client Briefing Document to
manage prospect commitments.

Remember, the faster you premeditatively manage sales commitments by prospects, the shorter your sales cycle will be.

“It is not what they say they’re going to buy that’s important — it’s what they buy that counts.” Anonymous

 

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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How to Use Prospect Engagement Outlines to Shorten Your Sales Cycle

Posted by Kevin McCann on June 21st, 2011
stepbystep

by Paul DiModica

As salespeople, we must manage prospects’ buying cycles with our selling cycles.

When trying to sell prospects, we sometimes discover they do not know how to buy correctly. So your prospects’ lack of buying skills can affect your sales success and the accuracy of your sales forecast.

Taking this into consideration, how can you accelerate your sales cycle and manage your prospects’ buying skills?

We recommend using a “Prospect Engagement Outline.”

56% of salespeople say their
sales cycle is longer than 6 months.

A Prospect Engagement Outline is a control document used to educate buyers on your sales process and outline the steps expected from the prospect during the buying cycle.

By putting this information in front of the prospect, you help “direct” them as to how they can buy. The result is managing the inefficiencies of their buying process.

Although prospects many times use their own structured ways of buying (such as RPF’s, RFI’s, etc.), the use of an Engagement Outline educates the prospect to consider your buying process and methodology. Prospects may not adopt it in its entirety, but it will help coddle them into a format that is more vendor-directed than buyer-directed.

Below is an example of a Prospect Engagement Outline:

The use of an Engagement Outline also helps you manage prospect’s expectations before you get too deep into your sales cycle. This written format establishes benchmarks and timelines, and helps you rise above middle-level managers who think you should only deal with them.

When developing your engagement outline, break out the sales steps used in your company and make sure you include at least three senior management interactions during the sales cycle to align your sales process with prospect management commitment.

The Prospect Engagement Outline is a sales technique of the Value Forward Selling approach and enables you to be “professionally blunt.” An engagement outline enables you to show prospects that you are a professional salesperson, that this is the best process for them to successfully buy from you, and that buying is a mutual commitment between the seller and the buyer.

Sales cycles and the buying cycles are always different. To sell more, you need to drive these two timelines closer together. A Prospect Engagement Outline is a great tool to do this.

 

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

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How to Articulate Your Value in 6 Words or Less

Posted by Kevin McCann on June 7th, 2011
6words

by Paul DiModica

On the Internet, there is a web site called “six word stories” located at http://www.sixwordstories.net that is a tribute to Ernest Hemingway. According to history, the great life writer Ernest Hemingway was challenged to pen a short story in six words or less.

The word “story” according to Webster’s Merriam Dictionary means:

“A statement regarding the facts pertinent to a situation in question”

Hemingway’s 6-word story:

“For sale: baby shoes, never used.”

It’s short, to the point and communicates the complete message.

This historical antidote got me to thinking about some of the elongated meetings I have been involved in when trying to craft with management teams company success models, sales value propositions, business objectives, scorecards, corporate mission statements, tag lines and business strategy goals.

Often, communication both internal and external gets very convoluted in theory, abstracts, perceptions, ego and expectations and limits the receivers’ understanding of the actual message and the potential action steps required for success.

Hemingway’s 6-word story format forces both the communicator and the receiver to focus on each word, their meaning and the specific sequence each word falls in. When done correctly, 6-word stories become a guidebook to follow and philosophy to absorb for business management, leadership and stated business process.

Here are eleven 6-word business stories I have developed for you to ponder:

1. Selling
Value, Communicate, Demonstrate, Negotiate, Contract, Commission

2. Management
Listen and Lead, Achieve and Succeed

3. Marketing Research
Gap Found, Strategy Developed, Execution Delivered

4. Strategy
Strategy is important, execution is better

5. Business Success
Hunt Now or Be Eaten Later

6. Prospects
Value First, Brand Second, Revenue Third

7. Prospects
Find Now, Qualify Now, Sell Now

8. Financial Management and P and Ls
Track and Measure, Manage and Improve

9. Training
Investment Made, skills Improved, Performance Enhanced

10. Customers
Value Understood, Lifetime Value Generated

11. Leadership
Objective Communicated, Motivation Supplied, Results Delivered

Can you manage your company goals, objectives and departments by 6 words or less?

Try this exercise yourself. It will help you crystallize who you are, what you need for your company or department to be successful and help your team specifically know what is expected of them without rhetoric, inaccurate perceptions, miscommunications or corporate goobly goop getting in the way.

To your corporate revenue growth,

Kevin A. McCann
President & CEO
Executive Strategy Group, LLC
603-319-1736
www.executivestrategygroup.com
“Value Defined, Value Delivered” ™

About The Executive Strategy Group, LLC

Kevin McCann

Kevin McCann is President & CEO of The Executive Strategy Group, LLC. We are a managing partner of the Value Forward Network and have consulting partners in five countries making us one of the world’s largest management consulting groups focused on helping companies increase corporate revenue capture.

We work with senior executive teams to integrate sales process, marketing methodology, corporate strategy and financial management into one outbound revenue capture program to increase corporate revenue. We do this by assessing the value your customers see and the value you think you have and then measure the “Value Variance” gap between the two. Once we have identified the “Value Variance” between the two, we then make appropriate strategic and tactical recommendations on your corporate strategy and marketing programs to close the gaps. When this is completed, we then train your sales team to sell to management more effectively using techniques that are linked to our recommendations.

Top-performing organizations are increasing their company’s revenue and valuation within a constricted economy by investing in our business growth acceleration strategies. For more information, visit: http://www.executivestrategygroup.com or
call Kevin McCann directly at (603) 319-1736

Share
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