Time To Level Up Your Revenue Strategies:
Alongside my lengthy career working hand-in-hand with marketing departments in nearly every industry, I got to witness and often participate with exactly how each organization sells themselves. When I say sell, I don't mean market, I mean sell. Person to person, connections that require concerted efforts to build relationships that become partnerships and produce revenue. And this art has most certainly changed drastically in the last decade. Everyone is throwing their money at software to solve all of their problems and generate all revenue, but as I briefly mentioned on the Marketing page, some of your most valuable efforts will come from direct selling. This is how large partnerships get built, partnerships that can change your business forever, and set you on course for freedom and financial abundance. And unfortunately, it's becoming a lost art. Combined with the ever-increasing desire to hide behind laptops and not speak to others, the loss of mentorship to educate and build effective sales teams has almost completely disappeared. And where does that leave you? Missing out. You don't need to have 'Fear Of Missing Out' FOMO, you are 'Actually Missing Out' AMO. Yes, I just made that up, but the point stands. Missing out on the largest deals you'll ever do (including acquisition of your business), and/or change the trajectory of your business for the better.
Direct Sales
Are your direct sales efforts effective? Depending on whether you have a product or service, the stye of sales efforts can differ significantly. In the same way you have a top, middle, and bottom funnel for your marketing practices, your direct sales engagements operate in a similar manner, except that they are highly targeted to opportunities that will benefit you immediately upon the successful culmination of a revenue generating deal. Most sales people fail due to a lack of consistently tracking their efforts, not getting enough face-to-face time with the client, not actually focusing on the customer and their problem that needs solved, or they just haven't been mentored in effective selling techniques. There are simple steps that can be taken to accelerate your direct sales ROI.
In today’s world, paid social advertising has become less effective and lost so much of its targeting value, search advertising costs are becoming prohibitively high (especially if you’re a small business), and it feels like so many advertising software platforms are keeping you busy, rather than focusing on growing your business. And that’s why direct sales affiliate marketing is so important. Until the new digital frontier of Web3 comes to fruition, a great way for you to meaningfully grow your business is through affiliation with like-minded companies, helping to grow your product or service while simultaneously growing theirs. A common mistake affiliate marketers make is the "one way benefit." They want all the referrals and are willing to pay a commission or fee, and that's standard practice, but building a true affiliate that "fits" with your brand means a "two-way benefit," where both businesses can grow together. If you don't have a full-time person or department on this already, It’s time to make it happen asap.
2-Way
Affiliate Sales
Executive Level
Dealmaking
These deals are meant to be your home runs, your high value targets, your business and life changing events that accelerate your company to the next level. You'd be surprised how many companies don't have leaders working on these types of deals at all times, and only have managers managing the business as it exists. This is a MUST for your company to advance beyond your competition, and it needs to be happening all the time, not just later when you think you're ready to cash out. This process is nearly the same as if you were looking to be acquired or to acquire another business. Dealmaking targets, networks, relationships, investment bank connections and industry groups can accelerate growth by leaps and bounds.