Business Process

What’s better for growth: a partner or a strategic alliance?

May 19, 2020 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Partner or Strategic Business Alliance? Photo by Giorgio Montersino.

Get a partner or set up a strategic alliance — which is better for your business growth? Many business owners want a “partner” to share the load. Partners exert a lot of control no matter how little of the business they own. Use a strategic alliance instead to grow your business and keep more control.

What is a Strategic Alliance?

“If we are together, nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.” Winston Churchill

The most accepted definition of a strategic alliance is that it’s “a formal or informal agreement between two or more individuals or entities to achieve a common goal”.

In 2005, companies reported that 18% of their revenue was generated through strategic alliances. The economy has changed but there are still thousands of alliances formed each year and are critical as we re-think business post COVID-19.

According to Ard-Pieter de Man and Dave Luvison, authors of Collaborative Business Models: Aligning and Operationalizing Alliances (from Business Horizons Volume 62, Issue 4, July–August 2019, Pages 473-482), “the big challenge is to align company interests with alliance interests”. This peer-reviewed article is definitely worth reading and thinking about especially for larger organizations.

It pays to know more and think more before deciding that a strategic alliance is right for you.

[Read more…]

Measure Sales Value 4 Ways

January 29, 2016 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

CEO Jan Triplett talks to owners about sales value.

There are good, better and best sales. You may have thought all sales are equal.They’re not if you are trying to build a successful business that is sustainable, profitable and transferable.

Focus on Sales Value

Sales people (even if it’s the owner) need to concentrate on finding and getting sales that add the most value to the business. This requires a sales process that doesn’t just look at the dollars coming in from this sale. It also can’t include only the costs — money going out, time to get and manage the sale, profit level, and any “hassle” factors.

4 Ways to Measure Sales Value

The value of each sale must also be measured by:

Its ability to add to the reputation of the business and the product or service
How it affects company image,
Its ability to attract customers of the same or higher value to the business,
How well it supports brand and company positioning.

Sales commission, bonus, and career advancement should be based on the salesperson’s ability to bring in good sales and to prevent spending time and effort on bad sales.

Use Sales Value to Prioritize

I have seen it written that 50% of all sales leads are not followed up. That sounds bad. What I don’t know, because they don’t say, is how many weren’t followed up on purpose. Maybe they were right!

Choose sales opportunities at your own risk. Choose wisely and succeed. Choose poorly and there are long term consequences.

Use Sales Value to Allocate Resources

Don’t go after every sale equally. Evaluate and prioritize those new leads, upselling opportunities, or repeat sales in terms of those with the highest value.

Also, make sure your sales process gives you and your salespeople a way to quickly identify bad sales opportunities that should not be pursued or only under restricted circumstances.

The less the sales value, the more likely it’s a bad deal or at least should not be given the same time, effort and resources.

In the end, it’s the quality of each sale, not the quantity of sales that matter.

Here’s to your success!

Business Owners Hierarchy of Needs

June 22, 2013 By Jan Triplett and Daniel Diener Leave a Comment

What motivates business owners? It depends on where they are in the owners’ hierarchy of needs.

You’ve probably heard of Maslow’s “Hierarchy of Needs”. He identified how a person’s needs dominate motivation and behavior and that there is a specific order in which they should be met.

His theory suggested that the basic needs (physiological, safety, love and belonging) had to be met before the individual will desire and pursue higher levels of needs (esteem, self actualization, and self transcendence).

If a need is not met, the individual will feel tense and anxious. Although people may have several needs at any time, one will dominate their actions. [Read more…]

6 Ways to Improve Your Sales Projection Formula

May 1, 2013 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Measure sales carefully to be profitable.

Your sales projection formula is key to more accurate financial projections and to the success of your business.

Sales projection formulas are always wrong. Here are six ways to improve them.

Sales projection formulas are wrong because…

Sales projections are not supposed to be right.
They’re a snapshot of what to expect each month based on relevant criteria and are defensible. Improve the sakes projection formula you use by making sure you don’t accept the projected sales numbers without question. The answers you get from salespeople in terms of what they think will close have to be reasonable and with some sort of basis not just hope. [Read more…]

7 Ways Conflict is Good for Business

March 29, 2013 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Positive Conflict™ requires thinking outside the box. Illustration by Mamadob.

Conflict is valuable in the workplace. In fact, it’s actually good for business.

You might not have thought of it as being positive but it can be when people use care with each other and stakeholders. They also have to put something like the BSC’s Fight Fair™ strategy in place.

I just had the opportunity to spend two days working with the staff of an Inc 5000 company on improving their communication. This is a high quality small business but staff members and the owner wanted to make sure they were dealing effectively with the internal and external conflicts that come up in every business. [Read more…]