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6 Ways to Improve Your Sales Projections

June 16, 2021 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Measure sales carefully to be profitable.

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 projections are wrong because…

  1. Sales projections are not supposed to be right. They need to be relevant.
    They’re a snapshot. They are a specific point in time, based on relevant data and criteria and are defensible within limits. They give you an idea of what to expect each week or month or year. Improve your sales projections by making sure you don’t accept the projected sales numbers without question — including your own numbers. 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 hype and hope. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Building, Business Development, Business Growth, Business Management, Business Process, Financial Management, Financials, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Sales, Sales Strategy Tagged With: Financial Projections, Platinum Profile™ Customer, Sales Projection Formula, Sales Projections, SBU, Strategic Business Units, Suggestive Selling

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.

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…]

Filed Under: Business Ideas, Business Management, Business Process, Business Trends, Financials, Funding, Legal, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Resources, Sales, Sales Strategy, Vision Tagged With: Business Alliances, Business Culture, Business Development, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Handshake Alliance Strategy™, New Business Opportunities, Partnership, Strategic Alliance, Successful Alliances

What’s the best customer attitude & point of view for your business success?

February 27, 2018 By Jan Triplett

Your road to success

Use the right customer attitude and point of view to stay on the right road to success.
Image by maxmihal from IStock Photo.

Your customer’s attitude is your guide to how you sell and how you market. It also helps you make decisions about adding to or changing the services and products you offer. Attitude is not all about a customer’s wants, desires or needs. It is about their point of view (POV)— at least as it relates to what you have to offer them. The good news is you can choose what is the best customer attitude and POV for your business success from three options. Then you can focus on attracting customers who have the right attitude match. This will make your business a lot better for everyone.

[Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Growth, Business Improvement, Marketing Strategy, Pricing, Sales Strategy Tagged With: business model, Customer Attitiude, Customer Point of View, Dissatisfied Customer, Opportunity Seekers, POV, Status Quo Maintainers

Repositioning Makes Old Products New Again

November 6, 2013 By Jan Triplett 2 Comments

Dogs have slept with humans for years. Now it's used as a repositioning reality™ for Serta. Photo from Commons at flickr.com

Dogs have slept with humans for years. Now it’s used as a repositioning reality™ for Serta. Photo from Commons at flickr.com

Repositioning helps customers think of your product or service in a new way.

Sometimes it works. I grew up with $10 tennis shoes. Nike told younger generations they were “training tools” (with appropriate tool and endorsers  names) not just shoes. Nike got it right and made big profits. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Improvement, Business Trends, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Sales, Sales Strategy Tagged With: Brand Refreshing, CARAVAN Telephone Omnibus Survey, Commodity Business, marketing, Reality Repositioning™, Repositioning, Situational Outcomes™

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.

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…]

Filed Under: Administration, Business Building, Business Development, Business Ideas, Business Management, Business Process, Financial Management, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Networking, Planning & Vision, Research, Sales, Sales Strategy, Small Business Research, Vision Tagged With: A Networker's Guide to Success, Business Growth and Development, Business Owners Hierarchy of Needs, business transference, Employee Training, Exit Strategy, financial management, Government Compliance, marketing, Maslow, Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, Platinum Profile Customers, Processes & Procedures, Ramping Up, Sales, Scalability, Team

Always Dress for TV

June 2, 2013 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Be ready. Have what you need to dress for TV.

Be ready. Have what you need to dress for TV.

Always dress for the TV camera.

My staff have always known if the media calls, come find me  — even in the bathroom. I know they are on deadline and I try to respond asap.

Sometimes it results in a story or comment from me. Sometimes for clients or colleagues. Sometimes nothing. But that media person now knows or remembers that I have ideas and contacts when they need them the next time. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Public Speaking Tagged With: Dress for TV, Response to Media, South Austin People (SoAP)

6 Situational Outcomes™: Because Not Every Customer Wants a Solution

February 3, 2011 By Jan Triplett 1 Comment

Your best customer wants something specific to happen when they use your product or service.

Your best customer wants something specific to happen when they use your product or service.

It’s common wisdom that what people want is a solution. There is even a school of sales training and many books around the concept of “solution selling”.

I disagree. Not everyone wants a solution, i.e. something solved.

Sometimes they want and need something else. Not everything is a “problem” for a customer; sometimes, it’s a “gap” that needs to be filled. I talk to my clients about “gaps” not “problems”.

I referred to these five valued outcomes in my “Best Practices in Pricing” session at ProductCamp Austin. (My slides from the session are on Slideshare .)

In my 30 years experience, there are actually six different results a customer values. The one to stress as a benefit and to base your product or services features depends on the Platinum Customer Profile™ of your best customers. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Management, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Pricing, Sales Tagged With: Austin, Benefit, Best Practices, Business Bank of Texas, Customer Values, Customer's Point of View, customers, Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Dorothy Leeds, Features, Gerald Nadler, Pricing Concepts, Pricing Glossary, Pricing Strategies, Pricing Webinar, ProductCamp Austin, Reed Holden, RISE Austin, Sales, Situational Outcomes™, Smart Questions, Solution, Take Away, Tech Ranch, Thomas Nagle, Worth Reading.

Best Pricing Practices: 3 Right & 3 Wrong Ways to Price

January 12, 2011 By Jan Triplett 4 Comments

Price right & reap your reward. Cartoon by Roger Stewart, Porthole Productions.

Price right & reap your reward. Cartoon by Roger Stewart, Porthole Productions.

I have proposed  a topic, “Best Practices in Pricing”, for ProductCamp Austin. If you’ve never been or ever heard of it, it’s a great day of free business information for product managers, business owners, and those thinking of starting a business. Attendees select the topics the day of the event so they get to hear what they are most interested in that day.

Although the session has sold out, there is a waiting list. I encourage you to get on it. For more information on Austin Product Camp, go to http://productcampaustin.org. For information on my session on Pricing and the 39 other great sessions, go to http://bit.ly/e6chc0. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Improvement, Business Management, Financials, Growth Readiness, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Pricing, Sales Tagged With: Austin, Best Practices, Competition Pricing, Contignecy, Cost-based Pricing, Flinch Point, Hassle-factor, Platinum Profile Customers, Pricing, Pricing Skills, Pricing Strategy, ProductCamp Austin, Profitability, Right Ways to Price, Texas, True Total Costs, Value-based Pricing, Wrong Ways to Price

Why Lefties Make Better Salespeople

January 10, 2011 By Jan Triplett 4 Comments

Left-handers rule!

Left-handers rule!

My brother gave me a copy of A Left-Handed History of the World by Ed Wright for Christmas.  As my husband, Daniel, said, that’s much better than a previous gift of 101 Uses for a Dead Cat by Simon Bond. Others found it amusing, as a cat lover, I did not.

I am left-handed. It was interesting to read about other prominent lefties. Some of my favorites include: Queen Victoria, Charlie Chaplin, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Madame Curie, Henry Ford, Ramses the Great, and Joan of Arc. Several US presidents (Reagan, Ford, George W. Bush, and Clinton) were on the left – when it comes to hands at least. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Business Growth, Business Improvement, Business Management, Growth Readiness, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Sales, Small Business/Entrepreneur History Tagged With: 101 Uses of a Dead Cat, A Left-Handed History of the World, Ambition, Connections, Customer-oriented, Ed Wright, Empathy, Fantasist, Good Salespeople, Hiring Sales Staff, Iconoclastic, Intuition, Lateral Thinking, Left-Handed, Percentage of Left-Handers, Prominent Left-handed People, Right-handed, Risk Takers, Sales, Simon Bond, Solitary, Spatial Ability, Successful Sales

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Upcoming Events

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Direct Link or dial in: United States: +1 (312) 757-3121
Access Code: 685-053-101

(Forums are held on the 1st Thursday of the month, 11am Central with a focus session led by a mentor expert in that issue and lots of time for other attendees to talk about their business, comment, and share their expertise.)

• April 6 2nd Quarter BSC Lean® Success Forum™, 11am Central.
You suggest and choose the business topics. Dave Nave, Dave Nave & Associates, and Jan Triplett, CEO, BSC lead the open discussion with ideas, feedback, and examples from all attendees and make connections.
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Please RSVP NOW at https://bit.ly/BSCForum" or https://www.eventbrite.com/e/bscs-business-success-global-forum-online-tickets-100809251184 or just come. We'll fit you in.

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• April 13 BSC Wisdom Wed Webinar and Work Session: Success Management Series — Operations Systems, Compliance and Costs 11am https://bit.ly/WisdomWebinarSuccessMgmtGuideSeries"

This is always a mentoring and work session with input from attendees. RSVP to get the recording and transcript even if you don't attend.

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The purpose of each BSC Wisdom webinar and practical work session is to focus on shared experiences and expertise. Walk away with ideas and connections.

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