The American Entrepreneurial Spirit There are a growing number of Americans who want to become their own boss. Among surveyed high school students, 72 % aspire to start a business, and 61 % would rather be an entrepreneur than an employee after they graduate from college.
Business development
Landing a new account is just the beginning. Keeping that business customer taken care of and satisfied is the key to building a solid relationship. But neither is easy and is often complex and time consuming. If you ever find yourself wondering why your close rate for new business is falling short of your goals… Read More
How do you spend your lunchtime? Many distributors and sales reps think lunch is a great time to eat a sandwich at their desk and catch up on their work. In my view, this is an incredibly bad use of the potentially most valuable part of your day. We are all in the relationship business…. Read More
Living in Your Pipeline
If you’ve been in sales for longer than a week, you have heard someone – a manager, co-worker, or accountability partner – stress the importance of building an active sales pipeline. Even so, many sales professionals look at building and maintaining a pipeline as a “non-sales activity” not critical to their growth. It’s time to… Read More
Old-Fashioned Advice for Business Growth
With so many marketing options and new technology popping up daily, developing a strategy for business growth can be overwhelming. I’ve always been a big fan of simplicity – first and foremost because it works, and also because in this world of non-stop digital “pinging,” a friendly and helpful human connection can be a big… Read More
Request for Proposal Evaluation
One easy step to deciding if a Request for Proposal is worth your time. Qualify the opportunity by weighing the pros and cons, and get honest with yourself based on the chances for success and the quality of the deal. Here are three red flags which will free up hours of your time to focus… Read More
Make Print Work for You!
There are hidden marketing opportunities everywhere – even in your everyday print pieces. Dean Manzetti, Proforma’s Director of Business Development Training and a 30-year industry veteran, has built his career on identifying ways to improve the performance of print material and helping businesses get the most out of every product they order. “A lot of… Read More
‘No Coach is More Important than The Team’
For those of you who don’t know, I’m a diehard University of Michigan fan. I grew up 30 minutes from the University of Michigan and still have football season tickets to this day despite living in Cleveland, OH. One of the greatest speeches I’ve ever heard came from Bo Schembechler in 1983. Bo was the… Read More
Take the COLD Out of Cold Calling
“I LOVE PICKING UP THE PHONE AND MAKING COLD CALLS!” Your first reaction to someone saying this to you might be, “What asylum did they just escape from?”. After a little bit of thought, your second reaction should probably be, “how do I get this person on my payroll?” Many salespeople can grow their business… Read More