PWC midyear report US M&A Activity

There were some interesting takeaways from last week’s PWC report on US M&A activity for the six months to June. I’ve summarized the key numbers, the operational actions and the strategic issues worth considering: Key Numbers 4587 transactions totaling...

How to Increase Yields Not Prices

It’s a tough market to raise your prices. Customers are extremely cost conscious and market savvy. Why should they pay more? Instead you need to reframe the problem into a yield optimization problem. How do you maximize yield or profit from your existing...

Scaling a Sales Team – Part 3 – Execution

In this final post on Scaling a Sales Team, I turn to execution tips. Driving your sales team to operate at maximum effectiveness is a one of the most difficult operational issues you will ever face as a leader. From start-ups to $50m private companies to the IBM and...

How To Scale A Sales Team – Part 2 – Metrics

In this second post I thought it would be useful to share some benchmarks covering, On Target Earnings, call stats, and cookbooks depending on the sales model you choose. 1. On Target Earnings. I published a detailed blog on sales commission here but I’ve...

How To Scale A Sales Team – Part 1 – Questions

We see many businesses struggling with this problem across sectors and across all stages of the company lifecycle. Focusing on B2B selling, I’m tackling the problem over 3 blog posts. The first one below reviews the questions you need to consider before building...

Small Business Marketing – 10 Process Tips

  The vast majority of US enterprises (98%) employ less than 100 people. Specifically for that audience I’ve listed 10 quick tips to help you tell your story better across your marketing and sales teams. 10 Process Tips Break your collateral down into manageable...

The 6 Month Review

July is a great time to reflect on that first 6 months of trading. What really worked? What surprised you? Here is a little checklist for leaders to review to help focus and align your team on the next 6 months. 20 Pointers Sales: – Why are some sales...