Optimism Alert: The Opportunity in the Chaos
Apparently, we’re supposed to write about the virus subsiding only to re-emerge worse in a few months and repeat that cycle indefinitely until we are all trading sugar and toilet paper in the alleys of our new barter economy. While not understating the seriousness or importance of our current precautions and challenges, the world is […]
Delivering PPP/MSLP and Being a Resource When you Don’t
Have you ever built a plane while it was flying? It doesn’t matter whether you are a PPP Lender, an MSLP Lender, both or neither, that’s exactly what all of you are doing right now. There is are no blueprints for a situation like this, but there are well-refined techniques to apply. Early Learnings from […]
Your prospects are just not that into you.
From Private Equity to Community Banking, the biggest problem in driving new originations and revenues may not be what you think it is. Most industry participants point to a ‘lack of awareness’ of their brand in the minds of their prospects as being the biggest obstacle to growth. Well, you’re right and a little wrong […]
The essential guide to trade show success
It’s trade show season and many of you have already been or are headed to Vegas, Dallas, DC, Atlanta or more this year. And while these shows can be a great way to drive some business…we find most of you wonder or outright question if you can get more return for your investment in these […]
Maybe the biggest sales and marketing mistake
Don’t define yourself or your company by what you sell, define it by what you believe? Do you sell asset based lending or believe you are enabling growth through acquisition? Are you selling equipment finance or do you believe that new equipment package will give a customer a chance to profitably win that road construction […]
Marketing the innovation age of ABL: 4 tips to consider
Unitranche, junior secured, second lien, trade finance, recurring revenue, deeper industry specialization and more are rising in popularity among ABL players. Clearly more and more asset based lenders are bringing unique solutions to market and evolving to be more than your father’s ABL. So how does the evolution affect go to market strategies? Whether you […]
Is there a crisis of poor sales management?
The final six coaches of March Madness are: John Calipari, Rick Pitino, Tom Izzo, Mike Krzyzewski, Mark Few, Bo Ryan. For those that don’t immediately get it, these guys represent a roll call of 6 of the 10 most successful coaches of the last decade or more, so as much as we talk about players…there’s […]
Commercial Finance Websites: 10 things you just gotta have down
What should a commercial finance website be? You must think it should be a boring piece of online sales collateral that has no chance of helping you do much of anything. And after reviewing hundreds of your websites, we must say if that’s what you’re after…great work. But on the off chance that that is […]
Helping your sales team have better sales conversations.
The new phrase, and one that is likely to stick, is sales enablement. The question is what is your company doing to enable your salesforce to have better, more effective sales conversations? The answer for most commercial finance businesses is…drumroll…nothing. Not that it was ever a great idea, but the days of just hiring salespeople […]
Why targeting the “middle market” can be sales & marketing disaster.
Provocative title, but a not-so-easy topic. Why? Because most of you originating in this space are generalists in a general category of poorly defined businesses. What is middle market? $10-$500MM, $50-$500MM, $100MM-$1B, 100 employees to 1000 employees? The National Center for the Middle Market (our friends at GE and Ohio State) define the space as […]