Strategies to compete against cash
CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE ABOUT INDUSTRY VERTICAL BEST PRACTICES In a recent messaging blueprint session with a new client, we had a long discussion about their competition in the marketplace. The client spent the significant majority of the time talking about “Somebody” Bank or “Soandso” capital. But little mention of their largest competitor by […]
Why don’t you sell your funding process?
For years we have noticed that not only do many commercial finance companies not sell the borrowing process with the market, they almost hide it. We’ve heard the ABL Due Diligence audit described as a financial enema and the equipment finance process for titled vehicles as finger nail extraction. That said, you might really be […]
Selling success: An idea guide for simple marketing with success stories
It takes a big effort to establish yourself as a thought leader with the articles, insights and ideas that show your targets how smart you are, and it works. But how can you easily bring prospects from knowing you’re smart…to knowing you’re good. Telling them you’re good is silly, everyone says that…so show them. Nothing […]
Man, you guys are old: How the “graying” of the commercial finance business is impacting business development.
In our recent joint survey of 3,540 Financial Decision makers and more than 500 Commercial finance companies we found: The average age of a financial decision maker is 48 and has been reducing by 3 months per year, every year since 2006 while the average age of a commercial finance senior sales leader is 55 […]
65% of the sales process is over before prospects talk to one of your salespeople.
Actually depending on your B2B market and the survey it could be as high as 72%. This should make you think pretty hard about the state of business development affairs in your company. It forces you to ask some pretty important questions “What is the market doing to get that far along in the decision […]
How a little bad customer data is costing you big money.
Most of you sell equipment and technology that has a relatively well-defined life cycle. But we find dealer after dealer not using the data from their existing customers to drive their sales volume. Let me explain. If the equipment has a 5 year useful life as an asset for the customer’s organization, as the asset […]
The sales rep “quick start” program that you don’t have…but need.
How do your salespeople tell your company’s story? Inconsistently? Make it up as they go? You don’t know? What kind of training do you give new salespeople in your company’s story and the important ways to differentiate themselves and win. What is your 30-60-90 day sales plan for their start and how is the company […]
Ignoring data is keeping you from hitting origination goals.
Spend time on data, increases enterprise wide sales and marketing efficiency. Common sense, right? Nope. 33% of our new clients in the Commercial Finance space cannot easily produce a simple database of targets for email, direct mail, etc. 43%: The average invalid contact data percentage of a database we start working with 60% of our […]
I think the gap between Marketing and Sales…is Marketing’s fault.
I hold the Marketing truths of new media, content marketing and demand generation to be self-evident, that the benefit for all sales teams are created equal. Bunk. Now that I have Marketer’s blood pressure up, let me explain. I have written in the past on the innovation of Marketing in recent years. Demand Generation, Social, […]
Is middle market a real thing?
Growing up a deal guy, I’ve often been astounded at the brave new levels of “finance geek” we can speak to each other. I’ve managed a ton of relationships in the middle market, smaller business and large corporate space and the one thing I have found is that rarely do the actual companies identify with […]