The misalignment of sales and marketing can prevent an organization from reaching it’s sales potential. Interim marketing executive Chuck Besondy, explains the top 7 costs of misalignment of sales and marketing.
There’s a lot of talk about aligning sales and marketing. I’ve given speeches on the topic and have written numerous posts. Company executives [...]

by Michael Pearce, Interim Management Executive
There are a host of pains organizations inflict on themselves that present clear and present dangers to their very viability. Among those we often see are:

Goals and objectives that are out of sync with job descriptions and employee expectations

Compensation plans that don’t reflect the will of the organizations executive [...]

by Chuck Besondy
The revenue funnel isn’t the sole domain of sales or marketing. CFO’s should be as familiar with their company’s funnel structure and metrics as any sales executive or marketing executive. Here’s why.
1. Funnel modeling tools provide the best way for marketing, finance, and sales to talk the same language during planning and [...]

by Chuck Besondy
In case you didn’t notice your customers are buying differently today than they did last year. The differences could be subtle or obvious, but if you observe closely you’ll see that the process they follow to make a buying decision–the buyers’ journey’–has changed.
If your selling process and sales funnel structure haven’t adapted [...]

Question from client:
$3mm confection company wants to go national; capacity to rapidly grow. Need high end retail customers for this premium brand.
What direction is best to build sales? Direct sales force calling on targeted accounts, or indirect via distribution or food brokers? Is there a way to assess situation before choosing one or more directions?
Great [...]

by Chuck Besondy

In light of the global economic chaos smart CEO’s recognize that this is actually an excellent time to assess and tune every aspect of the company’s revenue engine. “Business as usual” just won’t cut it because we’re not facing an “as usual” market. The time is right for an interim executive, the master [...]

Logically, once an organization has a list of prospects with the right profile, it is time to take their offering to market. In real terms, many organizations get through the first step and immediately use a “divide and conquer” sales methodology.
By this, we mean they divide the list among their sales team. The [...]

Yesterday’s breakthrough became today’s baseline. And today’s successes will automatically set tomorrow’s expectations. Welcome to professional sales.
The name of the game is “compounded growth.” It’s a relentless game, like never having quite enough meat to feed a hungry lion. He’s just never satisfied.
Enter the sales manager: the person tasked with the [...]