Leadership By Walking About - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Leadership By Walking About

In my corporate life I had managed a Canadian business.  I had three sales teams, a national account team and a national distribution account team. The business environment was fast paced, intense and very consuming.Where was most of my time spent?  It feels like (and I believe it to be the case) in internal meetings,…

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Sales Process Versus Sales Methodology - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Sales Process Versus Sales Methodology

Sales Process vs. Sales Methodology. Both are extremely important. Both are critical to setting your sales strategy.​Both are often misunderstood, miscategorized or missing!Sales Process Every company engaged in selling should define a sales process.  Most do not have one, do not recall all the steps/stages or it is the knowledge of very few in their…

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Exploring Networking and Social Selling Through LinkedIn - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Exploring Networking and Social Selling Through LinkedIn

I have spent a lot of time looking at sales processes and sales methodologies in the Business to Business (B2B) space. In a previous blog post I shared information on the changing B2B buyer and how they preferred not to interact with a sales representative and how they would rather do research on their own.…

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Conversations Around Sales in Surprising Places - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Conversations Around Sales in Surprising Places

What does the sidewalk in front of my home have in common with a pub in London, England? Answer:  both are places where I recently had enlightening conversations around business to business sales. Sidewalk: This seems a strange place to discuss sales strategies.  Perhaps not so strange when you consider that my neighbour has worked…

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Customer Churn - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Customer Churn

I was recently reading an article on the cost of customer acquisition as compared to customer retention. (You can see the article here: retention).  Some quick fun facts:  It costs 5 times more to acquire a new customer than to retain a current customer! 44% of companies are more focused on acquiring new customers as…

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Social Selling on LinkedIn - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Social Selling on LinkedIn

Have you been considering a social selling initiative? Why should this be a consideration?  In short, traditional means of outreach, marketing and advertising are quickly losing relevance.  This is not where your potential buyers are looking for insights and options. In a previous blog post I shared information on the changing B2B buyer and how…

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Unique Businesses Built Through Social Media! - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Unique Businesses Built Through Social Media!

It is great to have a hobby.  It gives you the opportunity to disconnect from your working life as well as opening up the possibility of creating new avenues of learning and inspiration.  I am rather involved in the world of War of 1812 re-enacting.  For myself, it has proven to be the ultimate escape…

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Persevering! How to Keep Going - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Persevering! How to Keep Going

We are facing an unprecedented level of disruption in our personal and business lives.  It is easy to get overwhelmed by the magnitude of the event and it is easy to feel like it might never end. How do you keep going?  It may not feel like it right now but this will end.  Life…

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What Is In A Sales Methodology - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

What Is In A Sales Methodology?

I have been exposed to several throughout my career: Professional Selling SkillsDialogue Consultative SellingThe Challenger Sale I suppose I could think about this as one for each decade of my sales career! ​There are many other methodologies out there, some that spring to mind are: SPIN SellingSNAP SellingSolution SellingInbound Selling Do sales organizations need a…

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Sales and Organizational Alignment - Blog Image for Shade's Mills Group

Sales and Organizational Alignment

This post excites me for a strange reason.  It is because I get to use a photo taken on the hiking trails in the Shade’s Mills Conservation area!  I do think it is an appropriate image.  For a business to succeed, there must be alignment.  Different functions and different aspects of the business strategy must…

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