When Can You Raise Prices? Consider the Barbell Effect

happy young woman choosing shoes at store

The barbell effect is a concept in marketing and business strategy that describes how markets can become polarized, with a decline in the middle market and growth at both the high and low ends. Think of a barbell at the gym: there’s weight at both ends and a thinner bar in the middle. In a…

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A Guide to Improving Your Talk Track & Best Practices 

two business people communicating effectively

Every sales team has some sort of template or guide to help them to give their sales pitch. Though, not many sales reps can follow the template in one go. Often, they start rambling, go on a talking spree or get nervous during the sales call. This results in confusing the prospects or causing them…

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Want to Sell Effectively? Stop Talking!

So much of our training and our engagement strategies involve our talking. We’re taught how to pitch our solutions. We’re given scripts outlining what we should say to our customers. As managers, we too often get into “tell” mode. Even when we ask questions, they are carefully constructed to elicit the answers we want. Alternatively,…

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3 Sure Ways to Improve Your Sales Figures

Any business is a collection of many moving parts all working separately to achieve a common goal. As such, it can be tricky to get everything and everyone working at maximum efficiency. Increasing your profit margin entails improving your net revenue by increasing your sales figures, and that can seem like an impossible task. However,…

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7 Proven Techniques to Streamline Your Sales

Sales. For many new entrepreneurs, putting on a salesperson’s hat is anything but enjoyable—but it’s a necessary evil. During the first years of your business—if not the whole life cycle of the business—you are your company’s best spokesperson. Even if you eventually hire a sales guru or a sales team, you must still represent your…

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How to Compete with Amazon: Win with Guided Selling

Amazon’s dominance is growing. They’re projected to be the first $1 trillion dollar company within the next 12 months. Amazon has the power to shatter company stocks with just a press release, and 64% of American households have an Amazon Prime membership while 56% of all product searches begin on Amazon. As consumers, we love shopping from them. Free two-day…

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Script Your Home Show Open for a Powerful Start

If you don’t script the show open you are missing an opportunity to connect with your audience from the get go! First impressions are important during your show, just like they are when you meet someone for the first time. Make a Plan & Script the Show Open When you think about it, at a…

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5 Ways to Turn Today’s Leads into Tomorrow’s Customers

There are a lot of statistics out there that say successful businesses should end up closing about one out of every three calls. But I know from experience that this is often not the case, and I’ll tell you how I learned that. A few years ago I was driving a plumber phone leads from different ad campaigns like…

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Should Groupon Be Part of Your Franchise Marketing Strategy?

Understandably, increasing your sales and number of customers is a top priority when marketing your franchise. And while there are many strategies to do that, daily deal sites like Groupon might be one worth considering. How They Work You might be familiar with Groupon from the customer’s perspective: you have the opportunity to pay for an experience…

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Are You Commoditizing Your Customers?

Everyone understands the challenges of selling commoditized products. They are perceived as undifferentiated. In the customers’ and markets’ eyes, there is no difference between these products, regardless the supplier. To win with commoditized products, we have to find some way to differentiate ourselves. Too often, we differentiate through pricing. Adept sellers broaden the purchase considerations,…

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