Our Pathway to New Revenue Action Session helps you quickly identify weak links in your strategy and process. Fill out the questions in the guidebook and we will provide critical recommendations customized to your answers to help you improve your new business programs.

If you prefer not to use the guidebook click the Learn More Now button to schedule your no-obligation free video conference live action session with Larry Kaul.

Learn More Now

Please watch the 57 second video to learn more about the live Action Session. We will take you through the process and provide recommendations that deliver better results!

 

Foundational Inquiry – Business Diagnostic

An end-to-end diagnostic of your sales and marketing strategy and processes will reveal powerful new opportunities. Please view the video or just answer the questions to begin the process.

 

Foundational Inquiry - Business Diagnostic
Your Name
Company Name
Email Address
Phone Number
What are your most significant business issues?
What are you doing now to improve the situation?
What approaches have not worked in the past?
What new approaches are you considering?

Start with the money - Establish the facts first

What is your current revenue?
What revenue growth or decline do you see over the past three years?
What are your gross margins?
How have your gross margins changed over the past three years?
What is your current sales and marketing investment?
What is your cost of sales?
What is the ROI on that investment?
How much is an average new client worth on an annual basis?

Next, answer these questions to lower your risk of wasted investment in new business and set the stage for improvement:

How are sales and marketing aligned with your strategic objectives?
How are your sales and pricing policies clearly articulated? Enforced? If not, why?
How do you price a product or service, and what was your rationale for creating them?
How effectively is your sales apparatus managed? Using what metrics?
How are your incentives for sales and management people aligned with your strategic goals?
Has your cost of sales fluctuated over the past years? Why?
How many of your clients are profitable? How many are losing you money?
What’s your per-client revenue “break-even point” for understanding an account’s contribution to profitability?
Do your salespeople command knowledge of the industry and major competitors? (Note: If trained properly, everyone in sales should be able to make a cogent presentation to you as if they were a competitor.)
How has everyone in sales and marketing been properly trained for the role they have currently — especially you or your sales management?

Interpreting your answers

Which clients provide the most revenue and profit for your firm?
What gaps in resources (people, processes, technology) are needed to create an effective, end-to-end lead generation, sales and marketing program?
Create more “outcome accountability” for sales and marketing efforts. That goes for your team, partners, vendors and yourself.
What is a better strategy for pricing your offerings, maximizing closed sales, and driving up client retention and profit?
What is the clear path from high-level strategy to sales campaign design and execution?

 

Foundational Inquiry – Messaging Strategy

You may have a great sales organization, but not knowing your positioning and core messaging makes it nearly impossible to create effective sales campaigns. Check out the video or work through the questions to design your own custom core message platform. See below for an example of a final result.

 

Define and defend your core position

Define and Defend Your Core Position
How do you typically present your company to prospects from introduction to close?
What do you perceive as your greatest problems in new client acquisition and achieving your new revenue targets?
What did you do in the past that was successful? What was not successful?
Who are your best clients, financial value and what basis do you use to judge them as best clients?
What is How will you prove the emotional, strategic and financial benefit of your offerings to your client base?
Why would a prospective client select your offering versus “doing it themselves" or working with a competitor?
What presentation, product demo or diagnostic assessment offer will bring dimension and value to the prospect?
How do you typically present your company to prospects from introduction to close?

Develop your positioning, mission and vision statements, brand personality and marketing and sales messaging

The positioning statement is an internal statement. It is the bedrock from which all messaging derives. When you drift away from the statement in your marketing and sales messages revisit the statement or risk a major potential failure in wasted new business investment.

Positioning Statement – To TARGET MARKET, your company is the FRAME OF REFERENCE that provides DIFFERENTIATION because of its JUSTIFICATION.

Positioning, Mission, and Vision Statements
Positioning Statement - What is your positioning statement?
Mission Statement - What is the purpose of your company?
Vision Statement - What are your aspirations for your company?
Who are your best clients, financial value and what basis do you use to judge them as best clients?

Brand Personality -

How do you describe the personality of your company?
What descriptive language can be used for your marketing messaging?
How does your brand platform (logo, website, marketing) communicate your brand personality?

Marketing Messaging Elements - Base them on the positioning statement

What is your tagline?
What is your new website headline and supporting statement?
What will you put in the About us section on your website?
What copy will be used for social media accounts?

Sales Messaging Elements - Must be written in conversational format by sales team

Elevator message is practiced and conversational but can be read verbatim

What does your company do?
What do you mean by that?
How is that different from other approaches?
What are you offering me?

Cold Call Templates - Used to get the opportunity to use the elevator message

What do you say when a prospect picks up a cold call?
What do you say when you leave a cold call voicemail?

Core Message Platform Example

Positioning Statement Approach (With Element Color Key)

Target Market
Frame of Reference
Differentiation
Justification

Internal Positioning Statement for Kaul Sales Partners

To companies that want more revenue and profit, but need a more effective sales and marketing department, Kaul Sales Partners is the strategic business partner that provides the best way to build a pipeline filled with the right opportunities and deliver critical new revenue and profit. It’s because of our ability to quickly integrate a mature, adaptable and innovative lead generation, sales and marketing department into client companies, bringing both deep strategic expertise and full execution.

Internal Mission Statement

Kaul Sales Partners mission is to breathe new strategic and financial life into companies whose executives need new clients for the growth and survival of their organization, but are frustrated with the available options to get new business and need a better way forward.

Internal Vision Statement

Kaul Sales Partners vision is to be the sales and marketing arm of companies, bringing best-in-class capabilities across the entire sales and marketing spectrum to our clients.

Logo Tagline

Strategy / Action / Sales / Profit

Website Hero Copy

Lead – Find Your Path to New Revenue and Profit

Supporting Statement – Together we’ll create pipelines full of the right opportunities while bringing rapid strategic clarity, closed new business and massively reducing execution burden.

Brand Personality Strategy

Brand personality pulls together different aspects of the company culture:

  • Relentless drive to succeed and make clients money
  • Flexibility to create opportunities and adapt as new opportunities emerge or market feedback dictates
  • Team approach that seamlessly pulls together both strategy and execution talent
  • Ability to work as a partner with clients as part of their team

Brand Personality Descriptors

Flexible/adaptable
Intrepid
Fearless
Innovative
Relentless
Integrated
Protean/constantly evolving
Analytical
Team/partnership
Tenacious
Integrity

About Us Copy

We help companies that need new revenue, but are either lacking critical capabilities or structure in their sales and marketing functions.

For about the cost of a single salesperson, the Kaul Sales Partners team quickly integrates an agile and innovative strategy, sales, marketing, operations and technology department into our clients’ companies and executes your sales plan.

Together we’ll create pipelines full of the right opportunities while bringing rapid strategic clarity and massively reducing execution burden. If you seek to breathe fresh strategic and financial life into your company and are frustrated with the results, stop trying to do it all by yourself and start a conversation with us.

LinkedIn Copy

Company Description

Kaul Sales Partners is a dedicated team that builds and runs your new business machine

We are a tenacious and highly adaptable group of mature strategy, sales, marketing, operations and technology people who fuse with your team and jump into action to find and close your future best clients.

Sales Messaging

Elevator Message and Supporting Statement – Used when prospect is paying attention

We’re a strategic business partner for companies that want more new clients, but want a more effective sales and marketing department.

Our focus is prospecting and closing business, but set in motion by knowing how to find the most profit, the right prospects, create qualified opportunities and close business.

We bring inside your company the capabilities that you need to be successful. If I understand your situation better I can show you what this really means for you.

Cold Call Templates – Used to get prospect to pay attention

Option A

This is a sales call for B2B services and if you give me 20 seconds, you can determine if what we offer might make sense for you. Is that OK? ….

Option B

It’s (Name) from KSP,

I hope you have a quick minute. I could use your help. I want to see if what we offer would make sense for you and your company. And I’ll be concise.

We’ve solved the problem of wasted investment in salespeople, lead generation companies that don’t deliver, marketing firms disconnected from sales and consultants that provide strategy only.

Close – I won’t ask for more of your time unless you want details now.

Adjust based on response – If you like the concept, let’s put something on the calendar so you can assess this?

Option C

It’s (Name) from KSP,

I hope that you have a quick minute. I interrupted so I’ll be concise.

We offer you a custom sales and marketing department. We are deeply strategic, smart at execution and our clients make money.

One more sentence to close this out?

We’ve solved the problem of wasted investment in salespeople, lead generation companies, marketing firms and consultants.

Close – I won’t ask for more of your time unless you want details now.

Adjust based on response – Can we put something on the calendar so you can assess if this may be of value to you?

Voice Mail Message

Option A
Hi. My name is (Sales Director) from KSP. We created a new approach to help companies find new clients. Check out the email that you got from us. If you like what you see call me at (number) or click contact us at kaulsalespartners.com to schedule a conversation.

Objections and Comments

  • We have a sales and marketing team
    • Not trying to replace them
    • How about a complimentary strategy session with your team?
  • I want to wait until I hire my new salesperson
    • That’s actually a good time for us to run an action session with you
    • The reason is that you will be in a better position to hire the right one
    • There is no charge for this
  • How much does it cost?
    • About the cost of a single salesperson
    • Let’s talk first and then get into specifics when we know what you need
  • We can’t afford this
    • One idea is a lower cost consulting engagement
    • Let’s schedule a time to talk about your situation
  • Our industry is different
    • Why is it different?
    • You are the industry experts. We are the sales experts
    • We can discuss relevant experience in your industry on a call
  • Send me some information
    • It’s all up on the website
    • What do you need to know?
  • Tons of companies like you guys
    • How do you mean?
    • You just described what we call sales traps
  • Let’s wait until we figure out what we want to do
    • You don’t need to know your direction to get value from talking to us
    • How about a complimentary action session?
    • We will provide options so you won’t make a bad strategic or tactical decision

 

Foundational Inquiry – Sales, Marketing and Content Campaign Strategy

Business and message strategy fail without best-in-class sales campaign execution. This is why many B2B agencies and marketing consultants fall short. Many excellent positioning, branding and website design firms provide high-level strategic services. Without sound execution, you hire them at your peril. Build and execute according to these steps.

 

What customer segments do you want to target?

  • Core market opportunities – determined from the business diagnostic
  • Segmentation – what are the different campaign options?
  • SWOT analysis- which campaigns are likely to be most successful?

The answers will differ by segment:

Sales, Marketing, and Content Campaign Strategy
What are the most significant executive conversations and greatest buying motivations for your prospects in each segment?
How can you positively impact the situation faced by the prospects in your segments?
Can you prove it?
How do you justify your value claim?
What are the critical pain points faced by the prospect? What are his or her aspirations?
What is your proven solution in regards to that situation?
How do you typically manage conversation at the needs discovery and proposal stages?
What low-cost or complimentary assessment offer will bring dimension and value to the prospect?
What editorial (not sales) content will bring your unique perspective to the market?

What content should be built for the program?

What themes are most attractive to the audience?
Editorial articles, case studies, landing pages and ad units and website content

Email content

We need a series of 6 emails to inform each campaign. The email approach follows a simple structure.

What is one sentence to explain the critical pain point faced by the prospect?
How can we explain the proven solution in regards to that situation?

The final statement is an offer to talk based on the value added assessment, trial or similar deliverable that engages the prospect before they become a paying client.

List strategy

What data sources will you subscribe to or buy?
How will you build your list?
How will you manage your list for email deliverability viability?

What’s the best way to reach those customers?

  • Integrated emails and cold calls for cold prospecting
  • LinkedIn networking campaign (not focused on lead generation
  • Social media advertising
  • Video and webinars
  • Digital media advertising such as paid search and advertising
  • Pipeline acceleration campaign – nurture emails and content

Campaign Examples

Sales Campaign

The purpose of this campaign is to attract companies that fit the model of current KSP clients that don’t have sales or marketing capabilities.

Situation

This campaign targets small businesses (agencies, software/service companies) who are experiencing revenue difficulties — these difficulties could run the range from existential threats to not achieving desired growth targets — and have made little to no investment in sales.

We will assume that if prospects have made any investment in sales, it is of the scattershot variety described in the “traps” article. Pain points could include:

  • Biz dev is diverting time from core proficiencies
  • I don’t have enough people to talk to
  • I tried X, but it failed

Perspective

When all sales responsibility falls on the shoulders of the founders or principals, your future growth, present job satisfaction and operations are all at risk due to the energy diversion of sales.

As a result, small companies usually pivot to single-tactic responses. These fail because a single function, role or tool cannot possibly replace a complete, well-oiled sales department that can handle everything from message strategy to campaign design, execution, pipeline management and closing support. (The Traps article contains more detail.) Half-measures are worthless.

Offer

Complimentary action session using our proprietary methodology to assess their situation and evaluate opportunities. This lowers the potential risk of failure. Do it with us, by yourself or not at all.

List

The list comes from historical KSP data. We want to send to those that show opens from previous emails to boost reputation rates. Leads that have opened more than 1 time over the time frame of 1/1/2016 – 2/28/2014 have been included.

List parameters are as follows:

  • Industries:
    • Business Services – all categories
      • Advertising & Marketing
      • Commercial Printing
      • Information & Document Management
      • Management Consulting
      • Multimedia & Graphic Design
    • Software – all categories
      • Business Intelligence Software(BI)
      • Content & Collaboration Software
      • Customer Relationship Management Software(CRM)
      • Database & File Management Software
      • Engineering Software
      • Enterprise Resource Planning Software(ERP)
      • Financial, Legal & HR Software
      • Healthcare Software
      • Multimedia ,Games and graphics Software
      • Networking Software
      • Supply chain management Software(SCM)
      • Security software
      • Storage & System Management Software
      • Retail Software
  • Titles: CEO / Partner / Managing Partner / Managing Director / Owner / President / Chief Creative Officer /CMO
    • In Zoom create 2 queries:
      • General Management selected as the title from the picklist in zoom.
      • C-level- list CFO, COO, Chief Creative Officer, CMO in the Job title keyword section in Zoom. Be sure to add in not assistant and not associate after each title.
  • Employee headcount : 100 or less
    OR
  • Revenue – Less than $100M (use revenue not employee count)

EXCLUDES:

  • EXCLUDE- Titles with creative except when that is only contact at the company
  • EXCLUDE – Companies that do not sell to businesses.
  • EXCLUDE – Law firms
  • EXCLUDE – Companies that only sell to government
  • EXCLUDE- Companies with “Sales” or “Lead” in the company name. They are most likely competitors.
  • EXCLUDE- Companies that appear to do only lead generation
  • EXCLUDE- Fast Signs
  • WATCH- Partners- Does not mean partner (owner) when certified or something similar in the title. This is common in technology firms

*If there are a lot of titles for a company, delete Operations and/or Finance titles. If there are over 3 people on the list from the same company, take out CFO, COO, CTO

E1 – KSP MOM & POP CAMPAIGN – FINAL
Subject: Business owner challenges
Link: https://kaulsalespartners.com

Hello INSERT_FIRST_NAME,

I’ve spent most of my career helping business executives figure out how to get new clients.

We offer an action session (on our time) to help you quickly spot your weakest sales and profit links and start improving. What you do with the recommendations is totally up to you. I’ll consider it a win if you find new approaches to problems that looked intractable before.

Whether you decide to work with us or not, you’ll know more than when you started. Take a look at our website here and write back if you’d like to explore on a phone call.

Warmest Regards,

Larry Kaul
CEO
Kaul Sales Partners
2 N. LaSalle Street, 14th Floor
Chicago, IL 60602
Mobile: 312.315.9145
Email: Larry@ksp-sales.com

Is this kind of message valuable to you? If not, feel free to respond and tell me to stop sending you emails.

E2 – KSP MOM & POP CAMPAIGN – FINAL
Subject: Need some outside perspective
Link: https://kaulsalespartners.com

Hello INSERT_FIRST_NAME,

Nobody has unlimited time or money to crack the new business challenge.

So here’s a shortcut: do an action session with us. All you invest is a bit of time while we light up new ideas together. Whether you engage with us or decide to implement the findings yourself, the knowledge is all yours.

Check out our approach and reach out if you want to explore some new concepts.

Larry Kaul
CEO
Kaul Sales Partners
2 N. LaSalle Street, 14th Floor
Chicago, IL 60602
Mobile: 312.315.9145
Email: Larry@ksp-sales.com

If our approach doesn’t look interesting and valuable, let me know and I’ll stop mailing.

E3 – KSP MOM & POP CAMPAIGN – FINAL
Subject: Following up
Link 1: https://kaulsalespartners.com

Hello (First Name),

If what you’ve tried to get new clients up until now hasn’t worked, I’m happy to share what I’ve learned over the past 20 years of working on this challenge.

We can get to the root problems faster with an action session — without asking you for anything except your time. The findings are yours to keep — you can apply them with or without us.

Take a look at our approach and reach out if you’d like to proceed.

Larry Kaul
CEO
Kaul Sales Partners
2 N. LaSalle Street, 14th Floor
Chicago, IL 60602
Mobile: 312.315.9145
Email: Larry@ksp-sales.com

If this email is not useful, tell me. I will stop sending them.

Marketing Campaign Example

LinkedIn First Degree Campaign

Situation

LinkedIn is a great forum for connecting and information sharing. It’s great for referrals. A first degree connection campaign must carefully walk the line between this type of usage and direct sales outreach. Those sorts of campaigns on LinkedIn are less likely to succeed.

KSP has a large network of relevant connections. Many of these are recent due to the successful LinkedIn 2nd / 3rd degree connection campaign. 12

Perspective

Many company owners and heads of sales want free advice. They are open to talking or referring us to friends if the message and offer makes sense. We offer a lot of value to qualified connections. Current content allows us to avoid the in your face sort of sales tactics.

Offer

Review our action session. Let us know if you want this for yourself or have a connection. We will reach out to schedule a time or just catch up if you want.

Copy

Hi (First Name):

Our team recently created an “action session” for business owners interested in finding and closing new clients. We’re basically taking people through the step-by-step methodology for our own sales/marketing process.

Could you (or somebody you know) benefit from this kind of thing?

If so, please feel free to introduce me. Or reach out if this is something you’ve been working on and are interested in. Happy to listen and offer any ideas I have. We do not charge for this work.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Warmest Regards,
Larry

Content Campaign Example

KSP Pipeline Acceleration Campaign

Situation

Pipeline prospects require extensive follow-up to move them through the interest expressed and opportunity stages.

The Sales Director decides which stage is most accurate and creates a simple management summary to describe the value of the prospect and status on the pipeline. Pipeline leads in the opportunity phase can be valued with a simple financial model.

Content is key as well as regular but appropriately spaced out sales calls when welcomed.

Perspective

The sales cycle accelerates when prospects receive relevant editorial and case study content through email and LinkedIn programs.

Kaul Sales Partners develops content for its B2B Sales Perspective series as well as financial valued case studies to remind prospects of KSP value to their business. Only clients with closed business are eligible for a case study. B2B articles come from data gleaned from historical conversations and objections from prospects.

Offer

Provide relevant content to prospects. Call those that require direct prodding to move forward through the stages. Offer the action session for those that qualify.

E1 – CASE STUDY KIT – FINAL APPROVED
Subject: B2B sales story for you
Link: https://kaulsalespartners.com/when-the-pool-gets-overcrowded-with-competitors/

Hello INSERT_FIRST_NAME,

While we’re waiting to connect, I’m sharing a case study we wrote about companies that face dwindling returns on what were normally dependable sources of clients.

The client I’m thinking of relied too heavily on channel relationships; when these started drying up, we helped them rethink their prospect targeting and got them a significant new contract within three months. (Click here if you’d like to see the story. It’s all of three paragraphs.)

Can’t presume that this client’s problem is your problem; let’s connect, explore your challenges and start making some headway for you.

Best Regards,
Larry

Larry Kaul
CEO
Kaul Sales Partners
2 N. LaSalle Street, 14th Floor
Chicago, IL 60602

E2 – CASE STUDY KIT – FINAL APPROVED
Subject: Following up
Link: https://kaulsalespartners.com/death-by-product-demo/

Hello INSERT_FIRST_NAME,

Hi, it’s Larry again. You expressed an interest in our B2B sales support.

Thought you might be interested in another case study we recently did. The client was putting far too much emphasis on telemarketing and demos — and didn’t know how to get into financial conversations with decision-makers. (You can click here for a quick read about how we got them enough new business in four months to cover two years’ worth of our fees.)

Hope you like the story. Let us know if you have questions and we’ll make time to walk through them.

Best Regards,
Larry

Larry Kaul
CEO
Kaul Sales Partners
2 N. LaSalle Street, 14th Floor
Chicago, IL 60602
Mobile: 312.315.9145
Email: lkaul@kaulpartners.com
Web: www.kaulsalespartners.com

E3 – CASE STUDY KIT – FINAL APPROVED
Subject: Ideas about new revenue
Link: https://kaulsalespartners.com/motivating-real-movement-beyond-engagement/

Hello INSERT_FIRST_NAME,

Sharing some more food for thought here: a case study about how much more effective our client’s content marketing became when we hitched it to an outbound campaign. (It resulted in three new clients in the first five months. Click here to see the story.)

Hope you find the case study valuable. Look forward to connecting soon.

Best Regards,
Larry

Larry Kaul
CEO
Kaul Sales Partners
2 N. LaSalle Street, 14th Floor
Chicago, IL 60602
Mobile: 312.315.9145
Email: lkaul@kaulpartners.com
Web: www.kaulsalespartners.com

Opportunity Creation and Closing

Knowing how to create and close opportunities based on client need and competitive differentiation requires sophisticated consultative sales expertise. Check out the video or jump right to the questions and move closer to signed new clients.

Establish a consultative sales culture within your organization.

Lead generation fails when business does not close.

Companies that have a 90% close rate often measure the wrong metric. They view their success based on how many written proposals lead to new  business. This approach does not consider the ability to create and close new opportunities

The sales cycle begins when you first discuss your company with a prospect that does not know you and has not expressed an immediate need. Most business owners are not aware that it’s possible to get funding for an initiative that is not yet planned or budgeted for by the potential client. The key to sales is getting this part right which requires new skill sets.

This approach helps you create opportunities that may not yet have funding and avoids wasting time on the wrong potential clients.

MEETING FLOW 

Pipeline Leads

Introduction:

What prompted your interest in talking with us and what do you want to get out of the call?

What is your role in the company?

Provide a quick overview using the sales messaging for interested parties that you created. (time yourself so you don’t exceed 3 -5 minutes)

Business oriented questions:

  • What are your most significant business issues?
  • What are you doing now to help with these issues?
  • What approaches have you tried that did not work?
  • What new approaches are you considering?

Close:

Explain where the prospect will get value and what you think should happen next

  • How does this sound?
  • What is your next step, timing and process for moving forward?
  • Who else gets involved from beginning to end in this sort of decision?

 

Please answer the following questions for the 3 leads using past first call discussions to analyze and improve on your approach. You should know everything on this list after an initial 30 minute discussion.

Past Call Discussion Questions
What got the prospect’s attention?
What business problem do they want to solve?
Can you prove it?
What is the business and financial impact of solving the problem?
What are they doing now to impact the problem?
How will your solution benefit the executive team and your prospect?
How will your solution help the prospect?
How will your prospect get money to fund the initiative?
Who else will be involved in the decision to go forward?
What is the time frame it will take to get to that decision?
What agreement did the prospect make with you if the call turned into opportunity?

When you can not answer these questions after most discussions with new prospects you need a new approach to sales that may require shifting your mindset about your current methods

 

Sales Technology Systems

Technology Decisions

Email, content, customer technology systems and sales processes must be in place before you execute the sales and marketing campaigns.

Sales Technology Systems
What technology platforms and processes do you have now?
What gaps in technology and process must be addressed?

These platforms are minimum requirements. The sales process, data approach, campaign analytics and measurement KPIs are more important than the technology.

CRM platforms.The platform selection is based on price and the complexity of your integration requirements with other systems.

What CRM have you selected and what lead record data will you collect?
How will you use analytics to improve each sales campaign?
What will your management reports tell you and how will you measure success?
How will you score leads to focus your sales call efforts?
What reports will your salespeople use to know who to call and how often?

Email send platforms - Must be integrated into the CRM and carefully managed. Read the terms and conditions and fully understand the requirements for opt-out email sending.

How will you manage the legal and technical requirements required by the government and the ESP terms and conditions?
What is your process for list building, scrubbing email addresses, keeping your bounce rate below 1% and dealing with declining open rates due to spam filtering?

Marketing automation platforms - Must be integrated into the CRM and ESP software

What capabilities do you have to setup and manage a marketing automation program?
How will you integrate sales calling and marketing automation?
How will you capture, report, analyze and act on marketing data?

Click Learn More Now if you decide to work through the questions on a one-on-one free video conference call with Larry. You will get a complementary analysis and recommendations designed to help you get new business fast.

Learn More Now