"We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them." - Albert Einstein

Unpredictable lead flow?

Erratic sales volume?

Sales plateaued?

It’s quite possible you have what I call a sluggish sales process. We’ve all been there at one point or another. It’s a tough spot to be, stuck. Stuck on what to do next, where to turn, and who to go to for help. And the pressure associated is the WORST.

Below is an outline of the CASE Model specifically designed to ignite your sales process.

The CASE model is a continuous cycle that combines thinking, doing, and learning. It’s always working toward optimization, perhaps therein lies its key enabling quality. It will equip you with a systematic approach to streamline thought, initiate action, and catalyze growth.

For anyone who owns a business, manages a book of business, or responsible for driving new business.

You should CASE your business before you do anything else...

1. Change Your View

“The way we see the problem is the problem.”

- Stephen Covey

Too often, I run into business owners or salespeople who tell me, “You don’t understand Doug. That’s just how it’s done in this business.” That’s typically when I cringe and think to myself, this is the EXACT viewpoint that is limiting your true potential.

Why would you want to run the same rat race as everyone else in your industry?

The overarching idea relies NOT on thinking outside the box, but stepping outside the box, and looking in at it. The goal is to shift your way of thinking, adjust your perspective, and erase pre-conceived notions. It’s the essential foundation.

Not to mention, the work being done on neuroplasticity is proving that your thoughts and beliefs have the power to physiologically change your brain. Alvaro Pascual-Leone, Harvard neuroscientist and Eric Kandel, Nobel Prize winner have both done amazing research supporting this notion. So yes, your thoughts and beliefs matter, big time!

Everything looks the same until you change your view...

5 Key Questions

How do I view my business/products/services?
How do I view my customers?
How do I view my competition?
How do I view selling?
How do I view my people/team/employees?

2. Awareness

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”

- Tony Robbins

Whether you’re a salesperson or business owner. The first step towards change is an acute awareness of your current business landscape.

Why would you blind yourself from the info that you need to turn guess work into certainty?

Bill Gross, Founder of Idealab.com, shared the results of a study he conducted on why companies succeed in a 2015 TED talk. It may surprise you to learn it wasn’t the idea, team of people, business model, or funding that most hindered success.

The overwhelming #1 reason was poor timing. While I do realize that timing is a result of many factors. It can also surely be optimized by increased awareness on your customers, competition, market, goals, objectives, sales data, and yourself.

Start here but this is only the tip of the iceberg...

5 Key Questions

What makes my product/service/solution different?
Who is my REAL customer?
Who else serves my customer?
Where do my customers hangout?
What does an 80/20 Analysis tell me about my customers, time usage, products, etc?

3. Strategize

“The purpose of business is to create and keep a customer.”

- Peter Drucker

In this phase you combine your new expanded perspective and aggregated data to plot out all potential strategies that will get you from your current situation to your desired situation.

Why would you forfeit your access, ability, and right to leave no stone unturned?

My intent is not to over simplify but if you believe in Peter Drucker’s philosophy (see quote above) then it should be apparent the #1 strategy before anything else is simply putting your customer first. No matter what growth strategy you implement if your customer attrition rate is too high you’re playing a losing game.

Iconic business strategist Jay Abraham is well-known for citing the only three ways to grow a business are by increasing your total number of clients, average price per sale, or customer purchase rate. Yup, that’s it.

Which means 1) you should probably KNOW THAT DATA and 2) everything you do strategically should hinge on those three growth points.

Let’s get thinking in this direction...

5 Key Questions

What is my average price per sale?
How often do my my customers purchase from me?
What is the lifetime value of my customer?
How am I acquiring customers today?
How much is it costing me to acquire customers today?

4. Execute

“The customer isn’t a moron. She is your wife.”

- David Ogilvy

Interestingly, the large majority live in this phase day to day. Focused on tactics to achieve short term goals, quick pay-offs, and seemingly can never escape the quicksand.

Without a doubt, you must understand how to use proven tactics, techniques, and concepts because everything points to execution. If you’re diligently working through the first 3 phases, then execution becomes significantly easier.

Sales are the lifeblood of every business. Without them your business or job will eventually cease to exist.

Seriously, it’s the truth. A study conducted at Harvard a few years back indicated that 75% of venture backed start-ups fail. At some point, every business needs to learn how to get in front of the right customers, at the right time, with the right offer, often enough, otherwise...poof, gone.

At the end of the day, people are not buying your product or service. They’re buying what it does for them. They will not purchase from you unless you’re solving a problem they see, feel, and understand is real.

Start by asking yourself...

5 Key Questions

Am I making it EASY for customers and prospects to do business with me?
Is there enough value in my current offer/solution/proposition?
What products are being purchased before and after mine?
Am I speaking about me or my customers in my messaging?
Am I doing incremental testing to ensure success?

If you’d like more information on the frameworks, tools, and guides I use to support this model or more information on the many resources* I utilized to help create the model email me directly at doug@groundupsales.com .

As always let me know if you’d like to see more articles like this in the comments below.

Crush the day!