Profit-Driven Sales Strategies

I told a $7M company to stop selling their best product They fired me on the spot Six months later, they called back Revenue had plummeted 30% Competitors were eating their lunch "We're ready to listen now," the CEO said What did I see that they missed? → Their flagship product was killing their profit margins Everyone celebrated the 7-figure deals, but nobody examined the hidden costs: - 2x longer sales cycles than other products - 5x more support tickets - Custom implementation eating services hours - Constant feature requests derailing the roadmap - Churn rate double their portfolio average The math was brutal: For every $100k this "star" product generated, it cost $110k to deliver and maintain They were literally losing money with every new logo When we finally restructured their offering: - Standardized 50% of the product - Raised prices by 20% - Eliminated custom implementations - Created clear scope boundaries First quarter results? - Sales cycle shortened by 40% - Gross margin jumped from -30% to +25% - Customer satisfaction actually improved The hard truth about sales growth: Sometimes you need to sell LESS to earn MORE Most companies are drowning in vanity metrics—chasing revenue that looks impressive but destroys their bottom line I've seen this pattern across 50+ companies I've consulted for The fastest path to profitable growth isn't selling everything to everyone. It's identifying which products, customers and markets actually generate profit—then having the courage to focus exclusively on them What part of your business are you holding onto despite the numbers telling you to let it go? Sometimes the bravest growth strategy is knowing what to stop selling P.S. If you need help with your sales, send me a message

In Q4 2024, Rev had the first profitable quarter in our company’s history. Here are the 3 major changes we made to our GTM to get there: 1. Ruthlessly focus on profitable segments Growth-stage companies (especially VC backed startups) tend to pursue too many segments and for the wrong reasons. “We should go upmarket,” says the board. “We need higher volume,” say reps. There is always pressure to do MORE. But there’s a catch... The downmarket companies don’t spend enough, and churn too often. The upmarket companies take too long, and have expensive requirements. Not all customers close equally quickly or spend the same amount. Get real about your close rate, cycle time, and ASP BY SEGMENT. Which one really pays back the way you need it to? At Rev, we shelved our enterprise segment for one of our products. The impressive logo on our slides can’t pay for the eternal sales cycle and the (for us) only-medium-sized deals. The value was there for our customers. The economics weren’t there for us. 2. Understand which GTM motions really work for us Now that we know the segments that work, we need to get serious about the sales motions that deliver best. We all love the “sugar rush” of new meetings. But SDR-sourced deals closed at a fraction of our normal close rate. Advertising? Same thing. For us, what works is sales-led outbound combined with executive-led networking (“executive SDRs”). We doubled down and saw sales increase on less spend due to the functions we stopped doing. 3. Focus on the Right Accounts Now we know the segments and the channels we’ll use to drive pipeline. But we also know that not all accounts are equal. Some spend already in our category; some don’t. Some are sophisticated buyers; others, not so much. Taking a smart, analytical look at where we’ve won and lost tells us the attributes of the customers who convert best, spend most, and stick with us. Making sure all our GTM motions target exact accounts with those attributes improved our close rate 5x. TAKEAWAY: I can’t say it was a fun year. Words like “hard choices” are easier ways to talk about the pain of cutting projects we believed in. And letting go of people we valued and liked. But looking to 2025, the financial picture is night and day. Now, we aren’t forced to talk about which investor will fund us. We aren’t desperate to sign a few more deals. And compromising on deal quality to get there. An amazing thing happens when you refocus on your most profitable activities. You realize there are places to innovate there, too. The stuff that you do the very best in your most successful GTM motions? Even that can be better. Your prospects will love you for it. Your team will know that you can thrive even in a tough economy. Your investors will have confidence that you are in control of your financial destiny. Our current market demands discipline. Profitability and a whole lot of fun are still possible if you can do that.

How We Added 14% to Our Clients' Profit by ONLY Changing Efficiency Targets There's ONE lever most brands aren't pulling: SKU-specific efficiency targets based on merchandising strategy. Every product has different: - Landed costs - Inventory constraints - Demand levels Yet most D2C brands apply identical efficiency targets across all SKUs. Let's look at two t-shirts with the same $50 MSRP: SKU #1 | Black T-Shirt Landed cost: $9/unit Inventory: 5,000 units Demand: HIGH Profit calculation: $50 - $9 - $28.50 = $12.50/unit → Optimal CPA target: $28.50 SKU #2 | Red T-Shirt Landed cost: $10/unit Inventory: 7,500 units Demand: LOW Profit calculation: $50 - $10 - $32.50 = $7.50/unit → Optimal CPA target: $32.50 Results over a 3-month period... Scenario 1: SKU-Specific Targets Black T-shirt: 5,000 units × $12.50 profit = $62,500 Red T-shirt: 7,500 units × $7.50 profit = $56,250 TOTAL PROFIT: $118,750 Scenario 2: Blended $30 CPA Black T-shirt: 4,200 units × ($50 - $9 - $30) = 4,200 × $11 = $46,200 Red T-shirt: 5,800 units × ($50 - $10 - $30) = 5,800 × $10 = $58,000 TOTAL PROFIT: $104,200 Unsold inventory: 800 black + 1,700 red = 2,500 units Capital tied up: $24,200 That's a 14% profit increase ($14,550) plus better inventory performance! Key insight: Accept lower margins on slow-moving products to convert inventory to cash FASTER, then reinvest in winners. This simplified example excludes: - LTV and repeat purchase value - Cash position impact - Seasonal demand fluctuations - Product category halo effects Every product in your catalog deserves its own efficiency target. Period. Here's your action plan: 1. Map your entire product catalog by profit margin, landed cost, and inventory position, cash position and 90D LTV. 2. Set aggressive CPAs on best-sellers with high margins. 3. Allow higher CPAs on slow-moving inventory to convert it back to cash. 4. Structure your ad campaigns by SKU (not product type) to control these variables. 5. Measure SKU-level CPA instead of blended account metrics. Brands who implement this approach see 10-20% profit improvements within 60 days, plus dramatically improved inventory turnover. The old way: "Our target ROAS is 2.5x." The smart way: "Our high-margin bestsellers target 3.5x while our overstocked items target 1.8x." Which approach are you using?

Profit is not a report. It is a constraint. Most businesses treat profit as an outcome to analyse. - A number on a dashboard. - A line on a P&L. - A summary at month end. But profit is not something you discover. It is something you design for. A pilot does not check fuel after landing to decide if the route worked. Fuel calculations shape the flight path before take-off. Profit should do the same for spend. When margin is only reviewed after campaigns run, stock is ordered, discounts are applied, and budgets are spent, the control point has already passed. By the time finance highlights an issue, the commercial decisions that caused it are weeks old. That is not a reporting problem. It is a decision architecture problem. High-performing teams do something different. They treat profit as a constraint that shapes upstream decisions: • Which products deserve budget • Which channels can absorb spend at target margin • When to protect contribution instead of chasing volume • How discounting impacts blended margin, not just conversion rate • Whether customer acquisition cost aligns with lifetime value Profit becomes part of the operating model, not just the review meeting. In retail and ecommerce especially, this matters. Revenue is visible. ROAS is seductive. Volume feels like momentum. But if margin is not embedded into bidding logic, forecasting, and promotional planning, growth becomes fragile. Discovering margin erosion at month end means control was already lost earlier in the chain. Sustainable growth does not come from chasing revenue spikes. It comes from building systems where every major decision is made inside a profit guardrail. Profit is not the final slide in the board deck. It is the rule that shapes every slide before it. #digitalmarketing #ecommerce #retailstrategy #profitability #growthstrategy #performancemarketing #decisionmaking #businessstrategy

A rep on my client's team hit his annual quota in 4 months. $1.5M on a $438K quota. Same market. Same product. Same comp plan as every rep who missed. The difference was 5 strategies the top 1% use and almost no one else does. #1 Stop chasing titles. Chase the “little” Domino. The economic buyer isn't always the highest title in the room. They're the one person who can say yes when everyone else says no, and no when everyone else says yes. Miss them and you lose deals you thought were locked. #2 Run your discovery like a litigator. A lawyer doesn't take every case. They build the case first, then decide if it's worth pursuing. Your first call should do the same. If you can't build a business case, disqualify early and protect your time. #3 Convert latent pain into active pain. Most prospects don't feel urgency because their pain is a scratch, not a wound. Your job is to ask questions that help them realize it's actually gushing. When they feel level 10 pain, they take level 10 action. #4 Coach your champion like they're going into a boardroom. If your champion can't sell internally, you lose. Coach them on every objection their boss will raise. How they explain it to you is exactly how they'll explain it to the decision maker. Fix it before that meeting happens. #5 Audit your deals before they go sideways. Happy ears kill pipelines. Rate every active deal across 8 categories: pain, opportunity cost, desired outcomes, executive influence, resources, fear of failure, trust, and buying criteria. Whatever scores low is your next call. Most reps grind harder when deals stall. The top 1% diagnose faster. P.S. If you're a sales leader reading this thinking "I need to forward this to my reps". Pause for a second. The reason only your top 1-2 reps execute these strategies consistently isn't a talent problem. It's a system problem. The goal isn't to find more reps who naturally do this. The goal is to build a system where every rep on your team does this. If you want to see exactly where that gap lives on your team, grab the free Revenue Leak Diagnostic Playbook: https://lnkd.in/g8DFrh7J

I once lost a $1M deal because I wasn’t prepared. It was the kind of failure that keeps you up at night. 𝗕𝘂𝘁 𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴: That failure became the catalyst for one of the biggest wins of my career. Today, I’m sharing how I turned that $1M loss into a $10M ARR success story. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝘀𝗲𝗰𝗿𝗲𝘁? A systematic approach I call the Sales OS. 𝗛𝗲𝗿𝗲’𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗱𝗼𝘄𝗻: 1️⃣ Data-Driven Prospecting No more guessing. We used AI to identify high-value prospects with laser precision. 2️⃣ Value-Based Messaging We stopped pitching and started solving. Every message was tailored to the prospect’s pain points. 3️⃣ Automated Nurturing We built an email sequence that kept leads warm without burning out our team. 4️⃣ Real-Time Analytics We tracked every interaction, optimized on the fly, and never missed a beat. 5️⃣ Continuous Learning Every win (and loss) became a lesson. We iterated, improved, and grew. 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀? 150% increase in qualified leads in the first 3 months Close rate doubled from 20% to 40% $10M ARR in just 18 months But here’s the real kicker: This isn’t just a story. It’s a blueprint you can use to transform your sales process. 👉 𝗪𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗱𝗲𝗲𝗽𝗲𝗿? The B2B Sales Playbook goes live on March 25th #B2BSales #RevenueGrowth #sales #growth  

7 proven ways to increase FMCG sales without discounts Discounts might seem like the easiest way to increase sales, but they’re also the fastest way to lose profits and damage your brand. There’s a better way. In 2013 when I started as a sales team lead in FMCG, I struggled. I relied on price discounts as the only way to increase my sales in stores, but this was unsustainable. Over time I learnt these 7 strategies and I’ve used them to double sales of established brands in retail outlets in 6 - 12 months. It is more sustainable for the company and your Bosses will love you. 1. Product visibility and placement. Shoppers buy what they see. Make sure your products are in the right place, such as eye-level shelves, hotspots, and checkout zones. 2. Strong retailer relationships. Retailers will champion your products if they feel valued and are incentivized. Offer quarterly rewards, better margins, or recognition programs to win their loyalty. 3. In-store communication. Your communication material in the store is your silent salesperson. Use clear, benefit-focused messages on materials like wobblers, banners, posters and shelf talkers to educate shoppers. 4. Right pricing. Help retailers stick to recommended prices. Educate them on their margins and how fair pricing improves volume and profits. 5. Product distribution. If it’s not on the shelf, it can’t sell. Fix stock outs, prioritize key outlets, and close distribution gaps to keep shelves full. 6. Shopper engagement through sampling. Sampling builds trust. Let shoppers experience your product firsthand through demos or activations in high-traffic stores. 7. Effective sales team execution. Your sales team is the engine. Train them, set clear KPIs, and give them juicy incentives to ensure great execution. Which strategy will you focus on first?

💸 Beyond revenue, beyond growth, beyond vanity metrics, the real KPI that separates marketplace winners from losers is profitability. I see it all the time, brands celebrating top-line revenue while quietly bleeding cash. Big sales numbers? Great. But if every order is costing you more than it makes, you're just working for Amazon's, bol's, or Zalando's profits, not your own. 🚨 Here’s the brutal truth: If you don’t prioritize profitability, you’re building a house of cards. So, what should you focus on instead of chasing revenue at all costs? 🎯 1. Contribution margin, not just GMV Revenue is misleading, especially on marketplaces where fees, ad costs, and returns eat into your margin. Track contribution margin per order after all deductions. This number tells you if you’re actually making money. 📉 2. Advertising ROI, not just TACoS TACoS is helpful, but it doesn't tell you if your ads are profitable. Look at profit-based ROAS, factoring in net profit per sale after all costs. Running "break-even" ads just to drive revenue? That’s a fast track to burning cash. 📦 3. Stock efficiency, not just inventory levels Overstock kills cash flow, understock kills momentum. Winning brands master just-in-time inventory, using data to balance sales velocity with supplier lead times. Too much sitting stock? That’s just frozen profit. 🏆 4. Winning the buy box, not just listing more SKUs More products ≠ more profit. If you’re constantly losing the buy box, you’re wasting time and resources. Optimize pricing, shipping speeds, and seller ratings to maximize buy box share on high-margin products. 💰 5. Understanding true profit per SKU, not just bestsellers Your best-selling product might not be your most profitable. Regularly analyze your profit per SKU and cut products that look good on paper but don’t deliver real returns. 📊 The bottom line? Profitability isn’t a “nice to have,” it’s the metric that determines if your marketplace business is sustainable or just an expensive hobby. So, what’s your key profitability insight? Or, better yet, what’s the biggest profitability mistake you’ve seen brands make?

Do You Win on Value — Or Compete on Price? "Price is only an issue when value is a mystery." Too many sales teams think they’re losing on price. The truth? They’re losing on value because they didn’t make it clear, personal, and worth paying for. Competing on price is a race to the bottom. Winning on value is a race no competitor can win against you. The gap often lies in: - How you position your solution. - How you connect it to the buyer’s world. - How you prove the ROI before they ever ask the price. Here’s how to shift from discounting to differentiating… 1. When a Prospect Mentions Budget ↳ Instead of "We can match that price." ↳ Say "Let’s review what you’re getting for that budget and see if it meets your real needs." 2. When Competing Against Low-Cost Providers ↳ Instead of "We’ll beat their number." ↳ Say "Let’s compare the outcomes you’ll achieve with each option." 3. When Positioning Your Offer ↳ Instead of "Here’s our product." ↳ Say "Here’s how we solve the exact problem costing you the most." 4. When Negotiating ↳ Instead of "We can come down on price." ↳ Say "We can adjust the scope to fit your budget without losing impact." 5. When Justifying the Investment ↳ Instead of "It’s the best price we can offer." ↳ Say "Here’s the measurable ROI you can expect and why it’s worth more than the cost." 6. When Facing a Price Objection ↳ Instead of "What price would work for you?" ↳ Say "What result would make this investment an easy decision?" 7. When Closing the Deal ↳ Instead of "Sign now and I’ll give you a discount." ↳ Say "Let’s lock this in so you start getting the results we’ve discussed." 8. When Training Your Team ↳ Instead of "Don’t lose the deal over a few dollars." ↳ Say "Don’t lose the value by chasing the cheapest number." 9. When Forecasting Revenue ↳ Instead of "We’ll make up the margin in volume." ↳ Say "We’ll maintain margin by selling on value and retention." 10. When Building Culture ↳ Instead of "Close whatever you can." ↳ Say "Win deals we can keep, grow, and be proud of." - Good sales teams match prices. - Great sales teams match solutions to problems that matter. - Good sales teams chase discounts. - Great sales teams protect value and win with it. If you’re winning only on price, you’re not really winning. Build value so strong they can’t imagine doing business without you. "Lead Different. Sell Smarter. Win with Purpose." --- ♻️ Share this post with a sales leader who needs to hear it. Follow me for more strategies to grow your team and results and drop a comment about how you sell on value… 👇 👉 Follow me on LinkedIn: https://lnkd.in/eA7csH2q 👉 Beyond The Funnel Newsletter: https://lnkd.in/ed3iMb8x 👉 My latest e-Book: https://lnkd.in/eytkJd7Y PS: Thanks for reading!