RJG | Capital & Sales / Sales Management Consulting for Service Businesses

Hourly billing is a poor business model. It misaligns incentives: → Clients want to pay for results. → Hourly billers focus on activities. Which leads to: → Inefficient use of your time. → Uncertainty about the value you're providing. And that's bad for business. Conversely, solution-based pricing: → Aligns your incentives with clients. → Demonstrates your expertise and clarity. → Gives clients confidence in the value and outcomes of your service. By emphasizing results, not efforts, you create a competitive edge over hourly competitors. Your business deserves better than hourly billing. Your clients deserve better than hourly billing. Consider shifting to a model that prioritizes results and transparency. 🏝️

Every business is perfectly designed to get the results it's currently getting. Because a business is just a system. Certain inputs create certain outputs. And if you don’t like the outputs you’re getting? You simply need to change the inputs. → Where you spend your time → Where you invest your money → How you allocate your resources If you can objectively look at your business like this. Success is literally inevitable. You only get stuck when you get attached to inputs… That don’t get you the outputs you want. Reminder for myself as much as anyone today. 🏝

3 hidden reasons you struggle with sales. And they have nothing to do with tactics or scripts. Here they are: 1: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐞𝐟𝐬 𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠. Most people don’t wake up wanting to be salespeople. And that’s a problem. Because if you don’t feel good about selling, it’s going to show. You need to feel good about asking for the sale. 2: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭. If you don’t believe in your product, you’re not going to sell it very well. It’s that simple. It’ll show in your word choice, body language, and tone. You need to genuinely believe that what you’re offering is going to help people. 3: 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐟-𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞. If you don’t believe in yourself, it’s going to be hard to sell anything. You need to have the self-assurance to challenge and coach clients. To help them make a good decision for themselves. That’s what selling is all about. Strengthening these beliefs can transform your approach to selling. And help you lead more prospects to make a decision. Which is a win/win for both of you. 🏝

Sole-income entrepreneurship can be stressful. One trick that changed everything for me: Putting myself on payroll, with a set salary every month. When I did this, sales weren’t even that high. So my first paychecks were comically low. But payroll changed my relationship with sales and revenue. Here’s why it works for me: 1: Simplifies Budgeting A consistent paycheck makes it easier to budget for both your business and household expenses. No more guessing how much income you’ll have next month. 2: Reduces Impact of Revenue Rollercoasters With a predictable base, you can reduce financial anxiety of month-to-month fluctuations in sales being tied to your take home pay. 3: Makes It Easier to Build a Buffer If you aren’t cleaning out the checking account every month, you can start to build a cash reserve that allows you to make longer-term bets. Look, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t strive for big income months in your business. Money is probably part of why you started a business. But starting with stability can really shift your paradigm. 🏝 P.S. - This is 1 of 3 things that have helped me as a sole-income earning entrepreneur. Here’s a video with the other 2: https://lnkd.in/eYtNmCWp

4 steps to an effective pipeline review. If you want to win more deals, you need to run effective pipeline reviews. Here’s how: 1: 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰 𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐢𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐦𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠: Start by reviewing what commitments were made in the last meeting. This ensures accountability and progress. 2: 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐩𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐊𝐏𝐈𝐬: Analyze the overall pipeline value and deal movement. This helps you understand the health and trends of the pipeline. 3: 𝐃𝐨 𝐚 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥-𝐛𝐲-𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐥 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰: Go through each deal in the pipeline. This gives you a clearer picture of their true status and helps identify any risks. 4: 𝐄𝐬𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬: Set clear action steps for each deal. This keeps everything on track and increases the likelihood of closing. Bonus: Use this time to coach your salesperson. Help them refine their approach and improve their performance. Effective pipeline reviews lead to more wins and increased revenue. Are you running effective pipeline reviews? 🏝

An unpopular secret here on LinkedIn? Building up your account with a lot of likes and comments and followers isn't hard. It's just a matter of: → Consistent content → A shitload of engagement → And doing that for a long time That is a proven formula to build an audience. But who will your audience be? Most likely a bunch of other creators who are: → Creating consistent content → Doing a shitload of engagement  → Planning to do that for a long time And to monetize that audience, you’ll probably end up selling services and products that help other people get a lot of likes, comments & followers. And that’s perfectly fine. Unless you’re here to build and grow a business selling services that aren’t LinkedIn related. In that case, you’ve got to get clear on: → Who your market is → What is the problem they have → What is the solution that I’m selling And build an audience around that. It won’t be as large of an audience. You may not get LinkedIn famous. But you’ll hit the business fundamentals. And because of that, you’ll make a lot more money. 🏝 P.S. - This is just a sample of a video I recorded about becoming LinkedIn famous. You can watch the full video here: https://lnkd.in/eu_r-QUp

I’m a huge fan of the ‘wedge’ in sales. It’s a proven process for unseating incumbent service providers. (𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘵? 𝘐'𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘰𝘯 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦: https://lnkd.in/eVyHvau5) But in business, you’ve gotta play offense + defense. And wedge-proof your business. Because we all have vulnerabilities. Wedge-proofing your business means: → Regular communication with clients → Proactively auditing their needs & pain points → Being transparent about your work → Educating them on the value you provide Done well. The wedge won’t work against you. Hope it helps. 🏝