Friday, November 06, 2026
If sales only happen when you are in the room, you own a job, not a system. Five parts and a five-day plan to build a sales process your team can run without you.
You know the feeling. Half your customer list drains you — the haggling, the late payments, the "can you just" emails at 6pm — and you genuinely can't tell, without pulling up the spreadsheet, which ones are actually worth the trouble. So you treat them all the same, because singling anyone out feels unfair, and your best hours go to your worst-fit customers by default.
Here's the number that usually ends that guessing game: for most SME owners, somewhere between five and ten per cent of their customers generate close to half their revenue. You don't need more customers. You need to know which ones you already have are worth building the whole business around.
I've coached 200-plus businesses one-on-one across 30-plus industries, and the grading conversation is almost always the one that changes the most, the fastest.
"Be nice to everyone" is good manners and bad sales strategy in the same sentence. Sales trainer Chet Holmes, who built his reputation running sales systems inside major US corporates before writing The Ultimate Sales Machine, put it bluntly: you can't be all things to all buyers and expect to dominate any one group of them. Spreading your best effort evenly across a customer base that isn't evenly valuable is how good owners end up exhausted and underpaid.
A client of mine had 123 customers on the books. When we graded them properly, eight of those customers — the top tier — were generating $266,240 of the business's $630,220 in revenue. Not half the customers. Not a third. Eight, out of 123.
Nothing changed about those eight customers that week. What changed was that the owner finally knew who they were, and started protecting that relationship on purpose instead of by accident.
"Kevin doesn't just present — he electrifies the room and drives massive, real-world value! He drops game-changing insights and actionable shortcuts that show businesses exactly how to turn everyday customers into raving, loyal fans — and acquire new ones faster than ever thought possible."
— Gareth Bayliss, Sales Manager, The Icehouse
Most owners who see this grid immediately know which of their customers belong where. The obstacle is rarely insight — it's that saying no to a paying customer, even a draining one, feels like turning down money. It isn't. It's redirecting the same hours toward the version of this business that's actually profitable to run. That redirect is easier with someone outside the business holding you to the decision once you've made it.
This isn't for you if you'd rather keep every customer happy than find out which ones are actually worth keeping happy. It is for owners ready to see the grid, even when it's uncomfortable.
You could spend next quarter chasing more leads. Or you could spend one afternoon finding out you already have the customers worth building around — and start treating them that way.
If you've never graded your customer list by what it actually earns you, that's the first thing we'd fix together.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
HBR's review of meeting research found about 70% of meetings kept employees from the work they were meant to enable. Here's Verne Harnish's meeting rhythm, sized for an SME before year-end.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
Reps close 2.9x more deals at month-end and lose 11.4x more margin doing it, one major study found. Here's why the plan is the problem, not the rep, and three fixes.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
45% of US consumers used AI for a local business recommendation this year, up from 6% last year. Here's why schema markup won't fix your AI visibility, and what will.
Thursday, October 29, 2026
Jim Collins found that companies which broke away from average performance could name, with brutal precision, what they could be best in the world at. Here's the three-circle test and the goal that pairs with it.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Big-brand positioning is a decision, not a budget. Five questions, a one-sentence position and a five-touchpoint audit you can run this week.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Which jobs should a US small business hand to AI first? Published US data, a five-check test and a 30-day plan to pick one job, track one number and keep the decisions that matter.
Wednesday, October 28, 2026
Most small business owners already believe AI works, but barely one in ten has invested in using it properly. Here is the simple ladder for turning casual AI use into real, compounding productivity gains.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Vet and allied health practices rarely have a clinical problem. Here is how to find the real constraint, keep patients returning and build a 90-day growth plan.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Most SME owners are fixing the wrong problem. Here's the 3-step method that finds the one constraint actually holding your growth back, before you spend another dollar.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
A third of US small business owners say they don't know whether they have the tools — AI included — to grow next year. That's not a confidence problem, it's a visibility one, and it's fixable in an afternoon.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Confidence up a quarter, down the next, tariffs easing then tightening — waiting for certainty is its own decision, and usually the wrong one. Here's a simple way to keep deciding well when the ground keeps moving.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
There's one role almost every SME owner has avoided filling for a year or more — while quietly doing it themselves instead. Here's the Who Not How framework, and the three-step test that makes the hire obvious.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
They nodded, asked great questions, said it's exactly what they need — then disappeared. Here's why warmth isn't a buying signal, and the three-message sequence that gets stalled deals talking again.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Most SME marketing describes the product and targets a demographic — and both miss why people actually buy. Here's the Jobs To Be Done framework, and how to find the job your business is really being hired to do.
Tuesday, October 27, 2026
Nearly half of businesses miss the target they set for themselves — and it's rarely because the team didn't try hard enough. Here's the three-number check that builds a 2027 target you can actually hit.