Sunday, November 08, 2026

Vistage, EO and YPO each decide who may join. Here are the entry rules, who each suits, and when a one-on-one coach is the better fit.

Ask most SME sales teams what they sold last month and you'll get a strangely narrow answer — the same two or three offers, on repeat, regardless of what's actually in the catalogue. Most sales teams sell what's easy to explain, not what's most valuable to the customer — and that habit is quietly capping revenue in businesses that have spent years building a broader, higher-margin range nobody is pitching. If your highest-margin products or services are gathering dust while reps default to the same familiar offer, you don't have a demand problem. You have a comfort-zone problem.

The Problem Reframe: The Comfort Zone Sale

The enemy is what Kevin calls the Comfort Zone Sale — the offer a rep can explain in one sentence, price without hesitation, and close without needing to ask a single diagnostic question. It feels efficient. It is actually expensive, because it trains customers to associate your business with your cheapest, simplest offer, and it leaves your best-margin work permanently unsold. This is a well-documented pattern in complex and solution-based selling: the more a sale requires understanding a customer's situation before recommending the right fit, the more reps default to the option that needs the least understanding. It's the entire reason methodologies like SPIN Selling exist — to force a structured conversation about situation, problem, implication, and need-payoff before a rep is allowed to reach for the easy answer.

You can see how this plays out in considered, complex sales environments in HubSpot's breakdown of complex selling — the pattern holds whether you're selling enterprise software or premium FMCG ranging.

The Framework: Full Menu Selling

Full Menu Selling is the discipline of making sure every customer conversation actually covers what you sell — not just what's comfortable to sell.

1. Map the menu — list every product or service line and rank it by margin, not by how often it's currently pitched. The gap between the two rankings is your revenue leak.

2. Build the bridge question — give reps one specific question per high-margin line that naturally surfaces whether the customer needs it (“Are you still handling X in-house, or has that become a headache?”). One question is enough; it doesn't need to be a script.

3. Track the mix, not just the total — stop measuring reps only on revenue. Add a simple product-mix metric to the weekly pipeline review so the comfort-zone habit becomes visible, not invisible.

“Kevin is an absolute powerhouse! He doubled our business's profits in the first month alone with lots more of his recommendations still to be rolled out.”

— Curtis Hacon, Give A Sh!T

The Execution Gap: Why Reps Default to the Easy Sale Anyway

Owners often assume this is a training problem. It rarely is — most reps already know the full range. The real obstacle is that the comfort-zone sale is safer for the rep personally: it closes faster, gets fewer objections, and doesn't risk the awkwardness of a customer saying no to something unfamiliar. Fixing this requires accountability from outside the sales team itself — someone tracking the product mix, asking why the highest-margin line hasn't been pitched in a month, and making that conversation routine rather than confrontational.

Quick Wins This Week

  • Rank your product or service lines by margin and compare it to what's actually being pitched.
  • Write one bridge question for your highest-margin, least-pitched offer.
  • Add product mix as a line item in your next pipeline review.

Key Takeaways

  • Identify the gap between what's most profitable and what's most pitched.
  • Equip reps with one bridge question per high-margin line, not a new script.
  • Measure product mix weekly, not just total revenue.
  • Expect resistance — the comfort-zone sale is safer for the rep, not the business.

If your best-margin products are the ones your team pitches least, that's the first gap Kevin helps you close.

...and you become the owner whose team sells the full menu, not just the easy offer.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Most owners check star ratings and warm adjectives before hiring a coach. Here is the three-detail test that tells you whether a review is evidence or decoration.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

The Christmas shutdown is about eleven weeks away. Here is the one-page-per-role handover document that decides whether you actually switch off this year.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

The biggest sales research study ever run found the best reps ask, they don't tell. Here is the SPIN method, and the four questions that come before any pitch.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

No ad budget doesn't mean no reach. Here is the Dream 100 method for finding the audiences that already trust your exact customer, and earning your way in.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Most SME growth plans are really just wishlists with a due date. Here is the two-question strategic choice cascade that turns good ideas into an actual strategy.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Burger King sold Whoppers for one cent, but only within 600 feet of a McDonald's. Here is the small-business version of that play, for under $5k.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Customers rank quality and service three times higher than price, yet a third of marketers admit they can't say what makes their brand different. Here's the three-step audit that fixes the real problem before you touch your price list.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Most growth plans start with finding new customers. The cheapest lever is usually already inside the transaction happening right now - here's the Checkout Audit that finds it.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Most owners call a coach only once something's broken. The data on mentored businesses says the real value compounds earliest - here's the Two Doors test for deciding when.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Owners feel busy all day and still don't move the business forward. The research says task-switching is the hidden cost - here's the Three-Block Day that gets the best hours back.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Owners chase new leads every Q4 while a cheaper, warmer list of past customers sits untouched. Here's the four-step Win-Back Sequence and the real economics behind it.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

SME websites and pitches default to telling their own story. The research says customers skim past most of it looking for themselves - here's the StoryBrand framework that fixes it.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Most SME growth plans default to out-competing everyone else on the same crowded turf. Blue Ocean Strategy's own data says that's the lower-profit path - here's the four-question grid that finds the faster one.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Most SME owners blame a lost customer on price. New 2026 research says it is almost always one unresolved issue instead. Here is the three-step audit to find your real loyalty leak.

Sunday, October 04, 2026

Revenue is not the same as profit, and a small slice of your customer base may be quietly cancelling out your best accounts. Here is how to find out which ones.