Sunday, November 01, 2026
A positioning statement sits in a folder. Distinctiveness lives in the details customers actually notice. Here's the gap between knowing your difference and being remembered for it.
Every SME salesperson has felt it — the meeting that goes brilliantly, the contact who says "this is exactly what we need," the deal that then goes quiet for six weeks and dies. Search "how to close more sales" and you'll find scripts for the pitch. Almost nothing addresses the real reason B2B deals stall: your champion isn't the one signing the cheque, and they were never going to be enough on their own.
Most SME sales training still centres on a single relationship — build rapport, understand pain, present the solution, close. That model works for consumer sales and small-ticket transactions. It breaks down the moment your deal size grows enough to involve a buying committee, which research on B2B purchasing consistently shows now averages six to ten stakeholders even in mid-sized companies. Your champion can carry your case internally, but they can't win an argument they weren't in the room for.
1. Map the Room — Before you invest more time, ask your champion directly who else needs to say yes, and what each of them cares about.
2. Arm, Don't Just Ask — Give your champion a one-page internal case they can forward, written in the language of the person who'll actually read it, not a sales deck.
3. Get Your Own Seat — Ask for a short call with the economic buyer or final approver directly, even fifteen minutes. A champion who can't get you that meeting is telling you something about how strong the deal really is.
"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
Most SME sales teams know the deal has stalled. What they don't do is go back into the account and multi-thread it, because it feels like admitting the relationship they built isn't enough. It isn't a personal failure — it's a structural one, and it's exactly the kind of pattern a sales process review with a coach catches before it costs you the quarter.
If your pipeline is full of deals that went quiet after a great first meeting, that's the pattern Kevin fixes first with you.
...and you become the owner whose good first meetings turn into signed deals.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Most SME marketing stops the moment someone buys once. Here is the Value Ladder that gives your best customers an obvious next step, and why 74 percent never get one.
Thursday, October 15, 2026
A growth plan with no diagnosis is just a wish list with a date on it. Here is the three-part test that separates a real strategy from guesswork, before your next budget gets signed off.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Everyone in your industry follows the same playbook. Here is why fresh eyes beat it, plus a one-hour exercise to borrow a proven idea from another industry this week.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Five lessons from McDonald's own history that a 20-person US business can copy, plus where systems stop and growth questions begin.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Different industries hit different growth constraints. Find the Simple-Growth page written for your type of business, plus two free resources on loyalty and exit planning.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Nearly a third of small business owners have never taken a full week off, and new 2026 data shows the ones working the longest hours are also the most likely to want out. Here is the three-question test for turning hours into real freedom.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Over half of SMEs entering a new market in one UK study hit real problems doing it. The Ansoff Matrix maps the three safer growth routes most owners skip past first.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
45 percent of business owners in one survey feel trapped running the business they built. Here's how the Theory of Constraints, pointed at the owner instead of the process, finds the real fix.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
UK SME owners spend six working days a month on admin and 3.6 days on growth, one survey found. Dan Sullivan's Who Not How habit flips which question you ask first.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Nearly half of SMEs in a 2026 survey had not raised prices since 2022. Here's the three-sentence script that makes the overdue price conversation simple instead of stressful.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
76 of 100 B2B brands in a 2026 study fell into a credible-but-indistinguishable Sameness Zone. Here's the four-word positioning test, the Onliness Statement, that pulls a business out of it.
Wednesday, October 14, 2026
Your revenue is up and your margin just fell anyway — here's the planning gap behind it. Four moves that put margin back on the same page as your growth target before next year's numbers are set.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
A practical playbook for NZ construction and building products owners: the market, the real growth constraints, how to price and win work, and a 90-day plan.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
53 percent of small business owners say nothing would change if AI vanished tomorrow, and that is not an adoption problem, it is an embedding problem. Here is the three-question test that shows which one your business actually is.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
New industry research finds most senior consumer goods leaders cannot say whether their last year of promotions actually made money. Here is the Revenue Growth Management discipline that fixes it before Christmas stock ships.