Monday, October 26, 2026
Bain research shows winning a new customer can cost up to 25 times more than keeping one you already have. Here's the CLV/CAC discipline that flips where your sales effort goes.
The meeting went well. They nodded, asked sharp questions, said "this is exactly what we need" — and then nothing. No reply to your follow-up. No reply to the one after that. If a sales process that quietly dies after a great first conversation sounds familiar, the problem usually isn't your offer. It's that you read warmth as a buying signal, and warmth and commitment are two completely different things.
Kevin has sat on both sides of thousands of these conversations — inside global agencies pitching household brands, and now coaching SME owners through the exact same pattern on a much smaller stage.
A prospect being friendly, engaged and complimentary in the room tells you they liked you. It tells you almost nothing about whether they've cleared the internal hurdles — budget sign-off, a competing priority, a colleague who needs convincing — that stand between "this is great" and an actual yes. Most SME owners stop following up right around the point a real decision process is only just starting, because the silence feels like rejection instead of what it usually is: someone's week got busy.
Research from RAIN Group puts the average at around eight touchpoints just to land a first meeting with a new prospect, with top performers needing roughly five. If it takes that much persistence to get someone into the room, one polite follow-up after the meeting was never going to be enough to get them to a signature.
You don't need a longer script. You need a short, deliberate sequence that gives a busy, genuinely interested person three different reasons to reply:
"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 SME owners know, intellectually, that one follow-up isn't enough. They stop anyway, because every additional message feels like it risks being "that annoying salesperson," and there's no one checking whether the sequence actually ran. A sales system — not willpower — is what keeps the third message going out on day ten instead of dying quietly in a drafts folder. That's the kind of unglamorous, specific fix that moves a pipeline more than another round of lead generation ever will.
If you close this tab and keep sending the same one follow-up, you'll be wondering about the same quiet deals this time next year. Fix your sequence and you won't be.
Be the owner whose follow-up runs every time, so a good meeting turns into a decision.
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.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
The coaching industry has more than doubled since 2016 to over 232,000 coaches. With that many choices, here is the single question that tells you who is worth hiring.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
AI is saving small business owners 10 to 13 hours a week, and most have no idea what they gained. Here is the four-question method for pointing AI at the hours that matter.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
You nailed the pitch and the buyer loved it, then the deal went quiet. The reason is usually a meeting room you were never invited to. Here is how to sell to a buying committee you cannot see.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Customers don't buy products, they hire them to do a job. Here is the framework that explains why an inferior competitor keeps outselling you, and what to fix in your marketing today.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Most SME owners have one growth plan: get more customers. There are actually four distinct ways to grow, and the cheapest one is usually sitting in your existing customer file.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Small business confidence just rose, but growth expectations are falling for almost everyone. New 2026 data reveals the one decision separating owners still growing from owners just waiting it out.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
A 1 percent price increase lifts operating profit by an average of 11 percent, McKinsey's Global 1200 research found, far more than an equivalent rise in volume. Here's how to raise prices without losing your best customers.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Some coaches build a business out of being needed forever. Here's the Graduation Test: three questions that reveal whether your coach is transferring real capability, or just keeping you on retainer.
Sunday, October 04, 2026
Most owners respond to a bottleneck by fixing something else entirely. Eli Goldratt's Theory of Constraints explains why that backfires, and documented case studies show a mean 69 percent lead-time reduction once the real constraint is found.