Thursday, November 12, 2026
You fix the same problem for the third time this year. Here's why most SME "lessons learned" evaporate — and the 70-20-10 rule that makes them stick instead.
Last updated 15 November 2026. Published by Simple-Growth (Motherbase Limited). Market: United States.
This is a story about an owner who wants every real opportunity followed through to a yes — but who finds out a deal went cold three weeks after it actually went cold, because nobody was asking the questions that would have surfaced it in real time. You pitched. They sounded keen. You moved on to the next thing, like you always do, and assumed silence meant "still thinking it over." It didn't. It meant gone, and you were the last to know.
A 2026 survey of 404 US sales and marketing managers, run by Centiment for Zapier, found 92% say qualified leads are regularly dropped every month (Zapier, US, 2026). That's not mostly a follow-up problem. It's a qualification problem — leads get pitched the same generic pitch regardless of what's actually going on for that buyer, so the real signal of whether they're genuinely close gets buried under enthusiasm that was never tested.
Neil Rackham's SPIN Selling, built on research into what actually separates sales conversations that close from ones that stall, gives a simple sequence of questions that surfaces the truth before you've spent your best pitch on someone who was never going to move.
Kevin's seen the payoff of asking two sharp questions instead of chasing a dozen vague ones. Working with a group of six physio clinics, the fix wasn't a bigger reporting pack — it was a single Monday morning email tracking exactly two numbers: capacity against an 85% target, and income against forecast. Everything else was noise. The clinics that knew, every single Monday, whether those two numbers were on track made faster, calmer decisions than the ones still trying to read a dashboard of twenty metrics to find the one that mattered. Sales conversations work the same way — two sharp questions beat twenty generic ones, every time.
"Dynamic, empowering, and absolutely transformative! Kevin leaves every audience armed for victory."
Darilyn Kane
Coaching and Advisory Lead, The Icehouse
Asking a hard implication question feels slower than launching straight into the pitch you've already rehearsed, even though it's the fastest way to find out whether the pitch is even worth giving. This isn't for you if you're already qualifying every lead with real questions before you pitch — some owners genuinely do this instinctively, and their pipeline reflects it. It's for the owner whose "pipeline" is really just a list of people who once sounded interested, with nobody quite sure which ones are actually still live.
You can't close a deal that was never real. You can find that out in week one instead of week eight — and spend the time you save on the ones that were.
A questioning sequence from Neil Rackham — Situation, Problem, Implication, Need-payoff — designed to surface a buyer's real urgency and the true value of solving their problem, before a seller commits to a full pitch.
If you can't answer what happens to them if the problem stays unsolved for six months, and what solving it is actually worth to them in their own words, you haven't qualified the lead yet — you've only pitched to it.
It risks losing leads that were never going to convert, which is the point. It rarely loses a genuinely interested buyer — a well-asked implication question usually increases urgency rather than creating it.
If you don't know which deals in your pipeline are actually still live, that's the first thing to find out.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Your website works 24 hours a day, yet most SME sites haven't been touched in years. Run the five-minute audit that shows exactly where it's losing you customers.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
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Wednesday, September 09, 2026
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Wednesday, September 09, 2026
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Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Every new hire without a system takes twice as long to become productive, and you end up re-explaining the same things forever. The 90-Day Ramp Map fixes that in four steps.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Your best salesperson might be the one quietly eating your margin. Here's how to audit and rebuild your commission structure so it rewards the sales that actually grow your business.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Most SME owners quietly go quiet on marketing right when customers are buying the most. Here's the simple plan to hold your ground through Nov-Jan without burning out your team or your budget.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
That pricing review, that org chart, that product line nobody will kill — they're not neutral. Learn how to spot and pay down the strategic debt quietly taxing every decision you make.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Most business owners survive the slow season and wait for trading to pick up. The ones who grow fastest use the quiet to fix last peak's bottlenecks, cross-train their teams, and renegotiate supplier terms.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
When coaching starts feeling comfortable, most owners think they've outgrown their coach. Usually they've just outgrown the scope. Here's how the Scope Reset Conversation keeps a great coaching relationship producing great results.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
At five people, the founder is the system. At twelve, that system breaks. The Ten-Employee Wall is a predictable structural failure — and here's the Systems Reset framework that gets you through it.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
January is the hardest month to sell in — and the work that prevents the January gap needed to start in September. Here's the 90-Day Pipeline Bridge framework that fills the gap before it opens.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Category managers at major retailers are making their Q1 2027 ranging decisions right now. Most FMCG founders find out too late. Here's the Buyer-Ready Proof Pack framework that gets you into the conversation.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Most businesses plan for Q4 in January — after it's already over. The owners who consistently outperform their peers write their Q4 plan in September, while there's still time to act on what they find.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
A new survey shows the average small business owner is running five jobs at once — and burning 200+ hours a year proving it. Here's the two-hat framework that gets your time back within 90 days.