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.
Walk into most SME sales reviews in the final week of any month and you'll hear the same phrase: "I can get this one over the line if I knock ten percent off." It sounds like good instinct — closing the deal, hitting the number. It's usually the single most expensive habit a sales team has.
A study by InsideSales Labs, examining 9.8 million sales opportunities across 151 companies over nine quarters, found reps close 2.9 times more deals in the final days of a quarter — and lose 11.4 times more margin doing it, with win rates falling by more than 12 percentage points against the rest of the month. The researchers put the average cost to a single company at roughly $98 million a year in lost revenue. Separately, a Bessemer Venture Partners survey found 73% of SaaS executives admit to offering steeper discounts specifically toward the end of a reporting period to hit their numbers (that figure comes with no published sample size, so treat it as directional). Scale the dollar figure down to SME size and the behaviour is identical.
I've built and reviewed commission plans across nine businesses of my own and in coaching 200+ businesses one-on-one across 30+ industries. The pattern is always the same: show me a team that discounts heavily at month-end, and I'll show you a commission plan that pays the same bonus whether the deal closed at full price or twenty percent off.
Most owners assume a team that discounts too much has a training problem or a confidence problem. Usually it has neither. It has a plan that pays purely on revenue booked, with no reference at all to the margin that revenue actually carries. A rep paid the same commission on a full-price deal and a heavily discounted one is behaving entirely rationally when they discount to close faster — the plan is simply telling them, in the clearest language a business ever speaks, that margin doesn't matter.
"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
Rewriting a commission plan feels like picking a fight with the exact people responsible for this month's revenue, at the exact moment you can least afford a dip in morale. So the plan survives another quarter, and another. An outside adviser can design and defend the change without it reading as a personal attack on the team that built your current number — usually the difference between a plan that actually gets fixed and one that gets talked about for another year.
If your best reps are also your biggest discounters, that's not a coincidence — and it's the first thing we fix.
Thursday, September 10, 2026
Most stalled SME deals aren't lost to a competitor — they're lost to silence. Here's the Urgency Ladder framework that turns "went quiet" into a real answer.
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
Most SME owners make their biggest calls alone, with no one qualified to challenge them. Here's how to build a "kitchen cabinet" that gives you real strategic pushback — without a formal board.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Revenue is climbing and you feel like you're winning — until you check what's actually left over. Here's the simple two-number habit that stops growth from quietly eating your margin.
Wednesday, September 09, 2026
Your accountant, a podcast, a mastermind group and a mate all just told you something different about your business. Here's how to audit that noise and consolidate around one voice that actually knows your numbers.
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.