Business Models For Dummies
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One big issue with a business model can be with sales. Here are some of the most common scenarios seen with mid-sized and small businesses concerning issues with their business model:

  • Employing a small sales team that produces mediocre results

  • The business owner is the top performing salesperson by a wide margin

  • A history of hiring salespeople with great hopes they will be the “chosen one” who can sell significantly better than the others

  • Continuing to look for the elusive sales superstar who can outsell the owner

Hiring a sales superstar is rarely the answer to this issue. The issue is in the sales performance model of the business model. Most likely, the company has no proven and repeatable sales process. The owner intuitively knows how to close deals but can’t create a process anyone else can duplicate. She can hire all the superstars she wants; without a proper sales process, none of them will succeed.

Within that proven and repeatable sales process is the issue of salability. Maybe there’s a reason only the owner can sell the product or service. Maybe under the current set of features and benefits, it’s simply too hard to sell, and an ordinary salesperson will have a hard time.

Rather than spend hundreds of thousands of dollars looking for Superman or Superwoman, create an offering and a proven process that allows a salesperson of average skill to sell an acceptable amount of product.

About This Article

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About the book author:

Jim Muehlhausen is the founder and President of the Business Model Institute as well as consultant and speaker to businesses large and small. He is the author of The 51 Fatal Business Errors and How to Avoid Them and a frequent contributor to Entrepreneur, Businessweek, and dozens of other publications.

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