 One of our favorite things to write about is the sales cycle in the live event space. We’ve all been to events. We’ve seen how a great AV team can make all the difference in the world. So let’s use the perspective of AV to talk about reactivating customers.
Why? Because events happen every year. Some even repeat bi-annually or quarterly. And yet, when many live events companies are looking to grow their business, they miss one of the most obvious places to find leads to contact and new event opportunities to quote: Their inventory management system or CRM. When you use a CRM, like Pipedrive or HubSpot, or an inventory management system, like Lasso, Rentman, Flex, or Intellievent, you’re sitting on a goldmine of event information, live event contacts, and knowledge that will help you approach organizations with the goal of getting more business. The first step is looking at events you previously quoted that took place 6-9 months ago. If they are annual events (and many are), this means their upcoming event will likely be in the next 3-6 months. For events that you won and worked on (whether you worked on the event once or 15 times), reach out to your point of contact. It may seem early, and you certainly don’t need to push them to start planning components of the event they aren’t ready to. But reaching out early shows your client that your team is proactive, engaged, and dedicated to the success of the event. It shows that you’re organized and that their event is a priority. It’s easy to assume when an event goes well that your team is a shoe-in for subsequent events - but that isn’t always the case. From other vendors reaching out to a change in the planning team’s structure, business that seems like a sure thing can easily change hands. Starting this conversation early, before another live event company reaches out or an RFP is issued, decreases the risk of a competitive bid process starting. Of course, if you’re only reaching out to customers you’ve worked with for events you have experience working on, you’re missing half of the reactivation picture. In fact, one of the most important ways to use your CRM is to track the deals you lost. Look back at that list of events you quoted that took place 6-9 months ago, only this time, pay attention to the ones you didn’t win. Look each one up in your CRM and answer the following questions:
Now it’s time to do some research. Find out if the event is, in fact, recurring, or if the organization has any other upcoming events. If so, it’s time to be proactive. Reach out to your point of contact with a simple email, inquiring if they’re working on the event this year and asking if they’d be open to seeing some of your ideas or an event quote. You may not have been awarded the event you initially bid on, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t opportunities in the future - and reaching out will keep you on their radar. Do you want more helpful AV industry tips? Join our Live Event Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to up-level your team and increase sales performance. In a sales meeting with a live event team, one of the salespeople shared that they were ghosted after responding to an RFP.
“I’m really bummed,” the salesman shared. “I met this meeting planner, and we really hit it off. I was hopeful it would be the start of a lot of new business and a great working relationship.” Karl looked around the room at the sales team. “What do you think he should do next?” He asked. The team responded with the obvious - calling, emailing, other follow ups - all things that the salesman had already been doing. Karl nodded. “I have a question for you. Do you want to win this specific show from the meeting planner, or do you want to capture as much business as possible in the future, too? There were chuckles around the room. “Obviously we want as much business as possible.” “Then why are you treating this entire relationship like it’s about one RFP?” As salespeople, it’s natural that we’re hyper fixated on closing the sale in front of us. However, when every interaction we have with the client is filled with pressure to buy, we forget what matters most: figuring out how you can be of service. “What do you think the meeting planner might need?” Everybody was quiet. Karl went on. “What do you think her daily life looks like? What problems is she trying to solve for her clients? How can you help?” Suddenly, the ideas started flowing. “We could show her some of our favorite venues.” “We’re producing a gala in two weeks that we could invite her to. It’ll give her some inspiration and show how our team works with clients onsite.” “There’s a networking event coming up in a few weeks. We could see if she wants to attend with someone from our team.” The conversation about this meeting planner, and the strategies we were using, switched from pestering her about a single proposal to finding new ways to provide value. During his appearance on the Navigating Sales & Proposals episode of the Corralling the Chaos Podcast, Karl shared why good proposals should include more than a gear list and a quote. Instead, they should show an understanding of the client’s needs, share ideas that inspire, and tell a story about what it’s like to work with you. Most importantly, the entire sales process should prove that you’re a partner, not a vendor. Check out the full podcast on the Lasso website to learn more!  One of the most old-school (and, frankly, outdated) approaches to sales is creating and imposing a strict protocol and process for every sale. These narrow approaches are outdated for a reason - they simply don’t work.
The reason for this should be obvious: not every person is the same. When you create a sales process and expect it to be followed to the tee, you often find that what seems like it should work on paper isn’t aligned with the needs of your sales team or your customers. These rigid sales systems leave no room for diverse and creative thinking. They don’t allow the unique talents and strengths of the sales team to surface. Perhaps most importantly, they don’t allow us to meet customers where they are, instead of where we think they should be. Not All Customers Are the Same Picture two different car dealerships. Each brings in a sales consultant to help their teams learn to sell more effectively. At the first dealership, the consultant teaches a protocol for selling to several distinct customer personas. “Each customer will fall into one of them,” the consultant explains confidently, “and when you figure out which persona they are, this is the script you need to use.” At the second dealership, the consultant goes over customer personas, but emphasizes that most people won’t fit exactly into one box and that they may be in different places in their car buying journey. “Ask questions that help you understand their needs,” the consultant explains, “but don’t forget to listen to what they want.” Back at the first dealership, a woman enters saying she wants to buy an SUV. Fresh off his training a young salesman sizes her up. She’s mid-forties. Based on the personas, this was a mom looking for a car that will take her kids to school and various sports practices. She will be concerned about storage space and gas mileage. The salesman asks how many kids she has and the woman is immediately put off. “I don’t have any kids,” she says, before repeating “I’d like to buy an SUV.” The salesman is thrown. He’s not entirely sure what to do next, but he does have a script to follow. He starts asking her about an average day, what gas mileage she’d like, how many people regularly ride with her… Eventually, she cuts off the questions. “Look,” she says, clearly irritated. “I saw a four-door Jeep Wrangler online and I’d like to test drive it.” The woman knows what she wants. She’s clearly done her research. She doesn’t need to be convinced. But the endless barrage of questions that don’t acknowledge what she’s saying makes it seem like the salesman doesn’t care what she wants or thinks he knows better. When the same woman visits the second dealership, she tells a salesperson that she saw a Jeep Wrangler online and wants to test drive it. The salesperson immediately pulls out their tablet and shows her a few they have. “Did you have a specific one in mind?” Within ten minutes, they’re in the car. As they drive, the salesperson tells the woman that she has great taste in cars. Then they ask what kind of bells and whistles she likes. She names a few, and the salesperson mentions a few extras that the more expensive model has. In the first scenario, the salesman failed to recognize, and his training failed to explain, that not every lead will begin at the top of the funnel and not every customer will fit a set persona. Rather than making a surefire sale, he alienated a customer by placing her into a box she didn’t belong in. Meanwhile, at the second dealership, the salesperson met the woman where she was. They acted as a guide. Most importantly, they listened. When sales leaders create overly strict protocols and scripts, they strip their salespeople of the ability to develop and use their intuitive selling abilities. When leaders trust their teams to observe and analyze a situation and focus on building relationships with customers, they find that their team is more effective at winning business. Not All Salespeople Are the Same Just as not all customers have the same desires, not every salesperson has the same traits or strengths. We all have preconceived notions about what characteristics make somebody good at sales, and many of them are grounded in truth. However, that doesn’t mean there is only one way to be a good salesperson or that different personalities don’t have their place on a sales team. Recognizing the Strengths of Your Sales Team You want to help your salespeople grow and thrive, but forcing them to sell in a way that emphasizes their weaknesses isn’t the way to do it. Instead, discover what strengths each team member has and encourage them to further develop those skills. Start by observing each member of your team. Are they assertive and confident? Or are they warm and inviting? Are they great at steering a conversation? Or are they excellent listeners who make customers feel heard? Do they like working with a team or by themselves? Do they appreciate feedback on their performance, or would they prefer to only be notified if there is a problem? All of this will help you understand how they’ll most effectively sell - and how you can most effectively manage them. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us.  "How do you use photos as part of your marketing and sales process?"
It’s a common question I ask AV leaders when we’re talking about growing their business. And while each team has a different system for storing, organizing, and finding images, the answer is almost always the same: We use them for everything. When they say everything, they mean everything. Photos are on every page of the website, from the homepage to industry specific pages to ones that highlight different types of events. Pictures of past events are utilized heavily on proposals, or may even be what gets the AV or production team an RFP in the first place. Images are shared at networking events, during site visits, and during casual meetings. The AV industry is one that relies on pictures to sell work more than almost any other. Why? Because live events are inherently visual, and while you can explain how a certain piece of technology works or the effect a creative idea will have, you can’t illustrate the concept nearly as effectively as an image can. In the events industry, images are a currency. “What do you do to organize your images?” It’s my go-to follow up question, and, believe it or not, the answer is often the same here, too. Silence. When a current process works “well enough”, many busy leaders don’t prioritize making it work better - but here’s a good reason to. Imagine you’re at a networking event speaking with a meeting planner you’ve never met before. They ask if you have pictures of any galas you’ve worked on. You open your event photo album and scroll through it to find a few images from a gala that took place a month ago. “That’s great,” they ask. “Can I see more?” “Of course,” you tell them. And then you start scrolling. And scrolling. And scrolling. You find more images of galas, but between each set up, you have to scroll through 50 more pictures to find another one that is relevant. It’s not the end of the world - but it is a bit awkward and you worry you seem disorganized. Now picture yourself pulling out your phone, and instead of opening a single event photo album, you open a gala specific gallery. You hand your phone over to the meeting planner and allow them to look freely through the images. After a few moments, the meeting planner finds one from over a year ago. “I love this multi-screen set up with a walkway,” the planner says. “I’d love to learn more about how that worked.” Having a digital photo book with a variety of galleries that show off specific events or session types, technology, and activations make it easier to share targeted information, which allows you to market and sell with specificity. You can even make albums with images that can be displayed and shared publicly, like on your website or in an email footer, as well as galleries that can only be shared privately, like in a proposal or directly with a prospective meeting planner or client. Organizing photos by their privacy levels removes guesswork and keeps your team from accidentally posting a photo that you don’t have permission to share. This is incredibly important as many clients may prefer that event photos aren’t posted to your website or social media platforms, but don’t mind them being shared directly with other organizations. Others may want identifying logos or information removed. Meanwhile, some clients may give you permission to use any photo as you see fit. If you’re not sure which category an event falls into, the best thing to do is ask your clients so that you don’t miss an opportunity to post a great photo to your website or burn any bridges by assuming you can share something a client would prefer you didn’t. If you're not sure what to say, we've created an email template below that you can copy and paste: SUBJECT LINE: Quick Request About Event Photos Hi [NAME], Our team loved working with you on [NAME OF EVENT] recently. We captured some great images that showcase what an incredible experience the event was and I was hoping to get your permission to use some of these pictures on our website and social platforms. Here's a link to the images we're hoping to use: [INSERT LINK] If you'd prefer to only approve specific images, would like logos or identifying information removed, or are only comfortable with certain use cases, please let me know! — [NAME] Creating a digital photobook is quick and easy - and there is most likely a tool to create them in a suite you already pay for! Do you want more helpful AV industry tips? Join our Live Event Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to up-level your team and increase sales performance. The key to removing the “Yuck” factor that so often comes along with selling can be summed up in three steps:
1. Figure out who your perfect customer is. Picture this: you’re sitting on an airplane when somebody sits down next to you. Not just somebody – your perfect customer on paper. Picture that perfect customer. What is their world like? What do they need help with? If you were a fly on the wall while they vented to their best friend about their challenges, what would they be? Now’s the next step: how are you uniquely able to solve those challenges? Getting specific about who you want to work with, why you want to work with them, and what you bring to their table doesn’t just help you target the right customers - it helps you show up more intentionally to build long-term relationships. 2. Figure out what your strengths are - and how you can play to them. Some people are, by nature, incredibly social creatures. They make friends everywhere they go. At the gym, in the Starbucks line, in the DMV… Other people are good listeners. They listen to understand, not to respond. They find that people open up to them easily. They always seem to ask the right questions. Selling starts to feel less icky (for you and the people you’re selling to) when it’s grounded in authenticity. If you’re a social butterfly, that means playing into your strengths to draw people to you. If you’re somebody who listens first and speaks later, your power comes from your ability to make potential customers feel heard. Both are effective. Both are important. Which one you are doesn’t matter – it’s selling in a way that plays to your natural strengths that does. 3. Unpack your mental baggage Wolf of Wall Street is a great movie, but Jordan Belfort paints salespeople as greedy and money hungry at best and, well, a terrible people at worst. In fact, most movies about sales feed into this same perception that salespeople are highly competitive and desperate to win at any cost. Maybe that’s why so many entrepreneurs and salespeople find themselves turned off by the entire idea of selling. Of course, selling is an absolute necessity for companies to grow and thrive, and while the Blakes of Glengarry Glen Ross do exist, they’re the exception – not the norm. Most entrepreneurs and salespeople believe in the solutions they offer to solve challenges - so reframing how you think about the entire selling process will allow you to push past the “yuck” factor, dive deeper than what’s on the surface, and learn what your potential customers are really looking for. To get more insights on Selling Without the Yuck Factor and learn more about finding new leads, discovering your sales strengths, and more effectively approaching sales, check out Karl’s appearance on Doug Thorpe’s Leadership Powered by Common Sense podcast.  What if there was another 10–20 percent worth of sales lingering somewhere inside your integrated sales and marketing funnel? Chances are, there is. The good news is that you can find that hidden revenue if you look in the right place. By addressing spots where opportunities get stalled out—usually the tricky middle section where leads move from marketing to sales—sales and marketing teams can take action to get leads moving down the funnel again.
Leads often get stuck in the middle sales funnel as they continue to receive marketing content but don’t take that crucial step forward to interact with sales. You can often recognize sticking points by looking for where leads are ballooning (you can visualize it as that cartoon of the boa constrictor with the suspicious lump in its midsection). If you see a place in the middle of your funnel where a disproportionate number of leads are gathering, that is a major indicator of where you are missing out on a sizable chunk of revenue. It is easy for your progress to become buried mid funnel, and if you aren’t paying attention, you might not even know gold is there. If you don’t have your processes in place and mapped to the sales funnel, it can be frustrating to try to figure out which leads are ready to progress to the buying stage and which are still in need of nurturing. If everyone knows their role and you have complete data, you are much more likely to hit the mother lode. Finding and Fixing Funnel Clogs The sales funnel has stages, touch points for digital marketing and steps for salespeople to follow as they nurture leads. When the activities and tracking metrics within these stages are set up correctly, you will be able to see where leads are getting stuck or having low conversion rates. You can also see where conversions are high and where you should be concentrating your efforts to replicate them. Look for Larger and Growing Populations in Your Funnel Identifying where populations are starting to balloon within your funnel is the first step to finding and clearing the clog. Usually, these leads are stuck somewhere in the middle stage, where they have for one reason or another not taken that next action to move them forward on their buyer’s journey. Use Quantitative and Qualitative Data for Insights If you are scoring your leads and tracking them, you are more likely to be able to tell where their interest dries up. There should be an observable difference in the numbers between one action and the next. The numbers aren’t going to tell you why people may be getting stuck or how you can fix it. Providing that qualitative data is where your integrated team comes in. If you can point out what activity is damming up the lead stream, they may be able to use their knowledge of the customers and the questions they ask and what they respond to and propose solutions. Revisit the Steps You Take to Move Leads Down and Through Your Funnel When you have the data attached to every activity in the funnel, you can see what next actions are not being taken, and you can investigate what might be keeping someone from taking it. If they sign up for your email list and then never open a single thing that comes into the inbox, you may need to review whether the content you are sending is valuable. If they are scheduling a meeting with a salesperson and then not showing up, it might be time to review the way you schedule meetings or send reminders. Discovering a solution to get leads flowing again might take some trial and error, but you will have the data to prove you are focusing on the correct problem rather than flailing around making uninformed guesses. The Rewards of Targeting Your Choke Points When you’ve tracked and quantified your problem areas, you will also get the satisfaction of seeing the numbers rise once one of your strategies begins to work. In one instance, a marketing department organized twice-monthly webinars that generated about three hundred to five hundred sign-ups. However, only about 25 percent of people who signed up were attending. Marketing was doing their job by generating sign-ups, but they weren’t sure how to change their technique to get people to actually attend the webinar. This is where the magic of sales and marketing integration comes in. To fix this problem, the business got the sales team involved and had them start calling people who signed up to remind them to attend. It worked. Implementing that new strategy also gave the organization a point to work from when they observed another chokepoint: people who attended the webinar but didn’t book an appointment afterward. To address this, the business's sales development representative contacted individuals who didn’t book, and the business was able to generate a 10–20 percent increase in appointments after each webinar. This went on to result in a 10–20 percent revenue boost as well. If the sales organization hadn’t had the CRM set up to track data for all our activities in the funnel, they would have been able to quantify only the very top and the very bottom. If marketing brought in a thousand leads and sales was only closing twenty of them, without data, the only suggestions would be for marketing to bring in two thousand leads or for the sales team to just try harder (whatever that means). Make the Most of Your Sales Funnels Every business leader wants to “do more of what’s working and less of what’s not.” There are too many sales and marketing departments who don’t know how to begin following that direction. Without clarity, you have no idea whether the actions you take to repair your revenue problems make any difference, positive or negative. If you have one sales funnel set up for your company, you can have multiple. If you are tracking KPIs for the number of leads you bring in and the number of sales you close, you can also have them for every discrete activity in each of your funnels. Drilling down to those tiny details can help you diagnose problems and eventually multiply revenue. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us.  When I run sales meetings, I always ask whether there are any events over the next thirty days that would give the team a chance to meet new customers.
During my time as fractional sales manager at one AV company, there happened to be two upcoming conferences put on by meeting planner associations—PCMA and MPI. "Is anyone going to the MPI meeting tonight?" I asked the team. One of the salespeople, we'll call him Doug, said, "Oh, I used to be a member of MPI, and I never really got any business out of there. I wouldn't bother." "Okay. Do you mind if I go?" I asked. My attitude was it was ridiculous not to try, but I could already see I wasn't going to convince him. He shrugged. "Sure, you can go. But I'm just telling you, you're not going to get anything out of it and everyone knows me already, so they already know to reach out if they need something." I got my business cards ready, parked at the event, and got out of my car. As I was walking in, I spotted a woman my age who was clearly dressed for a corporate event. "Are you by chance going to MPI?" I asked. "Yes, I just moved here from Washington, D.C.," she said. "What do you do?" "I'm a meeting planner and I have an agency where we manage events for associations and nonprofits. Most of my job is vendor management." A meeting planner, who owned an agency, who had just moved here and specialized in vendor management. There was no way she knew anyone from my company (including Doug). You can't make this up. "I'm Karl," I said. "I've never been to one of these either. Why don't we help each other out when we go in here so we're not just standing around with no one to talk to?" "That would be great!" The two of us went into the meeting and were able to introduce one another around and build our networks twice as fast as we would have on our own, and with half the effort! And sure, that involved introducing her to some competitors that also did live events, but we were already buddies. Before the night was over, I invited my new buddy to visit our AV company, and she happily agreed. The next week, she came in to have lunch with us and the CEO. We had a casual conversation, went through some event photos and presented her with our deck for her to look at. More importantly, we laughed, got to know each other, and brainstormed how we could work together. Within six months, we'd done three events for her company. Don't take for granted that every networking event you go to will be exactly the same as the last. Approach each one like new opportunities are waiting for you, because guess what? They probably are.  Your photo library is one of your best selling tools.
It’s a point I was sure to emphasize when I shared “20 Actions to Take Right Now,” to a room full of AV professionals. Your photo library is more than a highlight reel. It shows examples of innovative technology. It’s an important visual aid when a prospective client asks why a certain type of event technology is so impactful. Most importantly, it proves your expertise. Of course, when your photos are located across various google folders, hard drives and internal servers, finding the right one can be a long process. At best, it wastes the time of your sales team each time they need to find a specific image. At worst, it robs you of opportunities to make new connections when you can’t produce the pictures you’re talking about. Almost immediately, I heard dissent. “It would take weeks to overhaul our entire system.” “We have photos coming from freelancers and techs. Even if we reorganized everything, it would be impossible to upkeep the system.” “It’s more trouble than it’s worth.” That’s when I told them about MyLio. The photo search engine connects multiple sources of images without requiring you to move a single file. Even better – when the photos are tagged, they become searchable, allowing your team to find the images they need quickly. I also encouraged them to have photos that show off some incredible events using a variety of tech saved to their phones and tablets in a dedicated folder. That way, if you’re at a networking event or walking through a venue with a client, you have great images accessible at a moment’s notice. You aren’t reliant on an internet connection, and nobody has to wait for you to search through a hundred photos of your dog to find the picture you’re looking for. A few weeks after the keynote, (you can’t make this up - I promise it’s 100% true, although I changed the name to protect my friend, Steve) I received an email from Amy, one of the AV company owners in attendance. Karl, I wanted to thank you for sharing your easy tips for increasing sales - especially making sure you always have great event photos on hand. My flight leaving the conference was delayed, so I had some time to kill in the airport. I started looking through some of my favorite event photos and downloaded a variety of them to my phone. As we were boarding, I created an album and saved all the photos to it. I noticed the woman sitting next to me had an ILEA sticker on her water bottle, so I asked if she was a meeting planner. We got to talking and after a while she asked to see some pictures of association events that utilized LED screens. Normally, I would’ve been scrambling to get a strong enough connection to the airplane wifi to search through folder after folder of images. But because I saved the photos, I was able to quickly scroll through the album and find several examples. While I was scrolling, she noticed other tech she was interested in, and I explained how we used that, too. After we landed, we exchanged business cards. We’re scheduled to get coffee next week. I know she’s planning some upcoming meetings, so I’m hoping to walk away with an RFP. Thanks again! Best, Amy Your clients want ideas that inspire them, and being able to produce photos quickly when asked does just that. But you don’t need to wait to be asked. We live in the event space 24/7, but our clients don’t. What might feel like old technology or dated trends may still feel new and exciting for your clients. My recommendation? Consistently send photos that show off your work and will inspire your clients and prospective clients. If your photo library is organized, it makes it that much easier to find relevant images to send. Feel free to copy and paste the example below and add in photos that will inspire your existing and prospective clients. Hi [NAME], The last few months have been really exciting for us. We've had the opportunity to do some incredible events for our amazing clients. Below are some photos that I think might inspire you and give you ideas that could be implemented into your upcoming events. [INSERT PHOTO] [INSERT PHOTO] [INSERT PHOTO] One of my favorite parts of my job is brainstorming the next best event ideas with each of our clients. I'd love the opportunity to meet or jump on a call to talk about the trends we're seeing and my ideas for your next event. — [NAME] Join our AV Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to get more industry tips that will up-level your sales process and performance.  “I don’t know what we’re doing, but it’s working.”
Often this sentence is said with pride after seeing a company’s revenue trend up. However, it’s a lot more insidious than one might think. That naïve positivity can lull people into a false sense of security, even as trouble prepares to pounce. If those in a sales and marketing organization don’t know what they’re doing right, they won’t know what they’re doing wrong when things start trending down. Marketing could be wasting too much money on ad spends to bring in leads when a different stage of the funnel needs to be improved. Maybe too much of the company’s success is riding on one salesperson, who may one day decide to move on and take their profits with them. Without an understanding of where a company is succeeding and the data to back it up, no one will be equipped to fix problems when they do emerge. Pull Your Sales Funnel Apart We’ve made the case for the integrated funnel and why dividing it into stages matters. It allows sales and marketing teams to be efficient as they map tasks to the buyer’s journey and improve performance. Visualize your funnel with all your leads inside it. Now, imagine there are funnels for each of your ideal customers and their buyer’s journeys nested inside of this greater funnel. If you want to be able to successfully optimize your sales activities, you must separate these funnels from one another. The need for more than one funnel is not just about the content within it. It is also vital to track the KPIs from these different funnels separately so you can tell what effect they have on the amount of money you are bringing in. Otherwise, when you have a problem with revenue, you won’t be able to tell where you need to bust out your magnifying glass and detect how to fix it. (Refer to this blog if you need a little reminder of which sales and marketing KPIs to track.) How You Disguise Your Problems and Successes The tendency to generalize leads causes sales and marketing professionals to overlook where they are winning and where they need to improve. There are three ways oversimplification creates risks of taking the wrong actions or even no action at all. Risk Point One: Generalizing about Your Funnels Let’s say a teacher has a classroom of twenty students. Half of them are average students, about a third of them are high-scoring students and the remaining students are disruptive and get failing grades. It wouldn’t be fair or accurate for the teacher to say, “All my students are problem students,” even if that small group draws the most attention. Treating all the students the same wouldn’t help any student in that class be successful. The same goes for your sales and marketing campaigns. You could say, “All my efforts are useless,” but if you haven’t been tracking your data, you have no idea if that’s true. In fact, the sales funnel for one of your offerings might have huge potential to draw more revenue even though the income from your other offerings has stalled. If you are looking at your results as a whole when you have multiple offerings, you can’t see the specifics of what is and isn’t working. You won’t be able to see where you should keep doing what you have been doing or where you need to change direction. Risk Point Two: Having Poor, Messy Data Let’s say a client has three offerings, but when they look at their revenue, they only look at the total rather than what comes in from each. Every month, when the client views their potential revenue and their deals, all they can see is whether the numbers are going up or down. Instead of asking why their deals aren’t closing, they should have data that identifies how many deals they have for the first offer, how many for the second, and how many for the third along with how each of those funnels are performing. That allows them to diagnose the individual problems. If you don’t have your CRM set up to demonstrate these data points, the real statistics are hidden from you. Even if you have the knowledge that different offerings have different success rates, unless you are collecting data, you won’t know how to act on that knowledge. Risk Point Three: Generalizing about Your Salespeople If looking at stats from all your sales funnels at once isn't helpful, lumping the performance of each of your salespeople together may be even less so. You might identify that your team has a 30 percent close rate, but you may have one salesperson with a close rate of 50 percent and another at 15 percent. The way you interact with these two different salespeople should not be identical if you want to make effective changes. Instead, the numbers should lead you to having personal interactions with the individuals on your team. Rather than give the sales team a blanket mandate to “sell more,” it’s more effective to take pointed action. That may mean focusing on helping the salesperson closing at 15 percent to improve, replacing them if necessary or supporting your top salesperson further until they reach superstar status. In the end, using broad generalizations without detailed data analysis can lead to major risks for any sales and marketing organization. By dissecting the sales funnel, tracking individual KPIs, and avoiding the oversimplification of data and team performance, you'll be able to see what your sales and marketing organization's strengths and weaknesses are. Using a more focused approach will allow you to do more of what works and less of what doesn't. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Karl joined Justin Stoddart on the Think Bigger Real Estate podcast to dig into what makes sales meaningful and effective in an age of automation: real human connection. While many salespeople are tempted by the promise of working faster using technology, especially AI, Karl and Justin make a compelling case that being human is your competitive advantage.
In this conversation, Karl shares candid stories and experiences in relationship-driven industries, where going beyond surface-level interactions leads to trust and lasting impact. He explains how to use Iceberg Selling to build rapport with curiosity and authenticity, be more present, and apply emotional intelligence to every client interaction. Whether it’s taking the time to understand a client’s life, brainstorming ways to provide value beyond your core service, or shifting from an impersonal list of clients to a focused network of trusted partners, Karl offers a grounded, real-world roadmap to selling with depth and intention. He even tackles the tension between being efficient versus being effective, reminding us that while we should be efficient with our work, we should never be efficient with people. Listen to the full conversation on your favorite podcast app, visit Think Bigger Real Estate's podcast page or watch the video above to explore how you can be more present, show more empathy, and add more value to your sales approach.  “We go to tons of networking events, but it’s always the same crowd. We never meet anyone new.”
This is a common problem my clients have when they start dedicating time and resources to networking and new client outreach. They fill up their calendars with networking events and attend them religiously but rarely find that they’re making new connections – and even less of those new connections turn into new customers. There’s a simple reason for that: attending an endless slew of networking events on autopilot and getting intentional about networking is not the same thing. When you treat networking events like another item on your to-do list – something to get through quickly and then cross off – you won’t see even a fraction of their value. But when you enter each event with a clear set of goals and a plan to achieve them, you’ll start to see some results. Here’s what you can do before, during, and after networking events to get the maximum impact. Before the Event If there are other people in your current network who you think would benefit from the event, invite them to attend! By having a buddy, you can work together to make new connections and benefit from established connections the other already has. Next, try to determine who may be attending the event. Is there a meeting planner who “liked” the event on LinkedIn? Is there a vendor who is on the board of the association? Try to get an idea of who will be at the event and then check out their LinkedIn profile, as well as their company’s LinkedIn profile. If they’re already in your CRM, read the notes. Look for any common connections or interests you may have. Once you have an idea of who will be at the event, create a list of the 5 or 10 people you absolutely want to meet. These should be people you think you’d be able to work with in the future and could easily connect with. If you can find their LinkedIn profile, consider reaching out ahead of time so you’re on their radar, too. Before you go to the event, take some time to plan how you’re going to network. Is a friend going with you who can help facilitate conversations? Do you plan to walk around introducing yourself to people? Or would you prefer to hang out by the bar or coffee station to introduce yourself to people as they come by? Regardless of what your plan is, coming up with one ahead of time helps you determine the best way to make your connections. Prepare your top 3 conversation starters so you aren’t stuck wondering what to say when somebody on your list walks by. It may seem silly – but it goes a long way in giving you confidence. Google and ChatGPT are your friends here. Finally, consider things you may be able to offer to a new connection. Is there an upcoming event you can give them an invitation to? Is there anyone in your network who may be an asset to them? It’s important to enter conversations with new clients by showing that the relationship can benefit both of your businesses. During the Event Stick to your plan. Once you arrive, identify the people on your list and make sure you talk to each of them. After each conversation (definitely not during it!) make a note on your phone about what you discussed. If you make any tentative plans to meet, write it down. If you say you’ll share something, make note of it so you don’t forget. And, of course, hand out plenty of business cards. After the Event The name of the game is… follow through! Connect with the people you met on LinkedIn immediately. How immediately? From the train or before you leave the parking lot. Suggest a time for the coffee date you talked about or remind them of your promise to send those pictures you mentioned – and first thing the next morning, do it! The next day, put each new contact into your CRM, make the introductions you said you would, and foster the connections as they grow into real opportunities. Showing up to a networking event is not enough. Showing up and only talking to people you have strong existing connections with isn’t getting you new work. You need to be intentional about showing up with a clear plan to make new, meaningful connections and follow through with them. For more AV industry tips that help you grow your client base and get more out of your sales efforts, join our AV peer group and subscribe to our newsletter!  When a client tells me they lost a prospective client after their proposal because they got unlucky, I’m always tempted to pick the situation apart. Of, course, there are times when it just doesn’t go your way – venue fees for outside AV support makes it impossible to have competitive pricing, an incumbent vendor wins the bid, they change their mind about what they want – the list goes on.
However, there are also plenty of situations where lack of preparation is easily disguised as bad luck, and they typically come down to the same problem: lack of research. Here’s the scenario: a call comes in from a buyer who wants a quote. You start by identifying all the details on the surface. For association meetings or nonprofits where information about events is typically public, there is likely a lot you can learn to come prepared to your first discovery call. But why stop there? If you really want to set yourself up for success, it’s time to dig deeper. Check Your CRM For the Customer Open whatever application you use to build orders and manage clients, like Flex, LASSO, Rentman, Pipedrive, etc. and check to see if the customer is in your system. Have they spoken to a salesperson at your company before? Have they requested (and received) a quote previously? Did you win the job, and if so, was there any feedback? If not, did they give any feedback as to why? In the case of one of my clients, they found that the organization had issued an RFP years ago, and the team pulled together an in-depth proposal. Ultimately, they were not awarded the business or given any feedback as to why (although, the potential customer did go with their incumbent provider). However, they realized they still had all the assets, brand guidelines, and research from the last proposal logged in their system, which they were able to use as a resource. Research the Buyer Let’s say the customer wasn’t in your system – it’s time to do a little research on the buyer. A quick LinkedIn search will tell you how long they’ve worked at the organization and where they’ve worked in the past. Check any previous employers against your CRM, too. It’s possible that even if you haven’t worked with their current organization before, you have worked with the buyer directly or indirectly. That may be why you received the RFP! If you do find an organization they previously worked for in your CRM, ask yourself all the same questions as above. You may find that someone on your team has an existing relationship with the buyer. Find Shared Contacts The events industry is small, so even if you haven’t worked with the buyer before, there’s a good chance somebody in your professional network has. Reach out to your AV industry friends to learn as much as you can about the contact. When one of my clients asked around about a buyer who had reached out, a freelance technician who’d been on one of their shows answered honestly. You might find out some incredible things about working with the client. You may also find the opposite. Regardless, the more knowledge you have the better. It’ll help you find common ground, understand the nuances of their communication style, and help you stand out from other teams they may be talking to. When one of my clients asked around about a buyer who had reached out, a freelance technician who’d been on one of their shows answered honestly. “He can be difficult to work with,” he shared. “He seems like a nice guy, but he’s very particular about how he wants information communicated and who everything should be shared with.” My client asked the tech more questions and then used that information to influence the processes outlined in the proposal, making it much more specific to the buyer’s taste. All of this is to say, you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) leave your sales up to fate. Doing as much preparation as possible makes it that much more likely that the initial proposal will align with the buyer’s expectations and their business will be yours. For more best practices for live event proposals and tips to get more out of your sales process, join our AV peer group and subscribe to our newsletter! In a recent episode of the Teaching Journeys podcast, Karl joined host Dave Roberts to explore what it takes to build high-performing sales teams in a way that puts human relationships first. The conversation touched on the foundational pillars of effective sales leadership, the importance of aligning values and motivations, and the transformative power of mindset for individuals and organizations (and, of course, Iceberg Selling).
Building Sales Teams that Thrive Creating high-performing sales teams starts with a healthy culture. Too often, organizations prioritize tactics before values—but success is rarely sustainable without a shared purpose. Karl emphasizes the importance of building intentional, positive environments where people feel connected, supported, and clear on their “why,” both personally and for the overall business. When a team aligns with common goals and values, high performance comes easy. This alignment includes understanding each team member’s unique strengths and motivations. Rather than forcing one-size-fits-all strategies, effective leaders tailor their coaching to the individual—helping people succeed on their own terms. The result is greater engagement, consistency, and trust. Leadership That Empowers, Not Controls Leadership plays a critical role in shaping team dynamics. Karl shares that the most impactful leaders don’t micromanage, they enable. They invest in understanding their team members and create space for growth. When leaders prioritize collaboration and vulnerability, they build a culture where people feel safe to use their own their own experiences. The Power of Iceberg Selling Of course, Dave and Karl did a deep dive into Karl's Iceberg Selling framework, which invites sales professionals, and everyone else, to look beneath the surface of any given situation. Success comes not just from features and benefits, but from uncovering the deeper motivations, fears, and goals that drive decisions. In particular, they focus on the Ownership and Drivership mindsets. When salespeople in particular adopt these mindsets, they shift from reactive to proactive—from simply following the process to leading with intention. Great sales teams don’t just happen. They are built—with clarity, culture, and the courage to go deeper. Check out the episode on Youtube.  Jordan initially didn’t understand why I was telling him to look at his company’s reviews. After all, he had extremely positive, long-term relationships with most of his clients. I told him it would only take a minute, so he pulled up his Google listing. Low and behold, among the 10 reviews he had, one was for two stars.
“I’d never engage with this company again. Constantly micromanaging and they didn’t even pay me on time!” Jordan recognized the name – disgruntled audio tech who had worked with them on exactly one show. “That’s not even a client!” he rubbed his eyes. “And he’s only telling half the story. He was constantly on his phone, so we told him it had to be out of sight the entire day. After the show, he sent his invoice but didn’t give us his bank transfer details, so we had no way of paying him and he didn’t respond to anything until the invoice was past due.” “Aren’t you glad you googled your reviews?” I asked Jordan, and he looked at me like I was crazy. “Not really. It’s not like I can do anything about it.” That’s where Jordan was wrong. Sites with ratings, like Google, GlassDoor, Yelp, and BBB understand that malicious and fictitious reviews do happen, which is why they have an appeal process. In the meantime, he could respond to the comment and tell the story from his side so people understood what really happened. Not to mention, he could ask other clients and freelancers to rate his company to counteract the low star rating. Unfortunately, bad reviews, often unearned bad reviews, are inevitable. I say this, not to scare you, but to show you that knowledge is power. There are plenty of ways to fix or at least lessen the impact of negative reviews, but you can’t do damage control if you aren’t aware of the damage in the first place. In Jordan’s case, he wasn’t able to get the review removed, but he reached out to clients and was able to get enough 5-star reviews that the impact to his average was minimal. He also realized how many live event clients and contacts he’d never received reviews from because he never asked. I often hear clients say that it’s awkward to ask for reviews, but if you have a script in place and make it part of your post-show process, it gets much easier. Below is a template for a review request you might send after an event to encourage your customers to leave a positive rating and reviews. Hi [NAME], Thanks again for partnering with [YOUR COMPANY NAME]. We really enjoyed producing your event on [DATE] at [VENUE]. If you had as good a time working together as we did, we’d love for you to take a minute to leave us a rating and review on one or all of the following platforms: - Google [INSERT LINK] - Yelp [INSERT LINK] - BBB [INSERT LINK] - Facebook [INSERT LINK] If there’s anything else we can help you with in the future, please reach out. We’re ready to talk about planning your next event any time. Thanks, [NAME] Want more helpful AV industry tips? Join our AV Peer Group and subscribe to our newsletter to up-level your team and increase sales performance.  In order for any company to successfully improve its sales process, there needs to be a way to measure the effectiveness of specific sales and marketing efforts. Team members from both departments must also take ownership of the KPIs that directly relate to their roles. Of course, the first step is to determine which metrics are actually KPIs (or key performance indicators). There's certainly no shortage of metrics from which to choose! But identifying the ones that truly reflect the health and power of your sales process is a fundamental step toward measuring effectiveness — and ultimately making adjustments as needed. Let's dive into some of the more common sales and marketing metrics, see which department should take ownership of them, and also discuss ways you can keep all of your team members on the same page. Common Marketing KPIs Many marketing teams will use the following metrics as KPIs as they monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of their campaigns:
Common Sales KPIs After a prospect moves past a certain point in the sales and marketing funnel, it's important for the marketing team to hand the prospect off to the sales team — which means the sales team will have an entirely different set of KPIs to quantify their effectiveness at converting leads and closing deals. Some KPIs your sales team may look at include:
Apart from the above metrics that focus on activities your sales team is expected to perform, it's also helpful to measure the makeup of and changes within your sales population (that is, the leads in your sales pipeline). The following metrics are helpful for this:
Keeping Sales & Marketing in Alignment The above metrics are only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to potential KPIs. And we haven't even mentioned common high-level KPIs, like revenue, close rate, leads generated, cost per lead, or ROI. Nevertheless, the important thing is to make sure your KPIs are relevant to actual business success and that your sales and marketing teams understand which metrics they own. Setting up a KPI scorecard is only half the battle — it's vital that team members understand their role in the overall sales process and which KPIs they will be held accountable for. Whenever you first institute an integrated scorecard (and whenever you adjust it in the future) make sure that your expectations are clearly communicated to both teams (perhaps in a joint meeting). Keep the lines of communication open throughout any sales or marketing campaign. At the end of the day, identifying which metrics are actually KPIs for your company and communicating ownership expectations to each team will help you to accurately gauge the effectiveness of your efforts, and ultimately improve your company's sales performance. Learn More A healthy relationship between sales and marketing is vital to an organization’s success. Dive deep into this effective strategy in our book Sales & Marketing Alignment. If you'd like more insights on how you can improve your sales leadership, contact us. Or sign up for our newsletter for more valuable resources. |
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We are headquartered in Colorado with domestic and international teammates and clients. Please use the contact form on this page to inquire about any of our books, podcasts appearances, speaking engagements and workshops, any of our offerings, or simply to connect.
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