Comments on: Rebalance Your Portfolio

By: Micro Marketing - Torque Blog

Micro Marketing - Torque Blog — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:31:18 +0000

[...] guru of big business hunting, is prescribing a balance portfolio of prospecting in his Blog post: Rebalance Your Portfolio, invest 30% in new, small deals closing within 60 days. No doubt, he believes the big deals are [...]

By: Kevin Masi

Kevin Masi — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 14:08:09 +0000

Tom,

Thanks for the insights. In my recent blog post, http://www.torquelaunch.blogspot.com/ I referred to many of your points about diversification as part of a “Mirco Marketing” trend (including a link to your above post!). I’ve gotten an overwhelming response from my community of readers, resonating to the idea through their own experiences. Thanks for the practical guidance on what to do during changing times.

By: Tom Searcy

Tom Searcy — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 01:05:41 +0000

Eli,
Great question.
First thing is that words like “traditionally” and “historically” don’t fit in the current economic environment. We are in a different world and the rules are being written anew.
Second, relationships are in flux- companies cannot single-source anymore with the economic volatility of suppliers. They have to seek second and third suppliers and quickly in order to balance the potential loss of a key supplier to bankruptcy or deterioration in service because of unavailable capital.
Third, I do believe that companies are going to be careful. They will want to make a small purchase on the way to a larger commitment. Even in those circumstances, they will keep orders smaller and terms shorter.
Fourth, there is still speed to be had in sales cycles that have been longer. It comes down to safety and the ability to demonstrate an 8-14% value achievement over other alternatives. Of course that value is found from the combination of the 4 components I have written about previously; Price, Cost, Friction, Return.
Knowing your company as I do, I believe you are in a great position to accelerate previously slow purchasing cycles. I think that you possibly have a game-changing proposition that can break old rules and old relationships between your prospects and your competitors.

By: Eli Everhart

Eli Everhart — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:07:07 +0000

Thanks Tom

Understanding that even in a prosperous business environment, microeconomic events will drive performance in certain industries or markets I have a few comments.

I have been fortunate to have established a fairly well balanced client book, in terms of industry type. (unfortunately, as we have aptly identified them, no Whale deals yet)

In my judgement the balancing of a sales portfolio in terms of deal size and time-to-close cycle seems proper at all times as long as the proportion of resources assigned are appropriate.

In the current macroeconomic environment, I’m interested in your specific thoughts on an industry that has traditionally garnered lengthy sales cycles, and the compulsory establishment and growth of revenue-generating relationships, which appear to be an essential step in reaching higher levels of success (bigger deals).