Table of Contents
PORTFOLIO
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First published in 2007 by Portfolio,
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Copyright Michael A. Boylan, 2007
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eISBN : 978-1-436-27832-4
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This book is dedicated to those people who model persistence in all its forms. Those who see the need to improve and have the foresight and confidence in themselves and the idea, such that they wont take no for an answerpushing forward until they see their ideas in action. This is what I did in creating this material and process. It had to be out there in the world for all to use, because of its power and ability to genuinely benefit those who use it to achieve more of their dreams. Learn this process, use it respectfully, be a steward of the ACCELERANTS, and practice, practice, practice!
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I WOULD LIKE TO THANK THE FOLLOWING PEOPLE FOR THEIR GUIDANCE and feedback during the preparation and writing of this book. First, my thanks to Adrian Zackheim of Portfolio for his intuition and belief in how this material could benefit thousands of people and the organizations they work with. For his trust and confidence I am grateful.
I also wish to thank his very professional team: Adrienne Schultz, my editor; Will Weisser, associate publisher; and Shannon Garrison, my publicist, for their talent, dedication, and insight in making this a great book.
To my agent, Margret McBride, and her professional team who helped channel my energies during the writing of this book.
To our clients who have trusted this material enough to bring it into their organizations, shape it to their applications, and embrace it in the field as part of the way they go to market, driving more revenue performance and efficiencies to their organizations.
To some of my advisers and coaches who have helped guide me during the years in this business: Ken Blanchard, Larry Wilson, and Harry Paul. To Bob Thele, former CEO of Covey Leadership; Mike Meyer, chairman of i360 Technologies and former CEO of Cap Gemini for the Americas; Jim Woodward, former head of Transformational Outsourcing for CGE&Y for the Americas; to John Murray, chairman of Advance Path and former CEO of PLATO Learning; Matt Shocklee, senior partner at PriceWaterhouseCoopers; Alain Thiry, president and CEO of EMSI and former president of The Carlson Marketing Group, Europe; Gary Gindele, former group vice president for Keane; and the many others who have advised me over the years.
To my family and friends for their support and encouragement along the way. And to Nancy Andzulis, Christine Krason, Mykael Sprague, Winnie Shows, Megan French, Vance Woolwine, John Bull, and Jerry Begly for all their help and expertise during the process. All together, a great team of professionals and trusted advisers for which I am grateful.
FOREWORD
THE CORE BENEFITS OF THIS BOOK
THIS BOOK WILL GIVE YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE BEST PRACTICE, FIELD- PROVEN tools that can help everyone who impacts or generates revenue to drive more revenue to your business, more efficiently, and in less time.
Ill describe in detail twelve constraints that impede and sometimes block organizations from gaining more revenue, regardless of their size, allowing you to quickly diagnose which constraints are the biggest impediments to your companies revenue growth, and take immediate action to minimize them.
The material goes even further by describing twelve field-proven tools called Accelerants. These tools can help minimize your constraints, helping you scope, sell, and close more and larger deals in less time, reducing your time-to-a-deal and cost of sales by as much as 25 percent. More specifically, these Accelerants will teach you how to:
Target new revenue opportunities more efficiently and effectively
Compress and make more efficient your existing sales process
Craft stronger, more persuasive value propositions that create urgency to act
Identify and gain access to the real decision makers faster and more effectively
Condense and improve the power and delivery of your standard boilerplate presentations, delivering them in half the time you request
More accurately assess and scope the likelihood of each opportunitys probability to close earlier in your courting process
Increase the size of opportunities while weeding out those just kicking the tires
Compress your closing cycles by up to 25 percent
Reduce your cost of sales by up to 25 percent
Energize your field force with tools theyll actually use because they work
Foster empowerment, cohesion, and clarity of purpose within your organization.
Thats what this material could do for you, your people, and your business! A tall order? You will be the judge of that. But based on the companies that have been using key Accelerants in their business for several years, some of which youll read about shortly, you will soon see why these tools could also deliver for you.
The twelve Constraints and the twelve Accelerants are listed on two charts for your review on pages 6 and 7, so you can gain an immediate high-level overview of what they are. This will help you see quickly why the material is relevant, timely, and why it can directly impact your companys revenue performance and success going forward.
INTRODUCTION
TWENTY YEARS OF SCULPTING
THIS BOOK IS ABOUT IMPROVING YOUR ORGANIZATIONS TOP-LINE revenue performance and bottom-line profit by significantly shortening the sales and closing cycle(s) of your business. The Accelerants can make you and your people much more efficient and effective at targeting future business opportunities and shaping value propositions (at an enterprisewide or business unit level) that will resonate and cause urgency to act with the decision makers you want or need more access to. You can also gain access faster and more efficiently, with a presentation that will delight, essentially compressing your time-to-a-deal.