Build a Business, Not a Job

Category: Sales & Marketing

Want to Stand Out in Your Industry? Start By Becoming an Expert–Here’s How

marketing expert working in an office, expertise marketing

When it comes to marketing strategies for your small to medium sized business, there are many ways to play the game. You can do paid advertisements, email marketing, influencer marketing or emotional marketing….just to name a few. But when it comes down to results, nothing beats expertise marketing. What is Expertise Marketing? The concept of […]

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Why Your Cash Flow Problems Have Nothing to Do With Your Sales (and How to Fix It Quick)

Cash Flow, Sales

Every business owner has experienced cash flow problems at one time or another, and the gut reaction for most entrepreneurs is to immediately ramp up their sales efforts in an attempt to turn the tap back on and get cash flowing again. This instinct however is counter productive. In fact, in most cases ramping up […]

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Want to Close the Sale? Do This 1 Thing

business woman working on laptop in office, business, want to close the sale

Top sales people know that you greatly improve your odds of closing the sale by what you do in the first few minutes of your sales conversation. Here is an insider technique to use up front that will help you close more business in the end. Every sales person thinks the sale is made in […]

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9 Email Marketing Tips to Increase Your Sales

E-mail Marketing concept, increase your sales through email marketing

The response was so strong from the article I posted last week of 15 email marketing insider tips that I wanted to share nine more with you in this article. Considering that my company Maui Mastermind sends out millions of targeted emails every month to our subscriber elist for our business coaching company, we’ve learned […]

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15 Email Marketing Tips to Increase Your Sales

Email marketing concept, increase your sales

I’m gearing up for a conference I’m keynoting in two weeks and one of the sessions I’m leading is an expert panel on email marketing. I wanted to share with you 15 of tips to improve your email marketing so that you can increase your sales. 1. Value your list. Protect it; connect with it; […]

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6 Simple Steps to Build an Effective Marketing Funnel

Lead Generation Business Funnel Concept

Earlier this week I was talking with a business coaching client who runs a $10 million a year professional service firm. He shared with me that it had taken him several monthly to build out his core marketing funnel for a new service he started less than 12 months prior. He was excited that it […]

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The First Place You Must Look If Your Business Volume Is Drying Up

Worried businesswoman sitting alone in office, female entrepreneur frowning thinking about problem solution, if your business volume is drying up

It’s a common pattern I see catch even the smartest entrepreneurs off guard. After a long period of successful growth they notice that their lead flow and prospect pipeline has dried up. In a panic they rush in to figure out what to do. Having worked with so many business coaching clients has taught me […]

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A Simple Zero-Cost Fix for All Your Marketing

business goals concept, business strategy, modern workplace, marketing

Think for a moment about how much money you spend on digital and print ads. If you’re like many of our business coaching clients your ad spend may total up to 10 percent of revenue. Yet what if you’re wasting a massive portion of that money? Here is a simple principle that is guaranteed to […]

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6 Things to Consider When Reviewing Your Marketing Strategy

Marketing-strategy

If this year has taught us anything, it’s that the way you do business can change at the drop of a hat and as business owners we have to be prepared for whatever comes next. This is particularly true when it comes to strategic expenses such as your marketing efforts. Which is why I suggest […]

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The Unlikely Sales Stars on Your Team

the-unlikely-sales-stars-on-your-team

As a business owner you probably spend a lot of time working with your sales team to make sure that they have all the information and training needed to sell your products or services. But when was the last time that you spent time and energy training the rest of the staff on how to […]

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5 Secrets to Creating a Marketing Funnel That Converts

5-secrets-to-creating-a-marketing-funnel-that-converts

When it comes to marketing funnels, there are a lot of things to consider. And depending on your product or service, the sales funnel can be rather lengthy — which means that you need to put a lot of time and effort into crafting a sales funnel that keeps your customer engaged, educated, and ultimately […]

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4 Things You Should Be Streamlining in Your Marketing Department

4-things-you-should-be-streamlining-in-your-marketing-department

Over the past 25 years, I have helped thousands of business owners grow their businesses and build systems that allow their business to thrive even when they aren’t in the office. And one of the easiest ways to achieve this kind of growth has to do with the creation and implementation of universal business systems, […]

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How to Stop Wasting Money on Failed Business Experiments

how-to-stop-wasting-money-on-failed-business-experiments

When it comes to business, experimenting and trying new things comes with the territory. The best companies will A/B test their headlines, their website graphics, and their email subject lines. They will run marketing campaigns to new demographics and launch new products. There are a million different ways that your business can experiment to help […]

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Here Are the 4 Things You Should Be Focusing On This Quarter

here-are-4-things-you-should-be-focusing-on-this-quarter

With 2023 right around the corner, for many business owners that means it’s time to shift gears and start planning for the upcoming new year. So, I want to take a moment and share with you the four things that I think business owners should start focusing on in quarter 3. 1. Reframe Your Focus “But, David, I […]

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How to Determine the Compensation for Your Sales Team

how-to-determine-compensation-for-your-sales-team

Right now, a lot of business owners are struggling to find and keep good talent, and if you are in the market for a new salesperson, you may be looking for a way to stand out from the competition. One way to do so is to rethink your sales compensation plan to make your business […]

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4 Selling Strategies That Will Get You Ahead in Business

4-selling-strategies-that-will-get-you-ahead-in-business

When it comes to building your business, having a consistent flow of new customers is perhaps one of the most difficult things to achieve. Especially if you don’t have a sales and marketing background. That said, I want to share with you the top four selling strategies that I share with my clients who are small […]

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How to Design Your Website to Improve Your Sales Conversions

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You did all the right things. You put together a nice-looking website, you have great-looking photos, and you wrote clean sales copy. Still, your sales conversions aren’t where you would like them to be. Sound familiar? Many business owners struggle with this same issue. While there are several things that you can do to improve your […]

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4 Questions to Figure Out Your True Target Market and Client Base

4-questions-to-figure-out-your-true-target-market-client-base

How did you decide on your primary client base? The answer to this may be key to success for your business — or the cause of its downfall. As a business coach for over 20 years, I am in the unique position of working with thousands of business owners each and every year. Every business […]

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Mitigating Risk in Your Marketing Right Now

mitigating risk in your marketing right now

Marketing in times of crisis can be a difficult thing for business owners. On the one hand, you have the urge to retreat and cut nonessential spending to protect your bottom line. But those cuts can end up hurting your business in the long run, which is why it’s crucial to learn how to mitigate […]

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3 Marketing Questions You Need to Ask

3-marketing-questions-you-need-to-ask

I was recently talking with a new business coaching client who has struggled to scale their marketing efforts over the past few years. They have had some big wins and some losses, but for the most part they have remained rather stagnant. And they weren’t really sure what steps they should take to get to […]

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4 Ways to Mitigate Risk in Your Sales Pillar Right Now

4-ways-to-mitigate-risk-in-your-sales-pillar-right-now

As business owners, the world as we know it is rapidly changing and evolving. Every day we are confronted with new information, regulations, and choices. How we handle those choices, and how we mitigate risk during this time will be the difference between success and failure during this coronavirus crisis. One of the big things […]

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Generate Quick and Profitable Sales With This Often-Overlooked Tactic

david-finkel-generate-quick-profitable-sales-with-this-often-overlooked-tactic

Now I might be dating myself by saying this, but I remember a time where telephones were used exclusively for making phone calls. I know that time has passed. And I laugh now when I see my wife spend 90% of her phone battery texting or using various apps and not actually talking on the […]

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An Old-School Marketing Tactic That Is Cool Again

david-finkel-an-old-school-marketing-tactic-that-is-cool-again

In a world that is going further and further along the technological spectrum, there are some low-tech things that once upon a time would be considered “old-school” but have now become the new “cool thing.” Think about music. It used to be that people would always want digital, that was the cutting edge. Now there’s […]

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The Secrets to Finding Drop Points Faster

he-secrets-to-finding-drop-points-faster

When it comes to customer acquisitions and loyalty, time is of the essence. With each touch point in the funnel, you have the opportunity to grow and strengthen your relationship. Or you have the opportunity to lose that customer to one of your competitors. The difference between keeping or losing clients lies in the drop […]

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The Difference Between Strategic and Non-Strategic Spending and Why It Matters

The Difference Between Strategic and Non-Strategic Spending and Why It Matters

When it comes to spending money in your business, not all expenses are created equal.  In your business there are certain areas where a small investment can make a leveraged return and there are other areas where a big investment can be a waste of money. The flip side of that is there are places and times […]

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Tips on How to Create a Brand Identity

Coffee identity brand building concept with different and standing out from others

We hear a lot today in all aspects of life just how important a brand identity is. Branding has made its way outside of just the business world and into the world of individuals and how they interact and present themselves; when a friend does something that’s consistent with how they always act, we call […]

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4 Tips to Landing The Sale Every Single Time

4 Tips to Landing The Sale Every Single Time

Want to close more sales? Of course you do! Every day I talk to business owners in various stages of growth and help them find new ways to reach their target audience and close more sales. No matter what the product or service, 95% of the time the sales process is going to be very […]

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The Top 5 Mistakes Every Business Owner Makes When Hiring a Salesperson

The Top 5 Mistakes Every Business Owner Makes When Hiring a Salesperson

Hiring a solid sales team can be a challenge for any business owner, especially one who doesn’t feel particularly confident with sales themselves. Over the past 25 years, I have spoken with thousands of business owners who struggle with hiring and keeping a sales pillar running smoothly. So I wanted to share my top five […]

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Reactivating Former Clients (a simple way to immediately boost your sales)

Dr. Kim had owned two successful dental clinics for over a decade by the time she became a business coaching client. Over the years competition had gotten stiffer, resulting in periods when one or both of her two clinics suffered low patient volume. Because there was no pattern to these ebbs and flows of patient […]

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The 10 Most Essential Sales and Marketing Controls

If you’ve ever felt yourself scrambling to oversee your sales or marketing efforts and team, here are 10 must have “controls” to put you back in the driver’s seat…

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5 Concrete Sales Strategies to Immediately Increase Conversion

Here are 5 concrete strategies guaranteed to give you an immediate boost to your income. 1. Up Front Agreement An up front agreement is a formal or informal oral contract that you and your prospect both agree in which you both agree to give each other a clear decision – yes or no – whether […]

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8 Sales Controls to Protect Your Company as You Scale

Wayne, a business coaching of my company, complained about how much time his sales team took for him to manage each week. “David,” he lamented, “They just do the craziest things. They make prices concessions when they don’t have to. They promise our customers unrealistic delivery dates. They even make up things to say about […]

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5 Sales Secrets for Companies Who Are Scared of Sales

Here are five of the most important sales fundamentals for your company especially if your company is a little “sales phobic”.

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A Simple 9-Variable Scorecard to Rate Your Company’s Sales and Marketing Pillar

Check out this simple scorecard to grade your Sales/Marketing Pillar on the 9 essential variables.

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5 Ways to Get Your Non-Sales Staff Selling for Your Business

Your non-sales staff is likely scared and unsure of how they can help sell. Here are 6 simple ways to get your non-sales staff adding to your company’s revenues.

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Using Formalized Referral Systems to Grow Your Sales

Formalized referral systems are not passive word of mouth. They are systematized, proactive tactics to help you leverage your existing thrilled customers to generate more business. Here’s 6 ways to do just this…

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5 Formalized Referral Systems to Grow Your Sales

Here are 5 formalized referral systems to help you grow with very little cost or effort.

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3 Simple Steps to Improve Your Sales Process

A simple 3-step formula to improve your sales process and close more sales.

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8 Sales and Marketing Questions to Help Your Business Systematically Scale

Klayton owned a successful retail and service contracting company in Atlanta, Georgia.  When I first met him he was in his early thirties and had a steadily growing business.  But, he had reached a point in the business that he was bogging down managing the day-to-day of running the company and as a result, his […]

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