Consultants > Rick Tkaczyk
Rick Tkaczyk
Building High Performance Sales Teams for Small to Mid-Size Businesses to achieve sustainable revenue growth.
Leveraging 30 years as an effective sales leader, I combine energy, business acumen, and leadership skills to develop and drive winning strategies for large or small companies.
My unique experience in effective account management, utilizing analytics, managing product launches, and providing winning sales coaching gives me the ability to align your company's values with your market's needs.
Businesses I work with find they can consistently realize their revenue goals through a solid sales infrastructure that has the right strategy, processes, and people to scale and create a path to sustained revenue growth.
Regardless of the company size, I have learned over my years of experience that there is a continual challenge of how to consistently grow. My expertise in determining the root cause of ineffective performance and combining measurable sales strategies with the execution of fundamental processes has led to major differentiation in the marketplace, enhanced customer advocacy, and annual profitable sales growth. I look forward to helping you grow!
Areas of Expertise
SALES
- Analysis and SKU Management
- Business Development
- Strategy Implementation
HR
- Compensation and Incentive Plans
PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT
- Leadership Coaching
- Sales Coaching
- Beverages
- Biotechnology
- Construction & Engineering
- Containers & Packaging
- Distributors
- Electronic Equipment, Instruments & Components
- Energy Equipment & Services
- Food Products
- IT Services
- Industrial Conglomerates
- Machinery
- Pharmaceuticals
My Content
How Winning Companies Adjust in a Down Economy
I recently met with a CEO whose company experienced 18% revenue growth in 2021 and another 20% increase in first-half FY2022 but lost all of that growth after a 33% drop in second-half 2022. I have seen this post-COVID sales pop in many businesses brought...
How Winning Companies Adjust in a Down Economy
I recently met with a CEO whose company experienced 18% revenue growth in 2021 and another 20% increase in first-half FY2022 but lost all of that growth after a 33% drop in second-half 2022.
I have seen this post-COVID sales pop in many businesses brought on by inventory growth, pent-up consumer demand, and affordable capital. However, now we’re seeing buyers becoming more careful with their spending given rising interest rates, inflation, and a reduction in demand.
Businesses are emerging into a new marketplace following the post-lockdown revenue bump. If you’ve found yourself concerned about the state of the economy and its effect on your sales performance, now is the time to revisit your company’s value proposition. When the market goes through dramatic changes, your unique selling proposition needs to evolve with it.
Winning companies evolve to build upon their elevated revenue run rate, not lower their performance expectations due to a down economy.
My Fractional VP Sales colleagues and I are seeing immediate impact by partnering with small and mid-sized businesses to focus on the following areas at this critical juncture.
Become Exceptional at Delivering Value to Prospects
Prospects are applying more scrutiny than ever before in screening the merits of a meeting before accepting it. This has raised the bar for your sales outreach efforts to truly demonstrate how you are helpful to your clients.
Sales is the process of helping someone achieve or obtain something they can’t do or get on their own.
You need to give your prospects a compelling reason to talk to you. Every sales outreach needs to crisply demonstrate how you can solve their challenges.
Contacts will ignore your meeting requests until you convince them you are a capable of helping them. This is why it’s critical that sales and marketing work together to engage new prospects. Our new digital age requires ultra-effective sales outreach messaging strengthened by relevant, helpful content resources.
If your sales team is struggling to set meetings, it’s time to revisit how you are prospecting and engaging with your target audience. We are in a new selling world and companies need to lead their business development reps through revolutionary changes in selling style.
Read my blog, “How Do I Engage Sales in Lead Generation?”, to gain more insight, or get in touch for an exploratory discussion to assess how I may be able to help your sales team transition.
Identify Your Untouchable “Three Uniques"
Let’s dig a little deeper into in the key component of effective sales messaging… differentiation. You need to swiftly relay your unique position in the marketplace and why your customers choose you over your competition.
EOS Worldwide outlines a simple yet effective method I like to utilize called the “Three Uniques”. This methodology isolates the top three strengths that make you unique to your ideal customer.
The key is that the combination of your Three Uniques makes you stand apart with no other competitors measuring up.
If you were to line yourself up against your competition, you may share some of the same characteristics in terms of services and focus. However, done properly, none of them should embody the same combination of your Three Uniques. This blend is unique to your company only and the secret sauce that makes you extraordinarily appealing to your target audience.
Messaging with this clarity is very effective. It helps your target audience understand how your value proposition relates to them specifically.
Go From SWOT to SOAR
When a company is looking to evolve given new market conditions, drawing together their leadership team to review the business as a whole can be illuminating.
A common senior leadership planning exercise you may be familiar with is SWOT that focuses on strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.
The problem is it doesn’t examine the business from a future-seeking perspective, which is essential during uncertain times. I’ve found the SOAR model to be effective at stimulating forward thinking.
SOAR is an evolution from SWOT that maintains the analysis of Strengths and Opportunities but replaces Weakness and Threats with “Aspirations and Results”.
All elements of SOAR are looking at positives and possibilities.
SOAR directs senior leaders to focus on what they want to be doing, who they want to serve, and how their strengths can be applied to new market dynamics. If you’re not familiar, click here to learn more about SOAR analysis.
Being open to new ideas and looking for ways to evolve helps you thrive in the new marketplace while your competition stays stuck in the past.
Key Takeaways
If your sales growth has stalled, you need to act quickly to solve the problem because it isn’t going away on its own. Buyer behavior has changed, and your approach needs to change with it.
• Measure your close effectiveness now versus pre-pandemic to expose areas of your sales process that may be breaking down.
• Set more new account meetings by developing a value-driven sales outreach strategy.
• Achieve stronger prospect engagement by incorporating your “Three Uniques” into sales messaging.
• Conduct a senior management SOAR workshop to reveal down economy opportunities.
If you’d like to discuss the improvement you’re looking for in your business, contact me through any of these methods: (847) 922-8512 or rtkaczyk@salesxceleration.com.
I also invite you to take my Sales Agility Assessment that generates an insightful report on how your sales organization design and operation aligns high performance best practices.
I am part of a national group of Senior Sales Leaders who collaborate to share insights like the examples shown in this article. We formed because of our shared passion to help business leaders exponentially grow their revenue.
How Do I Know if I Have the Right Salespeople?
Your industry is booming but is your revenue growing enough to hit your goals? You’ve been questioning for quite some time whether you have the right salespeople in place to really take your business to the next level. Sure, they know the industry and...
How Do I Know if I Have the Right Salespeople?
Your industry is booming but is your revenue growing enough to hit your goals? You’ve been questioning for quite some time whether you have the right salespeople in place to really take your business to the next level. Sure, they know the industry and generally hit their numbers, but you keep asking yourself, “Could they do better? Or, would someone else be a better fit?
Furthermore, am I providing them with the tools they need to succeed?
The million-dollar question, “How do I know if I have the right salespeople on my team?” is not one to be avoided, especially when your focus is shifting to capitalizing on the renewed and recovering market. It’s time for you to assess whether you have the right players to move your business forward and if your company has the correct sales structure in place to help your team achieve heightened levels of success.
To answer this critical question for yourself, there are four key areas you should look at:
The activity of your sales team
The attitude your salespeople exhibit
How you or your sales leader is managing your team
The structure of your sales organization
Salespeople Activity
While reviewing sales activity is the obvious starting point, it’s important to understand the importance of not gauging activity on a stringent, one-size-fits-all scale. All businesses have different activity contributors of success, so you'll want to focus in on sales activities and results in your environment that align with your defined formula for success.
Some of the factors you may want to consider when looking at your salespeople’s activities are:
Are my salespeople moving prospects and leads into the next stage of my sales pipeline? Focus on the quality of their activities
rather than quantity.
Is my sales team performing at a level that allows them to hit properly positioned sales quotas?
Are they willing to put in the work that’s needed to move past obstacles and be successful?
Are they skilled enough? If not, am I willing to invest in their development to help them evolve?
Sales Attitude
Once you’ve determined that their activities are moving in the right direction, you’ll want to look at how your salespeople interact with those around them. To create a positive and successful sales culture, you need to have the right attitudes on your frontline.
This doesn’t necessarily mean your salespeople need to be upbeat, gregarious cheerleaders; in fact, successful salespeople can have a wide range of personality styles. The common thread tends to be a mindset that drives productive outcomes internally and externally. To assess this area, evaluate their approach to problems and obstacles.
Do they have a can-do attitude?
Are they problem-solvers?
Do they seek out help when difficult roadblocks are encountered?
Have you ever heard the phrase, “One bad apple can spoil the bunch”? The same is true for team members. It’s important to remember that high-performing salespeople with negative outlooks often times do more harm than good.
Management of Your Team
Even the most experienced salespeople need help navigating through difficult barriers. This is where sales leadership comes into play. When determining whether or not your management practices are suitable, answer the following questions:
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Is your team being managed effectively?
Am I offering my team timely and adequate coaching feedback?
Am I (or my sales leaders) routinely engaged in sales calls with each member of the team to ensure they are effectively navigating their sales opportunities?
Have I been holding my salespeople accountable to bring out the best in them?
Keep in mind that it can be difficult for even the best salesperson to find their way without solid management engagement. Hands-on sales leadership is a key component in setting your salespeople up for success.
Sales Organizational Structure
You might want to look at the structure of your sales organization if you feel that your salespeople are working hard, working smart, have the right attitudes, and your management practices are sound.
In other words, are your salespeople equipped for the current market environment? With everything that's happened over the past several years, you might be functioning in an entirely different climate.
For example:
The process your sales team was using before may no longer be the path to success.
The shift from in-person to primarily virtual and remote sales may have altered the techniques necessary to sell in the current environment.
Your buyer and customer personas may have changed.
So, when it comes to sales org structure, ask yourself the following questions:
Is my sales strategy adapted to what’s currently happening in the marketplace?
Have I reassessed our sales process recently and realigned it as necessary?
Am I giving my team the right tools to find success in this ever-changing environment?
How to Get Started?
Ultimately, knowing if you have the right salespeople in place can be tricky. As you can see, multiple factors come into play when assessing your players. And in all honesty, I’ve only scratched the surface.
If you’d like to discuss assessing your sales team in more detail or chat about the improvement you’re looking for in your business, contact me via the following:
(847) 922-8512 or rtkaczyk@salesxceleration.com.
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I am part of a national group of Senior Sales Leaders who collaborate to share insights like the examples shown in this article. We formed because of our shared passion to help business leaders exponentially grow their revenue.