{"id":373,"date":"2013-05-03T18:37:46","date_gmt":"2013-05-03T18:37:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shanecampbellcfo.com\/?p=373"},"modified":"2023-10-05T21:22:47","modified_gmt":"2023-10-05T21:22:47","slug":"your-sales-are-stuck-at-3-to-5-million-and-what-to-do-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.b2bcfo.com\/shane-campbell\/your-sales\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Sales are Stuck at $3 to $5 Million, and What to Do About It"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Sales Growth Comes to a Halt<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I recently read that there are nearly 23 million small and medium-sized businesses (\u201cSMBs\u201d) in the US.\u00a0Those businesses represent the core of the US economy, producing more than 50% of the nonfarm private gross domestic product.\u00a0 \u00a0They also employ half of all private sector workers.\u00a0 \u00a0But after four years, roughly half of the business start-ups die.\u00a0 Of those that survive, most struggle to achieve their full potential. \u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">My observation over 30 years in financial services is that many of these underperforming companies, as if on cue, \u00a0get stuck at $3 to $5 million in sales.\u00a0 But why? I have some theories on that, as well as some thoughts on how to push through this barrier. Please read on&#8230;<!--more--><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri; color: #000000; font-size: medium;\">\u00a0<\/span><b><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">What is the Root Cause?<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">I believe that there are many reasons why SMBs stagnate around the $3M mark including:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ul style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><b>Comfort<\/b> \u2013 Some SMB owners get to a level of success they are comfortable with, then stop marketing, direct sales efforts, etc.\u00a0 These\u00a0tasks are sometimes outside of their comfort zone, so they stop doing them as soon as they are sure that dicontinuance won&#8217;t\u00a0ruin the business.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><b>Economics <\/b>\u2013 Having grown to $3 to $5 million in sales, t<span style=\"font-size: large;\">he SMB owner may now be able to pay himself compensation that is acceptable, so there is no longer a need to work so hard.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><b>No\u00a0Middle Management<\/b>\u00a0\u2013 An SMB owner that insists on doing all important tasks herself without assistance will eventually \u201chit the wall\u201d as bandwidth limitations kick in.\u00a0 From that point forward, the SMB owner will personally restrict sales growth \u2013 i.e. become her own worst enemy.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\u00a0<span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\"><b>Finders, Minders and Grinders\u2026<\/b><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">At B2B CFO\u00ae, we like to draw pictures in order to explain how this phenomenon afflicts so many SMBs.\u00a0 We categorize workers in an organization as either Finders (owner, top management, etc.), Minders (middle management) and Grinders (production). In the world of SMB\u2019s, often the top executive(s) of the organization stop finding new customers, products, markets, etc. and allow themselves to be distracted by tasks that are more appropriately handled by middle management or even by production.\u00a0 Put simply, robust growth is not going to happen unless the business owner refocuses on sales. The 401(k) problem, the legal issue, the software crash, the broken down photocopier, and the HR situation can all be taken care of by others in the organization.\u00a0 You, the business owner, have a more important agenda.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><span style=\"font-size: medium;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Calibri;\">Our mission at B2B CFO\u00ae is to free up business owners so they can return to being a visionary and growing the organization. Your business is likely capable of so much more than $3 to $5 million in sales.\u00a0 But how does that get accomplished?\u00a0 We have a <a href=\"http:\/\/gameplan.b2bcfo.com\/uploads\/pdfs\/B2B_GamePlan_small.pdf\">proven 6-step process <\/a>known as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.b2bcfo.com\/discovery-2\">GamePlan\u2122<\/a> which can help SMB owners jump start sales growth, as well as solve other pressing issues.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sales Growth Comes to a Halt I recently read that there are nearly 23 million small and medium-sized businesses (\u201cSMBs\u201d) in the US.\u00a0Those businesses represent the core of the US economy, producing more than 50% of the nonfarm private gross domestic product.\u00a0 \u00a0They also employ half of all private sector workers.\u00a0 \u00a0But after four years,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[24,26],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-shanes-really-deep-insights","tag-business-expansion","tag-profit"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Your Sales are Stuck at $3 to $5 Million, and What to Do About It | CFO Services | B2B CFO<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We have a proven 6-step process known as the GamePlan\u2122 which can help SMB owners jump start sales growth, as 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