Duncan Knight 

When sales slow down, it is tempting to push harder. More outreach, more marketing activity, more pressure on the team. Before increasing the effort, step back and examine what has changed. Your customers’ priorities may have shifted. Your message may no longer reflect the problem they most want to solve. Or the approach that won your first customers may be difficult for anyone else to repeat. A sales strategy review helps you decide where to focus. These seven questions give

You have built something you believe in. You can explain how it works, why you created it and what you hope it will become. Then comes the moment to contact a potential customer. Suddenly, improving the website feels urgent. There is another feature to finish, another market report to read or another version of the pitch to prepare. If that sounds familiar, it is worth asking what you are putting off. Selling can feel personal when the business is yours. You are asking someon

A sales forecast can look convincing on a spreadsheet while leaving an important question unanswered: how will you win those customers? The sales section of your business plan needs to explain how people move from interest to purchase, who will help them make that decision and what the business needs to deliver. For founders, this is also a useful way to test expectations. Does your growth plan reflect what you have learned from selling, or does it depend on a process you hav

An enthusiastic conversation can feel like progress towards a sale. But enthusiasm does not tell you whether someone has the budget, authority or reason to buy. I have taken a flight expecting to close a deal, only to learn that the finance director had pulled the budget. On another occasion, I received a purchase order from an IT department and discovered that the person who signed it did not have the authority to do so. Experiences like those teach you to examine what you t