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sales consistency

What An MBA Didn’t Teach You About Sales

The sales profession is challenging. You need to work hard at it to succeed. You need to learn from the best. You need to improve your skills continuously. If you think you can sell since you are a hit at parties and have a lot of friends, you may soon find that you are a failure as a salesperson. Blunt truth:

because the sales profession is so hard, you have to focus on doing everything in sales very well, or you will be considered a failure.

I call this blog, Skinned Knees because I try to relate all of the learning that I have done over the past 4+ decades (while skinning my knees in the learning process).

I hope that you learn from my mistakes so that your business will grow!

Build a Repeatable Sales Process Using Buyer Personas

In the world of sales, consistency is a cornerstone for success. Salespeople, sales managers, and CEOs alike strive to find a sustainable way to grow their business, and one effective strategy is to focus on buyer personas. Identifying and understanding these personas can streamline the sales process, making it easier to target the right customers and tailor your approach to meet their specific needs.

Consistency is key. When you consistently sell to profitable companies that see value in your solutions, you can standardize your sales processes and messaging. This consistency allows you to tweak and improve your methods incrementally, rather than making wild changes that may not lead to profitability. Many small companies don’t have the luxury of unlimited cash flow. They need to be mindful of their line of credit and ensure that their accounts receivable don’t get out of hand. By focusing on companies that are easy to sell to and where your product or service fits seamlessly, you can make your clients successful and maintain a steady growth trajectory.

The entrepreneurial operating system (EOS) is a valuable framework that helps businesses achieve consistency. By setting firm foundational corners, such as data, people, and core processes, businesses can create a structured environment where everyone can succeed. For sales departments, this means formalizing not only the messaging but also the reporting structure, job descriptions, core goals, and key behaviors. Consistency in these areas leads to reliable and repeatable results.

A repeatable sales process is crucial. If everything is custom, nothing is standardized, and this can lead to chaos. Sales leaders must set the standard for consistency, and both business owners and salespeople need to align themselves with these consistent behaviors. Standardizing the sales process enables better forecasting and a more predictable customer flow.

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Stop Guessing, Start Growing: How Strategic Sales Assessments Drive Real Revenue

You’ll eventually hit a wall if you’re running a sales organization—or wearing multiple hats as founder, CEO, and sales manager. That wall is often invisible until growth stalls, key deals slip through the cracks, or your top salesperson burns out. So, what’s the next move? It’s not more hustle. It’s assessment.

A sales assessment isn’t about checking boxes. It’s about understanding where you are, how you operate, and what’s holding you back. Too many small business leaders assume they’re doing fine because revenue is growing or the team is hitting their quotas. But are you growing at the rate your market allows? Are your sales activities aligned with your long-term goals? Are you building a repeatable system, or are you just getting lucky?

Let’s get tactical. A sales plan isn’t just a revenue target. It’s your go-to-market strategy. It defines your audience, your message, and your motion. It answers why you’re talking to those prospects and what value you’re bringing to them. Without a plan, you’re reacting instead of executing. You’re chasing leads instead of building a pipeline.

If you’re a small company—perhaps under $30 million in revenue—and selling into a national market, chances are your market potential is hundreds of millions, maybe billions. That means your market share is a rounding error, which means there’s room to grow. The question is: Are you operating in a way that allows you to capture that growth?

Even if you’re running lean, you should benchmark your performance against top-tier organizations. Not because you’re competing with them directly, but because they set the standard. What are they doing that you’re not? Where are they more efficient? How do they structure their teams? You’re leaving money on the table if you’re not asking those questions.

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