In the latest episode of The Roadmap, host Lee Heisman speaks with Ken Lundin, CEO and founder of Revheat, a sales training and consulting firm, about how businesses can effectively start, grow, and eventually plan their exit.
Revheat provides the sales roadmap that works with fast-growing companies and turnarounds who want to scale their traction to ultimately reach their exit. The company was developed using data from 2.5 million salespeople across 33,000 firms. Lundin believes, “Entrepreneurs won’t get sales theories but proven results.”
1. In today’s economy, the cost of capital is skyrocketing, and valuations are decreasing. Therefore, Lundin asserts that if you don’t have sales traction, you don’t have a real valuation for a viable exit.”
2. Private equity (PE) firms seek to mitigate their risk and invest in organizations with a “Grow at all cost mentality.” Furthermore, research indicates only 48% of PE firms can impact the sales side of an organization.
3. Unlike other companies in the sector, Reheat focuses on sales training and consulting because, in Lundin’s words, “I think the system is broken since we would never sell the way we sell our services to our clients.”
4. Most companies don’t understand that sales is a complex organization. However, Revheat divides each fraction of sales into sections that their employees can specialize in.
5. If your team is underperforming, the first question you should ask is, “Do I have the systems and processes in place to support a high-performing team.” if the answer is no, Lundin counsels entrepreneurs to start at the beginning with their systems and procedures before investing in employee hiring or training.
6. Lundin’s book, Strategic Selling Unleash: A Roadmap to Winning More Clients through Consultative Sales and Driving Urgency, is currently free to download as a “Kindle Edition” on Amazon.
“If you’re not growing, then your company isn’t getting the valuation it deserves.” – Ken Lundin