In my 15 years at this telecom game, my record for winning a deal by using a proposal has been abysmal. As any salesperson knows, a proposal takes time, effort and is generally a pain in the ass. It should just be a formality – a way to get the project in writing for budget approval.

My goal for 2014 is to try to figure out what happens in the proposal process that I am missing. Just looking at the last 4 proposals – two were for really big projects and two were for smaller projects. On two projects I knew that the proposal wasn’t going to work. Why? Most gigs like that come without the proposal. There’s no question that the client wants to hire me.

One of the proposals that I knew was a waste of time came from a prospect who in fact sought me out and not only didn’t hire me, but didn’t even respond to the proposal until I called him on it. That one I will chalk up as an outlier.

I am probably not doing enough presumptive closing during the sales process. I am going to have to watch that and perform more of it for 2 reasons: (1) it will free up time that would be spent creating a useless proposal; (2) it will get objections out of the way and clarify the project sooner (which should lead to more closing).

From now on, if I am going to write a proposal, I will remember to ask, “If I’ve answered all of your questions about the project, can we discuss how to proceed with the project?” or something to that effect to let them know that the proposal is just a formality.

Fred Wilson wrote a post about his buddy’s CEO Bootcamp. For some of my customers, this may be exactly what they need to put some new quivers in the bow. Scale, Culture, and feeling overwhelmed or stalled might be reasons to go to the boot camp (on April 2-6).

The CEO of IAMS dog food talks about his challenges of growing a company to $1 Billion in sales. He admits that many of the problems he created. Read it here.

If you are experiencing issues with running your company, let’s talk about it.

So a client has a shrink wrapped copy of ProComm Plus on his shelf. And I got to meet one of the founders, who now owns a brewpub (among other businesses).

There is good article titled Majority of U.S Businesses Willing to Pay More to Improve Indoor Wireless Access. Enterprises (with 500+ employees) want better coverage for mobile devices. That means companies that can install, manage and secure indoor wireless networks are looking at a large opportunity.

I am waiting for the response from companies like Ruckus who will discuss their hardware and management software for these devices. Maybe next week at the Super Wi-Fi show.

Also, it has been some time since I heard anything about Pico cell or femtocell devices being deployed (or sold).

In the study, “92 percent would agree to pay even more if the solution also includes managed services such as mobile device management (MDM), context-/location-aware services, Wi-Fi-as-a-service, hosted unified communications (UC), and cloud and/or PBX (News – Alert) integration.” Further, “29 percent of businesses are willing to pay between $1 and $19 per employee per month for hosted UC, while 20 percent would sign up at the same cost for hosted MDM.”

It looks like Enterprises will pay a premium for a complete solution.

SMB’s Lose $24 Billion in Productivity Annually From Winging IT Management. It’s the way you tell the story to the marketplace about how you can Add Productivity (not save them money).

Sales stats and tips to start the year off.

12 Conversion Tips that can Increase your Leads and Sales over 107%. most of these tips have to do with your website and the content you are producing. So if you are not working on your website or blogging or producing content for marketing on social platforms, you can skip this article.

A survey of B2B sales produced 2 tips: (1) Call leads fast—really fast after they hit your website (which means that you have to design your website so you have software that lets you know you have a lead). (2) Tuesday through Thursday is the best time to reach buyers. See the survey here.

Also, January through April are your best months for sales.

Utilize your Money Hours as effectively and efficiently as you can. It’s when sales are made.

Forbes has a look at this same survey – B2B Buyer Behavior – Web & Phone Channels Industry View 2013 – and concludes that Wednesday At Lunch Time Is Best Time For Prospecting Calls.

An interesting read that I can relate to. I can promote my clients like crazy, but self-promotion, meh. It’s just 2 pages but worth it.