Eric LaRose, Author at Vx Group

Thank you for listening, now tell us what you think

Thank you for listening to the first episode of Problems Worth Solving, a podcast created by the Vx Group. We plan to start recording an entire series devoted to identifying issues mid-level manufacturing companies face on a regular basis, but before we go full steam ahead we need your help. Please take this brief survey on the podcast – tell us what you liked and didn’t like or what you’d like to hear more about. We want to create a podcast you [...]

Listen to our first podcast

Welcome to the pilot episode of our first podcast: Problems Worth Solving. In this episode, we discuss how to develop an Ideal Customer Profile and use it to identify new customers. Here's a sample of what you'll hear: When you think about it, there are two kinds of customers, those who buy from you and those who grow with you. Today we’re talking about the latter, specifically how you identify these idea customers, attract them and nurture them. Eric L: So today [...]

The True Cost of a Bad Hire

A highly effective sales team is the backbone of any B2B manufacturing company. From strategic and motivational sales leadership to hungry sellers in the field, each team member plays and important role. But creating this sales dream team is easier said than done, and a bad hire can cost your company in more ways than one, including: Thousands of dollars in lost sales revenue and onboarding costs (up to 30% of employee’s first-year earnings) – Forbes Faster burnout for good employees who [...]

5 Ways to Prevent Dealer & Distributor Sales Decay

Are you in the middle of creating a dealer/distributor network or looking for ways to improve your existing network? This network is an important part of your B2B sales process, but it decays if it's not actively managed. Here are five ways you can maintain healthy relationships with all the dealers and distributors you work with. Continual Engagement: Are you nurturing the connection between you and your dealers/distributors? Stay on their radar through frequent engagement. [...]

Webcast – Confessions of a SoFi Junkie

Community banks have long been under attack by national and international financial conglomerates, but the most recent competition comes from a less tangible source – online financial services like SoFi. “Confessions of a SoFi Junkie” is a vibrant discussion on why online banking institutions like SoFi have risen in popularity, the sales and marketing techniques they used to connect with millennial customers and lessons you could learn from the rise of these new-age loan businesses. Recorded on Jan. 25, 2018, this discussion [...]

Vx Group is going to the dogs

It was a cold early-December morning when Vx Group President Eric Zoromski hopped in the pilot’s seat of a plane headed to Rensselaer, IN. His mission: transport a mother dog and her eight pups to their new home in Wisconsin. It was all part of Pilots N Paws, a non-profit organization that matches volunteer pilots and plane owners with rescue dogs in need of transport. “We are all dog lovers at the Vx Group and this is such an important cause for [...]

Download: Vx Group Growth Goal Calculator

We want 2018 to be a great year for you and your company, and to support that the Vx Group has developed a free tool you can use to determine how many new customers you need to acquire over the next year to meet your company growth goals. Here’s how it works: Download the calculator and launch it (you’ll need Microsoft Excel) Under Company Information, add your company name and dates. Try to keep your growth goals to a year (Jan. 1-Dec. [...]

How to kickstart sales late in the year

Q4 is a rough period for B2B sales, with many of your customers buried underneath end-of-the-year paperwork. Because of this, there is a tendency to avoid B2B sales altogether late in the year. The way we see it, while this seems like sound logic it’s really a missed opportunity. Yes, it’s correct that your customers are struggling with year-end reports, but you know what would be a great break for them? Talking to you. We’ve found that not only will your customers [...]

5 things that push website visitors away

Companies put a lot of time and effort into getting potential customers to visit their websites. From search engine optimization to pay-per-click, print and website ads, social media strategies, search engine marketing, backlinking and blogging strategies, most businesses use every trick in the book to boost visits. But what are your visitors seeing once the click through to your site? When people visit your website, they are looking for information. If they don’t find it, or you make it hard for them [...]

3 ways to add value to every sales meeting

Sales meetings can be a lot of things: intimidating, rewarding, complicated, etc. But there are times when everyone starts thinking: “I am adding nothing to this meeting.” There are several ways you can add value to any sales meeting. First, don’t pretend you know everything. There is no shame in asking for clarification. Many times these discussions lead to new ideas, better processes and so on. Fast Company recently published an article on this subject. You can see more meeting tips here. [...]

4 things to avoid when selling yourself

You may know your company’s product lines backwards and forwards, but the simple truth about sales is your customers are buying from you. If they don’t like you, there’s a good chance they won’t buy from you. Many forget that during every sales meeting, one of the products you are selling is: you. During the small-talk portion of every sales meeting, there’s a chance to sell yourself by answering the simple questions almost everyone asks. We’ve put together a few examples [...]

Treat sales like a jet engine

We’ve had a lot of clients express the desire for a short-term sales boost, and our canned response is that there are few levers you can pull besides price to increase sales in the next 30-90 days. You can read more about that here and here. Oddly enough, we’ve also heard of companies with the exact opposite problem – the sales department is crushing it so hard that production and engineering can’t keep up. Sales is often pressured to “slow down” by [...]

Using bullshit for good: what we can learn from fake news

We live in the era of fake news, sensationalized reporting, elevated threat levels and common household items that you use every day that could kill you in your sleep. There’s a nice, short way of describing these things: bullshit. And while bullshit is negatively portrayed, there is such a thing as good bullshit. Bullshit is simply a misdirection. Like a magician getting the audience to focus on his left hand while he hides the rabbit with his right, bullshit - when used [...]

5 ways to save face after sending an email without its attachment

Oh No! You just sent out an email with an attachment, but you forgot to attach it. Dang it, you had one thing to do! We've all been there, but it’s embarrassing and it makes you feel like a forgetful idiot. But have no fear, there are several ways to recover. Have a sense of humor about it: Send another email with the attachment with a funny, but informative, subject line like: Attachment actually attached, I’ve returned with your attachment, A case [...]

5 things you should never say during a sales meeting

Saying the wrong thing during a sales meeting can bring your pitch to a screeching halt. What's the wrong thing? Here are five things you should never say during a sales meeting. "I don't know" – In sales there is never a reason to say "I don't know." It makes your potential clients think, "If you don't know this now, will you know the answer to a really important question once we've hired you?" Not to say you should lie (see tip [...]

About Eric LaRose