How to Drive New Revenue Growth in Your B2B Business – In Just 7 Minutes with Jose Palomino

Resources/Links:

• Wanting to know how to be unique and not like your competitors? Are you ready to shift and overcome that revenue plateau? Learn more about Jose’s different tips and tactics on how to get that revenue growth you’ve been wanting: valueprop.com/guides

Summary

Have you been feeling stuck on that revenue plateau that’s seemingly stagnant or going nowhere?

Are you worried that people might not buy your product because of your other competitors?

Do you want to know the secrets that could help you change your game play and guarantee you new revenue growth and authenticity in the marketplace?

Jose Palomino started Value Prop Interactive to integrate B2B strategy, marketing, and sales. He wrote the book, “Value Prop” and holds his MBA from Villanova University where he teaches Entrepreneurial Marketing.

In this episode, Jose shares why you should be looking at your products and business from a marketplace perspective. He also gives tips on what you should do and avoid when trying to avoid or overcome the revenue plateau.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:44 – Jose‘s ideal client: “Ideal client’s a B2B business, usually in an industrial category between let’s say, two and $20 million in revenue. Could be a little bit above, a little bit below that, but it’s a business with infrastructure, personnel, and so on.”
• 02:16 – Problem Jose helps solve: “It’s when revenue growth gets stuck. They hit a plateau. They grew from five to 10 to 12. And then they hit 12 for two years, three years in a row. And they can’t just move off that because they’re busy supplying the requests at that level, and their eyes off the ball on marketing.”
• 03:29 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Jose: “I think one of the key things is margin erosion. You’re supplying somebody loyally for years, and yet every year, they’re asking for three points, five points, whatever they can get from you. And you never quite feel like you’re special to- they’re specialty you, but you’re not that special to them.”
• 04:53 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Jose’s solution: “the most common is they try to attack- they realize the problem and they attack it in the most obvious way possible. Like, “Oh, we need to do a new website” or “We need to hire a web firm”, or “We need a new salesperson” or “We need sales training”. So they look for a point solution for something that is systemic.”
• 06:12 – Jose’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “10 things that you think are reasons that customers buy from you. Write them out that things. Do it, ideally, with your team, if you can, together. Just think 10- brainstorm 10 things.”
• 07:14 – Jose’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Jose’s FREE Guides: valueprop.com/guides
• 07:59 – Q: What’s the key to sustainable growth? A: Realize that your business is a system. It’s not just parts, it’s parts working together. You want to look at your car, just tires on the steering wheel. There’s a whole system that makes it work.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Realize that your business is a system. It's not just parts, it’s parts working together.” -Jose Palomino Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone! Welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, beaming out to you from Little Castaways Beach in Queensland, Australia, joined today, hands around the world, so to speak, it’s Jose Palomino. Jose, good day from down under. A very warm welcome, sir. Where are you hanging out?

Jose Palomino 0:26
Right, I thought of Philly in a town called Newtown Square. So, it’s about 30 minutes west of Philly. Nice area to live.

Tom Poland 0:32
Sounds- New Town Square. Sounds lovely. Sounds very sort of homely, and-

Jose Palomino 0:37
It is! A lot- very tree-lined and developed about 50 years ago, so they didn’t clear cut all the trees out. So, it’s really green!

Tom Poland 0:45
Modern South planning. Beautiful!

Jose Palomino 0:46
Yeah.

Tom Poland 0:47
Well enough of the local tour guide thing, but thank you!

Jose Palomino 0:51
Oh, sure.

Tom Poland 0:52
I was just interested, always fascinated with where people are. So, for those of you who don’t know Jose, he started Value Prop Interactive, to kind of integrate business-to-business strategy, marketing, and sales, because very often that kind of siloed. They’re not integrated together. And so, people- their businesses leave a whole lot of money on the table, because the different aspects of sales, marketing, and sales, sorry, sales strategy and sales are not really aligned with each other. So that’s why he started Value Prop Interactive. He wrote the book, Value Propositions, and he holds his MBA from Villanova University where he teaches Entrepreneurial Marketing. So, topic today, this is going to be very interesting, How to Drive New Revenue Growth in Your B2B Business. And Jose is going to share with us how to do that in just seven minutes. Jose, our time starts now. Sir, tell us, question number one who is your ideal client?

Jose Palomino 01:44
Ideal client’s a B2B business, usually in an industrial category between let’s say, two and $20 million in revenue. Could be a little bit above, a little bit below that, but it’s a business with infrastructure, personnel, and so on.

Tom Poland 01:55
It’s what you might call a real business with, you know, bricks and motor possibly but definitely-

Jose Palomino 01:59
Yeah, it has that. It may be very sophisticated online, and so on, but it’s absolutely making things, often making big giant metal things or providing services for people to make big giant metal things.

Tom Poland 02:09
Interesting. Okay, so tell us, question number two, six and a half minutes left, what’s the problem you solve for those businesses?

Jose Palomino 02:16
Yeah, generally, it’s when revenue growth gets stuck. They hit a plateau. They grew from five to 10 to 12. And then they hit 12 for two years, three years in a row. And they can’t just move off that because they’re busy supplying the requests at that level, and their eyes off the ball on marketing. A lot of them don’t do a lot of marketing on purpose. They don’t do a lot of sales on purpose. They’re used to receiving big orders from a couple of big customers. So really thinking about how do you get off that plateau is really one of the big challenges they face.

Tom Poland 02:48
And this- yes, and there’s a lot of vulnerability, isn’t there? Having a couple of big customers because if they fall over or go somewhere else, all of a sudden, the demands crumble.

Jose Palomino 02:57
And that 12 becomes nine, and they tell you about when they used to be 12.

Tom Poland 03:01
Right. The good old days.

Jose Palomino 03:04
Right. The good old days on that plateau!

Tom Poland 03:06
So, the heart- well, let’s talk about the symptoms. Question number three is, five and a half minutes left. So, we’ve got these businesses, they’re plateauing. One of the symptoms, obviously, is that the revenues plateaued or declined. But what other signs are there that someone in this business would go, “Oh, my gosh! He’s talking about us”? What else is happening that would have someone listening to this go, “I need to talk to Jose”?

Jose Palomino 03:29
I think one of the key things is margin erosion. You’re supplying somebody loyally for years, and yet every year, they’re asking for three points, five points, whatever they can get from you. And you never quite feel like you’re special to- they’re specialty you, but you’re not that special to them. And you kind of feel like they’d go on a date with somebody else pretty quickly if the terms were better. So that’s the feeling. So that’s one of the real tells. The other is if you hear from a prospect. They try to get a new prospect. The prospect says, “Well, I just don’t see what’s special or different about you” or they don’t even see it! Like internally in their meetings, they say, “Why do we do any different in our category?” and they can’t really put their finger on it, or they say something like this, “Well, we have 50 years experience”, you know, or “We really care about our customers”, or “We deal with integrity”, as opposed to those other guys that put on the decal, “Don’t trust us”. So, you know, so the reality is, those are just table stakes of being in B2B business. People expect that you’ll honor your contracts and your commitments and so on. That is what makes you special. That’s what makes you at all viable as a business in the category.

Tom Poland 04:34
Yeah, that’s kind of the entry ticket to the race. So, we’ve got these people and they’ve grown successful businesses. They’re smart people. They’re hardworking. They’re dedicated. They want to grow. They’re going to try stuff. So, question four is, and just under four minutes left, what are some of the common mistakes that your typical client has made before they find your solution?

Jose Palomino 04:53
Well, the most common is they try to attack- they realize the problem and they attack it in the most obvious way possible. Like, “Oh, we need to do a new website” or “We need to hire a web firm”, or “We need a new salesperson” or “We need sales training”. So, they look for a point solution for something that is systemic. Something’s going on in the business, and they haven’t really put their finger on it. They’re not asking the hard strategic questions like, “Is our value proposition really helping us stand out on the business?”, “What does that even mean?”, “What are our competitors up to?” So as a result, they tend to spend money, sometimes a lot of it, on one thing. And so, you know, “I’ll find the client that spending $100,000 on PR services, in a tiny industrial niche with all the PR firm has gotten is paid to play placements, articles in the trade journal that nobody reads.” But they feel they’re doing something. I just say, they’re smart people, but they’re not necessarily marketing specialists.

Tom Poland 05:46
They don’t know what else to do. Let’s take some ads out. Let’s hire some public relations people. Let’s do something for goodness sake, which, frankly, is better than doing nothing. But they haven’t addressed the tough strategic questions first about competitive advantage and the articulation of that, which is part of what you’re helping with. Question five, two and a half minutes left, what’s one valuable free action, kind of like a great tip you’ve give people that’s not going to solve the whole problem, they’re going to need you for that, but it might take them a step in the right direction?

Jose Palomino 06:12
Yeah, absolutely. So, this could be a flip chart, this could be on the back of a napkin, it doesn’t matter. 10 things that you think are reasons that customers buy from you. Write them out that things. Do it, ideally, with your team, if you can, together. Just think 10- brainstorm 10 things. And then ask yourself, “Which of these 10 things can our competitors make an equally credible claim?” Not that you think they’re as good as you but that your customer, your prospect would say, “Yeah, they could probably do that too.” And then strike that item off that list, because it’s just table stakes. It’s not setting you apart. And hopefully, you’re left with one or two things, and that you can hang your hat on. You say, “That’s really different. We can do something there.” So, this is a- you can do this over pizza. You can do this over a cup of coffee. Everyone should do it. Very few do.

Tom Poland 07:01
Brilliant. Yeah. And I love that idea of- because we all think we do things better than our competitors. But what is the marketplace? What’s their perception? So you’re cutting the list based on that perspective, not our own. Thank you, sir.

Jose Palomino 07:13
Absolutely.

Tom Poland 07:14
Question six, 90 seconds left, actually 70 seconds left, sorry. Valuable free resource, I’m going to give folks the answer because I know it. One valuable free resource that’s going to help even more, www.valueprop, P-R-O-P .com/guides. What are they going to find there?

Jose Palomino 07:30
Oh, they’re going to find six guides designed for owners of B2B businesses ranging from how to make critical decisions, to how to amplify their revenue throughput, to how to make themselves competitor proof. There’s a lot of good stuff there. Free guides specifically for our audience.

Tom Poland 07:45
Perfect! And, folks, I know Jose’s stuff because we’ve worked together before and it is absolutely top shelf and well thought through. So go get the guides, valueprop.com/guides. 30 seconds left, sir, what’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?

Jose Palomino 07:59
What’s the key to sustainable growth?

Tom Poland 08:01
And the answer is? Drum roll.

Jose Palomino 08:02
And the answer is, realize that your business is a system. It’s not just parts, it’s parts working together. You want to look at your car, just tires on the steering wheel. There’s a whole system that makes it work.

Tom Poland 08:15
Right. Brilliant! And orchestrating the holistic process of the strategy, marketing, and sales is what helps to make that system work so well.

Jose Palomino 08:24
Absolutely.

Tom Poland 08:24
Jose Palomino, thank you so much for your time.

Jose Palomino 08:24
No, thank you. I really appreciate it.

Tom Poland 08:26
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.