The key differences between short and long term B2B sales revenue
(And how you can prioritise the different sales approaches to create both!)
We’re looking at why some people are able to have a consistent sales pipeline where they never worry about generating new corporate clients… and why some of us tend to live in feast/ famine mode, bouncing from epic amounts of paid work to… crickets.
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If you’re one of my clients, you’ll know that I say ‘the activity you do today will pay off in 90 days time’ almost every day.
It’s not because my clients aren’t implementors - quite the contrary.
But most people get a bit bored doing the same things all the time and it can be really easy to think ‘Oh, I’ll just change the strategy for a little bit’ or ‘maybe I should spend some time on Instagram or something to see if I can get corporate clients more easily there’ or even… ‘I’ll just spend a bit of time rewriting my website… that’ll help!’
The reality though? Is that when we stop prioritising daily sales activities, we find ourselves feeling despondent around three months later when our pipeline has ‘suddenly’ disappeared and we’re freaking out about our cashflow.
That’s why I want you to understand the big secret behind successful B2B sales pipelines;
Knowing the difference between short-term and long-term revenue… and how to figure out which you need to prioritise right now.
Short-Term Revenue
Short-term revenue is exactly what it says on the tin. It is often discussed as ‘instant’ or ‘immediate’ revenue - and I’ve referred to it as both ‘cash creation’ and ‘cash injection’ revenue over the last ten years or so.
Short-term revenue is all about the sales that you proactively cultivate to help you generate revenue in the quickest time. Most people think about short-term revenue as creating a specific offer to meet an immediate pain point that their corporate client might have right now… but this isn’t the only method of generating fast sales in the B2B space.
In fact, short-term/ immediate revenue (in the B2B sales space) can also be generated using;
Referrals
Upsells
Re-sell / renewals
But, before you click away from this tab in your hurry to go and execute some of those things?
Stay with me a minute.
Most people go wrong by building their B2B sales only using short-term revenue strategies. Because short-term revenue leaves you bouncing from offer to offer, client to client and ultimately puts you into feast/ famine mode.
-Jess Lorimer
You see, when coaches, consultants, speakers and trainers prioritise short-term revenue above all else? They often end up in a situation where;
They generate immediate / short-term revenue
That short-term revenue involves immediate delivery
They overload themselves on delivery to meet revenue targets
Their daily working capacity only lends itself to delivery with clients.
They’re not able to prioritise any longer-term revenue strategies or plans
They end up delivering lots of work, feeling quite overwhelmed/ burnt out… and worrying that there aren’t any more sales in their pipeline
So they jump straight back into using short-term revenue strategies
And the cycle continues.
It’s easily done.
Unfortunately, most people who teach sales in the online space also prioritise teaching short-term revenue strategies, because it makes them look great when their client has their first 20/ 30/ 50K month from a financial perspective…. but we rarely see the other side.
What happened to that client after their high revenue month?
Did they still achieve the work/ life balance goals that they wanted?
Or did they have one great month - and then have to hustle for more short-term revenue immediately after?
You might be thinking that I’m on a downer about short-term revenue…
and I promise that I’m not. I’ve taught corporate cash injection strategies to some of the worlds best sales teams and to entrepreneurs just like you.
Plus, I’ve executed quite a few short-term revenue campaigns in my time… and there are three main elements that I love;
When done correctly, short-term revenue campaigns add much more value to your corporate client and support them in areas that they need to expand into.
They generate instant1 revenue - which if used correctly - supports long-term revenue strategies and give business owners the opportunity to increase their income to fund specific things. Like a significant business investment. Or a holiday. Whatever floats their boat!
If used correctly, they expand relationships with clients and stop sellers being ‘friend-zoned’ after one sale.
You can see that there’s a theme here though;
‘If used correctly…’
And that’s the problem. Most people don’t use them correctly because they’re not sure how. They are able to generate the revenue, but not set the boundaries around delivery to avoid overwhelm. They can make the instant sales but not leverage them afterwards to work on more significant / strategic / long-term pieces of work.
And that’s why short-term revenue is a priority when;
There is a particular seasonal/ topical reason that means inviting prospects to buy something is more likely to add value and generate a yes. (For example, encouraging them to use end of year budgets on programmes for the following financial year or using awareness initiatives to help them demonstrate commitment to a particular cause.)
Business owners want to generate immediate revenue for something specific; immediate cash-flow to support longer-term revenue strategies/ a significant investment in themselves or their business/ a personal investment.
There is a clear pain point that can be met + solved within the following 12 weeks.
(The last one really is the most important. Because that’s the timeframe of successful cash injection campaigns!)
So how often should we be prioritising short-term revenue in our B2B sales strategies?
Honestly, for experienced sellers who have capacity for delivery, you’d want to set a maximum of four cash injection campaigns per year / one per quarter. And that really is only if you have capacity for the selling and delivery of these shorter term revenue strategies so that it doesn’t impact building out your longer term pipeline or your work/ life balance.
For business owners who are newer to selling cash injections to corporate clients? You’d want to be aiming for two per year so that you can keep your primary focus on the longer term revenue strategies that will give you a consistent B2B sales pipeline year after year without creating tons of overwhelm or excessive delivery.
What about long-term revenue?
Long-term revenue is the ongoing business development that we do as coaches/ consultants/ speakers or trainers to consistently build our pipeline of clients so that we’re not operating in a feast/ famine sales or delivery environment.
Essentially, long-term revenue is what everyone wants; it’s predictable, stable and means that you can plan ahead properly.
But very few people ever truly achieve their long-term revenue goals.
Why?
Most people focus on the immediate term. As we discussed earlier, short-term revenue can be way more attractive to business owners who are up against it in terms of their cashflow and this loops them into an overwhelming, short-term revenue only cycle that stops them being able to prioritise long-term revenue strategies that would take the pressure off.
Most people think of long-term revenue as taking ages to pay off. With the data we collect from my The C Suite ® participants, we know that this isn’t true. In fact, people operating a best practice B2B sales cycle are often able to generate their first sale within 90 days - very similar to short-term revenue timescales if they prioritise the right business development activities with cold leads.
Shiny object syndrome; often, people will give up on longer term revenue strategies before they’ve realistically had a chance to work in favour of more immediate strategies. It’s normal - but unfortunately, without the right time being dedicated to a sales strategy or the right metrics being monitored and improved, your long-term revenue strategies can feel ‘boring’ in comparison to short-term, exciting cash generation campaigns.
(Also - if you recognise yourself in the above three points? Everyone has been there. Don’t beat yourself up!)
Here’s the thing, the results of long-term revenue generation are always seen as sexier than short-term. After all, who really wants to be having to take loads of videos of themselves on holiday to showcase their ‘laptop lifestyle’ instead of just taking time off to rest and relax?
When I talk to most of our clients, they’re tired of the social media hamster wheel; what they actually want is to be able to;
Generate predictable revenue each month so that they’re not worrying about where their next sale is coming from (or how they’re going to pay their mortgage during famine months…)
Plan their year around their priorities; making regular sales and being able to plan their delivery around their priorities so that they’re not having to work through key family times (like the summer holidays) 2
Get paid at a premium price point regularly by their corporate clients so that they can focus on delivering amazing client experiences over having to focus their time and energy on finding new clients constantly.
That’s what prioritising long-term revenue does for you. It gives you the ability to operate strategically from a sales perspective; work around family commitments, focus on delivering top-notch experiences and never wondering where the next sale is coming from.
That’s why it’s so important to spend the majority of your sales activity time on long-term revenue generating activities over short-term. Activities like;
Identifying qualified leads so that you’re having productive sales calls with stakeholders who have the budget to pay you and are responsible for your area of specialism.
Arranging a minimum of five business development calls each month so that you’re able to create predictable revenue pipelines. (Because the average person with no sales training will usually close at least 1 in 4 sales)
Doing regular business development activities that allow you to keep in touch/ stay top of mind and sell regularly to your prospects so that you don’t end up with a full database of ‘friends’ that never buy.
But - long term revenue generating activities are ‘business as usual’ activities.
For those of us who are a little neuro-spicy, there’s often not a lot of dopamine in doing these tasks… and we often forget that it’s the ‘boring’ tasks that create the predictable pipelines and premium sales that we crave in order to focus on the shiny short-term strategies that give us a dopamine hit.
So, how can we prioritise long-term revenue strategies?
Well, there are some simple strategies to remind ourselves to focus on longer term revenue generating strategies so that they become our priority. Personally, I like to;
Have accountability. It’s much easier to focus on tasks when you know that other people are watching out for you to do the things you said that you would! I stay accountable every quarter to my virtual CFO - and my The C Suite ® participants use each other to stay accountable, set metrics and take regular action.
Remind ourselves what results we want - regularly. A post-it note on your desk, reminding you what you really want to work towards is just as powerful as a daily gratitude / journalling tool. It’s about finding the reminder that you can see daily to remind yourself what your real goals are. And if that’s predictable pipeline? Then your daily reminder should encourage you to focus yourself on doing the business as usual activities that help you create that.
Put blinkers on. Social media is a wonderful tool for staying in touch with friends and family. It’s also a weird place where new (and experienced!) business owners can be convinced to focus on activities that are never going to support their business goals. Rather than being in every group or consuming every strategy, try to follow one strategy through to fruition and ignore the rest. Otherwise, you end up doing all the things on every platform… and gain visibility, exposure and likes… but don’t generate more revenue than you did when you started.
Finally, remember that what you measure, matters.
It’s in the controllable activities that we really are able to focus ourselves and our revenue. Those controllable activities are what give us the real ability to see what’s working in our B2B sales strategy and what we need/ want to change to be more effective.
Think about it, scientists don’t conduct experiments with hundreds of variables. They measure, monitor and change one thing at a time so that they can confidently predict why a certain outcome is being produced.
It’s the same for your B2B sales process.
Monitor. Measure. Tweak.
And then you’ll be able to create a predictable, stable income that you can scale, selling to corporate clients in an hour or so each week.
Like this one of my clients who has been prioritising doing one hour of consistent business development activity each week since November 2023 and has signed six pieces of new business from cold leads.
What you do today?
Impacts you in 90 days.
In short, if you’re looking for a specific short-term cash injection for a personal or professional investment? Choose one short-term B2B sales strategy.
And if you’re dreaming of long-term, consistent revenue where you’re paid for the transformation you add to corporate clients without having to be in constant delivery mode? Long-term business development will always make the biggest difference.
Short-term revenue campaigns done correctly in the B2B sales space often generate banked income within 6-12 weeks. Please note that this is data from my course participants and is not necessarily reflective of the market as a whole.
Building your B2B sales pipeline can be done in much less time than you think. This episode of the Selling to Corporate ® podcast features Emma Waltham, a Maternity Returner expert who does all of her sales and delivery activity in 20 hours per week or less. Click here to listen. (Also available on iTunes, Spotify and major podcast players.)