Prepare for a close by testing your techniques: run analytics on your offer using questionnaires or mock interviews. This preparation will leave you feeling confident and will reduce the chance of a client throwing a curve ball.

Make it clear from the start that closing deals will be beneficial to both you and the customer. Address your customer’s needs directly and provide solid reasons for why and how your service can best attend to their needs. Create space for the customer to step in and ask questions or pose objections: your pre-meeting preparation will have you ready and willing to take on these obstacles.

Always be ready with testimonials and client feedback. Show them how well you have succeeded in the past. Respect your previous customers by asking permission to use them as references and offer contact information, as you would in a job interview.

The best closers are people who seamlessly create urgency in the client’s eyes – the client would have no reason to turn down the offer. Pay attention to the flow of the meeting and realize when you have completed your piece – do not offer pleasantries to fill space. Give the client those moments of silence to reflect.

“Always plan ahead. Be direct and straightforward – avoid fluffed up language and ‘sales talk’.”

One of the best ways to become a better closer is to ask “why” when a deal falls through. If you have a client hooked all the way into a closing meeting and the deal does not go through, do not hesitate to politely inquire as to why. Using this as a critique, you can improve your future sales prospects.

Always follow up, no matter how the deal went. If you were successful in your close, a follow-up cements your positive relationship. If your client is still hesitant, a gentle follow up may be the nudge they need to take the next step.

Step into your close with the utmost confidence in the product or service you are selling. Sincerity and trust, conveyed through your verbal communications and intention to engage in an ongoing relationship with your client, will be the strongest selling point at the end of the day.

An image overhaul is the first step, including a newly revamped marketing plan. Consider what has worked and not worked in the recent past and also consider future plans for the firm. Here are some more tips:

• Make deadlines and timetables for making sales: treat the sale like any other task in your ‘to do’ list with step-by-step plans to completion. Mark tasks, starting with initial sales calls, and map out step-by-step follow up-plans, ending with closing the deal.

• Don’t discount the little things or the more classic and traditional methods – not everything has to be new fangled and fancy. A solid and information-rich, easy to use website; or brochures and flyers still have credibility. Employing both the classics and the trends can broaden your target audience and generate the maximum amount of business.

• Include more client-friendly information such as testimonials, guarantees, feedback, referrals and surveys that offer real life ‘proof’ to your advertising campaign. Plus you can align yourself with recognizable groups that stand for solid and sound business to classify your firm as trustworthy and secure.

“ Treat the sale like any other task in your ‘to do’ list.”

• Never let your own belief in your product falter – stay enthusiastic and find ways to truly believe in what you are offering. Upgrade and maintain your service levels so that you always feel that what you are offering is honestly the best product for the job. Potential clients can see right through an insincere sale and will look immediately to the competition.

• Look into offering specialty services, or find a hole in the market that might need to be filled. Engage your team members with these challenges by offering incentives or recognition for instigating new strategies or generating new business.

• Don’t discount the continuous exposure that advertising can provide. Try something new and venture into a niche previously ignored. Be creative and think outside of the box on how your service or product can benefit non-traditional markets and venture into them with zeal.

Successful marketing comes from a clear understanding of your unique core differentiator – that’s what differentiates you from your competitors. If you aren’t sure about the compelling reason why your prospective clients should be contacting you then it might be a great time to contact us. We have resources designed to help you with this critical phase in a cost-effective way.

These days businesses of all kinds are finding that they are making more sales to clients that have found their shop through the internet rather than on foot. It makes sense that firms spend their attention and money proportionally on the storefront that is attracting the most sales, even if it’s a virtual one.

There are two important factors in attracting online visitors:

1. DESIGN AND PRESENTATION

This doesn’t necessarily mean spending lots of money on a site with all the bells and whistles. It is easy and inexpensive to put together a nicely designed home page with information about what your firm sells, where it is located and how to contact a company representative. If your firm is a consultancy of some kind that might be all you need. Less effort needs to go into the web design itself than the graphical and written elements that make up the page – the logo, the selection of font and especially the text. In this case spending more money on a good graphic designer and copywriter will bring better results than a good web programmer.

If you want to advertise and sell products on the website itself you will need to invest more in the mechanics. A good e-commerce engine, a secure billing system and integration with your inventory database.

In either case it is important to remember that your website is a powerful marketing tool which will help form your clients’ impression of your firm. A cheap looking site will encourage viewers to think the products must be sharply priced – or that the service will be substandard.

Similarly, even a small firm can give the impression of a sophisticated, professionally run operation if the tone and presentation is right.

2. MAKE IT EASY TO FIND

The second most important factor is making sure people can find you on the infinite expanse that is the internet. The easiest way to do is to advertise on search engines so that people looking for your products will see your ad and take a look. Just like a physical store, a company website needs to attract virtual foot traffic by appearing in the business listings and advertising in magazines and locales used by your clients.

Google and Microsoft’s Bing make this easy through their keyword-based advertising programs. It pays to think laterally about the kinds of things your clients will be looking for. The more obvious the keyword or phrase, the more the search engines are likely to charge to advertise alongside it.

The first step is to ensure that you have some knowledge of the industry or market in which the business operates. Then you need to screen for size and geographic location; how many team members will you want to manage?

Once you have identified a general profile, you will need the advice of an accountant, lawyer and banker to carry out a thorough appraisal of a potential candidate.

One of the best assets of a business is its history. With enough detail it should provide most of the information you need; its weaknesses and strengths, threats and, most important for a future buyer, its potential.

Balance sheets, income tax statements, cash flow statements, footnotes and tax returns for the past three years will give a good picture of the health of the business.

Projected earnings should give an indication of the business’ direction, although these need to be treated with a little more caution.

“Get out and talk to clients, suppliers and vendors to hear their side of the story.”

After the due diligence comes some basic questions to help you understand the circumstances of the sale. Why is the owner selling? Has the industry changed? Are there issues with supply, or does the company require a major refresh of equipment and inventory?

Don’t rely on the business owner to supply all the answers. Get out and talk to clients, suppliers and vendors to hear their side of the story. If you do buy the business, these are the people you will be dealing with on a regular basis so it is an opportunity to make introductions and demonstrate professionalism.

It also is an opportunity to unearth any complaints about how the business operates; a less than stellar reputation might affect the buy price.

The greatest danger is that a business’s profitability will suffer after the owner leaves. This could be due to several reasons; the owner could take crucial relationships with key clients, team members might follow the owner elsewhere or turn uncooperative, or business processes could turn out to be not so established that they function without the owner’s input.

The best advice when buying a business is to do your homework. Rushing in for an impulse buy could see you end up saddling yourself up with someone else’s problems. If it all goes well you should take over a strong source of cash flow and profits.

Straight price cutting in response to competition is a dangerous strategy, one that can ultimately cut your profits to the point where you might as well sell your business. Far better to sit down and work out a pricing strategy that reflects the nature of your products and market, AND makes you money!

Covering costs
Reaction pricing – lowering your price because the person up the road just lowered theirs – is not usually a workable long term solution…The first step in developing a pricing strategy is to work out your overheads. It’s really important to identify absolutely everything that costs you money, including rent, wages, utilities, software, and insurance. Don’t forget to include your own salary in this. Also include the cost of servicing capital assets (loan interest and depreciation charges), including any IT equipment and vehicles that you own.

Market research
Once you have identified the costs associated with running your business you can begin to think about how you want to price your product. To get a feel for the market, it’s a great idea to find out what your competitors charge, though it’s inadvisable to base your prices on this alone because they might be offering a different mix of product and associated services, and their overheads are also likely to be somewhat different.

Pricing strategies
Reaction pricing – lowering your price because the person up the road just lowered theirs – is not usually a workable long term solution. A price war means no-one makes money. And if you position yourself as the lowest cost option you run the risk of customers leaving you when another, even lower priced alternative, comes along. Keep in mind that if your customers perceive your price to be too low, it will make them just as suspicious as when they perceive your price to be too high.

Conversely, it’s important not to price yourself out of the market. So instead of just checking what price your competitors are selling at, evaluate the services they offer their customers and whether they market on the basis of any unique core differentiators. Then consider what you can offer. If you feel that what you can do is worth more than what your competitors offer, price your services accordingly. This is called a premium pricing strategy. For it to work, you need to be able to demonstrate your value to your customers in a convincing way and to get the message out among them.

Be prepared to negotiate your prices to win business. Negotiation involves a little planning but is a useful business tool when used properly. To ensure you’re still making money, you need to build in a premium to the initial price quoted and also determine a price floor under which you are not prepared to go.

Another pricing strategy that’s worth considering is straight discount-for-volume. Loss leaders are also an option, as are two-part pricing strategies. Peak pricing (when you charge a premium for made to order products or for work done at the last minute) is another pricing alternative you can look at.

Price increases
Take your time to do some homework on your product offering and selling points when determining your pricing strategy, because, once in place, it’s difficult to change without upsetting customers. If you are planning on raising prices, it’s a good idea to do it incrementally rather than wait for years and then slug clients with a massive price hike.

The best way to start considering pricing is to first step back and get some professional advice on how you can differentiate your product, improve your marketing and deliver great customer service. Then you’ll be able to consider a premium pricing strategy that cashes in on the things that make you different, rather than fighting it out on cost alone.

Used with permission from RanOne Inc., McQuaig & Welk, PLL are licensed RanOne Consulting Group Members.

Our industries, our society and even our planet are in a state of flux as we struggle to come to terms with turbulent economies, dwindling resources and a changing climate. In The Sixth Wave, a book on business and innovation, authors Moody and Nogrady predict that we are on the cusp of the next great wave of change for the future. They also demonstrate that periods of change in history have always been the time when the greatest opportunities exist for the introduction of new technologies, new products and services, and for inspired ideas about whole new ways of doing things.

If you see change as a threat, you’re taking a “glass-half empty” perspective. You probably say, “I can’t keep up with this constant technological innovation. There’s something new to learn every week. It’s like I never left high school!” You’ll be annoyed whenever there’s a new trend in management. You’ll wince whenever you hear of competitors introducing new business processes. You’ll see change as the slings and arrows of business misfortune.

You’ll say to yourself, “I’m a small business. I have a small, flexible and effective team. Adaptability is my middle name. We’re the can-do people!”On the other hand, if you see change as an opportunity, you’re taking a “glass-half full” perspective. You are likely to think, “Every time there’s a change, new niches open up for me.” You know that some of your competitors will be slow to adapt and you’ll be the first to step in and relieve them of a few customers. You’ll say to yourself, “I’m a small business. I have a small, flexible and effective team. Adaptability is my middle name. We’re the can-do people!”

While your larger competitors need to look ahead a year or more, you’ll change focus much more quickly. If you’re a manufacturer, you have smaller production runs, so you can customize to suit the needs of particular customers. Customers can reach you much more easily than they can a CEO of a large corporation – you’re responsive.

You look ahead with anticipation, not with anxiety. You think, “Well, some of my products are nearing the end of their life cycle. What’s the next big thing? How can I surprise and delight my loyal customers with something that they don’t even realize they want?”

If you take this attitude, business will become more of a game than a chore. You’ll feel freer to think creatively. And you’ll try to communicate this attitude to your team. You’ll do so with a frank and open management style, because honesty is the best way to help people manage change. Fear of the unknown is one of the greatest impediments to change in the workplace.

You can also get people to feel positive about change by empowering your workforce. Reward people who have good and innovative ideas and let them have a say in implementing them. Offer both praise and monetary rewards for innovation.

So, in this time of transformation, stay alert and keep well informed. Look out for the winds of change. Seek advice. A Business Diagnostic and Performance Review might be a good way to help you scan the external environment for changes in the industry that could sooner or later have an impact on your business, as well as analyze the internal operational strengths and weaknesses of your business as part of the process. Yes, it may mean major change for your business, but the way to look at that change is to see it as the opportunity for growth and improvement.

Please contact us if you are interested in a Business Diagnostic and Performance Review.

Used with permission from RanOne Inc., McQuaig & Welk, PLL are licensed RanOne Consulting Group Members.

Classify and monitor prospects

The stages in a sales pipeline can be different from business to business, and particularly between B2B and B2C type businesses, but there are some essential similarities. In all businesses there is a need to generate inquiries. The technique may be through advertising, shop front display, cold calling, word of mouth or networking.

In B2B the next steps might involve arranging an appointment with the prospect to establish their needs, making a sales presentation and quoting. In a retail situation the sales team is responsible for asking the right questions, treating the customer with care and selling the merits of the product. In both, the common aim is to achieve a sale.

The sales pipeline functions most effectively when there is a consistent process that leads prospects through these stages into becoming customers. The 4 Step formal selling process is Qualify, Propose, Negotiate and Close. Following this path is a prerequisite to effective pipeline management. The second component is a system that tracks the progress of each prospect through the sales pipeline, so that you always know where every lead stands.

Sales pipeline analysis

The sales pipeline concept can be applied to assess how many prospects you need to reach and convert to hit your sales target. Do you need to generate 100 leads to get 10 quality prospects to sell to 1 customer? Then to double your customers you’ll need 200 leads and turn them into 20 prospects to get 2 customers. Now you can make adjustments to your customer conversion process, testing various methods to turn 10 prospects into 2 or 3 customers instead of 1.

Alternatively, you can use this information to identify at which stage you are losing prospects (where the pipeline is leaking). Once you can identify specific leakage points you can apply the appropriate plug.

Too many unqualified prospects wasting your time? Develop a screening process that will identify tire kickers, bargain hunters, or poor credit risks, and remove them from the pipeline before wasting precious time on them. Losing prospects at the proposal stage? Maybe a selling script for your salespeople is needed, or training in how to establish rapport, understand the customer’s real need and build the value of the product in the customer’s eye.

For B2B businesses, knowing which stage each prospect is at shows how many sales to expect, (and hence how much income to expect), and when to expect them. This knowledge will affect business strategy. If the numbers are insufficient, then more decisive marketing action is required to lure more prospects into the pipeline. If numbers are very healthy, will demand outstrip capacity? Will you need to hire contractors, extra staff or upgrade equipment?

Maintaining the flow

The point of a sales pipeline is to encourage prospects to flow through to the sale. Use your system to keep track of which prospect is at which stage, and feed them information or assistance at the frequency, and using the channel they prefer, so as to move them to the next stage along. Don’t miss out on opportunities by losing track of likely prospects and failing to follow up.

Used with permission from RanOne Inc., McQuaig & Welk, PLL are licensed RanOne Consulting Group Members.

In general, direct marketing encourages people to respond to offers – such as, “Buy a dozen bottles of premium wine this weekend, and receive a free bottle of bubbly at no extra charge.” It is the offer (not necessarily a bribe) that has the power to overcome ‘prospect apathy’.

To have an impact you must cleverly target the offer to appeal to the intended audience. It’s not much use offering a free trial of a newly launched lawn mower to people who live in high-rise apartments. You must design the offer in such a way that it creates interest.

Essentially, there are four fundamental elements in direct marketing:

• price
• satisfaction
• payment terms
• incentives

One or more of these four elements feature in some way in all offers. Here are examples of offers that direct marketers have found to be the most effective over the years:

Free trial offer: In many categories this is probably the best of all offers and in direct mail it is virtually essential. The length of the trial can vary, with thirty days being the most common.

Payment offer: Offers such as “bill me later” and interest free credit are both very powerful concepts that regularly increase response substantially – which is why they are used so often.

Limited time offer: Setting a time limit often “forces” potential customers to make a decision and it adds urgency to an offer. Care needs to be taken in choosing the period, since too short a time frame can give prospects a feeling of being hassled, while too long a period leads to inaction and lack of response.

Free gift offer: People love getting something for nothing. Free gifts can be most effective when used sparingly in short, sharp bursts.

Competition and prize draw offers: These offers give the chance of winning a prize, add excitement and can certainly motivate consumers. However, keep in mind there may be legislation you have to adhere to and it is wise to check with your legal advisor before proceeding.

Discount offer: Discounts are popular and are most effective where the value of a product or service is well known. Discounts are better expressed in money terms rather than a percentage, i.e. ‘save $50’ is better than ‘25 percent off’. However, with discounting there is definitely a downside. Discounting eats into profits very directly and can adversely affect the image of a business. There is also the old adage, “live by price, die by price.” After all, your competitors can always discount further. Once you become known as a discounter, many customers will only buy from you when you offer discounts.

1. Failing to agree on how the manager and team will work together
Don’t launch in with your helpful advice and ideas; first have a chat with your team about how they would like to be given feedback and suggestions. Even better, ask them what they already know about the task before you begin putting your ideas in.

2. Failing to empower team members to do their work effectively
Recognize how annoying it is to continually interrupt someone when they’re focused on their work. Micro-managing is very disempowering.

3. Failing to recognize and acknowledge good work
The good news for employers who are tightening their budgets is that out of all the ways to motivate employees to be more productive, a recent survey showed 62% say acknowledgement and recognition for their contribution is enough. Yet only 44% of respondents said this ‘pat on the back’ culture exists in their workplace. Say thanks for a good job – every time.

4. Failing to respect the personal space of others
Invading somebody’s personal space is a big leadership ‘no no’. This may be standing behind somebody, watching them work on the computer, getting too close to them… even searching through things on their desk.

5. Being rigid and inflexible
Avoid being rigid about the way things are done, just because that’s the way it’s always been done. Be open to suggestions. There may be a new way of doing something that is an improvement.

6. Failing to recognize the impact of your behavior on others
Many people are oblivious to the impact of their own behavior on others. Be aware of negative body language around you. If you’re not sure you’re good at picking up body language cues, read up on it in books like Body Language by Alan Pease which explains what to watch out for.

7. Not listening and speaking over the top of others
Not listening is one of the biggest mistakes a manager can make. Talking over the top of somebody makes it even worse. Managers need to show interest in what others have to say.

8. Assuming the reason for someone’s behavior
Ask questions about what is wrong, or why a person feels the way they do; don’t assume you already know. You could very well be completely off track.

Used with permission from RanOne Inc., McQuaig & Welk, PLL are licensed RanOne Consulting Group Members.