Announcing my new Book

I am excited to announce that my new book “Mastering Business Operations” is scheduled to hit the shelves in November. The book will provide business owners with 10 key tools to implement in their businesses to get back in the driver seat. Implement these tools and avoid the chaos and constant fire drills most business owners face these days.

Goals give you Direction!

When Alice was lost in Wonderland she came to a fork in the road. At the fork was a tree and in the tree the Cheshire Cat. Alice asked the cat, which way she should turn. The cat asked “Where do you want to go?” Alice responded: “I don’t know.” The cat responded “Then any path will get you there.”

 The same is true with your business. If you don’t know where you want to take your business, any path will get you there. It is important you determine goals in your business. Are you going to be the #1 in your industry in 5 years? Are you trying to achieve $xx by year 3? What is it you want to achieve with your company?

 When formulating your goals keep the SMART rule handy. SMART is an acronym that stands for:

 S – Specific: Your goal needs to be specific. There shouldn’t be any gray area or question when you ask yourself if you achieved it or not.

 M – Measurable: Attach some numbers to your goal. This will make it possible to determine with objectivity whether you achieve your goal.

 A – Achievable: You goal should be realistic. If you are a one person company and you are shooting to have 3,000 employees in three months time, chances are you are setting yourself up for failure.

 R – Results Oriented: When you set your goal for the business, ask yourself the question “What are you really after?” If the answer to the question is the same as what you listed in your goal, you have set yourself a realistic goal. If your answer is different, chances are you simply listed an action item as a goal. Your goal should be different.

 T – Time Bound: Give your goal a time frame to be completed by or it will not happen.

Stop Marketing in the Dark! Do Your Research!

In order to market effectively, you need to understand your market very well. A lot of business owners seem to think they can develop a product and then push it into the market place without any research whatsoever. This can be a fatal mistake for any business. Sure, in some instances this approach will work, but it is much more likely for you to be successful in your business if you first do the market research, and then start marketing your product. You will have gained a better understanding about your customers, the market conditions as well as the size of the market, i.e. your opportunity. Here is how to go about your market research:

1. Figure out who your target market is. This step may seem very easy and simple, but is more complex than you first may imagine. Let’s assume for example you are a carpet cleaning business. At first you may think your target market is any home owner or renter in your area. This is correct. However, by looking at this in more depth you may realize that a large percentage of your clients are actually families with young children or pet owners, since they have a need to get their carpets cleaned more frequently. Also, you may discover that most frequently, a female will make the call to hire a carpet cleaning company. In other words, while your target market consists of all home owners and/or renters in your area, you have several segments (young families and pet owners) to cater to with your marketing. Your marketing material can contain language and pictures that are especially appealing to those segments. Insert a picture of a cute baby or a guilty looking pet in your material and you catch the attention of your two segments.

2. Learn how big your target market is. This part of your research can be a little tricky but is crucial if you want to get a good idea about what your market potential really is. There are a lot of businesses and resources out there that can help you determine how big your target market is. For local businesses, we recommend checking with the local Chamber of Commerce for some information. Also your County offices may have some information on the local economy. The US Census Bureau publishes statistical data on the US and its regions on an annual basis. Try to find out how big your market potential really is and attach a dollar value to it. You may find it is significantly bigger than you originally thought, or that your segment is too small for your business to survive.

3. Research your competition. Next you need to know who your competition really is. First, list all the competitors that come to mind. Then do some research on the Web to see who else serves your target market with a competitive product or service. It also helps to ask your friends and family who else they think off when they think of your company. Once you have the list developed the real work starts. Try to find out as much about your competitors as possible. Here is a partial list of questions you may want to get answered: – How long have they been in business? – What are they best known for? – What are their price points? – How do they market? – What market share do they have? – What are their other products that don’t compete with you? – What are their weak points? – What are their strengths?

4. Develop a SWOT Analysis. All the research you have done about the market and the competition will be summed up in a SWOT Analysis (SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). For your own business list these four areas in a grid:

Strengths - List all the strengths your business/product/service has compared to the competition 

Opportunities – List the opportunities you see for your business/product/service

Weaknesses – List all the weaknesses you business/product/service has compared to the competition 

Threats – List all the threats you can see facing you in your company/product/service

After you are done with your SWOT analysis, you should have a very clear picture of your own opportunity. List ways you can take advantage of your strengths and opportunities. And most importantly list ways you plan to overcome weaknesses of your company and the threats it faces in the market place.

How People Make Purchase Decisions

The following excerpt comes directly from a Harris Poll via Harvard Publishing. I thought it was worth sharing. Make sure your Sales Process includes all the different media listed.

“Despite the ascendancy of social media, customers still prepare for purchase decisions using a combination of old media, new media, and old-fashioned conversations with friends and family. According to a March 2009 survey by Harris Interactive, the most common methods of gathering information prior to making a purchase are using a company website (36%), face-to-face conversation with a salesperson or other company representative (22%), and face-to-face conversation with a person not associated with the company (21%). 18- to 24-year-olds are more likely to use social networking sites than adults of all ages (16% vs. 4%). But they’re also more likely to rely on conversations with friends and family than all adults (33% vs. 21%).”

Source: The Harris Poll

Want to sell to Small Businesses?

The following is a very interesting article about selling to small and midszied businesses:

Article

Special Summer Offers from Sieber Consulting

Just a quick announcement to let everyone know we have announced our special Summer offers at Sieber Consulting.

Now is the time to take advantage of the expertise we offer on developing a great sales process for your business!

Check it out here: http://www.joergsieber.com/Special_Offers.html

Where are your Leads coming from?

We all spend money on marketing to generate leads. In some cases we spend enormous amounts of money for individual ads. Considering our investment in marketing efforts, I always find it amazing to see how many business owners don’t track where their leads are coming from.

Lead tracking is crucial if you want to build a profitable business.
There are many software packages out there that promise to be easy-to-use and efficient. I found nothing works better than a simple Excel spreadsheet! In fact, I have implemented Excel spreadsheets for lead tracking in businesses with more than $10 Million in annual sales. These systems worked more effectively than any of the other software packages you can purchase.

Remember, in order for a system to work, it has to be simple and easy to use. Otherwise it will not be followed.

Tracking leads is simple:
1. Creat a list of all of your marketing strategies. (include things like “referrals” and “repeat client”)
2. Make it a point to find out how people found out about your business.
3. Track the responses in that list.

At the end of the day you know exactly how many leads were generated by each strategy. If you do this over an extended period of time, you will know exactly where you should spend most of your marketing money.

Another Must Read – Action Selling by Duane Sparks

You want to learn how to improve your sales technique? Check out “Action Selling” by Duane Sparks. Sparks give a GREAT process for converting prospects into clients. His 9 steps to guiding prospects towards the final buying decision are simple and very logical. – A definite must read for all business owners and sales people!

Case Study: Increasing Sales in a Design/Construction Business

Situation:
A well established design/construction company with a showroom wants to improve their bottom line. Lead generation and sales volume fluctuate greatly from month to month.
The owner relies heavily on showroom traffic to generate leads. All Ads are geared towards guiding people into the showroom, where the designers, who are also the sales people make contact with the leads and guide them all the way to making a buying decision.
The owner of the business is unable to say how many leads his marketing efforts are generating, how many leads each designer is dealing with, and what percentage of leads are actually buying from his company.

Solution:
We implemented a three pronged approach to systemizing the process of converting leads to clients.
We started tracking the number of people coming into the showroom with a simple lead tracking sheet. The designers directed to ask how people found out about the business. The information provided valuable insight into which marketing strategies were generating the most traffic.
We developed a sales process consisting of 15 steps, including postcards, e-mails, phone calls, and personal visits, designed to strengthen the relationship between the designer and the potential client. We also trained the staff in the use of psychological and behavioral techniques designed to form a better bond with the prospect.
Finally, we implemented a sales process tracking system, in which every lead was listed. This document showed on a daily basis, where along the 15 step sales process each lead was. Over time, we could identify at what step most leads were dropping off, and make appropriate adjustments to the process to improve conversion rates.

Results:
We were able to identify unprofitable marketing strategies and cut advertising costs in favor of more effective strategies, saving the company 35% in marketing. We also increased the conversion rate by 60%, resulting in an increase in sales of 30%.

Sales – A Process of Touches

Studies have shown over and over again that people like to do business with people they trust. Why then do most business owners or sales people expect to close a deal after the very first meeting with a prospect? Jay Conrad Levinson, the author of the Guerilla Marketing series of books states that it takes on average 9 touches until you have established enough trust with the prospect for him or her to make a purchase decision (by the way it takes on average 3 tries to be noticed by the prospect once). This means we need to reach out 27 times to a prospect until we can expect a decision.

When it comes down to developing an effective sales process, we need to build enough “touches” into the process to establish this trust. A touch can be anything from a phone call to a post card all the way to an actual face-to-face meeting.

A lot of sales people attend a sales meeting and expect to close the prospect without building that all important relationship first. Rather than rushing to the sales meeting, take your time to develop a relationship first. The more you reach out to your prospect prior to the actual sales meeting, the higher the likelyhood of actually closing the prospect at the meeting.

Use the following guidelines when developing your sales process:

1. Build in enough touches (approximately 9) during the sales process. Everything counts – phone calls, e-mails, letters, post cards, meetings.

2. Provide something of value during each and every step along the sales process. Rather than throwing all of your sales information at the prospect at the first contact, spread the information out over several touches. This will make the prospect curious and open to hearing from you.

3. Save your personal face-to-face meeting with the prospect for the later part of your sales process. Your own time is the most valuable asset you have. Don’t waste it on unqualified prospects. Instead, use prior touches to elminate those prospects who really are not good clients.