Archive for the ‘Sales’ Category

« Older Entries

Are you listening to your customers?

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011

Have you ever wondered if your brilliant idea actually meets your customers’ requirements?

Finding out what your customers want (and need), then tailoring your product or service accordingly seems obvious. The problem is that too many of us don’t do it.

It may seem a simple concept, and it is, but don’t underestimate the journey that it takes to strike gold. Listening to customers and learning from them can pay big dividends.

As we saw with today’s announcements, Apple is renowned for thinking outside the square and developing products that are not traditional. A big part of their success comes from listening to their customers and responding to market demands.

Initially when Apple launched the iPhone they believed that so-called web applications were the way to go. After the launch, it became evident from the large number of developers writing applications in native iPhone code, that this is what their customers wanted. So Apple changed their mindset and allowed developers to write native apps. In fact, they saw an even bigger opportunity and opened the Apple App Store.

By September 2008, three months after the introduction of the App Store, users had downloaded 100 million native apps. There have since been a number of versions of the iPhone driven by consumer demand, and apps have made it a goldmine for Apple.

Apple has shown that you can make mistakes, but if you learn from them and constantly work at being relevant to your customers there can be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Are you listening to your customers?

Posted in Management, Marketing, Planning, Sales | No Comments »

Is your message making contact?

Monday, April 18th, 2011

I’ve been reading an online discussion titled “Why the Elevator Pitch is Outdated”.

Various contributors have added their views about whether it should be called a ‘pitch’ or a ‘speech’ or even a ‘movie trailer’.

The discussion is really about the answer to the question ‘What do you do?’

Many years ago I learned that people do not buy your product or service, they buy the result of your product or service. So whatever answer you give, it should focus on the results your customers will achieve from dealing with you.

Will they have less stress (emotional results); operate more effectively (operational results), or save money (financial results)? Experience has taught me that most people want results in more than one of those categories – usually all three.

The starting point is to define your target market and then ask yourself what issues do your potential customers face and how do they feel about those issues. If your ideal customers are small to medium sized retailers and you know they feel threatened by increased competition from the big guys, the result they want might be ideas to stimulate new business opportunities.

In that case my answer to ‘What do you do?’ might be, ‘I develop easy to implement marketing strategies that help small-to-medium sized retailers sleep better at night’. And I immediately follow up with the question, ‘Do you know anyone who is facing increased competition from the big guys who is looking to improve their results?’

This saves time by eliminating people outside my target market and makes it interesting enough that prospective customers will ask how I do it.

And at that point we are having conversation.

Posted in Marketing, Sales | 1 Comment »

Three trends that will change your business

Monday, April 4th, 2011

It used to be enough to advertise in the Yellow Pages, run a few ads in the local media or go to a Chamber of Commerce meeting if you wanted to attract new business.

Not anymore! At least not anymore if you are selling professional services. Attracting a stream of loyal clients to your business is getting harder every year. Positioning your business is more important than ever if you want to be relevant. It’s how you go about it that has changed.

Three key trends are driving the way we should be thinking about business marketing.

The first is that we live in an “always-on” world.

Our Internet-driven world is keeping us busier than ever, contrary to the belief we had, pre the digital age, about paper clutter. Somehow we have added hours of extra business time to our everyday living. Whether you use a smartphone, iPad, or surf the web at your work computer, chances are that you spend an hour or two a day doing nothing specific, except being busy with mindless surfing. We all do it.

The second is Cloud Computing.

Cloud computing is the practice of storing files in the “cloud,” or in simple terms, in cyberspace. It’s still in its infancy, but make no mistake, it is here to stay.
It provides you with the freedom to access your files on the fly – regardless of where you are in the world. In other words, shared resources such as software and information are available on demand
You can upload any file to your cloud and access it from any Internet connection in the world. If your computer breaks down, or you forgot to share that important presentation with your client before you left home, cloud storage can save your day. It simplifies the way you do business and takes some hassles out of our busy lives.

The third trend is what I call the “fast- forward” mentality.

We all have inbuilt spam filters. Capturing someone’s attention for more than a few seconds is more difficult than ever.

To learn more about capitalising on these trends download my white paper at http://tinyurl.com/3jsmrbk.

Posted in Management, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Yellow Pages Advertising

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Last month my poll question was “Does Yellow Pages advertising work for your business?”

Not one respondent said that Yellow Pages pays for itself.

33% still advertise but do not get a return, 17% had never had a Yellow Pages advertisement and 50% said they no longer have a Yellow Pages advertisement.

These stats are telling when you consider the growth of on-line marketing.

If you are not there already, it time to think about how you can use your own YouTube Channel, Facebook fan page, LinkedIn group or Twitter.

If you need help, call me.

This month’s poll question is: “Do you have a current business plan?”

Posted in Management, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Charge and be charged!

Monday, November 15th, 2010

The Amex surcharge, sometimes up to 3%, is something that really aggravates me as a customer, and I’m not alone, I’ve seen countless numbers of staff abused by customers because of this.

Once the exclusive realm of the rich or well-travelled businessperson, American Express is a credit card with a challenge in Australia – use it and in many establishments, you get charged a fee. So why is this?

Short sighted shopkeepers, hotel chains and restauranteurs seem to think it gives them a bit extra margin (because they certainly charge more than the difference between the Amex fee and the bank backed cards).

Bargaineering.com hosted a forum started by a member titled: ‘Why do merchants dislike American Express?’

An reply from Blaire Moore stated that: ‘There are a few reasons.
First and foremost, most people have a Visa card, and if they don’t then they have a Mastercard. Both cards are processed on the same network.’

Therefore if you are a business you only need one merchant account, which means Visa and Mastercards are cheaper to accept. This is the short sighted approach.

Scott Sanders disputes the above argument. As he argues, ‘A savvy merchant will understand….and appreciate the economics.’

According to Sanders, An American Express customer might enter a store, browse for 45 minutes, talk to some of the staff and leave after spending $400. The profit for the retailer after a 2.75% Amex fee ($11.00) is $389, probably $294.50 as a net transaction.

A typical Visa customer may enter the store, spend the same amount of time and finally spend $150. The retailer pays Visa 2% ($3) and makes a $147 profit, probably $73.50 as a net transaction.

So, obviously Amex customers are harassed through ignorance without retailers understanding how important these clients really are.

Perhaps establishments should consider adding the surcharge into prices. This would make Amex customers happy and leave many innocent staff relieved at not copping it for something they they can’t change.

What do you think? What annoys you most as a business customer?

Posted in Customer Service, Management, Marketing, Sales | 2 Comments »

When sorry doesn’t cut it.

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010

I was waiting at the desk at a hotel recently when I noticed a man who was very upset because his urgent delivery had sat ‘overlooked’ at reception for 24 hours. When he found it on the reception desk the clerk said ‘sorry’, but nothing else.

His reply: ‘That does a whole lot of good doesn’t it?” He then proceeded to a conference and related his complaint to 50 other delegates.

A recent study by the British customer relations organization Consumer Forum found that customers were three times more likely to tell their friends about bad customer service than good service, and most respondents said they would take their business elsewhere.

The potential loss of business is incredible.

When someone in your organisation makes a mistake they should not only apologise but ask what they can do to rectify this. This usually diffuses the situation or at least takes the heat out of it.

Anything less is poor training on the part of management and can lose you business

Posted in Customer Service, Management, Sales | No Comments »

Is Your Inbox Pushing You To Breaking Point?

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

I noticed that in a recent survey by IBM of more than 620 managers, results showed that the sheer number of emails received each day is a major contributor to workplace stress.

It was no surprise that more than 45% of the survey participants agreed that the number of emails arriving in their inbox can increase stress levels at work or that as the number of unanswered emails begins to mount up in those inboxes the stress levels rise accordingly.

Nearly 100% of people who responded in the survey said that email was the primary source of communication and collaboration. Yet many also admitted that they’ve inadvertently sent emails to the wrong recipients, or sent a message that they’ve later regretted. So it seems that the technological advances being introduced in order to save time and boost productivity could be having the exact opposite effect.

Does this create an opportunity for Australian businesses to embrace social networking to facilitate alternative communication? An Australian spokesman for IBM seems to think so. Apparently this could boost morale among employees.

Maybe we should focus on better spam filters, better email protocols and not sending unnecessary copies.

Posted in Customer Service, Management, Sales | No Comments »

Move with the times or perish

Saturday, October 23rd, 2010

Like most of you, I’m really getting sick of poor customer service. So it was no surprise to read a recent global Online Shopping Report by the Nielsen Company has found that local Asia-Pacific consumers are the most active online shoppers in the world with many spending 11% of their monthly budget online.

Why?

If you think about it, online shopping is easy, comfortable, time-saving, price competitive and eliminates the need to be aggravated by hassled staff with poor attitudes.

For retailers paying big rents in Australian shopping centres this spells disaster. Sluggish growth at the cash register has been blamed on the rise of online outlets. (Naturally the retailers don’t think lack of customer service is to blame.)

Research group, Forrester, has estimated that online retail sales will be up 17.5% from last year to $28 billion, $7 billion of which is spent on overseas products.

So my message for retailers is keep up with technology or die. Because I can’t see you winning in the service stakes.

Posted in Customer Service, Management, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Blogs are business

Sunday, October 3rd, 2010

Blogs are an excellent way to grow your business. They are not static like websites, but provide a moving forum of interesting topics as often as you want to post and can attract a whole community of followers, translating into business for you.

Blogs have outlived being a fad or trend and now clearly form part of the essential suite of modern marketing tools called ‘social media. Take one look at savvy entrepreneur Brian Clarke and his hugely popular ‘copyblogger.com’ to see that a successful blog can net 132,758 subscribers giving new products added to the his site an instant, hungry market.

A blog can be a powerful way to establish brand identity by being your ‘voice’, but with thousands of blogs starting up every day, how do you get yours noticed?

Your blog is about selling you and your ideas.

One of the main things is to ‘tell’ not ‘sell’. Your blog is about selling you and your ideas. Use your website to promote your products or business and your blog to promote yourself. Think about issues currently affecting the industry you’re in, share information, news, trends, anything you think will be helpful for your audience.

If you become an authority in your domain then people will talk about you, link your blog to theirs and create traffic sending your site even higher in Google’s page ranking.

Whilst it is imperative that you remain genuine, always think before you post and be careful what you say about others. So many people seem to forget that the Internet is a public forum. Everyday news bulletins document people in finding themselves in hot water after posting something they later regret on Facebook, Twitter or a blog.

And lastly, don’t worry if you’re blogging away, posting terrific information and the audience just doesn’t seem to come. Most blogs take time to develop, but with interesting topics and links the momentum will build and before you know it your following will be there.

If you intend to be one of today’s successful businesses then SEO and social media is essential. Get blogging!

Posted in Management, Marketing, Sales | No Comments »

Lessons from the AFL Grand Final

Saturday, October 2nd, 2010

A week ago we saw more than 120 minutes of gruelling football played between the Collingwood and St. Kilda AFL football teams. Throughout most of the game, St. Kilda trailed the Magpies and seemed to battle their way across the field just in an attempt to keep up.

However, their persistence and their determination not to give up paid off. Even though it looked like they were doomed to be beaten, saw the Saints climb back from being 24 points down at half time to finishing the game tied at 68/68.

The lesson is that, even in the face of adversity and against staggering odds, persistence and perseverance can pay off in the end. Psychologically, it was vital for the players in the St. Kilda team not to give in to negative emotions and thoughts of defeat before it had already happened in order for them to fight back to a positive outcome.

While these attributes are important in a team sport like football, they are absolutely crucial in the world of business. One of the primary reasons so many promising new businesses fail in their first three years of business is that the owners simply don’t continue to persist in the face of challenges and obstacles.

Yet, often, surmounting those very obstacles can be the key to reaching a level of success that waits on the other side.

In business, persistence and perseverance will help you to keep your eyes focused on your goals and your desired end results. Even though St. Kilda didn’t make it in the re-match, it was a great effort.

Posted in Management, Sales | No Comments »

« Older Entries