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4 Steps to Reinforce Your Sales Strategy

One of the best ways to help your customers, especially in their eyes, is to start with pricing.

1. VALUE PROPOSITION & PRICING

Short and long term pricing is fairly complex.

• You have to consider the value as opposed to your competition.
• You have to think about what the consumer will truly pay for your product.
• You have to be able to reach your revenue and market share goals.
• You have to maximize your profit.
• You may have to think about what customers would pay for other solutions you offer.
• You have to think about whether your price should fall in relation to the competition.
• As soon as price, value proposition and competitive position are aligned, you’re in the best possible scenario to maximize revenue and profits.

Pricing strategy verses your value proposition

Your price on a product sends a strong signal to your market; it needs to be in-line with the value you’re delivering.

• It just makes sense if your value proposition is in operational efficiency, then your price needs to be extremely competitive.
• It really sends the wrong message if your value proposition is product leadership or customer intimacy. After all, if a luxury item isn’t expensive, is it really a luxury?

2. DIFFERENTIATION

Differ From the Competition Based on Consumer Needs

At this point you should have a sound market strategy in place one that has came from the answers to these two key questions:

Where and how do we compete

That is, what products or services do we sell, to what kinds of customers and in which markets” How do we organize our assets and use pricing to back it up? The challenge is to extend that understanding to ensure that your entire company focuses on the practical implications of that differentiation strategy. In simpler terms:

• Customer touch points
• Product and service variety
• Operational configuration and cost structures

3. TARGET MARKET

Target your particular market

You might consider the first plan of listing those people that sales aren’t currently reaching their goals and reaching out to them. Also, using tools like LinkedIn can be valuable assets. Checking facts with Jigsaw and LinkedIn can save time and energy, at a rate of 10 or so prospects entered per day. It should only take 3 to 4 weeks to make your list. Use an introductory email as first communication with these new clients.

You might also want to create a content marketing program to help your list and qualify leads. It is true that a content marketing program can come in many forms; start thinking about a blog and post articles with information and tips that coincide with your product.

In order to pass on more content, your list can be built with a monthly or weekly newsletter, with summaries of and links to the articles on your blog. Including links within the articles is also a good lead tactic.

After you have built your list and a content marketing program in place to help that list, it is a good idea to start on a larger scale to create demand beyond the contacts in your database. Another great thought would be to promote what you are offering with a targeted paid search program or content syndication program. These strategies will not only help brand your business but help build your list and provide leads for your sales.

Keep in mind if the contacts in your database happen to come across some of your content outside of your nurturing program that will only reinforce your company.

Communicating well is the key

A sales message not only intrigues, informs, persuades, calls to action, but will also close the final sale. You will soon realize not all sales messages will make a direct sale, but your goal must remain the same. Even if your sales message is embedded in a letter, represented in a proposal, or broadcasted over the internet.

4. COMMUNICATION MODEL

A Guide to a Basic Sales Message

You have to use humor, novelty and surprise to get attention. Also build customer interest by appealing to general needs and wants, including a statement to set up expectations.

You have to establish your credibility, discuss attractive features, and compare with competitors, addressing potential questions before they are asked.

Summarize and offer solution steps while motivating the audience to take the next step. The smaller the step, the more likely the audience will be responsive. Try to make an effective closing. Make the sale, try to be memorable, and make sure your last thoughts relate to the most important information, like a consumer phone number.

Last but not least, just remember every product or service you bring to the market creates a customer experience. Is it the experience you intended? Does that experience fulfill the promise you’ve made to the marketplace?

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The Key To Enhancing Your Selling Skills: Self-Confidence

Bill Brasky started small when he decided to start his own business.

You see, Bill wanted to open up a donut shop. Yep, just a regular old donut shop.

It turns out, though, that Bill had much bigger plans.

Although he started small, it didn’t take long for Bill to quickly begin making a name for himself. In fact, it didn’t take long at all.

Why?

Well, Bill wasn’t afraid to take chances when he first got started. He understood that in order to grow his business into what he wanted it to become, it was going to take hard work, confidence and the drive to not quit.

After about a month of being in business, Bill immediately began to go after and develop a business presence on the Internet, and it was one of the best moves he ever made. After a few weeks, he began to notice he was quickly moving up in search rankings. His phone also started to ring off the hook.

Today Bill goes to great lengths to maintain a top-notch business presence for his donut shop online. While he started small, his hard work ethic and desire to succeed has led his donut shop to become one of the largest in the country. And it all started with a little modest business plan and a very strong work ethic.

Bill’s Donut Shop continues to grow at a huge rate. To this day, Bill attributes his success to having a great business plan in place. Through having a quality plan, he was able to attack his goals without fear of failure. After all, he had taken such possibilities into account in his business plan.

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Customer Satisfaction: The Best Way to Boost Your Business

The best way to boost your business is through customer satisfaction. With today’s increasingly competitive marketplace, it is imperative that a business sets a new high for the overall customer experience to make a name for itself and outdo its competitors.

Companies in today’s business world heavily rely on repeat customers’ as well as referrals for one of their main sources of revenue. Being able to meet and exceed consumer expectations is paramount to the survival of any business.

The more value you add to your customers lives, specifically new information that benefits them, the more likely they will come back for seconds and tell their friends. These repeat customers and the referrals they provide act as a domino effect, reverberating rampantly through social circles and inspiring more people to test you out. This is especially true for small businesses, and especially true with the pervasiveness of social media in our lives. People go on the Internet to talk about their experiences with different businesses, and if you have a circle of advocates for yours, other people will take note and are more likely to contact you. Here are a few pointers to help fulfill your customers needs and establish yourself as a great company.

• Respond in a timely manner. Answer your customers questions, comments and concerns personally and quickly, either by phone or email. It is important to cater to a customers schedule and be available when they are.
• Allow your customers to give feedback. Always communicate with your customers to find out their needs. What’s working “What’s not working” Provide a way for a customer to leave feedback so they know you care and so that you can learn from what your target market likes and dislikes. This will help you in the long-run, as you are tailoring your business towards your niche.
• Customize and personalize your website. Your business website should always be user-friendly and personalized. Avoid pop-ups and excessive advertising because this will deter a customer very quickly. Make your web page pleasing to the eye and easy to navigate.
• Go social. Social media is a very powerful tool for referrals, marketing and advertising. Effective social media campaigns provide a direct link to your website as well as customer feedback. Make sure to respond to inquiries and answer questions directly.
• Create a rewards program. Customers love a rewards program and ways to save money. A rewards program will promote a long-term rapport between you and your customer and establish repeat business. It will also inspire them to Friend you on Facebook and Follow you on Twitter, two key avenues for a strong business-consumer relationship.

These are just a few tips to help exceed consumer expectations and create a true sense of brand loyalty. It’s very important to stay human, especially on the online channels, and personally communicate with your market. Don’t be a company on social networks, be a person; people will definitely notice and be more motivated to respond. People want to talk to people, not logos and robots.

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The Challenges of Starting a Small Business

Starting a business can present numerous but not insurmountable challenges. Becoming knowledgeable through research, learning to heed the advice of successful entrepreneurs, and becoming proactive in all operations will assist small business owners in facing these challenges.

Here are some of the main challenges entrepreneurs face and strategies to effectively deal with them.

1. Developing an idea and vision. As Benjamin Franklin once so aptly put it, you must possess the ability to see what others cannot see. Developing a business idea and plan is the first and most important challenge faced by every entrepreneur.
2. Raising capital for startup. To overcome the omnipresent challenge of raising capital, you must develop the ability to sell your idea to investors. Note, however, that convincing an investor about something that does not yet exist presents a challenge within itself. You must be persuasive and have a good story backed by a fortified business plan if you wish to attract investors and capitalists.
3. Putting together a strong business team. By team, I do not mean employees; I mean a business management team that will meet routinely to brainstorm and discuss the direction of the business, long and short-term goals, and different strategies to expand it. A business team is a vital, yet largely ignored key to raising capital and getting your business on its feet.
4. Finding the right employees. Finding ambitious, trustworthy and loyal employees is extremely difficult. Even if you do find individuals who meet your expectations, if they work poorly as a team, it is in vain and will yield nothing but stagnation. Remember, employees are a reflection of your business its values, culture, and ethic. Hire slow and fire fast.
5. Overcoming competition. From an outsiders perspective, competition encourages innovation and production of quality products; it’s a benchmark of creativity. Adopting this view, you should embrace competition and use it to stimulate your creative juices, so to speak.
6. Unpredictable business challenges and expenses. As the old saying goes, expect the unexpected. If not handled promptly and with care, these can potentially lead to business failure. Some challenges include:
• Lawsuits
• Inability to make payroll
• Unexpected resignation of staff
• Bad customers
• Poor working capital
• Oscillating government policy
• Unpaid bills/taxes
7. Keeping up with trends and changes in the industry. Trends can make or break a business. Seasoned entrepreneurs are aware that trends are friends and they swiftly work to adapt to the latest trends in the market. Spotting and then exploiting trends presents a unique challenge business owner must master, and the most successful businesses are the first to twist trends and steer them to their own benefits. Be an industry leader; don’t follow in others footsteps.

The above are several but not all challenges every small business owner must face as they begin their journey as an entrepreneur. Overcoming these challenges is quite literally the difference between success and failure.

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10 Years Later: A Look at How 911 Changed the Economy

The tragedy of September 11, 2001 was so sudden and devastating that it may be challenging at this point in time to write dispassionately and objectively about its effects on the U.S. economy. Nevertheless, its important to briefly analyze the effects 9/11 had on the economy. The historic attacks on the World Trade Center were the most appalling and debilitating in American history; 2,974 people killed and 24 were still missing as of 2009.

The economic impact of 9/11 sent America into a frenzy, especially after discovering losses of $40 billion in insurance, $14 billion in the private sector, $1.5 billion in state and local government enterprises, $0.7 billion in the US federal government, and $11 billion in the rescue and clean up operations following the attacks.

However, one should not assume that the terrorist attacks hold a direct correlation with the recession America continues to struggle with today. Contrary to popular belief, the recession officially began in the third quarter of 2000, approximately one year before the attacks. America actually embarked on growth during the fourth quarter of 2001, when the anthrax scare arose. This is not to argue that there were no significant economic ramifications from the attacks. Unsurprisingly, the airline and tourism industry suffered major blows following the 9/11 attacks and business confidence was drastically reduced.

Office space is expensive, so people are looking for solutions, like virtual offices, to help fight the added costs. This led to a rise in work-at-home jobs, as people preferred the comfort of their own home to offices and use virtual offices for there remote access thus saving their time and money.

In the end, though, the nation became closer and more unified, and if Americans remember that strength comes through unity, it can get through any crisis and come out on top.

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Six Personality Traits Every Small-Business Owner Should Have

Every small business is different. A large scale study was conducted by the Guardian Life Small Business Research Institute in which over 1100 different companies with 9-29 employees participated. The study revealed that there were six key traits that defined the personality of the successful business owners.

Think you’ve got what it takes:

1. Collaborative : The Guardian study found that knowing how to collaborate was the single most important trait for someone running a business with less than 100 employees.
2. Curious: Most outstanding managers in this study were constantly searching on internet to find way how to improve their business, retain their employees and upgrade their products.
3. Future Focused: Taking keen interest on what’s coming up is a crucial trait for a successful small business owner.
4. Self-Fulfilled: Successful small business owners are the kind of people who prefer being in full control of their own destiny. They value the freedom to make their own choices.
5. Tech-Savy: Most of great small business owners in this study were convinced that technology helped make their business more efficient.
6. Action Oriented: The top performers in this study were highly motivated. Adversity motivated them to work harder irrespective of the state of the economy.

Read Ben Popper’s article to know more about these key traits of successful small business owners. Visit: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217837

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Time Management: Keep Your Eye on the Prize

To accomplish more in less time it is important to follow five P’s of Productivity.

There are many books available on Time Management and many new titles are being published. With lot of information easily accessible, why do people struggle to manage their lives? The concept of Time Management seems to be quite simple. Allocate 24 hours to completion of needs, tasks, projects and responsibilities.

Time Management Coach Stacey K. Vulakh explains how to focus on the end result instead of trying to monitor the minutes and control every factor. He emphasizes on incorporating “5 P’s of Productivity” in your life to get the best results and enhance your productivity. These are:

1. Keep your eyes on the Prize: You need to identify why Time Management is important to you and define the intended goal or prize.
2. Manage your priorities: Defining your priorities should be your primary or main concern. Narrow the priority list to three or four and focus on those.
3. Plan, plan, plan: People will be far more successful if they implement an element of planning into their life. One\’s success level will improve dramatically with some sort of a planning process.
4. Identify Partnerships: Partnerships can take on many forms, so be creative.
5. Practice: It takes 21 days for a new thought or activity to stick.

Read the article to know more about this important topic. Visit:http://www.womenentrepreneur.com/2011/01/time-management-start-with-the-end-result.html

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The One-Paragraph Start-Up Plan

During the earliest stages of starting a business, you should avoid writing lengthy plans. Instead of following lengthy traditional business plan, opt for a realistic, practical tool: a one-paragraph startup plan. It is possible to write everything there is to know about your brilliant business idea in one paragraph. A traditional business planning teaches ‘brainstorm-write-brainstorm-write-revise-revise-execute’; the goal of one-paragraph plan is to have you ‘brainstorm-write-execute-revise-execute’. There are fundamental differences between these two approaches. The traditional route would have you finalize your entire strategy based on a hypothesis without testing or validation. The one-paragraph startup plan is designed to test your hypothesis through daily experimentation. It also serves as a fluid action strategy that grows along with your startup.

Scott Gerber suggests using following five steps to write a practical business plan to launch a new company quickly.

1. Answer key questions about your business.
2. Write checklist
3. Execute your plan
4. Revise your draft plan, and
5. Continue to update your plan

Break each sentence in your start-up plan into five immediately executable steps — statements you can convert into reality. Each step should move your business forward in some way.

To know more about writing effective one-paragraph business start-up plan, read the article; visit: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217696

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The Four Keys to Raising Capital

Raising Capital to grow your business or invest in property has become harder. The key to raising capital is a person’s ability to sell. Selling is a crucial skill for any entrepreneur. The main question you come across while planning to raise capital is ‘What are you selling’ or ‘What is the lender or investor looking for’.

According to Kim Kiyosaki, the key to raising money, whether it’s to start or expand your business mainly depends on four factors:

1. The Project
2. The Partners
3. The Financing
4. The Management

If you can show a prospective lender or investor that you have command over these four key factors, then selling will not be an issue, and you will attract more money than you thought possible.

It’s important to know the overall “want” of a lender or investor. Every investor is mainly interested to know whether he/she is going to get healthy return on his/her investment. That’s the overall want of an investor. The same criterion applies to every lender or investor whether it is a traditional bank or a lending institution or an individual.

To know how to address these key points clearly and confidently, read Kim Kiyosaki’s article, visit: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217347

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Four Steps to Make Advertising More Effective

Testing and measuring the results of your advertising and marketing efforts can increase your profit and enable you to identify what works and what doesn’t. Brad Sugars suggests useful steps to help you make the most of your advertising efforts:

Follow the TOC formula: Target, Offer and Copy are the three elements that build the foundation of a strong advertisement. If you know your target market, your advertisement should be placed where your potential customers will see it. First thing you need to do is figure out your target market to determine the viability of your business. If there is no market, your business is not viable. Include a specific offer when writing your headline. You can search online to find out how online marketers do it. Your headline should prompt your potential customers to call you. Start with test adverts which could be in the form of classified, small space or online advertisements via Google. Such a test is an easy and inexpensive way to evaluate whether your product or service is offered to the target customers.

If you are targeting the right market with a decent offer and a clear call to action, you should generate some response. Examine what you can do to boost the response, modify your adverts and retest it. If your adverts don’t generate any response, just scrap them and move on. Once you find something that works you can expand. If it is a small classified advert, try a bigger display advertisement.

To know more about how to make ads more effective, read the article: Visit:http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/217794

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