improving sales

Archive for the ‘improving sales’ Category

Five Simple Marketing Ideas For The New Year

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012

1. Start doing press releases.

You can make a press release up about almost everything. Extra learning you’ve taken on, certificates and awards, new customers, sponsorship taken in the community. Try to spread the word – be a better marketer!

2. Start writing articles and submit them to industry periodicals and publications your target market reads.

Articles or comments, quotes by you in articles, work so much more effectively than advertising. If you write an article produced in your target market’s periodicals, you’re almost endorsed as an expert – and how many new eyeballs does your name come across to?

3. Use Email Signatures cleverly.

Signatures on emails are a great way to market yourself to different clients and your different products and services. Your email software package should have a Wizard that walks you through creating it. In Outlook it is the tools menu > options > mail format > signatures.

4. Start doing Thank-you notes, cards and emails.

You know the recommendation that you should always send out thank-you notes and cards. But what if you see a lot of prospective new clients in a week? Or you’re just too busy? Why not do a mix of thank-you notes and emails?

5. Direct Your Audience in what action you want them to take?

Plan ahead. Sure, you might want people to click through to your website and order something then and there. But is there anything else? Do you want them perhaps to give you more information? Do you want them to pass the email on to a friend? Do you want them to sign up for regular emails? So if this book is prompting you towards your first email campaign, stop. Go for a walk. Think. Really think. What actions do you really want your readers to take?

Tags: better marketing, planning ahead, press releases, thank you notes cards emails, writing articles
Posted in Cheap marketing, communication, email, email marketing, improving sales | 1 Comment »

Making Business Friends

Wednesday, January 25th, 2012

When does one and one equal much, much more than two? When you develop the synergy of working with other likeminded businesses. Call it developing working alliances; strategic partnerships; networking; joint marketing. Call it what you want – but I can’t stress the importance of it enough.

Take a look at what you do and find a non-competitive partner whose services or products have an affinity with, or complement yours. Meet like-minded people with big email lists. Both of you can win by getting your names in front of a whole new audience. This would not only ring-fence both sets of clients from other competition, it also adds value and service to them. Not to mention the potential to significantly increase your income earning abilitly from this new alliance.

Thinking inside the square: • Financial services = Fire/general + Risk + Investments + Accounting • Marketing = Advertising + Printer + Web development + Direct Marketing Companies + Copywriters • Gifts = Flowers + Chocolates • Computers = Hardware + Software + Consultants Do think outside the square: • Think about your kids’ school. Many of the parents will be professionals. • Real estate agents – think of their contacts for insurance, architects, investors, etc. • Probus clubs • Clubs (RSA’s). Bowls. Tennis clubs. A language school. A local university with night classes. Speciality clothing stores. Sports clubs.

Tags: joint marketing, networking, strategic partnerships, working alliances
Posted in communication, improving sales | 2 Comments »

Two kinds of people to market to

Monday, May 3rd, 2010

You have two kinds of people to market to:

1) Those who know you and
2) Those who never heard of you.

As you know, marketing to those that have never heard of you can encompass activities such as advertising traditionally and on the Internet; having a website that is found in searches; networking; joining associations; sending out direct mail. And of course a combination of above.

But please don’t neglect or think that many of the methods mentioned substitute for keeping in touch with the people who know you. These are people who have made an inquired; individuals whom you’ve met at a networking meeting or on an airplane. Clients who have done business with you in the past.

Keep in touch with these valuable resources, be they clients or prospects. Do you have a client newsletter? If not, how do you regularly stay in touch for repeat business; up selling and referrals? I can hear you thinking – “yeah, yeah, yeah, I know that Debbie”. But – how wide is the gulf between what you know you should do and what you actually are doing?

Let me tell you a tiny story. Two weeks ago I got a phone call on Friday afternoon at 5:15. It was Robert, the Managing Director. He said “Debbie, I just read your latest newsletter. We’ve got to talk. When can you come in?

Now I haven’t spoken to Robert in well over two years – in person or on the phone that is. But I have been personally “talking” to him via email at least once a month since the last time we met. He wasn’t ready for our services then, and it has taken 20 months. But how easy was it to stay in contact with him? With personalisation software, a newsletter that keeps readers interested and thus subscribed, you can be as personal as your database information enables you to be. No matter how large your mailing list is. You can turn the people that know you into prospects and then to clients. You’ll move existing clients well up that loyalty ladder.

Tags: clients, marketing, networking, prospects
Posted in improving sales | No Comments »

Diamond Marketing On A Pauper Spend

Wednesday, April 21st, 2010

Back in the late 90’s as a marketing consultant, I would always hear the Managing Director of a of risk insurance brokerage I was assisting tell his team “activity equals success”. Without a doubt he was right. The sales you make today are generated from the marketing activities you have done in the past. What differs industry by industry is the lead time required for that activity to create a sale. Stop the activity and in a corresponding time in the future – sales will fall.

This is not yet another article espousing the imperative of continuing your marketing efforts in difficult economic times. Rather six strategies on how to enhance and refocus your marketing to generate greater success from less cost in time, dollars and effort.

I can vouch for all six because I personally do them every day.

1. Quantify. Money talks. Fluff walks.

Put a dollar value on how they’ll benefit. Measure their rate of return.

This exercise is easier than you might think. Will your event management service save them time? Put a value on it by estimating how much time it will save per annum multiplied by the value of that person’s time (their wage per hour, salary). You can reduce stress? Does that lead to happier employees which helps reduce turnover? You can quantify the recruitment costs saved along with the productivity continuum. By helping them put on the conference and not cancelling it this year – it will help them make more sales or increase turnover? Take the average value of one sale (you can even factor in the life time value of that one new client) multiplied by the number of new ones expected.

You can get the base information any number of ways. Research on the Internet. Their Competitors. Annual reports. Talk to HR professionals about salary levels. Colleagues in that industry. Allies within that company.

2. Do Your Homework

How much time do you take researching a prospect before your initial contact? After several presentations this September at the Bi-annual Asia Pacific Ronald McDonald House Charities conference, An Australian house manager made this comment. “Debbie the most important point I’m taking home from you isn’t one you mentioned, it’s what you vividly demonstrated throughout this conference. It suddenly hit me that I wasn’t doing any research before going to talk to prospective business partners or donors. I just front up the meeting, talk about us and ask for donations or support. It is now clear to me that we can be much more successful by understanding them more. Putting their shoes on. Empathising how we can be of help to them also.”

3. Them. Not You

Almost every piece of marketing material, proposal, sales presentation that I see has the wrong I/You ratio of. Your prospects care solely about themselves. Yet most marketing material focuses on how wonderful we are. How great we do. Send this chest thumping guerrilla marketing philosophy packing. Replace it with a customer focused what’s in it for them strategy. How will it make them more successful? How will it make them happier? How will it make them more money?

4. Communicate

Build relationships. People do business with people, not companies. How many communications do you receive from businesses after you’ve paid the invoice or bought the good? By maintaining a regular communication strategy you will stay top of mind and gain more referrals. But remember point 3 – the communication is primarily for their benefit – not just yours. The mode of communication should be varied too. Not just email. When was the last time you picked up the phone and called existing customers? You’d be surprised how much business you can generate that way.

5. Tenacity

Figuratively speaking most businesses knock on a door and ask “will you do business with me”? When the answer is “no, not now”, they move on to the next prospect. Then the next. And the next. That time spent is forever wasted.

When you knock, change the question to “can we start up a conversation”? In other words, by using the communication strategy you set up in point 4, you create tenacity. Persistency. You nurture prospects along until they are ready to do business with you or equally important, they refer people to you.

By combining these six strategies, you can improve your success while using less money, time and effort.

Tags: enhance, focus, increase turnover, marketing, quantify, sales
Posted in Cheap marketing, improving sales, smart marketing | No Comments »

Persistency Pays Heaps

Monday, April 19th, 2010

Let me tell you about Wayne McCarthy, a top real estate agent with Barfoot and Thompson in Auckland. Wayne worked with a couple from England for two years house hunting in Auckland during the summers. Several months into year three they bought a home online from England from another agent & company. For most, the contact would have ended then and there. However Wayne continued to stay in touch with them with a regular, five monthly “good day, how are you, need a tradesman or anything let me know” email. Yes, Even though they weren’t clients. He never mentioned in any of the emails “Do I have a house for you, told of an open house or suggested they might want an investment property. He simply sent them a can I help you email.

Five years pass

Wayne gets a call from the English couple. “Wayne, we are not coming to New Zealand as often as we would have liked. Please sell the house for us.” “Of course,” Wayne replies “but what about the agent you bought your home from?” “We never heard from him again. You’ve been loyal so we’ve called you”.

What’s the point?

Persistence – 5 years
Continued though business was lost
System
Relationship building – NOT BUGGING

Your System

To build a similar reminder system for yourself – why not create a recurring Task in Outlook (To Do in Lotus Notes) to remind yourself to call, visit, follow up on important clients and prospects?

Posted in communication, improving sales, Outlook | No Comments »

Your Automatic Memory

Friday, April 16th, 2010

We all have a ‘To Do’ list. Most maintain it mentally. Some write down a list, or have 17 half crossed out lists scattered. You might use your software calendar to prompt you. Wrong place. The calendar is built for appointments and meetings only. Reminders make you look unnaturally busy.

Only a minority use their Task function, but even then only as a short term reminder system.

Look at Tasks another way. For long term persistency. Tenacity.

Most people in business are interested only in nurturing prospects that will do business with them instantly. If someone is not ready to do business with you when you first meet, send out a proposal – do you forget about them, moving on to the next prospect?

This is where Tasks can make you a sales superstar. Helping you to remember to stay in touch, to follow up – every few months, every year. Until they are ready to do business with you.

Once you create a Task, on the appointed day at the appointed time – a small box will open on your screen telling you the Task is due. You can also set a recurring task and assign a task.

How can you use Tasks to raise the bar of your business performance?

To follow up:

When a client will need your services again.
On current quotes, proposals, emails you sent that have remained unanswered; on the longer term following up on business that didn’t eventuate.
On customer service problems (especially if they are not expecting a future call/contact)

Remind:

Staff when reports, items are due
Yourself to renew – such as domain names, licensing, contracts
Use recurring Tasks to remember to call important clients every 12 weeks or so.

With Staff

Project management – including assigning Tasks to staff
Following on from meetings- Task action items to the people who are responsible for them

Instead of trying to remember 1001 things, parking items in Tasks / To Do frees up clutter, removes guilt and ensures your prompted at the right time to action it.

Tags: business performance, follow up, tasks, to do list
Posted in communication, improving sales, Outlook | No Comments »

Refocus For Pleasure and Profit

Wednesday, April 14th, 2010

It was a business changing moment when I overhead one of my young triplets Matthew say to a friend “oh that’s my mom. She’s always on the computer” That innocent comment was like a hot knife slicing butter, slashing my heart. How right that little boy was. It kick started an examination of my business. Being self employed I was able to analyse each type of work I took in, rate it by how personally pleasurable and profitable an activity it was. By 10am the next morning I had a whole new focus of only accepting and developing business that was the most profitable and pleasurable to do.

How do you apply this principal to your business (and personal life)?

What are your activities now?
Write down all the things you do. Then score each by how passionate you are and how pleasurable an activity it is. Next rate the income production activities by how profitable they are. Pleasurable/ passionate has to be part of the equation as life isn’t about money alone. For example a self employed mother would find a better use of her time marketing for new business as opposed to cooking dinner. But if cooking gives her pleasure, it’s an activity that stays.

Focus Your Marketing
It’s easy for small businesses or the self employed to make changes swiftly. What about retailers for example?

Rob Bruce, owner of Blenheim Furniture2go has a marvelous attitude. “In the current market we’re not selling so many $2000 lounge suites, but $4,000 ones are moving. We look at sales, and tweak our focus. Beds vs. lounge suites. Targeting the catalogue mail drop to certain neighbourhoods.

Alliances for work you turn away
You always want to be helpful so try to build alliances with other companies in your industries that are happy to take on that work. You might even be clever and negotiate a little clip of the ticket.

Tags: build alliances, developing business, family and business, focus marketing, profitable activities
Posted in improving sales, parenting | No Comments »

Why A Good Customer Experience Makes Dollars and Sense

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Have you ever thought of the real cost to business of just one lost customer? Or conversely the value that well trained staff can add to your profit?

Cost of lost customers.
Having a good experience doing business with you brings people back. Think of the long term value of this. Colmar Brunton New Zealand Research shows that if the customer experience is bad, 80% will tell 13 other people. But let’s look at the converse.

Let’s use the example of a café in a business district. A regular customer might spend $60 a month on take away coffees. If something chases them away – like a snippy employee, or the wait just gets too long too many times because of understaffing, the lost income is at least $720 a year ($60 for 12 months). That is $2,160 over 3 years. Just from one customer.

Now what if that customer tells his colleagues “Don’t go to that café’ “. Multiply business lost by people told. Bad service or processes that chase people away has an actual, quantifiable cost.

Value of good staff
Referrals are the lifeblood of many businesses. Going back to the café example what if they had a great counter person? A fun environment, or gave a free coffee e every now and then to someone as a thanks for being a regular. If that one takeout coffee customer instead of leaving spread the good word, each referral would have an annual value of $720.

As you can see, having happy positive staff, creating a welcoming environment and a good customer experience pays double dividends.

Article by International Speaker and bestselling author Debbie Mayo-Smith. www.debbiespeaks.co.nz Debbie@debbiespeaks.co.nz

Tags: customer, profit, staff
Posted in communication, improving sales | No Comments »

VIP book

Friday, March 5th, 2010

You have no business if you have no customers. And to customers it’s often the little, inexpensive things that matter most. It therefore makes infinite sense that if you operate in a competitive market, you can improve your bottom line by implementing good, customer focused processes and service.

Here’s an example. I lost the advice battle with three of our six children when we last ordered Domino’s Pizza. I suggested they not order thin crusts. When we got them home, opened the lids, sure enough they were a little too crispy you might say. I telephoned the store, asked for the manager so I could complain about the pizzas. I expected an argument. Instead they didn’t quibble: ‘We’ll put you down in our VIP book for four complimentary pizzas, just tell us you’re in our VIP book the next time you call or come in.’

You could have knocked me down with a feather when one day later a letter arrived with another apology from the general manager, a promise of five (not four) free pizzas and, to the kids’ delight, a coupon for free garlic bread and Coke.

This is an idea to steal. You can name anything VIP to make your customers feel special. It’s corny, yes, but it does work. Doesn’t a VIP book sound much better than a customer complaint book?

Article by International Speaker and bestselling author Debbie Mayo-Smith. www.debbiespeaks.co.nz Debbie@debbiespeaks.co.nz

Tags: customers, vip
Posted in communication, improving sales | No Comments »

How To Create Superior Proposals That Get Results

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

In the current environment of slashed budgets preparing a superior proposal is more important than ever.

Here are two strategies that should significantly increase your success.

1. Them. Not You

Almost every piece of marketing material, proposal, sales presentation that I see has the wrong I/You ratio. Your prospects care solely about themselves. Yet most marketing material focuses on how wonderful ‘we’ are. How great we do. Send this chest thumping guerrilla marketing philosophy packing. Replace it with a customer focused what’s in it for them strategy. How will it make them more successful? How will it make them happier? How will it make them more money?

2. Quantify.

Money talks. Fluff walks.

Put a dollar value on how they’ll benefit. Measure their rate of return.

This exercise is easier than you might think. Will your product/service save them time? Put a value on it by estimating how much time it will save per annum multiplied by the value of that person’s time (their wage per hour, salary). You can reduce stress? Does that lead to happier employees which helps reduce turnover? You can quantify the recruitment costs saved along with the productivity continuum.

Help them make more sales or increase turnover? Take the average value of one sale (you can even factor in the life time value of that one new client) multiplied by the number of new ones expected.

Tags: increase sales, increase success, make more money, presentation, proposal, slash budgets
Posted in communication, improving sales | No Comments »

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Marketing in Today's Wired World alerts you to the many profitable and clever ways you can use email, txt, video and audio messages to boost revenues, recruit new business, cut costs, improve customer service and leapfrog in front of your competition.
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101 Outlook and Google Tips Debbie's years of experience working with email and Google are packed into this easy to read #1 bestselling book.
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101 Customer Experience Tips do you want more sales, referrals and repeat business? Then you need this book! You won't want to miss these 101 tips to place your head and shoulders above the crowd to build customer loyalty, word of mouth, and profits.
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101 Balancing Tips with nine children between them and busy careers, let Debbie and Mary Lambie use their experience to make this practical little book a goldmine of solutions for you.
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Save hours a week using clever, timesaving 'how-to' solutions to the top problems you have using email, your calendar, address books/contacts.
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