Home Budget 2007 Company Profile Services Accountancy Zone Business Zone Tax Zone IR35 Update News Articles Feedback Search Legal Notice How To Find Us Supercharge your sales and marketing operation Look at the top of any set of accounts. What is the first figure you see? Sales. It should not be overlooked that without sales there would be no profit. Whether it’s selling plans to financial backers, ideas to staff or products to customers, a business manager must be able to market and sell his or her ideas. Give ‘em what they want It’s very easy to sell what your customers want to buy. Find out what your customers actually require and, if necessary, redesign and repackage your product or service to ensure that they get it. This should be done continually by researching the market and by listening to the needs of individual customers. But be sensitive to the requirements of different customers. Three people may buy the same car but all for different reasons. One for the looks, another for the performance and the third for the safety features. Try to find out what your customers’ "hot spots" are. Milk the cow Your richest source of new business is right under your nose – your existing customers. Smother them with love and attention and they will keep coming back. Take an interest in their business, listen to their comments and adapt your business accordingly and quickly one-off customers will become long-term clients and casual sales will turn into repeat business. Always bear in mind that it costs five times more to win a new customer than it does to keep an existing one so make sure that whilst you’re focussing on getting clients through the front door your existing clients aren’t walking out of the back one! Sort the wheat from the chaff Are all clients equally important? Actually, to borrow a phrase from Animal Farm, some are more equal than others. Where do your sales come from? Where do you spend most of your time? Where do you make your profits? These questions go to the heart of business profitability. It is not unusual to discover: That approximately 20% of your customers generate 80% of sales; That too much time is spent pandering to small, disorganised, unprofitable customers who don’t pay on time, don’t refer new customers, don’t use additional services and generally make nuisances of themselves; That your key customers (the 20% mentioned above) are neglected because you spend most of your time looking after the other 80%; That these 20% of customers generate more than 80% of profits and that the "worst" 20% of customers make little or no contribution to profits. By analysing your customer base you will be able to focus your sales team on the: 20% of customers that contribute most to your profitability; 20% of smaller customers with the greatest potential to become big customers; and 20% of sales prospects that you are most likely to convert to large customers. It’s all about using your time most effectively. It ain’t what you do it’s that way that you do it We’re all familiar with the maxim "get it right first time". Unfortunately, because of it’s overuse in recent years, it has become something of a cliché. You must rediscover this goal and actually do something about it, don’t just pay lip service to it. You can have the best sales team in the world, but if the organisation can’t deliver on it’s promises then all the effort will be for nothing. Take a close look at your systems and processes. Cut out the wasteful exercises. Monitor the performance of the business. Ask your customers how they perceive the service that they are getting. There is always room to improve your service. Indeed, no business will survive unless it constantly looks at ways to push the boundaries of customer service. Take the example of the hotel industry. Twenty years ago we would have been happy just to have toiletries in our room. Now we expect it. Ten years ago a television in our room would have pleased us. Now we expect not only a television but satellite channels and films. Even now the industry is looking at ways to improve our experience when we stay, for example, by allowing internet access in the room via the television and offering leisure facilities. Of course, mistakes will happen. But how we react to them will determine whether the customer comes back to us or goes to the competition. If you grit your teeth and grudgingly acknowledge fault then your customer’s perception of you will diminish. If you accept the criticism positively, and overwhelm those customers who complain with your desire not only to correct the problem but to compensate them for their loss, then your reputation may even be enhanced. Know the enemy Two men were stranded in the Arctic. Suddenly, in the distance, they spotted a rather hungry-looking polar bear. Promptly, one man reached into his back-pack and withdrew a pair of running shoes. "Why are putting those on?" asked the other man. "You’ll never outrun a polar bear". "I don’t have to", replied the other man. "I only have to outrun you" To be the best all you have to do is be better than the rest. Identify your competition. Acknowledge their strengths and work to negate any advantage in those areas. Emphasise your strengths to existing and potential customers but never be complacent. Plan the route It’s perhaps rather strange that we’ve left this until last but it just goes to show how many ways you can build your business without thinking about new customers. However, it is vitally important to generate new opportunities. This isn’t easy to do but by following a few simple steps you will be able to succeed. Before embarking on any sales activity you should first ensure that you’re heading in the right direction. What is your business strategy? What type of customers would you like and what will you offer them? How can you best bring your business to their attention? When you get the opportunity to meet them what do you say? Establish a target list using criteria like: How attractive is the prospect? How realistic are the chances of success? Do we have particular strengths in any sector? and How easily can we get in contact with them? Once you have a list, categorise them into three groups, cold, warm and hot prospects. Tailor you marketing activity around each category. If you do meet with a prospect consider: Who is the decision maker? What are their needs? and How you can meet their requirements? Finally, never forget this principle. We call it the "so what" rule. Whether you are communicating in writing or verbally, after every statement ask yourself "so what". You can bet that the prospect is. For example, you may say that you have offices in a number of locations. So what? So you are better placed to respond quickly to their needs thus reducing their costs. You may say that your business has been established for a number of years. So what? So you have gained significant experience in helping similar clients and are consequently able to offer a more cost-effective service. You may say that you have just developed a web-site. So what? So the client can gain access to additional information and communicate with the business more effectively. Do you get the picture? Always relate your comments to the customer by telling them what’s in it for them. We hope that this brief guide will provoke some thought. It touches on a few of many ways in which your business can succeed. We would love the opportunity to put words into action. Please contact us for further information or to arrange a meeting. [ Business Zone Home · Previous - Staying Within The Law · Next - Money Worries ]