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One: Winning Mindset

January 20th, 2010

#1. Winning Mindset

Setting and achieving worthwhile goals! This is where success happens! It’s easy to get stuck at the beginning of the process with assessing our current situation and setting great goals without following them through to completion. Setting goals without achieving them equals failure to achieve your own worthwhile, pre-determined goals.
Some Keys to Effective Goal Setting
#1 Have a Vision – Create a VISION that is worthwhile, BIGGER than MONEY, and potentially achievable. Write this down, by hand, into YOUR Dream Book or your Goal Book. Communicate this vision to your Team.
#2 Know your Passions – Pursue what JUICES you, pumps you up, invigorates you and rewards you for the doing.
#3 Be Frankly Honest – Setting goals means being honest with yourself and others. Listen to Chapter 15A of Think and Grow RICH! As Billy Shakespeare wrote, “To thine own self be true.”
#4 Set Goals that are Yours to Achieve – Your goals must be literally “Your Goals.” Overcome FEAR with Chap 15B
#5 Live Your Life in Action – Set goals then Act On Them. Stay in Motion.

Entrepreneur Mindset also includes the willingness to take rational, calculated risks; the ability to DECIDE, often without all the data available; a drive to succeed; a willingness to INNOVATE, do it DIFFERENTLY, to stand out from the crowd; and an ability to hear criticism, fair and unfair, and weigh it without a knee-jerk acceptance or rejection of it.

Action Steps: with low-tech pen, pencil and notebook in-hand, LISTEN to some of the links here, an start writing out YOUR VISION, your Definite Chief Aim! Write AS IF you KNOW YOU CANNOT FAIL, and find a goal LARGER THAN MONEY! Take some time, listen… write!

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Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Two: Sales Process

January 20th, 2010

#2 – Sales Process

Simplified Overview of Sales Process steps

1. Preparation (of my self as seller, mentor, provider)

Do I have the facts at my immediate recall? Do I have high motives in wanting to serve my potential client? Am I prepared to deliver the highest quality service I can to this person, these corporate people?

2. Meet and qualify (prospective buyers, clients) (in person or online) If online or by print media, okay. If in person, BE PERSONABLE! Be professional, approachable, informed, honest, well-dressed and possessed of a comfortable sense of self-deprecating humor.

Qualify the prospect (can this person afford what he says he wants? What does she want? *Use A.I.D.A.)

3. Demonstrate My Wares, Services (answer objections, show benefits) Benefits are NOT ‘features’… benefits are the FEELINGS and the EXPERIENCES that Client GETS from using your feature-laden products or services. Features-smeechers! SHOW THE BENEFITS!

4. Negotiate the sale (Close. Help client to COMMIT to purchase) Learn ‘Questions That Sell’. Help this person MOVE to his own self-interest, ACT in his/her own best interests by TAKING ADVANTAGE of your offer.

5. Make the exchange and deliver goods (Move through the transaction) Take action, follow through, inquire in a timely manner about the delivery, suitability of purchase and Client’s Experience. CARE how your Client is experiencing this all.

Advantages of process

This process is time-tested, logical and emotionally satisfying to both sellers and buyers, IF it is followed. This is what some very competent people call a ‘canned, planned procedure’. Following a process becomes part of a winning System. Systematize YOUR processes.

From shy-hello to congratulative closure and on to supportive follow-up, selling is a PROCESS, NOT an ACT, a SERVICE not a SCAM!

Action Plan: Meet with your Team, to REVIEW and TWEAK Your Sales Process. Are you hitting the major hot-buttons for your (prospective) clients? Are you satisfying emotional NEEDS when they become Clients? Are you aiming at your Ideal Client?

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Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Three: Marketing Schedule

January 20th, 2010

#3 Marketing Schedule

Develop your marketing schedule after you’ve completed your research and analysis for your market area. At this point, you should know who your ideal clients are, where they are located, who your competition is, and what your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) are. Now you can begin to incorporate all the information you gathered into a strategic plan to promote your business.

The following are relevant parts of your Marketing Schedule

Your Marketing Budget:

Pencil in some figures that you & your Team see as ball-park accurate. Make sure you’re aiming at marketing channels that will reach your Ideal Client. Focus on serving your Ideal Client, INNOVATIVELY!

Frequency of Contact

Sketch out ONE Auto-Responder series, then go from there. What are the FIRST things your Ideal Client wants to learn, hear, know? GIVE THEM OUT, right away! Determine what makes an ideal Contact Frequency by polling, asking and testing!

Your Marketing Message

This MUST BE FOCUSED on the fears, problems and desires of your Ideal Client. You are NOT all things to all people, you are ONE THING to your Ideal Client! THIS is your niche. If you want another niche, duplicate this process with THAT difference in the forefront, for THAT Ideal Client. Until then, keep your Marketing Message FOCUSED SQUARELY on the fears, problems and needs of your Ideal Client!

Marketing Piece Guidelines

Attention Grabbing Headline – usually 5-9 words – arrest your customer – INTERRUPT their thoughts the moment they hit your page, hear your commercial, see your ad – you have something they want – make it interrupting, powerful, authentic, honest!

Engage — Only one offer/message per piece – BE REAL! — avoid a sales pitch – stress the benefits of your offer, NOT the Features – get to the point, THEIR Problem’s SOLUTION –

Educate – Why they benefit – HOW they benefit – WHAT differentiates YOUR services to justify YOUR higher price – instill a sense of urgency – give something of REAL, PERCEIVABLE value – make it a keeper
Call to Action — Tell your customers what you want them to do (put name and email addy in the slots here; call now; refer a friend)
Marketing Piece ID — Add a unique identification code to each marketing piece for tracking your success. When you get a call, ask how they got your name. Record this information because so you can know what is working and you can repeat it.

5 Reasons to Create an Internet Marketing Schedule

As a website owner or business owner who uses a website to generate income, internet marketing is important to your success. For that reason, you need to implement it. If this is a new step for you, you may be looking for guidance. A good first step is to familiarize yourself with popular internet marketing techniques. You can easily do this online by visiting internet marketing forums. Once you know how to market your website or blog, you start to implement the techniques you’re learning. Careful, this is where many new marketers make costly mistakes.

To ensure you get the most out of your new-found internet marketing knowledge, you need to create a schedule. When properly compiled and used, a schedule will increase your productivity. Remember, the more traffic you drive to your website or blog, the more your earnings potential increases. If that isn’t enough reason to create a schedule, continue reading on for five more.

It Is Easy to Make a Schedule

Get a big wall calendar, assemble your Team, and plan out your rollout! Use erasable white-board markers, and sketch out 18 months of Product/Service Rollout.

You Have Many Options

You don’t need to deliver everything today, tomorrow or this week. It can be printed, PDF, MP3 or MP4, blogged or newslettered, Seminar or Webinar… what does YOUR Team think is most appropriate for YOUR Ideal Client?

Your Schedule is Your Guide

Even if it eats two days of productive time to set it up at the beginning, by creating your Marketing Schedule and putting it up there, for your whole TEAM to see daily, you’ve spun into motion a tremendous gyroscope, a powerful unifying and harmonizing influence which can focus your team as lasers are focused, same wavelength, same message, in harmony, in unity. And remember, UNITY does NOT MEAN ‘Uniformity’.

It Serves as a Source of Motivation

With your Team-Accessible Schedule up for all to see, your people will surprise you by taking initiative, finding extra leverage, squeezing extra juice out of and landing extra clients for you, MOTIVATED by the trust, openness and clarity your Marketing Schedule provides!

You Can Extend Your Reach

You can quickly surpass the Marketing Goals you set in your Schedule, as your Team meets the milestones and experiences the joyful satisfaction of HITTING THE MARK, which leads to extending your reach through creating improved Product or Services, based on improved Client input!
Action Step: Have fun creating your Marketing Schedule!

Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Four: Lifetime Value

January 20th, 2010

#4. Lifetime Value

Companies today have tens of thousands– in some cases millions– of customers. We do not know who they are. We cannot recognize them and talk to them as the old Mom-and-Pop corner grocers did. Loyalty has all but disappeared. Customers are loyal until tomorrow’s newspaper, when they see a coupon for something at another store and – shloosh, they’re gone. What is true of grocery stores is also true of department stores, drug stores, hardware stores, office supply stores, banks, movie theaters – virtually every retail sales organization today.

What has begun to rapidly change this picture has been the advent of computers. In the past 15 years, computers have become so sophisticated and powerful, and their prices have become so inexpensive, that it is possible to keep in a computer today the kind of informative data that the old corner grocer kept in his head, and to use that information to recognize and do favors for our customers. By setting up a customer database, and using it to start a dialog with customers or clients, some companies have been able to reestablish contact with their customers, contact designed to build loyalty, referrals and repeat sales. Retention building is possible.

So, a one-to-two week focus on THIS area of The Big Ten can yield MASSIVE RESULTS in your services, sales and profits. Watch your Inbox for further explanatory emails about this and all other Big Ten dynamics, because these are THE dynamics which make a business super-successful, head-and-shoulders ABOVE all competition!

Segments

Your gold customers should not be bombarded with marketing programs, rather they should be rewarded with super-services. These are 80% (or some other large percentage) of our revenue. We must retain these loyal folks. We spend our marketing budget on the Silver and other two fifths encouraging them to move up, to get into Gold Heaven. On the other hand, the bottom fifth may be costing you more than they are worth. Don’t waste marketing dollars here. We don’t want to retain them.

How can the success of these programs be measured? The answer is in the lifetime value. Think in terms of LIFETIME VALUE of a customer and you’ll lift your vision ABOVE the transaction, lift your service ABOVE the blah ordinary, and lift your profits into the stratosphere!

People LOVE to be pampered, and this includes the people who are SPENDING LOTS OF THEIR MONEY WITH YOU!

Action Plan: Tweak (or CREATE!) your Lifetime Value Plan, start collecting profile data immediately and start (or continue) rewarding loyal clients and customers in creative, meaningful ways!

Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Five: Communications

January 20th, 2010

#5. Communication (Internal, External)

Communication is ALL the ideas that move THROUGH your company and to/from your company.

You can’t not communicate. Everything you say and do (or don’t say and don’t do) sends a message to others.

Internal and External Communication

Business Communication encompasses a huge body of knowledge, both internal and external for your business.

Internal communication includes communication of

corporate vision,

strategies,

plans,

corporate culture,

shared values and guiding principles,

employee motivation,

cross-pollination of ideas, and the like.

External communication includes branding, marketing, advertising, customer relations, public relations, media relations, business negotiations, etc.

Whatever form it takes, the objective of communication remains the same – to create a business value, to GET A RESPONSE.

Action Step: Review your Systems Handbook, the one with all the Policies written out, and see how many of them still remain pertinent and worthwhile. (Alternative: Type Out an OUTLINE for such a chapter on Communications; share with Team; revise.)

Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Six: Revenue Plan

January 20th, 2010

#6. Revenue Plan

Make MONEY the metric you use to gauge the success of your site. Most first-time webmasters have a dream of creating a site that gets tons of visitors and becomes very popular. By doing this they are associating site traffic as the definition of success. This has shown itself a common habit on the internet because the traffic to other sites can easily be estimated using tools such as Alexa, but the amount of profits a site makes is private information and is usually not known. So, out of the 2 metrics – traffic and profits – people have chosen the one that is more visible instead of more accurate.

One of your biggest decisions is to what extent you want to try to make money from your site. As a starting point, look at the costs associated with your site and what impact your revenue plan will have on your site’s visitors. This is a personal decision that seems to be polarizing the webmaster community. One camp says that most content and services on the internet are free and it would be self-defeating to try to charge visitors for access to a site. It sometimes gets to a point where web users ‘are offended’ by non-obtrusive banner advertising. The other camp says that your web site is a business and you have the right – some would even say the obligation – to optimize the site’s profits.

Considered analysis says online businesses are no different than Bricks-&-Mortar businesses. Start-up websites are no different than large websites. They all need to make money. As far as charging your visitors for access to a content site, this is usually only for sites that have content that has a high, tangible, or objective value (quality research papers, inside reports, academic resources, White Papers).

Advertising is a different story. Since most content is free, having a few non-flashing banners shouldn’t offend your visitors. The number of visitors who are so turned off that they LEAVE is low. Don’t feel pressured to keep ads off or put ads on your site.

Some people say money isn’t everything. This is easy to say when you have a site that doesn’t get much traffic. In this case you can update it whenever you feel like it. But when your site grows bigger, there will be issues that require you to invest more time into your site. First, people will expect more content. Some visitors consider it a waste of their time to a read a site that isn’t updated. Second, you’ll have to deal with operational issues like comment spam, additional hosting costs, outsourcing content production and more. So after the site grows these webmasters are faced with questions they didn’t think they would need to answer, such as: Is it worth my time to constantly create fresh content when I’m not making money? Why should I invest so much time into a site when there is no tangible benefit?

Revenue Models

Donation – Donations typically will not bring in much money. Getting the money can sometimes be a pain in the ass too because Paypal sometimes freezes some accounts if they think someone is engaging in fraudulent operations, like a fake charity. The effect that soliciting donations has on your site’s visitors can vary. Some vistors may be annoyed that you are asking them to give you money. They look at the costs of the site as your responsibility and they don’t want to hear about it. Other times, especially if you have a tight knit community, many people will be willing and happy to help you out. If you choose this route then the best way to go about it would be to explain to your visitors about the financial cost and time and energy invested by you into the site. Without you telling them, your visitors will probably not realize how many resources it takes to run the site. These days, people assume all web sites are set up and operating cheaply.

Subscriptions – Subscription-based sites can bring in a lot of revenue. Two things to remember are that you really need to have some great content which people are willing to pay for, and you would benefit with a robust backend system to help with payments. By this I mean that only having PayPal would restrict your prospects. This is especially true if you want a professional look to your site. You will want to set up merchant accounts that take credit cards and this will cost money. Also look into AlertPay and PayDot.com
Another major consideration when charging for subscription access to a content site is that search engines will not index the content; therefore you can’t benefit from SEO (search engine optimization) for that content. This alone has potential to make a subscription model questionable. The lack of SEO, and therefore the lack of awareness of the site, would cause you to have to embark on a pay-per-click campaign as a marketing plan which could cost a lot of money. When considering the negative affects of a subscription model on your SEO you should look at how much content would be hidden. A best case scenario would be to have a lot of content available free to all visitors (and search engines) while having a premium section for additional content.

Advertising – Advertising can be a great way to bring money to a site. The basic model is to set up your site so that nothing is expected financially from your visitors, while your advertisers only pay you after you accomplish certain goals (sales, impressions, click-throughs). This creates a low-pressure environment for you, opposed to a subscription-based model where you are taking money from customers and you have a fiduciary responsibility to deliver results that are expected. This can lead to alot of stress.
One of your tasks when using the advertising model is to find a balance between maximizing the number of ads and minimizing the visitors’ annoyance. This mainly has to do with the number and location of ads. For illustration, a leaderboard ad pushes all the content below it further down the page, making people scroll more. Flashing banners get in the way of people trying to read text. And those mandatory full-screen “skip this ad” ads annoy everyone.

Product – In this instance you sell a product and, almost always, have to charge for it. The business model for these e-commerce sites is very closely related to the Brics & Mortar model as you have to worry about your gross margins and typically need to spend a lot of money on advertising. Affiliate – Affiliate marketing most closely resembles the advertising model where your visitors are not overtly pressured by a sales pitch to buy anything yet you still have the potential to make a lot of money. The only difference is that instead of making a fixed amount per unit of traffic your profits will vary as your sales vary.

A Side Note About Subscription Model Pricing

Another consideration about charging your visitors is whether to price your services low or charge a higher premium price. One point to consider is that with a higher price you will have higher profits margins. This is because the additional revenue that comes from price increases falls right to the bottom line because there is no additional cost associated with the extra revenue. This means it is all profit. Whereas if you increase sales by increasing the number of units you sell then you’ll have to pay the cost associated with all those extra units you sold, including fulfillment costs.

Another consideration is that with a higher price and lower customer count you will have fewer customer service issues to deal with. This means fewer e-mails to answer, fewer emails to send out (if you send out a newsletter for example), a smaller database which can come in handy if you do technology upgrades.

Yet another consideration when using a subscription-based model is that it is very hard for businesses to raise prices and not annoy customers. By charging a higher price you can go a lot longer without having to raise prices. It also leaves you the opportunity to lower the price if you set it too high. If this happens you can turn this situation into a good marketing campaign by telling everyone you are slashing prices or having a sale.

Action Plan: Look at your Ideal Client, put yourself in his/her shoes, and decide WHICH Revenue Model will serve him/her best. Write up a revenue plan projecting IDEAL DESIRED INCOME, Revenue Model, Projected REAL Income, Actual Real Income and Projected Dates.

Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Seven: Making Decisions

January 20th, 2010

#7. Decision-Making

Decision: the Key to Transformation

In his classic work, “Think & Grow Rich“, Napoleon Hill stated that 98% of working people are in the jobs they have through indecision, that is, because they never made the decision about what they wanted to do in their lives in the first place. Indecision explains why many people feel that they have a life purpose, but have no idea what it is: the key to transformation. It is one of the key character traits distinguishing high performers from the vast ranks of the mediocre.

Decision is, by definition, behind every truly great achievement anyone ever makes. Interestingly, the most successful people make decisions quickly and change them slowly. They persist with the decisions they have made. However, failures are very slow to make any decision at all (most never make any), and they change the ones they have made very rapidly indeed. Which description applies to you?

Decision-Making Defined

Decision making is a process of first diverging to explore the possibilities and then converging on a solution(s).

The Latin root of the word decision means “to cut off from all alternatives”. This is what you should do when you decide. Burn your boats and your bridges behind you. Get radical, root out everything but your Definite Chief Aim!

Analyzing Proposals: Six Thinking Hats

The Six Thinking Hats proposal analysis tool invented by Edward de Bono⁴ is particularly useful for evaluating innovative and provocative ideas. While most of our thinking is adversarial, the six thinking hats technique overcomes these difficulties by forcing everyone to think in parallel. As participants wear each hat – red, yellow, black, white, green or blue – they all must think a certain way at the same time…

Here are some popular Best Practices:

Strive to reach consensus. Modern corporate mythology has the unique decision maker as hero. We hold to the view that “the many are smarter than the few,” and quickly solicit a broad base of views before reaching any decision. At excellent companies, the role of the manager is that of an aggregator of viewpoints, not the dictator of decisions. Building a consensus sometimes takes longer, but always produces a more committed team and better decisions…

Make Quick Decisions by Establishing Guiding Principles

Companies fast-on-their-feet have demonstrated the ability to sustain surge and velocity and have established sets of guiding principles to help them make quick decisions. Abandoning theoretical and politically correct ‘values’ and bureaucratic procedures in favor of a practical, down-to-earth list of guiding principles will help your company make the decision-making process much faster and at the lower, hands-on, front-line level. Only one question will need to be asked of any proposed course of action: Does it fit our guiding principles?

Tools you can investigate include:

Selecting the most important changes to make – Pareto Analysis, the 80-20 Rule
Evaluating the relative importance of different options – Paired Comparison Analysis
Making a selection when many factors must be taken into account – Grid Analysis
Weighing the pros and cons of a decision – PMI
Analyzing the pressures for and against change – Force Field Analysis
Looking at a decision from all points of view – Six Thinking Hats
Understanding options better by brainstorming questions – Starbursting.
Making better group decisions – Stepladder Technique
Seeing whether a change is worth making – Cost/Benefit Analysis
Choosing between options by projecting likely outcomes – Decision Trees

Action Plan: Set onto paper your company’s Guiding Principles. Discuss them with the staff who’ll need them, with an eye toward Practicality, Simplicity, Courtesy and Justice.

Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Eight: Ideal Client

January 20th, 2010

#8. Ideal Client

By marketing to and networking with your ideal clients, you spend your time and energy directly on the individuals who will purchase the most of your products or services! Makes sense, doesn’t it? So take the time to study a bit and LEARN who your Ideal Client is, in order to learn WHAT he/she wants and WHY he/she wants it. Ideal Client is the driving motive for the very existence of YOUR company, YOUR niche!

One tool that can help you to market to your ideal client is called your “Ideal Client Profile.” Designing this profile is a great personal exercise, although you should involve others in it, too. Why? Because only too often business owners are too close to their own enterprises to accurately create the best overall picture of their own ideal client. Michael Gerber, author and consultant, speaks to this issue in what I consider the most important book for a business owner to read, “The E-myth Revisited”, available at Amazon.

To make sure that you know who your ideal client is, create a survey for your current clients to complete and provide them with a discount coupon or gift as an incentive for helping. You can also network with other business owners and ask their opinions about who would buy your products, and why! Finally, it doesn’t hurt to ask new clients what they would like or want as part of the terrific customer service you provide. I’m betting you’ll learn a lot!

When evaluating new marketing tools, ask yourself:
· Is this something my ideal client would need, enjoy or purchase? · Will this attract my ideal client to my business?

If not, the idea may be better suited to the ideal client of another business. In that case, contact the business owner! After all, building relationships and collaboration is a big part of both life and business, isn’t it?

Things you can do with your Ideal Client Profile:
1. Give a copy to all your friends, family, employees or contractors.

2. Put a copy on your business stationary

3. Find a terrific frame for it and hang it on your office wall.

4. Use it on your Web site.

5. Carry a copy in your wallet, car, and briefcase.

6. Create an affirmation that will help you to attract your ideal client.

7. Review your ideal client statement or list every six months as part of your overall business plan.

Over time, your Ideal Client Profile will change as you raise your standards, alter your business plan or add new products. To be prepared for such re-evaluations, make note of who you are really attracting to your business: who is asking questions, who is buying, and who is subscribing to your newsletters. Keep track of these things over time, analyze the patterns you find there and use the information to your best advantage when deciding on, and marketing to, your ideal client.
Briefly, this means DISTILLING the FEELINGS, PROBLEMS and NEEDS which drive and motivate your Ideal Client!

Answer these “Ideal Client Questions”

If you print this out, you should have enough room to fill in the answers, OR you can copy from this email, pop into your Open Office word processor, (okay, or MS-Word) and expand the writing space to your tastes.

Age, gender, sexual preference, religion and whatever demographics fit.

What attributes do they posses? (Passion, consistency, committed)

What are they passionate about?

Where do they live? Where do they work?

What types of people, places or things do they like?

How do they learn and where do they like to go to learn?

How do they learn about YOU/Your Company and where do they like to go to learn more about YOU?
What do they read? When do they read it? Where do they read?

What shops, Web sites, etc. do they purchase products from?

What meetings, groups, and classes, forums, users-groups, Web 2.0 social spots do they attend?

What type of people are you attracting to your business?

Action Plan: Talk to your Marketing, Promotional, Advertising and other relevant Team members, both INSIDE and OUTSIDE your Company, and start learning WHO your Ideal Client is, TODAY! Get back to this a couple times a month, and keep it exciting!

Posted in Excellence, Mindset

Nine: Marketing Strategy

January 20th, 2010

#9. Marketing (Strategy)

Marketing strategyis your process allowing your organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.

A marketing strategy should be centered around the key concept that customer satisfaction is your main goal. Marketing strategy is a method of focusing an organization’s energies and resources on courses of action which can lead to increased sales and dominance of a targeted market niche.

A marketing strategy combines product development, promotion, distribution, pricing, relationship management and other elements; identifies the firm’s marketing goals, and explains how they will be achieved, ideally within a stated timeframe. Marketing strategy determines the choice of target market segments, positioning, marketing mix, and allocation of resources. It is most effective when it is an integral component of overall firm strategy, helping define how the organization will successfully engage customers, prospects, and competitors in the market arena.

Corporate strategies, corporate missions, and corporate goals. As the Ideal Client constitutes the source of a company’s revenue, marketing strategy is closely linked with sales. A key component of marketing strategy is often to keep marketing in line with a company’s overarching mission statement.

Basic concept:

Target Audience – Who is your Ideal Client? Where is he/she? How will you FIND Ideal Client, in the wild?
Proposition/Key Element – What PROBLEM is your Ideal Client going to SOLVE by using YOU?
Implementation – How will your company DELIVER on your PROMISE?

Action Plan: Set out, in writing, a simple, clear, concise one-paragraph Marketing Strategy. (This ties in with Ideal Client and Elevator Pitch. Get on it, NOW!)

Posted in Mindset

Ten of Ten: Sales

January 20th, 2010

#10. Sales

In contrast to the Sales Process explored earlier, this is the macro picture of your overall sales and their impact on operations, corporate function, financial and fiscal viability and overall health.

In today’s economy, big and small businesses are seeking every opportunity to win sales through competitive advantages. Smart owners of small business know that a sales strategy can create a competitive advantage.

Selling consists of two main functions: tactics and strategy. Sales strategy is the planning of sales activities: methods of reaching clients, competitive differences and resources available. Tactics involves the day-to-day selling: prospecting, sales process, and follow-up.

The tactics of selling are very important but more vitally important is the strategy of sales. The advantages are too compelling to ignore.

Competitive Advantages of Strategic Sales Planning

Increased closing ratio by knowing clients’ hot buttons (see Ideal Client, Elevator Pitch, USP)
Improved client loyalty by understanding needs (see Lifetime Value, Ideal Client)
Shorten the sales cycle with outside recommendations (because you ADDRESS the fears, problems of Ideal Client)
Outsell competitors by offering the best solution (because you KNOW the irrational needs, fears and problems of your Ideal Client)

Triple-tiered Sales Strategy

The development of any type of plan begins with research. The insight gained for a competitive advantage comes from the marketplace, and only later from your mind. The approach to use is what is called “Triple-tier Sales Strategy“. Look at your client and the outside influences pressing their business. Approach all three tiers to understand your client.

Tier 1: Associations: What associations does your target customer belong to? Contact the membership director and establish a relationship not for selling but to better understand their member’s needs. Civic groups, religious congregations, business forums, leisure gatherings and informal (but regular) groups as well as service/volunteer organizations may be fruitful for you to investigate.

Tier 2: Suppliers: Identify non-competitive suppliers who sell to your customer. Learn their challenges and look for partnering solutions, especially with an eye toward INNOVATION. Let’s Do It Differently!

Tier 3: Customers: Work directly with your customer and ask them what their needs are and if your business may offer a possible solution. A HUGE percentage of failed businesses NEVER ASKED their customers what THEY wanted, and went down trying to sell buggy-whips to car owners!

An excellent example of developing a “triple-tiered sales strategy” is a story of a small accounting firm. This firm wanted to target independent truck drivers for accounting services.

The competition for this firm was a big accounting company. This small business approached the truck drivers association and learned that one concern of their membership was receiving financing for a new vehicle, which can be in the $130,000 to 175,000 range for a new, air-conditioned tractor rig.

A discussion with the suppliers of trucks, revealed financing was only approved after the truckers supplied financial statements. The financials were often prepared by a large accounting firm who set appointments on their time and in their office.

The pieces of the puzzle were now coming together. The customer was the last piece of critical information. Truckers were frustrated by the inconvenience of visiting an accounting firm because of the time they spend on the road. The best solution was to bring the accounting service to the customer on their terms and time.

The small accounting office had defined a clear sales strategy: offer in-home financial statement preparation for truck drivers seeking financing through truck manufacturers. All sales leads would be referred from the supplier. This strategy was a win-win for the association, the supplier, the customer and the small accounting firm.

The moral of the story is to gain a competitive advantage by looking at all sides of the equation, tactics and strategy. Use the triple-tiered approach to win business and outsell the big companies in your market.

Action Plan: Review and tweak YOUR overall Sales Strategy. How can you find another pillar to support it? Where can you expand? Where would innovation make sense? THIS alone can double your profits in very short order!

Posted in Mindset