Archive for March, 2016
Ten Spring Cleaning Tips for Small Business Owners
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on March 29, 2016
We’re on the back end of winter, and many across the country are looking forward to the warmer temperatures and sunshine that come with spring. However, there is one chore that often comes with the new season that many aren’t always so excited about. I’m talking of course about spring cleaning.
Regardless of your feelings on spring cleaning, what many don’t realize is that taking part in doing so should go beyond the home. For small business owners, spring is an ideal time to make some changes around the company.
Here are 10 ways business owners can apply the spring cleaning concept to their company.
- Clean Up Your Website
If a small business’s website is due for an upgrade, spring is a great time to dig in. It doesn’t have to be a complete overhaul, and sometimes just some tidying up is all that’s needed. This can mean reworking the way information is presented to make it easier for Web users to digest, or aiming for a cleaner design. Pamela Springer talks about this in her piece for American Express’ Open Forum.
“Because more people browse the Internet these days before buying, it’s crucial that your website’s user-interface be friendly and easy to navigate,” she says. “Avoid providing all the information about your company—such as hours, offerings and location—on the homepage. Instead, list topics that link to different pages. When you’re updating information on the Web, make sure your network is also aware of the changes, since online connections can often help small businesses generate referrals and leads.”
- Consider the Cloud
Some small business owners may still be wondering, “What is the cloud?” Or perhaps they just haven’t had the time to analyze the different ways it may benefit their business. The flexibility cloud technology provides alone is worth exploring, Andre Lavoie writes for Entrepreneur.com.
“One of the most alluring benefits of cloud computing is being able to access work-related files and information from any device in any place at any time,” Lavoie explains. “We live in a mobile world. Long gone are the days where files are stuck on a single server on a single computer. As the workplace begins to cater to more remote workers and flexible working arrangements, being able to access work materials, when not at work, is essential for employees. Not only does cloud computing make it easier for employees to work outside of the office, it makes it easier for small-business owners to manage their business at any time of day, from anywhere.”
- Get Mobile
A simple website doesn’t cut it in today’s Internet-obsessed environment. Mobile sites should make it easier for people to view content from their phone or tablet, and mobile sites are arguably more important these days than desktop versions. Mobile has the potential to lead to additional revenue opportunities, which is why incorporating a responsive site for your business is so crucial. Rieva Lesonsky discusses this in a story for Small Biz Daily, which includes a 2014 study that shows mobile technology’s impact on businesses today.
“If your business is not mobile-friendly, you are likely losing revenue opportunities,” she says. “According to new research from hibu, SMBs that don’t accept mobile payments could be losing out on as much as $1 trillion in annual revenues. The study highlights the paradox of small business and mobile technology: While the SMB owners themselves predict mobile sales will grow an astounding 630 percent this year, 91 percent of them don’t have mobile-optimized websites. What’s worse is only 15 percent plan to upgrade and optimize their sites, which is a prescription for failure.”
- Upgrade Technology
If budgets allows for it, spring can be a good time to purchase equipment that improves a business’s processes and workflows. Sheen Chen talks about the impact this can have in an article for Business 2 Community, noting that these purchases are often eliminated during leaner times and can ultimately hold a business back in the long term.
“For your business spring cleaning, you should replace malfunctioning computers, monitors and other defective hardware,” Chen explains. “Having malfunctioning equipment can easily disrupt business productivity by potentially breaking at a critical time (e.g. POS system malfunctioning) and causing your small business to lose sales. If you have held back on regularly updating your software, your system may be susceptible to viruses, therefore immobilizing your business.”
- Inventory Assessment
Just as spring is a great time for homeowners to take on that long-delayed garage project or closet cleanup effort so too can small business owners with inventory. Set aside the time to examine what’s on hand and what should be cleared out, Madie Hodges explains in her piece for Kabbage.com.
“Spring is a great time to go through your entire inventory and get rid of damaged, aged, or expired products,” Hodges writes. “You are taking this time to make your business a better place, and your product or service is the bread and butter of your company. So taking this time to improve the options your customers have can really make a huge difference in your sales. This is also a great opportunity for you to look into new types of vendors and products. Spring is the best time to expand because it’s the start of a new, high volume-selling season!”
- Clean Out that Inbox
When emails go unread and begin to pile up, it can become a legitimate nuisance that damages your ability to be productive. A lot of it may be junk mail that just needs to be deleted, but it’s also possible that you’re missing important information in an email buried deep in that unread pile. Springer addresses some other problems of this in her American Express piece.
“It’s no surprise that you feel bombarded by quirky spam, given that an estimated 247 million emails are sent every day, according to Email Marketing Report,” she says. “If it’s difficult to decide what’s trash and what’s treasure, it’s time for a deep-clean of your inbox. This doesn’t mean sacrificing your weekend to delete junk mail; instead, take 15 to 20 minutes at the end of each day to sort emails into appropriate folders. Most email providers offer support for automating cleanup, through use of tools including searches, labels and filters.”
- Consider Security Measures
Hackers are constantly lurking on the Internet for people and businesses to take advantage of, so it’s a smart call to analyze your company’s security measures. Lesonsky examines this for Small Biz Daily, saying that small businesses are often easy targets for these destructive individuals do to the oversight of implementing strong security protocols.
“What do attackers want from companies as small as yours?” she asks. “Think about the valuable information you have, particularly customer lists, contact information and credit card or other sensitive data. And while the payoff is likely bigger when they attack bigger businesses, the fact is it’s easier to hack into businesses like yours, since you’ve very likely not kept your cybersecurity up to date. You need to make sure you install the latest security patches and updates as soon as they become available to keep attackers from breaking into your system.”
- Evaluate and Acknowledge Good Work
Spring brings with it a sense of renewed energy and intentions of improvement. This doesn’t just apply to business owners but to their employees as well, making spring a perfect opportunity to encourage their good work. As Hodges writes, springtime can be the right time for employers to evaluate their employees overall performance, and to reward them for all their hard work during the often stressful holiday season.
“Go through and do employee evaluations and reward those who deserve it for their hard work, and trim what doesn’t seem to fit,” she says. “Now is also the best time to adjust your budgets and find out where you can add bonuses to your payroll. The most effective way to handle employee evaluations is to sit down with your management team first and discuss your employees’ objectives. Then sit down with each individual employee and go over their measurable results. Remember to always ask for their feedback about your management styles.”
- Get Social
In addition to a cleaner website and effective mobile capabilities, social media presence has become a must for modern businesses in today’s world. The ability to connect and engage with consumers helps increase awareness of your business, which can translate to revenue gains from attracting new customers. Chen talks about this in his Business 2 Community story.
“When used appropriately, social media can be a great platform to attract new business,” he writes. “Depending on your business, you’ll need to find the appropriate social media platform to engage your customers. You can also help spruce up your company’s image by adding a blog to your website and keeping your customers informed and improving your website’s SEO.”
- Literal Spring Cleaning
Yes, taking the time to literally get into taking care of things that need some serious cleaning can be a worthwhile exercise around the office. This can apply to the overall cleanliness your equipment and the office, Lesonsky suggests in Small Biz Daily.
“Your hardware and peripherals are likely much dirtier than you think. Take some time to clean your keyboards (use compressed air), monitor screens and check the batteries in your mouse or wireless keyboards. Check your printer as well. Do all the parts move smoothly? Are you up-to-date on manufacturers’ updates? Is the printer free of paper bits? Make sure you have extra cartridges on hand, so you’re never caught short without ink.”
This article was originally posted to the Business 2 Community blog by David Kiger on March 12, 2016.
Does Your View Of Value Limit You And Your Customers?
Posted by Rick Pranitis in Sales Process Evaluation on March 25, 2016
Value is one of those $25 words everyone talks about. We all want to talk about our value and value propositions. But we have huge variations in the way we interpret value and the way our customers interpret value.
Value in it’s simplest form is price. Unfortunately, that’s where the majority of sales people compete. They provide the customer with their best price, crossing their fingers, hoping to win. The customer is left with the challenge of which alternative to choose. Since, inevitably, the entire alternative will meet their requirements; the only differentiator becomes the vendor offering the lowest price. Customers still struggle, their job isn’t over, and they still have to justify the investments they are making to their management. A lot of “done deals” get undone at this point, so even if our price has been the lowest, we don’t get a PO.
Some sales people, unfortunately far too few, go a step further. They provide a business justification for their solution. It may be a cost benefit analysis, they may have calculated ROI, NPV, Payback. That’s a huge step forward. It changes the basis for comparing alternatives, because it focuses on return the customer will expect to receive. There are still some challenges with this, and value that we leave on the table that could be claimed by both the customer and us. Most of the time, we are looking strictly at the business case for our solution, not the business case for the customer project. We may just be a component of the solution, so we aren’t helping the customer understand the entire picture. Maybe we’ve done a TCO, which should look at the entire project over its life cycle. But there are a number of other things the customer has to consider in their business case.
Risk is a huge part of what the customer has to figure out. This is both risks in the project success and in achieving the long term outcomes which is why the customer initiated the project in the first place. (That last part is often called value realization. I’ll be coming back to this later.)
The other challenge the customer faces is justifying this investment to their management. Their managers are responsible for determining how to best invest in various projects that compete for funding. To get what they want, the customers presenting our solution have to position–justify the project in terms of how it contributes to the attainment of the strategic goals. Only the best alternative will win. But too often, our customers don’t recognize they need to do this, or don’t know how to do this. Unless, we’ve understood the company priorities and goals, unless we’ve helped the customer connect the dots from this project–what they want to do–with the strategic priorities of the company, they won’t get the funding. We don’t get the PO.
The next level is value realization. Are they actually getting the value we claimed in the first place? Did they get the results expected? Too often, we ignore this. After all, we and the customer don’t know until sometime after we’ve gotten the PO. It could be months or years. We’ve already spent our commission checks on the deal. But value realization is critical to the customer. If they don’t realize the value expected, they have failed. It may mean a failed product launch, adversely impacting the perception/competitiveness of their company in the markets. It could be a failed internal project. They don’t achieve the cost/expense reductions expected. They don’t achieve the quality and customer satisfaction goals they expected. They didn’t achieve the margin or profitability improvements expected, They didn’t see the revenue uplift expected. Failure to realize value has huge business consequence for the customer–they could, in fact go out of business. It also has huge personal impacts for the customer, they could lose their jobs. The impact of not realizing the value expected can be devastating. For example think of Takata Airbags and the impact on automobile manufacturers, dealers, and customers.
People in SaaS, embedded products, or similar types of business are seeing the importance of value realization. Customers simply aren’t renewing their contracts. When the contract expires, the customer doesn’t renew it.
This challenge also applies to outright purchases. If the customer doesn’t get the value they expected, they won’t buy again–for the upgrade, the next project, the cross-sell opportunity. They might even become a negative referral, impacting potential business in the rest of the market.
So making sure our customers realize the value claimed is critical for their and our future success.
But there’s more.
We know 60-70% of projects end in no decision made. Most of the time it has nothing to do with selecting solution alternatives, but it has everything to do with the customer internal project success. These are customers who have already recognized the need to change. They have committed to a project and a project team to develop a plan, drive the change, realize the expected value. But they struggle to align themselves, their agendas, their goals/priorities. They struggle with the project itself, often failing before they started their buying journey. They recognized an opportunity to change, that there was business value to be seized or realized, but they fail to realize it before they even start. As a consequence, an opportunity for us has disappeared. Getting that opportunity restarted is very difficult.
To address this challenge, we have to think of value differently, not just the value of our solution–to be realized at some future point. But the value of helping them solves their problem so they can realize that value and we get our PO.
Just think about this issue from pure selfish motivations–getting PO’s. If 60-70% of projects end in no decision made, we are leaving twice as much real, qualified opportunity unaddressed. We and our competitors are only getting 30-40% of the real opportunity available. There is the 60-70% where a customer has been committed to taking action, but they blow up before they can take action, or before they select a solution.
Making our numbers seems trivial in the face of this! All we have to do is help our customers become more successful in the early stages of their change management projects! We focus on a different type of value, value creation or value in the process.
Of course, this requires changes in what we do and our own capabilities. We can no longer wait for the customer to reach their 57% before engaging them. Many projects with customers having a real need to buy will have blown up long before this. We have to be finding and engaging customers much earlier. We have to be helping them with their project, not focusing just on demonstrating the value of the solution. This means new skills, both in prospecting, change management, project management, and facilitation.
It’s not over yet. What about the biggest part of value that we can create and claim? What about those customers who don’t even recognize the need to change? They may be struggling, knowing something’s wrong but not doing anything about it, except working harder. They may be settling, thinking good enough is good enough, when they are losing share, there are emerging new competitors, and their future is threatened.
From a selfish point of view, these are easy opportunities to spot. All we have to do is look at the underperformers in our markets. Or even those whose performance is OK. We have to be able to engage them in meaningful conversations about the costs of doing nothing. We have to incite them to see the potential value that can be realized. and guide them in the journey to realize that value.
Our perspectives of value can seriously limit us and our customers. The majority of sales people focus purely on price–minimizing the value they can claim in competitive situations. Those that develop rich business justification models are doing better, but aren’t claiming as much value as they could. Consequently, they are missing huge growth opportunities, both now and in the future.
Changing our perspectives, having a much larger view gives us the opportunity to at least double our own business volumes. More importantly, it cements our value and leadership position with customers by helping them achieve and realize more value.
The key issues are: Are you hungry enough to chase this opportunity? Do you have the skills and tools to change your engagement model? Do you have the skills and tools to provide the right value to the customer at the right time?
This article was originally posted to the Partners in Excellence Blog by David Brock on March 2, 2016.
Six Thoughts on How to Sales Prospect More Effectively
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on March 22, 2016
When I first started out in sales, I didn’t expect sales prospecting to be so tough. I was a bit naïve and expected more instant success. I wasn’t prepared for strong objections and rejection.
I wish someone had said to me beforehand, “Look, this is going to be hard. You’re going to get knock-backs and rejections. The win rate is going to be low at first; you’ve got to expect that.” Now, I know how tough prospecting can be. If it’s not page one of the sales manual, it should be.
Here are six thoughts on how to sales prospect more effectively.
- Set an objective. Know what you want to achieve with every call to a prospect. The goal of the first call might only be to set up a second call during which you can have a needs dialogue. Or, the goal might be to have a physical meeting. You have limited time to get your point across, so know what you want to accomplish beforehand.
- Develop a really sharp elevator pitch. Yes, you will need an elevator pitch for your first contact, so prepare a compelling statement that grabs the prospect’s attention in 30 seconds or less. These days, prospects are so bombarded by sales calls and e-mails that you have mere seconds to establish a connection and pique their interest.
- Develop a few good lines. Let’s say you’re in a sales meeting with a prospect who has just admitted that there is an incumbent provider who is performing satisfactorily. You just might open the door to some new opportunities by pulling out a few broader lines of questioning. “If you had an unlimited budget, what else would you like? What would be the dream scenario?” Sometimes, this approach can lead to a wider discussion about what’s working well and what’s not and it can also uncover new paths of possible collaboration.
- Forget the formula. Most people don’t like being sold to or feeling coerced or pushed into a corner. They want to feel like they’re having a sensible conversation with someone about something that’s quite interesting to both parties. The problem is when the conversation begins to sound more like a script. The most successful sales professionals know how to have conversations with prospects without sounding formulaic. They hit all of their marks, following their targeted questioning techniques while making it all sound natural and conversational.
- Consider marketing colleagues as allies. There used to be a distinct boundary between marketing and sales. That boundary is now more porous, if it exists at all. I’ve heard it said that business development is really that strong link between marketing and sales. As sales professionals, we need to be much more aware and savvy about effective ways to work with our marketing colleagues. Even in recent years, sales professionals might have thought that e-mail or LinkedIn campaigns were marketing tools and that, instead of electronic communication, they should “just pick up the phone and see if anybody’s interested.” Now, the capabilities and work alliances are more fluid, and sales professionals are realizing how much more effective they can be when sales and marketing work hand-in-hand.
- Do your homework. If you’ve done all the hard work to get yourself in front of a sales prospect who’s interested in what you have to say, you certainly don’t want to blow it because you’re not prepared to engage in a proper needs dialogue and to discuss the value of what you can offer. Success in prospecting only opens the door. You’ve got to draw on your selling skills in order to walk through the following phases of the sales process: developing the opportunity, developing the solution, presenting the solution, negotiating and closing, and then maintaining and expanding the relationship.
This article was originally posted to the Richardson Sales Enablement Blog by Jonathan Craig on March 1, 2016.
The Best Elevator Speech is Not a Speech
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on March 17, 2016
As the story goes from time to time you are alone in an elevator, the door opens and in walks someone you have been trying to schedule a meeting with forever. You now have an opportunity for a 2-3 minute conversation – so what is your message?
If you find yourself face-to-face in a similar situation– are you prepared for a short conversation that your “new found friend” will find compelling?
Let’s review some specific ideas to keep in mind for the proverbial two to three minute “elevator” conversation:
- Remember the purpose. An elevator speech and a sales presentation are not the same thing. In fact, they are entirely different! Sales presentations are more formal, longer and delivered after a significant amount of work understanding the challenges faced by the customer. An elevator speech is a short, casual conversation that you hope earns you the right for setting up a subsequent meeting. So, in an elevator speech, don’t simply try to tell your regular product story twice as fast.
- One size does not fit all. There is no such thing as an effective “preparation” that fits all situations. This is why sales management cannot craft some generic “elevator speech” that fits all situations. But you can get a head start – sometimes sales management or Marketing can provide core talking points or salespeople can think about a message or two they would like to share and then modify as appropriate. The flip side is also true … you can think about a few questions your customer might ask. What would you say if asked the simple question – “What’s new?” If you’ve thought through a point or two, you can then adapt the message to fit the person with whom you’re talking.
- A problem-centered approach works best. Because issues and challenges have center stage in any customer’s mind, a problem-centered approach is preferred. As is always the case, the focus needs to be on the customer. When planning a meeting, organize what you know about the issues and challenges the customer may be facing.
- Share short success stories. Sometimes you have a chance encounter with a customer that you never thought you would encounter – so you have no plan for the interaction. Here, the best preparation is simply always being aware of the most current success stories your company has experienced.
Above all else – remember the best elevator speeches are not speeches at all. They are short statements that enable you to engage the customer in a conversation. In the first 30 seconds of a two-minute impromptu meeting relate your talking points to a problem that you know a similar customer would face, and then immediately ask a question to shift the conversation so the customer is doing the talking. If you can get the customer engaged, you just might end up with the customer saying – “do you have a few more minutes?”
One may think the elevator speech is such a small part of the interaction with customers that it is simply not worth focusing on. It’s true that elevator speeches don’t close sales. But they are opportunities to advance the sale – obtaining an appointment for the following week, or asking the best way to get on the customer’s calendar.
This article was originally posted to the Sales Training Connection Blog by Janet Spier on February 16, 2016.
Complex Selling Essentials: Focus, Systems and Talent
Posted by Rick Pranitis in SALES BEST PRACTICES on March 14, 2016
Complex B2B sales are usually characterized by lengthy, high-value buying decisions that involve multiple stakeholders and frequently end in a decision to do nothing and stick with the status quo. But that doesn’t mean they have to be complicated – far from it.
Over-complicated responses to managing the complex sales process have a woeful success rate. Sales people simply don’t see the value in having to enter reams of information into CRM systems that they doubt management will ever pay proper attention to – or conform to processes that they see as doing nothing to increase their chances of winning. And they are right to rebel.
I believe that the evidence is clear: mastering three deceptively simple principles turns out to be critical to winning the complex sale…
1: FOCUS
First, and at the risk of stating the obvious, your sales and marketing activities must be laser-focused on identifying, engaging and qualifying the opportunities that are most likely to want to buy from you. It sounds like a simple principle, but many sales people and the organizations they work for nevertheless manage to squander enormous amount of time and energy pursuing “opportunities” they have little chance of closing.
Focusing on the right issues requires that you identify and target critical pain points that – once they recognize them – your prospects will be forced to address, and for which you have a demonstrably superior solution.
Focusing on the right organizations involves much more than the classic demographics of size, sector and location: it requires a profound understanding of the common characteristics of your most promising prospects and the trigger events that will cause them to act.
And focusing on the right stakeholders involves identifying and targeting the people who are most likely to act as catalysts for change (also known as “mobilizers”) within these target organizations.
Any failure in any aspect of focus simply sets the foundations for failure.
2: SYSTEMS
Even if you’re focused, you can’t afford to leave sales success to chance. That’s why today’s most effective sales organizations have defined dynamic sales processes that mirror the way their prospects make buying decisions. These systems reflect the winning habits of top sales performers, and offer a simple but effective guide to all sales people as to what they need to know, do, use, share and avoid at each stage of the buyer’s journey.
This emphasis on the buying decision process is critical: it forces the sales person to think about what the prospect needs to achieve in order to achieve consensus around the need for change.
The best of these sales systems are based around simple, flexible frameworks rather than rigid guidelines – and they dynamically evolve to reflect the latest learning about how sales success is best achieved.
It’s hard to overstate the importance of having an effective sales process – they can help to dramatically bridge the performance gap between the best and the rest, and ensure that new hires become productive quickly.
Over-complicated or inadequate systems inevitably mean that your sales people will spend much of their time on things that fail to advance the sale.
3: TALENT
This leads neatly to the third key principle: no matter how clear your focus, and no matter how effective your systems, you can never achieve your full potential without the right people on board.
It’s disturbing to observe how often new hires with apparently highly relevant experience fail to make their mark in their new organization. It’s particularly apparent when people get hired out of large corporate into start-ups or expansion-phase companies – the cultural differences often prove to be unbridgeable wide.
Hiring for experience alone clearly isn’t enough. In fact there’s a wealth of evidence to suggest that, faced with a choice between hiring for aptitude, attitude or experience, experience is the least reliable predictor of future success.
In fact, aptitude and attitude turn out to be so important that they simply cannot be left to chance – and this explains the dramatic rise in assessment solutions for both hiring and employee development.
Without the right talent, any complex sales environment will surely fail.
ELIMINATING AVOIDABLE ERROR
When you think about it, these three principles are less to do with striving for perfection than they are about eliminating avoidable error: they are about not pursuing opportunities that are a bad fit, they are about not doing things that fail to facilitate the prospect’s decision process, and they are about eliminating poor hiring or staff development decisions.
Striving for perfection may be an inspirational goal: but eliminating avoidable error (and simplifying your focus, systems and talent management) is usually a far more practical – and effective – strategy.
This article was originally posted to the Inflection Point blog by Bob Apollo on February 23, 2016.
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