Increase Sales Blog

Posts Tagged ‘increase sales’

The current wildfires in Colorado within the USA are devastating everything from forests to wildlife to homes.  These uncontrolled acts of nature reminded me how uncontrolled business growth is very similar to a wildfire for these two reasons.

First, wildfires by their very essence are random.  This randomness reduces the ability to fight, control and monitor these acts of nature. Uncontrolled business growth is also difficult to work through especially if the organization is a small business and lacks the strategy,  structure, processes, incentives and people to deal with this challenge as detailed in the 5 Star Model for organizational development.

Second, because of the randomness, resources must be redirected from other critical projects.  For a business to operate a peak efficiency and effectiveness, requires proper allocation of all resources.  Unplanned growth reduces the overall operational effectiveness.

Uncontrolled by its very nature suggests the inability to manage it. When organizations face this type of business growth, this suggests that proper planning was not in place for this anticipated growth or there was a significant event beyond the forecasts within the existing strategic action plan that triggered the growth.  For example, production of the IPhones or IPads are two recent examples.

The ability to increase sales and reduce costs thereby growing the company is a good thing. However, when the growth is unplanned and affects the capacity of the business to carry out its day to day functions, this is a potential recipe for disaster. The end result may look more like the torched, blacken  ground after a wildfire instead of a thriving green forest.

To avoid this disaster requires the following:

• Vision – Where do you see your business in 3 to 5 years?
• Values – What business ethics will be demonstrated through everyone’s behaviors?
• Mission – What do we want to achieve by the end of the current financial year?
• Key Performance Indicators – What daily metrics will we use to ensure we are aware of current business activities?
• Critical Success Factors – What is necessary and sufficient to achieve our current mission
• Strategic plan – How do we coordinate the efforts between marketing, sales, customers, growth & innovation, leadership & management and financials?
• WAY SMART Goals – What specific long term, short term, tangible and intangible objectives do we need to achieve?
• Schedule – How often will we review this action plan?
• Course Corrections – How will we determine when we may need to change the plan?
• Research – What do our customers think of us?  What is happening within the marketplace?
• Assessments – How do we know we have the right people in the place? How do we know that everyone is rowing in the right direction?
• Alignment – How can we ensure that everything is working together like the gears of a clock for optimum performance?
• Communication – How do we share this information with all stakeholders?

By being proactive instead of reactive (fighting wildfires), any business can not only survive, but thrive. The challenge is investing the time to think strategically and then putting together a written plan of action with a commitment to work from that plan if you truly want to be the Red Jacket in a sea of gray suits.

To increase sales suggests you may need to stay ahead of the flow. To take this action may require you to invest some time to learning about where the flow is going.

Pew Research recently released in June of 2010 some interesting information about what Americans now view as a necessity or a luxury.  For example, 42% of Americans now view the television as a necessity.

Telephone landlines have also suffered since only 74% of American households have landlines and this is down from 97% in 2001. With cell phones and other types of mobile devices being so prevalent, some colleges and universities are removing landlines as well.

Savvy small business owners and sales professionals need to be aware of the trends in the marketplace. Then they must invest the time to think about how these trends may affect their potential customers (a.k.a. prospects) and their ability to increase sales. Ignoring the changing marketplace along with marketing  demographics and psychographics is a recipe for business disaster.

However the Internet allows for any enterprising small business owner, sales professional or even marketing consultant to continually monitor the flow through email notifications.  Several of my favorites include:

• Center for Media Post
• Google Alerts based on specific key words
• Smart Briefs

By becoming proactive and investing the time, avoiding business disaster is a little easier especially when you learn how to stay ahead of the flow.  This type of behavior will help you Be the Red jacket in the sea of gray suits.

Harris Poll just released a new survey about what U.S. adults want.  The results were interesting.

• 43% want to be rich
• 21% want to be thinner
• 14% want to be smarter
• 12% want to be younger

So if the majority of those polled want to be rich, then what is keeping them from achieving that goal? Maybe they are confusing wishing with wanting by hoping for a magic Genie to appear and rub the golden lamp?

Possibly by looking at sales research, this may help explain this gap between wishing and doing.

• 50% of all sales leads are left withering on the vine
• 90% of all sales are made after the third contact
• 20% of all sales people make four or more contacts

The answer appears to lie within each individual. Possibly why some fail to achieve what they want be it to be rich or to increase sales, may have to do with not learning some basic concepts to actually having some basic tools. For example how many people have a:

• Written action plan?
• Proven goal achievement process?
• Doable goal worksheet?
• Process or formula for sustainable results?
• System to keep the negative talk or self doubts at bay?
• Knowledge of their talents?

Being able to be rich or increase sales can happen provided you make it happen. When individuals take personal responsibility and accountability for their actions, then results will begin to be realized.

P.S. In my book, Be the Red jacket in the sea of gray suits, the Keys to Unlocking Sales Success, these issues of having a plan to understanding one’s talents are discussed along with providing additional resources.

The goal to increase sales is comprised of many specific marketing message actions including:

• Direct Mail
• Paid Advertising (Traditional such as media, radio and print)
• Internet Pay Per Click and Banner Ads
• Tradeshows
• Sales Letters
• Article Marketing
• Blogging
• Business to Business Event Networking
• Cold Calling

Most of these marketing message actions require direct expenditures to indirect ones such as time invested (salaries).  Yet there is one way to increase sales that does not cost you one single Washington or better yet even a dime.  Now do not over think.

Jeb Blount in his book, People Buy You, devoted 8 pages to this one cost-free marketing action to increase sales.  Do you know what it is?  You probably do it at least once a day if not more.

Before I share this no cost feature, if you have not already guessed, let me ask you this one question, Why do people buy or better yet what prompts people to purchase your products or services?

Now some may answer, benefits or features while others will talk about referrals from others.  These are all true answers, but when we render down the buying decision  process and understand how people make decisions along with how the human brain and mind actually works, then foundational answer is what I call emotional receptors.  (Sales Training Coaching Tip:  Emotional receptors are those senses that receive emotions including sight, sound, taste, touch, smell and feelings.)

As many have said before, people buy first using emotions and then justify those emotions with logic. This works with how the human brain and mind function. The primitive brain receives all sensory data and then it goes to the neocortex or logical thinking.

Since people buy first based upon emotions, then your goal to increase sales should utilize that basic fact within the buying decision process.  And what better way than just to smile when you meet someone or even when talking on the telephone or taping the keys on your mobile device or keyboard?

A smile is 100% cost free and is natural human reaction to an event. This action also has the power to create a reciprocal smile in others.  How many times have you smiled at someone, a complete stranger, and he or she will immediately smile back at you?

Emotions are why this statement is also true, people buy from people they know and trust.  Have you ever bought something of any significance from someone you did not know or worse yet did not trust?

A smile costs you absolutely nothing (except for many some visits to the dentist and that is part of your overall health care maintenance much like eating).  However, the return on this almost automatic action can be deemed to be priceless.

Possibly this is why this quote “Smile and the world smiles with you” (source unknown) continues to be true along with so many other smile quotes.  So if you wish to increase sales, just smile from your heart and who knows you may even make a friend.

P.s. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Have you ever heard people buying from grumpy people?

Gary S. Hart in a recent post on his blog Sales DuJour discussed the lever that remove price from negotiations. In this posting, he shared an old story that my father told  me many years ago and one I had actually forgotten.

In price negotiations, sometimes it helps to understand that you can increase value by adding or removing some aspect and this may even include cash discounts or payment options. All of this actions do not affect the proposed price to be paid by the potential customer. (Sales Coaching Training Tip:  Read the Blue Ocean Strategy to understand the impact of adding, subtracting, increasing or decreasing.

However, given some information found in the Harvard Business Journal’s July 2010 issue, there appears something on the horizon that will compete with price and may even exceed price as an objection. That pending obstacle is time. (Read more in this past increase sales blog posting.

What this article suggests is customers (think qualified prospects) want two things within their buying experience:

1. The basics done well
2. The experience to be effortless

Time is behind these two desires because people do not have time for return trips to the vendor and they do not have additional time to waste in making their purchases. Today’s world is crazy busy and how well you address this factor will help you in your sales or selling  negotiations.

Time has always been present. Buyers want solutions and want those solutions to be time driven because they must focus on other priorities. There will always be those who want to negotiate price, but for many who are time constrained, how will your solutions work with those time constraints just may earn you the sale. Sales Training Coaching Tip: Learn how time now affects the sales process in Jill Konrath’s book – Snap Selling.

The investment (your price to your qualified prospect) will be important. Yet do not forget that time may be as John Miller suggests in his book, QBQ, the question (objection) behind the question (objection). By being aware of this potential obstacle allows you to be ahead of the flow to increase sales as well as to be the Red jacket in the sea of gray suits (all those other sales people).

According to various sources including the American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), the majority of training and development including sales training does not stick.  In other words there is no positive impact to the bottom line as defined through Kirkpatrick’s Four Level Model of learning and training evaluation process.

Yesterday I came across a website from someone who sent me a social media cold calling message  (sales letter) which lead to an earlier posting on cold calling using social media. One of the results from her training solution as noted in her website was the impact of 5% to 25% increases in sales within the first 60 days.

For some organizations this might be a good thing, but is it enough? Given that sales research suggests 50% of all sales leads are not followed up and 80% of all sales are earned between the fourth and twelfth contacts, then in 60 days should there not be more results?  The answer is probably yes.

The reason why such results are not secured is because the discussion never became real specific and focused as to the pre-determined desired results.   This is a direct result of poor goal setting and writing skills on behalf of the sales training company and probably poor fact finding sales skills as well.

Many are familiar with the SMART criteria.  The S stands for Specific. Most people from my experience truly do not write specific enough goals. Hence any result is acceptable. However when specific is truly understood, this becomes the magnifying glass and truly differentiates a general statement from a truly specific one.

For example, a goal is written to increase sales by a certain percentage. The client and the sales training company agree to this goal. Yet what would happen if the goal was even more specific?

Increase sales by a total of X% with X% coming from new customers; x% coming from existing customers and X% coming from inactive customers beginning in the next 30 days and continuing for 6 months with a review of the results at the end of the designated time frame.

• Would this rewritten goal statement be far more effective in realizing the desired end result to increase sales?
• Would such a specific objective be easier to track and to determine where the gaps are in the current overall business strategic plan?
• Does it provide a tactic to review and evaluate the achievements with a designated time frame?

Effective (meaning doing the right thing) sales training and sales coaching firms truly understand how important specificity is in relationship to the the desired results. So the next time you are solicited by a sales training firm and they advertise their great results ask where those results were achieved?  If they cannot provide a specific and detailed response, then you may wish to consider seeking another firm or individual who can answer with specificity and make sure it is beyond 5% to 25% increases in sales improvement.

The goal to increase sales is always present.  A recent article over at Salesopedia by Jim Meisenheimer Unconscious Selling Competence discussed the works of A. Maslow and his Learning Quadrant. My research suggested this was constructed by Thomas Gordon and was called Gordon’s Learning Ladder.

Regardless of the author (but I now need to engage in some additional research), the premise is that people walk through 4 stages of learning:

1. Unconscious incompetence – I do not know what I do not know
2. Conscious incompetence – I now know what I do not know
3. Conscious competence – I now know what I know
4. Unconscious competence – I now know what I know without thinking

To increase sales, the goal is to be unconsciously competent.  For this to happen goes beyond your own professional develo9pment and is truly about your business ethics.

People buy from people they know and trust. This suggests you must be authentic in all of your actions regardless if the other person is a possible customer.

When you have a clear articulated personal core values statement and you have invested the time to describe the behaviors associated with those values, then these behaviors should over time become part of your subconscious personality. When you met people, you do not think about being sincere, trustworthy, helpful, etc.  These values immediately are displayed.

Most people have met those sales professionals who will do anything, say anything to “close the deal.”  Also, we have probably encountered those salespersons who say all the right things, yet down deep inside of us we “sense” something is amiss.  Both of these types of selling professionals are probably operating under the fourth quadrant of being Unconsciously Competent however what is missing is positive business ethics.

Of course since both ethical and not so ethical people can be unconsciously competent when it comes to selling and achieving the goal to increase sales, this requires more diligence on the part of the buyer. And does suggest listening to that inner intuitive sense which some suggest is a talent intelligence for additional guidance.

Business ethics are not something one wears one day and discards the next. These behaviors are part of who you are each day.  Consistent demonstration of these unconscious competence behaviors will increase sales, improve your own credibility within the marketplace, allow you to be the Red Jacket and if you have a conscious provide you sleep filled nights.

Just having a blog and posting daily will not secure you all the Internet traffic necessary to increase sales unless you are already well known.  Web 2.0 allows you to leave comments on other sites and this is called microblogging.  There are public sites such as other blogs,  Twitter and Facebook and then not so public sites such as LinkedIn.

Currently, Twitter has an estimated 26 million monthly users (Exact Target) which means this is a smaller social media site (14.6%).  According to Facebook statistics, there are over 500 million active users with 50% of all users logged on at any one time. These numbers alone suggest microblogging is a viable and a necessary 21st century marketing activity.

To maximize your efforts requires you to be organized and disciplined. Of course if you are a single office/home office entrepreneur or even a small business owner with a 1 to 50 employees you may not be able to devote the time necessary to leverage this “free” marketing strategy. Sales Coaching Tip:  The reason free is in quotes is because it is not free since it requires time and time costs money.

Recently, I have constructed an Excel File where I have listed the various blogs I have encountered. Actually in one LinkedIn discussion group, the BLog Zone, there have been several hundred blogs listed ranging in genre from retail to self improvement to continuous process improvement to politics.  What I do is to quickly determine if this is a viable blog, and then list (each in a separate column) the:

• Date found
• Blog’s title
• URL
• Blog’s owner or author
• Main genre
• Sub top
• Alexa ranking
• Compete ranking
• Date Visited with comment
• Notes

Sales Coaching Tip:  Viable answers this question: Will this blog attract my potential target market?

When I have a few moments, I can quickly glance as to what blogs I have not recently visited.  When I visit a blog and leave a comment, all I do is change the date visited.  Since my goal is to use my time wisely, I always attempt to leave a comment unless the blog has not been recently updated.  I will make of note of this in the Note Column on the Excel file to ensure the quality use of my time.

By taking note of the Alexa.com ranking, I am looking to link to those blogs that have a better Alexa ranking. This is only a trending tool. However if I can find sites with better Alexa.com rankings than mine, this does help my overall SEO rankings.

Additionally, through my marketing calendar, I have a commitment to invest 30 minutes each day on various social media sites.  This time is usually scheduled early in the morning so that it does not interfere with actual production activities such as making calls, returning calls, face to face business event networking or emails and scheduled appointments, consulting or coaching sessions.

When real people not those self serving marketers make real and doable comments on my blog, I will immediately note their blogs within this file and travel over to their sites.  Fortunately, I have always been able to find at least one posting where I can leave a  comment. And since my overall marketing action plan is one based on educating not selling, my comments do provide possible insight and value.

Another solution is to hire someone to engage in micro-blogging. I recently executed this strategy by hiring a college person who understands the world of Web 2.0.  This can be a very affordable marketing strategy and if you have a larger marketing budget you can engage a full fledged marketing firm.

Microblogging can increase your own knowledge, bring traffic to your site, establish new relationships and increase sales. Just make sure you have defined your goals along with your target market. Revisit your marketing action  plan and make those course corrections so that you can secure a positive return on all of your investments of time, energy, money and emotions.

If you could invest only 5-10 minutes a week to increase sales and your influence would you be willing to take that action?  Most people would say of course they would. And now maybe you are thinking what is the hitch? What are you trying to sell me?

First, I am not selling any product or service that will require you digging into your pocketbook or using your credit card. What I am suggesting is for you to revisit your values statement and think about how by walking your talk you can become invaluable as Jill Konrath shares in her book SNAP Selling.

All you must do is to write one favorable recommendation each week on LinkedIn.  Of course these must be authentic referrals and not just “quid pro quo” or “I wash your back you wash mine.”

For example, you know another business professional who goes out of his or her way for his or her customers.  You have interacted with him or her on a professional level and you even may be a customer.  What would it take, 5-10 minutes to write 50 words sharing your experiences with others.

Usually, you will receive an immediate acknowledgment from the person thanking you. Then somewhere down the calendar, this person may return the favor. However, your original purpose being the authentic and leader  you are is not to seek one in return, but to approach this from a giver’s gain philosophy as expressed by Dr. Ivan Misner.

As people visit the person you recommended they can read your referral. If they are potential centers of influence or even better yet potential customers, you have taken the first step in the sales process and that is attracting attention.  Then they may wish to be connected with you and that action transitions into the second step of building the relationship.  As Rome was not built over night neither are relationships or the demonstration of strong business ethics.

Since we live unfortunately in a society where negativity appears to be ever present, then why not make someone’s day and share a few kind and authentic words?  Who knows you may reap far more such as increase sales than you could have ever realized?

P.S. Does it not make more sense to be the Red jacket because you have demonstrated high business ethics than to be hanging with all those other gray suits?

Recently I came upon a story  (source unknown) about flaws (negative) and being believable.  Back in the mid 1980’s, an experiment was conducted by researchers at Cleveland State University with this startling discovery that flaws made a person more believable. What these researchers did was to create two made up job candidates by the names of David and John. Both resumes and reference letters were 100% identical except in one letter this statement was “Sometimes, John can be difficult to get along with.” The researchers showed the resumes and letters to numerous personnel directors.  The candidate who was overwhelmingly preferred was John because the criticism made the praise more believable.

In the sales process, being believable is quite important because people buy from people they know and trust. No one is perfect. Having flaws and being able to admit to those flaws reinforces that you are human.

How and when these flaws materialize is different for all salespersons.

One thing is that having flaws is different than being constantly engaged in negative behavior. Unfortunately sometimes people become confused between these two concepts.

No one likes and more important believe sales people who are consistently knocking the competition or always complaining about how bad business is or fellow employees. These negative behavior comments reflect a deep well of negative emotions.  And frankly who wants to be around someone like that?

Yet when a salesperson admits a mistake or even tells a potential client that he or she is not the best fit for the client only makes the person more believable and credible.  This is someone who others can relate to and probably want to know even better. To be the Red Jacket requires you to be different. And being honest by admitting your flaws may just help you to increase sales.