5 Business Plan “Don’ts”

by ColinLewis on February 6th, 2012 / 1 Comment

Category: Finance, Leadership, Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

As mentioned last week, I've been reviewing David Ronick's take on the "Do"s of successful business plans. There were also five business plan pitch tactics that the losing teams had in common to be avoided:

1. Text Overload

Great slides make complex ideas simple and abstract ideas tangible, using numbers, diagrams, or pictures. But for the most part, words in pitches are best when spoken, not written. So stick to writing the headlines and telling us the details.

Comment from Colin: The MOST ignored piece of advice in history. What possesses people to write essays on slides? If you cannot work this out, go to slideshare.net and find the winners of their presentation of the year for the last few years. No words, yet incredibly powerful.

2. Too Much Focus on Product

We’re judging your business, not just your product. So don’t focus simply on what you’re selling. You should also keep in mind that you’ll probably wind up changing certain aspects of your product once you put it in front of customers and see what they think. So if your pitch is 15 minutes long, don’t spend more than two of those minutes on your products.

3. Passive Research

It’s good to use some statistics in your presentation (e.g. “The market is growing at 10 percent.”), but reserve the details and sources for backup slides. Don’t base your entire business plan on quantitative research. Be sure to show that you’ve gotten out of the library and have gathered some qualitative research by talking to potential customers. “We interviewed 50 customers and they said…” carries much more weight than “A study showed…”

Comment from Colin: ‘Studies show’ or worse, ‘recent studies show’ is up there with ‘people say’. I always want to shout ‘who says?’ when people say this!!!

4. Overlooked Execution

A start-up idea by itself is pretty much worthless; it’s all about the execution. The weakest teams underestimated how much time and money it would take to develop and tweak a product, or they outright failed to think through how they’d attract customers in a cost-effective, repeatable way. So be sure to spend time really thinking about and researching how to properly execute your idea.

Comment from Colin: For all you people who require NDAs, remember this point. All the ideas in the world are irrelevant. All that matters is execution. If you ask me for an NDA, I start getting suspicious as it proves that people do not know the difference between and idea and execution.

5. Lack of Authenticity

Stick to what you know and care about. One team pitched an idea related to parenting, but didn’t include even one story or picture of a child anywhere in their pitch. As a result, it felt like the team wasn’t truly passionate about parenting—even though that probably was not the case.

Ironically, some of the best business ideas in this year’s competition rated poorly with the judges because they simply weren’t pitched well. It’s important to understand that pitch tactics can make a huge difference in how well your business plan is received. So be sure to take your good idea, and turn it into a great pitch.

Comment from Colin: Possibly the most important statement of the lot. Building a better mousetrap does not mean they will beat a trip to your door.

 

5 Business Plan “Do”s

by ColinLewis on January 30th, 2012 / No Comment

Category: Leadership, Mentoring Questions

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

David Ronick is a co-founder of UpStart Bootcamp, but is also a from Harvard Business School Business Plan Contest. As somebody who is a judge on the Marketing Institute of Ireland’s All Ireland Marketing Awards, I know you can learn a tonne from this sort of thing.

I have noted in the past on previous blogs what I learnt – as they say, the teacher learns more than the student – or at least, the person doing the judging gains as much if not more!

Here is what David said which pitch approaches seemed to work best:

1. Bookends

The best pitches started and ended with the same 30-second, crystal clear explanation of what was to come: The customers, their needs, the solution, and the amount of capital sought. That helped the judges process and remember everything in between.

Comment from Colin: A rehash of the old ‘tell ‘em, tell ‘em what your gonna tell ‘em, and tell ‘em again’ mantra. A must-do: don’t overestimate your audience!

2. Comparables

At some point in most pitches, judges think to themselves, “Will this really work?” The best way to convince them is to show that you’re already getting results. If you are just starting out, another powerful approach is to cite real world comparables. For example, if your exit strategy is to sell your company to P&G, tell us how they recently bought companies similar to the one you are planning, for how much, and why.

Comment from Colin: AKA Don’t assume they will know – make sure they know

3. Emotion

Every student used logic. But the winners built on that logic with an appeal to emotions. Winners brought their arguments to life, using examples, stories, or short demonstrations. Judges could sense their passion, and imagine how their customers would feel.

Comment from Colin: Irish people are supposed to be good at telling stories. Don’t be afraid to do that even in the most professional sober places. Everybody actually wants to hear a story, because it speeds up the processing of information and gives you personality.

4. Market Research

The best competitors really understood their markets and taught us about them. They explained what parts of their industries were growing and why. That gave the judges insights and perspective, which helped us evaluate their pitches. Not to mention, it also gave us confidence in the teams.

5. Proof of Demand

Last but not least, the best teams had clearly been out in the field, talking with and listening to customers. They shared customer comments, survey results, and data collected from interviews and test market campaigns. In short, they convinced the judges that customers wanted their products.

Comment from Colin: For 4 and 5 – ‘Nuff said.

Check back next week for the top 5 DON'Ts for business plans.

Source of article: Inc Magazine goo.gl/1wQgI

Create Your Marketing Funnel

by ColinLewis on January 23rd, 2012 / 1 Comment

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

When I was launching an airline brand into the European market a few years ago, one of the features of the campaign was outdoor advertising as well as print – mainly in London media.

Within days of the campaign launch, I was inundated with phone calls from every advertising huckster in the UK.  Every possible media. Every possible sponsorship property.  They were like sharks in the water smelling blood.

Some of my favourite ones were the guys who just happened to have a last minute deal on hoardings for a rugby league match. £20,000 for the game that weekend, and it’s yours, guv’nor. A snip. A deal.

Never mind the fact that a. the airline did not fly into any of the cities where rugby league is played b. rugby league is a minority sport played a in few reasonably blue-collar parts of northern england. Given the target market for the airline was pretty-well off types living in the south-east, and near East London and the City in particular, it was about as off the mark as you can get. Really off-base in fact.

This was a classic example of a business resorting to a ‘numbers game’, and preferring carpet-bombing instead of target marketing.

What was even more fun during these phone calls, was the level of incredulousness from the aforementioned salesmen when I used to tell him I was not interested. It never ceased to amaze me. I got so bored with it, I would play games with them on the phone, but I digress.

The first step for these guys would have been to go back to the drawing board, and build a structured sales and marketing sequence, with each step being built on the one before it. People make the mistake that the sale is an ‘event’ or an ‘act’, not a process.

Our rugby league loving salesman made the assumption is that I would respond to a single sales step. Instead of promoting to generate leads, he expected to generate an instant response:

Of course, many business do exactly the same thing, whereas they should really engage in a process to find out those who are feeling pain – both now, and in the future. And to help them to recognise it!

I imagine it as a marketing funnel. Visualising it shows the step changes to get to a deal. Naturally, at any step of the funnel prospects drop out of it, and from the large number of initially interested persons on the top end, only a fraction of the initially interested people remain and actually buy or do the deal.

But that’s ok. The funnel is about building the ideal result to get the ideal prospects raise their hands, and step onto a sequence that is specially constructed for them to move along from suspect to closure.

Sure beats trying sell rugby league game hoardings to a joker like me!

Back to Basics: Customer Acquisition

by ColinLewis on January 16th, 2012 / 2 Comments

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

Many companies appear to assume their sales process is like buying an ice-cream. The steps in buying an ice-cream are real simple. It’s hot. There’s a shop. Open fridge. Agonise overchoice of Choc-Ice or Magnum.  Moan about cost of said ice-cream at till. Consume.

There is another one – more my style, in fact: see Mr. Whippy Van. Or better still, here the cheesy music, and think about running after the van like I did when I was a kid. Ask for a ’99′. Hope they are adhering to HAACP rules. Eat ’99′, providing it does not melt over your hand, or worse still, fall on the ground, leaving you with an empty cone.

Unfortunately, not all decision-making processes are like that. In fact, most are not.

However, looking at most companies sales processes, it would appear that this two or three step process is what is expected of customers. And, in turn, blame their sales guys on their inability to close deals more or less immediately.

So, here is my six-step back-to-basics for building new customers:

  • Think: A sale should not be seen as a results of single ‘event’ or an ‘act’, but a process
  • Never assume: Do not believe that a prospect will respond to a single sales step, such as an email, or a phone call
  • Structure: A structured sales and marketing sequence is required to be put in place, and understood.
  • Sequence: Build a sequence is based on step, building on the one before it.
  • Discipline: Bring people down a road, where each step is a baby step to build rapport – have the discipline to think about NOT getting the deal on the spot.
  • Imagine: Visualise a sales funnel to show the step changes to get the company or individual to act, be it buy the course or become a member

Marketing and List Building: Show Them Why

by ColinLewis on January 9th, 2012 / No Comment

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

Even with the advent of thousands of Facebook and Twitter follower, building your own list of past and future prospects is the single most important thing to do. The list is equivalent to all your future income. Facebook followers are not as an engaged, despite the social media hype. Email is still the one to drive revenue and the making your list work through email is your number one priority.

But how do you do it? If you are running a personal blog or are a small business with a small website? How do you get people to sign up?… Show them what’s in it for them. The acronym WIIFM – what’s in it for me -is a staple of all marketing, Internet marketing or offline marketing.The squeeze page or list building page show be the first thing people see on the site. The website has to have a great headline. It probably will have some kind of graphic or image, and three to five bullet points. It will also have an opt-in box, created by whichever autoresponder service you’re using. That’s all you need.

See how www.yourcyclingacademy.com has achieved this: firstly, its very clearly visible on the top right; next it has a very clear heading: ‘Subscribe for FREE to Your Cycling Academy Newsletter and get your FREE “7 ways to increase your average speed” ebook’. The headline of the main page gets them reading down the page further. But the bullet points in the main section tell them why they will want to fill in the box because in them, he answers their question, “What’s in it for me?”

Make a list of every benefit you can think of. What will your product or service do for the client? When you’ve finished, get up and walk away for a while. Let your subconscious work a while, and then go back and write a few more benefit statements. Take your time with this process because it’s very, very important – and it takes much longer than you think.

But what’s a benefit? Put yourself into your customers’ shoes. If you were thinking about signing up for your list, what would entice you? What would your product or service do for you? Here’s an example. On yourcyclingacademy.com, he asks the questions:

  • Would you like to be a faster, stronger and fitter cyclist?
  • Do you want to learn the secrets of the cycling pros?
  • Have you spent hundreds (or even thousands!!) on your cycling equipment – and only seen marginal gains?

These features make you want to say, “that’s me’ – if you are in the cycling niche. You have to paint a mental picture for your customers so that they can see whats in it for them, and imagine them in the future. He then reinforces it with ‘Whether you have just bought your first bike or you have been cycling for years, this site is for you’

See how he subtly places a picture in the mind of the reader. Painting this a mental picture for people will build trust, show them how the features of your product or program will do for them and encourage them to sign up to your list, knowing they are going to a get a tonne of value if they do.

 

The Money Is In the List

by ColinLewis on January 2nd, 2012 / 1 Comment

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

There is lot of talk, and therefore, a lot of confusion as to where to start to focus online. In reality, you can have all the Facebook, SEO, PPC, Twitter and Linkedin you like. However, in my experience, the one thing that is head and shoulders ahead of SEO if you want immediate, trackable results is email marketing

Think of the trail of activities that has to happen for somebody to get your website. Firstly, they have to search for the product or service, then hopefully their keywords used will match your keywords, your content will update to date and relevant and your site will be favoured. Then, the potential customer will have to search through your site to find the right product or service, and with a bit of luck, find the correct product at the right price for them to make a purchase.

There are a lot of steps in this process. This particular trail is fraught with danger. You have no way of hearding your potential customers into your corral.

However, if you already have a decent list that you have worked on, and knows who you are, and like receiving offers, then you can get results with five minutes of sending out a relevant email. Why? Because you have shown the potential customer the offer, the timing of the offer, and given them a direct link to your website (hopefully, you will have deep-linked the offer directly!).

To me, building your opt-in list is the most important part of online marketing. You can do this and almost forget all the other stuff, and still get results that will impress the boss. So, put everything aside, and make sure that every single touchpoint of your organisation is focussed on collected names and emails address. I built a list up by 150% by some very simple activities within the organisation; within a year it was providing 10% of total revenues.

So, make sure you have a programme of collecting every email address, every business card, every touch point with current and potential customers collected and put into a (simple) database, and communicate with them. How often?  Lets cover that chestnut in another post.

26 Reasons Why People Buy

by ColinLewis on December 26th, 2011 / No Comment

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

One of the original direct marketing gurus was the late Ed Mayer. He came up with the “26 Reasons why people buy”. An oldie but a goodie – but still applicable today to all forms of marketing.

1. To make money

2. To save money

3. To save time

4. The avoid effort

5. To get more comfort

6. To achieve greater cleanliness

7. To attain fuller health

8. To escape physical pain

9. To gain praise

10. To be popular

11. To attract the opposite sex

12. To conserve possessions

13. To increase enjoyment

14. To gratify curiosity

15. To protect family

16. To be in style

17. To have or hold beautiful possessions

18. To satisfy appetite

19. To emulate others

20. To avoid trouble

21. To avoid criticism

22. To be individual

23. To protect reputation

24. To take advantage of opportunities

25. To have safety in buying something else.

26. To make work easier.

 
 

Maths: Who Needs Them?

by ColinLewis on December 19th, 2011 / 4 Comments

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

The Irish emphasis on science and mathematics is completely overstated. Make that completely overstated if want to run a business. However, the basics of any business are the numbers. Unfortunately, the typical accountants view of the world is de rigueur, but their view is about the past, and of little value in making good day-to-day sales and marketing decisions for you business. P+L, cashflow and balance sheets are for bankers, but do not reflect your most important numbers.

Here are the real numbers that are important for all businesses:

• Cost per lead: This is the the cost of getting a customer to say ‘I’m interested in buying your stuff’. If you advertise in the Golden Pages at a cost of €1000, and 100 people call or go to your website, then the cost per lead of that channel is €100.

• Cost per sale:  The cost per sale reflects all the costs of getting a prospect on the path to buying from you. This is the number you must know, as it reflects all the costs of putting a prospect on the path and converting him to be your customer.

• Average transaction Value (ATV): knowing your ATV will determine the maximum allowable cost of acquiring a customer, before you even spent any money.

• Customer Value: This is a case of knowing your ABC: what is the value of your customers broken into segments: A level customers, B level customers and C level customers. You can then communicate with them in different ways, enabling you to choose different type of media and methods

• Lifetime Customer Value (LTV): This a biggie, and to be honest, there is a bunch of claptrap talked about it.. On the one side, there are plenty of companies talking about it, and saying they believe it is important, and investing in CRM systems to do so – but not doing a thing relevant to customers. All mobile phone operators in Ireland leap to mind, for instance. Similarly, there are those who are actually doing it properly, without spending a cent. Your typical old Irish corner shop did it better than any multi-national company can ever do.

If none of the above strike a chord, then get working on knowing these key number straightaway. And, if you hear yourself saying ‘but my business is different’, then you definitely need to know them. Whether you make cupcakes, widgets or flog yourself as a Facebook guru, all the above still apply.

 

The 6 Basic Steps for Building a New Customer Pipeline

by ColinLewis on December 12th, 2011 / 13 Comments

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

Many companies appear to assume their sales process is like buying an ice-cream. The steps in buying an ice-cream are real simple. It’s hot. There’s a shop. Open fridge. Agonise over choice of Choc-Ice or Magnum.  Moan about cost of said ice-cream at till. Consume.

There is another one – more my style, in fact: see Mr. Whippy Van. Or better still, here the cheesy music, and think about running after the van like I did when I was a kid. Ask for a ’99. Hope they are adhering to HAACP rules. Eat ’99, providing it does not melt over your hand, or worse still, fall on the ground, leaving you with an empty cone.

Unfortunately, not all decision-making processes are like that. In fact, most are not.

However, looking at most companies sales processes, it would appear that this two or three step process is what is expected of customers. And, in turn, blame their sales guys on their inability to close deals more or less immediately.

So, here is my six-step back-to-basics for building new customers:

• Think: A sale should not be seen as a results of single ‘event’ or an ‘act’, but a process

• Never assume: Do not believe that a prospect will respond to a single sales step, such as an email, or a phone call

• Structure: A structured sales and marketing sequence is required to be put in place, and understood.

• Sequence: Build a sequence is based on step, building on the one before it.

• Discipline: Bring people down a road, where each step is a baby step to build rapport – have the discipline to think about NOT getting the deal on the spot.

• Imagine: Visualise a sales funnel to show the step changes to get the company or individual to act, be it buy the course or become a member.

Customer Acquisition: The Basic Way

by ColinLewis on October 28th, 2011 / No Comment

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Colin Lewis, Marketing

Many companies appear to assume their sales process is like buying an ice-cream. The steps in buying an ice-cream are real simple. It’s hot. There’s a shop. Open fridge. Agonise overchoice of Choc-Ice or Magnum.  Moan about cost of said ice-cream at till. Consume.

There is another one – more my style, in fact: see Mr. Whippy Van. Or better still, here the cheesy music, and think about running after the van like I did when I was a kid. Ask for a ’99′. Eat ’99′, providing it does not melt over your hand, or worse still, fall on the ground, leaving you with an empty cone.

Unfortunately, not all decision-making processes are like that. In fact, most are not.

However, looking at most companies sales processes, it would appear that this two or three step process is what is expected of customers. And, in turn, blame their sales guys on their inability to close deals more or less immediately.

So, here is my six-step back-to-basics for building new customers:

  • Think: A sale should not be seen as a results of single ‘event’ or an ‘act’, but a process
  • Never assume: Do not believe that a prospect will respond to a single sales step, such as an email, or a phone call
  • Structure: A structured sales and marketing sequence is required to be put in place, and understood.
  • Sequence: Build a sequence that is based on steps, building on the one before it.
  • Discipline: Bring people down a road, where each step is a baby step to build rapport – have the discipline to think about NOT getting the deal on the spot.
  • Imagine: Visualise a sales funnel to show the step changes to get the company or individual to act, be it buy the course or become a member
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