Watch for News in Your Field

by Barry Brennan on / No Comment

Category: Mentoring Questions, Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Barry Brennan, Marketing and Business Development Mentor, Mentors.ie

Barry-Brennan

It doesn’t matter, what industry or field your business is in. There are a variety of factors that impact success. Marketing is certainly one of the primary ways to grow your business. This tool is used to attract new customers, as well as, to connect with existing customers. It is impossible to provide the needs of customers without understanding them.

News related to your individual field is important. Current stories can show you trends that matter to your customer base. The news is a good resource for finding out what the competition is up to. At the same time, you can modify your marketing campaigns by learning from the mistakes of similar companies. Products are most effective when they answer a legitimate need or desire. News trends will assist you to supplying the best products in your field.

Subscribe to Newsletters

Newsletters from good resources in your field can be helpful. This is a way to find out about top-products in certain areas. Knowing what similar businesses are doing is a great way to target your own marketing campaigns. These are usually something informative in virtually every credible newsletter source.

Research Product Sites

The internet has made competition more and more potent. This medium has also allowed businesses to know what their competitors are up to. A good news source for your field is going to be found through product sites. Products and services in your industry or area of expertise are often changing. The more that you learn from news on these issues, the better you are able to market to your base.

Make Necessary Changes

The most successful businesses these days are those that are flexible. They are willing to shed marketing processes that don’t work. These are also businesses that are in touch with their customers. Making necessary changes or even adjusting methods can significantly impact your productivity. You can learn what has worked in your field by staying abreast of current happenings.

Processing the news in your field or industry doesn’t mean totally re-vamping your business model. This is an avenue, however, to make your operations better. Some will find that re-designing their websites is necessary. Others will make changes to their webstores. Marketing is not simply about advertising products and services. It is about steering customers to you and making the shopping process pleasurable.

Back to Basics: Customer Acquisition

by ColinLewis on / 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

26 Reasons Why People Buy

by ColinLewis on / 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.

 
 

5 Keys to Optimising Your Sales Team

by Fiona Flynn on / No Comment

Category: Sales & Marketing, Uncategorized

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Fiona Flynn, Sales and Marketing Mentor, Mentors.ie

Fiona Flynn, Mentors.ie and Chair of Irish Sales Champion Awards, says that most sales teams have remarkably similar issues.  There is a tendency to focus on existing customers, as habitually as a rabbit run, performing the same ritual tasks, buried in administration and  not clustering meetings.

The ultimate challenge for sales managers is how to get the team focused on new business opportunities.

The answer is to conduct an indepth analysis in conjunction with sales people, to examine where and how exactly they are spending their time.  The results can be eye-opening for the entire team, at the very least and can save thousands of euro in wasted resources.

The reality is that this is a process welcomed by executives and their sales staff.  Sales people complain that they would prefer to devote their time to sales rather than administration.  The organisation has to be specifically structured to help them to achieve greater efficiencies, otherwise the burden of administration and processing continues to fall their way.

It is important when managing a sales team to find a balance between micro-management and allowing the good people to achieve their sales targets.  Continually focus on and measure prospecting, sales meetings, and the level of administration that your sales people are engaged in.

When you know that your sales team could achieve more, how do you achieve that productivity boost? Here are  five keys to optimising your sales team:

Identify training requirements.

Make sure that your sales people are trained to the highest standards and that they are familiar with the best ways to sell.  Selling is an art and a science.  Your team need to be familiar with the intricacies of prospecting, generating warm leads and acquiring strong business referrals, for example

Consider centralising lead generation.

A number of companies now use business analysts or high quality call centres to work with sales teams on lead generation and even to make appointments for sales staff.  Lead generation absorbs a considerable amount of sales time, as does the necessary research into qualifying the lead, and this research must be thorough.   Centralising lead generation allows sales people to focus on what they were hired for – customer interaction.

Increase Core Selling Time.

Most sales people complain that the administrative burden placed on them significantly decreased their time for sales.  This burden can take up as much as 50% of their time, on average.

  1. Provide administrative support so that sales people are free to sell
  2. Allocate dedicated resources for CRM system updates and lead generation
  3. Eliminate duplication of CRM systems and other reporting structures
  4. Route customer complaints through a dedicated resource

Empower the sales team.

Relationship building and team connectivity is core to strong sales.  Use intelligent performance management, feedback and sales support to ensure that sales people remain motivated.  Connectivity through technology has also proven useful in reducing staff turnover.  This may include remote email, internet and access to SalesForce.

Support the sales team with great back-up service.

Sales people very often complain that they put effort into recruiting a customer, and that the delivery side of the business puts equal effort into losing them again.  Make sure that your back-up service teams, customer sign-up processes and delivery capability is as professional as the people who are selling for you. Marketing also has an important part to play.  When the marketing and sales teams work closely together on initiatives to attract customers, we discovered that the impact and success of the campaigns are multiplied.

Fiona says that selling like fishing requires prioritisation. “You can’t just go out to a lake and keep casting.  Selling requires a well-informed focus on rich territory, minimum distraction and it also requires backup in terms of training, lead generation and reward for good performance.”

4 Practices For Achieving Excellence in Sales

by Fiona Flynn on / 107 Comments

Category: Sales & Marketing

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Fiona Flynn, Sales and Marketing Mentor, Mentors.ie

The inaugural Sales Champion Awards were held in June 2011 and I had the honour of chairing the judging panel.  All of the judges were enormously impressed by those nominated for the sales awards – the energy, the passion, the determination to succeed in a highly challenging marketplace.
It had been tough choosing winners from the field of excellent people that we met.  There was tremendous excitement on the night.  The one common trait that everyone shared in the room that evening was optimism.  Belief in the future, belief that success was achievable and belief in themselves, as sales professionals.  This was a room filled to capacity with winners.
Here are four common practices that can help you to achieve excellence in sales – and they can be applied to any business:
1. Prepare and Plan
Never approach a prospective customer before you do proper preparation and planning for the encounter.  Know the profile of your ideal customer.  Ask yourself whether the customer that you want to do business with actually matches your ideal customer profile.   Do they have a need or problem that your product or service can satisfy well.
A key to success is to focus on seeking out high quality leads.  If you are certain that what you offer is a good fit for the prospect, then your conversion rates will be higher.
No detail is too small to consider.  Even giving careful consideration to the time of day that you make the call could influence your success rates.
Mystery shop – work out how people buy from your competitors.  Become a customer of your competitor and become a customer of your own business.  Identify the strengths and weaknesses of both and aim to be the best.
Talk to your customers.  Continuously get feedback from your customers.  Why do they buy from you?  What do they prefer about you over your competitors and vice versa.
2. Build Trust and Rapport
People buy from people.  Personality, integrity, and understanding are key ingredients to successful relationships.  Every interaction with the customer, by your business, influences the customer’s impression of you, your product or service and your company image.
Build rapport and trust.   Remember that the sales conversation is not a one way presentation about the features of your product or service offering.  It is a two way discussion taking into account the customer’s needs and problems and how you intend to satisfy those needs. The sales conversation begins and ends with listening to and satisfying the customer’s needs.
3. Solve a problem / Satisfy a need
People are complex.  They have real problems and identifiable needs.  As a sales professional, your job is to understand what is going on in their world.  What issues are they dealing with – that you can help them with?  Are they concerned about budgets, design, functionality, timing of delivery, or emotional impact?   How can you help?
Understanding the challenges that customers face is important.   Communicating that you understand and can help them is critical.
Next comes the delivery piece – make sure that you back up your understanding with excellent customer service.  Sales is not just about getting the deal over the line, good sales people ensure that the delivery is also excellent.  Focus on doing the little things right – ‘thanks for the order’.
Ensure paperwork/order is completed correctly so that the order is processed efficiently.  Focus on providing customers with a feel good factor – I know xx won’t let me down….  This approach is proven to achieve repeat orders and referrals.
4. Reward and Celebrate success
Are major wins and good results celebrated in your business?   Recognition and praise of your sales team goes a long way.   The feel good factor of getting recognition for a job well done helps motivate other members of the team to aspire to do well.
It is also important to remember that happy sales people achieve greater success because they exude confidence and radiate positivity.

The KPIs That Matter For Your Business

by SeanDonnelly on / 2 Comments

Category: Finance, Sales & Marketing, Strategic Change

SPECIAL GUEST BLOG By Sean Donnelly, Financial Management Mentor, Mentors.ie

“Navigating our way today in a more competitive environment cannot be accomplished merely by monitoring and controlling financial measures of past performance.” Robert Kaplan.

Traditional financial performance measures are insufficient. Future success will be increasingly influenced by increased focus on intangible assets such as customers, employees, product innovation and systems. Measuring the right things, the right way and taking the right action is the key to running a successful business. This entails defining long term objectives, translating the overall business strategy into a linked set of short-term measures and the mechanisms for achieving them. Linking of departmental & individual responsibilities with systems for feedback, learning and process improvement is key. It is critical to identify those factors which will drive performance (causes, leading indicator) from outcomes (effects, lagging indicator) factors. Unless you can successfully identify, measure and improve the correct key drivers you may be chasing at the outcomes rather than the actual causes.

Three types of performance measures:
1) Key result indicators: these tell the board how management have performed in terms of a critical success factor eg. customer satisfaction, net profit, return on  capital employed.
2) Performance indicators: that tell staff and managers what to do, eg. profitability of top 10 customers.
3) Key Performance Indicators: KPIs that tell staff and managers what to do in order to increase performance dramatically eg. analysis of reasons for sales leads not converted.

Typical characteristics of true Key Performance Indicators:

  • They are measured frequently, sometimes hourly, daily or weekly depending on the KPI. Monthly measures may be closing the stable door after the horse has bolted.
  • They include many non-financial measures.
  • They are acted upon regularly by owner/Chief Executive & top management team.
  • All employees understand them and what corrective action they indicate.
  • Responsibility for KPIs can be attributed to teams or individuals.
  • They have a significant impact on the organisation – eg. they affect most of the core critical success factors.
  • Positive results on KPIs affect other measures positively.

Examples of KPIs:

  • No of orders won, new leads opened, leads progressed to order stage, no of customers trading.
  • Market share & trend analysis.
  • The cost and effect of marketing, in terms of the numbers of enquiries or leads being generated, orders won and the cost of the leads/orders.
  • The conversion rates from prospects and enquiries to secure new business.
  • Percentage of customer deliveries on time and in full.
  • Customer satisfaction rating, complaints, returns etc.
  • Sales breakdown with gross margin by market sector. This could also be shown by product group.
  • Key efficiencies of operations processes, including waste & re-works.
  • Overhead spending vs budget, sometimes broken down into two or three elements or functions.
  • Staff/labour turnover figures.
  • Key financial management figures such as debtor days, creditor days, stock levels and cash liquidity.

KPIs may be classified as past, current or future measures. The most important KPIs are current and future measures. The prime purposes of KPIs are to provide knowledge of how to improve the processes and to motivate management and staff to constantly improve processes and performance.

Back-end Selling to Extend the Customer Relationship

by Micheal O Callarain on / 2 Comments

Category: Sales & Marketing

I was watching a popular television how the other evening where they were engaging in the selling of novelties to an overseas client. A statement was made in that show that the real profit for the sales was made on the “back-end” sales of additional products once the customer was on the line. Intrigued by what the profitability was behind that idea I went in search of some information on back-end selling and how it really reduces your advertising costs as a percentage of sales.  Back-end selling has been done by large chain stores as “loss-leaders” since the inception of grocery stores. As a practical example can imagine the cost of advertising if they had to blanket the market with adds for every single product they sell? 

Back end selling effectively reduces the cost of the sale by exposing the client to additional products above the one that is being initially sold or advertised during the initial sale. This can successfully be done through affiliate marketing after the sale and outsourced through your CRM system. Traditional methods of this include newsletters showing the back end merchandise to the initial customer following the initial purchase of a related item, or a thank you email showing a custom email signature offering another related item that just happens to be attached. 

A more robust feature of back end selling is present however in what we do every day on Amazon, where they say “Customers that bought “X” also bought “Y””. Perhaps a more effective version than even that method is to drive in accessory products into the initial sale that may lead to other primary products. A practical example of this technique is the purchase of an MP3 player and the selection of a specialty headphone. This headphone can then be used to drive the compatibility with another form of MP3 player as well as a specialized case for both the headphones and MP3 Player. Back-end selling can easily be leveraged more robustly as the more thought is put into the standardization and relationship of product. 

Remember however that the continued relationship for back end selling requires the initial purchase to be “at home” good… and that the initial product will be judged by the buyers as the benchmark for the affiliated products that may support the initial purchase. Outlets like Brookstone rely heavily on back end selling to introduce potential customer to alternative unrelated products following an initial purchase, and they are so successful because of the consistent standard of their entry product. 

Clients Vs Consumers: There’s a Difference

by Micheal O Callarain on / No Comment

Category: Sales & Marketing

Today I wanted to start off with a very controversial topic, the difference between clients and consumers.  First and foremost there is a difference, and the difference lies in their definition: 

• Client -a person or organization taking advice from a solicitor, accountant, or other professional person

• Consumer-somebody or something that consumes something by eating it, drinking it, or using it up

I am going to stretch the definition of client a bit and say that your business is a professional establishment, you have liability and people come to you for a good or service…to me that makes them your client. It doesn’t matter what the product or service is, you are a professional entity ( it says so on your business license)…so you have clients. Consumers on the other hand do just that; they take, they consume and use whatever it is completely…in short they give nothing back. So given the choice between the two options would you rather sell to clients or to consumers?

This is important because your marketing strategy sets you up to sell to either, it matters most specifically where you get your customers from , and what the pricing strategy is for your product or service. A consumer will look for the one time sale at the lowest price, they only want to take. They do not see the value in your brand or your business and want to leave you with the least amount of money that they can and only return if you can provide that again and again, in short there is no loyalty. On the alternative side of the coin there are clients, and clients come back to a professional and value their advice or product, they give relative the value they are getting from the service ( when is the last time you saw the cheapest solicitor…and only saw them once), that makes you a client. 

As you move forward in your business and set your policies you have to ask yourself whether you are attracting consumers or clients with your efforts, and if the answer is consumers then you had best change the direction and strategy of your product…placement because as noted in the definition they will leave nothing behind for you to sustain yourself on, they will consume you. On the flip side clients will give relative to your worth, they will reciprocate in the relationship and will make you a better company through their interaction. 

 

Tell The Story Of Your Brand

by Micheal O Callarain on / 6 Comments

Category: Sales & Marketing

How Consumers Connect

Advertising is everywhere these days. No sooner did the first free smart phone app hit the market then there was a banner ad running across it asking you to “click here”. Today even on the internet article directories are littered with hyperlinked text that points you to one product or another, or someone selling you the latest “make money from home scheme”. Google has made this a bit worse by creating targeted “ad words” that now do not even permit me the luxury of ignoring the message outright…because I may just be interested in it. But what really is missing in the barrage of advertising is any real connection to any of the brands that we are being assaulted with.

As an example when the traditional media outlets were run by the major player, companies that advertised were large, well known and had the money to advertise on television, radio, and major newspaper print runs. We connected with the companies because we all know them, and we knew what they were about. However in this age of social media marketing I can get an ad from a company on the other side of the world offering to sell me a service that I really cannot relate to. One stop on my browser window brings up a whole host of shoe selling companies (who are all probably selling the same shoe) but are marketing it under twenty different storefronts and twenty different labels…so what is a modern brand to do?

The answer is ride the wave of the blog, people love to read a story….so tell them the story of your brand. American T shirt makers “Life is Good” have done this from the beginning and the groundswell has been enormous. As a retailer you need to let them know that you are just like them, you struggle as well… tell them your story. Big companies that are well funded have been doing this for years with the wealthy, they tell the story of their privileged starts and their long line of success dating back to the early century….why can’t every other brand do this as well? With so many players in your market and so much information market by telling the story first and then deliver the goods second, because the emotional responses caused by an affiliation with a brand will lead to increased sales. A mere price differentiator will lead to a one time sale, but if the client is willing to buy on price alone, is he or she really the best client for your business to have. 

 

The Lexus Effect

by ColinLewis on / No Comment

Category: Sales & Marketing

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

Until recently, consumers had a limited repetoire of companies that they could choose to deal with.

This was often dictated by where they lived, how their tastes had developed, and what form of advertising was used. Of course, this is not the case anymore.  The woman shopping in the local mall is also looking at Amazon and eBay. It’s so obvious that it’s barely worth even mentioning that they can check out it all online.

The typical consumer doing their research will know more about how you stack up against your competitors than you do. It may be because your service or product does not stack up in terms of the price you’re charging – in the customer’s mind. As Seth Godin says, ‘Low price is a great way to sell a commodity. That’s not marketing, though, that’s efficiency’.

There is also the second more subtle issue. This is the expectation that your potential consumer is not bringing his experience from other industries to yours. You put out a product and service that is good enough in your view. In isolation, that may be the case. But, the same consumer is spending time on Facebook, watching TV, reading the Sunday supplements and driving around in a Lexus. Or a Mini or a Fiat 500. He or she is not operating in isolation – yet thats how we often think in many case.

If you are interested in buying a car, some of the Korean brands offer seven+ or longer warranties. Lexus came from nowhere to grab market share from the big guns in Germany, Mercedes and BMW. The guys at Lexus ruined it for everone else though, as they set new expectations from a business that had very low expectations post-purchase.

Use this new playing field to your advantage. Sure, keep tabs on what your competitors are doing you, and you will be more competitive.

However, look outside the industry: think how consumers import their expectations and experiences from elsewhere? Your business is not different. Having worked in five different industries now, I can pretty much guarantee that most businesses are the same. Yes, the economics can be different, but there is a lot more in common between marmalades and Andrea Bocelli, the opera singer (but thats for another blog!)

Think about the Lexus effect in your business. Can you replicate? Can you offer guarantees no-one else can? If not, why not?

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