Archive for September, 2006

Improving your sales and marketing skills

September 20th, 2006 Linda Mattacks

Is it worth the effort?

We probably all know people who seem to be naturally good at almost anything they turn their hands to and it’s particularly galling if it’s something we struggle to achieve ourselves.

The same applies to sales and marketing: Some people are better and more successful than others, but, while they may have had a natural aptitude to give them a head start, almost all of them have worked hard to become as good as they are.

There’s an ancient, but very true saying:

    More sales are made by perspiration than inspiration

To help you decide whether developing and mastering sales and marketing skills will be worth your effort, a good starting point would be to check out whether your business meets the following criteria:

  • Your products, services or solutions have a perceived initial and ongoing high value and will appeal to an identifiable, clearly defined target audience

And/or

  • Your products, services or solutions will definitely generate sufficient repeat, additional or continued business from your customers once they “come on board” to repay your investment in winning them many fold

And

  • Your business is based on your people’s knowledge, abilities, level of service and professionalism, and is the complete opposite of the mass marketing, “stack ‘em high and sell ‘em cheap” approach

And

  • Your existing sales and marketing activities do not generate enough of the type and calibre of customers and profit you seek – you want more and are prepared to invest the time and effort necessary to make it happen

If you agree with three of the four criteria outlined, I’d say it’s definitely in your interests to ensure that your sales and marketing activities aren’t letting you down. There’s a free Self Assessment Questionnaire on the home page of the Selling For Business web site that you can complete to check out the effectiveness of your current sales and marketing communication skills – just click on the link below. That will help you to identify any areas that you need to work on and give you some ideas to start you off.

Improving your sales and marketing skills
Posted in Marketing, Sales No Comments »

Your potential gold mine

September 20th, 2006 Linda Mattacks

Are you sitting on a wealth of untapped information?
If your business is already established rather than just starting up, and you have a broad customer base, you could be sitting on a potential gold mine of information that you won’t need to dig too deep to access!

Look to your best customers first
Start profiling your existing customers – If you’ve already done this go through the steps outlined below anyway and just check that you haven’t missed anything important to factor into your equations. You can do this whether your company is in business-to-business or business-to-consumer.

  • List your best customers – typically they will be 20% of your total customer base
  • Write down what it is about them that makes them “best customers”
  • Next you can look for the more obviously identifiable similarities amongst these customers
  • Then look at where they came from

But don’t forget the rest
Now that you’ve analysed your best customers, how are you going to use the information you’ve uncovered?

  • Look at the remaining 80% of your current customers plus your lapsed customers and see whether any of the companies match the identifiable similarities of your best customers. It could be that those with a close match have need of more of your product or service, but either you or they haven’t identified that need yet, or it’s being fulfilled elsewhere – Now is your chance to find out and do something about it!
  • Take the criteria of “identifiable similarities” and see if there is a specialist list available that matches the majority of them and that you could rent/buy for prospecting purposes
  • Finally, if you come across any really awful customers during this whole exercise, you might like to take a view on your future dealings with them!

Remember: It is a fact that pursuing unqualified business is one of the most common reasons companies fail to reach their revenue targets.

Happy hunting!

Your potential gold mine
Posted in Business, Market/Marketing Research, Marketing No Comments »

First impressions count – the incoming call

September 18th, 2006 Linda Mattacks

I seem to have focused in rather earlier than intended on first impressions and the telephone, so I’m going to stay with that theme a little longer, this time looking at how the incoming business call is received.

The “Nobody Home” Syndrome
Depending on the size of your company, the nature of your business, and the time of year, to name but three contributing factors, there are doubtless going to be occasions when telephone callers will hear a recorded message. That’s quite acceptable, whether it is the main business number or voice mail on your own extension, but:
When did you last listen to the message on your business telephone – your switchboard, landline or mobile? What does it sound like? – Is it

  • Professional?
  • Clear?
  • Welcoming?
  • Informative?
  • Helpful?

If you run a small business and have been persuaded to install a telephone answering system, please

  • Get rid of the pre-recorded “Your call is important to us and will be answered shortly” – If there’s someone there to take the call, pick up the ‘phone! Record your own message for when there really is nobody available to take the call
  • Get rid of “Your call may be recorded and monitored for training purposes” – You really have the time to sit around listening to play backs of calls and train your staff on how to do better?
  • Do you really need “Press 1 for sales, 2 for accounts, 3 for customer service, (etc.)”?

You’re sacrificing a warm and human welcome for what you believe to be an impression of size – I know which I’d rather be greeted by! So let’s move on to that human welcome…

“Hello?”…
… isn’t what anyone would expect to hear when someone answers a business number.

Whoever answers the telephone in your organisation is the company, or at least the voice of the company, to anyone telephoning in. It doesn’t take the brain of Britain to realise that the same rules of professionalism, clarity, etc. apply equally to the ‘live’ response to an incoming call – a call that could be from your biggest customer or your biggest potential customer.

You wouldn’t dream of sending out anyone who wasn’t thoroughly conversant with your company to sell on your behalf. Yet how many times do you allow just anyone to answer an incoming call? The way each and every incoming call is dealt with right from the outset will affect the image of your company – good or bad.

Anyone in your company who uses the telephone to communicate with anyone else, internally or externally, needs good telephone communication skills.

First impressions count – the incoming call
Posted in Business, Marketing, Telemarketing No Comments »
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