SMALL BUSINESS OPTIMIZATION: Four sales mistakes you're likely making and how to address them

Four sales mistakes you're likely making and how to address them

RYAN CALIGIURI

Special to The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Jun. 27 2014, 5:46 AM EDT

Last updated Friday, Jun. 27 2014, 5:46 AM EDT

Let’s face it, we all make mistakes. What’s important, however, is learning from our mistakes and avoid any errors in the future.

For sales professionals, it’s important to recognize mistakes and address them right away, otherwise they could have a significant impact on the bottom line which could have many negative impacts throughout the organization.

These four mistakes need to be addressed by every sales professional responsible for bringing new opportunities to table.I work with sales professionals every day of the week and have seen a number of mistakes come to the surface repeatedly by a large majority of professionals and it is affecting their ability to drive opportunity in a big way.

1. Lack of preparation before a sales meeting. In sales, it’s your job to come into a meeting as prepared as possible. At the very least, you should examine the prospects website, search for them on your search engine of choice, and if possible look at case studies to understand, how they make money.

All of these basics are important for forming a picture of the prospect in your head, but do not stop there, create a list of questions that will help you get more insight on your prospect.

These questions should two things: go beyond what you already know and they need to make the prospect think deeply about their own situation. Some sample questions might include:

• Why is your current service/product/technology/situation/issue no longer working for you?
• You mentioned your current provider is not able to deliver XYZ. If you work with us, what are you hoping will be different?
• What does success look like for you, your business or this project?

2. Not focusing on clients. This is a common issue that many sales professionals fall victim to because they love their product or service so much and spend too much time talking about their offerings. This is a terrible mistake because you’re jumping directly into solution selling before you can even identify the key challenges or reasons behind why the prospect and you are meeting in the first place.

It’s okay to introduce yourself, what you do and who you’ve helped to make sure the prospect knows about you, but after that, get right into your questions and understand what the client needs. Once you are able to paint a complete picture of the client and their needs, you can begin to offer up some solutions for the prospect.

3. Believing that ‘no’ is the end of the road. What’s your first instinct when a prospect says no? Do you assume this means the prospect is not interested and you completely erase them from your sales database? If so, this is a big mistake.

The reality of the situation is that a ‘no’ is not a roadblock, it’s an opportunity for a seasoned salesperson to uncover the prospect’s concerns by probing even deeper.

If you’re in accounting and you call a prospect that tells you they are not interested, you need to ask them questions that make them question their current provider and learn about the key benefits of working with you.

A sample response question could be, “how much does your current firm save you on taxes a year? I ask because our firm focuses heavily on ensuring our clients know all the ins and outs so we can maximize their savings every year. One client, similar to you, saved X amount last year because of what we did for them. Would you like to hear more?”

4. Not having the persistence to make something out of nothing. One of the most common things is that those who persist are annoying, cross the line, or are going to do more harm than good. Let me ask you this: how many people are you going to get through to by calling or e-mailing once or twice? Chances are very few.

Following up is one of the most important factors in penetrating accounts and closing sales. It’s not about being the best or having the cheapest price. The one who wins in most cases is the one who works the hardest at getting in front of the client, understanding their business and driving value through consistent communication.

If you want to win more in business and capture more sales, you need to stop listening to those who play it safe and say following up too much will do harm than good, because they are just plain wrong.

I get criticized often for telling people that I followed up with a prospect 102 times before they became a client of mine. What those people see is a sleazy salesman trying to close a sale and move on to the next.

What they do not see is the creativity behind each follow up, the lifelong relationships, and the great results that came about because of persistent follow up. When someone is able to approach, follow up knowing all of this is possible, follow up doesn’t become a dirty word – it becomes a passion, something someone does to unlock a future filled with many wonderful possibilities.

My challenge to you: If you’re currently making any of these sales mistakes, I want you pick one and try your hardest to avoid making it again. We are already at the halfway point of 2014, so use the remaining six months to eliminate one of these mistakes from your sales habits. I know that if you are able to do this, you will be much more successful as a result.

Ryan Caligiuri is the president of Ryan Caligiuri International, a consultancy focused on driving revenue growth through creative growth strategies for professional services firms. Mr. Caligiuri is also the founder of The Growth Network, a program that provides sales/marketing resources & training to help grow professional services firms.

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SALES & MARKETING: Top Ten Branding Tips - Do you agree?

Top Ten Branding Tips

Branding is one of the most important aspects of a strong company when it comes to securing the goodwill and trust of your customers. Newcastle Branding Specialists Urban River provides 10 Branding Tips advising how to build a strong brand that can add value to your company and ultimately generate sales.

1. Put your customers first

Identify who they are and how they think.  What are the factors that lead them to want your product or service? Now match your business offering to their needs.

2. Brand identity

A strong element of how your company is seen by your customers, your brand identity should remain consistent to reinforce your values continually.  This will help your customers make the decision to buy from you instead of your competitors.

3. Positioning

The way you ‘position’ yourself in the market will determine how customers think about your company in relation to your competitors – are you price lead or quality driven?  Whatever your chosen path, this should be reflected in your marketing copy, images and materials.

4. Keep it simple

Keep names and straplines short, simple and consistent.  Once chosen, use the company name and strapline in every possible means of communication to ensure future recognition and brand association.

5. Involve all staff

Your greatest ambassadors or your biggest weakness – how you involve your staff in branding will determine how much they can help reinforce that brand.  Keep them updated, encourage involvement and ensure a united front for the business.  A cohesive staff team will appear extremely professional and trustworthy to potential customers.

6. Develop a brand plan

Careful management of a brand on an ongoing basis will ensure the brand remains strong, clear and unaffected by outside influences.  Form a plan to maintain brand values and ensure any changes are made in line with brand values.

7. Consistency

A simple set of guidelines will ensure that everyone (internally and externally) can apply your brand in a consistent manner. This is crucial to ensure your potential customers develop a familiarity with, and trust of, your brand.

8. Different media

Keep a close eye on the use of your brand guidelines across different media such as newspapers, radio, print, website, social media and email marketing.  Size, colour and positioning of your logo is essential and the correct use of these should be ensured at all times.

9. Review

Make sure all occurrences of incorrect branding are tackled as they arise and the correct guidelines are understood for the future; nipping such problems in the bud will avoid long-term damage.

10. Involve the professionals

While it’s tempting to enter into a spot of DIY branding this is often not a good idea and can be costly in terms of time and money to address at a later date.  You may seek to employ a professional creative agency to help establish the future brand security of your company.

It’s as simple as that! For more branding and design insight why not pop in for a chat, sign up to our words of wisdom or view our portfolio.

BUSINESS TRANSFORMATION: Customer testimonials are priceless. Here's how to get them

 
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COMMENTARY

Customer testimonials are priceless. Here's how to get them

COLLEEN FRANCIS

Special to The Globe and Mail

Published Wednesday, Mar. 26 2014, 5:00 AM EDT

Last updated Tuesday, Mar. 25 2014, 3:13 PM EDT

These examples will truly grow your business while making a difference!  I encourage you to try them.

“Buyers believe buyers first, the seller second and the business third.” This is a direct quote from an entrepreneur I coach, and he’s right.

Testimonials are amazingly persuasive: They touch on both the facts and emotions that drive people to make decisions. They reaffirm that your claims are credible and that your services are the real deal. They validate the value you deliver to the prospect. And they do so with a message that is unmistakably authentic and sincere.

Here are the some great ways to acquire testimonials:When a client says great things about you, about your work or the products you sell, give them the opportunity to turn that praise into a testimonial. Simply ask: “I’d really love to share your success with others. Would that be okay?” People generally like to be helpful to other people, but they’ll rarely think to give you that all-powerful testimonial unless you ask.

1. Contact your newest customers first. Get on the phone and call your newest customers. No matter which industry you serve, the most passionate praise you’ll find for your work and the service tends to come from customers with whom you have only recently started doing business. Follow Audi’s lead: Fewer than 30 days after a new car purchase, an Audi representative calls to confirm that the customer is happy with the purchase and to ask for feedback on the dealership. If that feedback is positive the surveyor asks if that information can be shared.

2. Contact your wise and insightful repeat customers. Your repeat customers, while perhaps not as excited because they are used to the great service you give them, provide prospects with important insight about what makes your product or service worth buying. Make a point of calling up people you’ve been doing business with for a long time and ask them why it is that they call on you. The answers you get will often include a great sentence or two that can be added to your testimonial collection. Again, all you have to do is ask.

3. Make it easy for people. One of the most common comments you’ll hear from clients when asking for testimonials is “Well I’m really not much of a writer, so it’s hard for me to put it in words.” The real power of testimonials comes from the fact that they’re not polished, that they’re authentic and from the heart. A business owner I know recently told me that he interviews all clients starting with “Finish this sentence in twenty-five words or less: I really like (product/service/person) because . . .” This approach works because it gets right to the point about the feelings people have for you, and how what you do.

4. Do unto others. Write testimonials for others in your client community and those whose services have impressed you. This creates reciprocity, and sends an important message to everyone about the high standards you have not only as a supplier, but as a buyer, too. Social networking sites such as LinkedIn are handy tools for doing this. (Please note that I am not suggesting you use the LinkedIn “endorsement” function. That I find useless and quite frankly, annoying. Instead, use the functionality that lets you actually write a testimonial for the client, supplier, or partner.) You will find that they will return the favour with glowing references for you too.

5. Thank your customers regularly. When you ask for a testimonial, you are battling with numerous other competing customer priorities. By thanking them (sincerely!) for taking the time to act on your request, your customers will treat your request with higher priority. And when you receive the testimonial, be old-fashioned; send a handwritten thank-you note.

Testimonials are the best way to convince prospects to do business with you. They allow you to say:  “Don’t just take my word for it, have a look at what my customers say . . .” When you do so, you deepen prospect confidence and dramatically reduce barriers to closing the sales.

Sales expert Colleen Francis is founder and president of Engage Selling Solutions. Ms. Francis ensures clients realize immediate results, achieve lasting success and permanently raise their bottom line.

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BLOGGING MAXIMIZED: Ten ways to beef up your business blog

THE TOP TENS

Ten ways to beef up your business blog

JEFF QUIPP

Contributed to The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, Apr. 04 2014, 5:00 AM EDT

Last updated Thursday, Apr. 03 2014, 3:20 PM EDT

These tips work.  Careful "tag" selection is also critical to build traffic.  Solicit comments and discussions.  Share your blog with followers, publish on your Linkedin site, don't be afraid to publish "pioneer" thoughts on your area of "expertise".  It is truly rewarding to give back!

Blogging an essential way for businesses to engage with past, current and potential customers. It’s a way to share ideas, impart information, solicit feedback and connect with entire communities of stakeholders. So what could go possibly wrong? Well, lots if you do it poorly.

Here are ten things to keep in mind when blogging for your business:

1. Don't overlook the importance of blogging in core marketing initiatives. Many companies view blogging as an afterthought; something to do once all of the ‘real’ work has been done. This is a mistake. In order for your blog to be effective, it needs to be treated as an important aspect of your business.

There are many ways to limit the amount of time that blogging takes. Make it a company mandate that employees write a post every month, for example, which allows you to leverage internal knowledge to create fresh content, while not taking up too much employee time. Another good idea is to have blogging meetings, where you have a number of employees write as much as they can within an hour in the same room.

2. Using the same format time and again? Don’t be afraid to switch it up. People absorb information in different ways, and using a variety of methods will allow you to appeal to varied tastes.

One common blogging myth is that a post needs to be a certain length. This simply isn’t true. If you have something to write about, write about it. Don’t let a word count limit you. And don’t think you need to stick to a particular template; experiment with different ways of presenting information -- such as incorporating an infographic, audio or video for example.

3. Keep your tone and brand voice consistent. Even though you may have multiple writers contributing to your company’s blog, you should ensure that the blog’s overall tone consistently reflects your brand. Ask yourself: Is your brand informal, fun, or edgy? Or is your brand personality more formal and to the point?

Different writers are bound to have different writing styles, but ultimately the blog exists to reflect your brand. Create a tone/best practices guide for your blog to help guide each writer. This will help ensure the voice of your brand is presented consistently throughout every post.

4. Be discriminate about guest bloggers. Guest blogging can help build brand credibility, community, and your customer base. It can also help you build relationships with people outside of your core business and get your content in front of new audiences. That said, it's important to be strategic about which guest bloggers you get. There has been a rise in people offering guest blogging in order to build links cheaply, and this can be harmful to your blog. Make sure you seek out guest bloggers who are well-respected and authoritative, produce high quality content and add value.

5. Include calls to action (CTAs). They're important because they can help direct readers to other relevant information, encourage your audience to move further along the sales process, and ultimately increase conversion rates. Be sure to include relevant CTAs in every post so it’s easy for your audience to move from one piece of content to the next relevant piece. At the very least, each blog post you publish should have a CTA relevant to the post included at the bottom, but including one above-the-fold isn’t a bad idea either – this gives readers with a shorter attention span an option for exploring what your company has to offer without having to continue reading.

6. Promote other blogs. It’s not a bad idea to give other blogs a nod when they produce high-quality, useful content. In fact, it can help you build new relationships that could be mutually beneficial for both you and the blog you choose to promote. If you see a great post that you think will be relevant to your audience, don’t be afraid to tweet or post it on your Facebook. Your interest in that bloggers’ content may well be reciprocated by way of future acknowledgement and that helps your brand reach a completely new audience through an endorsement from a trusted source.

7. Open up. This doesn’t mean you should start blogging about cars if you sell clothing. It means that you can often find topics that are timely and interesting to your readers that are not directly related to your core business functions. For example, HubSpot, a company that offers inbound marketing software, recently did a post on the rise of feminist stock photography. It has nothing to do with marketing automation, but it does resonate with their marketer-based audience. Great bloggers find this variety by looking for content sources outside of industry publications, as long as they are high-quality, innovative and interesting.

8. Add value to the news of the day. It’s important to know what others are saying about the news of the day or a particular subject. It’s equally important to add to the conversation, not just regurgitate what everyone else is saying. Your blog can be meant to act as a voice of authority on a subject, but if you’re not contributing anything valuable or unique, you will not be able to establish authority among the search engines. By providing deeper insight, other blogs, websites or social media channels may link back to you and cement your credibility on the subject.

9. Engage. Putting your thoughts out publically means anyone can read them, praise them, criticize them or do nothing at all. Your blog should welcome that and allow a platform for engagement. By encouraging potential discussion and giving readers an opportunity to provide feedback – whether it’s positive or negative - you show an interest in connecting, hearing ideas, and understanding where there may be considerations or needed improvements. While allowing comments will open you up to unwanted criticism, not allowing them could demonstrate that you have something to hide or are not interested in anyone else’s opinions. And often times, in the digital world, restricting access and staying quiet, becomes a rallying point for everyone else.

10. Check spelling and grammar. This may be common sense, but many people still don’t use spellcheck and they don’t edit their posts closely. By posting a blog with spelling and grammatical errors you defeat its purpose almost immediately. Your audience will quickly tune out and you will lose any credibility and authority you have built up. Use spellcheck, have someone else with fresh eyes read it over and make sure it’s clean before posting. Structure, formatting, flow and quality of writing all factor in.

With each blog post, ask yourself this question: if this post was the only thing influencing a potential buyer’s decision to choose my company, would I want them to read it? If the answer is no, then you need to make improvements.

Jeff Quipp is the founder and CEO of Search Engine People Inc. (SEP), Canada's largest digital marketing firm, which has been on the PROFIT 500 ranking of Canada's Fastest Growing Companies for the past five consecutive years.

IMPROVING BUSINESS EARNINGS PART 1: 3 things marketers could (and should) learn from anthropologists

3 things marketers could (and should) learn from anthropologists

Mitchell Osak | March 4, 2014 8:00 AM ET
More from Mitchell Osak

Ivan Garcia/AFP/Getty ImagesAnthropologists -- who study humankind both in the past and present -- use a rigorous, non-presumptive method of doing research that could improve marketers ability to reach deep into the recesses of the human unconscious.

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Many companies prioritize learning customer needs above any other marketing activity so that they can create better products and service experiences. Typically, marketers will use traditional qualitative techniques like focus groups, surveys and one-on-one interviews. Unfortunately, these tools often fail to generate breakthrough insights. Standard qualitative methods are good at telling firms what is happening but not the why it’s happening. To get to the root cause of a consumer’s actions, marketers need to explore the recesses of their mind to identify subconscious drivers of behaviour. Anthropology is a very effective way to do this.

Simply put, anthropology is the study of people and civilization, past and present. It incorporates teachings from a wide range of disciplines, from psychology and biology, to the humanities and sociology. Anthropology is increasingly being used by companies (Starbucks, Lego, Herman Miller and Nokia are pacesetters) to better understand latent consumer needs and as well as societal and religious influences on their behavior.

In action

The following example shows anthropology in practice. A firm in the spa industry engaged us to help redesign its customer experience and service offering for female patrons. The client wanted to address any unmet customer needs and better differentiate their customer experience. Conventional research techniques regularly produced muted feedback, which led to copycat store designs and products. We wanted to go deeper into the consumer’s subconscious to find unmet needs and drivers that triggers behaviour.

Freya Ingrid Morales/BloombergBrands like Lego, Starbucks and Nokia have already realized significant marketing success using anthropological techniques.

To get there, we employed anthropology to probe fundamental beliefs and values around their body image and wellness as well cultural influences. For example, how do women define beauty?  What role does human touch play? And, how can a spa experience help satisfy a women’s intrinsic needs? Our findings upended conventional thinking and led to a revamping of how the facilities were designed and how the services and benefits were communicated, resulting in higher client retention, an enhanced brand image and increased rates of cross selling.

Conventional qualitative research techniques take people at their word. This can be risky for brands.  At their core, consumers are often irrational, driven by motives or external influences that are unseen even to themselves. Using anthropology as complementary research can produce a more holistic and penetrating view of the consumer in their real life condition. Likewise, anthropology’s rigorous, academic-driven methodology preempts the emergence of erroneous assumptions around a customers’ behaviour that could have been shaped by a firm’s culture, the bias of its managers, or increasingly, the large but imperfect data stream flowing in.

Anthropologist have a number of data-collection instruments at their disposal including artifact analysis, quotidian diaries, and observational studies. Importantly, practitioners approach their research without hypotheses, gather­ing large quantities of information in an open-ended way, with no preconceptions about what they will find. The collected data is raw, personal, and first­hand — not the incomplete or artificial version of reality that is generated by most market research tools.

Anthropology is particularly helpful in understanding the dynamic world of social media. “Companies are beginning to use anthropology to understand the stream of consciousness within social medial that flows with ‘here’s what I’m doing/thinking/wanting now,’” says Lynn Coles a leading marketer. “Anthropological research helps us better understand and inhabit the social communities to identify behavioral patterns as well as the emerging dialect within a particular community so we can better communicate with our target consumers.”

Basic approach

1. Frame the issue

Anthropology requires the marketer to frame the problem in human — not business — terms. Doing so gets to the core of how a customer experiences a service or product. For example, a business problem could be:  How can a wireless provider reduce churn? The corresponding anthropological issue would be: How do our customers experience our service, and why are they leaving?

2. Assemble the data

The raw data is codified in a form of carefully organized diaries, videos, photographs, field notes, and objects such as packages. Although this open-ended data collection casts a very wide net, it requires a disciplined and structured pro­cess that needs to be overseen by anthropologists skilled in research design and organization.

3. Find patterns, insights

The anthropologist then undertakes a careful analysis of the data to uncover themes or patterns. When organized in themes, a variety of insights will emerge about how a customer feels, their goals and what drives their actions.

Of course, traditional quantitative and qualitative research methods have their place and should remain part of a marketer’s analytical tool kit. However, anthropology will play an increasing role in uncovering the consumer’s subconscious needs as well as societal/religious behavioral drivers, areas that are largely impervious to standard qualitative techniques. Producing this holistic view will allow marketers to design more relevant products and services that deliver higher value.

Mitchell Osak is managing director of Quanta Consulting Inc.  Quanta has delivered a variety of strategy and organizational transformation consulting and educational solutions to global Fortune 1,000 organizations.  Mitchell can be reached at mosak@quantaconsulting.com