The Seven Deadly Sins of Sales

All companies need to increase sales and improve their performance on a continuing basis if they are to survive. Most companies lose between 10-20% of their customers per year due to bankruptcies, mergers and simply because the customer stops buying. Studies show that 66% of companies consider that sales and marketing are the key issues for their business right now. But they are less likely to do something about it than cutting costs.

Here are the 7 deadly sins – mistakes that many companies make in trying to improve their performance

1.  “Get out and do more sales calls.” 
   This is the normal reaction of most sales managers. When their teams are not performing well they will require redoubling of efforts in either sales visits or telephone calls. But doing more of the same thing will necessarily get more of the same result: below target performance. A review of their target customers, messages and better understanding of benefits is more likely to achieve results required. They need to work smarter not harder.
2. Discounting. 
   Discounting is an invidious way to get more sales. And most times it will not work. Yet many sales people will resort to this as a way of closing and trying to increase sales. It is easy for the lazy sales person and it is frequently a panic measure bought about by the first deadly sin. If you have not correctly positioned your product no amount of discounting your product or service will persuade your customer that it is even better value for money more likely they will think it is too CHEAP and therefore not good value for money. In surveys of B2B selling price normally comes in at 4 or 5 in the list of buying criteria.
3. Do not train you sales staff – ever!
   The average number of days spent training sales people in the UK is 1 day per year! In the US it is more like 2 days per month. And the results show. To become top performers sales teams need to be trained on technique, process and the benefits of the products again and again. Many companies consider the training budget to be a cost but they should look at it as an investment.
4. Don’t target customers. 
   Allow your sales people to do what they like, go where they like, to get orders. The result will be an increasing number of low value customers that will not contribute significantly to your bottom line. Your costs will increase as sales people will travel anywhere to get orders no matter what the value of those orders and your competitors will grab the biggest and best customers.
5. Don’t set your targets for your sales team
   By not setting targets your sales team will not know what is expected of them, not know which customers to target and the sales manager will find it difficult to motivate them to a better performance. Sales people who are not comfortable with targets are just that comfortable. They stay within their comfort zone and do not rock the boat. Generously, you could say they are order takes not professional sales people.
6. Don’t bother with all that ‘fluffy bunny’ motivation stuff!
   Selling is a tough occupation and motivation needs to be a regular part of the sales manager’s activities. Identifying what the right sort of motivation is for each of the sales team and then working on that will help turn average sales people into stars. But start with your own attitude. Attitudes are contagious –is yours worth catching?
7. Never, ever, ask for the order.
   More than 70% of sales people do NOT ask for the order! They may well qualify the prospect right, identify the benefits for that particular customer, do a fine presentation, answer all the objections but then do not complete the sale. Often fear of rejection is at the root of this issue. But by not asking for some form of commitment they are leaving the door open for the client to say “I’ll think about it.”

SME Business Owners Rely on Other Business People for Advice

A recent survey by EnterQuest highlighted the importance of independent advice to owners and directors of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). 80% of business owners said they sought help from other business owners, and 72% used contacts in business networks. However, only 36% used a local enterprise agency or support agency. The weakest reported skill was in sales and marketing, with one in three business owners saying they were quite weak or very weak in this area.

This report confirms what UKBA^TM (UK Business Advisors) have been saying for some time, that true independent advice is difficult to come by, but can be absolutely critical to the success of an SME. It is important that any advisor is actually a specialist in their specific field. Companies that claim to provide across-the-board business advice from a single adviser rarely provide much added value.

All UKBA^TM advisers run their own business, so “know what it is like” to be a business owner; and most of their work comes from networking and referrals from other customers and businesses.

Bob Francis, a Sales and Marketing specialist within SGBA (part of UKBA) said, “I see companies needing help all the time. If it is sales and marketing help, then I can provide it personally. However I also know I can call on an extensive network of many real experts in their field to address each company’s specific issues. In these times of tight financial management, getting the right advice quickly and cost-effectively can make all the difference”

For full details visit the SGBA website www.sgba.co.uk or contact Bob Francis at SGBA on 01903 784651

Social Networking for Small Businesses

Social Networking is the term given to a variety of new techniques for communication with clients, customers, prospects and other interested parties. As with other marketing techniques it needs careful planning to ensure that the right message gets through to the right (target) audience. Whilst using social networking and media can be a blunt, scattergun approach, with careful planning and dedicated application it can, like a rifle, be accurate, well targeted and can be useful in developing relationships with the target audience.

What it is.

Social networking is a variety of tools that can be used to develop relationships with customers. Of particular importance is the fact that the use of these tools will help to drive traffic to a website or blog and ultimately help search engine optimisation of the website.

For businesses these tools can be used for reputation management, test marketing and feedback from customers on existing or proposed new products. It can also help to increase awareness the business and raise the profile of individuals establishing them as experts in their field and can be linked to articles, websites, blogs and a variety of other media.

The main tools for small and micro businesses are LinkedIn, Twitter and increasingly Facebook where Business pages can now be set up. Facebook has currently over 400M users and businesses find this increasingly useful to provide a channel for communication with customers. For instance videos and photos can be downloaded from the site and forums set up to discuss various aspects of the business and its products.

What it isn’t

Social networking is not a quick fix for getting customers. Like all marketing it needs a careful and thoroughly thought out plan to achieve goals set for it. It should be used as part of a complete plan and not instead of it. At all times the focus must be on the business goals and not on chatter about your social life. If that is what you want to network about, then set up additional business accounts with that as the main focus.

Each of the three tools identified (and there are many more that you should consider to see what is right for you and your business) have different purposes. LinkedIn for instance allows you to search for specific people in your target market. It also has very useful Q & A area where your expertise can be shown and your own reputation as a knowledgeable expert can be developed. Twitter on the other hand only allows 140 characters in each ‘tweet’ so the main purpose is to drive traffic and enhance your Google search listing as tweets are also indexed by Google.

As mentioned previously Facebook can be used for business and personal reasons. Currently the development of Facebook for business is in its early stages but it can still be used for developing your expertise and to link to other media such as your website and blog.

How to get started

Getting started is simple. All the tools I have mentioned are free to set up an account and to use. Just register and start using. A word of caution, however. Although they are free to use to be effective needs a considerable amount of time. Firstly you need to establish your account; then you need to gather fans, friends or other contacts. This can be done for searching for your target audience or ensuring that your communications are keyword rich. Then you need to provide useful content and information. Only then can you start to see the benefit. It needs co-ordination between these tools and your blog and website. However before you even start, develop an action plan so that you can integrate this form of marketing with your existing plans and make sure they work with each other.

All trademarks acknowledged.

For futher information email bob.francis@sgba.co.uk

Poor Sales Performance Wrecks Chances at Exhibition

At a recent exhibition I attended, almost no one manning the booths and stands did a good job. Almost no one asked for my contact details, no one asked me what I was interested in; no one asked me what I did! They would have then gone back to the office and told their colleagues that it was not a very good exhibition.

To participate in an industry or sector exhibition, whether national or local, is not a cheap option. If the same amount of money was spent on another part of the marketing mix, the board would want to know why and what was expected from this expenditure. Yet this does not always happen with exhibitions. Often the reason to participate is given as … well our customers will think we have gone out of business if we don’t. With the advent of all the various forms of electronic communication this is arrant nonsense.

Once the decision has been made to attend an exhibition a great deal of planning needs to be carried out. The aim is to maximise the benefits of this expenditure and to set targets and goals. One of the most important aspects is to define who the target audience is. Is it your target market? If not why are you planning to go there?

Next you need to understand the benefits that your products or services can provide to your target audience. The communication of these messages is important and should run through all you collateral- brochures, banners, catalogue entry.

Finally train your sales staff to understand and qualify who they are talking to. Collect their details so that you can market to them in the future (with permission of course.) Make sure they can demonstrate and describe the product or service in terms of benefits. Once all this is done there are only three things left to do ….practise, practise, practise.

For further information on how to run exhibitions and how to train your staff to maximise the return from an exhibition go to http://www.abio.ltd.uk/categoryblog/70-sales-training.html

Let us know what you think.

Metrics in Sales Management

How do you measure your sales personnel’s performance? The majority of sales managers will answer that question by saying that they look at the results (i.e. orders) either on their own or against arbitrary targets. Some may even monitor billings or sales as after all orders do get cancelled or the size of the order gets reduced.
However these performances have occurred as a result of efforts applied anything up to 6 months earlier. So what then is the answer?

One way to look at the performance of sales personnel particularly those on the road is to establish a series of metrics that give the manager a good idea of what and how they are doing BEFORE the results come in. Typically a sales manager on seeing below target results will exhort his teams to ‘get out there and redouble your efforts’ as if doing more of the same thing will improve results.

Typically metrics for sales people involve three main areas:
• The quality of what they are doing.
This comes down to their skill levels and understanding of what is expected of them. Have the team been adequately trained and are they putting into practice regularly what they have been taught?
• The efforts they put in.
This is the more traditional measurement of the number of sales visits they make but should also include areas such as numbers of telephone calls, emails, and mailshots and many more.
• Who their customers and prospects are.
Measurement of the types of prospects and customers is essential so that considerable effort is not expended on the low profitability customers or those whose long term potential to the company is small. Segmenting by size of company and potential and then providing targets for sales staff will help achieve these goals.

Other metrics to consider are the number of new customers required each period to achieve goals (consideration of average size and average order come in here.) We have already indicated that the profitability of each customer and the potential for each prospect is also a metric that can be used.

Are the team selling the right mix of products or services in order to meet the goals of the company? Some may be more profitable than others or more difficult to obtain stretching lead times which in turn may result in a poorer performance.

By setting a series of goals and devising a range of metrics or KPIs the future performance of a sales person can be accurately predicted. This feed forward approach will allow the manager to make corrections before the rot sets in and declining sales results appear 6 months or more down the line.

Is your business in good shape

Is your business in good shape for 2011?

Scorecard from Business Assessment Report

Are you looking to develop your business strategy or just take stock after the ravages of the recession?

Our Business Assessment will help you to review your business with a complete and thorough analysis that provides the following:

• Strengths and weaknesses and areas of need
• Independent and objective analysis
• Tangible outcomes – report and action plan
• Can provide new insights to your business
• Define actions and prioritise investment (time, money, resource)
• Focuses the business on key areas

It provides a low cost, low risk, high value solution with no further obligation.

The outcome is a report providing detailed SWOT analysis, a review of all areas of your business and an action plan designed for your needs.

If you would like more information or to book your business assessment please contactbob.francis@sgba.co.uk

Top Ten Tips for Website Improvement

Search Engine optimisation (SEO) is the term used for a range of processes and tools that help to ensure your website is found and, hopefully, found on the first page of any search engine listing for certain words. An entire industry has sprung up as part of the internet revolution. There is one thing that many of these companies have in common. They make the whole process more confusing than it need be and they charge large amounts of money to the customer who then becomes reliant on them. The tips shown below will allow you to get up at least a couple of steps on the ladder to a high performance website. These tips are by no means exhaustive but it will at least start bringing the hits to your site.

Tip 1 Website Content

You just need to look at any website randomly and this point is amply illustrated. The text that you use should be visitor friendly. A visitor wants to see that they are searching for fairly immediately. If you are looking for a manufacturer of widgets the last thing you want to know is all the machinery that the company has got that is used to make the widgets. If you ask yourself “so what” when you have read a website then the website owners have missed the point. Any website should be about benefits to the potential customer. The same widget customer wants to know what colour he can get it in not how they make it. With this in mind your text for the website should not be all about what you do but what you can do for the customer.

Tip 2 Research Keywords and phrases

Ask yourself which search terms will people put into search engines such as Google to find you? This is the basis of all search engine optimisation. You need to follow a few simple rules and identify which are the most important ones for you. Suggestions for key words can be found using Google’s Keyword Tool. But do not be tempted to choose keywords that are the most popular. Firstly those keywords might be the hardest to optimise for and secondly they may not reflect accurately your product or service. Google helpful ly provide an indication of a keyword’s competitiveness and a keyword with less competition may be more appropriate.

Tip 3 Include relevant keywords in your text

To ensure your site is more relevant, include keywords in your text. A word of caution here. You should not be too repetitive with the keywords just to achieve a higher ranking. As we have seen you should write your text for the people who read it and not for the search engines. Also you can have different keywords on the same page or different ones on different pages. This will ensure that each page is optimised not just the home page.

Tip 4 Call to action

Ask yourself one question once you have read a web site page. “What do you want me to do now?” A lot of websites are beautifully written have nicely laid out graphics but then fail to close the deal. That deal may be to get the prospect to click on another page or even to purchase something. So it is very important to have a strong call to action on each page. This call to action can be anything from “call now” to “buy now to get free gift” etc. The aim of a website is to attract someone to it and then get them to do something else.

Tip 5 Keep Navigation Simple

Today people in general have a short attention span or they are impatient as time is precious. You will hear variations on a theme of the following statement but typically when someone lands on your site you have about 12 secs to capture them. If they do not immediately see what they want or have to search through layers of website they will leave and your competitors will benefit. As a rule of thumb no more than three clicks should get anyone to where they need to go to get information they are looking for. It goes without saying also that if you optimise a page for a particular keyword or phrase and someone searches for that phrase they should land on the right page and not on the home page where they will have to search for what they want.

Tip 6 Use Title Tags and Alternate Tags

When you carry out a search on Google or other search engine you will be returned a website name and some other text. The text used comes from the title tags. By default the many websites include something to the effect of “Welcome to our website” or similar. However a better approach would be to include some of your main keywords. And it is perfectly acceptable to include keywords only and not form them into a sentence. You should also keep the company name to the end of the title tags and not the beginning. All of this means that when someone searches on your keywords the list will include a title with the keywords they were searching for and this will encourage them to click on your link.

Alternate tags are the text messages you see when you hover your mouse over a picture or graphic. It is necessary to describe your graphic in this way as Google cannot ‘see’ graphics and therefore will consider them as uninteresting white space. Once again including keywords in your Alt tags will further improve your ranking.

Tip 7 Update regularly

There is nothing worse than seeing a last updated date of many years before. This says that the company cannot be bothered to keep it updated. If this is the case why should the customer be interested? Regular updating is essential to ranking. The more you update your site the more often Google will return and the more often that happens the higher your ranking will be. This does not necessarily mean that you have to change your whole website. It is however worth refreshing it on a regular basis. One way of updating your site regularly is to include a news feed or a blog. This will allow you to change the content of the site without it being too time consuming.

Tip 8 Build Links

Linking to other sites both incoming and outgoing is an important part of optimisation. The more traffic that you have coming from external sites the better your ranking. This means not only trying to obtain reciprocal links but other activities that can be very cost effective. Some of the newer approaches include social networking. LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook among many others can be used to improve your brand but also to encourage people to visit your site. Once you have built up your following particularly amongst the customer base you are targeting, making offers or offering some other incentive via these media can often result in increased traffic.

Another way of doing this is to write articles like this one on your specialist subject. Including a link to your website with more information, will ensure further click throughs. There are many free press release sites to which you can send your release for distribution. Again click throughs can be obtained linked to further information on your site.

Tip 9 Add Google analytics

If you cannot measure it, you cannot control it! All these tips will lead to changes to the number and types of hits on your site. But how do you know if it is working and how do you know what else to do to improve your SEO? There are many tools available now that will allow you to see how many hits you get on each page, the conversion from enquiry to action, which keywords are important and much more. One such is Google Analytics which is free code generated on the Google website for you to include on each page of your website. This allows the software to track what happens and gives you the results in terms of a regular report. Review of this report on a regular basis will help you to make changes that will improve your site and possibly improve the journey through your site for visitors.

Tip 10 Add news letter/download sign up

How do you capture the details of those prospects who visit your site? One way is to write a regular newsletter, perhaps with offers or important information. Visitors can then sign up to receive this newsletter from your site. Similarly you may write articles, papers or other documents relevant to your industry, technology or market which you can offer free to visitors in exchange for their email address and other details. This is useful in two ways. First you can use the data to build a database for your newsletters and offers etc. Second you can use the information to carry our segmentation of your market which will allow you to precisely target your messages to different groups to make them more relevant.

In the SEO world there are no guarantees and it takes a lot of time consuming effort but the results will be worth it. Also be patient as it will take time for your site to climb the rankings. And finally keep at it. Good SEO requires persistence above all else.