Turn Your Business Around!

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Turn Your Business Around!

I was in a retail toy store the other day and the owner randomly asked me what I thought he could do to improve his sales. He is leasing a nice store front in a small strip mall but off the beaten path. I told him that his location sucked. He looked shocked but ultimately agreed. I also told him that that’s OK. “I have successfully run plenty of retail store fronts in lousy locations.” I assumed he got a screaming deal on the lease and he had.

I then started browsing around for a game that I had read about in a business journal earlier. This store had been recognized by a game manufacturer because of a report from a consumer about the owners nine year old son. He was playing a new game and literally talked the potential customer into playing with him. They bought the game and sent an email off to the manufacturer. Amazingly, the store owner had no clue that there was a story about his store and son. After looking around I decided buy a “stomp rocket”. No up-sale suggestion like extra rockets was offered however.

“Every brand isn’t for everybody, and everybody isn’t for every brand.” -Liz Lange — In other words, do what small businesses do best and focus on a niche — and then own that niche. Be at the top. – American Express Open Forum

Continuing the business conversation… I explained that I see leasing as a marketing cost. You pay a higher lease to get a busier location that draws more traffic… store marketing. You save on your lease but the location isn’t that great your skimping on marketing unless… you market in other areas. Maybe that’s part of the solution? So I asked what he was doing in other marketing venues. Word of mouth, coupons and website was his answer. Wow. I looked at the coupons, delivered in a coupon pack, boring and no real stimulating offer. Later I looked at his website which was basically a business card with no call to action. As I was leaving I told this floundering store owner I would get back with him with some ideas and did.

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Business owners, managers, and sales professionals can be blind to market changes and competition. In relying on their small group of influence they miss the big picture many times. Ego can also stand in the way. Small successes continue to reinforce small thinking. It’s like the frog standing in the pan of water and stays there as the heat is turned up until boiled alive.

With that said, many are slowly waking up to the realization that their “tried and true” practices and product offerings are simply no longer effective. Marketing, products, and culture changed but they didn’t. Now their competition that “got it” is ahead of the curve. Many times as much as years ahead. Let me give you an example…

Years ago I introduced social media marketing and its applications to my company and more specifically sales teams. Amazingly only one person really grasped the vision and power. She understood the possibilities and ran with it. With a local economy downturn this person now had the power of selling through other regional markets without any real costs. The big picture. Of course the soothsayers, a year or so later, were now trying to imitate her success and quickly realizing that it takes time. They are now playing catch up and are behind the curve.

“If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary. (via Great minds)” -Jim Rohn

Businesses are living breathing entities. You are either feeding them or they die. Sales success is not any different. What new idea, new process, or new excitement have you brought to your organization?

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training

Their eyes were rolling and yawns appearing. They were bored. I was getting impatient and could not understand why they weren’t grasping the “pearls” that I was presenting. Their answers were off point and my responses became short and edgy. Each training had less and less impact. Have you been there? Are you there now?

On one particular training I was going over a new opportunity. They could really make some money with this. In my mind a “no brainer”. The responses from the team however were why it wouldn’t work, in other words pretty negative. Where were my entrepreneurs? Maybe I didn’t have the right team? What was I doing wrong?

Mixing Things Up
In an effort to turn this around I asked my boss to help train. He was happy to do so and did. The team agreed with his training and promised to make changes. Truthfully, I was a little peeved at first. “How dare they listen to him and not me!” Gulping down my pride… I finally accepted that any success with the team was a benefit to me as well. Unfortunately, as the weeks proceeded, not much changed. My team gave the “wink and the nod” to the boss, felt pressured to do so, but had very little buy off on this new information. Now what?

3,603 Views

4 Tips for Killer Voicemails

When left with no choice but to leave a voicemail… Do you leave an impromptu message? Or even worse… Do you simply put the phone down and hang up, expecting to catch that prospect at a later time? If so… Why? Do you believe voicemail’s a waste of time? I have a question for you… Is it leaving a voicemail that’s a waste of time or could it be the voicemail you’re leaving?

VOICEMAIL SUCCESS

First, and most important, don’t exceed 30 to 45 seconds!
This will prevent you from rambling on. It’s going to force you to laser in on a specific message.

4 Tips for Killer Voicemails

Tip 1 - Be brief and get to the point. Identify yourself and the purpose of calling. Give them a reason to reply. It needs to be something compelling that makes the listener want to get back to you for their benefit. Make sure you time stamp it as well.

Tip 2 - Always, always, always leave your phone number and your email address. There are people that feel more comfortable with email. Let them know that you check your email regularly.

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Cold Calling is Dead - Long Live Foot-Blitzing!

In today’s market environment it’s more important than ever that we get in front of potential customers. If you track your activity you know that you’re having to increase prospecting two to three times the amount normal to be successful. There is so much fear, uncertainty and doubt that it’s difficult for any business to easily make a purchase decision. On top of that… the businesses that are forging ahead are being inundated with solicitations through the phone and email of which they normally respond “not now”. What can you do different than everyone else?

Cold Calling is Dead – Long Live Foot-Blitzing!
Truthfully, true cold calling has been dead for eons. This new mantra is a little bit of a misnomer in my opinion. To prospect without researching and preparing has always been a waste of time. To randomly call on anyone that can “fog a mirror” is of course nuts. You should always have a purpose and a focused direction in any prospecting endeavor you take on. Intelligent foot-blitzing (not random door-knocking) can give you that edge over your competition in today’s market challenges. It can give you that personal touch needed to put a potential client at ease quickly that you could never have accomplished with a phone call or email.

“Anytime you do something out-of-the-box, something different, your prospects will remember you every single time that you call!”

Why Foot-Blitz? I can explain this in three words: Timing is everything. To be at the right place at the right time is difficult. How do you do this? It’s simple actually… you have to get out and meet with people. The more businesses you meet with the better the odds are of being there at the right time.