 I moved from working in my business to working on my business!
Jim White, Founder Savor Dallas http://www.savordallas.com |
 I found a community of business leaders who make being in business a lot more fun and less lonely.
Jeannine Sandstrom, CEO CoachWorks International, Inc. http://www.coachworks.com |
 I now have a place to be open about my business success and future challenges.
Debbie Mrazek, CEO The Sales Company Author The Field Guide to Sales http://www.the-sales-company.com |
Archive for July, 2009
Customers demand it and companies say they have it, but do you really understand it? What is it? It is customer support service. It is a general topic of discussion in business circles for several years now and this is an issue that is gaining more attention, as companies compete globally to get more and more customers and profits.
Customer care services are essential part of any business. You can offer various promotional activities to bring more and newer customer however unless you can get some of those customers to come back, your business would not be profitable for long.
Good customer service is all about bringing customers back and keep them connected to your business for long. And keeping them happy means positive feedback for your business.
No matter what products or services your are offering, it’s extremely important that you make customer support services on priority. Many business owners do spend millions of dollars in advertising to attract many customers, but they are unable to manage these customers for long term due to bad customer care support services. If you want to keep your customers then you have to attract them to your door through your advertising, it is imperative that you provide an exceptional quality service to customers. Because customers are main assets of your business therefore growth of your business solely depend on their faith and loyalty towards your business.
Customer service not as an expensive, but it is highly profitable investment. Exceptional customer care service builds customer loyalty, resulting in profits. Research shows that not only satisfied customers buy more, but they buy more often, and they bring newer customers to get connect with your business. According to a study by the American Management Association, sponsorship offer loyal customers paid 65 percent of the volume of a typical company.
The larger your base of loyal customers, the less money you will need to spend on advertising, marketing and other promotional activities. If we speak of advertising, then note that there is no advertising more effective than word of mouth. Your satisfied customer tell others about your products and services, especially about your exceptional customer care services which you offer, has more credibility than anything you can put in print or broadcast through radio/ TV or any other medium.
Chris Shetler is associated with call centers in India since a long time, Call Center India Management team has over 25 years of combined call center experience and providing inbound call centre services and offshore call centers services, technical support services, back office services and etc.
If you want to develop a long term relationship with a client that will lead to repeat business, Partnering opportunities and Joint Ventures, you need to develop a wide platform on which to base your sales contacts.
1. You must make sure you have vision and believe in your company if you are going to be convincing in your marketing efforts. If you are looking to secure tender packages from a potential client without the vision to create a long term sales pipeline, you are simply in the numbers game and unlikely to develop a healthy client base.
2. Offer step by step strategies that offer solutions to your clients. Your potential clients are in business to build a better future but many of them will not have a thought through strategy for achieving their goals. Imagine what would happen if you were instrumental in helping them to realize some of their potential. Sound a bit far fetched? Not at all!
3. Assess the viability of your client’s status. It is in your best interests to ascertain this, especially if you intend developing a marketing strategy that embraces relationship building.
4. Be infectious in the way you sell the vision! It is possible at a very early stage of speaking with people, to open various options, suggestions and recommendations that would be attractive to your potential client and would enable them to see beyond the horizon of the immediate business relationship to a wider and more long term finance strategy that could prove lucrative to all parties concerned. Most developers, housing associations and entrepreneurial business people, have ambitions which exceed their current budgets. It’s OK to dream!
5. It may seem a little presumptuous, but small to medium size companies may well struggle in their push to make healthy profits and meet business plan targets. With a little incremental planning you may be able to help them achieve most of what they want over time. I’m not suggesting formal advice on financial planning, but I am suggesting that we get into the position where we can talk frankly with them about their budget and help them make the right trade-off decisions. This can more easily be accomplished in a negotiated contract position, where interaction between contractor and client on these issues is more acceptable.
6. Strive to earn the trust of your client at every hurdle. You must get past the suspicion that you are trying to push as much product as quickly as possible. If you can’t find out what their budgets are, let them know what the lifecycle costs of various approaches are and let them steer.
7. Provide the client with options that solve their problems. By doing this, you will build a strong foundation for business growth and client retention. Remember, you are always there for your client. And your client is always there for you.
8. Look beyond the sale. We often never progress beyond the chase for the next lucrative tender package. Look beyond it, to the bigger picture. We need the vision to build trusting relationships with the decision makers, business builders, entrepreneurs and industry professionals that will enable us to build an infrastructure for mutual growth and profitability.
9. Identify and capitalize on the essence that makes your company vital and different from the competition. There are many ways this can happen and in this manual you will find numerous examples of how this can be done. Your company personality and character can also be developed in a positive way, as the emphasis is projected beyond the sale.
Steve Flashman is a Marketing Consultant with a unique edge! He is a public speaker published author, recording artist, media broadcaster and communications expert. Making Construction Work
In addition to a clear strategy, good measures, and streamlined processes, reinventing enterprises requires a focus on personal relationships and human potential. As a result, it depends upon emotional connection and excellent communication to function well. The objective business world has often struggled with the subjects of emotions and communication. If they are considered at all, they are spoken of-in businesses and business schools-in somewhat demeaning terms such as “soft” skills.
Something that I learned as a consultant that I didn’t understand very well as an executive was that the notion of command and control with knowledge workers is largely a delusion. When I worked in a large company, people who reported to me would often nod their head “yes” when I asked them to do something. With regularity I would later discover that they really didn’t know what I was asking for, and many times I really didn’t either.
In large Enterprises these types of command and control misconceptions have the effect of making executives think that things are changing faster than they really are. After I began consulting, it became clear that co-creating solutions and building broad relationships was really the only way to achieve sustainable and productive change. It’s hard, but it is required. There is probably no business management area where I have changed my view more than on this one. The truth is that with knowledge work, the command and control mindset needs to be demoted, and communications and emotions need to increase in importance.
If knowledge work isn’t co-created, chances are it’s not going to get implemented productively. Co-creation is different from consensus, however, because co-creation also requires a decision maker. Even though co-creating work produces slower starts, it will lead to faster and more sustainable results. Investing a little extra time now will save a lot of time later. If you want something done productively and sustainably, you’ll probably need to put more of your own skin in the game-in conjunction with those who are actually doing the work.
The objective nature of Scientific Management effectively bred subjectivity out of businesses during the 20th century. Nonetheless, it is very important to articulate how you’re feeling so that you can better connect with how others are feeling. Emotions are important to productive knowledge work and Enterprise reinvention. They increase energy, clarity, and the productivity power of relationships. In this context, key motivators include the desire to win, achievement of something worthwhile, a sense of personal power, approval and acceptance, and recognition of efforts.
In the Operate work-behavior area of the an enterprise reinvention system, feelings influence actions which produces results. As part of this, it’s important to remember that people ultimately love others because of how they make them feel. We too often forget how important the need is to be appreciated, that neglect can often be more damaging than abuse, and that if you really want to honor someone, you should ask for their help. Leaders need to lead with their heads and their hearts, and in difficult times, emotional resistance can only be overcome by a stronger emotion. It’s important to turn negative emotions into positive ones, with special emphasis on the positive emotions of optimism, hope, faith, courage, ambition, determination, self-confidence, and self-worth.
In addition to elevating the status of emotions in Enterprises, communication also needs much more emphasis for companies to be more productive. This requires integrating the four steps of Enterprise Reinvention: Envision-Design-Build-Operate. Where a Design-oriented person might be overly blunt, an Operate-oriented person can instinctively be overly nice. Combining the blunt facts of Design with the emotional sensitivity of is the most productive answer. In practice it is called tact. It is the equivalent in the medical world, of the nurse who has the ability to give his or her patient a shot without having it hurt too much.
Productive communications are socially negotiated. This is harder than being blunt or telling someone what they want to hear. In the communication process, it’s important to connect the dots between where you’ve been, where you are, and where you need to go, because if something doesn’t fit with the past, it will very often be discarded or misread by people. This logical and emotional transition from the past to the future is necessary for sustainability.
Effective communication requires leaders to ask great questions and stick to a few key points. Asking questions instead of giving orders empowers people. Statements limit creativity. When you communicate, it is important to articulate what needs to stay the same, what needs to change, the steps required, and the progress being made. Consistent with this, it is important to have a clear and formal communication strategy to control the dialogue and to channel formal and informal organizational energy toward achieving the vision of the Enterprise.
Focus is as important to communications as it is to each step of the knowledge work productivity system. Short-term memory is limited to about five items. Three is better. If you have more than five points, people won’t remember any of them. To communicate productively, it’s important to be consistent, give people something that they can’t get anywhere else, and make them genuinely feel wanted and loved.
Productive relationships are essential ingredients in effective and efficient Enterprises. To activate them, the Operate step needs to help individuals achieve something as part of the company that they can’t achieve on their own.
Enterprises need leaders who set the tone, connect with people’s personal lives, support employees when they struggle, provide levity in difficult times, and motivate people to achieve the firm’s vision. Motivation requires the combination of emotions and communications. As humans we all need to be treated fairly, trusted, have a chance to grow, and have a vision that is larger than ourselves.
The Enterprise Reinvention system is an important mechanism to activate the human spirit on a sustainable basis. It requires Envision-Design-Build-Operate as a total system. All are needed to help Enterprises, functions, and individuals productively self-organize-using a unified framework and the cybernetic process.
To set the system in motion, it’s necessary to energize human relationships and activate human potential through the Operate work-behavior area. This requires that companies co-create the future with their customers, recognize and capitalize upon informal as well as formal organizations, coach people effectively, and communicate with a combination of objectivity and emotion.
Jack Bergstrand is an expert in enterprise reinvention and knowledge work productivity management. He founded Brand Velocity, Inc., the first company ever prototyped using knowledge work productivity principles, and created the Strategic Profiling (R) instrument, a tool to help firms accelerate and improve important enterprise projects. To learn more about his book, “Reinvent Your Enterprise,” visit: http://www.ReinventYourEnterprise.com/.
By Jeff Becker
Selling your business is something that most business owners do only once in a lifetime. So how do you make sure everything goes well? Many business owners consider working with a business broker, an expert in selling businesses, to make sure they maximize the sell price of their business. Is this always a good idea? Lets look at the pros and cons of working with a broker:
Why you should work with a business broker when selling your business
1) A broker has (hopefully!) sold many businesses for prior clients, and you can use that expertise to learn the basics of the process and avoid making careless mistakes.
2) They can act as a facilitator to the transaction, making sure that negotiations go smoothly, the transaction proceeds at the right pace, and that the business is ultimately sold with all parties satisfied.
3) A broker may reduce your upfront costs of selling the business, as many brokers will pay for creating sales collateral and advertising the business at their own expense in exchange for a fee when the business sells. They also may have insights as to what advertising mechanisms deliver the best “bang for the buck” to make sure as many potential buyers as possible are exposed to your business.
4) They can provide expert advise related to market conditions and can help evaluate potential offers to buy your business. For example, a business broker will typically provide a free initial estimate of the sales price of your business, and can provide information on what similar businesses may have recently sold for in your area.
5) A business broker can help preserve the confidentiality of the sale. By having a third party involved, buyers can interact with the broker instead of the business owner, making it easier to protect the identity of the business for sale.
With so many good reasons why a broker can help sell a business, no wonder that most businesses that are sold ultimately involve a business broker. However, there are downsides to working with a broker that a prudent business owner should consider.
Why you should NOT work with a business broker when selling your business
1) Business brokers may charge a large commission. The amount of commission varies based on many factors, such as the ultimate sales price, geographic location, and the skills of the broker. For a “main street” style business selling for less than a million dollars, it would not be unusual to see between a 10% to 20% commission fee. Some brokers will also have a guaranteed minimum, on the order of $10,000 or $15,000. You should only hire a business broker if you believe that the time and effort involved justifies this price, or if you believe they will raise the selling price by more than the amount of their commission.
2) A great broker is worth their weight in gold, but a bad (or even mediocre) broker costs far more than they are worth. In many cases, the sale will be lost due to incompetence on the part of the business broker. If you are not confidant that the business broker can not only increase the transaction value, but can also increase the chances of actually getting the business sold, then you are probably better of managing the sale on your own.
3) Do not work with a business broker if you go into the transaction not knowing what you want out of it. Many times business brokers will contact you proactively, letting you know that there are buyers interested in buying your business. Selling a business is a big decision, and one that you should enter into with a great deal of care. Make sure that you are talking to a broker because YOU made the decision to sell, and that you have properly educated yourself about the process and the ultimate consequences of your decision.
Working with a business broker, when done properly and for the right reasons, can be a great benefit to selling your business. By educating yourself about the different factors involved, you have taken an important first step towards getting your business sold. Best of luck!
Jeff Becker has bought, run, and sold his own small business using a business broker. He subsequently became a licensed business broker and has advised both small business and Fortune 500 companies on business transactions. He provides insights to the business broker world to business owners interested in selling their business through his website, Business Broker Secrets, at http://www.businessbrokersecrets.com
Marketing certainly has its roots in large and expensive campaigns intended to reach as many people as possible. This type of ‘mass marketing’ helped develop corporate branding but was completely ‘product focused’ and treated all customers as if they had the same needs and buying preferences. Compare this to what the direct marketing folks are now doing with target marketing, relationship marketing, permission marketing, event-based marketing and even location-based marketing.
It’s interesting to see how these different strategies actually evolved.
Mass Marketing – The goal here is to reach the largest number of people and ‘hope’ they have interest in your product/service. Mass marketing uses mass media such as TV, radio, newspapers, magazines, billboards, etc. This type of marketing is (was) characterized by big budgets, national campaigns, and very little actual data to measure marketing efficiency.
Direct Marketing – Mass marketing was flipped around when direct marketing started directly contacting consumers (using direct mail, telemarketers, etc). This new evolution (around 1960) also was the start of test-marketing to gauge the effectiveness of different advertising campaigns.
Target Marketing – Soon after computers became widely used, marketers began gathering data on who was buying their products and why. This led to targeting their promotional strategies directly towards consumers who are most likely to purchase their product. This market segmentation divided up customers and prospects according to their demographics, age, income, etc.
Relationship Marketing - Many businesses realized that it was just as profitable to ’sell more to each customer’ as it was to ’sell to more customers’. This led to (around 1990) marketing that communicated with customers ‘as individuals’ with tailored information geared towards their unique buying experiences and preferences. Obviously this requires lots of data on customer behavior patterns, profiles, etc. which helped launch the development of new business CRM applications and marketing automation tools.
Permission Marketing - As consumers began to get bombarded with email spam, many businesses realized the benefits of spending more time marketing to consumers who have specifically shown interest in your product/service and (effectively) have given you permission to market to them (in a way they want to be marketed to)! This is most commonly done when consumers sign up (i.e. give out their email address) to download product information or receive a newsletter. The importance of having good customer data to personalize your marketing is critical since these prospects can remove their permission anytime (by opting out).
Event-Based Marketing- Imagine someone just supplied their personal information and downloads information about a new vacation resort. This event triggers an marketing automation tool to send out a targeted promotional offer that is customized, timely, informative, and useful. Everyone potentially wins. The consumer gets something they were actually looking for – when they want it! This type of marketing is heavily Internet focused and relies on good automation tools.
Location-Based Marketing – Now that cell phones have Internet access AND they have embedded location devices (i.e. GPS locators), we can expect to see mobile advertising based on location. Of course this will also be personalized and permission-based but imagine you are leaving work for lunch and you receive a text message with ‘2-for-1 lunch deals’ at restaurants in your immediate area. Over time the system also realizes you prefer Chinese over Mexican, etc.
Take-aways from this marketing evolution …
- Mass Marketing is moving to Relationship Marketing
- Few Large Campaigns are moving to Many Customized Campaigns
- Product Focus is moving to Customer Focus
- Short-Term Revenue is moving to Long-Term Customer Loyalty
Resources …
The CRM Handbook – great book on CRM implementation, especially read Chapter 2 (CRM in Marketing)
Post from BNET on the subject of Broadcast Marketing and why it doesn’t work anymore.
Steve Moore – Business Growth Consultant (http://www.SPMsolutions.NET)
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_E_Moore
“Being on par in terms of price and quality only gets you into the game, client service wins the game.” Lately, I have been thinking about aspects that differentiate one vendor from another. While expertise, experience, affordability, and ease of communication featured high on the list, client servicing made a distinct appearance.
Effective client servicing is very often what differentiates the winner from the plodders, in today’s highly competitive business landscape. Exemplary client service practices can give your product/service the extra impetus it needs to outshine rival product/service. And since finding new clients is much more expensive than retaining existing ones, the need for superior client servicing gets amplified. Also, a lost customer would mean lost revenue and an unhappy customer can damage your reputation.
With so much at stake, I don’t believe any organization would not want to service their clients well. In view of this, I would like to share some quintessential aspects of effective client servicing.
Honesty is the best policy
Honesty and sincerity go a long way with clients. Do not pretend that you have answers to every problem they have, if you don’t. Admitting a weakness in your knowledge or process is better than outright lies. The genuineness of your concern to formulate an effective solution to your client requirements will win you their loyalty and long term partnership.
Foresee you clients’ needs
Your business plan should be built around understanding and anticipating your clients’ needs and aspirations. Make sure you offerings are in sync with your clients’ expectations and delivers on those expectations satisfactorily. A mismatch would lead to unpleasant experience.
Listen to your clients
Effective listening entails truly making an effort to absorb and comprehend what is being said and acknowledge that understanding. Learning to listen is a key skill that will serve you well in all aspects of your business. Attend to even the smallest details. Try putting yourself in the client’s shoe and endeavor to understand their point of view.
Resolve conflicts in time
Don’t allow issues to remain unaddressed and mould and fester. Prompt and timely resolution holds the key to good client servicing. Don’t shy away from tendering an apology even if you are not necessarily in the wrong. Intervention by a senior member to placate an important client and seek effective solution can be effective at times.
Communicate and follow-up periodically
Your client service initiative should not stop with completion of sales process. The endeavor should be to maintain a free flow of information between you and your clients. The communication should be designed to educate clients about your product/service and organization. Newsletters, interactive forums, and other forms of social media are effective tools to communicate key messages.
Seek to build long lasting relationship
It is imperative to build long lasting relationship with your clients and not just perfecting a singular non-repetitive client. Building an effective relationship involves being responsive to client requests. Every effort should be made to accommodate client requests or to explain options that are available. A client, who feels appreciated, cared for and understood is less likely to leave in pursuit of better service and/or price. Effective relationship can compensate for poor performance, but it cannot be used or rather abused to justify low grade performance.
In short, superior client servicing is critical to your survival in the market place. It should be the cornerstone of your business and will help you retain a loyal client base.
Kneoteric is a leading online marketing company providing PPC Management Services, online marketing consultancy, SEO services and link building services.
By Paul Godines 
When selling consulting, you will need some highly successful methods to get clients. Because one of the most difficult issues that every business owner has, especially during a recession is getting clients. This might make you wonder if there are even enough clients to make it worth staying in business for.
When in fact that’s not the case, especially during a recession, business consultants are HIGHLY needed. Whatever you service or product you are likely the answer to someone’s problem. Even if your product is an audio made with your kids digital recorder, you can make an impact on the world.
More importantly its not how much you give but the value you offer that will earn you tens of thousands of dollars of income. So, lets start with creating a simple method you can use to sell your consulting.
Begin by realizing your not a business consultant, or a transcriptionist, or a virtual assistant you’re a teacher. That’s your job, whose primary role is to discover your prospects needs and than if applicable educate your client about exactly how you can bring value to them with your services and or products.
With that in mind, lets move on. All you need to do is create a comfortable conversation which helps you discover their needs. I suggest you do that by using just a few well placed words.
Here’s a simple dialogue you can use to uncover opportunities and enroll clients;
• So tell me what’s going on – use this to discover opportunities.
• What result do you want – find out exactly what they want.
• What’s the evidence you will use to know you have achieved your goals – determine if you can deliver those results.
• What’s that worth to you – find out to what degree they value those results. I use a scale of 1 – 5 for example.
• It sounds like – here you help them see the possibility of reaching those results.
• We can help you achieve those results – here you actually make a statement with confidence that you can achieve the results they want.
• Is this something you would like to move forward with – here you are asking them if they would like to actually achieve those results.
• Ok here’s the next step – here you take the time to take them to the very next step, usually the procedure involved with enrolling.
• Confirm – get them to confirm to you the nest step, make sure they know exactly what to do next, and when to do it.
Now what makes this system so successful is in how you use this list. Start using it with friends, clients, prospects and family, force yourself to ask them what’s going on. What they would like to see happen, ask them how they would know they achieved their goal.
Than ask them what its worth to them to achieve their goal, tell them what it sound like to you. What’s most important is to be casual and very relaxed. Once you have some practice – you should do this at least 50 times – you will find enrolling clients extremely easy.
If you’re ready to go to the next step, and become a High Priced Expert than go to Adapt on a Dime.com http://www.adaptonadime.com Get your FREE “Quick Start Guide To Become A High Priced Expert.”
Paul Godines Coaches Professionals to become High Priced Experts using Joint Ventures. Leveraging and Multiplying your Skills, Knowledge and Experience into a High Priced Consulting Practice.