The writing was on the wall

Back in June last year I predicted that businesses that were heavily reliant on public contacts would be in for a shock. [See my blog 1st June 2009] Sadly that has not only come to pass but has been accelerated by recent government cuts. Of course if anybody took me seriously they will now be in a better position to ride the coming storm if not then the writing could well be on the wall. But not all is lost. Small businesses should be in a position to shift strategies quickly and develop new business before the axe falls. If you are not exploring new markets and opportunities now you will be left behind. Identify exactly what your core skills are and how they might be applied to a wider market. If you need help to do that talk to your advisers soon, every day you let pass puts you one day behind those that are and in the world of small business we all know how quickly days become months and so on.

the SIX things winning businesses do.

Particularly over the last few months I have been looking at what businesses that have been successful during the recession do differently to those that have struggled or failed. What is overwhelmingly obvious is that they know clearly what their core business is and what their core skills are. More than that they display key characteristics which I discuss in depth in my Nine Steps presentation.

They think about their customers and like them - all of the time. I talk about getting into the customers shoes. Its not easy, if its not what you do already, but once you do you can transform your business. Customers will see their products and services being improved through you, their experience of doing business with you will be that much better, their jobs that much easier. Many of the businesses that have recently failed have only one view - theirs.

They are wild about their products and services , but they are not married to them. Customers and markets present opportunities all the time. I won thousands on pounds of new business just by being a little more observant and opportunistic than my competitors. Get into your customers businesses, understand what they do and what their ambitions are then help them to achieve them.

They do unorthodox things. One aspect of post recession development is increased competition. While I always say that recession is the land of opportunity, the businesses that survive know that and make the most of it. Customers always have more reasons not to buy from you than to buy. Winning businesses find different ways to work with their customers, more ways to add value to the package. Look at the ways and reasons that customers have bought from you in the past and improve on them all.

An obsession is quality. I visit hundreds of businesses that demonstrate their passion for what they do but fail to demonstrate it to customers sufficiently well. Those that are truly successful accept that the best standards of quality are based on the customers need. They go further than that by finding ways to reach levels of quality and service competitors can't or are not willing to reach. When it comes to selling in this area they sell the package not just the product. Why because its the package that customers buy not just the product.

They are flexible and fleet of foot. Businesses that stand still, daydream, spend too much time planning or dithering over ideas are quickly left behind picking scraps from the business table. Successful businesses know what their market is and what its future looks like. they have a strategy to provide in that market and know what the key numbers are that confirm they are on track. They also take full advantage of their successes and use PR to shout about it as much as possible.

They know who 'the man' is. Successful businesses know exactly what their target market is, who the decision makers are and how to reach them. More importantly they also continually learn from customers interactions and use that intelligence to inform and develop their strategies accordingly.

They understand their finances. Cash is king in all organisations, successful businesses more than others. They fiercely control their cash flow but are not afraid to spend to make a difference. They have and use clear terms of business and make sure their customers understand them. They know exactly what their capital requirements are well in advance and maintain close relationships with their bankers and financiers to make their decision making easier.

Obvious isn't it, but just to be sure how about rating your self and your business against these six characteristics. Use scale of 1 to 10 for each one and ask yourself, if your not truly at the top of each one what are you going to do about it?

Another thought

Back to that conversation with Andy P.

Andy was giving a group of us a feel for his seminar plans over the coming year. One new addition is a guide to using the social network site Twitter. Being aged advisers the big question was 'is it really any use' the answer, of course is a resounding YES. If you want to know more check out the www.businesslinksw.co.uk web site to see where and when Andy is performing over the coming months and get yourself registered on one of his amazing seminars. If you are serious about using the web to promote your business it will be the best investment you have made in a long time.

By the way one lesson I've learned is that you can use Twitter to drive traffic to your blog and the blog to drive traffic to your web site.

It's bin too long and Youtube

My good friend, web guru and colleague Andy Poulton reminded me today that its been a long time since I set fingers to keyboard on this blog. He's dead right of course, there's no point having a one if you are not prepared to do something with it. So this is just a short note to remind all my reader of an important point about social networks.

One of my favourite sites is YouTube. I never cease to be amazed at the scope of information available, and in a format that even I can follow. Recently my son needed some help with his maths A level assignment - an obscure element of calculus. Searching the net provided a lot of help but the explanations left both of us in a quandary. As a last resort we looked at YouTube and low and behold there was a step by step guide. Jonny was the only student in his group to solve the problem, much to his teachers surprise, and got another A in the bag.

My mate Andy P is a great advocate of this tool, as I am, encouraging his clients to use it to supplement their advertising with short 'live' demos of their products. Remember, no matter how well you describe what your product or service there's nothing like showing your prospects what can be achieved by working with you. Next time you are 'on the net' take a quick look at YouTube and search for your types of product or service you may be surprised, even shocked, at what you competitors are doing to promote their businesses. If you can't find what ever it is you do - you could be the first and steal a significant march over the competition.

On the Other Side

A red fleck in the sky tonight reminded me of the time my wife and I were driving back from a friends with my three year old daughter in the back of the car. "Mummy Mummy" she suddenly screamed "The Sky is bleeding". Sure enough the sky over Bristol was as red as I have ever seen it. Wonderful what polution will do sometimes!

Don't Rely on Public Service Contracts

With significant cuts in public service already in place and the possibility of more in the future those businesses that are heavily reliant on such contracts could be in for a shock.

I don't want to be a profit of doom but many of those businesses that have been, at least to some degree, insulated from the full effect of the current economic climate are beginning to suffer. A close friend of mine runs a building company with more than sixty percent of his business tied to local authority and public service contracts. In the last few weeks he has had three contracts postponed and suspects that two of them will be cancelled. I sincerely hope he's wrong but I'm afraid he's probably right and may be underestimating the overall effect on his survivability.

If you are in the same position or know of someone who is in the same position you, and they, can't afford to wait. You need to be looking at ways in which you can broaden the base of the business and or reduce costs. You may not have to act right now but you should certainly be working on a contingency plan to make sure you minimise the effect of a sudden and catastrophic reduction in revenue.

For assistance in developing such a plan get in touch with your local Business Link on 0845 600 9 006

Generating New Leads

Generating new leads is probably the number one issue that businesses face. Certainly a very high proportion of the businesses I visit say its their number one problem. For some there is also the issue of having too much of the business tied to one or two customers; a very precarious position in times of economic turmoil.

The following are just four methods of generating new leads that are tried and tested in all manner of businesses. What you will have to do though, is adapt them to your own specific circumstances.

First though can I take this opportunity to outline a few of the key 'triggers' or 'imperatives' that encourage people to buy. Understanding them will help you achieve greater success.

Generating qualified leads is simply a matter of psychology. At a basic level, and to start developing a successful sales strategy, its important to understand that fundamentally people don't buy things but what the things - products and services - will do for them. I'm not going into detail in this, that's for a sales course to handle. But taking that statement on board will help you increase success.

Back to those triggers or imperatives.

1. I don't know anybody who can truly resist a free offer. Its the oldest and most worn out 'trick' in the book but it works and i can't think of any business that can't use it in some way. Free means no risk, no cost, no trouble and that leads me to the second imperative.
2. Almost all of us are risk averse, at least we need to know that any risks involved with a decision to buy have been minimised. At the same time we are all natural consumers so if you can demonstrably take the risk away, customers are much more likely to respond favourably to your offer.
3. People are inextricably attracted to things that directly affect them particularly if the 'thing' will reduce some manner of 'hurt'. For instance if my van has just failed its MOT then I'm likely to take much more notice of signs and offers promoting van sales. Even more so if the vans offered will save me fuel cost, carry more etc.
4. Taking the example above my Fourth imperative is that people are naturally curious and will goes to great lengths, at times, to obtain information that others don't know. 'Call to find out how you can save money...'
5. People are much more sophisticated in their buying than they used to be. We have become resistant to traditional 'Don't you think all sensible people should save' types of sales approaches and advertising. What people want is good reliable information that enables them to make an informed decision about buying and smooths the path to the final purchase.
6. And Finally. there is an old formula used in advertising known as AIDA. Its an acronym which stands for Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. When you are putting your pitch or an advert together remember it and the imperatives given above.

Now, where do you find those elusive leads?

Mining for Gold

Even if your business is only a few years old you should have, in your customer files, details of quotes, purchases and a whole lot more information about customers and their plans for the future. If you don't then you are missing a trick that can deliver relatively warm leads at no cost. If you have built something or supplied equipment for a customer but not heard from them for some time, it is time to contact them for maintenance or annual check. You might offer that free in order to 'get in' to enable you to discover new opportunities. I used this technique to get into see a notoriously difficult chief engineer at a large printing works and persuaded him to take me around the plant. My intention was to find issues that my then business, a general engineering company, could help him with. I found three distinct opportunities and offered to provide a quote for his approval. Less than a week later I had an order for about £3,500. That was the start of a very profitable relationship all for the cost of a phone call.

Past customers are a golden opportunity to generate new business limited only by your imagination. Find reasons to contact them again but initially to find out how they are doing and what their plans are. Only then can you find solid business reasons for them to trade with you again.

Your Cast Iron Guarantee

Perceived risk is always an issue for customers and prevents many from taking the final step of handing over their money. But what if you could take the risk away? In most instances the greatest perceived risk is the customer losing their money because the goods or service supplied does not do what is expected. There are two elements to this. The first is that there is potential in any transaction to not listen sufficiently to the customer and thus sell them something that will not meet their need. The second is that the customer under current UK law has an unequivocal guarantee for repair or replacement of faulty goods for six - yes that is six - years. Now what do you think might happen to your enquiry rate if you started to offer that information to your customers.

You have to provide a guarantee under the law anyway so why not shout about it.

Packages make Perfect!

Microsoft and Dell do it. Virgin does too. ASDA has been known to do it as has Tesco and for that matter so has B&Q. Amazon does it all the time and even Boots on occasion. So Do What?
Sell packages of course. And why do they do it? Because the customer sees, and gets, a better deal and the vendor increases each sales value, sometimes greatly, and often volume to boot. When you look around at the techniques used by the big boys to generate sales leads this is one that really stands out because it works, and works and works.

Take a look at the products and services you offer. How can you put a deal together for your customers that will outshine what your competitors are offering?

Make an Exclusive Offer

There are two ways to approach this. The first is to limit the supply of your goods or package to a certain number of buyers. The first 50, 100 and so on. This can't be a particularly high number because as the number gets higher the 'value' of the exclusivity diminishes. I can't tell you what that number is it depends entirely on the potential within the market place so you will have to make a judgement which in turn may be influenced by the number of packages you can physically put together. The second is to limit the offer in time as either an introductory offer or some other enticement, say pre season. By the way the world and his wife does end of season sales. Why not promote your business, increase awareness of what you do and take the opportunity to bag big sales by getting in first. you will still get season sales - possibly at a higher volume than you would have done.

So now having decided which method or methods you will adopt you can sit back and watch the orders roll in. WRONG. That's the mistake too many people make. You have now to promote your business like you have never done before. Having a method to generate leads is one thing but it will not work if you don't get out there and sell it.