Protecting Your Sales Assets

I always get a kick out of companies who hire sales people with “experience", hand them a product book with pricing, and tell them to go out and secure new business. Sure, they save money on product and sales training in the short run, but they might lose potentially great salespeople too. As a salesperson, you can hope your sales manager knows what they're doing, or you can take matters into your own hands by building and protecting your own sales assets.

Protect Your First Impression by Knowing Everything about Your Product: When you stand in front of a prospect or customer and they know more about your business than you do, it’s time to go home. Whether it’s insurance, gasoline, machines or anything else, make sure you know what you're selling and that you're able to explain it simply and concisely. If you can't, your dog will happier to see you than the prospect or customer you're about to impress with how much you don’t know.

Very few business owners make their purchases based on an “I have to have it no matter what it costs” attitude. If they did, sales would be a simple game of who gets to the decision maker first. That’s not the case. Businesses flourish as the result of good fiscal management. If you want to flourish, you need to have a good explanation as to why someone should spend their money with you.

Protect Your Sales Pitch with Solid Economic Justifications: When it comes to a serious purchase where good value and a workable price are important, the very best tool a salesperson can use is the economic justification summary. Presented correctly and professionally, it will secure the order more often than not. It’s also an excellent tool to use to determine where to spend your time. Do your research so you'll know if your product or service makes economic sense for a potential client. If it doesn't, don't waste their time, or yours.  

I've seen many salespeople fail simply because they didn't plan their days, weeks, and years. In sales, if you're not producing the revenue expected of you, you're likely to become an expense your company decides they can't afford. It’s true you won't always have control over getting someone to sign on the dotted line, but you have absolute control over increasing your odds of making it happen simply by preparing yourself for success.

Protect Your Career with a Plan: It’s simple and straight forward: Plan—follow up, then plan—follow up, etc. If you do this, then you have a very good idea of where your money is coming from. Do you know which accounts are a definite? Do you know which prospects are ready to do business with you? Do you regularly review where you are and what you have to do to correct any potential shortfall? Are you concentrating on revenue? Or are you wasting your energy on activities that have nothing to do with increased revenue?

When you take the time to regularly review your sales assets, you are protecting them by making sure they are all in tip-top shape. It’s a solid investment towards your continued success.

Alan Luoma is a Sales Coach and Speaker with extensive experience in industrial sales, sales management, and sales and product training. He holds key accounts with a national sustainable packaging company, is a motivational speaker, and provides sales training to individuals and groups. He is a member of the Hartford Springfield Speakers Network. You can view his profile on LinkedIn, or contact him at Luoma@snet.

Want to improve your business? Analyze your competition!

One of the basic tenants of capitalism is that people seek out the latest and greatest. If you build a better mousetrap then people will beat a path to your door. After all, competition makes us look for ways to improve how we do business. Therefore, one of the best ways you can improve your business is to look to your competitors.

How can you go about researching your competitors? You can start by performing a basic Google search for keywords that your clients or customers may use. What companies are buying banner ads? What companies come up at the top of the organic search list? What competitors stand out from the rest of the pack?

You should also visit your competitors websites. What are they doing that is
better or different and how can you utilize this information? You should place both your company and your competitors on Google alerts so you can see when some announcement is made or to monitor what your competitors are up to and what is being said about your company.

What is being reported or done by your competitors on social media? What interesting spins or twists are your competitors using to differentiate themselves from their competitors? What is their unique selling proposition and how can you use this information to improve what you are doing and how you are conducting your business?

After looking at what your competitors are doing better, you should make a list and review those items. You need to be prepared to make changes to what you are currently doing. You should then go about determining how you can improve your marketing, customer or client service, your pricing and updating your products or services.
You need to use this information to innovate not imitate your competitors. What can you do better or how can you add more value?

You should also be attending industry trade shows. Who are the big exhibitors and what are they highlighting? What new ideas might work well in your business? What are the emerging trends and how can you keep up with them?

If you look to your most successful competitors and be willing to make changes to how you do business you can greatly improve your chances of getting more and more business, some of which will come directly from your most successful competitors. It was reported that one major fast food chain was spending millions of dollars each year in market research to determine where to build their next restaurant location. This company's largest competitor spent nothing on this type of market research but waited to find out where their competitor was building their next restaurant and then would build one directly across the street.

How can you use your competitors research and development to your advantage?

You don't need to find out about how to build a better mousetrap you just need to see how others are building theirs and then make innovative changes!

 

What is One of the Best Ways to Improve Your Business?

I just returned from another seminar in New York City given by Peter Shankman the founder of HARO or Help a Reporter Out. His seminar, entitled Shankminds, is a day long mastermind group which brings together entrepreneurs, from a variety of backgrounds, who listen to the most pressing problems that are presented by each participant and then provide their suggestions on how you can move to the next level in your business. The process is quite interesting and is very productive and allows you to view what is sometimes obvious to others but somehow escapes your critical eye. So what was the big take away from this event for me?

 

Each and every day we come into contact with people that can provide us with tremendous insight. We meet people with various types and levels of expertise, educational backgrounds, experience, creativity and the ability to help out those around them. I was fortunate enough to meet a very entrepreneurial branding expert who was an amazing font of information. I was able to discuss a number of my business development issues with her and she immediately provided me with some very insightful, helpful and clever branding and marketing strategies. How many people are there around you that could provide you with the same type of assistance? How many people do you know that could benefit from your expertise and experience?

 

One of my favorite self-help books, Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich talks about the power of the mastermind alliance. The importance of such an amalgamation of like-minded entrepreneurial individuals cannot be sufficiently overstated. If you were to put together such a group of people, and meet on a regular basis, then you could gain the insights, experience and expertise that you might otherwise have to pay tens of thousands of dollars to obtain. So why are you not looking into this very valuable resource that can help you get to that next point in your business growth and development?

 

A great place to start is to develop a list of people who have the quality and attributes that would make for a great mastermind alliance member. Who are your go to experts? Who are the people on your email lists, customer or client lists, people in your social circles, or those in your community who are held in high regard that you could invite to be a part of a group that could meet on a regular basis either in person or through a teleconference? If you are going to form a mastermind alliance that will meet telephonically then you can make a list of your competitors in different parts of the country who you could connect with and invite to your group who could provide you with the best practices of what they are doing and you could share the same information with them so that both of you could benefit from this information without impacting your local markets.

 

In order to attract these talented individuals, you need to be in a position to show them what's in it for them. What other individuals will you have in your mastermind alliance that could add value to each new invited participant? How would this be a productive use of that person's time? What is the format of the meeting and how will it be run? You need to develop some type of compelling reason as to why the individuals that you invite would want to become a member. You need to have a limited number of people that can present very valuable information at each meeting so that each participant is able to take away some important tip or technique that they can utilize in their business.

 

The contacts that you will make, the information that you will receive, the energy that will be shared, and the accountability that will be required of each participant in the group will be invaluable. This will present a regular opportunity for each member of the alliance to review their best practices, what is new and exciting as far as methods, apps, or programs that people are utilizing and requires that each member of the group regularly prepare for these meetings. It provides each member with a group of accountability coaches and forces people to get tasks done that might otherwise fall by the wayside or require additional amounts of time.

 

I have participated in these groups and have been quite impressed with how much more productive I can be. I'm always on the lookout for new and exciting ways to do business because I want to share this information with my fellow group members. I advise the group what project or task I intend to complete by the next meeting which forces me to make sure that I get this done because members of the group will point out my lack of follow through which only makes me feel like I have not lived up to my responsibilities to the group. Please consider putting together a mastermind alliance because the benefits are tremendous and the energy and contacts that you will take from this are exceptional.

 

Overcoming obstacles to take your business to the next level

 
Doing things the same way you always have will not propel your business to the greater level of success it could have. You owe it to your clients to provide the best service possible, not just really good service but great service. And you owe it to yourself to have a business that is not only financially successful but also rewarding.

Sometimes you have to take a step backward to propel things forward.

My story helps to make this point. After building a very successful financial planning and asset management practice, it became obvious to me that in order to take the business to the next level I had to make major changes. I made the decision to take a six figure pay cut and put more money back into the business. Technology was updated. The office was remodeled for better work flow. And hiring and training new staff put the right people in place. Within two years not only had I made back the money I lost, but the net income to the business was greater and on the right path to continue to grow.

Think about how you have been running your business and if you stay on this same path, where your business will be in one and three years. Is that where you want it to be? If not, determine the changes you need to make to get things on the right path. If needed, hire an expert to help. Sometimes you have to spend money to make money.   

You need to constantly improve your business to stay ahead of the competition or you run the risk of being left behind by others in your field that offer better or more current service.



Nancy D. Butler Brief Bio

After building a business from scratch as a single parent with no other source of income and only $2,000 to her name, to approx. $200 million in assets under management, in 2007 Nancy sold her practice and became a national professional speaker, business coach and award-winning author. She now helps business owners do a better job for their clients and improve their bottom line and helps individuals live more successful, fulfilling lives and realize their dreams. 

Nancy has been quoted in many local and national publications including USA Today, Money Magazine, Playboy magazine, The Chicago Tribune and The Day and has been a speaker for major corporations such as Pfizer, General Dynamics and Dow Chemical. Nancy has also been a guest on several television and radio shows.

Contact Nancy for a free consultation at nbutler@aboveallelse.org.