What is Your Business Strategy: You Do Have One, Right? (Part 1)

04.09.2012

So, what is your business strategy? You do have a strategy, right?

Can your business succeed without a business strategy?

I wouldn’t suggest running your business without some kind of strategy or plan. Just going from one tactic to another, testing the waters to see what might work probably isn’t the best routine for a successful business. This is more like standing in the middle of a forest, walking a few steps in one direction, only seeing more trees and switching to another direction. You may eventually get out, but how do you get where you wanted to go?

What do you think of when you think of a business strategy? I think of a good leadership team, supported by a great sales team supported by an excellent marketing team, making the company as a whole the best in its industry!

What kind of tools do you think need to be in place to have a great business strategy? I think of all the tools a great company has to bring to the table. (I know you are looking for more…read on!)

As we all know, the economy we are in brings business conditions that change fairly quickly and at times we need to go into survival mode and change our business strategy to bring in more sales. So what do we do? Advertise? Cut prices? Well, maybe you don’t have to do either. Have you ever really thought about what you are offering and who you are trying to sell to?

Here some questions you might want to ask yourself:

  • What are you the best in the world at?
  • Who is your market niche?
  • How are you trying to sell to them?
  • What do they know about you?
  • What is your brand telling others about you?
  • What is your online reputation?
  • Do you, your product, your company, and your offerings stand out from the crowd?
  • Are you and your offerings unique?
  • You may think you are unique, but do others?

We at Randolph Sterling have been revisiting our own business strategy. You see, we are unique in our offerings, but, just as I ask above, we at least we think we are. The question is though, do others? Well, we are currently working on our brand and messaging. Making sure we are targeting the right market, paying attention to our online reputation and ensuring our market niche knows we are unique in our offerings as it will come across in our brand and messaging. We are very excited as we have had clients and prospects ask us to provide them with services beyond what we have been advertising. We are excited as we begin to pull this information together to share with you in the near future (you know once we get our brand down). As we have started our process, we would like to share with you the strategy we have put together in deciding what additional services to offer.

Since we don’t corner the market on good ideas, I’d like to mention that Harvard Business Review is a good resource on strategy too.

The only problem though is you have to buy their books. Using us as a guinea pig might be a great starting point for now! In the coming weeks, we will be discussing different areas of a business strategy by discussing your market niche, your brand, online reputation, and the uniqueness of your offerings. We have uncovered some very interesting things about our company and think you may do the same.

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Posted in Business Trends, Jolene Pratt, Management Services, Marketing, RandolphSterling, Sales Management |

Is It Right to Help a Prospect Out of Their Current Contract with the Competition?

03.26.2012

I was reading an article recently about how to combat a prospect’s claim that they have a contract with your competition. This article gave readers tips such as mentioning that the longer the contract they have in place, the more money you can save them.  Personally, and professionally, I have several issues with this, and think that taking such an approach will end up hurting you more than it helps.

Here are some of the reasons why:

(1) YOU make a promise, but can you keep it? I understand that salespeople don’t like to hear the word “no”. I get that we all want to make the sale. But, I don’t think making a promise to a prospect that you will do something better than the person currently doing it is wise when you don’t know anything about the prospect’s situation. When you do this, you back yourself into a corner, setting yourself up for one of two possible reactions from your prospect:

(a) Your prospect will think that you are full of it and be less likely to talk to you

(b) Your prospect will ask you how you plan to do things better, which may even be worse than possibility “a”

(2) YOU made this about money. I have said it hundreds of times, “Money is generally only an issue if you don’t have any way to differentiate yourself.” Think about it, what do you buy that is based on price and price alone? 99% of the people I ask this to answer the same thing—“gasoline.” When asked why, the reason generally is because they do not see the difference between the Shell station on one corner and the Mobil station down the block, so they go to the one that is a penny cheaper. Even in this scenario, many will pass the “mom and pop” independent station that is two cents cheaper because they think the gas the independent received is “from the bottom of the truck and filled with sediment.”

That aside, why would you want to start off a conversation by saying that you are going to be cheaper than the other guy? You are entering the conversation by downplaying anything else you can do for them or anything else about your product that is unique or valuable to them. You are telling them that you are just like them, but cheaper.

(3) YOU disrespected their contract. So you will get me out of this contract? Why not, it is just a piece of paper open for negotiation, right? Great…I guess that means the one I have with you will hold as little value too.

Wait a second, that didn’t exactly go the way you wanted to, did it?

By disrespecting their contract, you set a precedent that yours can be disrespected too. What you are really saying to this prospect is “I will do my best to save you a buck, but if someone comes by and beats my price by a nickel, you are free to go with them.” These are generally the same people who say that loyalty does not exist in business anymore.

I don’t negotiate contracts. Either we can do it or we can’t. But everyone is leaving happy and everyone is going to feel that it is fair or we simply will not do it. I also don’t disrespect contracts already in place. If a client is not happy with the service he/she is getting from a current supplier and has decided that they would prefer to work with us, we will help them to do so within the means of their current contract; sometime there may even be a respectful “out” in an existing contract if the incumbent is not doing their job properly. But that said, if there’s not,  I’d rather wait a few months to close the right project at the right time and sleep at night doing so than enter (as my friend Will Webb from Dupree & Webb Insurance would say)  a “love ‘em and leave ‘em” relationship!

(4) YOU ignored developing a relationship. The fun in developing a long term relationship is just that: developing a long term relationship. It is understanding the needs of your prospect, and the potholes along the way that will make things run more smoothly in the long run. Have you ever heard someone say, “This seems too good to be true,” and then have it not be? Not often. Usually if you look for that quick, short term, transactional “deal” rather than the long term relationship, you might earn a quick commission check, but set up the relationship for failure.

Let’s face it, unless you went into the conversation knowing the contractual terms they were currently working with (and if you did, why did you call on them at this time?), it is quite possible that the person telling you they just signed a long term contract is really saying “I have no idea who you are. All I know is that you want to sell me something.” By having this person say to you “I have no interest in buying what you have right now” they have taken the pressure off you to close the deal. If handled properly, they have also given you the chance to develop a stronger relationship over time so you don’t end up looking like Will’s competition.

So the next time a prospect throws an obstacle in your way, I challenge you to look at it as an opportunity to grow a relationship, a stepping stone to a stronger opportunity, not a nuisance to get past.

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Posted in Business Secrets, Business Trends, Client Relations, RandolphSterling, Rich Burghgraef, Sales Management |

Working Your Way Down the Sales Funnel: Some Helpful Hints

03.12.2012

Most of us know the fundamentals of a basic sales funnel. You start out with a hot lead from varying areas. This ends up as an opportunity for business. You send out a proposal for services. And, hopefully, in turn you have yourself a new customer! A sales funnel starts at the very beginning of the new business stage when you initially capture the attention and interest of your prospects via your website, social media efforts, a well stated voice mail or phone call, newsletter, or maybe even a referral. Yet, no matter which way the sales funnel begins, once it begins, making sure you stay on target is key to making sure the end result is more prospects becoming clients.

One way to ensure that the process stays on track is to maintain regular communication with your current clients, referral sources, and potential clients, while making sure they have a clear understanding of not only what you can do to help them, but also that you really do want to help them and not just sell to them. Sometimes this process is pretty quick, requiring only one or two conversations to “close the deal.” Other times those seven to thirteen calls it usually takes to get a prospect to trust you enough to talk about the issues you are looking to solve are necessary; in these cases a fair amount of nurturing needs to take place over time.

In general, there is a direct correlation between the length of the sales cycle and the overall cost of a deal. This is one of the reasons why I never understood the process used for purchasing a timeshare. The larger the cost, usually the longer it takes to make a sale.

So, how do you know that you are working your way down the sales funnel? Sure, you can pick up almost any sales book and find a description of a sales funnel in there, all just a little bit different. For me, I have six simple guidelines:

  1. First, evaluate what it is you are going to sell. What is it? Who needs it? Why would they want it?
  2. Think about the decision process of your potential customer or client. If you are selling a pack of gum, the decision process will be relatively quick and simple. If you are selling a high end business to business service, a high tech piece of software, or a large piece of industrial equipment, there will likely be several meetings and maybe a few plant tours involved.
  3. You can’t get a yes if you are not talking to the people who can give you a yes, so identify and develop relationships with all decision makers and influencers. Again, pair this with the complexity of the sale. You don’t expect the person at the store selling you a pack a gum to see if they are one of the four out of five dentists who have partially influenced your decision to purchase a particular brand.
  4. You cannot sell something to someone if I do not know what they need. This is a key point that a lot of people miss. They try to sell what they have rather than understand the prospect’s need.
  5. Prospects will not buy if they do not have the money. So, before asking for the sale or even presenting a solution, get an understanding of their budget and make sure it is in line with the solution you plan to present. I heard someone say once, “I want it fast, I want it good, and I want it inexpensive,” to which we replied, “We can most likely help you…PICK ANY TWO.”
  6. The most overlooked part of the process is time. If you present a solution, can they implement it now? Does testing need to occur prior? Is there another contract that needs to run its course before implementing your solution? When this part was skipped, deals fall through.

Hopefully this advice was helpful, and, if you need additional assistance working through this process, Randolph Sterling, Inc. is well versed in all levels of it, from qualifying prospects for the top of the sales funnel, to setting meetings for your experts with the decision maker at target company, to helping you close the deal!

 

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Posted in Business Secrets, Inside Sales, Jolene Pratt, Management Services, Outsourced Sales, RandolphSterling, Sales Funnel, Sales Management, Sales Strategies, Social Media |

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