If you say the word ‘ Innovation’ to anyone their first reaction is likely to be ‘expensive.’ Talk to small businesses about innovation and their reaction is likely to be expensive R & D. Many people equate innovation with inventing a new product and usually equate it to unique product developments such as iPhone or iPad which would naturally cost hundreds and thousands of pounds.
However true innovation when applied to business need not be expensive and can be applied to almost any part of the business. Innovation can mean a new business process or a different way of engaging with customers . Reducing the number of processes in handling orders for instance is innovation. Going from paper invoices to electronic invoices is innovation. Many business have gone from a bricks and mortar type business to largely on line. This too is innovation.
Businesses that innovate tend to experience better growth, more profitability and by involving staff members in the process will have a happier workforce. And the process of innovation can be carried out in relatively short timescales. So by innovating business can reap the rewards quickly and move their business forward at the expense of their competitors.
If you want to transform your business through innovation contact Bob Francis on 07941 426 807 or at bob.francis@sgba.co.uk
Time to get back on the horse?
Over the last few weeks and months (and for some possibly years) we have been buffeted with bad economic news. If it is not the plight of the Euro, it is the unemployment figures or the deficit or many other pieces of informatioin that makes us all feel gloomy about our prospects.
Well I say enough is enough!
We cannot sit on our hands for ever waiting for market conditions to improve. Conditions will not improve till WE do something about them. I know many companies that have had good years throughout the recession (double dip or not) Why? They have gone out and got on with business. They have not cut their marketing budgets and some have increased them and fought even harder against their competitors. They have not listened to the doom sayers and they have made their own ‘luck’
Talking to a small company recently they were moaning about the state of the Euro zone. This intrigued me as they do not export and have no intention of exporting, they do not buy from outside the UK and they only sell into a relatively small regional area. I for one cannot see how the plight of the Euro affects them. But it is an example of how companies get bogged down in the hype of the media and press instead of looking at their market and reacting accordingly.
So it is my view that having fallen off the horse it is time to get back on and ride you way out of the doom and gloom.
If you want help getting back on the horse call Bob Francis on 07941 426 807 or email me at bob.francis@sgba.co.uk or contact us
18 Easy Tips To Maximise Your Online Presence
It never ceases to surprise me how many small businesses still do not effectively promote themselves on line. Many have a website but do not use this resource to its maximum advantage and many are unaware of the other ways in which they can promote themselves and their business. So here are a number of simple tips that can be used to maximise your online presence:
- Get listed in Google Places
Google searches now prioritise local results. By entering your businesses details in Google Places, Google will be able to index your business and provide these details in searches improving your ranking and providing increased traffic to your website.
2. Get listed in appropriate directories
There are many Online directories covering all types of businesses. One of the best known is Freeindex. In addition to a basic entry of all you business details you can enhance the listing and include links to your website. Most directories get thousands of hits a day and will provide traffic to your site. You can also use sites like Gum Tree to enter a free ad for your products and services.
3. Get articles published in article directories
This is a great way to develop your position as a thought leader and to expose your brand to a wider audience. Articles will be picked up by other sites or bloggers and published with your by-line and website details. Google now indexes these articles which helps with SEO and increased traffic to your site.
4. Write a Squidoo Lens
Squidoo allows you to build a simple one page website which can be used to promote a product, service or special offer. Economies of scale means that again this will be seen by many people outside your normal sphere of influence and help to improve rankings.
5. Linked in
One of the most useful social media activities you can engage in is updating and maintaining your profile in Linked In. You can start your own Group based on your business and invite people to engage with you discussing issues that affect your market. In addition you can raise your profile by answering questions raised by other members of Linked In. As part of the answer you can link to topic experts, perhaps within your company as well as provide further information by including links to your website.
6. Facebook
Over recent years Facebook has grown substantially in numbers of users and in the way they can interact. In addition to setting up your own personal Facebook page, you can now set up Groups and your own Business Page. For some parts of the population this is the main form of communication and if that is your market then you need to maximise your engagement with this media. Because of the real time nature of communicating by Facebook it is ideal for starting conversations on new products and services and asking about future trends.
7. Twitter
When Twitter started it was primarily used for friends to tell each other what they were doing. It was simple to use, took no time to deliver 140 characters of information and could be done on the run (using mobile technology.) More recently businesses have taken to twitter as a means of driving traffic to websites and blogs. By adding links to photos, websites, products, offers etc it has become a mainstream communication tool for business.
8. Blogging
Most websites are static and are rarely updated. Often this is due to the technology used making it difficult for anyone other than a programmer to change anything. But the one thing that a website must do is attract visitors and get them to carry out some form of action (call, email, buy.) One method of keeping visitors coming back time and again is to provide regular updates on activities within the company or market place, information on products and services, special offers and the like. The addition of a good blog to a website will help with SEO, traffic and will help to keep customers engaged.
9. Maximise your reviews
In a B to C environment buying tends to be done after referral to friends relatives and work colleagues. Peer reviews and referrals from friends has a much greater effect on the purchasing decision than anything you can do. So it is important that you obtain testimonials, case studies and third party reviews which will help customers with their buying decisions. Using organisations like Tripadvisor and Qype assists in maximising reviews of products and services.
10. Trust signals
Do not forget to include details of corporate or personal membership of trade bodies or institutes as well as copies of certificates of achievements and awards on your website. This will help improve trust between the company and is potential customers.
11. Benefits
Review your website copy. Do you talk about what you do or do you talk about what you do for customers? Customers by benefits. How do your products and services benefit customers? This is what visitors to your site need to see. They do not stay long enough to wade through lots of copy about how you make your products, what machines you have etc., etc. Focus on how you help customers save time and money which in turn will help turn more visitors in to customers.
12. Calls to action
When potential customers arrive on your home page (or other landing page) do they know what is expected of them? Does your website make clear the call to action? In many cases websites tell a good narrative story about the company and its products but neglect to take the customer on the next stage of the purchasing journey. You need to encourage them to go one step further by getting them to contact you by phone or email, to download some free information in exchange for their email address, or take up your latest special offer.
13. Google
Google offer a number of free tools to help you maximise your web presence. One of these is Google Analytics. The reports from Google Analytics helps you to understand how people interact with your website, where the enter and exit the site, how long they stay, what keywords or search terms they use and many other areas. All this information if understood and used correctly enable you to improve your site and gain more traffic and better ranking.
Another Google tool is Alerts where you can keep abreast of what is happening in your industry, any breaking news that helps you and information on competition including what people are saying about your business.
Google + is one of the latest products from the search engine giant. This is a Social Media Tool which can be considered the equivalent of Facebook. It has some powerful features and is well worth exploring to maximise your presence.
Embedding Google Maps into your website not only helps customers find you if you have a physical presence but also ensures better rankings for your site. As indicated earlier combined with an entry in Google Places ensures more traffic can find you.
14. Google adwords
This is not a free tool but is very useful to drive up your website rankings and targets potential customers looking for your products at that moment. Depending on how much you bid for the search keyword phrases you ad will appear on the relevant search results page at or near the top ensuring you gain maximum number of hits. Costs can be held in check by use of the budget limits which ensures that you do not overspend your daily budget.
15. Title tags
Title tags are embedded in the coding for each page of your site. Most people just use their company name in the title tags. But typically most people do not search by company name therefore using keywords and phrases in the title tags will help in search engine rankings.
16. Meta tag description
This is the part of the search engine listing that appears below the main title. It should be used to describe the main benefits that you offer your customers. If Google cannot find a meta tag description it will normally pick up the first one or two lines of the website home page which as we have seen does not always do the company justice.
17. Email signature
Email signatures are a great way to promote your website, blog or other on line presence. The inclusion of hyperlinks to your website makes it easy for potential viewers to connect.
18. Email marketing
Set up a method of collecting visitors email addresses in exchange for white papers, newsletters and other useful information. Building a database of people interested in your products and services will allow you to regularly send them information on special offers, new products and services and exclusive deals.
Selling into export markets
Occasionally you come a cross a business that reminds you of what it takes to be successful. Here was a export business that was selling process control instrumentation into a well defined global niche market.
Selling was done by a UK-based sales engineer who had intimate knowledge of his market place, and with a market-leading technology, the company had been able to price its products to make a handsome profit.
Support costs were low and the products were made entirely in the UK. What more could a government want – a tax-paying export-led business that created employment in the UK!
Many different ways of selling into export markets
However, for most businesses, growing an export business is not going to be quite that straightforward.
A product that someone wants; selling it to them; shipping it; getting paid; low aftercare costs; and making a profit – in principle doing business overseas is the same as doing business at home, but it is certainly more complex, and it is the complexity that adds cost and increases business risk.
How you deal with overseas clients is key
But fundamentally it is how you access and deal with the overseas clients themselves that will determine the success or failure of your export venture, and that will depend on the territory, your product, its addressable market, your target sales volume, and the level of expertise required by sales personnel etc.
Export sales channels
Thus you will be faced with a number of options for each territory you decide to exploit. Here is a brief list of some of the alternatives:
- e-commerce: mostly for low-value commodity sales supported by web-based marketing;
- Telephone/fax/email: for sales of low-to-medium value commodities, services and configured products;
- UK-based Sales executives: for items such as high-value engineering products, specialist niche products and software development contracts, sold through sales visits to clients’ premises;
- Agents: commission-based lead generators and often sales representatives, usually for low-to medium volume, high-value goods into territories where the sales are significant;
- Distributors / re-sellers: buy and re-sell your products, usually as part of a portfolio of related products into a specific market; and
- Overseas offices: replacing distributors, agents or UK based sales executives, where setting up a local office either reduces the cost of selling into a territory and/or enables you to manage better important key accounts along with providing a base for installation and service personnel.
And as you grow your export business, you’ll probably end up with a mix of channels in different territories depending on local factors, whilst ensuring that each one is contributing to profit.
Posted by Peter Johnson, Business Advisor with SGBA. If you would to talk to someone about your business, or your export strategy, call Peter on 07714 093406 or email him at peter.johnson@sgba.co.uk.
Sales Performance Enhanced by Persistence
Selling is difficult enough in the current climate. There is a great deal of competition and when the economy is in decline getting orders becomes more difficult with more people chasing fewer opportunities. Many leading experts will tell you all the ways in which you can improve your selling activity but most of them miss one crucial peice of advice.
Research reveals that 50% of sales people give up after one “NO” from a client. A further 25% give up after two “NOs”; still more (15%) give up after 3 “NOs”. Therefore nearly all sales people give up on a client just before they place an order! Because the facts show that 60% of all customers say no 3 times before saying yes. For sales people to be successful they need to be persistent. When a client says no they more often than not mean “not yet.”
If you need help in improving your sales performance contact Bob Francis or call 07941426807.
What do you do when a customer makes a complaint?
What will you do if your product or service fails to meet your client’s expectations and they make a complaint?
You certainly don’t put it in your desk drawer and hope it will go away – that’s a sure way to trash your reputation.
And don’t hide behind your Terms and Conditions. We’ve all experienced being given the brush off when we thought we had a legitimate complaint – it makes you think twice about using the same company again.
Actually, you get back to them promptly and talk to them about the issue: you promise to try to resolve it within a given time-frame, and try to keep that promise.
Your client might still be unhappy with what you supplied, but they’ll be happier with you and your company as they will know you have responded to their complaint and their issue is being addressed.
Put in a Complaints Handling System
And you should do this systematically for every complaint.
Faced with this, recently, a client asked me what was meant by a Complaints Handling System that conformed to the guidelines in ISO 10002 – the client was required to do this for their accreditation.
Now, these International Standards don’t normally tell you how to do it, but amazingly there is a really good explanation in that Standard* of a complaints handling process for a small business – essentially this:
- Devise a system to log, track and resolve complaints;
- Set target time-scales for contacting the client and for resolving their issues;
- Tell the client what these time-scales are, and talk to them regularly about your progress;
- Appoint someone to administer the system – making sure these commitments are met;
- Decide which staff will be involved in dealing directly with your clients, and get them some training if necessary – they may have to deal with frustration, anger or confrontation over the phone;
- Take it really seriously – carry out regular audits at director level to ensure things are being done on time;
- Use your audits to drive continual improvement; and
- Carry your staff with you and reward them for their performance in a difficult role.
This sounds like a lot of work
Not really. If you have a culture of client satisfaction and continual improvement, you are probably carrying out most of these steps anyway.
And remember, most growing, high-performing businesses are process-led, so if you want to be like that I guess you’ll have to start putting some processes in.
Posted by Peter Johnson, Business Advisor with SGBA. If you would to talk to someone about your business, including your complaints handling system, call Peter on 07714 093406 or email him at peter.johnson@sgba.co.uk.
*ISO 100002:2004(E) Appendix A.
See our latest presentation
Customers and cash. How to get more of both!
In difficult times most SMEs need to get more of one and conserve the other. In fact many would like to get more of both. Our latest presentation gives ideas and tips on how to do both.
Feel free to comment on the presentation and we look forward to receiving your feedback.
Appointment making tips
How do I get to meet key decision makers?
A question that I am frequently asked.
First, like all Sales people and marketeers, it is key to identify your target audience, and have a message (‘the hook’) that is likely to spark their interest. Once you have both of these clear in your strategy then you can act.
An exercise that has proved successful is to attend an exhibition. Research an exhibition that has some relevance to your business area of expertise. Check all the companies that are within your ‘geographical’ target, exhibition web sites make this quite easy to achieve before travelling. Take note of exactly where they are on the floor plan. Prepare a few words that demonstrate your knowledge of the subject, without it being a ‘sell’. It is vitally important to make sure that you are NOT selling here. In fact ‘selling’ to exhibitors is highly unethical, after all they have usually paid ‘big bucks’ to enable THEM to sell!
Only approach when all is quiet on the stand, its amazing how the most senior person pounces when all is quiet! Carefully chosen words (that contain ‘the hook’) should solicit the response, “Why dont you call in on me some time?”. Bingo! Yes, it does work.
A good tip is to practice first on two or three stands that you have NOT targeted, so, make any mistakes where it does not matter! You will be surprised how slick you will become when you come to your key targets!
Moving on to ‘telephone approaches’, the same philosophy should apply. Create a ‘guideline script’ (but create a means of expressing this without reading it parrot fashion). Approach several companies whom you regard as ‘peripheral targets’, and make your mistakes here, before you call the key targets.
How do I get past the ‘gate keeper’? This can be quite a skill! A good ‘gate keeper’ may be difficult to by pass. However, calling early in the morning, or late afternoon, when many may have gone home can prove successful. Perhaps you can inform the gate keeper of ‘what the boss is missing by not talking to you’. Another possibility is to get the e mail ID of the boss, in order to stimulate his/her interest with some well chosen words.
Networking events can also provide good opportunity. The down side is that you probably do not know who is there until after the event. But the day after, when you read the attendee list, and realise that you missed the very target you sought, drop an e mail to them. State that you wished you had met, reference something of note from the networking meeting, then state why it would be worth talking in more detail.
As a sales person, it is important to recognise you will probably never get to see every prospect you target. Some will prove impossible to track down. Accept it, do not take it personally. Learn from your approach, develop your style, and get on to the next prospect.
Want to brush up on these skills? Call Ian Thomas or Bob Francis at Southern Group Business Advisors on 0870 787 7590, or e mail ian.thomas@sgba.co.uk / bob.francis@sgba.co.uk.
Happy Selling!
Inspirational Growth
Recession, good news about the economy, bad news, talk of double dip, exports down, quantitative easing, exports up, redundancies……….. And so it goes on!
Each day the newspapers bring a new twist to the current economic ‘state of play’. So lets blame the politicians, and those bankers are culpable too. Sepp Blatter, he’s not helped, neither has E Coli, whoever he is.
But are we not missing something? Surely confidence comes from business, at least that’s how it should be, not from the flamboyant Mr Mervyn King (sorry wrong adjective).
So, how do we gain confidence? We look for new sales – simple. Either existing clients who can buy products they do not normally get from us (they have always bought screws from us, but never washers!), or we find NEW customers.
New customers indeed? Perish the thought!
In a time when a salesman is measured by his ability to operate a CRM system, not his ability to influence and ‘bring home the bacon’ we can easily lose sight of the real issue. So a spirit of entrepreneurship must be instilled into business top to bottom, left to right.
Exports? Not for us, we’ve never travelled beyond Rickmansworth! I can hear so many businesses echo this. Lets unshackle the prejudices, kick down the doors, open the mind, and let imagination run wild. Let’s brush up on selling skills, not our dexterity on a database.
More customers, higher spending customers, exports, all key to success and wealth creation. Let’s all engender this spirit, maybe one day we’ll bring a smile to the face of Mervyn King.
Want some inspiration in your business? Talk to SGBA!
The SGBA goes Global….
The SGBA are assisting business expand horizons, key to bringing the economy out of recession.
“Our relationships with people on the ground in France, India and USA are first class, and we can assist all types of business with upfront research, and laying the business foundations with local people” says Ian Thomas.
He goes on to say, “we are creating all sorts of opportunities, both outward and inward. As UKT&I have to deal with surpressed budgets, the services we offer will become invaluable. And we are not just limited to three countries!”
No matter whether you want to appoint an agent, a distributor, invest in a subsidiary, get a joint venture moving, or sell a license or franchise, the SGBA are now full prepared to deliver value and growth opportunity.
Market research, premises search, personnel selection, local laws, licenses, the list goes on…… most costly and time consuming for business Directors.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- Next Page »
