So why then do we do the same thing with our websites and other marketing collateral that we produce for our business?

In the last 2-3 weeks I have had this conversation 4 times (it’s funny how trends like this happen in our line of work) where businesses are looking at developing or re-vamping their websites.  I ask them one question are you going to have a “product centric” or “customer centric” website, which will work better for your business?  The answer is a blank stare!

The challenge I give my clients is this, I ask them to think of a problem that is really bothering them at the moment and Google that problem.  When the search results come through, I challenge them NOT to click on some of the top results that very clearly look as if they have the answer.  The reality is they can’t do it, their mind tells them “I have a problem, there is the answer, click on it!”

So why is it then that the vast majority of websites out there are product centric, they are the annoying people at the party that talk about themselves not their clients.  These sites are typically set up with the usual tabs across the home page:

• Home Page: an introduction about the company (me)
• About Us: more information about the company and it’s workers (me)
• Products: information about the company’s products (me)
• Services: information about the company’s services (me)
• Portfolio: more information about what the company has done (me)
• Contact: how to contact the company (me)

I wanted to attempt to de-mystify some of this stuff and give you one or two things to think about and discuss with your own organisation.

1. Social Media is an extension of your marketing:  First and foremost social media is not an all encompassing entity that will get you rich quick, it is a marketing aid and should be treated as such; an on line / mobile extension of your current marketing activities.
2. Should we be active as a business on social media platforms?  Again, treat this like another marketing initiative, if by utilising one or many of the different social media options out there will get you to your target market then yes it is an option.  If it wont get you in front of your target market, why would you waste your time and energy?
3. What information should we be sharing on social media?  I take a rather simplistic view on this, if I am comfortable talking about a subject face to face with my clients, suppliers or sponsors then it is suitable for me to put it out there on social media.  I represent my business, I represent it’s core values, I abide by those core values and would not do anything to compromise these.  If I find myself second guessing whether I should be publishing something on social media it’s usually because I should not be doing it.
4. Who within our organisation should update the social media platforms?  There are a couple of views on this, depending on the culture of the business, you will need to decide which best fits:
• We are confident that everyone on board has bought into our culture and values and would not do anything to harm these, because of this confidence in our entire team, anyone can update our social media platforms at any time.
• We have a dedicated resource that manages all the information and interactions that happen across our social media platforms, this ensures that other departments within the business do not lose their focus or efficiency by being continually distracted by these platforms.
5. What if we get lots of negative feedback?  My answer to that is you reap what you sew, in the 3 years or so that I have been on social media I have never had any negative feedback, but I don’t have any unhappy clients either.  Yes it is a risk but if you are confident in what your business or organisation provides to it’s clients, this should not be a problem.  Of course you may want to post potentially controversial content to challenge current thinking, this is fine but the feedback you will get will be both negative and positive, it is how you answer to the negative comments that will determine the success of the post.

It is the strength of the relationship that you have with a potential client that will determine whether or not you will be successful in securing the sale.  This applies to existing clients too, if you don’t take the time to personally talk to your clients, someone else will get in there and do the job for you, thus you end up losing that client forever.

How do you strengthen your relationship with your potential clients?  You need to “connect” with them and the issues that they are facing that your business can help with.  The greatest skill you should learn and take to every meeting whether it is a current or a potential client is “listening”.   All this happens before you produce any type of quote to that client, by the time they ask you for a quote it should be more about appeasing their internal budget processes rather than competing against a number of other suppliers.

Ask the questions that will get the person talking about their business, don’t presume or pre-judge what they are saying and definitely do not interrupt them with your own views, let them talk.  Follow through with more questions until you have a very clear understanding of your clients’ needs and of course what you can do to help those needs.

What Should You Be Asking?

What you should be asking will be determined by your objective for that meeting but essentially you might want to think about the following:

1. How long have they been in business and how did you get into it?  This gets them talking about themselves and there business which is where there passion lies!
2. What is unique about their business compared to their competition? This gives you an understanding of the business’s competitive edge.
3. What are their plans for the rest of this year? This gives you insight into the growth potential of the business, can your business help them with any of their future plans?
4. Is there any specific activity they are about to embark on that will help them grow their business?
5. Where do they think they are missing sales opportunities? Can your business help with this, opportunity to provide instant value!
6. If they have asked you to quote on something ask the following:
   1. Is this a pricing exercise?
   2. What time frame are they considering regarding making the purchasing decision?
   3. What time frame are they thinking about regarding delivery of the product?
   4. Are you responsible for making the final decision?
   5. Do you currently have a preferred supplier for this product?
   6. Has there ever been any problems receiving or using a similar product in the past?

The questions you will ask will be dependent on how well the conversation is going and what the client tells you.  Like I said previously it’s all about listening and clarifying, ask the question, let the client talk, then clarify or ask more questions.  The more you can get your client to talk the stronger that relationship will get as you will be projecting a genuine interest in their business.

Your ability to ask varied questions specific to where the conversation is going will take time, think about your objective for the meeting and set your questions around that.  The more information you can gather from your clients and the more you can relate to their specific needs the better chance you have of securing that next sale all of which is done before you ever get to produce a quote!

So what can you do then to encourage performance and efficiency in your work place?

1. Clearly define each member’s job role:  Often as business grow and develop the roles that staff play within the business grow and develop.  If this is happening to your business re-visit everyone’s job roles and update where necessary and communicate the changes across the whole team so everyone understands how they fit in the bigger picture.
2. Clearly define the chain of command:  all too often in family run businesses or businesses experiencing excessive growth, the chain of command becomes hazy.  If new members are added to the management team or the roles of the existing management team change, a new chain of command needs to be created so everyone within the company understands who they report to.
3. Measure success:  If the team(s) do not have goals how then do they know they are doing a good enough job?  Everyone in the company should be accountable and take ownership for their part in the business, part of being accountable is having something to measure yourself against, these we call key performance indicators (KPI’s).  Once these are in place everyone will know how well they are performing.
4. Daily Meetings:  This is one of the simplest tools to use and one of the most powerful.  The meeting should talk about 3 things:
1. What have you achieved since your last meeting (acknowledges the good in front of their peers).
2. What is your focus today (collective the team will be highly focused for the day, knowing what is expected from them).
3. What hurdles are stopping you from performing your job (opportunity to discuss issues and solve them amongst their peers).
5. Incentivise Performance:  If KPI’s are continually being met, think of some ways of incentivising the the staff, maybe let them choose their own incentive up to a specific value.
6. Enforce Consequence:  If the staff are not performing having put everything in place then there needs to be a consequence for continued poor performance.  After continued support and development performance is insufficient to meet the KPI’s set, then disciplinary action may need to be taken.  Do not shy away from doing this, yes it is a last resort, but it is an important one.  It is vitally important that you have a robust disciplinary process in place.

Everyone knows that in business (as indeed with life in general) the best way to be successful is to understand where you are going and what success looks like when you get there, but how on earth do you stay focussed on your goals for the business when they are 10, 20 or 25 years away?

Essentially you need a plan, once you have clarified what success is and what your business looks like in 10 years (say), you need to break that plan down into sizable chunks, right down to quarterly goals, once you know that, you can then split your quarter into months and each month should have 4 “one things”.

“One things” are just that, they are one specific task that you need to do, over and above the day to day stuff that will inch you closer to achieving the big goal.  Can I ask you how much closer would your business be to achieving what you want it to do if you could achieve 46 “one things” each year for ten years?  460 one things is a lot of tasks to get done, specifically to achieve your vision / long term goal.

“One things” can be used for the day to day stuff too, how many of you reading this now are snowed under with work or administration?  How many of you have fallen behind in one or several areas of your business?  How do you address that problem, you prioritise what needs to be done, break it up into a series of manageable “one things” and  deal to one each week, before you know it you will have caught up with the back log and in doing so will have created a habit of doing a “one thing” every week, it’s at this point you can start getting a head of the game.

The old saying goes “Rome wasn’t built in a day”, that’s right it was built brick by brick over time, business is the same, no business is created and successful over night but they are all built on the ability to achieve a series of “one things” over time.

What’s your “one thing” for this week?

Hunter or Farmer?

Having a successful business is all about getting the right team, doing the right job at the right time, the sales side of your business is no different.  The sales team are at the coal face, they are the one’s that interact with your clients day in, day out so they had better be good at what they do!!

As I have written before in a previous article there are generally two types of sales person, there is the “hunter” and the “farmer” and they are very different types of people with very different strengths and weaknesses, so which one is right for you?

The Hunter

These sales people are hungry, they are highly focussed individuals that revel in the chase, they love closing the deal but don’t expect them to hang round too long after that as they are off hunting down their next prey.  If you need to break into new markets, or saturate your current one, these guys will get the job done, but you had better be sure to have a robust follow up process in place as they tend to leave plenty to tidy up.

The Farmer

These sales people are extremely focussed on keeping their clients happy, they will go out of their way to ensure their clients get what they want, when they want it.  Due to the time they spend with their current clients, they have little time to chase down new business (not that they wont recognise an opportunity when it presents itself), but if you are trying to consolidate a market or provide premium service as part of your offering, these guys will get the job done.  The down side to farmers are they can erode the bottom line if the are not managed properly, due to the amount of time some of them can spend securing that extra dollar from their client base, again you will need to have a robust process in place for them to follow.

These are extreme behavioural examples of both, most sales people are a bit of a mixture, but will have a stronger emphasis one way or the other.  As a business owner it is up to you to find out where they naturally lean towards and utilise that information to your advantage especially when you are incentivising and motivating them.  Which ever type you have they must be managed well, they will need good sales processes, they will need their call cycles established and they will very definitely need to understand your customer’s resonating factors in order to achieve their sales goals.

There is no doubt that since the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) the value of business sales in New Zealand has significantly reduced. This is due in part to businesses making less profit, and therefore being less attractive; and the difficulties in obtaining finance with which to make the purchase. However Tabak’s experience is that the bottom of the market was back in the 2011FY and sales are definitely improving again – both nationwide, and within Canterbury.

Reasons why Tabak believe now IS a good time to sell include:

• Record levels of recent sales
• Banks’ improved appetite for lending
• Improving pipeline of “larger businesses”
• Canterbury driving NZ’s GDP growth in next five years i.e. strong markets within most industries
• Beat the “baby-boomer” bubble

Recent Sales

Tabak Christchurch sold more businesses during the 2012FY than ever before. Indications for the new financial year are also very positive with four more sales in “due diligence” at the time of writing; and our Queenstown branch is also experiencing increased demand from both buyers and sellers.

Pipeline (or WIP)

Our South Island “pipeline” showing businesses that Tabak is either marketing; preparing for sale or valuing is now around $50m. This is the highest it has been for some time, and includes several larger businesses in the $1m to $5m category, that are now performing strongly.

Bank Lending

Most bankers (and economists) would agree that lending is unlikely to be returning to the days of pre-2008 any time soon (and it could be argued “nor should they”). The virtual disappearance of the second tier finance market is starting to be filled by non-bank lenders/finance brokers such as www.tbkcapital.co.nz and the six main banks are clearly now “open for business”. Cashflow lending remains a more challenging proposition but deals are being done and there is an improved appetite for lending that was missing several years ago.

Canterbury/South Island Market

The Canterbury EQ’s are resulting in an unprecedented amount of money that is being recommitted to the region over the next 3-5 years. There will be a significant flow-on (or multiplier effect) throughout the region, and in all likelihood, the South Island. This will ensure that most businesses, including those not directly feeding into the rebuild, will experience improved demand for their products & services.

The Baby-Boomer Bubble

It is an oft-reported fact that the average age of business owners is increasing (now somewhere between 55-60) and at some stage these owners will want to realise the value in their business for a tax-free gain i.e. sell the business. The challenges of the recession; GFC and (in Canterbury) the EQ’s have all delayed business owners from acting in the last three years. People do not live forever and Tabak’s view is that this “supply-side” bulge will start sooner rather than later….so a vendor wanting to come to the market prior to the “bubble” will need to move even more quickly.

Whilst it may be in Tabak’s interests to “talk up” the market, the above points are all FACT – not opinion, and it is for this reason that Tabak are firmly of the view that now is a good time to sell your business.

1. When are you at your best?

This might seem like I’m teaching you to suck eggs but if you are an early riser, the chances are you will be able to accomplish complicated mental tasks more efficiently earlier in the day so that should be when you schedule in that complicated proposal or project.  If you have to do overtime, do it before the office opens for business, you will get far more done.

Equally if you struggle to get out of bed in the morning and you are the type of person everyone avoids until morning tea break,don’t even think about getting stuck into that complicated project, find some less mental challenging jobs to do until lunch time, after which put your head down and get that complicated task out of the way.  If you have to do overtime, you are more likely to get stuff done after the office closes.

Important – The mind can only sustain highly focussed mental effort for approximately 90 minutes but only needs 15 minutes to recover – make sure you take regular breaks from what you are doing!

2. Delegate Effectively

This in itself is a big topic, but I’ll ask you to consider point one.  Do not treat all your team the same, if you have a combination of people that are either one of those examples in point one (or a mixture of each – quite common), then delegate the more complicated tasks when you know the individuals within the team are working at their most focussed and efficient.  You will get far more out of them, get more task completed thus potentially lighten your own work load.

3. Never Book Out Your Calendar

Curve balls are a part of business (and life for that matter), the unexpected always rears it’s ugly head when you least need it, so plan for it!!  Leave 25% of your day unaccounted for, if the unexpected doesn’t happen, excellent, you can slot in something else to do, but if it does, you have a window of time that you can dedicate to it without causing too much upset to the rest of your day.  The biggest problem we all have with the unexpected is the waste of time and mental energy worrying about how you are going to find the time to deal with the problem, rather than putting that energy into finding a solution, gaps in your calendar reduce the stress of worrying about the time element.

4. Prioritise Your Tasks

Decide what is essential (critical to the business performing) and what isn’t then prioritise your list of tasks accordingly, if you find your list of tasks are almost all critical, try prioritising them by filtering them in proactive (make money now) or reactive (make money later) tasks.  Ultimately we are all in business to make money so it makes sense that income should be the deciding factor in the decision making process.

5. Say NO!!

Managing your interruptions will have the greatest impact on your time; is your service time critical? If not what is a reasonable length of time to reply to a clients email, would it really matter if you didn’t get back to them for 4 hours could you stretch them to a 8 hour window?  If you could, why then do you need to check your emails any more than once or twice a day?

Do you have staff that can answer the phone?  If you do, get them to filter the calls, if you are busy, tell them you do not want to be disturbed until a certain time.  Can other people in your business deal with certain inquiries, if so, let everyone know within your team that if a call comes through inquiring about a specific service / product then they should direct it to that specific team member.  Just because you are the owner or the manager of a business, it does not mean the clients have access to you 24/7.

Check out this book by Marc Mancini, Time Management 24 Techniques to Make Each Minute Count at Work it’s a great little book with lots of great tips.

It is true, you are only as good as your last job, so it stands to reason that if the last job was a good one then you have nothing to worry about, right?  Wrong!  There is another factor that you must keep front of your mind and that is the human mind, more exactly the memory.  Think about the last time you received fantastic service, received a great product from a polite and knowledgeable staff member, how did you feel at the time?  How many people did you tell about it shortly afterwards and do you still talk about it with the same enthusiasm now?  To the last question the chances are you don’t, why, because time dilutes emotions and it is for this very reason that it is essential that you keep in front of your clients minds, how do we do this?  We practice sales farming 

Sales farming or farming the client base is a practice that I developed many years ago as a key account manager for a communications company and has five stages to it (check out my a previous article on this subject).

1. Plough the Fields – Research the company(s) that you intend to call upon, what have you already sold them?  Who is the key decision maker?  What plans do they have for the business this year?  Have they diversified in any way since you last talked to them?  Is there any additional products or services that you now have that compliment what they have already bought from you?
2. Sow the Seed – Arrange a meeting with them, have an objective for the meeting, find out what the business’s plans are, introduce a new product or service that you may have or  meet the new purchasing officer.  Whatever you do, do not waste their time or yours by going to a meeting without a purpose!
3. Nurture the Crop – Follow up on the previous meeting, ensure you fulfil any promises that you have made.  It is at this is the point in the cycle that you prepare quotes and continue the process of educating the client.
4. Harvest the Crop – You get the clients commitment to purchase your product or service, again you make sure you meet your clients expectations around delivery and quality of product or service.
5. Plough the Fields – Follow through with the client after they have received the product or service, make sure they are happy, if they are not, what can you do to change this and get any feedback you can from the client about their experience buying from you and your business.

Maybe?  The problem is at the point you decide to sell everything changes, the business is no longer about you it’s all about the buyer!!  What do I mean buy that?  When it comes to the “worth” of your business, do you think your opinion counts?  I’ll tell you right now, it doesn’t and the sooner you get your head around that concept the better!!

It’s all about generating value, the more value you can generate to a potential buyer, the more they are likely spend.  So what do you need to think about now to help increase that value.  Here are the top 5 things you need to do:

1. Strategy: Ensure you have a solid vision for your business, put a plan in place as if you were never going to sell it.  If you have a strategy in place that focuses on longer term growth that takes the company past the time you intend to sell, how much potential value will that give a potential buyer?
2. People: Employ staff as if they are going to stay with the business until they retire, ensure they are well skilled, motivated, feel like they are an important  part of the business but above all they perform well.  There is an immense amount of value to a potential buyer if they know that the staff on board have all the skills and knowledge they need to keep the business performing well.
3. Governance: Do things right!!  Make sure that your business has its policies & procedures in place and they are adhered to.  Ensure all your compliance requirements are up to date.  If you can show this is the case, you will be adding more value to the buyer.
4. Research: Understand where likely buyers will come from and anticipate how your business can add value to the buyer, especially if that buyer is another business.  What value would there be to their existing company if they could:
• Have access to your current market place.
• Sell your product / service in their market space.
• Develop new products or services jointly for both existing or entirely new markets.
5. Seek Professional Help: This is a major undertaking, do not do it on your own, ensure you have at least a good business broker on board.  When you do, make sure they are fully aware of the research you have done and the potential value your business may be to others.  Make sure their focus is on selling the value not just the assets and profit!