In part 1 we talked about the importance of getting leads to a successful sales cycle. But a lead that never reaches a decision to buy is ultimately just a liability. It's not enough to find a lot of interested people. At some point you need to get those people to decide to purchase something from you if you want to stay in business.Conversion - Convincing People We Have What They NeedConversion is the process of getting the customer, or lead,...more
The basic philosophy behind the sales perspective is the more you sell the more money you make. This makes a lot of sense, so let's take a look at business management from the perspective of a sales led organization.The basic representation of business from a sales perspective consists of four main steps:1. finding leads2. converting those leads3. closing the deal4. delivering the product or serviceThe end goal, as always, is...more
If you want to turn on the profit making potential of your business you need to put your focus back on the market.Market First, Product SecondAsk yourself this simple question. Who is my target market? Now stop for a minute and write down your answer so you can't deny it in two seconds when I ask the next question.Now put your answer in the middle of this sentence. "I think I'll phone _________ and see what they are doing." When you put your answer in this sentence, did it make sense? Did you write "I think I'll phone Real Estate Investing and see what they are doing" or "I think I'll phone Dog Training and see what they are doing?" If your sentence is nonsense don't worry, you're not alone; but you do need to rethink your approach because you are thinking about what you have to offer instead of thinking about the group of people you are trying to help.This is one of most limiting factors that businesses put on themselves. If you want to really grow you've got to turn that thinking around. Instead of thinking about who you can sell exercise equipment to today, think about who you are trying to help. If you're trying to help people who want to lose weight, then focus on how to help...more
Early in my career I believed that hard work was the key to success. Most of my first jobs were doing manual labor, and I was often complemented for how hard I worked on a consistent basis. The harder I worked, the faster we got things done, and so I believe that hard work was the key to success. After graduating with a degree in Electrical and...more
Let's take a look at a financial perspective of business and examine where the money goes. A favorite saying of one of my mentors is "follow the piles of cash". Although this is not all there is to business, it is definitely something you can never lose sight of as a manager or business leader. Cash flow is in a business goes something like...more
How do you measure success? After years of trial, error, training and research I have a management tip for you: the four top level measurements that I recommend everyone have in place across their business or team. They should be built into everyone's goals and objectives each year. Every department head should have improvements to one of them as a goal each year. They are: 1. Production: what did the business get from this department? Generally this measurement should be in dollars.2. Cost: what did it cost the business to have this department? Generally this measurement should be in dollars.3. Success Rate: how often do they succeed at their top objectives? This can often be measured as a variance to expectations.4. Cost of Failure: what does it cost when this team fails to achieve a top objective? This can be dollars, but you can also use other soft measurements like satisfaction levels.Production and Cost metrics are the big dollars and cents measurements needed to determine what's happening to the money. Success Rate and Cost of Failure are softer measurements. Success Rate should be used primarily to highlight the great things that every department does each year, and...more
At a high level there are only two ways to grow a business: increase sales and decrease costs. Here's a simple management tip that will save you a lot of wasted effort. Before you start looking at the details of each method, you should understand the...more
Sales is all about helping customers shop for and get what they need or want. It places focus on finding leads, converting leads, and closing the deal. Once those three things are done, all you need to do is deliver the product. So if sales minded...more
The more efficiently you can fill orders the more money you get to keep from each sale. If you sell an extra $10 product you may only get to keep $1 or $2 after you finish paying for the product, warehouses, salaries, etc. But if you can find a way...more
A "Deed in Lieu of Foreclosure" is when a lender accepts a deed to the homeowner's property in foreclosure instead of continuing the foreclosure process and incurring more expenses to get the deed anyway. However, this does not mean the homeowner is...more
A secured loan is a loan that is available to homeowners, and this is because these loans are secured against the home. With equity levels rising steeply over recent years, secured loans have become a popular, affordable, and effective way for many...more
According to officials from the Office of Fair Trading many people may be paying way over the odds for their credit card borrowing, and the lenders that provide these cards could be raking in around £400 million every year simply because of the...more