Small Business Profit Maximizer!

Mobile Device Use Has Hit Critical Mass

Almost every prospect who contacts me has already Googled me, checked out our blog, and visited our firm website before they ever call me to set-up the initial appointment.  This is a sure sign that these technologies are well past critical mass.

I use the term "critical mass" to mean that your best customers are expecting the firms they deal with to have that particular product, technology, or service available.  And, they will only consider buying from those places that do.

In my example, I can attest to the fact that if I did not have a strong presence on Google, did not have a blog, and did not have a good website, I would most likely not even be considered by these new prospects.

Lesson:  Once a technology hits critical mass, the business owner ignores it at their own risk!  They learn how to implement it into their business or they slowly start losing ground to competitors who have learned how to use the technology to reach their customers.

 Alex Lerch, in his blog post titled "Why You Need A Mobile Website This Year" (www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-you-need-mobile-website-year-alex-lerch), bluntly states:

 Now is the time for businesses to become very aware of the need to target their marketing towards mobile device users, as they are rapidly starting to dominate the share of internet and search engine use.

He goes on to list the following “cold hard facts”:

• 58% of American adults have a smartphone with internet capability
• 32% of American adults have an e-reader
• 42% of American adults have a tablet computer
• 29% of cell owners describe their cell phone as "something they can't imagine living without."
• 34% of cell internet users go online mostly using their phones, and not using some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer.

And these trends are not slowing down.  In Alex Lerch's article he states that Apple sold 39 million phones in the third quarter of 2014 alone.  In the fourth quarter of 2014 Apple sold another 39.2 million iPhones and 12.3 million iPads. (www.theverge.com/2014/10/20/7022335/apple-q4-2014-earnings).

The problem?  While 34% of users find your website using their phone, only one out of 10 small business websites are optimized for mobile.

I agree with Mr. Lerch that "Mobile dominance in the market is not a trend, but a change in course for all online marketing.  An effective website today is not the same as it was three years ago.”

In my article titled “Is Your Business Growing or Dying?” I listed six things that successful businesses do differently from those businesses that are struggling to survive.  Two are pertinent to this topic:

• Successful business owners stay current, and often lead the way, on tech trends.
• They also understand how these changes in technology will affect how their customers interact and buy from them.

 2015 is a great time to gain a competitive advantage by optimizing your web content for mobile devices.  Check out future articles where we will cover how to accomplish this in more detail.

Study Confirms Why Businesses Fail

A recent study by CBInsights listed the top 20 reasons startups fail.  (Full study at https://www.cbinsights.com/blog/startup-failure-post-mortem)  This isn’t the first study about startup failure, but it is different from others in that it provided a much higher level of detail.

Though it focused on startups, I believe its lessons apply to every business that is not growing to the level the owner expects.  Here are the study’s top five reasons businesses fail:

1. No market need was listed by 42%.  Almost half the failures were caused because their product didn’t solve a customer problem.  This is why we spend so much time in our Sales & Marketing Boot Camp pushing our clients to really discover their customers’ true need (Check out our Boot Camp at http://www.freeisbstrategies.com/sales-marketing-boot-camp-sales).

2. Running out of cash was listed by 29%.  A third of the businesses simply ran out of cash.  This is why the business owner must become an expert in raising cash, keeping cash, and budgeting.  This is also why the business owner must have good accounting records.

3. Not having the right team was listed by 23%.  Too often a small business owner can’t grow a viable business independently and fails to bring in qualified help.  Sooner or later this kills the business.

4. Being outcompeted was listed by 19%.  You are often told to ignore the competition and just put out good work.  But if they have a solution to the customer’s problem that is much easier to use, or they simply out-market you, they will become the leader in your niche and you will lose.

5. Pricing/cost issues were listed by 18%.  Many businesses have trouble determining what to charge and what pricing model to use.  They often build a product or service and say, “This is what I need to charge to make money.”  This approach ignores the customer.  What is the customer willing and able to pay to solve their problem?  Only after you discover this information can you determine if you have a profitable solution (product or service) to offer.

This brings me back to our feature article where I mentioned that businesses seem to be either doing very well or simply surviving.  If you aren’t doing as well as you think you should be, these five things may be a large part of the problem.  Read the full study with the comments and I guarantee you will find ideas and solutions that you can apply to your business.

 

Book Recommend: The Referral Engine

The Referral Engine:  Teaching Your Business to Market Itself

by John Jantsch

I am a big fan of Mr. Jantsch!  I believe every business owner should own this book, as well as Duct
Tape Marketing Revisited & Updated:  The World’s Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide.

Increasing referrals is one of the most efficient methods of increasing sales for any business.  Many of us think that all we have to do is provide great service and wait for the referrals to come in.  John Jantsch offers practical referral-building tips that will ensure your business a steady stream of new prospects ready to become customers.

CHECK IT OUT ON AMAZON!

 

One Thing All Successful Business Owners Have in Common

Over the last 35+ years I have had the pleasure of working with thousands of business owners.  Less than 1% of these I would classify as highly successful businesses dominating their niches.  Yet all of these business owners had one thing in common:  Every extremely successful business owner has a laser-like focus on taking action.

They understand that successful businesses occur when the owner makes consistent improvements.

They start by making a list of their long-term business goals.  Then they figure out what they have to do this year in order to reach them.  What do they have to do this quarter, this month, this week, and today to reach those annual goals?

Successful business owners know that the secret to massive profits is the combination of good ideas with a laser focus on monthly action.  This is the mantra you must follow.  I believe it is so important that I have made the slogan “Good Ideas + Action = Massive Profits” the motto for our magazine and our coaching programs.

Think of how much better your company would be if you committed to working four hours per week on improving your business.  Do that for 50 weeks this year, and you will have worked 200 hours on improving your business.  How many of your competitors are making this kind of investment?  Worse yet—what if one of your competitors does and you don’t?  How far behind will you be?

But they not only have a focus on taking action, they also schedule time monthly to plan and implement the good ideas that move them toward their goals.  We recommend three steps to our coaching clients:

1. Use our Perfect Monthly Growth Tool (see the article and the form we use in our August 2013 issue).

2. Use a monthly process to plan and analyze their marketing and promotion activities.

3. Use weekly delegation meetings to ensure their employees are working on those items that move the business toward its profit goals.

Finally, every successful business owner hires a coach to keep them accountable.  I have a personal coach who is helping us with our online marketing funnel.

An accountability coach helps you:

• Set a realistic timeline to reach your unique goals.
• Flesh out a strategic action plan designed to reach those goals.
• Measure your progress.
• Stay focused!  Business owners who have a focus on growing their business very often get tempted by the newest shiny object.  An accountability coach reminds you why you should finish one thing first before moving on to something else.
• Find encouragement and motivation when you feel like giving up.
• See a fresh perspective based on their experience with multiple companies in different industries.
• Challenge yourself to go beyond what you are comfortable doing on your own.

The end result is usually a massive increase in sales and profits.  Why?  Because the coach pushes you past the places you have sabotaged yourself in the past.

Watch our four-part Jump-start Your Business Now webinar series at www.freeISBstrategies.com where we will explore how to develop a focus on ACTION along with the forms we use with our clients.

3 More Ways To Increase Sales - Part 2!

Yesterday I spoke about selling to current customers and how that will dramatically increase your sales without spending a dime! As a reminder – here are some benefits to selling to current clients.

A few other benefits of selling to your current customers:

1. The additional sale or work they need is often much more fun and profitable.
2. When you concentrate on meeting your best customers’ needs, you make it almost impossible for your competitors to steal them from you.
3. They are much more likely to refer their friends to you.  Since people tend to be friends with people similar to them, the quality of the referral is very high.

Yesterday I gave 2 ways to achieve that goal… and here are 3 more!

CLICK HERE FOR YESTERDAY’S ARTICLE 

THREE: Increase your customer order size each time they purchase.  Plan in advance what related products you will offer during the sales process.  When McDonald’s trained their employees to ask, “Do you want fries with that?” they perfected upselling to the point that it became a running joke with many people.  But it worked!

Online, Amazon has implemented upselling effectively by adding a section that says, “Customers who bought this item also bought…”  How many times have you purchased the recommended add-ons?  I’m sure you have at least looked.

Train yourself and your staff to ask the right questions that will lead to add-on sales.  Be sure that they know to offer the added product as a solution to a problem the customer may not even know they have.  After all, you are the expert in your products and know what other products they may need.  In fact, it could be argued that you have a responsibility to offer the add-on product to your customer if it will truly solve their problem.

FOUR: Review your current customer list with an eye toward identifying customer needs that you can offer a solution to.  Start with your largest customers first.  In most businesses 80% of the sales come from only 20% of customers.  It is only obvious that you should start to sell to them first.  Remember, these people have already shown that they both have a need for your products or services and the money to spend on solving their problem.

FIVE: Entice your customers to refer their friends, families, and associates.  The best way to get referrals is to do such a good job solving problems, in a way that is both enjoyable and convenient, that people just want to brag about you to their friends.  So make sure you WOW them!

Then simply ask them for the referral.  But don’t just ask them for names of people who you can contact.  No one wants to unleash a hungry salesperson on their unsuspecting friends.  Ask them for names of people who have similar problems.  For example, let’s say you just took photos of a couple getting married.  When you go over the finished pictures with them, ask them if any of their friends are getting married, graduating, just had a baby, etc.  This is more likely to get a referral because they can remember people in those situations easier than the mysterious someone who may want their picture taken.

Offer an incentive for referring.  A discount for both them and the new customer often helps overcome people’s hesitance.  Just look at the power of affiliate marketing.

Now I know that this all seems like a lot of work, and it is.  But the rewards of doing the work are huge!  I have worked with numerous business owners who made improvement in these four areas and experienced an increase in sales of 25% to 100% without any additional costs in advertising.

Watch our four-part Jump-start Your Business Now webinar series at www.freeISBstrategies.com where we will explore how to quickly increase sales without spending a lot on advertising in even more detail.

How to Dramatically Increase Sales Without Spending a Dime on Advertising Part 1

When I start sales consulting with small business owners, the very first thing I get them to focus on is
increasing sales from their current customers and prospects.  Without a doubt, the fastest way to grow a business is to increase what your current customers and prospects are buying from you!

Amazingly, this is one area that most small business owners ignore!  Some form of outbound advertising is usually the first thing the typical business owner does when they want to increase sales.  The easiest thing to do is to call up the newspaper and place an ad, or get some flyers printed and pass them out.

Yes, outbound advertising has a place in your marketing plan.  But marketing to current customers is the fastest and easiest way to increase sales.  These are the people who already know you, trust you, and like you.

A few other benefits of selling to your current customers:

1. The additional sale or work they need is often much more fun and profitable.
2. When you concentrate on meeting your best customers’ needs, you make it almost impossible for your competitors to steal them from you.
3. They are much more likely to refer their friends to you.  Since people tend to be friends with people similar to them, the quality of the referral is very high.

Here are the TWO areas you should concentrate on first: *STAY TUNED FOR 3 MORE TOMORROW!

ONE: Convert a higher percentage of prospects into paying customers.  Count how many prospects you meet with who actually turn into paying customers.  When I started, about a third of the prospects I met with turned into paying customers.  Now this number is close to 80%.  In fact, I am in the enviable position of turning away customers who are not a good fit for me.

These are some of the steps I would take to improve in this area:

• Measure your current closing rate.  If you don’t have a baseline, how will you know if you are improving?
• Identify every first contact point with the prospect.
• Determine what the goal of that first contact is.  Is it to sell?  Is it to educate?  Is it to get a meeting with them?  Plan accordingly.
• Impress upon everyone who has first contact with a prospect that your goal is to get a customer for life, not a one-time sale.
• Script out the first contact in detail.  Too often the first contact with a prospect is made with a sales clerk or receptionist who has not been trained in sales.  It just makes me cringe when good advertising has brought me into a store and the first person who greets me (or too often ignores me!) makes a bad first impression!  What a lost opportunity.
• Measure your new closing rate to see if there was improvement.
• If not, determine why not, and make one change in the process.
• Measure again and repeat.

TWO: Turn your first-time customers into long-term customers who come back frequently.  This is too important to leave to chance!  Get a plan in place to WOW your prospects so that they will never consider anyone else.  Think of this as a first date where you and your staff are on your best behavior.  Give your new customer your undivided attention, and really work to determine their true needs and solve their problems.

Contact your best customers and ask them what they like best about buying from you.  Also contact customers who bought once and never returned.  Find out what you could have done differently to make them return.

Give your customers an incentive to return.  Frequent buyer cards, customer discounts, and special events for your best customers are some common ways of accomplishing this.

Educate your customers regularly on how your product or service improves their lives.  An educated customer buys more!

Don’t let your customers believe you don’t care about them.  Stay in contact.  Emails to customers and print newsletters work well.  Remember, your customers are not walking around thinking about the next time they will have the pleasure of spending money with you.  In fact, they are bombarded with so many sales messages in an average day that they may have already forgotten about you.

Check in tomorrow for THREE MORE GREAT WAYS!

P.S. Watch our four-part Jump-start Your Business Now webinar series at www.freeISBstrategies.com where we will explore how to quickly increase sales without spending a lot on advertising in even more detail.