What's Your Key Position?

A key position is vital in determining your place in the market.
The more you work on refining this the better, as you'll position your offerings - and yourself - clearly and objectively. You also make you and your offering much easier to buy.

 

I work with clients who struggle with drilling down to this essential position, and I've had challenges with it myself. But thanks to some digging deep and the advice of Big Dave Staughton I now ask these questions of my clients and myself.

• What are the three tightest niches you serve? Think the industry and the specific problems you solve for them
• How do you deliver your solutions? What's unique about your delivery?
• Who are the clients who LOVE you?

As Dave says, these are the linchpin to fast results.

Now, pick one of these narrow niches and be as specific as you possibly can about with the questions you ask about them. This will help keep you focused on finding targets as opposed to the mindset that says, 'this is for everyone.' That only weakens your position.

Another way to do this is to ask these questions about each niche:

• Who?
• Why?
• What?
• Where?
• How?

Most of the mistakes I've made and opportunities I've missed come from not completely exploring these questions about each market.

 

Remember: narrow, deep, specific. And if you have more than one offering what's your flagship.

Once people know that, they'll discover the others., especially if you leave clues for them.

 

Get to know your clients. Once you do, you can explore your target much deeper with a clearer picture of who they are, why, how and where they buy from you.

 

To your sales success

Michael Neaylon

michael@mcme.com.au

 

Author of the book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.' 

 

Available here (until the end of May, I'm offering free postage for readers. Just say the word blog in your order).

 

What Are You Selling?

Talking in an informal mastermind group of likeminded business owners last night, I realised mnay of us are faced with the same issues. As Brian Tracy says in his deceptively simple book. 'How to Be a Sales Superstar,' many of us are challenged about what we're truly selling, especially those of us selling a service.


This is a simple way to get clear on what you're selling:

1. Who wants what I have to offer?


2. Why do they want it? What needs does this fulfill? Which problems does it solve and which dreams does it speak to?


3. How well can I get to know their needs? How much can I listen out for what they truly want, and get better at reading between the gaps in their sentences to fulfill their deepest desires? Practice this and make it a habit. You'll be surprised by the results when you become an expert at listening and helping.

There's much more to this than meets the eye, but the more you listen and learn about your clients, the more you can deliver. There are two ways you can go with this. You can manipulate or you can genuinely help someone, and in turn help yourself.

Personally I prefer the latter. What about you? Do you know your clients well? And if so, what are you doing to truly help them?

Do me a favour and let me know.

To your sales success
Michael Neaylon

Author of the forthocming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'

michael@mcme.com.au

Educate Your Market

Here's an excerpt from the Know Your Market chapter of the book...

Regardless of whether you are the product, or you’re providing one, it’s up to you to educate your clientele. Let them know the value they’re getting.

Your clients will often thank you for helping them to fully appreciate benefits they might not even be aware of. They might not. But it’s a vital function of our marketing and sales services to keep our clients informed. Even if you’re reading this book as a business owner, you’re still essentially responsible for sales and marketing (or at least overseeing it), so tell your sales and marketing team how important this is. Keep them educated and keep them educating your clients.

But before you can educate your client or team, you need a good understanding of the market conditions and your target market. So before we go any further, let’s take an overview of three core areas of marketing; the market place, your market, and your point of difference within that market.

To your great success

Michael Neaylon

Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'

michael@mcme.com.au

Dive Your Plan

You’ve probably heard the expression, ‘Plan the dive. Dive the plan.’ That’s true for your marketing plan, too. Some people see marketing as the soft side of their business. I see it as essential. Diarise time for your social media, e-marketing, newsletters, sales reviews, meetings, and calls You can do these yearly, quarterly, monthly, and weekly. Don’t worry if you can’t do a yearly one yet. Start with a monthly or weekly plan and get into the habit of planning in advance. Lack of planning is widely seen as one of the major downfalls of small businesses. They have the passion, but lack the plan.

Without the plan, you can’t put your passion into action.

Once you’ve prioritised time for your marketing and sales activities, honour that. Make it non-negotiable, just as if you were planning time with your most important client. By taking this structured approach to your marketing, you’ll begin to see what works, what doesn’t, and why. Rather than trying to do all things at once, I recommend people try three major marketing channels at once and work those for all they’re worth, seeing them through. And rather than taking a scatter-fire approach, I suggest a combination of long-lead, medium-term and short-range activities.

For instance, getting an e-newsletter set up with a free ebook giveaway on your site is good for long lead generation. You earn people’s trust, display your products or expertise, and give people the opportunity to buy when they’re ready. It’s a non-invasive way to stay in touch. Blogs are good, too, as are some events. Trade fairs fall into all three types of lead generation, short, medium, and long, depending on your industry, the focus of your inclusion, brand awareness, product/service positioning, direct sales, or any combination of those. Short-term lead generation can be telephone sales, face-to-face meetings, and online purchases – but don’t be dismayed if some of those calls take a while to come through.

‘Touching base’ from time to time with someone that expresses genuine interest can make the sale for you. I bought my first home through a mortgage broker who kept touching base with us for over a year before we bought. We were so impressed by her service there was soon no other choice for a broker to buy through. We’d already become her client. I have no doubt that Catherine had follow-up calls diarised as part of her plan. Her skill was displayed in the style with which she approached those calls and her persistence paid off.

To your great success
Michael Neaylon

michael@mcme.com.au

This has been an excerpt from the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'

You Write The Book

Every day for good or bad you're writing the book of your life.

We're all writers. We all make choices, have options and encounter turning points. And as the portagonists in our own lives, we make decisions that have reprecussions. 

Action, reaction, action, reaction, action, reaction.

Want the world to react differently to you? Try taking some different actions? Try some new behaviours on for size and see how they fit.

Taking responsibility for your actions is personal development 101. The challenge is to become aware of the little things you do that get in your way, the space between the sentences that eat up your time, the umpteen screens you have open in front of you, the games and emails and a million other shiny distractions that can erode your productivity and take away from the highest value you bring to whatever you do. And therefore, the greatest profit in both self satisfaction and dollars.

Here's one way to write the book. Don't just write a list of things to do, write a list of things not to do.  See what happens when you give something up that just doesn't fit anymore, and you just might find that getting what you want means getting the debris of old habits out of the way.

Write the book. Make it yours and make it memorable. We're dying to know what treasures you hold.

To your success
Michael Neaylon
michael@mcme.com.au

Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money For Your Small Business.'

Are You Telling Stories?

This section on story telling is from a sales chapter from the book, but the same principles can be adapted to your branding and marketing.

Tell Stories

You can also tell stories and give pictures of future outcomes: paint a picture in your prospect’s mind of what life will be like once they’ve bought the apartment, the new car, or the weekend at your health retreat. Brochures, websites, and ads do this well – I hope yours do. Sales conversations and presentations can also paint a picture of the future. You can weave into conversation the ease of living close to public transport, driving on an open road on a sunny weekend with the roof down, or feeling serene and re-energized in beautiful surroundings. Learn to love language and allow the language to paint pictures. This has been a huge part of mastering the art of sales for me. I know that if all else fails, I can lean back on the language, paint a picture, and enjoy the conversation. If language works for you as a rapport-builder, develop this skill of storytelling. Learn to trust your skill and refine it. Learn about length, how much information to give when, and how to place your listener in the heart of their own story.

Help the recipient see their future with their concerns addressed and their dreams fulfilled. Ask them if this is what they truly want for themselves. Then step back and wait in silence. Let a pin drop. And let them come to you if they want to.

If you’re thinking this takes confidence, it does. Sometimes it means slowing down and chilling out, often in the heart of the sale. I love the rush of the sale, the adrenalin, but taking your sale towards the next step is often more tactical than it is exciting. You need to be clear-headed and alert.. Cultivate a mindset of possibility and follow that through with purposeful, persistent action.

But remember: building rapport is something you do already. Think of who you’re being when you’re being your best – with your relatives, your spouse, your friends, perhaps. When you’re being your most obliging and helpful, without over-extending, when you’re focused on the other person’s needs in that situation. Perhaps you’re patient, quietly firm, and self-assured in your leadership. Maybe people stop and listen to you at a dinner party when you’re telling a story. You can create this awareness too. Develop a sense of who you’re being and how you make yourself heard in your life. How does this help you achieve what you want? Take this best version of yourself to the sale. Remember that numbers tell powerful stories too.

Tell people how much they’ll save when they work with you or buy your product. This worked wonders for me when I gave up smoking. The program was sold on the premise that it was a seven-week course and that within another seven weeks the course would have paid for itself, simply in what I’d save on cigarettes in that time. It worked. I haven’t smoked for twelve years now, so the sums are looking good.

Timothy Daly, the playwright, gave me a piece of advice I take to my coaching clients: ‘Expand what’s good in a work.’ I invite you to expand the good in you, expand the rapport with your client, expand on the benefits in this story for them. Keep expanding the good. Let the rest slip away.

Big thanks to Valerie Khoo, whose generous, enthusiastic testimonial reminded me of the power of storytelling, and led to today's post.


‘Michael Neaylon understands the power of story-telling in the world of business. His no-nonsense approach to creating an effective brand is a must for small businesses who want an edge over their competitors. Highly recommended.’


Valerie Khoo, small business commentator and founder of the multi-award-winning Sydney Writers' Centre.


To your great success
Michael Neaylon
Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'

michael@mcme.com.au

Be a Go Giver

If you don’t give, you don’t get.  How you give – and how much – is something you constantly need to assess.  As I contract more and more people to support the business, I appreciate those who give more.  It helps me make an educated choice about whether they’re right for the business or service I’m contracting them for.  The same goes for the people to whom my business supplies.  If I’m not giving proposals, people don’t know what we’re capable of.  If we’re constantly pitching to the wrong clients, then we need to look at our target market. Idnetifying your target market is crucial.

We’ll look at identifying your target market in more depth, I promise. You can make giving before you get easier for yourself, though.  You can turn this notion to your advantage.  Create an ebook and post it on your site for free – or for the cost of a subscriber’s email details.  Give free demonstrations to groups rather than one-on-one.  Give free samples of your product at cost to targeted clients.  Give free initial consultations by webinar or teleconference (with one free idea per caller), rather than making road trips to each of them individually.  The reason I stress one free idea is that it can be very easy, especially in the early days, to give away all your ideas.  One good idea is enough.  Then simply point your leads to places on your website for more information, such as a video demo, the free ebook, or an article you’ve written.  Remember, samples are simply that.  Samples.  If people want the whole offering, great.  But don’t give away too much for free.  I know because I have.

Give with good spirit, know your expectations and don't just give to get. 

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'


To your great success
Michael Neaylon

michael@mcme.com.au

Back to The Future of Your Brand

This is a recap on the values and actions that underpin your brand's persona. It's about getting back to your brand basics to be relevant to your market and remain on brand.

Every weekend I spend a couple of hours mentoring a sixteen year old with Aspergers called Alex. Just like many other teenagers he's keen to know what the future holds and how to play his part in it.

He has challenges with social boundaries but he often checks to see if he's been appropriate or not. Sometimes the way he does this is by saying, 'I've been really appropriate today. I haven't annoyed or hassled anyone, I'm a really good guy, no worries.'

We've been on the mentoring program for nearly a year now, so we've come to a point where I can both affirm this, and also gently let him gently how he might try some slightly different behaviour on for size next time. Perhaps not bound up to people and ask their birthdays straight off the bat, or ask women he's just met if he can draw them in their bathers (this experience has been invaluable real-life learning for mentoring and coaching).

But the point is this. He always listens and he always asks why. He has an insatiable hunger for learning about how he presents. He knows he's autistic, and we have surprisingly frank conversations about his experience of the condition, and others experience of him. Everywhere we go, Alex makes an impact, and what has been most rewarding for me over the past year is to see how much more positive his impact has become. It's his doing though, his willingness to listen, learn and adjust, all the while remaining steadfastly true to who he is.

And that's what got me to thinking as I did final proof-reads for the book over the weekend and re-read the section on brand persona, why understanding your brand persona is vital. I thought of Alex as I read. What an incredible brand persona he has. Unique, individual, fun, creative, thoughtful, responsive, willing to listen and hungry to learn. And he knows every train timetable (including updates) in Sydney. What's more is there is no way that Alex could ever be anything but 'on brand.' His uniqueness is embedded in his every thought, every action. He has a true brand.

What about yours? How's your brand going? Business or personal? Is it in line with who you are and who you serve? Is it vital, unique with room and space to grow, while remaining true. If you haven't done this (or haven't done this lately) ask yourself or your team this question.

1. If my brand were a person who would they be?
2. What does this brand stand for?
3. Is that what my clients and colleagues get?
4. If not, how can I change that?
5. Now that I know this, how can I grow the brand experience so my clients and colleagues have a deeper, fuller understanding of it?

Take ten minutes and answer these questions. You miught be surprised by the answers you get, the traction it gives you and the loyalty you receive. Then, if you don't already, check in on your brand and how it's perceived by your market regularly. You might even be a 'really good brand who hasn't annoyed or hassled anyone, everybody likes you, no worries.'

Questions? Thoughts? Challenges defining your brand?

Feel free to ask or comment.  

To your success

Michael Neaylon

michael@mcme.com.au

Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.' 

Sales and marketing goals

Goals motivate you and targets give you specifics to aim for.  Putting a sales goal where you can see it is a motivator which we looked at in the rituals section in chapter 9. Here, we’ll also look brand and marketing goals, so that you can have an overall picture of your brand in the marketplace and the dollar value return you expect.

I suggest setting all your goals high, but not ridiculously so, as that can lead to confusion and running around in circles.  Making them specific is good too.  For instance, if you have two or more streams of income, add those to extra columns on the right, especially if you have a series of income streams within your business or a mix of products and services.

Dates are also good for goals.  If you don’t reach the goal by the desired date, then adjust the goal to make it 

slightly more achievable or make another date and stick to that one.  This is crucial, though: don’t beat yourself up.  Just make the adjustment and forge ahead.

This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.' 

To your sales success

Michael Neaylon 

michael@mcme.com.au 

Referrals Mean Business

Often your centres of influence will bring referrals your way, but you can actively seek them too. 

They’re one of the best types of sales to get.  When you’re referred by someone who’s respected, you circumvent most objections upfront.  The all-important first impression in the prospect’s mind is a glowing one, and that’s gold.  The biggest gigs I’ve got this year have come from referrals.  Our business just became the preferred supplier for an event organiser simply through a glowing off-the-cuff referral from a mutual client at a dinner.  I followed up with a phone call and we now have a new client.  Treat referrals with respect.  If someone has put their reputation on the line to refer you, that’s a sign of faith and belief in you and what you do.  Honour that.

Encourage referrals, too.  Ask for them.  You’ll want to be careful who you ask as you don’t want to compromise your relationship with the referee or their relationship with the person you’re asking to be referred to.  However, if someone knows a person or company that you’d like to be referred to, ask them if they would mind referring you on to this person.  Be direct, open, and upfront.  Offer to return the favour if you’re in a position to and make sure you follow through with the reciprocation.  To protect business relationships, don’t ask for referrals from people who offer the same products or services you do.

My gym is currently doing a smart offer for bringing a training buddy, pitching the benefit of making exercise more fun if you do it with a friend.  This is a simple, effective referral with rewards built in for both the referee and the recipient: reduced membership.  The rewards for the gym are high, too: two members instead of one and two referees for the future.  Think of ways you can make it easy for people to refer others to you and your business.  One is networking.  Others are having referral offers that give people discounts on your products or services at the checkout of your online cart or store.  Simply give people a docket with a personalised code on it and tell that person to tell their friends to mention this code when they order.  Once five people mention that code, the referee gets a discount voucher off their next order.  Another referral offer is to reduce people’s fees if they bring a friend to a workshop.  I recently offered this to a loyal client.  She’s attending a True Brand Bootcamp workshop and recommended it to a group of women.  I’m giving her a discount for every person she recommends that results in a sale.  Affiliate links on websites are also a form of referral.  A visitor clicks on a link on one site and gets redirected to another to purchase.  The initial site then gets a commission for sending the visitor to the second site.  If you do this, make sure you give the affiliate all commissions.  It’s not only honouring the agreement, it’s smart if you want people to keep sending buyers your way.

Use the referral technique when you’re pitching your product or services to someone, too.  Rather than using a lot of ‘I’ or ‘we’ language, telling them how impressive you and your offering are, make a habit of telling people the results you’ve achieved for others.  Give them a case study.  Talk about another person’s business.  Start with the problem the client had, the solution you gave them to overcome the problem, and the winning outcome.  This is you referring yourself through the experience of a client’s success.  It’s much more powerful than simply talking yourself up.

To your sales success
Michael Neaylon
michael@mcme.com.au
 
Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money For Your Small Business.'

Your Sales Intelligence

You might have heard the term ‘emotional intelligence’, a phrase synonymous with Daniel Goleman’s book. The best definition I’ve heard for emotional intelligence is being objective about your emotions and subjective about the other person’s. In other words, you get to see a situation – and yourself – from the other person’s point of view. The better your understanding of your prospect, the more objectively and clearly you can see their point of view. You gain clear insight into their needs, dreams, and desires.

You also gain insight into how you can create clear solutions for them. Business is about making solutions for people – making their lives easier in some way, whether that’s giving them greater convenience, more time with their family, or a feeling of luxury in their lives. The more you discover what drives your prospect and talk to that deep-seated desire, quickly and effortlessly, the more you can solve their problem. That, in turn, saves you time and energy trying to convince them how good you, your services, or your products are. This way, you pitch your story to a prospect, rather than at them. We need to be highly emotionally intelligent when we’re making a sale.

To your sales success
Michael Neaylon

P.S. This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'

Email me if you'd like more michael@mcme.com.au
Or visit www.facebook.com/MCMECO 

Treat Prospects As Your Ideal Client

If you treat a prospect as your ideal client, you immediately raise your standing in their eyes. This mindset brings a level of attention that goes beyond just being professional or going through the paces. This is something we can all practice more.

Take a moment to think how you treat your ideal client. You’ll be engaging because this is someone you want to work with, you’ll be swift in response, and quick with suggestions. You’ll speak with an innate understanding of their business and have the authority and care to recommend solutions that might be a stretch for them to consider. You’ll patiently guide those people through the solution so that they see the benefits clearly. You’ll be switched on to them and their needs, pick up on even the smallest cues, and have an astute attention to detail. This level of relaxed, alert professionalism and rapport is what you’re after with every prospective client.

As salespeople, we need to think like marketers. A marketer will sell the benefits and give people compelling reasons why this is the offering for them, giving them a clear call to action. We need to make what we have and who we are easy for people to buy. We need to package it. If you take this approach, you don’t have to work so hard trying to convince people. There are two words in that sentence to avoid: trying and convince. Replace them with commitment and belief. For instance, you can try to get someone to understand the benefits of having your car serviced more often by saying, ‘You really should service your car more often. It’s not good to keep letting it go like this.’ Or you can say, ‘If you don’t service your car every six months, you risk spending even more money on repairing long-term damage to the engine. To make servicing easier for you, I’ve written the date for your next service in your log book and I’ll give you a friendly reminder a month out.’

Postition yourself well from the outset: treat your prospects like your ideal clients and let them know the value they'll receive by buying from you from the very first point of contact.
To your sales success
Michael Neaylon
michael@mcme.com.au
 
Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money For Your Small Business.'
 

Adjust Your Sales Style

 Creating relationships are a large part of creating more sales, especially in B2B sales.

Cultivate relationships your way, but know that it’s not the only way. We can all learn from each other’s selling styles, which is what makes training or working in a sales team so useful. You gain feedback on what works for you, what doesn’t, and see how others sell effectively or not. Become a sponge for the way people sell. To increase your sales awareness, list the advantages and disadvantages your style gives you. Then look at someone else’s style and see if there are elements of theirs you could make your own.

 

Here’s an example for soft-sell:

 

Advantages

• non-threatening
• relaxed
• makes people feel good
• lighthearted
• enjoyable experience

Disadvantages

• easy to fob off
• lack of urgency
• doesn’t address their desire
• too laid back
• no clear call to action

Once you know the elements of your style, which either take you towards the sale or away from it, you can adjust. For instance, you can choose to be relaxed and lighthearted, but still firmly point out the benefits and why this person needs to buy now. That way you create a relationship and make the sale.

 

To your sales success

Michael Neaylon 

michael@mcme.com.au

 

This is an excerpt from the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.' 

 

 

Cultivate The Sales Mindset: Rituals

A sales ritual is a more reliable motivator than saying to yourself, ‘I must make twenty cold-calls today,’ or ‘I have to attend at least five meetings this week.’ Whilst that might be the ultimate goal, it’s debilitating if you’re down on yourself before you begin. I’ve seen this approach cripple my clients’ enthusiasm and definitely felt it stifle mine. And as we’ve seen, if there’s one thing you need in sales, it’s enthusiasm.

Even if you don’t enjoy picking up the phone or facing possible rejection, you can create a ritual to take you into your sales zone. Then, rather than dreading the rejection, you look forward to the ritual. That becomes the habit you look forward to, rather than the sales call you avoid.

Give yourself something you enjoy and look forward to, something that’s rewarding in itself. Here are some for you to work with and adapt for yourself.

• Create a motivating environment. Post goals, targets, and rewards on your wall or desktop and look at them, often. Create good associations with the environment around you.

• Dedicated sales time. Pick times (mornings, days, or half-days) and dedicate them purely to sales.

• Mix it up. Go for a run or walk to keep energy up. Add a quick social visit into a day of meetings. If you own a store, give yourself time out from sales.

• Plan sales trips. See people in their environments, take a break from yours, and gain a better insight into their business.

• Streamline your time. If you’re visiting an area, visit all the prospects and clients you can while you’re there.

• Stick to time with appointments. Apart from being great for productivity momentum, it’s respectful to all involved.

• Warm leads first and last. Start a sales day or session with warm leads and close the day with them if you can too. Start on a high and finish on one too.

• The ‘just one more’ ritual. If you make a great sale, go for one more. We often make another sale when our confidence is high.

• Hold a regular get-together for your clients and prospects. Have networking nights or a cocktail party. People often do good business when they’re relaxed.

Try cultivating some of these rituals in your sales day, and let me know how they go.

To your sales success
Michael Neaylon
michael@mcme.com.au

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.' 

Create Buying Frames

Nothing builds momentum like taking action. Do something. If that doesn’t work, if you’ve undersold yourself, your product, or your service, adjust your tactics and try something else. This is the process of adjusting your buying frames. You keep your perceived value high by giving flexibility in how or how much people buy.

One way to do this is to reduce your minimum order value on a product. By keeping the minimum order reasonable and thus allowing the buyer to choose if they’d like to buy more, they’ll often do exactly that, because they won’t have felt forced into it. This increases the amount of sales you make. Even though the dollar value on each sale might be a little less, the price per product or service is still perceived as high.

Let’s say you’re selling bags to retailers and you realise that your minimum order is too high. You can then lower your minimum order. A lower minimum order value will result in higher sale value (amount made per sale), because the client doesn’t feel that they’re being forced into something they’re not ready to invest in. Put yourself in their shoes: if you were being made to spend $350 on a product you were interested in but not quite sure about, then you’d be reluctant to commit. The sale would be lost. But you would buy if the minimum order was reduced to $250. It wouldn’t feel like such a risk and you’d get the chance to dip your toes in the water.

Here’s another example of lowering an order amount without losing price perception. I do a regular event twice a year. I’d raised prices between events and when asked to quote on the most recent one, I quoted at the new, higher price. A few weeks before the event, I hadn’t heard from them, so went back with a slightly reduced service-offering for an appropriately reduced fee. The fee was still higher than I used to quote the client, as I didn’t want to damage the overall price perception. They accepted and the event went well.

Buying frames based on the client’s needs can also circumvent people’s objection to your minimum order value. I was recently on the road with a client who had a minimum order value of $250. We discussed raising that to $350 to increase the sale value, but decided to revisit that at the end of the day. After the first couple of orders, I noticed that the retailers both spent $330: $80 above the minimum order value. We looked at the products they were ordering and how they were ordering them. I noticed a pattern, so I began giving other retailers a suggested order: 4 styles of small, medium, and large slippers at $30 each pair. The result: an order value of $360.

In fact, the next client we visited spent over $1700. We knew this client was a an important one to have on board. Initially, we thought it was because we could tell people we had Shack, but the benefits far outweighed just trading on someone else’s name. It built our confidence. We knew we had a sizable order and this lifted our confidence for future orders. It was simply there, in our demeanour. And we did slip into conversation that we’d taken a big order a couple of times, which I’m sure didn’t hurt.

For a service use a similar strategy. Give one solid offering at a good price, then have a selection of add-ons that gives people their own choice of the bells and whistles. Airlines used this during the economic downturn to great effect. People could pick and choose from the add-ons they wanted and would often end up buying more than the airlines previous packages with those bells and whistles bundled in. You might be noticing a pattern here. You’re right. It’s the psychology.

To summarise, be flexible with the fames you create for people to buy, without lowering your price perception, by using these strategies:

• reduce minimum order values to keep spend low but price perception high

• keep minimum orders reasonable, knowing that people will happily buy above that with a well-designed mix of products or add-ons

• adjust tactics to make the strategies attractive for your client without compromising your perceived value.

This is an excerpt from my forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'
 
To your sales success
Michael Neaylon

michael@mcme.com.au

How to MC

I was asked to write some points  for an ebook collection Warwick Merry is putting together for budding MC's.

As I wrote the points I saw how much the role of an MC crosses over to sales. In sales you connect people with products and services: you're the host of your own sales show.

Here are the points I added to Warwick's comin compilation.

• Have a killer intro that’s energized, succinct, confident, engaging and welcoming. First impressions count so drill, drill, drill this, and you’ll have the audience on side right from the outset


• You’re a charming, time efficient diplomat and salesperson. Sell the content and other speakers with your own inimitable style and keep the show running smoothly

• Remember to breathe. I was at an event last night and without exception the MC and every speaker went too fast. Practice by getting a pencil and put a forward slash (/) to slow down, use a judicious pause, contact the audience and breathe

• Be gracious with speakers and audience alike. Create a relationship between the two. You’re the connector

• You’re in da house. Your house. Get there early, scope out the venue, rehearse walking up to stage with the type of microphone you’ll be using (in the shoes you’ll be wearing). You’ll feel more confident in taking complete ownership of the space. Audiences love it when they’re in safe hands.

So many of these points translate to the act of conducting a sales meeting or conversation, especially opening strong, remembering to breathe and getting to know the environment before you perform (this parallels the research you do on someone's website or getting to know their brand before a meeting).

And if you're called upon to MC an event for your business, I hope these tips help there too.

To your success

Michael Neaylon

Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'

The Zs: Know Who To Leave Alone

Yesterday we looked at the A to Z of clients. Today, is dedicated to the Z's.

There comes a time in your  business when you learn to say no to those who are draining your resources – time, money, or focus. Not every client is for your business. Not every market is yours. Be clear on what you will and won’t accept, in both remuneration and expectations. Set client expectations clearly in contracts, proposals, and emails.

Be clear on the terms of engagement.

I like to keep legals to a minimum, but I’ve learnt to set clear guidelines in our terms of engagement. Dealing with unrealistic expectations or a lack of commitment is far more time-consuming than risking losing business. In the end, you don’t do your business or that client any favours.

In chapter 5, we talked about qualifying customers. It’s that process of elimination, both in eliminating objections and matches that are not a good fit. You need to assess your clients as much as they need to assess you. You can do that with the terms and conditions people sign before they come on board. Your website and sales letters can qualify clients too, by giving them all the information that lets them know if this is for them.

It might sound harsh and I understand how challenging it can be sometimes. But once you find a market or individual that’s not a good fit with you and your business, bow out gracefully. The same goes for prospects and leads. If you find a sales campaign is not bearing fruit, then revisit that campaign. To quote WC Fields, ‘If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, again. Then quit. There’s no use in being a damn fool about it.’

Quitting can mean that you keep striving to reach the goal, but you change your tack. Move on to markets that return dividends. Invest your resources in prospects, leads, and clients who are committed and are willing to pay for what you offer. It’s also much easier to work with people who fully understand your or your product’s value. If you haven’t been able to educate them on that or they’re not seeing the value, for any reason whatsoever, move on. Time is the scarcest resource. Don’t allow it to be drained.

No one wants to lose clients and in the early days of a business it’s the hardest thing to do. But we sometimes need to look at what a client is costing us, in time, resources, headspace, and finances. If you allow this sort of relationship to continue, you’re doing your other clients a disservice. Once you’ve parted ways with one client, however, it does get easier to assess future client relationships, especially when you know that it’s for the betterment of the business and your other clients. You can also use that experience to know what to look out for and avoid in similar clients in the future. It becomes part of your qualifying process.

To your sales success
Michael Neaylon
 
michael@mcme.com.au
 
Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'

The A to Z of Clients

A fresh excerpt from the book...

Time is your greatest resource in sales, even more so if you’re the business owner. That’s why it helps to prioritise your active clients (paying customers). Our clients vary in their buying frequency and the amount they spend on each purchase, and we group them as A, B, and C accordingly. Right at the end of the alphabet are your Z clients – the ones who just drain your time and resources for little or no reward. We need to watch out for them, because we need that time and those resources for the ABCs.

ABC Clients

Some clients will buy from you often, or in large amounts – ideally both. These are your top 20% and they’re your VIPS. Keep in touch with these people as often as you can and as soon as you recognise who they are. There are other clients who might not spend massive amounts of money with you, but who bring in A-list clients: these are your centres of influence, who we look at later in this chapter, and you’d be wise to group them in with your As.

Give them rewards for buying from you so that they have no reason to look elsewhere. The greater recognition they receive from you, the more likely they are to be reminded of the superior service you give.

Then there are your B clients. These people are good buyers too. They’re your next 30 to 40%, but they don’t buy as often or in the same quantities. If you’re calling or visiting the A clients every month, then you’ll call on these people every six weeks to two months.

Your C clients might not buy very often and they’ll account for your final 40 to 50% of sales, as they buy the least and the least often. You might only stay in touch with these people by phone, every two to three months.

Treat all your clients with respect, but prioritise your time to spend more on the people who are spending more money with you (or consistently bringing in others who do). Look at ways to reward them, as well as ways to bring other clients up to the A or B levels with targeted campaigns. If you find people dropping from one level to the next, get in touch with them and see what’s changed. You need to determine whether they’ve started to spend less with you because of the greater economic landscape or whether it’s something specific about your product or service.

This is an extremely effective strategy for keeping existing clients happy and knowing where to put your energies. Review your A, B, and C clients monthly at the most and quarterly at the least. You’ll gain a constant, clear picture of where your efforts are having the most impact and save your most precious resource, time.

Questions? Thoughts? Experiences?
 
To your sales success
Michael Neaylon
michael@mcme.com.au
 
Author of the forthcoming book, 'True Brand Toolkit: How to Bring in Big Money for Your Small Business.'