You have no doubt heard of the "Baby Boomers", those individuals born between 1943 and 1963. Following World War II, Australia's population grew at record levels. Australia was not alone in this phenomenon. The United States, New Zealand and Canada all experienced Baby Booms at a similar time.The Baby Boomers are an important phenomenon to understand. They have had dramatic effects on society and will substantially impact the way the stock market...more
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Simply put, there are only three ways to increase the top-line sales of a business.1. Increase the number of customers2. Increase the average value of each sale3. Increase the frequency of salesIt looks pretty simple, but there are a lot of different ways to impact each of these things. For example, increasing the number of customers includes a host of methods for finding new prospects, and another list of strategies for converting prospects to customers. Finding prospects includes things like advertising, cold calling, direct mail, press releases, events, referrals and a lot of other things. Strategies for converting prospects to customers include things like building personal relationships, a strong company image, targeted communication, consistently improving products and services, and good follow up.Increasing the average value of each sale can include adding more value to your existing offer by offering a better product, additional related products, or simply by raising the price. This is a powerful method because getting new customers is one of the most expensive things that many customers do. Advertising and marketing budgets can be enormous when trying to grow a business....more
In part 1 and 2 we looked at generating leads and converting interest into purchase decisions. Now it's time to seal the deal. Closing and delivery round out the four stages of the sales led business cycle.Closing - Negotiating the Details and Signing the DealClosing is all about negotiating the details and agreeing to delivery and payment details....more
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 -...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 to provide a solution that the customer is happy with so you can collect payment.In small organizations lead finding, conversion and closing may all be handled by the sales staff. In larger organizations these functions start to get split up and assigned to separate teams. The best way to split them up depends on the organization and the dynamics of the market you are selling to.Lead Generation - Finding People To HelpLead generation is all about getting potential customers to take a first look at you and your company. The objective is to make initial contact with people and determine if there is the potential for a mutually beneficial business relationship. You may not even have a specific product or service in mind during lead generation....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...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...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...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...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