Welcome to Business Development Advice

This blog was created to help entrepreneurs and other business people to work smarter - not harder. My goal is to become your trusted resource by providing useful information so you can plan your initiatives better and grow your business. Advice topics will cover an array of business related commentary and resources to help you succeed in your enterprise.

Samples of articles will include topics about business plans, marketing strategies, business development programs, management, finance, staffing, and other useful information.

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Saturday, February 13, 2010

Factors for Managing a Sales Process

Prospect Value and Probability

Define key steps in a sales process -

• Initial sales call stage
• Formal presentation stage
• Demonstration stage (if appropriate)
• Proposal stage

The probability of a close at each stage is based on historical data. If historical data is not available, then use similar client campaigns as a basis. Additional data can be supported by collecting industry or competition trends in market research.

Identify what percentage at each stage turned into a closed sale. Moving prospects along each stage will have differing success percentages. Metrics will identify what percentage of prospects after the initial call moved into the proposal stage. Each stage percentage of qualified and motivated prospects should increase. This is referred to as opportunity stage development. It rates the prospect opportunities likely success of a closed sale.

The sales agent’s goal is to move prospects into a qualified lead then into an opportunity. The focus on opportunity development is greater than the prospecting stage.

Examples: Initial sales calls are normally a low percentage, say 10 or 15 percentage on average. Presentations and demonstrations may be around 25 or 30 percent; while proposals should be at 50 percent or higher.
Refer to my sales process outline document for additional information on establishing routine and regular sales activities. The sales process outline further establishes activities for success.

Routine Sales Activity Outline

I. Keys to Relationship Management:

• Regular, Consistent, and Relevant Contact
• Build Rapport - Trust
• Ask For More Business and Referrals
• Maintain Excellent Customer Service

II. Controls & Monitoring:

• Set Goals
• Track Results
• Monitoring & Forecasting

III. Selling Process:

The goal of the activity is to gain new business from prospects and existing clients. The sales process will vary, lasting from several minutes to several months depending on the target market, economic conditions and buying behaviors. Therefore, it is critical to understand the buyer’s motive and provide measurable solutions.

A. Prospecting:

1. Identify qualified candidates (Targets).
2. Set goals to make minimum number of contact connections daily / weekly.
3. Prepare a pre-call outline before making contact. Establish an objective and purpose.
4. Devote minimum standard weekly for phone calls, mailings, etc.

B. Initial Contact:

1. Passive:
(a) Client or Prospect initiates contact.

2. Active (most effective):
(a) Sales Rep initiates contact.

C. Sales Call Preparation (Cold Call):

1. Determine objective and purpose:
(a) Appointment to inform prospect of services and sell self.
(b) Make the sale on the first call or plant seeds for follow up.

2. Do some homework about the prospect:
(a) Research their website is an example.
(b) Identify prospect’s market and product focus.

3. Preemptive activities to consider:
(a) Mail, Email, fax, or phone call.

4. When the initial call is made:
(a) State purpose quickly – 15 seconds.
(b) Get prospect interested by asking open-ended questions.
(c) Make statements that build rapport and confidence – Qualify.
(d) Offer sample solution to existing need or want.

D. Sales Presentation:

1. Maintain enthusiasm and Professional image.
2. Set objectives before meeting:
(a) What do you wish to accomplish?
(b) Take notes.
(c) Identify prospects most immediate needs and goals (Pain Points)
(d) What focus (Product Offering) do you want to exploit?
3. Briefly inform about self and company services (Features).
4. Focus on Benefits (Value Proposition):
(a) “What’s in it for the buyer”?
(b) “Why would they want to buy from you”?
(c) How can you help solve their dilemma or fulfill a certain need?
(d) Offer a solution to a current obstacle.
5. Control the conversation focus, but let the prospect talk.
6. Limit choices and offerings to 3 maximum – Do Not overwhelm!
7. Identify prospect’s decision-making process.
8. Ask For The Business and Referrals. Close The Deal.
9. Follow up - Follow up - Follow up.

E. Handle Objections:

1. Objections can be a signal the process is progressing.
2. Agree and Restate objection:
(a) Offer new information, solutions, and alternatives.
(b) Use empathy – try to understand what the prospect wants.

F. Closing:

1. Recap features and benefits.
2. Restate specific example of how you can meet the prospect’s current need.
3. Ask prospect to summarize their understanding of your offering and how they view benefits.
4. ASK FOR THEIR BUSINESS.
5. Ask for Introductions to other people in key departments:
(a) Inside intelligence for future leads.
6. Ask for referrals when appropriate.

G. Identifying Buyer Readiness:

1. Statements about availability, pricing, features, options, etc.
2. Statements of reassurance.
3. Asking you to repeat something in more detail.

H. Helping the decision to buy:

1. Offer value added benefits:
(a) Auxiliary services, choices, incentives, / discounts, etc.
(b) Reemphasize a current obstacle and the solution you can deliver immediately.
(c) Recap the decision making process.
(d) Ask for their business more than once if necessary.

I. Follow Up & Service
:

1. Relationship Building and Relationship Maintenance.
2. Always follow up with a “Thank You.”
2. Maintain Goodwill for repeat business and referrals.
3. Reciprocate with referrals to your clients.
4. Be convenient and personally indispensable.
5. Maintain regular contact and follow up.
6. Value Added Services & Goodwill:
(a) Offer alternate ways to reconnect for questions or assistance.
(b) Send periodical mailings routinely (Keep client’s interests at focus).
(c) Offer immediate assistance to a current problem.

J. Track – Report – Review:

1. CRM Tools:
(a) Salesforce.com or client internal database.
(b) Ensure accurate prospect data in contact list.
(c) Record each sales activity daily.
(d) Accuracy of Leads, Opportunities, Closed Sales, and Dead Ends.
(e) Prepare weekly summary reports:
(1) Client and Program Manager review.
(2) Analyze results and project performance.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Social Network Sites for Business - Twitter may be the wrong choice

Is Twitter becoming obsolete for business networking and promotion? Has it run its course and the novelty is starting to decline? Some businesses would agree. In the beginning, Twitter was promoted as the next big Internet social site. They promoted that you could stay in touch with all your contacts easily and frequently. However, from a business view, Twitter does not appear to offer any real benefit to business networking. Twitter only allows a limited number of characters to post updates. As a blogging forum, this is not enough to share real value in messaging. Do business professionals really care to know what you are doing at any given moment? Why do business people need to know that you are sitting on the patio? There appears to be no real marketing value from a business perspective. Short-cropped messages (tweets) cannot deliver enough marketing power like a blog, an email, or website promotion.

A recent online article posted by CNN (http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/01/26/has.twitter.peaked/index.html?iref=allsearch) suggests that Twitter’s initial hype has started to dwindle. The decline appears to stem from Twitter’s limited ability to offer business-networking features offered by many of its competitors. Business professional want to deliver marketing messages with impact, not just tweet a quick update. More and more business professional are turning away from twitter as a business social tool.

Many marketing experts will tell you the use of Internet Social Networking is a powerful tool for developing opportunities. I agree if you know how to use them. As with any endeavor, you only receive back what you put into it. Too often, a person signs up for a social networking site like LinkedIn and then waits for the leads to roll in. Wrong!

People want to find value in a network contact that helps them achieve a benefit. The benefit for each person is individual to that parson’s goal. Goals can be looking for a job, finding more clients, looking for advice to make better decisions, seeking expertise to solve a problem, and so forth.

Using online social networks means you must get involved and engage with others. Joining group forums and contributing your expertise is one example. The more you contribute, the more you will be perceived as a reliable resource and possibly an expert in your professional field. As you become more recognized as a topic authority, so will people attempting to make contact with you. You are in a stage of branding yourself and differentiating yourself from the crowd. There are so many ways to interact with others, but you must put forth the effort to receive any benefit.

This brings up the issue of identifying the best online social sites to use. That depends on your areas of interest. It also depends on your purpose to join. Are you seeking new business? Is the site a platform for you to promote your opinions? Whatever your purpose, you must first determine your objective. You must also decide how much time and effort you will devote to it.

Very important to use of virtual network sites are the features and tools available. There can be a chat feature, forums, advertising space, and more. Which feature(s) to us depends on the level of involvement you will undertake. Some sites have more features than others do. Use of features and how many to engage with depends on knowing what value you expect to receive from them. This also applies to joining groups on the site. Make sure the group is relevant to your knowledge and interest level. It makes no sense to join a group if you will not make contributions because the content does not fit within your goals. If you join a group and later find out it does not offer the benefits you anticipated, then remove yourself from it and find another. Last, do not join so many groups or engage too many features that it becomes unmanageable. Start slow and be selective.

Choice of online social sites depends on your objective. Whatever online social site you decide upon, you must be actively involved to receive benefits. Make sure the site you join offers enough features that will help you achieve your goals.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Business Plans - What Goes In?

Business plans need not be elaborate works of genius – they just need to be accurate and organized. Many authorities have different versions of what goes into a business plan. The plan is your guide to implementation. It should also be written so a third party can clearly identify its purpose and feasibility. The latter comment is generally required when seeking investors or partners. The major sections should address four distinct sections.

1. Business Introduction and Description
2. Product/Service Description and Marketing Strategy
3. Management and Operations
4. Financial Data including Budgets


Following is an outline of a typical plan and shows its major components. The trick is knowing what relevant data goes in these components. That is a topic for another discussion.

1. Introduction of the plan
2. Executive Summary including Mission Statement
3. Table of contents

I. The Business

A. Description of business and product/service
B. Marketing Strategy including Sales
C. Competitive Environment (research, analysis, and conclusions)
D. Operational and Administrative Functions
E. Staffing including Management
F. Financial data

*IMPORTANT - The marketing section is a plan in itself. Do not take this part lightly. You may have a great organization and product, but marketing shows how you will generate revenue. Industry and marketplace research must be collected and analyzed. The data must support conclusions to implement proper action and must compliment the remainder of the business plan.

II. Financials

A. Income Statement, Balance Sheet, and Budgets
B. Equipment and Supply requirements to operate (if any)
C. Loan or Investment requirements
D. Product Cost - Pricing - Breakeven analysis
E. Pro-forma P&L projections (the company in general and the marketing program)
F. Insurance
G. Special fees or licensing requirements

III. Supporting Documents

A. Disclaimers and Assumptions
B. Additional supporting analysis
C. Contracts, Letter of Intent and so forth
D. Legal issues and / or legal documentation if any
E. Licenses
F. Resume of owners

Friday, January 15, 2010

IRS Tax Refund Scam

There is an email scam floating around these days. Recipients are receiving an email that appears to be sent by the IRS. The email looks very authentic, Beware!

Do Not open this email or download the attachment in the email. It is a fraud.

The IRS will NOT ever email you unless you first contact them. They WILL NOT EVER email you to tell you you owe money or are due to receive a refund.

The bogus email message goes like this:

After the last annual calculations of your fiscal activity we have
determined that you are eligible to receive a tax refund of $648.50.
Please submit the tax refund request and allow us 3-6 days in order to
process it.

A refund can be delayed for a variety of reasons. For example submitting invalid records or applying after the deadline.

Please submit the form attached to your email in order to finish your tax
refund

Note: For security reasons, we will record your ip-address, the date and
time.
Deliberate wrong inputs are criminally pursued and indicated.

Regards,
Internal Revenue Service

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