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Today’s marketplace has transformed as to how sales are generated and sustained. And nowhere else is this more apparent than in the changing relationship between sellers and buyers.
Gone are the days of pure transactional selling. Buyers don’t wait for you to come to them anymore. Instead, they seek out what they’re looking for. When they’re prepared, they choose to do business with those who best meet their needs. More than ever, the strength of the connections you cultivate determines how successful you’ll be in positioning yourself in the minds of your buyer as that top pick. Build relationships within communities If you look at the current selling landscape, you could say it resembles the rise and success of the modern farmers’ market. These operate on a small scale across multiple communities and thrive on local connections. You see your neighbors all the time, which is community building, and vendors all promote each other through a rich network of selling goods and services. For example, the local butcher recommends buying tomatoes at another farmer’s market up the road for a delicious sauce to compliment the meat. Or the bread maker tells customers that the cheese and jams of the neighboring vendor are second to none. A buyer can confidently find what they’re looking for in these networked communities. And the seller’s work and reputation are measured by how useful they are to both the marketplace and customers. The same is true of today’s selling landscape. Communities are where relationships get forged now, and to be part of a community means to put in the time to share what you know so that you help something meaningful grow for the benefit of others. Seek spaces, not places It’s not just about closing the sale anymore. And it’s not about telling others to follow you as the leader in a monopolizing way. Today’s marketplace without boundaries means that buyers from the four corners of the earth can find what they’re looking for in spaces where people congregate. I’m choosing my words carefully here: I’m talking about spaces rather than places. Spaces don’t occupy a fixed location, nor do they have limits on who can join or what they can contribute. Spaces can be created online. They can be found in professional associations. By occupying spaces, you’re creating a sense of kinship and shared purpose. Out of this, communities are born. When managed correctly, it means an end to the boom-bust cycle of sales, because unlike the old way of doing things, communities are populated first and foremost with people, not buyers. The four groups to establish To adapt and grow a sales force that can thrive in a marketplace without boundaries, there are four types of communities your organization needs to build and sustain.
Just like with farmers’ markets, buyers today are looking for more than a transaction; they want to do business with people who can provide knowledge and insight on top of the products or services being offered. That meeting point can only be achieved if you take the time to build a rapport with your prospects and customers. This means you put their needs first, help them learn and grow, and deliver value far beyond what your product or service provides. Amazing things can happen when you embrace change as an opportunity to work differently than you’ve done in the past. Find ways to build your own communities. Think about how you can become a trusted part of today’s marketplace without boundaries.
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There was a time when the sun was the time clock. You worked from daylight until dusk to produce a successful harvest. There was no understanding of working 9-to-5. No populist “need to be balanced” explanation for working less.
You weren’t smarter because you worked less. There was only one reason why you didn’t put in the effort required to be successful. Because you were lazy, right? But then we got sophisticated and learned that only stupid people need to work hard. If you could study hard and get your college degree, you could find a job where you didn’t have to work from dawn until sundown. Hmmm. Then we learned that with even more advanced education and specialized training you could work as a manager and receive even better perks. But over the last few generations, we’ve lost track of the real essence of achieving success. We’ve become confused. We’ve replaced success with a simple formula that says if you work smart you can live comfortably without working hard. If you don’t want to sweat from sun up until sundown doing backbreaking tasks, then you need a college degree or specialized training. Wrong! You still need to work hard. A degree will likely earn you a place in a cubicle instead of behind a plow. Book smarts might put you in the boardroom instead of the barn. But it’s not, by itself, the secret to success. It’s just a better way to work hard. You have more options. More understanding. More creativity. Successful people don’t shy away from hard work. In fact, everything we’ve been taught is a reminder that achievement is conceived simply through massive amounts of focused personal effort. If there was actually a Holy Grail of working smarter, it might simply be the belief that the smartest thing you can do is to work hard. You don’t work hard because you’re stupid and don’t have any other options. You work hard because it’s the fastest way to get to where you want to be. Whether you’re behind a plow or in front of a whiteboard, working harder is the smartest way to work. Recently in a client meeting, I was asked by one of the sales employees what they needed to know to help them be more successful next year.
It’s a great question and one that we should be asking ourselves on a regular basis, not just about next year but about next quarter and next month. Here’s what I told the salesperson and the rest of the team: 1. If you can’t raise your level of sales effectiveness by at least 15%, you’ll wind up losing ground to the competition. There is not one company out there that is not demanding more of every employee with each passing year. This means every competitor you have is going to be looking to become more efficient in how they sell. Yes, some will stumble, but many will be successful. To you, it means one thing. Doing the same thing next year is simply not going to be good enough. You must find ways to streamline your sales process and market in new ways to be competitive. 2. The pool of prospects next year is going to grow. There will be more prospects than ever, and the good news is more of them will actually buy. The Internet continues to open up new areas and social media processes, and this means prospects can come from more places. Yes, it’s good news, but it also means competitors can come from more places. In the end, it means you must be able to adapt how you sell to be more flexible than ever. 3. Prospects are going to engage you later than ever in the process. The Internet is an amazing tool in how it allows prospects to review how you might be able to assist them with what you offer. Thanks to the capabilities of search engines, prospects can do more, learn more and ultimately draw more conclusions without ever directly communicating with you. 4. Time will become even more important for you, your prospects and your customers. Because prospects can engage with you later in the sales cycle, after they have done more research, they will be looking to make their decision faster regarding the time you have with them. If you sell in the B2B market, this same thing holds true for the customers your customers sell to. The entire sales process is going to continue to shrink in regard to the level of time it takes to complete the sale. 5. Customer loyalty will continue to decrease. Why should a customer stay loyal to you? There is so much information on the Internet and the number of competitors is so robust, it only makes sense for even the most loyal customer to look around. If you’ve been reading between the lines with each one of the points I’ve listed above, you’ll notice something. They are all interconnected. At the core is the ever-growing level of information available to the prospects and customers. Just as the level of information is growing, so is the number of competitors you have. In the end, the big take away is this: If you think you can be successful doing the exact same thing you did this year, you’re kidding yourself. You might be successful for a while, but ultimately your business will erode, and chances are you won’t notice it until too much has eroded away. So, take to heart what you can learn from these points I have shared so that you will be more successful next year than this year! Determining the legal structure of your business is one of the most important business decisions you’ll ever make. This decision can significantly impact the security of your business as well as its profitability; the type of business you’re in can help you determine which entity to choose.
Sole Proprietorship If you’re a single owner or a married couple just starting up, a sole proprietorship is the simplest business structure. If you work from your home, have no employees, and don’t require walk-in traffic, this may be your best option. The best types of businesses for sole proprietorships are those with limited liability, such as Internet sales, housekeeping services, medical transcription, and so forth. The income from a sole proprietorship can be reported on the Schedule C and the self-employment tax is reported on Schedule SE for Form 1040 for personal income taxes. Income is taxed at the personal rate, and losses can be carried forward. Partnership If you have a partner to whom you’re not related, you may not be able to have a sole proprietorship. In this case, a partnership is your best option. It’s always advisable to have a legal document detailing the responsibilities of each partner, both physical and monetary. There are four types of partnerships. General partnership: Each party shares equally in the investment, the profitability, the management, and the liability of the business. Limited Partnership: Limited partners are involved only to the extent of their investment and are not involved in the day-to-day activities. A limited partnership offers you more legal protection than does a general partnership. Limited Liability Partnership: This type of partnership is usually used when one of the partners must be licensed by the state, such as an attorney or a doctor. There’s more latitude in management duties, and the protection offered is similar to the protection offered a corporation. Limited Liability Limited Partnership: This relatively new type of partnership consists of at least one general partner and one limited partner. The general partner is responsible for the day-to-day management, while the limited partner is connected only by an investment in the partnership. Partnerships are ideal for smaller companies that don’t wish to incorporate. Limited Liability Company An LLC is a combination of a corporation and a partnership. It’s similar to a partnership for day-to-day involvement and income benefits but offers protection similar to a corporation. The tax ramifications are different for an LLC and a corporation and you should consult with an attorney before making a final decision. To learn more about LLCs, click here. Corporation A corporation is its own entity and is best used if you have a company that can incur significant liability, such as a general contracting company. A corporation can be sued to the extent of its assets but members or stockholders are protected. The corporation pays its own taxes. Any wages paid to its employees or stockholders are claimed on their personal income tax return and taxes are paid accordingly. Please note that the information above is just general material for consideration by employers and business start-ups, but is not intended as legal advice. To learn more, click here. Even when people know their value, many find it difficult to describe.
When someone asks the simple question, “What do you do,” you know the simple answer but you need to convey your value, and when communicating your value proposition, you don’t want to deliver the same canned speech for every audience. What you need to do is first craft, then learn to deliver, specific pieces of information you can use to get your value across. Put all these pieces together, and you have what we call a value proposition positioning statement. A value proposition positioning statement is a compelling, tangible description of how a company or individual will benefit from buying from you. For example, I may start by saying, “We help companies grow their customer base through the implementation of innovative marketing techniques.” This is the umbrella under which we operate. It’s a small piece of information I will use in the early part of conversations. And it’s an important piece as it’s the ultimate reason why clients eventually hire us. But there is always a set of factors and specifics that sway them to choose us versus: doing marketing themselves, choosing someone else to help them, or choosing to do nothing at all. Obviously, as the conversation moves along, we (you) need to communicate more if we want to tip the scales in our favor. It is simple to memorize words on a website or brochure, but sometimes difficult to sit with a potential client and tell them exactly why you are the best fit for them. To get a full picture of your value across, you need to be able to cover these areas including:
Once you’ve built all these pieces, practice it as one statement until you have it memorized … Then forget it. At least, forget delivering it in one slick mini-speech. If you deliver all your building blocks in one big long breath, the person you’re speaking with will be thinking “elevator pitch…here it comes.” Often they’ll tune out. When you introduce yourself and someone asks you, “What do you do?” The best thing is to start with a few important pieces that can help you get the conversation flowing. We started our example with, “We help companies grow their customer base through the implementation of innovative marketing techniques.” I haven’t even started to cover our target markets, the impact, our distinctions, proof of concept, and so on. When it’s time, I can and I do! But I do it as the conversation unfolds and I learn more about with whom I am speaking. I might start here and then ask the other person, “And what do you do?” and they’ll answer, often following my lead and keeping it short. Then we ask questions to learn more. In the natural flow of conversation, we’re likely to learn enough to share (and customize!) relevant details that will continue to position our value. As well, ask someone something and they’ll often turn the question right back at you. For example, you might ask, “Can you share with me any specific examples?” or “I am curious to know how this may fit for me?” Then they’ll tell you the story and say, “What about you? Any examples in my industry?” And you can hit the rest of your bullet points as you continue along in your great conversation. It seems as if everyone is calling themselves a professional, whether they’re competent in their job or not. There are the titles of “Professional Marketing Ninja,” “Professional Social Media Rockstar,” and the (perhaps more common) titles of “Professional Sales Executive” and “Professional Entrepreneur.” But are these considered ‘real’ professionals? For that matter, what does a real professional look like?
I believe professionalism is more than being dressed for success or saying the right things. To be truly professional is about being prepared to compete and win by having a plan along with a course of action. To be truly professional is about always learning more about what you do and ensuring you do it as well or better than your competition. To determine whether you are prepared to be a professional, I suggest asking yourself the following questions: 1. Am I using my strengths as an individual and as a company? As you prepare to compete, you want to play from a position of strength. Knowing what your strengths are isn’t arrogance, it’s having confidence in what you can offer. 2. Am I truly aware of what my competition is doing? Decide what they are not doing (or not doing well) so you can do it (and do it better). Understand how you can differentiate from them and prepare your approach to go after them intentionally and aggressively, yet professionally. 3. Have I analyzed my current business trends? This is above and beyond running reports, but rather looking at trends by market segments, product categories, and time frames. The goal here is to understand where to put your focus for retention. Establish your immediate plan of action and decide what activities are going to have the greatest impact on business growth. 4. Do I understand my customer’s business? Think about what they want and need from their standpoint, not what you want to sell them. Then be strategic in your approach and sales process. This is about knowing how you can positively impact their business. So, prepare and plan to compete aggressively and be the best professional you can be.  I’m often asked, “Why did my salespeople fail?” or “Why do I fail at selling?” (or other words I choose not to print.) And the answer is usually: It’s not necessarily sales failure, but failure to do your best or be your best, or failure to take the best actions to help succeed.
There are signs that allow a sales leader to recognize failure is on its way. Most salespeople and some business owners blame circumstances rather than take responsibility. Blame is its own form of failure. But that’s a story for another day. I want to talk about the person who’s out there every day, trying to reach his or her goals, trying to achieve their sales plan. Add to that, most people are inadequately supporting their sales with realistic and applicable marketing tools. Even if you’re reaching your goals, even if you believe you’re well prepared, here are some signs showing how many people have reached a plateau and then never rise above: 1. Your inability to set an initial appointment with the real decision maker. 2. Beyond price, your inability to uncover the real buying motive of the customer. 3. Believing that competition forces price reduction. 4. Poor social media participation that results in low or no personal branding and low or no personal reputation. 5. Poor follow-up after the initial meeting. 6. Long sales cycle based on presentations to low-level decision makers. 7. Prospects disappearing after the first presentation. 8. Prospects not returning your phone calls. 9. Blaming customers and prospects for the loss of a sale. 10. Failure to take responsibility for the circumstances you create. I find it interesting that when businesspeople face one of these above situations, they rarely (if ever) take responsibility for creating them. If customers are not returning calls, there has to be a pretty good reason. Rather than blame the customer, find out why the customer isn't returning your call. If you are continually fighting price, it's obvious you haven't proven value. It's obvious that the customer perceives little or no difference between you and a competitive product or service. Businesspeople, in general, need to take more control of the selling situation by creating definitive next steps. If you give a proposal, and you don't have a firm appointment at a given time to reconnect, then you will chase that prospect and almost seem desperate to get the next meeting. Here are a few things you can do to help your prospective customers decide to buy: 1. Prepare in terms of them, not just you. The customer must perceive that there is value in doing business with you rather than your competition. Customers only want to know how they win. Focus on ownership and focus on outcome. Too many people focus on what it “is” rather than what it “does” after the customer takes possession. 2. Prove it, don't just say it. It amazes me how many people do not use testimonials. Prove everything you claim so that a prospect can feel comfortable and justify value over price – all based on the words of other customers. 3. Be there after the sale to prove your worth. The biggest lost opportunity in any relationship is the absence of the business after the sale has taken place. Help the customer get started. Help the customer understand and take advantage of “best uses.” Transfer your wisdom, transfer your experience, transfer all your help, and the result will be continued successes. Stop worrying about failing and start offering value
 Anyone who goes online knows there is a lot of advice telling entrepreneurs to use in-person networking to build their businesses. But, in many cases, owners don’t see the necessity or they think they can just use social media, or they do not want to pay to join a networking organization. The truth is we are a society of doing business with those we know and trust. It is no longer about just shopping price or visiting a website to make a decision. Most business owners know that trust is a huge selling point and that trust cannot be built behind closed doors. Networking
The word alone makes some people uncomfortable. You attend events, meet people, exchange business cards, diligently follow up — and then disappointment. Why are you doing all this networking if no one responds? The problem is that most people think networking means selling. Unfortunately, that puts everyone involved on the defensive. Also, we know that so many people are either networking in the wrong groups or networking too much and not doing it the right way. So, with so many networking groups and events available, you could potentially be having breakfast, lunch, and happy hour every day. And, some of these groups charge a lot of money for membership and then you pay again to attend the events. It is true that I built my business on networking, but it takes a lot of time and diligence. If you are considering a way to network with no monetary cost (just your time), then you might want to consider using MeetUps. Free Yourself from the Pressures of Joining a Networking Group You may wonder why so many business owners struggle with networking. Ordinary networking fails because so many people attend networking events for the wrong reasons. They want to sell something or ask for a favor. Think about it. A lot of people who are only interested in promoting their own businesses approach you. A few of them may turn into legitimate leads, but you never get much out of it for the time invested. Unfortunately, too many people learn how to speak of their businesses but do not learn how to listen. Meetups as an Alternative to Traditional Groups Identify those Meetups that interest you and are business-related. Check and see who else is a member of the MeetUp. Once you have identified your niche, start connecting with people. Start establishing your credibility in your industry. In case you’re wondering “What's a Meetup?,” Meetup is the largest network of local groups in the world. With more than 10,000 groups of like-minded people getting together every day, Meetups are one of the easiest ways to find other people who share a common interest or cause. For example, when I searched for “small business” Meetups within 50 miles of where I live, I found 103 events on the first page of results. Of course, when you attend these events you want to do much more than just hand out business cards and sing your own praises. The goal is to make genuine connections with other attendees and find out how you can add value to their situation. Can you introduce them to a valuable connection? Is there a way you can help improve their business? When you approach a new business relationship from a giving perspective, you become a valuable part of the other person’s network. Why This Works The first reason is that most people are terrible at building relationships. Sad, but true. Secondly, it's face-to-face. According to Harvard Business Review research, 95% of people said that face-to-face meetings are a key factor in successfully building and maintaining long-term relationships. 79% said that in-person meetings are the best way to meet new clients to sell business. 89% agreed that face-to-face meetings are essential for "sealing the deal." Finally, there are always Meetups taking place. So you're in control of how often you connect with potential prospects. And if you can't find a suitable Meetup, start your own. The truth is most things people consider “networking” are really just a waste of time. If all you are doing is attending large events, handing out your business card, and pitching yourself to everyone in sight, you will never accomplish your goals. Small business owners can get better results using Meetups to grow their professional network. Think of how much more enjoyable and productive your networking time can be if, instead of always hunting for new business (often the proverbial “needle in the haystack”), you focus on how to become more valuable and indispensable to your business connections. That being said, I am still a fan of our local Chamber of Commerce, but that does not mean that MeetUps haven’t played a role in my networking efforts. |
Boost Your BusinessMaria NovakI have over 35 years' experience in Marketing Small Businesses. Categories
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