Thoughtful Thursdays - Oh look, another shiny coin...

I agree with what Mark Evans recently wrote in the Toronto Globe and Mail about turning down work if you cannot deliver. He talked from personal experience and suggested that by being selective in the work you take on, it will allow you to focus on what you do best.

New businesses are often so eager to achieve sales they will take on almost anything, even if it takes them outside the scope of the original business plan. Not that this is bad, but you need to be aware of possible consequences. In many cases new business owners must do this to make ends meet.

Chasing all the shiny coins can dilute your product or service offering to the point where your business is no longer the best at anything. A Jack of all trades is not necessarily a bad position, but consider this. Will your business be more successful doing many things just okay or one or two things incredibly well?

This will also relate to the profitability of your enterprise. The 'sell to anybody' businesses normally operate at lower margins an in a more competitive market place than the specialized, targeted shops. Both options can be successful. 

If you are operating a small business, can you afford to be everything to everybody. Going back to Mark Evans article, it is often a better choice to be selective, take on what you know and excel at it. By focusing on what you do best it puts you in a stronger position to accept or decline business outside the scope of your normal offering and keeps you in control. You can choose to add to your business when the time is right for your business.

It is acceptable say no.

Good selling,
Richard

Thoughtful Thursdays FAQ - Why do businesses fail?

One of the subjects we often get asked about by people wanting to start up businesses is why so many start-ups fail. We would rather talk about the ingredients for success, but let's examine the question as asked by our customers.

When the dust has settled, the reason why businesses fail is that they run out of money. Of course there are many reasons this can happen. Before we get into some reasons let's make some assumptions:

1. The business idea has been researched, a market for the proposed product and/or service exists and proposed pricing supports the idea.
2. Sufficient capital is available to fund anticipated start up costs
3. A sound business plan has been written.
4. Going out of business was not by choice.

The point here is, if everything is on the up and up, what can go wrong? Let's look at the reasons a business runs out of money. If we examine cash flow, there will probably be a growing negative monthly balance eventually leading to an overall negative cash situation. In other words more money is going out than is coming in.

On a basic level, the combination of  sales or the collection of monies owed is being outstripped by expenses.

What can cause poor sales?
Why are accounts receivable not being collected?
What is costing so much?

The earlier you discover the bad news, the better. Keep good records and review the finances on a regular basis. If sales are not coming in as expected, review your targets and develop a plan that will accelerate the sales cycle. If the sales cycle is longer than expected, develop a plan to increase prospect generation.

If receivables getting out of control, don't be afraid of placing delinquent accounts on credit hold. Get out and start collecting what is owed. Consider hiring a service to help. Review all accounts and set high credit exposure limits.

Examine your expenses carefully and determine where money can be saved. Control petty cash expenditures. Rank your suppliers in order of dollar volume and set a goal to reduce costs by a chosen percentage starting with your largest supplier.

There are numerous reasons businesses do not succeed. Minimize the chances of being a statistic by paying attention to the numbers and taking the time to know the details.

Don't be the last to know there is trouble on the horizon.

Good selling,
Richard

Thoughtful Thursdays - Is it getting warm in here?

When everything is running well, customer/supplier relationships are realtively easy to grow and maintain. After all, you are likely meeting or exceeding customer expectations, and getting paid almost on time.

In these halcyon days, what are you doing to insure the relationship will continue to flourish?  Perhaps there are customer events to attend, you probably check in frequently to see if there is anything you can take care of such as taking the next order or reporting on project or inventory status. It is all good... for now.

A few other things you might want to consider doing, there is no better time to grow and maintain your internal customer relationships. Your internal customers include your suppliers, staff and everyone else who has contributed to the high level of customer satisfaction you have achieved, because it is only a matter of time before something happens and your customer begins to turn up the wick and the equilibrium you and your team have worked so hard to attain will be upset

Run a few 'what if' scenarios to test your abilities to resolve concerns before they become issues. An important key to resolving issues is the ability to address them quickly. In order to do this, everyone on the team must be in sync and strong relationships help achieve this.

So don't get caught taking things for granted or resting on your laurels, pay attention to your internal customers and suppliers so when the heat begins to crank up and you need everyone to stay in the kitchen, they will.

Good selling,
Richard

Thoughtful Thursdays - Do you know what your selling process is?

I read Paul Castain's latest Sales Playbook recent post titled "3 Traps To Avoid In Your Next Meeting" today and could not agree more with his thoughts on the need to have a sales process.

Veteran purchasers will employ many tactics to get you off your plan. Even experienced sales reps can fall prey to these actions and in the interest of making a sale, or fear of loosing a sale, forget all about value and begin to pitch without knowing what the customer needs are.

In addition to Paul's great advice on how to avoid the 3 traps I would add the following suggestions. These apply regardless of your experience as even the most savvy can get caught. Why do you think professionals practice as often as they do?

• Set objectives for all your meetings
• Determine what you need to know to achieve those objectives
• Write your questions down and have them with you
• Write down what you are not ready to discuss to help keep you focused on the job at hand

Selling is all about helping and you will be the most helpful when you know exactly what the needs are. Make your selling process routine practice and you be better positioned to avoid the traps.

Good selling,
Richard