Bill Gluth's Creative Business Strategy Blog

The Shortest Path to Yes or No

When it comes to closing sales, helping your prospect make a decision of yes or no in the shortest time frame possible is certainly an area where many business owners struggle.

There are a number of reasons why this is tough to do.

One common reason a buying decision is never made is because the prospect is not asked if they want to buy during the initial sales meeting.

Another is the sales person does not understand how a prospect makes a decision.

But the most common reason sales opportunities are not closed or are lost to attrition is due to a clear and focused next follow up step is never set after a sales conversation.

Follow up seems simple but is missing in many businesses.

Here is a typical scenario. A sales person (or business owner) attempts to make a sale. The meeting went well but the sale does not close in the initial meeting.

The sales person thanks the prospect and leaves. They drop an email with a requested proposal. Maybe one phone call or another email follows.

The sale is left in the pipeline unclosed but is still listed as an open opportunity. Or worse yet, there is no sales data base to track prospects progress so it is left to a written note, a vague entry in Outlook or memory.

How do you create a working sales follow up plan?

Follow up begins at the tracking/database level. You need a consistent method to categorize and track prospect and client follow up activity consistently.

After a sales meeting an entry that outlines what you talked about, what was proposed and the clear and focused next step you agreed upon is essential.

If the prospect doesn't want to talk to you but wants to “get back to you” realize that they are probably not really interested. They are simply too nice to tell you no so they say “I’ll get back to you” instead.

You also have to realize that unexpected things come up for your prospect, just like they do in your business.

If a prospect misses your follow up appointment leave a message. Then send a note in the mail (cards work very well for this) and tell them when you’ll try to reach them again.

If you call three times and never hear back, take the opportunity away.

On your third call say something like, “I tried to reach you a few times but have been unsuccessful. Since I don’t want to be a pest and only want to help if I can, I’ll assume that timing is not good on your side and will take you off of my call back list.”

You’ll be surprised at how many times people will call you back after this take away call.

When you do this, however, be sure to make a note to check back in 90-days.

Just because the timing is not right now does not mean that it won't be a viable opportunity in the future. Newsletters, cards and blogs are good ways to remain in touch with prospects who did not purchase.

Always remember that the value you deliver drives the decision.

Good sales follow up starts with caring about other people and the results they gain from working with you more than the profit you’ll earn from their business.

The Art of Appreciating

When it comes to expressing appreciation, we can all use small reminders and new ideas that inspire us to express gratitude to others more.

After all, appreciation is the cornerstone of Human Touch Marketing – it’s the least expensive and most impacting way any small business can increase their sales and marketing effectiveness quickly.

If you haven’t expressed appreciation recently try these 5-easy ideas.

Say thank you to everyone who did business with you this week. Express true thanks, from your heart. Really appreciate the other person.

Call a large client who completed a big project with you recently. See how they are doing and thank them for their business.

Call a small client and let them know they are important to you. Thank them for their business.

Send a greeting card to a client who you feel in your heart needs to hear from you. This video will show you why appreciation wins out over self promotion every time.

Whenever another person provides you with a service or does you a favor, genuinely thank them. When you do you’ll attract even more favors.

Bonus Appreciation Idea

Take 30-seconds right now to appreciate all the wonderful things in your life. After all, American’s are among the most abundant people in the world.

Appreciate the fact that you are here, today, right now – with the ability and now the inspiration to appreciate others in your life.

Energize Your Small Business With Love

For decades sales wisdom has pointed out that people do business with the people they know, like and trust. I agree but I’d like to add a missing piece to this puzzle.

People like to do business most with people they know, like and trust who LOVE what they do for a living.

The missing piece is true love of your work. When you love what you do, you and your business become magnetic.

When the Law of Attraction is mentioned, seldom does it convey this idea. When you love what you do others want to find out what you know. The want your secret for themselves.

Your potential clients will want to engage with you when given the choice between your company and another.

Loving what you do shows up before the sale, during the sale and in the depth of relationship you're able to develop with your clients. It's a genuine feeling that attracts new business consistently.

Simple Steps to Creating Sales

Creating sales is often viewed as very difficult by small business owners. If you suffer from feeling overwhelmed by sales the reason is simple to understand. You don’t have a process in place to follow.

In working with small businesses, I’ve found that simple sales processes work best. Here are the basic steps that need to occur, in order, to create sales consistently for any business.

Step 1: Sales Lead Attraction.

This step is commonly called marketing. Business owners often confuse marketing with advertising, when in fact, advertising is simply one tactic of 100’s possible in the marketing mix.

The most effective marketing and the quickest way to attract people to your offer is by establishing yourself as an expert. Try conducting monthly teleseminars as a way to educate interested buyers.

If you combine teleseminars with telephone outreach as a way to get your message out quickly you can expect to experience a lower cost per new client acquisition and results that grow consistently over time for the effort you expend.

Step 2: The System of Selling.

Once you have gained interest from your attraction/marketing campaign, you must convert that attraction into revenue at least one in five times. This is done through your sales system.

Direct sales can be done one-to-one or in mass via the internet or some other automated sales closing method. A good rule of thumb to follow is the higher the price point of the item you’re selling the more important direct contact becomes.

Start your sales meetings by understanding the value your prospect hopes to gain from talking to you. Understand their challenge, be sure you’re clear on how they go about making a decision and then recommend services that solve the challenge.

As you present your recommendation make sure you show the dollar value or Return on Investment (ROI) your solution provides the prospect.

Always remember, people buy solutions to problems that provide great value. Prove that value in your sales meetings and you’ll be on your way to more sales in less time. 

Step 3: Client Relationship Management (CRM).

The majority of businesses completely ignore clients once they purchase. A ‘hunting’ mentality ensures that small businesses have to keep working hard for every sale they generate.

An easier way to grow a business is by “farming” your existing client base. In other words, create ongoing sales by continuously providing value to existing clients instead of always having to look for new people to work with.

A big part of a successful CRM program is staying in touch. It can be easy, with many steps automated.

A weekly or monthly email newsletter will help you maintain top of mind awareness with clients.

Sending greeting cards to announce specials, provide tips or to let clients know you appreciate their business works very well.

You can even go low tech by picking up the phone and calling once in a while. Just remember, if you don’t stay in touch you will quickly be forgotten.

A winning sales process combines all three step into one distinct strategy. Taking a little time to accomplish this step now will ensure healthy sales today and in the years to come.

Blog Writing Made Easy

If you’re new to blogging or if you haven’t yet caught the blogging fever, you may find it challenging to write consistently.

The first thing to realize is that blogging is a habit that has to form before it will gain true momentum.

At first, it’s hard to find things to write about. You may sit in front of your keyboard wondering what to say or in some cases why even bother.

It takes a shift in perspective to gain blogging momentum.

Every day you notice things in your local area, nation or world that catch your attention. Make a note of it and blog about it.

You have a great shopping or customer service experience. Blog about it. Share the story of what happened with your blog readers.

The same holds true of experiences that aren’t so good. Blog about them too.

You have a “break through a  barriers” moment occur. Blog about  it.

Something in the news or events in the media catch your attention. Blog about why you found the story interesting.

Blogging  is really a conversation from you to the known world. Show your readers what you see. Share your  ideas. Point out what you notice. Give your opinion.

Once you start blogging, before you know it, you’ll be on fire; watching for new ideas to blog about constantly.

All it takes is the first step. Share your vision with us today on a blog – will you?

Focus on Just One Thing

In today's competitive sales and marketing world, gaining attention is often quite a challenge.

In interviewing independent professionals for my new book, Human Touch Marketing: the Sales Strategies You're  NOT Using Today, I am finding that the happiest and most successful professionals are those who have a very tightly defined niche.

For example, I ran into one person who is focused only on serving one specific not for profit niche. The energy of that focus is helping helping him gain attention in a crowded field of NFP experts.

Because he's focused on providing one service to one specific group of people his marketing message is heard over the crowd.

Niche focus will lower marketing costs, make gaining attention much easier and lead to sales lead generation success in less time than you may think possible.

Balance, Satisfaction and Profit With Freedom

When you started your small business, you probably imagined breaking free from the daily grind of a J O B. You pictured having more free time to do as you want, spend time with family and enjoy life more.

Then the realities of running a business hit you and before you know it you’re trading time for dollars, working 10 to 12 hour days – six or even seven days a week. It’s a grind that you quickly learn to dislike with a disdain so strong hate is often the first word that comes up.

Here’s why the bright future you desired turned into the toughest job you’ve ever had.

You built your business on the wrong platform. You probably thought solely about the business and its structure. You gave no thought to the outcome you wanted to create.

You can still change the tide but it will take some creative thinking.

If you’re like most people you want to:

Work for yourself so you have more control over your time; in other words you want to create greater life balance.

You want to do work that matters.  Whenever you help others gain what they want out of life you have greater work satisfaction than you can imagine. Most people get stuck in running a business instead of adding value to the lives of others, so this goal is never reached.

And you want to be paid well for the talents you posses. In other words you want to profit but have more freedom to enjoy it.

These are very common desires for people who go into business for themselves.

If you want balance in your life you need to build a career that provides time flexibility.

If you want satisfaction from the work you’re doing you must create something that enhances the lives of others.

If you want profit with freedom you will need to have a career where you are being paid for the value you actually create and not for the time you spend creating it.

Here’s the quickest way to turn the tide and begin making changes right now.

Start with your best case career scenario in mind. Write it down. I am talking about using the most powerful force you have at your disposal; your ability to envision, imagine and create a new reality with your thoughts.

Now consider what happened just before you reached that desired outcome. Then imagined what occurred before that and before that.

Repeat this backward planning exercise until you get all the way back to where you are today. Once you have that written down all you have to do is simply follow the steps or ‘plan’ you just created and move forward.

The secret is to follow the plan.

Always remember, when you create a business value that enhances the lives of others you will find the balance, satisfaction and profit with freedom you’re looking for.

If you need help making this change there is a great tool I use and recommend called Simple.ology.

When you visit this site you can take Simple.ology 101 for free. It will help you realize what you really are going after and show you how to create a framework to achieve it.

Taking action is the secret to creating lasting change. One small step can lead to amazing new discoveries. Try it. All you have to lose is the dissatisfaction you are feeling right now.

You: The Brand

In today’s crowded business world there are millions of brands, large and small, screaming for attention.

With an abundant supply, the buyers personal choice becomes a real issue. People purchase from businesses they know, like and trust now more than ever.

The personality or ‘face’ your business shows to the world makes the difference between healthy sales and no sales at all.

In a world where people buy values that provide them with what they want to gain from people they know, like and trust it’s become vital to define and articulate you: the brand from the buyer’s point of view.

If you own a one-person operation you are the company to your prospects and clients. Your interactions with both are your brand platform.

If you’re a Solopreneur, ask yourself these questions:

Are you clearly showing the value you provide your prospective clients in your sales and marketing message? Always remember that people buy solutions to challenges not features you sell.

Are you fully appreciating and consistently staying in touch with your clients; even after the purchase is made and money spent? Your best source of new business is from happy clients who repurchase consistently.

Does your sales story talk about you and what you sell or your clients and the challenges you help them solve? If it’s all about you, your message falls in deaf ears more often than not.

If you are a larger business, with employees who interact with clients and prospects on your behalf, employees are your brand.

If you’re a larger business with employees, ask yourself these questions:

Are your employees empowered to resolve small client challenges on the spot or do they have to ask each time they need to develop a solution that makes clients happy?

Give employees guidelines for resolving challenges immediately and you’ll have happy clients who are loyal to your brand.

Do your employees stay in touch with clients after a sale is made? If not, your company is forgotten quickly and repeat sales are the exception rather than the rule.

Does the image your employees present to clients and prospects represent your business in a unique and compelling way?

Let your employees be individuals but give them the proper frame work to tell your value driven story effectively and consistently. The result will be more sales in less time for a lower cost.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a solo business or one with many employees; people (you and your employees) are the brand buyers relate to.

Treat your buyers with respect and personal caring and you’ll be rewarded with more business and a continuous stream of referrals consistently.

Twitter in Just 14-Minutes a Day

I've really grown to like Twitter. All you have to do is tell the story of your life in just 144 characters at a time. Well, it's not really quite like that.

If you're a regular reader of the Creative Business Strategy Blog you'll know that no one cares about your life, they care most about theirs. So they really won't care very much about your story if that's all you ever talk about.

But they DO care about your knowledge, information and people/things you find interesting.

Twitter is a perfect way to share all that you know, create and observe with a very large group of people.

Start by setting up or tweaking your Twitter account. Use a real picture of yourself and make your brief bio interesting enough for people to want to learn more about you.

Then start using Twitter for just 14-minutes a day.

Be interested in others. When someone 'Tweets' and you find that post interesting give them a quick comment on it.

3-minutes to find the post and add your comment.

When you find an interesting Tweet with helpful information "Retweet" (RT) it and share it with the people who follow you.

3-minutes to find a Tweet that is RT-able and 1-minute to RT it.

When you are on the Web and find an article that you think is particularly helpful, share it on Twitter.

2-minutes; 1-minute to make the link a Tiny URL and post the article you enjoyed on Twitter.

Write a blog post that you share with your opt-in list regularly and add it to Twitter.

Assuming you're marketing a business or promoting a product or service, after writing a blog post, save the  link as a Tiny URL and post it on Twitter.

2-minutes or less. We don't count writing the blog post because you would do that anyway to promote your business.

Find an interesting person who provided great information and let others know about them. #followfriday is one way to do that.

Do this as you find interesting people. Then take 1-minute to let others know about them

When you run across interesting information that relates to your market make a Tiny URL and share it on Twitter

1-minute or less to post the information link on Twitter.

Twitter is a community of people who are passionate about the things that interest them.

But don't get lost in the tool. Follow a plan (there are many great plans out there) and spend 13-minutes to build awareness for the personal brand called YOU.

Take a minute right now and follow me @billgluth on Twitter. I'll return your follow and look forward to sharing great information with you.

One resource I've enjoyed is @GuyKawasaki. Check out his words of wisdom on Twitter at http://tinyurl.com/6fxmj9

Your Consciousness Creates Your Small Business Results

I have the opportunity to work with wonderful companies and visionary entrepreneurs through the course of each year.

I also have the privilege of helping small business  owners who are stuck recover, build new sales and get on the path of success they so richly deserve.

The one thing that often strikes me is the difference between those who are successful and those who struggle to keep their doors open.

Success or struggle starts with on one vital factor.

That factor is the consciousness of the business owner. By consciousness I mean the holistic  view of the individual. It encompasses the body, mind and spirit and is dependent on the three working in harmony to create a desired outcome.

For example.

Body: The successful person takes time out of their busy day and week to nurture their body. The person who struggles does not have the time for self care.

Mind: Successful entrepreneurs are focused on creating a specific outcome. They leave all distractions behind. They plan for success and when challenges arise they think, “How can I solve this problem now.”

Those who struggle are hoping for the best with no specific outcome in mind. When problems arise they wallow in the challenge instead of looking for answers to solve it.

Spirit: People who succeed are aware of a higher power in their life, yet always know they create the results in their life every day through their words, thoughts and actions. They are in control of their life and daily journey and take charge of it moment by moment.

Those who lack success see it as elusive. Something that happens only to a lucky few. They don’t believe they can control the outcomes in their life. They think they will struggle so they often do.

Just yesterday I heard a great concept to ponder. Stop for a moment and consider this, “The student does less with more while the master does more with less.”

Mastering your life, success and happiness occurs through your conscious actions.

Become aware of the body, mind and spirit connection in your life. Use this amazing power to continue to create the success you enjoy now or use it to turn your life around completely in any moment.

Each of us only has ‘right now’ to work with. What you think and the actions you take determine your future. Realize this fact and then decide, “What outcome will I create with my consciousness today.”

It’s always your choice and there is also always help if you’re struggling and don’t know how to recover on your own.