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.

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?

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

How to Write a Client Attracting Book

John Eggen is someone who top authors like Dr. Stephen Covey and Mark Victor Hansen have turned to when looking for new ideas to create a book.

With close to 30-years experience in helping experts position themselves and grow their business through  book publishing, John is the expert's expert when it comes to publishing for self promotion.

Here’s  John's short list  of how to develop a winning book concept.

This information came from just one day of the free course he offers at www.missionmarketingmentors.com

Step #1: List Your Capabilities. Make a long list of the kind of problems you have a history of solving for people.

Step #2: Identify Possible Marketplaces.  List all the markets that want and have a history of paying for the kind of help you can provide.

Step #3: Locate Your Ideal Target Market by asking if they: have a pain, are aware of it, are easily researched and reached, have a history of spending money to solve their challenges and are a growing market that you would enjoy working with.

Step #4: Identify Your Topic by focusing on the biggest pain your target market wants to solve. What is the biggest problem that your target market wants to eliminate and has a history of paying for?

Step #5: Refine Your Topic into the Perfect Book Topic by researching on Amazon. Find the information that is out there now on the topic that fits your expertise and desires and then fill in the information gaps with your book.

John points out that he published a book this way called, Create the Business Breakthrough You Want.  In the first 27 months of publication, it attracted $1,131,108 in extra business to his firm.

Get the free ULTIMATE CLIENT MAGNET(tm) eCourse this post was based on at www.missionmarketingmentors.com

Listen to a transcript of an interview Robert Middleton did with John recently on how to create a book that sets you apart from the competition in as little as 90-days at http://mypublishingopportunity.com/robertm/recording/

Managing the Client Relationship

Recently, B2B Magazine interviewed top VP and C-Level marketing executives at major corporations.

When asked how their companies were going to generate sales leads in today’s economy most indicated they would focus more on existing customers.

They indicated their departments would get to know customers better and incorporate marketing that provides ROI based solutions to the problems client recognize and want  to solve.

Client Relationship Management or CRM all boils down to:

Embracing a client mentality. Clients are under your protection and guidance. Customers are people who buy things from you. A big difference when it comes to interest, trust and credibility.

Care about the result client’s gain from purchases. Keep in touch, remember clients at special times of the year, check in to see how they are doing and be available when they call for advice or with questions.

Continue to add value consistently throughout the year. Provide information that educates, send out tips that help clients get more out of their purchase and conduct formal or informal surveys to understand what clients need and when.

Stay in touch consistently. Develop a plan to touch clients; one week after a purchase, one month later and then monthly after that. When clients need your service again, you'll be top-of-mind in your category.

Remember, if a client does not hear from you for 10-months, you are a completely forgotten.

The other thing to consider is the majority of companies never contact clients again after the initial purchase.

Just the act of consistently staying in touch can set you apart from your competition and give you a distinct competitive advantage.

The Lost Art of Keeping in Touch

Keeping in touch is a lost and dying art I'm afraid.

I remember back in 1997. The internet was mainstream by then and clients and prospects thought it was very cool to receive email.

On top of that, everyone in small business also thought it was so very cool to send emails instead of using the US Mail.

Instead of spending thousands of dollars on marketing, we could  do the same work for just hundreds. It was a novelty and most everyone was playing.

Fast forward to 2009. What a difference a decade plus two yeas makes.

We have grown weary of email, SPAM is despised and information is coming at us all at the speed of electrons.

Everyone is overwhelmed by the massive amount of information that's sent to them every day.

Whenever new becomes old, it's time to make the old new again.

Hence the use of cards, letters and phone calls to express appreciation and thanks to our clients and prospects.

Think about how you communicated (or your parents communicated) before email. Now, apply those techniques today instead of just defaulting to email.

People appreciate receiving a heartfelt card. You'll receive  a call of thanks when you send one.

A phone call is welcome if the person you're calling gains value from the conversation.

An introductory letter has just under double the chance of being read than an email.

The statistics are:

15% of emails are ever read

27% of personal letters are opened and viewed

A whopping 98% of greeting cards are opened and appreciated.

When it comes to marketing, what's the best investment?

How to Learn Things from Reading a Business Book

Business books are great. I love them and read a lot. But there’s a catch.

Reading business books without taking action on what you learn is a waste of precious time.

How much more productive and successful could you be if you actually took action on the ideas you learned from reading?

It’s easy to do. Here’s what an adult learning expert once shared with me on how to learn more from reading.

Start by paging through the book. Notice what the chapter titles, subheadings and bullet points have to offer. Write down any questions that come up as you leaf through.

As you start reading highlight areas that you want to remember and review later. Make sure each of your questions from the first exercise are answered as you read each chapter.

Take notes and create action steps as you read. At the end of each chapter recap the steps the book offers.

Follow this advice for each chapter. At the end of the book, go back over your notes and highlighted areas, starting with chapter one and do the steps outlined.

A few great books to start with are:

Purple Cow by Seth Godin

How to Become a Rainmaker by Jeffery Fox

How to Get Everything You Can From Everything You’ve Got by Jay Abraham

Webify Your Business by Patrick Schwerdtfeger (this is an easy one because Patrick provides action steps at the end of each chapter).

American Idol; 100 Million Votes

Talk about a buzz, word of mouth marketing machine and successful grassroots effort.

American Idol's grand finale show generated 100 Million Votes for the two final contestants.

It just proves that when you give people a reason to be passionate about something that's noteworthy, they will take it and run.

Something we can all learn from.

Give people remarkable, give them a cause to be a part of and they will respond and participate in kind.

Congratulations to the winner of American Idol, Kris Allen.

Photo of Kris Allen Courtesy of http://weblogs.newsday.com