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7 Tips To Boost Your Business in a Down Economy

Listening to the news and many CEOs, you would think the country is in a depression. At a minimum, these reports put listeners into a depression. While I’m willing to let a few individual businesses slide because of what they do (e.g. residential real estate in Miami), if your company is not growing the way you want it to, and/or margins are shrinking, the problem is inside your company. If you believe otherwise, you are deceiving yourself. In many cases, even in sectors where the group as a whole is doing poorly, you should still be able to do better than you’re doing. Just like Warren Buffet does in the stock market, you need to jump on opportunities when the market is down and be aggressive, not defensive.

The Eight Sales Dysfunctions of a Salesperson

If you're like most companies getting fewer opportunities to create sales this year, you need to pay attention to all wins AND all losses in your sales efforts! There are specific things being done by salespeople every day that create the LOSS of sales and the LOSS of customers. Are you sure you and/or your salespeople are NOT doing these? It’s challenging enough in the marketplace today gaining new business from existing customers and gaining the trust of new customers to take a chance with you. The current state of the economy is driving fear and uncertainty which is driving decisions to new places in the organization. Those decisions are being made slower than ever and often times, by committees. On top of that, the competition is doing crazy things, dropping prices and trimming margins to all-time lows.

Lesson #4: Bend the Rules
“Rules are sometimes a problem when you’re a creative entrepreneur,” says Simmons.

Marketing Morality
Is that an oxymoron? Is it possible to hold a marketer morally responsible?

What Sequoia Capital Looks for in Startups
Elements of Sustainable Companies Start-ups with these characteristics often foretells the success of a business and the likelihood of it becoming a sustainable, enduring company. We like to partner with companies that have:

The Twitter Lesson: No Business Plans Please
Seeing that Twitter closed a funding round, and spotting the associated incredulity about Evan's company not having a business plan, reminded me of something: Whatever your feelings about Twitter, business plans are overrated, and profits perhaps even more so.

What’s channel stuffing and why is it problematic?

How much do you actually sell? How profitable are your sales? How accurately can you forecast your sales results? How many ‘returns’ do you receive? How often do you need to discount? How often are you left with old stock? What are your sales cycles? Are your sales people rewarded on volume only or on margin, account growth, account retention, and customer satisfaction? The answers to these and other key questions will tell you just how effective a sales force is functioning, how they measure their effectiveness, how they think about their business, their customers, their careers, and how likely they are to deliver profitable, sustainable sales results.

Sales Force Compensation - X Marks the Spot
Compensation is usually simpler than most companies make it. Most companies seem to either over compensate or under compensate on salary. Most companies tend to do the same with commissions.

Is Your Law Firm Anything Like Your Sales Consulting Firm?

Did you ever stop to think about how much or how little you rely on your advisers? Not your board, not your board of advisers, but your business advisers. These are the individuals from outside of your company that you trust to direct, recommend, advise, consult and help with decisions, strategies, options and solutions to put your business in the best possible position to succeed. Take a look at the portfolio of advisers to the left.

Lousy Salespeople and Great Salespeople - Line Item or Investment?
Lousy salespeople are a line item but great salespeople are an investment. It's actually much worse than that. The line item on your lousy salespeople is only a fraction of what they really cost. Don't believe me? Then answer these three questions:

Leadership Development is Key to Organizational Success
Financial measures are not effective measures you can put on a leadership course. What you can do is measure changes in behavior and attitude in the company over a period of time. The effectiveness of leadership training can be measured through a rolling employee survey. Ask employees how their managers are behaving.

Staffing needs in the Holiday Rush
Let your retail point of sale system save you time and money by reducing your staffing needs this holiday season

Does Your Team have the Right Sales Plan?
Salesplans

When Does the Foundation Become an Anchor
When do the products and services you offer switch from being the foundation of your success to an anchor that prevents you from moving forward?

If I was your Finance Director

With most business owners and managers coming back from their summer holidays, thoughts are now turning to what will be happening to their businesses, not only in the remaining months of 2009 but in 2010 and beyond. Finance directors are no different in that they will have plenty to occupy them on their return to the office, and they will certainly be playing their part in this thought process. Orchard Growth Partners Principal Antony Doggwiler gives you a taste of what finance directors are up to at this crucial time of the year.

Competing on Price in a Down Market
When companies change their focus to customers really challenges rather than focus on sales, Sales go up as do profits.

Retail Costing, FIFO, LIFO, Average COST?
Retailers live on their margins, so you obviously need to have a good understanding of your real cost of goods sold (COGS). Understanding your costs from your vendors will help you choose the appropriate method, as will your point of sale system.

It's The Experience, Stupid!
Take a few minutes and read through all the statements of value on your web site and in your recent proposals. Think about the value propositions you have articulated during customer calls over the last few months. Do they strike you as static statements? Or do they communicate a sense of a living, dynamic, ongoing, integrated, valuable experience?

Turn the browsers into buyers…
Turn your browsers into buyers, add signs to your products !

Being authentic in sales
The 20th century approach of one-upmanship, although still encouraged by many traditional sales managers, seems to be slowly retreating into the shadows of the past as crude and old-fashioned. Polar opposite to the latter, but just as unproductive..

Stop Blaming Sales!

If sales isn't responding - then marketing is responsible. Marketing's role is to give sales the tools and training they need to sell the company's solutions. It's also marketing's role to get them excited about the newest offerings. So the next time someone starts to blame sales for lack of product acceptance in your customer base or for discounting deals that don't generate the margin or results you expected - think again. It's most likely sales is doing the best they can with what they've been given.

Revenue is Down, Let's Fire Sales
Cutting back on your source of revenues is something that needs to be done with a precision scalpel - not a chainsaw.

The Most common Mistakes Made In A Recession
In this short incisive article discover two things that most firms get wrong and four easy ways to put it right..read on

The Most Common Mistakes Made By Businesses In A Recession
There is a huge danger in a recession and that danger is exposed in this incisive short article. Find out four things that will damamge your business and three things you can do quickly and cheaply.

But They're Our BEST Customer!
A strong relationship with a customer is the Holy Grail we all seek. After all, once you have a Win/Win relationship, both businesses profit, right? Sometimes, but not always.

Pricing strategies
Price is always important, and perhaps even more so during a downturn. How should retailers adjust their pricing to get and keep customers?

Recession = Time for the Resurgence of the Small Business
Small business has struggled against large national and international brands. The ability to be flexible during the recession can give the small business owner an advantage over their larger competitors.

Dell Resorts to Questionable Sales Tactics to Drive Revenue
Today, I received an email from Dell showcasing their latest ill conceived scheme to generate revenue. I really have to question their thinking because when you see it you'll start thinking about all of those Yellow Page advertisers that send confirmations for ads you didn't place...

7 Golden Rules for Recession Survival
During good times in ancient China, surplus food and wealth was stored in great strong houses to provide succour for future famines and droughts. Are you one of many business people left wondering what will happen next, now that the Celtic Tiger has passed on and the winter of recession and customers with tight wallets is upon us?

Seth Godin Reinforces the Proper Sales Process
When I help companies with their sales process it always leads to: * shorter sales cycles as a result of the process itself * higher average sales as a result of the value added to the process * higher margins due to selling at their price instead of selling on price * selling last instead of selling first.

5 reasons to automate your Retail
Most often I heard retailer saying following: 1. Why do I need retail management software? 2. What are the reasons to automate my Retail? 3. I am running a successful retail without any IT system. I do not want to debate or argue, but yes I would like to say something on this.

I met a pricing genius
Pricing is often the key to success when building a business.

Controlling the Assumptions in Your Sales and Marketing Strategy

When you incorporate a new strategy into your service business there are certain assumptions that are made upon which the success of your strategy relies. These assumptions need to be monitored and controlled to give your company the greatest chance of accomplishing your stated objectives. The assumptions we make as business leaders are limited to two primary areas: 1) the external environment and how it will change, and 2) the industry in which we operate.

Markus Frind and Plenty of Fish - A Case Study in Effective Sales and Marketing Strategy

A couple weeks ago, I read one of the most compelling articles on a growing business that I have read in years. In his article entitled, "And the Money Comes Rolling In", Inc. Magazine writer Max Chafkin talks about Markus Frind's strategies for growing his personal dating website, Plenty Of Fish. Frind's idea was to build a basic user-content-driven website and pay for it with ads. He started from scratch and built out a minimalist site by anyone's standards (look at it now and there still isn't anything too impressive - distorted personal pictures and a heart favicon). But the idea resonated with thousands of people who were paying for a dating service and looking for a free alternative. He is now clearing $5 million a year after taxes. He has a handful of staff members and a nice, but mostly unfurnished, office in Vancouver.

Competition in Tough Times
How are small retailers supposed to compete against the big boys, especially in the current economic climate? Small retailers have several advantages, from obvious things like lower fixed costs, to intangible assets like customer service and name recognition. Refinining your position in every aspect of your business can make a huge difference to your bottom line, and how you support it.

Top 3 Ways to Influence Your Bottom Line
Go out and sell something! Way too many companies adhere to this line of thinking and sell the wrong prospect at the wrong margins. Before you get ready to “sell something,” put some thought into who you should sell to, how to create the opportunity to sell, and what it takes to gain a competitive advantage resulting in a profitable win.

How to Price Your Service to Sell
Finding the right price for your service is one of the keys to revenue growth. Pricing isn't the only consideration used by prospects, but it can be an immediate deterrent if the price is unreasonably high or so low that your services are perceived as lacking value. What can be done to avoid those two extremes?

Show Me the Money

Welcome to the end of the year for your business. Many of you have already visited with accounting to determine how to best position 2008 for your tax liability. If you haven’t...get on the stick. Decisions you make today will determine what kind of check you’ll write next April, or, what you can save. 2008 was challenging so I don’t believe many of you are running to the store to buy business assets. Cash is “KING” and you have probably been hoarding cash all year to cover payroll and operating expenses. If you aren’t; than good for you, buy an Escalade-it’s heavy enough to be considered “equipment”. But this articles speaks to the majority of us.

Is Restaurant Marketing Broken?
Is restaurant marketing broken? - Yes. What exactly is it that’s broken?

A Bad Economy Doesn't Mean Stick Your Head In The Sand
Focus more on what you can do to take control of your own destiny and leave the things you can’t control out of your head.

Do You Remember The Great Vision You Had When You Started Your Business?
I will share a secret with you that will if applied consistently will help make you rich, and grow your business to the level that you first dreamed you could acheive when you started your business.

"You don't know what you've got till it’s gone"
In times like these it becomes even more important than ever to hold on to our existing clients. Everybody knows the costs of customer acquisition. Here are some helpful hints

The Sum of the Whole: Part 2
Learn how to integrate professional design elements and techniques into your brand identity and marketing materials with these 5 easy to use tips.

The IT Sales Model is Broken

We are in the midst of a genuine revolution in the way I.T. sales are made. At the heart of this revolution is the issue of competing on value. In many cases, the differences between traditional sales approaches and value-based selling appear to be subtle, but in fact, they are profound, requiring changes in strategy, corporate culture and selling skills. Today’s markets are characterized by rapid commoditization, and it is seldom possible to compete on the basis of product features and benefits for any length of time, if margins are to be maintained or improved. Increasingly, the question being posed to suppliers, by their most important customers is – “How much better off will my company be if I buy your product/service or business solution?”

How Many of Your Customers Are Profitable?
The provision of value should be a two way street. If providing value to your customers is essential for long-term prosperity, then so is accurately measuring the value you receive in return. This article explains how to calculate the profitability of one’s customers, and offers some thoughts on how to treat the profitable and unprofitable.

Recession Proof Your Business (and Your Life)

There have been many articles in magazines, e zines and newspapers over the past few months that provide tips on how to recession proof your business. These tips, if implemented, will help business weather the storm of a general recession in the economy so that the business can enjoy the subsequent up turn in the economy. My articles traditionally explores the parallels between business and personal life and this article looks at how to employ these recession proofing business initiatives in our personal life's.

Diagnosing a Troubled Company – Part II ©
This article is Part II of a series of articles. It suggests a number of criteria to consider in reviewing a company's financial statements. It also addresses why it is important to properly handle a customer's complaint.

Questions Every CEO Should Be Asking His Sales Managers
High impact sales questions for CEOs

“Don’t get down in the mud with the pigs.
You will both get dirty and the pigs love it.

Hit Pay Dirt with Prospecting Letters
Prospecting letters can uncover gold—but only if you observe these tried-and-true rules:

Your Personal Services Company
Take a look at your performance and give yourself an honest grade. If you are doing your best, congratulate yourself and honor that! But if you see a few things that could be adjusted to give you a slight "edge", take action!

The End Starts at the Beginning
Every entrepreneur must begin planning their exit strategy at the beginning. The months spent on writing a business plan must include a plan for the end of the business as well as the start.

Practice Effective Marketing
Achieve a virtuous circle for your business of healthy profits, greater customer value and better meeting customer needs. Find out how...

Important SEO Tips To Improve Your Webpage

Webmasters have different choices for creating web page. Generally they avoid some important points while creating a web page to make it attractive or eye-catching to its users and in this way they create web page that are not search engine friendly and it becomes difficult for these pages to get index on the search engines. And if the pages are not search engine friendly and not indexed then no one can reach them to view or read and in this way creating a web page having good content becomes useless. In this article you can find some important tips which can help to improve your web-page to make it search engine friendly as well as user friendly to make it easily accessible to its users:

Building a Leadership Team - Part 2

Talent is necessary for building a winning leadership team, but talent is not sufficient. You can recruit the very best in every functional area of responsibility in your organization, but unless they work well together, you will fail to create sustainable value. And in a competitive environment, you will lose to teams with far less talent if they work well together but you don’t. There is a tongue in cheek axiom that comes as a corollary to this – “I’d rather be lucky than good.” If you believe in blind luck, go with God and stop reading. If you believe we make our own luck, I’d like to share three principles for creating a great leadership team and some practical insights into each: agreement on the mission, clear communication, and balance. Part 2 = Clear Communication

Why discounting is bad for business

Discounting is a short term fix with long term consequences! While there is some disparity among experts, most say that even in the current marketplace, discounting can cause long term damage to your overall business success. According to www.sm.com.au, discounting is a costly strategy for retailers. While the book called, You Can Compete, suggests that discounting will double retail sales, most data points towards a business disaster. There are several successful alternatives to discounting that are available for your business.

Why Invest In Leadership Development

There is a growing leadership crisis in America. Large numbers of "baby boomer's" are reaching retirement age. As a country we decimated mid-level management for the past several decades. We did not spend the time, money and effort to groom the next generation of leaders. Many organizations will now have to play catchup if they are going to have the leadership to remain competitive. Leadership or executive coaching is a viable path forward.

Turning a Recession Into An Opportunity
There is no denying that recessions are not good for anyone. Recessions causes downtime – do not waste this downtime.

Top 7 Tips to Reach Your Internet Article Marketing Goal of Submitting More Articles
Do you wonder how some individuals can submit so many articles so quickly? These tips may help you become a pro if Internet article marketing is part of your marketing plan.

Do you mind being beaten on price?
Price is a call to action. It says to us: If you have got the money, you can have it -- do you want it or not? So what’s wrong with ‘We won’t be beaten on price’?

2.1.2 Lack of provision and system reorientation

It is widely argued that training systems in developing countries should meet the training needs of the poor in an effective and equitable manner. "The bulk of new jobs are being created in micro and small enterprises. Consequently, the training system should prepare people to be productively employed in these sectors" (ILO, 1998:57). The continuing lack of training opportunities for the poor and disadvantaged is, therefore, a constant refrain in the VET literature.

Inhibitors to Success

At its core, microfinance is not terribly different from mainstream consumer finance. From accessing funding to managing the disbursement and collection of funds, microfinance operates like any consumer finance business. But because microfinance serves a very different client segment – the world’s poor – we cannot ignore the different set of challenges these clients face and the implications these challenges have on the organizations serving them.

Africa needs a technology bubble

According to the WSJ, silicon valley is on the brink of another technology bubble bust like what was witnessed in 1999. According to the article the emergence of "strange" website names such as Orgoo and businesses whose sole purpose is to sell t-shirts bearing the logos of internet companies(check out Startup Schwag) is evidence of a bubble and its eminent bust. I cannot even pretend to understand the dynamics of silicon valley, so I won't even argue with the writer of the article, but I'm left wondering when will Africa expereience it's own technology bubble?

What to Do When Your Competitors Cut Prices
Do you feel threatened by price competition and eroding margins. Don't cut your own throat, instead ask yourself how can you add more value to your products and services.

The Art of Balancing An Unequal Life
How does one swim with the sharks, squeeze the margins of an angst-filled financial world, and still lead a life of wholeness in spirit, mind and body?

Make Money Online With eBay
Want to make money online with eBay? Know your profit margins! If you want to make money online with eBay, understanding your profit margins is crucial.

MLM Problems And Why You Can't Succeed
Listed here are some of the fundamental reasons why 97% of people fail in this industry, small profit margins, lack of recruiting skills and a generally flawed system to name a few.

Your Key To Attracting More Customers…
Is your business doomed to forever compete at the slimmest of profit margins as it vies for the title of being the "low price" leader? By learning how to garner more of the right clientele for your business, you can attract more customers and make more money than ever before...

Use These 5 Killer Strategies to Drive Leads to Your Affiliate Marketing Site
The key to Affiliate Marketing is driving highly targeted leads to your website, suggests Mike Farrell with aspenIbiz. Read this short post as it reveals 5 killer strategies so that your profit margins rise dramatically.

Discounting is For Wimps
Three Tips to Creating Higher Margins and Happier Customers

Avoid These Two Types of Distractions
Distractions impact your success to some degree. If you give your market less attention, then that market will shrivel up. Ignoring the wishes of your clients will definitely affect your profit margins.

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