How to Increase Sales by Being a Market & Product Expert

Developing your marketing appeal to the largest group of buyers is the difference between growing slowly or rapidly with more leads than you can handle.  You'll be the rare business owner or entrepreneur that can focus the sales team on both market expertise and product expertise. Here's how... 

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Visualize you have an audience of potential buyers where they are told they had to come but did not have to stay.  How do you keep them in the room?

Research by Chet Holmes in his book, The Ultimate Sales Machine, shows that only 3% of the people who can benefit from your product or services are ready to buy now and another 7% are open to the idea.  Assuming you can identify those 10% cost effectively that’s still a small number?  What if you could arouse the attention of the other 90% and re-educate them about their market vs. trying to sell your product immediately?  

If you use the direct approach with who’s buying your specific product/service you’ll get the 3% response.  What if you go with market approach, “The 5 Ways You’re Wasting Money and Time with ABCD?”  That will grab their attention for a little while and want to know more.  

The premise - offering to re-educate them on something of value vs. simply trying to sell them your product/service positions you as the expert and separates you from your competition.  Can you see how this makes it a lot easier to get appointments and enable you to get in to see just about anyone including the 90 percent who were not buying now.  Since the information was so good, it established the salesperson as an expert rather than merely a salesperson.

Want to serve Your Buyer Better…?  Be a Market Expert vs. a Product Expert

• Market data is far more motivational to your buyers than product data

• How does the market data make your products and services more important
• Apply this research as part of your marketing and sales appeal

ActionITEM:  Do a brainstorming session with your team on what industry market research you can re-educate your buyers on. Look at the findings historically to determine the amount and rate of change.  Give your buyers context that arouses their desire to know more about how your products and services benefit them.  

Want to know more on how to be a Market Expert vs Product Expert?  Then let’s talk.

Call me at ph:  972 291 5566 or eM:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

And we’ll get your sales team opening doors faster and more easily than directly selling products and services.

7 Transformational Steps to Higher Profits & Productivity

Want to be humbled?  Take a blank sheet of paper and draw your path to earning more profits and productivity.  You'll appreciate how difficult it is to be God.  Are you ever going to know or experience it all?  Probably not, so can you learn from the knowhow and experiences of others?  Of course you can and still have room to make your own mistakes - you just don't need to make anyone else's.

Look at the 7 transformational steps that lead to higher profits and productivity.  It starts with working with coaches/mentors/teachers, gaining knowledge, asking questions, forming beliefs and setting dreams, making informed decisions, taking actions and gaining results of higher profits and productivity.  

As ActionCOACH - Business Coaches we're having these conversations with thousands of owners monthly.  Often these business owners are going beyond a commercial profitable business to one that ultimately works without the owner always being there, as fast as possible.  

Are you looking to accelerate your professional and personal growth, then let's talk.  I'll offer a complementary coaching session, 60 to 90 mins, to understand your situation.  I guarantee you'll leave with at least a half dozen implementable strategies to increase profits and productivity or gain you time back. 

Call me at - ph:  972 291 5566 or em:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let's get started...you'll work less and earn more!

Forget Planning the 2nd Half of the Year...Embrace Choosing, Selecting and Acting to Achieve Profits & Productivity

Forget business planning the 2nd half of the year and embrace choosing, selecting and acting...

Welcome to “Conversations every business owner has with their team in July.”  It’s the start of the second half of the year and let’s forget traditional business planning and start embracing - choosing, selecting and acting now.  Here’s why...

Traditional business planning as applied by big corporations and government is bureaucratic and stifling.  An entrepreneur and business owner success requires - faster easier and flexible direction setting ways more aligned to their passion and control mindset.  Something more empowering...here’s how!

1. Choose what you want, need, must have in your professional and personal life to feel happy about your progress for the time period selected.  That’s your future.  Prioritize the list to the top two to three must haves.
2. Select what you want or must take from your past into the future.  Think of this as if you were packing for a trip and have only two suitcases.  All of your past is not required for the journey - so prioritize and select the best experiences, thoughts, feelings, relationships, knowhow to create the future chosen.  
3. Act on what and where you’ve chosen to go using what you’ve selected from your past to take into the future.   The more compelling and clear your future the harder to veer off course when the moment of choice arrives or the momentum of the day overwhelms you.  You’ll align your actions, behaviors and decisions to achieve what makes you happy about your progress.  

This approach embraces an entrepreneur's attitude of business and life by design vs. happenstance.

Now go have July’s conversation with your team and forget planning and start choosing, selecting and acting to achieve more and work less.  

Want to know more?  Let’s talk.  I’ll offer a complimentary 60 to 90 min session to understand your situation and I’ll guarantee you at least a half dozen implementable ideas to maximize your effectiveness in the 2nd half of the year.

Call me at ph:  972 291 5566 or Email:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let’s get started...accelerating your growth.  

"Your Price is Too High...!" How does Your Sales Team Respond?

Business owners - how do your sales people react to the objection, “Your Price is Too High?”  Are they amateurs or professionals and can find out what is really holding back the customer?    

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Welcome to “Conversations every business owner has with their sales team.”  And today’s topic covers how your sales team reacts or responds when they receive the price objection.  

“Your price is too high!”  Now, you may be getting somewhere with your customer.  They're acknowledging the need for a solution, so follow up with further questions.

 

Here are 21 responses that will increase the probability engaging the customer and learning what’s keeping them back from purchasing.

Instead of reacting agasped and surprised as an amature, practice responding as a professional and ask with confidence...  

1. Which means?
2. Compared to what?
3. What was your expectation?  
4. If our competitor is much less, what does that tell you?  
5. You can always find a cheaper solution but you won't find both the quality and value.  Isn't that what interests you?
6. I am glad you mentioned price.  Is it the amount or the terms?  
7. It is high compared to what some companies charge.  What does the fact that we have over 500 customers buying from us imply?  
8. You really feel that our price is too high?  Could you explain that for me?
9. It costs only about 15¢ per hour of operation.  What kind of peace of mind does that buy?
10. If it wasn’t the price is there anything else that is getting in the way making a decision to purchase?
11. Our price is high, compared to what some others companies in the field in charge.  But I believe it’s not high enough for what it does.  As a matter of fact, as the economy improves we're expecting a price increase any day.  Why not buy now and get our high quality at today’s price?
12. Have you ever figured the price of not having a high quality?  The price of breakdown, the cost of wasted time, the extra phone calls, the headaches, the repairs bills…you see, high quality actually saves you money in the long run.  Let’s compare when we add these cost?
13. Don’t deceived by today's prices.  You actually pay less because we are giving you more service, more quality, more expertise, and more security.  Isn’t that what you really interested in?
14. The sweetness of low price is quickly forgotten when you have to deal day after day with the bitterness of low quality.
15. We can lower the price right now, but you need to make a decision on what options to cut from our proposal.  Okay?
16. I might get in trouble for saying this, but I know a way to save you a few bucks.  What if I cut my commission on this transaction to lower the price?  
17. Yes, we are not the cheapest in our field; however, we do over $8 Million a year at the same price.  We cannot do that if our customers weren't convinced that this is the best buy.  Wouldn't you agree?
18. Does your company pay you only to buy the cheapest products?  Are they really interested in getting the best value for the dollar?  Shall we talk about value?
19. Our price is too high?  We very rarely hear that, what do you mean?
20. How much too high is it?  Do you realize that if you keep and use your products for 5 years, and most people do, the price difference is only 12¢ a day?  Isn't it worth 12¢ a day to have the very best?
21. If it were cheaper, would you want it?  Good!  Then what you are telling me is that you're interested.  Let's look at some ways you can afford it!

So there you have it, 21 ways to respond and most are questions that get the customer to share what's holding them back from a purchase.  Some of these responses may not be suitable for your situation but use this as a brainstorm with your sales team to come up with the right ones for them.  And then practicing these responses so they ask the follow-up questions confidently to engage the customer vs being argumentative or defensive with the customer.

Obviously, the best sales engagements address price long before it comes up from the customer.  How to avoid the price objection is the subject of another blog.

If your sales team is facing objections like price that's consistently hindering sales, let's have a discussion on improving their effectiveness.

Call me at ph:  972 709 6776 or em:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let's get started...improving your sales team’s effectiveness to give you back control of your business, so you can earn more and work less...

Hi Stephen Marino, with ActionCOACH - World’s #1 Business Coaching firm, successfully coaching thousands of business owners globally over the past 20 years through the numerous boom/bust economic cycles to overcome the time, team, money and systems obstacles that get in the way of predictable increasing profits and productivity.

5 Numbers Every Business Owner Must Know

Business owners - what are the 5 essential numbers to grow your business?  

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1. What’s the value of your time?  This number gives you perspective on how and where to apply your talents.  It helps prioritize your tasks.  Will this task make you money or avoid losing money - how much?  Without this this number you feel at odds constantly trying to do everything and failing to be productive.
2. When do you break-even?  Knowing when your revenues exceed the fixed and variable costs gives you confidence you make a profit for your efforts.  Without it you don’t know whether you’re winning or losing.  You don’t know the score.  You feel anxious and hesitant on strategy because you don’t know where you stand financially.
3. What’s the acquisition cost of your customers?  What are you spending in marketing, sales and customer experience to attract and retain them.  Are you receiving a return on investment?  Without this number you don’t have a basis to decide how and where to apply your resources.  You feel perplexed and must guess on marketing and sales strategies.
4. What is your customer lifetime value?  When you add up what your customer buys year-over-year plus their referrals, what value does it provide the business?  With this number you’ll appreciate your customers more.  Without this number you’ll miss apply your time with low quality customers vs focusing on retaining your loyal raving fans.
5. Finally, what is the value of your business?  What if you transitioned out of the business today, tomorrow or in 3 years what value do you need it to be?  What are the leveragable variables impacting the value?  How do you best show sustainable increasing discretionary cashflow?  Avoid feeling disappointed when this pinnacle event occurs.    

Knowing these 5 numbers is important.  Knowing the direction and rate of change is equally important over time.

If you’re uncertain about what your numbers are and their trends then let’s talk.  We’ll discuss how to calculate these numbers and how to move them in the right direction.  This is a complementary session and you're guaranteed to leave with at least a half dozen implementable ideas to improve these numbers.

Call me at ph:  972 709 6776 or eMail:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let’s get started...know these numbers and we'll grow your business!

Identify Why Your Marketing Leads Declined

Welcome to "Conversations Every Business Owner Must Have with Their Marketing and Sales team.  

When Marketing leads decline impacting sales, how do you to determine the cause and what to change?

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Whether you are a team of one or with several people dedicated to Marketing and Sales going through this evaluation will identify what to change.

Let's start by evaluating these 4 key areas...

1. Audience:  Start with your target audience...do you have your ideal customer, client, patient or member identified by demographic, psychographic and geographic characteristics?  These are the people that benefit the most by experiencing your products and services.  Can you describe them and determine where they are in the greatest number at the time they are most receptive to your offer?  The more you can segment this audience the more effective your marketing will be.  
2. Offer:  What is your company offering customers that fulfills a want, need, must have or unmet desire to engage them?  The offer must create an eager want to initiate their response so a conversation can start.   
3. Copy:  Does the marketing message resonate with your customer?  Is it in their language that lets them know, you know them, understand them, and demonstrate you're likable, trustworthy and credible?  Is your message delivered suitably for their communication style - visually, auditory and/or kinetically?  Is there sufficient evidence you're relating to them in their personally preference for social proof and logically? 
4. Distribution:  How and when are you reaching and connecting with your target audience?  For most businesses with less than 50 employees direct response, online, print, social media, networking and speaking are the likely cost effective choices vs. advertising.  

This evaluation identified where the likely shortcoming is.  Now you and your team can concentrate specifically on solutions and avoid the destabilizing blame, excuse and denial behavior that's detrimental to your business.  

Still stumped and want an outside perspective?  I'll offer you a free marketing and sales consultation?  Then contact me at  ph:  972 709 6776 or eM:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Let's get your marketing and sales re-ignited so you can be more profitable and productive...

How to Humanize B2B Marketing and Sales Conversations

Conversations Every Business Owner has with Their Marketing and Sales Team Series

Today’s question is, “What guidance do you give your marketing and sales team on how to humanize what you sell, especially in a B2B environment?”

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What you sell is stuff – it’s tangible and intangible products and services providing functionality, knowhow, speed, convenience, labor, compliance, feel good and confidence.  What they buy is you and your company’s promise to deliver on-time, to spec, on budget and wow – every time. 

The overarching premise is that you are having a conversation with a person in a company.  Yes, prioritize the person in the B2B environment.  The key to humanizing the discussion is to go beyond logic that gets them thinking and rationalizing and to personal emotion that gets them acting. 

Here are 7 tips get your marketing and sales team focused on humanizing your offering…

1.  Be Human:  Engage authentically, be genuine, show competence, as well as, vulnerability and character

2.  Tell a Story:  People listen to stories especially ones where they can see themselves participating.  Give them a beginning, middle and end with the point on how they benefit

3.  Site Relevant Statistics/Facts:  Research the evidence that describes their problems, the implications and how it doesn’t need to be that way.  You have a solution

4.  Ask your audience what’s important via conversations, interviews and surveys.  Ask what’s their #1 obstacle interfering with their productivity and profitability is it Time, Team, Money and/or Systems?  Why that one?  What would they do to overcome this obstacle?  Dig deep and don’t assume the answer.  They must acknowledge and express the discomfort and only then, can they decide to change 

5.  Show Social Proof:   Capture and document your customer Advocates and Raving Fans doing your selling for you.  “If I got these benefits so can you.”  If you say it, it may be true or not.  If they hear if from other’s it more credible

6.  Be news worthy:  Create events where the media wants to publicize it    

7.  Assure them they are not alone and you’re not going to judge them.  Demonstrate you hear, understand and appreciate their situation

To accelerate implementing how to humanize what you sell in a B2B environment, let’s talk.  I offer a complementary marketing and sales assessment.  And you’ll learn how to sell more by humanizing your marketing and sales conversations vs. competing on price and features.    Let’s get started…

Call 972 709 6776 or Email:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com 

Entrepreneurs Find Happiness When Can They Take the Initiative

Business owners how much of your time is spent reacting, responding and/or initiating revenue generating activities?  

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If the answer was too much reacting, some responding and very little initiating then I can probably surmise productivity and profitability are negatively impacted.  

When you’re reacting too much...you’re consumed with the day-to-day events attempting to make the sale, make the product and make the delivery to develop a solid business base.  You work hard because the systems and people are not capable without you.  Thus, you’re the limiting factor to your growth.  

Assuming you’re able of responding because you’ve gained experience and productivity to deliver, your time is consumed because it’s labor intensive.  Again, you're limiting growth.

It’s only after you have customers, systems and team delivering can you initiate actions to grow predictably.  At this point, you have choices because you’re earning money and you have control of your time.  In essence, it's only when you can take the initiative are you feeling happy.    

Happiness = Initiative

If you’re feeling too much of your time is spent reacting and responding resulting in stagnated growth then let’s have a conversation on how to gain back the initiative. You deserve it. Let's get started...

Call me at ph: 972 709 6776 or eM: StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Which is Harder to Calculate - Acquisition Cost of the Moon or Your Customer?

As a kid during the 1960's I was excited and enthralled when President Kennedy declared there would be a man on the moon before the end of the decade.  By then I wouldn't need my parent's permission to go, either. I eagerly followed all of the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs leading up to the moon landing on July 20, 1969. I sought out opportunities to retell the story for science class in reports with information covered by national television, radio, New York Times, National Geographic, Time and Life articles as the subject was too new to have books published. I even continued the pursuit with undergraduate studies. I served in the military and kept my options open.  Eventually, the military allowed me to apply and was screened for the shuttle astronaut program in 1981. I didn't make the cut. 

Since that time, I've soared in the business environment while following the NASA missions.  Last week I heard a telling marketing statistic by David Meerman Scott, co-author of "Marketing the Moon: The Selling of the Apollo Lunar Program." "Can you imagine deciding that we’re going to send 12 people to the surface of the moon and it's going to cost 4 percent of the national budget and 2 percent of the national workforce for a decade? So we had to sell it."  Heck, I didn't need to be sold, I bought it.  

Regardless, what he just stated was the acquisition cost to walk on the moon in tangible terms.  Wow, if they can put numbers to that audacious feat why can't most business owners put numbers to what it cost them to acquire a customer?  Or the cost to retain a customer and determine the a customer's lifetime value?

To be fair, I did rocket off an email to the co-authors asking what the lifetime value of walking on the moon was?  I haven't received their number back...

To determine and reduce your customer acquisition and retention cost and increase their lifetime value numbers...Let's talk.  

call ph: 972 709 6776 or em: StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Recruiting for Competitive Advantage - The 16 Cylinders of High Performance

Business Owners - what's your guidance on recruiting and retaining people to out perform your competition?  

A 6 cylinder car engine is powerful enough for most transportation purposes, but is that really high performance?  Not compared to the 16 cylinders of a Bugatti Veyron - the fastest street-legal production car in the world.  Who is the human equivalent of that?

Most owners accept 6 cylinder employees - adequate for the job.  3 cylinders are for the body – someone who turns up, occupies the seat, covers the job description skills.  The next 3 cylinders are for the mind.  Mind encompasses education, experience and training – all those things that are proudly stated on resume.  Yet we've often recruited someone who seemed to have the right background, experience and educational levels, and then found that they didn’t really rise to the challenge.

The missing 10 cylinders come from heart and spirit.  The 5 cylinders of heart are about commitment, initiative and emotional involvement with a role.  The 5 cylinders of spirit are about vision, inspiration and having a “higher purpose”.  What are the implications of looking at human performance this way?

Firstly, at 10 of 16 cylinders, heart and spirit are more important than mind and body.  It follows that selecting people should be more about finding the right attitude than training and experience. You can train new skills relatively easily, but it is very difficult to correct the wrong attitude.  But too many employers define the necessary training and experience of desirable candidates that they narrow the field of selection unnecessarily.  We tend to hire for skills and experience and fire for attitude and lack of commitment.

Secondly, while you can find people with heart and spirit if you look for it, you won’t retain those valuable qualities if you don’t respect and nurture them.  People will switch off, and retain those qualities for friends and family, or they’ll just leave you.  Such people need to be led, not just managed.  They need to find a higher purpose at work than just turning up for the pay, whatever that might be.  Some organizations find it easy to offer the higher purpose that helps people unleash all 16 cylinders – in different ways social services, religious, health care, teaching, military and social enterprises can do it.  It is more of a challenge for profit making enterprises, but it’s not impossible.  Today the coolest job are going to high tech vs investment banking or medical doctors for the interesting and meaningful work.

Thirdly, be very clear that leadership is a 16 cylinder activity, while management may just be a 6 cylinder one.  Only 16 cylinder people make great leaders.

Fourthly, what does the employment market value the most?  It usually values the mind element the most, even though mind – education, qualifications, sector experience.  So if you recruit people with the right heart and spirit, treat them right and have systems in place to deal with any initial lack of experience, they may actually cost you lower salaries.

Finally, it is not impossible to train heart and spirit.  Organizations that acknowledge their importance, who want team members to bring emotional commitment, passion and a sense of real responsibility to the job and use it positively, who cherish and acknowledge those qualities and which don’t only reward knowledge, logic and technical skills, will develop the heart and spirit of those working for them.  But it has to be genuine or it is likely to be counter-productive – how many people have you met who are working on organizations that espouse high ideals but who are entirely disillusioned by their own reality?  Who are the 16 Cylinder people in your organization?  For that matter, how many cylinders are you firing on yourself?

How do you find and develop these people?  Can you develop a recruitment process that allows existing team members to show their own emotional commitment to their jobs?  Can you use behavioral profiling or even emotional intelligence analysis better to understand those areas?  Can you define what 16 cylinder performance looks like in someone’s job description and contract?

At ActionCOACH we believe you can - let's have a conversation that'll allow you to recruit for competitive advantage and have your team members operate at the 16 cylinder performance level...

Let's get started.  Call me at ph:  972 709 6776 eM:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Why to Avoid Discounting and Competing on Price?

Business owners - what’s your marketing philosophy toward discounting prices vs. adding items of high perceived value?  
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Let’s assume we are not under duress, clearing inventory or other mitigating circumstances and seek what’s in the best interest for both the customer and company long term.  

If you choose discounting what are the implications?  

1. You admit you’re competing primarily on price and you’re looking for a transaction vs a successful and fulfilling relationship with the customer.  You educated the customer that your new base price is now your discounted price.
2. If your discount was significant to attract customers you probably discounted your profit margin away and are in first place to a race to the bottom
3. And even it you still have a positive margin you have to make a lot more sales to make the same profit as you would with a higher price. For example, if you have a 35% margin, and you are considering a 10% price decrease, you must have a whopping 40% increase in unit sales to end up with the same total gross profit dollars.

If you choose adding items of high perceived value, then

1. You’re enhancing the offer with other products and services that enrich the transaction and make the customer feel more fulfilled and successful and it didn’t cost you a lot to include
2. You are preserving your margins
3. And you had to make fewer sales to achieve the same profit amount

ActionITEM Tip:  To avoid having to discount prices, come up with a product and service list everything your customer values, calculate your margins per product and service and determine where you can add these to your marketing offers.  For the best answers of what has high perceived value, ask your customers.  Finally, measure and test your offers so you know what’s working and how to improve.

If you’re at a loss as to whether to discount or what you can offer that has high perceived value, then let’s talk.  I’ll offer a complimentary marketing assessment guaranteed to leave you with at least a half dozen ideas to avoid competing on price.  

Ph:  972 709 6776   Em:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com

Why Calling Everyone in Your Sales Process a "Lead" is Costing You Sales

By calling everyone in your sales process a “lead” you are losing valuable sights on how to improve which results in fewer sales.  

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Here’s a conversation every owner needs to have with their marketing and sales team which starts with,

“What is the company’s acquisition cost of a client?  Is the trend increasing or decreasing?  And what specifically can be done to improve it?”

If you received vague answers then here’s what the best marketing and sales teams do:

1. Build a sales relationship process recognizing these four stages:
• Target audience - your ideal client based on demographic and psychographic data
• Suspects - those that responded
• Prospects - contacted and engaged
• Leads - qualified for your solution and can make a decision
2. Measure your conversions from target audience to suspects to prospects to leads to customers/clients.
3. Evaluate why people move and/or don't move from stage-to-stage
4. Calculate your acquisition cost at each conversion
5. Make changes in marketing and sales scripts to improve effectiveness and efficiency

Need to improve your sales relationship process?  Let's talk.  I'll offer you a Complementary Sales Assessment.

Call me today:  ph:  972 709 6776 eM:  StephenMarino@ActionCOACH.com  Let's get started...