5 alarming business trends rpt
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Welcome to today’s webinar on 5 Alarming Business Trends That Could Put You Out of Business or Send You Soaring. I’m going to cover a metric ton of material in a short amount of time so I hope you came armed with the necessary tools to take notes and you’ve blocked out any distractions because this could be a game changing day for you. Be sure to turn off instant messaging, shut down Facebook and Twitter, and put your cell phone on silent so you can pay focused attention because I’ll almost guarantee you’re going uncover something today that can help you generate a LOT more revenue for your business. You’ve probably experienced firsthand how much more difficult it is to reach prospects and keep their attention today. Would that be a fair statement? Don’t believe that’s true? Next time you are out eating, pay attention to what everybody else is doing. How many DON’T have an electronic device of some sort that they’re either paying most of their attention to or is at least at arm’s length. It’s shocking to see someone without one these days, isn’t it? We live in an always on, plugged in 24 hours/day, gadget happy society now. Whether it’s an iPhone, iPad, droid, laptop, tablet, or some other wireless electronic device is irrelevant because we seemingly can no longer function at full capacity without constant stimulation today. Wouldn’t you agree? You and I both know it’s a total joke that some people are naïve enough to believe they can’t function without their cell phone or laptop nearby, but don’t tell them that because they have gadgets it tow everywhere they go like a security blanket. Hello, my name is Roger Bauer. I’m the founder of SMB Consulting, a marketing consulting firm based in Louisville, KY. I’m also one of the Principals of x2 Sales, but please understand what we’re going to talk about today isn’t about me or any of my accomplishments as a business owner, salesperson or marketer. It’s all about you and growing your business. Allow me a moment to be brutally honest with you before we dive into anything, and grant me a very small favor in return that will ultimately benefit you. I’m probably going to make your head spin over the next several minutes with a lot of statistics, facts, survey results, and analysis. All that I ask is that if you’ve heard a particular statistic or quote before that you resist the common temptation to assume you’ve heard ALL of this before because there are bound to be some things you haven’t heard or seen that can really benefit you in your quest to grow your business. In other words, maintain an open mind.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 1
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Depending upon your perspective, the collection of statistics will either encourage you or send chills down your spine. The session today will either serve as a much needed wakeup call or a well deserved pat on the back for a job well done. So what exactly are we going to talk about today? Here’s a quick overview: The 5 Alarming Trends Facing You & Your Business Today 8 Strategies You Must Leverage to Double Your Sales Over the Next 12-18 Months 8 Steps to Improve Your Sales Performance Immediately 7 Things to Look for in a Potential Sales & Marketing Partner As you ride along with me on this brief journey, be thinking about your business and how your organization’s sales performance relates to the statistics, trends, and anecdotes discussed. Be honest with yourself about current performance levels and avoid the urge to simply blame it on the economy because there are plenty of organizations that are still hitting their numbers consistently. So with all of that said, let’s jump in …
Clutter, Clutter & More Clutter You probably already know that the average person receives approximately 5,000 commercial messages per day. Business decision makers likely see double that. When you factor in the growth of the Internet & Social Media, you start to understand why this number is projected to approach 30,000 messages per day within the next 3-5 years.i Think back to the example mentioned earlier and eating out … we all seemingly have ADD now, don’t we? To suggest your marketplace is rather cluttered would be a massive understatement, right? Standing out today is harder than ever and may explain just one tiny piece of the puzzle when it comes to business failures. More on how to stand out in your market a little later in today’s program. To really drive home the point and what it means to your sales, understand that it used to take 4 exposures to a new prospect to build enough credibility and trust to ultimately close a deal. Contrast those stats with several studies that suggest that it now takes a minimum of 7 exposures (8.4 on average) to build that same credibility and trust. So it takes you twice as much work to achieve the same results, By understanding this dynamic as you undoubtedly do, you quickly start to realize why so many sales professionals fail.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 2
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING A Critical Look at Sales Rep Persistence Levels If appropriate follow up is a large component of your sales strategy (and it should be), consider this diagram that I call the “Persistence Tear” (stats courtesy of Chet Holmes International): So what do the percentages mean? The “tear” shows how many organizations keep trying after facing a certain level rejection. For example, 52% of organizations give up after just one rejection which means 48% keep chugging. After the second rejection, 80% are gone and only 7% remain after three rejections. If the average organization faces four rejections, only 5% of them will continue to follow up. In other words, 95% of businesses give up on prospects after four rejections. The 5% that are persistent enough to close deals are those rare birds. The eagles, top performers, President’s Club members, superstars, and so forth. One “eagle” usually outperforms 4 or 5 average reps combined. Exactly How Many Calls Does it Take to Close a Deal Today? Now, let’s dig a bit deeper into how many exposures it takes to close a deal both from a new customer acquisition and a repeat purchase from an existing client. According to CSO Insights, there is a great disparity between the numbers of “touches” it takes to close a new customer versus an existing one. You probably suspected this yet may not have had supporting evidence to prove it so I’m going to give you that now. Calls Required 1-2 3-5 6-9 10+
4% 32% 38% 30%
New Client
Existing Client 39% 45% 3% 13%
So you can see from the stats that only 36% of new clients are acquired after five calls or less while 84% of existing clients typically make another purchase after the same number of calls.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 3
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING To emphasize the impact on your business, understand it’s almost 10 times less expensive to close an existing client versus a new one yet most businesses focus 80% of their resources on acquiring new clients. Sirius Decisions had an interesting look at how many deals close after a certain number of calls, and I’m assuming the study didn’t differentiate between new versus existing clients which explains why the number of deals closed after one call is so relatively high at 2%. As the pyramid suggests, 81% of all deals are consummated after 5 or more calls. I would suggest to you that existing clients are the ones inking deals during calls 1-4, but I have no way of knowing that for certain. Anyway, it is little wonder the average sales rep experiences the “sales roller coaster” where one month is a great peak and the next one presents a deep valley. It also explains why 20% of sales reps generate 80% of the profits … the good ole Pareto Principle in effect. If your organization fits this description, you’re undoubtedly starting to look at things a bit differently, aren’t you? Here’s a little more salt to toss into the wound thanks again to Sirius Decisions: 80% of the leads you consider to be “dead” today will buy within two years.
The Buying Diamond of a Typical Target Audience Let’s now take a peek at a “buying diamond” of a typical target audience for just about any industry or market. These stats are based on a statistical analysis conducted by my firm, SMB Consulting: In any given market, there are roughly 2% of potential prospects actively buying right now. If you’re targeting these prospects today, you may be late to the party because they’ve probably done their due diligence and selected a solution provider already.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 4
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Think about the RFP process where the likely winner is the one helping to write the RFP, that’s a large portion of who you have in this segment of the buying diamond. They probably already have their vendor picked by the time you reach out to them if you haven’t been involved up to now. A lot of sales reps will waste time chasing these prospects because they perceive them as “hot” because they’re obviously buying now. The next section down shows that only 14% are considering buying which leaves you 84% of the overall market of which 16% will never buy no matter what you do. Think of the bottom 16% as you trying to sell high heel shoes to men, Just for Men to women, or something else that just won’t grab someone’s attention no matter how good you market because this is true of any market. There will always be a 16% portion that will never be interested. So let’s eliminate them from our mix before moving on. Now, think back to the “Persistence Pyramid” and how few organizations stick with it past one or two rejections then ponder how only 14% of any market is open to buying right now. That means you realistically have about a 2.7% chance of closing a deal if you run a typical organization. Wouldn’t you agree that these dynamics call for a change in strategy to overcome status quo performance? By now, you’re probably asking “how do I get through to that 82% of the ‘considering’ or ‘indifferent’ market without wasting a bunch of time and money?” Hold your horses because I’ll cover that in a little while. Let’s say you do a better job of targeting better prospects. What are you going to do to get and keep their attention? If your organization is anything like most, there’s a lot of work to do to narrow the gap between giving up too soon and following up enough to help your prospect reach an educated decision.
Running a Business: The Odds Are Stacked Against You I have more sobering statistics to share with you as a fellow business owner.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 5
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING If your business has been around for less than 10 years, you could be facing extremely imposing odds because only 1 in 25 businesses lives to see ten candles on the birthday cake. 80% of all businesses fail within two years and 90% fail within 3 years. All of those statistics are from the Census Bureau and paint a rather dark picture don’t they? As if that’s not enough, how about these stats? A corporation fails every 3 minutes A directorship changes every 32 seconds A company changes control every 15 minutes ii 26,000 new products and brands are introduced every year 29% of consumers don’t read a newspaper iii Believe it or not, I’m not even close to done with the stats! Business Bankruptcies Since 1985, there has been an average of 236 business bankruptcies filed per business day and 51,836 per year. These numbers increased by an average of 1.7% per year since 1985. The silver lining in all of this is that from 1985-1992 there were 88.4% more business bankruptcies filed than there were during a similar seven year span from 2002-2009. That means, believe it or not, we’ve endured worse times economically. See, all the crap about blaming the economy isn’t supported by facts, stats and trends when viewed from a broader perspective. Even though the most recent data suggests that we’ve actually endured worse times historically, my firm is projecting a rather substantial average increase of 6.4% business bankruptcies annually over the next 4 plus years. That would mean there will be 251/business day filed between now and 2015 if those numbers bare out. Let’s hope I’m off in my projections! Good economy, bad economy … doesn’t matter. Businesses still fail in good or bad times at a similar clip. So what do all of these stats ultimately mean to you? Unfortunately, it may be a matter of when versus if you’ll have to close your doors especially if you maintain status quo operations. As the saying goes, “you’re either growing or dying … there is no in between.”
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 6
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Franchises: An Exception to the Rules? One last stat to toss at you … did you realize that roughly 1 in 13 (8%) franchises fail? Better stated, only 1 in 25 businesses will survive 10 years while 23 of 25 franchises will succeed. That begs the question of why do franchises succeed while “traditional” businesses fail? The simple answer is they have systems in place for just about every aspect of the business including sales and marketing. We’ll talk about this in more detail as you progress today.
5 Reasons for Failing Businesses So why do so many businesses fail? According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the top reasons for failure include: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
Bad customer relations Bad budgeting Lack of staff training Failure to anticipate market trends Poor or inconsistent marketing
The remainder of today’s briefing will focus on that last problem … inconsistent or poor marketing because it’s imperative for you to understand the pitfalls facing so many businesses and how to avoid them. Simply put, most firms fail to leverage marketing properly, and I’ll dig deeper into that in a moment. Before we get into marketing and specifics, think about your sales staff and how you generate leads today. Like most businesses, do you rely heavily on cold prospecting to stockpile leads and get new customers?
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 7
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 8 STRATEGIES YOU MUST LEVERAGE TO DOUBLE YOUR SALES OVER THE NEXT 12-18 MONTHS Now, I want to shift your attention to a one legged-stool because that’s how most firms market themselves … one strategy or tactic. The majority of businesses merely look at the leaders within their industry and copy what they’re doing because they rationalize that “if it works for them, it’ll work for us.” Back to the stool analogy for a moment … unless a one legged-stool is bolted to the ground like you see in some older diners, it’s not real effective is it? At best, you probably have two legs on your marketing stool and this all ties in with something I refer to as Marketing’s Interrelationship nicely. Two legs will support your stool a little better, but they still don’t provide that sturdy foundation you need to prevent tipping over. You already see where I’m going, don’t you? Ask yourself this … “why would I risk my firm’s longevity and stability by limiting its growth to one or two marketing legs on my stool?” If you get nothing else out of today’s executive briefing, get this because it’s the difference between long-term failure and success. Marketing’s Interrelationship involves eight strategies and several tactics to support each strategy. As you look at the diagram, think about your own processes from suspects all the way through to the most loyal ambassadors of your brand. We’ll go over each strategy in light detail, but please understand it is beyond the scope of this briefing to dig too deep because I could literally spend hours on each one. As we quickly explore each strategy, make a notation of which ones you use today and which ones you plan to use over the next 12-18 months. Also document how much you spend on each and the performance. The eight “core” strategies of Marketing’s Interrelationship are as follows: 1) Internet – this includes things such as your website, blog, SEO, social networking, etc. 2) 1:1 Contact – this includes tactical pursuits such as the use of the telephone, email, meetings and networking groups. 3) Education – things such as seminars, webinars, trade shows, conferences, white papers, case studies, and reports fit under this umbrella.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 8
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 4) Public & Media Relations – press releases, articles written about and by your company, interviews with reporters, public service announcements, news releases, and reputation management are included in your PR strategy. 5) Direct Mail—obviously this includes things such as letters, lumpy mail, postcards, promotional items, gifts, etc. 6) Advertising – traditional ads on TV, radio, print, signs, and your media buying support your advertising strategy. More on this in just a second. 7) Sales Literature – your brochures, tear sheets, testimonials, and postcards fit in with your sales literature strategy. Can you see why your website no longer fits here? 8) Partnerships – many overlook this strategy, but joint ventures, affiliates, referrals and sponsors can help you boost your business rapidly and cost effectively. To succinctly summarize the importance of Marketing’s Interrelationship, simply understand that you should incorporate at least one tactical element from each of the eight overarching strategies. The more you intertwine things so that one strategy builds upon and supports another, the better everything will perform. The cumulative impact is far greater than the sum of the parts.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 9
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 8 STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SALES PERFORMANCE IMMEDIATELY When I was in sales, I had no idea how powerful the Internet would become or how to properly leverage it to increase sales like today. The Internet makes it fairly easy to go from a local outfit to a global one overnight in terms of visibility. For example, someone conducting a Google search in South Africa can easily find your firm today whereas before it would have taken some serious research and effort even as little as ten years ago. Furthermore, back then, there wasn’t a lot of automation available to sales and marketing … the CRM systems available were extremely manually operated, and prepopulating a sales process into an automated electronic system was hairy at best. The bottom line is if you aren’t leveraging your website to generate leads and expand your visibility, you’re missing out on a humongous opportunity. To further illustrate that point … did you know that 80% of sales transactions today begin with an online search through such outlets as Google, Yahoo and Bing? Before we get into any specifics in terms of what you must get out of your website, let me outline eight steps you can start working on today to improve your sales performance.
Step #1: Make an Organizational Commitment to Increasing Sales Most organizations simply pay “lip service” to increasing sales. You know it, and I know it! Senior leadership will attend an expensive two-three day seminar or retreat then return with this newfound energy to get “all hands on deck” to grow the business. It rarely gets sustained though, right? What typically happens is the growth initiatives are embraced by everyone at the beginning only to fizzle out after 60 or 90 days because progress isn’t significant enough to maintain any semblance of momentum. Everybody eventually returns to operation “status quo” and putting out those inevitable “daily fires” instead of joining forces to grow the business. It’s not that you don’t want to grow your business rather the day-to-day operation dictates that you focus on wearing your firefighter’s hat instead of your growth hat, right?
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 10
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING I’ve seen it too many times … business owners come to me repeatedly with sob stories of how the year got off to such a sizzling start yet fizzled around March or April because they got sidetracked working IN the business instead of ON it. Understand that it’s not your fault because that’s how we’ve always been taught to operate a business … take care of today’s problems and issues so you can fight another day, right? The good news is that what typically happens with our clients spits directly into the eye of “status quo” and business as usual operations. It’s exciting to say the least! All Hands on Deck You’ve probably experienced this first hand: a lot of business executives, directors, managers and operations personnel feel uncomfortable asking for an order. It feels “hypey” or “salesy,” so they resist and retreat. Resistance is a common bi-product when non-sales people are asked to help close deals in any business, but I have some more good news ... that’s
fault!
also not your
It’s human nature to resist change especially when there’s a pre-conceived notion that “non-sales” personnel will have to engage in pressure and hype laden tactics. An enlightened moment frequently occurs, however, when your staff is shown how their raises and salaries are directly impacted by how much revenue the business generates. Suddenly, pitching in to increase sales doesn’t seem so “slimy.” Mindset Shift By changing the mindset of the staff at your firm to one of service, many will quickly realize that they would be doing their future clients a disservice if they didn’t help to encourage the order. Letting potential clients “drift” to a competitor wouldn’t be in their best interest because your offer is the best option for that prospect, right? Adopting this mindset shifts the focus from a place of selfishness to a rather selfless one. Stop South Heading Trend Lines Even though your business may not be on the verge of closing its doors, the “trend line” may be heading south compared to the “good times.” What that means is that if the leadership doesn’t make a conscientious decision to make it everyone’s job to grow the business, things may become “sticky” sooner rather than later especially when the economy isn’t booming. You’ll be forced to make some tough decisions or have them made for you by your market.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 11
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Step #2: Improve Your Competitive Intelligence It probably goes without saying that you can learn a lot from your competitors because they’re trying to grow sales just like you are. That being said, a lot of organizations prefer to ignore the competition in order to concentrate on improving internally. They figure that if they do what they do better, the competition will be irrelevant. I’ve worked for quite a few companies that seemed to live by the philosophy I just outlined, and I’m happy to report that only 1 out of maybe five is still in business. The others have gone under or were gobbled up by a larger competitor. You may wonder why I say “I’m happy to report” that only 1 in 5 is still around. It’s simple … you can’t survive in today’s marketplace without checking the pulse of your industry or market on a regular basis. Besides, egocentric business owners that believe the competition is never a threat are idiots. Pardon my candor, but it’s true. No business exists in a bubble. There is always somebody skinning the cat better than you are in some form or fashion. They may not be skinning the whole cat better than you, but they’re undoubtedly skinning SOME of it better. Wouldn’t you agree that is a fair statement? Call in the SWOT Team Generally, I start off any endeavor with a new client by determining what they do really well. I mean, what are their innate strengths that help ring the register most often? Then from there, we usually branch out to look at the strongest competitors to analyze their strengths and weaknesses to determine the opportunities and threats. You may have heard of a SWOT Analysis, and I highly encourage conducting one if you don’t already do that on a regular basis. If you need help, you can obviously contact me directly because I’d be happy to assist you. Anyway, when you look around at your competitors, which ones have advantages over you and what are those advantages? What can they offer that would be difficult for you to match given your current resources? Conversely, what can you offer that would be difficult for them to match? What makes your business unique? In other words, why would someone buy your products and services instead of one of your competitors? There are a lot of exercises you can perform to improve your competitive intelligence, but suffice it to say that you should at least conduct semi-regular SWOT Analyses to
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 12
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your organization on an ongoing basis.
Step #3: Implement an Educational Process for Prospects You’ve already been exposed to the buying diamond and how 68% of your desired target audience is “indifferent” right now. A frequent question I get is “Roger, how can I effectively reach more of the 68% that are indifferent along with the 14% that may be open to buying?” Use Educational Marketing Instead of pushing for a sale right out of the chute like that annoying car salesman that practically jumps you as soon as you step on the lot, consider offering your prospects something educational (i.e. valuable) in exchange for their contact information (first name and email address at least). Offering something for free on your website in exchange for contact information enables you to stay in touch with your prospects whereas you’d otherwise have no clue who visited your site or what they’re interested in. Offer a Valuable Freebie For example, what brought you here today was an educational experience, right? “5 Alarming Trends & What You Can Do About Them” is much more appealing than “let me come in to meet with you to discuss your sales and marketing processes,” wouldn’t you agree? I probably blew my cover with that, but it’s okay because I want you to really get this. An approach like this enables you to attract qualified leads like a squirrel gathers nuts because you’re offering something interesting and valuable to your target audience to “warm them up” instead of pushing for a meeting before a prospect is ready. Asking for a meeting or a sale with a prospect right away is like a guy meeting a very attractive girl at a bar then asking her to get married immediately after learning her name. Neither one knows enough about the other to determine if a date is even in their best interests let alone a commitment like marriage. With your educational freebie, you can: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Answer frequently asked questions Provide a set of buying criteria that clearly favors your organization Overcome objections Outline a series of questions to ask your competitors that you know they can’t answer as thoroughly as you (then answer the questions of course)
This does several things for your prospect (and your business):
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 13
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 1. Builds trust and credibility 2. Demonstrates your capabilities 3. Establishes some talking points that you can use throughout your follow up processes 4. Starts the buying process on the right foot by helping to educate your prospect vs. immediately trying to sell them Imagine how much more receptive your target audience would be to an educational “experience” versus facing the hard sell they’re so accustomed to. We help our clients with this all the time because it opens the door for you and your sales staff to begin to “chip away” at those 8.4 exposures necessary to influence a buying decision.
Step #4: Revamp Your Website to Focus on Lead Generation Most websites serve as little more than an online brochure … a very stale, outdated and dusty brochure at that! They typically have an abundance of stock photos, and they highlight features instead of benefits to the visitor. Most sites, even today, place little emphasis on lead generation or getting a visitor to take a desired action. There is far more attention paid to aesthetics than functionality and results. Don’t get me wrong though … I’m a huge fan of pleasing graphics and aesthetics but not at the expense of functionality and measureable results because the most beautiful, expensive, and advanced website is useless if nobody can find it and it doesn’t further the sales process at all. Since you’re sitting there in front of your computer, watching every slide and listening to every word, you’ll heed my advice to the letter and no longer maintain one of those outdated brochure websites, right? ;-) In all seriousness, we can help you with your web presence later, but let’s keep moving forward. Realize Your Website is Critical to Your Growth One of the things our most successful clients realize long before they even begin their online growth initiatives is that they needed a website that: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Captures leads Allows for updating content frequently Enables onsite multi-media file viewing for its visitors Encourages multiple people from the organization to contribute to the site Conveys a unique value proposition
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 14
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Your Website SHOULD BE More Than an Online Brochure! We recommend you overhaul your website by taking it from a stale, brochure type, static website to a dynamic WordPress based site. You may be wondering “what makes a WordPress site so special?” Simply stated, search engines such as Google LOVE WordPress sites! WordPress also makes it easier to provide a more interactive experience for your visitors while encouraging visitors to register for the valuable freebie. Sometimes Your Website Needs a New Engine, Too! If you maintain status quo with your website, it likely will remain relatively invisible to search engines and online searchers if it doesn’t rank well today. That’s not to suggest that every website needs an overhaul, but there are quite a few stale sites out there that merely take up space and contribute very little other than an occasional laugh. Often times, I’ll see people invest thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars into a website overhaul in an effort to improve search positioning. While this can be an effective tactic to make your site more attractive to search engines and online searchers, there is frequently one key element missing …
Web designers aren’t necessarily good marketers! Sure, they’ll design some of the nicest looking sites under the sun while incorporating some super cool script thingys, but the sites aren’t designed to get you more leads or sales. They’re just another version of the stale and crusty brochure site you had before with some nicer graphics. Instead of overhauling a site just for search visibility, why not design the site from the ground up to be both search engine and lead capture friendly? You can have it both ways, you know? Ask for the Registration (opt-in)! One key thing that we encourage in the redesign of any website is placing a lead capture form on every single page of the site.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 15
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING By having a highly visible registration form on every page, you’ll make it clear that there’s something valuable for your prospects to check out. Make it painfully obvious that you want them to fill out the registration (opt-in) form. One item of note: just because you put a form on your site doesn’t mean people will take the desired action! You have to make it obvious that you want someone to take that action and what they’ll get in return before they will. Incorporate Marketing Automation Your registration forms feed what is known as an auto-responder service that manages the leads and the timing of your follow up sequences. What you’re aiming for is to automate the early stages of the follow up process so that when it comes time for your sales rep to pick up the phone and call a potential prospect, the prospect is already familiar with your organization, what you offer, and how you can help. This helps you eliminate cold calling and condenses the time to a deal considerably. Some of our clients have experienced as much as a 44.7% decrease in the time to a deal by properly using marketing automation. You’ll want to line yourself up with a quality auto-responder like those offered by Aweber, Constant Contact, GetResponse, Send Pepper or Infusionsoft. If you are a larger firm, you may want to consider SalesForce.com, Lyris, Responsys, and Sage. Based on your budget, number of contacts and likely email volume, you can select a service plan that best meets your needs. Incorporating automation enables you to zig when your competition zags because only 2-5% of companies are utilizing marketing automation/lead management automation today. iv
Step #5: Focus on Testing & Tracking
We marketers … you’re a marketer whether you like it or not … like to try a lot of different things to get people to take action. That’s the positive, but there’s a huge negative to being a marketer … Even though we like to try different things to get a positive response, we’re not always very good about tracking every change or testing, are we? We sling stuff at the wall in hopes that something sticks … you’re human so what can you say, right?
You already know this, but you can’t improve upon something until you know what you’re up against!
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 16
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Outline Key Metrics before You Begin One of the things that our most successful clients commit to at the outset of their growth initiatives is to test and analyze so they can continually improve results. They also establish baselines beforehand so they have something to compare with to measure effectiveness (or ineffectiveness). A lot of firms focus on obvious things such as revenue levels, cost of sale, net margin, number of leads generated per week and the number of leads it takes to close a deal. Each industry has a set of key metrics that are deemed most valuable by stakeholders so you already know what’s most important to your business and are probably already tracking those, but what elements contribute to them that can have an impact? In other words, what are the metrics within the metrics? By focusing on specific metrics, you will be able to improve dramatically in each key area in order to grow your business rapidly and profitably. All Firms Are Not the Same Your business will likely have a different scenario facing it when it comes to growth. Just be sure to focus on key metrics as you set out on your journey to greater success. I’m not sure which famous marketer first coined the following phrase, but it definitely applies to success:
“INspect what you EXpect!” Establish Your Baseline NOW If you’ll begin to establish your baseline metrics now, you’ll have good data to compare when you implement a sales and marketing solution.
Step #6: Optimize Your 1:1 Interactions to Foster More Sales Most organizations are happy when the phone rings or someone visits in-person and it’s a prospective new customer instead of another complaint. When a new prospect calls, a lot of us go into “sales mode” by answering every single objection and question thrown our way because we are in a reactionary state.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 17
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING The problem with this approach is that we’re not process oriented when we’re in “sales mode.” We often try to cut corners and reach the finish line before running the whole race. You know you can’t officially win a 26 mile race without running all 26 miles, but that doesn’t stop us does it? Set Small Obtainable Phone Goals When someone calls your firm, what is the ideal outcome from that call? I’m betting you’ll probably say “a sales transaction occurs.” Let’s back up first … In order to get clients to sign a deal, isn’t there a process they go through before signing any paperwork? Typically, aren’t there multiple contributors and influencers on every major deal? Much like test driving a car, wouldn’t they want to kick the tires a bit before committing thousands of dollars to it? Knowing that’s typically the case, why not set the goals of your phone prospecting efforts to “sell” the freebie to get the automated process started so when it’s time to meet face-to-face, your prospect is up to snuff on everything necessary to make a decision? That’s the next logical step in the process, right? Another thing you can do to help grow your business is to develop tools for your sales force to demonstrate the potential return on investment your products and services can provide for your clients. This also can be systematized and automated to a large extent so that every rep uses the same tools and requests the necessary information from prospects so that you can engage them in a quality dialogue about how you can help them. Get Them Into Your Automated Follow Up Processes! One of the things we’ve helped our clients do very well is to revamp their 1:1 interactions to focus on getting the prospect to accept an “ethical bribe” (a valuable freebie) because that’s how you can start the process to educate your prospects how to buy what you offer. Getting someone into your automated follow up process cuts costs and improves closing ratios because it’s harder to say “no” once you’re face to face asking for the order when the timing is right versus rushing the sale like so many do today. When you follow a systematic process instead of ad-libbing, you reduce leakage and wasted time in personal 1-on-1 meetings because the automated processes help to nurture prospects until they are properly equipped to make a purchasing decision.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 18
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING By placing emphasis on getting the prospect to agree to the next step in a finely-tuned process, you will be able to improve your lead-to-deal performance significantly.
Step #7: Ask for the Order at the “Closing Table” This may seem a bit obvious, but it is the key step that is often omitted. Consider everything you’ve done up to now: You have educated your prospect They are interested enough in your freebie that they have agreed to take the next step You have shown them all the grand and wonderful things that set your firm and its solutions apart from all the others You have answered all of their questions and overcome their objections
NOW, YOU MUST ASK FOR THE ORDER! Look, most people feel uncomfortable asking for the order. They feel as if they’re being too high pressure so they become meek because none of us enjoy that experience. Be sure to ask for the order while your prospect is sitting in front of you because it’s harder to say “no” in person than it is over the phone or email. You ARE the Best Option, Right? The problem with not asking for the order is you OWE your prospect the opportunity to do business with you because you can make a difference. That’s right … you OWE them that because your solution is the best option for them. If you are not the best option, do everything within your power as soon as we are done today to become so.
Step #8: Increase Visibility via Marketing’s Interrelationship For years, many businesses have primarily relied upon traditional outlets such as TV, Radio, Print and Yellow Pages’ ads to generate leads. Often times those ads ran anywhere from $5-200,000/year or more.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 19
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Back in the “good old days,” this strategy was extremely effective but with as many as 80% of buying decisions beginning with an online search, the landscape has greatly changed. We’ve already covered Marketing’s Interrelationship so you know that you should be utilizing at least one tactic within each of the eight overarching strategies to increase awareness and visibility for your firm. I won’t beat a dead horse if you’ll vow to take action.
Summary In summary, growing your business exponentially isn’t about doing one or two things here and there in a silo. What do I mean by that? Remember, it’s more than JUST redesigning your website to generate leads. It’s more than JUST offering something of value to entice web visitors to share their contact information then educating your prospects. It’s more than JUST automating the early stages of your follow up process so that you can narrow the gap between giving up too soon and following up properly. It’s more than JUST improving your search engine visibility or sending out more direct mail. Yes, you’ve got it figured out … success comes much easier when you combine ALL of those things into an integrated system that seamlessly meshes with your existing business model. That’s when exponential growth occurs, not when you piece a couple of tactics together like most ad agencies and marketing firms suggest. When you combine a superior access vehicle that educates your prospects with an enhanced website that is designed to generate leads along with a trained sales force that is armed with the necessary tools to demonstrate undeniable value, you have a winner on your hands. The question to ask yourself is how many of these things are you doing in unison today?
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 20
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 7 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A POTENTIAL SALES & MARKETING PARTNER You already know there are a ton of options out there to consider for advertising, marketing, and sales development. If your goal is to grow exponentially, and I’m assuming it is because you joined me today, you’ve got to know what to look for to keep from getting taken to the cleaners. Right now, I’m going to share seven key things to look for in potential sales, advertising or marketing partners. The first thing you should look for in a potential growth partner is whether they have a strategy to grow your business or whether they’re just going to throw a bunch of tactics at it. For instance, redesigning your website is extremely tactical by itself. Performing search engine optimization (SEO), creating a white paper or implementing an automated follow up sequence is also tactical as a lone endeavor. When you combine everything to fit into a system like we’ve been talking about today that is designed to increase sales by offering an educational experience and capturing leads through your website that are automatically followed up with, you become far more strategic. Needless to say, in addition to mapping out a strategy, your marketing partner should know how to integrate the following six things into a strategic system to produce results for you: 1) Lead generation website that meets all of the criteria we’ve talked about today 2) Search engine optimization (SEO) to get you more visibility with your desired target audience (most web design firms aren’t good at SEO and vice versa) 3) An educational marketing campaign that incorporates automated follow-up via an auto-responder system that tracks your prospects’ activity so that you can improve future interactions with them to close deals faster 4) Training of your staff to use the system so that your efforts don’t fall flat when it’s game time 5) A tangible return on investment (ROI) proposition that has delivered profitably for other businesses in the past whether it’s for the same industry or a different one … the concepts are equally applicable across industries if your marketing partner knows what the hell they’re doing
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 21
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 6) A thorough understanding of the sales process and how to effectively leverage Marketing’s Interrelationship to effectively grow your business
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 22
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING HOW MY TEAM & I CAN HELP YOU GROW SALES STARTING TODAY Considering everything just outlined in terms of selecting a potential marketing partner, allow me a few minutes to go over what we offer businesses like yours so that you can make an informed decision about your business’ future. Remember, this is just the first step in the process even though you have covered a lot of ground already today. For starters, when we take on a new client, every endeavor involves outlining a strategy to grow your business that is comprised of several tactics, key performance metrics, and milestones to support the growth strategy. The websites we design are built from the ground up to be search engine and user friendly while also focusing heavily on lead generation throughout. It does no good to have a brochure style website anymore because your visitors care more about what’s in it for them instead of more boring rhetoric about your company and its history. Nobody cares what you did 25 years ago … they want to know what you can do for them today, how long it’s going to take, and how much it’s going to cost to produce the results they are after. An educational marketing campaign is the centerpiece of the strategies we implement for businesses like yours that also takes advantage of automation as much as possible where it’s appropriate. Automation isn’t the answer to everything, but it’s very effective when used properly. Training is also a key component of the projects we undertake so it’s included with every project. Whether you take advantage of the training and stick with the lessons is completely up to you, but it is included so that you can take over as much of the marketing internally as you’d like over time. A lot of marketing firms don’t want you to know what they’re doing behind the scenes so they can keep billing you, but that’s not our philosophy. We realized pretty early on that the more you understand what all is involved, the more you’ll value and appreciate it. Finally, not to brag or boast, but the case studies of our clients speak for themselves in terms of ROI and real business value. Be sure to check them out … even if the case study doesn’t apply directly to your industry apples to apples, the concepts and leverage of Marketing’s Interrelationship should resonate with you. When you’ve done your due diligence and come to the realization that we will help you grow, there’s only one thing left to do … pick up the phone and call me to discuss your business and its current situation. It doesn’t cost you a penny to do this.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 23
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING I’ll help you determine which path is best for you whether it’s training, implementation or a combination of both. Generally speaking, it is usually the latter. You can reach me (Roger) directly at (502) 394-0460 or via email at [email protected]. My team and I answer our own phones and emails and look forward to helping you grow your business. Yankelovich Knell, Eric. “7 Corporate Red Flags.” Business Finance Magazine, August 2002. iii Entrepreneur Magazine, http://entrepreneur.com iv Laura Ramos at Forrester i
ii
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 24
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 1
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Depending upon your perspective, the collection of statistics will either encourage you or send chills down your spine. The session today will either serve as a much needed wakeup call or a well deserved pat on the back for a job well done. So what exactly are we going to talk about today? Here’s a quick overview: The 5 Alarming Trends Facing You & Your Business Today 8 Strategies You Must Leverage to Double Your Sales Over the Next 12-18 Months 8 Steps to Improve Your Sales Performance Immediately 7 Things to Look for in a Potential Sales & Marketing Partner As you ride along with me on this brief journey, be thinking about your business and how your organization’s sales performance relates to the statistics, trends, and anecdotes discussed. Be honest with yourself about current performance levels and avoid the urge to simply blame it on the economy because there are plenty of organizations that are still hitting their numbers consistently. So with all of that said, let’s jump in …
Clutter, Clutter & More Clutter You probably already know that the average person receives approximately 5,000 commercial messages per day. Business decision makers likely see double that. When you factor in the growth of the Internet & Social Media, you start to understand why this number is projected to approach 30,000 messages per day within the next 3-5 years.i Think back to the example mentioned earlier and eating out … we all seemingly have ADD now, don’t we? To suggest your marketplace is rather cluttered would be a massive understatement, right? Standing out today is harder than ever and may explain just one tiny piece of the puzzle when it comes to business failures. More on how to stand out in your market a little later in today’s program. To really drive home the point and what it means to your sales, understand that it used to take 4 exposures to a new prospect to build enough credibility and trust to ultimately close a deal. Contrast those stats with several studies that suggest that it now takes a minimum of 7 exposures (8.4 on average) to build that same credibility and trust. So it takes you twice as much work to achieve the same results, By understanding this dynamic as you undoubtedly do, you quickly start to realize why so many sales professionals fail.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 2
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING A Critical Look at Sales Rep Persistence Levels If appropriate follow up is a large component of your sales strategy (and it should be), consider this diagram that I call the “Persistence Tear” (stats courtesy of Chet Holmes International): So what do the percentages mean? The “tear” shows how many organizations keep trying after facing a certain level rejection. For example, 52% of organizations give up after just one rejection which means 48% keep chugging. After the second rejection, 80% are gone and only 7% remain after three rejections. If the average organization faces four rejections, only 5% of them will continue to follow up. In other words, 95% of businesses give up on prospects after four rejections. The 5% that are persistent enough to close deals are those rare birds. The eagles, top performers, President’s Club members, superstars, and so forth. One “eagle” usually outperforms 4 or 5 average reps combined. Exactly How Many Calls Does it Take to Close a Deal Today? Now, let’s dig a bit deeper into how many exposures it takes to close a deal both from a new customer acquisition and a repeat purchase from an existing client. According to CSO Insights, there is a great disparity between the numbers of “touches” it takes to close a new customer versus an existing one. You probably suspected this yet may not have had supporting evidence to prove it so I’m going to give you that now. Calls Required 1-2 3-5 6-9 10+
4% 32% 38% 30%
New Client
Existing Client 39% 45% 3% 13%
So you can see from the stats that only 36% of new clients are acquired after five calls or less while 84% of existing clients typically make another purchase after the same number of calls.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 3
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING To emphasize the impact on your business, understand it’s almost 10 times less expensive to close an existing client versus a new one yet most businesses focus 80% of their resources on acquiring new clients. Sirius Decisions had an interesting look at how many deals close after a certain number of calls, and I’m assuming the study didn’t differentiate between new versus existing clients which explains why the number of deals closed after one call is so relatively high at 2%. As the pyramid suggests, 81% of all deals are consummated after 5 or more calls. I would suggest to you that existing clients are the ones inking deals during calls 1-4, but I have no way of knowing that for certain. Anyway, it is little wonder the average sales rep experiences the “sales roller coaster” where one month is a great peak and the next one presents a deep valley. It also explains why 20% of sales reps generate 80% of the profits … the good ole Pareto Principle in effect. If your organization fits this description, you’re undoubtedly starting to look at things a bit differently, aren’t you? Here’s a little more salt to toss into the wound thanks again to Sirius Decisions: 80% of the leads you consider to be “dead” today will buy within two years.
The Buying Diamond of a Typical Target Audience Let’s now take a peek at a “buying diamond” of a typical target audience for just about any industry or market. These stats are based on a statistical analysis conducted by my firm, SMB Consulting: In any given market, there are roughly 2% of potential prospects actively buying right now. If you’re targeting these prospects today, you may be late to the party because they’ve probably done their due diligence and selected a solution provider already.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 4
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Think about the RFP process where the likely winner is the one helping to write the RFP, that’s a large portion of who you have in this segment of the buying diamond. They probably already have their vendor picked by the time you reach out to them if you haven’t been involved up to now. A lot of sales reps will waste time chasing these prospects because they perceive them as “hot” because they’re obviously buying now. The next section down shows that only 14% are considering buying which leaves you 84% of the overall market of which 16% will never buy no matter what you do. Think of the bottom 16% as you trying to sell high heel shoes to men, Just for Men to women, or something else that just won’t grab someone’s attention no matter how good you market because this is true of any market. There will always be a 16% portion that will never be interested. So let’s eliminate them from our mix before moving on. Now, think back to the “Persistence Pyramid” and how few organizations stick with it past one or two rejections then ponder how only 14% of any market is open to buying right now. That means you realistically have about a 2.7% chance of closing a deal if you run a typical organization. Wouldn’t you agree that these dynamics call for a change in strategy to overcome status quo performance? By now, you’re probably asking “how do I get through to that 82% of the ‘considering’ or ‘indifferent’ market without wasting a bunch of time and money?” Hold your horses because I’ll cover that in a little while. Let’s say you do a better job of targeting better prospects. What are you going to do to get and keep their attention? If your organization is anything like most, there’s a lot of work to do to narrow the gap between giving up too soon and following up enough to help your prospect reach an educated decision.
Running a Business: The Odds Are Stacked Against You I have more sobering statistics to share with you as a fellow business owner.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 5
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING If your business has been around for less than 10 years, you could be facing extremely imposing odds because only 1 in 25 businesses lives to see ten candles on the birthday cake. 80% of all businesses fail within two years and 90% fail within 3 years. All of those statistics are from the Census Bureau and paint a rather dark picture don’t they? As if that’s not enough, how about these stats? A corporation fails every 3 minutes A directorship changes every 32 seconds A company changes control every 15 minutes ii 26,000 new products and brands are introduced every year 29% of consumers don’t read a newspaper iii Believe it or not, I’m not even close to done with the stats! Business Bankruptcies Since 1985, there has been an average of 236 business bankruptcies filed per business day and 51,836 per year. These numbers increased by an average of 1.7% per year since 1985. The silver lining in all of this is that from 1985-1992 there were 88.4% more business bankruptcies filed than there were during a similar seven year span from 2002-2009. That means, believe it or not, we’ve endured worse times economically. See, all the crap about blaming the economy isn’t supported by facts, stats and trends when viewed from a broader perspective. Even though the most recent data suggests that we’ve actually endured worse times historically, my firm is projecting a rather substantial average increase of 6.4% business bankruptcies annually over the next 4 plus years. That would mean there will be 251/business day filed between now and 2015 if those numbers bare out. Let’s hope I’m off in my projections! Good economy, bad economy … doesn’t matter. Businesses still fail in good or bad times at a similar clip. So what do all of these stats ultimately mean to you? Unfortunately, it may be a matter of when versus if you’ll have to close your doors especially if you maintain status quo operations. As the saying goes, “you’re either growing or dying … there is no in between.”
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 6
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Franchises: An Exception to the Rules? One last stat to toss at you … did you realize that roughly 1 in 13 (8%) franchises fail? Better stated, only 1 in 25 businesses will survive 10 years while 23 of 25 franchises will succeed. That begs the question of why do franchises succeed while “traditional” businesses fail? The simple answer is they have systems in place for just about every aspect of the business including sales and marketing. We’ll talk about this in more detail as you progress today.
5 Reasons for Failing Businesses So why do so many businesses fail? According to Entrepreneur Magazine, the top reasons for failure include: 1) 2) 3) 4) 5)
Bad customer relations Bad budgeting Lack of staff training Failure to anticipate market trends Poor or inconsistent marketing
The remainder of today’s briefing will focus on that last problem … inconsistent or poor marketing because it’s imperative for you to understand the pitfalls facing so many businesses and how to avoid them. Simply put, most firms fail to leverage marketing properly, and I’ll dig deeper into that in a moment. Before we get into marketing and specifics, think about your sales staff and how you generate leads today. Like most businesses, do you rely heavily on cold prospecting to stockpile leads and get new customers?
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 7
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 8 STRATEGIES YOU MUST LEVERAGE TO DOUBLE YOUR SALES OVER THE NEXT 12-18 MONTHS Now, I want to shift your attention to a one legged-stool because that’s how most firms market themselves … one strategy or tactic. The majority of businesses merely look at the leaders within their industry and copy what they’re doing because they rationalize that “if it works for them, it’ll work for us.” Back to the stool analogy for a moment … unless a one legged-stool is bolted to the ground like you see in some older diners, it’s not real effective is it? At best, you probably have two legs on your marketing stool and this all ties in with something I refer to as Marketing’s Interrelationship nicely. Two legs will support your stool a little better, but they still don’t provide that sturdy foundation you need to prevent tipping over. You already see where I’m going, don’t you? Ask yourself this … “why would I risk my firm’s longevity and stability by limiting its growth to one or two marketing legs on my stool?” If you get nothing else out of today’s executive briefing, get this because it’s the difference between long-term failure and success. Marketing’s Interrelationship involves eight strategies and several tactics to support each strategy. As you look at the diagram, think about your own processes from suspects all the way through to the most loyal ambassadors of your brand. We’ll go over each strategy in light detail, but please understand it is beyond the scope of this briefing to dig too deep because I could literally spend hours on each one. As we quickly explore each strategy, make a notation of which ones you use today and which ones you plan to use over the next 12-18 months. Also document how much you spend on each and the performance. The eight “core” strategies of Marketing’s Interrelationship are as follows: 1) Internet – this includes things such as your website, blog, SEO, social networking, etc. 2) 1:1 Contact – this includes tactical pursuits such as the use of the telephone, email, meetings and networking groups. 3) Education – things such as seminars, webinars, trade shows, conferences, white papers, case studies, and reports fit under this umbrella.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 8
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 4) Public & Media Relations – press releases, articles written about and by your company, interviews with reporters, public service announcements, news releases, and reputation management are included in your PR strategy. 5) Direct Mail—obviously this includes things such as letters, lumpy mail, postcards, promotional items, gifts, etc. 6) Advertising – traditional ads on TV, radio, print, signs, and your media buying support your advertising strategy. More on this in just a second. 7) Sales Literature – your brochures, tear sheets, testimonials, and postcards fit in with your sales literature strategy. Can you see why your website no longer fits here? 8) Partnerships – many overlook this strategy, but joint ventures, affiliates, referrals and sponsors can help you boost your business rapidly and cost effectively. To succinctly summarize the importance of Marketing’s Interrelationship, simply understand that you should incorporate at least one tactical element from each of the eight overarching strategies. The more you intertwine things so that one strategy builds upon and supports another, the better everything will perform. The cumulative impact is far greater than the sum of the parts.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 9
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 8 STEPS TO IMPROVE YOUR SALES PERFORMANCE IMMEDIATELY When I was in sales, I had no idea how powerful the Internet would become or how to properly leverage it to increase sales like today. The Internet makes it fairly easy to go from a local outfit to a global one overnight in terms of visibility. For example, someone conducting a Google search in South Africa can easily find your firm today whereas before it would have taken some serious research and effort even as little as ten years ago. Furthermore, back then, there wasn’t a lot of automation available to sales and marketing … the CRM systems available were extremely manually operated, and prepopulating a sales process into an automated electronic system was hairy at best. The bottom line is if you aren’t leveraging your website to generate leads and expand your visibility, you’re missing out on a humongous opportunity. To further illustrate that point … did you know that 80% of sales transactions today begin with an online search through such outlets as Google, Yahoo and Bing? Before we get into any specifics in terms of what you must get out of your website, let me outline eight steps you can start working on today to improve your sales performance.
Step #1: Make an Organizational Commitment to Increasing Sales Most organizations simply pay “lip service” to increasing sales. You know it, and I know it! Senior leadership will attend an expensive two-three day seminar or retreat then return with this newfound energy to get “all hands on deck” to grow the business. It rarely gets sustained though, right? What typically happens is the growth initiatives are embraced by everyone at the beginning only to fizzle out after 60 or 90 days because progress isn’t significant enough to maintain any semblance of momentum. Everybody eventually returns to operation “status quo” and putting out those inevitable “daily fires” instead of joining forces to grow the business. It’s not that you don’t want to grow your business rather the day-to-day operation dictates that you focus on wearing your firefighter’s hat instead of your growth hat, right?
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 10
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING I’ve seen it too many times … business owners come to me repeatedly with sob stories of how the year got off to such a sizzling start yet fizzled around March or April because they got sidetracked working IN the business instead of ON it. Understand that it’s not your fault because that’s how we’ve always been taught to operate a business … take care of today’s problems and issues so you can fight another day, right? The good news is that what typically happens with our clients spits directly into the eye of “status quo” and business as usual operations. It’s exciting to say the least! All Hands on Deck You’ve probably experienced this first hand: a lot of business executives, directors, managers and operations personnel feel uncomfortable asking for an order. It feels “hypey” or “salesy,” so they resist and retreat. Resistance is a common bi-product when non-sales people are asked to help close deals in any business, but I have some more good news ... that’s
fault!
also not your
It’s human nature to resist change especially when there’s a pre-conceived notion that “non-sales” personnel will have to engage in pressure and hype laden tactics. An enlightened moment frequently occurs, however, when your staff is shown how their raises and salaries are directly impacted by how much revenue the business generates. Suddenly, pitching in to increase sales doesn’t seem so “slimy.” Mindset Shift By changing the mindset of the staff at your firm to one of service, many will quickly realize that they would be doing their future clients a disservice if they didn’t help to encourage the order. Letting potential clients “drift” to a competitor wouldn’t be in their best interest because your offer is the best option for that prospect, right? Adopting this mindset shifts the focus from a place of selfishness to a rather selfless one. Stop South Heading Trend Lines Even though your business may not be on the verge of closing its doors, the “trend line” may be heading south compared to the “good times.” What that means is that if the leadership doesn’t make a conscientious decision to make it everyone’s job to grow the business, things may become “sticky” sooner rather than later especially when the economy isn’t booming. You’ll be forced to make some tough decisions or have them made for you by your market.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 11
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Step #2: Improve Your Competitive Intelligence It probably goes without saying that you can learn a lot from your competitors because they’re trying to grow sales just like you are. That being said, a lot of organizations prefer to ignore the competition in order to concentrate on improving internally. They figure that if they do what they do better, the competition will be irrelevant. I’ve worked for quite a few companies that seemed to live by the philosophy I just outlined, and I’m happy to report that only 1 out of maybe five is still in business. The others have gone under or were gobbled up by a larger competitor. You may wonder why I say “I’m happy to report” that only 1 in 5 is still around. It’s simple … you can’t survive in today’s marketplace without checking the pulse of your industry or market on a regular basis. Besides, egocentric business owners that believe the competition is never a threat are idiots. Pardon my candor, but it’s true. No business exists in a bubble. There is always somebody skinning the cat better than you are in some form or fashion. They may not be skinning the whole cat better than you, but they’re undoubtedly skinning SOME of it better. Wouldn’t you agree that is a fair statement? Call in the SWOT Team Generally, I start off any endeavor with a new client by determining what they do really well. I mean, what are their innate strengths that help ring the register most often? Then from there, we usually branch out to look at the strongest competitors to analyze their strengths and weaknesses to determine the opportunities and threats. You may have heard of a SWOT Analysis, and I highly encourage conducting one if you don’t already do that on a regular basis. If you need help, you can obviously contact me directly because I’d be happy to assist you. Anyway, when you look around at your competitors, which ones have advantages over you and what are those advantages? What can they offer that would be difficult for you to match given your current resources? Conversely, what can you offer that would be difficult for them to match? What makes your business unique? In other words, why would someone buy your products and services instead of one of your competitors? There are a lot of exercises you can perform to improve your competitive intelligence, but suffice it to say that you should at least conduct semi-regular SWOT Analyses to
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 12
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING determine the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to your organization on an ongoing basis.
Step #3: Implement an Educational Process for Prospects You’ve already been exposed to the buying diamond and how 68% of your desired target audience is “indifferent” right now. A frequent question I get is “Roger, how can I effectively reach more of the 68% that are indifferent along with the 14% that may be open to buying?” Use Educational Marketing Instead of pushing for a sale right out of the chute like that annoying car salesman that practically jumps you as soon as you step on the lot, consider offering your prospects something educational (i.e. valuable) in exchange for their contact information (first name and email address at least). Offering something for free on your website in exchange for contact information enables you to stay in touch with your prospects whereas you’d otherwise have no clue who visited your site or what they’re interested in. Offer a Valuable Freebie For example, what brought you here today was an educational experience, right? “5 Alarming Trends & What You Can Do About Them” is much more appealing than “let me come in to meet with you to discuss your sales and marketing processes,” wouldn’t you agree? I probably blew my cover with that, but it’s okay because I want you to really get this. An approach like this enables you to attract qualified leads like a squirrel gathers nuts because you’re offering something interesting and valuable to your target audience to “warm them up” instead of pushing for a meeting before a prospect is ready. Asking for a meeting or a sale with a prospect right away is like a guy meeting a very attractive girl at a bar then asking her to get married immediately after learning her name. Neither one knows enough about the other to determine if a date is even in their best interests let alone a commitment like marriage. With your educational freebie, you can: 1. 2. 3. 4.
Answer frequently asked questions Provide a set of buying criteria that clearly favors your organization Overcome objections Outline a series of questions to ask your competitors that you know they can’t answer as thoroughly as you (then answer the questions of course)
This does several things for your prospect (and your business):
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 13
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 1. Builds trust and credibility 2. Demonstrates your capabilities 3. Establishes some talking points that you can use throughout your follow up processes 4. Starts the buying process on the right foot by helping to educate your prospect vs. immediately trying to sell them Imagine how much more receptive your target audience would be to an educational “experience” versus facing the hard sell they’re so accustomed to. We help our clients with this all the time because it opens the door for you and your sales staff to begin to “chip away” at those 8.4 exposures necessary to influence a buying decision.
Step #4: Revamp Your Website to Focus on Lead Generation Most websites serve as little more than an online brochure … a very stale, outdated and dusty brochure at that! They typically have an abundance of stock photos, and they highlight features instead of benefits to the visitor. Most sites, even today, place little emphasis on lead generation or getting a visitor to take a desired action. There is far more attention paid to aesthetics than functionality and results. Don’t get me wrong though … I’m a huge fan of pleasing graphics and aesthetics but not at the expense of functionality and measureable results because the most beautiful, expensive, and advanced website is useless if nobody can find it and it doesn’t further the sales process at all. Since you’re sitting there in front of your computer, watching every slide and listening to every word, you’ll heed my advice to the letter and no longer maintain one of those outdated brochure websites, right? ;-) In all seriousness, we can help you with your web presence later, but let’s keep moving forward. Realize Your Website is Critical to Your Growth One of the things our most successful clients realize long before they even begin their online growth initiatives is that they needed a website that: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
Captures leads Allows for updating content frequently Enables onsite multi-media file viewing for its visitors Encourages multiple people from the organization to contribute to the site Conveys a unique value proposition
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 14
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Your Website SHOULD BE More Than an Online Brochure! We recommend you overhaul your website by taking it from a stale, brochure type, static website to a dynamic WordPress based site. You may be wondering “what makes a WordPress site so special?” Simply stated, search engines such as Google LOVE WordPress sites! WordPress also makes it easier to provide a more interactive experience for your visitors while encouraging visitors to register for the valuable freebie. Sometimes Your Website Needs a New Engine, Too! If you maintain status quo with your website, it likely will remain relatively invisible to search engines and online searchers if it doesn’t rank well today. That’s not to suggest that every website needs an overhaul, but there are quite a few stale sites out there that merely take up space and contribute very little other than an occasional laugh. Often times, I’ll see people invest thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars into a website overhaul in an effort to improve search positioning. While this can be an effective tactic to make your site more attractive to search engines and online searchers, there is frequently one key element missing …
Web designers aren’t necessarily good marketers! Sure, they’ll design some of the nicest looking sites under the sun while incorporating some super cool script thingys, but the sites aren’t designed to get you more leads or sales. They’re just another version of the stale and crusty brochure site you had before with some nicer graphics. Instead of overhauling a site just for search visibility, why not design the site from the ground up to be both search engine and lead capture friendly? You can have it both ways, you know? Ask for the Registration (opt-in)! One key thing that we encourage in the redesign of any website is placing a lead capture form on every single page of the site.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 15
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING By having a highly visible registration form on every page, you’ll make it clear that there’s something valuable for your prospects to check out. Make it painfully obvious that you want them to fill out the registration (opt-in) form. One item of note: just because you put a form on your site doesn’t mean people will take the desired action! You have to make it obvious that you want someone to take that action and what they’ll get in return before they will. Incorporate Marketing Automation Your registration forms feed what is known as an auto-responder service that manages the leads and the timing of your follow up sequences. What you’re aiming for is to automate the early stages of the follow up process so that when it comes time for your sales rep to pick up the phone and call a potential prospect, the prospect is already familiar with your organization, what you offer, and how you can help. This helps you eliminate cold calling and condenses the time to a deal considerably. Some of our clients have experienced as much as a 44.7% decrease in the time to a deal by properly using marketing automation. You’ll want to line yourself up with a quality auto-responder like those offered by Aweber, Constant Contact, GetResponse, Send Pepper or Infusionsoft. If you are a larger firm, you may want to consider SalesForce.com, Lyris, Responsys, and Sage. Based on your budget, number of contacts and likely email volume, you can select a service plan that best meets your needs. Incorporating automation enables you to zig when your competition zags because only 2-5% of companies are utilizing marketing automation/lead management automation today. iv
Step #5: Focus on Testing & Tracking
We marketers … you’re a marketer whether you like it or not … like to try a lot of different things to get people to take action. That’s the positive, but there’s a huge negative to being a marketer … Even though we like to try different things to get a positive response, we’re not always very good about tracking every change or testing, are we? We sling stuff at the wall in hopes that something sticks … you’re human so what can you say, right?
You already know this, but you can’t improve upon something until you know what you’re up against!
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 16
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Outline Key Metrics before You Begin One of the things that our most successful clients commit to at the outset of their growth initiatives is to test and analyze so they can continually improve results. They also establish baselines beforehand so they have something to compare with to measure effectiveness (or ineffectiveness). A lot of firms focus on obvious things such as revenue levels, cost of sale, net margin, number of leads generated per week and the number of leads it takes to close a deal. Each industry has a set of key metrics that are deemed most valuable by stakeholders so you already know what’s most important to your business and are probably already tracking those, but what elements contribute to them that can have an impact? In other words, what are the metrics within the metrics? By focusing on specific metrics, you will be able to improve dramatically in each key area in order to grow your business rapidly and profitably. All Firms Are Not the Same Your business will likely have a different scenario facing it when it comes to growth. Just be sure to focus on key metrics as you set out on your journey to greater success. I’m not sure which famous marketer first coined the following phrase, but it definitely applies to success:
“INspect what you EXpect!” Establish Your Baseline NOW If you’ll begin to establish your baseline metrics now, you’ll have good data to compare when you implement a sales and marketing solution.
Step #6: Optimize Your 1:1 Interactions to Foster More Sales Most organizations are happy when the phone rings or someone visits in-person and it’s a prospective new customer instead of another complaint. When a new prospect calls, a lot of us go into “sales mode” by answering every single objection and question thrown our way because we are in a reactionary state.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 17
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING The problem with this approach is that we’re not process oriented when we’re in “sales mode.” We often try to cut corners and reach the finish line before running the whole race. You know you can’t officially win a 26 mile race without running all 26 miles, but that doesn’t stop us does it? Set Small Obtainable Phone Goals When someone calls your firm, what is the ideal outcome from that call? I’m betting you’ll probably say “a sales transaction occurs.” Let’s back up first … In order to get clients to sign a deal, isn’t there a process they go through before signing any paperwork? Typically, aren’t there multiple contributors and influencers on every major deal? Much like test driving a car, wouldn’t they want to kick the tires a bit before committing thousands of dollars to it? Knowing that’s typically the case, why not set the goals of your phone prospecting efforts to “sell” the freebie to get the automated process started so when it’s time to meet face-to-face, your prospect is up to snuff on everything necessary to make a decision? That’s the next logical step in the process, right? Another thing you can do to help grow your business is to develop tools for your sales force to demonstrate the potential return on investment your products and services can provide for your clients. This also can be systematized and automated to a large extent so that every rep uses the same tools and requests the necessary information from prospects so that you can engage them in a quality dialogue about how you can help them. Get Them Into Your Automated Follow Up Processes! One of the things we’ve helped our clients do very well is to revamp their 1:1 interactions to focus on getting the prospect to accept an “ethical bribe” (a valuable freebie) because that’s how you can start the process to educate your prospects how to buy what you offer. Getting someone into your automated follow up process cuts costs and improves closing ratios because it’s harder to say “no” once you’re face to face asking for the order when the timing is right versus rushing the sale like so many do today. When you follow a systematic process instead of ad-libbing, you reduce leakage and wasted time in personal 1-on-1 meetings because the automated processes help to nurture prospects until they are properly equipped to make a purchasing decision.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 18
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING By placing emphasis on getting the prospect to agree to the next step in a finely-tuned process, you will be able to improve your lead-to-deal performance significantly.
Step #7: Ask for the Order at the “Closing Table” This may seem a bit obvious, but it is the key step that is often omitted. Consider everything you’ve done up to now: You have educated your prospect They are interested enough in your freebie that they have agreed to take the next step You have shown them all the grand and wonderful things that set your firm and its solutions apart from all the others You have answered all of their questions and overcome their objections
NOW, YOU MUST ASK FOR THE ORDER! Look, most people feel uncomfortable asking for the order. They feel as if they’re being too high pressure so they become meek because none of us enjoy that experience. Be sure to ask for the order while your prospect is sitting in front of you because it’s harder to say “no” in person than it is over the phone or email. You ARE the Best Option, Right? The problem with not asking for the order is you OWE your prospect the opportunity to do business with you because you can make a difference. That’s right … you OWE them that because your solution is the best option for them. If you are not the best option, do everything within your power as soon as we are done today to become so.
Step #8: Increase Visibility via Marketing’s Interrelationship For years, many businesses have primarily relied upon traditional outlets such as TV, Radio, Print and Yellow Pages’ ads to generate leads. Often times those ads ran anywhere from $5-200,000/year or more.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 19
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING Back in the “good old days,” this strategy was extremely effective but with as many as 80% of buying decisions beginning with an online search, the landscape has greatly changed. We’ve already covered Marketing’s Interrelationship so you know that you should be utilizing at least one tactic within each of the eight overarching strategies to increase awareness and visibility for your firm. I won’t beat a dead horse if you’ll vow to take action.
Summary In summary, growing your business exponentially isn’t about doing one or two things here and there in a silo. What do I mean by that? Remember, it’s more than JUST redesigning your website to generate leads. It’s more than JUST offering something of value to entice web visitors to share their contact information then educating your prospects. It’s more than JUST automating the early stages of your follow up process so that you can narrow the gap between giving up too soon and following up properly. It’s more than JUST improving your search engine visibility or sending out more direct mail. Yes, you’ve got it figured out … success comes much easier when you combine ALL of those things into an integrated system that seamlessly meshes with your existing business model. That’s when exponential growth occurs, not when you piece a couple of tactics together like most ad agencies and marketing firms suggest. When you combine a superior access vehicle that educates your prospects with an enhanced website that is designed to generate leads along with a trained sales force that is armed with the necessary tools to demonstrate undeniable value, you have a winner on your hands. The question to ask yourself is how many of these things are you doing in unison today?
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 20
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 7 THINGS TO LOOK FOR IN A POTENTIAL SALES & MARKETING PARTNER You already know there are a ton of options out there to consider for advertising, marketing, and sales development. If your goal is to grow exponentially, and I’m assuming it is because you joined me today, you’ve got to know what to look for to keep from getting taken to the cleaners. Right now, I’m going to share seven key things to look for in potential sales, advertising or marketing partners. The first thing you should look for in a potential growth partner is whether they have a strategy to grow your business or whether they’re just going to throw a bunch of tactics at it. For instance, redesigning your website is extremely tactical by itself. Performing search engine optimization (SEO), creating a white paper or implementing an automated follow up sequence is also tactical as a lone endeavor. When you combine everything to fit into a system like we’ve been talking about today that is designed to increase sales by offering an educational experience and capturing leads through your website that are automatically followed up with, you become far more strategic. Needless to say, in addition to mapping out a strategy, your marketing partner should know how to integrate the following six things into a strategic system to produce results for you: 1) Lead generation website that meets all of the criteria we’ve talked about today 2) Search engine optimization (SEO) to get you more visibility with your desired target audience (most web design firms aren’t good at SEO and vice versa) 3) An educational marketing campaign that incorporates automated follow-up via an auto-responder system that tracks your prospects’ activity so that you can improve future interactions with them to close deals faster 4) Training of your staff to use the system so that your efforts don’t fall flat when it’s game time 5) A tangible return on investment (ROI) proposition that has delivered profitably for other businesses in the past whether it’s for the same industry or a different one … the concepts are equally applicable across industries if your marketing partner knows what the hell they’re doing
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 21
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING 6) A thorough understanding of the sales process and how to effectively leverage Marketing’s Interrelationship to effectively grow your business
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 22
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING HOW MY TEAM & I CAN HELP YOU GROW SALES STARTING TODAY Considering everything just outlined in terms of selecting a potential marketing partner, allow me a few minutes to go over what we offer businesses like yours so that you can make an informed decision about your business’ future. Remember, this is just the first step in the process even though you have covered a lot of ground already today. For starters, when we take on a new client, every endeavor involves outlining a strategy to grow your business that is comprised of several tactics, key performance metrics, and milestones to support the growth strategy. The websites we design are built from the ground up to be search engine and user friendly while also focusing heavily on lead generation throughout. It does no good to have a brochure style website anymore because your visitors care more about what’s in it for them instead of more boring rhetoric about your company and its history. Nobody cares what you did 25 years ago … they want to know what you can do for them today, how long it’s going to take, and how much it’s going to cost to produce the results they are after. An educational marketing campaign is the centerpiece of the strategies we implement for businesses like yours that also takes advantage of automation as much as possible where it’s appropriate. Automation isn’t the answer to everything, but it’s very effective when used properly. Training is also a key component of the projects we undertake so it’s included with every project. Whether you take advantage of the training and stick with the lessons is completely up to you, but it is included so that you can take over as much of the marketing internally as you’d like over time. A lot of marketing firms don’t want you to know what they’re doing behind the scenes so they can keep billing you, but that’s not our philosophy. We realized pretty early on that the more you understand what all is involved, the more you’ll value and appreciate it. Finally, not to brag or boast, but the case studies of our clients speak for themselves in terms of ROI and real business value. Be sure to check them out … even if the case study doesn’t apply directly to your industry apples to apples, the concepts and leverage of Marketing’s Interrelationship should resonate with you. When you’ve done your due diligence and come to the realization that we will help you grow, there’s only one thing left to do … pick up the phone and call me to discuss your business and its current situation. It doesn’t cost you a penny to do this.
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 23
5 ALARMING BUSINESS TRENDS THAT COULD PUT YOU OUT OF BUSINESS OR SEND YOU SOARING I’ll help you determine which path is best for you whether it’s training, implementation or a combination of both. Generally speaking, it is usually the latter. You can reach me (Roger) directly at (502) 394-0460 or via email at [email protected]. My team and I answer our own phones and emails and look forward to helping you grow your business. Yankelovich Knell, Eric. “7 Corporate Red Flags.” Business Finance Magazine, August 2002. iii Entrepreneur Magazine, http://entrepreneur.com iv Laura Ramos at Forrester i
ii
By Roger Bauer
http://x2Sales.com
Page 24
