Archive for the ‘business growth’ Category
Tuesday, January 24th, 2012
Get all your sales quotes out within 48 hours. It is important to get into this vitally important habit. Quite simply it will get you more business. What other incentive could you need?!
I’m frequently amazed that clients do not have standards around this issue. They will often say that their telesales team members aren’t quick enough at following up proposals that they’ve sent out. Now, come on. Surely this should be an imposed standard, a minimum. Enforced if necessary. Really if you can’t get your team to follow these up quickly, you might as well pack up and go home.
Beat your competitors - get your quotes in fast
Ensuring you have the 48 hour rule ensures you work to a standard. It keeps things moving. Momentum is good, especially in selling.
You will also find that frequently getting the quote or sales proposal out quickly will impress them. It will be fresher in their mind when they’re reading it, and if you get it there quicker than the competition, it might just help you get the order.
There are some other key reasons I find that help too. Writing and sending your sales proposal quickly gets it done while it’s freshest in your mind too. So you will probably be able to do it faster. It also gets it out of the way. You can clear the decks mentally. So if other things come up such as illness, meetings, work crises, you won’t have to go back to it.
And never ever leave it to do until after a holiday. But then you’d never do that anyway would you?
The lesson I’ve learned
Apart from all the above, I’ve never lost an order because the client thought I’d sent it in too quickly. However I have won many for this reason. Even within the last few months, an industrial distributor in Birmingham commissioned me to run a training programme for them as they got tired of waiting for the other 2 competitive quotes. Suits me and it’s simple.
Templates
To help you write and send out sales quotes and proposals quicker, have templates for proposals. Have a master template that you just edit. This is much more effective than recreating the wheel each time. It will also save you time. Time you can use to go out on more sales calls selling.
Tags: sales proposals, Telemarketing management, telesales team management, winning orders
Posted in business development, business growth, Field sales training, sales development training, Sales tips, Selling advice, small business marketing, telemarketing, Telemarketing management, telesales, telesales team management, Telesales tips | No Comments »
Thursday, December 22nd, 2011
The soft underbelly of your customer base. This is what you want to go for in 2012, right? Many companies appreciate that finding additional business at the moment is a test of your sales and marketing skills.
Broadly speaking your customer database can be divided into 3 hopefully ;
- Existing trading customers
- Lapsed customers
- Prospects (those who haven’t bought from you.)
This is all part of the sales pipeline or sales funnel. Your lapsed customers frequently present the greatest opportunities for you. They’ve stopped buying from you, but they used to. Do you know why? Have they changed processes and no longer need your product or service? Or are they still buying, but from one of your competitors? If this is the case, then it is worth spending some effort winning them back. It’s a 6 pointer (as they say in football) because not only are you adding to your revenue, but you’re reducing it for your competitor at the same time. Neat huh?
Meet lapsed customers, talk to them, find out what they want now
Use your telemarketing or telesales team, or even your account managers to make contact and find out why. At this point, don’t try and sell them anything. Show them that you’re interested, really interested in knowing more about their needs and requirements. These also, are the customers you want to invite to events, product launches etc. Remind them how good you are, and what they’re missing. Also the fact that you’ve researched and found out the reasons they’re not trading with you any more, will mean that you avoid spending time and money trying to win back someone who has moved on, and is unlikely to use your product any more.
Ensure you’ve got contact names, e-mail addresses and contact details up to date, so that when you market to them you’re at least aiming at the right person, in the right part of the company for the right reason at the right time.
I’m currently working with a company who after 10 years trading tell me their total customer base including lapsed is 74 records. And their average transaction value is less than £1,000 so clearly there is a lot of missing data. There is much to do, before we can even start direct marketing. Don’t let this be you.
Tags: customer, customer database, growing customers, marketing ideas, marketing strategy, marketing top tips, new customer acquisition, SME marketing ideas
Posted in Account management, business growth, Customer acquisition, Marketing, sales development training, Sales tips, Selling advice, small business marketing | No Comments »
Sunday, October 23rd, 2011
Top tips for small business to do your own business development calls. OK, so the business environment is challenging.
You can sit and wonder what to do to stimulate customers to come to you. Trouble is most of this costs : advertising, PR etc. A more cost effective way of doing it is to make your own sales calls. I always suggest starting with lapsed customers. These are the easiest to convert to becoming trading customers again.
- Now is the time to become proactive
You can also spend time profiling people to call on Google. Why not do what we call twinning? Look at the customers you already have, and look for others like them. For instance if you do good business with pharmaceutical companies, look for more of them. If your business is geo-centric i.e. likely to be used by local businesses, look local.
It certainly isn’t worth putting together (or worse still) buying a list that is indiscriminate. You’ll find it demoralising to keep talking to people who have no requirement for your product or service. Certainly spending time analysing and building a good list to begin with will pay dividends.
Andrew is planning on running a range of marketing seminars over the coming months for owners of small businesses. Entitled ‘Selling your way out of recession’ it will focus on the easy approaches to selling that will give you the best opportunities to build your business or ensure it’s future (depending on where you are currently.)
Please drop us a note to
info@tomarket.co.uk if you’d like more details about these sessions. They will be run in a series of locations, aimed at small business owners in Birmingham, Coventry, Derby, Nottingham, Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Coalville, Thrapston, Oakham, Uppingham and wider parts of the East and West Midlands.
Tags: marketing for small business, marketing seminars, new business development, owner manager development, small business marketing
Posted in business development, business growth, Cold calling, Forthcoming courses, Marketing, owner managers directors, seminar, small business marketing | No Comments »
Friday, August 19th, 2011
Travel industry – sell your way out of trouble. As we recently saw another travel company fold, Holidays 4U trading as Aegean Flights, we understand that the travel industry is in choppy waters. These problems are all the more significant when you consider that the travel sector should be making money at this time of year.
Get more people here!
As all business people know making profit and survival is about increasing revenue, cutting costs and managing cashflow. Other sites will give you what you need on the latter 2 topics but here we’re interested in maintaining and increasing revenue.
Selling in the travel industry is about the following key principles ;
- Increasing conversion rates. It is vital that you convert as many enquiries as you can at the point when they’re on the phone (or in your shop, or on your website.) Training in closing and benefit selling is important to ensure they don’t go elsewhere for comparisons.
- Selling higher value products. Customers spend money on a whole package of services and it’s important your team looks for opportunities to sell these higher margin products. Do you adequately reward this to keep them focused on the goal?
- Better customer service experience. With many operators seen as offering similar products and services, it all comes down to the customer experience doesn’t it. If they like your agent, they seem knowledgeable and keen to help, you’re much more likely to convert aren’t you? Make sure you give them adequate product training and you keep them motivated. If not, you’ll lose the business that floats under your nose.
- Better contact with past customers. So many industry sectors have haphazard plans in the way they deal with previous or lapsed customers. And yet they’re the easiest people to sell to. Check how you keep in touch with them after their holiday with you. Ensure you have a programme to make them feel valued. You want to be their number one choice before they even start looking around for their next holiday.
You and any business grows in 4 ways. By ;
- Selling to more people
- Increasing average order value
- Selling to the same people more often
- Reducing churn (the rate at which you lose customers)
Of course none of this is rocket science, but ask yourself if you really understand these metrics in your own business and make sure you have a plan to achieve each of these 4 things. Your livelihood depends on it.
To Market runs telephone sales and telemarketing training courses across the East Midlands, Peterborough, Cambridge, Leicester, Northampton, Derby, Nottingham, Kettering, Corby, Wellingborough, Coventry, Birmingham, Lichfield, Solihull, Peterborough, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, Milton Keynes, Lincoln, East Midlands as well as wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire, Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Buckinghamshire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire
Tags: how to generate additional sales, increasing sales, telesales advice, telesales training, training for sales teams, travel sales agents, travel sales training, travel sector training
Posted in benchmarking telesales teams, business growth, sales development training, Selling advice, telesales, Travel industry training | 1 Comment »
Monday, August 2nd, 2010
7 tips on how to make cold calls. Need to make cold calls, but after some tips?
Making cold calls is an integral and therefore important part of growing your business. If you want new customers, you have to approach them for the first time (at some point !) If they come through advertising great, but if not, you’re going to have to pick the phone up and make that call. OK, so here’s some ideas on how to do it …….
Cold calling is an integral part of generating new business
1. Remove the stigma of thinking of it as a cold call. It is just another business call that’s all. And remember everybody is your customer, it’s just that some of them haven’t bought from you yet.
2. Don’t have a script to use verbatim, but do have a call guide. A list of questions you ideally want to ask, and some words for the key message or messages you want to get across.
3. Your main focus initially on the call should be to engage with the decision-maker on a human level, forget “trying to sell” for a moment and work to build a rapport, just as you would socially. Your first aim is to get them to warm to you.
4. Make sure your call is relevant to the target person, or make it relevant. If you can’t – don’t make the call, you’ll be wasting your time.
5. Be aware that as little as 5-20% of the impact of your communication comes from the words you use. The rest comes from the way you say it. So make sure you sound enthusiastic and believe in what you do. Refer to Jamie Oliver, Gok Wan and Mary Portas for details!
6. Learn from every call you make. You’ll find phrases that people seem to respond well to, and perhaps benefits that don’t light people up. Change your approach as you learn.
7. Keep a record of all your call activity. So this includes number of calls, how many you get through to, and who you need to diarise for future contact. This will motivate you more even when you’re not getting the results. “At least I can see I’ve made 100 calls today ……..” Not every call gets you the perfect result, but sure as eggs is eggs, if you don’t make those 100 calls, you won’t get any of the perfect results!
The best of luck.
To Market carries out telesales training and cold call training for teams across the West Midlands, East Midlands, as wll as Northampton, Leicester, Nottingham, Derby, Coventry, Birmingham, Wellingborough, Kettering, Corby, St Ives, Cambridge, Newmarket, Oakham, Uppingham, Loughborough, Warwick, Stratford on Avon, Leamington Spa plus Northamptonshire, Leicestershire, Warwickshire and Suffolk.
Tags: advice on making cold calls, business development, cold calling techniques, cold calling tips, how to be good at telemarketing, new business development, telemarketing training, telesales techniques, Telesales tips
Posted in business growth, owner managers directors, sales development training, Selling advice, small business marketing, telemarketing, telephone techniques | No Comments »
Monday, December 7th, 2009
You run a small to medium sized business and you feel telesales has a place in your business. It is after all a proven and highly measurable way of developing new sales opportunities. You’d either like to develop the team you already have, or alternatively you might be keen to set up a team.
Get personalised one to one mentoring help for your business
The thing is you’re an expert in something else – not in setting up and running a telesales or telemarketing team. Furthermore you probably don’t want to be !
We may be able to help. We can offer bespoke tailored mentoring work with you personally, to help you develop your telesales or telemarketing team. And if we are working with you personally, there is also the possibility that some or all of it could be funded through Train to Gain.
If this is something of interest to you, and you’re based in Leicester, Northampton, Market Harborough, Corby, Wellingborough, Kettering, Lutterworth, Cambridge, Daventry, Coventry, Rugby, Melton Mowbray, Uppingham, Oakham we can help. First we’d like to have a chat over a coffee at your place – and we can take it from there. Give us a call on 01858 461148. We’d be keen to offer you any help, advice or tips we can.
You get some specific tailored help directly applicable to the needs of your business. We can provide you with anything from half a day per month to 5 days per month.
Tags: marketing for small business, marketing tips, owner manager development, small business growth, small business marketing, SME marketing ideas, Train to Gain funded mentoring, Train to Gain funded training
Posted in business development, business growth, Free training, Funded training, Marketing, owner managers directors, partially funded training, Personal development, sales development training, small business marketing, telesales team management, Train to Gain funding | No Comments »
Wednesday, September 16th, 2009
Telesales and a host of other good business initiatives has helped produce a 30% rise in turnover for a Cambridge based company since the beginning of the year.
To Market is pleased to have worked with a Cambridge company in training and development for their telesales team at the beginning of 2009. An intensive 2 day course for the 8 people they have in telesales in their Cambridge office has produced some fantastic results. In a business to business market sector that has seen market falls of 8% year on year, this company has produced increased turnover of just under 30% in the same period.
Cambridge telesales and telemarketing training
Training work on benefits selling, overcoming objections, dealing with gatekeepers and telephone techniques training has helped the team maximise sales opportunities. Additionally the introduction of new KPIs key performance indicators and a stronger focus on telesales activity has seen contacts and dial rates increase 37% for the team as a whole.
As the market picks up, success awaits those companies who invest in their teams to make sure they are the absolute best they can be. Fortune favours the brave. Bespoke tailored training available for business to business organisations in areas such as Birmingham, Coventry, Leicester, Northampton, Kettering, Wellingborough, Corby, Daventry, Grantham, Stamford, Newark, Cambridge, Newmarket, Derby, Nottingham, and Peterborough as well as wider parts of Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Cambridgeshire. Talk to us, we’ll explain how.
Tags: cambridge, leicester, northampton, sales team development, telemarketing training, telemarketing training programmes, telephone techniques training, telesales growth, telesales skills, telesales training
Posted in business growth, communication skills, Getting past gatekeepers, Overcoming objections, sales development training, telemarketing, telephone techniques, telesales, telesales team management | No Comments »
Saturday, August 1st, 2009
There will be a telephone skills seminar for business owners run in Grantham in September. We’re currently putting the plan for a 2 hour seminar for all of you who are interested in building a more effective lean sales lead business for the future. There will be 3 guest presenters all experts in their field. Will Hawkins from MMT Digital will tell you how to get the most out of your website to make sure that people find you and not your competitors. Follow the link to http://www.mmtdigital.co.uk/RVE6a6413e6e94644d9a2f44f4250586398,,.aspx to read more about Will’s specialist skills. We are also pleased that Lloyd Stubbs from Taxassist accountants http://www.taxassist.co.uk/lloydstubbs/ who will pass on his expertise on how to ensure you manage your cashflow which is of course critical to the long and indeed short term survival of your business.
Andrew Seaward will also be running a presentation on how to use the telephone to build more effective customer relationships over the phone. Getting more customers and keeping the ones you already have is even more important now than in the recent past perhaps.
For all business leaders in Grantham, Peterborough, Leicester, Oakham, Uppingham, Stamford, Market Deeping and wider parts of Lincolnshire, Leicestershire and Cambridgeshire who have an interest in this seminar, just post a reply here. Your attendance at the seminar will be free of charge, and just think one idea, JUST ONE IDEA will make you glad you came along !
Tags: business owners, business owners self-development, cambridge, free business advice, free marketing seminar, Grantham, Leicestershire, marketing seminar, Oakham, Peterborough, Stamford, training for business owners, Uppingham
Posted in business development, business growth, Free training, owner managers directors, Personal development, seminar | No Comments »
Tuesday, May 19th, 2009
A one day business development seminar is about to be run for business owners and is fully funded in the East of England, the Eastern Counties including Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk, Essex, Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire.
If you’re a director or business owner manager of a small to medium sized business in Leicestershire in the East of England your place at this £500 one day business development seminar may qualify for full funding. So to you – not a bean ! Not one shilling !
Funded is available through Train to Gain. The seminar is titled
How to win and keep more business
So it will cover elements of sales, customer service and how to motivate your team to build better customer relationships. And of course you will pick up ideas from other people like you (who run their own businesses) so good opportunities to network too with like-minded people.
If you think you may qualify, and you’d like more details on how to improve the sales and customer service functions within your company just let us know via e-mail. You can e-mail me directly and I’ll write to you personally with more details. If you have any questions in the meantime – pick up the phone and give us a call.
This seminar is ideal for business owners, and directors within companies in Cambridge, Bury St Edmunds, Newmarket, Norwich, Ipswich, St Ives, Haverhill, St Albans, Stevenage, Letchworth, Baldock, Hemel Hempstead, Luton, Leighton Buzzard, as well as the wider counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex, Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire
Tags: Bury St Edmunds, business development ideas, business growth seminar, cambridge, Ely, fully funded training, funded business growth seminar, Haverhill, Hemel, how to build business workshop, Ipswich, Luton, new business development, Newmarket, St Ives, Train to Gain funded training, training for business owners
Posted in business development, business growth, customer handling, Customer service management, customer services, Field sales training, Free training, Funded training, owner managers directors, Personal development, sales development training, Selling advice, seminar, Train to Gain funding | No Comments »
Monday, May 18th, 2009
Fully funded business development seminar – Birmingham West Midlands now launched for business owner managers and directors. This one day seminar is titled
How to win and keep more business
and so it covers elements of selling, customer service and team motivation – in fact everything you need to keep your company ahead of your competition and winning more business.
This one day seminar is fully funded through Train to Gain if you are a business owner or senior director, and meet the qualifying criteria as a small to medium sized business.
To find out more details just e-mail us to register your interest to me personally andrew@tomarket.co.uk. I will then make sure you get the full seminar details by letter or e-mail.
This one day seminar is aimed at business owners in Birmingham, Wolverhampton, West Bromwich, Oldbury, Wednesbury, Solihull, Lichfield, Tamworth, Burton on Trent, Coventry, Warwick, Leamington Spa, Stratford on Avon
Tags: birmingham, building new business workshop, building sales, Burton on Trent, business development seminar, business growth, coventry, customer retention seminar, developing selling, free business growth seminar, Leamington Spa, lichfield, Oldbury, personal development workshop for business owners, solihull, Stratford, Tamworth, Telford, Warwick, Wednesbury, Wolverhampton
Posted in business development, business growth, customer services, Field sales training, Free training, Funded training, owner managers directors, Personal development, sales development training, Selling advice, seminar, telemarketing, telesales, Train to Gain funding | No Comments »
