To help you reach your sales goals
Posts tagged Strategy
From The Street: Do you want to increase your sales? Leave YOUR phone number and I guarantee it will increase your sales!
May 21st
From The Street: Do you want to increase your sales? Leave YOUR phone number and I guarantee it will increase your sales!
By Mike Krause “Giving You 110%”
It still amazes me after listening to a 3 minute voicemail and life story of the person leaving the message they DO NOT leave their phone number? People are way too busy to search for your number and they will not return your call.
Sample script and some tips for you:
Hello <Prospect>. This is ________with _________ my direct number is _______I wanted to introduce my company and learn more about your needs at ___________. We can handle your ______________
Please call me when you get back to your desk directly to ____________thank you!
1. Phone number is left twice
2. Purpose of call
3. Be in silence no back ground noise or babies
4. You are curious about their business
5. You are to the point
6. You are clear in your message
7. It is not all about you
8. Point of action
9. You are offering a win/win
10. You are not going on and on and on.
11. Mike’s AH HAH! Your message is short and to the point, you leave your phone number twice so the prospect does not have to listen to your message in its entirety again.
To Your Sales Success,
Mike
“Giving You 110%”
Mike Krause is the Chief Sales Architect and owner of Sales Sense Solutions where he gives CEO’s VP of Sales and Sales Professionals stellar sales results they want by implementing the tactics, tools and high performance strategies they need.
4 + 2: The Secret Code to Superior Business Performance
Apr 5th
4 + 2: The Secret Code to Superior Business Performance
By Mike Krause
If you’re rolling your eye at yet another claim to “a secret” or the “magic pill” to gain business success this post is for you. It turns out there really is a key to superior business performance and the intelligent minds at Harvard Business School have found it.
Over the years management ideas, tools and techniques have come and gone. Different approaches and theories have been implemented sometimes to the success of the user, other times…not so much. Harvard Business School wanted to know which management practices really work? They carefully examined more than 200 well-established management practices as they were employed over a 10-year period by 160 companies. The study was dubbed The Evergreen Project and the results surprised them in a big way.
Turns out it really doesn’t matter what you do. Read that again. There is no causal relationship to any specific technique to the outcome of business success. What does matter is a company’s grasp and ability to use the business basics. The study found that without exception the winning companies had a firm grasp on four management practices:
- Strategy. Your product must be sharply defined, clearly communicated, and well-understood by employees, customers, partners and investors.
- Execution. Develop and maintain flawless operational execution.
- Culture. Holding and nurturing high expectations matters most.
- Structure. Reduce bureaucracy and simplify work.
In addition to these four basics they had a mastery of any two out of the four secondary management practices:
- Talent. Hold on to talented employees and develop more.
- Innovation. An agile company turns out innovative products and services and anticipates disruptive events in an industry rather than reacting when it may already be too late.
- Leadership. Great leadership can raise performance significantly.
- Mergers and Partnerships. Some winning companies mastered mergers.
Winner, loser, climber or tumbler–the level of your success is defined by your grasp of the basic four plus mastery in two of the secondary practices, hence: 4 + 2.
So now you know the secret code to superior business success. And now you know why we at Sales Sense Solutions are so persistent when it comes to strategic planning. Strategic planning is not a gimmick. It’s not something reserved for the upper echelon of the Fortune 500. Strategic planning is for you, the small business owner and it’s what determines if you will be a winner, loser, climber or tumbler.
A Strategic Growth Kit
We assembled our series of articles on strategic planning for the small business owner. Think of each of these articles as a tool. Together they make a strategic growth kit full of the tactics and practical applications you need to achieve mastery of the 4 + 2. These articles will take you through the each step to measuring, establishing and implementing a strong, flexible strategic plan.
1. Strategic Planning Questionnaire: Step One for Strong Growth and Sales
Answer these questions for a current snapshot of your strategic plan.
2. How to Conquer the Strategic Growth Ghost
This is a basic approach to establishing a strategic growth plan–specifically how to identify your unique selling proposition and a unique value proposition. This is particularly important for consultants and small businesses; you can’t afford to be a generic commodity!
3. Your 5 Competitive Threats: Are You Digging Deep Enough?
This gives you the questions you need to ask to assess your assets, strengths, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities.
4. Street Talk: Internal Capabilities
Here’s how to objectively evaluate and pinpoint your internal capabilities and resources. These are a must-have to maintain a competitive advantage and survive as a winner or climber.
5. 20 Ways to Recognize Your Star Clients
Identify these clients and improve your operational execution, structure. Side benefits include an increased bottom line and vibrant company culture.
6. Cash Is King
Financial issues are a reality. Here is a collection of smart ideas to stretch your cash.
Here is how you manage your strategic plan so you can remain a winner and climber. Unbalanced companies are tumbling or losing.
Mike Krause is the Chief Sales Architect and owner of Sales Sense Solutions where he helps business owners stay ahead of the competition with stellar sales and high performance sales assessments, strategies, tactics and tools. Call him at (585) 704-6453 if you need help with any of these tools or want the strategic growth kit for your winning business.
Score Success with a Balanced Business: Here’s Your Tool
Mar 22nd
Score Success with a Balanced Business: Here’s Your Tool
By Mike Krause
Have you ever made an adjustment to something that has resulted in causing new stress in unexpected places? This often happens in your body. If you hurt your knee you will compensate with other muscles for the duties the knee used to perform. Cars are another example. You get a tune-up and now the car runs smoother, more efficiently and a little faster. Except the tune-up means one of the belts has to work harder, can’t quite take the stress and eventually needs attention.
There is another environment where this phenomenon occurs regularly. Your business.
Let’s assume you’ve made a strategic plan based on strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities (if you haven’t, stop what you’re doing right now and read article on SWOT). As you execute your strategic plan you will have to recalibrate your internal systems.
Chances are your plan included a focus on sales. As a result your sales have been steadily growing. Congratulations! But now that you’re selling at a higher level what does that do to inventory? Do you have adequate staffing for customer service to maintain your reputation? Can your shipping and receiving absorb the extra work? Do you have a hiring system in place to minimize disruptions while you bring on much-needed staff? Do you need new technology to handle the larger volume?
Focusing on one aspect of your business and then stepping back to assess your system is called achieving a balanced score card. As a business owner it’s up to you to keep everything calibrated in order to support your vision and strategy. The Balanced Scorecard Institute developed a tool to help:
1. Take four pieces of paper and label them: customer, financial, internal business systems/processes, and learning and growth.
2. Under each title write this key question.
Customer–To achieve our vision how should we appear to our customers?
Financial–To succeed financially how should we appear to our stakeholders and investors?
Internal Systems/Processes–To satisfy our customers and shareholders what businesses processes must we excel at?
Learning and Growth–To achieve our vision how will we sustain our ability to change and improve?
3. Under the question write a list of these four words: objectives, measures, targets, and initiatives.
4. Fill out your plans, activities, goals, etc. under the appropriate category.
A healthy, balanced business should have a balanced scorecard. Categories and actions should be identified, articulated, and complementary throughout the scorecards. Gaps on paper signify gaps in your business and need attention.
Sounds like a lot of work, doesn’t it? It is, but the effort invested here will streamline your efforts in other areas and make your business run collectively more efficiently and successfully. If you want to grow, it’s a necessity. You have three options:
1. Do it yourself. Create the scorecard tool then schedule time to think and update it on a regular basis. Once/month, bi-monthly, twice/year: whatever works for you. Just make sure you do it. Having trouble managing your time or staying on task?
2. Create a Board of Directors. Acquire a small group of peers and mentors who you admire and make yourself accountable to their feedback. Or,
3. Hire a consultant. Consultants are hired for nearly everything these days–virtual CFO’s, administrative assistants, writing, etc. Consultants have a point of view you will never find inside your business–the external perspective. They are more affordable than a full-time employee because they are fee-only and part-time. You only pay them when you need them which makes their rate an extremely high ROI. A good one will ask you difficult questions and provide guidance to keep you on track. It’s not their job to make you feel good about your decisions. It’s their job to make sure you are being accountable to your vision and strategy in the capacity of the project you hired them to manage.
Good luck.
Mike Krause is the Chief Sales Architect and owner of Sales Sense Solutions where he helps business owners stay four steps ahead of the competition with stellar sales and high performance sales assessments, strategies and practical advice.
How to Conquer the Strategic Growth Ghost
Jan 21st
How to Conquer the Strategic Growth Ghost
By Mike Krause
If you don’t know exactly what you’re selling and why your customers are buying, strategic growth will remain a ghostly apparition–always elusive and never materializing. And if your organization isn’t growing, it’s dying.
Most businesses, at some point, were able to provide these answers. But over time organization leaders become so immersed in their business they lose perspective and fail to work on it. Eventually, they’re left wondering how the competition incrementally stole the marketshare.
Here’s how to stop it: know your unique selling proposition (USP) and your unique value proposition (UVP).
What’s your USP? What do you sell that separates you from your competitors? This is not an elevator speech. This is a clearly distilled statement about what you do in 8 words or less. You should know it. Your executive staff should know it. Your sales staff should know it. Your clients and prospects should know it. Your receptionist, phone operator, and in-house mail clerk should know it. This statement is one of the single most important selling guides within your organization.
Here’s the other one.
What’s your UVP? Why do your customers do business with you? What is their perception of you? Maybe they see value where you don’t. Perhaps they like the color of your logo or the aura of your company culture. Maybe it’s your location, convenience, expertise, friendliness, reputation, price, knowledge, visibility, coolness rating, or frustration with a competitor–whatever it is you need to know it.
Be open to learn that what you think are reasons your clients are buying may not be their greatest influencers.
Are your ideal customers who you think they are?
Are you channeling your USP resources into a package your customers want?
Are your customers attracted to you because of the uniqueness of what you provide?
Alignment between USP and UVP equates into real strategic growth. The ghosts are gone. But by now you have correctly guessed this alignment requires maintenance. It relies upon paying continuous attention to your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT). And to do that you need your USP and UVP.
Wondering where to start?
Try this for USP: at your next staff meeting place a big box next to you. Pass out sheets of paper and pencils then ask attendees to write your organization’s USP. Don’t warn or prompt them. You’re trying to collect a true snapshot of their understanding. Their answers will tell you how much work you need to do in this area.
Try this for UVP: make a list of all your current assets that collect prospect and customer opinion of your organization and then use them to listen to your customers and collect their input.
Is your list a little sparse? Consider:
• Surveys (make sure to provide an open-ended question)
• Social media (yes, another valuable trait of this technology)
• Testimonials
• Case Studies
• Website analytics
• Focus group
• Mixer (a little unconventional but a great way to solicit conversation and thank your customers)
Now you have some tools to get started. Will you use them and conquer the strategic growth ghost or continue on and just hope for the best? It’s your move.
