Archive: ‘Business Growth Strategy’

Cure for the Common Cold Call: Achooooooooo!

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There is a cure for the common cold call. Don’t do it. It’s not that it can’t work but rather that it is a very inefficient method (produces minimum results for maximum effort) that should be used only as a last resort.

Here are some ideas about how to approach an important decision-maker in a manner that has a much better probability of getting a meeting:

• Do research on them to learn about their business and personal goals, interests and experience. The more you know before you contact them, the greater the potential outcome of your interaction.
• Reach out to them through a common connection. This may be through the staff on an Association they belong to, one of their colleagues whom you know or somebody who knows them personally. If you don’t have a common connection, create one.
• Start the relationship in “learn” mode, not “sell” mode. If they want to buy from you, that can be determined after communication begins so don’t assume it. If it turns out that they are not a candidate to purchase from you but they like you (partially because you didn’t try to sell them), they may make a valuable introduction to somebody else.
• Develop a keen understanding of their concerns, which are often shaped by conditions in their industry so that you can speak intelligently with them about their perceived needs
• Email blast short messages with very appealing titles that indicate strong subject matter understanding of their industry, market and needs. If the title is right, the percentage of recipients who read it is dramatically higher.
• Create a new email blast campaign every Quarter and follow up every single email sent with a series of 5 phone calls that span the Quarter: 1 a week later, 2 & 3 spaced a week apart and 4 and 5 spaced a month apart.
• Be active in Associations where your target prospects congregate. Help bring in Members, with Events and make friends with the staff and with Board Members. They know the members and can open doors after you’ve contributed.

Achieveeeeeee!

FLAT

Yesterday was incredible. It was all high energy, getting important things figured out with advisory Clients and moving on to the next meeting. A full and very satisfying day… and exhausting.

I woke up showing the after effects of a long hard day. FLAT. The desire wanes, the ambition subsides and the creativity just won’t kick in.  Flat, that’s how it feels. BLAH, sort of numb, you get the picture. Yes, I’m in just such a mood as I look out the window of my small comfortable home office on this DREARY morning (dreary, of course, is not a fact but what I project onto what I see).  And my first reaction to this is to think that it’s a bad thing. “Come on man, get going & create something,” I say to myself. So, I fire up the computer, open up Word and stare at the blank screen. And listen….. and wait…. and smile, because….

I remember that these flat periods are an important part of the creative and productive process. You can’t stay “up” all the time. PAUSE is a good thing. Let your system recover a little. Let your mind not create…. for just a little bit anyway.

RELIEVED of the pressure to produce right at this minute, a feeling of well- being moves in. I know that I’m recovering from the intense exhilaration of yesterday when a series of meetings had better-than-normal outcomes.

As I RECOVER my energy, the zip returns. An old idea that’s been tapping on my shoulder for a while asks permission to have a discussion. A new, really wacky idea occurs to me at which I shake my head and say to myself “won’t work but it would be fun to try.”

“Good Enough” Products (& Services) are Kicking Butt

A Company with only a GOOD product but GREAT sales, marketing & service will be more financially successful than a competitor with a GREAT product and GOOD sales, marketing & service almost every time. On the surface, it doesn’t seem right, does it? You would think that buyers, over time, would prefer superior technical performance. But there is no question that   “Good Enough” Products are kicking butt.

WHY does this happen? Simple, the great marketers first of all make greater investments in time, money and resources to ensure that prospective buyers are aware that they exist. They Plan to spend appropriately to achieve the sales results they want. Then, they HOOK buyers with a superior brand promise, competitive positioning and key messages that resonate well by tapping a strong need, desire, fear, uncertainty or doubt (FUD) and then RETAIN them with superior Customer experience by caring, communicating, working proactively and responding nimbly to solve problems as they occur. Your product or service is better? Well, the Customer won’t easily let go because they’re reasonably happy or at least not seriously dissatisfied enough to do something about it. If you’re 10-20% better, yawn. 40-60% or more? Maybe…

A Lucky Strike cigarette commercial from the 1960′s said it well:

“I’d rather fight than switch.” The law of Inertia (as applied to human buying behavior) means unless it’s really important, I’m not gonna switch!

What actionable steps for entrepreneurs does this imply?

• Make a Strategic Decision: you have a dramatically superior product and will live or die by that OR you have a really good product and need to dramatically improve your marketing, sales and service. Which is it? Your resources are limited.  Don’t sit in the middle – CHOOSE!
• If you choose to be a “best product” play, then your highest priority is to locate and start a conversation with buyers whose #1 criteria for purchase is already technical superiority, provide data that “proves” your superiority and capture external validation/testimonials from technical experts whose opinions matter to the target market
• If you choose to be “Good Enough Product” play, then you want to find a niche where you can dominate or you’ll never go far
  • Research your Competition so that you know what they are promising and to whom so that you can create a messaging platform that is superior to your competitors for a specific niche (subset) of prospective Clients. Don’t go head to head against an 800 pound gorilla unless you have high confidence that your “counter offer” to the niche they dominate will resonate well
• Determine the essential Marketing and Sales activities that you must invest in to meet the Goals you’ve determined… and then make those investments.
  • This may mean diverting funds away from product development to capturing sales
  • This may mean investing in a salesperson or outside business development resource even knowing that it could be a year before you break-even on that investment

Singer Sheryl Crowe posed a question in one of her ballads: “Are You Strong Enough to be my Man?”

My question is: “Are you Good Enough to be my Product?”

You Can Pay Me Now

Every now and then a Client doesn’t pay their bills and deciding how to handle that is a challenge for every entrepreneur. The 3 key variables in this process are: the amount to be paid, the timing of payment(s) and how you move forward. Here is how I do it in my business consulting practice:

• Establish the amount due: provide written documentation to the Client and ask for confirmation that the amount is correct
• If they agree to the amount, negotiate a payment schedule, send them notices in advance of due dates (requesting read receipts), call them right away if they are late or miss a payment – staying in touch with them throughout this process is key as you want to hold them as close as possible to their commitment. You are relying on their ethics. It’s easy to get fatigued and stop paying attention but don’t let that happen – stay vigilant!
• If the Client does not acknowledge the amount, engage them in a discussion to understand their point of view and consider the legitimacy of their claims. Try to find out very specifically the points of agreement and disagreement. Based upon a dispassionate consideration of their statements, was your Company’s performance worthy of the invoiced amount? Are you willing to accept a smaller amount either because they have a legitimate point or simply in order to move on?
• If you are not willing to negotiate, tell them so in writing with a request for payment. If they do not respond to this in a reasonable timeframe, ask your attorney to send them a demand letter – this will often do the trick and its money well spent.
• If you are willing to negotiate the amount and the timing of payments, tell them so. You may want to estimate your expected legal fees and the value of your time. Generally speaking, small claims are not worth pursuing from an economic and opportunity cost perspective. Large claims may be worth your time and money.
• Ultimately, if they won’t pay and the amount owed is large enough to justify your time and investment, you may have to pursue them via legal means.  Unfortunately, in our legal system, it is very unlikely that you will recover your legal costs, and the process may take 1-2 years to complete so make sure you have the stamina and wherewithal to go through it.

A year ago, a business advisory Client did not pay the final amount due on a business plan because he had cash flow problems in his business. It was disheartening because I had gone the extra mile on the Plan and really enjoyed working together. He was never willing to commit to a payment schedule despite my numerous repeated attempts but the amount was not large enough to justify taking him to court. So, I stayed very constructive in our communications – though I was tempted to not be civil – and a year and a half later he stopped by and made his first payment and handed me a note that said “This is a very small part of what I still owe you. You will have the balance in full soon.” Conducting yourself as a professional craftsman sometimes pays unusual dividends.

What’s Your 2010 Business Development Strategy?

Did your 2009 business development strategy work like you hoped? Will you use the same strategies in 2010, or are you going to analyze, learn from your failures (and victories), and adapt?

Learning and adapting is usually a good idea, particularly if your results weren’t as you expected. But what are the best ways to learn from your mistakes, plan, and adapt to a new market condition?

This post explores how some of the smartest small companies in the Baltimore, Maryland, DC, and Northern Virginia markets are planning their 2010 business development strategies.

The tried and true. There are certain business development strategies that just plain work and I’ll go over some of them below. More »

A Far-Sighted Business Growth Strategy Will Help Your Future In A Recession

During periods of market slow down, the executive leadership of a business  is able to make choices about how they will react to the future, and the position where they would like to be once the economic down turn ease and the market begins to bounce back to what it was before.

By changing their perspective and strategy planning to have a long term perspective instead of realizing only the production of a short term positive uptick to the profit statement, it is possible to grow a business even during tough economic times. A foundation to success in this area, however is that the management in charge are true leaders and are prepared to look beyond the short term  prospects and work toward positive change for the future. It goes without saying that if the company is in a strong position before the downturn begins, combined with good leadership during the period of recession, that venture has a better chance of surviving the challenges with not only streamlined processes, but with a greater market customer base, due mainly to it stepping into the space left by companies who go out of business in the meantime.

The attitude toward a long-term business growth strategy needs to be a part of managerial mindset  in times of plenty as well as times of hardship and needs to result in the implementation of changes which will be advantageous over a period of economic cycles and not only from the short-term stance. The ability to handle recession in this way is the mark of true leadership abilities and the trademark of success.

The use of redundancy is an obvious example of knee-jerk reaction to company failures in a declining market. While it’s immediate effect is to release cash flow into the company which may be sorely needed, the long term result is that once the recession passes, the company then needs to re-establish the knowledge and experience base that it has just discarded. Across-the-board axing of staff positions may seem like the obvious thing to do, however it will be undesirable in the long term vision.

Realise that the wider social implications of major redundancies such as those that we are seeing in the international economy currently, actually makes a recession last longer, as it affects the entire status of a country’s economic infrastructure.

It is far more beneficial to reduce your cash flow by optimising processes than getting rid of people, particularly if you want to grow during or immediately after a recession. This way you retain the human resource necessary to quickly and effectively respond to opportunities in the market.

The techniques  brought in by consultants can usually help you identify quick wins in this area, and the money thus made available can be used to fund growth related activities such as buying your competitors stock or developing new market offerings.

The old proverb of buying when the market is depressed is most applicable in this situation, and businesses should be preparing for this situation when the going is good.