In turbulent times, it is vital to know how to GROW your business. In this blog for Small Business and Professional Services, Business Growth Expert, Dave Staughton shares his best strategies and tactics to help you adopt a winning mindset, find more leads and convert more prospects into clients. You’ll learn tips and techniques to make the most of every enquiry, every relationship and every sale.
LEARN THE FIVE STEPS TO SALES SUCCESS
When I started out in the hospitality business, I had come directly from a scientific job in the mining industry. I failed to realise the value of people skills in business. Reading Dale Carnegie’s book “How to win friends and influence people” saved me from financial ruin.
If you want your business to succeed then you really want your clients to ……
- Love YOU (Your Attitude)
- Love your BRAND (Reputation)
- Love your PRODUCTS & SERVICES (Pitch the key features)
- Love your VALUE (Know the Reasons WHY?)
- Love your DEAL (Negotiating the Price & terms)
80% of the sales process is a trusted relationship with you. In the absence of trust, prospects tend to buy primarily based on price. So avoid being a premature price-presenter! – Build a rapid, trusted relationship and always sell the value before the price. Ask great questions to demonstrate the value of your brand, your products, and your offer.
Avoid disclosing the price until you have performed a full diagnostic and presented your value proposition. Put more effort into selling the Why? Not just the What? As the medical industry says, “prescription without diagnosis is malpractice.”
STRATEGIES FOR BUSINESS GROWTH
In the current highly competitive “Soft” marketplace, You can adopt 4 strategies for growth:
- DIVERSIFY by Selling More Extras & Add-On Services
- AGGREGATE by Getting Bigger – Merge & Shrink Costs
- INNOVATE – Grow the PIE with New Business Ideas! – Change, Adapt or Die!
- FORM ALLIANCES by Working Together for Synergy
PRICING FOR PROFIT
Avoid discounting and selling things cheap. If you can only sell on price you have nothing to sell. Differentiate your products by adding more value and add-on services. Sell the value of your expertise, your support and follow up.
Remember – “Buying cheap INSURANCE is like buying a second hand parachute – you don’t know how good it is until it’s too late” and “Good NO Cheap & Cheap NO Good”.
Read the Book – “Someone has to be the most Expensive, why not make it you” by Andrew Griffiths
MANAGING YOUR SALES MINDSET in Turbulent Times.
Be a beacon of positivity, optimism and love.
Answer your phone with enthusiasm and a smiley face attitude – “Thanks for calling (business). This is (name)” Upswing your vocal tone at the end of the sentence.
Use the following questions for re-engaging and refocussing mindsets.
- “What’s working for you?”
- “What are you looking forward to?”
- “What can we do?”
- “What’s the next step?
- “What do you like about it?”
- “What are you grateful for?”
Find and Focus on Good News – What’s Working – Harness the BUZZ Factor
Collect and distribute your good news stories, advocates / ravers, testimonials – especially video testimonials, case studies, successful campaigns, positive reviews and reference sites.
Manage Your Little Voice (your Self Talk)
Use “I am…” Phrases to improve confidence and self belief. believe and achieve.
Adopt a positive sales mindset – attitude, belief, confidence, discipline, energy, focus, goals
Harness your “Attention Bias” to find Success and more Prospects
Your brain has the amazing ability to find the things that you look for. You find what you’re looking for – so look for your ideal clients and ideal results. “What you focus on expands” and “You get what you genuinely expect”. Be clear about your ideal clients, referrals and alliances.
HOW TO GROW by FINDING MORE NEW BUSINESS
Working Smarter NOT Harder
How hard you work and how much money you make are not always related. It’s a game of Quality Vs Quantity. If you improve the quality of your marketing, prospecting, referrals, and relationships, then you can get better results for the same or less effort.
Find your Ideal Niches – Become an expert or specialist in a few areas
When professionals start out, they are keen to get ANY business – The “AAAAA” Approach – we do anything for anyone, anywhere at any time for any price. This inevitably results in poor-quality prospects and strained relationships. Over time, typically 3 years plus, some expertise is developed, and good clients refer more good clients. The practice can develop a niche – “TTTTT”- we do these things for these people at this location on these days for this price.
The more you say “NO” to difficult clients and difficult work (refer them elsewhere), the more time and energy you have to seek better clients. Become an expert in a few insurance areas or types of clients that you really enjoy. You can then seek more referrals for these ideal types of prospects.
Prioritise and Focus Your Relationship Efforts
Whether you use an Excel spreadsheet, a database or a CRM to manage your relationship data, the trick is to prioritise your relationships. Any sort of “relationship grading system” works to focus your attention and efforts on your best clients, prospects, alliances, and referrers. You can use the 10-100-1000 method or the A-B-C-D method. The Pareto principle, or the 80/20 rule, suggests that 20% of your relationships will reap 80% of your results. Who gets lots of love, who gets coffee, and who gets the “Drive by, smile and wave” approach? “Find the vital few in the trivial many”. Who are your top 10 clients and alliances? Spend more time with them.
Create an Awesome LinkedIn Profile
Over 15 million Australians are on LinkedIn, primarily comprising professionals and students. It is an amazing database for keeping track of “weak links” – people you have met at events or collected business cards. You MUST complete your Bio and get a great Picture on LinkedIn. Join relevant Groups and connect with as many people as you know. Your LinkedIn profile is easily found on Google by referees. Google yourself and fix up your Google page too. Here are some Linked In experts that can help.
Join your local BNI Group or Start an Alliance Network
BNI is a local networking group called Business Networking International – A small group of professionals that meets each week to help each other develop referrals and grow their businesses. You can get 50 to 100 referrals per year and build an alliance group of professional referrers. This costs about $3k p.a.
How to Grow and Build RELATIONSHIPS RAPIDLY
Use Dale Carnegie’s Tips for influence and persuasion
- Give Genuine Praise and Appreciation – Avoid Sarcasm and Cynicism
- Don’t Criticise, Condemn or Complain
- Smile more
- Use people’s names
Make a speedy personal connection by building rapid rapport
Connect with people fast, Give genuine compliments & be courteous. For more ideas see Nicholas Boothman’s book on “How to connect with people in less than 90 seconds” or “Easy Peasey” by Allan Pease the body language guy.
Match their Pace and Style
Alter your questioning conversation to match their Pace (faster or slower) and Style (direct/results oriented or relationship/chatty)
Are they a visual, audio or kinesthetic person – A Looker, Sounder or Feeler – You can identify and match their personal style when checking in – How does that Look? How does that sound? How do you feel about that? – useful when closing the deal.
Grow Your Relationship
Ask more great questions – “Ask! – Don’t TELL & Listen More!” – Ask about the weather, their weekend, their work and leisure activities, their family or travel plans
Find Common Bonds – Look for things that you have in common – Work, Recreation, Interests, Social – family/friends or Travel – talk positively about things you have in common. or FORD – Family, Occupation, Recreation & Dreams.
Swap Business Cards in order to keep in touch – use this to connect on Linked-In.
Build Trust by Promising & Delivering on your promise. Promise to send something or do something – then do it. – Start small and begin building TRUST. One of the fastest ways to build trust long term is to help out someone who is in TROUBLE – by going the extra mile and beyond the call of duty!
Learn more by reading about Cialdini’s “Factors of Influence” (RASCAL) & find out about Buyer Convincer Strategy online
BASIC BUSINESS MARKETING TIPS
Here are some simple yet powerful tips for marketing your business
- Hand out three Business Cards at a time to get more referrals – Don’t be stingy with your cards. Hand out your three cards and say “One for you and two for your friends”
- Make sure you have your email signature on every device and that the email signature mentions your interest in referrals, things you can offer and a call to action.
- Get known locally – Leave a trail of business cards and DL Flyers in your local area – startup businesses seek to support other local businesses
- Get more Signage & Car Signage – Be known in your local area with effective signage – an A frame, building or vehicle signage – consider getting signs at local schools and sports clubs.
- Do more with Local PR & Sponsorships – get involved in the local community and earn the right to do business in your region.
- Keep in touch Send More cards to your clients regularly – Easter, midyear, Spring, Summer, Xmas and New Year. Include three business cards and an A4 Annual report about you & your business with tips and family news. Joe Girard the world Guinness book of records holder for selling the most cars in a year – send out thousands of cards to keep in touch.
How to Grow MORE TRUSTED RELATIONSHIPS
A simple pathway to trust is “Know You & Like You, become Aware of Your Abilities then Trust You”.
- Get Known! – they know and can remember your name and face – use cards and connect online.
- Be likeable, positive and friendly.
- Help people become aware of the great work that you do and could do for them – Tell success stories and promote your case studies and great work.
- Learn how to develop trust quickly. Stephen Covey wrote a great book on “The Speed of Trust” – it turns out you can rapidly build trust and repair trust in a damaged relationship.
Learn how to develop longer-term relationships and a trusted advisor status. Find more advocates and endorsers – clients who really love you and are prepared to offer testimonials, referrals and rave about you at events. Read the books by David Maister on becoming a trusted advisor.
CONVERTING MORE PROSPECTS INTO CLIENTS
Marketing any business costs lots of money & time. The cost of a new prospect enquiry can be $100-$200, the cost of a meeting with a new prospect can be around $500, the cost of acquiring a new client can be around $1000-$2000 each. Work on delivering an awesome client experience. Provide great first impressions – improve the initial contact by phone or email, your speed of response and rectifying any client issues.
Always be asking questions and listen closely to their answers. Probe their responses and dig a bit deeper. Use diagnostic consulting questions. Remember – Sellers are NOT Tellers – Use the suggested ‘Million Dollar Questions’ about Source of Enquiry, Extras, Addons, Upsell, Referral and Repeats.
Ask Better Questions – Use Positive Questioning & Practice Appreciative Enquiry
Make them feel great about responding and answering your question. Express enthusiasm (wow, great, terrific, thanks, compliments, congratulations), Repeat, paraphrase or rephrase their answer, Affirmative listening (Mmm, I see, Ahuh!), Ask a supplementary question about their answer. Avoid using “Don’t, Can’t, Won’t, and No!”
- Use question softeners to make your questions more polite and respectful. Start your questions with “Do you mind if I ask…”
- “Could I just ask…..”
- “Is it OK if ask….”
- “Would it be alright if I asked….”
Selling what your clients need, not just what they want.
You can turn wants into needs with a good set of diagnostic questions in a fact-finding process. The best salespeople don’t just build relationships with customers. They challenge them! Teach, Tailor & Take Control of the conversation!
Sell the Product Benefits, not just the Features
Prospects buy benefits – the “what’s in it for me” factor. You can turn any product feature into a benefit by giving reasons. Use the following phrases when talking about product features to turn them into benefits:
- “because …”
- “so that you ….”
- “which means…”
- “and that means…”
e.g. It’s not the amount of insurance – it’s what that means to the prospect in event of a claim.
Know Your Client Value Proposition – The Reasons Why?
Confidence sells. The more confident you are about why a prospect should buy from you – the higher your prospect conversion rate. Practice and know the many reasons why someone should do business with you, your company and buy these products or services. The more you can confidently articulate these reasons – the more sales you make. Prospects buy your confidence.
Selling with Stories
Learn to tell great short stories and use them in your sales pitch. Find and collect case studies of both successes and failures. These are known as success stories and war stories. Stories are a powerful way to motivate change in the emotional part of the brain. Experienced salespeople have collected a large range of stories to encourage change in prospects and can be used to assist conversion.
Most stories have characters, an obstacle, and an outcome. E.g. “We had a client who did X and got Y” – they can be both positive, desirable outcome or a negative outcome to be avoided. Learn to tell memorable stories – read the book “Made to Stick” by Chip and Dan Heath.
For an Insurance industry example, consider finding examples and stories to demonstrate the true value of buying insurance, buying larger cover, buying life insurance, and buying extra cover like BI or commercial. E.g., stories of clients who didn’t buy and regret it, stories of people who lost their business because of underinsurance or lack of BI. Happy stories of young families that you sold life insurance to and had an early claim.
- For more information on using stories to sell – read the books Power Stories by Valerie Khoo, Hooked by Yasmina Naidu or Stories that Sell by Casey Hibbard
Close the Sale and Be More Persistent – Ask Again in a different way and follow up forever
Most professionals give up too easily. Be persistent. ‘It’s No Not Now – Not No forever’. Call and ask again later. Most people take time or multiple requests before they decide. Remember, people struggle to make decisions – either Yes, No, or Maybe. They may choose someone else and be dissatisfied. There is always a “window of dissatisfaction” – Go back again 3, 6 and 9 months later and check to see how they are going. Don’t give up – keep sending cards!
MAKING THE MOST OF EVERY SALE
Ask the Right Questions – Selling Needs Not Wants
I have ordered coffee in cafes all over the world. Very rarely does anyone offer me anything else. Maybe they think I really only wanted ONE coffee and no cake, biscuit, sandwich or lunch. If you wait for your prospects and clients to tell you what they really NEED, or you just take their ORDER, you’ll have very skinny kids. Learn how to be proactive, ask great diagnostic questions, and make the most of every sale.
For some reason, thousands of dollars of potential sales are missed because we fail to ask all the right questions. Learn how to sell extras and add-ons by asking well. Avoid being a beggar – “You don’t want X, do you?”
Diversify your income stream – recommend and sell more extra products e.g.
Offer Asset Finance, Travel Insurance, and other insurance products.
- “Know anyone buying a vehicle? We can help you with that!”
“I strongly recommend…..” “Have you considered…” “You should really look at…”
Develop More Sales Assertiveness – Climb The Sales Scale
The sales scale range from the low end – Not asking at all or “You don’t want X do you” to “Would you like…” – “I suggest” – “I strongly recommend….” “You really need….” – to the highly assertive end of telling propects what to do and using great stories to influence. Learn how to be more assertive, more confident and more influential and watch you sales double and triple. Read the book Good Boss, Bad Boss by Robert Sutton and Conversations for Change by Shawn Hayashi for more great ideas on change and assertive conversations.
Your level of sales assertiveness is also shown by how you ask for recommendations and referrals. Most Australians don’t ask – and they don’t get many. The more confidently, consistently and assertively you ask for testimonials and recommendations – the more your business grows.
How to Grow Your REFERRAL LEADS
Referrals are the lifeblood of any small business – especially a professional service business.
Make yourself easily referable
- Be found easily – business cards, website, LinkedIn
- Respond quickly to any referrals or enquiries
- Give referrers more feedback about the lead or prospect
Easy Professional Alliance Building – Ask all your clients and prospects about their professionals
“On a scale of 1 to 10 how satisfied are you with your current Accountant (or other Professional)”
- If its a high score “Could you introduce me?” If its a low Score “I can recommend a better one”
Build your own team of referral partner alliances
Join local Clubs & Groups to meet Real Estate Agents, Conveyancers, Accountants, Financial planners, Builders, Developers, Buyers Agents, Mortgage Brokers, Consultants and Family legal advisors.
Thank your Referrers often – What gets rewarded gets repeated
- Tell your referrers who your ideal clients are and give them feedback about the leads.
- Make follow up calls, send cards and gifts
ACTION STEPS for How to Grow
- Attitude counts in turbulent times – improve your mindset and deliver an awesome client experience
- Do the business marketing basics – make yourself easy to find, easy to remember and easy to buy from
- Drills make skills. The more you sweat on the training ground – the less you bleed in battle.- Learn how to ask better questions and be more influential
- Be a continuous learner – improve your quality to get better conversion – work smarter not harder.
RECOMMENDED FURTHER READING
- See the range of E-Books for professional services by Dave Staughton
