How to get clients for your business is usually the initial conversation we have with potential new clients that come to us. Either by referral or many other lead generation ideas we use.

The truth is this is a key activity in anyone’s business. No matter the maturity or not of your business model we all need more clients to increase our cash flow. As 2011 is about to close for most of us in the next 24 hours it is a great time to reflect on exactly the high points of 2011 and what we might want to do more or less of in 2012.

Here we want to share 7 key areas to consider when you are thinking about how to get new clients for your business. We have looked at the important part of this aspect of your business and that is having a strategy on the first place. To do that though you need to think through a few key areas. Now normally as people start to read through a list they mentally shut down as the ‘little man or woman ‘on your shoulder says I know all that! Well intuitively I bet you do. The truth is though are you implementing it? I rest my case.

So here we go then ……………

1. Analyse Your Stats

This particular activity links with number 2 and logically is where we need to start. To make it easier for the maths….well it is December and I have been 3 Christmas parties already this week……….we will focus on an easy number. This works just as well if you are turning over £1,000,000

If you turned over £100,000 last year what did you do to make that happen? Both from a marketing and sales perspective.

• How many clients bought from you
• How many new services or products did you introduce
• Which products generate the most revenue
• How many people visited your website
• How many sales calls did you make
• How many clients appointments
• How many prospecting calls
• What training did you have that has made a difference

You can probably see where we are going with this. If you don’t have accurate data on these types of parameters then that would be the first place to start.

       2. Set a Goal

Yes goal setting does work. As humans we are success seeking creatures we need to have something to aim for. If you have not read this book treat yourself. It is called the new psych cybernetics and is the updated Maxwell Maltz classic book.

The original sold millions of copies because the content is so useful. Back to goal setting. If you have a goal to double your turnover is it actually realistic? For a new start up maybe. For an established operation with no new products in the pipeline probably not.

If you set a stretch Goal how might it happen. Which of the numbers you have from last year will need to be increased. There are many ways to set Goals. From big picture ones to smaller outcome goals. If you don’t know much about this talk to someone that does.

The big picture goals keep us motivated the smaller outcome goals get us into action fast, and help us on the way to achievement. For instance if a big goal is to hit a quarter of a million this year, smaller goals will be your monthly revenue targets. You might need to bring on board 2 new sales people to achieve this or create a new specific website to help with lead generation. The activities to achieve this will need to happen and this could be one of your small outcome goals.

      3. Have a Marketing and Sales Plan

Logical I know if you want to know how to get clients for your business, yet many smaller business owners don’t invest the time to create their own Marketing and Sales plan. The truth is smaller business owners that have a plan can increase revenue by over 25%. Of course it needs to be flexible and also include the activities that you know will bring results.

In our corporate careers every product had a marketing and sales plan. Budgets and activities assigned. Call targets, activities and events. Then that plan was worked and monitored. Guess what?…………..it worked.
It does not matter is you have just started your company, or put up your first website to sell a niche product. You MUST have a plan if your series about generating results.

       4. Spruce Up Your Site

We are quite unique as an online marketing company because we advocate a combination of both online and offline marketing activities to generate new business.

Having said that the internet gives us all a huge opportunity to leverage a lot of what we do………..provided we keep pace with it.

• When did you last really look critically at your website?
• Does it need a spruce up?
• What about your content .Do you need some new customer focused website copy that engages your customer?
• What about your graphics and colours?
• Do you have a blog on your site?

With over 90% of potentials new customers and clients checking us out online before they buy, what will they come across when it comes to you?

What references will they come across? If they type in your name or your company name does your website come up on page one of Google.

The good news is a lot of this activity does not cost the earth and can give a new look and feel quickly to your business.

      5. Add Some New Marketing Methods

Many of us stick to tried and trusted methods when it comes to how to get clients for our business. This is a good thing …….and we also need to constantly look at what other things could we implement to ‘spread our opportunity or risk’.
This year we went to see a potential new client who spent a lot of money on PPC.
This also delivered for him in a competitive ecommerce market.

This particular guy was savvy and realised that Google changes so much, having all his eggs in one basket could be commercial suicide. Imagine if Google suddenly decides to increase the costs you are paying or do not like how you manage your account. Overnight your lead generation stream will disappear overnight.

That is why we always encourage our marketing strategy clients to explore new ways of bringing in clients. The more ways you have the more you can potentially grow.

    6. Outsource Where Possible

As a serious business owner you will need to invest in help with your business. You can’t do it all. It generally costs less than you think and will have an ROI [return on investment] for you.

We work with a lot of experts in their field most of whom have a huge knowledge of their subject. When it comes to marketing and selling themselves, the opposite is often true.

They know the end Goal and yet the means to get there is sometimes a mystery.

Many people who start their own business are usually pretty bright. They also have learnt how to do a lot of ‘stuff’ over the years. In the early days we all ‘have a go’ at most things. It often saves time and money……….or at least that is what we tell ourselves!……….in the beginning.

Now if you are really serious about taking your business to the next level you will need help. Look at the activities you struggle with or are time consuming for you……………….or you are terrible at. Then find someone else to do them. The reality is because they are in flow doing these activities it will cost you less.

You can even break this down yourself. Say your business turnover £150,000  a year. That means you are worth around £75 an hour. Simple maths divide your income by 52 weeks and then 40 hours.

Say you need some new copy for your website. A rough estimate of 5 or 6 pages. In honesty if this is not your area of expertise it is likely to take you 15 -20 hours at a conservative estimate. A recent conversation with someone we met at a charity event was actually closer to 30 hours. Now do the maths on that one.

30 hours x £75……………………£2250

You could actually get the same job done at a third of the price and dare I say it a much better end product as well.

     7. Take Action

The thing that stops many of us growing the way we want is that we don’t take action. Let’s clarify that one. We don’t take consistent action.

If you want to build momentum in your business you will need to act. All the best ideas in the world are no good if you don’t actually move on them.

It does not have to be perfect. If you want to access a new geographical area and don’t know anyone make a plan.

Get a page on your website that targets a local term. Get your SEO company to work on it even as a one off fee.

Get an invite to a networking group in that area and go to a meeting. Make some contacts. You don’t have to have a perfect pitch ready……just get out there and give it a go.

Well that is it from us in 2011. We will be back in January with more ideas and tips.

Have a great Christmas and New Year. Rest up and enjoy yourself. If you have bothered to read to the end of this blog post I suspect 2012 might just be your year.

To You and Your Success

Denise and Sharon

By Carl C. Henry

#1. Great Sales Managers Set Goals:

They are also masters at goal setting. Like top producers, they see an outcome and focus on it daily until it’s been reached. This shouldn’t be surprising. After all, nearly all-great sales are a result of having a great system, and working it consistently to hit targets. They know that small targets can turn into bigger targets, and that the only way to hit bigger goals is to hit all the smaller ones along the way. By manipulating their daily and weekly goals, they can guide producers to healthy and increasing annual figures.

#2. Great Sales Managers Know The Process:

Great managers understand the sales process, and know that each step is useful. Ask any of them, and they’ll tell you that you can’t skip any steps on route to a sale, and that to try means wasting time and energy. Without prospecting, you have no one to sell to. If the qualifying stage is rushed, you’ll meet resistance when you close, and might experience problems after the sale. Closing itself must be done patiently, working with the client to overcome any fears or objections. For a sale to be made, all the pieces must fit. A strong manager will help his or her producers to keep this in mind, so that they aren’t tempted to try to shortcut the selling process.

#3. Great Product Knowledge:

Another trait of top managers is that they understand the market for their products. They know where what they’re selling fits in terms of price and quality, and use that knowledge to show clients the best options for a given situation. They can tell you anything you’d need to know about a product in their catalog, along with its price and perceived strengths and weaknesses compared to the competition. This sort of thorough knowledge gives them the ability to coach their producers through presentations, as well as preparing them to counter objections.

#4. Great Sales Managers See Training Is An Investment:

Great managers know the value of expanding sales skills. They are always advising those under them to read another book or go to another seminar. They understand that training is never finished. Whatever you’re selling today, somebody else is out there training to sell it better and to more people. You can’t rely tomorrow on the same skills you used today. You have to keep learning or you will become stale. A strong supervisor will remind producers to keep training their minds and always be improving.

#5. Great Sales Managers Have Clarity & Focus:

Another trait they have in common is focus. Have you ever noticed how sales managers are always focused on their quarterly numbers? That’s not an accident. Simply put, great supervisors don’t get distracted by what’s going on around them. They know that they have a job to do – usually to help you hit a certain production goal – and will do whatever they can to help advance you to that point. Everything else should point toward that aim, and they’ll try to be sure that your activities reflect that.

#6. Great Sales Managers Have Patience:

And finally, they have patience. Most of them have been in sales long enough to know that there are going to be ups and downs. Being on top today doesn’t mean that you’ll necessarily be in the same place tomorrow. Likewise, a bad week, a bad month, or even a bad quarter can happen to anyone. Like coaches, they’ve seen the wins and losses, and know that quality work will succeed over time, and that the lazy and noncommittal will eventually wash out. They emphasize doing the right things every day, because they know that over time, you’ll be successful that way.

By Dr. Jim Sellner Ph.D.

My point is this…

If you don’t want people to run screaming in the opposite direction when you have crucial conversations with them, you have to be able and willing to get “real” use “ordinary speak” and connect with people – on their “mind turf.”

Be respectfully honest, compassionately brutal and authentically devoted to their betterment. You are going into the room for improvement to have a conversation — one human being human with another.

Herb Kelleher of Southwest Airlines is a master at this.

Talking to engage isn’t just about using with the “proper” words. Its not about the technicalities of words, its about the emotion in the message. Its about the intention behind the words you are sharing. You want to connect with people on an emotional level.

Making them value you.

Making them want to sharethings with you.

OK, fine — now you might ask, “How the heck am I supposed to do that?” Well, glad you asked!

This is not rocket science. The rules are quite simple.

1. Talk with a specific person or team about a specific goal or task you want improved – one task or goal at a time. Think of it this way.

2. Talk the way you talk. Don’t go “rap” and use street slang and shorthand. But if you can’t say what you need to say without stumbling and tripping over our tongue – you’ve gone too complex. Practice what you’re about to say preferable with a colleague who will be brutally honest with you.

Use simple words – not stupid, simplistic words. Most people have a grade school comprehension level. Some will be at college level. Very few will be highly skilled.

Most everyone, in a crucial conversation, in which heightened blood pressure clouds the mind, can only listen in 6-7 second word bites. Simple, easily understandable, delivered in small chunks makes it easier for people to digest the message. You don’t want them throwing up on you.

3. Tell a story, make it funny. Here’s one I like that one of my managers told me when I was being resistant to his instructions.

A motorist was mailed a photo of his car speeding through an automated radar post. An $80 speeding ticket was enclosed. Being a bit of a smarty the motorist sent the police back a picture of $80. The police mailed back a photo of handcuffs.

I got the point.

4. Relate to the person or group. Get into their shoes. What is their context? Use words that let’s them know you understand their world, and that you’re just as human as they are. People like that, they will then tend to like you. When they start thinking you’re a threatening alien you’ve lost their trust.

5. Make yourself easy to understand. Big, long speeches with long, run-on sentences send your audience screaming out of that room for improvement. Break it up, even use occasional word pictures or real pictures to help break it up. Ask for their input to engage people more.

6. Sleep on it before you deliver it. If you go for it when your rushed or under pressure it’s a sure bet you’re slap happy or exhausted and that 10-minute diatribe is nowhere near to being as impactful as you are deluding yourself into believing it will be.

7. Relax! Say what you’re passionate about. Say what you expect. Make it an invitation to improve.

8. Use the four keys to getting people to open the door to the room for improvement — Why? What? How! and “What if?

There you have it.

8 ways to not repulse the person or your team.

Are you able and willing to manage people with genius, to stop treating them like idiots or dummies — to engage, respect, and show that you’re interested in them becoming better?

I’d appreciate to hearing from you.

Human Principle #2: We behave in our best interests when we:
Increase our competencies;
Are aligned with our personal and business values; and…
Choose to be engaged.

By Sam Manfer

Active Networking

For salespeople to be effective lead generators, they must have both active and passive marketing programs. Now (1) their marketing program must be their own – not the company’s (although the two can be in sync with each other), and (2) they will do both, halfheartedly or not at all unless you the sales manager shows them how and holds them accountable. Accountability means setting goals, actions and measurements. Then, review progress on a regular schedule to give meaningful feedback and motivation to reach agreed-upon metrics.

So here are some sales management training tips for managing an Active Lead Generation Process.

Active marketing is networking (a) up and out within existing accounts, (b) into competitors’ and lost accounts, and (c) new markets.

For existing accounts do your sales people have 100% of their existing accounts’ business? Do your sales people what it will take to steal accounts from your competitors? Do your sales people have a method to introduce and integrate your products into new markets? Probably not.

Now, the easiest way to get more business is to spread like a virus through all accounts, focusing on eventually getting to the C-level and/or profit center leaders and their immediate staffs. Your goal as a manager is to keep them focused on connecting with more and more people to learn their problems and potential opportunities that relate to your solutions portfolio. Then, with their gleaned knowledge, develop suggestions and strategies that these leaders find helpful. Try not to concentrate at first on the purchase, but rather on learning and then their buy-in to your suggestions. Learning their thinking will show what it will take to get buy-in. With buy-in comes support, and with support comes networking to those with the power to mandate changes, create budgets and to authorize purchases.

If your sales people stick with their one or two main contacts, their ability to discover opportunities and make suggestions that lead to purchases is severely limited. Therefore, you must insist upon an Executive Relationship Chart. The elements of such a tool include:

1. Who are all (up and out) involved people by name and title in that organization?
a. The powerful — C-Level, Profit Center Leaders and their immediate staffs.
b. The influential, the functional and the impacted.
c. The administrators — purchasing agents spec writers, engineers, and controllers.
2. Where does your sales person rank on the credibility pyramid for each of these people — 1-low to 6-a resource/consultant?
3. What actions is each taking to improve his or her position with each decision maker?
4. When will these actions be completed, and
5. How will you know it’s complete and how will you measure it?

Obviously, if your salespeople are a 5 to 6 on the credibility pyramid with the powerful, they will have access to new opportunities, which they have helped create. Conversely, if they are stuck with low-level administrators and functional people, they will be just another one of the bunch of competitors.

Your job for helping your people create quality leads is to keep them networking, learning from each individual and offering-up ideas. This process will take time, but once it catches-on, it will produce an ongoing flow of leads from new divisions, for new products, and more and more. This applies to existing and lost customers, competitors’ accounts, and new markets as well. My rule is 50% of sales people’s prospecting time should be spent on existing accounts, 30% on lost and competitors’ accounts where they have contacts, and 20% in those accounts where they have no contacts.

So start creating Executive Relationship Charts for each of your existing accounts and those accounts you would like to penetrate. These charts will yield your networking plans and the actions your people will take to improve their credibility with the powerful and influential. From these actions will emanate the leads that generate sales.

However, I guarantee your people will not do this without your pressure and your help.

By Trevin Bensko-Wecks

Managing a sales team effectively is difficult. Many sales managers find themselves promoted to the position directly from sales because of their outstanding individual sales performance. They often have no previous management experience and are given little training to develop leadership skills. In the absence of direction and development they’re usually compelled to take control of their sales force rather than develop and lead it. Here is a list of the top 7 mistakes made by sales managers, and how to overcome them:

* Micromanaging. While delegation is an exceptional tool for experienced leaders, it is extremely difficult for inexperienced managers to grasp. In the absence of confidence and self-awareness they frequently attempt to control every facet of a salespersons work day. They often base these instructions on what worked well for them in their own sales careers without taking into account individual strengths, personalities, habits and learning styles. Instead of removing roadblocks they create them, making a salespersons job more difficult and less rewarding. Efficiency, effectiveness and moral all suffer as a result.
* Creating blanket policies. Issues that arise in management are often specific to an individual salesperson(s) rather than the team as a whole. Individual conversations take time however, and can be uncomfortable. Sales managers tend to avoid confrontation by issuing blanket policies and communications that negatively impact the entire team. The team doesn’t understand the reason for the policy/communication and as a result, feels unjustly suppressed. Mean while the individual(s) that was the cause never has the benefit of a direct conversation enabling them to understand the root issue and participate in the discovery of a solution.
* Requiring excessive paperwork & reporting. Insisting that all team members produce exhaustive reports about their daily activities is both inefficient and ineffective. While call activity might be an important coaching opportunity for a new salesperson, it probably isn’t a good use of time for your top performer(s). “What’s good for one is good for all” is nonsense. Team members should be assessed on an individual basis and asked to report on information that can positively impact them. Make sure the information tracked is relevant and important to their success and give them access to any tools and technology that can increase the efficiency of their reporting.
* Allowing mediocrity. There are almost always people on a sales team that will never perform at a high level, regardless of how much training and technology is invested in them. Evaluate people fairly but if it’s clear that they aren’t going to cut it, get rid of them. Putting off the inevitable is not good for them or the company.
* Not providing enough 1-on-1 time. We all have different strengths, personalities, learning styles, and needs. For sales people to grow they need individual attention and help. Figure out a way to get time alone with every member of your team regularly and consistently. Review the information you intend to discuss a day in advance – this will help you do a better job of listening and discovering areas of need. It’s no different than selling; if you don’t understand their needs, you can’t show them how you can be a benefit to them.
* Not spending enough time on the street. To really understand how a sales team is performing managers need to get out on the street with them. There isn’t a coach in the world that shows up for practice but skips the game. The field is where we see theory put into practice, and it’s where true coachable moments appear.
* Not listening. Telling team members how to perform better isn’t the same as teaching them how. We have to listen to fully understand issues, roadblocks, and what the solutions might be. There is always something to learn, even for managers.
* Not giving credit. Sales managers too often assume that they have to prove their worth by demonstrating the effectiveness of their own efforts. The reality is that managements effectiveness is reflected in the performance of the team. Give credit where credit is do. Promote the successes of individuals and of the team. It boosts their confidence and moral, and shows that you are more concerned with the success of the company than with your own success.

It’s difficult to manage a sales team effectively, but by identifying common mistakes and working hard to correct them, over the course of time, sales managers will find themselves capable of elevating individuals and teams to a new level of success.