How to become sales centric - know who your buyers are!

"If only I could get in front of the right sort of people I would be a millionaire!" a good friend of mine said to me recently.

And he is right.

He has a good product, an excellent track record, and respect from his competitors, an excellent pricing model and a reputation for excellent delivery. So how come he is not a millionaire?

The simple answer is that his business is product centric, not client centric. He does of course know how to deliver excellent services, and can promote the products with associated benefits.

But that does not make it client centric.We have all heard the story of the “Killer Application” that would transform business processes. Well yes, there are a few examples where this did happen - but there are many more examples of killer apps that did not deliver the clients benefits despite their technical prowess. They failed because they did not answer the most basic of business questions that the paying client would ask – what’s in it for me?

To be client centric means building the business around the wants and needs of the clients, not the products. It means understanding exactly what they want, when they want it, where they want it and critically how much they are prepared to pay for it.

Client centric companies are agile, flexible, adaptable, and alert to change. They listen, ask questions, do research, conduct surveys, network and deepen their knowledge. They then do what most would not dare do – they give the knowledge away! They do this as a form of reward to those that gave the information in the first place. Nothing confidential or illegal but juicy insights or succinct summaries of where the industry is heading, what’s happening and who/what the key drivers are.

Client centric companies know that knowledge without insight is like and engine without fuel.

Where would you start in turning your business into a sales centric one? There are many ways but my experience suggests that the start point is in determining who the clients are – your target audience. There might be a bit of “heavy lifting” involved in having to think through exactly which segment you will serve best. But it is worth the doing.

Segment existing clients, think how your ideal client will be and so on until you can accurately describe them to your best friend or partner and they nod in agreement.

Once you know who they are, the next bit is to really get to know them. Invest time with them; add value at all opportunities until you are synonymous with the industry segment.

If you know who you are aiming your service at, the next stage is straightforward. Promote yourself to them in the best way that you can.

Marketing is described as telling people what you do over and over again. I agree but my version is – tell the RIGHT people what you do over and over again.

That’s my thoughts. What do you think?

You can call me on 07956 532963 for more information or to talk about your sucesses.

What to do when you lose a pitch

I was speaking to a creative agency recently that lost a big pitch. They were gutted as they felt that they were in with a good chance. The client explained why they were not selected and it did seem to reflect a realistic explanation of the agencies short comings.

The response to the loss by the agency team was a shrug of the shoulders and “never mind, we will do better next time”. This is not unrealistic but it is not the right way to react.

Before we move on to how they might have reacted differently let us summarise what we and they know so far. The client selected this agency to pitch so they knew of their ability and reputation. So getting on the pitch list was a positive step. They had the opportunity to stand in front of the client and pitch. This offered them an opportunity to size up the client, their likes and dislikes, how they think, what makes them tick and so on. Finally they had the gold dust – the deal making reason why one agency won the business.

If this was you and you had all of this information at your disposal you have the chance to do a number of things

• Make sure that if the selected agency fails to deliver, then you are willing to step into the gap at short notice having been already fully up to speed with the project
  

• Ask for other work that better suits you.
  

• Ask for a referral or a contact that they might follow up.
  

Lastly, why not be really cheeky and ask to do a repitch? The winning agency might have won but their offering might have just scraped the bar. The client might be hoping for better but for whatever reason they had to decide. Asking to one more repitch might just give you the opportunity to deliver that Perfect Pitch. If nothing else it shows determination and willingness to win the pitch.

Losing the pitch is not the end of the game, just another opportunity to demonstrate your true worth.

Remember - life's a pitch

Identifying your Target Market

Identifying your Target Market is much more difficult than you think.

This came from a contact recently. "We did everything right! We looked long and hard at our offering. We developed a brochure that clearly described it in plain English. We sent it out to the list of companies but nothing came as a result. So what did we do wrong?”

I thought long and hard over this cry for help as the brochure looked really good. Even the mailing list looked reasonable. But when I looked harder, it became clear to me that they had not really understood who they should be talking to. They had not clearly defined their target audience.

Most business executives have an extremely good technical knowledge of their service. They know how it works, how it can be monetised and how to deliver it. The more adept can even turn this into a list of benefits that their clients enjoy.

But for many that is as far as it goes. They broadcast their messages and they then wonder why their marketing efforts stall or do not deliver that stream of new clients that should be buying from them.

I believe I now have the answer. They have not defined their target market!

Our goal at Credence-UK is to help businesses to grow so we asked ourselves this question. Why have they not completed this marketing task? Having asked a number of my clients and my contacts why they have not defined their target audience it transpires that they have never needed to!

The reason being that most small businesses grow through the Three R’s – repeats, referrals and recommendations so it is not always clear who they should be aiming their services at. New business came about in a haphazard way.

There is a very famous marketing saying that goes something like this– “50% of my marketing budget is wasted, but I don’t know which 50%”.

Assuming that most marketing collateral is an adequate reflection of the benefits of the service or product there can only be one other reason why the 50% is wasted.

My guess is that the 50% wastage occurs because it hits the wrong people.

Here is a very simple example. You cannot play the guitar and you have no wish to play the guitar. Would you respond to an advert for guitars? No, is the simple answer. OK, you might be on the look out for a friend, relative or colleague who is looking for one and that is where most marketing advice gets it wrong. They try to broadcast in the vague hope that you might make the connection between the guitar and the person you know has an interest. But in a business context you cannot afford to be that messy.

Marketing, like any other business discipline, must be efficient and effective. Every penny spent must be aimed at the audience most likely to buy.

After the Vision, the next hardest part in creating an effective marketing plan is clearly defining the target audience. My experience with helping agencies and businesses alike is that they just cannot nail down an accurate description of their target audience.

Sadly, there is no quick fix or snappy maxim to help us here. The best statement I can come up with to help is this – “the target market is that group of companies that has the greatest propensity to buy”. It can only be defined by a careful examination of all the relevant factors concerning your service offering such as - pricing strategy, delivery, geographical location, skill set, mind set, expertise. Much of this requires some deep thought on the SWOT analysis and a detailed insight into the external environmental impacting the business.

In military terms the expression is Ready, Aim, Fire.

All too often I hear this – Ready, Fire, Anything happen?

What is your experience?

Call me on 0117 9047874 if you need any help with this aspect of your business

The Big Idea versus the Slickest Sales Pitch

Winning a sales pitch is deeply rewarding. It is a form of "thank you" for all the effort that the team has put in. Everyone goes away with that warm glow of a job well done. And rightly so.

The team might even reflect on how the pitch went. How the clients reacted. How the process of crafting and delivering the pitch came together.

For pitching is like any other skill - it can be taught and it can be learned.

But there is one thing that cannot be taught or learned and that is how to come up with the original thought that forms the kernel of the Big Idea. It is the very essence of good pitching. Everything hangs off the Big Idea. It is what separates out the great from the good.

Experience has shown that great ideas win over slick pitches. Clients can spot great ideas; they know and have the insight to spot that spark of genius. It might need a bit of guidance to get it through the grey suits in the organisation but they are willing to push through the Big Idea.

Whilst we at Sales-Pitch would suggest that you work on the process and systems of delivering the very best pitch, we also know that the epicentre is that great idea. It is the idea that wins it; the rest just makes sure that it is nurtured to the point where the client believes in it.

What are your thoughts?

Always remember - life's a pitch!

Personality Profiling using DISC

A new client has asked me to deliver a series of workshops on DISC Personality Profiling. Having completed all the research and crafted all the material for it I thought that I would also blog about it as it is a seriously valuable tool for any organisation.

The acronym DISC stands for Dominance, Influence, Steadiness and Compliance. These four personality traits were defined by an American psychologist called William Moulton Marston in 1928. He wrote about them in his book "Emotions of normal people" in his attempt to formulate a way of describing the emotional states of ordinary americans. He did not actually develop the DISC methodology as we know it today, that came form a close friend of his. Marston was a larger than life character - he also designed the first lie detector and intriguingly also came up with the idea of Wonder Woman!

Here are a few benefits of the DISC profile methodology:

- Fast, accurate and cost effective
- Takes only 7-8 minutes
- Eliminates the need for guesswork
- Enables more effective people management
- Received a Certification of Registration from the British Psychological Society

I will write up more about DISC and what is stands for in a series of blogs over the next few days.

You can find out more by going to www.thomasinternational.net

Sales Presentations: 3 Steps to Put the Customer First- By Susan Trivers

I saw this blog and it made so much sense I thought I would post it in full here.

If you would like to link through to Susan's Blogsite The Great Speaking Coach then click here.

This is what Susan wrote: "You've been invited to deliver a presentation to a desirable customer. You and your team immediately go to your slide software and begin writing the presentation. You start with your corporate overview, continue with a lengthy description of your products or services and conclude with a summary of features and benefits.

What's wrong with this picture? For the customer, it's boring. There's nothing in it that is about them. Think about the presentation from the customer's perspective and do this instead:

1) Your opening tells a story about how your product or service solved a problem very similar to the one they are facing. Don't know their problem? Then find out before you write the first word on a slide.

* They don't care about your corporation until they know you care about them.

2) Everything you say about your products and services is in the context of their needs--often called their 'pain' or 'hot buttons.'

* It's better to delve deeply into your solution to one specific pain than to be broad and general.

3) When you've reached the end of your presentation, paint a picture of their future that includes the successful use of your product or service. As soon as you say 'summary' or "in closing" they stop listening.

* Helping them imagine their life after buying from makes them think "yes, I want that."

Great insights here. The key is to put the client first.

Making Your Website Convert Better

I was sent this newsletter by Jayne Reddyhof of Adword Advisor. I liked it so much I asked her permission to blog it and she kindly agreed so here it is!

The key point for me was this - do the work for them!

If you want to contact Jayne her email address is jayne@adwordadviser.com

Give Them What They Want

According to experts, only one out of every hundred visitors to your website converts to a sale. Sounds like bad news, but look at it this way: if you increase your conversion rate by only 1 percent (which doesn't sound much does it?) you will double your sales!

How do you do it? Your customers' watchwords are, "don't make me think" and "don't make me do any work – do it all for me"! So what does this mean for your website design?

Some key tips:

Make sure your visitors know what you do, the instant they land on your website. Don't make them have to guess; tell them right up front with a benefits-laden headline.

Help them find what they are looking for. Don't send them to your home page, or a link deep within your site, and expect them to do all the work. They were nice enough to click on your search ad - return the favour with a landing page that speaks directly to their interests and needs.

Be specific: the more relevant and specific your website is to your visitor, the more they'll buy from you. If they want to buy a toaster and they land on your homepage, which forces them to navigate around before they get to the right section, they'll give up. Either get people straight onto a relevant landing page, or simply have more, smaller, websites that are specific and relevant. You're better off with lots of smaller websites - one of which would be just about toasters and sandwich makers for example - than trying to be Argos!

Sell on emotion, NOT logic: people don't buy the sausage - they buy the sizzle! We are an emotional species and make 80% of our decisions about something on an emotional level. We then back up the decision with logic. So appeal to people's emotions via your website. Remember Apple's "Think different" marketing campaign; most people aren't buying just a computer when they buy an Apple, they are buying into a whole concept.

Your customers only want to know "what's in it for me?" If your website details how your grandfather set up the stationery business in a coal cellar, and that now you have 5 branches, you're wasting a selling opportunity. If it offers useful advice - "How to save 50% on your printer ink supplies...", then you'll score.