Your EnterQuest Bulletin - Issue 185
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| Thought for the week: "Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, 'Where have I gone wrong?' Then a voice says to me, 'This is going to take more than one night'." Charles M. Schulz |
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In this week's issue:
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More ideas to help increase your sales
As a small business owner, it would probably be difficult for anyone to question the fact that you want to be successful, with a desire to create wealth for yourself, your employees and anyone else with shares or a stakeholding in your enterprise.
In fact, when it boils down to it, no matter what type of business you are in, you're in the business of making money, and you're only going to make money if you have a product or service that is selling enough.
However, in the majority of small businesses, it's also a fact that they will only make money if the business owner takes personal responsibility for selling their product or service, and for ensuring that all their sales activity is working properly.
But too many small businesses are simply not effective enough at selling their products and services. As a result, they push their customers away, letting their competitors pick up lots of new business in the process.
Money-making business owners, however, do the opposite. They work incessantly at finding ways to attract new customers in droves, by using educational, informative and persuasive selling techniques that result in prospects knocking on their own doors, rather than their competitors'.
It's as simple as that. Creating wealth is down to making money through taking personal responsibility for making sure that your products and services are selling enough.
Here are five proven tips to help you improve your effectiveness at selling, no matter what line of business you are in:
1) Sell it thoroughly
This is probably the one area where every small business can be more effective. Just think about this. Would you put your best salesperson in front of a prospective buyer but only let them use a limited number of words to give their pitch? Why would you handicap them in this way? The old adage "the more you tell, the more you sell" applies in just about any situation. Your prospects want to know as much detail as possible about the benefits and value they will get from your product or service. So don't hold back. Tell them as much, not just some, of what they need to know.
2) Your offer is less important than your prospect list
In any form of direct marketing, there are three components for success. The first and most important is your prospect list, which ideally will consist of people or organisations with a proven interest, desire or propensity to buy or use your product or service. The second is your headline offer, which expresses the primary benefit or USP your customer will get from you. The third is your sales copy or letter - or in other words, your pitch. The money is in the list, as they say. If your list isn't right, your offer is just going to miss the target completely.
3) Inject scarcity
A sales offer without a compelling reason for your prospect to act now is often dead in the water. The problem is that people generally are passive, and they won't act even if you present a great offer. You often have to give them the additional incentive to act now. One proven motivator is the fear of losing out, by injecting a sense of scarcity into your offer, where you play on people's fear of not being able to take advantage of a good deal. You can do this by either limiting the time that people can respond to your offer, or by limiting the quantity that you are offering under that special deal.
4) Beat rather than copy your competitors
If you look closely at your competitors' sales and marketing strategies and campaigns, you might notice certain offers that they repeat frequently. They almost certainly won't be doing this because they're clueless, but more likely because it is working and they keep making money from it. The key for you is to test this type of offer yourself to see if it works, and then look for ways to beat your rivals' offer by providing an even better deal.
5) Use higher-priced offers
If you are able to offer both a lower- and higher-priced version of your product or service, you'll almost certainly find that a number of your prospects will go for the higher-priced offer. The psychology behind this is that it switches the choice in your prospects' mind from a 'buy-or-don't-buy' choice to an 'offer-1-or-offer-2' choice. This can sometimes lead to an improved response, and when this happens it usually results in a higher average sales amount being achieved.
When all's been said and done about this, it still comes back to you, the small business owner, taking responsibility for the effectiveness of your selling and making money in your enterprise.
Have you fully taken that responsibility?
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For hundreds more practical tips and techniques about finding new customers, increasing sales and growing your business, check out the UK Small Business Marketing Bible. |
How to supply to supermarkets
The big supermarkets are all taking active steps to encourage more local food suppliers by making it easier for them to supply produce.
Each of the 'big four' supermarkets has different guidelines for suppliers to follow - check out Tesco and Sainsbury's for examples of information available online. You can also check out So Much Easier, which is a handy portal listing the websites of all the UK's supermarkets in one place.
The Government and industry-funded Food from Britain's Regional Food and Drink portal is also an ideal place to start. You can register your details free of charge on the site, which the major supermarkets also use to look for new products. You'll then be put in touch with your regional food group (RFG), which takes an active role in 'matchmaking' potential suppliers with the big buyers.
Finally, check out our factsheet on how to supply to supermarkets - it provides practical information to help you do your research before making your approach, summarises the main legal issues, and provides details about the buying procedures of each of the 'big four'.
Internet retailers
Recent Office for National Statistics figures show that e-commerce sales are continuing to increase, with just over one-sixth of businesses now selling online and almost seven out of ten having their own websites. According to the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG), the following represents the top ten e-tailers in the UK:
1) Amazon UK
2) Argos
3) Expedia.co.uk
4) Dell EMEA
5) Tesco.com
6) Play.com
7) easyJet
8) Amazon.com
9) Thomson Holidays
10) Lastminute.com
No surprises that some of the goods and services supplied by the top ten include holidays, books and CDs, which rank among our most popular market reports. For more information about setting up your own e-commerce business, check out our practical introduction to setting up an online store.
Each
week we provide you with summaries of some popular or emerging business
ideas in the UK.
Here
is this week's idea:
Regularly improving your vocabulary is not just about learning a new word and its meaning. It will improve your general knowledge and make you feel and act smarter in all sorts of personal and business situations.
Do you know what the word 'exponential' means?
a) the ability to exceed expectations
b) the optimum or best conditions
c) an irrelevant or unrelated fact
d) a rate of growth that becomes increasingly fast
Answer at the end of the Bulletin.
The following topical business issues have been reported in the media over the past seven days. Did your radar pick them up?
1) The Government announced that after years of debate, Home Information Packs (HIPs) are to finally start being piloted by house sellers before they become mandatory next July. But which one of the following cities is among the pilot HIP locations?
a) Newcastle
b) Leeds
c) Birmingham
d) Brighton
2) There's been a lot in the news about how much will be spent online this Christmas - but which of the following was predicted to be the top-selling gift bought via the web, according to Verdict Research?
a) Nintendo DS consoles
b) BlackBerrys
c) iPods
d) satellite navigation systems
3) Which long-running makeup company last week announced a revamp that will aim to attract more men to its sales team?
a) Boots No. 7
b) Avon
c) Oriflame
d) Estee Lauder
Answer at the end of the Bulletin.
Your website might be blacklisted
New businesses are being offered tips in the Start Up Journal for bringing their websites to the attention of online search engine giant Google. There are a number of reasons why a website may not make it on to the number one search engine's list, including your domain name being blacklisted because of its previous owner's bad behaviour, and a lack of relevant websites linking to yours. As well as submitting your site to Google's index, you should try to persuade as many well respected sites as possible to link to you.
Low starting price is key to eBay success
A low starting price, a long auction and using keywords are among the ploys you can use to shift your stuff on eBay and persuade people to put in ever higher bids. eBay is now such a phenomenon that academics are putting together reports on the motivation behind bidding and how sellers can take advantage. Research from the London Business School indicates that a low starting price is most important because it encourages lots of buyers to bid on an item initially. Other hints and tips include keeping track of common spelling mistakes that potential customers may use while searching. For more tips on trading on eBay, check out our practical factsheet.
New website for craft-based businesses
The Unique British Gifts website was set up to promote handmade gifts and crafts to buyers all over the world. The site contains gifts ranging from jewellery to glassware and homeware, with prices listed in both pounds and dollars in an effort to appeal to customers in the US and Canada, where there is an especially strong interest in British 'heritage' goods. There's more information about trends in the crafts and giftware sector in our market report.
Supplier directory for hair and beauty businesses
The Hairdressing and Beauty Suppliers Association is an excellent resource for hair and beauty businesses. As well as providing directories broken down by type of product and supplier name, it also features news and information about legislation affecting the sector, plus a diary of trade shows and reviews of the latest hot products to arrive on the scene.
The Myers-Briggs system for working out the personality type of different people, and adjusting the way you deal with them accordingly, is fairly well-known in terms of both selling to people and employing them. This book explores the principles behind sizing up people's personality traits in more depth. Its aim is to help you improve how you communicate, and help you tackle difficult situations in the workplace - whether involving customers, staff or colleagues. Check out:
Just one word answer
The answer is d).
Exponential refers to a rate of growth that becomes faster and faster as the thing that is growing becomes larger.
There has been an exponential increase in the take-up of e-mail and Internet over the past ten years. |
How's your business radar answers
1) The answer is a) - HIPs will be trialled for free by house sellers in Newcastle, as well as Southampton, Northampton, Bath, Huddersfield and Cambridge.
2) The answer is d) - satellite navigation systems were predicted to be top of the Christmas wish lists this year, according to figures from Verdict Research.
3) The answer is b) - Avon has announced a new advertising campaign that aims to attract more men to its ranks. |
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Good luck
The EnterQuest Team
This information is meant as a starting point only. Whilst all reasonable efforts have been made, the publisher makes no warranties that the information is accurate and up-to-date and will not be responsible for any errors or omissions in the information nor any consequences of any errors or omissions. Professional advice should be sought where appropriate. |
