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Your EnterQuest Bulletin - 10 February 2004

In this week's issue:

• the entrepreneur's number one success factor
• a factsheet to help you choose a sales agent
• tips to help you listen to your customers
• the meaning of the term "typosquatting"

The entrepreneur's number one success factor

Being a success in business can be down to many things, including downright hard work, a bit of luck, good timing, being quick on your feet, obsession with quality, and of course, how much you - the small business owner - want it to happen and are capable of making it happen.

But if you are really going to be successful as an entrepreneur, there is one factor that will ultimately determine how much of a success your venture will be.

You, the entrepreneur, must be able to master the art of selling.

No matter how uncomfortable you are with the idea of having to sell, if you attempt to dodge this issue, you will do so at your peril.

This often proves a very difficult pill for many new business owners to swallow. "Selling? Surely that's for salesmen!" is a common response. And equally, "I'm the business owner and will be too busy running the business or working on our business plan to get involved in selling."

Wrong, and wrong again. If you believe these views then you will be facing a difficult path ahead, no matter what other so-called "expert" advice you are getting that tells you the contrary.

Being in business is not about whether to sell, it is a matter of HAVING to sell.

Successful entrepreneurs will actually do more selling than salespeople. Every day you will have to sell not just your product or service but also your ideas, plans, project proposals, goals and decisions to yourself, your partners, your employees, your bank manager, professional advisers, suppliers and, of course, your customers.

Selling is the most important thing you, as the business owner, can do. You are in business to make sales and you must recognise this and make it your top priority. Businesses that fail do so not because of poor location, economic conditions, or poor administration. It is usually (but not always) because they are not selling enough.

You need to think about sales and selling every day in your business life, even if you're not actually doing it yourself. You should be obsessed with sales and make increasing sales your number one business goal.

Selling yourself, your ideas, your products and your business proposals doesn't need to be as difficult as you think it is. Much of this is about confidence and enthusiasm.

Put it this way, if you genuinely believe in the quality and superiority of what you and your team are providing to your customers, then your enthusiasm for what you are selling can do nothing other than shine through. If you believe in it, then there's a good chance whoever you're selling to will also believe it.

Faced with the prospect of increasing and achieving higher sales targets, many business owners consider the option of appointing sales agents or commission agents to help them do this. This might be on a single product only basis, in a particular area, or to a particular group of customers.

Locating and using good sales agents is often well worth considering for many sales-obsessed entrepreneurs, so this week we've included a factsheet that explains how sales agents operate, with advice about how to choose one, and pointers about what you'll need to put in an agency agreement.

Here is the factsheet:

Choosing and Using a Sales Agent

For dozens of other sales and marketing ideas, tips and tactics, check out:

The UK Small Business Marketing Bible

Weekly business tip

The benefits of listening to your customers

Selling is more about listening than talking. Research has consistently shown that more sales are made by people who listen to what their customers are saying they need, than by those who try to fast talk a customer into a sale.

People don't want to be sold to. They want to be tempted to satisfy their particular need. The last thing anyone wants when they are buying something is to feel that someone is pressuring them, or rushing them into a purchase.

The art of selling is to tempt someone into buying something that will satisfy their emotional needs. Especially when faced with a choice, a buyer's decision will be influenced more by emotional rather than logical reasoning.

Defined simply, successful selling is down to educating people and helping them get what they want.

The entrepreneur who is most likely to succeed will be the one who is best at identifying, clarifying and meeting their customers' exact needs. The one who is best at listening to what they are saying.

The following questions might help you get a clearer picture of what your customers really need, and identify what you could potentially tempt them with:

1) What is it that keeps them awake at night? In other words, what makes them worried, angry, anxious or concerned that they might need help with?
2) What are they concerned about most frequently?
3) What is the biggest current trend that is affecting their business or personal life?
4) What is it that they secretly desire the most?
5) Is there a particular bias to the way that they make decisions?
6) Who else is currently selling to them, and how are they doing this?
7) Has anyone tried selling to them previously and failed?
8) Is there a common factor that emotionally, socially, or economically relates to most or all of your target audience?

Before you start to think about your sales pitch, your sales messages, your advert, leaflet, or sales letter copy, ask yourself these questions about your customers. Pay close attention and listen to what they're really telling you about their emotional, personal or business problems.

In other words, think hard about their needs and desires rather than about your product or service before you try to tempt them with the benefits your business can offer.

New business ideas

Each week we provide you with summaries of some popular or emerging business ideas in the UK.

Here are this week's ideas:

• Fresh Pasta Manufacturer
• Second Hand Furniture Shop

Just one word

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 term "typosquatting" means?

a) avoiding business rates by sharing someone's premises
b) passing off someone else's copyright material as your own
c) selling a product using someone else's name
d) registering a misspelled version of a popular Internet domain name, to pick up some of its traffic

Answer at the end of Bulletin.

Britain boots 'Made in EU' stamp into touch

Now this is more like it. The Government's International Trade, Investment and Foreign Affairs Minister has gone and told the European Commission, who have proposed the introduction of a 'Made in the EU' stamp, that this is a jolly bad idea. And he's based his decision on an overwhelming rejection of the idea by UK producers, retailers and consumers. So they do occasionally listen to us.

To read more go to:
http://213.38.88.221/gnn/national.nsf/
TI/D3BE0EABCD2C217380256E300050467C?opendocument

New Disability Discrimination Regulations are on the way

Small businesses must prepare for the new disability rules that are set to come into force on 1 October 2004. The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003 will mean small businesses employing fewer than 15 people will no longer be exempt from the Act. Many may need to make physical adjustments to premises to overcome access barriers for disabled people.

For general advice, go to:
http://www.drc.org.uk/businesses/index.asp

For more information on the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (Amendment) Regulations 2003, go to:
http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/equality/disabilityregs.pdf

Worth a visit

Royal Mail has relaunched a website called Direct Mail Online, to help all small businesses plan, design and send promotional mail to customers. This site has step-by-step guidance to help produce a creative and professional direct mail campaign. This appears to be a clear, neat and rather useful resource. Go to:

http://www.dm-online.co.uk

If you've managed to avoid e-mail and other computer viruses without adequate anti-virus protection, then you've been lucky. For a useful starting point, you can get free protection for one individual PC for your own personal use from this website:

http://www.free-av.com

Worth a read