Are you a sales person? Trick question. If you’re in business, you ARE a sales person whether you call yourself one or not. Swimming pool contractors, dog groomers, writers — all sales people. If they weren’t they wouldn’t be in business. How to make a sale is something we talk with our coaching clients about all the time.
What is eye-opening for many of our clients is that with the right attitude, sales are easy. Sales, in fact, don’t have to feel like sales calls when you know you’re addressing a pain point and know that you are offering high quality solutions. Believe in yourself and what you do and you will be authentic.
How To Make A Sale
Here are tips to encourage prospects to listen to you or to call you back.
Answer your phone during working hours. If calls always go to voice mail or if a prospect has to wade through a menu, they will give up.
Answer the phone with a smile in your voice — it shows.
When you leave a message, speak clearly, remind the person of who you are and why you’re calling and leave your phone number and email.
Be succinct when you leave a voice mail. You don’t need to go over all your points. Instead, leave the message and wait for their call bacl. Don’t use all their voice mail space.
Don’t feel you need to name drop to make an impression. Be yourself — that will mean more than a star-studded client list.
Wrap up the call in the timeframe you’d promised.
End the call with a call to action — I’ll follow up with you in five days, for example.
LISTEN.
LISTEN.
Did we mention, listen? The best way to make a sale is to listen to what the prospect truly needs — it may be different than what you think it is.
With any sales call it is about the prospects pain point — not about you touting the benefits. Need help perfecting your sales pitch? Reach out to Rex Richard, he can help.
How you face adversity can make a difference for an entrepreneur between success and failure. If you’re looking for a way to move forward – even if you face a set back – we have tips that will help you be an entrepreneur who surpasses those who have a negative attitude. Is your attitude holding you back? If so, read on.
Is Your Attitude Holding You Back?
Don’t feel sorry for yourself. Yes, there are times when a setback hits hard and it’s all right if you need a day to wallow in the loss or setback. After that, though you need to stop feeling sorry for yourself, see what went wrong and course correct.
Don’t avoid change. Change is inevitable and you need to accept it. You don’t have to happily embrace it, but accept that it will happen and make the most of it.
Don’t give away your power to someone else or a client. You need to manage your responses to situations and people.
Don’t waste time on things which you cannot change. There are some changes you can make to some situations and other things – like the weather – are beyond your control. The weather is a BIG example, but think about those things that weigh on your emotions and see if you can change it or move away from it. If you cannot, then find a way to cope.
You can’t please all the people all the time. You can only do your best and deliver what you said you were going to deliver.
You need to sometimes jump in with both feet. Take a calculated risk and see what happens! Chances are, it won’t be life and death, right?
Move past the past. What’s done is done. Replaying a past failure or a past conversation or a client that got away will not help you move forward and in fact will drain your energy.
Is your marketing department struggling to engage with your staff? Do your staff and some of your vendors follow you on social media? Do they interact? Are they leaving comments on your blog posts? Does your business have a blogging culture? If you’re not sure, now is the time to investigate.
We have tips for how to get your staff involved in “helping” market the business by sharing your content with their friends and family. We know that not all content will appeal to everyone and their followers, but if you encourage your staff, you just might get more reach.
Does Your Business Have A Blogging Culture?
Ask them to get involved. If you don’t talk about your blog posts and social media with your staff, they may not even think about it – nor will they think about interacting and commenting. If you do a company newsletter, mention the blog and social media, give links and ask for interaction.
Information-sharing is what it’s all about. If you have internal teams that rarely interact with your other teams, now is the time to get everyone interacting and sharing info. You’re all in it together, right?
If you have staff who comment or even contribute to your social media pages or your blog, recognize their contributions.
Explain how to interact. Some of your staff may not even know how to interact. Offer a cheat sheet with suggestions.
Let them take ownership in a platform. “Hey, Susie, want to comment on our social media this week? We’d love it! John, you’re up next week.” Make it fun!
Can you be “too old” to be an entrepreneur? I would say no! Are you willing to put in the work? Do you keep up with trends in your business niche as well as in the technology needed to run a competitive business? Does age matter for entrepreneurs? We don’t think so.
Have you ever wondered whether you, as an older entrepreneur, are at an advantage or a disadvantage? We know there is age bias in many industries when it comes to hiring older workers. When you’re an entrepreneur you have control over our destiny.
We are seeing more older entrepreneurs because people are retiring, don’t want to or can’t afford to, be retired and are jumping into business ownership in greater numbers than ever before. Coronavirus has also been leading older entrepreneurs to look into side gigs as a way to bring in extra money and to have more satisfaction in their lives.
What are you waiting for?
Does Age Matter For Entrepreneurs?
Can you afford to open a business? Are you physically and emotionally capable? This is a question every entrepreneur needs to ask him or herself.
Here are a few points to consider on the road to becoming an entrepreneur:
What are the start up costs and how will you pay for them? You don’t want to drain bank accounts or take out a second mortgage or cash in a life insurance policy. How much cash outlay will you need? Can you operate on a shoestring until you are making enough money to expand?
Does going into business fit with any retirement plans you had? Were you planning to move down south after you retired or move to be closer to your children and grandchildren and will opening a business change that? Will opening a business impact your plans?
Do you have a dream or a passion you want to follow but never did because you were employed? Is it time to start your second act?
If you’re not yet retired, should your business idea be your side hustle until you know if you’re cut out to be an entrepreneur? Will your side hustle bring in the money you’d hoped for. More importantly, will your side hustle be as satisfying as you’d imagined? Owning a business may not be reality; a side hustle might help you figure that out.
What are you hoping for with your business? Do you want to grow it enough to pass it along to your children? Are you hoping to grow it large enough that someone will buy it and you can add to your retirement savings? Write down your goals and determine how you will meet them.
Where will you network? We know that coronavirus has put the kibosh on many in person networking events, but you can meet and network on Zoom. Do you know a business coach or a mentor from an organization like SCORE or your local Small Business Administration? Get your ducks in a row before you hang out your “open for business” sign.
Don’t forget marketing. How will you market your business? Do you have a website? Do you have a social media presence? Do you know how to set those up or do you know where you can find an expert who can help?
Write a business plan. Make note of the resources you will need. Enjoy your new endeavor! How can we help?
Coronavirus has meant many people are working from home. In this case, you’re wondering how to create compelling content when you’re working from home and might not have much interaction with the “outside world.” We understand. We have put together a checklist of ways you can stay in touch, create content and remain relevant.
How To Create Compelling Content When You’re Working From Home
Consider these strategies
Find a new strategy. Because the world has changed, your thinking has to change. You need to try to embrace the changes that coronavirus has wrought and realize you can’t change the world, so you need to change your thinking. Don’t think about — I don’t have any way to be creative when I am stuck at home. In fact, think — It is a challenge I can overcome; creating content in lockdown. Consider that you might be the only link your audience has to the outside world.
Create new content. How about a podcast? Ever thought of trying your hand at turning your blog posts into infographics? How about a video blog aka vlog? Go live on Facebook or Instagram. People are connecting with content in new and different ways and podcasts are HUGE.
Use the proper tools. You don’t have to spend thousands on new technology — microphones, cameras, etc. — but you do want to have equipment that allows you to be seen and heard that makes you look and sound like a professional. Ask colleagues what equipment they are using and consider making the investment in yourself and your business.
If you’re struggling to create new content — and we get it — repurpose your old content. Turn a blog post into a video or a podcast. Rewrite old content with a new spin.
Ask for help. If you have a colleague or a business acquaintance in a different, but a complementary field, do a blog post trade-off. A benefit to guest posting — for both of you — is that your content and your business gets in front of a brand new audience and that is a win all day.
We know the coronavirus lockdown is causing stress and anxiety in many people and in many business owners. Connect with others via Zoom and have or host a virtual coffee hour or happy hour. Connecting with others will help you get through this odd time in our history.
Being an entrepreneur can be hard — there I’ve said it. But being an entrepreneur can be — is — rewarding. When you’re an entrepreneur, you’re not going to arrive at a destination — you will be on a journey for many years. Along the path of your journey you will have ups, downs and smooth sailing. We have tips for how to overcome business obstacles whether you’re a start-up or a long-time entrepreneur.
When you have a setback, step back and determine why, what happened and how you can address it moving forward. When you have a win, celebrate it, make note of what it was, how it happened and do more of that!
How To Overcome Business Obstacles
Here are ways entrepreneurs can overcome obstacles and learn from them.
Acknowledge that you are facing an obstacle. It’s all right to ask for help. It is all right to admit your attempt didn’t yield the fruit you’d imagined it was going to. Process your thoughts, let yourself be angry, then learn from it and move on. Don’t allow yourself the luxury of simply wallowing in your failure — or imagined failure.
The set back you just experienced… was it without your control or outside of it? If it was outside of your control — a supplier had an unexpected rate increase — regroup and come up with a solution. If it was within your control, you need to determine how it happened and what role you played. Write down any setback then also write down any changes you’d implemented that help you move past it.
Who can help? Determine what the obstacle is/was and then find someone who can help. When you seek counsel from a colleague or a business coach you are moving forward and growing as a business owner.
If you find yourself getting stuck in a rut and being unable to move forward, take a day off. Take a walk, Meditate. Get out of your own head. Don’t beat yourself up — learn from the challenge and obstacles.
Drop us a line if you need assistance overcoming business obstacles.
