The entrepreneur reaches a crossroads. Keep control and stay small or give up control with the possibility of becoming much more rich?
Know these formula shortcuts for marketing messages?
These are "building blocks" that anyone involved with selling a product or service should know.
THE Essential Skill in Business
Salespeople play an essential role in any business, because with no sales, there would be no business. When a company makes sales profitably, it can survive and provide jobs, sponsor community activities and continue benefiting the community with its products and services.
Is your company’s spokesperson “down to earth”?
Being genuine when telling your story, including sharing details about your family and everyday life, you can also reveal yourself as a "down to earth" personality to open prospective customers' hearts and minds to hear your message.
Does your business have a “personality face”?
Most people don't like or trust corporations or institutions. They like, trust and relate to other people, mostly people that they see as like themselves.
The power and frailty of indifference
People see those who don't care about the opinions of others as leaders, possibly because they don't have the courage to be indifferent themselves. They want to be led by someone with that quality.
A healthy economy depends on healthy competition
Businesses help our economy improve by introducing products and services that outperform their competitors and please more customers.
Shrink your list of New Year resolutions
If you really want to make progress this New Year, I suggest that you shrink your list to only one or two items. Fewer is better.
Systems and success
Business systems create a framework for achievement.
Large organizations have policies and procedures so that employees and customers know what’s expected of them and have guidelines for dealing with various situations.
The poster child for systems is McDonalds. McDonalds doesn’t have the greatest food. You can get a better hamburger somewhere else. But you know what to expect. A Big Mac and fries is the same at any McDonalds that you visit, and will be ready soon after you order them. You know the dining room looks the same at McDonalds restaurants and the restrooms will be clean. The employees dress in McDonalds uniforms and are clean and efficient. That consistency encourages the customers to trust the McDonalds experience and go to McDonalds when they visit a community away from home.
For a small business, having consistent “rules of engagement” is a way of managing customers’ expectations and also inspires trust. For example, if customers know you only return text messages or phone calls in the afternoon or on certain days, they don’t (or shouldn’t) expect an instant response for their texts and calls.
Having sales scripts for employees can “free up” their minds to make adjustments for a customer’s special problems. They basically already know what to say.
When you have a system, you might also need to know how and when to violate the system in certain cases, usually in favor of certain customers, especially “A” customers that are major sources of revenue and are centers of influence that generate a lot of referrals. (You might also create a “pay for access” system, like the “Lightning Lane” Disney offers in its amusement parks.)
The New Year will soon be here. What systems can you create to make your business more successful and fun next year?
Take time to decompress
With our stressful lifestyle, it's important to take some time for physical and emotional recharging.