How Do You Create Marketing That Really Works?

How Do You Create Marketing That Really Works?

You need revenue, and you need it fast. You spend all night writing an ad that beautifully describes your product or service. You include the fact that you’re convenient, have the lowest prices, the highest quality and have been in business since 1431 B.C.

You pay a small fortune to have the ad placed in your local newspaper, radio and TV. And what happens? The phone never rings… not even once. Why?

What you need to know…

Every business owner has experienced the frustration of spending hard earned marketing dollars and failing to generate any interest or response. That’s because you focused on the wrong things in your ad.

Don’t take this the wrong way, but your prospects don’t care about you in the least. They don’t care what the name of your business is or how many years you’ve been at your current location. They don’t care what products or services you offer, or how conveniently located you are. They only care about one thing…

What’s In It For Me! That’s it. Remember those 5 little words, and learn how to use them in your marketing. If you do, you will forever separate your business from your competition, and even eliminate them from the minds of your prospects.

Why you need to know this…

Most business owners today have no clue how to create a compelling ad that attracts prospects to their business. They create ads that are full of platitudes such as convenient location, low price, and the all too familiar “menu” of products and services they offer.

If that describes your current marketing, then you will never build the business you want. You will never attract your ideal clients that will make you the most money. In fact, you will be very lucky just to survive.

The cost to you if you fail to act…

Do you know how to create compelling marketing that actually makes money?

Do you know how to attract clients when you need them?

Did you know there is a “marketing equation” that when followed, takes the guesswork out of your marketing completely?

Do you consistently “invest” in marketing… and feel confident you will always see a positive “return on investment?”

If you answer no to any of these, you’re leaving money on the table. You’re losing market share to your competition every single day, and you’re working harder and longer than you should be? How much longer can you afford to continue to invest in marketing that doesn’t work? How can you survive if you DON’T invest in marketing?

We know and understand marketing. We recently wrote one single email for a doctor that generated more than $20,000 in just 10 days. We can teach you the exact same thing.

Learn these critical skills and you will position your business light years ahead of your competition, To learn more visit http://www.akris.net.

Then sign up for our report, The Three Biggest Lead Generation Mistakes Small Business Make and How to Overcome Them All.

To your success,

Ron Finklestein

330-990-0788
ron@akris.net
www.akris.net

P.S. Please remember that at any time you feel ready and qualified to move forward and acquire the professional help that can enable you to build the business of your dreams, just drop me a note. I love helping small business owners just like you get the answers and the help they need to build the business they have always wanted.

 

The Three Biggest Mistakes Small Business Make When Marketing Their Business…And How To Avoid Them All

The Three Biggest Mistakes Small Business Make When Marketing Their Business…And How To Avoid Them All

It  has been a while since I wrote anything significant. There is a good reason. I have spent the last six months implementing a elearning systems to help any small business get unlimited leads, at no cost for marketing. This article will explain how to do that. I’m going to reveal to you the three biggest mistakes small business make… and show you how you can overcome them all.

Here are the three mistakes. Mistake #1… they fail to get professional help.   Mistake #2… they don’t know the fundamentals required to successfully market their business and attract as many new clients as their business can handle.  And mistake #3… they have no idea how to use their marketing to generate immediate cash flow. Let’s explore these three in depth, and show you how you can easily and systematically overcome them all.

Mistake #1… small business fail to get professional help.  Can you name me just one professional athlete who does NOT have a coach? There aren’t any. Tiger Woods has 9 coaches guiding him in everything from his golf game to his financial investments.  But do small business owners really need professional help? Remember the TV ads we previously discussed? Those ads are created by “professionals.” Unfortunately, those professionals have no clue what they’re doing.  Everything they’re doing in marketing and advertising today is wrong! But let me prove that to you right now.

If you currently use any form of marketing such as a print ad, brochure, postcard, flyer… or for that matter… your company website, take it out and look at it carefully.  And if you don’t have any form of marketing right now, stop this presentation for a few minutes and take out a sheet of paper and sketch out what you think would make for an effective ad for your new business.  It doesn’t have to be anything formal or fancy…  just create a basic outline of the ad and where you would locate the various elements on the page.

Now that you have your ad… or a mock up of your ad sitting in front of you, let me provide you with the little known secrets that produce more leads than your business can handle.  99% of all marketing professionals DON’T know the lead generation secrets I’m about to reveal to you.  This information is so powerful and compelling, it will position you in the top 1% of all lead generation professionals today.  This example will show you why every small business start-up should acquire our step-by-step roadmap as they start to generate leads for their new business.

Here’s what a true marketing professional will know… and help you implement into your marketing.  It’s known as the “marketing equation.” Our marketing equation will make sure you NEVER have to compete on price.  Instead, you will start selling your product or service for what it’s really worth the moment you open your doors for business.  You’ll drive in more leads  than your more established competition… and increase your initial advertising response by 10 to more than 100 times.   You will convert a higher percentage of those leads and dramatically increase your number of sales.  You will get a bigger bang for your marketing buck.  The bottom line is this…  you will literally create a profit faucet that you will have TOTAL control over.

But first, you MUST understand what marketing is supposed to do. Its purpose is actually three fold.  Its first job is to capture the attention of your target market.  Second, it must give them the hope that reading or listening to your marketing will give them enough information to help them make the best decision possible when buying whatever you sell. In other words, train and teach them how to recognize the true value of your product or service… and conclude that you… and you alone… offer the best value versus your competition.  Marketing’s third job is to lower the risk of taking the next step in the buying process… and if necessary… continue to educate the prospect regarding the value you offer.

Marketing that accomplishes these three objectives will result in your prospects and customers coming to one single conclusion…  that they would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you, regardless of price. It’s estimated that as many as 96% of all small business start-ups fail within their first 5 years. The main reason for this tremendously high failure rate has to do with the lack of expertise when it comes to generating leads and making your phone ring.

Most small business start-ups don’t know anything about those three things we just discussed that marketing is supposed to do. But there’s also an additional problem to consider.  Most start-ups use a tactical marketing approach instead of a strategic approach. Let me explain.

Running an ad in the local newspaper… sending out an email or direct mail letter… airing a radio or TV ad on a local media station are all examples of tactical marketing. Now don’t get me wrong… the newspaper, radio or direct mail can be successful marketing channels… IF you’re marketing message is powerful and compelling. But that’s the problem… the message is the strategic side of marketing… and yet, it’s the most neglected.

This distinction between strategic and tactical marketing is huge and one you need to be acutely aware of anytime you start talking about generating more leads.  Many start-up businesses mistakenly assume that when you talk about lead generation, you’re automatically talking about tactical lead generation…  placing ads, sending out mailers, joining a networking group, attending tradeshows, implementing a prospect follow up system and so on.

They fail to realize that the strategic side of the coin, what you say in your marketing and how you say it is almost always more important than the marketing medium where you say it. If you fail to make this distinction, then you risk becoming jaded towards certain forms of marketing and advertising that should be a part of your tactical plan, but you eliminate them from consideration because they haven’t worked for you in the past.

When lead generation results are less than optimal, small business start-ups tend to almost always blame the marketing medium… like the newspaper the ad ran in or the postcards they sent out. They blame the tactical part of the plan… without any regard for how good or how bad the strategic messaging in that marketing piece was. New business owners often say things like, “we tried radio and it doesn’t work for our kind of business,” or “we sent out 50,000 pieces of direct mail and only generated 3 orders. It just doesn’t work.”

Just because it didn’t work, don’t assume that it won’t work. Most new business owners don’t have the evaluation skills or the know-how to judge whether poor marketing results from poor strategy or poor tactical execution. This is where our step-by-step roadmap can generate more leads than your new business can handle.

For example, most start-up businesses rely heavily on platitudes in their marketing. They say things like…  we have the lowest prices…  the best service…  we’re family owned and operated…  we offer convenient hours…  and the best value. Look at your own marketing that I asked you about earlier. How many platitudes did you use in your own marketing?

By the way, this is NOT your fault. Most, if not all small business owners have been conditioned to think this is the proper way to market their businesses… since most advertising follows this same pathetic marketing formula… including the Fortune 500 types.

As human beings, we’re all after just one thing when we buy something… the best deal!  Unfortunately, when you use platitudes in your marketing, there’s absolutely no way to tell who is actually offering the best deal. Everyone says they have the lowest prices, the highest quality and the best rates. So who do you believe? There’s only one way to know… and that’s to research every single business that offers what you want to buy. How many of us have the time or patience to do that?

So most of us just automatically assume that everyone is pretty much the same, and therefore we default to calling on the business that offers us the lowest price.  When you can’t communicate the true value your business offers, you’re doomed to forever compete on price.  Our marketing equation will change all of that for you forever. It’s going to be the backbone of your strategic marketing plan right out of the gate. It’s the foundation on which everything else we build for you is based. Let me give you a quick overview and then spend some time going through it with you in detail.

Our marketing equation has four main components.  First, we must interrupt your prospect. We must get your qualified prospect to pay attention to your lead generation marketing. Simple enough to say, but a lot more difficult to pull off in real life unless you understand what you’re about to learn here.  The interrupt is done through your headline if your marketing is in print… or it’s the first thing you say if you’re marketing through radio or TV.  The second component is engage. Once your prospect is interrupted, it’s critical we give your reader the promise that information is forthcoming that will help the prospect make the best buying decision possible. In other words, it must help facilitate their decision to pick you over anyone else.  This is the job of our subheadline.

The interrupt is our headline that highlights a specific problem that your prospects are looking for a solution to… and the engage is our subheadline that promises them that you offer a solution to the problem we mentioned in our headline.

The third component we need to include is educate. Once we’ve interrupted and engaged your prospect, we have to give information that allows them to logically understand how and why you solve the problem they’re facing.  This is accomplished by giving detailed, quantifiable, specific and revealing information.  This is typically done in the body copy of your ad. When we educate, we need to reveal to your prospects the important and relevant information they need to know when making a good decision, and that your business… and yours alone… provides it to them. The interrupt and engage hit the prospects emotional hot buttons. Educate is the logic they need to justify picking up the phone and calling you.

The fourth and final component of our marketing equation is your offer. Now that we’ve interrupted your prospect based on problems that are important to them… engaged by a promise of the solution… and they’ve examined the educational information that makes your solution real and believable…  the last step we need to take is to give them a low risk way to take the next step in your sales process.  We do this by offering a free marketing tool, such as a report, brochure, seminar, audio, video or something that will continue to educate them.  Your offer will allow your prospect to feel in control of their final decision to call and buy from you.

So our marketing equation is interrupt, engage, educate and offer and together they equal market domination. Now here’s the problem.  Most marketing today only contains two of these components.  They interrupt by throwing something at you that’s either familiar like Tiger Woods… or unusual like a monkey or talking pets. Sometimes they like to use both, as in the case of the E*Trade baby.   Then once they grab your attention, they make you some type of offer such as “call now for whatever.”  They have left out the engage and the educate, and marketing seldom succeeds when that happens.

In fact, the only time this type of marketing does succeed is when you can afford to run the ad over and over nonstop for an extended period of time. Plop, plop, fizz, fizz… melts in your mouth, not in your hand… and things go better with Coke have literally been rammed down our throats by Fortune 500 types.  After hearing these slogans thousands of times, of course we’re going to remember them.  But how can a small business start-up like you… that doesn’t have a billion dollar marketing budget… successfully market your business. The answer… you can’t… UNLESS you follow our entire marketing equation. Here’s a simple example to prove this to you.

Years ago there was a moving company that was on the verge of bankruptcy. They were paying $3,000 per month for a full page ad in their Yellow Pages directory. They were averaging just 70 calls per month, and their conversion ratio was only 16%. So out of 70 calls every month, they were only getting 11 moving jobs. No wonder they were starving.

The reason their ad wasn’t working was their failure to follow our marketing equation. In fact, the only marketing equation component they had in their ad was an offer, and that offer was “call us”… and then they listed their phone number. They had no interrupt at the top of their ad whatsoever, just the name of their company.  Then they listed all the generic and “me too” services that every one of their competitors also listed in their ads.  Things like local and long distance, residential and commercial, reliable and careful, fully licensed and insured, free estimates, quality service at reasonable rates, complete packing services, local, regional, national and so on. Then at the bottom of the ad was their phone number.

Again, look at your own marketing that I asked you about earlier.  Does your marketing format look exactly the same as the one this moving company was using? Did you place  the name of your business at the top…   list your products or services in the middle  along with a layer of worthless and meaningless platitudes such as lowest prices, highest quality and best rates?  99% of all small businesses follow this EXACT format, and then they wonder why they aren’t generating any quality leads.

If you want your phone to start ringing… then you MUST follow our marketing equation of interrupt, engage, educate and offer.  So using our equation this moving company redesigned this lead generation ad, and here’s what happened.  First, they identified the biggest problem their customers had when moving.  Without hesitation, it was DAMAGE! 72% of all moves result in something being damaged. That’s the area they need to focus on then, and create what we call a market-dominating position around that hot button issue. But why is damage such an important issue…  since all moving companies listed in the Yellow Pages say they’re “fully insured.”

It turns out that all movers MUST be fully insured…  but that the general public has NO idea what “fully insured” really means. When you hear someone say they’re fully insured, don’t you automatically assume that means that if they break your $5,000 HDTV, they will reimburse you $5,000? I certainly would.

Well, it turns out that in the moving business, that isn’t what fully insured means at all.  Legally, a moving company can claim they fully insure their customers belongings based on “per pound of damage.”  The national average is 40 cents per pound. So in other words, if a mover destroys your $5,000 100 pound HDTV… they’re only legally obligated to pay you $40.  Unfortunately, the poor unsuspecting customer doesn’t find that out until AFTER the damage has taken place… and they receive their miniscule reimbursement. But for this specific moving company this policy was never an issue because they didn’t believe in this deceptive industry practice.

They actually provide their customers with what’s known as “full replacement value” insurance. If they break your $5,000 HDTV, you’re reimbursed $5,000… no questions asked. But how could they afford this much more expensive insurance?  It was due to their extraordinary 3 step packing process that ONLY their company offered, and thanks to this process… their actual breakage and damage totals were below 3%.

And what little damage did occur typically involved a broken dish or plate… relatively minor items that had little to no replacement costs… and certainly no sentimental value that would create an emotional situation with their customers.  Their unique packing process allowed them to carry a $5,000 insurance deductible, and their premiums for this superior insurance were actually lower than their competitors paid for the inferior and deceptive insurance.

Their 3 step packing process… coupled with their superior full replacement value insurance coverage… became their market-dominating position.  All that’s left is to position that information in their ad and follow our marketing equation.

Let’s first create a headline for the top of their Yellow Page ad that interrupts. This must address the main hot button issue or problem that their prospects are looking to solve… in this case… damage!  So the headline should say something like this… “Last Year, More Than 4,000 Damage And Negligent Lawsuits Were Filed Against Moving Companies By Outraged Homeowners!” Think that headline will grab the attention of prospective movers? You bet.

But let’s not stop there. Next, let’s engage the prospect by promising them a solution to the problem we referenced in the headline… in this case, damage prevention.  What do you think of this subheadline? “Ask Any Mover These 2 Questions To Insure You Won’t Be Victimized Or “Ripped Off” By Deceptive Industry Practices.” Now, when a prospect reads this subheadline… do you think they will want to immediately find out what those two questions are? Of course they will.

Now let’s educate them by providing them with two questions that the prospect can ask any mover they choose to contact. What about these two questions…  do you follow a minimum 3 step packing process for every item you place in your truck… and second, do you carry full replacement value insurance? We already know that their competitions answer to both of these questions is no, since this mover had previously surveyed all of them.  This ad educates prospects on the realities of what actually takes place in the moving industry, and highlights this moving company’s market-dominating position that makes them the obvious choice to do business with.

Their offer was a free moving company comparison checklist that highlights the survey they did… showing the prospect that they were the ONLY moving company in town that offered all of these desired benefits. This will make them the no-brainer choice in the moving industry, and the results they generated from this new Yellow Page ad sealed the deal.

Instead of averaging just 70 calls per month… their new ad averaged 955 calls per month.  Instead of a 16% conversion rate, their rate jumped to 68%. Their new ad generated so many new clients asking for their services, they had to partner with 4 of their competitors to handle the increased volume. And listen to this.  Those 4 competitors bought this company out 9 months later for $2.3 million dollars.  All of this from simply changing the strategic message in their Yellow Page ad… and without spending an extra cent.

This is why every small business start-up needs to seek out our professional help. But finding professional help is often frustrating… and at times, a crapshoot at best. That’s why I wanted to teach you our marketing equation of interrupt, engage, educate and offer.

The moving company trained their prospects on the relevant and important issues they needed to know when moving so those prospects knew what to ask for when they sought out the services of a mover. Now you know our marketing equation… and you can use it when seeking out the professional help you need for your new business. A true marketing professional will know this equation, and if they don’t… run away as fast as you can!

And by the way, did you notice that in the information we just discussed we also covertly covered mistakes #2 and #3.  Earlier I said that the second biggest mistake small business start-ups make involved the fact that they don’t know the fundamentals required to successfully market their business and attract as many new clients as their business can handle.  Well, now YOU do know the fundamentals… and you can use them to out-market and outsell your competition right from the start.  First, create a market-dominating position for your business…  and then insert that position into your marketing by following our marketing equation to the letter.

And the third biggest mistake small business start-ups make focused on the fact that they have no idea how to generate immediate cash flow.  When you follow our marketing equation in every form of marketing you do… from your business cards to your company website, the financial results are instantaneous and immediate. Consider the following example.

Consider a recent situation involving Dr. John Smith… a child psychologist who specialized in helping parents with out-of-control kids. You know the kids I’m talking about don’t you? The ones at the store that are yelling, screaming, throwing a tantrum and completely out of control. These kids range in age from 6 years old up to teenagers. Dr. Smith’s original website had all of the classic mistakes that are typical in small business today.  He had the name of his practice at the top of his site.

The only thing even resembling what you might call a headline said “Parenting Advice & Resources From Dr. John Smith.” Does that headline really appeal to a parent who is dealing with a screaming, out of control kid? Would that headline hit their emotional hot button? Do they really care anything at all right now about “advice and resources?” Or… are his prospects looking for a solution to their problem?

Remember, you must always start your marketing with an Interrupting headline that’s focused on the problem your prospects are experiencing.  Then you must have a subheadline that engages the prospect by promising them that there’s a solution to that problem. Remember our first two Marketing Equation components… Interrupt and Engage. That’s the job of the headline and subheadline. And this applies to every form of marketing, including websites.

Dr. Smith’s website headline… “Parenting Advice & Resources From Dr. John Smith” does NOT address the problem his frustrated parents are experiencing with their child.  And to make matters worse, his website has no subheadline whatsoever, so there is no way for him to engage his prospects to keep them interested.

In fact, it’s doubtful that any prospect visiting his site will stay here more than a few seconds. The latest research shows that the typical prospect visiting a website remains on the site for just three to five seconds. If during that brief period of time they don’t find something that looks like it will provide them with a solution to their problem, they’re gone for good.

The third component of our Marketing Equation says to Educate the prospect. This simply means that you must educate them with what it is that makes your product or service so much better than your competition. On a website, this is done with either body copy… or in Dr. Smith’s case, by video. Just make it short and sweet when it’s the point of first contact. You can then offer much more information once you have them compelled to want to know more about what you do.

And the final component of our Marketing Equation is your Offer. A low risk… or better yet NO RISK offer gets them to take a specific action such as request more information, take a test drive, and register for a free thirty day trial, an educational presentation or similar offer. The key here is to make the offer so compelling that it’s literally irresistible to the prospect. In fact, you want them to be thinking to themselves that they would have to be an absolute fool to NOT take your offer.

Dr. Smith’s offer was a white paper titled… The Secret for Parents: a special report on how you can learn the secrets of nurturing well behaved children. Here’s the problem… his prospects don’t have well behaved children. They have one that’s screaming, yelling, cursing, belligerent, back-talking and completely out of control. Nurturing a well behaved child is NOT the solution they’re looking for. Getting their kid under control RIGHT NOW is what they’re looking for.

Can you see why Dr. Smith’s website failed him in every area? This site wasn’t building his business. It wasn’t helping him generate leads, attract new clients… or generate additional revenue for his practice. It simply doesn’t follow our Marketing Equation. So Dr. Smith changed his website so it did follow our proven step-by-step roadmap.

He placed a headline at the top of his site that said… “Are You Sick and Tired Of The Yelling, Screaming And Belligerent Attitude Of Your Child?” Would you say that headline hits the major hot button for virtually every prospective parent that comes to this site? Do you think that these prospects… the moment they read that headline… will immediately think to themselves that they have just come to the right place where they can find a solution to their problem?

In other words, did this headline just Interrupt Dr. Smith’s prospects? Of course it did.  Now let’s Engage those prospects by promising them a solution in the subheadline.  It says… “now you can discover the secrets to controlling your child and instantly restore peace and quiet in your home.” Isn’t that what his prospects want… and will do almost anything to get? Absolutely.  See how the headline and subheadline work closely together to Interrupt and Engage every single prospect who comes to this site?

Now that they’re Engaged,  the video can spend one to three minutes reinforcing the fact that our good doctor has the solution they so desperately seek,  and his offer has been changed so it’s not only more relevant to the prospects situation, but so compelling it’s virtually irresistible. The offer says… “Learn the Secrets To Gaining and Maintaining Complete Control Of Your Child In Less Than 60 Seconds.”

Show me just one prospective parent visiting this site that WON’T download that report. They all will. And when they do, Dr. Smith captures their contact information so he can continue to keep his prospects informed until they’re ready to buy his services.  This revised site exploded Dr. Smith’s business to unprecedented levels. And best of all, our marketing equation can work for your business as well… producing immediate results. So to quickly recap.

The three biggest lead generation mistakes people make when looking to get started in business are #1… They fail to get professional help.  #2… They don’t know the fundamentals required to successfully market their business and attract as many new clients as their business can handle.  And #3… They have no idea how to use their marketing to generate immediate cash flow.

Our marketing equation contains the fundamental components you need to insure your new business is successful from the very start. The marketing equation will make your phone ring and position your new business as the dominant force in your market.   It provides the marketing foundation that will enable you to generate immediate cash flow.  And as you get started, you can use this information as a minimum standard when seeking out professional help for your business.

When you can overcome these three biggest lead generation mistakes, you will generate all the leads your business can handle… and turn your dreams of owning your business into reality. Want proof?

Suppose we could provide you with professional help…  teach you some basic fundamentals that will allow you to market your business successfully and help you to attract as many new clients to your business as you want…  while simultaneously helping you to develop compelling marketing that will generate immediate cash flow for your business?

And suppose we could do all of this for you for free…and do it in just 7 days… just to prove to you that everything I’ve said in this is 1000% true? Go to http://www.akris.net and enter your name and email address in the box on the right, and I’ll send you 4 videos over the next 7 days that will do all of this… and more!

Each video is short and to the point…  but the results you will experience will astonish you.  We’ll even show you how to monetize the information we’ll send you so you can see an immediate increase in your revenue and profits. I promise you won’t be disappointed.

So don’t wait.  Go to www.akris.net and receive your videos today. Ask if you qualify for our $5000 grant to cover the cost of this program. Enter your name and email address right now, and we’ll show you how to out-think, out-market and out-sell your competition.

 

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
info@akris.net

Is Coaching Effective?

It has been a few months since I posted any content on this site. I have been writing but it has been for several other sites. I wanted to share a recent excerpt found in Entrepreneur Magazine.

“A business coach will enable you to pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses, and they will help you build a road map for success. This can be absolutely critical for people who have never run a startup before, and it will also give you the necessary tools to properly manage current and future employees. An industry study found that CEOs who consent to business coaching are able to improve their working relations by 77 percent, and this ultimately leads to a 53 percent boost in productivity and increased profits of 22 percent.”

Is this true? Yes…but. The issue is whether the individual will act on what they learn. Here is an example.

Just finished a coaching engagement with a client that had his best commissioned month ever in the sixty years his company has been in existence ($98K). He likes to give me credit but he did all the work. I have clients who learned the same action who did not get the results because they did not implement what they learned. It is all about action.

Here are some of the articles I recently published.

This article discusses how minor changes can lead to massive results.

https://www.hershpr.com/sales/one-degree-difference-become-a-sales-leader-and-grow-sales/

Enjoy and I look forward to reading your comments. Feel free to share these articles and help others.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
ron@businessgrowthexperience.com

Did you have a Sacred Moment Today?

Did you have a Sacred Moment Today?

An elder woman and her coworker are working at a newsstand and there are 30 people demanding their attention. They all want their newspaper – now.  The coworker is frazzled and frustrated because everyone wants her attention. She cannot keep up with their demands.  She is getting angry because no one is patient – she can’t keep up. The elderly women next to her is so serene in dealing with each interaction and her coworker cannot understand how she keeps her composure with so much going on around her. She decided to ask her coworker how she cannot be angry or frustrated by the demands of the job.  She asks, “How do you not get frustrated and flustered by so many people demanding your attention?” The elderly lady replies, “When I am attending to a customer no other customer exists for me. I am taking care of one person and trying to make their day special by giving them my undivided attention. I know there will always be someone wanting my attention but the person in front of me is the only person in the world that I pay attention to. You are not seeing the person you are working with, you are seeing all the people you are not working with.” The elder woman learned that each interaction she has is a sacred moment.

We are blessed to have sacred moments every moment of our lives, if we allow ourselves to recognize them.

Before we go too much further, let’s become purposeful and define what I mean by a sacred moment. A sacred moment is simply a moment of truth with a customer, a customer interaction (this is not the only time we can experience a sacred moment): a telephone call, an email (yes, an email interaction if well thought out can be a sacred moment when the customer reads it,) a face to face meeting to review a project or determine next steps or simply selling them a paper or a cup of coffee.

Many time we do not interact with our customers unless there is a reason. Something is wrong, they need information only we can provide, something changed, or an emergency occurs. Something happens that requires you or your company to address a situation for your customer.

You can do what Google does and ignore their customers (who made them billions.) I have not been successful in finding someone from Google I can talk with. This is both frustrating and counter-productive.

Or you can do what Zappos does. I recently purchased some shoes from Zappos and the customer experience was delightful. The customer service representative listened, responded as needed and as a result his efforts, I experienced a sacred moment. I did not have to fight, argue or wait on hold.

How you treat each interaction with your customer can make their day and yours. It can be a sacred moment to them and to you. They want to be heard and you need to hear them. They want to be understood and you need to understand them. That want something that typically only you can provide.

You have an opportunity to positively impact someone in a powerful way, and in that moment, a sacred way.

What does this mean for you?

It means your customer feel heard and understood. They will be loyal. I left Google and went to Microsoft because I could talk to a person.

It means when they talk about you they remember how you made them feel. They become advocates and will become word of mouth marketing machines for you.

Anyone one in sales knows they your prospect does not care how much you know until they know how much you care.   They will be loyal and buy more.

Our family members want to feel heard and understood.

Our friends want to feel heard and understood.

Our customer are no different.

It is about being present and listening. It is about follow-up.

It is about doing what is right.

Is it a simple concept? Yes. But it can be difficult to implement. Why? Because we are inundated with people demanding our attention. We are distracted by Facebook and Social Media. We have someone else demanding our attention, there is the phone ringing, the email flashing, and the next text message to address.

It is about making each interaction a sacred moment for both you and the person you are with.

Ron Finklestein

330-990-0788
ron@businessgrothexperience.com

Ron Finklestein is an international author, sales coach, trainer and consultant helping companies grow sales and increasing revenues. His company has been selected top sales training company for 2013 and 2014.

How to Grow Sales – Tip # 3 – Will they pay for a sales call?

Sales is changing and will continue to change for the foreseeable future.

It has swung back to personal relationships – if the prospect has a reason to meet with you.

All prospects have access to all the information they need on the Internet. If your business is being commoditized they have no reason to meet with you. Just submit your proposal through the web portal or email it to the primary contact. There are no assurances it will be read.

If you add value they will not only want to see you but they will pay for your advice.

So how do you add value?

You add value through your experience.

You add value through your knowledge.

You add value through your contacts.

You add value through your relationships.

Sales used to be an art. Now sales is a process.

The sales rep had all the power because they had the product knowledge.

Now the customer has the power because they have most everything they need because of the Internet. They don’t need the sales representative anymore unless you bring value.

How do you know you are adding value? If the prospect is willing to pay for your visit – you are adding value.

I recently was invited into an account. After one meeting they put their plans on hold and invited me in to do a barrier buster process. They saw the experience come through by the questions I asked. The questions alone provided significant value.

How would you add more value to the sales process so they pay for your advice and support?

Ron Finklestein
info@BusinessGrowthExperience.com

You can start thinking about your value by downloading the free report: Six Questions Your Prospects Want Answered Before They Buy. You can find it at www.businessgrowthexperience.com

53 Things I wish I Knew BEFORE I Started my Business

53 Things I wish I knew Before I Started my Business:

  1. How to write a business plan
  2. How to execute a business plan
  3. How to find a good coach
  4. How to park my ego and ask for help
  5. How to network and build an effective network
  6. How to build effective relationships
  7. How to sell
  8. How to manage money
  9. How to use marketing to build a brand and attract the right client
  10. How to find the right customers
  11. How to ask for the order and not expect them to ask
  12. The value of surrounding myself with others who are better than me
  13. How to be vulnerable
  14. When to say no
  15. When to say yes
  16. How to take calculated risks
  17. The value of ethical leadership
  18. When to hire
  19. How to hire
  20. When to outsource
  21. What to outsource
  22. To understand what people were really saying
  23. How to value my product
  24. How to price my product
  25. Understanding of my ideal customer from both a demographics and psychographics perspective
  26. How to find a good accountant
  27. How to find a good financial planner
  28. How to find a good graphic designer
  29. To set my goal higher
  30. To go for the “no”
  31. Take more risks
  32. Forgive myself sooner when those risks fail
  33. Test for understanding
  34. Learn to say no
  35. Learn to say no again
  36. Reward myself more often when good things happen
  37. The power of a goal
  38. The power of a goal that I have to report on
  39. When to give up on  an idea
  40. When to act on an idea
  41. The power of planning
  42. The higher power of a plan “B”
  43. How to take better care of myself
  44. The power of a great diet
  45. How to get to the feeling of “belief” sooner
  46. Setting up a good filing system
  47. How to write a book sooner
  48. No caring what others would say
  49. Doing what is right
  50. Sleeping better at night
  51. How powerful “brainstorming” is in understanding a problem
  52. The power of having a database of trusted people who can help solve a problem and letting them
  53. The value of being a friend

Sincerely,

Ron Finklestein
ron@akris.net
330-990-0788
www.businessgrowthexperience.com

 

Gmail Changes – Warning

Google is at it again. These changes have already been made to my account!

Gmail is rolling out new features for their inbox and they’re starting to automatically filter your email messages for you (this also applies if you use Google Apps for your business email address!).

The emails of many of the people I follow are categorized as “Promotions” and automatically making them skip your inbox and putting them in a separate folder (similar to your spam box now).

This means you won’t see any of our awesome emails (or emails from others you follow) in your main inbox unless you adjust your Gmail settings!

Gmail will implement these changes over time so you may not see any changes to your email yet.

But, it won’t be long before your inbox is going to look much different then it does now.

When this happens all you have to do is change one little setting and save your changes.

Here’s what to do:

Click on and drag one of the emails from us to the “Primary” tab. Then make sure you click “Yes” when the alert pops up.

If you want to completely remove these new tabs simply go to the Settings box in the upper right hand corner of your inbox and select “Settings”. Click on the “Inbox” tab and unselect all categories except “Primary” (remember to save your changes!)

And that is it!

Now you won’t miss out on any important emails from others you follow (including us!)

A special thanks to Joe Polish for make me aware of this! This too important not to share.

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@ businessgrowthexperience.com

If you are in Northeast Ohio on 8/13 I invite you to join me for a sales lunch an learn. No risk or commitment on your part. Here are the details: http://saleslunchandlearn.eventbrite.com –  seating is limited so be sure to register early. I need to know how much food to bring.

What I learned at my Sales Lunch & Learn

What I learned at my Sales Lunch & Learn

I do a monthly lunch and learn sales coaching program each month. In an effort to reach more people I recorded the session and posted it on YouTube. The link is below. I do not plan to keep this public long so if growing sales is important to you, take some time to watch/listen to this video.

After a short while, I will make this video private and only my client will have access to it via Google Plus.

This video was recorded live as part of a coaching session to private clients of Ron Finklestein and the Business Growth Experience. Ron discusses some challenges sales people must overcome, what business owners expect from people selling to them and nine actions they must take to become more successful. To learn more on implementing these actions please check out our sales training web site at http://www.businessgrowthexperience.net.

If you prefer personal coaching, check out http://www.businessgrowthexperience.com and download our free report: Six questions Prospects Want Answered Before they buy.

If you work in Northeast Ohio and want to attend one of these Lunch & Learn events please click here  http://saleslunchandlearn.eventbrite.com.

 

http://youtu.be/nv_sfMZ8Vz0

Can I invite you to coffee?

Can I invite you to coffee?

I give myself permission to call people I want to meet and invite them to coffee.

Here is my approach.

“Hi Bill, this is Ron Finklestein. I been hearing good things about you and I would like to buy you a cup of coffee. I have no agenda others then getting to know you a little better. Are you open to having a cup coffee?”

I have never been turned down using this approach. It is not unusual for this meeting to be schedule out a few weeks but I have never been refused. I do this once a month and I do it for me. I want to learn what others do to be successful so I can be more effective at helping my client grow, prosper and get results.  

There are some things you need to know when you do this. Be authentic, don’t use it as a ruse to get in front of them and sell them something, be open to what you can learn, and be a good listener.

I recently did this with a gentleman who recently sold his business.

We had a great meeting and he told me why he met with me. “I never had anyone just want to have coffee with me who approached me the way you did. I was curious.”

During our discussion I asked him how I might help him achieve his goal. He said, “I never had anyone ask me that question before.”

I could tell there was something he wanted to share so I waited for him to make up his mind. Finally he told me that he wanted to get into coaching and he was concerned because he had no methodology. We then talk about my methodology and how it was created. I told him I could shorten his process if wanted to license my approach.

He had to leave to catch a plane and told me he would read some material and let me know next week if he wanted to proceed and learn more.

This all happened because I reached out.

I do group sales training and I shared this story with them. None could believe I would set up meeting without the purpose of getting business. I explained to them that you can have different purposes in meeting others: curiosity, networking, referrals introductions, problem solving, asking advice, etc.

The universe works in mysterious ways. I just follow my path and if I like someone I tell them. If I want to learn more I ask them and I never leave a meeting with someone I just met without asking these two questions:

  1.  What are you hoping to get out of our meeting today? I ask this because they are meeting with me for their reasons and it is useful to know what they want.
  2. What is your goal and how can I help you achieve it. People are surprised by this because most do not have goals. This helps bring some clarity to the meeting.

Give yourself permission to call someone you find interesting and ask them to coffee. Tell them you the truth; that you have no agenda and you just want to learn about them.  Watch how both you and the other person change. Be prepared to create some new meaningful relationships and be open to whatever the situation offers.

To Your Success (However you define it)

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
www.businessgrowthexperience.net (my sales training membership site)
www.businessgrowthexperience.com (my consulting site)
www.ronfinklestein.com (about me)

 

 

 

Our gift to you – our readers

Our gift to you –

 

As a sales trainer and business coach, one of the biggest problem I  see is lack of follow through-not because they can’t follow through – but because they do not remember to follow through. This is because they do not have a process, system or method that works they can use daily. This lack of follow through is most pronounced in the sales area.   

 

Dr. Tony Alessandra created an 60+ page eBook on how to sell collaboratively. The content of this book is extraordinary. It is a complete, proven process on selling that works. As a thank you for being a reader, I am making this eBook available to you.

 

Please read it, use it and implement what is discussed. It will make sales easy.

 

Just click on this link and you will be taken to the page to download the Collaborative eBook:

http://www.businessgrowthexperience.net/ron/

Enjoy!

Ron Finklestein
ron @businessgrowthexperience.com
www.busineessgrowthexperience.com

Food Almost Killed Me and my Business

This is a true story and I struggled with sharing it. It is confession time. For years I was sick: migraines, fatigue, joint pain, gas, bloating and the list goes one. I knew I would die (I am totally serious here) if I did not get this under control.  Running my business (and my life) was a desperate act of pure will power. For over two years everything hurt. I did not have the energy to try to grow my business. It took all my energy to get out of bed in the morning; it was all I could do was maintain some semblance of a normal life. I just could not understand what was going on.

This is not an exaggeration.

Let me give you the short version of the story. I tell you this not for sympathy but to help you understand the value of good health in growing a healthy business, enjoying life and making the most of every situation.

I took three naps a day.

I eliminated all activities except the bare necessaries of meeting only with customers.

I woke in the morning with so much pain I dreaded getting out of bed.

I had two spiritual visions in six month that I was dead and my wife was in mourning.

I was forty pounds overweight.

I experience four migraines a week.

The muscle and joint pain was so bad I did not want to move.  

I was not absorbing the medicine I was on and needed larger and larger doses. Nothing helped!

Emotionally, I was tired, depressed, frustrated and angry about the situation.

Fortunately, I found a doctor who helped me understand I was allergic to gluten in wheat. As I got better and tested other foods, I found I also had a negative reaction to soy, corn, dairy, eggs, and rice products. In the last 12 months my diet has changed to mostly meat and vegetables.

Because of the way I eat and how careful I am about what I eat and potential of cross contamination, I have been laughed at, ridiculed, and made fun of. Most waiters and waitresses are not familiar with people who deal with this problem and they think I am being ridicule. As a result, I tend to avoid most social occasion where food is the reason for people to get together: chamber lunches, business lunches, breakfast lunches, etc. I am tired of explaining. I am tired of being the only one at the table of eight paying for food but not eating and having people wonder why.

As a result of this dietary change, my life has changed for the best. I am happy again. I have energy. All my physical problems are gone. My relationship with my wife is great and I now can smile again. My hair is gradually changing color (from gray to brown) and I dropped 40 pounds.  I actually started exercising again after 15 years.  

I enjoy meeting people again. I am actively prospecting for new client and I am enjoying my work as a sales coach and trainer again.

I did not write this post to complain but to ask you to think about the food you eat. Is it helping you? Is it sapping your energy? Does it give you gas? Is it making you miserable? What impact is the food you are eating having on your energy and relationships? It is hard to have a good life and a strong business when you don’t feel well. For the first time in my life I finally understand the value of a proper diet and power of eating the right food.  

Because it can take from a few minutes to a few days to understand if food you eat is giving you problems, it is hard to make the connection. Keep a food diary is a great place to start.

I always sign of my blog post with, “to your success.” Today, I will sign off with to your health.

Ron Finklestein

www.businessgrowthexperience.com

ron @ businessgrowthexperience.com       

Ways to Increase Sales and Grow Revenues

Marketing Outcomes / How to Grow Sales and Increase Revenues

Every prospect wants to know why they should buy from you. They want to know the outcome they will experience before they want to know how you will create those outcomes. Let’s start with four basic facts …

1.    Every prospect has a problem. This problem creates some negative emotions.

2.    Every product has features: Features are merely objective facts about a product (or the company behind it). In three-dimensional products, features include size, shape, weight, construction, color options and more. You need to be able to tell your prospect the feature of your product or service that will solve the problem. In information products, features include number of pages, size, frequency of publication (for periodicals) and the types of information that are presented.

3.    Fortunately, most features are there for a darned good reason: Prospects don’t want features. They want you to change their lives for the better. Product features are merely the means to that end. That means features can have a place in ad copy – like telling prospects how many issues they’ll get per year … how many big pages are in your book … or that your widget is made from carbon steel for strength or carbon fiber for lightness.

Beyond that, features are a yawn because they’re about the product; not about the prospect. Or, as in the examples above, they can help demonstrate how your product delivers a benefit. The good news is, just about every product fact – every feature – is there to provide a benefit that your prospect IS willing to pay for. Tell your prospect in no uncertain terms the benefits of a particular feature. But we do not want to stop there.

4.    Each benefit has a positive emotional outcome for the buyer. Many time there are more benefits associated with each product feature than are obvious to the average buyer. Each benefit or combination of benefits producing one, two, three or more new benefits you never thought about before. The secret to selling and marketing and most any other revenue generating activity is to identify each and every benefit a product provides – and the emotional outcome your buyer will experience.

5.    Your prospect is buying emotionally first, then they intellectualize & justify the purchase. Connecting the feature, benefits and outcomes makes it very easy for the buying to understand why you are the right and safe choice.

Outcome that sing and soar – in five simple steps

Here’s a little exercise to help you drill down to the outcomes prospects are willing to pay for and then connect those benefits with powerful response-boosting emotions that your prospect already has about those benefits (or the lack of them) in his life.

By the time you’re through, you will have a complete list of company and product features … you will have squeezed every possible benefit out of those features … you will have fully defined the outcomes of those benefits and you will have connected each one to a powerful emotion your prospect has about each one of them.

In short, you’ll have a comprehensive “features/benefits/emotional outcome” inventory you can refer to as you create your marketing message, write your copy, build your sales presentation or create contents for your website.

Going through this exercise can go a long way towards finding new themes and adding power to your sales and marketing.

To begin, create a spreadsheet with these headings:

Problem

Negative Emotional Outcomes of Problem

Feature that Solves the Problem

Tangible Benefits of that Feature

Positive Emotional Outcome Prospect with Experience

Rank

 

Write until all know problems are identified and documented. Document how they feel when they experience this problem. Next write the feature of your product or service that solves the problem and document the benefit of that feature. Finally, describe the positive emotional outcome the buyer will experience.

When complete, rank them in order of importance.

He is an example of what your table should look like.

Problem: Sales have plateaued

Emotional Impact of Problem: So frustrated because no matter what I do, I just can’t figure out how to take the sales to the next level. And I’m always the one having to do the sales

Feature: Learn how to build a sales and marketing system

Benefit of Feature: You can stop being the only “sales guy” and start leveraging your marketing and sales processes so that customers come to you to purchase, instead of you chasing them. You will grow sales!

Emotional Outcome: You’ll feel a great sense of relief … no more anxiety about “where is the next sale going to come from?” and you won’t have to be chasing prospective customers all the time … prospects who are hiding from you.

When you complete this process you will have all the material you need to write a great sales letter, create compelling web copy, and build a powerful sales presentation and some much more.

This process is where increase profits and grow sales begins. You need to understand your prospects better than they understand themselves. When completed, you can tell them exactly what they can expect when they work with you.

If you want a more detailed, step by step process, go to www.businessgrowthexperience.com and download our free report: Six Questions Your Prospects Want Answered before They Buy.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein www.businessgrowthexperience.com

Ron@businessgrowthexperience.com 330-990-0788

p.s. Go to www.businessgrowthexperience.net and supply your email address. We will notify you when we launch our membership site that will take you step by step through our sales and marketing system to help you grow sales and increase revenues.

Influence vs. Manipulation

I recently wrote an article on the difference between influence vs. manipulation.  I posted it on  http://www.businessgrowthexperience.com 

Here is the link: http://businessgrowthexperience.com/?p=829

At the end of the article is a link to a PDF entitled, How to Build Rapport with Anyone in 90 Seconds or Less. Consider it a gift to you, my readers. You will not have to provide any information. You can just download it.

To your success

Ron Finklestein

ron@akris.net

330-990-0788

Who Should be Your New Best Friend?

You New Best Friend.

Most people are not excited to see a sales rep walk into their office. Defenses go up almost immediately.

This is strange to me because I get more new ideas, market intelligence and industry news from the sales reps who visit my office than from other places.

They see so many more people than I do.

They visit so many more companies that I do.

They see what others are doing that works.

They see what others do that doesn’t work.

Being a good sales rep is not just about selling your product or service. It is about helping the people you meet be more successful.

On a side note, there was a study done on what customers want from their sales rep. This study indicated that the customer wants accountability from the sales rep. In different words, they want the rep to be accountable for the success the customer will achieve when they buy the product or service.

Next time a sales rep comes into you office ask them how they are accountable for the overall success of the product or service. In our sales training we offer a 100% return on investment guarantee. We want to be held accountable. Want to learn more? Call me, Ron Finklestein, at 330-990-0788 or email me at ron@businessgrowthexperience.com

 

Grow, prosper, and get results with,

Ron Finklestein
www.businessgrowthexperience.com
330-990-0788

Customers Lie

Customers Lie!

We, as sales professionals, are constantly told that customers lie. They never address the reason customers lie nor do they tell what you can do about it.

Customers lie because they do not want to hear how stupid they are if they do not understand how your product or service will help them.

Customers lie because they feel you will take advantage of them if you learn some sensitive piece of knowledge.

Customer lie because they fear you will charge a higher price if you knew how painful the situation really is.

Ok, customers lie because they need to protect themselves. They lie because we, as sales professionals, have lied to them. I cannot tell you how much sales training I have received where the instructor would say something like, “tell them what they want to hear, even if it not true, to get the appointment. You can always fix it later.” We wonder why customers feel the need to protect themselves. I refuse to be party to this kind of mind-set.

As a sales professional, we need to change that. We need to act with the best intentions and the highest effort to do what is in the best interest of our customers. We need to understand their problems and help them solve it.

As a sales professional, we have to assume they are lying to protect themselves and it is our job to act with honesty, integrity, and while having the best interest of our customer in mind at all times so they do not have to (or feel the need to) protect themselves. They understand we are on the same team.

As a sales professional, we must understand how to build rapport quickly and effectively because building rapport is the first step in building trust.

As a sales professional, we must always treat the customers the way they want to be treated so they understand why your product or service is the right and safe choice for them.

If our customers are lying to us we need to stop blaming them and implement actions that allow them to trust us.

If our customers are lying to us we must look inside and see what we are doing they makes them want to lie to us. Then we need to fix it.

To learn more check out www.akris.net

Call me if you are not getting the desired results.

 

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@businessgrowthexperience.com

www.businessgrowthexperience.com

 

 

Eleven Cardinal Sins of a Sales Representative.

Eleven Cardinal Sins of a Sales Representative.

If you are in sales or wonder why your sales are suffering, ask yourself if you are hurting yourself by:

  1. Being desperate. If you are desperate, do not let the prospect see it. It will chase them away faster that junk yard dog.
  2. Being artificial. People are looking for authenticity in their relationships, especially a sales relationship. People want to know you can be trusted.  You do not want your prospects thinking of you as Jerry Springer.
  3. Being unprepared. There is no excuse for not being prepared. With the internet you can find most everything you need to know before the sales call. You can bet the prospect did his homework on you. You are not John Wayne. Don’t try to wing it.
  4. Not planning your sales call. Walking into meeting without an agenda is inexcusable. I was in a meeting where the sales rep did not have an agenda and he did not confirm what he thought was the agenda, and the prospect was not happy.
  5. Being late. Most prospects take being last as a sign of disrespect: of his time. This is a great way to start off on the wrong foot.
  6. Taking longer than you said. If you asked for 30 minutes don’t take a minute longer. Ask for permission to continue if you must or schedule a second meeting.
  7. Not focusing on solving the problem. Most business owners are busy and they do not care to create a relationship with you unless they have a reason. Talking about your hunting trip may be fun for you but your prospect is not particularly interested. Focus on him and his problem.
  8. Talking too much. If you are talking you cannot be listening to the prospect and his problems. A great sales rep is an excellent listener. They listen with purpose: to understand.   Watch Dr. Phil if you want to see how it is done.
  9. Being a liar. Be honest. If you cannot help them tell them. They will respect that and listen the next time you request a meeting. Jim Carey you’re not (I hope)!
  10. Being a liar again. Don’t lie and tell them your product does something it can’t. It takes a short time to destroy your reputation you took a life time to build.
  11. Not be respectful. Do what you say you will do when you say you will do it. Many times a prospect needs something from you to do his work. Deliver what you said you would when you said you would do it.

 

Need help with growing sales, increasing revenues and shortening the sales process? Give me a call for a free not obligation discussion of your most pressing sales issues.

 

Ron Finklestein
Business Growth Experience
www.aboutbusinesssuccess.com

330-990-0788 / ron@businessgrowthexperience.com

 

I AM NOT DONE!

What is holding you back?

I recently went on a weekend retreat with several members of a group I started many years ago. The agenda was simple. All each participant had to do was answer one question: What holds you back? You could discuss personal, business, relationship issues or anything important to you.

Without a doubt the most common answer was – ME! I hold myself back. As we probed deeper we heard such things as:

“I am afraid of failure/success.”

“I fear rejection.”

“I need to forgive.”

“I know what I need to do but I am not doing it because it is not fun.”

“I need to be liked.”

“I am not a salesman.”

I could go on but you get my drift.

My experience is that business skills are easy to teach but the beliefs we have about ourselves are the deciding factors.

Can you put your biggest fears out for all to see? If you say “no,” you will have serious problems overcoming them. They lose much of their power once they are shared with others.

Each of us had a chance to put our issues on the table for the world to see. It took courage, intestinal fortitude and a willingness to risk it all. What I found was the group was supportive, nonjudgmental, accepting and each and everyone expressed a sincere effort to understand and help me go deeper.

My awaking was that we all suffer from the flaws of being human. Though I was in the room with people I consider to be successful, I realized we are all human, we all have our fears and doubt AND we are all capable of more.

Share your fears and risk being human. You will find another human will respond. It is liberating to feel heard and understood.

I now know what “I am not done” means to me.

Thanks to all who shared a powerful weekend with me. You know who you are.

 

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@businessgrowthexperience.com
www.aboutbusinesssuccess.com

Did anyone tell you something like this? Or How to ask for a referral!

Did anyone tell you something like this? Or How to ask for a referral!

I met with a client on Friday and he gave me this feedback:

“You helped me grow sales (2.7 to 7 new clients each month), you provided objective feedback on my ideas to provide clarity, you challenged my thinking in new and different ways so I make better decisions and everyone needs what you do. How do I tell them that?”

The more I thought about his question the more I realized that people need to experience what I do. When the process is experienced they can then make an intelligent decision to see if I can add value.

What prompted his comment? I run a group coaching process called The Business Growth Experience and as part of the process we share both good news and problems we need some help with. My good news was that I picked up three new clients as a result of referrals. My dilemma, how can I get more referrals?

Here is what they suggested. Call each of your client (who are happy with your work) and ask them to bring one of their client who they think can use your service to a lunch (I Pay) for an introduction.

What a powerful idea.

I knew about this process and simply forgot about it. So today I am going to do just that. I am going to call my clients and referral partners and ask them to introduce me to one of their client (over a lunch).

Since you read this far, send me an email and I will provide you a 30 minute free coaching session if are the first 10 reads who responds to this email. Consider this my Christmas gift to you. Send the email to ron@businessgrowthexperience.com with the subject line “Free Coaching.” In the email please provide a short description of what you want to discuss so I can prepare. Also, your time zone is important. I will then send you a link to schedule your coaching session. Please note you must use this email address and subject line or I will not see the message. This offer expires 12/15/11 so please act quickly. This offer is available to anyone.  My strengths are working with owners of small businesses to help them grow sales, increase revenues and influence others.

May your self-talk always be positive, your life meaningful, and your thoughts happy.

Ron Finklestein
www.akris.net
330-990-0788

 

 

 

Can you be Successful at Sales?

Anyone can be successful at sales provided you have the right behaviors and mind-set.

In 2003, Tim Connor published a book called Soft Selling.   In it, he compared how poor salespeople and successful salespeople managed their selling time differently.   He allocated the salesperson’s time into six major categories:

·   Prospecting

·   Sales Presentation

·   Service

·   Administration

·   Travel

·   Self-Improvement

 

He found that when it came to time management, poor salespeople allocated their time as follows:

·   10% on prospecting,

·   23% on sales presentation,

·   15% on service to others,

·   30% on administration,

·   20% on travel,

·   and a meager 2% on self-improvement.

 

These numbers are stunning at first glance if you believe and take Connor’s numbers seriously.

Note that only 10% of a salesperson’s time was being spent on prospecting and a whopping 30% of their time was being spent on administrative duties.    In other words, the salespeople who failed were spending more time managing their paperwork and administrative duties than managing or growing their sales pipeline.

 

10% of a poor salesperson’s time was being spent on prospecting.  It’s no wonder their sales were falling short of their expectations and their sales pipeline remained empty. They were spending more time on paperwork and presentations when they should have been out looking for new suspects to qualify. Contrast these numbers with how well successful people managed their time when it came to selling.  Connor found that good salespeople spent their time as follows:

·   45% on prospecting for new business,

·   10% on their sales presentation,

·   20% on service to others,

·   5% on administration,

·   10% on travel,

·   And 10% on self-improvement.

If you want to learn how to get better at sales and be seen as a partner to your customers check out Collaborative Selling. To learn more go to www.akris.net 

 

Sincerely,

Ron Finklestein
Business Growth Facilitator
www.businessgrowthexperience.com  

 

 

How do we communicate our message?

How do we communicate our message?
Most people think it is through the spoken word. That is partly true. There are three components to effective communication. The words we use only account for 7 % of any message. For an effective communication to take place, of course, we need all three parts of the message and they must be congruent and consistent with each other. If there isn’t any congruency, the receiver will be confused and will have a tendency to accept the predominant form of communication rather than the literal meaning or words.
The second part of the message where meaning is implied is the emphasis and tone of our voice. This is 36% of the meaning of our communications. The emphasis and tone have the power to completely change the message that is being communicated. Often, you will say something to a person and they may become offended. When you express that the words you used were intended to be inoffensive, the other person will tell you that it was your tone of voice that was the issue.
The last component of our message is our body language. A whopping 57% of the meaning is convey through body language. You can dramatically increase the effect of your communication by leaning toward the speaker or shifting your weight forward onto the balls of your feet. If you can face the person directly and give them direct eye contact, combined with fully focused attention, you double the impact of what you’re saying.
If you want to learn more about effective communication please check out http://www.akris.net. Here we teach effective communication strategies to help you build better relationships, increase sales, become better leaders and help you grow personally and professionally.
To Creating Better Relationships
Ron Finklestein,
330-990-0788
ron@businessgrowthexperience

One Degree Difference

 As a professional speaker, I am often asked what topics I speak about. That is easy to answer because I can speak on:

 entrepreneurship,  small business skills, marketing and most any topic relating to  small business skills and small business success.

The common thread tying all my topics together is called The One Degree Difference. We must learn to think differently about our business in order to get different results.

My book Nine Principles for Inspired Action discusses the nine behaviors succussful people implement and there are examples of how people learn to think differently and how this change in thinking leads to different actions.

The One Degree Difference simply stated is that it does not require a massive change to get massive results. It only takes a small change in our thinking, a one degree change, to get massive results.

Change your thinking change your business.

Ron Finklestein

Small Business Speaker
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

Contact me to see how you can learn more about the One Degree Difference.  

 

 

Leadership Entrepreneurship

Is an entrepreneur a leader? How does entrepreneurship differ from leadership? The answer depends on your perspective. In the traditional sense, anyone who starts their own business is an entrepreneur. Not all entrepreneurs are leaders.

A leader can rally the troops to take action. A leader can keep them motivated with a strong vision for the company. The odds of success increase significantly if the entrepreneur is a leader. If not the entrepreneur can thrive if they learn to master the basic skills and behavior of leadership or if they surround themselves with someone who can effective communicate that vision to the staff, the customers and valued business partners.

We cannot be all things to all people but we can surround ourselves with others who can effectively fill the gaps in our own skills sets.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

Business to Business Marketing Internet

Small business skills are essential to anyone running their own business and that includes internet marketing, especially business to business internet marketing. We see internet sales letter where someone has made $200k dollars in weekend running an internet business. I believe these most of these claims to be true but what they do not tell you is the year or two it took to develop the product, create the lists, test the sales letters, define the optin process, and the list goes one. If you have no business experience these sales letters make it sound like anyone will achieve these results. Internet marketing has its own rules. But one thing is consistent with both traditional marketing and internet market: you must understand what your audience wants to buy and present it to them in a way that makes it easy for them to understand why they should buy from you.

I call this earning the right to do business and there are six questions you must answer that on the surface appear insignificant. They are not.   Here they are:

  1. What do you do?
  2. Why are you different?
  3. What is the one thing you do better than anyone else?
  4. Why should prospects care?
  5. What is in it for them?
  6. Will they buy from you?

If you cannot answer these questions you cannot expect your customers to know the answers either.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

Small Business Skills

I am a faculty member for a training program that has a small business series called EDGE. EDGE is from ilearningglobal.tv (ILG). This is some of the best structured training for the small business owner and his employees for the money. Check out www.ilearingglobal.tv and go to the visitor’s portal to sample some of the videos. The faculty does a great job helping the business owner implement a small business management training program that improves the skills of everyone they touch.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

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