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Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Buying/Selling Process

In an earlier post, I wrote about the sales presentation and proposed a list of questions that a prospect might have and wonder if you are the right person to contract with.  I will now submit to you a list of more thought-provoking challenges to help you understand the buying/selling process:

  1. The first sale made is the salesperson. If the prospect doesn't buy you, he's not going to buy your product or service.
  2. How's your online reputation? What's your Google ranking and reputation? Not your company's reputation  . . . yours!
  3. What's your social media reputation? Not tweeting is a choice, but a poor one. How about LinkedIn? Do you have a Facebook business page?
  4. Did you offer proof? Did you use "voice-of-customer" testimonials to prove your claims?
  5. Does the buyer have enough peace of mind to purchase from you?

Remember, the only person who counts in your sales conversations:  the customer.

What's a Customer Thinking?

Making presentations can be daunting if you are not sure of your potential customer's mindset and interest and anticipate his questions. Those questions could generate a long list and every customer might not ask every question every time, but since you don't know specifically which ones he'll ask himself, it is better to be prepared.  Here's a list:

  • What do you offer?
  • What do you offer that no one else has?
  • How does your product compare to others?
  • Does it really fill my need?
  • Is it real-world?
  • Will it work?
  • Will my people use it?
  • How will it impact our people and our success?
  • Can you deliver?
  • Will you keep your promises?
  • Will senior management buy in?
  • How will we produce as a result of the purchase?
  • How will it all come together?
  • What are the risk factors?
  • Will you be my main contact after purchase or are you going to relegate me to "the service department?"
  • Do I trust you? Believe you? Have confidence in you?

This comprehensive list of questions addresses both confidence in product and confidence in the salesperson.  The customer is seeking validation and wants to believe you.  They need what you have and they're going to buy what you offer.  The only question is: Buy it from whom?
See my post on "understanding the buying/selling process."

Some Keys for Business Success

You have heard of the old adage "A word to the wise is sufficient". Well then I will expand on just "a word" and propose to you seven keys to achieve success in your business. To help you become more prepared and continue to learn and innovate you must recognize, distinguish and manage the big stuff from the small stuff. Here are some areas where you could become more prepared and continue to learn and innovate:

  1. Hire correctly and develop your staff
  2. Identify your uniqueness and market it
  3. Manage your cash and your costs
  4. See where the "puck is going"
  5. Embrace change and adapt/migrate
  6. Get good advice
  7. Continuously learn

The big stuff event is one that can challenge a company to its core so, you have to learn something in each case.  To do that try to run a high-performance, low stress organization. This means managing for fewer little dramas and being flexible to manage for the bigger stuff as they occur. Adapting should be faster than we would like. There are so many opportunities to learn and if we don't take advantage of those opportunities, our businesses stagnate.

Monday, February 10, 2014

Sample Questionnaire for a Product


When starting a new business or developing a new product offering, you should find out if the product is marketable to your target market.  Will they want to purchase it?  How much would they want to pay for it? Where will you advertise your product to inform the potential customer of its benefits and value?

One of the tools that we can use is a Questionnaire.  You will see by reading the example below that it contains three main sections:  
  1. interest of the consumer for your product with regard to price and utility; 
  2. profile of the consumer; and 
  3. communications - what materials does the consumer read or what does he watch on television or listen to on the radio.

Whether you are contemplating a product-oriented business or a service, you will find that a questionnaire if very useful in planning your marketing plan.  Here is an example of a new board game:

I am developing a new product and am contacting a few people in your neighborhood for an important and quick survey.  I hope you will take a moment to tell me how you feel about board games.

1.    Do you play any board games?  Yes ____ No ____ (If no, please go to #7)
2.    What is your favorite board game?
       Backgammon ___          Checkers ____             Pictionary _____       Life _____
       Clue ____                     Monopoly _____           Sorry ____  Other ____
3.    On the average, how often do you play board games?
      Less than once per month ____  Once per month ____
      Twice per month ____     Once per week _____ More than once per week ____
4.   Would you consider playing a new board game about the stock market?
      Yes ____    No ____       Maybe ____    I don't know
5.    How much would you pay for board game about the stock market?
      $10 to $15 ____    $15.01 to $20 ____    $20.01 to $25 ____    Over $25 ____
6.    What is the first word that comes to mind when you think of the stock market?
       ________________________________________________________________
7.     On the average, how many hours of television to you watch per week?
        Less than one hour ____    1 to 3 hours ____    3 to 6 hours _____
        6 to 9 hours ______     9 hours or more _____
8.     Do you clip coupons from the newspaper?  Yes ____  No ____
9.     What radio station do you listen to most often?  _________________________
10.   What is your age group?
        18 to 24 years ____    25 to 34 years ____    35 to 44 years ____
        45 to 54 years ____    Over 55 years ____
11.    What is your household income?
        Under $40,000 ___$40,000 to $60,000 ___$60,000 to $80,000 __ Over $80,000__

           Thank you for your response.  The following information is helpful to my study but is optional:
Name:______________________________________________________________
Address: ____________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip: ________________________________________________________
Phone:  _____________________________________________________________       


Saturday, February 1, 2014

THE ENTREPRENEUR AND STARTING A BUSINESS

Many of us want to start businesses.  We dream of the day when we can work for ourselves and own a business and make lots of money.  Some of us want a service business where they may want to help others.  However, many of us do not realize what is involved in starting a business and what it takes to be profitable.  Let me propose several points to consider before you venture out to start that business which may be eye-opening to you:
  1.        Do you have the personal experience in a particular business?  Having experience in a business that you want to start will help you organize the start-up and be aware of the problems and pitfalls you may encounter.  Having experience helps to know how to deal with suppliers and vendors, use negotiation techniques common to that industry, realize the terms of payment typical in that business, and  the jargon used.  It certainly will make things a lot easier and lend to your success.
  2.       Know your weaknesses.  Whatever they may be like not being able to read financial statements or understand the income statement, or use QuickBooks, these can be easily remedied by taking a few courses at a local community college.  Of course, as time goes by and your business can support it, you can hire a bookkeeper or an accountant to perform the tasks that were originally yours.
  3.       Have passion or excitement about the industry.  Having passion and the love of the business helps draw people into your idea and they will become excited too.  This attitude will help in obtaining financing and increasing your patronage.  Imagine going to work every day and being happy about it!
  4.        Be able to discuss your business concept in relevant, concise language.  This is a key to having people understand what your concept is all about.   Especially being able to articulate the “why” of starting the business and having the vision will move you to be a success.  Having that sense of purpose will help drive you through the trials and tribulations of a business and keep you going.  What is it that you will be achieving in the marketplace?
  5.        Think about the other companies which are similar to your business concept.  Are they growing and selling more because the economy is good and the industry is in a growth phase?   The answers to this question will determine whether you will be able to succeed in it, and you won’t have to be as smart as those trying to survive in a declining market.
  6.        Will your business cause a change in the way people do things?  Will you be eliminating the middleman in the supply chain?  Being able to make a change in the way people do things or do business is a great feat, and one that is a great business idea.  Consider Jeff Bezos of Amazon.com.  He changed the way people purchase books.  No longer will you have to go into a book store to purchase a book, just buy it online.  If you can change the world, then the odds are that you have a strong business concept.
If you have considered all of the above and the reaction is positive, then you probably have a good business concept and you should pursue it.

Saturday, January 11, 2014

How to Talk to a Venture Capitalist

Many times I have been asked by my entrepreneur students and those who have small businesses about talking to and impressing a venture capitalist.  What questions should I ask them;   how I should respond to the questions they ask of me, they ask.

There are a few things you should keep in mind when discussing your business with a venture capitalist.  What a venture capitalist wants is to hear the story of how your business is doing, how profitable it is.  Telling them how many downloads you have or how many customers visit your site will only generate a “yawn” from them.  So make sure that you have read and re-read your business plan and be able to answer the critical questions of what your profit margins and gross margins are.

Other than the above, the following are some things that you should not say to a prospective investor:

  1. “The Market is huge.”  Never say this.  This merely indicates to the listener that you haven’t done your market research.  Be able to indicate how large your target market is for your product or service.  You must be able to carve out of the total market your market segment so that you can focus on their wants and needs.  Remember, you must know everything about your target market, right down to the size shoes they wear!
  2.  “I have no competition.”  This also indicates that you haven’t done your competitive analysis well enough to identify your closest competitors and to examine their strengths and weaknesses.  There is always competition, whether direct or indirect.  What is your strategy to capitalize on your competitors’ weaknesses and gain market share?
  3.  “I am going to capture 1% of the market.”  This is the kiss of death to the listeners’ ears.  A venture capitalist wants to invest in a business that will grow and yield a return on their investment of, say,  10, 20 or even 30 times.  These sophisticated investors have to reach their goal or hurdle rate targets and want to invest in a business that will achieve their hurdle rate.
  4.  “Our product is viral.”  Believing that word of mouth will help the entrepreneur increase his sales is not the way to go.  A venture capitalist wants to hear the plan that will take in not only viral marketing but also other forms of communication and advertising.

Ponder this:   how are you going to mitigate the risks involved in starting any business.  Many students will gloss over this in writing their business plans.  They either aren't aware that there are risks or think better of not addressing them.  Clearly, different businesses have different risk profiles, but what is yours?  Be able to identify the risks or threats involved in starting your business and relate how you will overcome them. By being able to communicate the risks/rewards of your business will offer comfort to a venture capitalist and generate his keen interest.