How We Help

> Telephone prospecting
> Prospecting Lists
> How to develop your business
> How to sell your product
> How to improve sales
> How to build a sales team
> How to implement a marketing/business plan
> How to manage a sales team
> How to use technology effectively
> How to energize an existing client base
> How to prospect
> How to implement email marketing
> How to use trade shows
> Sales and Business Development

Telephone Prospecting:

Interactive training `How To’ reach prospects quickly and easily. Topics and Techniques we develop follows:

Qualify Suspects/Prospects
Scripting
Motivation & psychology
Introduction
Presenting the Offer
Overcoming Objections / questions
Closing
Statistics

Training can accomplished either in a workshop format and or customized for a large group; or one-to-one consultation.

We have been doing this for over 20 years – it works!

Especially good tool for well established people with an existing client list or book of business. Excellent way to update your database, identify opportunities, qualify suspects to prospects.

Invaluable tool for new business startup working with raw data lists. (please don’t say phone book to us).

All sales, marketing, customer service people should know these techniques – it works.

If you are not sure, contact us, we are sure.

Prospecting Lists :

We specialize in B2B lists targeting British Columbia, Western Canada and the United States.

There are criteria, we can help you with this development. Contact us regarding that criteria. Like most data developers we use the US/Cdn SICs (contact us and we are happy to provide you an electronic file). If you already have your own list and want to update it, we can do that as well. But, you have to know your criteria?

How to develop your business:

New business startups need help. This area may involve a Business Plan, Marketing or more. Developing your business has to begin with a marketing idea – The Strategy. The important issues are:

What is your product?
Who do you want to sell it to?
Where are customers to be found?
How do you plan to produce the product?
How do you plan to deliver the product?
What price is your product?
What resources do you have or plan to acquire?
Are you a domestic or foreign marketer?
What is your marketing budget?
What is your advertising budget?

And then there are the selling questions:

How do you plan to sell your product?
Who is going to sell and manage that function?
What is your sales projection for the first year?
Do you have a sales presentation?What are your Sales objectives?
Will you hire and who will train them?
What is your minimum order?
What is your anticipated Sales Cost?

We have developed over 20 businesses ourselves in three countries. We have helped many others – new and existing businesses to expand. The above issues never go away – they just get dealt with.

If you are serious, got an idea and are committed to bringing your product to market, then contact us. If it’s not a good idea we will tell you that! We pride ourselves on helping people accomplish their dreams and goals. But we don’t lie or mis-represent. There is no joy in that.

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How to sell your product:

If the existing product is established and the marketer is knowledgeable about their market sector, but lacks the confidence to launch a sales campaign – we can help!

Providing some work has been done; we can take it further and direct the marketing message to the targeted audience.

Detailed discussion is required. The marketer must have done due diligence - homework! For example: The customer is identified, product is established and deliverable, and or are ready to take product to one or more target niches.
This requires a specific focus involving direct marketing as an example. If electronic media is selected other tools may be required i.e. email marking may be an option. To be mindful: the message is one thing – the medium of communication is another.

Key issues here will be:

What is the marketing and or sales budget?
Who will manage the selling?
Is this a primary revenue generator or an investment opportunity?
Does it have any connection to network or multi-level marketing?
Are you a re-seller, agent, or manufacturer?
Are you marketing to a foreign or domestic market?
Are there any existing government regulations impacting Sales?
This is merely a short list…

How to improve sales:

Improving sales can be straight forward or not. Evaluating the track record to date is important.

The issues in this area are:

What is your target market?
How did you determine the market potential for the product?
How much do you anticipate the realistic market to be?
What is your timeline to accomplish your goal?
Are you willing to change your sales approach ?
Are you flexible, creative and or innovative?
Are you an accomplished salesperson?
Do you know more than one way to sell?
Are you professional, honest and willing to learn?
Do you have a support system?
Do you know how to quantify your sales?
Are you realistic in your estimate?
Do you know how to convey `value’
Do you incorporate techniques such as cross-selling / up-selling?
Do you understand your strengths and weakness?

How to build a sales team:

Building a sales team has as much to do with the person doing the hiring as the person hired. Sales teams take on a life of their own. They are made up of motivated achievers whose only objective is to sell product and make money.

However, they do not always go about in the same way. It follows on management to take responsibility for the team’s direction, objective, goal, product knowledge as well as motivation, incentive, compensation, and value as the chief revenue generator for the company.

The issues associated with a Sales Team are:

Recruiting candidates
Team objective – strategy
Compensation / incentive
Reward
Support
Product knowledge
Work environment
Health
Attitude
Measurement

How to implement a marketing/business plan:

Writing a business plan and or a marketing plan is a daunting task. It starts off well intended and quite often gets bogged down in detail both important and unimportant to a reader. Therefore, before committing oneself to its creation it is best to study the major components of such a plan; research(homework), clarity, validity, measurement and logic, purpose and objective. This requires time and quite often money. Asking for professional support makes a great deal of sense because professionals have a track record and instinctively ask questions that go along way to the development of any plan to its final draft.

More important than just a business idea is the marketing plan, quite often contained within the business plan. Here is the real `heart’ of your entire goal. The marketing plan tells the reader how you plan to bring your product to market, find customers, sell and deliver, serve the marketplace, and compete among the many questions to resolve.

Lastly, but not least, the plan must be clear and filled with objective reasoning. Meaning, this is what is planned, how to accomplish it, and what will be done with capital investment, production, management of resources, and the realization of profit. Both the business plan and the marketing serves as tools to guide the marketer as the business evolve from anticipation to reality. It serves as a reference to remind and guide – one cannot know where to go less you know from whence you came. Reaching an objective anticipated in a plan is rewarding and helps to measure progress both strategically and tactically.

How to manage a sales team:

Management of a sales team raises many questions regarding the qualification and evaluation of management’s ability, skill and promise. The sales manager may have the requisite skill, experience and track record or not. While sales people are quite subject to on the job training and skill support. The sales management may require even more depending of the diplomacy required to un-cover, admit, acknowledge, know, and identify those issues pertinent to management.

Management of a sales team is not just one of authority, but attitude, commitment, and objectives handed down senior management that are realistic, achievable, appropriate, and timely.

The issues here are:

Sales management’s experience
History and track record with teams
Industry knowledge
Individual skill in sales and marketing
Recruitment and training
Support as liaison with senior management
Understanding of new techniques
Term of service
Company’s position in the marketplace

How to use technology effectively:

In today’s marketplace the use of technology is a given. Technology in the use of marketing, sales, customer service, accounting, billing etc. is just not appropriate but necessary. This adds to organization, skill, efficiency, and underscores a professional image demonstrated by one person or more.

The use of standard documents, sales presentation, communication tools i.e. email, fax, telecommunications, mobile go a long way in making any one person more competitive. In particular, the use of a contact manager, databases, spreadsheets, and email support the initial marketing efforts.

Tracking competitors, sourcing leads, tools, and getting ideas where to find customers, trade shows, trade associations, seminars and training aids speak to the need to have a resource system in place to track such information. Additionally, many government references are also accessible and many times are free. Incorporating data, training aids, and resources will benefit the novice and experienced marketer in meeting customer’s needs and planning for future business opportunities i.e. growth, partnerships, mergers, acquit ions, new products and being on the `cutting edge’.

How to energize an existing client base:

An existing client base contains much information about who your clients are and what they have purchased. If updating doesn’t happen on a regular basis it will age and de-value in time.

Developing a communication system that requires a timely contact with clients such as promotion offers, stuff-to-know messages, referrals – giving and receiving, marriages, death, mergers/acquisitions all represent an invaluable reason to update the client base. The more the client is contacted the more the client knows you are thinking about them.

One really good way to energize a client base is to have an `open house’ inviting key customers to your place of business as a way to say thank you for their support – highlighting your growth, new venture, introducing new products etc. Your energy feeds the client. Clients like to know their service providers are doing well, growing and still want your business and vice versa.

How to prospect:

Simply stated – if you don’t prospect you don’t grow! More importantly, you won’t survive. If you aren’t prospecting, your competition is; and will take business away from you. Prospecting, therefore, is part of your survival. It tells others in the marketplace who you are, what you are doing, and you are there to stay. Noone may know how much business you are doing? Rather it conveys strategically that you are to be taken seriously.

There is a cost to prospect. Here is where we really excel – telephone prospecting is a cost-effective way to get leads, prospects and customers.

How to implement email marketing:

Email marketing has grown in popularity in recent history. One reason is that it is cost effective – it doesn’t cost much per transmission to send a message. But, knowing what to say and who to send it to matters a great deal. The form of messaging is important because in most cases it goes directly to an individual. It shows up in one’s message in-box.

Delivering an effective, timely, and entertaining message is important. On the other hand the message can easily be deleted or ignored by the recipient. While individual messaging is labour intensive and slow, measuring its impact and response can be challenging. On a large scale – 1000 or more can and does raise the opportunity of greater responses. In short, the more sent, the more recipients who are likely to respond. Not altogether different to good old fashion newspaper, magazine and direct mail programs. The difference here is cost!

This is a sophisticated approach, and one needs knowledge, skill, and preparation to conduct an email campaign. Messaging to an audience who is to receive your message – the preverbal `opt-in’ recipient will in most cases create more opportunities for the email marketer than miscellaneous messaging to unknown or unsolicited candidates.

How to use trade shows:

Trade shows are can be expensive, but have many positive reasons why they work.

Some benefits are:

One-to-one contact with potential buyers
Actual demonstration of products especially new
Large buyer attraction + entertainment, knowledge
Tell your story – company, product, individual
Information about competitors
Industry leaders represented
Opportunity to explore strategic partnerships
Sell samples of products
Increase or establish contacts in areas not previously marketed
Market presence

Disadvantages:

Preparation and setup
Travel
Unique materials – flyers, brochure, Show specials
Display equipment – only for trade shows
Staff
Costs – registration, services i.e. telephone, internet, transportation
Generally no immediate sales, rather Leads
Time – generally 1 – 4 days; one or two events per year

Sales and Business Development

Sales are concerned with the immediate transaction of conveying a product or service to an end-user – the customer. Sales deals with customers who have a desire to acquire the product generally with the current fiscal period, usually one year or less. Sales managers more specifically are looking to make sales within a month, quarter and certainly not more than a year. Sales people focus their time in the same way. While the sales cycle in some industries runs beyond the current year, the sales process starts and is completed in a shorter period.

On the other hand, business development takes two basic forms: one approach is to develop a large amount of business (i.e. wholesale) some time in the near future where the sale is typically large and requires special handling and or management (i.e. Custom order, special terms, different deliveries, etc.), and two; sales that are more strategic in nature such as co-marketing, where vendors may join forces to develop a new territory, launch a new product, business, etc. Again, this sale requires special handling and management because it may involve marketing, advertising, promotion, pricing, inventory, production, billing to name a few. Therefore, business development while growing business is beyond the scope of day to day sales and sales personnel should not be burden with the details of such transactions. A business development specialist should be assigned if that business warrants. All too often, business development may be tied to marketing functions that differs from that of daily sales.