A Small Change in Your Business Mindset Can Increase Your Sales |  |
- A Small Change in Your Business Mindset Can Increase Your Sales
- Tom Byun of Yahoo! Small Business: Solutions For The Overwhelmed
- Excuse Me: I Have To Take This
- Google Acquisition of Motorola Finally Closes: Why You Should Care
| A Small Change in Your Business Mindset Can Increase Your Sales Posted: 25 May 2012 11:00 AM PDT Okay, show of hands, who hates selling?
Sure, you know that you must sell. Deep in your heart of hearts though you despise it. You know that making sales is the only way to increase your revenue, build up your company and, well, stay in business. You have heard of the results others get. You know that selling works. But, for some reason, it's not working for you. You work hard researching and contacting prospects. You do your best to interest them with your work during a sales presentation. Hell, you even follow up, which is not something many small business owners would do. But you still don't make sales. At least not as many as you would like. You do everything by the book but you get no results. And, the sales that you make, well, sometimes they feel kind of accidental. Like as if they just happened, as if you were simply in the right place at the right time. You know that wasn't selling, just luck. So, what's wrong? What's causing all this hard work to go to waste? Well, I may have an idea so read on. I will show you a simple hack that can help you make more sales almost instantly. This Is Not Only Your ProblemBefore we begin, there is one more thing I want to talk about. You are not alone. The problem I am about to discuss with you is one of the most common ones amongst all small business owners. There are literary thousands of people that struggle to make sales. Some of them try very hard, others give up because, as someone once told me, "this is the difficult part." Nevertheless, they make no sales. But do you know what is the reason for that? Wrong Attitude Yep, it's nothing to do with who you are, what you do and how good you are at selling (well, technique plays a part in that too but it's not the most important part). It's your approach to selling that's causing the problem. Because, you see, you go to a presentation hoping to make the sale (and I fully realize how stupid this sentence sounds but please, read on). The trouble is, it's true. You go to the sales call with one intention, to get the order. It's not a genuine, honest reason. It's being selfish. And, the trouble is, many of your prospects see through that. Do you know what a seasoned salesman does instead? They go to a meeting hoping that their solutions will help the prospect solve their problems and improve their business. They know this, hell, they believe in it. And, they get the sale. Want to make more sales? Go to your next sales call believing that what you are going to do to your prospect is going to help them, improve their business or increase the revenue. And, you know what the best part is? It's actually quite simple to do. How To Change Your Sales Attitude And Show Your Prospects That You Care1. Realize What You Are Really Selling You can't change your mindset if you don't know what are you really selling. By this I don't mean the actual product or a service you are offering but what is the biggest benefit of using it. A web designer does not sell websites. She sells the opportunity to promote the business online, to gain more leads and sales for the business. A garden designer does not sell new gardens but rather an opportunity to have a special place to rest and unwind. Find out what you are really selling and figuring out the ways to help your prospects will become extremely easy. 2. Understand That You Are Not The Most Important Part of The Sale By nature, we think of ourselves first. It's quite natural, however, if you want to make sales, you need to change the way you think. In sales, in spite of what you might say you are not the important part. It is your potential client, their business and the problems they are looking to fix. Everything else is secondary. 3. Prepare Solutions For Your Prospect When you initiate a sales process with a prospect, you usually have a very good idea about the kind of problems they might have in relation to what you are selling. If not, I suggest you stop here and first learn how to research your potential clients thoroughly before making the initial contact. That knowledge should be enough to think of the best solutions for your prospect. It doesn't mean that you should have the whole proposal ready. But having examples of how you could implement your solution into the prospects business in your presentation will certainly present you as someone who cares. Here’s A Scary FactEvery time you lose a sale, you most likely also lose a prospect for life. It is an unfortunate fact that you may never get a chance to sell to them again. A simple change in your business mindset can make the difference between this and constantly winning new clients for your business. So, what do you choose?
From Small Business Trends |
| Tom Byun of Yahoo! Small Business: Solutions For The Overwhelmed Posted: 25 May 2012 08:00 AM PDT It’s no secret, many small business owners are overwhelmed. If that sounds like you, you’re not alone. Too much to do, too many choices, too little time, not enough money. Wouldn’t it be great if you could have one central place to manage tools that was cost efficient while providing time savings as well? Look no further. Tom Byun, Vice President & General Manager of Yahoo! Small Business, joins Brent Leary to provide a solution. * * * * *
Tom Byun: We are obviously very excited about Small Business Week. To first answer your question about what small business means to Yahoo!, it is a critical, core part of our strategy and mission to continue to provide relevant news, content and information to consumer audience. You know, the thing about Yahoo! – it is not a well known stat but, we have nearly ten million small businesses, plus what we call intenders – people that may be aspiring entrepreneurs – visiting and consuming a variety of our services. They are a very important audience for Yahoo! The business unit I manage is to service those customers and provide them with lead sources and tools to help them grow and manage their business on line. To your second question about what Small Business Week means for me, overall I think small businesses are really the life blood and engine of growth for this economy. I don't need to mention all of the stats you and your readers know about how many people small businesses employ. And the type of services and growth they provide for the economy. They are a crucial part. I think Small Businesses Week is a great vehicle and means by which more and more awareness for small business is created. Small Business Trends: What are some of the main issues you are hearing from your customers about the challenges of marketing from a small business perspective? Tom Byun: I have spent a lot of time with customers day to day, as well as working with customer research focus groups that are set up. There are a couple of things that we hear:
Often times they're also overwhelmed with having to use a variety of tools and not having it in one central place for them to manage in a way that is not only cost efficient but, also give them time savings. Those are some of the pain points that we have heard from customers. I think one of the trends we are seeing is more and more small businesses moving a lot of their marketing dollars online. But they are not sure which resources are cost effective and drive the best ROI. Small Business Trends: Can you tell us about the Marketing Dashboard you recently released? Tom Byun: Sure. The Marketing Dashboard we launched a few weeks ago is a free tool that helps businesses, entrepreneurs and all types starting with small businesses discover new marketing opportunities to grow their business. How to get that additional sale. How to get the word out, build awareness and get a more transparent and clear picture of their marketing campaign results. As I mentioned, it is a free tool. But for a small nominal fee, they can get a much more robust set of features to help them manage marketing campaigns all in one place. Small Business Trends: You have some services integrated into the dashboard. Constant Contact for email marketing, Orange Soda for SEM/SEO and Google Analytics for analytics? Tom Byun: One thing we did as part of the research in talking with small businesses is understand, “When I am business today, and think through all of the different services that I am looking at to grow and market myself, what is at the top of the list?” There are a few things that come to the top and based on that, we talked to a number of different potential partners out there. Email marketing is near the top of the list and Constant Contact is someone that we decided to partner with because they are already a proven, strong branded player. Then, as you eluded to SEM and SEO, we decided that a managed SEM and SEO approach is a cost effective way. It is the right approach because again, small businesses do not have a lot of time in the day. So we partnered with Orange Soda. Now there are other services. For example, local directory listing management and online reputation management that we also are offering as part of the service. The local directory listing management covers over a hundred sites. Then, online reputation management we pull from up to eight thousand different sources. And then, as you mentioned, site traffic analysis is with Google Analytics. Small Business Trends: Can you talk a little bit about marketing initiatives and their impact on a company's reputation online? Tom Byun: Definitely. You know, especially with the growing voices and opinions from consumers, it is really important that you stay abreast of what is being said and how to respond to it. In the dashboard, we have integrated a reputation tracker. You can look at how many reviews in terms of mentions you have gotten, how many reviews this month, and there is a distribution of ratings – whether it is positive, negative or neutral. One other I will call out, and this gets added as part of the paid upgrade feature, is being able to understand and track what is being said by your competitors near you. Just having a pulse on that and the voice of the customer is really important. Once they have information at their fingertips, it can help them improve the overall customer experience. I think this will be a valuable tool. Small Business Trends: Where can people learn more? Tom Byun: They can go to Yahoo! Small Business. We also have an advisors site at Yahoo Small Business Advisor where there is a personalized set of content and resources to help small businesses. They can also visit the Marketing Dashboard. This interview is part of our One on One series of conversations with some of the most thought-provoking entrepreneurs, authors and experts in business today. This interview has been edited for publication. To hear audio of the full interview, click the right arrow on the gray player below. You can also see more interviews in our interview series.
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| Excuse Me: I Have To Take This Posted: 25 May 2012 05:00 AM PDT
I tend to write first, then draw. But sometimes when I just can’t think of anything, I put the process in reverse to see what happens. It goes like this. . .draw a standard scene, but add a talking animal, or a random object, or, in this case, take a standard object and exaggerate it. It’s a great way to get your mind working differently and break out of your rut. I don’t know exactly what motivated me to draw the giant telephone in this cartoon, but it pretty quickly occurred to me that when that phone rang, you’d really want to answer it. Problem solved. From Small Business Trends |
| Google Acquisition of Motorola Finally Closes: Why You Should Care Posted: 25 May 2012 02:30 AM PDT A $12.5 billion takeover of Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. by tech giant Google is just the latest sign of a general mobile trend. Companies are increasingly investing in mobile hardware and apps, and users are embracing that technology in their daily lives. What does this trend mean to the small business community? Read the latest mobile news and how the trend may affect you. Mobile Has Far Reaching ImplicationsGoogle has finally acquired Motorola. Google CEO Larry Page blogs about the historic and long awaited deal coming to fruition and about long-time Google executive Dennis Woodside taking over as CEO of Motorola. Page pays tribute to Motorola as a great American tech firm and talks about how cell phones have become supercomputers in our pockets. Google Official Blog Reasons new mobile deal might be important. Technology writer Dan Frommer speculates about why Google’s $12+billion acquisition of Motorola might be important news for the search engine’s company…and for the rest of us. Unlike other acquisitions—YouTube or AdMob, for example—this isn’t just another Web-based or mid-sized company that can be easily folded into Google’s operations. SplatF Microsoft plans Office for iOS and Android Tablets. Google isn’t the only big tech firm continuing to make forays into the mobile space. Accessing Microsoft’s full office suite via iPad, Android tablets, and maybe even iPhone and iPod touch may be just around the corner according to this report from tech blogger Jonathan S. Geller. Geller says the release of some of these new products may come as soon as November. BGR Yahoo! makes mobile bookmarking and search easy. The company’s new Axis app combines a variety of unique functions in one place to be used via the iPhone or iPad. A review of the new app shows a full-tabbed Web browser for mobile users, meaning more and more search and bookmarking will likely be done on the go. Engadget 6 Reasons You Should CareMobile helps small businesses cope. A recent study including 258 small businesses shows 78 percent of respondents use mobile devices to do work while away from the office or their work computer. The study demonstrates how small business owners are using mobile technology to handle longer working hours and extended workweeks. eWeek Your customers may already be there. Mobile searches and app-savvy customers and clients are part of the new landscape all businesses face. There is one important question every small business owner and entrepreneur must answer: To what extent is mobile technology part of the shopping experience for the customers and clients you serve? Small Business Trends E-mail, too, is getting more mobile. If you do much of your business communication via e-mail, you should consider the fact that many retrieve these messages on mobile devices, too. Here are eight tips for making your e-mail marketing more mobile friendly from mobile marketing expert Eric Pontides. Idea Sprouts The market will be huge. Perhaps most important of all is a recent projection by research company Forrester, that by 2016 one billion people will own smartphones. The number represents a massive potential audience and market for all your businesses. The New York Times Security threats abound. Just as with your other small business technology, mobile devices are susceptible to a variety of security threats. Like your computer, they can be attacked by viruses and malware, and can allow access to any sensitive data that may be stored on the device. Fortunately, some simple steps allow you to neutralize most of these threats. Fusion Alliance Mobile marketing can help even the smallest businesses. Shea Glenny, founder of IM for Solos: Internet Marketing Plans & Tutoring for Solopreneurs, says even single employee business may be able to take advantage of mobile marketing. The key is to decide whether mobile will work effectively for your small business or not. The Solopreneur Life From Small Business Trends |
Small Business Trends: Can you tell us what small business means to Yahoo! and give us your impression of Small Business Week and its importance?
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