4 Ways to Increase Your Sales Productivity by 243% |  |
- 4 Ways to Increase Your Sales Productivity by 243%
- Credit Union Small Business Lending Act Would Help Small Businesses Find Capital
- SMBs Prepare To Jump Into Mobile Marketing
- Windows Phone 8 and RIM Announcements Suggest Many Mobile Options for Business
| 4 Ways to Increase Your Sales Productivity by 243% Posted: 27 Jun 2012 11:00 AM PDT If you're like most small business owners, selling is the least favorite part of what you do. What if you knew there was an easy way to make it way more likely that when you call a client or prospect to make a sale, you'd get a call back?
According to a study by Reachable, having a personal connection with a prospect – even an indirect connection, such as a mutual acquaintance or colleague – makes prospects five times more likely to call you back. If you have a direct connection with the prospect, the odds get even better: Your chances of getting a return call increase elevenfold. To put this another way: For every 1,000 calls you make, only 345 will get returned if you don't have a connection. But if you do have a connection, 849 calls will be returned. Overall, Reachable found that personal connections increased sales productivity by an incredible 243 percent. We all know sales is a numbers game, and no one likes making 1,000 calls. But knowing you could get almost all of those 1,000 calls returned makes it a lot more appealing, doesn't it? So how can you and your sales team create the personal connections that make it easier to make the sale? Here are four ideas:
From Small Business Trends |
| Credit Union Small Business Lending Act Would Help Small Businesses Find Capital Posted: 27 Jun 2012 08:00 AM PDT The Credit Union Small Business Lending Act (H.R. 4191) is bipartisan legislation introduced by Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) and Steve Chabot (R-Ohio), that would make it easier for credit unions to participate in the SBA small business loan programs.
SBA lending has been critical to helping the growth of small business, which creates the lion’s share of new jobs in the U.S. economy. Passage of the Credit Union Small Business Lending Act would enable credit unions to provide more loans to small companies. This, in turn, would spur further economic recovery. Everybody wins. Another important piece of legislation before Congress is H.R. 1418, which would raise the credit union member business lending (MBL) cap from 12.25% of assets to 27.5% of assets. At a time when big banks typically reject nine out of 10 funding requests from small business owners, credit unions have filled the void. In the past 12 months, they have steadily upped their loan approval percentages and have become an increasingly important source for capital. Removing the 12.25% asset cap and allowing them to increase their small business lending can only help make things better as the economy continues to rebound. Month Credit Unions, SMB Loan Approval %: May – 11 51.20% * source: Biz2Credit Small Business Lending Index for May 2012 "Allowing credit unions to do more to help small businesses is an important step toward helping our nation recover from the current economic downturn," said Robert Marquette, president and CEO of Members 1st Federal Credit Union in Mechanicsburg, PA. He is also an at-large director for the NAFCU, the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, the only national organization that focuses exclusively on federal issues affecting credit unions. "On behalf of America's credit unions, their 94 million members and small businesses, we urge Congress to act to pass both of these important job creating bills, H.R. 1418 and H.R. 4191," added Marquette, who informed the House Small Business Committee Subcommittee on Investigations, Oversight and Regulations that the average loan size for MBL loans is $185,000, and that since the end of 2007, business loan applications have grown from $87 million to $259 million in 2011.” I agree with Robert Marquette. Removing the restrictions on credit union lending will keep capital free flowing. That, in turn, will help spur business growth and job creation.
From Small Business Trends |
| SMBs Prepare To Jump Into Mobile Marketing Posted: 27 Jun 2012 06:00 AM PDT So what do you your marketing plans look like for the next year? If you're like the majority of small- to medium-sized businesses, they include putting together a mobile marketing campaign and making your move onto those smaller (but increasingly profitable) screens. And if they don't, well, maybe they should!
Earlier this week, eMarketer commented on a survey from Strongmail which found that 75 percent of marketers without a current mobile strategy have plans to develop one within the next year. Strongmail's 2012 Mobile Marketing survey found that 14 percent of business owners plan to dive into mobile within the next six months, 29 percent in the next 6-12 months, and 32 percent will do it in the next year or more. It's worth noting that even the marketers currently putting off mobile know they have only have a short window where they'll be able to ignore this trend. The world and the market are becoming increasingly mobile-reliant. If you want your customers to be able to find you, your business must go where they are. And they're on the move. There's no getting around it. For businesses already investing in the mobile revolution, 70 percent are doing so with mobile Web sites; 55 percent are building mobile applications; and surprisingly, nearly 50 percent have experimented with QR codes.
While just 40 percent of respondents said they're using paid mobile advertising today, you can expect this area to grow significantly over the next year, especially if Google and Facebook have anything to say about it. Earlier this month, Google announced it would finally be integrating AdMob's mobile display ads, which appear in more than 300,000 apps on phones, into its AdWords platform. The new integration will make it considerably easier for SMBs to purchase mobile ads since they'll be to do it directly within AdWords, the same place they're purchasing other types of paid advertising. Facebook has also automated mobile-ad buying to make it easier and faster for businesses to purchase mobile ad inventory. Of course, the Strongmail data has now been corroborated by multiple other sources. For example, the Small Business Mobile Survey, released in May, indicated that while 69 percent of SMBs view mobile as a significant growth source for the future, only 26 percent currently have a mobile-friendly Web site today and just 14 percent having a standalone mobile site. Interestingly, however, of those that do have a standalone site, 84 percent said they had seen an increase in new business due to these mobile marketing efforts. But, again, even these business owners know they can't ignore mobile forever, with 64 percent saying they plan to spend more in mobile marketing this year. They're motivated to get involved by the ability to provide better service to existing customers, attract more local customers, and gain a competitive advantage. It truly is the time for mobile. If you haven't dove into the mobile waters yet, now's the time to jump. The water's just heating up. Image credit: stockbroker / 123RF Stock Photo From Small Business Trends |
| Windows Phone 8 and RIM Announcements Suggest Many Mobile Options for Business Posted: 27 Jun 2012 02:30 AM PDT Announcements about Microsoft’s Windows Phone 8 and RIM’s BlackBerry 10 suggest even more options in store for business owners reliant on mobile technology to decrease costs and increase productivity. Mobile devices are changing the way businesses of all sizes operate, and continued development suggests this trend will only grow. Windows 8 Coming to PhonesMicrosoft re-imagines mobile…again. Microsoft executives Joe Belfiore, Terry Myerson, and Kevin Gallo give a preview of Windows Phone 8 due out this holiday season. New developments for the software mean a wider range of phone options, capabilities, and prices, more functionality crossover between Windows Phone and Windows for PC, and a different kind of app. Channel 9 Hardware makers are lining up. You can get a good idea of the variety of devices that will be running Windows Phone 8 by looking at the companies that are already lining up to build hardware for the new Microsoft product. Hardware partners thus far include Nokia, Samsung, HTC, and Huawei. VentureBeat Tech Developments ContinueWorth a thousand words. Not only will Nokia be a major partner in the Windows Phone 8 roll out, but the Finnish company has been making other strides in mobile phone development. The Nokia 808 PureView boasts technology that produces still and video images so incredible it might be called a camera that makes phone calls. The Verge Driving innovation. Another big focus of the Windows Phone 8 roll out will be location-based services, again with the help of Microsoft hardware partner Nokia. The company is adding the new feature, Nokia Drive, which will be available to other Windows Phone 8 partners too, so if you’re buying some of these new devices for your business, this feature may well be included. Conversations By Nokia Behind the SoftwareSome key features. If you’re still wondering what Windows Phone 8 will mean to your business, here’s a breakdown of key features that are probably most important in this new software platform. They include a multi-core processor, HD display, microSD card support, NFC, Wallet, Nokia Maps, voice controlled assistant, Internet Explorer 10, VoIP, Skype and app compatibility. Check for more details on all these features. Mobile & Apps RIM InnovationRIM still going strong. Businesses that benefit from the company’s well-known BlackBerry and PlayBook devices will be happy to hear rumors about the company splitting its hardware from its service side or selling a stake in the company to Facebook or Amazon are unfounded. Instead, the company is preparing a new line of its messaging devices, especially popular with the business market. The Globe and Mail Look, Ma, no keyboard! One major innovation users will want to look for in RIM’s new BlackBerry 10 is the lack of a physical keyboard. The replacement of a physical keyboard with touch-only functionality has been a hallmark of smartphones, including the Apple iPhone and Google Android, for some time. RIM will be offering a similar experience this time around. The Washington Post Go to video. But don’t let a company description alone suffice when scoping out the features of the new BlackBerry 10. A video demonstration will give you a much better impression of what this next generation mobile device can accomplish. The BlackBerry bid for the small business mobile market comes with plenty of features. Engadget Built-in savings. Finally, the BlackBerry 10′s new design has energy efficiency in mind. A recent review reports that the darker display color for the BlackBerry Messenger, one of the device’s most popular features, was chosen because it would help conserve battery life. N4BB.com Other DevelopmentsSamsung challenges the iPhone. Microsoft and RIM aren’t the only companies making noise in the mobile device space. An important part of any decision about the kind of mobile device you want for your company may have to do with whether the product line is here to stay. Despite the iPhone’s near dominance of the market, at least one other mobile device is mounting a credible challenge. The Next Web From Small Business Trends |
| You are subscribed to email updates from Small Business News, Tips, Advice - Small Business Trends To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
No comments:
Post a Comment