Quote2Win: Simplify Pricing and Discounts With New PROS App

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• Quote2Win: Simplify Pricing and Discounts With New PROS App
• Launch Your Small Business Like The iPhone 5
• Five Simple And Actionable Local SEO Tools
• Failure Rates by Sector: The Real Numbers
• Wal-Mart Stops Selling Amazon Kindle

Quote2Win: Simplify Pricing and Discounts With New PROS App Posted: 24 Sep 2012 01:00 PM PDT When dealing with sales, it can be easy for business owners and professionals to get caught up in the process of quoting and pricing, instead of spending time actually selling their product. Pricing and revenue management software provider PROS recently announced a newly enhanced quoting solution to help companies speed up the quoting process. Quote2Win is a native application developed for use on Salesforce's Force.com that aims to help small and medium sized businesses with sales quoting and pricing. Said Patrick Schneidau, Vice President of Product Marketing for PROS: "As expanding small and medium-sized companies face the need to grow their sales headcounts, as well as address an increasing number of products and new competition, they often find that their existing pricing and quoting processes no longer scale. And in today's environment, winning deals is based on a company's speed and agility to respond to customer's needs, so they need a better answer." The service aims to eliminate the need for multiple price books and spreadsheets, allowing salespersons to give quicker answers to clients regarding pricing and discounts. Said Schneidau: "With Quote2Win, sales teams can increase their effectiveness, providing a sales quote in hours versus days or weeks. From their familiar Salesforce.com workflows, they can respond more quickly and with greater ease, giving them more time to sell." More specifically, Quote2Win allows users to create a custom list of products and their prices, allowing them to account for promotions and discounts, bundles with other essential items, markups, total revenue from sales, and more. Users can create a completely custom pricing system, or use one of Quote2Win's standard pricing methods. Of course there are plenty of pricing solutions currently available, such as the native Salesforce quoting tool. But Quote2Win's customization and simplified features, along with its integration with the popular Salesforce, could make it a helpful tool for small businesses that want to simplify the pricing process as their business grows. The post Quote2Win: Simplify Pricing and Discounts With New PROS App appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Launch Your Small Business Like The iPhone 5 Posted: 24 Sep 2012 11:00 AM PDT You know who knows how to bring the hype and launch a product? Yep, you guessed it. Apple. Apple just recently launched their newest smartphone to rule them all called the iPhone 5. Like most big Apple launches (iPad, Macs, iPod, etc…) they know that if you just do one thing, you can get everybody talking about it. And that one thing is… Be Awesome! It’s no coincidence that Apple’s stock jumps up and down during and before a big product launch. When they launch a new product, the world reacts. Fans clamor over how soon they can get their hands on it. Tech sites scramble to for the early scoops and instant updates on features. It’s a big deal. But it’s only a big deal because the product is good; more than good. Case in point, you can go ahead and try to launch anything, but if it’s not worth talking about; if it’s not amazing… then well, nobody’s going to talk about it. It’s like the people who still send out press releases announcing their CEO is speaking at an event in Idaho. Big whoop. Nobody cares about that. It’s a complete waste of time. It’s not news. To do a launch correctly you have to make sure you have something worth talking about.  And that’s the hard part. What’s worth talking about at your business? Remember, your audience isn’t everybody, it is probably more like the people in your industry. You don’t have to impress the world like Apple does. You just have to impress your target market. So again, what’s new and amazing with your business? Don’t know? Can’t think of anything? Then it’s time to start thinking about how to cook something up. What does you product or service do that nobody else can? There has got to be something unique about your business that your competitors can’t do? This is called your unique value proposition (UVP). Figure out what this is and say it loudly, otherwise, why will your customers choose you over your competitors? Once you have your UVP figured out, you can begin to start thinking about how to leverage a launch of your product/service. Think of a launch like a Hollywood movie trailer. They put out a teaser video enticing us about something that is coming. Then, when the movie is released, we all go running to the theater to see it, thus creating a large opening weekend profit number which pretty much defines the success of a movie nowadays. Plan your big launch day a few weeks or a few months out and tease your customers with your big news. Create videos and podcasts around the launch and release them on YouTube and your blog or website. Leak out small bits of information ahead of time for the media to grab on to. Build hype! Then, on your launch day, hold a launch event like Apple does. No, you don’t have to invite 50,000 people. You could do the entire event virtually through a live webinar, or Google hangout. It doesn’t have to be complicated. Invite the media to join the launch and answer questions for them and your customers. Have fun with it! Make it an event that people want to be part of. Oh yeah, and don’t forget to be awesome. The post Launch Your Small Business Like The iPhone 5 appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Five Simple And Actionable Local SEO Tools Posted: 24 Sep 2012 08:00 AM PDT How can you be sure that you're getting the recognition you want (and deserve) online?  Well, there are several easy to use tools—and most are free or low cost—that help create and monitor stellar local SEO.  What you want to be able to do is identify the tools that are going be easy and efficient to use, while still yielding useful, actionable information. There are several great local SEO tools available, but we’ll walk through five, in particular, that you can leverage for some useful insights: 1. DIYSEO Local Report Card This easy to understand report is customized specifically for your business. Using keywords, business type, industry, desired location and overall objectives the DIYSEO Local Report Card shows businesses their ranking on Google and tests their local listings on the major local search engines: Google, Yahoo, CitySesarch, Yelp, LocalEze and MapQuest. With simple emoticons, a green smiley face and a red frownie face, the Local Report Card, provides a quick reference showing businesses where they are doing well and where they need to improve. Bottom Line: DIYSEO Local Report Card is still in BETA testing but is free to use and provides a quick and easy snapshot of your businesses local efforts. DIYSEO also offers SEO planning programs for low monthly subscription costs. 2. Generate Local Adwords & Keywords Not sure exactly what keywords will help you with your local campaign? As its name, this easy to use (and free) tool helps you establish local keywords based upon your already established list. You can narrow the list down through a list of exclusions and parameters. Bottom Line: If you already know the keywords and adwords that have been working for your business, Generate Local Adwords & Keywords by 5MinuteSite is a great tool to help transform your words into locally recognized keywords. 3. Local Search Rank Checker Tracking Google Local, Bing Local and Yahoo Local, the BrightLocal's Local Search Rank Checker provides you with a comprehensive report analyzing your business' local rankings, showing you your previous ranking for both the local and standard search engines. Additionally, this tool tracks four different types of results including local search, organic, directory search (such as Yelp) and secondary searches. Bottom Line: Depending upon your package, the Local Search Rank Checker can track up to 100 keywords and schedule your reports to run automatically, either weekly or monthly. Packages for this easy-to-use platform start as low as $9.99 per month, but users can first take advantage of a free 30-day trial. 4. Local Citation Finder Developed by Whitespark and based around a process outlined by Garret French, Local Citation Finder helps businesses find the best locations to list their businesses for better local rankings. This tool shows up to 245 citations and provides a great organizational tool to allow you to keep track of the citations you already have. This platform is supported in 41 countries and reports can be run multiple times to show growth. Bottom Line: This is a particularly good platform especially for businesses that don't have a robust Web presence but also gives SEO professionals the opportunity to identify quality citations that are being missed. With a free version available, users can choose from a variety of packages that best suit their needs. 5. Google Places Category Tool If you're looking to expand the categories for your local SEO, this is a great tool that helps categorize your SEO keywords into different sectors. For example, if you're selling shoes, you may also want to consider using keywords such as boots, sandals, orthopedic shoes, footwear, or tennis shoes. Bottom Line: The Google Places Category Tool a very basic tool, but at a fantastic cost – free. You might be surprised with some of the categories and synonyms that it produces for your keywords, giving you alternative options. BONUS It's not a local tool, strictly speaking, but I just got a chance to take a look at a tool at SERPs.com that offers some nice reporting around organic traffic, keyword rankings, and what's changed and local/small businesses and startups will likely find the tool really useful. Do you have a favorite we didn't mention? Share with us which tools are changing the way you do local. SEO Photo via Shutterstock The post Five Simple And Actionable Local SEO Tools appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Failure Rates by Sector: The Real Numbers Posted: 24 Sep 2012 05:00 AM PDT "Mamas don't let your babies grow up to start construction companies," could be the first line of a country song about new business failure rates. Five years after starting, the share of mining companies remaining alive is nearly 15 percentage points higher than the fraction of construction businesses still in operation (52.3 percent versus 36.4 percent). Five Year Survival Rates for Startups by Industry Sector Source: Created from data from the Census Bureau's Business Dynamics Statistics In the figure above, I have plotted the five year survival rates for new companies founded in 2005 using data from the Census Bureau's Business Dynamics Statistics. While there are many sources of data on start-up failure rates, these are probably the best. They come from a longitudinal database of businesses that government economists and statisticians created by linking together annual administrative records, such as unemployment insurance filings. (The use of administrative records eliminates errors that emerge from efforts to survey company owners.) Because the database was designed for researchers, the data are not presented in the most user friendly way. Therefore, I have reorganized them into a chart which shows the survival rates by industry sector. As you can see, the odds that a new business survives its early years vary a lot by sector. In order from highest to lowest five year survival rates, the sectors are: mining (51.3 percent) manufacturing (48.4 percent) services (47.6 percent) wholesaling and agriculture (47.4 percent) retailing (41.1 percent) finance, insurance, and real estate (39.6 percent) transportation, communications and utilities (39.4 percent) construction (36.4 percent) The post Failure Rates by Sector: The Real Numbers appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Wal-Mart Stops Selling Amazon Kindle Posted: 24 Sep 2012 02:30 AM PDT In a move seeming like part of a strategy to compete with an arch rival in the retail market, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. announced recently it would stop carrying Amazon Kindle e-readers when existing stock is depleted. What small business owners can probably take from this move (besides the fact that if you still want to buy a Kindle at your local Wal-Mart, you’d better hurry ) is that every decision brings with it implications for your company’s long term success and growth. There are many factors that go into staying competitive for businesses large and small. How you face each could have ripple effects far into the future. Clash of the Titans Marketing for the competition. At first glance, Wal-Mart’s decision to stop carrying the Kindle Fire HD, following a similar decision by Target earlier this year, could be seen as totally unrelated to its struggle to compete with Amazon’s formidable online retail business. However, a closer look will reveal Wal-Mart’s overall strategy. The Kindle is more than just a product. It is a means that allows Amazon to market millions of products in direct competition with Wal-Mart and other retailers. Reuters The escalation of hostilities. The recent Wal-Mart decision isn’t the first sign that the huge brick and mortar retail giant is already maneuvering to compete with Amazon’s overwhelming supremacy in the online retail market. Wal-Mart has seen the writing on the wall and is making efforts to reverse the trend and perhaps even take a bite out of the online retail market with its own search engine for products, called “Polaris.” TechCrunch How You Compete Become a problem-solving rock star. In the end, the ability to solve problems for customers is what sets a great business leader apart. Some people naturally possess the gift of problem solving, but fortunately for the rest of us, it is a learnable trait. Here are some steps we can all take to become better problem solvers and business leaders in the long run. Startup Professionals Musings Recruit some incredible talent. A recent study suggests effective recruitment impacts profit growth far more than any other HR function, including onboarding, retention, and work life balance. For small businesses, the data suggests the talent you recruit is even more critical, since you have fewer overall workers than a corporate behemoth. Here are some steps you should consider to improve your search for the super stars you need to make your business shine. Grow Smart Biz Listen more attentively. That’s right, you should spend more time listening. Surprisingly (or maybe not) customers don’t want to hear a long list of reasons you’re better than the competition. Though it may sound counter intuitive, the best way to compete is not to try to win over customers, but to help them seriously decide what product or solution really meets their needs. Kexino Set yourself apart. Businesses and brands must create an impression in the potential customer’s mind, making themselves and their products memorable so that they stand out from the competition. Focus on unconventional solutions and set yourself apart. This post looks at some unconventional ways to make a corporate event memorable. Use it to brainstorm on ways you can make your product or service unforgettable too. Print Runner Blog Choose the right business model. When online mompreneur Holly Reisem Hanna found herself banned from Google Adsense, she was forced to explore another method for monetizing her online content: affiliate marketing. While sometimes small business owners may be attached to a specific business model or approach to bring in revenue, business survival means opening your mind to new possibilities. Seek out options you haven’t tried before and see what opportunities present themselves. The Work At Home Woman The post Wal-Mart Stops Selling Amazon Kindle appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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