Something To Think About Today Video Blog
Don’t wreck a relationship by misunderstanding
Oops! Forgot to use my wind sock – sorry for the noise
Are you so busy you have dropped the new business ball?
“How busy is your business with its current customer base at the moment? Are you flat out looking after them or are you looking for more work or are you doing a bit of both?
See, for most businesses when they are really busy they drop the ball with their new business work, they don’t potentially look for as much new business, they don’t look after people who are contacting them, they really don’t do the things that they should be doing because they’re busy.
Now, you know the market is busy at the moment and most of our clients are flat out, which is awesome but they must be seeking for new business.
There is situation I found myself understanding this morning which I think is amazing. There is a boiler company in our village who are so busy with their current customers that lots of people are asking them for quotes, you know replacing boiler systems that kind of thing and they don’t even bother to return calls, because they are busy.
If you are too busy to look after people who want to give you money stop and look at your systems. Of course look after your existing clients but a courtesy call, a small response to say look we are really sorry we can’t get back to you at the moment but we’d love to book an appointment for the future, you know simple stuff.
Anyway, hopefully that will give you something to think about today.
Have a great day”
Don’t be a mug!
“Does your business bother to return phone calls?
I mean those calls where people ring and you know they just leave a message saying that they were being referred to them or they wondered if they could get a call back.
You see, I’m in a strange position at the moment where I’m speaking to accountants because I’m looking for a new accountant. I’ve spoken to a few and had interesting conversations with them and I’ve left messages for others. In fact, one in particular I’ve been recommended to, I’ve left three messages and not a single time have I had a call back.
Now, I spend my life helping people build business. I’ve spent my life helping professional people grow their businesses and get more clients. If you don’t bother to return phone calls because you don’t know who has called you, you’re a mug. I mean seriously you’re a mug.
You try like hell to get new clients and when people phone you up and they want to give you work, you don’t bother calling them back.
Now hopefully this will give you something to think about have a look at your business today are you returning the calls that are being made to or you treat them like spam emails. If someone takes the time to phone you, take the time to call them back.
Anyway, have a great day.”
Spend enough time and increase your chances of winning
When you add real value to the front end of your sales process things can change to such an extent, the ability to make a sale is increased by huge amounts.
There are a couple of things I’ve tried to buy recently or in the process of acquiring for my business. One is a new CRM system because, well, the one that we’ve been using was ridiculously complicated and didn’t do what I needed, but also I’ve needed some repairs done to to my building. And both of those things have been done by people who spent time.
You know, when I talked to sales people at tech companies, most of them just want to send you a log in and make you play with the itself and decide whether it works. But then you talk to people like Sales Force, who demo, who spend time on the phone understanding what you need and how it’s supposed to work, they put together something that makes it sensible for you.
They are upping their chance of winning by a huge amount by spending that time out front with me.
Is it going to be the process, sorry the product for me probably actually, and am I a big client for them? Not at all, but they do things in such a great way, maybe the others could perhaps learn from them.
Anyway, hopefully that will give you something to think about today.
Have a great day.
If you’re going to cold call, do some research and get it right!
“There are lots of ways to get new business, and one of those ways is to phone the people that you want to talk to: cold call them, introduce yourself to them, find out whether they’re the right person, get to a conversation which explains whether or not actually there’s a there’s more to talk about.
That’s a perfectly legitimate way to to to carry on a business development activity, however, know what you’re doing. If you’re calling people find out about them first. Don’t just get on the phone and then try to engage them in conversation.
I’ve just had Yell on the phone for the third time in about two weeks, because I’ve got three different website listings and they’re all listed on Yell, and this guy wanted to engage me in chat about something which is wholly irrelevant and actually he should have known what he was talking about a little bit beforehand. You know, perhaps even looked at the website before saying “and what does it do”, you know, that kind of thing.
And secondly, get that person’s name right. I have got two first names and lots of people call me Nathan by mistake and and you know, it’s just one of those things. I really wanted to call my son Nathan Nathan but Mandy wasn’t having it….
Anyway, get the person’s name right! I don’t mind when people get my name wrong, when they call me Nathan because they’re quite often embarrassed by it but also it’s just a mistake.
But if you’re trying to sell something to me, make sure you call me by my name.
Anyway, hopefully that’ll give you a few things to think about today.
Have a great day!”
Thank your referrers like you mean it
“I know I bleat on a lot about thanking people: thanking clients for the business they give you, just thanking people generally for for being kind.
One thing I’ve missed though, one thing I notice is not enough people thanking the people who refer them business. If someone refers business to you it’s only right to thank them for it and not just to to think about it or say thank you but do something nice for them.
Think about how you could thank that person to reinforce that great thing that they’ve just done because, don’t you want them to do it again?
You know, a simple thank you is a great thing, a bigger thank you is a lovely thing. And coming up to this time of year where people are chucking presents about left right and centre, maybe it’s time to think about those people who have given you business but are not clients of yours.
And hopefully I’ve given you something to think about today, have a great day.”
Please stop trying to sell by email
“So many emails trying to sell you stuff, what is going on?
Don’t people understand that my delete button is just the same as everybody else’s delete button. If you’re trying to sell things to people by emailing them and then following up saying “I sent you an email last week and hope you got and are you interested in buying from me?”, then you are on a hiding to nothing.
There is nothing good about that sales technique. It doesn’t do anything for your reputation and it certainly doesn’t work.
If you want to sell things to people you have to contact them, you have to see them, you have to speak to them, you have to engage with them, you have to find out what they need and provide them with a solution.
Just emailing constantly: particularly service providers, you know, it’s a constant thing at the moment every time I open my inbox someone is trying to sell me something and it’s not product it’s service, it just doesn’t work.
Anyway hopefully that I’ll give you something to think about today, have a great day.”
Be the quality you say you are
“So many businesses talk about being massively high quality…. they tell me that they are the top of their game, they don’t need any help and then they serve your instant coffee out of a cheap cup or a plastic cup or ….. do you know, I mean I’m, I’m not a coff…. Well I am a coffee snob – But serving people lukewarm muck when you’re professing to be something much higher quality than that….
Well, everything you do in your business shows the quality you are from the way you shake hands to the way your receptionist or whoever answers the door and invites you in,” to everything that happens in that journey from start to finish.
It has to be the quality that you say you are.
Hopefully that’ll give you some to think about this morning, today, this afternoon.
Have a great day!”