Grocery shopping and the number of averages

We all do it. Every day thousands of people do their grocery shopping, spending lots of money in 1 or more stores and super markets.

But have you ever been in the situation that you didn’t know if you had enough money with you or enough left on your bank account to cover all your groceries?

Well, here is something that works (mainly Euro zone but try it out where ever you are). The number of averages will help you calculate quickly if you have enough money with you.

It’s very easy and even people who are not great at math will be able to do it.

Instead of calculating every item and adding 1,59 here and 2,99 there all you do is add your items and multiply it by 2. That’s it. Easy as pie.

So, how does it work? To demonstrate, I will give you a quick shopping list that I have recently done. It’s not a massive amount of products but it works if you have different type of products in your shopping cart (say above 10 and obviously not all the same):

Lasagne: 3.49
Skimmed Milk: 1,49 (2x bought for 2,98)
Kinder Pingui: 1,99
Strawberry Jam: 0,99
Eggs: 2,85
Still Spring Water: 2,94
Bread: 1,99
Bag: 0.39

Total real spend: 17.62€

Total no. of products: 9
Average: 2€

Total average spend: 18€

If you are not sure if you have enough money in your wallet, a simple adding of the products and multiplying by 2 can help you establish if you have enough.

Another list from a different super market (this time a much bigger list):

Oranges: 1,69/ Onions 0.99/ Bananas (2 packs) 1,59 each (3,18)/ Clementines 0,99/ Apples 2,99/ Pears 1,89/ Cabbage 0.49, Potatoes 2,49/ skimmed milk (2 bottles) 1,49 each (2,98)/ Unsalted Butter 1,29/ Bacon bits 1,99/ Pork chops 2,99 (3 packs – 8,97)/ Mince beef 3,19 (2 packs 6,38) Eggs 2,85/ Spaghetti 0.47 (2 packs 0.94) Knorr vegetable stock 1,99/ Coconut 0,99/ cooking-baking fat 0.98/ Oats 1,39/ Kabanossi 1,99 (2 pack – 3,98)/ Coffee 2,79/ Tomatoes (can) 0,47 (2 cans 0,94)/ Still water (2 packs) 2,94 each (5,88)/ Raisins 2,49/ Toilet paper (3,49)

Total real spend: 65.03

Total no. of products: 35
Average: 2€

Total average spend: 70€

Of course there will be discrepancies but as you can see from the examples above if you have a good mix of products in your shopping cart, the number of averages will help you calculate quickly how much money you need to spend. You may have 5 or 10 € plus or minus but it will allow you to know instantly if you have enough cash with you.

Give it a try and let me know how you get on. Please refrain from commenting on our eating habits 🙂

Also this system will not work if you buy a full shopping cart of groceries and then add a TV for 500€ to the cart…or if you just buy 30 packs of mince meat…Only to be used with a good mix of products. Have fun with this as well, it’s not meant to be taken completely seriously. It works for me all the time but use wisely…

This should work in European countries that have the Euro. For Poland the number of averages is 4 instead of 2. Other countries may vary but please let us know how much it is in your country.

Thanks for reading. Hope you enjoyed this slightly different article.

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Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

How to triple your sales revenue the easy way

For some people selling comes easily and naturally. However for many business owners sales is a nuisance and although important, it’s something many people don’t want to do. Leave it to the professionals, is the motto and although if you have plenty of money in the bank to hire sales pro’s, it’s not for everyone.

But sales doesn’t have to be that difficult. So, if you’re on your own, or working with a team of sales people that may under-perform, here are a few tips and tricks that could help your business to triple sales revenue by simply making it easier for you and your team to deal with potential new and old customers:

1. Use the number of averages – Many people put sales calls to one day a week or a specific time. Trying to do 20 or 30 or more calls to connect with potential clients may sound easy, but in reality how many did you actually get on the phone talking to? Most likely if you’ve done 20 calls you can consider yourself lucky if you talked to 3 – 5 prospects (and I mean getting to the main decision maker). This may sound good but reality is that it might even be less. Some weeks you may even just get to one or none. Turning this around is the key and making sure you make your calls on a more regular basis. Lets say you want to talk to 25 clients per week, divide them by 5 and now take 15 – 30 min each day to call 5 potential customers. You may still have days where you will not reach anybody of importance to you and you may need to add them to a different day/ time to call back. Once you get in to a rhythm however, you will notice that you transform 2 – 3 prospects on a daily basis (on average) either into meetings or sales (depending if you try to get a meeting or trying to get a sale over the phone).

2. Get yourself and/ or your team to go to networking events/ join networking groups. – This is important to spread the message of your business. You need to be out there and you need to be seen. Getting referrals is the goal with networking groups and getting meetings is the goal when you go to networking events. In both cases it is important to have the next step sorted before going/ joining:

3. Have a properly designed sales elevator pitch ready – With the right pitch you will gain up to 50% more referrals. Be specific, and tell people what or who it is that you’re looking for. A sales pitch is also great for networking events. It presents your business within 30 seconds, gives an overview of what it is that you do and how you can help any other business owner or potential customer to solve their problems. (If you need help creating an elevator pitch, you can contact us here).

4. Email/ letter marketing campaigns – Proper email or letter marketing campaigns are another great source to bring more customers to the table. But what’s important to know is that you need to do your research. If you don’t know who to address the letter/ email to, pick up the phone and ask. If you just send out generic emails to a list of thousands of customers, then you are not better than 95% of the other businesses doing just that. If you want to stand out and generate more revenue, you need to be different. Choose 100 of those potential clients, find out what they do, how you can help them and most importantly, who is your main contact and their contact details. Then address a properly designed letter/ email directly to them.

Don’t send all 100 sales letters on the same day. Spread them to maybe 5 – 10 letters daily. You will see why on point 5 and 6.

(If you need a sales elevator pitch and a powerful letter/ email marketing campaign, have a look at our PitchPerfect Programme here.) 

5. Have an inactive and pro-active call to action in your letter/ email campaign. – An inactive call to action is when you ask your clients to give you a call based on the information they received and if they like it of course. This could be something simple such as: If you now, after reading this letter, can’t wait to talk to me, please give me a call on xxx xxx xxxx or please fill in this application form and return back to us.

A pro-active call to action is when you take matters in your own hands. This is usually followed by the inactive call to action and is a simple way of saying, I will be calling you. You could say after your inactive call to action: If however you are like most business owners very busy running your business and may not have the time to call us, then don’t worry. I will call you on date x to discuss this in more detail with you. Our call will not take longer than 2 – 3 min of your valuable time. (make sure that with an email campaign you allow 48 hours before you call, on a letter campaign between 3 – 5 days. Don’t take longer. If you give them 2 weeks they will not remember your letter or you for that matter.

Now it’s your move. You promised a call on that specific day and most people do expect your call. Make sure you keep this in your diary and make that call.

6. Follow-up – It doesn’t matter if you take my advise on point 5 and have both an in-active and pro-active call to action or not. If you don’t follow up with your prospects, no one will. The return rate is usually quite low but if you keep your focus and make those follow-up calls, you will gain better results than any other company that sends generic emails/ letters. In fact, we have measured the success rate with a number of companies that we’ve worked with and it’s anywhere between 30 – 45%. Just by simply picking up the phone and making those dreaded phone calls. The good news is, that if you send a letter or email before hand, it’s no longer considered a cold call. It may not be a hot call, but luke-warm is already good.

7. Ask for referrals – Be it with your networking group or with customers and other business owners that you simply use for referrals, asking for referrals is the best way to keep your business growing. If you prepare your clients that you will be looking for referrals as part of your payment, then they will expect if they sign a contract with you, that you will be looking for referrals from them. Some clients may not be comfortable with it and others may just give you one or 2. On average we found that per client you could gain anything from 2 – 3 referrals that will help you keep going with your business.

When in a referral or networking group, it is important that you have a properly designed sales elevator pitch but also that you ask for specific referrals. Don’t be generic like: I’m looking for medium sized companies who are interested in xyz. You will not gain much out of that one. However if you ask specific it will make a difference: I’m looking for medium sized printing companies in area x. (If you can and done your homework you could also add:) I’m looking for an introduction to company X-Print in Town Y and company W-Print in Town Z. The only danger here is that if you choose 2 companies, it might happen that no one in your networking group knows anybody in those companies. However, consistency is the key and asking every week (or every time you meet with your group) for other specific companies, then you will get more referrals out of this. You could also ask type specific such as medium sized IT companies with focus on cloud computing or Start ups, Management consultancies, Coaching businesses etc. Be specific and referrals will come.

8. Put a picture of yourself on your business card and letter/ email campaign – People like dealing with people and this simple change can help you gain at least 10 – 15% more traction. People will remember you, they might not remember your business but they will most certainly remember you. If it’s in a good or bad way is of course up to you and your own selling skills but most people will remember your face.

Sales doesn’t have to be a daunting exercise. If you take every day 30 min to 1 hour to connect with new and old customers, you should see an improvement within a very short period of time in your sales revenue.

Some people say, sales is a numbers game, others say it’s not. In fact, sales is a game of averages. Every day you should do some sales related activity (and by that I mean not looking at your facebook page and hoping to get a customer interact with you). I mean real sales activity when you actively look for new potential customers, engage with old or former clients, use proper up-selling and cross-selling techniques and become more and more visible. Be out there, go to networking events, sign up to a networking group, join the chamber of commerce and actively promote yourself first, then your business and you will see a rise in sales revenue. Meet for networking coffees to discuss how you can help each other.

Try out different ways to interact with your customers. If you have a list of old or former clients, talk to them again. Maybe you have some missed up- or cross-sell opportunities, maybe you can get some referrals out of them. If your old clients are happy, they are more willing to recommend you on to somebody they do business with.

Have the right steps in place when it comes to your own sales strategy. If you don’t have one, it’s time to create one. Make it your daily mantra to work at least 1 hour on your sales and your business will flourish. (Just for the people who might say, 1 hour is not enough…we found in our research that the average time spend on sales activity is less than 2 hours per week for most SME’s. Having a focused 1 hour per day will not only enhance the performance of the business but will make it much easier to grow this activity over time to a decent 2 – 3 hours per day. Some SME owners are not able to spend that much time only on sales activity as they are out working with customers. Getting them to spend 1 hour per day on this, is the real challenge).

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

Double your sales in 2015 – 11 ways to grow your sales revenue

Our new programme, Double your sales in 2015, is now online and next to some applications we’ve also received some inquiries of how we’re going to double sales. I want to take this opportunity here to talk a little bit about how we can help achieve double your sales figures.

Of course there are companies out there who are doing great and there is not much room to get more out of people. But let me assure you that 85% of businesses are not running on full capacity. They are not even running on 20% of their potential.

I would like to provide you with some facts that I found with my previous and current clients that we easily corrected and the outcome of this:

1. No proper sales techniques or strategy in place (some of our clients didn’t ask sales related questions or showed interest in the customer) – 75% of businesses face this and this equals a min of 25 – 35% of additional revenue once this behavior is changed.
2. No up-selling or cross-selling opportunities taken – 85% of businesses don’t take up-selling opportunities and lose out on nearly 35 – 60% in additional sales revenue. Cross-selling is another factor that is easily overlooked. When this behavior changed, cross-selling amounted for another 10 – 15% of additional revenue.
3. No online presence – It doesn’t matter if you sell online or not, having an online presence is a must nowadays and counts for at least 10% of additional revenue.
4. Use of old (impersonal) marketing techniques that no longer work – Using proper marketing techniques is crucial. We had some clients where we brought in a marketing specialist and this brought another 40% in revenue over 6 – 12 months.
5. Not enough prospecting (no prospects, no sales) – This is the biggest factor. In all businesses we found that prospecting is not done properly and could improve. With every client, we have found that doubling their prospecting activity was not only possible but many of our clients even tripled their prospecting behavior. This lead to over 3 times the amount of contacts made by our clients in a week and revenue skyrocketed within a matter of months. This is the main ingredient to double sales. 200% – 350% additional revenue generated (and no, this is not out there…those are realistic figures that we have come across. One client of ours contacted 3 customers per day, after he went through our extensive programme he contacted between 12 and 15 customers per day. Another client simply switched from a passive behavior to a more pro-active behavior. This shop owner went from order taker to a sales specialist and expert and is now actively approaching customers in his shop moving from serving 20 customers per day to nearly 40.
6. No proper customer service in place – Another big factor, if the service and friendliness in a place is not given, then customers choose to shop elsewhere. Having a proper customer service approach was something nearly 60% of businesses lack. Changing this, made customers come back and spend money in their shop. This resulted in growing revenue by nearly 30%.
7. Too competitive thinking – Competition is good but a lot of people think too competitive. Sometimes customers want a specific product that you either don’t stock or you ran out of. In either case, who’s to say that you can’t source it for your customer with a competitor? Doing so will result in a better service that customers appreciate but also will help keep the spending in town. Talk to your neighboring businesses and help customers to buy locally. Customers will appreciate your help and effort and come back to you for other or additional purchases. This resulted in 10 – 15% increases and helped other businesses to thrive as well.
8. Motivational energy too low with employees and management. – Motivational energy is something we can easily measure. Many employees and managers go into coping mode and this results in low motivation and less focus on goals or targets. Motivation is a funny thing, it’s like bathing if you don’t do it regularly, you start smelling out of your pores. Regular motivational sessions with our clients and their employees resulted in higher performance, less sick leaves and created more employee loyalty to the business, meaning less employee turnover. This resulted also in additional 20 – 25% sales revenue because if the staff is highly motivated it transfers automatically to the targets or goals at hand and makes customers want to buy from you.

9. Not asking closing questions (no pushing or even pursuing of the sale) – I’m not talking about pushing a customer over the edge to get a deal done, but it is sales and sometimes we have to push our customers to help them make the best decision. A lot of sales people don’t ask closing questions. They do everything else right in the sales process but when it comes to ask the final closing question they failed. The customer simply chose a different seller because buying signals were ignored. Over 80% of sales is lost. Increasing the closing ratio is only possible if you get your sales people to ask closing questions and sometimes pushing the customers to buy (gentle because a little nudge can work wonders). Over 50% of sales growth is possible with the right strategy and tactic. Pursuing the sales is another factor that we can and should count in. A lot of sales reps give up after the 2nd or 3rd attempt of contacting a customer. Getting your sales reps to contact them at least 8 times before giving up (12 is recommended) will result in a higher conversion rate as well. This could amount to at least 30 – 50% higher sales figures.

10. Responsibility was handed to ‘lazy staff’ – And finally, if things don’t go right, the management blamed the staff. Taking all other points into consideration, this one was a big factor among our clients. However once we got the management to see the errors of their way, we found the mistakes and corrected them easily (usually getting the Manager to become a leader). This resulted in happy and satisfied staff and resulted in higher motivation and brought along a 10 – 15% increase in sales.

11. No customer loyalty programme in place – Loyalty programmes are great but many businesses don’t have them. It seems they don’t value their customer or they think it’s a waste of time and money. Using the right loyalty programme is key and giving back will always drive more sales. Having a loyalty programme specifically designed to your needs could result in 50 – 70% more revenue simply because customers choose to go back to get that little extra from you.

There you have it. 11 reasons how we can drive more revenue and grow sales by at least 200%. We found most of the points above were missing with our clients and changing their behavior (and in some cases habits) helped tremendously to grow sales revenue.

Our projects take a long time (each project can take up to 3 months) but because we do it thoroughly we not only find the problems in our clients business we can easily correct them. And yes, we guarantee results with our SalesGrowthGuarantee™.

If you are interested in what we do then you have the chance to apply to our “Double my sales in 2015” programme. Have a look, you will find all details here and apply online. www.salesclinic.biz

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

The secret to a successful business

In this post we discover the true meaning of being successful. Have you ever wondered what the secret to success really is?

A lot of people might say, having a prospecting pipeline, lots of customers, great products or services, high sales figures etc. But is this really the key to success?

I mean, yes, you need to have all of the above listed and even more that we haven’t mentioned yet. One other aspect to consider is providing an outstanding customer service. But again, those are just features that every business should have.

But what if you just starting out. When you start a business you may have a great idea, a great product, great services, better pricing than the competition but without a small key ingredient it is not taking you anywhere. And lets face it, especially when you start out on a new venture, customers are usually not running into your store to buy from you. No matter how outstanding your product or service is, if nobody knows about it, then nobody will come and buy from you. Simple as that.

The big question is, how can you do that? How can you get customers to buy from you on a regular basis? How can you generate some money?

Well, first lets look at some very successful businesses:

Virgin, Apple, Microsoft, the Kardashians (yes, this is a business…). What do they all have in common? If you really drill down to every business, one thing stands out:

Self-promotion or visibility.

They are all visible. They always put themselves in the media, write blogs and they constantly put themselves out there.

People like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, James Caan etc. are just a few examples. No matter what you think of them or their business, one thing is for sure, being visible is the way to go.

Think of it in this way. Every business owner out there has a reputation. Either good or bad doesn’t really matter. What matters the most is that there is always people who will like what they do and others may not care or go aggressively against those people. In the end it is all publicity for them and that’s all that matters to successful people. Being in the spot-light and making sure everybody sees them.

Just think about it, if you hear the words Apple who do you relate this business to? The same with Virgin, Microsoft etc. Or the other way around: Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates…you already have the business name in mind. So, how is it that if we think of our own business, we try to stand in the back? Many business owners are not visible at all. They use logos on their website but no person stands behind the logo. There is no association with a living being. A business nowadays is just an enterprise that has no face. Click on the about us section that most business pages have and you will find that many people don’t put their own names out there. They don’t want to be seen. There is no information about the founder of the business, a picture of him or her and what they do, their experience etc. It’s rare that you come across people who put themselves out there. But this is their business. It is owned by them and yet they don’t want to show their face? That doesn’t scream “Trust us” at all. If anything it shows that the owner or directors of the company don’t stand behind their own concept. So, why would a customer?

In order to create success, visibility is mandatory for any business. It is however not only the brand that you build or trying to build that needs to be visible, it’s the team, the directors, the owners that need to show their faces. Using visibility management is key to success and when done right you will have the following benefits:

Visibility -> Recognition -> Rewards

This is also known as the 8th habit of highly successful people. Make it a habit to put yourself out there. Be seen and make sure it’s in a good way. Once you start with this you will find that your company will grow. It may take time to build a proper reputation but in order to start, the most important part is to use visibility to your advantage. Stop hiding behind a website or a boring description. Make yourself stand out. You want a successful business, don’t you?

Here are my Top 5 tips of what you can do:

1. Website – About us 

On the website, in the about us section, create a page for you and your team (if any). Use a picture of yourself and/ or your teams/ board of directors etc. and describe who you are, what you do and maybe share a nice story with the audience. (This is just a suggestion but I would definitely urge you to have a picture with your name on it). You can also if you want to keep it simple just use a picture, your name and link it to your LinkedIn profile.

2. Put a picture of yourself on your business cards

This is something to consider for next time you order business cards. Put a picture of yourself on the card. I would also urge you to do this for your sales reps or any field person out there. Research shows that customers recognise faces better than remembering their names. So, don’t be shy, a picture says more than 1000 words on your card.

3. Go to networking events

Show yourself out there. You may think you don’t have time for that but it is important to be seen. You never know what might come out of it. Telling other likeminded people about your business can make a big difference instead of just sending out sales reps to customers. Make a change to your business right now by joining a networking group such as BNI or any local networking group out there.

4. Write a blog

You may not be a great writer but creating a blog doesn’t have to be all about the written word. You can create a video blog where you talk about any topic that is related to your business. You can create a picture wall of events that you attended etc. The possibilities are endless and I can assure you, there is always people who will like what you do.

5. Be online and offline

There is lots of ways to advertise your business and yourself. Most people have the common social media accounts such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and MosaicHub. Those are great ways to promote your business and yourself online. You can also use other websites to promote your business. Some offer free advertisement, some require a small payment. If you don’t have a massive budget, put yourself out there on everything that is available for free or at a low cost. Websites such as DoneDeal, Groupon, Livingsocial, getmeadeal.ie, or gumtree etc. might be a way to go. However no matter which social media tool you are using, make sure that you have a picture of yourself in there as well. Don’t just use a logo to communicate with people (especially on MosaicHub and LinkedIn). You want to generate trust, make sure that people can see who they are trusting with their business.

No matter what you do, make sure you put yourself out there and promote your business in every way you can. Hang out where you customers might be or where you could get some great advise on your business. The important part is to use visibility management to its fullest potential.

Be visible, get recognized and earn the rewards.

How visible are you in your business?

Let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

How your business can rise like a Phoenix from the ashes

Is your business struggling? Have you been thinking of closing down shop or moving locations? Maybe you don’t have enough customers coming in or leaving great reviews for you?

Well, here is something you may want to consider instead of closing down the business for good. I mean, you’ve been working hard and in the end, you deserve a successful running business. So, why not give it one last shot. One last push before you give up for good.

There are several ways to enhance your customers experience. Yes, some might cost you some money (I see it more as an investment) and some are free. You can also use a good combination of both (which I would recommend) and find a better way to market your business.

1. Look at your customer service

Is your business a local shop or restaurant? Do you have an office where you meet customers regularly? Do you provide an outstanding service?

In many cases we find that the business owners believe they offer a great customer service only to be told afterwards that their service isn’t really that good at all. Providing a great service is one of the most important aspects of business. If you believe customers chose you because of your low pricing, think again. It’s only a minority who look for the cheapest option. Over 85% of customers are buying based on their feelings and emotions that they have towards a seller. No matter what you sell, if you are not looking after your customers properly, then you will not survive. Change your routine if you have to, but make sure you always offer top notch service to your customers.

2. Sales ability of owners and staff

Are you capable of selling? Maybe you think you are but how good are you really? Many retailers or waiters/ waitresses are just order takers. Customer comes in, buys a product and leaves. Nobody is asking questions, trying to establish the customers needs. I’ve been preaching this for years now and except a few people who took this on board many are still suffering the low sales turnover. If you ask the right questions and LISTEN, your customers will feel valued and will buy from you. Not necessarily the product they were initially looking  for, but maybe something in addition to that, or more. In rare cases customers have to be shown that the product they chose is not the right product for them. This happens every now and then but it is up to you to make the right recommendation to your customer. What is the right product? Can they get it from you? If not, where can they get it? Sales and customer service in this case go hand in hand. And even if you lose the sale because you don’t have product xyz in stock, you can still help some other person to get the deal by sending them over. You will earn credibility from your customer and they will still be back. You can also consider getting the product for your customer. Have you ever considered that? Think in terms of joint venture. Imagine a customer comes in and buys a TV from you and he also wants a very specific DVD player that you don’t stock. Maybe you know somebody who stocks this DVD player and you give them a call and tell them, I have a customer for you who wants to buy this product. Do you have it in stock? Imagine the other person says, yes, I sell it for 199. Could you make me a deal so I can sell it on to my customer for 199? And say this person only gives you a discount of 10 EUR. Suddenly you can sell a product from somebody else and get a small referral fee or commission out of this one. Put your business head on for once and think who can help your business achieve higher sales results? How can you work together? Maybe you can do the same for this other business if they refer clients over to you? Think about it for a moment.

3. Change strategy

Sometimes we have to change our strategy, our routes to market or even our entire business around in order to make it work. Remember why you went into business in the first place? Maybe it was because you thought you could do the same as your boss did. You can offer a better more proficient service or sell more products? Be more flexible with customers? How did that work out for you? Well, if you’re still reading, I presume not so good. Business is about constant change. Moving away from one strategy that you’ve held for a number of years is sometimes necessary. Don’t get stuck in “The old ways” but rather look at what you can do differently in order to succeed.

4. Use some crazy ideas

Crazy doesn’t necessarily mean bad or “insane”. Crazy sometimes is good for business. Be a bit more open to attract different customers to your premises. Be a bit more outgoing, flexible and open minded. Sometimes you have to do the drastic thing and just get out of your shop and talk to people on the street. It may not be the most comfortable way of doing business but heck it beats closing down shop, doesn’t it? Imagine you can talk to 50 people a day when you get out of your shop. And only 5 of them would visit afterwards, do you think it would be worth your while if they come in and start buying from you?

Maybe you can do a competition, work with other businesses together, create an in-house event etc. Maybe you can do a shopping hour and offer everything for one hour a day half price (maybe on selected items etc.). It would be a promotion so consider that you may need to invest in this but getting people into the store should be first priority.

How about a nice “Midnight Shopping Event” with a glass of wine or champagne (booking mandatory). Maybe you own a boutique and you could do a modeling event? Become a model for one night…The ideas and possibilities are endless.

5. Restructuring and new layout

Sometimes it’s the business itself that needs a new structure and layout. Even if you have a great marketing and sales strategy, it doesn’t mean that customers will come in flying into your premises. And maybe an event is not even a problem but bookings are not made? Look at your shop and what you would like to achieve. How is it structured? Does it look nice from the inside and outside? Is the layout great? Do you have old carpets or new ones? Maybe you want to attract a younger audience but your products and services don’t reflect that. Take a risk and create a new layout, new store front, buy some exciting new products etc. It might help you turn things around once word gets out.

6. Get a coach or consultant/ mentor

This might be a good investment. A business coach or consultant can help you turn things around. Yes, they are usually not that cheap but the value you’re getting will help you and your business not only to stay alive but to grow. Of course no coach or mentor can come in and save the day. You should not expect that. If you’re already bankrupt or very close to closing, it might not even be possible for them to help you at all. However a coach is always a great way to discover alternative options. Maybe closing the business is good but the way to do it might be worth looking into. Maybe they can help you discover new avenues to go down to and create better business opportunities with you. A business coach can cost anything from 50 – 200€ an hour and is depending on their own experience and expertise. The value of this is incredible if you are a open minded and ready to explore. A great coach or consultant can help you on any of the points raised above. You just need to have an open mind and be ready for change.

7. Don’t give up

No matter what you do, don’t give up on your dreams. Just because one thing isn’t working doesn’t mean something else won’t work. Sometimes we have to close down one chapter of our lives (or business lives) to open up a new one. There is always opportunities out there so keep following them. Learn from your mistakes and make sure that next time around you avoid making the same mistakes. You will get better at this but as with everything it requires practice and patience.

Let me tell you a quick story. Have you ever heard of the Phoenix? The Phoenix is a mythology creature, a bird that has a long life. Towards the end of it’s life-span it gets heavily sick and dies by self-combustion. Out of the ashes rises now a new, healthy bird, majestic and full of life. The Phoenix is believed to regenerate itself every 100 years or so, (at least that’s how the story goes that I’ve heard). I think it’s the perfect story for any struggling business. If you are struggling or really have no other option as to closing down shop, think of the Phoenix. No matter if you had a great run or you were struggling right from the beginning, something majestic will come out of this struggle. Something so incredible that you can’t even imagine it right now.

But I am certain that you will rise again and again out of your own ashes if you keep going and trying.  

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

How the right training can boost your company’s image

I think everyone will agree that the right kind of training (sales and/ or customer service/ management/ leadership training) can be a great way to enhance your business.

A lot of companies hire an outside sales or customer service training company to deliver just that. Helping their employees to come up with new sales strategies, better customer service options and overall suggestions on how to enhance the business.

The key issues that I found in my research however show that many companies are not happy with their training provider due to lack of support, changes that are not implemented properly and the motivation of the team starts going down after a few days and revert back to their former self. Also in many cases sales and customer service training is kept very generic and is not developed to the need of the client but rather using off the shelf programs.

So, the big question is, who is responsible? Is it the trainer who seems to fail to deliver on his/ her promise or is it the attendees of the training who fail to implement what they’ve learned on a daily basis? Is it the company which doesn’t want to take on board the trainers advise or simply doesn’t want to spend more money on additional training or consultation/ coaching?

The answer might be shocking: It’s a little bit of everything. Let me elaborate:

Lets say you attend a sales training, the trainer gives great examples, clearly defined strategies (or helps you develop a strategy), great new ways of thinking and even adds how to improve on your customer service skills. You spend 2 days at this training and you come out, highly motivated and ready to roll. You go to your boss, tell them all about what you’ve learned in the training and why things are not working for the company (because now you believe you have the solution) but your boss shuts you down. He hasn’t been in the training, so he doesn’t really understand and from the bits that you remember he can’t really make up his mind if this would be a good way to go or not. So, he says, we stick to the old ways. Or maybe you are lucky and he doubts that this will work but will give you a chance to prove him wrong. So, off you go, thinking about what your boss said, and maybe even agree with him after seeing his point of view. Still you want to give it a try and now, with your boss’s point of view in mind you try your best and after one day fail to deliver. 2 days after you find yourself in the same misery as before, training is long forgotten and nothing changed.

Did you ever experience something like that?

Maybe you are the boss and your company sent you to a sales training to come back and deliver this training afterwards to the employees. You come out of the training, you think you know it all and give now your answers to the employees or sales team on how things should be done from now on. You’ve done your job, and now it’s up to the team to take your (crippled) information and make the best out of it. And to your surprise, it doesn’t work. Did you ever experience that?

Or a third scenario, you are the boss, you and your team have been trained by the company, you all agree on the changes that are required in order to make this work but find that after a few days, nothing really changed? You may have meetings about it, how to implement the new changes, you uncover some challenges on the way and suddenly decide that maybe it’s not such a good idea or you are stuck for answers?

Now, here is the reason of why this is happening:

1. You are capable of only remembering approx. 15% – 25% right after the training (this is the moment you step out of the training room and somebody would ask you what do you remember). No matter how good or bad the training is, and how much you keep writing during the training, it will not help you deliver the entire programme to your team or your boss.

2. Within 24 hours after the training your memory will even more deteriorate to approx. 5 – 10%.

3. 5 days after the training your memory will get worse and you remember approx. 1 – 3% of the training.

4. You are not a trainer or coach. Unless you went through extensive training becoming a business coach or sales trainer (and lets face it, barely any managers are) you are not capable of delivering the training to your staff (no matter how good you think you are).

5. Without any follow up coaching in place, no matter how many training sessions you’ve had, you will not be able to make it work.

6. Without the buy in from management about any changes that the training company suggests, you will have no chance of succeeding and make the training work for you.

There you have it. 6 points of why things are not working. In order to make any training work let me summarize in a more positive way what you could do to make this happen:

1. The right consultation is key

Training needs have to be assessed first. It’s important to understand the needs of the company as well as the individual needs of the attendees. (Interviews with management and key personnel (or maybe even all personnel that need to be trained) should be done to understand the training requirements.

2. Get management to buy in first

Buy in from management is crucial and in order to see the point of the sales trainer or consultant it is important that the management understands the changes that are required (if any) for the training to work.

3. Get agreement from management on necessary changes

The company should agree upfront on the changes that are required or needed in order to drive more sales or customer service and be happy with them. No matter how good a sales trainer you hire (or if you are a trainer then it doesn’t even matter how good you are), the trainer can only deliver on the information you provide and the changes that you are willing to take. If you don’t want to take certain risks, then the trainer need to know this information before hand in order not to make any suggestions on how to sell or improve your services.

4. The training should be created around the key areas and changes.

Training can only be successful if it is created with the companies needs in mind.

5. Training should be delivered to management first and staff second

It is important to deliver first to the management (if possible entire management) to make sure all points that have been agreed on are covered, to see if anything is missing and to get the entire management behind the concept. Afterwards training needs to be delivered to the remaining staff/ employees.

6. Follow up coaching to help implement the changes and discuss any challenges that the team might face over the coming weeks

Follow up coaching is probably the most important aspect of the training. It empowers the team and managers to find the best solutions on how to implement the changes and will provide the success that is needed in order to get the team to the next level.

So, how can this boost your companies image? Imagine you’ve had a training, a great training and you had somebody help you implement what you’ve learned during the training on a regular basis? That will give you the focus that you need and helps you drive sales and customer service levels. Your sales team will not be required to make any drastic changes right away but will continue to improve over a certain period of time until peak levels are achieved. Your company’s image will now rise to become the best in their field and the reason? Because you understand the training needs of your employees and now you can find the right training and coaching company to help you achieve greater results that you could have hoped for.

One thing I would like to add is that remember how long it took you to learn anything in school? No matter what the subject, but to get a complete understanding it took you years of learning and practice. So, why do we think that sending our staff to a one off sales or customer service training will do the trick? Let me assure you, it won’t. In order to implement what they’ve learned during the training course, follow up coaching needs to be provided. Only then will you see the results. It takes approx. 28 days to change a habit. If your sales people have bad habits, then the training might be a way in to create a new more positive habit, but only by doing the things that need to be done on a daily basis can your team start to excel. This can only be done with coaching the person (or group) on the required changes. And isn’t that why you spend the money on the training in the first place?

What is your experience with training companies? Or maybe you are a trainer and would like to share your opinion? I would love to hear your opinions on the subject.

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

 

Hotel Reception: How to grow your revenue

Any hotel reception is the first point of contact for customers/ guests coming into a hotel. This is the first impression any guest will get and it’s important to make a great impression.

However a lot of people (hotel staff/ managers/ directors and receptionists) think this is not a place to sell. I believe it is the most important place to sell and I will elaborate on that in a moment.

Any reception is dealing with different type of customers:

1. The ones who didn’t book and just ask if there is rooms available

2. Guests who booked before and want to check in

3. Local customers who are looking for bar/ restaurant/ gym/ spa etc.

4. Guests who checked in previously and now want information from the reception on available services, asking what’s in the area etc.

5. Guests who are checking out

The reception area is dealing with all sorts of customers and representing the entire hotel. If your experience is great while checking in or talking to the receptionist, your overall perception of the hotel will improve. However if your experience is bad, long waiting times, neglected services or you have a receptionist that doesn’t really care then no matter what you do with the rest of your hotel, the experience will be bad for your guests.

Here are a few tips on how to improve your customers experience with you:

1. Use the right time greeting (Good morning/ good afternoon/ good evening)

2. Introduce yourself by name (Good morning sir/ madam, my name is xyz. How may I help you?). This is important as you will make a difference to your guests straight away. You will make their experience much more personal if you introduce yourself by name.

3. Put all your attention to the customer if possible. Try not to get side tracked, answer phones etc. unless you have no choice (being the only one at the reception). If you are the only one tell your customer to excuse you for a moment and apologize. Greet and acknowledge other customers when they come in and wait for you. A simple nod and smile is more than enough.

4. Always smile. It’s one of the most neglected things people do but it’s also one of the most important. And it doesn’t matter if you’re dealing with customers direct (meaning face to face) or over the phone. A smile can be heard through the phone line.

5. While you checking in your customers inform them about your loyalty programme and sign them up. Make sure you know the benefits by heart and give them 1 or 2 reasons of why they should sign up. This will create loyalty and brand awareness. You should aim to sign up at least 80% or more of your guests.

6. If you know about any special offers this is the time to test your customers. Ask them why they are in your hotel (business or pleasure), and make a referral about any area of the hotel. For example if they are there for business you can mention the great Jacuzzi to relax after a hard days work or special offers for the spa, etc. You can also mention any special deals you have in the restaurant. You would need to ask sales related questions of what they would like to do and then make the right recommendation to the guest. You may even be able to sign them up straight away.

7. Make them aware of in-room purchases such as mini-bar, movies etc.

8. Make them aware of any other services that you offer such as 24 hour dry cleaning for suits etc.

9. Prepare a welcome package for your guests of available services within the hotel, what’s available in the area and special offers or vouchers. To give you an example that will definitely make your guests go for dinner in your restaurant (if they haven’t booked it) might be a dessert voucher for every day of their stay. Basically if they decide to go for dinner in your hotel then they can use the voucher to get the dessert free of charge. Think about it, how many people would go for dinner if they get something for free?

10. Sell, sell and sell. Selling is natural and it provides your customers with a great experience. The points I’m raising here are not meant to be taken all at once. Choose some of them especially on the sales aspects. It all depends on your customer and what they would like to get out of their stay. If they want to rewind and relax use the spa option, sell spa treatments etc. If they are there for work, offer lunch and/ or dinner in your restaurant, and book a table for them if needed. You may also sell wine/ champagne, flowers, chocolates, or any other hotel accessories that you may have.

Reception is a great way to boost sales if done right. And it can be done without pressuring or pushing the customer into buying something from you. Think why they stay in your hotel, what is special about your place, what is available in the area and how you can make your customers stay even more special.

Food for thoughts.

What is your experience with hotel receptions? Let me know.

Thank you for reading.

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Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

The Social Media Trap – Old ways of selling are NOT dead

I’ve read numerous articles by now saying that:

The old ways of selling are dead

Cold calling will damage your business

Door to door sales is long gone

Email marketing is part of the stone age

I would like to ask all those people a few things now:

1. Did you ever own a business?

2. If you answer yes to the above, are you currently in the start up phase?

3. Do you sell your products or services exclusively offline or online or a combination of both?

4. How do you (if you sell b2b) get to your customers or get a meeting with a CEO or decision maker?

Because those are the questions that nobody is answering in their articles. Using social media and your website is great but if you solely use it then you might as well pack your bags. With articles like that out there and people believing this, it is no wonder that 8 out of 10 businesses close shop within the first 2 years. This is what I would call the Social media trap.

First of all, I’m not saying that a business shouldn’t be online, or that it shouldn’t be on facebook, linkedin or any other social media. And yes, you can use them to your advantage. But lets face it, how long does it really take to get somebody interested in your products or services if you just started out?

No matter how compelling your argument or offering is, one thing is for sure, you need to get your name out. Fast. And of course you need to be smart about it. Using a well rounded strategy is key and yes, it should involve social media and an online presence such as your own website. However, this will take you months if not even years to build a proper running business and the world is not waiting for you to become a social media expert.

I have started out a bit over a year ago and I also started with social media, thinking that my offering is so great, customers will fly in the door. However after a lot of writing, posting and creating pictures or competitions I found that I didn’t get anything out of social media or my website. I didn’t have the money to invest in social media advertisement, I also didn’t have the money to invest heavily in marketing (online or offline) or a properly done website. So, I had to find ways to do it myself. I build my own website through wix.com, (I know, it’s not everybody’s cup of tea), used free or low cost advertisement, went to networking events, joint a networking group and still, not much came out of it.

Until I realized that I had to go back to what I originally learned. And that is cold calling, door to door sales, going from company to company etc. I also knew I had to be smart about it. I knew that part of the old ways, taking the yellow pages and start calling, will not work unless I do my research. So, here is what I did:

1. I made a list of 100 companies in my area that I wanted to work with (based on my initial target market).

2. I found out who was the gatekeeper and the CEO/ Director or company owner of the company (got most of their names and email addresses and contact number nearly right away). I found that only a handful of companies were reluctant to provide me with this information.

3. I designed a compelling email (at least that’s what I thought at the time).

4. I’ve sent that email to 94 companies (I left the ones out that I only had generic email addresses such as info@…)

5. I didn’t expect anybody to get back to me. In fact, nobody ever did. I left it for 48 hours before I made my next move.

6. I called. I had a 60 second elevator pitch ready to go. 60 of the businesses didn’t want to meet with me, however I got 34 meetings out of my list.

7. I went to meet with the owners and signed 12 contracts. 

8. The people who didn’t want to meet with me received a visit from me anyway. I walked into their premises and just asked if I could talk to xyz for just 1 min. 9 out of the 60 businesses that I walked in on took me up. 4 people signed a contract with me afterwards.

All this activity took me 9 days (without signing the contracts as this required a few more meetings).

I personally believe that if you start a business you need to go all out. Many people are afraid of cold calling or door to door sales, but let me assure you, that if you rely on social media alone, you will not make it unless you are a social media guru and have plenty of money in the bank so that you can take your time and easily build up your customer base.

A smart combination of everything is required and putting yourself out there as the business owner or director is key. You are the face of your business and you decide the best way to go.

Yes, not everybody is fond of receiving cold calls, but on the other hand, they had to start their business somehow as well. And if you don’t have lots of funds available then this might be a great way to get your business up and running.

Just be smart about it.

How did you start your business? Did you have to go to lengths that required you to get out of your own comfort zone? Let me know.

Thank you for reading.

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Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

How mystery shopping can save your business

The Sales Fear Factor

It seems that there is a lot of companies struggling at the moment with bad customer service experiences. This is not uncommon and if your company suffers right now from a bad PR or simply a lack of customers then it is time for you to test your business and your team.
Mystery shopping can help unravel a lot of things that not only could go wrong in a business but is currently driving customers away instead of getting them to you.

A lot of business owners think they can do the mystery shopping themselves. They believe by calling the main phone and see how their staff is performing on the phone is enough to test the waters. Although I personally would always recommend a business owner or director to pick up the phone and do that to just see the outcome, the main problem persists: As business owners we…

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How mystery shopping can save your business

It seems that there is a lot of companies struggling at the moment with bad customer service experiences. This is not uncommon and if your company suffers right now from a bad PR or simply a lack of customers then it is time for you to test your business and your team.
Mystery shopping can help unravel a lot of things that not only could go wrong in a business but is currently driving customers away instead of getting them to you.

A lot of business owners think they can do the mystery shopping themselves. They believe by calling the main phone and see how their staff is performing on the phone is enough to test the waters. Although I personally would always recommend a business owner or director to pick up the phone and do that to just see the outcome, the main problem persists: As business owners we are usually biased to the matter and have what I would call the tunnel view.

This prevents the owner from seeing beyond certain points and especially when you like an employee (somebody you believe is outstanding) you will close your eyes to the matter if they are really good or just good in front of you.

Getting an outside company in to test your business could be key to uncover a lot of faults within the business, lack of customer care and service, lack of sales ability and up-/ cross-selling ability as well as friendliness of your staff.

The most common mistakes that we find sales people do are:

1. Wrong greeting/ introduction

2. Lack of care

3. Missing attention to detail

4. No up-selling/ cross-selling being done even if customers point or make references to other products/ services that they intend to buy

5. Sales people are simply order takers instead of real sales advisors to the customer (mostly retail and hospitality industry)

6. No establishment of customers needs by asking simple sales related questions
These are just a few of the things we find sales people don’t handle right in business. We find it more and more in the hospitality industry and retail where you have a direct sales approach. However in rare cases we also find this in call centers. Yet it seems that call center staff from telesales to customer service are handling inquiries much better then their direct (face to face) sales counter parts.

So, how can this help turn your business around?

When mystery shopping is done properly you will receive a full report on how your staff handled the inquiries including recommendations on how to turn things around.

You should also receive a training or professional development plan to target specific areas that need improvement in your business. This will help you establish and find the right training and coaching for you and your staff.

The one thing I would like to point out is that if you do consider getting a mystery shopper in, it is vital to listen to the consultant in order to bring the required change to the business. A mystery shopper or consultant can only make recommendations but it is up to you, as the business owner or manager to implement the changes that are needed in your business.

Did you have previous experience with mystery shopping? Did it help you or was it a waste of time and money?

SalesClinic is focusing on helping their customers to grow sales and discover how to provide a better overall customer service. Our new Mystery Shopping Experience is now online and can provide you with the necessary tools that will help turn your business around.

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland