Daily Biz Solutions

The economy has been in bad shape for quite some time now. Generating sales is now more difficult than it has ever been in recent memory. Following the steps listed below should help your company see a rise in its sales figures:

Know Your Customer

Many companies waste money on attempting to sell products to individuals who are not interested, unwanted cold calls or ads that nobody will read. Ask your customers about their current situation and find out their needs. Use their answers to provide service accordingly. Assuming what your prospects may need could be a critical mistake. Your best bet is to talk to them directly.

Align Your Sales Process

If your potential customers don’t realize that they need your products, it is your job to make them see their need. Taking the needs of your customers and aligning your sales process accordingly is a critical step in getting a foothold in the market. This will help you to find out things that your customers want that nobody else is doing. It will also allow you to see things that customers will not respond to.

Track Customer Value

Tracking the value of your customers is basically a systematic way for you to determine your value propositions with your various customers. It provides interactions and questions that help to speed the process along. It allows sellers and marketers to work with the identical base of knowledge about a specific customer, which helps to improve overall sales productivity.

Market Information to Generate Leads

Quality lead generation helps to build on the knowledge of the customer. It also allows insight into problems that they may need to solve. It offers interactions that help to increase the information and commitment that is provided by the customer, and information that will aid in attracting the right kind of prospective customers in the future.

Quality lead generation can can provide potential customers that are ready to speak to one of your salespeople. This can in turn increase your overall business capabilities. Cydcor sales teams, for example, specialize in helping brands increase their revenues and expand their customer bases.

Implement Nurturing Campaigns

Five percent is a good reply for the majority of marketing campaigns. However, most of those replies and not going to buy right now. Salespeople are trained and paid to close sales now. Therefore, these potential future sales have a way of slipping through the cracks. When this happens, it reduces the return on sales. A good nurturing program is able to plug this gap by maintaining a relationship with these potential customers. This could be in the form of contacting them regularly with updates on products they are interested in. A nurturing program keeps you in the front of the customer’s mind.

Take a look at your current sales process. Check to see how many of these critical elements it contains. By implementing one or more of these ideas, you should get an immediate boost to your sales productivity. These elements will also allow you to improve your sales process in the future.

The promotion of business news should never be confused with search engine optimisation (or SEO), which is designed to get websites noticed by search engines. Business news regarding your organisation will be read by actual human beings (in other words, potential customers).

Become an Expert

The most effective way to promote your business news online is to establish yourself as an expert on a particular topic. If you can achieve this, reporters will contact you and cite you as an expert in their articles. The articles will be placed online and other writers may link to your articles as a source.

Getting reporters to cite you as an expert is actually easier than you might think. Reporters are often asked to write articles about topics about which they know little or nothing about, but they make themselves sound more knowledgeable by citing an “expert.”

Contact Reporters

If you have special knowledge on a topic or industry, let reporters know. One way to contact them is to look at their articles. Many websites and news blogs list email addresses for reporters and editors in the articles or somewhere else in the website. Just send them an email telling them you have special knowledge.

A solicitor might emphasise their knowledge of industrial contracts while a dentist might emphasise their knowledge of a specific kind of gum disease. So keep contacting reporters and get established as an expert. Make sure the reporter lists your business name in the copy and try to get him to include a link to your website in the article.

Create a News Event

One dirty secret of the news business that outsiders don’t realise is that there is often little or no news to cover. Reporters often run around looking for enough “news”. Businesses can take advantage of this by creating a “news event” for reporters to cover. This will get your business’s name out online.

A dentist might offer free treatment to less fortunate children for a day. A popular blog or website might be eager to cover the free treatment because it is an opportunity to get photographs and/or footage of cute kids.

Also, try holding the news event on a slow news day, such as Saturday.

Send Out Press Releases

Whenever anything new happens at your business, you should send a press release to all the relevant online media outlets. A well-written press release, particularly one with a photograph attached, might be picked up and placed in a newspaper. Or a reporter or writer might use it as a “source” for an article.

If you are looking for an Online PR Agency, check out PR Fire.

One of the biggest roadblocks to receiving credit to help grow your small business — especially from a big bank — is a poor credit score. In fact, if you have a score below 700, most big banks won’t even give you the time of day.

This can be a problem if you need funding to help grow your business.

Thankfully, there are solutions to help you land that funding, even if your credit score isn’t stellar. Here are some of the best options:

Credit Unions and Small Banks

Small banks approved nearly half of all small business loans last year, compared to the less than 10 percent approved by big banks. The biggest difference between credit unions or smaller banks and the big banks? Credit unions and smaller banks are entwined in the community that you operate your business in. They have a better understanding if your business will succeed and if you’re good for paying back the loan in a timely matter more than a big bank would.

Micro-Lending Services

Micro-lending services won’t give you a huge loan, but they might be able to give you just enough money to give your small business a kickstart. The best part about micro-lending services is that the process is relatively simple and it doesn’t take much to convince your loan agent. The bad news? Interest rates tend to be high and you have to pay some upfront fees.

Cash Advance Programs

Cash advance programs can provide your business with a loan and also help it increase its chances of success. These programs examine collaterals and private properties, all while ignoring your credit history. One you’re approved, the loan is immediately deposited into your account and only a percentage of your total earnings is deducted monthly.

Private Lending Options

Next to a small bank, private lending might be the best option because its flexible. Of course, it can be difficult to receive. Most private lending options come from family or friends. These people, although they care about you, need to know you’re going to be able to pay them back in the agreed timeframe. Of course, the best part about these loans are that they tend to be interest-free. Your family and friends want to help you out. The worst part is the potential strain it could put on your relationship with these people. If your business falls through, and you’re unable to pay, things could go sour real quick.

Kickstarter

Crowd source funding is becoming more popular, but it’s definitely not for every small business owner. Using a website like Kickstarter requires you to have a specific idea or product that you need funds to execute. If you can pitch the idea in a creative way and entice people to the point where they really want your product, then they will invest and give you money to execute your product. This is a great option because you’re raising money that you don’t have to pay back with interest. The people that want your product believe in it and just want the product — not their money back. Of course, if your product becomes extremely popular, you’ll have to make sure you can deliver on it. Expect to see more types of Kickstarter-like websites in the future.

Andrew Dodson is a small business blogger that understands the best banks for small business.

The end of the year will be here before you know it! Have you given some thought to what you can do to recognize team members who have really gone the proverbial “extra mile” in their jobs this year? If your organization doesn’t already have a corporate awards program, you certainly might want to consider starting one.

Corporate awards programs focused on recognizing employees for their accomplishments can be a cost-effective way to provide tangible recognition to members of your workforce who are truly outstanding. These programs can go a long way toward boosting employee morale and helping your company retain top performers for the long haul. After all, it is a simple fact that employees who feel valued experience the highest levels of job satisfaction and are likely to stay with their employers.

It only makes sense that people like to work where their efforts are not only appreciated, but also recognized and respected. Starting an employee awards program is a great way to create a culture of appreciation in your company. Whether you start holding an annual awards banquet where star performers receive crystal trophies as a token of appreciation or if you opt to distribute plaques or other types of award pieces at regular staff meetings, your efforts are sure to have an overall positive impact on your workplace.

As a small business owner, it’s essential that you take steps to make sure that your customers are receiving the highest possible levels of customer service from every member of your staff. It’s up to you to make sure that your employees have the tools they need to be successful and that you are proactive in hiring individuals who have service-oriented personalities. A few tips to keep in mind when you want to make sure that your company’s customer service is as outstanding as it should be include:

Customer Service Training

Provide all of your employees with customer service training on an ongoing basis. Consistent reminders about what separates exceptional service from service that is mediocre or worse can be a great way to help keep employees focused on service quality. Provide periodic customer service training seminars for your team members, but also make a point of identifying teachable moments that occur on a day-to-day basis. Praise employees when you see them exhibiting outstanding customer service and work with employees individually when you identify areas where improvement might be needed.

Utilize CRM Software

Using a quality CRM software program appropriately is a great way to keep critical customer data in a centralized location so that everyone can have access to records of customer communication and contact details. Using a quality CRM software program is a great way to make sure that your employees have access to all of the information that they need to provide the best possible service to your customers, and to keep your customers from having to repeat the same thing over and over every time they make contact with a representative of your company.