Why Would Anybody Buy What you Sell?
In the previous few months you defined your products and/or services and your value proposition, so now it is time to look at why people buy what you sell. Have you ever asked your customers why they buy what you sell? If so, did you write it down or can you write it down now? Have you ever asked your sales organization the same question? Once you have the answers, from your customers and your sales organization, review them and see if they match your “answers.” I hope that you see these “answers” match the value proposition that you have drafted ...
Essential Components to a Strategic Plan for a Manufacturing Facility
March 28, 2013
Selling
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Considering the “Top five essential components to a strategic plan for a manufacturing facility” from last month’s newsletter, let’s look at the first component, Define your product/service and your company’s value, “your value proposition”. We have touched on this in the past and we work with all of our customers relentlessly to keep this in the forefront of what they do. A business plan should be a living, breathing document; always adjusting and modifying to meet customer and market demands for what you do best. Let’s consider this month’s component in two parts. First, defining your product/service then secondly, defining ...
Do Prospects Know, Like and Trust You?
Doing business in today’s business climate is making many people take another look at how they sell. It is almost like the clock is being turned back 20 to 30 years. People who are using “today’s” traditional methods such as emails, websites, trade shows, trade journals and “one way” direct mail and then waiting for the phone to ring are finding: the phone isn’t ringing and business stinks. Many of these people are struggling to stay in business! One fundamental that has not changed with the internet and all the “new” methods is that “people buy from people they know, like and ...
Growing Your Business In Tough Times: All the Rules have Changed
December 30, 2012
Company Development
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It used to be, just last year it seems, that there were rules; rules that governed how business was conducted, how we won business and how we lost business. Well all the rules are gone or have changed. It use to be, just last year, if we were the lowest price we won and if we were high we lost. It used to be, just last year it seems, that if we quoted enough we would get the business we needed to hit our profit targets. It used to be that the phone was ringing off the hook and we had ...
How to Address a Changing Economy
Last month’s discussion was focused on the rules and how they have changed. This month we will focus on what we do to address these changes. If all the rules have changed then we have to change. What was working is not and will not work in today’s market. There are MORE companies seeking LESS market. If this is true then we either have to be better, faster and stronger or we need to develop new markets. This is not the environment in which most of today’s business people can function. Today’s markets and the new markets that your company may need ...
Drafting the Strategic Plan
I think we have a handle on the “implementation” phase of the Strategic Plan and have recognized that resource allocation is crucial to the successful “implementation” of the Strategic Plan. But where does one start in the development of the Strategic Plan? There are many schools of thought and most of these are complicated, complex and very time consuming. We, at Strategen, believe that “simple is better” from a draft and “implementation” stand point and we have drafted and implemented many successful Strategic Plans. If simple is better, where do we start? We start with a Strategic statement of what we sell. ...
Does Your Sales Force Have the WILL To Succeed?
Last month we mentioned the word “WILL” in the context of having the WILL to do the work. This means determining what you and your company do best and making the commitment to seeking out those companies that need what you do best and selling them. This might be simplistic but in our estimation too few business owners see their business in this context. The power of an individual’s WILL is an incredible force! When that force is combined with the commitment of management and the “buy in” of a sales force magic can happen. We have seen this magic happen ...
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