Sales and Growth Strategist
Business Development
Plug Your Website’s Sales Leaks
Feb 24th
Fix inefficiencies in how you handle and follow up with visitors once they do get to your site.
Many people pay a lot and work real hard on getting visitors to their website, but miss opportunities to close more business once the visitor is in the sales funnel.
It is easy to increase the number of visitors to your your website by spending more on advertising, using social media, etc. to create more traffic. However, many websites are missing a great opportunity to simply increase the conversion rate from those visitors they already have coming.
A website that I’ve been working with since 1997, PlanetUrine.com, is a niche business that helps pet owners with the very common problem of their pets urinating in the home. They sell and ship a lot products to help pet owners train their pets who have this problem, as well as help them rid their home of stains and odors as a result of this behavior (don’t laugh – if you have a pet, chances are you need their help). The have over 700 visitors per day coming to the site, and one of the lead capture systems is designed to allow pet owners to ask a question of a specialist about a problem their pet is having (Ask a Specialist). The form gets a lot of questions every day and helps customers make the decision to buy. However, when I was reviewing this system in depth it revealed holes that may be losing more sales than it’s gaining. Following are four areas that are contributing to some major inefficiencies:
- A semi-automated process
At the end of everyday, a person reviews and replies to each question. Yes, they are using templates so the messages don’t have to be written over and over, but somebody still has to take a 1/2 hour to an hour to reply to everybody. How much money has been spent over the years on this process that could be completely automated? - Only one message
They close a lot of sales for this particular lead capture system, however it is done with only one message. What about the person who didn’t read the first email, or the person who got busy after reading the first message and forgot about them? Industry best practices generally says it takes up to 5 messages to close the deal so I believe my client has been missing out on a lot of sales. - Only one ‘bucket’
The lead capture form inevitably attracts pet owners to ask questions for problems that my client does not sell with his niche products, but think about it; these are pet owners that have a problem of some sort. Why not sign up with an affiliate and refer these people and capitalize on that visit? Cost recovery in action! - A bit antiquated
The messages have always been well written and personal, however they were all plain text. Most people have HTML email now and studies have shown that nice graphics, and especially images – in this case people with their pets – really enhances the warmth of the messages and increases conversions.
The great opportunity is that there are a number of lead capture and sales systems like the aforementioned that have gone untouched for several years. For all involved – my client for more sales, me for more consulting work, and most important the visitor for their enhanced experience – we have an opportunity to make improvements and leverage new technologies to take PlanetUrine.com to a new level.
Finding More Sales Opportunities Using Twitter
Feb 4th
One of the biggest problems that most CEO’s and business owners I work with is the lack of new opportunities in their sales team’s pipeline.
Most sales experts say that you need three times more opportunities in your pipeline now than before 2009 to make up for the stagnant growth of this economy. Well, being an ‘Engineer of Sales and Marketing Systems’, I’ve been able to create a system that leverages Twitter to a) create my own personal advertising channel with over 32,000 followers, and b) find new sales opportunities on a daily bases. This article discusses the latter. (New to Twitter? The fastest way to learn is to sign up and start ‘tweeting’!)
One of the systems I implement for clients is a sales hiring process that increases the odds of hiring a producer from an industry standard 20% to over 90% – what I’ve come to call the Sales Star Recruiting process. I developed a recorded webcast called How to Hire Sales Stars Every Time that is loaded with useful information that can help the small and medium business who has had the experience of running a non-productive sales team and to view it the person needs to register – i.e. a new opportunity.
A popular (and free) program to watch Twitter streams is TweetDeck. One of the features I like is the ability to view streams based on a search phrase. For instance, for the aforementioned service I provide for recruiting salespeople, I watch for tweets that mention key phrases that I target such as “hiring sales”, “hire sales”, etc. Every few minutes a new tweet appears with those words in it, and very frequently it’s a small business owner or HR person mentioning that they are hiring for sales. I simply do a reply to them mentioning that they may find my free webcast useful and include the link to the registration page, and more often than not, they go and and register and watch it.
<img style=”float: right; margin-left: 20px;” src=”http://scott.smeester.com/wp-content/uploads/fail-big.jpg” alt=”If you’re gonna fail, fail big!” />
Identify What You REALLY Sell
Jan 30th
Do you sell web development? … I don’t want it.
Do you sell financial planning? … No thank you.
Do you sell construction services? … So what?
What I really want is warm and open minded prospects for my sales team and I’m thinking an online marketing initiative – done right – could provide those kind of leads.
What I really want is peace of mind that my hard earned money is safe and is growing at an overall fair market rate.
What I really want is the assurance that my contractor will show up on time, communicate well and leave me with something that is not constructed, but crafted.
Most leaders of companies I’ve met don’t really know what their company is selling because they are mis-defining what their customers REALLY want, and so the offering becomes a commodity and it’s not helping the cause. Web developers are a commodity. Financial planners are a commodity. Contractors are a commodity. But if they would simply properly define what their company sells, it would attract sales easily.
PS: if you REALLY know what I want, I’d love to know you.
PSS: my wife Audrey Smeester helps the busy professional say thanks with unique and tasteful gifts that are painless to send. Visit her site!
How Do You Know if You Need a CFO?
Dec 15th
Many small companies have a bookkeeper, accountant or CPA. Their roles are important, but very limited in scope compared to the experience of a CFO. Is it time for you to take your finances to the next level?
This article contributed by guest writers Marty Koenig and Keith McAslan of CxO To Go
Bookkeepers and accountants function mostly in the day-to-day work of keeping up with your records and taxes. Even a controller is often seen as a “number cruncher” that spends a lot of time with their nose in spreadsheets and doing reports. A CFO is very different and provides far greater value to small businesses.
Here are some examples of why a small company might need a CFO:
- Rapid company growth has stretched the capabilities of your current accounting staff to the limit, but you still cannot afford a full time senior financial executive.
- You are planning a major expansion and can benefit from adding an outsourced CFO and trusted advisor to your management team.
- You need assistance in dealing with bankers, lenders or outside investors.
- Your company is in a crisis, experiencing financial or other difficulties and requires strong financial leadership that cannot be provided by your current accounting staff.
- You need specialized financial expertise not available internally, and could use the help of an experienced CFO to mentor and coach them to do better at what they do.
- You are planning an exit from your company with a merger, acquisition, or sale and want to gain maximum value and sale price in the future.
- Your CFO leaves unexpectedly and your company has no one internally with the skills and experience to take over. Until you complete the search for a replacement, CxO To Go can provide the financial expertise to keep your business running smoothly.
- You need a periodic financial advisor to keep your company on track, someone that is dedicated to your company as it grows.
- You are a new start up company and want professional advice to begin your financial management correctly.
Have you considered outsourcing the CFO role?
Part time, interim, project and virtual CFO’s are one of the cornerstones of companies like CxO To Go . CxO To Go’s senior financial executives bring vast experience that is immediately brought to bear on the key opportunities/issues faced your company in today’s market thereby delivering high ROI. Since CxO To Go works on an interim, virtual, part time, and project basis, clients are more readily able to afford resource quality that is usually only associated with a permanent hire and/or priced beyond their ability to afford long term. CxO To Go’s experience is that their CFO’s quickly become trusted advisors to the client company CEOs and/or Owners.
Be Committed
Dec 5th
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative and creation…
… there is an elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never have otherwise occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one’s favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamed would have come his way.”
Mountain Climber Charles Murray
I am a co-founder of a startup company which is finally (wiping forehead ) gaining momentum after 3+ years of very hard work. Many, many hours making phone calls, meetings, lunches, trips all over the country. Many internal hurdles and differing personalities have had to be overcome. A serious investment of time? Yes, and of life. Oh, and there is no pay. Sorry. And when you seriously doubt you can keep going? Well, because you made the commitment and you’re sticking to it, a whole new circumstance happens that keeps you in the game, and why give up now? And you get right back to putting big skin in the game. And the cycle continues… until someday… you make it… or you don’t.
What Should You be Selling Right Now?
Nov 11th
A recent question I posted to the "Sales Best Practices" LinkedIn group:
"In this economy, who do you see having explosive growth? What do you see that the market is craving right now?"
I got a lot of interesting results. Several talk about outsourced management, cloud computing, etc. My favorite, from Michael Maisel, is "The one you know best, the one you believe in and the one to which you can add the most value. "
Here are some other comments:
"I think something that is recession proof and works better in recession, is Ice-Cream." – Shelton Rego
Okay, getting the "sins" out of the way – junk food, liquor, drugs, etc. – we continue…
"Emerging technologies such as agile tools, cloud computing, are also a good bet." – Becky Guillory
"VOIP is poised for double digit growth.. VAR’s are waiting for news on approval of Avaya’s buyout of Nortel Business Unit.. Cloud Computing and Virtualization is finding a lot of takers given the opportunity to pay as you go from certain service providers.." – Madhav Narasimhan
"Mobile Marketing. It is a tsunami of growth." – William Baranowski
"Recruitment is back in fashion." – Jake King
I agree. I’ve seen a steady increase in interest in this myself.
"Direct access to extremely well defined target markets." – Richard Abels
"’Green’ products that are as cheap or cheaper than what they are intended to replace. Health and wellness products, to counteract the stress levels we encounter." – Howard Moll
"Crisis increase crime, stress, illness. Enterprises have to protect their staff in order to get profits. Employee Assistance Programs (EAP) is one of the answers." – Panayiotis Manetos
"I’ve actually found that there has been a major growth in the data industry over the last few months. As companies are now having to market to acquire new business they are looking for good quality data-bases. " – Adam Herbert
"Methods to help clients grow their businesses through inbound marketing. " – Tracy Fox
"Webpage development and internet marketing. The first thing that takes off in a slow economy is marketing and this economy is no different. " – Gary Brown
"Electronic Document Management- There is a paradigm shift happening with companies and how they manage their documents, moving to electronic form PDF. The health care industry is already on its way." – Paul DeMoret
"I’ve found execs pay attention faster and listen longer when you talk about growing revenue. You still need a compelling ROI story, but it seems people are more apt to be open to creative ideas when you speak to their sell-side." – Michael Halperin
"Outsourcing solutions. Every company is looking to achieve more with less. Helping companies survive and possibly thrive during this challenging time definitely has its perks. Decision makers are looking outside the box at new solutions. " – Shannon Taylor
"Demand for Telcommunication products like VOIP, Cell phones. anything that shows true ROI. " – Alexander Kittl
"1.) Medical technology solutions fueled by funding from the stimulus package. 2.) Outsourced business process services that reduce overhead (expense) while delivering high value-based services (examples: various managed IT and healthcare services, outsourced HR and benefits administration, etc.) " – Todd Zielinski
"Healthcare solutions and services- healthcare IT, emergency management and healthcare products. Also, infrastructure and alternative energy products & solutions. " – Punit Kamrah
"Affordable on-line advertising campaigns. Businesses need a relevant web presence and online campaign that helps consumers looking to buy their products and services, find them! " – Lynne Marmulstein
True Sales Professionals Are Product Agnostic
Aug 20th
I believe that it is completely unnecessary for sales professionals to be familiar with a particular industry or type of product/service in order to sell effectively. In fact, the first thing I think when a sales manager, business owner, CEO, etc. tells me that the sales people they hire needs to have experience or have "a very good understanding" of their industry or product, is that they don’t have a clue about what a trained professional salesperson really looks like. It screams out to me that they don’t follow a sales system, and without a system, their sales methodology is probably to have their people "show up and throw up" – the stereotypical features and benefits spiel.
Yes, the salespeople should know what the typical concerns and pains are for prospects in your industry, but that takes a week, not a career to figure out. Why do you suppose it is that a new salesperson that doesn’t know a thing typically does better than when he/she goes through "sales training" and becomes knowledgeable about the product/service they sell?
The last thing I want my salespeople to do is prescribe a product or service and assume the prospect’s needs before asking a lot of questions to arrive at a solution the prospect is comfortable with based on their needs and desires. Also, I don’t want my salespeople educating our prospects. I’ll leave that to my competition.
To test my point, let’s do a little exercise:
- Your salespeople should discover what is important to the prospect about <enter your product here > .
- Your salespeople should ask the client why they didn’t already buy <enter your competitor’s product here>.
- Your sales people should ask what it is that frustrates the prospect about poor quality or service <enter your industry here > .
- Your sales people should ask "why not just do nothing about <a problem your product/service can solve>?" .
If you could safely replace the italicized bracketed words with your own, then it just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter what industry you’re in or product/service you sell. A real trained sales professional understands the process, and when he/she knows they can fill a gap, closes the deal by bringing in the person with the encyclopedic knowledge about your company’s products/services or the support material to prove it.
Note: the chameleon image is supposed represent a salesperson that can blend in with the surroundings. I didn’t know what else to use 
Image from Wild Herps
Beware the ‘Homework Givers’
Jun 18th
To get your start-up off the ground you need to meet a lot of people who could potentially help you. Partners, beta customers, investors, etc. are among the targets of people you should contact and meet. Many have great ideas and are helpful in the advice or referrals they give. There are also the people that have what you want, such as investment money or a partnership contract, and even lead you to believe that they’re willing to provide you what you need. Unfortunately, some of these people also come with strings attached and won’t “move forward” without you having to doing an infinite amount of work to satisfy them. I call them ‘homework givers’, and they are of the breed of people that take wind out of your sails.
Indeed there are legitimate reasons your contact should ask to provide initial research, or perhaps a key relationship in place before helping you further. But if you know you’ve done the necessary work to get your concept off the ground and walk out of a meeting feeling completely overwhelmed and behind the eightball, then you have just met with a ‘homework giver’.
Working with Talus, we met a gentleman several times who is very successful and had some great advice. However, he seemed to always give us information that either completely changed what we had going, or had ideas that would take some serious time, i.e. months, to complete. This led to doubting what we were doing, and with a feeling that we were way off track, which is the last thing we needed while pushing through all the crap necessary to get the darn business off the ground.
Don’t get derailed. Don’t even get sidetracked. Be cautious of the ‘homework givers’ and stay your course!
3 Suggestions to Empower Negotiations
May 28th
Ever feel like the other party has the upper hand during negotiations? Have you ever felt like you are the one in the “desperate seat”? Here are three tips to keep in mind when going to the table of any negotiation.
- Talk as Little as Possible
I’ll go the grave telling people the key to doing better in ANY business situation is to listen. In negotiations, when you listen more than you talk, you are gaining the upper hand because you are gathering important information about what the other side hopes to accomplish and what is important to them. As you listen, you also give yourself the advantage of learning what could kill a deal, where you may be able to ask for more, where you agree/disagree, etc., all of which helps you be more creative. On the other hand, if you talk more than you listen, you’re giving the other side the advantage.
- Check Emotions at the Door
Negotiations can get scary. Tactics used by some in negotiations are to meant to draw you out, rush you, frustrate you, make you impatient. When this happens, it is very important to maintain your cool. As soon as you start to lose it, you are playing into their game. To get your counterpart(s) back on track, get them to talk. I recommend lowering your voice to almost a whisper, and start asking questions and/or acting confused; “what do you mean?”, “can you help me out?”, “I don’t understand”. Keep this going until the discussion gets back on track. By the way, it’s fun!
- Always Be Prepared to Walk Away
The best salesperson is the one who has a lot of business ready to close. Prospects sense it. Likewise, in negotiations, if you have alternatives, your confidence shows. You radiate to the other party something different. You become more appealing. However, avoid being cocky and do not disclose your alternatives as this can lead to a hostile situation and one that can negatively affect your purpose. But if done right, your counterpart will feel they need to satisfy you to get a deal done… and why wouldn’t they, right?
To me, negotiating has become one of the more fun aspects of business as I’ve become better at doing the aforementioned. There are numerous books about negotiating (off hand I recommend
How to Get the NDA Signed
May 1st
An NDA can go a long way in protecting your intellectual property, and it is important to have your potential partners, vendors and investors agree to execute one prior to doing business if you have something worth protecting. When I first started pitching Talus’ health care exchange concept, getting an NDA signed by the 800 lb. gorilla Wall Street companies or investment firm used to seem like such a big deal. We were told by other startups, and even our advisors, that the companies we were approaching simply would not sign one. And while it is true that some companies have policies that keep them from entering into this agreement, most do not and will agree to sign one after some negotiating. Following is what I’ve learned to get an NDA executed every time.
Build Story Before Mentioning NDA
“What’s in it for me?” is what everybody wants to know. Well, you need to get your audience involved in what you’re doing. Formulate a story that doesn’t go into your IP (intellectual property) until they’ve bought into what you can accomplish for them. Then, when they want to know the secret sauce, you say “I’d be happy to… we just need to get a mutual NDA in place.” So much easier.
Always Add “Mutual”
You have NDA’s and you have Mutual NDA’s. Difference? The company you are talking to is protected too – and it is good to extend to protection to them regardless. By using the word “mutual”, it takes the attention off of you and makes them feel warm because you’re thinking of them… right?!
Blame Your Legal Council
There’s nothing like making somebody else look like the bad guy, especially lawyers. Well, the lawyer gets paid the big bucks for being the bad guy, so tell your contact that your hands are tied unless you get an NDA in place. Look to the floor like an ashamed child and say “sorry, I don’t have a choice.”
Be Prepared to Walk Away
How loyal do you look to your audience if they sense you’d compromise your own IP? Well, if you ask for an NDA and get push-back, you need to be prepared to move on to the next target. It may well be a test. In addition, you shouldn’t be compromising your IP. That is your asset!
Establish Your Professionalism
How eager do you think a major potential partner, vendor or investor will be to do business with you if you’re weak on the very first negotiation? Yes, this is most likely your first negotiation for this potential relationship and doing the negotiation for an NDA is a great way to establish a positive image in their minds about how professional you are. Do it well and get it done!
I stress to you in holding firm and getting what you want. You’re a professional and you have something they need! No need to compromise.
