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Business management Events

Salient Inspiration

Are you looking forward to the coming year? Are you all ready to grow your business in 2024?

If you have signed up to ‘Salient Inspiration – growing your own business’, then you are not only thinking about how to increase your turnover and profit, but you are also actually ready to do something about it.

‘Inspiration’ is a monthly sales idea generation and support programme from Salient.  Those who subscribe will receive access to the Salient Gems – 2–5-minute videos with a sales skill, technique or idea in each.  You will be invited to join a monthly reality-check zoom meeting, and a monthly face-to-face morning session where you can meet all members, exchange ideas, and learn new ways to boost your sales. 

This session will include an expert speaker covering a topic either directly or indirectly related to sales and business growth.  The first session is all about ‘Doubling your Sales in 2024’.  My favourite topic!

Besides this, subscribers will be able to arrange a one-to-one call with Andy Entwistle, trainer, coach, author, speaker and all-round expert in growing sales. Andy will be happy to help with sales-related problems, issues or barriers to growing sales.

A group of well-dressed business people enjoy a networking event - for blog: salient inspiration

The aim of ‘Salient Inspiration’ is to make sales and selling easier, more effective and more fun. So, if you would like to double your turnover in 2024 and maintain a solid customer base, then subscribe to Salient Inspiration.

Subscription is only £30 per person per month, or £320 annually, that’s 12 months for the price of 10.

To find out more or sign-up, please call or email Andy on 07941 041364, andy@salientsales.co.uk

And don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter, you’ll be kept up to date on the Salient happenings, including event reminders and upcoming speakers for Salient Inspiration events.

Join the Salient Business Growth Team!

Categories
Business management

Eggs & Baskets: The Risks To ‘One Market’ Businesses

It is not a good idea to put all your eggs in one basket…

…the risks to ‘one market’ businesses.

In 1999 I joined a company in Banbury as UK Sales Manager.  I had been assured that they had a good spread of customers across a variety of industries. 

This was one of a number of statements made that proved to be untrue.  In fact, as I soon found out, they had over 70% of the business firmly in the telecoms market and their supporting industries.

I spent the next two to three years working hard to broaden the customer base and was successful in winning business from other markets.

But… What happened next?

However, as I learned later, this was not enough and when the ‘telecoms crash’ happened in 2002, we still lost more than a third of our business almost overnight.

While I was experienced in sales, I was less so in the matter of running a business, and what was not realised was that we were ‘below critical mass’ as a company. 

That is, our overheads remained too high to sustain the existing business, and we needed to make some dramatic changes.  Little was changed until the debts were too large to be properly funded. 

In short, I left the company, lost a lot of money, and the company folded two years later…

I learned many useful lessons from that painful experience.

A man holds his face into his hands, avoiding looking at his computer screen, he is clearly stressed. - for blog: one market businesses

Beware One Market Businesses…

The most important lesson is not to rely on one market.  I know some businesses that rely on just one or two customers!

The risk of this approach is HUGE.  There are many economic and other influences that can destroy markets overnight, as with the telecoms crash.

Internal management decisions can destroy individual companies in a very short time – these could be companies that you are relying on to provide you with substantial income.

What can you do?

Take a look at your customer base.  Is it nicely spread over a number of markets, or at least over a number of customers?  If not you run a serious risk of losing your business if theirs collapses.  Believe me it can be very financially painful!

What is a good spread of businesses?  There is no hard and fast rule, but at least 6-8 customers with similar levels of spending will ensure that the loss of one will not kill your business.  If you can serve a number of different markets DO SO! 

Such a spread of customers will mean that the risk of losing one customer will be tiny and your business would be guaranteed to survive. And do not forget that new markets will require different sales approaches, different marketing messages, different priorities and so on.

Don’t fall into the trap of one market businesses. Build a broad customer base, keep your business secure, and give it the best chance to grow!

If you want some more personalised advice for your business – get in touch!

Categories
Business management Sales Planning

Invest in your business!

Do you still actively invest in your sales success when the economy takes a turn…

I could earn a lot more money in Japan.

I prefer living in the UK, but Japan, and much of the far East, has a very different attitude to business.

Business in the UK tends to suffer from short-termism. When the economy is suffering, we ‘tighten our belts’ and go for a round of cost-cutting. Strangely, from my experience, this includes reducing sales and marketing activities and people. This defies all logic, as when business is harder to win it makes no sense to cut back on sales effort! The sales effort or department may be the most costly in the company, but properly invested and directed, the returns will easily outweigh the cost.

In Japan and the far east, when there is a struggling economy, their approach is to INVEST in sales and marketing. Business is still out there; you just have to work harder to find and win it. They use such hard times as an opportunity to train their sales team. When the economy recovers (they always do) they will have a team at the top of their game and so likely to find and win all the best opportunities. This is long-term thinking. Doesn’t it make more sense?

This year should see a slow improvement in the economy.

Will you cut back?

Or will you invest in you and your business?

Will you be at the top of your game when we emerge from the tunnel?

Ready to take the next step?

If you’re looking to invest in you or your sales team going forward, why not see our sales and technical sales courses.

Alternatively, why not get in touch with Salient Sales & Training – 07941 041 364, to discuss the needs of your business!

Categories
Business management

What is the (business) world coming to?

So much has changed. Some things will stay changed. What are the better things you would want to keep?

Would you keep:

  • Zoom/Teams to reduce travelling to meetings?
  • Masks to hide behind?
  • Reduced physical contact to avoid space invasion?
  • Sanitisation to avoid others’ germs?

…or is there something else, some other surprise change you want to keep, or feel we should keep?

During lockdown I found myself swapping business breakfasts with regular grazing during home office breaks. Maybe I lost some self-discipline. I certainly did not lose any weight!

Since returning to some in-the-room business networking, I have found people to be keener to engage in conversation, perhaps a little less in-a-hurry? I like this aspect, but suspect it may not last as we begin to return to ‘the norm’. Is this your experience too?

But the norm is what we make of it and we are not yet fully unlocked.

We can choose a new way of behaving, new ways to engage or communicate.

We do not have to go back to all of the ‘old ways’.

What old habits/ways of working would you want to change?

What would you want to keep?

Categories
Business management Ethical Selling Sales Management Sales Planning Sales tips

Experiencing difficulty bouncing back after Covid?

Having trouble re-emerging into the market? Do you think your business looks and feels a bit ‘stale’? What can you do? Bouncing back after Covid-19 doesn’t need to be difficult, I can help.

Here are some useful thoughts:

I worried too!

Before the lockdowns business for Salient was good. Beyond a few regular ‘tweaks’ I felt nothing needed to change, people were still expressing interest and buying my courses and sessions.

Then Covid came and people were furloughed, projects were put on ice, work slowed and, in some areas, stopped.  Why would people invest in Salient offers when they had no idea when they would be able to get a return on their investment?  It became difficult to promote something which had become of less perceived immediate value to the markets.

Does this sound familiar to you?

I felt I had a choice of three ways forward:

  1. Try and continue selling to a significantly smaller active market
  2. Put everything on ice; try and ride-the-storm
  3. Or, could I try some more lateral thinking?

Did I still want to have a business at the end of this? YES!

a screen displaying the words 'in process'

Therefore, I needed to focus on two key tasks:

  1. Maintain a profile, and
  2. Develop some additional and attractive new offers.

Maintaining profile is comparatively straight forward with social media and on-line networking.

Developing new additional offers was more difficult.  Many planning sessions, business analysis and key-person discussions, produced some useful ideas to add to the Salient offers:

  • Live-On-Line courses and sessions (LOL!)
  • Recorded courses and modules: my full sales programme on video in modular form,

(- available from the new and upgraded salientsales.co.uk website). 

  • Group workshops – brainstorming, structured or unstructured, ‘Inspiration to Action’
  • One-to One Coaching Sessions – more structured and goal orientated
  • Extra high-level modules for corporate courses and programmes
  • Salient Gems – weekly videoed tips and ideas to help you sell more.

These would also prove to be valuable for when businesses re-emerged from hibernation.

I have completed 80% of the above. Already, interest levels are good, and sales have started.

So, if you’re having trouble bouncing back after Covid, consider teaming up with Salient Sales & Training, let us help you to streamline that adjustment period.

What’s next?

This is my story.  If you need help to generate ideas for your business, and to develop processes to see them through, then please be in touch. I offer guidance and mentoring to help ensure their success.

You can click HERE to contact us. Or why not connect on social media so you’ll be first to access offers, quick tips and new courses as we release them: Facebook, Linkedin & Twitter!

Categories
Business management General Sales Management Sales Planning Sales process

5 Key Ways to Grow Your Market Share

Can you grow your business when many around are shrinking?

I think you can, and I wanted to share my ideas with you.

My last blog suggested ways of adapting to market needs and I explained how I had added to the Salient range of offers by promoting courses on Zoom (or other platforms).  Are there other ways of growing your market?  The first four major areas you can consider are:

  • Market Penetration
  • Market Development
  • Product Development
  • Diversification

The Ansoff Matrix shows clearly how these are related: (Igor Ansoff – Harvard Business Review 1957).

Market Penetration means selling more of what you offer into your existing market.

Market Development is selling your present range of goods or services into new markets.

Product Development describes selling new products into your existing markets.

Diversification involves selling new products or services into new markets.

As an example of market development, my sales modules and programmes are now fully recorded and available to purchase from the Salient website (here:  https://tinyurl.com/y44gahlg  !)

I am promoting and selling my existing courses, general sales and technical sales, into a new market.  The new market comprises those businesses and individuals who prefer to learn and experience in their own time and space, rather than attend at specific times and locations which can be inconvenient to their own businesses.

Product development can be achieved by adding something that compliments or is a relevant addition to your existing range of products and services.  Ideally, this should be something you have identified by asking the market what else they need, or at least your existing customers!

Market penetration in simple terms is finding more ways of selling what you have in the market you presently target.  For this I would recommend revisiting dormant customers and making contact with ‘lost’ business.  Business previously lost may be looking again for a new supplier and we may only have lost it by a small margin.

Diversification can be fun!  Lateral thinking can result in some great ideas for additional products and services which will attract new interest in your business.  I caution you to prepare well and to do some useful and effective market research prior to this.  It is essential you know what your potential customers want and need before committing time and funds to developing new products and attacking new markets.  However, the rewards can be high as ‘out-of-box thinking’ can make a significant difference to your turnover and profit.

Finally, the fifth way of growing your business, and a less risky alternative would be Collaboration, again with much preparation and due diligence.  You would halve the cost of any such growth plans by working with another trusted business.  However, you may halve the risk, but you will also halve the profit made!

Your first choice is whether you try and ‘ride-the-storm’, or, work smarter and develop your business.  If you choose the latter, your second choice can be made from a number of options as outlined in the matrix above. When the ‘new norm’ arrives, if you have used the time wisely and prepared for growth, you will be much more secure as a business than those that have relied on rationalisation and hope.

If you are interested in hearing more about our ‘applied sales’ courses, in general or technical markets, then please contact Andy on 07941 041364, andy@salientsales.co.uk

If you would like to learn more about the Salient recorded sales training programmes, visit the offers on our website here: https://tinyurl.com/y44gahlg

Categories
Business management Sales process

Adapt or fall!

A bit dramatic I know, but this does reflect the present position of most small businesses.

Darwin would be fascinated with the choices facing business at the moment.

At the start of the pandemic we all hoped it would be over in a few months and we could get back to ‘normality’.  Many small companies simply ‘battened down the hatches’ intending to ride the storm, if you will pardon the mixed metaphors.

Unfortunately, it did not happen.  We are likely to be looking at many more months yet and most are realising that the ‘normality’ we anticipate may be somewhat different from that pre-covid.

In the last few weeks, I have gained some new customers who have admitted they felt they could hold back no longer and needed to move ahead, otherwise their customers would go elsewhere.  In fact, due to the scarcity of active businesses, they would now have to work harder just to stand still.

To maintain Salient’s position in the market and to adapt to the present situation I have had to change my approach.  Fewer customers wish to have strangers in their offices presenting training courses.  Having said that, recently I have presented my Technical Sales Programme on-site, distanced, masked, sanitised and very successful!

With fewer opportunities to train and coach ‘in-the-room’, I have added to my training, coaching and mentoring offers.  Becoming adept at running Zoom meetings I can now run any course or session on-line.

I have also used the extra time available to record my complete sales programme onto a video platform.  There are general sales and technical sales training versions for large and small businesses, and all will be available to purchase on line within the next two weeks.  I have also added small business group support and growth sessions called ‘Adapt, Survive and Prosper’, and these can be delivered with some in the room and others on Zoom.

a blackboard with a glass lightbulb in the centre, in the areas around it are 3 thought bubbles chalked on the right and another set on the left

By adding to my range of offers, I am now able to deliver:

Sales, Marketing and Business development

1/ courses or sessions in-the-room, as before

2/ courses or sessions on Zoom, or

3/ course modules recorded for more convenient viewing

By adapting to the new market needs I have ensured that all prospective customers can be served by Salient, whatever their circumstances.

This is what I have done.  What have you done to maintain or even grow access your available market and hence grow your sales?  Have you adapted?  Most such situations can be overcome with some thought, ideas and application. If you have not addressed this already, perhaps now is the time.  Clever use of the internet and some lateral thinking are called for.

Take the lead from Salient; Adapt, Survive and Prosper!

Details of Salient Small Business offers are here:  https://tinyurl.com/y5ptl27f

Recorded courses – coming soon.

Categories
Business management General

The ‘NEW NORM’… Who is Norm?

As we move slowly back towards life as we used to know it, people keep talking about the ‘New Norm’. If you challenge them, they appear to have little or no idea as to what this New Normality will be.

Many believe we will rely much more on the internet to do business and there will be a significant increase in those working from home. Some of those whose businesses have operated primarily online, the digital marketeers, web designers and IT experts, are suggesting they need never go back to an office.

Since ‘lockdown’ we have all had to change our approach. We have had to engage with our customers in different ways.  Primarily, but not exclusively this has been via the internet.  I believe it is still accepted by most, that face to face and in the same room is the ideal! This allows more of our social instincts to play a part and to enable more of a solid business relationship to develop. It would be very sad if we did not go back to meeting, shaking hands, embracing (when appropriate!) and enjoying each other’s physical company.

What other positivity can we take from the present difficult situation:

  • The air is cleaner!
  • More people now know more about the internet and its possibilities for communication and promotion.
  • In general, people are more aware and considerate of others wellbeing.
  • Many have observed that the pace of life has slowed, allowing more reflection and consideration.
  • The situation has encouraged more lateral or ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking.
  • As a society we have reset our perspectives and priorities; we have acknowledged what is most important to us.

I could continue with the list, but I think the point is made. After lockdown, it would be a great shame to lose all that we have gained. Clearly, we need to take the best we can from all this and apply them to our New Norm. Ideally, we should maintain good perspective, priorities and wellbeing as we start to meet with others again. At the same time, we should continue to embrace more of the best of the technology.

We need to balance the best of the Old Norm with the best of the lockdown strategies we have developed. Every business has different needs and priorities and so they will have their own version of the New Norm. I urge you all to plan carefully how you address coming out of lockdown and what your New Norm will look like. If you need help with this, I have developed a new module called ‘Your New Norm’, which helps you define what you want to become as a business, you new approach to promotion and engagement that will continue to make you successful as we are ‘unlocked’.

If you want to know more, please call or email.

Categories
Business management General Locating customers Sales Ethos

Remembering ‘social niceties’

Ensuring mutual respect and deference.

At some stage in the future, lockdown will end. For months we will have been meeting, talking, and socialising with the images of people on screens. When we finally get to meet with them again, how will we cope?

Can we remember the ‘social niceties’ as we used the call them, the social conventions that ensure mutual respect and deference?

I thought it would be a good idea to share with you some of the social decorum or etiquette that we were expected to follow when we were younger (which is probably before you were born, dear reader). Yes, in such prose as these when addressing the reader they were often referred to as ‘dear’ or even ‘gentle reader’!) The following relate to ‘greetings’ in the 1960s. Some of these conventions are still applied by the ‘old school’!

• If a lady entered a room all the gentlemen were expected to stand. If a large room or hall, or in a large gathering it was understood that only those whom she approached would stand until she was seated.

• All gentlemen would stand to shake hands but the ladies would remain seated to do the same. (I believe this is still expected and correct behaviour.)

• Unless they are a relative or long standing friend or acquaintance, no kissing is allowed. If the lady leaned forward for a peck then this could be offered or received, but this was unlikely.

• Anyone senior to us in years we would call ‘sir’ or ‘madam’, unless instructed by them to do otherwise. If respect needed to be emphasised then these could be used at any time.

• If you knew someone’s Christian name you would not use it unless invited to in an introduction. It would be Mr., Mrs, or Miss as appropriate. Again, Sir or Madam could be used if superiority is clear or even suspected.

• If passing someone you know, gentlemen should raise or touch the rim of their hats. If a lady then stops to engage them in conversation the hat should be removed until the lady moves on.
– there is a lovely story involving my Father. In the early sixties he was a civil servant working in the city of London, in Somerset House. The ‘uniform’ in the city was great-coat and black bowler hat. This hat was raised or the rim touched at all required moments. One day when returning home and almost at our garden gate, he met an acquaintance. He started to raise his hat. At the same moment, his acquaintance offered his hand for a handshake greeting which was also acceptable, but was a more familiar approach. Dad accepted this and so started to offer his hand in return. His friend had also realised the disparity and was starting to raise his bowler hat at the same time. My Mother relays this story as she was watching from the window and says that the greeting was attempted three times with hats being raised and hands offered alternately, until finally they gave up and just said hello.

• On ending the conversation, if with a lady, the hat was returned to the head and with a gentleman it was raised or the rim touched on parting.

a group in a meeting chat, shake hands and smile with each other

That may seem very involved but that was the way we were taught to behave, the expected ‘norms’; and THAT was just for the greeting!

I am not suggesting we re-adopt these social expectations, this was just a bit of fun. But, we can be certain that when our ‘normal’ is returned we will feel very strange shaking hands with strangers or even standing right next to them in a meeting or gathering.

I used to give a talk called ‘Selling, Ballroom Dancing and Space Invaders’. The latter reference is to those who invade our personal space. I would not be surprised if our normal personal space has been extended due to ‘social distancing’.

Let’s hope we can soon return to ‘social nearness’, or for the brave, ‘social closeness’, and we can look forward to sharing time AND SPACE with everyone we wish.

Stay safe!

Categories
Business management General Sales tips

BANTER OR BULLYING?

BANTER OR BULLYING?

CHARACTER BUILDING, OR CHARACTER DEMOLISHING?

How important is it for everyone to be resilient, thick-skinned, even hard-nosed?

Life can be hard.  Without one or more of these traits we run the risk of being beaten down by the more forceful and ultra-confident types.

To illustrate, let me describe an extreme version of this:

A confident go-getter enjoys ‘banter’ with their colleagues.  One colleague is a less confident and seldom joins in with the exchange of ‘winding-up’ and derisory comments.  To some, this makes them ideal targets for such banter, and the comments start.

Initially teasing, they are easily shrugged off.  But, they continue, and can develop a hint of mocking.  Others, wanting to remain with the confident and ‘favoured’ group, will find themselves joining in, sometimes without intending to.  Within a short period of time, perhaps a few weeks, one person has become the butt of most of the ‘banter’ going on.

Originators of office/school/group banter will claim it is ‘character building’.  They believe they are helping those bearing the brunt of the humour to gain a thicker-skin, to ‘man-up’.  The ‘Butt’ may well attempt to join in, but will show their inexperience in making quips and digs and will likely receive more ‘digs’ as a result.  Initial banter is usually ignored, but continued and it gradually eats away at the recipient, resulting in lost esteem and confidence.

Life is hard.  Perhaps we should encourage this form of banter to help weed-out those not capable of defending themselves and so to form stronger teams.

But, what are we doing if this continues unabated? We are making someone’s life pretty miserable.  They will see it as bullying and will find it more and more difficult to become involved, contribute, socialise and engage.

Then there is the other extreme, where we cosset and protect the weak and avoid all banter and ‘wind-ups’.  I remember when a boss I had in the mid 90’s apologised to me for swearing.  He assumed that, as I didn’t swear, it must be that it offends me.  Bless him!  Extreme swearing does offend me, but the occasional ‘Anglo-Saxon Derivative’ (as my English teacher used to say) can add richness to the language.  The reason I didn’t swear was because I had four young impressionable daughters at home and Dad swearing, even inadvertently, was not the example I wanted to give them.

There is another way.  I saw this happen once and it had a great positive impact on me.  At one stage in my career, the boss was also the chief source of the office banter.  He would rip into anyone, strong or weak and wind them up to a high level.  Most of us recognized this and responded in kind (to a lower level; we wanted to stay in good books).  There was one chap who did not take this well.  He was a really nice guy and had much to contribute to the group.  However, it was clear that he was enjoying being at work less and less.  His mood changed and his engagement with all of us was less frequent and helpful.  He was becoming isolated.  This was not the group’s intention, but none recognised it for what it was and no-one wanted to suggest to the boss that he stopped.  In the end, the boss sorted it.  He was perceptive and understood fully the risks to the team and to our colleague.  The boss took him to one side and had a chat with him.  The next thing I know, our colleague was smiling, animated and seemingly in awe of the boss!  His output increased and his loyalty knew no bounds.  He was even seen to join in with the banter occasionally.

What did the boss say?  Eventually, my colleague confided in me.

In a nutshell the boss had told him that he was sorry that such actions and comments were upsetting him.  He told him how valuable and valued he was, how he should ignore anything that offended and to regard it as immature behavior on their part.  He wanted my colleague to come to him and tell him at any time if anything was bugging or upsetting him, because he wanted him to be happy in his work and to enjoy his time.  The boss, even said he regretted the way he behaved but that it was now expected of him and he was worried that any change would be regarded as a weakness.

In showing humanity and humility, the boss had succeeded in turning round the whole situation.

Perhaps this is the best approach when such ‘banter’ risks getting out of hand; risks losing a colleague, or worst of all, demolishes someone’s self-confidence and self-esteem.

There is no easy answer.  But, taking account of people’s feelings can result in stronger teams, stronger relationships, and stronger leadership.