About Me

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Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Born in the mid 1950's and raised in a very small country town situated in Northern Victoria. Resident of Melbourne since 1980 and happy to stay living in one of the world's most liveable cities. You can view my professional profile at http://www.linkedin/in/danielwatson

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Rapidly Improve Lead to Customer Conversion Rates

As a business owner, you need to clearly understand and ensure that all charged with converting your hard to generate sales leads into valuable customers for your business, clearly understand and apply a set of sequential steps which, if followed religiously, will generate far more sales and make each member of your sales team more productive.

These 7 steps address standard buyer behaviour, and it is important that each step be used and that the next step is not tackled until the potential customer is clearly ready to move up to the next step.

The first step is to establish if there is actually a real need for whatever you are offering. If you can’t get the customer to agree that they have a real need for what you are offering, don’t waste any further time trying to sell them. Simply get their details and agreement to be added to your mailing list, and move on to another prospect.

The second step is to get them to acknowledge the effect that meeting their need will have on them personally. As you have already established the potential customer has a need for your offering, you must determine what it will mean for them personally if this need is able to be satisfied by your offering.

The third step is to instil a fear of the situation continuing to worsen over time. In this step you simply up the ante on the last step, and reinforce how it will continue to affect them personally, if they don’t immediately meet the need they have identified for your offering, and then get them to agree that this will be the case.

The fourth step is to help the potential customer realise that they have a compelling need for change. Having laid the ground work in the previous two steps, this step should be easy for any accomplished salesperson. Simply put, the potential customer needs to be led to the point where they acknowledge that it makes no sense to continue to put up with their current situation.

The fifth step is to lead the potential customer to the point where there is now a clear demand for an improvement in their situation. At this step, the potential customer needs to be helped to paint a picture in their mind, of how their situation will look when they implement the change that your offering will bring to their world.


The sixth step is to give them hope for a better future by suggesting that there are a range of solutions for the burden that they presently carry. This is where you outline the possibilities they might embrace in order to get relief from the pressing need they now have to improve their worsening situation and also determine the level of investment they are willing to make to resolve their situation.

The seventh and final step is to show them how you can deliver the solution for your customer now that you know they have a genuine need for your offering, are ready to take action to satisfy the need, and have indicated how much they are willing to spend to get the relief from the burden they have been carrying. Then you can confidently and quickly close the sale, and move on to the next potential customer.

Are you clear on the importance of each of these 7 steps and why they must be sequential and why you should not move off any step until the potential customer has clearly indicated that they are at the position where you can move them on without losing them?

In your business, are these 7 steps rigorously practiced with all new leads that come into your business?

How much more revenue could your business be generating if these 7 steps were competently practiced on every occasion by well drilled sales staff?

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Two Magic Pills for Business Success

To be successful as a business owner, regardless of the type of business you operate, you need to insulate yourself from the negative aspects of selling yourself, your business, and your product or service, and at the same time, fully commit yourself to the ongoing development of the vital skills you need to have, in order to be truly successful.

This can be easier said than done, but with the right approach, you can achieving realistic outcomes in financial terms, from your investment of capital and time, in your business. This approach does, however, requires you to pop a pill or two for the overall good of your business.

The pills you need to swallow are the Two Magic Pills for Business Success. These Magic Pills are the tonic required to ensure a healthy future for your business. Taken daily, these Magic Pills will make a significant difference to the outcomes that you are able to achieve in your business. life.

As with all such magic remedies, there is a trick involved. The trick here is to develop the habit of taking these Magic Pills daily, for as long as you are in business. If you do, over time they will reduce or completely obviate, your need to call on others to help you to be successful.

The first Magic Pill is to take whatever steps that are necessary to develop and continually reinforce your faith in yourself. That is, you need to cultivate and feed a very strong self image. This is vitally important, as without one, you will find life as a business owner extremely tough.

A Google search on Self Image reveals in excess of 6,000,000 references, so there is no shortage of information available on this subject, and the sheer volume of references indicates the importance of the subject matter to all aspects of life, not only business.

This first Magic Pill needs to be accompanied by both the determination to never quit regardless of how tough the road to success may become, and having enough faith in yourself to repeat the right disciplines and actions until they become ingrained, and continue them for as long as it takes for you to eventually achieve success.

The second Magic Pill is to develop a strong ability to focus, that is, to become extremely efficient in your use of the time available to you, to conduct your business each day.

Focus is the most powerful tool a business owner can possess, so it is imperative that you develop your skills in this area. Focus allows you to accomplish more in less time by staying in the moment, and being completely attuned to the task at hand. See prevous posting titled Focus is everything in Business to see if you may be guilty of lack of focus.

A quick Google search for "ability to focus" will take you to a wealth of resources that you can tap into to improve your performance in this area. Find what works for you and put it into practice, and persist practicing until lack of focus is no longer an issue for you.

If your business is not doing as well as you had anticipated, ask yourself the following questions; Do you have stong faith in yourself and your abilities? Is your self image as strong as it must be if you want to succeed in the tough world that is today's business environment? Are you as focussed on the success of your business as you need to be? Is your focus in the right area?

Take these Two Magic Pills for Business Success everyday for an extended period, and you can virtually guarantee yourself, that your business will improve out of sight.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Will your Business Survive and Prosper?

As a business owner, you have chosen to invest both your capital and your valuable time into an enterprise that operates in an environment which is highly competitive, very personally demanding, and constantly changing.

Quite rightly, one of your highest priorities should be to protect your investment and nurture it for long enough to build, from the proceeds of your ongoing business endeavours, a strong asset base to support your future plans.

In order to protect your investment, you need to develop a fundamental understanding as to why SME businesses often fail to meet their owner's initial expectations, and why many businesses actually fail.

The list of reasons for failure is long, but the more significant factors include;
  • lack of a cohesive strategy for continuous improvement and innovation
  • lack of systems for business accounting and control of business expenses
  • lack of understanding of working capital needs and cash flow management
  • lack of general business acumen and core business management skills
  • lack of understanding of the market demand for the product or service offered
  • lack of understanding of the value of family and other support mechanisms
  • lack of well developed negotiation, influencing and sales skills
  • lack of understanding of the importance of choice of location to the business
  • lack of ability to handle the challenges of growing the business
  • lack of focus, energy and persistence in the face of all types of challenges and
  • lack of acceptance of personal responsibility for the success of the business.

Looking at this somewhat truncated list, it is easy to see that running and operating a successful business requires a lot of skill and effort, and it is not for the faint of heart.

Another key stepping stone on the road to protecting your investment of capital and time into your business is to learn to work on your business, as much, if not more than working in the business.

To this end, the ability to focus your mind and your best energy, on the areas where they will have the greatest effect, is extremely important.

Many business owners try to do everything themselves and are reluctant to rely on others, be they employees, contractors, outsourced service providers, or other business professionals such as accountants, lawyers, and business consultants, to perform roles for which these people are far better qualified.

Do you have a clear picture of where your strengths lie? If not, perhaps it is time for the good of your business, to explore who you are, and in doing so, develop a clear understanding of your major strengths and identify the areas in which you face strong challenges.

People often say that business is not rocket science, however what they generally neglect to say, is that all businesses require someone powered by rocket fuel, in order to get lift off, move into orbit, and stay afloat for long enough to enjoy the ride and the view, from on high.

As a business owner, that person needs to be you. Are you up to the challenge?

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Get Personally Organised for Business Success

Successful business owners have the ability to efficiently multi-task, an ability which they most likely developed through focused action on improving their level of of personal organisation.

This week's article offers advice on how to develop a higher level of personal organisation so that you can better handle the variety of tasks, problems, issues, professional and personal responsibilities, and the day to day challenges, you face in growing your business.

The keys to developing a high level of personal organisation include the following elements;
  • Have a plan which outlines what you want to achieve and more importantly - why you want to achieve it.
  • Set your priorities on a daily, weekly, monthly and yearly basis.
  • Be totally focused - concentrate on only one thing at a time.
  • De-clutter, get organised, know where everything you need is, and make sure it is readily accessible.
  • Don't allow any distractions into your work time.
  • If you are no longer passionate about a particular role find someone else to do it.
  • Have set routines for your regular activities.
  • Organise your own work space to be as efficient as it possibly can be given your particular environment.
  • Learn and practice how to say NO and then do it more frequently.
  • Don't say YES to anything unless you mean it.
  • Don't make commitments you can't guarantee you will be able to keep.
  • Learn to respect and value your own time.
  • There is a time to work and a time to play. Don't mix these two up.
  • Use technology simply as a business tool not as a crutch to hide from the world.
  • Create an environment in which you can work surrounded by the things which make you the most productive person you can be.
  • Pack more into your day - Get up earlier and go to bed later.
  • When you find yourself procrastinating ask yourself WHY?
  • Before you venture out into the world have a list of everything you can possibly do whilst you are out, and which can be done along either the route to or from your destination.
  • Have access to one or two trusted mentors to give you an injection of support when times are tough or the challenges appear too great.

The above is not an exhaustive list, but if you quickly and critically assess your own level of personal organisation against each element, you may discover one or two areas where, with a little effort, you can improve your own skills and help your business on its path to greater success.