John R. Aberle
John R. Aberle is author of Kindle book, How Relationship Selling Rewards Small Businesses, and a consultant, coach, and speaker on for small business owners and sales teams. He writes on both generating the income through sales and marketing as well as on how to make a profit through managing the income and controlling both costs and expenses. His goal is to see small business owners and management team members develop the knowledge and skills needed for building profits through strong relationships. Aberle Enterprises sales style, called Help Customers Buy, fits naturally into the social networking approach to marketing. He uses Internet marketing as the major component of his sales and marketing plan because of its ability to develop stronger relationships with customers and prospects.
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- 6/14/2011
Education/Experience
Bachelor of Science, USAF AcademyInterests
Small business, business finance, sales & marketing, management, self-improvement, travel, restaurants, consulting, blogging, internet marketing, social networking, making a profit, business organizationMotto
Building Your Profits Through Strong RelationshipsAffiliations
Building Your Profits Through Strong Relationships, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube, Upcoming.Yahoo, Flickr
Displaying Results 1 - 164 (of 164) for All Content
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First Person: Simple Systems for Organizing Your Small BusinessSimple systems are easy to remember and to use. Yet they can also in significant savings in wasted labor hours while improving morale, customer satisfaction and quality.
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First Person: How to Survive Discounting when You Compete on PriceThere are ways to discount deeply as a small business and still eke out a profit. However, it takes allocating a portion of your overhead to each product sale and tightly controlling all of your expenses.
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First Person: Don’t Let Perfectionism Destroy Your Career in SalesThe key to happy customers is to understand what they want and need then to provide the products and services necessary to fulfill their needs. What they can’t do is irrelevant provided they can deliver what your prospects want.
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First Person: How to Stop Driving Up Payroll HoursWhen you are in a highly competitive market, you typically have very little profit in your jobs. The three points covered here are examples of ways your crews can drive up your small business’ payroll costs so subtly as to not be obvious.
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First Person: How to Design a Customer Feedback FormCustomers love to give their opinions. Make this work for your small business by designing a customer feedback form to ask them how you are doing. It can be really short courtesy or you can offer incentives for more detail.
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First Person: The Small Business RoadmapIn America, it is so easy to start a small business people often create one with little forethought. While there are lots of factors affecting success, a little planning before starting a small business will make a difference in you happiness.
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First Person: Evaluating Profitability Per Square Foot for a Small BusinessEvery small business has limited resources. To maximize your return on your investments in products and space, one of your tools is to compare the profitability per square foot of each product.
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Three Kinds of Research Before Your Business-to-Business Sales CallIn business-to-business sales, investing a bit of effort in research before your sales calls can establish a connection because you showed you cared. You move from a sales person to a ‘partner’ in solving their problems.
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First Person: How to Spot Buying Motivations on Sales CallsBuying motivations tend to be complex. The clearer you are on what your prospects really want and how important the problem you can solve is to them, the more likely they will give you the order.
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First Person: The Importance of Testimonials in Sales TrainingUse testimonials to develop pride among your small business’ sales people in the wonderful benefits your products and services bring your customers. These letters, emails and recording show them what your customers perceive as valuable.
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First Person: Use a SWOT Analysis to Prepare for Changes in Your MarketThis article uses my service company as an example of how to apply a SWOT analysis to your small business. I use an additional “T” as it is important to recognize trends in a rapidly changing business environment.
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First Person: A Workflow Solution to Save Time and Improve ProfitsTypically in a small business, as it grows, the way work flows happens without planning. When someone finally sees the need for a workflow solution, you can plan a better way that saves time thereby cutting costs and increasing profits.
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First Person: Cut Expenses or Increase Sales?While most small business clients have want to how to increase sales, they did not realize that in a financial crisis you need to cut your expenses to get the fastest impact on your profits.
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First Person" Tips to Maximize Your Return on a Trade Show BoothDespite the marvelous power of the Internet, few things work as well as face-to-face contact. Look for more local, inexpensive trade shows where booths can put you in touch with people matching your ideal customer profile.
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First Person: Customer Perceived Value Begins With YouCustomers buy when products and services deliver something they want and feel they need. But to get them to perceive the value in what you sell, you must first believe you can provide truly valuable benefits.
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First Person: Selling Techniques to Hold Your PriceThere are lots of books on closing techniques and ways to control customers. However, these selling techniques take advantage of really understanding your prospects and what they want and feel they need to hold your price.
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First Person: Organization Chart Template for Small BusinessEmployees in many small businesses find themselves with too many bosses. An organization chart enables you to manage the functions of your business better while also showing everyone the reporting structure.
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First Person: KPI Example Information for Creating Your Small Business’ Flash ReportThe many roles a small business owner or manager must handle can seem overwhelming. A flash report, or key performance indicator (KPI) report can put some organization to the data so you can grasp it quickly.
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Decision Matrix to Evaluate RFP for Sales QuoteIf you have never had contact with a prospect yet suddenly receive a request for a quote or for a proposal, look closely at it before wasting your time. This article provides points for a decision matrix to help decide whether to respond or not.
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First Person: Staffing a StartupWhen you start your business, you may be a solo entrepreneur. However, as you grow, you will find yourself needing help. There are many options for staffing you small business. There are some things to do too that can reduce personnel problems.
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Customer Perceived Value is Key to Closing the SaleSmall businesses can win sales against stronger competitors if they do a better job of understanding their business customers’ perceived value. When you give prospects what is really important to them, they will happily buy.
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First Person: Sample Agenda for Small Business MeetingsFor a small business, you will rarely need a very involved agenda. This article gives you a sample of the elements needed to get across the basic points so your people can mentally prepare before you get together.
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First Person: 3 Goal Setting Strategies for Small BusinessFinancial goal setting strategies involve the long range view. You want information quickly to know what’s working, what’s not and guide your action to produce a profit. New products and services need to add to and support existing business.
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In Sales, Value is All About Customer Perceived ValueAdding value requires getting to know and understand what your customers feel is important to them. This takes effort and requires listening to understand, not just waiting for them to quit talking.
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First Person: 7 Tips to Get the Most Benefit from Your Advertising BudgetIn my career as a small business consultant, I have helped clients save tens of thousands of dollars by cutting ineffectual advertising. These seven tips will head you in the direction of money spent on advertising that will grow your sales.
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First Person: Making Sure Employee Training Pays OffThese five simple steps will give you a way to break out of inertia or being frozen when too much new information comes at you so fast you can’t absorb it. It’s amazing the power of small steps to add up into massive changes.
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First Person: Stress Management for Small Business OwnersRapid change has a tendency to be overwhelming. Still, as a small business owner or executive, you need to find ways to handle it so you can continue to lead your company as your employees experience even more challenges than you with change.
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First Person: Your Receptionist Is the Voice of Your Small BusinessThe most undervalued position in most businesses is that of the receptionist. How they greet your callers and visitors may create the first impression those people have of your company. Will it be one you are proud of?
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First Person: Are Buyers Really Liars?Why would otherwise honest people lie to a sales person? Here are five reasons that prospects may seem to lie and four approaches to help them come to know, like and trust you enough to give you the truth.
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First Person: Building Sales RelationshipsSome people seem to be able to get sales without having to build a relationship. How do they do it? This article lists eight shortcuts that shorten the time needed to develop a trusting connection or even the need for one to get the sale.
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First Person: 5 Ways to Reduce Obsolete InventoryIn times like these of rapid and constant change, you need to be prepared for your products devaluing. Use the five ideas in this article to move out your inventory as soon as possible to maximize the value you get from it.
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First Person: Train Your Employees Without Doing It YourselfAlthough small businesses normally hire people with prior experience to do the jobs they need done, there are reasons you may find yourself needing a trained employee. This article offers six approaches to train existing employees for new tasks.
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First Person: Should You Hire Outbound Sales People for Your Small Business?Even today with the high cost of putting sales people in the field, some small businesses with high profit potential per customer can thrive with good sales reps excel because they excel at building relationships.
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First Person: Structuring a Profit Sharing Plan to Motivate EmployeesMany things impact employee performance. One of the most satisfying is a well-structured profit sharing plan because it recognized employees and shows your appreciation for their contributions.
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First Person: How Your Ideal Customer Profile Fits into Sales Territory ManagementTerritory management isn’t just about planning your route. More critical is identifying your ideal customer profile so you focus on prospects most likely need and want your solution because they have the problem it can fix.
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First Person: Is Your Imagination Defeating Your Sales Efforts?While there is always a lot to learn as a professional sales person, learning to use your imagination to your advantage can be the most effective tool in producing a successful career.
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First Person: Developing Reliable Small Business Cash FlowWhile large sales are wonderful, monthly contracts can add peace of mind regarding meeting your monthly recurring bills. Small amounts of income repeated add up nicely and provide positive cash flow.
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First Person: Beware Your Assumptions When HiringWhen you make a bad hiring decision for your small business, you will need to correct it promptly so learn the labor laws to be sure you terminate the employee properly. Then review what influenced you to hire so you can learn from it.
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First Person: Using a Tagline as a Sales ToolMost small business clients lack a tagline. The rest usually have weak ones unable to attract prospects. If your unique selling proposition (USP) appeals to your best prospects, make it into a tagline that actually attracts customer interest.Also published on:
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First Person: What Is a 'Factoring' Loan?Although referred to as “selling your receivables,” in reality factoring is a loan at a high rate of interest. The other side of this issue is that the loan does not depend on your credit like a bank loan would.
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First Person: Branding a Small BusinessWhen a small business knows its ideal customer profile and focuses on a tight niche, it can be extremely effective. Three tools that cost almost nothing to communicate their unique value are slogans/taglines, monikers, and domain names.
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First Person: Why Construction Job Costs Are Often UnderestimatedContractors tended to be knowledgeable about construction but often lacked business skills training so they missed the little ways that they lost money. In particular, there were two major gaps in their job costing: overhead allocation and labor time.
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First Person: How Information Overload Impacts Small Business ManagementThis article covers five points that are creating information overload for your small business. There follow five activities to improve your ability and that of your team members to handle the volume of information overwhelming them.
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First Person: Using Purchase Orders in Your Small BusinessA small business operates typically on a thin margin. By using purchase orders, you have a record of what you purchased and the prices as well as what bills to expect. This means you are in control of your finances, not operating in the dark.
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First Person: 4 Attitudes of Successful Small Business LeadersEmployees have needs besides a paycheck. These needs include respect, appreciation and recognition, being empowered and feeling trusted. Successful small business leadership depends on providing your followers with what they need.
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First Person: How to Get Value Out of Training You BuyAs a consultant, coach and trainer, I have taught hundreds of small business owners, managers and employees. Those who actually get a return on their investments are those who ask actively participate and then use the lessons in their companies.
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First Person: 3 Areas to Improve Communications in Sales and ManagementThe more you know and understand people, their wants and desires and their ways of relating to the world, the more successfully you will communicate with them. There are three areas I have found essential to successful relationship building.
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First Person: Lower Your Prices Without Going Out of BusinessMany small business owners like sales people want to be liked. You need to know how to resist their pressure to lower your price when doing so will make you unprofitable.
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First Person: How Phishing Can Hurt Your Small Business ProfitsA clever scam that can severely harm your business is called phishing. The perpetrators mimic businesses you trust in order to get you to open a link in what seems to be a legitimate email so they can insert a virus & capture financial information.
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First Person: Using Gifts, Freebies and Giveaways to Get a Prospect’s AttentionWith 5,000 advertising messages daily assaulting people in America, it is challenging to stay top of mind with prospects. Using gifts, freebies and giveaways can give you the edge needed.
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First Person: The Importance of Finding Your Ideal Customer ProfileYour ideal customer profile describes what your best customers have in common. It guides your small business like a compass to those people who most want what you provide because you solve a painful problem or fulfill a current, motivating desire.
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First Person: Word of Mouth Can Make or Break a Small BusinessInterestingly, most customer reviews provide you with positive word-of-mouth. It’s the unhappy customers who can hurt you so make an extra effort to find out how they really feel. Find out too how to reward their loyalty if you want raving fans.
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First Person: Using Deal Sites to Promote a Retail BusinessHave you ever wished you could get marketing advice and promotion of your business but have to pay only when it works? The hardest thing to do in traditional advertising was prove results. With deal site marketing, you pay only on actual purchases.
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First Person: Benefits of a Business ConsultantIf you continue doing things as you have always done them, you will continue to get the results you’ve always gotten. Your business will improve operations and profits from hiring consultants or coaches for their expertise and outside viewpoint.
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First Person: The ‘Volume Fallacy' Can Sink a Small BusinessWhat many small business owners fail to consider about making it up in volume is that extreme growth brings other costs and challenges. In this article, you will find four key factors that can undermine any improved volume discounts.
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First Person: How Cash Vs. Accrual Affects Small Business Financial ManagementFor business financial management reasons, I found it advantageous to use accrual accounting and advised clients to as well. Their accountant could advise them differently for tax purposes. Recording sales and bills as they happened made it easier to see.
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First Person: Are Sales Gatekeepers a Help or a Hindrance?Traditional sales training often treats gatekeepers as a hindrance to your right to make a sale. Using relationship selling in your small business sales instead, you develop the screens as allies so that you breeze through to the bosses.
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First Person: Improve Your Workflow, Improve Your ProfitsWhen you need to find savings, look for the bottlenecks in your workflow that waste time and energy. Look too for ways to improve customer traffic flow. You may be able to reduce theft.
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First Person: Using 'Sweat Equity Ownership' to Recruit for Your Small BusinessUsed carefully, sweat equity can enable you to recruit an executive or manager for your small business that you can’t afford right now. There are some risks, like loss of control, so try the alternatives first, like shadow equity or a profit sharing plan.
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First Person: Overcoming Call Reluctance When Sales ProspectingSales prospecting can be a real head game at times. I have found these seven activities enable me to overcome or minimize sales call reluctance.
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First Person: How Relationship Selling Applies to Networking MeetingsWhether you are a small business sales person or from a major corporation, odds are you too find it hard to focus on connecting rather than selling when you attend a networking meeting, like a chamber of commerce mixer.
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First Person: For Financial Success, Cut What Doesn’t Work for Your BusinessBusiness success is a matter of timing and making the right choices. Sometimes the small business’ management gets attached to a product that doesn’t fit their target market, that lacks commercial interest or that the market already left.
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Measuring Your Website or Blog’s Visitor Engagement LevelsYou can measure you relationship with your prospects through reports that reveal the degree of engagement you have with visitors to your blog or regular website. Three metrics, in particular, tell you if you are building a relationship with visitors.
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First Person: The Invisible Thieves That Cause Inventory ShrinkInventory shrink means the value of your inventory has dropped. These seven factors impact your investment by causing you to have to sell below cost to move it or by otherwise losing salable inventory.Also published on:
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First Person: Engaging Website or Blog Visitors Leads to Relationship SalesYou invest a lot of time, effort and money to attract prospects to your small business’ online virtual store. You need to do all you can to engage them, to get them to want to know, like and trust you so as to come back often and buy regularly.Also published on:
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First Person: Finding a Win-Win for All Parties to Your SaleIn relationship selling, it’s not a matter of compromising where nobody is happy. The approach is one of finding out what is most important to each party then finding a way for all parties to the sale to feel they won, at least the most important.Also published on:
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First Person: The Funny Thing About Honesty and CustomersProspects want to get to know, like and trust you yet they will lie to you in two circumstances – both of which you caused when you could have done things to build a relationship of teamwork and cooperation instead.Also published on:
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First Person: Recover Your Sales MojoCustomers love sales people who are energetic, enthusiastic and confident in the ability of their products and services to help them. Depressed sales people are a bummer to be around so no sales. You must recover your sales mojo.Also published on:
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First Person: Learn to Sell the 'Right' WaySome things kill the sale, often without your even knowing when you lost it. Good sales people excel at doing the right things: building relationships by using relationship selling skills, like listening and helping prospects get what they want.Also published on:
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First Person: Using Freebies to Boost Small Business SalesThis is a marketing approach I had a hard time accepting until I really looked at it and realized that it is about reducing your prospect’s risk involved with trying something new.Also published on:
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First Person: Improving Restaurant ProfitsThis article covers two main areas that can reduce your profits. They both can suck out profits if you aren’t aware of them. By becoming conscious of waste and of the need to double check vendors, you can safeguard your small business’s profits.Also published on:
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First Person: The 4 Keys to Successful Relationship SellingOften small business owners and sales people naturally develop relationships with prospects. However, both traditional selling techniques and too much excitement about how great your products are can get in your way.Also published on:
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First Person: 5 Steps to Accounts Receivable SuccessMost small business clients have limited capital and tight profit margins so it is critical to that they collect their accounts receivable promptly to be able to pay their own employees and vendors without needing to borrow money to do so.
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To Get Sales, Focus on Problems Customers Know They HaveWhy don’t customers buy when it’s obvious to you that they will benefit from your products and services? Usually it is because they haven’t yet recognized that they have a problem important enough that they need and want your solution to it.
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How Can Interviewing Skills Improve Your Sales?Small business salespeople will find that interviewing skills makes it easier to build the strong relationships needed for success in sales. One of the key reasons is that a good interviewer remembers that it’s all about the guest.
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First Person: 7 Ways to Inspire Innovation in Your Small BusinessThese seven tips are meant to get you thinking of all the ways you can use innovation to improve your profits and increase your sales. Most important is to keep in mind your job is to solve a problem customers know they need and want fixed.
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First Person: Does Location Still Matter for Small Business?While consumer businesses generally still benefit from expensive rents to be in primo shopping malls or on highly trafficked streets, business-to-business small businesses can greatly reduce their physical rents by being smarter about their ‘location.’
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First Person: Controlling Unnecessary Labor CostsWhen you look at the impact labor burden has on your small business’ payroll, you will more easily appreciate how unnecessary labor costs chew up your profits. Pay a fair wage, but be sure it is for needed work not unnecessary hours.
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First Person: How Checklists Improve Quality, Customer Satisfaction and ProfitsAs long as I have been in sales and marketing, I have used checklists. I train clients to use them also to cut down mistakes and forgotten steps. By reducing mistakes, we keep customers happier while we protect profits from waste.
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First Person: When Doing Sales Prospecting, Right Size Your ProspectsSmall business owners and sales people both are inclined to think that everyone is a prospect. Interestingly, even when you have an obvious niche, like credit unions, that alone doesn’t mean it fits your ideal customer profile.
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First Person: The Financial Wisdom of DelegatingThere are different costs to forcing yourself to do jobs you don’t like and aren’t skilled at. There is also the opportunity cost of your doing something someone else could for less money freeing you to do things to make the company more money.
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First Person: Enlightened Self-Interest and Small Business ManagementBusiness success comes from learning when to forego an immediate gain for the benefit of developing long term mutually beneficial relationships, especially with your employees.
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First Person: Marginal Utility Value and Motivating EmployeesMy college Econ 101 introduced me to the concept of marginal utility value. Interestingly, it helps to explain why money alone fails to motivate everyone to greater effort. This means you need to be more attentive and creative.
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Piercing the Corporate Veil of Your Small BusinessSome small business owners think that being incorporated protects their personal assets from liability if their corporation gets sued. It is true, provided they did not get clever, and do something that pierces their corporate veil.
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First Person: As a Small Business Owner, How Do You Value Your Time?As a small business owner, I knew my time was valuable. I just never calculated it out or thought deeply about it until I became a small business consultant. Then I learned how to calculate labor burden and, more importantly, opportunity cost.
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First Person: Skip the Manipulation, Prospects Love to BuyProspects love to buy. Still, they may not want or need what you sell so find prospects for your small business whose problems and desires best fit what your products and services can fix. Then focus on helping them buy what they want and feel they need.
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First Person: 5 Ways You Make a First ImpressionWhile you can never please everyone, you want to do your best to impress your ideal prospects and customers. It helps to consciously improve each of the different ways you make a first impression.
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First Person: Improve Your Services for Greater Customer LoyaltyWhen it comes to customer satisfaction and customer loyalty, often it is the little things that matter most. The key to developing customer loyalty is to think about your small business products and services from the viewpoint of your customers.
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First Person: Know the Objectives of Your Sales CallsThere are more purposes for sales calls than closing. When salespeople go on sales calls without knowing in advance what the objectives are for each call, they are asking to waste their time and those prospects.
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Is Win-Win in Your Small Business Relationships a Myth?The way to win as a small business owner or manager is to build strong relationships with customers, employees and vendors. Find out what matters most to them, then structure your relationship to ensure they get it. -
First Person: Prospecting Success Means Thinking Like Your ProspectI love making an ally of people on the inside of the company. Many times I have sold the “screen” on my value to the decision maker. That gatekeeper then pointed me in a better direction or enabled me to talk to the boss.
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First Person: Using Metrics and Your Ideal Customer Profile to Increase SalesSales productivity comes from knowing your numbers throughout each phase of the typical sales cycle to get your average sale. These figures will make it even more obvious how important it is that you target the right prospects, those most likely to buy.
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First Person: Human Resources and the Family Owned Small BusinessAs owner of a family owned small business, you can have the best situation possible or the worst. When some family member chooses to rebel, you need to take action immediately before he or she puts your company at tremendous risk.
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First Person: The Value of Small Business SystemsIn a typical small business, nobody has time to develop systems until some event happens that drives home the point for you. Opening a new office in Monterrey, Mexico three hours from McAllen Texas made it clear that not having systems cost us.
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First Person: Time to Walk Away From That Sales Call?Small business owners sometimes feel a salesperson should get the sale at all costs. Unfortunately, by persisting when the prospect’s mind is drawn elsewhere, you will get shot down. It’s better to reschedule to when they will interact with you.
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First Person: Communicating With Employees, Prospects and VendorsThere are so many reasons that small business people find both delegating and having productive meetings with prospects and vendors challenging. The more rushed someone is the less likely they will communicate successfully.
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First Person: 10 Ways to Recover Profitability After Your Costs IncreaseSudden increases in your costs can throw your small business’ pricing into turmoil. If you continue selling at these prices, you will go in the hole financially. The survival of your small business requires action. These ten ideas give you choices.
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First Person: How Do You Price a Product or Service to Make a Profit?There are many approaches to pricing products. In my small business, I originally used the rule-of-thumb I learned from my previous employer. As a small business consultant, I learned from other consultants a basic approach based on your true costs.
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First Person: Cash Flow Reporting for Small BusinessLots of small business people have a feast or famine mentality, which means when the money comes in, they spend it not thinking about the bills in 60 days. A cash flow report can help them learn to manage that because their cash needs become obvious.
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First Person: When the Cost of a Sale Is Too HighIn my experience as a consultant doing profit and expense control jobs, I found that many small business owners and managers fail to understand their real costs, which include their overhead. Some sales can leave you in a hole.
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First Person: By Selling on Value, Everyone WinsBecause your goal as a small business is to make a profit, learn to find the extra value your customer wants. Training is one way of adding value. Price becomes less of an issue when you provide exactly what they want.
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First Person: Learning to Manage Well Takes Practice, Not TheoryOne needs strong desire to master the leadership skills and management skills needed to successfully lead a small business. While reading can expand your knowledge of what to do, leadership is a matter of emotional intelligence which develops from doing.
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First Person: Not All Lead Sources Are Created EqualOne client saved over $100,000 by eliminating Internet pay-per-click advertising search engines and sites as they produced almost no sales. You need to know your ideal customer profile to find the places that will deliver leads which convert to sales.
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First Person: Relationship Selling Works, Even in Niche MarketsI have firsthand experience following salespeople in a onetime sale niche. I rarely had a problem with delivering services to clients sold using a relationship selling approach. Our jobs blew up quickly when sold using a close at any cost approach.
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First Person: Like It Or Not, Customer Service Is Always the Salesperson's ConcernAs a small business owner, I was head of my sales and marketing department for our service company. I was our ultimate customer service rep. But that was always true in my sales jobs. Customers expected me to ensure customer satisfaction.
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First Person: Having a Customer Service Attitude Ensures Quality TrainingBased on my personal experience, both as a trainer and as a student, I reached a decision some time ago that a customer service attitude makes the difference in receiving as well as in giving quality training.
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First Person: Making Sure My Small Business Profits Aren't Nibbled AwayNumerous things drain off your small business profits. First, become aware of what is causing your losses as well as what the cumulative annual effect is. That number should motivate you to create systems to prevent the losses.
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First Person: Calculating the Cost of Wasted LaborLittle things can really add up when you use your real costs as found in burdened labor. There are many ways for the crews of services to fritter away time that costs your small business far more than you may realize thus eating up your profits.
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First Person: Does Small Business Need an Honor Code?Doctors, lawyers and accountants have their professional ethics standards so people know they can trust them. Lately huge businesses reinforced the image that greed rules all business. To gain trust, small businesses need to live by an honor code.
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First Person: Choosing a Compensation Plan for SalespeopleDespite my efforts to find the ideal compensation plan for salespeople, there is no one best plan. Your plan must attract the right salespeople to fit what you are selling, how you sell, and what the profit is on a typical sale. -
First Person: Brainstorming My Way to Small Business ProfitsAs small business owners, we find both international competitors and the Internet pressure us to develop new and improved products. Though some customers continue to want our products unchanged, others will switch for the new benefits.
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First Person: Choosing a Compensation Plan for Service EmployeesYour compensation plan for service employees or technicians can have a major impact both on their performance and on your profitability. These five types of compensation enable you to design a system that works for your small business.
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First Person: Does Your Small Business Really Need Custom Software?There numerous financial considerations that small business owners and managers should look at before deciding they need custom software. Often an off-the-shelf package will work effectively saving them from the cost of change orders.
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First Person: The Three Cardinal Rules of Sales and MarketingAs a small business owner or salesperson, you can actually have an advantage over larger companies when you apply these six laws to build strong relationships. Big companies are more likely to be self-important. You excel by listening.
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First Person: Are Networking Meetings a Waste of Time?When you are in sales and marketing or a when you are a small business owner, it’s a challenge to not see everyone as a prospect for a sales pitch. You will find networking meetings more effective when instead you use them to connect.
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First Person: Goal Setting for Small BusinessIt is a cliche that if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there? Nevertheless, most small businesses tend to drift along. By applying these steps to goal setting, you can see the company of your dreams.Also published on:
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Tips for Your Small Business Website – What Makes a Good OneThe internet has cut the time for a first impression from the 20 seconds on a sales call to as little as 1/20th of a second. That means it needs to be visually attractive, appear to speak to your prospects’ concerns and that it will be easy to get around. -
First Person: 10 Small Business Website Gimmicks That Don't WorkWhen you finally get visitors to your site, you want them to stay a while so you can build a relationship then a customer. Don’t drive them away. I warn clients about these points because searchers don’t like them.
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First Person: Getting Over the Dread of Closing a SaleBy using relationship selling techniques, I have found that it is easier to ask closing questions as I have learned what my prospects want and need. When I ask closing questions, they are part of my being able to best serve my prospects.
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First Person: Every Small Business Needs a WebsiteThere are at least 7 reasons small business owners & managers should create a website or blog so they will have a presence on the Internet. While no brick and mortar business should rely only on the Internet, it is where customers look for them. -
First Person: Think Like a Consultant, Make a ProfitAll businesses face challenges that hurt their profits. Small business owners, however, have rarely been trained in the consulting structured approach to evaluate the situation and propose a solution so as to again make a profit. -
First Person: The Value of an Organization Chart TemplateMany small business owners have a poor understanding of how to provide an organizational structure that eliminates frustration and confusion for their employees. An organization chart template can help bring clarity to the company. -
First Person: Customer Service and Your Customers’ Lifetime ValueCustomer service is about looking for ways to serve your customers better. Interestingly, helping them learn how to use and consume your products benefits them while improving your customers’ lifetime value. -
First Person: Jargon Has a Place in Relationship SellingSmall business salespeople have a bigger challenge getting a handle on what jargon to use and what to avoid because they have to master it on their own without a large company’s training. These tips offer ideas for the proper use of jargon when selling. -
First Person: Are Your Labor Costs Higher Than You Think?Small business owners and managers rarely have the business finance training to understand how to calculate their true labor costs. Labor burden, both hard costs and soft costs, need to be added to hourly wages and salaries if you plan to make a profit.
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First Person: The Value of a Small Business Filing SystemAs a small business consultant, I quickly learned that one common place to find savings is in wasted labor and overtime. If we identified the waste as being related to their filing, we would structure a systematic approach to organizing their files. -
First Person: Small Business and the Challenge of DelegatingIn both business and my personal life, I have found it too easy to assume the other person heard me and is going to fulfill my request. Unfortunately, my clients too find themselves rushed so they assign a task on the fly only to find it doesn’t get done. -
Our Marketing Success With a Chamber of Commerce Display TableAs a small business owner, I hated sending an employee home when I had no billable on-site work to be done. The incremental business from our table at Chamber of Commerce events brought enough walk-in business to keep our techs busy. -
First Person: What Small Business Customers Really WantOver the years I have come to appreciate that knowing what customers want done and why it’s important to them is essential to providing the benefits they want and feel they need.
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First Person: Brainstorming and Small Business GrowthWhen the world is changing faster than the mind can adapt, you want a tool that is positive and creative to reconnect you to the world of possibilities. Brainstorming takes advantage of your team members' knowledge about your customers’ wants and needs. -
How I Plugged Inventory Leaks in One Small Business’ ProfitsManaging and growing a profitable small business is a challenging task. I enjoyed providing outside expertise to look at how my clients are doing things to find what isn’t even on their radar because that’s just how they do it here. -
First Person: To Increase Sales, Grow Your Customers' Lifetime ValueOf the three ways to increase your sales revenue, the easiest is to get your existing customers to consume or use what they already bought. In sales of services or information products, this means they use and apply what they bought.
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First Person: Do You Motivate or Inspire Your Sales Team?For many people, more money or prizes alone won’t inspire extra effort. They are internally motivated. To inspire them to greater effort, find out what they care about and offer them that. -
First Person: The Easy Way to Increase Sales? Increase Your Existing Customers’ Average SaleBecause you already have a relationship with them, provided, of course, that it is a good relationship, it is normally easier to sell existing customers again than it is to find a new customer and get them to know, like and trust you. -
First Person: How Empowered Employees Can Improve Customer ServiceAlthough this example of bad customer service is from a major corporation, small businesses do the same thing every day of the week. Simple procedures and customer centered training could have ensured good customer service to everyone’s benefit.
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First Person: The Power of the' Business Compliment'With 30 years in sales and marketing and in management with everything from major corporations to small businesses, I have found knowing how to give a sincere compliment strengthens my relationships.
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First Person: A Tale of Two Customer Service StandardsWhat a contrast between these two businesses. The store manager with terrible customer service was probably technically right. Nevertheless, I felt lied to and offended by his attitude. The Outback manager, on the other hand, waived the coupon limitation.
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First Person: The Easiest Sale I Ever MadeWe reached the point where he finally realized I was there to help him get what he wanted, not to pressure him into something that wouldn’t work for him. From there on, we became partners in getting him what he wanted and needed.
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First Person: Outstanding Customer Service Leaves a Lasting ImpressionHow outstanding customer service leaves a lasting impression, which produces strong, positive word of mouth publicity and repeat sales.
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First Person: When 'Quality' Means Different Things to Different PeopleOften small business relationships seem to be doing well then they fall apart. I found that it can happen when our words lead us to different expectations.
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First Person: Focusing on What My Clients Wanted Turned Into More SalesClients always know they have a problem with their profits or their business' effectiveness. The task for me as a consultant was they might really need something else. I had to learn to deliver what they wanted and help them understand what they need.
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The Four Types of Content on a WebsiteThere are four types of content on a website important to search engine ranking. These different types of content are increasingly important because the search engines want the Internet accessible to everyone and they want great user experiences.
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First Person: The Value of 'No Charge' InvoicesThe invoice is basic to all business and finance activities. Often, if you just give something away, it has the same value to your customer as what you charged, zero. I bill them what they are already paying for an extra service, but as a no charge item.
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First Person: When Your Prospect Is Ready to Buy, Will They Look for You?I have called on small business prospects who wanted my products but not been able to immediately. I found doing my best to find their needs, show the benefits, ask for the order but allow them to buy when the timing was right worked best.
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First Person: Hire People to Fit Your Business Culture and Your Management StyleIn the 1980s a book on corporate culture became a bestseller. It is important to this day. People thrive in different environments. From the viewpoint of my management style, I find that some people make my work a pleasure; others make it a living hell.
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First Person: Not Firing an Employee Cost Me SalesBeware trusting someone you know will lie and do illegal things because they will do the same thing to you no matter how well you treat them. There is always another solution, even though not as convenient.
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First Person: The Value of Customer Satisfaction InterviewsWhile customer satisfaction surveys can provide useful information when done properly, I found actually interviewing customers at this diner gave me suggestions that needed to be applied.
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How Rotary Helped Me Feel like a Business OwnerSometimes the shift into a new level of small business owner consciousness comes from what you do outside the business. For me, the biggest boost in self-esteem and feeling like a small business owner came from my membership in Rotary International.
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First Person: Sales Success Means Focusing on Your Ideal Customer ProfileFor customers to buy and for sales to happen, three things need to be in place. The first of these is the right audience. It is defined by your ideal customer profile. Once you are clear on the ideal customer profile, the smart marketer narrows his focus.
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First Person: Firing Employees With Kindness and CompassionNot every employee hired for a job has the right skills, attitude or interest in doing that particular job. No small business can long survive if anyone chooses to be a drain on your energy and resources.
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First Person: When Hiring, Don't Trust a First ImpressionIt's too easy for me to be swayed by a good first impression into hiring a new employee then live to regret it. When I followed a good business practice by actually digging into his background, I saved us a long of money and frustration.
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First Person: Developing Customer Loyalty By Adding ValueI found that services to create added value in our printer maintenance contracts worked very effectively to strengthen customer loyalty. Although there would be changes in the contracts due to changes in their needs, they still renewed year after year.
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What is the Effect of Simple Interest Versus Compound Interest?If you are like most small business owners and managers, your strengths lie in your more technical skills areas, not in the financial arena. Thus, you may underestimate the potential effect of the difference between simple and compound interest.
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The 3 Keys to a Successful Small Business Sales StrategyPeople often think that sales success is a matter of personality or closing technique. In reality it's a matter of relationships. Nevertheless, you need the right audience, the right product or right service and the right timing.
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What I Learned as a Customer About How to Avoid Blowing Your SaleAs a small business owner or manager, you invest a lot of time, effort and money to attract prospects to your business. It can be extremely expensive then when you have a prospect walk because your sales representatives' techniques or, worse, lies.
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How I Learned Not to Trust Profit and Loss StatementsIf you are like most small business owners and managers I know, you probably do not understand your financial statements well enough to realize why your net profit fails to tell the whole story. It is important to also know what the balance sheet says.
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How I Use Commenting on Other People's Blogs to Improve My Search Engine RankingOne of the most interesting tools I've found to improve my search engine rankings by generating backlinks is commenting on other people's blogs. I find it exciting to engage in a discussion with people. Sometimes they visit my blog. At the least, the sear
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Customer Loyalty: How a Restaurant Won Me BackLoyal customers give a small business the best chance of survival. But customer loyalty doesn't just happen. You have to earn it. This restaurant earned my loyalty by fixing a problem when I was going to blow it off, and then I was going to blow them off.
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First Person: Earning My Customers' LoyaltyDeveloping customer loyalty is often seen as creating a customer loyalty program, like a frequent traveler card. Sometimes instead it comes from refusing to make a sale. I had to learn that the hard way.
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Success in Selling Comes from Listening, Not TellingFor decades, traditional sales training has relied upon techniques and presentations to close the sale. Today, more than ever before, prospects don't care about your story until they feel you care about them and are going to provide what they want.
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How I Learned to Handle Burnout and Recover My MotivationIn my sideline business as a freelance restaurant reviewer, I rediscovered what it is like to go through burnout. This time I avoided walking away from a business I loved and found a way to recover my motivation.
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Can You Create Your Own Small Business Website Without a Website Designer?It took me months in 2001 to create my first static website. Today, using blogging software, I can create a vastly more exciting website than I ever imagined possible. Best of all, I can install it in a few minutes and customize it in a couple hours.
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How Has the Amazon Affiliate Program Just Made a Big Mistake?June 29th, Amazon cut thousands of us small Internet marketers in California off as affiliates because Governor Jerry Brown signed the Internet sales tax bill. My concern isn't with who's right. It's with the impact on customer loyalty & affiliate trust.
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What I Learned from Starting an Undercapitalized Small BusinessWhen I was turned down for that $200,000 loan to start a small business, it actually ended up being a good thing, even though it meant that I started as an undercapitalized small business. I had some things to learn about what to spend limited capital on.