Hampton Roads Business & Marketing Blog

Archive for the ‘Small Business’ Category

Who suffers more?
As is well known, this is a global problem that affects every sector of the market regardless of their geographical location. The effects of the crisis, obviously not only suffering but also at consumer level and also suffer in all areas or departments of any company. But perhaps the areas of marketing and sales are those that suffer most from economies rescission.

And I wonder … Why?
First, they are often the first to suffer from the personnel adjustments and economic resources. Secondly, because it rests largely on the enormous responsibility that entails selling when things do not work. In these circumstances, there is no magic or unique sales strategies. The answer lies in the ability of adaptation and creativity of each employer.

Who can cope with the crisis?
According to several experts, independent entrepreneurs and small businesses are those that can best address difficult periods, which can better exploit and survive in times of recession, including relaunching and strengthening the business for when the time of austerity. This is possible thanks to the flexibility of adaptation of these entrepreneurs. Although the budget is not as high as that of big business, flexibility, dynamism and adaptability to different situations make a difficult situation that is being privileged.
If small businesses make the most of this situation and accept that the crisis can be an opportunity to generate other services, diversify and take supplements to help strengthen the core business enterprises will be the most favored in the short, medium and long term.

How do we get?
Following 7 simple and effective strategies:
1. Assess your market. It is very important to analyze how the crisis affects your market, so you’ll have the opportunity to identify alternatives to your product / service or even if there is another niche market or to sell at that time.

2. Differentiate the offer depending on the pocket. As demand is very fragmented, the fragment must be bid. There are different ways of approaching clients of different profiles: the voice marketing, telemarketing, marketing, social networks, email, SMS, etc.

3. Be prepared to sell. The vast majority of employers in mind only has to sell, buy and sell without doing so, thinking that your sales force should draw chestnuts from the fire because it is. You sound familiar? The solution is not to sell but to sell. To have to reckon with a toolkit such as having effective website and invest in the human factor, that is to devote time and resources to motivate the salespeople, train them and listen. This helps to raise labor productivity significantly.

4. Create services. It is as simple as creating a very attractive short-term to invite the customer to take the opportunity, but some of the benefits over the lifetime of the service.

5. Making alliances with suppliers and with other employers to achieve cheaper, and with new sales channels.

6. Do not miss a single customer. It is easier to retain and sell to customers who already have to attract and sell to new ones.

7. Knowing your customer portfolio. Only if we know who our customers are the best in terms of solvency and profitability, we can focus our efforts on them loyalty and streamline the budget we have provided for this purpose.

In brief
In hard times the best bet to increase sales is to make a trade adjustment, which has nothing to do with layoffs, but rather to make a thorough analysis of your market and your sales force to identify new or complementary services market niches and overcome weaknesses in your sales and enhance their knowledge and skills with proper training and coaching to enhance the sales process.

We are all going: we are so focused on the daily life of our work that we do not see beyond the daily tasks. While we make small things do not look what is happening around us. Or beyond. However, it is vital for companies (and people) do not be so short-sighted. Having regard to the hyper-world in which we move, as you keep your eyes riveted on your homework “and” your table “and not wake up before you’re killing professionally.
If we make the effort to look away, we realize that there is information out of our environments potentially useful for developers: new trends, new technology, new articles and books, new professionals and people with interesting things to contribute, and old people and books to be reread. I’m not saying that companies neglect their daily chores. But set aside resources for their organizations to incorporate information explorers.

We need scouts who know the business well, the sector but have a broader view, they move to other worlds, other techniques, and other arts because of the variety and differences will emerge as varied and different. Companies may have browsers dedicated 100% to the task, or to encourage other departments (marketing, communication, for example) to which they are part time. But in any case the company must have the courage to let them have time and freedom to organize raids to hunt where good pieces of information. Should not be subject to discipline by the day or the small tasks, but leave them to hang out in libraries, read books and articles, attend presentations, procurement documentation center for the company to continue blogging, and monitoring the competition or companies that have nothing to do with what they are doing.

The discipline to which they must be subject to the scouts is to present useful results for the company, which are those that provide business value and also can act on them.
One possibility that occurs to me is that the browsers submit a report each month which then can be distributed throughout the company and on paper and via email. This work should come from the highest managerial novice to the technician over at least all that are on the same wavelength width. Miles may be the topics covered:

* News about our sector
* Things that happen in other sectors and could valernos
* Books that have come and we should take a look.
* Summaries of the books I’ve read, that might be useful, and I know that neither of coif to read because you never have time.
* Posts from blogs that might be useful (if also encourage you to follow the blog).
* Things that should go to
* People should continue to
* Other roads where you can explore information at will (this collection of books, such an organization, such people or country.)
* Conclusions: Summary of exploration + ideas and trends localized (this is the most important part of the report)

I believe that these documents would be very powerful as a laboratory of ideas. Obviously would not like pork, which is used throughout, but some knowledge would be transferred to the people and remain latent. As always be posted on the Internet can retrieve them later to rescue this good idea, look at where we suggested a year ago, the explorer of the company and now you see the utility.

This browser, or team of explorers would have to use your imagination, intuition, skills, tools and knowledge to get out the obvious, and organize and re-organized in multiple ways, in multiple ways, every month to bring a good game Pearls with the information to fill the treasury of ideas for the company. Hence can get new products, new creativity is multiplied exponentially when shared throughout the organization, the feeling of being in communion with the world and not like ants on small tasks that are not observed by the eye of anyone. I know that I am proposing a chimera: an employee or team of employees “released” as they engage in more creative things. And then they pay well. But are not we in an era of innovation? Well here’s a job well innovator. Both believe that if there were not receiving many resumes.