Marketing and Selling Simple Steps to Business Success: Workshop 4

Version 1 © Enterprise Growth Partnership Ltd 2014

Who’s this workshop for? •  You own and run a small business: –  You’re just starting out in business and wondering where to get sales from –  You’re already in business and need to refresh your marketing and sales efforts

•  You’re an employee: –  You work in marketing or sales and hope to check or improve on your skills –  You are moving into a marketing or sales role and want to learn how to be successful at it

What is this workshop about? •  Taking a step back •  ‘Selling’ it: –  What is selling and what is marketing and why does it matter to us that there is a difference? –  How do we get people interested in what you have to offer? –  How do we persuade customers to buy from you again and again?

•  Action planning

Your Action Plan

Introduce yourself •  •  •  • 

You Your business or job One thing that’s great about what you do What you hope to learn from this workshop

Taking a Step Back •  Working on your business instead of in it: –  Do you know what you want to achieve for yourself? –  Do you have clear business objectives? –  How S.M.A.R.T. are they?

•  Why is it important to have objectives?

What’s the difference and why does it matter?

MARKETING AND SELLING

Discussion Marketing and selling: what’s the difference? What do you do / will you do to get business? Is it marketing or selling?

Marketing and Selling Marketing •  One to many Selling •  Raising awareness and •  One to one creating position •  Identifying and matching needs •  Building a relationship •  ‘Pull’: attracts the customer •  carrying out a transaction •  Creates attention and •  ‘Push’: going to the interest customer •  Precedes selling •  Creates desire and action •  Brand •  Follows marketing •  Doing the deal

Marketing and Selling Definitions

Marketing •  The process of telling people about you, your products and services

Selling •  The process of persuading customers to buy from you

Marketing and selling: two links in the chain

Doing it better! •  Understanding selling and marketing helps you use your limited resources better: –  Better use of your time –  Better return on your limited marketing budget –  Avoids repeating other people’s mistakes –  Helps you to look for new customers in the right place –  Helps understand what works and what doesn’t –  Bottom line: keeps you profitable!

Getting People Interested in What You Have to Offer

MARKETING. THE LAW OF ATTRACTION

Marketing: How confident do you feel?

Marketing: you’re lucky if you get it right first time! Learn from mistakes (improve)

Decide what to do (plan)

Oops! (review & update)

Afraid it won't work (risk)

See if it works (test)

Start to do it (implement)

Why should people buy from YOU?

It’s a competitive market

Customers: Who’d Have Them?

Profiling your customers •  What do they have in common: –  How do they use your products? –  How frequently do they buy? –  Are they looking for a particular benefit? –  Is it a question of lifestyle e.g. gyms? –  Is it where they live? –  Is it their age?

Customer profile examples •  Car manufacturer*: How does the customer use the car?

What’s important to this group of potential customers (needs)?

Example manufacturer

Run about town

Economy, small size

?

Carrying the family

Seating & luggage capacity, safety, economy, price

?

Sales person on the road

Status, style, build quality, reliability

?

Leisure driving

Appearance, performance

?

Local deliveries

Payload capacity, economy, reliability, security

? * Chartered Institute of Marketing

Customer profile examples •  Art gallery start-up (direct mail / premises): Factor

Relevant information

Socio Economic Class

Middle to upper professional classes

‘Psychology’

art & jewellery lover, fashion conscious, eclectic taste, university-educated, upwardly mobile life-style.

Age

35 to 55

Sex

Male or female

Income

> £50,000 per year

Habits

e.g. shopping at middle to high-end retail establishments.

Home address

West Yorkshire & Greater Manchester

Customer Groupings: Sources of Data •  • 

Desk / internet research Marketing list providers: –  –  – 

•  • 

Competitors Online lists –  –  – 

• 

Database marketing companies Membership organisations Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce

Dun & Bradstreet Duedil.com Jigsaw.com

Data Protection Act – 

WS3 Starting & Running Your Business

Deciding on Your Message •  • 

You understand what they need now get inside their head. What do you want your customers to… –  – 

• 

…think? …do?

Ways you can encourage this (4 Ps / 7 Ps): –  –  –  –  –  –  – 

Price (create value, try not to discount) Product (product features, performance) Placement (distribution channels) Promotion (advertising, PR, voluntary work) People (training, appearance, behaviour) Process (customer service, delivery) Physical evidence (literature, packaging)

Positioning Exercise What do you want your customers to THINK and DO?

A million and one ways to promote what you do

TALKING TO YOUR CUSTOMERS

Talking to Your Customers The promotional mix •  There are ever more inventive ways to promote what you do and try to stand out from the crowd •  What mix of activity suits you best? •  As a small business, we don’t have either the time or the budget to do it all.

How to Get the Message Out Advertising

Electronic

Yellow Pages

SMS Web site

Directories Magazine advertising Newspapers Radio TV Exhibitions Vehicle signage Window displays Uniforms Sponsorship

Sales Scratch cards Promotional gifts Incentives Sales activity

SEO Pay per click

Public Relations (PR) Editorial Advertorials Newsletters

Blogging Telemarketing Email marketing Viral marketing Social media

Products Product range Product development

Relationships

Printing

Referrals Networking Questionnaires Suggestion boxes Parties (e.g. Tupperware) Workshops Focus groups

Business cards Letters (direct mail) Inserts Flyers Point of sale material Posters / banners Post cards Price lists Terms and conditions Packaging and labelling

Reputation Proposals, quotations & estimates Testimonials Presentations Speeches Newspaper interviews Voluntary or charity work Professional committees Strategic partnerships

Pricing Credit control (e.g. payment discounts) Special offers (e.g. BOGOF) Vouchers Tactical pricing

Your Promotional Plan Activity

e.g. Email marketing

What we are doing / thinking of doing e.g. Monthly email newsletter

What else might work?

Actions we need to take & by when

e.g. Personalised emails to target customers

Write the body text of a personalised email by…

How Much Talking? •  How many people do you think you need to talk to in order to: –  Get them interested? –  Make them want to buy? –  Place the order?

Conversion Ratios 1000 suspects 200 prospects 100 leads 50 offers 40 sales Conversion ratio: 40 sales ÷ 1000 suspects x 100% = 4% Want more? Double the Sales Activity!!!

Selling: it’s a science as well as an art.

HOW TO MAKE A...

The Art & Science of Selling •  Selling is an ‘art’ (interpersonal skills) –  Belief –  Passion –  Enthusiasm

•  and a ‘science’ (process) –  Sales don’t happen by accident –  Sales can be planned –  There is a process to selling effectively –  More sales activity will lead to more sales

Know the process. Trust the process. Adapt the process to your needs

THE SCIENCE OF SELLING

Know Your Onions •  Know your products & margins –  What value-adding services do you provide? –  Which are your valuable customers and which are your high maintenance ones? –  What’s going to contribute to your profit and what will just flatter the top line?

Sales Planning •  Do you have a Sales Plan? –  Plan sales by product / service / revenue stream •  How much do you need to sell to meet your objective?

–  Define conversion ratios –  Set achievable targets

Get creative: you already have it in you!

THE ART OF SELLING

People buy People •  “Gut feeling” counts more than you may imagine –  Even complex sales

•  We’re all different personality types: –  Visual –  Hearing –  Feelings-based

•  Influencing styles: –  Negotiation / Vision / Logic / People Orientation / Association –  Match words & body language –  Use others

Questioning Techniques •  The person asking the questions is in control: make sure it’s YOU! –  Conventional sell or Dialogue based sell – how do you sell yours? –  Open questions

•  Active listening: –  Reflection / Summarising / Testing understanding / SILENCE! –  Aim is to understand the customer need to identify the best value solution

“What’s In It for Me?” •  Negotiate a WIN / WIN Outcome •  Question their motives - uncover the real issues •  What ‘floats their boat?’ (Focus on the benefits not the features): –  What’s included in your offer? –  How do you demonstrate value for money?

•  Handle objections: –  recognise, clarify, rephrase, address –  Don’t discount –  Do show flexibility – but not on price!

Settle on Your Winning Formula •  Are You Different, Better or Just ‘Cheaper?’ –  Your Vision and Values make you Different –  Customer and Product Mix –  Sales targets linked to your Ultimate Destination –  Lead generation / footfall –  Process –  People –  Measure, Evaluate and Update

Marketing: How confident do you feel?

Downloads • 

Business Doctors – 

Downloads • 

– 

Action Plan • 

– 

http://bit.ly/1xX1qvd

Business Plan • 

– 

http://bit.ly/1mbK7CN

http://bit.ly/1mbKFIU

Cash flow Forecast • 

http://bit.ly/1jbcL7s

Useful Web Sites • 

Businessballs –  – 

• 

www.fsb.org.uk Representation and membership benefits www.groundwork.org.uk Free training in the event of redundancy

HM Revenue & Customs –  – 

www.hmrc.gov.uk Tax, VAT, expenses, mileage, help

Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce •  • 

• 

•  • 

www.mycci.co.uk Networking and membership benefits

West Yorkshire Enterprise Agency –  –  – 

Groundwork –  – 

• 

www.businessballs.com business models, tips and stories

Federation of Small Business –  – 

• 

• 

www.wyea.co.uk Funding and support Training Courses wyea.eventbrite.co.uk

Your Local Council UK Government – 

www.direct.gov.uk