Kolikoff & Company

Creating Relationships That GROW Your Business

Archive for June, 2009

So You Wanna Be a Small Business Owner… I mean Salesperson?

Jun 29

Posted by JustMeAndrew in Sales & Marketing | No Comments

Small businesses comprise more than 99% of all businesses in the U.S. according to the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA).

The success of a small business rests on the owner’s ability to sell. Business owners have about 50 different hats to wear, but sales is the biggest hat an entrepreneur wears. Actually without the sales hat, the other hats are useless.

And, when I say sales I’m not just talking, “Hey, please buy my stuff.” Sales is not just selling your product or service. There are meaningful uses of selling skills that permeate every facet of the entrepreneurial process.

Here are a few of the sales jobs that fall under the definition of selling that a small business owner must perform:
• Getting credit from a supplier – Convincing your suppliers that you’re credit worthy is sometimes as good or better than a bank loan.
• Getting a loan from a banker – A true sales job. You have to convince your banker you deserve the loan and can repay the debt.
• Getting small favors from employees – Work overtime, work weekends, work more productively, change work processes.
• Getting something delivered on time – Sell the supplier that delivery is imperative to serve your customers or grow your business.
• Satisfying a disgruntled customer – You don’t want a bad experience to cost you a customer, so you sell acceptable solutions.
• Getting payment for an invoice – It’s Friday. Payroll is due. You have no cash, but you do have receivables. You must collect that check to pull it off.

What makes small business owners so good at sales, even if they have had no previous experience? Desire, fear, and about 50 other emotions associated with the risk and spirit of adventure that the entrepreneurial process breeds, including the love of being on your own, and the passionate belief in what you’re doing.

Here are 7.5 reasons why business owners sell best:
1. The responsibility for success of the business is yours. You won’t let your business fail due to lack of sales – so it’s your job to sell until it’s successful.
2. The business is your child. You sell best because you know your product or service best. You are its most sincere and passionate representative. You are responsible for feeding and nurturing your business.
3. You can make deals no one else can make. People think when they buy from the owner they’re getting a special deal, may not have to pay a commission and therefore are getting the best price, or at least the best offer.
4. People like to buy from the owner. Customers know they’ll get special attention and special appreciation.
5. Customers have a special confidence in you. You sell it because you believe in in your business. Your enthusiasm generates confidence that transforms into sales. Customers also know the owner will go the extra mile to deliver what’s promised.
6. The relationship with the customer is yours to build at first. You get to know the people who are helping you succeed. After your business matures, you choose who you will continue to handle personally, and who you can pass on to a salesperson.
7. You are in the best position for direct feedback about your product, service and business. Your customer has all the information you need to succeed. Get close to him or her and listen. Then take action as only the owner can do.
7.5 If you have other salespeople, you must be the leader of your own sales campaign. If you don’t lead them, no one will. You must set the example, drive the belief system, and create the atmosphere of success. You must be the best at sales, because that’s where the success is.

If you’re not an expert at sales, get to be one by taking lessons. Read every book, listen to every CD, and go to seminars. Be a student. Form a mastermind group with other non-competing entrepreneurs. Find maybe even a firm that can help (sorry, little plug there!).

No one is able to sell your business like you can — even if you don’t consider yourself a salesperson. You can’t say, “I’m not pushy enough to be in sales.” You gotta push.

But sales is not about pushy. It’s about helping other people and building relationships. It’s about building your business, and about being responsible for your own success.

To achieve your entrepreneurial dreams, you must make sales. Sales is about making your entrepreneurial fantasy become a reality. Your reality.

What’s Your Crisis?

Jun 23

Posted by JustMeAndrew in Personal Stories | No Comments

Crisis is the best time to affect change… so what’s your crisis?
What’s happening in your personal world?
What’s happening in your business world?
What’s happening in your sales world?

Change is in the air.
You can feel it like a crisp winter day.
You can almost smell it.

The personal question is: How will you react to that change?
The bigger personal question is: Do you understand that change is opportunity?
The biggest personal question is: How will you take advantage of that opportunity?

We are in a crisis. Some will define it in other words, like recession or downturn, but the actions we as a people and a government take over the next few months will shape our world for the next decade.

Some people are “waiting to see what happens.” Big mistake. There are three kinds of people — people who make things happen, people who watch things happen, and people who don’t know what’s happening. Which kind are you?

TAKE NOTE: You can’t change things in THE world, but you can change things in YOUR world.

Now is the perfect time to change your situation, and take a self-leadership position. Now is the perfect time to take control of yourself — your thoughts, your expressions, and your actions.

If you’re in sales, now is the time to sell. Sell better and with more passion than ever before. Start with existing customers. Serve them so phenomenally that they buy more, and refer you to others. That’s not a change you can, “live with;” that’s a change you can survive with, even thrive with.

Don’t just guard your desk and your job. Guard your customers. They are your lifeblood.

REALITY: In order to change whatever you were doing before, you must intensify your efforts. TRANSLATION: In order to effect that change, work harder and smarter than ever before, and do it with a positive attitude and a service heart.

Here’s the secret: Outside change makes inside change okay.

At this moment, many people in our society are looking for answers — or better stated WAITING for answers. What are you waiting for? What are you looking for? What are you doing?

While this time is passing there are three atmospheres:
One is fear and anger. Being bitter, not better.
One is hope and anxiousness. Waiting instead of doing.
One is positive anticipation and determination. Digging in and doing.
Which atmosphere do you exist in?

HOPE: As I travel across the United States, I’ve noticed there is a renewed sense of friendliness and patriotism. A sense of union I’ve never witnessed. There is a willingness among many to try to get better and work harder. And clearly, there is a renewed sense of urgency.

Yes, there’s fear, frustration, and disappointment. But not as much as you might read about or hear about. (HINT: They rarely show the good things on TV.) The key is to not be angry about it. Anger affects your attitude, your ability to think clearly and think creatively, and your ability to see the best answers and the best opportunity for you.

Sure you want to be safe, but consider those who pay you, those you serve, and those around you. They are affected too. And their response to the same situation will most likely be different than yours.

PROBLEM: Big companies are looking to remain profitable, and are doing it at the expense of their employees and their service offerings. Airlines and automobile manufacturers are crying — not serving better or raising quality, rather cutting everything and everyone, and begging for money. Morale is in the gutter, along with service. HUGE mistake.

EASY ANSWER: Double your service offerings.

REALITY: People are looking to get closer, to find a bond, to find answers. People want the country to rally and win. Patriotism is rampant. (What was your last PROACTIVE act of patriotism?) It’s not just salute the flag and sing the national anthem, it’s look at history and see how we have overcome adversity in the past, and try to discover and work for positive outcomes in the future.

WAKE UP: Now is the time for friendly, and friendly itself is change that makes other change possible. Now is the time for service, and service itself can make people want to do business with you at all times, not just economically challenging times.

Selling a Green Product or Service – Advice

Jun 17

Posted by JustMeAndrew in Green | No Comments

GREEN is the new buzz word in sales. Today it seems as if everyone, everywhere, is talking about GREEN products and services.

Across the globe, companies are creating advertising and collateral touting the GREEN attributes of their products and services. Sales Professionals are receiving collateral from their marketing organizations that are designed to help demonstrate the organization’s commitment to green initiatives and sustainability. Some of these initiatives are real and some are pretty silly. Regardless, as more businesses jump on the GREEN bandwagon, salespeople who have little training or knowledge of these initiatives will be asked carry this message to customers and prospects.

So what do you need to know to make GREEN a competitive advantage in your sales process? How can you leverage your company’s GREEN initiatives to better connect with your prospects and customers?

Tips for Selling Green

To get answers to these questions I called my good friend Deven Blum. Devin, who works with a national roofing and sheet metal company, is one of the top Sales Professionals in the roofing industry and is called on by industry groups to write and speak about GREEN issues. He’s also been featured on TV news shows. When it comes to selling GREEN, Deven knows his stuff.

Dennis gave me three tips for selling GREEN that he says will help you put more green in your wallet.
1. Never Lead with Your Green Card
2. Education is Essential
3. Relationships are Key

Of these three points, the most important is never lead with your green card. People equate GREEN with added cost and if the first thing you present is the environmental benefit of your product, then the first thing that goes through your buyer’s mind is a concern about your price. You must build a case for your product that helps your customer see why they would want it even if it was not GREEN. Once you have their interest, use GREEN features and benefits to build an emotional connection to your product or service. The environmental benefits will differentiate you from your competitors and will often give you the winning edge.

To rise above your competitors who are jumping onto the GREEN bandwagon in hopes of generating quick sales, education is essential. Now more than ever is a time when you must invest in your product knowledge. The reason is simple. The companies that you are selling to are educating their buyers on environmental issues–and to be viewed as an expert –it is critical that you know more about the GREEN attributes of your products and services than they do. If you try to fake it, the environmentally savvy buyer will call you on the carpet and you will lose credibility, which will undermine your relationship. If you don’t know an answer to a question it is better to admit it, take a note, and inform your customer that you will get back to them with the answer. Your client will appreciate your extra work and the willingness to learn.

As GREEN becomes a more important part of the sales process, relationships are key to increased sales. The desire to help the environment is an emotional feeling, and your customers and prospects will be keen to connect with people who share their interest in promoting environmental consciousness. That is especially true for clients who really want to buy GREEN. Take time to learn about GREEN issues outside of your industry and beyond your product or service. Read, do research, and attend seminars. As your relationships with your clients deepen and loyalty grows, they will look to your for advice and counsel. Soon your competitors will be locked out, your sales will grow, and you will find more and more green in your commission checks.

Kolikoff & Company is a full service Business Development firm headquartered in Phoenix Arizona specializing in outsourced sales and marketing services including a variety of Green related initiatives.

Kolikoff & Company Logo 4-08

Kolikoff Partner!

Jun 16

Posted by JustMeAndrew in Personal Stories | No Comments

Welcome! Since this is my first entry I thought I might like to first set the table so to speak.  The purpose of my blog (well, besides some obvious selfish reasons – good for generating relevant content which in turn creates more traffic to our site and service and in the end some of that green stuff in my wallet) is to tell, through experience, stories that enlighten, inspire, perhaps even change your way of thinking.  So let’s get started!  And with that why don’t we start with some incredible things Kolikoff & Company is doing with one of it’s business partners… SEOrchers (formerly Novel Concept Studios).  Besides the fact that they are great human beings and wonderful to work with (which no one should ever overlook)… in a word they/we (through our seamless service and partnership) are the BOMB!  Here is an ad I produced on Craigslist that speaks the truth and has reeled in some very interesting clients:

Try It… Google “SEO Services”: We’re Number on the FIRST PAGE and NUMBER 10!  Now if we can make our firm number 10 in the world with perhaps the MOST competitive key word phrase on the planet (10th out of 23.7 million), imagine what we could do for your business! Fact: 80% of US consumers search the internet FIRST for the product or service they are intending to purchase! What SEO (Search Engine Optimization) does (if you don’t already know) is get you/your company or service top listed in Google/MSN/Yahoo, etc. based on certain key words entered. So let’s say you want to lure more prospective customers/clients to your website (and like who doesn’t!)… well, it is just this service that accomplishes that! Getting top listed in Google we all know will grow your business and you won’t need to work as hard and spend as much money (i.e., Yellow Pages, Direct Mail, Advertising, Sales Staff, etc.) to generate leads and new business relationships. There will be NO wiser investment in your business than this! For more on getting your company top listed in Google, Yahoo, MSN and others… go to http://www.novelconceptstudio.com (now known as http://www.seorchers.com)

So while this may not be a story yet that inspires and will change the world, one thing is for sure… we can and will inspire you and your business if given the chance!