In order to succeed in business with your business or sales you need to know your business and your offering by identifying:

1. The value proposition:
What value does your business or solutions bring ?
What is your value proposition ?

2. The uniqueness:
Many companies have me-too products. Still most of them have at least one unique function or feature that sets them apart.

3. The no competitors:
If you have a completely unique offering then be aware people won’t know about the offering or solution you bring. You will have an uphill battle to explain your solution as hardly anybody has ever heard of your solution.
It is better to have some competitors than none.

4. The perception:
How do you want your business or products to be perceived ?
Outstanding, high quality, low cost, cheapest on the market, exclusive, average but without any risk, market leading, innovative, conservative, …

5. The match with perception:
How does the reality matches with the perception you portray ?
If there is a discrepancy or a gap between portrayed perception and the real stuff, you will need marketing to fill the gap.

6. The business specialty:
Does business have a specialty ?
If your business is common and plain, then how will it get noticed ?
What sets you apart from the rest ?
If your business has a specialty then your marketign can focus on this making it easier and less costly.

7. The target market:
Have you identified your target market ?
The more precise you can identify your target market the better, cheaper and more effective your marketing campaigns can be runt successfully as you don’t need to address to the masses.

8. The target market demographics
Your target market consist of companies who are staffed with people. You should know the demographics of the people that advice on the type of solutions you offer (influencers) and the type of people that take the decisions like:
- Age
- Gender
- Education
- Personal interests
Don’t offer free football tickets in a golf or sailing environment. Know your demographic profiles.

9. The proposition:
According to the type of people you address and communicate a different message is needed:
- Users want functions
- Influencers van features
- Managers advantages
- CXOs want benefits
What change or improvement can your business or solution bring for the people in each of these subgroups of your target market ?
Who will get you the easiest or best to a successful deal ?
Who do you want to promote too and who do you avoid to address ?

10. The SEO:
As your website is an important part and tool in any B2B lead generation and sales process, you need to make sure you use the best SEO in order to get the people from your target market based upon the demographics and the proposition.

11. The channels:
Besides the website you need to consider other channels that are appropriate to send out your marketing messages as they need to match your the demographics of your target market and be suited to carry your proposition.
This can be email, online ads, printed ads, direct mail, cold calling, trade shows, conferences or even social media.
try to figure out which channels are likely to be used by the people in the demographics of your target market.
If they don’t read newspapers then don’t advertise in newspapers.
If they don’t visit trade shows then don’t waste money on trade shows.

12. The lead qualification:
Can you define the qualities or characteristics your lead has to have in order to qualify ?
The better and earlier in your sales process you can qualify your leads or you can dismiss your leads the lower your sales costs will be.
At the same time your feedback to marketing will be faster allowing marketing reacting or adjusting their marketing campaigns.

13. The distribution:
If there is/are a middleman(me) in your distribution (distributor and/or resellers), you need to know how profitable your business is for them. Is it worth for them to invest time (training) and money (storage space) in your business ?Can they make enough or more money on your business or products compared to competing products and solutions.
If there is noting in it for them you won’t sell.

14. The feedback:
All feedback from your channel (distributors or resellers) and end-users is utmost important as you always can improve.
Find ways to get feedback. Even if it comes at a high cost.

The better you understand your business, the better you can promote your business and sell more.

How good do you understand your business ?

Instead of just focusing and pitting all your marketing effort on one channel or one type of marketing will have less effect as multiple touches.

Difficult multiple touches

Once people have seen an ad or marketing campaign on one channel, they seem to be able to filter it out during the next appearances.
Of course if your messages are quite different then multiple touches using one channel can be effective. However what product or brand has enough interesting features or stories to tell in order to have multiple touches ? Even if your product is outstanding, you can only tell once it is outstanding. The next time on the same channel this message will be more or less ignored.

Multiple channels

Hence it is more effective to promote your product or brand using different channels as for first every time of remarking the brand or product on a new channel the interest will be increased.
The more you can make your product or brand be remarked using different channels, even with the same content, the more likely it will stick with your potential customers.

these different channels can be:
- Email marketing
- Direct mailing
- Print advertising
- Online advertising
- Telemarketing
- Social marketing
- Questions or replies on forums and discussion boards
- Press releases

The idea of multiple touches is great, but most products or services are not that interesting in order to generate enough interesting multiple touches.
Instead using more or less the same content or statements on multiple channels will be more effective.

The best would be if you could achieve multiple touches on multiple channels.

Are you using multiple touch or multiple channel or both ?

Missing a deal due to a missing feature

On many occasions salesmen claim they missed the deal because one or more features or functionality were missing.
The most obvious reaction of the Sales Manager or even the CEO is to demand this additional feature or function in order not to miss the next deal. If the solution cannot be found or developed in house then even an acquisition can be evaluated.

This push for more features not solely comes from sales but can also originate from marketing or product marketing as they require new features in order to be able creating new messages and campaigns or to have a me-too product.

The Feature Creep Monster

The Feature Creep Monster appears while slowly more and more features and functions are added to the product or solution.
If a sales rep or product manager can obtain a feature change or addition, it will be very difficult to explain why not to add the next required feature: that’s when the Feature Creep Monster gets into the drivers’ seat of product management.

Then more features are added until it becomes complex or cumbersome to use. The core of the product will go beyond the original specs. At the same time the group or market segment that was originally targeted when designing the product could get less focus or they might even no longer consider your product anymore as it falls into a different category.

Feature disaster

After adding one or more features, no client ever seems to require the added feature that had cause the loss of a deal previously. The issue the company now has that it needs to support the additional feature in every next revision of the product. What seemed to be a minor cost to add an additional feature that could bring significant more sales, has turned out to be a money burning feature that brings no revenue. As more and more useless features or features without impact on sales are added the Feature Creep Monster has turned into a feature disaster due to the high costs involved to maintain these features year after year.

Avoiding feature creep

In any case you have to shed that “The Customer Is Always Right” mentality. The customer just wants more at the same cost or the customer needed to find a reason to grant the purchase to a competitor.

Every change of a feature or each time an additional feature to be added is discussed a cost benefit analysis should be made:
- How much more sales or how much less sales will be missed
- Costs of developing, adding, promoting, selling and maintaining the feature

In any case don’t rush into adding a new feature as once you have added the feature it will be almost impossible to remove the feature. Investigate first by doing a market research which is beyond the one customer that asks for the feature. Also try to find out if your competitors have actually closed a significant number of deals thanks to the demanded feature or if it was just a one off.

Feature creep will happen with any product, just make sure it doesn’t make your product and sales creepy.
Also learn to say “No” to your customers when they want another feature in order to tale the Feature Creep Monster.

How much feature creep have gotten your products ?
How did you tame the Feature Creep Monster ?

Elected by a corporation

The CEO’s of small companies are always proud if they receive an order or proposition for cooperation from a large company for development or R&D purposes.

However when a large corporation addresses to or asks a small company for researching or developing a specific solution, this is not because the large company can’t develop it or misses the capacity to develop it, but merely to avoid internal problems such as:
- Writing the business plan for the new development
- Getting the budget approved
- Avoiding internal politics
- Wasting time over a long procedure to get a new development started
- High research or development costs that needs to be justified

Benefit for the corporation

The small company can probably research into or even deliver the required solution much faster at a lower cost without all the hassle of the hierarchical organization of the large corporation. Moreover the large company could get the research or development done at a very low price by teasing with the carrot of possible large orders and a long time cooperation.

Although the perception of the CEO of the small company is that they have been elected for their quality or professionalism of work but actually it is just to avoid any problems or major delays for the research or development of the new solution.

Contract – agreement required

Hence the CEO of smaller companies should think twice and negotiate a contract or agreement with the larger corporation in order to really be able to reap the benefits from the research or development done for the large corporation. Moreover the efforts should be paid for – and not given away for free. If the solution is crucial to the corporation and proves to be successful, it is likely the corporation will go over to an acquisition.

Has any cooperation with a large company brought you any benefits?

In sales you have Winners and Losers.
Some salesmen win all the time.
Others seem to lose all the time.

Attitude

The Winner will see the gain.
The Loser will see the pain.

The Winner sees opportunities.
The Loser sees problems.

The Winner always has a guideline.
The Loser always has an excuse.

The Winner is nothing impossible.
The Loser will find all too difficult.

The Winner is always part of the solution.
The Loser sees only the problem.

The Winner will admit his mistake.
The Loser will try to blame it on someone else or the system.

The Winner compromises but stands firm on values.
The Loser stands firm but compromises on values.

The Winner has dreams.
The Loser has schemes.

Anticipation

The Winner will learn from his mistakes.
The Losers will avoid all risks.

The Winner is a part of the team.
The Loser is apart from the team.

The Winner will see the future potential.
The Loser will see the past loss.

The Winner seeks to learn and explore.
The Loser seeks to continue like before.

The Winner chooses what he says.
The Loser say what he has chosen.

Reaction

The Winner will do it for you or at least help you.
The Loser give suggestions which are obvious or might not help.

The Winner will look for alternatives.
The Loser will continue like it always was done.

The Winner makes commitments.
The Loser makes promises.

The Winner will execute.
The Loser will discuss what could be done.

The Winner will do something.
The Loser will hope someone else does it.

The Winner is self-controlled.
The Loser will only report.

The Winner uses soft words with hard arguments.
The Loser uses soft arguments but hard words.

The Winner makes it happen.
The Losers watches it happen.

Are you a Loser or a Winner ?

The Winner takes it all
The Loser standing small
Besides the victory
That’s her destiny.

The customer is always right

The customer is always right according Stew Leonard:
- Rule 1 The Customer Is Always Right!
- Rule 2 : If The Customer Is Ever Wrong, Reread Rule 1.

This should be adjusted to:
If the customer is wrong, then they might not be your customer anymore.

In the event

At a moment of time or during:
- The sales process
- A first project with a customer
- A standing relation with a customer

When:
- Increasingly more service is needed without price adjustment
- Harsh terms are imposed
- Changes of direction are required
- Clueless customer is requiring your attention
- The ever complaining customer is wasting your time
- Discussing every item on your invoices
- Decreasing revenue due to less sales
- Utterly important customers generating little revenue
- Not paying after extended payment terms
- Employees feel threatened or abused by a customer
- Ever changing purchase orders

Then
It might be time to think about firing the customer.
Serving unprofitable customers with exhausting relationships is not sustainable.

Math: cost vs benefit

It comes down to cost benefit analysis:
- Cost:
How much does it cost to keep the client and service, support, discuss for each and every item ?
Thus wasting your capacities and resources.

- Benefit:
What’s the benefit of having this customer?
What does this customer bring ?
Revenue, margin, word of mouth, lead generation, referral.

You have to do the math

Not keeping unhappy customers

Maintaining unhappy customers will only cost you money:
- They will consume more time, effort and capacities from your workforce and company
- They will not recommend you to their peers
- They could spread a negative buzz into your market

Whatever you do it will not rape the benefits as you could receive from other customers in the same time, with the same effort or capacities.
So in the end you are losing twice: more time and no leverage.
Hence firing these customers might be your best deal ever.

How to fire tactfully

Firing your customers takes courage, but it is for the best of the company and business.

Instead of increase your prices in order to drive your customer away, it is best to have a meeting or at least a conference call explaining your services are no longer meeting his demands and needs.
If there are any disagreements then they need to be addressed and clarified.
Allow for discussion and explaining their concerns.

In this way you can separate and end the relationship without a fight divorce.

Offer alternatives: other services or your competitors

Of course during the meeting or conference call issues can be explained and understood. Just make sure you take the right decision. One of the main goals is to keep your business in good public standing.

When was the last time you evaluated your customers on cost / benefit analysis ?
How many did you fire last time ? None or one ?

Phone calls were the heartbeat of a company

Until 5 years ago when visiting a company while waiting at the reception, you could see and hear the receptionist handling the incoming calls.
When walking the corridors of the office building you could hear people having a conversation on the telephone. Especially in the sales department having lively conversations.
Phone calls were like the heartbeat of any company as one could measure the success of a company by the number of ringing telephones and the noise of people talking into their telephones.

Endless email replies

Nowadays people seem to have given up on making calls for business reasons.
Calling uninvited someone on his direct line is being perceived even more intrusive than spam emails. Calling disturbs more than just an email as the immediacy and apparent urgency of a phone call stops all operations and functioning of a person, whereas an email causes no interruption at the moment of reception.

Instead of calling businessmen is sending and replying emails:
- For internal matters or ongoing sales processes: no more lively discussions but endless exchanges and replies of email.
- For sales pitches: the door openers are often done by email or even the vendors’ website
- For new customers: they inquiry using emails too.

The sound of keyboard typing is no measure for success

Instead of ringing phones and the noise of telephone conversations, the sound of keyboard typing rules which is a lesser indication of the success of a company as sales, marketing, engineering, support and administration all type on keyboards.

Apparently the only business calls received are from:
- People we have ongoing business
- Call operators trying to have a sales pitch or set an appointment for a sales meeting.
Due to this when we receive an unattended phone call we tend to expect a sales pitch.

Could it be that most outgoing calls have become personal for planning the spare-time or for family affairs?

How much do you still call ?

The birth of sales training

Sales booth camps were successfully introduced by John Henry Patterson of NCR (National Cash Register) in order to train his sales force on the 16-page NCR handbook written by Joseph H. Crane – his brother-in-law. The goal was to memorize the 450-word primer.
By gathering the entire sales force in one booth camp and completely disconnected from the outside world their focus was on the matters and topics of the sales booth camp: the birth of sales training.
At the same time team building was achieved.

The evolution of sales booth camps

During 120 years the concept of sales booth camps has survived two world wars and tremendous changes in industry and business: industrialization, automation, mass production, global distribution, …
The format and presentation methods of sales booth camps have changed over time: salesmen no longer sleep in tents, books have been replaced by emailed pdf documents, …

The decline of sales booth camps

Until a few years ago information and communication technology was mainly limited to the premises of the company or at home as a fixed line was needed for data exchange.
As the wireless Internet has become omnipresent and almost the entire sales force is online all of the time, the question arises if sales booth camps are still effective?
Will salesmen still pay attention during sales booth camps when they have their smart phone at hand and are continuously connected with the outside world? Instead of keeping their attention to the sales training, they can be in constant contact with their prospects and customers. Getting new leads and closing deals are more interesting than the actual sales training.
The salesmen have less focus on the topics presented as they keep doing their business from their smart phone by email or make calls in order to keep their business going during breaks. They have all the necessary information available on their smart phone: the CRM system, contact lists, price lists, price quotations, order follow-up, delivery schedules.
- Deals mean commission now or soon
- Sales training is maybe commission later.

Of course management could prohibit the use of mobile internet and smart phones during the sales booth camp. On the other hand management requires the salesmen to perform and bring in sales, thus prohibiting smart phones will decrease the sales achievements. In most cases and companies the current quarterly sales is more important than future sales.

New sales training methods are required

The goals of sales booth camps are no longer achieved due to the available communication technology which attires the attention of the salesmen for business throughout the sales training.
Sales booth camps are no longer as effective as they used to be.
New sales training methods are required – probably using the Internet as salesmen could be trained when they are wasting their time like waiting at airports, during commuting and travel using their smart phones.

Merging the mediocre

The joint venture of 2 small or unsuccessful companies won’t emerge as a big or successful company.
The combination of 2 average solutions won’t create a great solution.
The combined offering of 2 partners with poor or me-too solutions will not become a top selling leading offering overnight.
The merger of 2 unmotivated under performing sales or marketing departments of one company will not create a great sales team or marketing department.
In most cases both parties involved just hope it will be better by adding functions, features and benefits while forgetting market research and testing the value proposition in the market.

Unlikely creation of greatness

More is required to turn two turkeys into an eagle as the value proposition of the product or the combined service has to be outstanding. All to often when two mediocre value propositions are combined, the combined offering is still mediocre.

How could two turkeys offer a better price/value, price/quality or exceed competition by just combining their existing products or services?
In order to achieve greatness their innovation needs to exceed, which each of the parties involved haven’t achieved on their own. So how could they ever achieve this when already the merger will consume time (discussions, culture differences) and capacities (people, money and goods). Creation of greatness is unlikely to happen any time soon.

Market research for suiting solution

Instead of hoping to excel after a merger or combination of products or services, start market research with analyzing the market for what are their needs, requirements and then innovate, develop a suiting solution.

The idea behind OEM is that:
- A producer or developer of a solution can reach an unreachable sales geography or market
- A vendor can quickly supply the market with a new product or complete his offering

In reality things are a bit different.
For the vendor:
If there is really a need or demand then developing the solution would be a better option as:
- The supplier can get acquired by a larger competitor who will stop the contract immediately.
- The supplier can move into the geography after the vendor has established enough customers to prove there is a market.
- By putting the own logo on the product the liability shifts

For the producer:
Relying on a third party to sell your products under OEM:
- How to be sure sufficient marketing and sales effort are being done by them?
- Can it be the OEM is just to complete the offering but not to sell it actually?
- The buyer can easily change suppliers
- In case of acquisition the OEM contracts can be a hurdle for the acquirer

Setting-up or growing your business as an OEM is not an easy business.

Did you ever sold OEM products ?
Encountered any problems