Because Tomorrow Never Comes

For many of you in your businesses, the pace of the working day leaves little time for you, as the business leader, to do the essential necessary work to complete your company’s business plan.

So, like most of your peers you finish up only producing a set of short term plans, with the hope that you will get the opportunity to produce a more complete business plan at another time.

But that other time never comes, because your short term plans have not solved anything within your business to make it run more smoothly, instead it is still running at the same chaotic pace as before, but now the short term plans have expired and a new set are needed.

Here you go again, on the same old treadmill as you have always found yourself, setting short term plans to run your business, but finding that you are going nowhere.

When are you going to realize that short term has no future and that the only way you are ever going to have your business running the way you want, is for you to take the serious time necessary to make a realistic business plan for your company?

Stop putting it off until tomorrow, because tomorrow never comes and start from today with the determination to produce the business plan that you and your company, so desperately need.

Your business plan will lay out the details for all of the tasks or projects that are needed to be achieved within your business, a more accurate assessment of the resources that are required to complete those tasks and the expected effects on your business.

The business plan should also include the assets and stocks of your business, the financial capital held, and the gross running costs of your business, a projection of the cash flow potential and the measurable profitability of your company.

You will find that, immediately you have completed the production of your business plan, you will feel enormously motivated about your business and some what relieved.

Because now you can focus on the things that really matter, respecting your people, looking after your customers, making extraordinary sales and running your successful and more profitable business.

Successful business leaders always have a fully completed business plan, usually before they start the operation of their businesses.

No Value, No Sale

With the current state of the economy, people are becoming very careful about the things that they are buying. They are concentrating on trying to reduce their debts and somehow survive with much less money than they would normally have expected to have available to them.

Their purchases are based on two very important criteria, is what they are buying a necessity in their everyday lives and if not, what is it about the product or service that provides them with a convincing value as a non essential purchase.

At least for now, gone are the days when people will just buy whatever possible bargain that they might see. And the purchase of any product or service, no matter how well presented and promoted it may be will only pass the buying test if it convinces them of the value that they will receive by purchasing it.

This obviously will mean that all businesses will have to think very hard now about the portfolio of products and services that they are offering and determine if they really do contain sufficient value to justify their customers purchasing them.

It is no longer good enough for business to use the cheaper price tag as a promotion, because even though it may be an item that is at less cost than the competition, it still has to provide that essentially needed value.

Many salespeople will still try to continue their normal approach to their customers by telling them all about the wonderful features that their new products have or the way they have packaged their service to meet their customers requirements.

But those salespeople will have to be ready to answer their customer’s now realistic question, which is, what is in it for me? In other words the customers will be asking for the absolute proof that what they are being asked to purchase has a value that will mean something in their lives.

If the customers cannot be convinced by the salesperson’s words or for that matter any other brochure or literature that may be provided about the product’s or service’s value then there will be no sale.

Value is all about the combination of quality, price, practical usability and usefulness. And in today’s tough times all customers will be asking for all that means value in everything that they purchase.

In the past the businesses that were the most successful were the ones that provided a measurable value to their customers. In this economic recession and the foreseeable future, all of the businesses will have to add value to their offerings in order to be successful.

The Keys To An Entrepreneur's Business Success

What is it that sets a successful businessperson apart from an average businessperson? Is it down to pure and simple luck, or is it all about having an amazing idea and a successful and strategic business plan in place?

Well, these factors do indeed go a long way to turning a good business idea into a successful business operation, but they have nothing to do with what makes the ‘person’ succeed at business.

Every great entrepreneur has five key attributes that sets them aside from their competition and that ensure they will succeed where others may fail.

These five personal qualities will all reflect upon the entrepreneur’s business and they will mean the entrepreneur grows and develops every area of their own personal expertise to become not only the strategic thinker behind the business, but the strategic manager poised to lead the company forward to achieve even greater success.

The five qualities that every entrepreneur shares and that are the keys to their business success are:

Desire

To succeed you have to put your ideas, ideals and beliefs into action. An entrepreneur’s desire for personal fulfilment and professional success is his number one key strength.

This desire to achieve will become a desire for success and this desire for success will be reflected throughout the business.

Positive Attitude

Entrepreneurs have a positive mental attitude towards their life, their business and themselves; they are not restricted by disappointments and regrets and they look forward not backwards. A naturally positive person sees opportunities where others see obstacles, a naturally positive person frees their mind from negativity and disappointment so that it is free to dream, imagine, develop and expand.

Commitment

To succeed you have to commit to your beliefs and desires, you have to commit to your business idea and you have to commit to the employees, within your company. With commitment comes effort, with effort comes results and with results comes success.

Patience

Patience and commitment go hand in hand, and the patient entrepreneurs who dedicate themselves to working at their business day after day will reap the rewards of their patience when the steady and focused hard work, pays off in the form of positive and successful results.

Persistence

Nothing is ever straightforward or without contradiction or change and the future is unknown.

These factors mean that the final key entrepreneurial attribute is simply critical to success. When obstacles appear, when goal posts are moved and when ‘these things are sent to try us’ you have to persist with your ideas, persist with your hard work and keep focused on success. With patient and committed persistence the desired results will come.

The Only Good Way Forward Is Up

With the current state of the economy, for many, many people it must seem like they are facing a mountain of problems and challenges.

And it is just the same for the majority of business leaders who have to be ready, both mentally and physically to meet the challenges that they will be presented with everyday in their business lives.

In these uncertain economic times it is no surprise that there are many businesses that are close to going out of business.

They all feel that they have nowhere to turn that will help them to solve their circumstances, all they know is that they have their backs against the wall and that their immediate future does not look very bright.

When you find yourself with your back against the wall, you will quickly realize that the only way you can progress is forwards. The mountain of problems and challenges need to be overcome and only by ascending will you reach the summit and find success.

What you should do is accept where you are and firmly establish in your mind that the only good way forward is up.

That the only real option you are now being given is to progress your business life forwards and at the same time be totally aware that you will also be facing an upward journey to achieve a full financial recovery.

As a business leader you will have to evaluate the risks and the costs of exactly what you need to do and not focus on getting it wrong. You will need to be making very quick decisions and have the faith that you are making good ones.

Just like any other mountain climber, as a business leader you will have to plan your route carefully and know when it is wise to proceed, but all the time moving your business further forward and upwards.

You will need to have determination, perseverance and a never ending stamina to complete your endeavours, with a strong unwavering belief in what you are trying to achieve.

Be mentally strong and optimistic with a positive attitude of mind and once you have that attitude, the entire business world around you will start to look different.

Once you make being mentally strong a part of your business life, you will see a significant improvement in the amount of success that can be achieved in facing the many challenges that are presented to you.

Look at every difficulty as an opportunity not as a challenge, seize the moment and by being mentally strong you will find success in moving your business forward and up to a full financial recovery.

A Good Investment To Make

Are you one of the countless numbers of business leaders in today’s economic downturn, who are afraid to start another day that is yet again full of frustration, as you try to determine a way to increase the level of success for your business?

Maybe you are endeavoring in your business to find the cultural change your organization needs, so that it can unleash its true potential?

Do you spend most of your time dealing with people’s communication misunderstandings, sales and marketing issues, and time management?

Is your business suffering from any of these situations?

Profitability that is too low
There are too many business challenges
The business cash flow is tight
You are finding that your workforce is shrinking
Difficulty establishing new customers
Most customers are unhappy with your service

Are you personally also experiencing any of these symptoms?

I have to work too hard
Too much relies on me
I am just not enjoying it anymore
I don’t know what to do

If you and your company could benefit from:

A much better and clearer sense of direction
Increased profitability and better customer relationships
More stability in a work force that feels good
A set of employees who are proud of their work

Then try our Business Leader Success Advice coaching services now.
Utilize our 16 years of coaching experience with over 1000 leaders in more than 100 companies.

Take control of your organization’s future today. Imagine having instant control of the knowledge you need to create the results for yourself and your team that previously seemed out of your reach.

We provide individual coaching, which is designed to develop all your leadership effectiveness and professional excellence.

And for your team, coaching, which is ideal for business teams that require the focused development of their individual needs and team effectiveness.

Our individual coaching can be provided over the telephone, while you are in the privacy and convenience of your office, or at your place of business, whichever suits you best.

A Good Time To Start A New Business

With the recession causing many businesses to close and for many of the people who worked for those businesses to find themselves without jobs, it would seem a strange thing to say that now is a good time for them to start a new business.

But it is not so strange really, when the economy is low then so is the investment needed to start a new business. And that business can now, because of the advances in technology, be made of brick and mortar or be a virtual business on the internet.

To start a new business you first of all need to make a few decisions as to what type of business you want to be involved in. Take a look around and establish what it is that most people need in this time of economic downturn.

If no one else or at least not many places are offering those products or services, then this could be the business venture that you should really consider starting as your new business.

And that business venture could be run either in rented premises that would mean an initial financial investment, at home, which would mean a very low financial investment, or on the internet at a very low cost.

For some people in this recession, they are in a position where they have lost their job, but they still have financial security. In this case an investment in starting a new brick and mortar business and making the necessary financial acquisition of premises would make good sense.

But for those people who have the get up and go, but not a vast amount of money, their choice would be much more towards the home business or internet business ventures.

A recent global survey showed that by the end of the year 2010 there will be almost fifty percent of the world’s adult population who are working, either from home or on the internet.

So, whether you finally decide on the very historically tradition brick and mortar business or for a business that is part of the world’s future trend, it is now a good time to start a new business.

Those businesses that start afresh in this period of economic recovery will quite possibly find themselves as part of the new upturn in business success that has always followed these times of recession.

Find your niche in the marketplace, offer the products and services that people will value and then start that new business that you have always wanted to have, but your job and lifestyle had before made you hesitate to do.

All Good Things Come To An End

Eventually all good things come to an end and that is the case with the series of twenty posts, How To Make Business A Success, that BLSA has been publishing for the last six months.

Although the series of posts have now completed their full publication, it is just the beginning for all of those business leaders who have been closely following these valuable business coaching steps.

Making business a success is more about the qualities and attributes of the business leader than it is about the business itself.

There are many factors that can determine how successful a business leader might be in their chosen industry, but these twenty steps ensure that they will have success in their business.

Throughout the whole series of twenty steps there has been included a guide on how to implement the business leader qualities and attributes into your own businesses.

Now it is for you to integrate the aspects of the twenty steps, which are most relevant for you, into your businesses and personally into each and every day of your business lives.

As you start implementing the qualities and attributes and putting them into practice within your own business environment, make them a part of your daily business life, as you progress through the implementation of the steps you will notice a marked increase in the success that your business is achieving.

Many of our readers have sent us messages via email indicating that they would like to have the full series of twenty steps all together in one document. Rather than having the whole series published again.

To meet this request our team here at BLSA will incorporate all twenty steps of the series, How To Make Business A Success, into an e-book and will email the e-book to all the readers who requested the full series and have already provided us with their names and email addresses.

For those readers who have not yet requested, but would also like to have the full series as an e-book, then they just simply can request their copy of the e-book by providing their name and email address in the request form that is located in the sidebar half way down the BLSA site.

BLSA would like to take this opportunity to thank all the many people who have dedicated their time to reading and commenting on the series of twenty steps and to the team within BLSA who helped to produce it.

Choosing The Right Sales Channel

Choosing the right sales channel is one of the most important business decisions you will ever make. By choosing it right you will increase your chances of success substantially.

First, you need to identify your key customer segments, develop all the channel management strategies that will address your customer’s needs and that will be able to take the fullest advantage of new sales channel opportunities now and into the future.

Link your customer information to your market segments and customer behaviour knowledge, you'll gain critical customer insight and identify the most profitable sales channels that will allow your company to reach and acquire the most profitable customers.

Your sales channel management strategies should focus on three core market research areas that are essential for customer acquisition and retention success.

Customers

Once you have your main strategy in place, select your customers on their potential, preferences and long term value. Then the sales channel selection should combine your internal customer data with the external market potential to produce the possible share of market available.

Most importantly, it should provide a common sales channel targeting program that will work across all areas of your organization and offer a stable framework for medium to long term sales planning.

Markets

You will need channel management tools and data resources to create benchmarks. These will enable you to clarify your current position and to identify growth opportunities through studies of your sales channels, brands and your markets.

Delivery Channels

If your delivery channels satisfy your customers' needs, the more likely it will be that you will retain your customers. Sales channel management analysis in your delivery system will identify the customer and product potential by sales channel.

Using this critical sales channel management information, you can more easily select sales channels and market distribution systems that match your target customers' preferences.

Choosing the right sales channel will increase your chances of business success.

The Foundations Of Success

One of the reasons that many businesses are still successful is that they focus on constant improvement. These companies look at every aspect of business that affects their relationships with customers.

Within your business you need to constantly analyse and improve every policy, system, procedure and business activity that affects, in any way, your relationship with your customers.

Make sure that you are clearly distinguishing your business from your competition.

And you should be making strong customer relationships as your most important business building tool.

You must truly know your customers. Under promise and over deliver, then delight your customers with your service. Make everything easy for your customers, so that there is no reason why they should not come to you for their business requirements.

Your business should be able differentiate from your competition with either your products and services, your knowledge and expertise, your customer service, your salespeople, your policies, your procedures or your marketing.

Focus on what you do that is clearly much better than the competition. You truly have to distinguish yourself in two or three areas and then do what you need to do to leverage your distinguishing aspects.

Your business can strengthen its customer relationships through wisely used, effective communications. You should focus on providing all your customers with value driven information.

In this constantly changing world of business, these are the foundations of true business success.

Step 20 – Confidence

This is Step 20 out of the 20 Steps of How To Make Business A Success.

There are many well respected and well recognized business leaders who have good reason to be confident because of how their businesses are performing.

Those business leaders also walk with an air of confidence because they know exactly what their own capabilities are and at the same time they are fully aware of what their limitations are as well.

Confidence is a two edged sword, you can exhibit confidence in yourself by your actions and by the things that you say. But if other people lose confidence in you or your business, then it doesn’t matter what you do or say.

There is a thin line between confidence and arrogance, so be very careful that you don’t step over it. Being the best at what you do is a reason for feeling confident, but you don’t have to tell everybody that you are.

You should have confidence in your people, the team that supports you in your business, this is very important. They in their turn need to have confidence in you as their business leader.

Have within your business an open policy, which allows your people to be informed of all the relevant information about the business and at the same time give them the opportunity to express themselves and if they feel it necessary, to openly state that they think you are wrong.

Gaining the confidence of your employees will be a much easier task if you can admit to being wrong sometimes. We all make mistakes, even you; it is not just those that work for you.

Confidence comes over time from the experiences that you gain, from the decisions that you make and from the business solutions that you implement.

Having confidence is also about the amount of knowledge that you have managed to accumulate during your business life. But it is not only about what you know, it is increasingly important as a business leader, as to who you know.

If you have learnt and are fully utilizing the previous 19 steps, then there is no reason why you should not have confidence in your ability as a highly successful business leader.

Be confident in yourself and you really will become a great business leader.

Your Target Market In Today’s Economy

To ensure your company's market staying power and survival in today's marketplace, it is important for you to gain and maintain a competitive differential advantage in your target market.

The economic situation is having a profound impact on how customers buy. The customers have become more concerned with repaying their debts, lowering their capital expenditures, and reducing their costs by concentrating on products or services that satisfy their basic needs.

Although your customers are not willing to lower their standards, both individuals and corporations are more selective in identifying products or services to satisfy their needs.

Analyze Your Competition

What type of competition exists in your target market, and what impact will it have on your company's ability to gain a competitive edge?

The uniqueness of your product or service, the number of competitors, and the overall demand and price will all be key factors in you gaining a competitive edge.

Market Opportunities

You will need to review the requirements of your existing and potential customers. If those requirements are being inadequately addressed by your company, determine how those unfulfilled needs may be satisfied.

There are four kinds of opportunities that your company can pursue: market penetration, market development, product development and diversification.

Market penetration is characterized by a company trying to increase the existing product sales in its present market.

The market development opportunity is characterized by a company attempting to sell its current products or services to new markets.

A company that offers new or improved products to existing markets is pursuing a product development opportunity.

Diversification would be utilized by a company that wants to move into a totally different line of business.

If you are starting a new business or trying to improve your position in your existing market, the most promising opportunities to pursue for your company are likely to be improvements in market penetration or market development.

You should direct your efforts toward satisfying the customer and at the same time achieving a competitive or differential advantage. And then in your marketing plan, it is important to review, develop and promote this differential advantage your company has over the competition.

The Changing Face Of Business

Many businesses are closing and there is a changing face of business in the world market. All businesses are in some way affected by the world economic events.

Successful established companies, have faced over the decades many periods of adversity and those businesses have shown that they have an ability to embrace change, first of all to survive and then to go on to greater success.

All companies who are successful are facing a risk. Success leads to a certain amount of reluctance to change in response to a world which is now changing very rapidly.

Every successful business, small, medium or large, must have both the willingness and the ability to change as the world around them changes.

Customer’s lives have changed a lot, their requirements have changed and customers are now much more knowledgeable.

So, what is necessary to ensure that you and your business are ready for this rapidly changing world?

You need to create a vision for your company of what will be your future business success.

Make sure that you concentrate on what matters most in your business, your customers.

At all times provide a great customer experience everywhere within your business environment.

It should go without saying, but you need to be providing an excellent customer service.

Focus on building profitable customer relationships in all the business transactions that you do.

Always have full confidence in your people, who are in the team working closely behind you.

And continually provide for them your motivation and show them your leadership.

The personal development and training of your people is paramount to ensure that they are always ready to face this fast changing business world.

By investing in your people you will guarantee that your business has the best possible people working for you and the best chance of being successful in this changing economy.

How To Increase Sales And Market Share

Today's marketplace has many thousands of products and services that are available to fulfil the needs of individuals and businesses. Your own ability to identify and exploit the features and benefits of your product or service and demonstrate it is so much better than your competition will provide your company with a competitive edge.

Gaining A Competitive Edge

The identification of all your strengths and weaknesses is an important task that needs to be accomplished before any competitive edge can be developed. To determine your position in the market, you must ask open ended questions of various types of sources.

Besides your personal assessment, ask your employees, customers and suppliers, questions as to how they view your company in the market.

In defining how to achieve your competitive edge, you need to decide if you are going to focus on your operational efficiency, customer service or product leadership in building your competitive edge.

Operational Efficiency

Try to match all your business activities with real and distinct customer needs. You will need to identify all of your customers needs and align or adjust all of your activities to ensure customer satisfaction.

If you are currently spending time and resources for activities which do not correspond to specific customer needs, eliminate all these activities entirely. This reduction may involve an investment in more state-of-the-art products to improve efficiency, or automated systems for inventory or billing.

Develop a screening process for suppliers, distributors, other vendors that will ensure the cost efficiency and the timely transfer of products or services to your customer.

Operational efficiency focuses on efficient production of your product or service, distribution capabilities, and customer satisfaction. It requires that you outperform your competition by responding rapidly to changes in market demand by adjusting your product or service.

Customer Service

Many service oriented companies developed their competitive strategies involving customization of their product or service to meet an individual customers needs. They rarely try to compete on price.

Ensure that you have an infrastructure to provide a customer service information system capable of collecting and analyzing customer data to be used by both management and employees for making intelligent customer service decisions.

Many companies use quality of service reports to rate customer service by customer, district, area or region of the country. This will provide you with a measurement tool to identify strengths and weaknesses in your product or service. Your company can then highlight any issues which may require corrective action.

Product Leadership

Your company must ensure that there is two way communications with your customers. Management, production and engineering personnel should talk with customers, distributors and dealers to learn how your products are being used and to identify new challenges that are facing your customers.

Provide your customers with enhanced benefits with frequent product improvements, marketing each specific competitive advantage or over previous products. Ensure though, that each improvement corresponds to your customer's product needs and is easy to implement.

A Successful Marketing Strategy

There are five factors that make up an organizations marketing strategy. If these are done consistently well, and for a long enough period of time, these five factors will bring them business success.

Move Up

Businesses that compete on price lose. Your competition can undercut your price. In fact, the first thing they will copy is your price. It takes no imagination, no creativity, no innovation, no market leadership, and no vision to lower the cost of something. And it hurts all parties involved. Lower prices always mean lower profits.

What if you increase your usual price? Prospects perceive; an increase in the value of your product or service; An increased level of prestige in owning or using your product or service; an increased level of trust in you and all your other offerings; an increased level of confidence that your product or service really works. Price does not find clients. Value finds clients. And those clients that value your work should and will pay according to that value.

Move In

Moving in is, moving closer to your customer, live in their world, think about their problems and think about their clients and prospects. All of the company news is now available on the internet. You can research all your prospects issues, challenges and pressures; you will then come in with a credible solution.

Visit businesses, talk to your contacts in the fields you serve, get some first hand information about what is going on in their world, what exactly are their challenges, perspectives, obstacles and priorities.

Move Ahead

Moving ahead means going above and beyond what most salespeople are doing. It means putting in the work, the hard work that will make the difference between being a seller and being a partner.

Begin by doing the things that your prospects respect; keep all of your promises, be creative, keep all of your appointments, have awareness of the customer’s operation, follow through, have product knowledge, be a good listener, take an interest. You can also move ahead by showing the value of your product or service with hard numbers.

Move Aside

Move aside is about finding your niche, and claiming your expertise in a narrow area of specialty. In simple terms, this means you want to be the immediate choice for your specific product or service the exact opposite of someone who tries to do everything but is a master of none.

Move Alone

Right now, you are lost in a sea of grey. Everywhere you look, there is more and more of the same thing sold by the same people in the same way. If your company and your offerings blend into the background, you are not separating yourself from the crowd and nobody will even notice you, much less seek you out.

Step 19 - Challenges

This is Step 19 out of the 20 Steps of How To Make Business A Success.

In business, everyday, we all have to deal with the various challenges that we find in our vibrant business world, whether we are the business leader or a member of the business team.

But, challenges are nothing more than opportunities to succeed and the tougher the challenge, the bigger the opportunity and the greater the success.

What makes a challenge so difficult to deal with is the fact that it has already been perceived as a problem.

When a challenge presents itself, do not perceive it as a problem; just welcome it as an opportunity for more success.

Challenges are around us everywhere, all the time, but it is the way we respond to them that determines if we are to succeed or fail in our business lives.

The ability to transform a challenge into an opportunity is one of the traits of a true business professional.

And those that face the toughest challenges and consistently transform them into opportunities for success have really mastered this trait to its fullest perfection.

Those are the top business professionals in their respective industries who have continuously managed to overcome all the challenges that have been presented to them.

They are no different from any other business leader or business team member, but they do have a very different attitude of mind and are very mentally strong in facing challenges.

Being mentally strong and optimistic, is an attitude of mind and once you have that attitude, the entire business world around you looks different and the way you respond to challenges is different.

Once you make being mentally strong a part of your business life, you will see a significant improvement in the amount of success that you can achieve in facing challenges.

Look at every difficulty as an opportunity, not as a challenge, seize the moment, and be mentally strong in your business life.

How To Be Successful Sales Professionals

Being a successful salesperson does not happen by accident. Success is the result of diligent effort applied to a structured system with commitment and passion. Building on success to achieve your dreams is determined by how passionately committed you are to achieving the dreams of your customers.

Introduce Yourself, Then Listen

The sales experience is not about the sales associate, it is about the customer. There is only one way to find out what the customer values, wants or needs and that is to listen intensely.

If you are thinking about the next thing that you are going to promote then you can not concentrate on what the customer is telling you.

Rather, think about how you can repeat what the customer is saying in your own words and then you will listen intently to what they tell you.

A successful sales professional can reflect the emotion as well as the content of a customer conversation.

Why the Offer is Important to the Individual Customer

As new sales representatives learn about the company, products or services, that they represent it is a natural inclination to initiate conversations by expressing facts and features.

The customer has a life with priorities, deadlines and responsibilities of his or her own. Show the customer what aspects of your offer are important from the customer perspective and resist the urge to talk about any other things that are not relevant.

A successful sales professional focuses only on the specific attributes of the offer that are relevant to the customer.

Get Confirmation, Then Explain the Details

Get buy-in from the customer that you are on the right track. Ask the customer for feedback to confirm that the focus is on the appropriate facts, features or figures. Once you have provided feedback on your value as it pertains to the initial customer requirement, it is common for some customers to change the focus.

This is an opportunity to find out if the customer has additional concerns or considerations. Listen with intensity and restate customer focus and topics in short sentences, reiterating each item that is important to the customer. Then explain the details of your offer that support all of these interests.

A successful sales professional keeps the customer involved during the process of explaining relevant details of the specific offer.

Credibility, Show the Customer Why You can be Trusted

If the offer is on target with the customer requirements then it is appropriate to demonstrate reasons that the customer should trust you. This may be accomplished by using specifications for products, white papers and case studies for services, independent articles or references.

If there are no documents or history to use as reference, it is possible to demonstrate credibility by making promises and keeping them. A promise may be as simple as a commitment to follow-up with additional information by a specific time.

Even if the customer was a referral and credibility was implied, never take it for granted.

A successful sales professional earns the trust of every single customer through commitments and actions.

What to Do and What It will Cost

In addition to providing the price, also provide the details of what needs to be done to complete the transaction and what will happen after the sale. If the customer needs to take some action before, during or after the purchase then be sure to explain this in detail.

In some cases there may be a registration, license or contract associated with the sale, so be sure to remove any mystery or doubt by stating the facts. Make sure that the customer is aware of any additional requirements.

A successful sales professional knows the process and educates the customer.

Schedule Next Steps

In many cases there may be several steps in the sales cycle. If ongoing negotiation is necessary then schedule the next meetings and milestones. For significant purchases and investments it may be necessary for the customer to review budget or finances, in which case it is appropriate to schedule periodic follow-up to accommodate these considerations.

A successful sales professional fills the pipeline by keeping a consistent schedule for continuous customer conversations.

Ask For The Sale

Don't assume that the customer is going to ask for the sale. Ask for the sale to determine if it is time to stop selling and time to start processing the purchase and assisting with the appropriate next steps to support the customer.

Some sales associates are so passionate about the product that they keep promoting it long after the customer has made a decision to purchase and can actually lose a customer in the process.

A successful sales professional will periodically pause to ask for the sale.

Now Is The Time To Make Comments

During the last six months, the BLSA blog has been running the series of posts called, How To Make Business A Success and so far 18 of the 20 steps have been published.

In the next two weeks the last 2 steps in the series will be published and that will bring to an end the complete series of How To Make Business A Success.

Over that period of time BLSA has received comments from many of you with regards to some specific steps, as well as, some other comments in general about the series.

Some of our subscribers have even indicated that they would appreciate it if the whole series of 20 steps could be republished altogether, so that they could have them in completeness for future reference.

If this is something that is being requested by enough of our readers, then BLSA will of course republish the whole series again in its entirety.

So, now is the time to make your comments, let us know what you have liked, or not liked about the series, let us know what your comments and feedback are regarding the full series of twenty steps.

And if, as it has been indicated by some of our subscribers, you would wish to have the whole series of twenty steps republished again in full, then let us know with your comments if that is the case.

In the current troubled times of the economy and the uncertainty of the future direction it will take, it is understandable that many people might think that this is a strange time to think about business success.

But, the only way that an economic recovery is going to happen, sooner rather than later, is for the business leaders to get an understanding of their role and the qualities and capabilities that they need for them to be successful business leaders.

Then they will be able to apply that knowledge to the task at hand, which is the establishment of a stable business and financial environment that is needed to end the recession and create the economic recovery.

The series of steps in, How To Make Business A Success, will do that for them and will also provide them with a strong set of foundations on which they can build their future business success.

BLSA very much looks forward to all of your comments and wishes to thank the many readers who have already contributed to the discussion on how business can be made more successful.

The Eye Of The Storm

In the eye of the storm there is no wind, in the eye of the storm there is no rain, in the eye of the storm there is no movement at all, in fact in the eye of the storm there is a total feeling of nothingness.

And that is just how it is at the moment for the majority of businesses, no movement of money, from banks to businesses and from business to business.

No movement of money from the banks to the people and no movement of money from the people to the businesses. There is in fact a feeling of total nothingness happening, in what before had been a very vibrant and lively business environment.

At the moment everybody is in the eye of the storm, the government, the banks, the people and all of the businesses. And that does not seem to matter what type of business you are, everyone is feeling the affect.

From automakers to construction, from wholesale to retail and every other type of business that you can think of, nobody is able to escape this storm that has hit us all.

And it is a big storm, a very big storm that is creating havoc throughout the world. It is unfortunately not the type of storm that is going to blow itself away in a relatively short time either.

This storm is the mother of all storms and it intends to be around for a number of years, affecting all our lives and making the opportunity to do business even harder than it was before it arrived.

So, we are just going to have to get used to the idea that this is how it is going to be, from now on, until maybe in the future sometime, things will return to what we would call normality.

Just like the weather situations with big storms, we are told that it had been expected and that many people knew that it was coming and the affect that it would have on our unsuspecting world.

And again just like the weather situations with big storms, there was nothing that we could do to avoid it, we just had to accept that it was going to hit us and hit us hard.

Basically, all that we can do is try to weather the storm until it passes and then pick up all the pieces and start all over again, with the hope that there is not another big storm that is following it.

Hindsight is such a wonderful thing, because if the business world had known before this all happened, exactly what it knows now, then maybe a lot of the damaging affect of this storm, could and should have been better handled and then less people would have been hurt.

Just because at the moment we are all in the eye of the storm, does not mean that we are going to stay there, this particular storm is noticeably very unpredictable.

So keep on your guard and do everything that you can to protect your business and your livelihood.

Good luck, we are all going to need it.

A Relationship You Can Trust

All serious business organisations want to have good relationships with their customers and the most important aspect of any good customer relationship is trust.

Most businesses have already realized that it is the relationships with their customers which are built on trust, that are the fundamental factor in achieving their overall business success.

The start of any trust relationship is usually determined by the existing personal relationships that can be explored between many businesses and the corresponding customer organisations.

To have the establishment of any relationship, especially one between a business and its customers, there needs to be a mutual understanding, shared objectives and commitment.

For the continuity of trust in the relationship between your business and your customers, it is necessary for both parties to have a set of realistic expectations.

Your customers may make their demands and you will find it difficult to say no, but honesty is an integral part of trust and your customer, if they want the relationship to be built on trust, will respect that.

People are the determining factor in any relationship, it is the actions of your people and the customer’s people that will decide if the outcome is to be successful or not.

The emphasis must be on joint success, both parties must realise a true win situation and both parties should gain the benefits, only in that way will the relationship be maintained.

There is a wealth of knowledge within organisations and there is nothing more accurate than the accumulated knowledge from a relationship like the one between your business and your customers.

The sharing of that knowledge is paramount to the lasting continuity of the relationship and it will help both your company and the customer’s organisation to do business on a more informed basis.

In a relationship built on trust, your customers will confide in you and let you know the timing of their decisions in advance, which will mean that your business does not waste resources unnecessarily.

Trust will ensure the right conditions for high performance with your people, which will be reflected by more profitability and an increased customer value, which guarantees continued business activities and a prosperous outcome.

Trust can take a long time to be achieved, but it can be lost in an instant, so be careful not to become complacent and thinking that your business does not have to put the same effort into the customer relationships.

Step 18 – Courage

This is Step 18 out of the 20 Steps of How To Make Business A Success.

Running a business and being successful, as the business leader, is more about courage than anything else. You have to take calculated risks within your business to increase your opportunities.

If you were to ask any successful business leader how they became successful, they would tell you that it is courage and the realization that you are only as good as the chances you take.

In other words, you have to be ready to take risk sometimes with your business decisions, gamble on the outcome; because business is a game of chance and the more calculated risks that you take the more successful you will be.

It makes you a strong business leader to have the courage to stick to your convictions, even though all the people around you are saying that you are wrong.

As the leader of your business you should have the courage to dismiss the employees that are incompetent and are slowing the successful progress of your business.

A business leader should also have the courage to stand up for what they believe in and without wavering from their committed business agenda.

To have the courage to tell a non-profitable customer, who causes you and your business nothing but problems, that you no longer need their custom in your business.

To have the courage to eliminate a competitor, who is at the bottom of the business ladder, from the marketplace and to acquire their market share.

To have the courage to tell the top management of your company that they are wrong, when what they want to do will really make a significant impact on the success of your business.

And for you as the business leader with the ultimate responsibility in your organization to have the courage to admit that you were wrong and that the mistakes that were made were all yours and not give the blame to someone else.

Having courage does not come easy, but when you start to realize its benefits, you will find even more courage to do even more things to make your business more successful. Your courage should be at the heart of your business.

ABC - Ambitious, Brave And Confident

Ambitious

This gives you the focus you need to overcome obstacles and tackle the seemingly impossible tasks. The determination brings you through the tough times. The perseverance will help you to hold onto the vision and core values of your business life. The ability to evaluate every situation in an objective manner, will always take you in the right direction.

Brave

When you are optimistic enough to take risks that others are unwilling to take, this will set you up for huge returns, but be sure you evaluate all aspects of the situation and take educated risks. Having courage is not a feeling, it is a decision. True courage is pushing forward, even though you may have experienced a setback or failure in the past.

Confident

This means having the right attitude in every aspect of your business. This is probably the one thing that is fundamental and critical for long term success. It allows you to adhere to the fulfilment of all your goals every minute of the day because you are confident that you will obtain the results you seek.

People with a positive outlook on business learn from every situation and experience, the good and the bad. They figure out ways to avoid poor results in the future and on ways to not repeat a negative situation.

Positive Leadership

You need to have the ability to make decisions, regardless of popular opinion in accordance with your business vision, while inspiring those around you to follow through on the direction you set in motion.

The business leaders who are able to make fast sound decisions are the ones who know what the end result looks like. They have seen the finish line, and know the excitement of crossing it first.

Positive leaders are those who are beside their team members, teaching them how they can cross the finish line and at the same time experience joy and excitement as if they had crossed the finish line themselves.

Seal Of Excellence

When you have honesty and a concern for people, you put your all into everything you do with an emphasis on quality and you will essentially be putting your personal seal of excellence on all of your products and services.

Business In The New Economy

Medium to large corporate organisations are finding that they now have to change their approach to business because of the economy and the way that the credit crisis has affected their ability to do business.

All organisations use processes to administer their companies, but now careful analysis of the processes are necessary to determine if they will still be effective in the current environment.

If the structure of your organization is rigid, which will mean that your company could be slow to act, try making it more flexible, which will allow your company to be quick to respond to your customer’s needs.

Think about how you make payment for your people, by performance and measurable value to the company, by surveying your customers and determining their satisfaction with your people, or with a bonus for significantly overachieving.

Should your product portfolio be innovative, which will mean a lot of investment in research, design, development and time to market, or a range of standardised products that are of consistent high quality.

The determination of product pricing could be by the volume that your customers are forecasting to purchase, or by the current turnover of the sales with them.

Competitive information is the oxygen of all serious businesses; this can be done by a dedicated marketing project, or by careful usage of internet research.

Most organisations forget, that the biggest source of information that they have is with the people that are in their own company.

A very important business process is the activity of customer selection, should you determine which customers you select by the industry that they represent, or the potential business that they may do, or maybe by the past spend that they have made.

The choice of your customer relationships is really fundamental to your overall business success, so do you choose, the customer relationships that are built on mutual trust, or the customer relationships that spend a lot with you.

Knowledge is the life blood of your organisation and there are so many sources for the acquisition of knowledge, but it should be accurate and accumulated from trusted sources such as your customers, or from within your own industry.

Knowledge is an intangible product, but if you share it openly with your customers it is seen as a sign of respect and it will give your company the reputation of being an industry expert.

Business process decisions are an integral part of a business and can make a huge difference to the success of any organisation.