Btb Guest Author

Claire Boyles

I’ve been on facebook a couple of years now, and I love it. It’s fun, I get to have a laugh with my friends- lots of my friends are living in England and I’m based in Dublin so it’s great; a cost effective way to stay connected to people I care about. It has gotten me reconnected with friends that I haven’t seen in 10 or 20 years. Often conversations have been sparked off by comments on friends status updates, and I’ve made new facebook friends in this way. I’ve also made new real friends through facebook- friends of people I already know, that I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in “real” life too.

Then there’s the random friend requests I receive from complete strangers, serial networkers, who, for the most part don’t even tell me why they want to be my friend. I’ve accepted these requests in the past, but given them limited access to my information. This has it’s pro’s and cons. I would like to make use of my online presence so that I remain open to business opportunities.

In fact I’ve got clients through facebook- from people clicking through to my website and reading my blog, from reading my status updates & initiating conversations with me. And that’s something I want to maintain and make good use of, especially as I coach because I love what I do- I love making positive differences to people’s lives. I had one experience where I had to remove someone from my friends as they were contacting all my friends and spamming them. I’ve also had to remove posts to my wall that were advertisements for their business!! I mean really, just HOW on earth do you think that is ok?

There is another drawback to this situation- facebook has now, more than ever become my public face. It’s become the way I am seen by the world, it’s become a marketing tool and I’ve become more and more prudent about what I do and don’t share. That has affected the social side of facebook- I can no longer be blaze and carefree about what I’m laughing about. I can no longer openly discuss, or have debates about personal views. Things can often be misinterpreted.

Also at times I want to let off a bit of steam to my friends, have a rant about something that I find irritating, sometimes even I ask for help. These things are not congruent with my brand. They make me human of course, but when people look for coaching/inspiration they want to see the solutions to their own issues, not someone in the middle of one! If you drink then you’ve also got the added risk of drunken photo’s being uploaded, thankfully I don’t have this one but I do attend parties and am in photo’s where others are in this situation!

One solution is to set up a business page- which I’ve done, but having separate status updates for another social media account is really not that attractive for me- I want to be more efficient and reduce the workload, not increase it!

Sadly this means that my facebook profile, although still very sociable, has shifted its emphasis. I’ll miss the open discussions I’ve had in the past. Sure I’ll still be able to keep in touch with my friends, and make new ones, but not in the same way.

Think carefully about how you use your online presence, social media is very useful and practical, but if you’re using it as a marketing tool the social aspect can be reduced dramatically.

It’s the age old dilemma, do we mix business with pleasure?

Connect with my personal account http://www.facebook.com/ClaireBoyles

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Claire Boyles is a leading Irish business coach. In 2007, she founded her own company called Management Matters . She has created a style of coaching which is totally client centred and specifically sets out to identify the clients’ skills, assets and weaknesses; this empowers clients to transform weaknesses into strengths.  Clients working with Management Matters have found that obstacles that previously seemed insurmountable soon appear like mole hills and they achieve far more than they ever believed was possible!

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Over at TSE today

Cold Call vs Warm Call vs Social Media

Tuesday July 28th 2009 6.00 PM GMT

Is cold calling dead?
Is email marketing ineffective?
Aren’t you on social media yet?
Feeling a little confused?

A panel of experts from each of these backgrounds will discuss metrics and successes for different sales strategies and YOU can be the judge. Will those on the panel agree? We guess not…. Join the call and add YOUR comments…

When we talk about hiring top salespeople, we should start by reminding ourselves of the old adages:

• The 80/20 rule, 80% of your sales comes from 20% of your sales staff.
• Only 5% of salespeople are likely to ever become A Players.

The Challenge

Hiring the right sales talent is without doubt one of the most difficult challenges facing sales departments today. In fact, the track record of a great many businesses is very poor. High staff turnover combined with big recruitment costs, often weight heavily on already under performing sales functions within organisations.

Get it right and the ROI can be significant, get it wrong and the costs can be just as great. It’s an entirely risky business - which takes me to my first point.

Minimise the Risk

The first objective around hiring top sales talent is always about minimising the risk to the business.

You need to start by asking yourself questions like, how does our track record compare? Do we need help when it comes to hiring? And if so, what type of help do we require?

Help comes in various guises. You can hire a head-hunter to steal from the competition. You can hire a specialist recruiter or you can hire a consultant to advise and oversee the hiring process.

The Job Spec

The second place that many businesses can go wrong is in creating the actual job spec (description).

What requirements will you need this person to have? What qualifications will they require? What experience levels will they need and what type of experience will they need? Will the role require a new business developer or is more about account management? If it’s mixed, what is the mix?

Remember, the role should shout out off the paper to the right candidate.

HR

In many businesses, the HR department creates this description. With respect to HR people, they are often not well positioned to undertake the task.

In such cases, it is of vital importance that a member of the sales department signs off. I have seen job specs created by HR departments which in no way accurately describe the role.

It’s often a very good idea to run this spec past some of the more senior members of the sales team, to see if they feel it adequately describes their responsibilities.

Preparation

The next part of the process starts when you start to receive the CVs. Firstly eliminate those that don’t meet the criteria, and take some time to go through those that do. This is about preparing well for the interview stage.

Highlight points of interest and create questions that will encourage the candidates to prove what’s contained within their CV - these can form your probing questions when interviewing.

Keep an open mind, don’t be too ruthless in your culling at this stage, sometimes people who have little experience of preparing and writing CVs - won’t appear as great on paper as they will in person.

Lead questions

If you have gotten up to here right, the people attending the interviews should have the right basic ingredients to do the role. The challenge now is in deciding who the very best fit for the role.

It’s always a good idea to have a list of lead questions that will you will ask every candidate, and a scoring system - which prioritises necessary characteristics and experiences.

This scoring system should be weighted in favour of the skills that are most relevant.

The first interview

During the interview you will need to candidate to talk you through their sales process and sales returns to date.

How much was new business from new customers and how much was existing business from existing accounts? What level did they target within the organisation? And what was the typical sales cycle length? Make sure to ask for specific examples of situations and sales to back these up.

Stay away from “what if” questions, these invariably illicit favourable responses but demonstrate very little by way of evidence.

Scoring

After each interview, score each candidate - basing your scores of what has been demonstrated rather than interpretation or rapport.

While of course rapport is important in selling, too many interviewers use it exclusively. We tend to like people who are like ourselves. While this may work for our friendships - it will not be so dependable when it comes to hiring.

The second interview

When short listing suitable candidates for a second round of interviews, the tendency can be to go for similar people - this is rarely a good idea. It’s better to short-list candidates that have different rather than the same strengths.

How will they fit in?

The danger here is that the interviewer uses the second interview to just firm up, on their original impression - rather than treating it as an interview in its own right.

I would always advise clients to use the second interview to evaluate the candidate’s suitability in terms of the organisation and the people. How well would this person fit in with the existing team and people? Are they bringing something extra, or are there potential areas where there could to be problems?

Why do they want to work here?

This interview is also a better place to find out, why they are leaving their current role and what attracts them to your organisation.

Remember, there should always be a synergy in the answers to these two important questions.

Scoring round 2

Before they leave, voice any concerns you may have giving them an opportunity to respond. Again score each candidate immediately after they leave.

The result

You are now in a position to add up the scores, from both interviews and you should be left with a clear winner.

It’s not easy but make sure to learn from your mistakes.

Recruiting the best sales talent is rarely easy.

It’s about minimizing the risk to the organisation, while trying to find the person who will deliver the most reward. When it comes to hiring salespeople, there are no guarantees and mistakes will be made -no one gets right all the time.

However, it is in not learning from these mistakes, that companies really conspire to make the task much more difficult than it needs to be.

If a salesperson doesn’t work out, be sure to investigate fully, take responsibility and ensure that the same mistakes are not repeated.

Btb Guest Author

John Murray 

All business owners exit their business at some point, the only question is whether they are in control of that process or not.  When the exit happens one of three things will occur:- 

• The business will be taken over by an heir
• The business will be closed
• The business will be sold

Many factors affect the saleability and value of an individual business.  Some are outside your control such as the current recession and credit crunch but many factors are very much within your control.  The value you receive from the sale of your business will be in direct proportion to how effectively you manage the factors within your control before you engage with prospective buyers.

Top Ten To-Do’s to maximise your exit value

1.    Focus on growing sustainable cashflow.

Business buyers pay for future cashflow.  For a small business (turnover between €200,000 and €2m) ‘cashflow’ is frequently defined as Sellers Discretionary Earnings or SDE* and for medium sized businesses (turnover between €2m and €10m) it is commonly defined as Earnings Before Interest Tax Depreciation and Amortisation or EBITDA.

Being able to demonstrate strong historical and current cashflow is key to making your business attractive to potential buyers.

2.    Critically review and tidy up your profit and loss account.

Maximizing cashflow means maximizing revenue and margins whilst minimizing expenses.  Make sustainable improvements where possible and in particular eradicate non essential and discretionary expenses from the business.

3.    Critically review and tidy up your balance sheet.

If there are unproductive assets on the balance sheet dispose of them.  Keep stock levels optimised and focus on getting debtor days down.  This may result in cash holdings above what is required to maintain working capital in which case the excess cash can be extracted from the business prior to sale.

4.    Management independent of ownership.

Businesses which ARE the owner are extremely difficult to sell because all business knowledge and key customer and supplier relationships vest in the owner who is walking out the door after the sale.  Delegate as much as possible to a General/Sales Manager and a Financial Controller.  Buyers want to see a management team who can provide continuity after the current business owner has departed and will discount the value of your business if a competent management team is not in place.

5.    Address internal and external risks to the business which buyers will use to lower value.

• Customer concentration – Are a high percentage of sales accounted for by a small number of customers?
• Product or Supplier concentration – Is the business overly reliant on the sale of a single product or range of products from a single supplier?
• Employee concentration – Is there a key man issue in the business other than yourself?
• Legal disputes – Where possible resolve outstanding litigation prior to starting the sale of your business.
• Ensure HR policies and procedures are in place with compliant contracts of employment for all staff.

6.    Maintain good financial and legal records and prepare for due diligence.

A minimum of three years annual accounts is essential to demonstrate the financial performance of the business and up to date management accounts are important to demonstrate that the business is continuing to perform well.

Due diligence requests from the buyers advisors can be anticipated so prepare documentation in advance.  Speedy and complete responses to information requests convey transparency and confidence to the buyer.

7.    Be flexible in relation to terms and conditions particularly in relation to earn outs or deferred payments.

90% of all business sales involve some element of deferred payment.  Don’t expect all cash on completion of the sale and do expect to compromise – rarely does a sale meet all of the seller’s and buyer’s objectives.

8.    Prepare for a process not an event.

Business sales typically take between six and nine months from the initial valuation and marketing of the business to completion.  Expect many small steps and bumps along the way.

9.    Maintain confidentiality.

Don’t openly discuss or advertise that you want to sell your business. If you do your suppliers will get nervous, your customers will start to drift away, your staff will become unsettled and your competitors will tell everyone that you’re going out of business.  The net effect can be that buyers don’t engage at all and the future of the business is threatened.

10.    Price the business so that it actually sells.

Evidence from around the world consistently demonstrates that one of the key reasons businesses fail to sell is pricing.  Small businesses are much higher risk than comparable medium to large sized businesses and as a result will have significantly lower pro rata valuations.  Your business will only sell if the asking price reflects what the market will actually pay.  Always validate the proposed asking price in cold commercial terms.   Would you pay €X for you’re your business?  Why?  If you correctly price your business to match what the market will actually pay then you significantly increase the probability of selling.

*SDE = (Operating profit before tax + market salary for one owner + non cash expenses + non recurring once off expenses + non business related expenses paid for by the business + interest paid)

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John Murray is Managing Director of Sunbelt Business Brokers Ireland, who specialise in the confidential sale of privately owned businesses with turnover between €200,000 and €10m. Before starting Sunbelt Ireland, John spent twenty years working in a variety of financial and commercial roles within small to medium sized businesses. John was Ireland’s inaugural member of the International Business Brokers Association (www.ibba.org) and the first to attain the Certified Business Intermediary accreditation.

At the start of 09, I expected my own sales performance to increase significantly.  I based this expectation on two sound contributing factors.

1.There would be a greater need for my services.

Companies would have a much greater need for improvement around sales performance than in previous years. If making sales would be harder in 09, mine was a recession solution.

2. I offered a guaranteed result.

I would be offered a ROI payment option, which meant that there, was no risk in investing in my sales programmes - I guaranteed actual sales improvement. This would give me a significant competitive advantage.

My analysis of how I performed vs. my expectation.

I recently undertook an analysis of my personal sales performance for the year to date. While I am satisfied with many of my performance indicators, I am slightly disappointed with my win ratio per meeting with new customers specifically. I expected a nearer 100% hit ratio, I delivered 62%.

While some may be happy with such a return in this environment, my continued sales improvement has always resulting from me not resting on my laurels; and continually seeking out ways in which I can better what I do.

So how do I explain this?

Initially I must admit that I struggled.

While there may be room for improvement around my qualification process, I work very hard to ensure that I am talking to genuine prospects that are in a position to buy. I believe I am talking to the right people and at the right time and I am offering a better product than that of my competitors.

A more convoluted, complex and ever changing decision making process may go some way to explaining my disappointment. However, I don’t think that it is the only factor and even if it is, my payment options should go a long way to overcoming this as an obstacle.

So I asked myself, what I am not considering, what might I have not planned for.

I begin by revisited my stats on paper, I compared what I was doing against best practice, there was very little by way of explanation.

I then begin to consider that my expectation was unreasonable, that I hadn’t given enough weighting to the recession factor. While it might have worked for me on many occasions, perhaps it had also worked against me.

I quickly realised that I was engaging in the type of attitude; I so often have to help overcome in those that I work with. I was engaging in can’t do rather than can do.

I shook myself down and decided to investigate further. I pride myself on good planning, yet here was something I had failed to consider. It had left no apparent trace of itself in my work. It was bloody invisible.

Invisible! Now there’s a thought, what might have been invisible to me at the start of the year? Something I would not normally consider…….. Ah! Gotya.

it’s FEAR!!

I have trained myself to ignore fear; it plays no part in my decisions, my planning or my expectations. This philosophy has always served me well. I realised at an early age what fear can do, how it can control and how it can destroy.

At the start of the year, my intentional ignorance towards fear had allowed me to plan for success, to see abundance, and to plan for opportunity. Sounds great?

I’m afraid only to a point (did you get the joke?).

This same philosophy had blind sighted me, not to my own fears but towards the fears of others; in this case the fear in my prospects. I had failed to consider and to plan for their fears.

I started to recall the conversations where I had failed to win the deal. A comment trend started to appear.

“I know where we need to go, but I am not prepared to do what it takes to get there”

Yes, I had helped them to identify their need.

Yes, I had shown them the solution.

Yes, I had taken away the risk.

Tick, tick, tick…

But No, In a great many cases, I had failed to take away their fear of making the decision. Because I had failed to plan for fear, in doing so I had also failed to plan for how to deal with my prospect’s fear.

The good news, I am now on the case.

Btb Guest Author

Garrett Cronin

Don’t incur the expenditure unless absolutely necessary – mind every euro as if it was your last

Payment side

• Ensure you are purchasing at the best deal you can get through hard negotiation. If you can’t get a better price, get better terms
• Ensure you get appropriate discount for early payment
• Only pay on the due date and not before
• Review contracts to ensure you only pay for what you want/get
• Re-tender supplier contracts on a regular basis
• Aim to reduce the number of suppliers to leverage spend and prices

Debtor side

• Issue invoice straight away and ensure it is correct
• Link any bonus to cash collection
• Have the sales person do the collecting of cash
• Review credit limits on a regular basis and reset based on current, not past, levels of business
• Implement strict early payment discounts
• As soon as credit period elapses have a regimented debt collection procedure in place
• Initiate credit collection procedures before invoices become due
• Trust your gut feel – sometimes it might be better to take less than 100% to get the cash rather than wait and/or never get the amount owed or go through expensive litigation

Stocks

• Don’t order more unless absolutely necessary
• Enter all stock on your system as soon as it is received to ensure full transparency
• Identify slow moving stock and repack, re-price, re-use to generate cash
• Renegotiate lead times from suppliers and reset minimum stock levels and order levels accordingly
• Negotiate consignment stock from suppliers
• Introduce/modify approval levels for stock purchases
• Discontinue slow moving / loss making product ranges
• Ensure ownership and accountability exists for every item of stock (ie sales or product managers)

VAT

• Ensure you include any VAT re bad debts written off in your VAT return
• Process supplier invoices as soon as they are received/issued
• Consider timing of invoice issue at month end to optimise credit on VAT return

Other

• Revisit treasury strategy – reduce number of bank accounts and consolidate with your banking partner
• Sweep cash daily and manage funds, currency and relationships, centrally
• Limit spend authority of staff

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Garrett Cronin is a Partner in the Advisory practice at PricewaterhouseCoopers, and specialises in the area of Performance Improvement. Garrett leads the Finance and Operations Effectiveness Teams, providing advice on sustainable cost reduction, shared services, outsourcing, programme and change management, working capital management and corporate performance management. He also leads the PwC European Shared Services Network supporting clients internationally with advice and insights on best practice. He hosts PwC Ireland’s CFO Network Forum, which meets a number of times each year to discuss and share insights into those issues challenging CFO’s today. Garrett is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland.

“Loopthing is a social networking platform which enables businesses to create and maintain win-win relationships with other businesses and individuals around the world”

I was delighted when they asked me to do an interview. Here’s that interview.

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Q. Can you tell us a little about your business and what you specialise in?

We help businesses to overcome sales performance issues and to better leverage their current environment to grow business. Sometimes this means management consulting, sometimes it means process management, sometimes it means sales programmes and very often it’s all three.

I endeavour to be an expert in “all things sales”. In the US, they would probably call me a sales guru, although I am not sure that would go down so well in Ireland.

Q. How many staff do you employee currently?

Two full time and two part-time.

Q. In your opinion, what are the biggest hurdles for businesses to overcome in the current global economy? As a result, what do you foresee for the future of your particular businesses sector?

Phew! To a large extent that depends on the particular business. However, let me a general observation about Irish businesses that want to operate globally.

We are an open economy, so recovery will always be heavily tied into our ability to export and sell our products and services internationally.

We continue to have a very high cost base, which in turn limits our competitiveness internationally. Now you don’t have to a rocket scientist to see that this is contradictory.

That being said, I believe that pretty much all obstacles are there to be overcome. The biggest obstacle in overcoming all other obstacles is fear itself. Fear leads to inaction and inaction is extremely bad for business.

In my sector, you already starting to see “a survival of the fittest taking place”. I will be one of “the fittest”.

Q. What are you doing to grow your business and services? Can you tell us about any new initiatives?

My blog is now performing very well and it brings a lot of new enquires. It has allowed me to become better known and I am gaining a lot of respect within the Irish business community and internationally. Our business is fundamentally based on our knowledge and reputation, in both respects – I believe we are making very good gains.

Earlier, this year I changed my payment terms to include an ROI option. This takes any perceived risk away and gives my clients the confidence that we deliver.

Q. Do you consider networking to be an important aspect of your business activity? Why?

Networking is hugely important to me. I am the one responsible for developing new customers. As a sales trainer, I know that sales are about building strong relationships.

It’s a pretty simple equation:

Networking + Relationships = Sales

Q. How does your business interact with the internet and social networking? What have your experiences been like so far?

I spoke about my blog, and recently I am having a lot of success with social media tools such as LinkedIn and Twitter. In fact, social networking is proving so successful that I rarely get the time to make cold calls etc any more.

I spend a lot of time reading and learning about these online tools, because I think this is key to ensuring that you use them well. So much so, that I am now getting approached more and more to coach others in how to use social media for business development.

As a salesperson, I realise that any tool that gives me an opportunity to listen, ask questions and start conversations is extremely valuable.

Q. Any words of advice for other businesses and entrepreneurs?

1. Beware of the fear factor. It’s real and it can kill your business.
2. Speed is now more important than perfection. Take decisions, and try new things. Look at Obama in the states; he moves fast, he makes things happen – that inspires confidence. Of course, not all of his decisions will prove to be right, but that’s not the point. Remember someone who is afraid to make a wrong decision makes no decision.
3. Stop thinking obstacles, start thinking opportunity. This will prove to be a very opportunistic time for many businesses and entrepreneurs. Ask yourself how can we use this recession to maximise our business? Every day keep asking; why not? Why not? – Until the answer comes.

Thank you Donagh and Loopthing.

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In the News

“AN END to the recession is now “in sight”, after the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI) said that “a clear picture” was beginning to emerge of the likely extent of the economy’s troubles” From the Irish Times, full story here.

Very interesting post from Dave Brock on Twitter

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Over at TSE

Upcoming Masterclasses include:

Thursday July 16th 2009 : Achieve Real Results with CRM, Quickly and Affordably

Tuesday July 21st 2009 : The Best Damn Networking Process There Is

Thursday July 23rd 2009 : Turn Your Connections into Cash

Thursday July 30th 2009 : The Psychology of Selling

Tuesday August 4th 2009 : Make a Strong ROI in the Simplest Way

Thursday August 6th 2009 : Marketing Is All About Selling You

Tuesday August 11th 2009 : Sociable! — How to Profit from Social Media

“THE ECONOMY will shrink by 8.3 per cent this year and contract by a further 3 per cent in 2010, when unemployment will peak at “15 per cent plus”, according to the latest projections from the Central Bank”

(click Times logo for story)

Reading this headline, you could be forgiven for thinking what next?

But maybe you shouldn’t. Perhaps the greatest damage that has being done is not to our economy, but to our thinking.

Ireland was, is and will continue to be an open economy. For a while, we allowed a situation to develop where this reality was turned on its head, and now allied with a world recession; we find ourselves up the s#@ter without a paddle.

For our collective troubles, we made sure to leave ourselves with a uniquely Irish mess.

• A spectacular banking crisis
• A bloated and inefficient public sector
• A tremendous high cost base.

Now wait for it, we find that our recovery is tied right back to where we started. In our ability to become a successful open economy once again - TRUE: Yes, EASY: No.

High cost base + open economy = competitive?

1+1 = 3

OK, so we won’t need a rocket scientist then, thank God. So while our problems might be big, they also pretty darn obvious. Now here is where the simplicity of my argument ends.

Unique problems call for creative solutions, right?

Seeing as we allowed such a downrightly stupid situation to evolve, what does this say about our recent track record with being creative?

Frankly, it sucks.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

I hear a lot of talk about making hard decisions; but shouldn’t these hard decisions have being part of last year’s news?

Isn’t a hard decision where one is required to make a great choice? Isn’t one that requires foresight rather hindsight? Isn’t one when others struggle with the logic? Isn’t a hard decision one, where grasping the need for such an action is not easily understood?

Surely, hard decisions are made in times when they are difficult to sell rather than by the seat of one’s pance.

Someone please tell me, has HARD become the new OBVIOUS?

Anyway what are required now are not hard decisions, because that ship has sailed, Right?

Here’s a thought, maybe what we really need now is GREAT decisions. Now is surely the time when we most need to employ our creativity, our imagination, and our flair.

So how come then, that it seems to be taking us so long to cop on? How come our preoccupation is with hard rather than great decisions? Might the final legacy of the boom be in how it has dulled our decision making and our creativity?

Let’s look at some of the evidence.

Historically speaking, Celtic Tiger Ireland was a time when making decisions in Ireland was perceived to be at their easiest. Will I buy this car or that car? Will we spend money on this road or that building? Of course we now know that it was a time when a great many of our decisions were at their very worst.

So then, let me ask you again, has the Celtic Tiger really gone? Or perhaps could it still remain, buried deep within our collective psyche? Does it continue to eat away at our creativity, our imagination, our ingenuity and our ability to be innovative around the decisions we now face.

So has the Celtic Tiger really gone, and even if it has, please say it hasn’t eaten all our saints and scholars.

Business Coach Elaine Rogers of Seefin Life and Business Coaching posted this inspiring video on twitter this morning.

Politicians please PAY attention. No Intro needed.

Btb Guest Author

Bob Hogan

Here are some very practical tactics that any business can use to reduce their business costs in areas that often have low cost visibility but with unnecessarily high costs. Just pick and choose the ones that suit your business best.

1. Mobile Phones: Do your research! Choose a tariff that delivers you best value for your money – driving the cost of other calls and call types down e.g. free internal calls to all company mobiles and landline numbers. Constantly monitor and amend your plan to take full advantage of your actual usage profile/requirement. Ensure your provider does what you want them to do. If not, move to an alternative provider.

2. Desktop Print: Set the default printing function on all your office PCs / Laptop to print black & white and on both sides of the pages. Office paper is one of the single biggest costs and by taking this action you could not only reduce your paper costs by up to 50% but avoid paying for colour copies, often about 10 times the cost of Black & White!

3. Print Material: Switch all your variable print material (business cards, leaflets, compliment slips, etc) to be printed digitally. The quality today is fantastic and turnaround times can be measured in hours! This can lead to reducing printing costs by 60-70%!

4. Mobile Phones: Introduce and implement a “fair use” policy for all staff that have mobile phones – sharing the responsibility for individual bills with a “3 strikes – you lose it” caveat. If your staff know the bills are monitored, spends will be significantly lower than a similar business without the same policy.

5. Energy Costs: Electricity & Gas can be a significant cost for most businesses and this can run to tens of thousands of Euros per annum. There are two ways to drive these costs down, 1. Demand challenge – related to the volume you use. There are many web sites giving you lots of tips and hints in how to reduce energy costs. 2 Supply Challenge - recent competition to the market has allowed a number of very reputable alternative business energy providers to enter the market. We recommend you research these providers and select one suiting your supply profile. Savings here can vary from 5-30%pa!

6. Desktop Print: Install MFDs (Multi Functional Devices) into your offices. This utilizes the benefits of a single high tech device to replace your traditional photocopier, scanner, printer and fax. Not only will you reduce your overall hardware costs by implementing an all inclusive monthly cost structure but you can also reduce your monthly operational costs and avoid additional charges such as toners, service and maintenance.

7. Office Stationery: With this low value / high volume item, appoint a single source of supply. Working with that supplier to set up your own ‘essential items’ catalogue of pre-selected items at pre-agreed prices. Maintain these benefits by reviewing your monthly suppliers report – taking appropriate action as needed

8. Office Stationery: Ensure your provider “swaps” brand name products for “own brand”. You can set up this arrangement in advance with your supplier so that any of the more expensive branded items ordered are automatically ‘swapped’ and the suppliers own brands are the ones actually delivered – which can often be as low as 25% of the branded items costs and manufactured by the same company.

9. Mobiles: Ban all costly premium services. These can account for a significant amount of a businesses total bills and generally very little if any is business related.

10. Print Material: Rather than paying an external print company to produce your standard business forms (especially the internally used ones), set all these forms up on a shared business drive. Your staff can then print these forms when they are required (and if you’re clever, even merge with the required data!). You’ll also have the flexibility to make changes at very short notice with no wastage or obsolete material!

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Bob Hogan is managing director of New Wave Purchasing a company that provides purchasing expertise for Irish businesses. Working mainly with SME’s to reduce their spends in key cost area such as Telecoms IT, Company Print, Marketing, Desktop Printing, Office Stationery, Energy (Electricity and Gas) and IT Consumables - their focus is on driving unnecessary costs out of your business. Although a new arrival to the Irish Market, New Wave Purchasing has already delivered on average 31% cost savings for our customers.

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In the News

New Linked Group “Growbiz Tweets”

For people that are interested in using twitter effectively and organically to grow business.

Following on from the success of Sales Leadership Ireland and the great response I had to my Twitter posts last week - I decided to start up a new group dedicated to using Twitter for biz.

Just click on the pic below to join.

Follow us on Twitter @ http://twitter.com/growbiztweets

Btb Guest Author

Cindy King

So you want to make your business international?

Traditionally there are 7 different options open to you. Each path has advantages and disadvantages.

Businesses just starting their business development abroad will need to study these options very carefully.

Online businesses starting to develop a regular international client base will also find it very interesting to look at the traditional business development strategies. You never know where your international internet business can lead you.

Here are your international business expansion options.

1 – Sell Directly To Your Foreign Clients From Your Home Offices

The advantages are:

• No expensive foreign offices
• No foreign taxes
• You retain full control of your international strategy

The disadvantages are:

• More difficult to penetrate foreign markets
• More cross cultural communication issues
• No local expertise in-house
• You handle all sales issues that arise
• Full responsibility in the event of legal issues

2 – Open A Local Office To Represent Your Business

The advantages are:

• Local presence
• You retain full control of your international strategy

The Disadvantages are:

• Full responsibility in the event of legal issues
• Need tax advice on how to set up finances
• Local taxes due
• Financial results not fully integrated with main company

3 – Create An Overseas Subsidiary

The advantages are:

• Local presence
• You control your sales strategy

The Disadvantages are:

• Expensive solution
• Separate company structure has financial, fiscal and legal repercussions to be researched fully

4 – Hire A Sales Agent To Sell To Foreign Markets

The advantages are:

• Local presence
• Local expertise
• You control your sales strategy
• This is usually a cheaper option than going through a distributor

The Disadvantages are:

• Research needed for legal and taxation issues
• May cost you a fee to terminate agreement

5 – Find A Foreign Distributor

The advantages are:

• Local presence
• Local expertise
• Sales network in place
• No expensive foreign offices
• No local taxes
• Distributor is usually responsible for local legal issues

The Disadvantages are:

• You lose control over your sales strategy
• Distributors are generally more expensive than sales agents
• To end a distributor agreement you need to give notice

6 – Develop A Franchise Overseas

The advantages are:

• Local presence
• Local expertise
• Benefit from franchiser investments

The Disadvantages are:

• Not always an option
• Strict legislation sometimes

7 – Enter Into A Joint-Venture

The advantages are:

• Local presence
• Local expertise
• Possibility of mutual benefit if a good fit
• Each partner keeps the ownership his side of the Joint-Venture
• Flexible structure

The Disadvantages are:

• Need to research the legal responsibilities and implications involved
• Opens your intellectual property to risk

Research Your Options

This list gives you a quick glance at the different international development options and their advantages and disadvantages.

This list is by no means complete. There are many parameters involved. You will need to do your own research and contact the authorities involved.

But this list is interesting for the online businesses starting to get international sales. It is a reminder of how your business could evolve, of the directions you could take your business.

You might find the ideal distributor or sales agent for your products and services one day. This is just a reminder of your other options.

International internet marketing allows businesses to enter into international business development one step earlier.

Internet business does not exclude any of these traditional international development options.

An international internet marketing strategy can be a very good international market research tool leading towards more traditional international expansion methods.

——————–

Cindy King is a Cross-Cultural Marketer & International Sales Specialist. With over 25 years field experience in international sales & marketing and 3 years professional copywriting, Cindy helps businesses to get more international sales, primarily by:

• Creating international business development strategies to shorten time to profitability

• Developing international lead generation strategies

• Lead generation copywritin —interviewing international clients for success stories, case studies, & white papers

• International SEO & Web Copywriting

Cindy can be found @ www.getinternationalclients.com or @ her blog cindyking.biz

——————–

In the News

TSE Captain and powerhouse sales leader, Jonathan Farrington is very very close to reaching the milestone of publishing 600 blog posts - he is on 599.

Here is a video of how Jonathan likes to motivate the TSE Team

THANK YOU JONATHAN

I would like to congratulate Jonathan on this tremendous achievement, thank him for everything that he has taught me and for the continued patience and kindness he has shown towards me.

Well done Jonathan, please continue to INSPIRE us all.

Part one received a great response. A BIG thank you to everyone who took the time to read it.

Are you being Talked About?

You hope so?

This is a very simple way to use twitter. You can monitor for mentions of you or your brand. If people are saying (tweeting) good things, and even when they are tweeting bad things; if you engage in the conversation - Twitter gives you an opportunity to market yourself in a positive way.

Get Talked About (RTed)

It’s easy, just SHARE

I am not a big brand, so when I started using twitter, I had only a very limited number of mentions in the twittersphere - I knew I needed to change this.

• The easiest way to get RTed on Twitter is through offering your Twitter friends (followers) great content.
• Get RTed by RTing your Friends - this is critical step towards building effective marketing on Twitter.
• Remember, the more you RT others - the more lightly they will do the same for you.

Now, if I twit a piece of information like a new blog post on Twitter, many others will RT which in turn sends additional people to my blog. So far, this has meant an additional 50-100 visitor per day.

Note: All this helps to build your friends (followers) organically. Simply put, the more you put in - the more friends and RTs you will get back out.

RT @nialldevitt #twittertip make sure you comment/recommend why someone should read the RT

RT @nialldevitt #twittertip if you want to be RTed, make sure you keep your tweets to less than 140 characters

Who are you Talking to?

The art of conversation

As I mentioned, I am at heart; a salesperson - this is the bit that really interested me about Twitter . Can it help me to sell my services? The answer is a resounding YES.

One big advantage, Twitter has over other social media is that it predominately happens in real time - hence you can have live conversations in the Twitter virtual world.

If you think about it, Twitter is the perfect online environment for the sales professional because:

• You have live opportunities to listen
• You have live opportunities to ask questions
• You have live opportunities to start conversations

And these are all key skills in developing relationships (prospects) …..Yippee!

Ok, so the questioning and listening skills that are required might be more subtle; than say those needed in a traditional face to face setting (meeting). I definitely believe it’s worth the effort, because the opportunity to do so is enormous.

Remember: RTing is at the start and heart of this process - In essence, it is both the seed and the building block rolled into one.

One of the reasons I really get Twitter is, I know that with the right amount of savvy - I can get to talk to key people within organizations right now. Going down more traditional prospecting routes, these same conversations could take me weeks to achieve. If you factor in the Twitter culture (the RT) you quickly come to realise - that Twitter is highly sophisticated business development tool.

Taking it Offline

VERY IMPORTANT!

If you really really want to maximise on Twitter’s potential, the next step is to take these relationships offline.  Again, this is easy, start by sending a DM and then arrange to have phone conversation, a coffee or a meet up.

RT @nialldevitt #twittertip every day, take one online relationship and make it offline

It’s Additive

I hope you enjoyed my Twitter Story thus far. I am off to tweet and retweet. You can catch me on Twitter @ http://www.twitter.com/nialldevitt

Please don’t be a follower, be a friend

As some may already know, I was once upon a time social media sceptic. While I could see a distant value in using these tools, I remained unconvinced as to how an old fashioned sales gun like me - could generate real B2B sales using social media.

If I was sceptical about social media in general, I was entirely sceptical about Twitter. It appeared to me at first glance to be a lowest common denominator kind of tool.

My initial impressions

Having thousands of followers appeared to be the name of the game. With so many tweets and re-tweets, how could a B2B salesperson like me develop anything that resembled a meaningful business relationship on here? Where is the sophistication I thought? This is a nothing but a school yard tool containing a myriad of little broadcasts and where no one appeared to be listening.

So about two months ago and against my own better judgement - I decided to persevere with Twitter.

I started with Three Objectives

1. While having thousands of followers might be nice, I was only interested in people who genuinely wanted to follow me.
2. I had to be able to take these on-line relationships to an off-line setting, if I was to realistically create sales opportunities.
3. This had to be doable in either faster or easier terms than my traditional business development efforts to make Twitter worth while for my business.

So what I have I learnt?

Is Unique because it’s Pick Up and Go

Twitter is unique; It’s a “pick up and go” tool. It is it’s simplicity of use that makes it so effective. As I said earlier, I initially thought that this was a failing, but now realise that this is what actually makes it so effective . This is also probably one of the main reasons behind its massive popularity.

It Takes Time to Truly Get It.

That’s right, even though it is easy to use, it still takes time to work out how best to use it. While its functionality may be straight forward, the potential of this functionally is not. This is where the learning is, and this is what takes time to master.

So it’s a Broadcast Tool, Right?

Yes it is, but that is less than half the story.

Twitter is a truly amazing broadcast tool. It allows you to instantaneously tweet and get information out there. If others see value in this information, they will re-tweet it, further maximising on your potential audience.

It’s about Followers and Lots of them?

NO ITS NOT!!

The term “followers” is in my opinion an unfortunate Twitter description. It is the interpretation of what is a follower? And why should I follow? That turns people off understanding and using twitter effectively.

I prefer to think of my followers and those that I follow as “friends” or perhaps a more approvite description might be “potential friends”

• Remember, having followers in not worthwhile unless the follower is worthwhile.
• If you are interested in using Twitter as a genuine business development tool – do not treat it as a popularity contest.
• Having lots of followers is a result rather than an objective of using Twitter effectively.

The Most Important Letters are R and T

RT @damienmulley: Advising to follow “influencers” on Twitter is downright ignorant/fatal. Everyone has influence due to 2 letters: R and T

Damien Mulley brilliantly highlights through one of his tweets why re-tweeting is the most important thing that you will do on Twitter.

Think of retweets (RT) as Twitter’s very own currency.

• RTs build your followers, If you re-tweet someone - that person is much more likely to follow you.
• RTs lead to more people RTing you, If you re-tweet someone, they will nearly always RT you back.
  
• RTs are the first step in building proper relationships on Twitter.
• RTs not followers are the real indication of your influence on Twitter.

In Part 2

In Part 2, I will be discussing why in my opinion, Twitter should be used as both a Sales and a Marketing tool and why if you only see Twitter as a marketing tool - you might very well be missing the Twitter boat.

Follow me on

In the News

Over at Top 10 Sales Articles, Diane Helbig has taken a commanding lead, but it’s still early days - have you voted yet?