Author: Valerie Dennis

My mom is very independent. She left home at sixteen to pursue a dance career which spanned twelve years in Latin America. Back in the day, not all parents would have supported that. My Dad was born in China, his parents were missionary doctors and his family legacy of service dates back several generations. Adventure and independence are two attributes that exist in our family tree and I also think these are key traits for most business owners. You want the opportunity to craft your own vision and see it unfold. It takes courage to go out on your own. But the one thing that I find is also necessary is knowing when to reign that in and rely on a support network. It’s a conflicting notion but an important one. We may be good at many things, but not a master of all things.

Like a lot of people, I find that I can get a bit myopic about things without an outside perspective. I may have some good ideas, great ones even, but I have friends and colleagues who may have better ideas or together we come up with the best solution. It helps to have an outside perspective, formally and informally.

If you don’t have an advisory board, build one. Vet those members first—it’s good to know how they work, what skills they bring to the table, how they think and what makes them successful. A common tendency is to add people to a board because we like them. More importantly, liking someone who also thinks like you is a key reason not to be on your board. After a while, those people may become less likable—because they aren’t adding value for your business! Advocacy for you and your business doesn’t mean agreement. It’s healthy to find people with fresh ideas, resources, and necessary skills that can assist in shaping, validating and growing your business.

Augment your skills with the right hires—temporary or permanent. Surround yourself with good and great people who can fill in the knowledge or skill gaps and help grow the business. As we work with clients, our role is to bring a skill set to the business that is needed at that time. The work is collaborative with established phases and project priorities ensuring that the end result aligns to business objectives. In that way, our client is assured we are moving towards his/her objectives.

Make the time. The old saying that time equals money applies here. When it comes to survival or growth, can you afford to not make the time for a trusted, outside opinion?

Find a way to attract inquiry, new ideas, skills and feedback to your business. If all the great ideas came from one person in the world, the rest of us would have nothing to do.  

By Alisa Walser

As a seasoned sales manager, the key challenge in my role was to develop new ideas or creative ways to inspire and challenge my team as a whole.  My most recent team was very diverse in age, interests and backgrounds.  Finding common ground for a diverse group of direct reports was not easy.  I asked each member of the team to set reachable goals for themselves.  They were to clearly post a picture of what they wanted to accomplish were they to hit their minimum sale requirements and what they could purchase if they exceeded their numbers.   We had the old idea of a team thermometer that we would fill in each month as the numbers were validated.  The old thermometer idea was just not enough. 

I realized that we needed a fresh, common goal for the team.  While it was somewhat unconventional, my idea was certainly fresh and unique.  I chose what I wanted to do when my team hit their goal.  I had decided to remodel my kitchen.  I hung the plans on the wall in my office.  At the end of each month after the numbers were validated, I then put a name on each cabinet that the individual reps had effectively purchased for me.  At years end, we had a party to celebrate their accomplishments.  The party was held in the bare room at my home that was soon to be my new kitchen.  Each person signed the bare concrete floor with something personal for their contribution to the new construction. 

At the end of Q1 the following year, I held another celebration party.  Each team member was able to come back to see what the fruits of their labor had produced.  I was very proud of what they had accomplished and the person who exceeded their quota by the most cut the ribbon to the new kitchen. 

While I am not suggesting you remodel your kitchen to inspire your sales team, I am suggesting that you create a new and unusual way to get them involved and inspired.  My team really enjoyed having their name assigned to the cabinets and they turned it into a personal challenge amongst themselves.  60% of the team exceeded quota and the remaining 40% just missed a full 100% for the year.  This certainly puts to shame the 80/20 rule that states 20% of sales reps will sell 80% of the business. 

Here’s to you creating your unique, inspiring sales program that brings out the best and success of all your sales team members!

Author: Valerie Dennis

Business owners have a lot to accomplish in a day, week, month or year. On most days, you may feel like you have all the symptoms of ADD because competing priorities don’t work on a schedule. So when the subject of sales and marketing comes up, it almost becomes a philosophical debate. How do justify the time and money for something that seems a bit intangible? Websites are great and sometimes really cool, but…will they make a sale? Sales and marketing efforts are not just about your website–that is a subset , a tactical element. You can have a really great product or service, but it is the strategies that will get it to market and build a sustainable sales pipeline. In other words, the best products and services don’t sell themselves—at least not for long. If they did, we wouldn’t have sales and marketing people—how dull would that be?

In a conversation recently with a prospective client, we were talking about how they invest in their client for the long-term—adding ongoing value and aiming for the sale after the sale. It is a good way to look at marketing and sales strategies, consider them critical investments. They are the roadmap for how you are going to grow—and keep growing. That’s worth time and money, right?

When might you need such help? Examples include: Before you enter a new market or start a company, if you want to validate a business concept, customer needs are evolving, introduce a new product or service, you need accelerated growth or greater differentiation, you want to find the next big thing, there’s an increase in competition and a loss in market share, or sales have stalled or declined.

What is interesting is that when we are the purchaser, we tend to weed out the “Me too” category. When we buy a car, running shoes, groceries, look for a doctor or day care, etc. we do our homework because there are a lot of options to choose from and places to buy. As the seller, we sometimes think our benefits are obvious. They might be—but there are lots of options to choose from and places to buy…and your prospective customer will do his homework. It starts with the basic premise if you aren’t easy to find or you didn’t find them, you’ve lost the prospective sale.

Naturally, we want the sales to keep rolling in and we want our customers to recognize our value. Some might say that their businesses are growing by referral. Perhaps for a lucky few that happens. But I would tell you that time and again businesses eventually need to rebuild the pipeline because referral business was only good for a while.

In the simplest analogy, sales and marketing strategies are like GPS—it will get you to the right place, unless you have a bad address and an ill-equipped vehicle. Here is what you want to know:

• you need an accurate address to get you to the right place, at the right time. (I.e. lead generation, sales prospecting, market research)
• your “hosts” need to know who you are and why they should talk to you—rather than your competition (I.e. brand, key messaging, differentiation, competitive analysis, product marketing)
• you need to know how many others are just like your current “host”, who might also buy from you (I.e. prospecting, channel development, sales pipeline)
• you need to know when to visit, what to say, how to say it and how to keep them talking to you (I.e. qualifying a prospect, sales strategy and process, marketing and communications)
• you want a reliable vehicle—does your car break down on the side of the road or is it shiny and new, with a navigation system? (I.e. brand, channel development, marketing strategy, sales)
• you need a map to give you turn by turn instruction–not directions like “take a left at the red barn, go past the cows–the spotted ones, not the brown ones…” (I.e. strategy, sales tools, marketing, messaging, customer relationship management)
• you need a guidebook to make your “trip” productive (I.e. sales methods and tools, marketing and messaging, customer relationship management)
• you want people to invite you back—or at least welcome your next visit–and they’ll only do that if you answer “what’s in it for me?” (I.e. sales pipeline, growth strategies, positioning, ROI)

Sales and marketing strategies help you get the right address (prospects), a working vehicle (message), the most effective route (channel)…and the sale. Sales is not a passive process. It requires discipline, strategy, planning and execution. If you put time and money into the quality of your products and services, why wouldn’t you put time and money into generating revenue?

From a lot of folks I hear “I don’t have time and I don’t like to sell” and when you drill down on that statement, they will also tell you they don’t know how to sell. That’s okay. Let’s face it, sales people are a distinct breed. But in this case it’s important find someone to help you overcome these challenges. The same goes for marketing.

I realize that it is difficult to invite someone into your business to help shape your strategies. It is a matter of trust, among other things. But business is dynamic, not static. Marketing and sales plans aren’t built once and kept for a lifetime. Market indices will affect your business, your competitors will reshape your customer’s preferences or needs, or product/service obsolescence will force the change. Stuff happens. But what I have found is that with the right people in the room (ideally people with practical experience who lived through the execution of their own ideas), who genuinely want the best for your business, you will find the answers you need and perhaps even some you didn’t think about. Sales and marketing is an investment, a critical one.

Author: Julie Abraham

This blog post is about how you go about getting to know a new product category and managing new brands.  I’m currently learning all I can about the Premium and Luxury Faucet category.  Here are some of the steps I’m undertaking to master a new category:

1. Determine what market research is available – Whether it is syndicated or otherwise, seek out any research that has been conducted for your company and your category.  Read it and make notes of opportunities and threats because this will become part of your “story” or your rationale for your roadmap going forward.
2. Analyze sales reports – Understand your brand in terms of top selling and worst selling SKUs and sub-categories.  This will help you determine where you can build and potentially expand and will also help you understand potential cost savings from SKU rationalization. 
3. Brand framework – You will want to understand the existing foundation for your brand.  What is your brand positioning?  Or what is it supposed to be, even if you’re not delivering on it yet.  Who is your target customer/market?  What is your product portfolio missing?  What are the opportunities in the category (as you found in number 1 above)?  What are your strengths and weaknesses?  This is the beginning of your SWOT analysis.  Be sure to read all of the latest press releases too.
4. Competitive analysis – Once you understand your brand framework, you will want to understand how you are different from your competition.  This includes your brand positioning, target market, product portfolio, distribution channels, and pricing.  This information will help you complete a SWOT analysis.  Undertaking a competitive pricing analysis is one of the quickest, best projects you can perform to really understand your competition.  Visit all of your competitor’s websites and determine what they do well and their weaknesses.  Read their press releases.  Create a Google alert for your brand, your competition, and your category.
5. Talk to other employees – Gain an understanding on what they think about your brand, your company, and your category.  You are collecting data so you can determine your objectives and deliver results to your company.
6. Conduct customer visits in the field with your sales associates – This is one of the best ways to understand your category, your products and your competition.  Be ready with lots of questions for the sales associates and your customers.  You need to be open and receptive to whatever you hear.  Remember this is all about getting a benchmark on metrics.  You’re wanting to find out what your brand/company does well and can do better.  Find out what makes them recommend products.  Is is the quality of the products or the level of customer service they get from manufacturers?  Or something else?

These are all of the things I am undertaking right now.  I’m excited to learn about a new category and new product lines.  Please comment on this blog and tell me what you would differently or in addition to what I’ve listed here?

Author: Valerie Dennis

Not all customers are alike. And there may be some that you just don’t like. But for the purpose of today’s discussion, we’ll stick to the first statement. Given the fact that your customers are diverse, your sales structure and segmentation need to be anything but homogenous.

Customers can be profitable, unprofitable, growing, declining, high maintenance, low maintenance, strategic in value, high revenue, low revenue, etc. They can use up all your resources and give you very little to show for it. Your sales efforts will vary by customer type—with some being easy to sell, attain and retain. So why would you treat them all the same?

Sales structure is critical to sales success and it is often overlooked. Many companies don’t think twice about restructuring but don’t think about the new challenges it creates. For example, if you change a sales model from account management to a combination of business development and account management, you will not have a better performing model if you don’t evaluate the people and make the necessary changes.

Account managers don’t always make great business development reps and vice versa. Most account managers prefer to build long-term relationships, be the expert in the customer’s business and grow the business over time. Business development reps like the hunt, but not the long-term service and sales support of a customer. It is unlikely that you’ll be lucky enough to have each member of your sales team with those combined talents—although there are some who are great at both and like to do both.

Other misconceptions are that all selling is alike and the cost of the sale is the same. Customer segmentation is key here. The cost of the sale, the complexity of the sale and the customer value should be considered. Your A and B customers are your high revenue, high growth, strategic and/or high profit accounts. You will also have C and D customers—low revenue, profit and maintenance accounts—customers that might be better suited to inside sales support.  The key here is to match up the skills and cost of your sales force to the revenue and cost of the customer.

Restructure your customers first—A through D and align the sales force accordingly. In other words, put the right sales people with the right customer opportunities. Someone better suited for inside sales or small accounts will flounder in a national or key account. Sometimes, high growth customers are ignored, simply because they are growing on their own. I know, that’s counter intuitive but it happens. If the customer is selling themselves, so to speak, some reps will spend time where they can be more impactful. Not realizing that there is greater growth potential or that retention is also their responsibility.

Another thing to think about…“that one customer” who is HIGH maintenance. Uggh!! We’ve all had them–think about your high maintenance customer(s). With all due respect to the client, they are probably that way because the organization allowed it. As such, the cost to serve a customer is another consideration. Low revenue accounts (caveat: with no growth potential) should not get the same resources and support as your top accounts.

At the end of the day, when you look at your customer segmentation and sales structure, a compelling goal is to provide the right experience and value to your customers. These changes will help you optimize your selling, manage your sales costs and create the right customer experience.

Author: DeVerges Jones

The emergence of social media networks has caused the world of marketing to shift much of its attention to these vehicles as keys to success in developing brands. I don’t necessarily agree and believe that we need to take step back. Good marketing is first and foremost developed by having well defined and specific objectives and a strategic platform that is well thought out. With the advent of the Internet many marketers said “We can change our strategy and or web site everyday if we choose.” This is a classic example of mis-guided thinking! This short-term nano reactionary thinking does not circumvent the need for a strategic and thoughtful approach to reaching consumers and customers.

Keep in mind that Twitter, Facebook, My Space are all tactical media vehicles that can be used to develop a program to communicate to consumers. They are not strategies – they are tactical programs just like the Internet, radio, print or network TV.

Many companies don’t have a strong and intimate understanding of their users but they will gravitate to the hype associated with digital media. Any advertising effort that is not well grounded in a fundamental understanding of consumer wants is not going to drive sales and profits over the long-term.

Social media will like other mediums evolve overtime and take its place as a formidable tool for marketers. It is not the end all – more over it is a part of a vast array of tools that marketers have at their disposal.

Let’s get back to doing more strategic thinking and stop employing knee jerk reactions to the next social media product that hits the market. Let’s evaluate the true role within the overall marketing mix that social media can play and how it can cohesively react with other forms of communication.

Author:  Liz Rohleder

How do you integrate social media into your current business model?  Is it a part of the traditional marketing plan? Is it a channel?  Does it work for B-C and B-B customers?

 The answer is different for every business situation.  More and more companies are taking the plunge and no longer sitting in the fringe wondering if they should or should not enter the area of social media.  What will it take for your organization to engage in this new business opportunity?  How can you leverage your existing advocates of your products and services?  Why is it that so many organizations large and small are leveraging this emerging tool and why are executives engaging and utilizing?

 Your target base will determine the best strategy for you to approach your audience and drive your message out or engage feedback of your audience.

 Two of the more popular tools are Twitter and Facebook based on demographics and reach potential.  Professionals are also leveraging Linked-in to build their business connections.

 Good advice is to start slow with a personal page and follow others in the target audience or interest areas.  Then branch out to a company page and drive your strategy home.

1. Form your strategy for social media.
2. Determine what will reach target audience.
3. Get up to speed on how they work first.
4. Set-up your company page.
5. Allocate time commitment to make social media work for your business.
6. Have fun and create or engage existing fans of your company/product/service.
7. Keep learning – follow new trends!
8. Go to seminar on social media in your area.
9. Check out your local bookstore for reference books on the topic.

 For more information on marketing and sales strategy follow us at  http://peakvizn.wordpress.com/.

– Taking business to new heights!

To CRM or Not To CRM?

 Author:  Alisa Walser

Is your business like most businesses struggling with making the decision to invest in a Customer Relationship Management System?  In difficult times, making the decision to invest in a CRM typically gets put on hold until the decision reaches a business critical situation.  Companies tend to endorse the “go with the flow” and “if it’s not broken, don’t fix it” mentality.  They feel that the pain of implementing a CRM is by far above something they can tolerate.  It doesn’t have to be.

The following questions may help you identify the reasons and justify the need for a CRM.  If you don’t have the answers, ask your executive staff to weigh in on the following questions:

• Are you investing in Trade Shows and leaving viable leads in a shoebox?
• Are you investing in lead generation but not contacting the responders?
• Do you invest in training your sales and customer service reps?
• Do you currently communicate frequently to your customers/clients?
• Do you currently communicate regularly to your vendors/suppliers?
• Do you have a way to capture all your current client information?
• Do you have all the client information available to up-sell or cross-sell for products that are currently in your pipeline?
• Is your organization prone to sales personnel turnover?

If any of the answers to these questions are yes, you have the basis for taking the step toward identifying and implementing a CRM.

Once you have identified that obtaining a CRM would be an option for you, make sure you ask for participation from all functional areas of your organization.  Many hands make light work and help to create a strong blueprint and foundation upon which to build your CRM. 

The foundation or blueprint is just like a house foundation, it is the most important part to critique when you are looking at the options to choose from for your CRM.  Make sure you consider a CRM provider that has the ability to easily expand your foundation.  The foundation should be able to be altered to fit your ever-changing business requirements, without loosing or jeopardizing information that you currently store.

Understand that support is a very important factor in the success of your CRM implementation.  Support from your IT/IS team is paramount to the success of the project.  In addition to the technical support, your organization should understand the merits of a good training program that includes a follow-up program a few months after implementation. 

For further information on the selection and implementation of a CRM, please continue to follow PeakVizn for future postings!

Author: Carrie Hood

The key selling periods for toy companies are: December, Easter then Back-To-School. One way to advertise the toy products is with “roto ads.” When you read the Sunday newspaper, such as the Los Angeles Times, you will find a plethora of ads from various retailers, such as Target, Kohl’s, Kmart and Macy’s. These ads are called “roto ads”.

During the holiday season, you will see more roto ads from Wal*Mart, Target, Toys-R-Us and Kohl’s featuring their toys on sales. The 4^th quarter (October, November and December) is a key selling period for toy companies because of the holidays in December (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.). Toy companies are able to sell their higher-priced items during the holiday season because this is more of a gift-giving time of year.

Most of these retailers end their fiscal year in January. They sell-through their holiday inventory in December and January and start the new fiscal year in February. Retailers do not like to mark down their inventory because it lowers their gross margin and overall profit.

Another key selling period for toy companies is Easter. Easter usually occurs in March or April. Some of the toy companies run the same type of promotion during the same week as the previous year. This way, you are able to compare the sales from the previous year vs. current year. Easter is a good time to take advantage of the in-store foot traffic of people shopping for Easter baskets, Easter candy and outfits for Easter Sunday. Toys sold during the spring season (February, March, April) tend to be less expensive than toys sold during the fall season (holiday season) because people do not want to spend a lot of money on toys.

Back-To-School draws families and their children into the stores. Some people start shopping for school-related items in July and August. Toy companies will sometimes run a promotion during these months and call it a Back-To-School Special.

The next time you read the Sunday newspaper, take a look at the roto ads from the different retailers. Notice how the toy items that are advertised change in price and selection depending on the time of year.

Author:  Denise Keddy

Years ago you went to college, graduated, found a job and pledged your loyalty to the company.  If you were lucky you could retire after 30 or so years with a nice gold watch.  Today’s business model is evolving- partly because of the economic turmoil, party because of the ability to work any where, anytime, and partly because the new model is moving toward more collaboration. Time Magazine has an interesting report on The Future Of Work .

 The following really struck a cord with me:

“Paying your dues, moving up slowly and getting the corner office — that’s going away. In 10 years, it will be gone,” says Bruce Tulgan, head of the consulting firm Rainmaker Thinking, based in New Haven, Conn., and author of a new book about managing Gen Y called Not Everyone Gets a Trophy. “Instead, success will be defined not by rank or seniority but by getting what matters to you personally,” whether that’s the chance to lead a new-product launch or being able to take winters off for snowboarding. Tulgan adds, “Companies already want more short-term independent contractors and consultants and fewer traditional employees because contractors are cheaper. And seniority matters less and less as time goes on, because it’s about the past, not the future.”

Smart companies are changing their business model to include contractors and consultants and why not?  If you have a project wouldn’t you rather hire someone who is flexible, has the experience to solve your problems and can help you attain your goals?  After all if you could do it yourself you would already be doing it! 

What makes a good consultant?  If you are hiring a web designer undoubtedly you will have a detailed list of requirements; understands SEO – check,  can develop a secure e- commerce site- check, has the ability to design the new site so that you can easily update it – check….and so on and so on.  The true beauty with the changing business models is that you can hire people that are passionate about what they do!  What a concept! 

Instead of fighting the changing business model companies need to embrace it!  After all how many companies are struggling with their marketing and sales initiatives since they downsized the marketing department and put finance in charge of marketing? (When is that ever a good idea?)   I am sure many of us have been in the position where we “inherited” responsibility for an area in the company that we have no interest or desire to manage.   So we silently march along doing what we were told because the company told us to (O.K. so some people are not so silent about it!).

Businesses need to open up to the idea of collaboration.  Why not bring in a team that has experience solving the problems your company is facing?   One thing that does seem to be missing from the detailed list of requirements in hiring a consultant is passion.    You can  go down your check list and hire a consultant that will bring value to your company, but you must ask yourself if this is someone you can establish a true partnership with?    Just going by the numbers may get you a better number to show to the finance group but hiring someone who is as passionate about your product or service as you are will give you the extra edge in the future because they WANT to be there working with you and helping you grow your business.  Wanting to work with your company is a whole lot different than getting the remnants of the marketing department shoved into the finance department

Business is changing and these are challenging times.  I had a boss who constantly reminded us in our weekly staff meetings  “When you’re through changing, you’re through” *   funny how this has more meaning today than ever before.

I believe businesses who are quick to adapt this business model with be successful because they are surrounding themselves with people who have a common interest  and goal and who have a passion to succeed!

–Originally quoted by Bruce Barton