Posts Tagged ‘grow your business’

Hi Brad, I think I need a Business Coach, but how do I choose the right one?

Friday, December 9th, 2011

Choosing to work with a Business Coach is a very personal decision. This is someone you will have a long relationship with, so you have to be sure you are comfortable with them working so closely with you, your team and your business.

First of all, do your due diligence. Research the coaches you are considering, talk to their clients and see how these coaches have helped these businesses grow.

Once you’ve done your research, spend some time getting to know the coaches you are considering to make sure you both have the same goals in mind, namely making your business the profit-making machine you want it to be.

Basically, you need to have a good rapport with your mentor or coach, and be sure that your business mentor or coach has the best interests of your company (and you!) in mind.

All the best,
Brad Sugars

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I present my finance company’s program to dealerships, so that they can sign up with me and send me their deal packages. How do I effectively get them hyped so that they most certainly do sign up with me? They are usually receptive and are agreeable in allowing me to fax over the program information, but then I do not see the deals come over as often as I would like. Any suggestions on how I can improve my conversion rate?

Monday, June 27th, 2011

Two things come to mind.

First what is in it for them?

Second, have you built up a relationship strong enough for them to become raving fans of you and your product?

In your type of business, or really in any type of small business, you have to build relationships while at the same time finding reasons that customers and potential customers will want to form a relationship with you.

Faxing over your deals isn’t a bad idea, but it’s just the tip of the iceberg.

How do you engage these dealerships before you even walk in the door to give a presentation?

Are you proactive with them, keeping an open dialogue through email or even social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn?

Next you have to develop a sales and handling process after your customers have received your fax or heard your presentation.

Once you put one in place, you can measure where your sales are dropping off. You have to test and measure what you are doing because then and only then can you fix the problem.

Finally, what does your customer service look like?

Getting the clients is only a part of the solution. Once you have them you have to keep them happy.  If you service them poorly, you’re only wasting your resources in making them customers in the first place.

Outstanding customer service in which you deliver on what you promise will a long way, not only in keeping your existing customers, but creating the word of mouth (and referrals) that will grow your business.

All the best,
Brad Sugars

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Hi, I started an IT business 4 months ago and have constant work coming from a few places enough to cover expenses. Most of my business is coming from the local people in the area. I haven’t really spent much time working ON the business at all because I’ve been so busy working IN it, but I want to expand my operations to start working with other businesses. I am the only IT business in town and while I’ve done well with lay people, I need to start doing business with companies to really grow. How can I sell myself to the businesses in town that may need my services?

Tuesday, June 21st, 2011

Your best move is to start by targeting some of the smaller businesses in your area who are less likely to have long term IT service contracts in place. Try to find out who is in charge and offer to come to their office or storefront and do an audit of their needs.

If you are willing to spend regular time working with these companies, you could become very popular, so long as you are solving their problems. Dissatisfaction levels with remote IT support is typically pretty high, so you should do well if you are as responsive to these companies’ needs as you would be if you were an in-house IT Department. As your reputation grows, so will your business.

As you have stated, you seem to be doing well with your existing customer base, so don’t be afraid to draw on them for referrals. I’m sure many of them know or even work with the types of businesses you’d like to start working with. Why not ask them to tell everyone they know about your service and what you are willing to do for other small businesses? If they truly like your service, they’ll be happy to tell others about you.

Finally, since you haven’t had much time to work ON your business, I would recommend bringing on another team member who can help you grow your business. This might be an IT person, it might be a salesperson or someone who does a little bit of everything, but the point is, you can’t do it all yourself.

So to grow, reach out to small businesses, leverage your best customers to provide referrals and build and train your team to provide great service, so you can focus on growing your business.  Follow these steps and you should get the kind of attention you want from the other businesses in your town.

All the best,
Brad Sugars

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