This is a continuing article of a series on Key Revenue and Profit Drivers. This article covers how to increase the frequency of sales. This metric helps to describe how you can improve your profit margins

1. Can You Negotiate A Better Deal With The Supplier?

Many businesses use the same supplier year after year never bothering to review their pricing and make sure that it is in line with the market realities. Also, if your business has grown, your supplier is also getting more business from you and may be willing to provide you a discount. You just need to ask.

2. Can You Buy In Bulk?

Buying in bulk is typically cheaper. Make sure your purchases are aligned with your sales so you don’t end up with “dead” inventory.

3. Drop-Ship or Use Just-In-Time?

Having to manage an inventory adds a significant cost to running a business. Having your supplier drop-ship the goods directly to the customer can eliminate the need for stocking the products yourself. Just-in-time deliveries reduce the inventory and its associated expenses.

4. Can You Re-Package Or Re-Create Your Product?

Just packaging an item differently can add value to the product and at the same time reduce your cost. Sometimes by offering a smaller quantity of the same item you can open yourself to a totally new category of customers (e.g., healthy-choice menus for a restaurant).

5. Specialize

Not only can you get paid more as a specialist, you can dramatically improve the efficiencies of your business if you focus on a specific type of customers or specific types of products and services. You won’t need to “re-invent the wheel” every time you get a new customer, won’t need to buy new equipment or learn through trial and error, and your costs will go down.

6. Systemize Your Operations And Procedures

If you have certain operations or procedures that happen over and over in your business, installing standardized systems and processes that are completely foolproof and that will work even if you remove yourself from your business and have someone else run it can make your business infinitely more efficient and will save you time and money.

Next week I will  review some ideas on how to increase the average revenue dollars per sale.

This is a continuing article of a series on  Key Revenue and Profit Drivers. This article covers how to increase the frequency and conversion of presentations to sales for your business.

Buyer skepticism is at an all-time high. You have to use all possible tools to improve your credibility and remove the risk from your customers to do business with you. The following are just some of the ideas to consider.

· Offer A Guarantee “If you can’t guarantee what you’re selling, stop selling it.” Don’t be concerned about the cost of offering a guarantee. You probably already offer a guarantee… you just don’t state it. The increased sales you get because you offer a guarantee will offset any returns you may have.

· Try-It-Before-You-Buy Offers (Sampling) Let’s assume that there are prospects who want and need what you’re offering. How can they be sure that your product or service as really as good as you say it is? The only way for them to them to know it is to start using it.

· Using Scripts Your entire staff should be trained to use specific scripts when they greet customers calling your number or entering the store. They should be scripted, but not ‘canned”. build in a reasonable and unrehearsed cadence and pace to your “conversation”. I would emphasize that it should be a conversation and not a “soliloquy”.

· Free Offers It costs 6 to 8 times more to sell a new prospect, and it’s 16 times easier to sell someone who already knows you and is working with you. Free offers help break the ice and make it risk-free for new prospects to become your customers.

· Sequential Mailings 50% of salespeople give up after just one contact, 80% after the third, and 90% after the fourth contact with a prospective customer. If you go past 8 contacts, you’re probably the only person to go that far. Focus on nurturing your prospects and building relationships while they get to know you. When they are ready to buy, you have a 90% chance of being called.

· Testimonials One of the best ways to melt the ice with the prospective clients is to provide testimonials from your happy customers who are already doing business with you. Anything that comes from a third party is a lot more credible. Still, a lot of businesses do a lousy job collecting the testimonials from their clientèle.

· Awards And Citations Did you product receive any awards that you can mention? Was it mentioned in an article? Just like with testimonials, what others say about you is many times more effective than what you say about yourself.

The opportunity to be hired as next top performer in a company is simple, if you follow a few consistent and disciplined approaches. This is not to imply that it is easy, but it is simple, if you keep in mind and follow a few key components during the interview process. The process is easy to implement and easy to follow. Your interview must be consistent with the stated objectives of the organization, so you should do your homework prior to the personal interview. A few questions to consider when researching the company and its culture:

1. How often has the organization met their objectives in the past 30, 60, 90, 180 360 day time frame?
2. Do you know the qualities that distinguish the companies top performers today?
3. What are the most important performance metrics/objectives of the position for which you are interviewing?
4. How can you be sure you are the best choice among several qualified candidates?
5. How can you demonstrate that you, accelerate productivity for the organizations benefit, as a quick start?
6. How many references and testimonial letters are you bringing to the interview?
7. What can you say, bring or do , to demonstrate that you are a consistent contributor who represents a low risk hiring decision for the company?

Here are 3 considerations when interviewing:1. Bring a Positive, Hireable Attitude to the Interview.

What I mean here is to bring the best of who you are to the interview. your values, skill sets, track record, social skills, communication skills, etc.There are as many as 2800 assessment tools available for use, and many are available to you through the Internet at minimal costs or fee’s. Without an objective, third party assessment tool, you may tend to think you know your strengths, and not be as accurate as you could be. As a candidate you may lose valuable time and energy, because you approached the job interview incorrectly and without sufficient insights into yourself. In the interview you want to communicate that you are teachable, coachable and a quick study. That you bring an appropriate attitude the workplace, and a beginners mind to learning.

2. Always Test for Your Aptitude to Do The Job.

This is accomplished through a variety of tools available that measure your strengths. These include reading speed and accuracy, reading comprehension, arithmetic and arithmetic reasoning skills. You should also measure your preferences for job content and the things that you naturally gravitate towards, and are good to great at doing. There are many tools available, and searchable through Google. Three such assessment tools are Myers Briggs, DISC and the Kolbe A assessment.

3. Always Evaluate  and Bring to the Interview Your Energy Level, Enthusiasm, Resiliency and Commitment.

Make certain to verify and confirm your job history, and performance contributions in all previous assignments. You should develop a series of “bullet proof” interview responses to questions that are asked consistently of all candidates. These questions will be job related, and enable you to share your  key thinking as a candidate. Please remember that it is the attitude and aptitude, communication skills and the ability to think on your “feet” that will separate the great from the good candidates.

In summary rehearse and practice your very best “YOU”, so that you can create separation and distance from you and the other candidates in the process of securing your next, best career opportunity.

My work with employees throughout the years has been exceptionally rewarding to me for one primary reason. It has allowed me to participate in a small but measured way, to guide people to higher levels of personal growth and satisfaction, while helping them to discover and reconnect  with their natural skills, talents, interests and abilities.

I am usually  involved in helping them with their thinking, to improve clarity, while giving them guidance on how to move along and progress in their chosen fields with specific goals and objectives.

What I have found over time, is that most people do not progress or move along on their objectives for two basic reasons:

1.    Lack of a strategy or plan.

2.    Lack of specific skills

To the extent that I can provide this universe of people a process, either through career coaching or business mentorship, to begin to get unstuck and unglued from their previous experiences, then we begin down the road to progress. Witnessing people move forward then that allows me, through regular feedback sessions, to “check in” with them, and to be of on-going service and benefit to them.

This to me is very important, for it is the beginning of creating and re-enforcing the success, beliefs thinking and self-esteem of the student.   Few decision makers in Corporate America or in the entrepreneurial marketplace is going to tap you on the shoulder, select you and appoint you to a level of higher responsibility without a proven successful track record of achievement, and subsequent followership from those around you.

As a society, we are still very much a meritocracy. This means that the candidate must stand out from the sea of other employees and entrepreneurs by being the most unique and best prepared of the crowd candidates. Raise your hand and take a position or make a recommendation, however unpopular it may be, because this behavior helps to demonstrate your interest in leadership, problem resolution and a higher level of engagement in the business or organization.

Your comments must be well researched, fully explored, and reasonable, within the context of the current business model of the company or organization. Remember that you are NOT trying to initiate a “palace revolt.”   Another  lesson worth paying attention to  is to connect and attach yourself to a rising star in the organization or a rising entrepreneur; somebody who is working in your space that knows more than you do, and is viewed by others as someone of significance and importance to the organization.

It is important that you find and attach yourself to someone who  knows more than you do, or has greater responsibility than you do, or is currently doing the job that you aspire to achieve. Then through the use of a great personality, personal charm, and genuineness, approach this person for help  and personal mentorship. You must also consider that your selected mentor may not have the time, experience, or desire to serve in this role at the moment, so you have to be patient and prepared for a delay in moving forward with this person.

Find others in the organization that may be appropriate mentors for you. Do not limit your search.   I will cover several more relevant and important aspects of “How To Get Promoted” within two weeks.

The ability to get hired and promoted in today’s economy requires a significant boost in the individual skill sets of the candidates and the hiring organization in order to attract and appeal to the very best candidates available. I believe that it is executive/senior management’s responsibility for growing the next level of organizational leaders, at all times, not just in tough times. This is an important philosophy distinction to recognize if you are in the new hire interview stages with a company, since it will help to define the culture and philosophy of the company, as it relates to the internal development of employees, and the company’s’  promotion from within orientation.

At certain levels of responsibility, a company may have to go to the outside to hire the appropriate talent and skills necessary for the expected growth of the company, because the talent/experience is not available internally, and has never been “home” grown or nurtured. Many companies would like to grow and promote their people from within to support loyalty and  growth opportunities for their employees. It is important that during the interview process, a candidate explore the following through a series of questions:

1. What is the internal management/leadership development process within the company?

2. How can I get on the long and short list of candidates of future promotability?

3. Is there a program for  internal development or external programs supported by the company?

4. Is there a program that you would suggest that I could take outside the company, perhaps under a tuition aid program that would be recognized by the company as a good developmental process?

These are some of the interview questions that I would encourage people who are looking for a long-term career to engage in, once inside the company.   In terms of personal developmental responsibility, employees should take the initiative to invest in themselves and take as many workshops, seminars, home study audios, and personal mentorship from people outside the company as necessary to help them along their personal development path.

I firmly believe that tomorrow we’re going to be exactly the same people we are today except for these four things:

1. The people you meet.
2. The audios, CDs” or MP3′s that you listen to.
3. The books that you read.
4. The workshops and seminars that you attend.

When you take action in any one of those four, you will move forward in the area of self-development and not have to look outside of yourself for your own self-development.    I think that  self-development is  key in today’s environment and economy. We need to acquire as many skills as possible. We really need to become an expert, and demonstrate mastery through achievement and accomplishment of goals.

I think you need to have multi-level mastery in the following 12 Critical Skill Areas:

• Leadership
• Interpersonal Competence
• Perception and Analysis Skills
• Use of proper Judgment
• Ability to Staff properly
• Your Energy Level
• Communications Skills
• Decision-Making Skill
• Organization and Planning Skills
• Control and Follow-Up
• Managing Stress And Pressure
• Ethical responsibility.

If you do your own critical assessment in each of these critical skills, you will begin to make progress at identifying your performance gaps, and this will start you on you journey to filling these gaps through appropriate mentors, programs, and workshops. I will cover each of these 12 critical skills in my subsequent discussions. Until then, make it a great day!

In today’s business climate, it is important to be viewed as a significant contributor to the success of any project, program, or organization. An extremely important skill to demonstrate in Leadership. I would define the act of taking leadership this way- when there is a void or absence of progress or of results in a specific area of endeavor, who is proposing and contributing the most in advancing progress towards the goal. Whether it’s in education, business or in government, the person who raises their hand, stands up and has a proposal that makes sense to the bulk of the people is demonstrating leadership through action. You do not need to have authority, given to you by anyone for you to exhibit leadership. You are not granted leadership you assume and demonstrate leadership.  Leadership is something that is done very professionally.

To illustrate this point, you will all recall the TV ad “When E. F. Hutton talks, people listen” This TV ad placed E.F. Hutton  squarely in a position of influence and leadership, because it created followers by virtue of the company’s performance track record and credibility in the financial markets..Followers will not want to follow people or organizations that they do not like, know and trust.

A key aspect of professional growth and development is Mentoring. I believe that is essential to accelerated growth and progress, is absolutely essential. There is a great little book which is excellent on this subject.  The book costs under $10 and is titled, Mentoring 101, by John Maxwell. I have no association or affiliation with author, but this a great book/primer on mentoring.

Mentoring is important for several reasons. Firstly, you have to select the right mentor and you have to have the right mindset. You have to have a student’s/beginners mindset, not an expert’s mindset. Once you find someone that you want attached to you as a mentor, because they are smarter than you, due to life experience’s and training/expertise. These may be people in your company, outside the company, in your friend and family, then you approach them to solicit thee help in mentoring you.

How do you search for a Mentor? This morning I did a Google Search for mentors, coaches, trainers etc. It took Google about 31 seconds to find 58 million coaches and business mentors. Wow. Now 58 million, is a lot of people. How do you select the right one person? You’ve to have a  list of criteria, and begins with an in person or telephone interview. What are your looking for: qualifications.

1. What have you done?
2. When did you do it?
3. What industry or business did they do it in?
4. How many people have they coached in the past?
5. have them provide a list of references and testimonials.
6. What’s their track record of performance in the area of expertise that you are seeking?

I will cover more ideas for improving your results in your quest for promotability within the next two weeks.