Survival Strategies
1. Do the moneymaking things first. For an entrepreneur, generating income is the most important job. Without income, your business will cease to exist. 2. Develop a sales and marketing plan. What are you selling? Who is going to buy it? Where and how will you find them? Establish your sales goals, and then view your plan as your map to reach those goals. 3. Follow your sales and marketing plan. While plans do sometimes change, one of the biggest challenges
faced by entrepreneurs is how to be proactive rather than merely reactive. Having a plan in place and following it allows the entrepreneur to move the business forward. 4. Do at least three things every day to promote your business. In the immediacy of day-to-day business life, it is easy to let
sales and marketing activities fall by the wayside. Keeping on
top of and servicing existing accounts seems to always take
precedence over developing new accounts. But without new
accounts, there are no future accounts! Keep your momentum by
doing at least three sales/marketing/promotional items every day. 5. Do the things you do well. Hire people or partner with others to do the rest. You cannot expect yourself to do everything perfectly. Even if
you did, there are not that many hours in a day. Do what you do
well. Do what makes money. Delegate the rest. 6. Delegate appropriately and effectively. Find people whom you trust to do what needs to be done. Be clear about your expectations and their responsibilities. 7. Give employees some autonomy in their decision-making process. Once you have the appropriate people in place, let them do their job. Micromanaging is not a good use of your time. You have hired your employees to do the things you cannot do or do not want to do. Let them do it. 8. Encourage employees to think creatively. Encourage an atmosphere of ownership and responsibility by
allowing employees to offer suggestions, make changes and
discover new possibilities. 9. Minimize paperwork and bureaucracy. While accurate records are important, records and paperwork are
meant to help, not be an end in themselves. Always ask yourself
if a particular procedure helps or hinders. Decide what to do
accordingly. 10. Schedule time to have fun. Enough said. Wendy Weiss, "The Queen of Cold Calling & Selling Success," is a sales trainer, author and sales coach. Her recently released program, Cold Calling College, and/or her book, Cold Calling for Women, can be ordered by visiting
http://www.wendyweiss.com. Contact her at wendy@wendyweiss.com. Get Wendy's free e-zine at http://www.wendyweiss.com. © 2004 Wendy Weiss
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Trade Show Marketing ? Getting Prepared for the Big Event
With the increase in number of tradeshows being held across the world, it has become imperative to check the trade shows' credentials before you commit participation. Here are some quick tips on checks to ensure that you are not heading for a dud trade show:
Survival Strategies
1. Do the moneymaking things first.
Consistent Marketing Provides Big Rewards
Being inconsistent when it comes to marketing your business can be a recipe for disaster. Nothing is more irritating to a potential customer than inconsistency.
Gaining Business Intelligence
A white paper on how companies should analyse customer data to gain better business intelligence and how they can use that knowledge.
How to Save Time and Achieve More by Creating High-Leverage Marketing Assets
The single biggest, non-renewable asset you have is your time. There are only three things you can do with it: waste it, sell it, or invest it. As an entrepreneur or a service professional, what you do with your time acutely impacts how much money you can make.
B2B Marketing Tips - Create an Interactive Online Experience for Clients
Business to business communications on the web are as stale as a piece of week old toast.
Free Publicity for Restaurants
One of the best ways to get a restaurant free publicity is by
taking advantage of events and seizing the opportunity.
For example, February 5th is Television Weather Persons' Day!
Bet you didn't even know such a day existed, but it does, and
it can give you free publicity. How? Weather people are the
forgotten people at television stations. Deliver one of your
specialties at the station. There's a good chance the weather
person will be so delighted with the attention, he or she will
mention you on the air. Even if they don't mention you, your
goodies will be shared with the others on the staff and you'll
get your name out there. When you call to let them know about a
newsworthy event (and you will call, won't you?), they'll know
about your restaurant.
Pay for Performance Pricing Models for Search Engine Optimization
I do think that it is entirely possible for an SEO and client to work out a pay for performance pricing structure that is fair to both. Logistically, though the tracking involved to this would add additional layers to the total process of ranking and reporting. If both the SEO and the client are willing to take that on and set parameters that are agreeable between them then by all means a fair agreement can be reached.
Writing Guarantees that Sell
"This offer is good but can you guarantee it."
The Use of Bar Code SMS in Mobile Marketing, Advertising, CRM
Anybody that frequents shopping malls are familiar with the bar coding systems used by retailers to ease the line at the pay points. No more long lines at the till as the operator just pulls the product past the scanner and voila ? the buyer pays and are on their way.
5 High-Impact Marketing Tips
Here are 5 high-impact marketing tips you can use to boost your sales quickly. All are simple to implement and they involve little or no new expense.
Don?t Put All Of Your Eggs Into One Basket
I vaguely remember a particular story from my childhood. It had something to do with transporting eggs to market. The main character, a little girl who thought she knew more than she really did, put all of the day's eggs into one basket, and when she tripped and fell on the way into town to sell the eggs, all of the eggs broke. It seems that her grandmother (the voice of experience and wisdom) tried to tell her not to do that, but she wouldn't listen. If she had divided them up into several means of transportation some would have been lost, but not all of them. It was a difficult lesson to learn.
Universal Principals That Guide Business Growth
Universal principals are those "self-evident" truths that have guided brilliant minds and withstood the test of time.
Reasons Why People Usually Dont Buy Again
There are many psychological reasons why people will buy
from the first time and why they do not buy from you again.
There are books on many of these reasons. Many of these
reasons are totally out of your control.
How to Use Marketing Judo to Beat Big Competitors
If yours is a small business and you have big or even huge competitors, you may be laying awake at night wondering how can you possibly beat them. You can't out-advertise them, or out-promote them, and you probably won't be able beat to its prices. For example, think about a small business whose biggest competitor is Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Amazon.com or some other huge retailer. Is there any way to compete successfully against these Goliaths?
3 Ways to Gain and KEEP Customers Using Postcards
In today's competitive (sometimes cutthroat) marketplace, savvy business owners need to constantly look for ways to get and, more importantly, keep their customers. When used properly postcards offer a great opportunity to do both.
Chill Out With A Summer Time Marketing Plan
Is your business experiencing a summer time slump? Traditionally only industries related to travel enjoy a boost in business during the warmer months. The rest of us tend to take vacations, clean up our desk and while away the time playing computer games while we wait for business to pick up.
AIDA From A Different View - I Call It the 5 Ws
My childhood was my foundation for how I write and how I think. I caught on at an early age that writing is an art and it has a very distinct way of reaching out to people depending on how you apply it. I used my own method of writing and applied it to the criteria my teachers needed. You see, the criteria is always changing from teacher to teacher or professor to professor but the method that is applied can be easily molded into place to make it fit perfectly.
Secret of Strategy - Part 1
I'll bet you think you already have a strategy.
Target Your Market
Your market is not everybody, as so many small businesses assume. It is the
people/organizations who need, want, have the money--and the willingness--to
pay for what you are offering. Identifying them can be complicated and expensive,
or it can be relatively painless and cheap.
|
