Great Ways to Jump Start Sales - Part 3: Follow Up on Lost Leads

The sales cycle is as much about customer service as is the actual production cycle. Every business owner wants to make certain they are handling sales calls as professionally and efficiently as possible. Though, from time to time it happens... we get busy running the day-to-day of our business and begin to lose track of the leads we generated earlier in the year. Now's the time to revisit those leads as there's a good chance your prospect never took any action. Let me give you an example.

Say you are the owner of an automotive repair business. At the time your customer picks up their car, your Service Advisor should be trying to get him or her to schedule a follow-up appointment to deal with issues that were identified during the routine maintenance or repair. First, if that's not part of your standard operating practice, it should be a policy that is instituted right away.

For sake of this example, however, let's assume, your Service Advisor has tried but the customer has decided to hold off. Now is a good time to start giving those customers a call to remind them of the much-needed service. You can give them a special offer as an incentive to get the work done now. You won't get everyone to schedule an appointment, but even if it's a handful, that's more than you had before you made the calls.

There are certain types of practices that prohibit you from following up with leads, like law firms and medical practitioners. All other businesses should be implementing some type of strategy to revisit those leads that may have gotten lost in the daily activities. You can be creative as you'd like. The point is to just do it.

In the future, and before you get to this point, implement procedures to prevent this from happening. Everyone who takes inbound calls or greets a new prospect should know how they found out about your business. Keeping track of this information on a simple form will help you identify which marketing strategies are working for your business and what's attracting your target market. Once a prospect calls or comes into your business, assign one person to follow-up within 24 hours. Set standard policies and make sure they are being followed.

Don't know where to begin? We can help set up scripts and standard operating procedures for your sales cycle.

Kashka Tarka is the Latest Marketing Executive to Join the Eagle Soars Consulting Team

Eagle Soars Consulting is pleased to announce the addition of Kashka Tarka to its team of marketing and training executives. Tarka will be handling sales and new business accounts in the Palm City area of Florida.

"We are very happy to have Kashka on board with us. She comes to Eagle Soars with a great deal of experience in sales and has an equally impressive amount of training in web design and photography," states Anne Lazo, owner of Eagle Soars Consulting.

The principals of Eagle Soars Consulting are looking forward to a long and prosperous relationship with Tarka. Lazo further adds, "When we combine Kashka's experience and knowledge with her enthusiasm for helping small business owners, we know she'll be a great asset to the company."

Great Ways to Jump Start Sales - Part 2: Special Promotions

Last week we talked about making sure you know your customers and their needs. For the next several weeks, we'll be giving you some tips on how to jump start your sales. This week's tip - Create Special Promotions.

Special promotions are an excellent way to generate repeat sales. They also provide a way to introduce your company to new customers. These days everyone is cost-conscious, so they're looking for special offers, promotional discounts and great values. Coupons, whether printed or online, are a great way to feature your company and its special promotions.

A number of years ago, some of my clients were afraid to use discount coupons to promote their businesses. They changed their mindset early on and found coupons to be one of the best tools to keep their business in the minds of their customers. Today, they are realizing great returns from frequently mailing coupons to their existing customer database.

Creating a consistent campaign for special promotions isn't difficult. We've tested and measured the success rate of different types of mailed coupons and can provide you with a program that will meet your needs and budget. For more information, send us an email at askus@eaglesoars.com.

Great Ways to Jump Start Sales - Part 1

There are a lot of different techniques and strategies business owners can use to jump start their sales. But, before you start to invest time and energy into any of those strategies, it's imperative that you do one thing...understand the needs of your customers.

Seems simple, right? In fact it most business owners believe they already understand the wants and needs of their customers. Even more, they think they're actively meeting those needs and their customers are satisfied. This may be so, but if you limit your thinking in this area, you may just be leaving business on the table.

Times and buying attitudes have changed. With this in mind, when was the last time you talked with your customers about their needs? Also, have you engaged your staff in the feedback process? If you actively solicit input from your customers and staff in the feedback process, you may just be surprised at what you learn.

So where do you start? The best place to start is at the beginning of your buying process. Evaluate the entire customer experience from beginning to end, then tighten up loose ends. Once you've done this, talk with your team to see if customers have communicated needs that are going unmet. Finally, regularly ask customers how you are doing by instituting a process to solicit honest feedback.

In taking these steps, not only will you improve the customer experience, but you may come up with additional ways you can meet the needs of your customers and future prospects.

There's more to marketing than advertising and mailers...

When people think of marketing a small business, they consider just the typical strategies like advertising, internet marketing, networking, mailers, and email. What most business owners fail to recognize is that marketing encompasses all of who you are and what you do... from the way the phones are answered and your employees respond to questions to your production and accounting policies.

Because every aspect of your business has an impact on how well you do business, it's important to review business practices every now and then. When doing so, business owners should consider each part of their business from a marketing perspective (keeping your corporate image in mind) and ask some of the following questions:

1. When customers call are they greeted with a "smile" and quickly directed to the appropriate person or do they get lost in the sea of voice mail?
2. When there's a problem, is the customer passed around from department to department or is there a set policy and person(s) who handle and resolve all complaints?
3. Are all your employees valued for their knowledge, input and skills?
   
4. Does your sales team work with your production team?
5. Are your proposals/estimates easy to understand?
6. How quickly do your employees return phone calls?
7. Are your invoices easy to understand?
8. Do you pay your vendors on-time?
9. Do you make any claims in your products/services that you really don't deliver on?
10. How quickly do you respond when someone places an order?

There are so many more questions you can ask. The key is to periodically ask and evaluate how your company is doing. Remember, your corporate image doesn't stop with a nice looking logo, fancy website, and creative marketing pieces. If there's one aspect of your business that doesn't fit with the corporate image you want to portray, it's time to get down to business and fix it.

Eagle Soars Welcomes New Marketing Executive, Gretchen Biondo

Eagle Soars Consulting is pleased to announce the addition of Gretchen Biondo to its team of marketing and training executives. Biondo will be handling sales and new business accounts in the Treasure Coast area of Florida.

"It's always nice to work with someone who is enthusiastic and energetic," states Anne Lazo, owner of Eagle Soars. "Gretchen will be a great asset to the Eagle Soars' team. Her personality and desire to see business owners succeed are a winning combination for this company and the clients she will bring to us."

Biondo comes to Eagle Soars with a wealth of business knowledge and has worked as a buyer for a promotion company for a number of years. The company is looking forward to a long and prosperous relationship with Biondo.

Family/Work Balance: No One Left Behind

Sometimes when you own a business, it becomes hard to get away from the day-to-day duties that demand your attention. Unfortunately, these activities are important for you to achieve the success for which you are looking. Sadly though, it seems like the ones you love sacrifice the most while you travel down the road to financial and time freedom.

Here are three tips to help you minimize these difficult sacrifices:

1. Give your "family time" your undivided attention. A while back my husband and I went to a business meeting. My husband had a discussion with another member of the same business. He asked the question, "How do you balance work and family time?" The man responded, "Yes, it is difficult at times, but when I'm with my family, I make a conscious effort to give them my undivided attention." So, even though you may have many business things that demand your thoughts and time, don't let those things consume you so much you neglect the real reason you started the trip.

2. Make it a family business. Many times, as a stay-at-home mom, I have many things that grab for my attention, especially our 1 year old son and 3 year old daughter. When I work in the kitchen my children seem to always demand my attention most. When they do, I seize a teaching moment and try to include them in whatever I'm doing. You can do the same in your business. Take some time today to make a list of things your family could help you with in the business.

3. Make vacations a priority. Whether you want to admit it or not, you and your family need a vacation from the hectic waves of life several times a year. No money to vacation? Can't take a vacation because your business demands your time right now? Try a "staycation." A staycation is literally a vacation you take at home. The term staycation gained its popularity in the summer of 2008, during a period of dramatic gas price increases and higher travel costs. With a global economic crisis and record unemployment claims, it looks like staycations are going to be just as popular in 2010. Get your first 5 sample staycation ideas here.

Elizabeth and her husband, Eric Shoop, are the owners of First Kids Furniture. Not only do they sell unique furniture for kids, they also provide some great resources for parents! They're also the visionaries for Build on the Rock Ministries.

The Benefits of Outsourcing

Are you the chief cook and bottle washer in your business? Most small businesses today are built up from the expertise and hard work of one individual who works IN and ON the business. Maybe you have a few employees to help. Even so, you are most likely left with the task of handling a lot of different responsibilities.

No one is expert in every area of business management. That's why "outsourcing" becomes a good solution to the owner of any small business. Outsourcing is when you contract with outside firms to handle work normally performed by full-time employees. For example, you may outsource your company's accounting, payroll, human resources, IT, or marketing functions.

There are many benefits to outsourcing. Here are just a few:

Cost-Cutting and Capital Investment. When you cut costs, you're able to use the savings for capital investments in other areas of your business.

Increased Efficiency. Think of your typical work day and imagine how much of your time is spent chatting with others and doing mundane tasks. Multiply that time by the number of employees you have and that's how much your losing in efficiency. When an outsourced company is working on your account, they are working efficiently and only billing for actual time worked.

Reduced labor costs. Hiring and training staff can be very expensive, especially when you consider the amount you pay out in taxes and benefits. Temporary employees don't have a vested interest in your company so they may not always live up to your expectations. Outsourcing lets you focus your human resources where you need them most.

Talents are focused. Every business has limited resources and talents. Often times employees are given other tasks to handle because of the lack of human resources. Outsourcing allows everyone to focus on what they do best, and in the long run, this translates into better customer service.

Every day companies are using outsourced services to provide the manpower and expertise needed to successfully run their business. If you haven't considered it for your business, now may be the right time to investigate the benefits of outsourcing.

Anne Lazo is the owner of Eagle Soars Consulting. We are a full-service marketing and training company that has been serving small business owners for almost a decade.

The Best Source for New Business

When business is booming, a lot of business owners won't spend money on marketing. They assume that since they're getting the referrals and business is good, it doesn't make sense to spend money on marketing.

Once business begins to slow down, they go through a "fire drill" in an attempt to bring in new business. They may start advertising or sending out mailers, and then complain they are getting little to no business from their marketing. Why is this the case? Because they haven't created brand awareness through a consistent marketing program.

If you are currently in this boat, you may be looking for creative ways to bring in new business. It will take some time before advertisements will begin to perform well. In the meantime, the best source for new business is your existing customer database. Take a good look at your database. How many customers no longer come to you? Are your active customers sending you referrals?

Once you go through and separate your database into categories, develop a program to reach out to each one. You may want to send a letter to inactive customers and give them an offer if they try your business again. For active customers, ask for a referral. There are a lot of ways to reach out and re-initiate contact. The key to making this work is to be consistent and frequent in your contact.

Eagle Soars will be authorized to deliver Situational Leadership II training

Eagle Soars Consulting will be signing a Consulting Agreement with The Ken Blanchard Companies that will authorize us to deliver Situational Leadership II and Introduction to Situational Leadership II training programs. This training program develops competence and commitment in your team so you are able to retain talented individuals and your company will excel in your area of expertise.

This training program provides your leaders with the tools for developing open communication skills so they can better manage their teams. The whole premise behind Situational Leadership is to increase the frequency and quality of conversations leaders have with their team members so everyone is performing their best. Once they learn and implement these tools, they are better able to set goals and track performance. The end result for the entire organization is less absenteeism and increased job satisfaction and morale.

To view a video with Ken and Scott Blanchard, click HERE.

Eagle Soars Consulting provides a number of different instructor-led training programs for sales and management level staff. Click here to learn about our various training programs.

Pricing Policies and the Integrity of Your Business

When you think of the pricing policies you've set for your company, would you say they are fair and consistent? Today, bartering or haggling on prices is common practice so it's often quite typical for a prospect to ask if you are able to do better on your pricing once you've given a quote. Many times the business owner is tempted to give in to lowering their quoted price to get the project. But, is this really a good policy for your business and your prospects/clients?

Let's look at an example. Say you purchased a new furnace for your home, and after much negotiating and haggling, you were told you received the company's rock bottom price. A few days later a neighbor purchased the same exact furnace and had the same installation requirements, yet their final price was lower. Would you feel as though you had been taken? How would you view the person who sold you the furnace?

Many business owners build in a little wriggle room when they quote their prices because they know people will try to negotiate a lower price. To me, that doesn't really seem to be an honest way to approach pricing. How would I know the price I negotiated was really your final price? And if I could get you to lower the price, why didn't you just give me your best price when first quoted?

Don't get me wrong, there are times when discounting of pricing is appropriate. Volume discounts are quite common and an acceptable practice provided every customer who buys in volume is allowed to receive the same discount. Cash discounts (eg. payments received within a certain time period) and class discounts (eg. senior citizen discounts) are also acceptable provided you have established your pricing policies and the discounts are extended to anyone who qualifies.

In our company, pricing is standard and we remain firm on the price quoted. If a prospect would like to cut back on the pricing, we take a look at the scope of work and discuss how we may modify it to fit into their budget. We don't undercut pricing to get a job and then quote change order after change order. Our estimate details the scope of work, and unless our clients completely change their requirements, we don't exceed the agreed upon price. In doing so, we are being a good steward of our talents while letting the prospect know our pricing is honest from the start.

Setting pricing policies is a good business practice. Standard and fair pricing policies do show your ethics as a business owner. Remember, "A good name is to be more desired than great riches, favor is better than silver and gold." (Proverbs 22:1)

For a limited time save 15% on our web design services

If you don't have a web site, you're missing out on a lot of business. Today's consumer likes to do their research on-line before making a purchase decision. When comparing two different companies, these consumers are more likely to select the one that has a professional web site. Some of our customers have increased their business by 25%, just by creating a professional web site.

Eagle Soars Consulting offers a number of different services for web design ranging from programming a site and adding a shopping cart to writing Search Engine Optimized Text. Designing a web site is not just about making a site look really cool. It is also important to make sure it functions properly, is easy to navigate, is updated frequently, and has text that makes sense. Our web design services incorporate all these strategies into a site that is attractive and informative.

We have special web design packages for small business owners that are not only affordable, but give you a lot more than you would receive from a traditional web design firm. That's because we are not just web designers, we're marketers. For a limited time (until March 31, 2010) you save 15% on our web design services. Prices for professional web sites start at $750, and we make sure you get a lot of bang for your buck. We even offer affordable payment plans! To read more, visit our web site by clicking HERE.

Here are some of the sites we've developed:

Are You a B-Girl?
Country Road Automotive
First Kids Furniture
Fisher Automotive Transmission
NJSWEP
Pieces from the Heart
Re-Feather Your Nest Decorating

To take advantage of this offer, send an email to askus@eaglesoars.com.

Business owners have an opportunity to promote their expertise

We have a special relationship with the owner of Center Resource Community, an on-line community where experts answer questions on varying topics. If you can think of a topic, they will probably have an expert who can answer your questions. If not, they'll find someone who can. They are currently looking for Christian business owners who would be willing to provide their expertise. Here's more from Center Resource Community:

Center Resource Community is a Free Online Resource Center that Gives You Access To Thousands of Resources! From our informative articles and E-books to our Resource Center Community Experts and Community Comments we hope to have most of your questions covered or we will try to find someone who can.

Center Resource Community features an online directory and shoutbox – where you can submit your business site or product for a link exchange or shout your website to the community through our Shout Box for free!

Currently we are seeking to expand our Expert Section: We are looking for Christian Business Experts of all kinds to join our NEW Center Resource Community to provide expert answers to the questions our community may have. To become an expert, one must write five (5) original articles in their expert area and be accessible to answer any questions in their expert area on our Facebook fan page discussion board.

In return, we'll promote your site and products in our directory and website for free! We have a special section on our website called "Meet Our Experts" where you will find more opportunity to promote your products/services.

We have 8 categories of resources to which our visitors can subscribe too. When you write an article for us it automatically send our subscribers your article. So the more articles you write, the more publicity you get!

For more information, visit www.centerresourcecommunity.info.

Pay-Per-Click with LocalAdLink

Google Adwords, Pay-Per-Click... these are terms that can be very confusing to the business owner who wants to increase on-line advertising, but doesn't know where to start. Eagle Soars is always looking for ways to help business owners with their success. We were recently introduced to the Pay-Per-Click program with LocalAdLink and want to make the information available to our readers. Here's a summary from Suzanne Buggé with LocalAdLink:

Advertising is effective... even bad advertising. Imagine if you had really good internet advertising. Success for small business owners is the direct result of effectively communicating who you are and what you do within the local community. For decades small business owners have relied on traditional advertising mediums including radio, television, Yellow Pages and print media. Over the past several years, these traditional advertising mediums have proven to be increasing less effective.

Since January 2008, over 120 major newspapers have gone out of business, and statistically, 63% of consumers today have thrown away their Yellow Pages and now exclusively search for their local product and service needs online. Billions of dollars are now transitioning away from traditional advertising sources to the internet.

Are you advertising online? LocalAdLink is proud to provide the complete solution for LOCAL online branding and advertising. With the LocalAdLink service, small business owners enjoy an instant online presence with robust self-managed branding features including Detailed Business Information, Logo Display, Interactive Driving Directions, Online Coupons, and Image Gallery and Videos.

LocalAdLink proactively pushes their listings out across major search engines and high traffic websites. We take the complexity, expense, and time out of managing "Pay-Per-Click" campaigns and do it all for you! Our system allows us to choose the best search terms, based off the "Preferred Terms" you provide, in order to optimize your Ad budget and internet exposure. This means 24-hour sponsored placement in major Search Engines like Google, Yahoo!, and many more!

We're so confident in our service that we don't require long-term contracts. Why not try LocalAdLink today? You can get all the LocalAdLink program details at SuzanneBugge.ZurvitaAds.biz or by calling Suzanne Buggé at 973-951-6258.

Note: Eagle Soars Consulting does not receive any compensation or referral fees from LocalAdLink.

The Top 50 Social Media Resources by Website Magazine

Posting on Facebook and tweeting on Titter... with so many social media resources and so little extra time, where should you invest your efforts? Social networking is definitely an important part of marketing any business today, but it becomes even more important if you are operating a service-oriented business. You want to be viewed as an expert and social networking can help give you the competitive edge. As it is will all marketing strategies, it all depends on how much time you can consistently devote to making your presence known.

Website Magazine periodically ranks the top social media resources. This listing may help you determine the sites that will give you the most exposure. To view the latest ranking results click on the following link:

http://www.websitemagazine.com/content/blogs/posts/pages/top-50-social-media-resources.aspx

Website Magazine’s Top 50 rankings are a measure of a website’s popularity. Ranks are calculating using a proprietary method that focuses on average daily unique visitors and page views over a specified period of time as reported by multiple data sources. The website with the highest combination of factors is ranked in the first position. Conducting research, making formal comparisons, and talking to existing clients and users before making purchasing decisions is always recommended.

Building One-Way Links

If you're marketing your business on-line, you know Search Engine Optimization is important to increasing your rankings within all the major search engines. If your web site doesn't show up on the first 3 pages of listings, potential customers probably won't find you. Proper use of keyword phrases, meta tags, descriptions, and alt tags all play a major role in increasing your site's visibility.

You may have also heard that link building is important. And while reciprocal links are good, SEO expert, Rank Magic, says that one-way links are even more powerful. They recently made some suggestions on how you can quickly build one-way links to your web site. Here are the approaches they suggest:

• Article Marketing
• AddThis Bookmark
• Google Alerts Link Building
• Press Releases

For more great information on SEO, you can visit the Rank Magic blog at http://www.rankmagic.com/blog/index.htm.