Marketing Strategy - Owners View

6 Ways to Improve Your Sales Projection Formula

May 1, 2013 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Measure sales carefully to be profitable.

Your sales projection formula is key to more accurate financial projections and to the success of your business.

Sales projection formulas are always wrong. Here are six ways to improve them.

Sales projection formulas are wrong because…

Sales projections are not supposed to be right.
They’re a snapshot of what to expect each month based on relevant criteria and are defensible. Improve the sakes projection formula you use by making sure you don’t accept the projected sales numbers without question. The answers you get from salespeople in terms of what they think will close have to be reasonable and with some sort of basis not just hope. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Building, Business Development, Business Growth, Business Management, Business Process, Financial Management, Financials, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Sales, Sales Strategy Tagged With: Financial Projections, Platinum Profile™ Customer, Sales Projection Formula, Sales Projections, SBU, Strategic Business Units, Suggestive Selling

Partner or Strategic Alliance?

March 9, 2013 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Partner or Strategic Business Alliance? Photo by Giorgio Montersino

Partner or a strategic alliance — which is better for business growth? Many business owners want a “partner” to share the load. Partners exert a lot of control no matter how little of the business they own. Use a strategic alliance instead to grow your business and keep more control.

What is a Strategic Alliance?

The most accepted definition of a strategic alliance is that it’s “a formal or informal agreement between two or more individuals or entities to achieve a common goal”.

In 2005, companies reported that 18% of their revenue was generated through strategic alliances. The economy has changed but there are still thousands of alliances formed each year.

I agree with Winston Churchill. “If we are together, nothing is impossible. If we are divided all will fail.” [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Ideas, Business Management, Business Process, Business Trends, Financials, Funding, Legal, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Resources, Sales, Sales Strategy, Vision Tagged With: Business Alliances, Business Culture, Business Development, Business Growth, Business Strategy, Handshake Alliance Strategy™, New Business Opportunities, Partnership, Strategic Alliance, Successful Alliances

Replace Yourself with a Virtual Sales Manager

March 2, 2013 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Bright idea: make more money by hiring a Virtual Sales Manager

Does replacing yourself as the salesperson sound ideal? If you hate to sell, maybe you’ve thought about hiring someone to do sales for you. Maybe you don’t want to have just an employee. Maybe you’re looking for a Virtual Sales Manager to manage the whole process and help sell.

They do exist. I do it for some of my clients. Not all of them are one person operations either!

How do you make sure they’re the right person or you’re hiring the right company? Be careful! [Read more...]

Filed Under: Administration, Business Building, Business Development, Business Management, Leadership, Marketing Strategy, Sales Strategy Tagged With: Delegation vs. Abdication, Platinum Profile Prospects™, Radio Active Was, Vendor Job Description, Virtual Sales Manager

Customer Loyalty: Who Do Your Customers Really Belong To?

November 7, 2012 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Does this apply to customers? Photo by quinn.anya from flickr.com

In business, we talk about the importance of customer loyalty. But we consider customers as assets, something tangible. We think of them in the same way as our equipment or property: something that can be counted, weighed and measured, and given a value.

As property, an owner understandably feels, that they belong to the company. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Customer Loyalty, Customer Relations, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, Sales, Sales Strategy Tagged With: Asset Protection, Business Assets, customer loyalty, Customer Value, Employee Agreements, Marketing Policies, Non-compete Agreements, Platinum Profile™, Sales Policies, sales strategy, Trade Secrets

3 Ways Business Grants Have Changed for Good & 3 Ways to Prepare

June 19, 2012 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Look out world, here it comes. You read it here first. After a “gazillion” years of how business grants work, the world has changed. Maybe for good!

Who did it? Chase Bank and LivingSocial. (In full disclosure we are going after this grant. We want to use the money to take our Owners MBA™ for existing business online, add ebooks, apps, and include special segments for veterans, rural business owners, and owners who are disabled. We also want to create an owners community as we did for our Entrepreneurs’ Association in the 1990′s.)

Why did they do it? It depends on whom you ask.

What’s different? [Read more...]

Filed Under: BSC Customer, Business Ideas, Business Trends, Funding, Marketing Strategy, Networking, Owners MBA Tagged With: Austin Business Journal, Business Grants, Business Success Center, Capital Factory, Chase Bank, eligibility, Entrepreneurs' Association, Grants for for profit companies, Jason Meeker, Jaxzen Marketing, LivingSocial, Mission Small Business, Networking, Online Coupons, Online Marketing, SBIR, social media, The Stage Alliances

6 Situational Outcomes™: Because Not Every Customer Wants a Solution

February 3, 2011 By Jan Triplett 1 Comment

It’s common wisdom that what people want is a solution. There is even a school of sales training and many books around the concept of “solution selling”.

I disagree. Not everyone wants a solution, i.e. something solved.

Your best customer wants something specific to happen when they use your product or service.

Sometimes they want and need something else. Not everything is a “problem” for a customer; sometimes, it’s a “gap” that needs to be filled. I talk to my clients about “gaps” not “problems”.

I referred to these five valued outcomes in my “Best Practices in Pricing” session at ProductCamp Austin. (My slides from the session are on Slideshare .)

In my 30 years experience, there are actually six different results a customer values. The one to stress as a benefit and to base your product or services features depends on the Platinum Customer Profile™ of your best customers. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Management, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Pricing, Sales Tagged With: Austin, Benefit, Best Practices, Business Bank of Texas, Customer Values, Customer's Point of View, customers, Deceptive Trade Practices Act, Dorothy Leeds, Features, Gerald Nadler, Pricing Concepts, Pricing Glossary, Pricing Strategies, Pricing Webinar, ProductCamp Austin, Reed Holden, RISE Austin, Sales, Situational Outcomes™, Smart Questions, Solution, Take Away, Tech Ranch, Thomas Nagle, Worth Reading.

Best Pricing Practices: 3 Right & 3 Wrong Ways to Price

January 12, 2011 By Jan Triplett 4 Comments

Price right & reap your reward. Cartoon by Roger Stewart, Porthole Productions

I have proposed a topic, “Best Practices in Pricing”, for ProductCamp Austin on January 15, 2011. If you’ve never been or ever heard of it, it’s a great day of free business information for product managers, business owners, and those thinking of starting a business. Attendees select the topics the day of the event so they get to hear what they are most interested in that day.

Although the session has sold out, there is a waiting list. I encourage you to get on it. For more information on Austin Product Camp, go to http://productcampaustin.org. For information on my session on Pricing and the 39 other great sessions, go to http://bit.ly/e6chc0. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Management, Financials, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Pricing, Sales Tagged With: Austin, Best Practices, Competition Pricing, Contignecy, Cost-based Pricing, Flinch Point, Hassle-factor, Platinum Profile Customers, Pricing, Pricing Skills, Pricing Strategy, ProductCamp Austin, Profitability, Right Ways to Price, Texas, True Total Costs, Value-based Pricing, Wrong Ways to Price

Why Lefties Make Better Salespeople

January 10, 2011 By Jan Triplett 4 Comments

My brother gave me a copy of A Left-Handed History of the World by Ed Wright for Christmas. As my husband, Daniel, said, that’s much better than a previous gift of 101 Uses for a Dead Cat by Simon Bond. Others found it amusing, as a cat lover, I did not.

I am left-handed. It was interesting to read about other prominent lefties. Some of my favorites include: Queen Victoria, Charlie Chaplin, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Madame Curie, Henry Ford, Ramses the Great, and Joan of Arc. Several US presidents (Reagan, Ford, George W. Bush, and Clinton) were on the left – when it comes to hands at least. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Management, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Sales, Small Business/Entrepreneur History Tagged With: 101 Uses of a Dead Cat, A Left-Handed History of the World, Ambition, Connections, Customer-oriented, Ed Wright, Empathy, Fantasist, Good Salespeople, Hiring Sales Staff, Iconoclastic, Intuition, Lateral Thinking, Left-Handed, Percentage of Left-Handers, Prominent Left-handed People, Right-handed, Risk Takers, Sales, Simon Bond, Solitary, Spatial Ability, Successful Sales

10 Ways You Can Be a Platinum Customer™

November 17, 2010 By Jan Triplett Leave a Comment

Austin's finest

I love Upper Crust Bakery on Burnet Road in Austin. Great birthday cakes, eclairs and great service. They always know what I want and make me feel special. A few weeks ago, one of their terrific staff told me I was a great customer. Wow!

That got me thinking. What can customers do to give great “business service”? This would help businesses have better sales and create more Platinum Customers™. It’s just what our economy needs: all of us to play a positive role and take responsibility. [Read more...]

Filed Under: Business Management, Financials, Marketing Strategy, Planning & Vision, Pricing, Sales, Small Business/Entrepreneur History Tagged With: Advice, Austin, Budget, Business Management, Business Survival, Costs, Customer Dissatisfaction, independent business, Platinum Customer, Platinum Customer Profile™, Pricing, Quality Control, Referrals, Responsibilibies of a customer, Texas, total solution, Upper Crust Bakery, US Economy, value

4 Traits Make Sure You Have the Right Customers

July 9, 2010 By Jan Triplett 1 Comment

A penny saved attracts other benefits.

Everyone wants and needs sales to have a profitable and successful business. But, sales from the wrong customers can kill a business. If you doubt me, read Angel Customers and Demon Customers by Larry Selden and Geoffrey Colvin.

What should you look for? Basically, there are two options:

Low hanging fruit — the most responsive, easiest sale, shortest sales cycle
High value — the most lucrative, harder sale, longer, requires more thorough sales process so longer sales cycle

How do you decide who is right and who is wrong? [Read more...]

Filed Under: Financials, Marketing Strategy, Sales Tagged With: angel and demon customers, Best Buy, Brad Anderson, business killer, case study, culture, customers, Focus, Gary McWilliams, high touch, marketing, profit, reputation, retention, right and wrong customers, Sales, sales cycle, sales gains, sales staff, sales training, The Customer Isn't Always Right, time waster, upselling, value add, Wall Street Journal