Did anyone tell you something like this? Or How to ask for a referral!

I met with a client on Friday and he gave me this feedback:

“You helped me grow sales (2.7 to 7 new clients each month), you provided objective feedback on my ideas to provide clarity, you challenged my thinking in new and different ways so I make better decisions and everyone needs what you do. How do I tell them that?”

The more I thought about his question the more I realized that people need to experience what I do. When the process is experienced they can then make an intelligent decision to see if I can add value.

What prompted his comment? I run a group coaching process called The Business Growth Experience and as part of the process we share both good news and problems we need some help with. My good news was that I picked up three new clients as a result of referrals. My dilemma, how can I get more referrals?

Here is what they suggested. Call each of your client (who are happy with your work) and ask them to bring one of their client who they think can use your service to a lunch (I Pay) for an introduction.

What a powerful idea.

I knew about this process and simply forgot about it. So today I am going to do just that. I am going to call my clients and referral partners and ask them to introduce me to one of their client (over a lunch).

Since you read this far, send me an email and I will provide you a 30 minute free coaching session if are the first 10 reads who responds to this email. Consider this my Christmas gift to you. Send the email to ron@businessgrowthexperience.com with the subject line “Free Coaching.” In the email please provide a short description of what you want to discuss so I can prepare. Also, your time zone is important. I will then send you a link to schedule your coaching session. Please note you must use this email address and subject line or I will not see the message. This offer expires 12/15/11 so please act quickly. This offer is available to anyone.  My strengths are working with owners of small businesses to help them grow sales, increase revenues and influence others.

May your self-talk always be positive, your life meaningful, and your thoughts happy.

Ron Finklestein
www.akris.net
330-990-0788

Anyone can be successful at sales provided you have the right behaviors and mind-set.

In 2003, Tim Connor published a book called Soft Selling.   In it, he compared how poor salespeople and successful salespeople managed their selling time differently.   He allocated the salesperson’s time into six major categories:

·   Prospecting

·   Sales Presentation

·   Service

·   Administration

·   Travel

·   Self-Improvement

He found that when it came to time management, poor salespeople allocated their time as follows:

·   10% on prospecting,

·   23% on sales presentation,

·   15% on service to others,

·   30% on administration,

·   20% on travel,

·   and a meager 2% on self-improvement.

These numbers are stunning at first glance if you believe and take Connor’s numbers seriously.

Note that only 10% of a salesperson’s time was being spent on prospecting and a whopping 30% of their time was being spent on administrative duties.    In other words, the salespeople who failed were spending more time managing their paperwork and administrative duties than managing or growing their sales pipeline.

10% of a poor salesperson’s time was being spent on prospecting.  It’s no wonder their sales were falling short of their expectations and their sales pipeline remained empty. They were spending more time on paperwork and presentations when they should have been out looking for new suspects to qualify. Contrast these numbers with how well successful people managed their time when it came to selling.  Connor found that good salespeople spent their time as follows:

·   45% on prospecting for new business,

·   10% on their sales presentation,

·   20% on service to others,

·   5% on administration,

·   10% on travel,

·   And 10% on self-improvement.

If you want to learn how to get better at sales and be seen as a partner to your customers check out Collaborative Selling. To learn more go to www.akris.net 

Sincerely,

Ron Finklestein
Business Growth Facilitator
www.businessgrowthexperience.com  

 As a professional speaker, I am often asked what topics I speak about. That is easy to answer because I can speak on:

 entrepreneurship,  small business skills, marketing and most any topic relating to  small business skills and small business success.

The common thread tying all my topics together is called The One Degree Difference. We must learn to think differently about our business in order to get different results.

My book Nine Principles for Inspired Action discusses the nine behaviors succussful people implement and there are examples of how people learn to think differently and how this change in thinking leads to different actions.

The One Degree Difference simply stated is that it does not require a massive change to get massive results. It only takes a small change in our thinking, a one degree change, to get massive results.

Change your thinking change your business.

Ron Finklestein

Small Business Speaker
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

Contact me to see how you can learn more about the One Degree Difference.  

Is an entrepreneur a leader? How does entrepreneurship differ from leadership? The answer depends on your perspective. In the traditional sense, anyone who starts their own business is an entrepreneur. Not all entrepreneurs are leaders.

A leader can rally the troops to take action. A leader can keep them motivated with a strong vision for the company. The odds of success increase significantly if the entrepreneur is a leader. If not the entrepreneur can thrive if they learn to master the basic skills and behavior of leadership or if they surround themselves with someone who can effective communicate that vision to the staff, the customers and valued business partners.

We cannot be all things to all people but we can surround ourselves with others who can effectively fill the gaps in our own skills sets.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

Small business skills are essential to anyone running their own business and that includes internet marketing, especially business to business internet marketing. We see internet sales letter where someone has made $200k dollars in weekend running an internet business. I believe these most of these claims to be true but what they do not tell you is the year or two it took to develop the product, create the lists, test the sales letters, define the optin process, and the list goes one. If you have no business experience these sales letters make it sound like anyone will achieve these results. Internet marketing has its own rules. But one thing is consistent with both traditional marketing and internet market: you must understand what your audience wants to buy and present it to them in a way that makes it easy for them to understand why they should buy from you.

I call this earning the right to do business and there are six questions you must answer that on the surface appear insignificant. They are not.   Here they are:

1. What do you do?
2. Why are you different?
3. What is the one thing you do better than anyone else?
4. Why should prospects care?
5. What is in it for them?
6. Will they buy from you?

If you cannot answer these questions you cannot expect your customers to know the answers either.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net

I am a faculty member for a training program that has a small business series called EDGE. EDGE is from ilearningglobal.tv (ILG). This is some of the best structured training for the small business owner and his employees for the money. Check out www.ilearingglobal.tv and go to the visitor’s portal to sample some of the videos. The faculty does a great job helping the business owner implement a small business management training program that improves the skills of everyone they touch.

To Your Success,

Ron Finklestein
330-990-0788
ron@akris.net