I am noticing a change in the importance of delivery, especially for small businesses with Internet-based sales activity, ranging from small eBay sellers to larger consumer product suppliers. How you structure your deliveries can give you a marketing edge over…
Month: September 2013
How to handle lost sales
It is a fact of life that you will lose some of the sales you go after. No company will win every sale it goes after. In some situations, you may lose more sales than you win. Even if you…
Posted in Sales / Business Growth
The Pareto Principle in customer care
I have found the Pareto Principle (sometimes known as the 80/20 Rule) to be a valuable tool for small business owners. It has served me well for over 25 years. In this post I will look at how you can…
Posted in Customer Care
How long do you spend selling?
In general, salespeople (and I include in this group all small business owners who spend some of their time on sales) do not spend as much time selling as they think they do. I have described in previous blogs how…
Posted in Time Management
Reward Loyalty
Do you share this frustration? You have been buying regularly from a supplier and you are reasonably happy with the prices you pay. You then spot their latest advertisements and promotions offering the exact same items to new clients –…
Posted in Marketing
Should you have a minimum order value?
There are two schools of thought amongst the (admittedly small) sample of small business owners I have spoken to about this question. One camp was totally against a minimum order value as they felt it creates an artificial barrier that…
Posted in Sales / Business Growth
Adopt a right-first-time philosophy
There is a tendency with a lot of small business owners to drive themselves and their staff to complete tasks in ever shorter timescales. This is partly due to clients wanting deliveries faster and faster. It is partly down to…
Posted in Customer Care
Would you buy from you?
Here’s an interesting thought, are you attractive enough to persuade prospects to buy from you? Small business owners are generally an optimistic group of people. They will often misjudge how attractive their business is to their prospects, believing it is…
Posted in Sales / Business Growth