Author: Michael Clift

Keep Up the Momentum

Posted on by Michael Clift

In the last post, we talked about negotiating with your big fish and how to nurture and build on the relationships you are creating. Today we’ll talk about your fish’s power and how to utilize that for your benefit.

One of the most critical aspects of this is to keep your cheerleader cheering. This refers to the ally you created in the company and who needs to stay loyal to you to continue a profitable partnership with your fish. You can keep your champion going by offering or doing several things to show appreciation. Some of these things are:

• Share the limelight.
• Help them thank their company with new products and services.
• Emotionally connect them to your company.
• Know when to leave them alone.
• Keep your “family” happy.
• Stay on the front lines.

Now that you have some ideas of how to build solid relationships, you need to seek out people to build these relationships with. These alliances will help you get more prominent clients that stay with you forever. You can often get in the door by offering them something in exchange for something they need:

1. Power
2. Information
3. Better work experience

These are all great ways to feed your alliance. You need to go into a relationship considering the things a big fish can offer you besides money. These can include:

• The opportunity for your business to expand
• The opportunity to learn from the experience and find ways to grow
• The opportunity to improve your processes, systems and other means of doing business

These are some of the best ways to keep your alliances strong and your partnerships fresh and content.

If you need help with any of these tactics, try our FREE test drive for great tools and resources that can help you every step of the way.

Bring Them Flowers

Posted on by Michael Clift

There are a few things you need to do and consider to prepare for your first face-to-face meeting:

Make a list of what you want to accomplish during the session.

  • Anticipate potential concerns from the client.
  • Check to make sure you are completely prepared.
  • Listen more than you talk.
  • Bring support staff with you.
  • Use and respect the clients’ format.
  • Always follow through.
  • Ask for what you need and seal the deal.
  • Simplify your prospect’s life.
  • Find ways to boost your credibility.
  • Build and nurture relationships.
  • Learn from “no”. Find out what didn’t work so you can change it next time.

These are all essential things to do both before and during your presentation. You will catch that big fish with confidence behind your company and product. The next step of the process is negotiation. This can seem intimidating, but a few tips and tricks can become natural.

Here are some tips to help you negotiate successfully:

  • Build a pricing strategy and stick with it.
  • Prioritize what you plan to offer. This should include what matters to you and what you are willing to give in on.
  • Don’t give in too quickly.
  • Negotiated with a person, not a “company”. Don’t let them answer that they would like to but can’t.
  • Don’t sell yourself short.
  • Mitigate your pricing. If you go too low, you won’t be able to raise it back up, and you need to make a profit.
  • Don’t sacrifice quality for the deal.
  • Your services should always count as costs.
  • Boost margins with add-ons.
  • Handle requests for proposals with the utmost care.

These are how you ensure both parties get the best possible situation from the partnership. Once you start meeting or working together, it’s essential to continue to build your relationship so that the representative becomes as big of an ally that best suits you. They are more likely to vouch for you and build on your partnership with their company.
We like to call this person a champion. They are a champion for your company and can bring a more substantial, brighter future to your company.

Here are the characteristics of a grand champion:

  • Supervisors respect them.
  • They are socially networked.
  • They think in the best interest of their company long term.
  • They can navigate through the company to get things done quickly.
  • They are willing to give credit to another person.
  • They share the same business philosophy, values, and vision as you.

Now that you know how to negotiate for what is best for both parties and build on relationships, we’ll talk about how to use your fish’s power to benefit your benefit.
If you need help with any negotiation or courting process, try our FREE test drive to access a wealth of great tools and resources to help you succeed.

Who’s Your MVP?

Posted on by Michael Clift

In the last post, we talked about making first contact with your prospective big fish and how to make a positive first impression. Today we’re going to talk about feeling out the personality of your prospective big fish to match the right salesperson to the fish.

You need to do this in two steps:

  1. Profile your salespeople’s personalities.
  2. Match the right salesperson to your target fish.

There are essentially three different selling personalities:

  • Sage
  • Pal
  • Pit Bull

The Sage

This salesperson offers knowledge, experience, comfort and trust. They can make a concerned customer feel at ease. To be successful, they need plenty of information, a demo of the product/service, references and case studies, if possible.

The Pal

Much like it sounds, this is a salesperson that shines at building relationships. They can instantly relate to the prospective client and make them seem like old friends in no time. They work best with clients looking for friendship, information and in a similar peer group as the salesperson. This can include anything from age and culture to hobbies and nightlife. While sharing experiences can be beneficial to creating a new relationship, your salesperson must always keep it professional and dignified. This personality type needs resources to help pair with the right client, entertainment (or schmoozing) budget and the right information to meet the client’s needs.

The Pit Bull

This personality type is a little more aggressive than the others. They are all about business and the bottom line. While this may seem harsh to many people, a set of business people out there want the same thing and respect someone who can get down to business and the benefits of a partnership. This salesperson will need to be trusted with some authority as they will likely be closing deals on the spot. They’ll need plenty of resources and access to products and services. They are best placed in environments where they can work independently, exercise their authoritative discretion and seal deals quickly. 

These can be successful when each is used in the correct selling environment. You can easily see how matching the right salesperson for the client can secure more big fish for a more extended period of time. 

If you need help figuring out which of your salespeople fit into these three areas, try our FREE test drive and work with one of our amazing coaches to get your big fish plan in action.

The Perfect Bait

Posted on by Michael Clift

In the last post, we talked about how to learn about your big fish and prepare for the first contact you’ll make with them. This first contact is essential to your success, and you must instil confidence in them. They need to know you can fulfil exactly what you are offering on time, at a reasonable price and at the quality you promise. 

Today we’ll go through the excellent approach and how to make that perfect first impression. Before you put together your approach plan, you must choose which big fish you’re going after. Take a look at your notes and the research you’ve done about prospective fish. Then decide which one will be the most straightforward approach to start.

There are many things to go through in choosing which fish to start. 

They are:

  • Position Your Business
  • Compile Your Hit List
  • Select the Best Target

Position Your Business 

You must position your business to make the first move by listing your revenue streams, your operational procedures, where your fish is initially positioned, your big-customer research, and putting it all together.

Compile Your Hit List

Start with a list of all the companies you’ve been considering. Then narrow it down to the ones who know could use your products or services. Don’t overlook obvious choices, whether they are big or small. Even small companies could be big fish in the future.

Select the Best Target 

Once you’ve got your list narrowed down, you need to decide which one is the best fish to start. You need to consider a couple of things:

  • Which have the most purchasing resources to spend?
  • Does their company vision compliment yours?
  • What are their employee incentive programs related to your products/services?
  • What’s the company’s actual need for you?
  • Will the partnership lead you off-course?

Now you should have a target in mind to start with. It’s time to plan your approach and execute that plan.

Here’s the step-by-step plan to help you make an excellent first impression:

  1. Build and analyze your database. Divide your leads into three different categories: hot leads, great fits, and secondary leads.
  2. Send initial mailings to your target to introduce yourself, your company, services, products, and vision. They need to be short, clean, and concise. 
  3. Follow up with your first phone call 2-3 days after they would have received the mailings. During the phone call, find out whom you need to speak with in the future and try to set up a meeting with the right person.
  4. Follow up your phone call with another mailing that thanks them for taking the time to speak with you and offer more details about your products/services. Use this letter an opportunity to set up a meeting to do a presentation.
  5. Follow up the letter with another phone call a couple of days after they would have received the letter. This phone call will help you further develop your relationship with the prospective client. You should also be able to set up a presentation meeting with them. 
  6. Call again a week later if they haven’t agreed to a meeting or presentation. Ask if they received your creative letter (the second one) and if they have a minute when you can stop by and introduce yourself in person.

Now, don’t be upset if you don’t seal the deal right away. Some people take a little longer to woo. This can all be a little intimidating at first, but you can’t go wrong when you know you are offering a quality product/service.

Once you’ve gone through this process and made first contact (and hopefully a good first impression), it’s time to put your best face forward, which means sending the right salesperson to seal the deal.

If you need help putting together your approach and making an excellent first impression, try our FREE test drive to work with a coach and have access to a wealth of great resources and tools.

Untangle the Red Tape

Posted on by Michael Clift

In the last post, we discussed bringing the big-company mindset into your
business and your team. This will help you overcome the mental obstacles that keep you from succeeding. Now that you’ve learned how to overcome that, we’ll talk about who your fish is. It’s important to know about the fish you are looking for
before you put a plan together. We’ll also take a moment to talk about the
potential “red tape” you may encounter along the way.

The most important thing to know about your fish is their purchasing habits and
procedures. There are four main things you need to work on to be successful:

1. Responsibilities: You need to know who has influence over purchasing, who does
the actual buying and who can kill a deal if they want.

2. Get on Their List: You need to know how to get on their list of people to buy
from. Your name needs to not only be on the list but at the top of it and in as
many categories as possible for more interaction. Ask about a procurement
program and what you need to do to complete the application process.

3. Lingo: You must learn the company’s unique language and communication
methods. These could include report names, buzzwords and even the nicknames
they have for their employees.

4. Fiscal Budgets: It’s essential you know the fish’s fiscal budget so you know
exactly when they are planning their expenses for the year.
Now that we’ve talked a little about what you need to know about your fish let’s a
a quick look at the “red tape”.

Bureaucracy might as well be a four-letter word with the emotions it stirs in all of us.
“Red tape” is a necessary evil, but one you can use to learn from. There are two ways to
learn from their system:

1. Analyze their activity.

2. Review their correspondence.

Being an outsider looking in can have its advantages too. If you hate dealing with the
“red tape”, imagine how their employees feel dealing with it. If they need to crunch
some numbers, offer to do it. If they need more info, make sure you are giving it to
them in a user-friendly way.

The things we talked about in this lesson will help you prepare for the big approach. If you need help with any of this, try our FREE test drive to find the right tools to get the
job done

Be One with the Fish

Posted on by Michael Clift

In the last post, we started our series on catching big clients, or “fish”, that will sustain your business over the long run. Today we’re going to take that a step further by talking about how to understand and think like a big fish company and how that can help you plan your approach and find success.

Before you can start the process of landing big clients, you have to make sure your entire team is on board with your approach and vision. There are six keys to finding big client success. They are:

  1. First Impression: You must remember you have one shot to land a big client. If you make a mistake, they aren’t going to consider you again. Never give them a reason to doubt your abilities.
  2. First Priority: Your fish must always feel like they are your first priority. Return calls and emails immediately and find solutions to their problems or questions as quickly as possible.
  3. Flexible: You need to be flexible in your negotiations. If they need a special service or for you to customize a product, say yes for the benefit of the long term. A little hassle now will be a big payoff later.
  4. Long-term: This goes along with the last one a bit. As you are approaching and negotiating with big fish, you need to consider your business’s long-term benefits. You will lose their interest if you go for a one-time big score.
  5. Have Fun: Work should be fun, even when trying to land big clients. In fact, this should be the most fun. You are sharing your vision with new people and including them in your future success and likewise. People simply work better in a fun, happy environment. Your passion will also be contagious, pulling the fish into your vision even more.
  6. Help Them: If you take a little bit of time and offer your clients ways to save money or time by introducing them to potential business partners, this will show you are invested and interested in their business. Strive to balance your business needs and your client’s needs.

You can also use a few tactics to bring in a big-company vision to the people on your team. You can:

  • Post these six keys for all to see.
  • Put together a performance-based incentive program.
  • Conduct frequent team meetings.
  • Use a “right now” policy to answer big fish calls immediately.
  • Offer awards/recognition for big-company ideas and executions.
  • Put together a training and certification program based on the six keys above.

 

These 6 keys and tips will help you instil a big-company mindset through your company which will help you be more prepared and more likely to land your big fish. Once your team is thinking this way, you’ll be unstoppable.

If you need help putting together an incentive program or other way to push your team toward the big-company mindset, try our FREE test drive to work with one of our coaches or check out our resources and tools.

Are You Growing By 1%?

Posted on by Michael Clift

The Rule of 1% is defined as improving your customer service one percent at a time. Before you can do this, you must have your consistency perfected, or it will never work. This one percent may seem small, but if you approach the vision for your company with baby steps, you will find a massive increase over a solid chunk of time. It’s not a sprint; it’s a marathon.

Avoid doing too much at once, or you’ll set yourself up for failure. Think of the confidence you and your employees will have when you improve one percent each week. You’ll have improved more than 50% by the end of the year!

While rules and standards are necessary for growth, always be flexible with your best customers. Most retailers only allow a set number of items into a dressing room to reduce the risk of shoplifting, but it generally restricts the large percentage of people who are not stealing from you. Flexibility is the key to what you deliver to your customers, and consistency is the key to how you deliver it.

The bottom line is that customers rely on you to deliver what you promise. If you spend too much on bulky advertising that promises more than you can deliver, even your best intentions will unravel quickly, and you will fail.

Focus on your vision and baby steps to turn your satisfied customers into Raving Fans.

I hope you’ve learned a lot about good customer service and how it’s essential to your overall success. If you need help with any of the steps we’ve gone through over the last four lessons, try our FREE test drive and get access to some of the best resources, tools and coaches available.

In upcoming posts, we’ll explore strategies for bagging the big clients and keeping them.

Are You On The Right Path?

Posted on by Michael Clift

When prepping yourself and your company to approach the largest clients you’ll ever work with, there are several factors to consider.

Today we’re going to start with a brief look at the three paths every business faces and show you which one is the path to success. Then we’ll talk about the mindset it takes to attract the big fish.

There are three significant paths a business can take:

  • Snail Speed
  • Shooting Star
  • Catch the Big Fish

Snail Speed

Most business owners worked themselves into the ground without much reward or success. This happens when you fool yourself into thinking you will find quick success. You may also follow this path when you are afraid of change.

Shooting Star

This describes a business that shoots to the top so quickly you are overwhelmed and don’t have the right resources to adapt. This can also happen from being overwhelmed by small clients and not taking the time to find large clients, which will sustain your business after the small client sales slow.

Catch the Big Fish

This path allows you to build at a steady pace that you can manage by not allowing your customers to outpace you. You can do this by putting these tips to work:

  1. Attract, keep and lock in big clients.
  2. Integrate a “big business” culture into your company and employees.
  3. Acquire the expertise you need to grow.
  4. Have the courage to make changes as you grow.

Now we will transition and talk about the “big fish” mindset. It may sound easy to just find and catch that big fish, but if you are stuck in the small business mindset, you may find it harder than you think. 

Think of all the benefits of aiming at bigger clients:

  • Inexpensive
  • Highly Profitable
  • Longevity
  • Security

To catch the big fish, you need to believe your company can make a difference with theirs. It’s easy to think that a large company doesn’t need anything from a small business like yours, but this is entirely wrong!

Once you look at how big companies operate, you must know which ones best fit your company. One of the best ways to get in the door is by knowing someone on the inside who can put in a good word for you.

If you’re unsure where to start and feel intimidated about catching big fish, try our FREE test drive to get help from our amazing business coaches.

Add Some Compost

Posted on by Michael Clift

In the last post, we discussed the first three of the seven specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process. Here are all seven again:

  • Primary Aim
  • Strategic Objectives
  • Organizational Strategy
  • Management Strategy
  • People Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Systems Strategy

These seven areas will fine-tune your plan for the ultimate level of success. Today we are going to cover the last four.

Think of constructing your business model like planting a tree. At first, it’s so tiny and weak you wonder if it will even make it through the night. But you keep watering, fertilizing and nurturing it. Your ideas will grow the trunk, and each of these strategies will extend out like the branches of your now strong tree. Finding the perfect support staff, employees, vendors/suppliers, and other relationships will make your tree flourish with leaves and flowers.

Management Strategy

How you structure your management team is essential to your growth and the happiness of your employees and, ultimately, your customers/clients. This strategy is results-oriented and doesn’t depend on the people but on the actual system that’s in place.

A management strategy is, in short, a set of standards that include goals, rules, a mission statement and other concrete things that tell your employees how to act, your management how to grow your business and your customers/clients what to expect. 

These should all be in perfect alignment with your business goals.

Employee Appreciation

It would be best if you put together a people strategy that shows your employees how you feel about their job performance and dedication to your business. They also need to understand “why” they are doing specific tasks, which helps them personally connect to their job, which leads to better production and a happier workplace. 

There are several strategies you can use to keep it interested at “the office”:

  • Performance Incentive Programs
  • Contests that reward high performance
  • Employee of the Month
  • Performance/Holiday Bonuses

These are just a few of the ideas you can use. One of the best ways to appreciate your employees is by calling a meeting and asking them how they would like to be rewarded. Think about it for a while and put the best strategy into play. Keep it fresh and change up your strategy from time to time to keep your employees guessing. Once they get used to the prize, it’s time for a new approach.

You need to build a community within your company. There needs to be support, appreciation and respect. The more “at home” employees feel, the better they will perform and the higher their level of loyalty.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing is, of course, essential to the success of any business, but it also must work cohesively with the other strategies you’re using. There are two central pillars of a successful marketing strategy: Your customers’ demographic and psychographic profiles.

The psychographic tells you what your customers are the most likely to buy, and the demographic tells you who they are, which can help you learn why they buy specific items. Without this information, it simply doesn’t matter how good your business prototype is.

Systems Strategy

There are three types of systems in every business:

  • Hard Systems
  • Soft Systems
  • Information Systems

Hard systems refer to inanimate systems with no “life”, and soft systems are those that could be living. Information systems are, of course, everything else, including customer data, product information, financial…anything with data and numbers.

The soft systems are the most important of all three systems because they include the sales systems your business uses. The two keys to success in your sales system are structure and substance. The structure is what you sell, and the importance is how you sell it.

All three systems are essential to the success of your business, and while they all have their specific roles, they must work together to get the job done. This also goes for your entire business development program.

I want to take a moment to recap the ideas we went over through the business development lessons. 

An entrepreneurial myth, or e-myth, is an assumption that anyone can succeed at business with: 

  • Desire 
  • Some capital 
  • Projected a targeted profit

There are essentially three key roles that need to be filled to set your business up for success:

  • The Technician
  • The Manager
  • The Entrepreneur

The four different stages of a business life cycle are:

  • Infancy
  • Adolescence
  • Growing Pains
  • Maturity

There are a few things we are going to talk about:

  • Business Format Franchise
  • The Franchise Prototype
  • Franchise Prototype Standards

There are three main areas of business development:

  • Innovation
  • Quantification
  • Orchestration

Seven specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process. Here are all seven again:

  • Primary Aim
  • Strategic Objectives
  • Organizational Strategy
  • Management Strategy
  • People Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Systems Strategy

We can help you work through these areas and give your business a jumpstart that puts you ahead of your competition right from the start. Use our FREE test drive and work with one of our coaches, plus gain access to a wealth of tools and resources.

The Corporate Puzzle

Posted on by Michael Clift

These are the seven specific areas you need to consider in your franchise prototype process:

  • Primary Aim
  • Strategic Objectives
  • Organizational Strategy
  • Management Strategy
  • People Strategy
  • Marketing Strategy
  • Systems Strategy

These seven areas will fine-turn your plan for the ultimate level of success. In this post, we are going to cover the first three.

Primary Aim

It’s essential in business development to set goals and see a vision for the future. This needs to go beyond the business, and you must think about what you want out of life. What do you dream about? How do you see your success unfolding? Knowing and understanding these things will give you the momentum to get started and the stamina to see it through. Even take a minute to write them down and tape them to your desk for a constant reminder of what you’re aiming for.

Strategic Objectives

These are essential in taking your business from surviving to thriving. All of these objectives should offer solutions for how to get to your primary aim. There are many things you can use to set strategic goals, but here is a couple of the most popular:

  1. Money: Setting monetary goals is a powerful yet simple way to see how you are doing at any point in the game. It’s easy to measure and easy to find adjustments to help meet this goal.
  2. Worthy Opportunities: When considering partnerships and other business opportunities, you need to consider whether they will help you reach your primary goal. Those that will are the best opportunities to consider seriously.

The key to setting standards and goals is not to limit yourself or stress yourself out. It would be best if you found some quantifiable things you can use to measure your progress toward your primary aim. These are just two suggestions, but make sure no matter what standards you set, you are paying attention to the details, as these are one of the biggest keys to your success.

Organizational Strategy

The strength of your organizational structure can make or break your business, so creating a solid frame for your business to grow from is essential. Generally, a company is organized around the roles and responsibilities that need to be taken care of daily and the personalities that need to fulfil those roles. 

No matter what roles and responsibilities you’ve defined for your employees, you must keep your primary personal aim separate from your company’s mission statement. Once you’ve identified the primary objective for your company, it will be easy to set up a position structure that will work.

Don’t forget to put together position contracts. Your employees should sign a statement of their roles and responsibilities, which helps keep them clear for you, the employee and other employees/vendors or other individuals.

You can see how these areas all work together to build a solid structure for your business. If you need help defining any of these areas, you can check out the resources and tools and speak with one of our fantastic coaches during your FREE test drive.