Podcasts

SBM#44- Want More Sales? Follow Up!

Tagged as: closing, entrepreneur, follow up, professional, propsect, sales, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute

One of the simplest ways to increase your sales closing ratio is by simply following up with your prospects in a timely manner.

All too often I encounter entrepreneurs who lament at how difficult business is or that they just don’t get sales even though they are pitching and quoting.

Digging a little deeper quickly uncovers one of the main reasons for their poor sales performance, they don’t follow up. It is estimated that 85% of sales contacts are never followed up.

When I enquire as to why they don’t follow up, I usually get the same answer- “I don’t want to bother them or come across as pushy’. To this I typically respond by saying “they asked you to quote, so a few follow up calls is not considered pushy, if done in a professional manner”

People Are Well Intentioned

When you consider that people lead busy lives and although well intentioned, they sometimes need a little friendly nudge in order to take action. I can’t tell you how many times a prospect has thanked me for following up with them- which is certainly in contrast to what we would expect.

By following up, it also gives the serious prospect the opportunity to ask questions or get answers to things they thought of since our last meeting and more often than not, if it doesn’t result in an immediate order, it certainly moves the process along and keeps me in contact with the prospect.

So if you want more sales, follow up.

You may also enjoy The 80/20 Rules For Sales

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Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Greg Weatherdon has been there, done that. As an entrepreneur, he learned not only how to get a business to the point of running smoothly, but also how to reduce the number of hours he worked, delegate more responsibility to his employees, and take longer vacations while his business chugged along like a well-oiled machine. And now he is providing the secret to success.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #43- Wisdom Of The Ages

Tagged as: age is the price of wisdom, capitalism, experience, experts, Get more life out of your business, money, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, social media, successful, wisdom of the ages

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Successful people are always on the lookout for ways to improve themselves and their businesses. Unfortunately, with the advent of Social Media, there are now an overwhelming number of so called experts promoting the latest and greatest way to take you and or your business to the next level.

Scream Loud Enough

I get the sense that they believe that if they scream loud enough or post frequently enough, people will automatically assume that they are experts.

Rarely however, have these denizens of success achieved the level of achievement they proclaim that you can attain. Just because they say so, doesn’t make it so.

I like to say “that most of the people making money on the internet are those individuals selling you courses on how to make money on the internet”. Buy their book, sign up for their course, and you too will become successful.

Granted, there are some individuals that have actually achieved success in their chosen field and are now sharing and yes, capitalizing on their knowledge they gained over a lifetime and you know what? That’s okay. Unfortunately, they’re in the minority.

Get Experts To Help

A simple and effective alternative, is to find someone in your community that you admire, that has done their time. and is successful. Offer to buy them a coffee or lunch to get some insight into their successes and failures.

It has been my experience that truly successful people are willing to help and share and most don’t care how many likes, followers or friends they have on social media.

Their strength and knowledge comes from experience. Or as an ancient proverb says “Age is the price of wisdom”

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #42- Successful People Do The Hard Stuff!

Tagged as: disappointment, entrepreneur, failures, grinding, hard stuff, information, knowledge, Olympians, pianist, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, successful, training

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

No one likes doing hard stuff. It’s far easier and requires far less motivation to do the things we like. Great concert pianists produce wonderful music in what appears to be an effortless manner. Top ranked Olympians appear to have superhuman abilities and successful entrepreneurs have an air of quiet self-confidence.

What We Don’t See

The one thing all these individuals have in common, is that they put in the time and effort required to develop and refine their skills. What we don’t see is the hours upon hours, year in, year out that the pianist has spent practicing at the keyboard. Nor do we see the Olympian training long before the sun comes up, when they’d rather stay in bed.

The successful entrepreneur is not excluded. What we don’t see is the copious amounts of information they consume in their off hours or the mental gymnastics they perform as they try to distill this new knowledge into an actionable strategy all the while keeping up the daily demands of their enterprise.

Believe me, these individuals would prefer not to have to work so hard, given that there is no guarantee of success. But they do!

Regardless of the repeated disappointments and failures, they just don’t quit!

They just pick themselves up and keep on grinding it out, with only their thoughts to keep them company, because successful people do the hard stuff.

You may also enjoy Small Gains, Big Rewards

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #41 – Why Be An Entrepreneur?

Tagged as: accountants, bankers, customers, deadlines, grumpy, lawyers, marketing, Networking, profits, rejection, selling, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Why would anyone want to be an entrepreneur?

Why would you want to have to constantly worry about getting business, hiring employees, making payroll, covering rent, dealing with grumpy customers, finding customers, firing customers, firing people, sending out invoices, collecting payment, marketing, fixing the computer, quoting on jobs, preparing presentations, working too hard, sleeping too little, meeting with lawyers, meeting with accountants, explaining to bankers, being rejected, losing customers, out guessing the competition, managing your time, trying to be creative, managing people, selling, being late, shipping, receiving, paying bills, getting home, getting home on time, prospecting, closing, reporting, profits, networking and deadlines?

Why The Heck Not?

On the other hand, maybe the question should be, Why the heck not? When done right, the freedom and rewards far outweigh the alternative.

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #40- If Not Now, When?

Tagged as: coffee, delegate, financials, Profit and Loss, referrals, relationship, revenue projections, small bus, small business, small business expert, visibility

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Sitting down with a cup coffee, you look at your financials and you realize your annual projections are not unfolding quite like you planned. Revenue is down, expenses are up and profitability is just a flicker on your Profit and Loss statements.

You know that the longer you wait, the harder it will be to make up the shortfall. It’s time to step up your game and maybe even get outside your comfort zone and do some business development. Because you know that if you don’t act now, things are just going to get worse.

“You already have a relationship with them, take advantage of it!”

So here are five things you can do to hit those goals and get the business back on track or to the next level.

Business Development

#1 – Call your dormant customers. Look at all those clients you’ve served during the past 18 – 24 months and the ones you haven’t heard from in the past 12 months, give them a call to let them know you’re thinking about them. Use the opportunity to tell them what new offerings you have. You already have a relationship with them, take advantage of it.

“This exercise will help you free up the time you need to be more visible”

#2 – Up your visibility! Get in front of your target market whether as a guest speaker or attend an event that your prospective clients may might be participating. Consider volunteering within your industry association or a business group like a chamber of commerce. Get out in front of people and let them know what you do.

#3 – Delegate an important task to one of your employees. Give them direction and set expectations then get out of their way. Don’t forget to establish some milestones by which they need to check in with you. Let them know that you are available for discussion but expect them complete the assignment. This exercise will help you free up the time you need to be more visible in front of your customers. It will also help you to learn how to delegate.

#4 – Go have a coffee with 5 of your current clients and ask them how you’re doing? What do they like and dislike about doing business with you? Ask them what you can do to make doing business with you easier?

#5 – While you’re talking with your existing clients (point 4) and your dormant clients (point 1) ask them who they know that could use your product or service.

Earth shattering ideas? Not! But most businesses are run by doing a whole bunch of straightforward activities that should be done everyday. So why wait any longer? Because if not now, when?

You may enjoy Delegating Is Easier Than You Think

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #39 – No Rear View Mirror

Tagged as: decisions, driving, errors, Future, mirror, Mistakes, past, pretend, rear view, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A very common trait of successful entrepreneurs is that many don’t have rear view mirrors. By that I mean, they rarely dwell on the past mistakes. They know their future lies ahead and not behind. The past is the past and mistakes happen.

“Once distilled, they let it go and move on…”

That’s not to say they pretend they never made a mistake, to the contrary. They acknowledge their mistake, analyze what went wrong and distill those learnings, notice I say learnings, into usable information. Once distilled, they let it go and move on because they understand that theirs is a journey of successes and failures, generally with more failures than successes. Those failures however, must be let go otherwise they become burdensome and limiting and would extinguish the fire in all but a few hearty souls.

“They realize not to take errors or failures personally.”

Although it’s easier said than done, successful entrepreneurs have come to realize not to take errors or failures personally. They understand they made an incorrect decision based on the information they had at the time and nothing more.

Much like driving a car, when running your business, you need to look down the road to where you’re going because you can’t make any progress looking in the rear view mirror.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM#38- Look As Good As You Sound!

Tagged as: first impressions, image, professional, professional image, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, thread

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

I have a simple saying that I live by, and that is “Look as good as you sound”!

We constantly tell people how great our product or services are but do we support that statement with a professional image?

People tell me all the time that it’s not that important and I call that a cop out! It’s about respect!

“Image is that common thread that
runs through your organization”

Business is difficult enough and we need every advantage possible to change the odds in our favour and image is relatively easy to elevate.

Image to me can be best summed up as that common thread that runs throughout your organization. From your business cards to how you look and everything in between. It’s an opportunity to showcase your professionalism because as business owners, we can’t risk not making a good 1^st impression.

The thing is, it only takes 7 seconds to form a 1^st impression and 93% of that 1^st impression is based on how we look and how we sound. The remaining 7% is based on what we actually say.

“It can upwards of 8 additional contacts
to change a 1st impression”

All is not lost though, as a bad 1^st impression can be changed. Unfortunately, it’ll require a fair amount of work as it can take upwards of 8 additional contacts to correct that bad 1^st impression. Sadly, we rarely get those 8 additional opportunities.

People want to deal with successful people, so take yourself seriously and them seriously because you only have one chance to make a 1^st impression.

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #37- Limitations

Tagged as: ego, entrepreneur, hide, limitations, limits, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, success, weakness

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Whether we chose to admit it or not, every entrepreneur has limitations and failure to acknowledge them can become an anchor that limits our success.

“Unfortunately, most of us never seem to shake our start-up attitude”

Granted, during the start-up years we must do everything to get our enterprise off the ground and there are many things that we aren’t very good at. Fortunately, we only have to be good enough at our limitations until such time as we can hire people that are better at them.

Unfortunately, most of us never seem to shake our start-up attitude, even though we’re not start-ups any longer. Is it because we don’t want to show any weakness? Is it because we let our pride and ego get in the way? Are we afraid of what people will think? Or do we just not know any better? I’m not totally sure.

“What I do know is that most successful people never hide their limitations.”

What I do know is that most successful people never hide their limitations. They acknowledge their existence and build their companies with either employees or 3rd party resources that fill those gaps.

My advice is simple. Identify your limitations, then concentrate on the things that you are good at, and let others do what they’re good at. This will move your company forward at a much faster pace.

You may also enjoy Want To Get Better? Work At It!

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #36- Innovation Starts at Home

Tagged as: cost reduction, customer experience, entrepreneur, expert, improvements, innovation, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

If you’re to believe everything you hear or read about innovation, you would be justified in thinking that innovation is an area best left to the big companies, but that would be wrong.

“Don’t let the status quo be

the reason you don’t try something new”

If truth be told, every company, regardless of size, has the opportunity to innovate. Although small innovations never make headlines, they never the less can make a dramatic impact within your company, and frankly that’s all that really matters.

What you need to understand is that most successful innovation comes from either borrowing ideas from other industries or reconfiguring your existing products or services to tackle new markets or customers.

“Simply changing some business processes to be more

efficient can be considered innovative”

A great example of borrowing ideas is Henry Ford who has been heralded for developing the modern auto assembly line, he actually borrowed and adapted the process from the meat packing industry.

Simply changing some business processes to be more efficient can be considered innovative, if it reduces costs, improves the customer experience or generates more profit.

One of the biggest stumbling blocks to innovation is ”the industry doesn’t do that” attitude but to my way of thinking that’s exactly why it should be done.

Don’t let the status quo be the reason you don’t try something new. You just don’t know where it will take you.

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

SBM #35 – Motivation and Inspiration

Tagged as: entrepreneur, goal, inspiration, motivation, small business, small business expert, Small Business Minute, success

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Everyone one of us needs to be motivated and inspired occasionally. Although successful entrepreneurs are inherently self motivated but none the less they still look for opportunities to keep themselves in the right frame of mind.

Being inspired or motivated is only half the required elements to achievement. The other half is action.

“Being motivated and inspired has little or no value if you don’t put anything into action.”

The biggest difference between successful and struggling entrepreneurs is action. Being motivated and inspired has little or no value if you don’t put anything into action. Spewing forth motivational quotes or inspirational stories is nothing more than a feel good exercise when you fail to take any steps towards accomplishing your goals.

“Turning your inspiration in to action is not always easy.”

Committing to doing something and actually doing it is the true test of being inspired. Wanting to do something and doing it are two entirely different things. Turning your inspiration in to action is not always easy.

The same applies for motivation. Alone, it will do nothing for you if you don’t have a plan. That plan should consist of all the steps required to achieve your objective.

Having all the necessary steps clearly laid out ahead of time will make taking those first steps much easier and will give you the momentum you need to launch yourself toward your goal when motivation and inspiration meet.

If you found this helpful, Tweet, Like or tell a friend.

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

You shouldn’t be the hardest working person in your company.

Many small business owners find that even after the struggling start-up years, they’re working too many hours and still managing every aspect of their businesses.

Do you suffer from any of the following?

1. Business ownership isn’t living up to the dream.
2. Endless workdays.
3. You can’t find good people.
4. Profits are less than expected.
5. You can never take a vacation.

You’re not alone. But there is a solution. As Greg demonstrates, with some time and effort, you really can Get More Life Out Of Your Business.

ORDER HERE

« Previous 1 … 6 7 8 9 10 … 12 Next »

People Are Well Intentioned

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Scream Loud Enough

Get Experts To Help

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

What We Don’t See

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Why The Heck Not?

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Business Development

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

“Image is that common thread thatruns through your organization”

“It can upwards of 8 additional contactsto change a 1st impression”

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

the reason you don’t try something new”

efficient can be considered innovative”

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

Get More LIFE Out of Your Business

“Image is that common thread that
runs through your organization”

“It can upwards of 8 additional contacts
to change a 1st impression”