Category: Operations

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Operations

Discounting Your Services to Make a Sale? 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t

Article Contributed by Annemarie Cross

As a service-based business owner do find yourself offering your client a discount to influence them into investing in your program or package? Or do you cave in and offer a discount when your prospect asks for one?

If you have answered yes to either one of those situations you are certainly not alone. I admit that this is something that I’ve done in the past too. However over the years I’ve realized that this is not one of the best ways to make a sale, while remaining true to my personal values and business growth goals.

Here are 3 reasons why you shouldn’t resort to discounting your services and the 3 strategies you should implement so that clients step up gracefully and confidently when investing in your services, packages and programs.

1.    Discounting devalues your services

Unfortunately whatever way you look at it, discounting your services does little other than to lessen the significance and worth of your program, as well as the benefits, outcomes and overall value your clients will receive through investing in you.

Unlike a product-based business that can mass produce their wares and offer discounts on bulk purchases, a service-based business owner cannot and should not offer bulk purchases discounts on their time. Your time is one of your most valuable assets; so don’t devalue this priceless commodity by discounting it.

Remember, your client does not pay you for the hours you spend with them, but for your knowledge and expertise, AND for the results and outcomes they will receive through working with you.

2.    Discounting can impact negatively your self-belief

I don’t know about you – but in the past whenever I’ve reduced the prices on my services as the only way to have a client say ‘yes’ to my offer, that little voice inside my head said ‘See, the only way a client is going to invest in you is when you lower your prices,’ which is a self-belief I did NOT want to encourage.

Thank goodness I know now that my clients are investing in me because of my wealth of knowledge, my expertise and the results and outcomes they’ll generate through working with me.

By discounting your services as a last (or only) resort will not only continue to impact negatively on your self-belief and self-worth, but will also prevent you from building a thriving successful business.

3.    Can establish a negative precedent

Offering discounts as a way to get clients into your programs can establish a disempowering precedent or business standard that will only serve to block you from achieving your income goals, because of the negative impact it can have on your self-worth and subsequently your income.

Do you want to continue to attract clients that will only work with you if you offer them a discount? Do you want to continue having to justify your value and worth to every client who asks you to reduce your prices?

Having these continued conversations because you have established this precedent will only serve to undermine you and your business’s growth.

Instead, here’s what you should do:

1.    Create packages

A strong business model that will allow you to increase your income without having to increase the amount of time you spend with clients is to offer packages and programs that include other elements other than just your hourly services.

Offering value-added packages that will provide solutions and support for your clients will be far more exciting and empowering for them. It also continues to add value and credibility to the work you are doing with your clients.

For instance, in my Sapphires coaching program (which I’m launching next year) I will include coaching as part of the program, however this is only a small part of the package. My program will also include group mastermind coaching, weekly audio/video laser coaching strategy, online take action journal, access to webinar recordings, forums and opportunity to network with others in the group, so it will be value packed with lots of resources and goodies other than just my time.

So what could you add to your packages that will create value for your clients?

2.    Add bonuses to make the offer irresistible

Bonuses and offering that extra special ‘gift’ to your clients for investing in you can make your program or package irresistible.

One of my colleagues was offering a program that was focused on time management for stressed business owners who were struggling to keep up with their hectic schedules.

One of the bonuses she included was a half-hour free massage from her colleague who was a massage therapist. The massage therapist was highly skilled in what she did and was also very good at sales and marketing so each person who had the free massage felt so wonderful that they signed up for additional massage sessions. A win-win-win situation.

My colleague was able to add a bonus to her package which she knew her clients would love and that fit perfectly with her topic; her clients would benefit greatly from having the massage; and the massage therapist had an opportunity to provide a hands-on experience of her service while on-selling that client into one of her massage packages.

So, what bonuses can you add to your packages to make them irresistible to clients?

3.    Offer ‘quick decision’ offers

I’m a firm believer in focusing on the outcome you desire and creating positive and empowering environment and mindset.

So, rather than offering a discount (which lessens the value of your services) you can change the entire focus and energy by offering a ‘quick action’ saving when your client makes a quick decision and takes decisive action by booking into and paying for your program within a certain timeframe.

Doing this will reward your client’s ‘positive behavior’ in taking decisive action and investing in themselves and the outcomes they want to generate. You are rewarding this quick action – and not rewarding their ability to get you to lower your fee. See the difference?

As I roll out my Sapphire and Diamond coaching programs (next year) you’ll see me offering these programs at various pricing points. The first group of people to sign up into these programs will be rewarded with ‘quick decision’ savings. This is because a business owner who has this attitude is one I know will be successful because they’re driven and ready to take action.

So how can you integrate this strategy into your marketing and launch calendar?

Remember, if your goal is to attract high quality clients then don’t resort to offering discounts but rather offer special packages/programs offerings; make your offer irresistible through bonuses; or offer ‘quick decision’ pricing to reward them for stepping up and investing in themselves.

Me, I love them all and will continue to integrate all three when marketing my programs? What will you do?

About the Author:

Annemarie Cross is a Branding & Business Coach helping ambitious business owners to get noticed, hired and paid what they’re worth! Are you doing these 7 must-do business building strategies? Find out here: http://www.AnnemarieCross.com and access our free audio mini-series ‘7 Easy Steps to Build Your Brand, Your Biz, and Your Income.’

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Operations

Seven Tax Tips for Business

Article Contribute by Bernard B. Kamoroff, C.P.A, author of 422 Tax Deductions for Businesses

Tax Filing Season is here, and there are still several things you can do to reduce your taxes for 2009. Here are Seven Tax Tips that can possibly save you a lot of money on your 2009 taxes. Remember, “It’s not how much money you make, it’s how much money you keep!”

Tip #1. For businesses on the cash accounting system (most small businesses), expenses are usually deducted the year paid. However, if you charge any business expenses to your bank credit card (VISA, MasterCard, American Express, or Discover) you can deduct those expenses the year incurred even though you pay them in the next year. Go through your December charges and add them to your December expenses.

Tip #2. Normally, the cost of your inventory (goods for sale, parts) cannot be written off until sold. But if you have any damaged inventory, inventory that is out of date or out of fashion, goods unsalable for any reason, you can write off this inventory for 2009.

Tip #3. Your business expenses are deductible even if you paid them from your non-business bank account, personal credit card or debit card, or cash. Take a few minutes and go through all of your expenses for the year. If the expenses were for your business, deduct them. (Does not apply to corporations).

Tip #4. Manufacturers, and some construction, engineering and architecture firms, software developers, and video producers, are eligible for a 9% “manufacturer’s deduction” for income earned from domestic production. This “bonus” deduction is in addition to the deductions already allowed for manufacturing expenses.

Tip #5. In addition to your deductible business expenses, you may qualify for special “Tax Credits” available to businesses. Tax credits are very specific and limited, but if you qualify, the credits reduce your taxes dollar for dollar. Tax credits can be a real tax pot-of-gold.

Tip #6. You can put some of your business profit into an IRA or a SEP-IRA, and not pay income taxes on the profit until you withdraw the money. You have until April 15, 2010 to set up and contribute to an IRA or a SEP-IRA for the 2009 tax year.

Tip #7. Finally, and one almost sure way to reduce your taxes, is to re-examine every purchase, every expense you made in 2009. Make sure you’ve taken all the business tax deductions you are entitled to: expenses you didn’t record in your ledgers, expenses you didn’t think were deductible, “personal” expenses that qualify as business expenses. Neither the IRS nor your accountant is going to know about a deduction you forgot to take. It’s entirely up to you.

About the Author
Seven Tax Tips for Business are excerpted from 422 Tax Deductions for Businesses and Self-Employed Individuals by Bernard B. Kamoroff, C.P.A., 9th Edition, 2010. www.bellsprings.com. Toll free 800-515-8050

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Entrepreneurs How-To Guides Online Business Operations

How to Create a Sales Policy That is Fair to ALL of Your Clients

When you start developing your multiple streams of income business by adding products and programs which are available on your website, there’s a very specific policy you need to have in place … and that is a clearly defined Sales Policy.

Before we get into what this is about and why you need it, let me just take a minute to ask you how you would handle the following scenarios:

* You offer a discount to prospective clients of either a dollar amount or percentage off the price of your product/program if they purchase before a certain date.  A client comes to you after the deadline and says they didn’t read your email in time, can they still receive the discount?  What do you say?

* You are offering quite an expensive program so decide to make things easier on your clients by offering a payment plan.  Part way through the payment plan one of your client’s credit cards gets declined.  What do you do?

* You offer a guarantee on your product/program and a client comes to you asking for a refund that is outside of your guarantee period.  What do you say?

As soon as you start selling products and programs online all of these scenarios (and others) become very real – and, yes, I have found myself having to deal with all of the above!

Your Sales Policy is simply a statement which lets your clients and customers know what they can expect from you and how you handle your sales processes.  How your sales policy is structured is entirely up to you; it’s your business and you’re the business owner, but once you’ve decided what those policies are you need to be strong in your implementation.  Having a central page that clearly lays out your sales policies will make the implementation of them far easier (for you) and smoother, and will ensure that you’re being fair to ALL of your clients.

The sort of things you would include in your sales policy are:

* How you handle discounts and coupons that are requested after the deadline.

* How you handle coupons that should have been processed at the time of purchase, i.e. via your shopping cart system.

* How you handle declined credit card transactions (and you will get them when you start offering payment plans).

* How you handle your regular holiday sales.

* How you handle requests for refunds, especially if that request happens after the guarantee period.

These are all situations that you have to consider and assume will happen in your business and therefore you need to plan accordingly.  The best way to do this is by creating a Sales Policy page that is linked to from all of your own sales pages.  You should put it at the bottom of each sales page, but also reference it on the area of your sales page where your customer is just about to purchase.

For example, a great place to link to your Sales Policy page is right underneath where you have your ‘Click Here to order’ button.   Then simply have a sentence underneath that says, “Please see Sales Policy for full details”.

Tip:  Make sure your sales policy page opens in a new browser window so your customer doesn’t lose the sales page when going to review your sales policy.

Once you have your Sales Policy page all set up then should you find yourself in one of the scenarios outlined above, you simply direct your client to your page.  And when you have to say “no” to your client it makes your response a lot less personal and more graceful – especially if you’re having to respond yourself rather than having a team member do it for you.

Having a clearly defined Sales Policy in place eliminates a lot of the stress and frustration of having to deal with these situations, and allows you to be fair to ALL of your clients.

Categories
Operations Sales & Marketing

Top 5 Reasons to Hire Outside Marketing Expertise Now

If you find yourself short on talent necessary to grow your business consider these benefits of augmenting your existing staff with temporary marketers:

1) No long-term commitment. You can generally hire full- or part-time marketing resources by the hour, week or month without committing to long-term employment.  This allows you to cover temporary holes (i.e. maternity leave) or limited workload surges (i.e. a new product launch) without affecting headcount.

2) Scale up or down at will. Flexibility is the biggest benefit of contract marketers.  As your needs change so can your temporary workforce whether it be the overall number of contactors you use or the individual skill levels you choose to access.

3) New ideas. New marketers bring a fresh perspective and new ideas.  By augmenting your current staff with marketers from other backgrounds and industries you bring new ways of approaching old problems to your organization.

4) Rent-to-Buy Option. In a resource constrained environment hiring the wrong person can be catastrophic.  In many cases, hiring a marketer on a short-term contract allows you to test drive them before committing to permanent employment.

5) Saves Time and Money. HR experts say it costs a company a year’s salary just to hire a new employee.  Depending on the level of the position it can take 2-6 months to land the right candidate.  In the meantime, work is falling through the cracks.  Contract marketers are generally available to start making contributions within 48 hours with little or no upfront costs.

The final chapters of The Great Recession will be written in the next 12-18 months.  Those who boldly embrace the nascent recovery will gain share and thrive in the years to come.  Those who continue to cower and wait for better days may be irreparably harmed.  But seizing the initiative will take resources, specifically the arms and legs necessary to keep your marketing initiatives on track.   Perhaps now is the time to take a new look at securing temporary marketing talent.

If so, check out my new checklist: “How to Choose Interim Marketing Resources That Won’t Waste Your Time and Money.” Get it now for free at: http://www.imperativesllc.com/newsite/learningcenter/publications.html

About the Author:
Pioneering Marketing Consultant and author of Strategy Activation: How to Turn Your Vision into Marketplace Success Scott Glatstein drives profitable growth by filling clients’ existing resource gaps with talented contract marketers. Now check out his free checklist that will help you choose an outside marketing firm that will enable you to achieve higher profits. Get it now at: http://www.imperativesllc.com/newsite/learningcenter/publications.html

Categories
Operations

Best of the Janes: Tracking Business Performance

Tracking a company’s key business metrics is essential in determining next steps and in planning for the future. Although each business owner has her own methods for running her business, every business owner can benefit from the following advice regarding tracking business performance:

* Use measurable marketing systems. Because marketing often requires a significant investment of time and/or money, it is important that the systems a business owner employs be measurable. For example, Google “pay per click”  advertising can track how many Internet users get a certain company’s link during a search and how many visit the link. Creating measurable marketing systems can be as simple as sending out coupons customers can bring in, or providing a discount to customers who mention a radio or TV ad, or asking customers to fill out a quick survey about how they heard about the business. In this way, a business owner can decide whether her resources are well-spent.

* Study existing customer relationships. By sending out a quick e-mail survey or questionnaire to existing customers, a business owner can gather information about what she’s doing well, what she could work to improve, and which services she might want to consider adding or cutting. For example, if she sells books, games and toys, and customers report that they really come to her store for the games and books, she could redirect some of her resources from toys to add games and books. In another scenario, a business owner may be advertising in multiple venues, hoping that one of them will catch a customer’s attention. By interviewing her customers, she may discover that the majority of them discovered her through one particular advertising venue – and she could then better focus her advertising efforts.

* Gather testimonials. Business owners who gather testimonials are really achieving two great things at once: they’re attaining future marketing material, and they’re learning what they do best, according to their customers. By asking for feedback, a business owner can learn which of her products or services are the most successful – and she can focus on them.

Tracking a business’  performance metrics is absolutely critical in determining its best next steps – and they may come as a surprise. Not only can an entrepreneur discover whether her resources are being spent as wisely as possible, she can also use performance information to hone her products and services and to grow her business.

Interested in learning more about the five Jane types and which Jane you are? Check out www.janeoutofthebox.com

About the Author:

Michele DeKinder-Smith is the founder of Jane out of the Box, an online resource dedicated to the women entrepreneur community. Discover more incredibly useful information for running a small business by taking the FREE Jane Types Assessment at Jane out of the Box. Offering networking and marketing opportunities, key resources and mentorship from successful women in business, Jane Out of the Box is online at www.janeoutofthebox.com