This is a very creative video conveying on a very strong theme of “Think Family”. An effective video can convey the message you intended across to your customers in just 3 minutes. Therefore, an effective sales pitch can be done within this timeframe to capture your target customers!
And best of all, these videos can be uploaded onto many social sites such as Facebook, Youtube etc. At almost zero cost!
Viral marketing would come into play if such a video is picked up by many other “onliners” and would create a buzz through the word of mouths by the many.
Most importantly, a creative idea to market your business is can set you apart from your competitors!
Category: Sales & Marketing
Making the decision to sell a business is an extremely important one but many business owners do not realize just how important it is until it is their business. It is absolutely imperative that you take the time to consider your options before making a decision, regardless of whether you built the business from nothing or bought into it and made it your own. There are plenty of factors to consider but if you decide to sell your business, you should do your research before marketing your business for sale.
There are several tips that could help you when selling your business, and ten of them are outlined below. This information is essential so make sure that you adhere to the following points:
1. Plan Your Exit Strategy – Experts agree that you should always plan ahead when you want to sell the business, and begin to prepare at least three years in advance where possible. This allows you to prepare for the handover, both personally and regarding the business for sale. It will allow you to maximize profit and get your paperwork in order.
2. Prepare The Business – If you want to get a higher price when selling your business, you need to make sure that it is well prepared. Any outstanding issues should be solved, new policies and strategies implemented, and fulfilling training will get you up to 10% more on your business than would otherwise be possible.
3. Disregard Your Own Valuation – You are emotionally involved in your business so any price expectations you place on it would be emotionally affected. As such, you are likely to over inflate the price and no buyer will want to know how much you believe your business is worth. The only valuation that matters is that of a valuation specialist or qualified appraiser.
4. Protect Yourself – Have your attorney draw up a confidentiality agreement with no possible loopholes before you make any disclosures pertaining to the business. This will protect your business no matter what and ensure that you are not stung if any sale falls through.
5. Inform Your Shareholders – Shareholders and other individuals with an interest in the business, such as board members, could actually stop any sale of your business going through. Advising them in advance and taking steps to ensure that their influence is ultimately muted is essential. Failing to do so may leave you with your business in your name along with a huge bill for costs incurred by brokers, accountants, and attorneys.
6. Prepare Your Conditions – Many business owners wait until a bid is made on their businesses before preparing their own terms and this can hold up a potential sale. It may even be the cause for a sale falling through. Preparing your written terms and conditions before you put your business on the market will inform buyers before they place a bid. You will then be able to negotiate.
7. Consider Your Retirement – Selling a business may only be the start of your retirement but it could lead to problems in your personal life. You need to consider what you will do following the sale of your business for your own peace of mind and general health. Do not neglect this point. Although it may not sound important now, it will be following the sale.
8. Do Not Give Priority To Price – You should never look at the sale of your business in immediate financial terms. The bids offered may be distinguished as the highest monetary bid and the lower ones, but accepting the former may mean you lose out. Lower bids may have clauses by which you earn a percentage of profits for so many years or even retain shares, As such, the cash amount should be placed behind the content of the bid terms when you consider them.
9. Full Disclosure – No matter what the weaknesses are for your business, you should always make a full disclosure, including warranties, about the state of your business. Be sure to include “to the best of your knowledge” in your contracts, and qualify all disclosure made so you and your buyer know exactly where you stand.
10. Choose The Deal – Approving a deal structure is of paramount importance when selling your business. You need to ensure that you are completely happy with every aspect of the deal. For example, you may want to retain a certain aspect of technology from your business for your future interests so this should be qualified in the terms. You may also wish to keep certain business interests out of the sale. Whatever your decision, you should always act in your own best interests so only offer the deal that you feel comfortable with.
About the Author:
GlobalBX provides a FREE business for sale exchange connecting business buyers, sellers and lenders. Search over 32,000 businesses for sale and franchise opportunities. Sell a business for free with no listing fees and zero commissions. We have all the top franchises as well as franchise resales. Find franchise reviews and get free franchise information. You can also contact over 300 lenders directly and get a business loan.
Categories
Importance of Email Marketing
Marketing to Women Online: There is a consistent mantra among marketers right now – do more with less.
Marketing budgets are being slashed, or are simply non-existent. Yet, even with anemic budgets, marketers are still expected to deliver results.
Email is one of the cheapest ways to drive sales. And, according to Marketing Sherpa, people are still reading their email.
I attended Marketing Sherpa’s Email Summit this last week. Here are some of the top learnings I took away:
5 must-do’s – Don’t share subscriber’s email address with others
– Offer special pricing for email subscribers
– Allow subscribers to customize frequency
– Allow subscribers to customize information they receive from you
– Give subscribers a first look at new products
Segment your list – “Batch and blast” emails are going the way of the dinosaur. Segment your list and customize messaging and offers for each segment. The more relevant you make those customized emails, the higher the response you’ll get. (examples of segments: gender, frequency of purchase, amount of activity, area of interest, etc.)
Test and test some more – Test subject lines, content, calls to action, conversion rates. Your gut is often wrong. By testing to see what gets the highest response you can dramatically increase your results.
Scrub your list – get rid of invalid email addresses, inactive addresses and other dead-weight that’s hurting your delivery, your response rates and your reputation.
Bottom line – it’s all about being relevant to your audience.
America’s Best Companies by Charles Cooper: Your business lives or dies on your sales and often that rides on the success of the sales call. The more of those that end in a handshake and a signature, the better your bottom line becomes. There is, however, no sure-fire method of scoring a sale each and every time. You can, however, shift the odds in your favor (or at least more in your favor) by planning for the sales call.
Mary Donato, president of Applied Principles and associate director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets, writing for Sales and Marketing Management Magazine has looked into the issue of pre-sales call planning and has come up with several steps to follow to give you and your sales staff the best chance to succeed.
1. Decide what you want the client to decide or agree to once the meeting is over. How will you get them to agree to move on to the next step? What will you recommend at the end of the meeting?
2. What does the client have to believe about you, your company, your solution to move on to the next step? During your first meeting, the client needs to do most of the talking and you need to be an active listener. But you will need to ensure they believe you can be an appropriate provider to them.
3. What are key things that you want to know about the client? Ensure that you get a list of the client’s issues and know the most important items on that list. Research their company, don’t ask questions that are already answered on their website, but do ask thought-provoking, educated questions based on what you learn.
4. What are the potential objections? How will you respond? You should have a list of the common objections along with the appropriate responses. This can help you determine if your solution is a fit to the client’s problems or not.
5. Create an agenda for the meeting. Having an agenda provides meeting objectives to all involved. This is useful since decision-makers usually want someone who won’t waste their time and respecting their time (and yours) is key to building a successful business relationship.
6. Prior to the meeting, email the client with the agenda and the purpose of the call. Ask them if they have other objectives they would like to accomplish during the conversation and give them a chance to bring other, critical people into the meeting, or suggest others who you would like to include.
Planning is not fool-proof, and you may find that your plan needs to change on the fly once the meeting is underway, so be flexible. However, it is still your best roadmap to take you from that initial handshake to where you want to be—a sale.
Article Contributed by David Gruttadaurio
What would happen if you increased referrals by 20%, 40% or even 100% or more?
What would your business be like?
Could you expand your company?
Could you increase your rates?
Could you retire earlier and perhaps enjoy more of the good life?
Absolutely!
But, most businesses (both online of offline) will never experience any of these benefits of increasing their referrals.
Why Referrals Dry Up After a Month
Most businesses are simply out of sight and out of mind. They allow their customers to forget about them.
I know, it’s so unfair, especially after doing such a great job for them. But it’s a universal truth.
Life today moves at the speed of light. If you don’t consistently work to remain in the awareness path of your clients, you can be certain they will never remember you or your company.
The GOOD NEWS is this problem can be easily fixed by a customer newsletter.
The REALLY GOOD NEWS is that a monthly customer newsletter will also create massive referral action by your clients.
4 Ways to Get More Referrals with Newsletters
1. Educate clients and prospects. Most people who engage in newsletter marketing make the mistake of trying to pitch on every page. That’s fastest way to get your newsletter in the trash can. If you want more referrals, build a trusting relationship by offering real content with high informational value.
2. Write newsletters that get passed around. Boring content doesn’t get read, much less passed on to anyone. That means your content must be interesting and engaging… that means it shouldn’t be all about you. You may love your business, but don’t expect your customers to feel the same way. Your newsletter should include articles that inspire, inform and are fun to read. This is the ONLY WAY your newsletters will get passed around bringing you more referrals.
3. Get your newsletter out to as many as possible. If you follow my newsletter marketing system, people will read your newsletters as a publication. They will not see it as a marketing piece even though it really is. This makes a quality newsletter a great way to tell your story in all kinds of situations. So, hand out copies at sales calls, trade shows and seminars. Drop them off at realtors and doctors offices. Put them in envelopes when you pay bills. And make sure people can download a copy on your website, after they give you their contact information.
4. Thank referrers in your newsletters. A standard feature in every newsletter should be a thank you to the clients that have referred you to others. Realizing how important referrals are to your business will motivate other customers to refer you too.
The Bottom Line
You will not get referrals if you do not manage your existing customers properly.
Your existing customers are your best sales people. They already know the quality of your products and services. They will continue to call you and REFER you if they are reminded to do so. A monthly client newsletter provides this friendly reminder in an interesting and non-intrusive way.
Follow this advice and you’ll be light years ahead of the competition and enjoy a constant stream of referrals.
About the Author
David Gruttadaurio was tired of wasting money on marketing that didn’t work. So he searched for a marketing tool that would give him more clients for his cleaning business until he found newsletter marketing! Through print newsletters he was able to get more referrals and triple his sales. Now, discover how he got and retained more clients with his FREE “Profit Exploding Newsletter Secrets Report” at http://www.NewslettersMadeForYou.com