Category: Sales & Marketing

Article Contributed by Satish Patel
Entrepreneurs are largely driven by the idea of being one’s own boss and are passionate to create wealth rather than money. To start out on one’s own is challenging and most of them would love it, but it can turn out to be a bumpy ride and face an abrupt end. The current downturn has left many such examples where the best of ideas backed by highly skilled entrepreneurs and a concrete business plan too face questions on survival.
As an entrepreneur, you may have kicked-off with a small to mid-sized set-up and that might have not turned out to something that you have wished for. Funds would have become a constraint to grow further, capital market crisis would have lead to little financial access and there seems lesser possibility of help from friends or families. How would you tackle this?
One might agree that continuing with the dream venture till you are forcefully pushed is not a good idea. You might be forced to sell at throwaway prices. In the need of hour, you should instead plan for an exit strategy that can help you realize a deserving value for your business before you’re backed against the wall.
Once the decision to sell has been made, the business owner should be aware of the variety of possible business buyers. Just as small business itself has become more sophisticated, the people interested in buying them are becoming more divergent and complex. With a little bit of preparation, the value of any business can be multiplied several times and, in some cases, many times.
The following are some of today’s most active categories of business buyers.
Business Competitors
This is a category often overlooked as a source of prospective purchasers. The obvious concern is that competitors will take advantage of the knowledge that the business is for sale by attempting to lure away customers or clients.
However, if the business is compatible, a competitor may be willing to “pay the price” to acquire a ready-made means to expand. A business brokerage professional can be of tremendous assistance in dealing with the competitor. They will use confidentiality agreements and will reveal the name of the business only after contacting the seller and qualifying the competitor.
The Foreign Buyer
Many foreigners arrive in the United States with ample funds and a great desire to share in the American Dream. Many also have difficulty obtaining jobs in their previous professions, because of language barriers, licensing, and specific experience. As owners of their own businesses, at least some of these problems can be short-circuited.
These buyers work hard and long and usually are very successful small business owners. However, their business acumen does not necessarily coincide with that of the seller (as would be the case with any inexperienced owner). Again, a business broker professional knows best how to approach these potential problems.
Important to note is that many small business owners think that foreign companies and independent buyers are willing to pay top dollar for the business. In fact, foreign companies are usually interested only in businesses or companies with sales in the millions.
Synergistic Buyers
These are buyers who feel that a particular business would compliment theirs and that combining the two would result in lower costs, new customers, and other advantages. Synergistic buyers are more likely to pay more than other types of buyers, because they can see thhttp://getentrepreneurial.com/mt-static/images/formatting-icons/bold.gife results of the purchase.
Again, as with the foreign buyer, synergistic buyers seldom look at the small business, but they may find many mid-sized companies that meet their requirements.
This category of buyer comes with perhaps the longest list of criteria–and demands. These buyers want maximum leverage, but they also are the right category for the seller who wants to continue to manage his company after it is sold. Most financial buyers offer a lower purchase price than other types, but they do often make provision for what is important to the seller other than the money–such as selection of key employees, location, and other issues.
For a business to be of interest to a financial buyer, the profits must be sufficient not only to support existing management, but also to provide a return to the owner.
Individual Buyer
When it comes time to sell, most owners of the small to mid-sized business gravitate toward this buyer. Many of these buyers are mature (aged 40 to 60) and have been well-seasoned in the corporate marketplace.
Owning a business is a dream, and one many of them can well afford. The key to approaching this kind of buyer is to find out what it is they are really looking for.
The buyer who needs to replace a job can be an excellent prospect. Although owning a business is more than a job, and the risks involved can frighten this kind of buyer, they do have the “hunger”–and the need. A further advantage is that this category of buyer comes with fewer “strings” and complications than many of the other types.
A Final Note
Sorting out the “right” buyer is best left to the professionals who have the experience necessary to decide who the best prospects are. Ask for help of experienced business brokers who can devise a sound strategy that gets your business the right buyer and a deserving price.
About Author:
Satish Patel is the founder CEO and President of Sunbelt Business Sales and Acquisitions, New England (www.sunbeltne.com). SunbeltNE is amongst the top franchise of Sunbelt Network, which is the world’s largest network of business brokers with presence in over 30 countries through 300 offices. Patel owns the franchise rights for the states of MA, NH, RI, VT and ME. SunbeltNE has expertise in steering buy and sell deals for Main Street, Franchises and Middle Market companies. Besides business brokerage, SunbeltNE offers services for strategic Mergers and Acquisitions, Cross Border Business selling and buying, Business Financing, Business Valuations and Transition Consulting.

Article Contributed by Ron Abbott
Every business has the ability to reap huge benefits by making small improvements in their marketing. By leveraging a few key areas you can create plentiful and consistent sales opportunities. One area that can produce significant improvement is the techniques you use to communicate your marketing message to your audience.
The most powerful force in marketing is the skill of persuasion. Your ability to communicate to your target market the benefits and solutions your product or service provides is the key to your business success.
One proven technique that will improve your persuasion skills is to throw them a PASS with your marketing message.
PASS stands for Problem – Agitation – Story – Solution. This communication technique utilizes a powerful psychological trigger: People are highly motivated to action on problems that cause them pain, stress and discomfort.
Your most qualified prospects are looking to solve a specific problem, dissatisfaction or challenge they are facing in their lives. Your job as a marketer is to focus their attention on this problem and show them that you have the best available solution. You must motivate them to take action by stimulating their emotional need to solve the problem and relieve the stress that is attached to it.
Here’s how to use the powerful PASS technique in your marketing materials.
1. Problem – Define the problem they are experiencing and address it clearly so it triggers an emotional response. Get them to take time to think about the pain or discomfort they are feeling.
2. Agitation – Make them feel the problem by pointing out the possible scenarios that could occur if they don’t take action. Feeling a sense of loss or missed opportunity often compels people to act immediately.
3. Story – Tell a relevant story of someone who shared the same problem and their method of solving it. Focus on the positive results they experienced and how they benefited by solving the problem with your product or service.
4. Solution – Offer them a solution to the problem with your product or service. Provide detailed benefits, examples and testimonials of satisfied clients and customers you’ve helped before.
Your goal is to whip them into a frenzy by using emotional triggers which point out the cause of the problem. Once sufficiently agitated, offer your solution and educate them on the benefits you provide to fix it. Paint them a picture of what their life will look like as a result of purchasing your product or service.
When you use the PASS technique, the prospect will sell themselves on the fact they need to make a purchase to remove the pain and problem. For excellent case studies of this formula in action, watch any of the hundreds of TV infomercials that are broadcast over every day. There’s a reason they utilize the PASS technique…it works!
About the Author
Find more marketing techniques from marketing coach Ron Abbott and to request your free marketing report, “Ten Critical, Must-Have Techniques To Improve Your Marketing Results” at htpp://www.td-marketing-system.com.

Small Business Branding by Ed Roach: Positioning your brand is probably one of the most important aspects of branding. It is the unique strategy that will introduce your target audience to exactly what it is that differentiates your product or service from your competitors. I am working with a number of companies right now developing exactly this.
It is absolutely fascinating what gems come out of discussions on positioning. At the outset, many companies are hard pressed to recognize a difference. All they see is the obvious. My strength is that I want to understand how the product or service is delivered, how is it made, what is the experience that surrounds the product or service? Several times the difference is not in the actual product but the delivery of the product or the follow-up. You have to look at the entire product cycle from conception to happy customer and beyond. There is an opportunity in there. You can count on it.
Compliances offer up positioning opportunities. Training offers up positioning opportunities. Frankly there is much to learn from every angle and nuance. For example, I worked with a consumer food product customer. They felt that their fruit product was much like all their competitors across the world. All were grown exactly the same way, with the same ingredients, under similar conditions using the same technologies and marketing and shipping conditions. I refused to believe that there was no opportunity and so I dug deeper into the industry standards. I wanted to know how one product is rated over another. What was intriguing was that the very standards for grading our produce was the opportunity for a very BIG aha moment. Here is the skinny on fruit standards. They are judged on 3 criteria – size, appearance and firmness.
Consider these criteria again: size – appearance – firmness. Is anything missing? I suggested there was and it was huge.
Taste.
You see, taste isn’t a criteria. That is left up to the individual. I suggested that there must be at least a minimum standard that a good sample must taste like. With watermelon, it’s the sweetness – a lemon, its tarty characteristic. Everyone agreed that we were on to something.
Once this particular fruit standard for taste was established, we then contracted the two leading agricultural universities in Canada and the United States to independently develop processes that tested for taste based on the bar we set. While other competing fruit have may won taste competitions judged by consumers, we now have established a definitive test for taste not unlike the the test for size, appearance and firmness. The processes were legally protected and are now proprietary to us.
We were now the ONLY fruit tested for taste!
Our fruit’s taste was now a guaranteed standard of quality NOT based on differing opinions, but on quantitative data. The bar had been raised.
A very compelling difference. This my friends is positioning. In this case the customer had to change how it did business and in doing so, introduced a new standard to their industry. This is not the work of a follower, but a leader.
Positioning can be very powerful if you are savvy enough to recognize the opportunity and bold enough to implement it. The real gems are far beyond the obvious. Look all around the edges of your product or service.
How To Power Position Your Brand! [Small Business Branding]