How to Land a Client or Customer in Small Business

November 19th, 2009

Landing a client or customer is one of the most difficult tasks facing any businessperson. Unfortunately, keeping that client or customer is even tougher. That’s because you can’t control all the factors influencing customer and client decisions. You can do an excellent job for a customer, but if someone else opens up shop ten minutes closer to the customer’s home or business, you can lose him. You may have created an incredible bond of trust with a client, but if someone else offers to provide the same service for less money you can lose her. You can do a great job, have wonderful rapport, and provide a terrific value, all in a convenient location, and yet lose the business because the client, or even her spouse, thinks it’s better to spend those funds in another manner. All you can do is your best . . . and remain an expert in the needs of your clients or customers.

It’s this search for constant expertise that serves as the solution to forestalling every common customer or client problem. Keep asking your clients how they feel about the service you’re providing. Solicit constant feedback from customers. A suggestion box isn’t sufficient. Regularly ask all of them if they are happy, if there is anything further you can do for them, of if there is anything you can do to make your product or service better. This can’t just be a facade of concern; it must be a real effort to nip any snags or qualms in the bud before they blossom into full problems.

Once a problem with a customer or client has developed, whatever it is, you’ll need to treat it in the same manner: as an appeal for reconsideration, based on new facts. The underlying no in every one of these situations is that the client or customer is in some way unhappy. The specific problem is just the immediate manifestation of that unhappiness. You need to find out what is wrong and offer to cure it.

They won’t hire me (or) theyI’ve fired me.

When a customer or client chooses not to buy your product or service, or to stop buying, it’s a real problem. In fact, it’s about as real a problem as you can have. Without customers or clients your business will die.

If you’re addressing the fact that one particular customer or client won’t or will no longer do business with you, then this is probably a single problem involving the reason for the refusal. However, if you’ve run into a regular pattern of customer or client refusals and terminations then you’re apt to be facing a cluster of problems: all the reasons for the refusals.

In order to solve this problem you must move beyond the feeling that you’ve been rejected and focus instead on why you’ve been turned down or fired. Framing the problem in a general manner won’t do you any good. Instead you must sharpen your description of the problem. You need to focus on why they won’t hire you or why they’ve chosen to fire you.

If you haven’t already created an environment of trust with this customer or client, you now need to double your efforts in order to get the true reason behind their no. Humbly ask them for help in improving your business. Beseech them to tell you whatever it was that turned them off. Bring up the most sensitive possibilities yourself such as garb, grooming, or pricing.

Whatever reason you’re given for the no, express your thanks for the response. If it was a personal failing, offer apologies, and ask the client or customer to reconsider, based on your assurance that such behavior will never happen again. If the reason for the rejection is an area where you have some latitude maybe you can do the work speedier than you’d originally promised again ask for a reconsideration based on changing facts. Many times, customers and clients are so flattered by the importance with which you now so obviously hold them, and the dedicated customer service you’re demonstrating, that they quickly turn their no into a yes. However, if their no is based on something you cannot change perhaps your hourly feel simply express thanks for their honesty, and acceptance of their decision.

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How to Create an Environment of Trust with using Body Language

November 17th, 2009

Body language is instinctive. However, for some reason, it is easier to consciously control. Unfortunately, most people don’t take full advantage of that control. Few of us need to be told to sit up straight rather than slouch in a chair during a business meeting, to not touch our faces, to look at someone when they’re speaking, or to keep from crossing our arms across our chests. Those are all defensive maneuvers, designed to keep from creating negative perceptions. In order to show that you care about another person you need to go one step further and create positive perceptions. I suggest doing this through the angle of your upper body when seated and the way you say good-bye.

When you’re sitting down in a meeting pay attention to the distance between your upper body and the other party. When they’re speaking, don’t just make eye contact, lean a bit forward as well. This demonstrates rapt interest and extreme attention. When it’s time for you to answer a question, break eye contact momentarily and lean slightly backward. This conveys deep thought. Then, when it’s time for you to deliver a message to the other party, reestablish eye contact and lean forward once again, displaying your concern and conviction.

When you first meet someone, a firm handshake is expected. But at the conclusion of the meeting take it one step further … or one hand further. When I’m saying good-bye to a male client I look him in the eye, shake his hand with my right hand, and put my left hand either on his forearm or his right shoulder. When I’m saying good-bye to a female client I also make eye contact, and shake her right hand, but in this instance I bow slightly from the waist and put my left hand on top of our two shaking right hands. This slight variation from the inirial greeting conveys gratitude and solidifies the new level of intimacy we’ve achieved.

Here is an example: Bill Schneider’s problem wasn’t solidifying intimacy, it was inspiring confidence: an unusual problem for someone six foot eight and over three hundred pounds. I had gotten to know Bill when he was a successful advertising space salesman for a weekly news magazine: he worked on some special small business sections. Bill had come up through the ranks and had spent the past fifteen years selling to the same group of customers. His clients had come up through the ranks along with him. They all knew and liked one another. In that kind of environment Bill’s soft-spoken, mild manner played very well. In fact, it contributed to his persona as a “gentle giant.” Unfortunately, this gentle giant was laid off” during a round of corporate downsizing,. After a year of being unable to find another job.

Bill’s experience and resume had won him many interviews over the past twelve months, but every one had resulted in a no. He wanted to learn how to turn those nos into at least one yes. I told him to arrive at my office for his appointment as if he were meeting me for a job interview. From the moment I went out to greet him his problem was obvious. Due to his height, Bill had a habit of slouching. And because of his sheer physical size he went out of his way to shake hands very gently. Once you knew him, these traits were endearing. At first, however, they were off-putting. His size accentuated the limpness of his handshake.

Couple that with his slouch and he seemed totally lacking in confidence: the last thing you’d want in a salesperson. I told Bill what I thought and encouraged him to use his size rather than be embarrassed by it, to physically dominate the room when he entered it. All we did for the rest of his appointment was block out his actions and movements for future interviews. Bill’s first interview after our meeting landed him a new position.

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How to Become an Expert in Front of a Banker

November 16th, 2009

One of the most vital items in my problem-solving approach is to become an expert. By that I mean, to learn about your own needs and wants, the problem itself, and the needs and wants of any other parties involved.

The obvious importance of knowledge is that it can give you the secret to solving a problem. If you’re approaching a banker for a loan you could either fill out the application blindly, or you could first try to become an expert. What are the characteristics of loan applications that the banker has, in the past, accepted and rejected? How can you craft your application so it looks like those successful applications? What are the banker’s needs in the process?

Sure, you could wing it, hope for the best, and if you’re rejected, work at turning the no into a yes. That’s what most people do. Some luck out in the first instance. Others are able to turn a rejection around, either on their own or with my help. However, your odds of success will be much better if you first do your homework. If you find out that in order to get a $25,000 unsecured business line of credit you need to show a profit of at least $100,000 a year for three consecutive years, you’ve learned the secret to overcoming your problem.

Become an expert on your problems and you’ll rarely, if ever, get rejected.

Knowledge has another, less obvious, benefit: it can boost your confidence. Most fear comes from the unknown. When you don’t know what an experience, situation, or person is like, your imagination takes over. More often than not, your psyche plays out worst- rather than best-case scenarios. I suppose it’s a form of mental self-defense: prepare for the worst. However, it also leads to an almost automatic anxiety and fear of the unknown. You can eliminate this fear by gaining knowledge, by making the unknown, known.

If you’re fearful of your meeting with the banker, gather some information about him. What does he look like? Has anyone you’re friendly with dealt with him? Does he belong to any civic organizations or clubs? Is he a gourmet cook? In the course of your investigations you may stumble across some essential information. Then again, you may only learn some trivial facts. In either case you’ll have helped yourself turn a no into a yes. Anything you learn about the banker will make you feel more secure and poised at your meeting. Even if all you can uncover is a picture of the banker that will help. Your knowledge of his appearance will let you walk right over to him when you enter the bank. Since you’ll already have “met,” you’ll feel more comfortable and confident when you first shake his hand. And that comfort and confidence will come across, making you a better advocate for your cause.

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How to Sell a Business

November 3rd, 2009

Few entrepreneurs run their business with the intent of selling it. Most people, especially the owners of small businesses, run their operations with an eye toward bettering their current personal financial situation, maximizing their cash intake, and minimizing their tax bill. That’s fine for a time. After all, while income tax evasion is illegal, income tax avoidance is downright patriotic. But if you do decide to sell your business, and you’ve run it in this manner, you’ll be facing a problem. Simply put, tax minimization can affect your business’s apparent viability.

All of your business’s documentation and records show the maximum expenses and perhaps deferred income. Now that it’s time to sell, you want to do the opposite: play down your expenses and play up your income. That means buyers will be faced with a choice: they can believe you or they can believe your numbers. Unless you’re desperate to sell quickly, don’t care about getting what your business is actually worth, or are prepared to take cash for its book value, you’re going to have to do something dramatic to get the buyer to go along with your stated rather than reported numbers. You can try to help the buyer and her professional team analyze your records in a way that lends credence to your statements, but that’s rarely enough. Any savvy buyer will adopt the cold war adage: “trust but verify.” The solution is for you to take back paper.

The compromise is generally that the seller takes back a note equal to the amount of value that cannot be documented. The note comes due at an agreed upon point when the buyer can see from the operations of the business that the seller’s claims about income were, in fact, accurate. If the claims don’t hold water, the note is canceled and the sale is made entirely on the basis of the documented numbers. It sounds complex, but it’s a process hundreds of people go through each and every day with the assistance of accountants and lawyers who specialize in just this type of transaction. Their fees are the price you’ll have to pay for having run your business more like a mom-and-pop shop rather than a multinational corporation.

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Outsourcing Problems in Small Business

October 31st, 2009

Outsourcing has probably done more to professionalize small businesses than any other recent trend or invention, including information technology. The concept is a simple one: your business should focus on its core function and hire specialized firms to do everything else. For instance, a public relations agency should stick to doing public relations and farm out its personnel, finance, and support work to other firms. The theory is that those other firms would also be concentrating on their own core function, enabling them to do the work more efficiently and better than you ever could. The net result should be that by outsourcing you will get better results for less money: an unbeatable combination.

In most cases, the theory works when put into practice. I know a person whose small advertising agency saved more than $40,000 a year by outsourcing every function that wasn’t directly related to advertising. My own office has saved more than $10,000 a year by outsourcing accounts payable. And along with those savings the job is being done better.

Obviously to eliminate potential problems you need to do your research and shop around to make sure you’re getting the best firm for your dollar. But you also need to keep an eye on the outsourcing firm and yourself.

Just as an employee can get complacent, so too can an outsourcing firm. You need to keep them focused on doing their best for you. While it will require less hands-on management than if you were doing the job in house, you’ll still need to do some periodic oversight. And don’t just focus on the work they’re doing. Make it a practice to regularly solicit new bids for the outsourced work. While you don’t want to switch providers every six months, you also don’t want to pay more than the market price.

Watch out for your own complacency, too. It’s very easy to stop paying attention to areas of your business that you’ve outsourced. For instance, when all my bills were paid in house I scrutinized every invoice before it was paid. I was able to instantly spot even small problems. Once I had outsourced the function I stopped being as vigilant. The firm I’ve hired is very good, but they’re used to looking for larger problems, they look after the dollars rather than the cents. As a result I found my bills slowly creeping upward. Since spotting this trend myself I’ve started being more vigilant. I don’t check every bill as I used to, but once a quarter I take the monthly bills home and spend a weekend studying them.

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