SPEED2PROFITS BLOG

The Power of Critical Thinking Time

The Power of Critical Thinking Time

Author: Scott Hallman

What we see so often with clients is that they’re working so much and they’re so busy in their businesses, especially working with hyper-growth businesses as we do, or successful entrepreneurial businesses that are growing like crazy, right? That’s positive. The negative is they get busy, They get wrapped up in busy work. I’m not saying they don’t do some strategic work as well or they wouldn’t be where they’re at, but don’t we all tend to get on that hamster wheel once in a while? It’s important to get away and take time for strategic thinking, to allow our brains to clear so we can really think about where we want to take the business.

The business doesn’t take us where it wants to go. Does that make sense?

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The Silent Profit Killer

The Silent Profit Killer

Author: Scott Hallman

Do you remember the great recession of 2008 through 2010? Some people, by the way, thought it lasted a lot longer than 2010. Perhaps you’re one of them. It was devastating for businesses. Businesses saw their sales plummet, their profitability plummet, customers not engaging in spending as much money. It was a really, really trying time. Well, it was also a trying time for my client, Paul, who has a leading cleaning oriented service for consumers. One of the top in America, Paul, like millions of businesses around the globe was suffering from the impacts of the recession. But Paul did something bold. He pivoted in the midst of a recession, went completely against conventional wisdom and actually raised his prices.

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Why I Gave Up Being President of a $1B Company

Today I want to talk about something that’s so frustrating to me. It’s so pervasive in so many entrepreneurial businesses and it holds them back. It keeps them from growing. It causes them to waste enormous amounts of needless money and it is a downer for their staff as well. Matter of fact, it frustrates me so much, it caused me to give up my job as a president of a nearly billion dollar valued company, that I co-founded, in order to be able to help people like Steve. You might say, “Scott, what is this thing?” This thing is constantly swinging for the fences. Trying to hit the home run. Trying to grab the brass ring in one easy step. Always trying to do the big things to take your business to the next level. And the bottom line is this is actually a recipe for failure and disaster.

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Do You Have Strong Customer Loyalty?

Just a small increase in the amount of time a customer remains your customer can drop huge profits to your bottom line. If you sell products or services that are routinely purchased, such as supplements, haircuts, consulting, golf, medical care, etc., a 10% increase in the length of time a customer stays with you equals a 10% increase in revenue!

There are many other important benefits to raising your customer service to a higher level. That same customer is more likely to refer others to your business – a form of marketing that costs you zero.

5 Proven Tips For Increasing Customer Loyalty:

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Reality Vs. Perception

The $1M+ Learning Lesson

How do your customers actually perceive the value you provide with your products(s), service(s) and customer care? Is it the same as you perceive it to be? What is the “reality”? Not having a clear answer to these questions can lead to underperformance that ranges from increased customer turnover to lower repeat purchases to getting fewer referrals than you deserve…and of course, giving up profit.

Several years ago, after investing several hundred thousand in our landscaping, we were on our third gardener and I was once again less than satisfied and wanted to replace this gardener. Said another way, I PERCEIVED that the gardener was not doing a great job and that I was paying for hours where little was getting done.

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Systematically Getting More From Your Customers

Welcome to this week’s Profit Tip where we bring you real-world ways to Build-Grow-Manage-Profit from your business. My goal is that you earn at least $1,000 an hour for every hour you spend learning and applying our profit strategies.

Years back I acquired a company that was co-managed by two fascinating entrepreneurs, Jessie and Rohit. While we were focused on getting new clients, they were super-focused on first maximizing the revenue of every client. Their goal was to fill every client need they were qualified to fill. The results spoke for themselves. They were by far the most profitable division we had. This caused me to pay close attention to one of the most valuable lessons I ever learned.

You see, they knew that getting new clients was difficult in the competitive arena of technology. They also learned that they could penetrate deeply and expand into many more opportunities within their existing clients. At the same time, doing so resulted in building stronger relationships and becoming harder to replace.

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4 Tips for Generating More Quotes/Proposals

Does your business have a formal proposal or quote process, or require written confirmations, or other information before a prospect will purchase? If so, you have a “proposal” step in your sales process no matter what you call it.

You’ve invested a significant amount of time and money to generate leads, connect with and engage with prospects in some fashion. Your investment in these efforts is worthless if you don’t get the opportunity to submit a QUALITY PROPOSAL.

Like getting up to bat in baseball, the more opportunities you have to submit a quality proposal, the greater will be your success. Just a 3% increase in the number of prospects and opportunities you turn into proposals can yield increased profits with little time, money and effort. It’s the power of incremental improvement I’ve stressed in many of these newsletters.

Want More Proposals?

Here Are 4 Quick Tips

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Are You Really Trusted By Your Customers?

The bottom line is, people buy from companies they know, like and trust. They also buy from those who are perceived as experts in their field.

To build trust:

  • Show you care about THEM instead of appearing only focused on a sale. When you interact with a prospect, adopt a helpful mindset. When a prospect engages you in communications (phone, in person, email, or text exchange), listen to what the prospect is saying so you can respond directly to their particular needs. Exceed their expectations in how you interact with them. Treat all of your prospects like you would like to be treated as a prospect. (more…)

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The Bottom Up Sales Funnel

Tired of missing sales forecast? If so it may not be that you and your team are not working hard enough but instead that you are going about things the wrong way.

What if there was a way to significantly increase your ability to accurately achieve your projected sales goals?

I created a simple process for helping companies eliminate that dreaded feeling of coming up short every quarter. (more…)

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Profit Focus Tool

How to Focus On Your Top Profit Opportunities and Get Your Team On Board

Well, Q1 came and went. If you are like me, you may measure progress at the end of each quarter. But do you stay focused on the most important tasks? You have no shortage of “good ideas” I am sure. If fact, the list is probably overwhelming. So how do you get your arms around all of these “good ideas” and organize them so that you are working on your most important ideas first, and at the same time not lose track of the ones you really want to get to sometime this year?

Tons of Great Ideas, But How To Stay Focused on The RIGHT Ones?

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Accelerated Sales Conversions – 5 Elements For Turning Way More Leads Into Clients

You’ve invested time and money getting leads into your sales funnel. You may even be doing well with sales. However, if you’re like most businesses you may be leaving a significant amount of money on the table because you have not maximized how you handle your leads.

Here are 5 elements to getting more customers from the same number of leads:

Element 1 – Speed – Ever had an interest in a product or service and filled out an online form or made a phone call to get more information from a potential supplier only to find they took days and sometimes weeks to get back to you – or even worse, they never got back to you?

  • Do you know how fast you respond to sales inquiries?
  • Are you tracking response rates?
  • Have you set a standard for how quickly you respond to inquiries?

Respond faster and more consistently and you will turn more leads into sales. This is a simple but powerful idea.

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How To Reactivate Customers To Buy From You Again

You spend so much time and money to acquire a customer…and then they stop buying, even though they have a need or future need. Whether you sell a regularly consumed product such as vitamins, or randomly purchased product like pond supplies, or long term products or services like mortgages, here are some specific tips for turning lost customers, clients or patients into more profit.

    1. Urgency: It is critical to reach out to lost or inactive customers immediately and ask them why they stopped doing business with you. Often simply following up with a lost customer and reconnecting with them results in the past customer doing business with you again.

      Note: Even if that past customer does not choose to do business with you again, you’ll gain valuable insights by reconnecting about ways to improve your level of customer service to assist you in reducing your customer attrition rate.

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