10 Things you need to know about sales

 1.  Know your customer - Experts agree it’s fundamentally important in sales for the salesperson to know their customer. DO your research . Do a DISC profile, based on personality, work out your game planto close the sale! You need to be able to read people 

2.   Don’t sell a Product – sell a solution or a dream. Identify the persons pain and provide a pain killer – not a vitamin! People don’t buy products they buy you, or your company or the Brand which they trust!

3.   Connect with your customer  – show them value, show them that you care. Identify ways that you can connect with them.  Relate to them. Create a relationship. What do you have in common with them

4.   Build trust – lower resistance to increase acceptance – relate to the customer.  Liz Atkinson, founder of marketing company Zest Possibilities, told SmartCompany building trust is important not only between a customer and the salesperson, but trust in the brand. This, she believes, can be achieved through creating a consistent company image.

5.  Look like a winner  “The person I look for is fun, confident and driven with a goal to succeed. I understand this, so we project this type of image across the company in every way possible to sell it! From the music we play, the magazines we have sat in reception to how our administrators meet and greet people, we keep the message consistent. “This allows the company to build a relationship immediately with anyone that comes into contact with us, and this message never changes which keeps trust and builds loyalty,” she says.

6.   Have a plan,  a process and a System – A Roadmap/ A sytems Kit  its“all about systems and strategies”. The process needs to be able to be replicated. Hire for attitude and personality – skill can be trained if you have a great system. “ A good person in a great system makes a person great!” An average person in a great system makes a person good!” Sales processes should be simple and they need the right development and training. The strategy also needs to be measurable… what can be measured can be managed!

7.   Preparation – sharpen the saw!! Know your customer – have a plan of attack, go through scenarios – know your outcome. Do a rifle shot not a machine gun – be targeted not scattered. 

8.   Get your customer to say Yes

9.    Be online – be all over social media – this is where your customers are or will be!

10.   “Leads proposals and sales” If you want to have $1m in sales , have $4m in proposals and $20m in Leads!

Collaboration and Joint Venturing

Joint Ventures and Collaboration 

By Michael Ruiz

The term joint venture refers to the coming together of a number of industrial factors with the intent of carrying out a seemingly larger project. A good example of a joint venture would be to collaborate in a large construction contract. Joint ventures come with a number of characteristics.

The very first and foremost feature of a joint venture is the time frame. Joint ventures are directed towards a specific project and in most cases are limited to certain duration of time. As a form of illustration, the government may advertise a contract whereby they may require the construction of a given modern road or railway. One company or several of them may realise that if given the job to carry out alone, it may be too heavy for them. As such therefore, they may seek fellow contractors in the same field to join hands and take over the contract together. Of course the coming together of the two or several contractors does not make them permanent business partners. The purpose of working together is simply to perform the contract at hand and then part ways, unless they join hands again and carry out another contract together. Otherwise, from the legal point of view, the joint venture comes to an end as the contract comes to an end too.

http://onforb.es/1fCxWXw

The other characteristic of a joint venture is the ability of both or several parties carrying out all administrative functions of the collaboration together. Of course before taking up the contract, the contractors involved will normally have a contractual agreement where they will outline the legalities involved in their activities. The procedure that would be taken has to be agreed upon in order to avoid any future disagreements. Without this the performance of the contract may be hampered by daily disagreements where one party may complain that they are either left out on major jobs or that they are being given a bigger workload as compared to the other. Many at times will resort to sharing responsibilities.

In some situations, a joint venture may have to be organised in the form of a private limited company. In this case, the contractors that will have come together will be recognised as shareholders. The amount or shareholding will vary depending on each company’s financial contribution to the venture. In some situations the shareholding will be exactly the same whereby the rights and responsibilities will be shared equally. In some cases, the participants may take the direction of a public limited company whereby the shareholders will still pool their efforts together for the sake of the limited-time venture.

---

The other more informal approach that may be taken by a joint venture as collaboration is the partnership. Some may choose to register the venture as such while others may simply take the approach but not really register it. Some legal jurisdictions will compel joint ventures to be registered however short the period of the venture may be. Of course this is for legal purposes in case of any future disagreements and for purposes of taxation. If registered as a partnership, the legal rules governing a partnership will come into play. The rights and obligations will be followed as set out in the partnership agreement.

---

http://bit.ly/1d5RqbR

Another characteristic of a joint venture that cannot be overlooked is the management. It may be necessary in some cases for the venture to appoint a management body that will cater for the management of the venture. The management body will definitely have to represent the participants involved. Management personnel may be brought in from all sides in a certain percentage. Some ventures will find it necessary to appoint an independent management body that is not composed of any of their employees. Of course they have to agree on which one to go for since they will have to pay for the body’s services.

Establishing a joint venture with a participant from a foreign platform has always had some advantages. It helps the local one to gain an international market and increase the prospects of getting newer and more customers. The strategy here is the business network creation.

Have you thought about collaborating or forming a JV (joint venture)?
Care to share your experience and/or expertise?

Click below to attend our "Marketing for SMBs" event: 31st March 2015 EVENT

Stop Selling. Start Connecting

Would you like to have as much referral business as you can handle? Would you like to go to sleep at night knowing that the chances are good that you’ll have new business waiting for you the next day, and the next, for as long as you want?

If so, then read on…

The 2 Fundamental Requirements For A Sale

If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a thousand times. People don’t like to be “sold to”. They want to “buy”.

And while this may sound very contradictory, as a sales person your job is not to sell. Rather it’s to persuade a prospect that you have a solution to an issue they’re facing, and that you’re the person/organisation they should trust to solve it. Remember, “no issue” equals no sale. Now, that doesn’t mean that your prospect knows there’s an issue. If the issue isn’t obvious, it’s your job to highlight it and move them to take action. And the best way to do this? Ask questions.