Posted by: Paul Stanford

Sales Qualification Successfully Bidding for contracts

For 15 years of my life I worked in the sales environment selling ICT solutions to clients. Some of these were very small clients and some were extremely large multinational corporates and Government clients. One thing that became very apparent was the number of times I was being “used” by the clients to benchmark against my competitors. They had no intention of buying a solution from me but they were very professional at making me “believe” that they did. So I wasted a lot of time, energy and money bidding for contracts that were never “real” opportunities and could not be won even if could supply the best product, the best service and the lowest price. They just weren’t mine to be won.

So how did I protect myself against this happening and how can you avoid making the same mistakes. Well it all comes down to a technique called sales qualification. In other words what are the chances of me of winning this tender? Well I have to tell you I have used many and numerous over the years. The vast majority are far too complex and time consuming so I am going to give you one that has served me well for many years for any and all types of opportunities. That is the SCOTSMAN. No I haven’t suddenly become a member of the tartan army – it’s an acronym that I use to remind me what I need to find out in order to qualify a sales prospect. So here is what each letter stands for:

·         S – solution. Do I have a solution to meet the client’s criteria?

·         C – competition. Who else am I competing against for this business?

·         O – originality. What is unique about my solution?

·         T – timescales. Can I meet the timescales required for the bid and to do the work required of the project?

·         S – size. Can my solution scale up to the clients requirements? Is it big enough to make it worth my while winning? Or is it too big for me to deliver?

·         M- money. What is the client’s budget for this?

·         A- authority. Who in the client is responsible for making the decision to award the contract?

·         N – need. Is there a clearly identified need for this project?

If I am in any doubt about the answers to these questions then I would need to find out the answers before deciding whether or not to bid. The SCOTSMAN should help you manage your time better and increase your win rating. Remember to use it at every meeting – the old salesman’s saying ABC should be practiced at every contact with the client. Oh ABC by the way meaning “Always Be Closing”.

Paul Stanford is a Director of 4Momentum http://www.4momentum.co.uk. 4Momentum provides business advisory services to small businesses, charities and social enterprises primarily in Sussex. Services include advice on starting a business, growing and transforming a business and selling a business. Clients typically contract 4Momentum for short periods of an hour to long term consultancy over many months for advice on subjects such as mentoring, business planning, sales and marketing advice, bidding for contracts, raising finance and general business advice. Paul is approved by the UK Government to deliver business advice on their behalf through Business Link and is a member of the Institute of Business Consultants. Visit his blog at http://www.paulstanford.co.uk/blog

Copyright 2008 Paul Stanford

Posted by: Paul Stanford

Raising Finance

There comes a point in most businesses where the need arises to raise some funding. Whether that be to start a brand new venture, buy new equipment or purchase another company the chances are that it will be stressful and if you get it wrong then you will be paying for it dearly over many years and worse still may lose your home and your marriage!

So what is the best way to raise finance? Well that depends on your circumstances and what you want to raise the finance for. With today’s economic climate you won’t be surprised to hear that the banks don’t like taking on much risk. So you will likely be asked to put up some form of personal guarantee or PG for short. Well this is OK isn’t it? After all your business idea isn’t going to fail and you have a limited company so what’s the risk with a PG? Well whilst your business idea may be brilliant there may also be factors outside of your control that prevent it from being the success that you had hoped for. Plus although you may have the protection of a limited liability company, you have given the bank a PG which effectively by-passes the limited liability of the company. In other words if you can’t pay then the bank will come to you for payment. That will normally mean a claim on your home. Your wife will likely not be best pleased to learn that her beloved home is having to be sold to pay the PG. All doom and gloom you might say. Well there is a glimmer of hope. There is something called the Small Firms Loan Guarantee Scheme or SFLG(S) for short! Essentially 75% of the risk is underwritten by the Government so you only have to find security for the remaining 25%. Meaning that if you borrowed £100k and things didn’t go to plan then you are only personally liable for £25k. The SFLG is administered by most major banks but I prefer to use a specialist provider such as Envestors www.envestors.co.uk as, apart from other benefits, they have the contacts and it’s the same old story of not what you know but who you know. In addition they will also explore other avenues of funding for you ranging from simple loans to private equity investment. As always terms and conditions apply but it’s worth giving it a try and if you don’t ask then you definitely won’t get!

Paul Stanford is a Director of 4Momentum http://www.4momentum.co.uk. 4Momentum provides business advisory services to small businesses, charities and social enterprises primarily in Sussex. Services include advice on starting a business, growing and transforming a business and selling a business. Clients typically contract 4Momentum for short periods of an hour to long term consultancy over many months for advice on subjects such as mentoring, business planning, sales and marketing advice, bidding for contracts, raising finance and general business advice. Paul is approved by the UK Government to deliver business advice on their behalf through Business Link and is a member of the Institute of Business Consultants. Visit his blog at http://www.paulstanford.co.uk/blog

Copyright 2008 Paul Stanford

Entries open for Home Business Awards

Enterprise Nation, the home business website, has launched its annual Home Business Awards and is on the look-out for the UKs best home businesses. This years Awards are bigger and better than ever with new categories, more prizes and top Judges.

Having had the difficult task of choosing just one winner in 2007, Enterprise Nation has introduced three new categories this year; the Home Office, Home Business Couple and Young Home Business Owner of the Year. All entries will be automatically considered to win the top title Home Business of the Year and entrants can check a box to be considered for any, or all, of the new categories.

Entry to the Awards is free and well worth the time as there are some great prizes to be won.

For the Home Business of the Year
* A virtual assistant for 12 months, from Moneypenny UK

* Printing package, including printer and consumables, worth over 1,000 from Brother

* Accounting software, QuickBooks Pro, valued at 299.95

* Senseo coffee machine, plus coffee supplies, provided by Douwe Egberts

* 10 days of free access to private London club and office, One Alfred Place

For the Home Business Couple of the Year
* Two night, full-board stay at the luxury Cotswold Water Park Four Pillars Hotel

For the Home Office of the Year
* 200 of vouchers from home office specialist, Flujo

For the Young Home Business Owner of the Year

* 200 of online shopping vouchers from fashion website, OSOYOU

Winners will receive plenty of profile on Enterprise Nation and across media partner sites including Travelguru.tv, mydeco and Make Your Mark, plus a copy of Spare Room Start Up: How to start a business from home authored by Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation.

Emma Jones said: Were very excited to be launching the 2008 Home Business Awards; the only Awards to recognise people who are starting and growing a business from home. This year weve attracted a host of great sponsors and media partners who can offer our winners the tools and opportunity to really get their business noticed. May the competition now begin!

Joining Emma on this years Judging panel will be:

* Mark Barber, Enterprise Editor, The Times

* Rachel Clacher, co-founder, Moneypenny

* Tracy Vegro, Director of Enterprise Strategy at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform

* Wendy Shand, Founder of Tots to Travel and the 2007 Home Business of the Year

Entry to the competition is free and open to any home business in the UK. The closing date is Friday, August 15th and winners will be announced on Monday, September 1st.

To enter online or download an entry form, please visit www.enterprisenation.com

• reducing my carbon footprint … my car has broken down and it’s in the garage being fixed… #

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In this day and age we all seem to be obsessed about getting more clients to increase income through more sales of our products and/or services. I agree this is vitally important but now that we are in an economic downturn then is it realistic for us to get more new clients and for existing clients to spend more with us when they are struggling to keep up with their mortgage payments, rising food bills, rising utility costs and soaring petrol prices? Never mind the cost of diesel now in the UK – yeah why is diesel so much more expensive than petrol? It always used to be cheaper?!?

Anyway I digress..But if anyone does know then I would be delighted to hear from them!.. So this brings me to other ways to protect our business and maintain profitability.

I say lets look at our overheads. I know this is tedious and boring but just bear with me on this one for a few moments. OK let’s say you are running a second hand car dealership and your average price for a car is £8,000. Your profit margin on this is 10%. So this means you make £800 on the sale of that car….and given the current climate you would be chuffed to sell one this week! Well how about you turn that around and look to save £800 on your utility costs? That’s one car sale! So how do you go about this? Well of course you can do some web searching for the best quote. Then you should look at what is consuming the most energy. There are all sorts of gadgets and gizmos now available to help you do this. Then you look to turn off anything that isn’t being used. Again there are gadgets that will do this automatically for you. And finally you should look to install low energy lighting. Yes even your fluorescent tubes can be low energy and they are no longer like the early low energy light bulbs which were quite “dim”. Now the level of light given off is virtually identical. Plus the other big benefit is that you have helped save our planet and reduced your carbon footprint! So a true win-win situation.

You may also like to know that The Carbon Trust has interest free unsecured loans for small businesses trading for 12 months or more to upgrade to energy efficient equipment and reduce their energy use. £5,000 – £100,000 unsecured, interest free, repayable over four years. (There is £35 million in the pot!)

So why not start right now and look at reducing your energy costs. It could be as rewarding as a new sale!

The use of a business card is essential in modern transactions and networking. Yet many small businesses and professionals still don’t have this essential tool. Granted the internet and all it’s social marvels is revolutionizing good old fashioned networking. When it comes time to sign that new account or make that big sale it is still all about face to face networking. So that 3.5″x2″ piece of stock paper can still be the single most powerful marketing tool in your arsenal.

So why is the business card so important? Well, the card can be given to just about anyone you encounter. The card contains all your vitals in one small and handy 3.5″x2″ package. How embarrassing would it be to meet a potential client and have to scramble for a piece of paper to write down your info? Even worse, how about not having anything handy to provide your info? You can tell that potential client all about your website and give them your email but chances are it will be long forgotten by the time he gets to a computer. This very thing has actually happened to me. A couple of years ago while doing some volunteer computer work at a local non-profit, the Director had a Christmas party and invited the entire staff. She was a wealthy lady which did the non-profit thing as a hobby. The party seemed like it would be interesting so I attended. Truth be told I was interested to see where she lived. Anyhow, she had directors from other non-profits where she introduced me as her computer guy, she went on to say how great I was and how I fixed all their computing issues, etc. Some of the other directors expressed an interest in having such a skilled computer person which would have presented some good side job opportunities. I was still in school for Computer Science at the time so it could have lead to other opportunities as most of the people at the party were wealthy business owners.

To make a long story short, a couple of them asked me for a business card. Much to my dismay, I had to reply that I did not have one, they replied by saying, “oh, maybe we will get with your boss to get your info”. Needless to say, I never heard a thing about it and what could have been a good opportunity went down in flames. Granted this was not a major opportunity, it was an opportunity none the less.

In closing, don’t go down in flames like I did when presented with the chance to market yourself. Make sure you have a well stocked supply of business cards. you up to speed on proper business card exchange etiquette? Visit Ratingtheman.com for tips on making a smooth business card transaction.

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• @wealthcoach – nice in the sun but a bit breezy! #
• having lunch with Nicola Cairncross in the Crown & Anchor #

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Creating brand awareness is key to your marketing success. Many marketing techniques from big businesses can be applied to small businesses as well. The first thing that comes to mind Is branding your business. What is your business all about? What makes your business stand out from other businesses in your niche? No one knows your business better than you do. Don’t be afraid to be a little creative when trying to create your business’s identity.

Continuity between your website, logos, letterheads, business cards, and packaging is often overlooked. Your logo is a customer’s first impression. A professional image not only looks nice, but it can help to create a bond between you and your customers. This is another way to help you stand apart from competitors.

When it comes to marketing your brand, it pays to give something away that identifies your brand. This can be highly effective in making your customers remember you the next time they need a product or service that you have to offer. Be sure to put your logo on it and make it something that can be used for a long time after the initial purchase. It can be as simple a nice pen or a desk clock or even a tee-shirt.

Article marketing is an effective tool for creating brand awareness as well. Writing useful information can help you to stand out as authority in your niche. It can also help to create interest in your brand. Articles not only help to create exposure, but can also give your business some personality, furthering your brand’s awareness.

It is always a good idea to solicit positive reviews. People writing about you will help further your efforts to distinguish yourself from others, as well as boost your credibility. Present your business to reputable business review sites and blogs. You can even write a positive review of your business on your own blog. All of this great, but Remember, without exposure, your brand means nothing.

work smarter not harder
David Arena http://www.bigtopbusiness.com

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I suspect that many of us consider nonprofits and for-profits to be so fundamentally different that they require entirely different management approaches. It makes sense. A for-profit’s purpose is to build shareholder value. Since a business is ultimately worth what it will earn, there’s a logical emphasis in business on growing profits by increasing revenues and controlling costs. A nonprofit’s purpose on the other hand is to promote a cause or help the needy — those who otherwise would not be served because there’s not enough money in the activity to attract private investment. A nonprofit’s worth is a function of how many are helped or how much good is contributed. It’s the passion for helping the unfortunate that motivates people to operate soup kitchens and volunteer their time.

But nonprofits and for-profits have a lot to learn from each other. Nonprofits would likely do better if they placed more emphasis on business-like operational and financial performance measures, and for-profits would make more profit if they focused more on the passion and giving side of the equation.

New Nonprofit Perspectives

Let’s begin by examining the term “nonprofit”. It’s essentially a tax code designation indicating that these organizations are not taxed on the annual surplus they generate. But the term “nonprofit” does not mean that they’re supposed to spend more money than they have coming in. In fact, donors, be they individual, institutional, or public sector want a nonprofit to live within its means. They know that keeping a keen eye on the finances will ensure the organization’s survival and long term health.

Beyond survival, there’s the matter of productivity. Everyone involved with a nonprofit should care about how efficiently the nonprofit uses its money. A common measure is the percent of each dollar that goes directly to the delivery of services versus fund raising expenses or overhead. But what about measuring the productivity of each donated dollar? For example, how many mouths are fed or how many people are housed or how many jobless are trained and placed per dollar?

Productivity is most influenced by the caliber of an organization’s people, including both paid staff and unpaid volunteers. Granted, it’s harder to hold people accountable to high standards of performance when you’re paying them below market salaries or nothing at all. But that doesn’t mean a nonprofit should settle for less. Helping the needy requires that we do our absolute best. And most people like to be held to high standards — as long as they have the support they need to meet them.

New For-Profit Perspectives

For-profits don’t have any trouble focusing on the financials. In fact they have the reverse problem. A business can be so profit-minded that it forgets that good business starts with knowing the customers’ needs and then directing its collective talent and energy to satisfying those needs at less cost than the price it charges.

And then there’s passion. For-profits can learn some lessons about this powerful motivator from their nonprofit brethren. It’s passion for the cause or the needy that motivates nonprofit employees and volunteers to offer their time at a discount or for free. Successful businesses develop similarly passionate employees willing to go the extra mile to deliver maximum benefit to the customer regardless of compensation.

Sharing Perspectives

For-profits and nonprofits can learn from each other in several ways. One way is by having business people serve on nonprofit boards. When this happens, as it frequently does, the business people contribute valuable financial and business perspectives. They benefit in turn from the nonprofit’s reminder that the customer is the focus and that passion for service fuels results.

Another way is for each to use a management framework that draws attention to a well balanced set of objectives including customer, financial (and mission for nonprofits), as well as learning (i.e. people) and process. The Balanced Scorecard framework does this beautifully. It describes the organization from these interrelated cause-and-effect perspectives and places as much emphasis on the customer perspective (the “giving” part) as it does on the financial/mission perspective (the “getting” part), which includes revenue and profit targets for all, as well as mission objectives and targets for the nonprofits.

Whether you set up your own formal Balanced Scorecard or not, I encourage you to think through the four perspectives and establish measured objectives in each. You can start by looking at what benefits you need to deliver to turn your customers into raving fans. Then figure out what particular internal processes, when performed excellently, will a) deliver superior customer results, and b) help control your costs. Next, determine what kind of learning will grow your peoples’ capacity to perform. And finally, select the financial and mission outcomes you plan to achieve and that your investors and donors want to see.

Although nonprofits and for-profits have their differences, the elements of success are universal. And every organization will do better if it minds them all.

(c) SUMMIT Performance Systems 2008

Brian Kinahan is the Managing Partner of SUMMIT Performance Systems (http://www.summit-performance.com). SUMMIT works with CEOs & P&L managers at organizations of 200-2000 employees with multiple divisions or business units who want a proven, systematic way to increase revenues & profits. SUMMIT helps clients improve financial performance, customer satisfaction & employee morale using a strategic framework (including the Balanced Scorecard). Brian has 10 years of C-level management experience, including as COO of a publicly traded company, and understands the challenges of leadership. He has also been consulting to companies on performance improvement for 13 years. He earned an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School & has received extensive training in the Balanced Scorecard & strategic management from Norton and Kaplan’s Palladium Group. Subscribe to Brian’s ezine at http://www.summit-performance.com/mailinglist.htm

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