1. Always look at ways to increase your average value sale.
2. Always ask "how did you hear about us" every time a customer or enquiry calls you.
3. Practice your presentation in front of a mirror.
4. After you have done a presentation always ask your colleagues, "How could I improve?"
5. A pat on the back for good work is priceless.
7. Concentrate on your positioning and angles of campaigns & spend less time on the fancy artwork.
8. Send a newsletter that tells your customers that you are interested in their needs.
9. Keep your customers informed of what you are doing.
10. Develop an action plan and then action it!
11. Concentrate on your voice control & volume to improve your professional impact.
12. Buy a nice suit, spend the extra money. It is worth it.
13. Be professional in your customers eyes at all times. As soon as you relax you lose the sale & respect.
14. Work backwards. Start off with how much you want to earn and then work backwards to the amount of activity that you need to implement to generate the desired revenue.
15. Think profit & not sales.
16. The more people you hire, the more potential headaches, yet the greater the potential gain. Balance your objectives.
17. Employ people that are positive.
18. Avoid people who are negative.
19. Respect your employees. Value their work and praise them when they do a good job.
20. Never assume you are right. Before you criticize ask for the facts. It is amazing how often you will be wrong in assuming the worse of people rather than the best.
21. Have controls & mechanisms in place so that you can see what is happening at any time in the business.
22. Learn to delegate, but teach your employees about effective prioritization. You might be the key to everything BUT you cannot DO everything & grow at the same time.
23. Relax; treat it like a game and you will think better.
25. Analyze what you already know because what you assume you knew may have changed.
26. The market is not a perfect communication place. Just because you make an offer to one group of customers in one month does not mean that they will remain in the same place 4 months down the track.
27. Every time someone tells you that they are impressed with your organization, write down a testimonial. Do not ask them to send it to you because 80% of people forget. Write it down & send it back to them & ask for their approval to use it.
28. Never pay full rates for advertising without asking for a discount.
29. Be honest.
30. Be up front.
31. Never go back on your word, even if it hurts.
32. Make a point of getting personal, but not personal enough to get involved with problems.
33. Spend less time on penny pinching & more time on business development.
34. Get excited about your product, business or service.
35. Leasing computers & office equipment is a great way of justifying the expenditure. However be careful, because every lease you sign is a new long term overhead.
37. Enthusiasm is contagious.
38. Don’t stick to one single idea. Play with many ideas & see which ones bring money & success.
39. Create a marketing plan. Failing to plan is planning to fail.
40. Listen to your customers, they are your lifeblood.
41. Focus. Focus. Focus. You must be disciplined enough to create your business.
42. Motivating, coaching & managing your staff morale, productivity & profits can easily be destroyed without ongoing involvement.
43. The successful entrepreneur lives in a world of likelihood but spends money in the world of reality.
44. Create a sales plan; you need a realistic map of where the sales will come from, how and from whom.
45. Never give up.
47. Build your image with well designed letterhead & business cards.
48. Design a brochure that best explains the benefits of your services.
49. Design a mail order campaign.
50. Design a point of purchase display for your product.
51. Design a telemarketing campaign.
52. Be a walking example of how effective your product or service can be.
53. Seek to serve instead of just seeking to sell.
54. Encourage your prospective customers to expand their professional goals & dreams, this will ensure that you too expand.
55. Encourage your existing customers to use & maximize the potential of your product or service as this will benefit you.
56. Always listen to feedback from your customers.
57. People like to be around popular people. By honing your relationship & communication skills with others you too can be a popular person.
58. See your customers as your sales team. Allow them to generate business for you through referrals.
59. Educate others in strong selling techniques. This will strengthen your future.
60. Encourage those around you to never place a ceiling on themselves.
61. The sky is the limit.
62. Challenge others to grow & coach them to achieve success.
63. Procrastination is the enemy of growth.
64. Engage others in both developing & employing strategies.
65. Always say it as it is.
68. Get the right person for the job.
69. Ongoing training & nurturing of skills creates highly professional people.
70. Remember that pride is more of a motivating factor than money.
71. Treat your staff well as these are the people with your future success in their hands.
72. Innovation is creativity in action.
73. Use trade related shows & exhibitions as an opportunity to acquire new customers.
74. Source new customers through industry related publications such as newspapers, magazines & other literature.
75. Always communicate your goals, visions & priorities to your staff. This will enable them to know what to work towards.
76. The best performing staff are those who are ‘kept in the picture’.
77. Identify strengths and weaknesses in your staff & match your employees to the areas that they are most strong.
78. Never scold in public as this will only create disgruntled employees.
79. Do however praise in public.
80. If you plan to exit 2-3 years in advance you can double the eventual sale price of your business.
81. Create acceptable boundaries & encourage your staff to do the same. This way everyone knows where they stand.
83. Always look at the needs of your customers. Where possible, provide samples or a trial.
84. When hiring, never compromise on quality of staff. Set the job requirements & find someone who matches those competencies & not vice versa.
85. Always be prepared & punctual for meetings with customers. This is your opportunity to showcase your offerings.
86. Hold weekly meetings with your staff to discuss & resolve any issues.
87. Use a central location or CRM system to document all issues.
88. If you want good employees, be a good employer.
89. Visualize what you want your future situation to be. Look at where you are now.
90. Analyze what the contributing factors have been to lead to where you are now.
91. Surround yourself with things that make you happy.
92. Change your outlook. See the bigger picture.
93. Schedule time by blocks rather than tasks.
94. Learn to predict reactions, objections and responses.
95. Spend Mondays planning with your staff.
97. Be passionate about success.
98. Allow staff to dress casually on Fridays.
99. Always spend one day a week at home planning.
100. Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb, the rewards are usually far greater outside your comfort zone.
101. Learn from stumbling blocks, they are the stepping stones of life.
