Member Article

The 'Northern Powerhouse' - Are you playing your part?

I’ve spoken to several organisations so far in 2016 that failed to achieve their sales goals in 2015. When asked what they will be doing different in 2016, many say ‘nothing’ as they think their failure in 2015 was due to circumstances outside of their control. This however is only true in the minority of cases.

My experience over the last 7 years of running my own sales consultancy tells me that when improvements and refinements are made to a combination of sales and marketing strategy, systems, tools and processes, improvements in results are seen in more than 90% of cases.

In a recent North East Expo seminar I outlined 10 of the most common errors made by North East businesses that I have witnessed over the last 7 years. It’s truly remarkable at how easy many of the pitfalls are to avoid and rectify. 5 common errors that I see happening on almost a weekly basis include:

5. Failure to follow up dead leads – Past ‘dead’ enquiries are allowed to fall into a ‘sales black hole’ never to be contacted again. Often no attempt is made to understand if they didn’t buy why that was and who they did buy from and why. Understanding such information allows you to sharpen their act and further improve their proposition.

4. Talking more about YOU than THEM – Nobody cares that your company was formed in 1987 or that your mission statement is to be the best supplier of green widgets in the world. Everybody however wants to know how you are best placed to help them and what makes you better than their currently supplier of green widgets.

3. No changing website content – Google loves changing content and hates serving up stale old website content for its users. If your website doesn’t update regularly this needs to change or feel Google’s wrath!

2. Lack of competitor awareness – If your salespeople don’t know what your competitors are up to then your customers certainly will. Knowledge is power and far better to proactively manage competitor threats than reactively try to win customers back. Improve the commercial awareness of your staff for the best results.

1. Failing to get prospects to think – Rather than communicating ‘Buy our green widgets’ far better to engage customer’s brains by asking a question such as ‘Does your green widgets do this? and then mentioning a great USP or two. All buying behaviour happens in the brain and as people buy on emotion - more so than logic (let’s face it your current smartphone works perfectly well but you’re likely to still ‘upgrade’ at some stage), if you can make them feel like they’re missing out in some way you’re far more likely to get that sale.

These are just a tiny snapshot of problems that I see far too many business making. As a region I totally concur with an ageing but still relevant piece of NECC research that concluded the North East is under fulfilling its potential by over £1bn each year as a result of lost revenue opportunities. We certainly do have the potential to become a true ‘Northern Powerhouse’ but to do so requires each organisation to be at the top of their sales and marketing game.

Fortunately the North East has a plethora of sales and marketing consultants and trainers like myself, but sadly too many business leaders only ever consider using such expertise after an obvious sales problem has arisen, but like most things in life, prevention is better than cure. By then the business of many customers will be sadly lost to more astute competitors – revenue lost forever.

There is also the problem that many business leaders simply don’t know there is a better way and run their businesses for many years in 3rd gear, thinking they’re in top gear.

Once a year most cars are required to have a check up in the form of an MOT. Likewise most of us have an annual check up with the Doctor, and once a year most parents are called into school for ‘parents evening’ to review their child’s education. How many business owners however receive a similar check up on the health of their business?

This isn’t a plug for my own sales consultancy business, it really isn’t – I’m merely pointing out that conscientious business owners looking for growth really should consider proactively utilising some form of expertise to help highlight the missing pieces in their sales and marketing methodology each year.

After all, do you really value your car more than your business?

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Peter Rabbage .