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How to Successfully Navigate High-Stakes Sales Conversations

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 09:00 AM PST

Winning a sale means shaping the customer's point of view. Preconceived notions have deep roots, and the sales professional must dig deep to find them. This high-risk, high-reward pursuit is necessary in an economy in which more sellers are attempting to engage fewer customers.

There are skills sales professionals must master to effectively engage their customers in high-stakes sales conversations: asserting a point of view, building alignment among stakeholders, and accessing senior-level decision-makers.

Asserting a Point of View

Sales professionals have the challenge of navigating and, ultimately, reshaping their buyer's thinking. They must widen the customer's purview, revealing the full scope of risks and opportunities. There are four key ways to do this:

  • Articulate meaningful observations in concise, everyday language that is free of jargon.
  • Normalize discussions of risk. Rather than attempt to defray all risk, cite the balance between risk and reward.
  • Balance discussions of risk with expected benefits. Doing so moves the customer through the decision process.
  • Check that the solution value resonates with customers by using reflection questions. Listening and responding to their answers helps shape their points of view.

Building Alignment

Purchasing decisions today occur across many stakeholders. Creating alignment among these groups is difficult because differing emotions are in flux.

Fears of moving forward are often rooted in the components of self-determination theory. This theory asserts that humans have an inherent psychological need for autonomy, competence, and relatedness. Fear of losing control threatens our need for autonomy. Fear of making the wrong decision threatens our need for competency. Finally, our need to connect with others — that is, relatedness — is threatened by fears of diminished reputation.

To build alignment, sales professionals need strategies to address these concerns. You can do this by:

  • Understanding the source of misalignment, which often stems from fear or miscommunication.
  • Coalescing the needs and concerns of various stakeholders into one coherent case for change. Each stakeholder needs to know that they have been heard.
  • Advancing the sale by managing risk. Starting with the decision maker who feels most threatened by the prospect of change.
  • Understanding that stakeholder alignment is a dynamic process because the buyer's journey is a dynamic process.

Accessing Senior Decision-Makers

A complex, high-stakes sale will almost always involve numerous stakeholders. Unfortunately, it will also involve challenges in reaching those stakeholders. Sales professionals often find themselves engaging procurement professionals before having a chance to speak with senior level decision makers.

Frequently, the initial contact is not the person who will make the final determination. Once the sales professional gains access, they need to understand the decision makers' needs, overcome their objections, and build trust. Some ways sales professionals can get in front of senior decision-makers include:

  • Building a foundation for the request to meet with senior level decision makers with a value statement built around the issue, action, and value.
  • Developing resonant messaging by performing prework that yields insights that are salient to the customer. Contextualize insights around the customer's challenges by using the framing effect.
  • Fostering trust through transparency. The act of sharing information is just as important as the content of the information.

Building the skills that empower your sales professionals to confidently engage their customers in high-stakes sales conversations serves to increase win rates and deal size, while reducing cycle time and improving resource utilization.

Cryptocurrency Can Supercharge Your Marketing Efforts

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 08:00 AM PST

Despite the fact that major cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum have become household names throughout the world, many companies and aspiring entrepreneurs are still giving these digital tokens the cold shoulder for no good reason.

Over the past few years is that younger consumers everywhere have been gravitating towards cryptocurrencies in ever-greater numbers. There are plenty of reasons to believe that millennials love cryptocurrencies, for instance, which means that businesses trying to tap into today's largest consumer demographic can turn serious profits by embracing digital tokens like Bitcoin. As a matter of fact, some insightful entrepreneurs have been taking to social media to demonstrate that their business accepts cryptocurrency as a form of payment precisely because such a campaign is a great way to drum up some niche business.

This isn't some small fad infecting mom and pop shops that are trying to establish a brand name for themselves, either; even huge corporations are beginning to enter the cryptocurrency market because they see so much promise in these tokens. Companies like Subway, PayPal, Microsoft, and many others have already started to accept cryptocurrencies in one form or another because they're fans of scooping up as much consumer cash as possible while making things easier for shoppers when it comes to payment.

Now that it's indisputable that cryptocurrencies have become a defining force in the market, especially easy to use due to trading platforms like Beli BTC that allow their use in all sorts of small business transaction. However, it's worthwhile to retrofit your marketing efforts to incorporate these interesting tokens into your ad campaigns. 

Here are some clever strategies that you can tap into to use cryptocurrencies in your marketing efforts, and what you'll need to know about the underlying technology to succeed in your efforts.

What to know about cryptocurrency marketing

The first tip to success in marketing with cryptocurrencies is to loudly and proudly proclaim what you're doing for all to hear. It's not enough that your business is simply accepting cryptocurrencies – you need to make that fact obvious for everyone, especially those in the cryptocurrency community, so that they're likely to flock to your doors ready to spend their digital dollars. You should take to social media platforms in particular to announce this news, as virtually all of the news surrounding cryptocurrency is spread online. Major platforms like Facebook are beginning to lessen the amount of restrictions surrounding cryptocurrency advertisements, too, so users on those channels are likely going to be more receptive to your own campaign now than ever before.

Another step you need to take is differentiating yourself from the competition; if others in your industry haven't yet embraced cryptocurrencies, make sure your customers know that you're on the cutting-edge of innovation while others in your sector are hesitant to embrace change. Customers love innovative companies that embrace thrilling new ways to do business, and advertising that you're the only local business to accept these digital tokens is a great way to separate and elevate your brand from the rest of the noise in the marketplace.

You shouldn't make your ad campaign surrounding your acceptance of cryptocurrency into an affair that exclusively takes place on social media, however. Traditional media outlets and strategies can still drum up a buzz for your business, so it's worthwhile to consider drafting a formal press release to announce that you're now accepting popular tokens like Bitcoin or Litecoin. 

Don't forget your physical real estate, either.

While you're spending all day advertising your business online and talking to the media, it's worth remembering that you have some physical real estate to take advantage of, too. Stickers and posters should be going up in your store to remind customers that you accept cryptocurrencies, and the area around your payment kiosk should be particularly inundated with that news.

Don't be afraid to embrace local ad campaigns that feature your business accepting cryptocurrencies on local real estate. Local cryptocurrency enthusiasts would likely be thrilled to patronize a nearby business that's also embraced their preferred form of secure payment.

Finally, keep an ear close to the ground on all breaking news surrounding cryptocurrencies, as the sudden tanking of a token's value or a disruptive advance in blockchain technology could temporarily upend your new method of payment. Make it clear for everyone that your company accepts cryptocurrencies, and your marketing efforts will see new levels of success in no time.

Thinking of Selling Your Business in a Few Years? Start Preparing Now

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 06:00 AM PST

In fact, among owners who intend to sell their business, nearly half plan to do so within a period of five years — but according to a 2018 survey by UBS Investor Watch, a large majority (75 percent) believe they can sell inside of 12 months without taking necessary steps to prepare.

The truth is, a successful exit takes years of preparation. Even if a sale doesn't take place for five years, or even 10 years, there is much that can be done now to increase the value and attractiveness of the business, while also preparing the owner for an ultimately successful transaction.  If a sale never happens — should the owner change their mind, for example — the company still comes out ahead for having built a more sustainable and profitable business.

Here are critical things owners contemplating a future sale of their company should consider and act on now.

Understand company valuation

Even years ahead of a potential sale, it is important to have a realistic idea about your company's value. This affects planning, and ultimately your financial well-being.

While owners can be influenced by stories about friends who sold their companies at astronomical multiples, it's important to not overestimate. Ultimately, a company is only worth what someone will actually pay. It can vary based on the condition of the business and the industry it operates in; supported by its ability to generate sales, cash flow and/or profits, as well as the value of assets.

Know the drivers of value

If you have a realistic sense of company value, the next step is answering the question, what are the value drivers in your company? Knowing that answer allows you to focus time and energy on improving value drivers that are deficient, and to nurture and protect those that are performing well. It is also important to consider what elements of the business will best motivate the buyer. A seller who is seeking a financial buyer might focus on increasing profitability, whereas as seller who wants to attract a strategic buyer might focus on enhancing the brand and market share.

Reduce owner dependence and build the team

Building a company structure that depends less on the owner and more on the team is an important item on the "to-do" list for those even contemplating future sale. This is a task best started sooner rather than later because it also provides protection in the event of unforeseen illness or even death. Having a strong management team in place can also make the business more attractive to future buyers and will help ensure a smooth transition after the sale.

Formalize company processes

Many successful small businesses can get away with ad-hoc, informal processes and systems, but these will detract from company value when the day comes to sell. Improved documentation, operating controls and governance go a long way to allowing a company to look better to potential buyers. Central to this is an accurate, timely accounting of historical information and use of forecasts and budgets to guide future performance.

Understand quality of earnings

Looking at your company the way a potential buyer will helps you understand how best to maximize personal wealth when it comes times to sell. Remember, offers are developed using specific formulas that take into account assets, earnings, industry, and any debt or losses. Regardless of the equation used, the "E" (earnings) is an objective determination — so eventual money in your pocket is often a function of earnings times a multiple. The multiple is a subjective one, usually based on the potential buyer's assessment of the quality of your company's earnings. Improving that quality will help drive superior valuations, but it takes time.

Turn to the experts

Exit is a reality for all business owners. Whether it's decades from now or years away, driven by ambition or necessity, careful planning and support from investment banks undoubtedly ensure the best results with fewer obstacles. Find a firm that can help your business identify opportunities and navigate its way through M&A transactions to maximize value and achieve favorable outcomes.

Got Data? How to Boost Your E-commerce Business's Revenue

Posted: 01 Mar 2019 03:00 AM PST

Every e-commerce business has access to an enormous amount of data every day. From your customer behavior to the marketing strategies employed, every single action and response on your e-commerce website unravels additional data that can hold valuable information.

If you are using all this data just for monitoring the traffic to different landing pages, then you are probably letting most of the data go to waste and thereby potential revenue. There are many AI tools and machine learning algorithms that let you derive usable insights from the data you collect. By using just a few of these tools, you can do a lot to improve your business revenue.

1. Recommending products based on predictive intelligence

If you have observed the way a typical customer makes a purchase online, you will know that it is anything but predictable and even-minded. A customer can browse different e-commerce sites at the same time, often reading different blogs in between for reviews and recommendations, sometimes searching for promo codes and discounts before finally making the decision to purchase a product.

These behaviors can only be tracked properly through specific monitoring tools designed to track every single click and pause a customer takes on the website. By understanding and segmenting the customers based on these behaviors and their past searches and purchases, e-commerce businesses can make recommendations that seem attractive to the customer.

You can make use of automated algorithms to churn out recommendations for users depending on the behavior of customers from the same segmentation, the user's current searches and their past experiences with your website. Amazon is one of the best examples of an online retailer using these predictive recommendations to drive a noticeable portion of its revenue.

2. Forecasting trends and demands

Predicting the demand beforehand will save you a lot of inventory costs. H&M, one of the top retailers in the world, invested in automated warehouses backed by algorithms and data in Europe, promising next-day delivery and free shipping in response to consumers' demands. This helps it keep inventory costs to a minimum without running out of products when the demand arises.

Big data analysis will let you know the increase in demand for a particular product during specific trends, which lets you exploit the best from it and increase your sales. From following the conversations happening on social media, the increase in a number of posts for a particular trend and the recent products promoted by social media personalities, machine learning algorithms can predict the rising trend that could become the latest buzz of the industry.

For example, based on the latest attires popular with celebrities, the hits of recent fashion shows and the ease of access of the product, online clothing stores can predict fashion trends and stock up the clothes right in time to meet the trend at its peak. They can even go a step ahead to get low-priced ad spaces for the trends to boost their revenue even more.

Similarly, forecasting the accurate demand during the holidays and specific seasonal offers will save inventory costs by letting you focus on the products you'll need most. Amazon uses forecasting tools to predict fluctuations in demand based on customer behavior and historical data.

3. Offering the best customer service

Did you know that poor customer service costs businesses more than $75 billion a year? Whatever kind of product you sell, the customer should always be your priority. With many similar businesses crowding the same industries, any negligence or small mistake on your side may push your customers to your competitors and lose you a good portion of your revenue.

Customizing your website for individual customers has become necessary. You can personalize the site with product recommendations based on that customer's behavior and their historical data, helping them find what they want in short time without any fuss.

In recent times, chatbots have become a practically mandatory addition to Magento e-commerce stores. These chatbots are only effective if you use the right kind of data to analyze and provide proper responses for the customers. Customers do not need to wait for a long time to speak with a representative to solve common issues like finding out where their product is or when it will be delivered. The chatbots can give that kind of information within seconds and can be further developed to answer more questions in a human, interactive way.

E-commerce businesses have no dearth of data. If you can convert this data into usable insights, it can greatly improve your revenue.
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