Guest post by Martin Clark, Ripple Effect Sales Training.

They fail to understand the fundamentals of selling!

First of all to clarify, when I say ‘sales people’ I’m also referring to business owners who are responsible for making sales.  If you’re in business, then one of the many hats you must wear is that of a ‘sales person’.

There are 2 key fundamentals that drive ALL sales…  Failing to understand these is why most ‘sales people’ struggle and businesses suffer… continue

Freelancing and consulting can often seem like an impossible juggling act, but if you keep these seven practical business tips in mind, your business will go from strength to strength.

Work out what you’re best at and express it clearly on all marketing material – niche marketing is a simpler and more profitable way to grow your business, rather than trying to be everything for everyone. The more detailed your customer avatar is – the simpler it will be for you to find them, connect with them and offer something of value. To start creating your customer avatar think of the following questions:

• Who is my ideal customer? Who would I like to work with?
• Are they able to pay my fees? Will they be willing to pay my fees?
• What problem do they have in life, that my offering will help them solve?
• Why is it important to get it solved?
• How many of those customers are out there in the marketplace?
• WHERE… (do they work? Where do they study? Where do they live?)
• WHAT… (do they eat, drink, read, listen to, are interested in?)
• HOW… (do they look for new products or services, do they choose their suppliers, do they pay the bills?)

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3-in-1 that work as One!

Over the past year we have been searching high and low for a super-efficient business system we can use in TJConsulting and offer to our clients. And finally, after trying and testing, reading 100s of reviews – it’s here.

It consists of 3 parts, but don’t despair – they all work as One, efficient, online, affordable solution. And they are…. Xero, Capsule and MailChimp.

Xero is the accounting system of the 21st century. If you are not an accountant and dread “reconciliation” or “P&L” – this is the system for you. It’s very simple to use, you can access it from anywhere with an Internet connection and it’s secure.

Capsule is an online Contact Relationship Management (CRM) tool that will integrate with Xero – so you only have to enter your data once. You can track leads and conversion, manage information, analyse sales and productivity, and (yet again) it’s very simple to use!

MailChimp is used to send your newsletters, mailshots and autoresponders. Without being repetitive – it’s simple, clean, straightforward. It can send regular newsletters and schedule a series of messages. MailChimp can integrate with a large number of social media networks, Eventbrite (for event bookings) and is a top-rated social media tool (according to mashable.com).

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Webinars – web-based seminars – are becoming more and more popular as online meetings reduce the need for travel, refreshment and accommodation expenses, as well as the associated time out of the office. They can be used to present the information to staff across the globe, to conduct a training session, to have a project or a team meeting. Businesses are no longer restricted by their geographical location, but can reach and talk directly to customers across the world

To organise a webinar,  you need to send out an invitation with a link, which attendees simply click on to be directed to the webinar hosting site. One the screen you will see the list of all attendees, control buttons (like mute and unmute), chat window and the main window where you can share your desktop and any applications you are running (e.g. PowerPoint with slides).

You can require people to register in advance in order to get the participation link. The collected information can be added to your mailing list for future followup with prospects. Offering regular webinars as part of your website monetising strategy can attract more traffic and generate new sales leads.

You can also charge a fee to attend a webinar. Payment can be collected via Paypal or using a shopping cart (see our previous article about this). Audio and video can be recorded during the event, which will enable you to sell it later to any other customers who missed the the event itself. As there is no limit for how long you can be selling the recording – the only limit will be the relevance of the material discussed.

In the business context, recordings can be useful as a record of the meeting – to help your PA or VA collate a list of action points, questions raised, changes to be made to the materials reviewed.

How to host a webinar:

• Plan in advance -give attendees enough time to arrange their schedules. In some cases it may be good to have a lunchtime or evening meeting. Make sure the time is suitable for participants from distant time zones, if you intend on having many attendees from the US, Asia or Australia.
• Choose your webinar hosting company – there are many companies at the moment offering webinars or teleconference facilities (WebEx or GoToMeeting are the most reliable). Consider the cost, the ease of use for you and for the attendees, the availability of the recording, dial in numbers for multiple locations.
• Publicise the webinar – send your customers and colleagues an invitation to attend along with a description of what will be covered, agenda and any notes they need to look through before the event. Follow up with regular reminders. Use social media to promote the link (or the landing page with the subscription form).
• Have a test run - learn to use the system in advance to avoid wasting your participants’ time on waiting while you are looking for a certain option.
• Be relevant – offer quality information to the participants that is relevant to their needs and requirements.
• Create an agenda – along with your description send everyone an agenda with information on who will be presenting, what will be covered and how long it will last.
• Prepare visuals – that’s probably one of the only cases when you can successfully use a PowerPoint presentation. Webinars rely on audio and visuals to engage the audience. But avoid having too much text – participants will end up reading your slides rather than listening to you, instead choose pictures, video, charts, short clips.
• Keep everyone engaged – encourage participants to use the webinar’s chat, so they can interact with other attendees. Have regular Q&A sessions, gather feedback, create quick polls.
• Record the webinar – it will make it available to those who couldn’t attend. You could link to the recording in a post-event email marketing campaign. And you could use the recording as an information product to sell on your website.
• Follow up – send a follow-up email to everyone, thank them for the participation, distribute any notes or the recording (if available), ask for feedback and invite them to the next event.

Do you often find that you hire temporary staff in order to cover for a key member of staff (like executive assistants to MDs, office managers) or to cope during the extremely busy periods at work? If so, the new government announcement will have a major impact on your business.

Currently many employment law rights (the right to claim unfair dismissal, the right to a statutory redundancy payment, right to certain minimum periods of notice, etc) are only available to employees. However, the government has announced that it will implement legislation to give greater employment protection to agency workers.

The basic principle is that after 12 weeks work, agency workers should be entitled to equal treatment in terms of pay and “basic working and employment conditions”, compared to their colleagues who are directly employed or engaged by the hiring organisation (you).

So what does “equal treatment” actually mean? Under the draft regulations, agency workers would be entitled to equal treatment in relation to holidays, breaks, overtime, notice period, etc. Equal treatment in relation to “pay” would include basic salary plus other contractual benefits directly linked to the work undertaken by the agency worker. This covers holiday pay, payment for overtime, shift allowances, unsociable hours premiums. However, occupational social security schemes (such as sick pay and occupational pension rights) would be excluded. It is also proposed that from day one agency workers will have equal treatment to on-site facilities, for example, staff crèche, transport facilities, canteen.

Therefore if you regularly engage agency staff on engagements lasting for 12 weeks or more, you will need to review your policies to ensure that agency workers are treated in the same way as you would treat permanent employees.

New rules mostly likely will come into force after October 2011.

The difference between an agency worker and a virtual assistant after October 2011: