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Cut Through the Noise

The Rules of Business

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Learn To Analyze Details

"The purpose of a database is a record of human interaction." This comment by JM Juran in his book, Quality by Design, describes the start of a key to component of learning to analyze details. The details of interaction is what separates a successful company from one that will fail. Take two modern discount stores, the first is WalMart the most profitable and fastest growing company in the discount market and the second is KMart, a company that at the end of Christmas was declared to have a junk rating for it's bonds. What can we see in the public records that point to how these two companies analyze details? How can you learn from the best of these two companies to insure your own success?

WalMart is an aggressive user of it's database. On the last day of the Christmas sales season, December 28th, WalMart reported their sales and a record billion dollar profit for Christmas. KMart on the other hand could not report either their exact sales during the period or it's profits. During the first week of January 2002, WalMart's web site had weekly sales results posted through December 31,2001. KMart's web site had sales results posted on November 27th, but the data was for a period ending October 31.  Both have computers and scanners recording sales activities, but they use them differently. Which company do you think wins the hearts of customers and investors? 

Know your customer 

I once had a retail client all the employees said, "Most of our customers are men and 75% of our business is done by phone order."  We pulled four months worth of sales tickets and sorted them by gender and by method of ordering.  Our study of the sales tickets found that 51% of the customers where women and that 45% of the business came in the front door.  Within two weeks we had started a redesign of the store and the products in stock.  In four weeks time daily sales doubled. We used the same data to build a mail campaign for their next holiday. This new mailing resulted in the largest one week sales program in their 12 year history. 

What is significant to this story besides the study of your customers and prospects is that this retail story happened 10 years ago when Dallas was in the largest business bust period in history. Growth is possible even in a down economy.

One of my clients told a story of tracking lost business.  He said, "I put all the the reasons for lost business in a single field in Act! Then when new products came out from my vendors I could do a search and sell people what they wanted, but was not available prior to the release of the new product.  In one particular month he spent 70% of his selling time signing contracts simply by knowing what was missing from his lost business. This was a part of our standard Act! training class.

In order to learn to analyze data it is important to have enough data that the results will help you make a good decision.  If you are using ACT! this means putting what happens with your sales calls not only in the notes, but also in the fields. 

According to  the following story in Sales and Marketing Magazine...sales people do not prepare properly for their sales calls. Here is one quote, " Sales managers and vice presidents expect salespeople to spend an average of 30 minutes in preparation; 62.6 percent of salespeople say they spend less than 20 minutes preparing. 

Pay attention to trifles 

Musashi says that a leader must learn to pay attention to details. Take a look at two airlines. Southwest has had annual growth of their earning of 25% for the past 5 years, while American Airlines has lost 4.5% for the past five years. One company has used the same business plan and model for over twenty five years and has been profitable every year.  The other company has changed their plan several times, has had several difficult labor problems. Which one of these companies has shown that they pay attention to trifles?

One of my clients has become very good at using postcards to Keep In Touch with their clients.  As a matter of fact they won a contest for their postcard plan.  This plan included using small details of their actions, found in a custom Act! field,  with their clients to be part of a handwritten message to clients.  In the year that they did this campaign their business doubled. 

61 percent of sales managers say it's critical for salespeople to understand the challenges faced by business decision makers in specific industries before making a sales call. These numbers come a Sales and Marketing Magazine survey. Knowing your customer means finding small ideas or small solutions that can be implemented with your first sale, then expand your offer. 

Stay on your plan and follow the Rules

The person that stays on plan and pays attention to trifles is also the person that has learned to analyze their activities so that they know what trifle is important and which to ignore.

If you follow the Rules of Business that have extended for over 350 years from Musashi to Investors Business Daily, you will out perform your competition. 

"The Apprentice" proves that the Rules have not changed 

If you have watched any part or talked to others about the TV show the apprentice then you know it is about 16 young hip people that have a strong business history and have a chance to be the president of a Trump company. In order to get on the show the first 16 beat more than 1000 people that wanted this chance.  They must be great at business right.  Wrong.

In one of the shows a man, with a heavy real estate background, was put in charge of a team.  The task was to sell time on a jet, but our leader did not interview the owner of the company to find out more about what he was going to sell.  Do you find this amazing, Trump did and he fired the guy so fast it was barely a deep breath between question and result.  But what about his team members, how come nobody else fought for the proper thing?  What is the point of my telling this story?  If this man is all you have to compete with you should win more business, but do you know how? 

In another show two teams went out in the city to manage a "pedicab" company. Pedicabs are bicycles that work like a rickshaw.  One team figured out to sell advertising and the other did not.  How could five people with a serious background in business, who ride around a city not see the signs on buses, cabs, billboards, subways and think, I could do this on my pedicabs?  What is my point?  Emulate the best!! a sing is not an expensive advertising product.  Yet a sing was enough for a big win!!  Getting bang for your buck comes in many forms, the smart business person finds easy ways to stand out. 

These are two examples of how modern people do not see the rules of business, do not analyze details or emulate the best work of others.  The majority of the people in the show sell based on personality not on the attention to detail. If it is true in this show then maybe it is true in other companies.

In the past 10 years I work with an average of 10 companies with 15 sales people, I've asked owners, managers and sales people simple questions about details. In these companies, which represent a sample of over 1500 sales people,  I have found that less than five percent (5%) do the little things or get that treatment from their vendors.  The few that do are the ones with the biggest sales.  The Apprentice can do more than entertain you, learn from it's lessons. 

Do you want to change your company? The Mastery of Sales Presentation Camp, the Act! and sales training programs are built on creating trust by using actions and words that are powerful. 

Selling is a conversation for action, designed to build trust between the salesperson and the customer. The most effective conversation is built on requests and promises, so that buyer and seller are happy with the transaction. Great sales presentations use these rules. 

Need a speaker or trainer at your next sales meeting? Remember that changing one thing for two sales people this year will cause others to want that change next year.  Then you sales will really explode.

   Call Brad Sandy @ 800-SELL-717 (800-735-5717)