When Sound Advice is 99 Percent Sound and One Percent Advice

Every time you pick up a newspaper or turn on the TV, we are constantly reminded of the layoffs and hard times surrounding us, to be cautious and conserve our resources and to hold off on executing new ideas and wait for the “doom and gloom” to pass—but is this the right thing to do?

As posted by TAB-East Bay North:

“As I get older, I better understand what Mark Twain meant when he said, “I am an old man and I have known many troubles, but most of them never happened.” Today we are getting hit from all sides about the troubles that we will be facing in 2009. Should we be worried? Some of that doom really will happen. We can’t just put our head in the sand. However, much of it will surely not happen. The big question is how you will respond to all this input. Will you freeze in your tracks or will you be proactive. Following are a few of my favorite examples of people who had to decide on how to respond to unpleasant input from others.

• “Liquidate the business right now and recoup whatever cash you can. If you don’t, you’ll end up penniless.”
  -The attorney of cosmetic tycoon Mary Kay Ash, weeks before she opened her first store.
• “You’re foolish to try to sell sparkling water in the land of Coca-Cola drinkers.”
  –Advice given to Gustave Leven by several consulting firms’ when hearing about his plans to launch Perrier in the United States.”
  

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Use Organizational Energy Wisely and Pump Up Sales

The economic landscape gives us the perfect opportunity to refine our small business strategy. Now is the time to use new tactics to improve your business performance--increase sales and generate revenue rather than riding out the storm.

As posted by TAB-Austin:

“Most Americans share a concern over where the economy is headed. However, operating from a perspective of CONCERN will not place a business into a position of power. Conversely, operating from a perspective of INFLUENCE can turn an uncertain economy into extremely opportunistic times. While many spend time worrying, those CEOs and sales executives who plan and choose wisely stand to prosper greatly. If sales at your company seem to be stalling, what should you do to pump up revenues? One choice is to hunker down, succumb to economic forces and hope for the best. Another approach is to ask and address some empowering questions…”

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Business Tips from...Chris Rock?

Recently, while catching up on some of our favorite blogs here at The Alternative Board, we stumbled up on an interesting post from Harvard Business. 

You may not believe us at first, but we can all make our business a little better using a cue from Chris Rock. It just goes to show you that business tips can be gleaned from just about anywhere. 

So, check it out and let us know how you can use his tips to create more business success. 

Harvard Business:

"Chris Rock has become the most popular comedian in the world. There is no doubt he's got enormous talent, but his brilliance also comes from the fact that he's an experimental innovator. The jokes he rolls out on his global tours are actually the output of thousands of small experiments - some of which worked, but many of which did not.

We can all innovate like Chris Rock. Consider his process and methods."

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Factors to Consider When Selling Your Business

Is it better or worse to be selling you business in a tough time? Like most business questions, the answer is “That depends on a lot of things”.

There is no good time to sell a business that is suffering from the “Dismal D’s": Those motivators for a sale include Death of the principal, Divorce, Declining sales, Disinterest of the owner (burn-out), Disease, Debt, and Disaster. If a business is selling for any of these reasons, it is almost always a bad time to be on the market.

For a profitable business with good management, systems and prospects, even slowing sales due to an economic downturn may not mean a deep discount on your selling price. This is particularly true if you have long term records that show repeated rebounds after slow times.

In a recession, a new crop of qualified buyers enters the market. Growth–driven companies turn to acquisitions to make up for the lack of organic sales increases. Downsized executives buy small businesses to maintain their lifestyle. Investors seeking better returns than the market offers look for companies with solid cash returns.

Most importantly, when supposedly “safe” financial investments become more risky, owning a small business doesn’t look like such a roll of the dice in comparison.

Of course, getting financing for a small business acquisition is more difficult now than it has been in years. Banks are warier, and are charging a higher premium. This can be a decided advantage for a seller who is willing to hold private financing on a sale to an economic buyer (usually one who is purchasing a business for less than $3,000,000). Well structured stock or installment sales could save many thousands of dollars in taxes, if completed before the expiration of the current tax structure.

If your Personal Vision calls for exiting in the next year or two, don’t allow the bad news in the media change your plan. There are still many opportunities for a successful transition.

Using Emotion to Increase Sales

If you are like most business owners and other business leaders of small and mid-sized businesses, at times, you have to put on your sales hat. When you put on your sales hat, your results will go better if your mindset changes from trying to get the desired results by persuading the person you are trying to sell on an intellectual basis. Too many business leaders fail to get the optimum results from their sales efforts because they don’t recognize that to get people to buy, you need to inspire them with more than reason. One of the most powerful ways to inspire them is by uniting your message with an emotion. For example, telling a compelling story in which you weave a lot of information, but also arouse your listener’s emotion and energy.

Persuading with a story is a lot harder than memorizing notes to a PowerPoint presentation. It takes creativity and vivid insight to present an idea within a story format that packs emotional power. When done right, you have harnessed imagination and you are giving the buyer a reason to follow through with the action that you want—the sale. The ideal type of story begs the buyer to make what is sometimes a difficult decision—the decision to take risks.

To do this most effectively, try to find out and understand something about the buyer’s past experiences and current motivations. You need to understand the mind frame and emotional wants of the buyer to frame the type of experience you want to relate in your story—a story that the buyer will embrace. Many business leaders who get great sales results use stories of how, in the past, results of other clients or customers have met their expectations. Pointing out some kind of struggle between the expectation and the need, with some humor that has taken place in that experience, is one of the best ways of uniting your message with an emotion.

Sometimes the best and most effective stories involve true and unfortunate situations, but point to why the listener should not be repeating the mistake made by the teller of the seller. These stories have to be based on facts and do not involve making up stories, exaggeration or manipulation.

It is important to not tell stories that paint your competitor as wearing a black hat. This will cut down on your credibility.