Sometimes small changes can make all the difference

At a Business Boost seminar organised by SSCCI this morning and I was treated to a high octane presentation by John Sealy who describes himself as “The Courageous Marketeer”. John has around 27 years of experience of marketing and selling of which he shared just a small part with us. What was refreshing was that John talked about small changes we can make that can bring in enough new business to keep your business going. The changes he described were things such as making sure you have something printed on the back of your business card, getting testamonials that spell out the benefits your customer gained and looking at what additional products or services you can sell to exisiting customers. He also Tweets as well!

The great thing was, as I see when I go into businesses, change doesn’t have to be earth shattering to produce real benefits. Often, removing what can seem like trivial concerns can speed up a process and be very liberating. All I need to do now is put some of his ideas into practice!

Perhaps there is some value in the self help books after all

Coming from a science and engineering educational background I admit to being more than a bit of a synic over things where faith is required (never get me started on religion!). I once went to a coffee morning where a woman was doing “Angel Readings” – I didn’t participate. Similarly I’ve often felt that self help books prey on our insecurities, parting us from our cash in the hope that this book will contain the answer to all our problems. One of the titles that stuck in my mind was ” Feel the fear the do it anyway”. This week I decided to face up to one of my big hates – ringing people after I’ve sent them a mailshot.

I know it’s a completely illogical fear but I hate doing it! I decided that the only way was just to pick up the phone and do it! I decided to start with the people I’ve met at networking meetings where we can see opportunities to work together.  I’ve met up with these contacts and got to know them so at least they should remember my name.

I have to say I was pleasently surprised and actually enjoyed the chance to catch up with people. Steven Bourne of The Chartwell Practice (chartered accountants and business advisers) gave me some valuable feedback on the design of my flyer and invited me to a special networking event. Dave Barrett from DBLogic Ltd (software designers) and I were able to compare our notes on trying to win work with the public sector. I was able to put Dave in touch with Cathy Hipkin of  Nysactc who has a wealth of experience in the public sector. Talking this through with Dave gave me an idea for Cathy and I to work on together – more of that another time.  I was also able to catch up with Adam Thompson of Dains LLP, a valuable contact as his office is just up the road from my house.

I really don’t know what I was bothered about – we are all human after all!

It may be early in the morning but there’s always something to learn

Earlier this week I attended a Southern Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce (SSCCI) breakfast meeting. There were alot of new faces there, which made it all the more interesting. Despite the gloom in the media, the mood in the meeting was optimistic and upbeat

For a change we had a speaker, who talked very informatively about a subject I’d never really thought much about – where businesses source their products from. Lawrie Elwell from Product Sourcing Services gave us some very well thought through tips on how to source items. Some of these struck me as also very appropriate in other business situations.

His first point was that the “specification must be tight” – one of the most common problems I see when I’m facilitating is that ideas have not been properly thought through, the thinking has been missed out and actions taken too soon. We’ve all seen the frequent reports on Government IT failures and delays, which also stem from a lack of clarity. Lawrie’s 3rd point was to choose safe and not to be a guinea pig – very wise words!

I was also pleased to hear Lawrie stress that you should be “in it for the long term”, “be practical to your incumbent” and “don’t stop buying from your existing supplier”. To me, listening to how some businesses operate, they don’t lift their eyes from the current deal to think about the longer term picture and can get into serious difficulties, leading to a fire fighting culture.

All in all, it was a thought provoking and experience filled talk, all before 9am in the morning!

Keeping the wheels on business

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve been to several events hosted by Southern Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SSCCI) which has given an insight into the efforts that are being made to keep businesses going during the downturn.

The first event was an open evening at the new SSCCI offices, very smart they are! It was great to meet the staff and to be reminded of the benefits of Chamber membership. I also got an insight into some of the Chamber’s plans and met up with some of the other regular networkers. Peter Ralphs, CEO of SSCCI, has some great plans and ambitions which was uplifting to hear.

The next day I attended my first SSCCI networking breakfast of 2009 – a bit of a shock to the system as it was a cold morning! The general feeling from the consultants I talked to was that winning business was hard, companies were reluctant to spend on anything but necessities. However, several people were involved with providing training through Business Link West Midlands and they are obviously going to be the spenders of the government money promised for training. All very useful information and I’m now part way through the process to get registered as a supplier to Business Link West Midlands.

The next day I attended a 1 day workshop at the SSCCI meeting room, designed to put delegates in the right frame of mind to start 2009. The morning was led by Dave Lees of Integritus Ltd, who explained how we could create an opportunity mindset and grow our business. Dave also stressed the importance of having a plan, a subject dear to me, and took us through a planning exercise. This really helped me to put things in perspective and give me some definite goals to aim for.

In the afternoon Hannah Sookias of The Write Solution imparted some of her knowledge of PR and marketing, giving out lots of tips and hints on how to market a business. We’re all surrounded by marketing and it was valuable to take some time to think about how it impacts and what impressions we form. As Hannah proved some of the most irritating adverts really stick – remember the Shake and Vac lady? Most people of a certain age can still sing the jingle!

All in all, the day was really inspiring and had the desired effect of motivating me to make a success of 2009. From my point of view SSCCI are keeping the wheels on BMCL, lets hope this becomes a more widespread effect

Networking on a cold and frosty morning

This morning I attended the Lichfield Breakfast Meeting organised by Southern Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SSCCI). The meeting takes place at Darnford Moors Golf Club on the edge of Lichfield which looked beautiful on this cold, crisp morning.

There were 8 “no shows” at the meeting, which led to the conclusion that they’d looked out of the window and slinked back under the duvet! The question was then asked “If you’d been interested in doing business with one of those people, what would you think now they hadn’t shown up?” It’s amazing how little information we need to make a judgement about someone!

The meeting gave me a chance to  see how other businesses are managing in these hard times. The general feeling was that customers are generally being more cautious about spending money but the more flexible your business the better your chances of surviving the bad times. There were no representatives from banks there this morning, recently they have taken alot of stick at networking meetings.

We then had a short presentation from Steve Richardson of Business Dialogue on a new approach to sales and selling. Steve’s first problem was one that all trainers and presenters come across when they are having a bad day – he’d brought his laptop but no one had brought a projector! Steve then had go to Plan B which was using a flipchart and pen. This in fact made the situation more interactive and was very enjoyable.

The main point Steve made was that in order to create a win/win for seller and customer you need to develop a rapport and build up trust. You need to listen and learn to develop an understanding of their values and if you can do that the selling becomes a secondary issue. I’ve certainly know that I don’t take kindly to someone giving me the hard sell at a networking meeting and I try and avoid them at future meetings! My natural inclination is to get to know someone by chatting, asking questions and listening to them. Also of course by not taking myself too seriously and being human! 

Ann