March 2006
Ten Questions You Should Be
Able to Answer "Yes"
Now Hear This -- Workplace
Noise Can Be Dangerous
Just How Different Are You?
Why Don't Salespeople
Perform?
 
Ten Questions You Should Be Able To Answer "Yes"
This is a list of questions that every
business manager should be able to answer with
an unqualified "yes." They largely relate to the
fundamental need of identifying and
understanding your competition, and if you find
yourself giving a "no" answer to any of them it
means you could be short of valuable information
that would provide you with a competitive
advantage.
- Do you know who your competitors are? Do
you know where they are and how big they
are? Would you be aware if any new
competitors entered your market?
- Do you regularly monitor your
competitors' advertising and promotions by
looking for their advertisements, visiting
their premises and looking at their
websites?
- Do you talk to your suppliers about your
competitors and gather information about
what they're buying and what quantities they
purchase?
- Do you encourage your staff to keep an
eye on marketing activity by your
competitors and pass any good ideas on to
you?
- Do you keep up to date with
technological developments in your field and
will you know if your competitors adopt new
technology into their business?
- Do you know the statistics of your
marketplace -- what your share of market is
and what market share is held by each of
your major competitors?
- Have you conducted a SWOT (Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)
analysis on your business? Are you prepared
to deal with any competitive threats that
might be identified?
- Do you know what opportunities exist for
you to grow your business -- either by
taking business away from your competitors
or by expanding into new market areas?
- Do you know what is happening in the
legislative environment that might affect
your organization -- that any pending
legislation doesn't pose a threat to you or
mean that you will have to change the way
you conduct your business?
- Do you regularly research your products
against those of your competitors? Are you
able to respond quickly if you find your
product offers fewer features and benefits
or needs improvement?
There may be a lot of work involved in
finding answers to all these questions and using
it to improve your product but, thankfully,
yours aren't the only eyes and ears available to
monitor your marketplace. If you work together
with your team you'll be in a much better
position to answer the questions and to make
gains against your competitors.
A business that knows and understands its
rivals has a much better chance of being able to
withstand competitive onslaughts and to
formulate strategies that will take business
away from others in the industry.
Competition is a fact of life, but only those
who manage it effectively and use it to improve
their own organization will find real success in
business. By fine tuning your knowledge about
the competition and the marketplace in general,
you can get a real edge on competitors.
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Now Hear This--Workplace Noise Can Be Dangerous
In most places employers have a legal
responsibility for safeguarding the health of
their employees while they are at work, and this
specifically includes caring for their hearing.
If your workplace has a number of noise sources
or any loud volume noise (including loud music
in entertainment venues) it is essential that
you take appropriate steps to protect the
hearing of your employees; failure to do this
could result in legal action being taken against
you by an employee seeking compensation for
hearing damage.
Noise doesn't affect just
hearing
Exposure to noise acts as a stressor, activating
physiological factors that, over time, can
produce a range of adverse health effects.
Although all of the effects and mechanisms are
not yet clearly understood, it has been
demonstrated that noise can produce both acute
and chronic health effects such as:
One of the main problems is that
noise can be an insidious cause of harm.
Excessive noise levels over a long period of
time will damage hearing so gradually and
painlessly that a person may not notice the
minor deterioration from one day to the next.
The degree of loss depends on the
loudness of the noise and the level of exposure.
Some people exposed to excessive noise develop
tinnitus, which is described as a constant
ringing sound. For most cases of noise-induced
hearing loss, there is no cure. Hearing aids
only amplify sounds, and can't replace normal
hearing capability.
How to you identify potential
noise hazards in a workplace?
Begin by conducting a walk-through survey to
determine whether or not noise is a potential
problem in your workplace. Some indicators of a
potentially hazardous noise level are:
-
The noise is louder than busy
city traffic
-
People have to raise their
voice to talk to someone who is just 3 feet
away
-
At the end of their work
period a person has increased the volume of
their radio or TV to a level that would be
uncomfortably loud for others
-
After working for a prolonged
period of time, employees have difficulty
hearing you when there are other sounds or
voices, not necessarily loud, impinging on
your conversation
As well, have an occupational
hygienist conduct an assessment of noise level
readings around the premises to see if they fall
within legally acceptable levels.
Reducing the noise risk
There are several things you can do to reduce
employees' exposure to noise hazards. These
include:
-
Redesign equipment and work
processes so they are not as noisy - for
example, by lining metal chutes and bins
with scrap rubber conveyor beltings.
-
Stop the noise from reaching
employees by moving noisy machines away from
them, by building soundproof enclosures
around noise-producing equipment, or by
putting up a barrier between machines and
operators.
-
Reduce the time people are
exposed to noise by moving them between
noisy and quiet jobs so nobody is exposed
for too long.
-
Provide suitable safety
equipment, earmuffs or earplugs, and mandate
their use by employees in noisy area.
Noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL)
is a major health problem in businesses. It is
estimated that nearly one-third of industrial
workers will experience some degree of hearing
loss as a result of working in noisy
environments. You may be at risk of a law case
if you don't take steps to manage the noise
hazard to your employees.
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Just How Different Are You?
The purchasing behavior of human
beings is fairly predictable. If they purchase
an item from a source and it proves acceptable
to them and doesn't let them down in any way,
they'll probably return to the same source for
their next purchase of one of these items.
This is good news for you when
you think about the customers you already have.
But if you expect to take business away from
your competitors it means you have to give
prospects a really good reason to change.
And one good way of doing that is
to 'prove' you are different/better with some
statistics or actual numbers.
Use statistics in
testimonials
One of the best ways to attract the attention of
prospects is to leverage your existing customers
and their satisfaction with your business.
You can impress your prospects by
compiling a case study of the success your
customers have enjoyed and use the information
as a testimonial to your products or services.
"ABC Company's sales rose 18% after they
switched their advertising to Sportsman's World"
is an impressive indication of the effectiveness
of advertising in Sportsman's World.
For retailers the testimonial
with statistics works best through highlighting
cost savings to be made by customers -- "I save
$28 on my weekly grocery bills at Buy-Rite," and
"Since I started using reloaded cartridges my
photocopying costs have dropped by $54 a month"
are examples of how your existing customers can
be the basis of an attractive proposition to
lure new customers.
The important thing here is that
it's not you doing the promoting- it's one of
your customers providing objective information
and actual proof of the benefits of dealing with
your company.
Make an offer
too good to refuse
If you're confident
that you can outperform the competition and want
to switch one of their customers over to your
business, offer the prospect a direct comparison
deal.
Agree to supply your prospect on
the same basis that your competitor does - the
same quantities and the same prices - for an
agreed period of time on the understanding that
if you prove that you can give them a better
deal than the competition, then they'll give you
a testimonial you can use in your promotions.
This gives your prospect the
opportunity to see the differences between you
and your competitor and gets the argument away
from price comparisons. If you keep up your end
of the bargain you're likely to gain both a
testimonial for your company and a new customer.
Gather your
own statistics
Statistics are
impressive, whether it's dollars saved, less
time expended, additional miles traveled or any
other figure that can be quickly understood by
prospects. Notice also that statistics are
hardly ever even numbers. If they're genuine
they'll probably be more like "$29.90" than
"$30.00" Rounding off only makes it look like
it's made up for the advertisement.
Statistics can be obtained in any
number of ways. Talk to your customers or
appoint a market research firm to conduct a
customer survey; having a third party as the
source of statistics will add credibility.
Customer surveys can give you an
excellent source of meaningful statistics that
can be used to promote your business -- "98% of
our customers have told their friends about us"
show how to use this kind of information.
It's also possible to create a
strong proposition by using industry statistics
that can be obtained from the Internet, from
industry associations or trade publications --
"Our products perform 26% higher than industry
averages!" is a strong recommendation.
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Why Don't Salespeople Perform?
One of the main reasons
salespeople are often seem to be underperforming
is that their companies don't have an internal
system or process for creating continuous
improvement. Let's look at how an organization
can really work at developing its salespeople.
New hires are trained in
salesmanship skills
All new hires in sales are put through a
training program that teaches them not just
about the company and its products but also
about the "right way" to work in selling. Here
are some of the topics that this program would
cover:
-
How to make a sales call
-
How to create and maintain a
customer relationship
-
How to prospect for new
business
-
How to get an appointment
with a prospect
-
How to get information about
a prospect's business
-
How to keep records of their
sales activities
-
How to follow up with
customers
This is a basic course in salesmanship and you
may expect that many new hires in the selling
department would already know all about these
things. But there is a "company (our) way" of
doing them and that should be taught at the
onset.
Salespeople are told their
key performance indicators and monitored on them
From day one until they retire or leave for
other reasons, every salesperson needs to be
kept informed of their rate of progress, and so
does management. This begins by setting out the
key performance indicators the salesperson will
be assessed against and the benchmarks they will
be expected to perform to at the time they begin
with the company. Which key performance
indicators are used will vary from one firm to
another, but can include such things as revenue
per customer, number of prospects contacted in a
period, conversion rate of prospects to
customers, and so forth.
The progress of every salesperson
should be constantly monitored so that both they
and management have a good awareness of how
they're performing. Any problem areas can be
quickly detected and corrective measures applied
if monitoring is carried out effectively.
Another important thing is to keep looking out
for management talent among your sales team.
Leaders are best found on the battlefield and
not sourced from those who stay on the
sidelines.
Training and education are
provided ongoing
Most salespeople are driven to achievement, and
that means they appreciate anything that will
make them better at their work. Regular skill
improvement programs that will hone their
selling talents may take away some of their
face-to-face time with customers, but it can
also make them much better at turning contacts
into customers in the longer run.
There are several good training programs
available that can be used, but a word of
warning - avoid the "motivational" materials out
there and only use the content that is going to
have real and lasting value to your sales team.
Review everything yourself to be be sure it's
got that kind of worth; trying to get your
salespeople interested in something that won't
actually improve their skills and knowledge is a
waste of time.
Salespeople are encouraged to
network
Schedule regular get-togethers of the sales team
and encourage them to share positive experiences
with their colleagues. They're much more likely
to listen to a fellow salesperson firsthand than
they are to read a newsletter recapturing a
stranger's sales exploits. Networking can be
combined with training and developmental
sessions, and if properly structured will raise
morale and enable the "older and wiser"
salespeople to transmit their knowledge to the
salespeople on their way up.
Outstanding performance is
rewarded
Salespeople who achieve significant
accomplishments must be rewarded and their
success given some recognition in-house. It may
take some kind of incentive to stimulate them to
reach for their best, but that's an investment
that has to be made. Compensation systems and
strategies for recognition of success must be
part of the overall structure of the
organization.
Don't believe that a good salesperson is
necessarily born that way. There's an awful lot
that can be done to improve the selling skills
of anybody, and it's critical to ensure that
your sales team are given the opportunity to
learn them along with the motivation to employ
them.
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