It’s the plight of many a business, sales are steady, things seem good but over time there is a case of the disappearing profits …

It’s enough to drive you nuts. Why does a company that is going good, keeping its best customers happy and retaining good employees seem to be going slowly under?

Pretty simple actually.

Retaining customers without increasing prices, keeping employees who get pay rises, staying with suppliers even though prices may rise 1 or 2 %.  It all adds up and your profits magically fade into thin air …

So, what can you do about it … ?

Well, there are solutions and to be blunt, one very important solution …

Growth …

In business as in life, you’re either growing or you’re dying. Take a look at your garden. The trees can’t stop growing, or they wither and die …

You have to think of your business in the same light.  Growth or death …

And given that death is probably not a viable option, let’s go for growth …

So, how do you ensure you’re always in growth mode … ?

Before we get to the top nine ways to keep growing, remember that it doesn’t just have to be sales growth, it can be growth in many areas of your business …

• Top Line Revenues Growth – always a favourite, getting more sales and revenues flowing makes cashflow positive and really gets the team fired up.
• Bottom Line Profits Growth – my personal area of passion, getting more dollars in the top doesn’t seem as much fun if there isn’t more left over for the owners.
• Product or Service Lines Growth – often seems harder than it really is …
• Team or Staff Growth – so often new people bring new ideas and new business to handle growth in other areas …
• Geographic Growth – opening new territories again leads to other growth …
• Other Growth – so many other areas that you can open yourself up to …

Whatever the growth focus you have, remember the simple story of the tree, either growth or deterioration.

So, my top 9 strategies for immediate growth in companies I start coaching …

#1 ... Raise Your Prices – Simply put, if you haven’t done it in the last year, you need to.  Most business owners are scared stiff of moving prices, but the reality is, very few customers ever complain or even notice a 10% shift.  The ones that complain are already complaining about your prices.  Just test it on a certain range if you don’t believe me.

#2 ... Add on Sell or Package – You never get to leave McDonalds with the obligatory “would you like fries with that?” Learn from their systems, what can you add on, or how can you package your services and products together to get people buying more every time they do business with you?

#3 ... Debt Collection – I know it’s not really growth, but too many companies have no debt collection system in place.  Make the letters, calls and emails happen on a set schedule so people know to pay on time.

#4 ... Newsletter – Just a simple monthly few quality pages is where it can start and eventually turn into a masterpiece.  People love to know how to buy from you again and again, teach them what’s happening right now so they stay in touch and see you often, even when they are not in your store.

#5 ... Entire Range – You’ll be amazed how many times a business owners hears, “Oh, I didn’t know you did that,” from their customers.  Make sure you have a marketing piece or strategy to keep every customer or potential customer on your database (yes you need a database of every customer) aware of everything you do or sell.

#6 ... Sales Training – Probably the biggest area of growth potential for any company with a salesperson or two.  Doctors, sports stars and almost every other profession needs constant training, so too do salespeople, keep them learning and closing more and more deals.

#7 ... Referrals – Most companies make it so hard to refer people, how can you make it simple?

#8 ... Test and Measure – you cannot manage what you do not measure.  You’ve got to know your numbers, everything from how many new leads you got today down to your break-even numbers.  Learn your numbers and you’ll be far more in control and far more profitable.

#9 ... Follow Up Your Prospects – every time I go shopping, it blows me away how many companies never ask for my details, never call me back, never send me anything.  You think that is too pushy, you’re right, but the “so called” pushy companies are the ones getting the clients.  Follow Up.

No matter what, put growth on your agenda.  Set new goals, sales targets and challenge yourself and your team.  Ask big questions and chances are you’ll get big answers …

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

I want to teach you how it is that the very best companies and the very best salespeople NEVER worry about having a higher price.

In fact, if you’re great at sales, and great in business, you want a higher price.

You want to have to sell, rather than just accept orders.

You see, anyone who can only make a sale when they have the best price has, in my opinion, missed the whole point of selling.

Let me give you an example from my own life …

I needed new tires for my car. I opened the yellow pages and picked three companies to call.  Of course these companies had invested big dollars to have their advertisements placed, so you’d want their people to do a great job at answering the phone.

(Just as an aside, try calling your company and buying something, see if it’s hard, easy or somewhere in between.)

So I make the call, first company, what do I ask … “How much for a set of tires ... ?”

That’s what everyone asks, why …?

Because that’s how we’ve been trained - and even more importantly, what else do we know to ask about?  When I call to ask about airline tickets, do I ask about the pilots’ experience? No. I ask about price.

So, his answer … “That will be $X per tire plus fitting and balancing.”

I said, “Thanks, I’ll call you back.”

Of course I did, same line we all use, what other option did he give me?

Second call was the same, third guy must have been trained by me or Jeff.  He used my “magic line.”

“Yes sir, thanks for your call, just so I can help you best, would it be OK to ask you a couple of questions … ?”

How great is this? He makes me feel good, and then gets my permission to sell to me.

He then went on to ask VALUE based questions.  What type of driving I planned to do, how many passengers I carried and so on, until I blurted …

“So, what does all this have to do with a price … ?”

“Well sir, if I don’t understand your driving habits, I couldn’t possibly recommend the right tire with the right tread pattern, the right tire compound and that would mean your tire wouldn’t be safe and wouldn’t last as long as it could, and you wouldn’t want that would you sir … ?”

BANG … I’m shot dead, I can’t go anywhere …

Suffice to say he got the sale, but the whole point is …

Price only matters if you don’t educate your buyers …

If you let them think price is important, if your questions lead to price objections, if your sales literature focuses on price and if your sales skills are lacking …

Turn yourself into a performer …

Use questions rather than answers, let them show themselves why they should buy, design questions that lead to value answers not price answers …

You see, if you have a higher price, it must be because you are better. So find out why you are better and ask the customer questions about how important those things are to them …

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

Got this question today that I thought was worth answering for everyone to see ..

There is one thing that I really don't understand in the Real Estate Coach.. Why are you saying that a property with a positive cashflow will rarely increase in value over time, whereas a negatively geared property (a property with a negative cashflow) will necessarily increase in value? Can't a property with a positive cash flow increase in value too? Thank you very much for the help!  Sebastien

The simple answer is they will both increase in value over time.  The main difference is that a positive cashflow property is usually in a mid to lower socio-economic area, further out from the city and thus prone to less capital growth than a property close to the city or water or on a hill with views etc.

Another way to look at real estate is the balance of returns.  You get two forms of return, cashflow, being the rental income and capital gain in the value of the property over time growing.  The returns have a balance, one with better cashflow will generally get lower growth and vice versa.

Sebastian, when you are looking at portfolio management it's great to keep a balance between high cashfow properties and high growth properties.

All the Best ...Brad Sugars ...

PS.  You can order any of my books at www.actioncoach.com/books.php

]]> http://bradsugarsblog.com/property-real-money-real-estate-book/feed/ 2 http://bradsugarsblog.com/heres-how-you-can-write-a-great-headline/ http://bradsugarsblog.com/heres-how-you-can-write-a-great-headline/#comments Sun, 24 May 2009 16:54:43 +0000 bradsugars http://www.bradsugars.com/?p=103 In fact, I'll give you the 6 best cash-cow headline tips and then, 5 headline starters to turn your ads into super profit makers ...

So, your putting together an advertisement, first you've got to understand that the TARGET audience is the most important aspect, where you place the advert, the OFFER you make is next most important, so make sure your ads always make and offer and ask for the sale, and third is the COPY or the words you use including the headline ...

Read more on Here’s how you can write a great headline …...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1933309598/ref=cm_pdp_arms_dp_img_1

Or, you can get the actual book or any of my other 13 books at ...

http://www.amazon.com/gp/pdp/profile/A2ZM1Y6DGBSYZX/002-4726140-7212055

Enjoy the reading ...

All the Best ... Brad