Slow down to speed up sales

You too can increase profits without necessarily increasing sales!

How?

The “Profits Leak Detective Newsletter” offers regular tips and strategies to help you identify and plug those leaking profits.

You may never have known you have them.

Subscribe to receive a FREE Case Study on the success of just one strategy.

BONUS free report “7 Clues to a Profit Leak”, valued at $47.

How do you know that you should be looking for leaks?

Are there some clues or symptoms that are telltales saying that a

bit of drilling down into your business might pay some dividends?

Possible leaks could be anywhere.

This report provides 7 clues that should put you on alert for a profit leak.

Be alert - SUBSCRIBE NOW

"Adam, over the past six years, I've had the pleasure of 'bumping into you' on at least three business and marketing related forums. Your contributionsto discussions have always been courteous, astute, incisive and practical,delivered with good humour, and based upon 'real-world' business experience. You are clearly an experienced business professional who actually knows what he is talking about. I wonder if your clients know what a gem they have in you? As one business professional to another, I salute you.

Good Wishes,
John Williamson - The Wealth Coach
www.thewealthcoach.com
www.retaildisplaysecrets.com

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I just LOVED "7 Clues to a Profits Leak".

Steven Walker - Profit Improvement Advisors
Calgary, Canada

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You will be proud how your protégés are proceeding! We have expanded the business to Katherine and Alice (Tennant is also on the list). T he catering side of the business is far less stressful and is actually profitable, now that we only take the good jobs.
We will never forget the assistance you gave us in re-inventing our business!

Karen Sheldon

Managing Director

Karen Sheldon Catering

Darwin, Australia

+++++++++++++++++++

The chap is Adam Gordon whom I have known for many years. He is a former resident of Darwin having lived here for perhaps 25 years, is an excellent communicator and has a very good appreciation of small business, business plans and all that goes with it. In fact Adam is regarded as a business guru.

Charles Wright, QS Services, Darwin, Australia

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Thanks for the catch-up the other day. It's great to be working with a legend in the small business community.

AJ Kulatunga, BLKMGK ICT

Darwin, Australia

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The 7 Clues is a great.

What I like the most in the Seven Clues report is that it clearly explains that accounting is merely a subset of proper financial management and

that only the business owner can practise financial management. The accountant does the accounting, and in doing so supports the business owner's financial management. And the business owner uses the accountant's information, but relying on the accountant to do full-blown financial management is short-sighted.

The report nicely "grounds" an otherwise complex topic which many business owners are afraid of touching, so they often move ahead in blissful ignorance. The water hose and the soggy soil under the leak makes an excellent and easy-to-comprehend example, upon which the financial management concept is nicely built.

Tom "Bald Dog" Varjan, Organisational Provocateur Dynamic Innovations Squad
Personal and Firm-Wide Performance Improvement for Management Consulting Firms

Vancouver, BC Canada

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You have played a very important role in my development in business.

You were there with the right information at the right time, I thank you for that.
By adding the next level of systems, and marketing knowledge that you brought to the table we able to identify our objectives, acknowledge the gaps in our business and put in place the planning so as to achieve those objectives. Within 5 years we achieved 9 of our ten stated objectives. In that same year we won the NT Telstra Small business of the year"

Greg Haigh
Director - Trade Group
Regional And Northern maintenance services
RANms

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Recent newsletters include:

How well do you know your market?
How turning away customers leads to profits
How to create Superior Value
How to win against your competition
Do you need to make changes to your business?
"Our customers are costing us too much!"
Why competition is good news
What makes a web site effective?
Most businesses have one, but...
How to improve your quotations
How to raise prices without losing sales
Is your business resilient?
How to develop a new product in your niche
How big is your profit gap?
How discounting destroyed value
Benchmarking for best practice
From all customers to some customers
How to take the guesswork out of growth
Should your USP be based on logic or emotion?
How to triple your quotation success rate
How to dramatically improve your quotations
How to make more effective decisions?
How to develop your USP
Do you want to make better planning choices?
Are youmaking these mistakes in planning?
How to use SWOT properly
Does your sales conversation balance the scales of justice?
The perils of profitless cash flow!
So what is more important, cash flow or profit?
Are you getting value from your pricing?
Do you report to yourself monthly?
Follow the money trail!
Performance also counts!
Get more bang for your buck!
Without measurement there can be no improvement!
Where would your business be without customers?
Using your monthly report to improve your profits
Just who is your customer?
And what do you know about your customer?
How branding can increase your profits!
Can branding make you more money?
How to balance the value equation
Tilting the balance in your favour
How to pin the tail on the donkey
Are you groping in the dark with your real cost of labour
Mastering core marketing principles
Building a 5P marketing plan
Profit leaking processes
Should you be trying to increase or decrease cash flow
At times it is folly to hasten
5 steps to create your future
What will be the X-Factor in 2009
Lies, damn lies & statistics
How to use a squad profit leak detectives
Confidence leads to action
Increase sales - so easy to say
So you want to know how to increase sales
Is selling a necessary evil?

Slow down to speed up sales

Would you trust a fast talking sales pitch?

It's a common tale, but true. And there is a marketing lesson in it.

Recently we needed to have a new driveway for our home. There were a number of options available and, after some research, we settled on the type of driveway we wanted. So then we needed to get some quotes for the work.

And that's where the sale was lost and won. Why oh why do sales people think they can, or should, talk you into an order. One of the prospective contractors was garrulous, to say the least of things. We couldn't get a word in edgeways, let alone explain the issues from our viewpoint. A constant stream of opinions, views and self-confessed expertise swamped us, rolling in on an unstoppable tide of words.

On and on and on it went. He had all the answers. It was if we were expected to crumble under the sheer weight of verbiage, and gratefully sign on the dotted line.

Is that how your sales people operate? Because if your customers are anything like us, all the onslaught does is get their backs up. And they stop listening.

The reality is that most sales are not made on one call or presentation. Customers like to be comfortable, like to evaluate both the offer and the options. And in these times, particularly if your customer is another business, decision making is even slower. More people are involved in the decision, and approval is taken up the line.

One study suggested that in downturns business procurement decisions take up to 2.5 times longer to be made.

There is another way of course, several in fact. And about the only fast step is to follow up. The others require you to slow down. So what might you do?

1. Listen - there's an old sales saying that you should listen twice as long as you talk - ""We have two ears and one tongue so that we would listen more and talk less." Some people are slow learners. That saying is so old that it goes back to an old Greek bloke called Diogenes a couple of thousand of years ago. Of course you need to listen as well as hear.

2. Don't offer a solution until you have understood the problem. So many companies proudly proclaim that they offer a "solution". A solution to what? People don't want to hear about your solution until they know you are talking to them about their problem. Slow down to listen, and understand. Craft a solution for their problem. A solution to everybody's problem is a solution to nobody's problem.

3. Cut the verbiage. People can spot B.S. a mile away. They are cynical. They've heard it all before. So when unsupported grandiose claims (unique, leading edge, leaders in the field) are made the barriers start to come up. Having judged many a business award I can't tell you how many businesses claim they are unique. They can't all be unique, and the very rare demonstrations of why they are gives lie to the claim. Slow down and cut the crap.

4. Keep it simple. If you inundate your prospect with too many choices their eyes will glaze over. It all becomes too hard and the easiest decision to make is not to make a decision.

Slow down, allow the client to talk, and they'll talk themselves, and you, into the sale.