Newsletter - 2012 01
January 2012
Business Success
Brought to You By BMA Marketing
PERSONAL PARAGRAPH
Bowling Sales lead engine - live feed
Chris Swanson, Owner
Founded by Ray Tuttle
BMA Marketing
Wolcott CT 06716
(800) 603-3985
Outside Sales Promote...
- Company Outings
- New Bowler Visits
- Birthday Sales
In addition to tracking the incoming coupon count from the thousands of new bowlers each of our client centers gain from their Merchant Coupon campaigns, another benchmark we provide is tracking every phone call sales lead that the coupons generate.
At no extra cost our Merchant Coupons feature toll-free numbers. The numbers ring at the center so the call process is seamless to center staff and new bowlers, but behind the scenes each call is tracked and reported to center Owners and Managers.
More incredible is that each call's audio is actually recorded (100% legal) and available to center management with a single click. We are hearing rave reviews from centers as they are finally able to review customers experience when they call. Now they can find out what is working and what needs to be fixed or replaced.
Click the link to see a live feed of the Call Reports. Since this a public call report, it does not include sensitive info like center name, CallerID, or the link to listen to the call. Our client centers get all of that info.
Take a look at the thousands of leads that have been generated in the last few months... click here
More details about our Call Tracking feature can be found here on our web site at this link... click here
SALES MANAGEMENT
How to Motivate Your Sales Team
A sales manager's challenge is to use incentives and compensation as motivational tools based on human psychology and knowledge of individual salespeople. But most salespeople are motivated by achievement, money, recognition or some combination of these factors.
In order to inspire salespeople to their highest potential, managers have to work with them to set goals, both personal and business-related, and help them achieve their targets. Then, when salespeople reach their goals, managers need to recognize and reward salespeople's accomplishments in ways that are meaningful for them personally.
As a sales manager, it's your job to identify the triggers that are most effective and motivational for each member of your staff. This begins with achievement. Without achievement there is no positive behavior to reinforce with recognition.
Following are some factors that can motivate people to achieve:
- Money, in the form of base pay, commissions and sales bonuses
- Commitment to the company's mission
- Belief in the value and importance of the work
- Personal expressions of encouragement, thanks or congratulations for doing a good job
- Data and information about how the company is doing
- Developments, such as new products, changes, innovations
- Training and mentoring
- A sense of camaraderie or belonging to a group
- A challenge
- Improved working conditions and/or better tools
Recognition is also important. A savvy sales manager will soon learn what works best for the members of his or her team.
For some people, recognition is best delivered in the form of praise in front of peers or acknowledgment by executive management. Some salespeople value tangible rewards, such as plaques, trophies or awards, or status perks such as a reserved space or a special chair.
For others, compensation in the form of cash, meals or trips is most compelling. Of course, fair, equitable remuneration based on stated performance goals is essential for the entire team to function effectively.
The real key to motivating sales performance is emphasizing the right goals. Within the rubric of the company's sales plan and overall revenue targets, salespeople can set their own individual goals for what they want to achieve personally and professionally.
As the sales manager, it is incumbent upon you to help your salespeople define their goals and link their sales numbers to those goals.
Rather than setting a target to generate $1 million in new business, the salesperson may be motivated by the goal of buying a new Lexus or taking the family on a vacation to Italy.
Once you have helped each salesperson identify and set their own personal goals, all you need to do is keep them focused on those goals through training, coaching and the sales closing process.
MANAGEMENT
The Secrets to Setting Effective Business Goals
Quick Quiz
Each month I’ll give you a new question. Just reply to this email for the answer.
What English-speaking Caribbean Island has a Spanish name meaning "bearded"?
Why Not Pass Me On?
If you've enjoyed this newsletter and found its information useful, please pass it to another business owner or a co-worker.
Worth Reading
Selections from the best articles seen online this month.
5 Things You Must Do to Sell to a Small Business Owner
John Jantsch advises small businesspeople to look at their own buying habits for keys to selling to other small-business owners. “Don’t sell; educate,” he says. Provide solutions and show that you will be there whenever and however you are needed.
5 Things a B2B Website Must Accomplish
In order to start climbing that ladder of opportunity, your B2B website must orient visitors as soon as they land on your site. Make sure your content speaks directly to their needs and indicates clearly what they must do to access your services. Also provide interest pathways that incorporate all resources about specific topics in a logical progression. Be sure you can monitor activity.
BOOK REVIEW
The MacKay MBA of Selling in the Real World
Harvey MacKay is perhaps best known for his book How to Swim With Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive.
The title of his new book is less amusing but still sums up the content of the work. This book is an extremely thorough summary of everything you need to know to create a successful sales career or grow a business through an effective sales operation.
The book is divided up into bite-sized chapters, which makes its content easy to digest. This isn't a book to read at one sitting.
Instead, it's more suited to leaving on your desk as a reference to pick up from time to time, or to reading one chapter per day.
In addition to dealing with sales tactics, it also handles personal development - something that is key to functioning well as a salesperson or a business owner.
This book is highly recommended for anyone who is struggling with sales or simply wants to sell more.
Wisdom
Quotes by...Mark Zuckerberg
"When you give everyone a voice and give people power, the system usually ends up in a really good place. So, what we view our role as is giving people that power."
"People have really gotten comfortable not only sharing more information and different kinds, but more openly and with more people, and that social norm is just something that has evolved over time."
"It's not because of the amount of money. For me and my colleagues, the most important thing is that we create an open information flow for people. Having media corporations owned by conglomerates is just not an attractive idea to me."
"It's tough to say, exactly, what things will look like in three to five years, but there's a lot of work to do in just moving along the path that we've already set out."
"Move fast and break things. Unless you are breaking stuff, you are not moving fast enough."
Mark Zuckerberg founded Facebook.
A new year always brings with it new personal goals. And it's also a great time to think about setting new goals for your business. Goals give you focus, allowing you to trim the fat where needed. Once you've marked your goals, you can go back and review where business efforts aren't really contributing toward the desired result - saving you both money and time.
Goals will also allow you to spot opportunities that will help you further along your path.
You should be thinking about both long-term and short-term results.
Long-term goals should be based quarterly and yearly, while short-term goals are best suited for monthly timetables.
Setting short-term goals also lets you better manage your time.
You can sort out weekly goals and better allocate resources to ensure you're able to achieve monthly benchmarks.
Be careful not to overindulge.
Setting goals is not like writing a wish list. It's not about what you want but rather about what you can realistically achieve.
If you overindulge in goal setting, you'll completely miss the benefit goals have to offer, and you’re more likely to over-invest both time and expenses in a desperate effort to meet the mark.
Remember that it's not about shooting out as many arrows as you can to hit as many targets as you can.
It's about selecting the best targets and hitting them directly with calculated effort.
MANAGEMENT
How Strong Company Culture is Key to Business Success
An organization's culture is the shared values and practices of its owners, managers and employees. Culture is reflected in visible symbols. Such symbols include everything from the firm's logo and signage to its marketing materials and premises.
Symbols also include less-tangible factors such as the way people dress and talk, how they treat each other, and how they interact with customers and vendors.
Smart business leaders seek to create a culture that is closely aligned to the firm's strategic goals and to inculcate cultural tenets through both formal policies and daily practices.
This starts with a mission statement that sets out the stated vision and values.
Physical space is important too.
If the culture is about innovation and creativity, work areas should be open so that people can exchange ideas and work together.
Getting employees engaged in a company's culture with their heads, hearts and hands is largely dependent on leadership's focus and commitment.
The best way to build and reinforce organizational culture is through behavior and role modeling.
If employees see that their leaders care about customers, they'll begin to adopt a customer-focused culture.
If they see managers demonstrating that care about employees, they will emulate that behavior and internalize that value.
A strong company culture motivates people to work hard, take pride in the business and assume responsibility for the firm's success.
Both employees and clients want to be associated with this kind of company.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Strict Rules or Free Thinking? Which Is Best for Your Business?
Whether a company is managing a customer service center filtering thousands of calls a day, or its customer service department consists of two part-time students, there's still often a script and rule book that many employers inject into the business equation.
But in a community culture inspired by social media, social conversations and more corporate transparency, is it still a good idea to play by the rules?
It depends.
If you go strictly by the book, you have the advantage of offering consistency and security.
Banks are the best example. You go in knowing what you're going to get and you come out with a clean transaction.
Business is done and both parties are happy.
Companies that benefit from this system include insurance middlemen and small businesses that offer high-end and often customized services, such as media solutions, home theater, graphic design, web services, security, etc.
Their customers usually just want results.
Business processes in these types of industries are often complex enough, and sticking to the book helps protect them and simplifies the process for both business and customer.
But if your company is outside the realm of such straightforward services, it would benefit you to have fewer rules and no scripts.
Free-thinking business owners who shun cookie-cutter practices value the individuality and strengths of their employees.
They know that every employee can't be fit into a mold.
They also know that a company's employees can be themselves and still get the job done.
INDUSTRY UPDATE
New Bowler Marketing Results
We are grateful for the opportunity to fill lanes in our client centers...
More results reported by our client centers... Click here
RESOURCES
BMA's Industry Partners and Resources
Contact our Industry Partners for immediate solutions. Also, when you select BMA to assist with filling lanes, you'll receive an exclusive email from us containing gifts and special offers from our partners...
BowlingIndustry.com - an online magazine + social networking community for bowling center owners, operators and professionals in the business of bowling.
BowlingMarketing.com - a complete bowling center marketing system that contains a ready to run Marketing Plan loaded with proven programs, timelines and task dates, customized material and weekly conference calls to drive and manage the process.
BowlingRewards.com - The Bowling Rewards program is a revolution in open play/league marketing and includes comprehensive database building features with electronic gift, cash back rewards and fundraising inside a single card.
BPAAWebServices.com - features rich web sites designed for bowling centers at a very reasonable cost. BMA is not affiliated with the BPAA, but our client centers tell us they are happy with their BPAA web site, so we are glad to pass along solutions that work. We like the killer features... email list manager, online party reservation system, easy to update on your own or have BPAA web masters update for a small fee...and more.
Max Cook / Stardust Marketing - Over 45 years experience in recreation and entertainment facility operations. Multi-unit responsibility for the past 20 years. Experience in employee relations, contract negotiation, grievance handling, and conflict resolution. Development and execution of business plan and budget responsibilities. Strong marketing background with a proven track record of execution.
Partywirks.com - convert your website visitors into buyers by offering online scheduling and buying capability.
