Aramini Management is celebrating its 10th year in business. It has been an interesting, and valued life journey. I say that because while I learned first hand what it means run a business, it was also an opportunity to expand my universe of experiences and relationships. Learning is life-long and the biggest thing I’ve learned is that staying static can result in failure as you are constantly moved out of your comfort zone to engage new people, industries, technological change and business trends. The following are some critical learning points that we would like to share with you to hopefully add to your insights in managing and building your business:
- Stay alert. Know what is happening in the marketplace and developing trends. The internet impacted all industries, one way or another. Banking, for example, has experienced a significant drop in branch traffic as people bank online. That means that banking staff, who were uncomfortable selling or did not sell previously, must now possess effective cross-selling and interpersonal skills to maximize the contact time for those customers who do walk into the branch or contact call centers. In response, we developed a sales training program for the non-seller to assist banks in transitioning their branch and call center staff to become comfortable in selling.
- Keep antenna up. When people are speaking “listen” as they could be telling you in the most casual conversation what there challenges are. As we were sitting in a coffee shop, an owner of a music distribution company mentioned he was having a challenge integrating sales management software into his organization’s routine, I offered for free to walk them through the applications, which eventually developed into a six month project to build their strategic plan and reorganization.
- Be patient. I learned early on that my sense of urgency was not necessarily aligned with the prospective client’s timeframe. This was the case with a very successful law practice. It took nearly two years for us to begin their branding and advertising project. A potential customer could be genuinely interested in your service but are busy meeting their own customer needs.
- Handle rejection: make no assumptions and take nothing personal. You and your business are essentially one in the same. It is very easy to take it personally when a prospect decides not to buy your product or service. The likelihood the rejection is just a business decision. Stay objective. The same people who reject you could be your next referral source. After not using our services at his former company, a vice president of sales who moved to another company, contracted us to assess their call center business practices.
- Assess probability. Assess the probability that the project will move forward by gauging the prospect’s level of commitment. Determine who the decision makers are and what the decision making process is. Are they talking to anyone else? We overlooked the competition being in the mix and were surprised when an advertising agency selected another consulting practice to assist them in developing criteria to evaluate projects based on improved ROI.
Please look for Part 2 in next month’s newsletter.