Tag Archives: Concept Development

Defining Your Sales Funnel

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In the hope of making a sale, we cast our net through various marketing strategies to capture eligible customers from the deep blue sea of customer curiosity.  Though the net is cast for a particular target market, you end up will all types of people in your net.  A natural selection process starts to take place depending on what you have on offer.  Some will stay with you a little longer because you have what they need. Whilst some will immediately exit your funnel because there is a better offer, they prefer their previous supplier or for something else. Luckily some will come back later when the need arises for your product or service.

You can’t meet the needs of every one that comes your way but you can either direct them somewhere else or introduce more products to meet the needs of your target market. So how do you capture the ones you want?  What do you give to entice your potential customers that visit your website or read your offline advert?  One great option is to define and create a good sales funnel.  A Sales Funnel helps you pass customers succesffully through your sales process so you can generate sales over a long period of time and also gain repeat purchase.

Create Awareness:

People need to know about what you offer before they can patronise you. This can be through email marketing, flyers, social media etc.  So what have you got in your bag of tricks that you can offer them for FREE or as a taster?  When you advertise your website/shop to potential customers; entice them with free offers so they can get a taste of what your business is about. E.g. a complimentary 30 minutes session as a wedding planner. Make sure your free product or service is high value and good quality too. Remember you are introducing the strength of your business by this offer.

Generate Interest:

We all have unanswered questions in our lives and the businesses that excel are the ones that are able to provide answers to our questions or meet our needs.  So is your business generating interest from potential customers?  Re-evaluate your marketing strategy and ask yourself if you are feeding the curiosity of people who come through your sales funnel.

Give Intent:

Help them see a good outcome when they purchase your product or service by selling the benefits and results to them even before they buy it.  . Do you identify with the pain of your potential customers?  E.g. As a personal stylist, what will be the greatest need of your customers? Highlight those benefits on your website as the antidote for their pain.

Finally a Purchase:

Your ultimate goal is to gain a customer through the purchase of your products or services over time.  For example Asda and Tesco have very large sales funnels.  Once you enter the shop, they provide the means to meet many of your needs – food items, electrical items, furniture etc. Think of your target audience and consider the products and services you can add to your offering to ensure they patronise you for longer period of time.  If you can successfully get your customers to pass through your sales funnel then that is a job well done.

Business First Steps Sales Funnel Workbook and Action Plan is coming out soon.  This workbook will help you identify the needs of your customers and create a wide range of products and services to meet those needs and also create passive income for your business.

I wish you good success

Temi

www.businessfirststeps.co.uk Affordable and personalised services for your business start-up and development.

Photos from Martinandmatthew.com and ngould sxc.hu

Do you Love your Business?

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It is always a good idea to evaluate our lives and motives at regular intervals, asking ourselves questions such as:

  • Are you in love with your job or business?
  • Is it serving the right purpose or is it just something to get by?
  • How do you know what you love to do and do what you love?

These are questions a lot of us do not actually want to answer, especially if you have been in the same role for many years doing the same job or running the same unprofitable business.

On another spectrum, there are some people out there, who wake up with exhilarating excitement to face every day. They are those who are fortunate enough to have found something they love to do.

Stopping the Same Old Thing

If every morning fills you with dread and you wonder how you will get through the day, it might be worth your while to take a step back and evaluate your life. It is of vital importance that you love your business and not love just the money you get from the business. Money is easy to love, but it is not so easy to sustain that love when things are not working.

If there is no true joy and passion for what you do, need for growth and improvement will be on the back burner. You will have no desire to expand or grow your business, eventually the aspiration starts to wane and the business might collapse.

True Business Love

When you are involved in a business you love, you are keen to develop that business and always taking steps to make it work. You are passionately engulfed in business activities that will ensure your venture grows. There is the urgency to provide solutions and solve problems to push your project to the next stage. You are also always in a constant state of productive and proactive change, and you are most of the time invigorated and excited.

The passion and fervency you use to run your business is what turns into sustained profits. The challenges that might occur along the way are seen as the chance to climb higher. You are open to opportunities, in tune with your inner self and able to spot channels that will accelerate your business growth. The core element of an entrepreneurial mindset is PASSION, something which cannot be developed doing what you do not love or enjoy.

Finding something you enjoy and love will take a conscious effort on your path. It is an envious place to be when you are doing what you love and getting results. Once you discover your passion for the right business, your natural instinct kicks in and drives you to success.

There are ways in which you can discover and embrace something that interests you and find the business of your dreams. Visit http://www.businessideabooster.com to learn more about how to discover your passion and start a journey to a more fulfilling life.  Alternatively sign up for the one-2-one Passion Definition, Business Idea Development or Brainstorming Sessions.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6424651 Picture by Nellart sxc.hu.

Before the Business Plan

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In the Beginning of Business Start-up

At the start of the year you probably decided you wanted to start your own venture.  After contributing to your employer for so long and not being fulfilled, you are about to take a leap into the world of self-employment.

 As stated by the Prime Minister and the Start-up Britain initiative, http://www.startupbritain.org/ this might be the best time to start a business. This is good news, at least there is a guarantee you are not alone on this quest for self –expression.   

So pardon me as I jolt you out of your entrepreneurial dream for a short while and ask you these two important questions:  

Can You Cope Without A Regular Income?

If you intend to say goodbye to your employer, be ready to say goodbye to a regular income – ok maybe for a short while.  Before the money starts rolling in there is a lot of ground work that might be required as well as many sacrifices – including financial ones. 

You certainly can’t continue to spend money like you used to after all it is now about effort in = profit out.  So if you have got some savings stashed away somewhere, now might be a good time to revisit your household budget and find out how you can survive for the next 6 months or so.

How Much Time Can You Dedicate To This Venture?

If you are serious about growing a business, you can be rest assured that your time will no longer be your own. If you have a family there is every possibility that you will be torn between two parties – trying to meet your family obligations and spending time developing your concept.                        

Starting off a new venture can be tough in the beginning as you try to get off to a successful start.  You should be realistic about your commitments, explain to your nearest and dearest how your life will change.  Rearrange your schedule so your building process does not impinge so much on other commitments.

We won’t discuss social engagements as they may be non-existent for a while!

 

Despair or Inspire

If the above questions have not been able to dissolve your resolve, maybe just maybe you have what it takes for such a huge leap!

Don’t despair if this sounds daunting, if you do your homework properly the initial drought season might not last long though it may occur again at some point during the life span of your business.  Once you conclude that you intend to make the business work, you will find the determination and strength to push through every obstacle.  

The good news is if you work really hard, the money you earn is not to pay someone else’s salary.  It’s for you to decide what you want to do with it – even reinvest it in your business.

Maybe now I have got you thinking a little bit deeper or help you banish the doubts and the fears (ok maybe temporarily!).  Next stop… let’s think about the viability of your business idea.

At www.businessfirststeps.co.uk, we are passionate about concept development and business start-ups.