What to Do When Tenders Rule the Day
Issue #2035
- WEALTHY: 9 strategies to stimulate sales (Michael Masterson)
- HEALTHY: What if you didn’t have a chance to say goodbye? (Jon Herring)
- WISE: Charles Kettering on making sales
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- Inspiration for naming your new company (Suzanne Richardson)
- 6 ways to bring your presentations to life (Peter Fogel)
- It’s Good to Know… about dreams
- Add "hoary" to your vocabulary
Turn A Single $100 Investment Into A $2,000-A-Week Profit Machine
In the next seven days, 4,589 people will leave their jobs, never go back… and have all the money they will ever need.
I would tell you that these people are “very lucky,” but the fact of the matter is that there is no luck involved.
It’s happening everywhere. Ordinary people – including people who never finished school – starting their own businesses…and making in the neighborhood of $40,000…$60,000…even $100,000 or more a year.
Even though all these people are “ordinary” in some ways, one thing is certainly “out of the ordinary” about them:
Many used the same secret to start a business on less than $100. You can do it, too. Here’s how…
- Patrick Coffey
"So long as new ideas are created, sales will continue to reach new highs."
Charles Kettering
Business-to-Business Marketing: What to Do When Tenders Rule the Day
By Michael Masterson
A reader, MR from South Africa, wrote in to ask a question about marketing.
He has a 13-person consulting company that provides engineering and agricultural advice to governmental and quasi-governmental agencies. They get their clients by "normal" means, including registering on service-provider rosters, scanning newspapers for tenders, sending in proposals, submitting tenders (prices are prefixed by the government, so there is no opportunity there), making presentations, and closing deals based on those presentations.
When his company goes after a job, they get it 40 percent of the time. When they are "short-listed" and get to present their proposal in person, they get the contract 100 percent of the time.
Do I have any marketing advice, he wanted to know, for a company like his that can’t use conventional marketing techniques to stimulate sales because of the tender process?
Not much. He’s doing just fine. Getting 40 percent of the jobs you go after is a very good ratio, and closing 100 percent of in-person presentations is unheard of.
But MR won’t be able to maintain that record. In fact, the more proposals he sends out, the more likely it is that his perfect closing percentage will drift down.
His overall goal should be to increase the business he does, but not at the expense of quality or profitability. Based on the success he is already enjoying, I’d guess that a slow-and-steady approach to business growth is the right strategy.
If your business is already successful – but you want to propel it toward more sales and more profits – you can follow the same recommendations I’d make for MR.
One goal you can set for your team is to become known as the best in the business for some particular quality or skill that you excel in. Figure out what that is, and then find out if your customers are as impressed by it as you are. You can do it by talking to them. It isn’t hard to do … but it’s important.
Once you have identified a saleable unique selling proposition (USP), make it a part of every communication you send out. Turn it into a tagline for your logo, and feature it prominently. Let people know why they should pick you rather than a competitor. Give them a reason to call you, to put you on their short list. (In MR’s case, it won’t be his price – government regulations prevent him from charging less – so he’ll have to find something else.)
Having a website is a must, but if it is verbose and complicated (as I suspect MR’s is), it will diminish sales growth. Revamp your website, making sure that everything about it – from the typeface to the copy to the color selection – reflects and supports your USP.
But a website is not enough. Communicate with potential clients by offering them a free e-letter that gives general advice. (MR doesn’t need more than a once-a-month communication for the kind of business he does.) Make your e-letter professional in appearance but personal in tone. It should come from the company CEO. It should sell the USP and back that up with examples and testimonials from satisfied customers.
You should also use your e-letter to keep in touch with past clients so that when they are ready to start a new project they will think of you. And encourage them to send you names and addresses of their colleagues and competitors so you can send them complimentary copies of your e-letter too.
As your reputation as a specialist grows, make speeches and give seminars. Write articles for trade journals. Get yourself interviewed. Take out small, discrete ads. Make your presence known. Make sure everybody who might one day be your client knows your name. (For MR, the idea would be to become South Africa’s number one expert in providing a unique sort of advice on rural development.)
It might pay to hire some junior marketing person to work full-time on the phone, making friends for your company and sending out free publications – anything and everything to make your company’s name pop favorably in the imagination of everyone who may one day need your services.
As I was writing this article, Andrew Gordon walked into my office. While you may know Andrew only through his articles in ETR and investment publications like The Wealth Advantage and INCOME, he has a long history in business. He’s been involved in infrastructure in Indonesia, port development in Russia, road construction in Malaysia, and environmental services in China. He’s also authored six books on the global markets. With his background, I asked him if he had any marketing advice for business-to-business companies like MR’s.
"Since MR’s company is 100 percent successful whenever they’re short-listed," Andrew said, "it makes sense that they can increase their overall success rate by increasing their rate of getting short-listed."
How can they do that? Andrew came up with six ideas.
1. Increase proactive marketing. Right now, it sounds like MR’s marketing is mostly reactive, responding to RFPs (requests for proposals). Identifying an opportunity before it becomes public isn’t easy. It takes a lot of legwork – but it has big advantages:
- It will help orient the RFP to your strengths/unique capabilities. If the specifications include requirements that only your company has, you may end up with no competitors. At worst, your special relationship should get you short-listed 99 percent of the time.
- You can create opportunities by finding out what your potential customers want or need through informal conversations, and then offering it to them without waiting for an RFP – again, based on your strengths and unique capabilities.
- Reaching out to your customers is always a good idea, whether you’re in business-to-business or retail.
2. Get high-level people from pertinent government agencies or business associations to champion you. The right person can give you amazing leads and support your bids/proposals through their contacts. And they can help you get invited to seminars and conferences. MR would be wise to pursue this strategy on both a national and local level.
3. Every time your company is not short-listed, you should find out why. It’s just a matter of asking. Then use this invaluable information to increase your win ratio.
It sounds like MR’s company is technically very qualified at what they do. But maybe they’re going after projects they’re not qualified for. If that’s the case, they need to do a better job of pre-qualifying. Or maybe they’re going after projects where the technical "fit" isn’t ideal but they feel they still have a shot at winning. If that’s the case, proactive marketing (my first suggestion, above) could fix a lot of that.
4. Above and beyond getting customer testimonials, you must document the results of past projects. Track record is very important to government agencies.
Ideally, you should have two sets of marketing literature on hand. For techies, the literature would be heavy on documentation but with some testimonials thrown in. For the marketing people, it would have lots of testimonials with key technical capabilities highlighted.
And don’t get suckered in by conventional thinking – thinking that documentation is about meeting standards and testimonials are about exceeding them. Documentation should always strive to capture results that go beyond standards. For example, if the results are supposed to last one year, and your company’s results last two years, document that not as "at least one year" but as "at least two years." That way, your documentation backs up your testimonials, and vice versa.
Exceeding customer expectations puts you ahead of the competition, which is where you always want to be regardless of the market you’re in.
5. Try to get as many sole-source projects as possible, because bidding is time-consuming and costly, and the results are uncertain. Are small projects exempt? Emergency projects? Fast-track projects? Projects offered without solicitation? Projects under certain broad budget umbrellas? Set an aggressive target for yourself, but at least 15 percent of your revenue should come from sole-source projects.
6. Break out of the "small projects for small companies" mode. Go after a couple of big kahunas as a subcontractor. It’s likely that there are plenty of bigger companies that lack some of your expertise. This would give you access to a part of the market that has been off limits. But you must choose your partner carefully. A bigger company would see firsthand what you do and how you do it and try to develop your expertise in-house.
Andrew added that – like all companies – MR’s has to take advantage of repeat business. If a government agency has used his company and likes their work, that agency has the power to keep going back to MR for future projects. Government agencies can be very creative in giving their favorites a steady stream of work. MR’s job is to become that favorite company for every government agency they work for.
Even if you have the same kind of success as MR – and especially if you don’t – you can make your marketing work a lot harder for you. Become the very best at one particular element of your industry. Implement the suggestions we’ve given you today … and you should see your profits soar.
[Ed. Note: Get Michael Masterson's in-depth insights and practical advice for how to earn more, save more, and get rich faster than you imagined by picking up a copy of Automatic Wealth for Grads… and Anyone Else Just Starting Out, one of Amazon.com's Top 10 Finance and Investing Books of 2006.]
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Use Dialogue to Improve Your Presentations
By Peter "The Humorator" Fogel
Every day, we engage in dialogue with our kids, spouse, and co-workers. When we tell a humorous story, we use dialogue naturally and effectively. But we shy away from using dialogue in our "storytelling" during a presentation because we think it’s not "businesslike." When done properly, though, it can help you make a more powerful connection with your audience.
- Speaking in dialogue takes you from being the abstract "narrator" of your story to being in the same position as your audience.
- When introducing another character through dialogue, you are automatically making your story more interesting.
- When you repeat the words of another character, you’re changing the tone of your voice, which makes you less monotonous. (By the way, it’s also a good idea to look slightly to the left and then slightly to the right to differentiate between words spoken by two characters.)
- Effective use of dialogue can make your storytelling more conversational and easier to understand.
- Using dialogue will naturally create pauses throughout your story and vary the rhythm.
- Using dialogue helps you slow down your delivery, making it easier for your audience to digest the facts.
[Ed. Note: Peter Fogel is a copywriter, speaker, author, and the creator of Peter "The Humorator" Fogel's Guide to Effective Public Speaking. Get more information - and get Peter's FREE 7 Days to Effective Public Speaking e-course - on his website.]
Food for Thought: On the Loss of a Loved One
By Jon Herring
As my fiancee, Kelley, lay down to sleep last night, I went outside to call in her beloved cat Aspen. I walked to where Aspen was sitting, and as I approached to pick her up the sound of a car frightened her. She darted right into the car’s path and was hit. Aspen died peacefully in our arms a very short time later.
I have always welcomed challenge and adversity in my life. I have always looked for the positive, even when things are at their worst. I have always searched for the lessons, even in failure. My philosophy has been that though we cannot always control what happens to us, we can control the way we react to it.
But there is something about the finality of death. It cannot be reversed. We cannot call a "do over." We cannot bring that person or that animal back. There is no way to make amends… to say "I love you"… to say "I’m sorry"… or to give your dog or kitty one last scratch on the chin. All that’s left are memories.
I’m writing this message in hopes that it will remind you to say a few heartfelt words to those who are close to you. To mend a past transgression that is weighing on your mind. To forgive someone who may have crossed you. Or to take some pictures or a video with your friends and family and pets. These things will mean the world to you in the unfortunate event that those people or beloved animals are lost.
There’s one more point that I want to make here: Accidents can happen at any time – but what gets most of us is poor health and a slow decline. Don’t let that happen to you. Take control of your well-being and take care of yourself. We tend to think of our health in terms of how we look or how much we weigh. But the stakes are higher than that. This is your life we are talking about… and you are more precious than gold to the people who care about you.
[Ed. Note: Unfortunately, we will all experience loss in our lives. What can you do to make every moment count? Share your thoughts with other readers on ETR's Speak Out forum.]
What’s in a (Company) Name?
By Suzanne Richardson
If you’re struggling to come up with a name for your new company, you can identify with many entrepreneurs who’ve gone through that same struggle. Check out Wikipedia’s List of Company Name Etymologies. You’ll find that many well-known company names are either combinations of founders’ names, literary references, or just plain made up. Some examples…
- Arby’s is from the "R" and the "B" of its founders, the Raffel Brothers.
- Samsonite luggage was named for Samson of the Bible, known for his strength.
- George Eastman made up "Kodak," because he liked the way it began and ended with the "incisive" letter K.
- Baking soda giant Arm & Hammer was named for its founder, Armand Maccabee. "Maccabee" is a Hebrew name that means "hammer" in English.
- Kinko’s is "Kinko’s" because Kinko was founder Paul Orfalea’s nickname in college (from his curly red hair).
It’s Good to Know: About Dreams
Scientists may not know why you dreamt about playing tennis with Marilyn Monroe and Genghis Khan last night – but they have figured out that dreaming is connected to electrical activity in the brain during the REM (rapid eye movement) stage of sleep. Researchers estimate that the average person spends six years or more dreaming during a lifetime.
(Source: Discover Magazine)
Do You Need To Start Out Small?
If you don’t have an Internet business yet, or if your company is smaller than $1 million then you need something different… something that lets you start off small.
One man I know turned $10 into over $500,000. How’s that for starting small!
Let me show you how to get a similar Internet income stream running for almost nothing.
- Patrick Coffey
Word to the Wise: Hoary
"Hoary" – from the Old English for "gray" – is another way of saying "ancient."
Example (as used by D.T. Max in a New York Times review of Mergers & Acquisitions by Dana Vachon): "The set-up is hoary – wide-eyed outsider comes to the vast metropolis."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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