Sales Ideas

* Start every day with two cold calls.
* Read newspapers, business journals, and trade publications for new business openings, personnel appointments, and promotion announcements made by companies. Send your business literature to appropriate individuals and firms.
* Give your sales literature to your lawyer, accountant, printer, banker, temp agency, office supply salesperson, advertising agency, etc. (Expand your sales force for free!)
* Put your fax number on order forms for easy submission.
* Set up a fax-on-demand or e-mail system to easily distribute responses to company or product inquiries.
* Follow up on your direct mailings, email messages, and broadcast faxes with a friendly telephone call.
* Try using the broadcast fax or email delivery methods instead of direct mail. (Broadcast fax and email allows you to send the same message to many locations at once.)
* Use broadcast faxes or email messages to notify your customers of product service updates.
* Extend your hours of operation.
* Reduce response/turnaround time. Make reordering easy – use reminders. Provide preaddressed envelopes.
* Display product and service samples at your office.
* Remind clients of the products and services you provide that they aren’t currently buying.
* Call and/or send mail to former clients to try and reactivate them.
* Take sales orders over the Internet.

Requirements of good packaging

* Functional – effectively contain and protect the contents
* Provide convenience during distribution, sale, opening, use, reuse, etc.
* Be environmentally responsible
* Be cost effective
* Appropriately designed for target market
* Eye-catching (particularly for retail/consumer sales)
* Communicate attributes and recommended use of the product and package
* Compliant with retailers’ requirements
* Promotes image of enterprise
* Distinguishable from competitors’ products
* Meet legal requirements for product and packaging
* Point of difference in service and supply of product.
* For a perfect product, perfect colour.

Small Business Market Research

Market research is an essential area for small businesses to make sure that they understand what is happening in their market and what their customers want and need.

Unfortunately when you think “market research” you can fall into the trap of thinking of big, formal market research projects conducted by market research agencies and which need a massive budget.

It doesn’t have to be like that and I am offering a free eight page report Small Business Market Research for you to download. I’m not even making you submit your email address because I don’t want to put any obstacles in your way – that’s how important I believe market research is.

There are three aspects of market research:

1. What is happening to the overall market? How is it being affected by the wider economic forces.

2. What do customers want and need? What are the problems they want to solve? What are the consequences and the experiences they want from your product or service?

3. Who are the competitors? What are they offering? Where are you stronger or weaker? How can you emphasise your competitive advantages?