I am a little fixated on quotes right now. Earlier this week I wrote about how bad they were. (Read it here.) And then I did something really silly. I asked my members to each send me a copy of their latest quote to a client. In return I promised each a free quote overview and upgrade, as part of their membership.

Let me explain.

You spend some money each month on marketing. (Marketing is a polite word describing all the things you do to get people to knock at your door because they have a problem that you can solve.) And you spend more money on selling. (Selling covers all the things you do to turn that door-knocker into a paying client.)

Day in and day out these processes work towards you being able to “quote” the client. That “quote” is like a marriage proposal, after a long (and often arduous) pursuit.

As an aside, I have some experience in marriage proposals. I have proposed just four times.  I was accepted three times. In one case I was gently reprimanded for delivering the worst proposal the future Mrs Carruthers had ever heard, and, it appears, she was somewhat of an expert on the matter. She suggested I polish it up a little and come back the next week. I did.

The point of all the expensive activity, this marketing and selling stuff, is to be asked for a “quote”, or, as I prefer to call it, the “proposal”.

As I write this I have 100 such proposals sitting in my inbox. Some are wonderful, easy to read, clear and to the point. Those three work very, very often. The rest are a very mixed bag, some of which redefine one’s level of archaic.

Please bear in mind that these are sales proposals written by folk just like you and me. Wonderful people who make and sell fine products and services. But cannot write for toffee. This means that too many of their business efforts die in the bin when their prospects cannot open their proposals, or see a disconnect between what they see and what is being promised.

In the absence of something to touch, feel, or smell – the little things we see are the only way a buyer can assess your offer. Little things like your proposal. That proposal is the lynchpin of your business.

The best way I can demonstrate this is to ask you to check out the website of my favourite sleeping place in Cape Town: Jambo. I have mentioned it often. The site is elegant and eclectic, like the room I stay in, and like Barry & Mina. Each time is a new experience.

Then look at their old website from earlier this year. (It is here.) The cost of upgrading the website to reflect the experience was minuscule.  The establishment is the same. But a prospect now gets a much, much more accurate reflection of the experience.

Most buyers are far more worried about avoiding risk than they are about optimising enjoyment. And the slightest dissonance can send them to the fellow outside with a service that sucks, but a heck of a proposal. (That, by the way, is why many prospects buy from other suppliers.)

Hire me for the next month, for just $21.97, and I will help you upgrade your “quote” to a proposal as well. If you find enough value to stick around for another month, you do not have to do anything. If not, a simple email will cancel. Please join me here.

Whether you use me or not, your proposal is worth a second look. It is the lynchpin connecting your marketing and selling to your bank balance.

(Just to clear the air – I had nothing to do with the new Jambo website, but I think it is gorgeous, just like the place.)

I cannot guarantee this, but after seeing 350,000 Google enquiries wasted, I am pretty sure. After working through this email quote approach with more than 50 clients these past few months, I know how easy it is to double their sales. That’s a good thing because it pays for their first year of Business Warriors in their first month.

I don’t know about you, but selling is a lot more fun when people actually purchase. And the more often that happens, the more fun it is.

It isn’t just the money. It is the people. Business is all about relationships, about understanding people. You can get some theory from books, but the real learning happens in the ring. As it were.

Which brings us back to that emailed quote. That document is not personal. It is like being invited out on a date by Miss SA, and at the appointed time sending an SMS describing my attributes. And this while Antonio Banderasis riding by on his horse. In other words, I cannot expect a second chance.

Almost every quote I see needs help. This is because it is not designed as a sales document. It is not so much a love letter as it is an Pre-Nuptial Contract. Hint: A date and some love letters usually precede the Contracts.

The quotes are usually sent out prematurely. At the time that we send them we don’t yet know nearly enough about the prospect, her challenges, her needs, and the issues that bother her most. Usually they are just templates, and the only thing that changes is the Dear Jane at the top. (And if we use Dear Sir/Madam we don’t even have to do that.)

She knows this because she gave us a few vague details, yet our response includes our entire catalogue.  Most quotes do not ask her for the sale. Nor do they tell her exactly what she needs to do to, you know, actually make the purchase.

This is tough enough when we are selling products, stuff she can see, feel, and smell. It is worse when we are selling services. And it is much worse when we are selling experiences. An experience is a customised service. For instance, a night at City Lodge is a service, while a stay at Jambo is an experience.

Without something she can touch, feel or smell, our email quote is a sad proxy. And in the absence of any other way to trust what we offer, every spelling mistake sucks the life out of our promise of excellent service. Every bad picture sucks away a little more. As does the design which predates the Internet. And when our email quote is a Word or excel document, which she cannot open, well, there is always Antonio moseying by.

The only folk who can afford to not take their selling personally are those fine folk working for large firms which encourage them to leave their personalities at the door before checking in. They get paid, sale or not. But that’s a good time for you to be the person on the horse, isn’t it?

Hello. I am Peter Carruthers. May I re-introduce myself?

I have helped thousands of small business owners since 1992. At first I focused on helping them survive business closure. I realised that: Almost none of their businesses would have had to close if they had made enough sales.

Even now, almost every business problem I see results from too little income flowing into a business. This is almost always caused by too few sales. Business Warriors exists to help you make more sales: So that your business makes enough profit for you to live well, and leads you to true independence.

I focus on business owners (most of whom don’t much like selling) and I welcome anybody else who needs inspiration and help selling enough to make a wonderful living.

You will get a daily nudge that keeps you focused on selling, no matter how busy you are

I bet you did not start your business expecting to face the myriad daily challenges you now face?

Just one thing holds you back from consistent success: More sales.

And “More Sales” starts with “Just One More Sale“. It’s like that old adage about eating an elephant: Take one bite at a time. And that’s what Business Warriors membership will do for you. Imagine just one more sale today, then tomorrow, then the day after, …

You don’t need great selling skills, although I will share those with you.

You don’t need great marketing skills either, although I will share those with you as well.

All you need to do to make just one more sale today is to sit down and do it. And that is where I really can help you.

Each morning I will email you an idea that is worth just one more sale.

That email is a tiny bite of sales or marketing guidance. You will be able to read it in less than five minutes. But it will prompt you to take a few minutes to focus on just one more sale. And that is exactly what will happen: Just one more sale. And that’s a little more money in the bank. Then we do it again tomorrow. Small bites, short focus, many sales, and your dreams fulfilled from your desk.

You can share these with any relevant person on your business, because everyone has some contact with clients.

You get personal training and consulting that addresses your unique issues

Many of my clients face challenges that need more personal attention.

If this happens to you just email me about the problem. (I read my own mail so it is always confidential.)

I will schedule a time to talk via Skype and we will discuss the issue until you are comfortable to carry it to the next stage.

If I notice a trend, with a few members facing a similar problem, I will schedule a webinar to deal with it “Live”.

One of the benefits of this kind of consulting approach is that I can cross-pollinate ideas across industries, creating approaches that are truly unusual. In tough markets this leads to impressive sales increases.

You get a weekly sales training course that enhances your skills

Each week I do an hour of live training online. I also record each session as a video for online viewing on demand, or for download.

This training happens in short bursts, which makes it much easier for you to assimilate each lesson, and apply it in your own business. Rather than trying to remember an entire day of theory to apply in your next meeting.

This means that for the price of a single offline sales seminar, you get 52 hours of training focused on improving your selling and marketing skills in small nudges over each year.

And, you pay in small monthly chunks as well , as you learn and implement, rather than pay one outlandish fee up front..

It also means that you can raise issues pertinent to your own industry, anonymously, in front of a group of small business peers. It’s wonderfully sobering to see what 100 others think about your new sales presentation, or your new USP (Unique Selling Proposition), or your new website.

You can also share these videos with anyone in your firm who you think might benefit.

A few weeks ago I began writing a Daily Sales Idea for my clients at Business Warriors. It arrives each morning, before their day has gone to the dogs. It is short and concise, and needs no more than 5 minutes to read and do.

Those folk who have read these short, early-morning ideas, have already started selling more products and services.

Please go here to get these daily sales ideas early each morning for the next five weekdays. There is no cost and no obligation. Apply these simple ideas and you will sell more this week, next month, and for every year that you continue in business.

But, please do it right now. This list will close at midnight tonight (Tuesday April 23). The sequence starts tomorrow (Wednesday) and ends next Tuesday.

Finally, if you know somebody that can use a little sales support right now, please forward this email to them.

Tired of battling uphill?

Just one thing decides whether your business efforts will buy you a new house or lose you your current house. Since 1992 I have spent thousands of hours with people in the throes of closure, trying to understand why.

I used to blame the banks. They lend us money based on the assets we own, not based on our chances of success, nor on our business plans.

And I blamed the government for getting in the way.

And like most Petesweekly readers, I blamed the staff.

There is no shortage of problems and distractions that get in the way of your or my success.

But I was wrong. Those were simply distractions.

There is just one reason why small businesses fail. It’s blindingly simple. It’s obvious. In fact, it’s so obvious that you will not believe it. And the cure is so simple that you probably won’t fix it. It just cannot be that simple. It must be something more important.

I’m so convinced of this that the rest of my time as a consultant and mentor will focus on solving this challenge for each of my clients. (It is a challenge more than a problem.)

Don’t get me wrong, I’m quite happy to teach people how to negotiate with SARS, and survive the CCMA, and how to build portable income streams, along with helping sort out all the other distractions that will ultimately close your business and mine. But without this one key focus, everything else is a waste of time.

The single biggest reason for us each not prospering is that we each need just one more sale. But we are too busy doing something else to get that one more sale.

How much would one more sale be worth to you this year? Unless you are selling power stations, I suspect not high enough to get that new house. How about one more sale each month this year? Or one more sale each week this year? Or even one more sale each day this year?

One more sale! It’s that simple. The entire purpose of your business is to make just one more sale, after the sale you’ve just made, and before the next one more sale. And yet, we use every possible excuse we can find, and if we can’t find excuses we invent them, just so that we don’t have to chase that one more sale.

Why?

Because it’s so much easier to focus on real work like PAYE reconciliations. Or doing the accounts. Or planning for the future. Or doing the filing.

You see, the only person who knows that you are not selling right now is, well, you. Nobody else does. They think you are working when you sit in front of that spreadsheet. You are working, but on distractions you can do tonight, or (even better) distractions others can do for you – if you make enough sales. In the midst of all the other small turds landing on your desk, each wanting your immediate attention, it’s so easy not to make one more phone call, or send one more email. (I know, before my Ph.D in Pocrastination I Mastered in desk-turd-shuffling.)

And the better your business is doing, the easier it is to stop focusing on one more sale, because the distractions grow relentlessly. You and I did not start our businesses to shuffle turds. Give that work to someone who wants it.

I think that this is so important that each Business Warrior will get a sales reminder every single business day. It will be just one practical idea that will help make one more sale each day. It starts on Monday. I have already have this years powerful, simple, effective ideas scheduled to go. Each is easy to do, needing just a few minutes. Each will bring in at least one more sale this year. And next year. And…  Practical, simple ideas to help you make one more sale.

The only thing that is keeping the wolf from my door is that one more sale. And since you and I each face this same challenge,  what works for me will work for you. And what’s worked for my clients will work for you. The single most important thing you can do today is make one more sale. Good luck.

After four weeks of touch-and-go influenza I have not yet changed the introductory offer at Business Warriors. The price should be $29.97. It remains at $21.97 (about R200)  until end of day tomorrow.    Please join us here to see what a daily dose of “selling salts” can add to your bottom line. (And if it adds no value, ask for your money back.)