Paul Simister's Business Coaching Blog

Sales Training Articles Part 1

Some people see sales and marketing as two very different disciplines. Other people see them as two parts in the same process with others see little difference.

A sales person may be responsible for generating his or her own leads or may have qualified prospects supplied by the marketing department.

Either way, converting that prospect into a paying customer is an essential job that can make or break a business.

Sales training and ideas will help convert qualified potential customers while at the same time reduce the time and money wasted chasing people who will never buy.

Sales Training Articles

SPIN Selling Questions - Effective Sales Questions

Winning Business From Your Competitor

Find Your Hidden Sales Force - Your Employees

Best Selling System or Best Sales Systems

Business Start Up Articles

It is a wonderful dream to think about starting your own business and escaping the employment trap. At last you could be your own boss.

It's even more exciting when you start planning to turn that dream into reality.

It's also scary because you suddenly recognise all the things you need but you don't have.

And all the things you need to know but you don't.

I hope these help prepare you for what lies ahead.

Business Start Up Articles

What To Do When Your Marketing is Stuck

If you are one of the many small business owners who hate sales and marketing and you struggle to find the energy and enthusiasm to think about it, then I believe I’ve found something that will really help when you get stuck.

You know when I mean.

The phone’s stopped ringing.

There hasn’t been an email in days from a potential prospect… much less a hot lead desperate for exactly what you sell.

You need more business but… you’ve tried direct mail and it didn’t work.

You tried networking… and it didn’t work.

You hate telemarketing/prospecting … and you won’t do it.

So what do you do? Your marketing and sales are stuck and you know the simple rule… “No customers, no business.”

Bruce King and The Out'A The Box Marketing Kit

Let me introduce you to Bruce King and his innovative Out'A The Box Marketing Kit.

Bruce is author of 'How To Double Your Sales - the ultimate Sales Masterclasses on how to sell anything to anyone'. (Available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk – affiliate link)

And Bruce is the inventor of the Out'A The Box Marketing Kit which I think is a brilliant idea.

The Out'A The Box Marketing Kit – affiliate link

Marketing Training Programs Articles

Marketing is a big problem for many small business owners.

And where there is a problem, there is an opportunity.

There are marketing training programs to teach business owners the necessary skills to market, advertise and promote their businesses more effectively.

In fact, there is an overwhelming number of programs.

Inevitably some are great and offer great value.

Others are poor quality or very expensive for what they offer.

Some are confusing and may even lead entrepreneurs in the wrong direction.

There are three aspects to marketing training:

• Attracting prospective customers
• Converting prospects into paying customers
• Keep customers buying for the long term.

The Marketing Training With My Highest Recommendation

• The Small Business Growth Club from Scott Hallman. This is an affiliate link. It is so good that I have to keep telling people about it because Scott really does take you step by step through the process.
• Profitable Growth Strategies. I was so impressed with this training when I saw it that I pay to license it as my own white-label product.

Marketing Training Programs Articles

Joint Venture Master Course - The Keys to the Entrepreneurial Kingdom

A quick note to tell you about a course that my friend Spike Humer (former COO of the Jay Abraham Group) has put together to help you to succeed in creating Joint Venture deals.

Spike’s been very supportive of me recently with my illness and I’ve got a great interview with him as a bonus for becoming a silver member of my small business membership website Your Profit Club. {Note to self – ask Spike for another interview about JVs sometime]

To quote from the sales letter for the JV Master Course

“I invite you to “test-drive” Joint Venture Master Course - The Keys to the Entrepreneurial Kingdom. Simply because it’s ... The Ultimate Guide to Helping You Structure, Strategize and Orchestrate Lucrative Deals.

You’ll learn EVERYTHING you need to know to land yourself a successful JV partner in the shortest amount of time ... in fact, just 29 days from today!”

and then

 

“Joint Venture Master Course - The Keys To the Entrepreneurial Kingdom is unlike anything that you’ve read or studied about JVs before ... simply because I’ll get into the mechanics of you actually D-O-I-N-G the deals.

I will show you how to get instant access to lucrative assets like distribution, products, services, media, technology, brands, goodwill, credibility, and other “hidden assets”, literally on an “as needed” basis...

The moment I teach you the mindset and the “procedure” behind structuring profitable deals you won’t believe how quickly you can start landing one deal after the other. That’s why I can virtually guarantee your success.”

I’ve been lucky to have the work that Jay Abraham and Spike Humer have done together on Master of Passive Income and the Private Strategic Partnerships program (because Spike gave them to me) and I can tell you,. I think that Spike and his Joint Venture master Course have the power to totally transform a business.

Best of all, I thought he’s offering at a terrific price considering how much Jay charges for his courses.

Take a look – and no this isn’t an affiliate program – just a sincere thank you to Spike for his support in recent months.

Joint Venture Master Course

JV Articles

Spike Humer Articles

DANAMIC Coaching System - Andy Harrington & Dan Bradbury Webinar

I received an email from Dan Bradbury today which I hope he doesn't mind if I share, talking about the DANAMIC Coaching System, created by Andy Harrington.

Danamic webinar - affiliate link

I know this blog is about Business Coaching... and I know I try to make it clear I'm a business coach and not a life coach but...

even an ostrich with his head stuck in the sand has to admit that there are crossovers between life coaching and business coaching so I thought this would be of interest.

I must admit, I don't know much about DANAMIC although I've seen Dan promote it in the past. Now there is a webinar to find more and I’ve signed up for it.

7 Habits Of Highly Effective Marketers

Michael Port, author of the great book “Book Yourself Solid” has just uploaded a copy of his 7 Habits Of Highly Effective Marketers” webinar which I embed below.

7 Habits of Highly Effective Marketers from Michael Port, author of Book Yourself Solid from Michael Port on Vimeo.

Watch, enjoy and then click over to the Booked Solid University to discover how Michael Port can help you to market your business so well, you are booked solid.

Michael Port Articles

Paul’s Small Business Blog

Now that I’ve returned to blogging, it’s no surprise that I have decided to start a new blog…

Welcome to Paul’s Small Business Blog.

It will focus on issues of interest and concern to the small business owners around the world.

“But Paul, how does that differ from your Business Coaching Blog” do I hear you ask?

Well in some ways it doesn’t. My business coaching blog is very much about helping business owners make more money.

But…

Looking at my traffic statistics I realise that I get very little traffic for “small business” related searches from Google or the other search engines.

And looking at the Google keyword statistics, the numbers for searches for small business related information are often huge. I need to fix this since I’m not matching up well to the people looking for the business tips I give.

I’ve set up Paul’s Small Business Blog and it will include postings which could appear on this blog, links back to postings on this blog and general small business news items.

Buying Brainwaves–The Neuromarketing Hotspots

I am fascinated by the latest research being done in the area of Neuromarketing and what it can teach us.

If Neuromarketing is a new term to you, it is the study of brainwaves using modern image scanning equipment to see what gets the brain excited when thinking about buying and also where in the brain gets excited.

Practical Issues And Problems With Break Even Analysis

I find break even point analysis a very useful concept for monitoring the health of a business. However there are practical issues and problems that make it difficult to transfer the simple classroom idea to the real world.

Financial Accounts And Even Management Accounts Rarely Show A Contribution Margin

Break even analysis requires the contribution margin to be identified per unit of sale or as a percentage of sales value.

The accounts will rarely show a contribution margin.

Executive Village – A Small Business Mastermind Over Dinner

I heard about the Executive Village the other day and thought it was a great idea I would share with my readers in the UK.

What Is The Executive Village?

It’s a combination of networking and small group mastermind set over dinner.

I believe in the power of working with other people in a Mastermind and I’ve written about it before – see my blog postings on Business Masterminds.

Why I Love Helping Cash Strapped Business Owners?

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking recently about the type of business owners I really want to help.

My head and wallet cries out that I should be targeting business owners who are already performing really well, can afford to pay high fees to make more money and are willing to do so.

My heart says No.

The business owners I really want to help are those who are struggling and not doing as well as they’d like to.

These are what I call “Cash strapped business owners”.

7 Ways to Stop Chasing Decision Makers

What part of the selling process do you find most frustrating and hate?

I bet it’s either making that first cold call when you’re prospecting or when you get in and you think your presentation went well but… your contact, the buyer who assured you that a) he had the authority to commit and b) a solution was urgently needed, suddenly goes missing.

It’s as if she or he has vanished off the face of the earth.

Today I feature another guest article from sales training expert Ari Galper, perhaps counter-intuitively on how to STOP having to chase the decision makers.

Over to Ari…

7 Ways to Stop Chasing Decision Makers
By Ari Galper, Founder of Unlock The Game™

How To Protect Your Small Business From Cyber Attack

Earlier in October the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation arrested a ring of cyberthieves who stole $70 million in a direct attack on small businesses.

Today I learn that Aweber, perhaps the leading email service provider was successfully hacked and had email lists stolen which are now being spammed.

http://www.aweber.com/blog/uncategorized/data-accessed.htm

So when I got these tips on how to protect a small business from cyber attack from AVG Technologies I thought I should share them with you.

Who Has Stopped Spending In These Tough Times?

I am reading the excellent No BS Marketing To the Affluent book by Dan Kennedy at the moment which was written before the credit crunch and recession hit hard and before his latest New Economy books.

He makes a prediction in the book published in 2008.

The poor will carry on spending.

Yes the market may drop by 5 to 10% but so much of their spending power is on necessities it has to continue, even when financed by debt.

5 Mistakes To Avoid When Starting A Business

Thousands are being thrown out of work each day and many more fear for the security of their jobs in the short term future as the big Western economies continue to struggle with big economic worries.

You may be one of these people thinking about escaping this employment trap by starting your own business.

But quoted failure rates for start-ups can often seem scary with a high probability of failure.

The Small Business Administration (SBA) estimates that two-thirds of new establishments in the United States will survive two years; only 44 percent will survive four years. After that the survival rate drops to 31 percent, when the life of the business reaches seven years.

Dan Bradbury Articles

Dan Bradbury is a British coach and trainer to coaches and trainers.

He's got some harsh things to say about the big promises made by coaching training organisations.

He's young, he's brash.

I like him.

Dan Bradbury Articles

Serious Health & Illness Issues For Business Owners

What are the big differences between having your own business and being employed?

The risk and return ratio – you take risks in your own business for an uncertain return (called profit) which can be much higher than you could earn as employee or much lower than you’d accept for a job.

The amount of control you have over your own destiny. An employee (even a senior one) has someone else telling him or her what to do but as a business owner, you call all the shots.

I’ve been self employed with my own consultancy business since 1995 and I can’t imagine ever being employed again.

However the differences between being an employee and being the business owner have been brought home to me over the last two years as serious illness has hit me and my family hard.

JV Articles

Joint Ventures or JVs are a great way to gain strengths that you don't have in your business.

The most common joint venture is when one company has a great product and not enough customers and another has plenty of customers but doesn't have any new products.

Bring them together and share the profits on a fair basis and you have a win-win-win situation where both JV partners and the customers are happy.

JV Articles

John Carlton Articles

John Carlton is a legendary copywriter who has since become probably the world's best known teacher and mentor of copywriting.

By 2013, he is in a semi-retired position although he still works with his partner, Stan Dahll.

John Carlton Articles

The Best Marketing Ideas Of Jay Abraham

If you read my blog regularly, you will know that I am a big fan of Jay Abraham.

As well as promoting his training products and books /  reports, I've also written about what I believe are his best marketing ideas.

The Best Marketing Ideas Of Jay Abraham

3 Ways To Grow A Business With Exponential Growth

Marginal Net Worth

Amazon.com School of Copywriting