Latest / The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson / Optimize Your Sales Process with Alice Heiman

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Optimize Your Sales Process with Alice Heiman · The SmallBizChat with Melinda Emerson

• 0:00
  3, 10, 1, 0, ignition, liftoff, Ending small business failure.
• 0:11
  Welcome to the Small Biz Chat podcast with a number 1 small business expert Melinda Emerson.
• 0:17
  Bolinda's goal is to end small business failure, and she'll give you the information
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  you need to succeed and live the life you've dream of.
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  Now here's the small Biz lady herself.
• 0:29
  Melinda Emerson.
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  Hi, everybody.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson, small Biz lady.
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  I'm America's number one small business expert.
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  And it is my pleasure to welcome you to small biz chat, and we have an amazing show for you.
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  You know, we started small business chat because my mission is to end small business
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  failure, and everything we do is in support of that.
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  So with that, let me tell you a little bit about tonight's guest.
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  Sales expert, Alice hyman, and she is gonna talk to you about how to organize your sales
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  process and how to hire a great salesperson.
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  So I don't wanna keep you guys waiting any longer.
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  I would like to introduce And let me tell you something.
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  This lady, I've known her for years.
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  She is a good friend of mine, and she was gracious enough to come and hang out with us
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  tonight.
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  Her name is Alice Hyman, and Alice has been helping companies increase their sales for
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  nearly 20 years.
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  She's based in Reno, Nevada.
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  And her firm specializes in the complex sale and helping people strategize, with their sales
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  teams.
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  They help your, you know, the thing about it is you can't just hire salespeople.
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  You gotta train salespeople.
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  So Alice specializes in that.
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  She helps people find new business.
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  And grow business within existing account.
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  Now here's the secret guys.
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  Most of Alice's clients can claim that they've had more than a 30% increase in sales after
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  they work with her.
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  So she's the lady that I call when I need help with sales in organization, and I am so excited
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  to have her here with us tonight.
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  Alice, I appreciate your sales leadership advice.
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  Welcome to small fish chat live.
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  Well, it's wonderful to be here.
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  I'm really excited to talk with everybody who's listening about how they can build their sales
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  organization and grow their sales.
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  Absolutely.
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  So let's not even let people wait any longer.
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  I wanna know first thing, why is generating consistent sales so tough for small business
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  owners?
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  Right.
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  That, I mean, gosh, I every business owner I talk to wants to know the answer to that
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  question.
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  And I think, truly, the main reason is because business owner has so many things on their or
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  developing products or running, you know, a a location of some type and even though sales is
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  important and they know that they're just so busy and they don't carve out the time to sell.
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  And so it gets put on the back burner.
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  Well, I've gotta do this.
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  I've gotta do that.
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  Oh, gosh.
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  I didn't sell this week.
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  Right?
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  There wasn't enough selling time.
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  And unless you're in a retail spot where people are walking into you, you know, selling is a
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  lot of work, and you've got to make sure you've got time on your calendar to do it.
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  But there's another reason, Melinda, that some of us really have a tough time, and it's
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  because as a business owner, We never really thought about the sales aspect.
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  We never thought, oh my gosh, I'm gonna start a business and then I I, me, I'm gonna have to
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  sell.
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  And you know what?
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  Some people don't wanna be in sales.
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  They don't like sales.
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  They're afraid of it.
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  They think it's Jackie.
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  It's icky.
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  They don't wanna do it.
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  So that coupled with all the other things they have to do, if on top of it, they don't like
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  selling, they're it's they're gonna procrastinate and they're not gonna do it.
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  And then they find themselves in a terrible position because they just don't have the sales
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  they need to give them the cash flow to run their business.
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  That's a very common problem, but it when I think about small businesses, sales.
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  To me, it seems like it starts with a goal.
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  Right?
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  You know, I wanna understand how and when should a small business owner develop their
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  sales goals?
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  Yeah.
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  That should be before you ever open your doors.
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  Okay?
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  You've got to understand what your market is and what piece of that market your business can
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  get.
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  And if you know what your average sales going to be, whether it's business to business or
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  business to consumer, you have to understand that this is the market I feel like I can get
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  10% of that market because I've done my homework.
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  I've done my market research.
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  And if my average sale price is x, then I know exactly how many sales I have to make.
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  Right?
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  So I set that goal.
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  Now in the beginning of course, we wanna have these great big goals that we're gonna make,
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  but let's be reasonable with the resources that we have.
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  What would be reasonable.
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  The problem is that starting a business costs money, it takes a lot of time and we want the
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  money to come through the door fast, but it doesn't.
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  So we have to have enough cash on the bank to float us while we are getting our name out
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  there, building our brand, and letting people know about our products and services so that
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  they can start to come and talk to us and we can have conversations so that we can sell to
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  them.
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  It takes time, but that goal has to be set for you.
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  Open those doors, whether it's an online business, brick and mortar, business to
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  business, business to consumer.
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  It doesn't matter.
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  Get those goals set before you start.
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  And I love talking about sales goals because, you know, all the time, small businesses are
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  like, oh, yeah.
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  We're gonna make $1,800,000 in revenue this year.
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  I'm like, listen.
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  I don't care about how you're gonna make this year.
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  I wanna know how much you gotta make this week because if we know how much you gotta make this
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  week, we know how much you gotta make this month.
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  And It's not this pie in the sky owes something I can worry about tomorrow kind of number.
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  It's like, no.
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  We gotta make $50,000 this week.
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  Right.
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  And you gotta you've gotta break it down, Linda.
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  Yeah.
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  You are a 100% right.
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  So whatever your goal is, hopefully, it's based on reality so that you can make your role, but
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  break it down into small chunks, especially if you already have a sales team or if there's
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  others in your company that are to be helping you sell, It's too enormous for them to try to
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  go for that gigantic goal you've set.
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  We gotta do it by that hour, by the day, by the week, by the month, by the year.
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  Right?
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  Because if I know that I need $500 an hour to make my daily goal, you know, I can see, oh, I
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  didn't make $500 this hour.
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  So now I'm gonna have to catch up.
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  Right?
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  And I think this is a huge mistake.
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  So many companies make.
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  They think, well, you know, it cost me $750 a day to keep the doors or cost me $5000 a day to
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  keep the doors open depending on what size business.
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  Well, I didn't make $5000 a day.
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  I'll make it up through the rest of the week.
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  Well, then what happens tomorrow?
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  Then you only make 25100.
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  Now you've got 5000 plus 25100.
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  You gotta make up.
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  Now the 3rd day comes.
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  The 4th day comes.
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  And in a very short time, they are behind.
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  They're digging into their credit line.
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  They're panicking.
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  They don't have cash flow.
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  And I'll tell you what.
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  None of us are at our best when we are panicking.
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  Right?
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  I mean, holy cow.
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  We cannot be in panic mode.
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  So number 1, make sure your business is funded well enough for you to open the doors and to
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  withstand some time before that cash flow comes in.
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  But number 2, you have got to break those goals down to the smallest part so that everybody
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  understands.
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  The end of the day came, and we didn't hit that number.
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  So we need a plan to make that up this week.
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  What are we gonna do?
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  Absolutely.
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  Because if you don't work, you do not eat, and that is just how it is.
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  Are you tired or struggling in your business, not picking up paycheck, dreading dealing with
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  your business in the morning?
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  Are you regretting even starting your business in the first place?
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  Well, I know you're tired, and I also remember what that kind of tire is like.
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  But the good news is it's time to stop feeling that way.
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  Stop.
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  I'm Melinda Emerson's small business lady, and my new public picture business is a 9 90 day
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  turnaround plan to get back your life and reduce chaos in your business.
• 8:58
  I've been in business nearly 20 years and let me teach you how to build a business that works
• 9:03
  for you.
• 9:04
  Grab a copy to death.
• 9:08
  Now listen.
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  Let's switch gears a little bit.
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  I wanna talk to you about generating leads because Lee Jan seems to be where the trouble
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  starts.
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  And so I wanna talk to you a little bit about how it what are the best ways to generate leads
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  for small business?
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  Yeah.
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  This is something that you need to become expert at if you are going to be in business.
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  And if you are not expert at it, you better find an expert and you better have a budget to
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  pay them.
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  The the issue comes when we have a couple of interested businesses, just 2 or 3, and they're
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  not really ready yet.
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  But we've gotta make our number, and they're the only three deals we've got So we're forcing
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  that issue and then freaking out when we don't get their business.
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  We have got to stay out of that trap.
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  Now you have 2 guests coming on a little bit later that are gonna talk about some ways to
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  use social media and video and things to help generate leads.
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  But let me give you some really basic and easy ways to generate leads that anyone can do.
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  Again, I specialize in business to business complex sale.
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  But these things work for business to consumer.
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  They work for retail.
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  They work for business to business that isn't a complex sale.
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  These things work.
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  Okay?
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  So now number 1, you have got to tell your friends and family that you are in business.
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  And this seems like a no brainer.
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  Right, Melinda?
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  Tell your friends and family.
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  Please tell your friends and family, but you would not believe how many people don't do it
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  And if they do it, they do it one time maybe during the launch.
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  And that's just not enough.
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  You have to remind your friends and family over and over again that you are in business and
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  that you would love to have them help you in whatever way They can.
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  I mean, this is pretty simple, but it doesn't happen.
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  So please tell your friends and family that you're in business make sure they understand
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  what you do in the simplest terms.
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  Make sure they can repeat it to other people and make sure they are out there being a walk
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  in advertisement for you.
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  Make sure they have business cards in your wallet.
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  Melinda, I bet your mom has your business cards in her wallet.
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  My mom carries my books in her purse, Alice.
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  It's ridiculous.
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  I mean, I'm I
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  love it.
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  Anybody that'll talk to her.
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  Right?
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  Right.
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  So that's what we have to do, though.
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  We have to get our family to do that.
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  They love us course are gonna help us.
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  Right?
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  So that's a number 1.
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  If you're not doing that, you are missing a lot of business.
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  Okay?
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  Number 2, you have got to get out and network.
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  People need to see your face.
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  This has been the truth since the dawn of time.
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  People want to know you like you and trust you before they buy from you.
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  You've heard that from a 1,000,000 different sales experts.
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  I didn't make that up.
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  Right?
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  So if that's the case, how are you gonna do that?
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  Now luckily today, it's easier than ever.
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  And especially for people who are not as extroverted as you and I, Melinda.
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  They're not yeah.
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  Oh, Shied?
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  No.
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  Right?
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  But these introverted people have to do it too.
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  So if you own a business, everybody in your company needs to have sales on their mind.
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  Don't hire people who tell you they don't wanna sell.
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  You're too small for that.
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  And even as you grow, Let's make sure that we have everyone in the company understanding that
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  they have a role in the sales process.
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  Right?
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  So they could be out there too.
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  Everyone can go network.
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  It doesn't matter if you own a restaurant and it's the dishwasher.
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  That dishwasher can go network.
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  It doesn't matter if you're a manufacturer, and the person who packs the boxes, that person can
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  go network.
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  And, Melinda, we need them to find great places to network.
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  For example, what are some places you go out in network?
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  Oh, well, you know, the Navajo chapter here in my area is terrific.
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  Also, the the Chamber of Commerce is a good place to network.
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  And then certainly just sometimes you just end up knowing other moms who own businesses at
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  your kid's school.
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  You know, I mean, there's all kinds of places where you meet people.
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  I think that you always have to be prepared for me, which means you know, you need to look like
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  the person they're supposed to talk to no matter where you go.
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  I don't get on an airplane looking to mess.
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  I never Right.
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  Never come outside me.
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  And I almost almost always have cards or at least one of my books with me in my purse.
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  So those are things that I do the network, Alice.
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  So give me one more because we gotta go to break.
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  Yeah.
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  Well, I think you can look for, of course, any professional organization that has to do with
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  what your company does.
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  There's the human resource societies and there's, you know, the accounting associations
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  and there there's an association for everything, and they're in the city where you
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  live.
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  So certainly take advantage of that.
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  But then just look for other things that maybe you wouldn't normally do.
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  But Think about groups like rotary, for example.
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  What a great place to go meet a lot of other business owners.
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  So be open, go to meetup.com, search on the internet, your chamber probably has a list of
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  tons of other organizations where you can go network.
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  So be open to it and be looking for places where you can go out and meet people.
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  Well, Alice, I really appreciate your advice.
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  That was really, really helpful.
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  So listen.
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  You guys know here on small business chat our mission is to end small business failure.
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  And, you know, if you don't understand sales, you're not gonna be in business long.
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  So what do I need to do first?
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  Before I hire a salesperson.
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  Right?
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  Because the issue is not necessarily that you need a salesperson.
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  You need to figure out if you're ready to hire a salesperson.
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  Right?
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  Oh, yes.
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  You absolutely have to be ready, and I think that's the biggest mistake that's made with
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  hiring.
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  The first thing you have to do is write out a clear job description for this salesperson.
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  What exactly is it you want them to do?
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  The problem is that if you've never hired a salesperson before, you may not know the answer
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  to that question, so you might need to get some help.
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  But you can look around on the internet for other jobs, job descriptions that are similar
• 15:20
  to the one you're gonna hire for and get some ideas that way.
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  There's also people who can help you that are human resource people helping you write a job
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  description.
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  So what is this person gonna do?
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  2nd, you need to think about what kind of person do you want?
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  Is this a go go go, you know, really thoughts kind of person, or is this sort of a person who
• 15:39
  needs to take their time and take it easy and be a little calmer?
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  What kind of personality style should they have?
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  And how will that integrate with your culture?
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  So you really need to think about that as well.
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  And then thirdly, you need some success factors.
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  How will you know if this person is doing a good job or not with the 1st month, the 2nd
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  month, 3rd month, the 6th month, what are the metrics you're gonna put in place to let you
• 16:05
  know if they're doing that?
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  So there's 3 things basically.
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  A great job description.
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  What kind of person do you want and how they're gonna fit in your culture?
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  And then the third one is what are the success factors in How are you going to measure them?
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  That's good stuff.
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  Good.
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  Good.
• 16:20
  Good stuff.
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  Now listen.
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  So now that I know all that stuff, how do I go about recruiting this person?
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  What do I do?
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  So this is a oh, gosh.
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  A tough one.
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  What happens is usually people put out an ad and they put it you know, on the internet.
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  We don't have newspapers anymore.
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  You just be the newspaper, but we put it out on the internet, and we get resumes.
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  And we filters through those resumes, and we pick a few people who fit, and then we
• 16:46
  interview them and we hire 1.
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  And this is what I call hiring the best of the worst.
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  So we don't really get a good salesperson that way.
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  And then we throw them into the job.
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  And then what happens?
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  They don't do very well, even if we give them the great training and the great coaching and
• 17:05
  all of that, which many companies actually don't give.
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  But even if we do that, sometimes these people won't make it because they're not a good fit.
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  So the best way is to ask the people who work with you already who already know your culture.
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  They know your products.
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  They know you ask them who do they know that would be a great salesperson for your company,
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  and maybe those people are gainful and employed to say something like, oh, you know, who would
• 17:33
  be great, Heather, but she works for so and social.
• 17:36
  Never leave.
• 17:37
  Fantastic.
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  That's the one I want, and I'm gonna go try to get her.
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  So get people to make suggestions to you of people who they think would be fantastic, even
• 17:46
  if those people are gainfully employed, You can start to approach them, get to know them, and
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  see if they would just consider having a conversation with you to learn about your
• 17:56
  opportunity.
• 17:57
  And you'd be surprised if occasionally, you can get them to switch.
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  But I'll tell you this is not easy.
• 18:03
  And if you can afford it, and and I think everybody really can afford it because it's a
• 18:07
  lot less expensive to get the right help, hire a specialist, hire somebody who is a specialist
• 18:14
  in hiring salespeople to help you.
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  I can't agree with you more, and I've done that.
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  And it has worked out beautifully in my company.
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  Now, Alice, here's my last question for you.
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  What kind of compensation should you be prepared to pay?
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  I mean, other people out here still working for commission only, like, what what is it that you
• 18:32
  need to be thinking about because I think part of our issue is we don't know how to pay a
• 18:36
  salesperson either.
• 18:38
  This is a difficult answer because it really does depend on the situation.
• 18:44
  Retail is different than business to consumer.
• 18:47
  And then business to business is different.
• 18:49
  And then if it's business to business complex sale, it's different.
• 18:53
  So you really have to get a baseline.
• 18:56
  Figure out in the community where you wanna hire the salesperson.
• 18:59
  It might be your own community or if you have, Salesforce, it's gonna be all over the country.
• 19:04
  For that city, what are, you know, you've got a job description, you've got your metrics for a
• 19:10
  salesperson of the type that you want, what would a baseline pay be?
• 19:14
  Now you can go on the internet and get some of this information.
• 19:17
  You can do a wage survey, but you're gonna want find out what others who do the same type of
• 19:23
  job are being paid.
• 19:24
  That's number 1.
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  And, of course, then you're gonna have to decide whether you can afford that or not.
• 19:29
  But if you are a new company and maybe there's a new territory, it's gonna be more difficult
• 19:37
  because no smart salesperson is gonna leave a great territory where they're making great
• 19:42
  money and come over to your company where It's a brand new territory, and they don't know
• 19:47
  whether they're gonna make any money or not.
• 19:49
  So you might have to pay a little bit more upfront to get those people to come on over
• 19:54
  and, you know, sweeten up the deal a little bit, give them some other benefits.
• 19:58
  So it really depends on what you pay them, but I will tell you this.
• 20:02
  Do not hire a salesperson who works solely for you on straight commission.
• 20:08
  It is not a good idea.
• 20:11
  Now if there's a person who set up a business for themselves and they sell for several
• 20:15
  different companies and they have success and you've talked to the other companies they work
• 20:19
  for and they have success, or there's some sort of manufacturer's rep or distributor that has
• 20:23
  success, that's fine.
• 20:26
  And some of them will work on straight commission.
• 20:29
  But if they're working only for you, it doesn't work.
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  I don't even have time to explain why now.
• 20:35
  You're all welcome to contact me, and I'll tell you do not go out and look for a straight
• 20:39
  commission salesperson to work solar for you.
• 20:42
  Don't do it.
• 20:43
  Well, I think that that is a good last word, and we're gonna leave it right there.
• 20:47
  And thank you so much, Alice.
• 20:49
  This was so helpful.
• 20:51
  Listen, you guys.
• 20:52
  I appreciate you all so much.
• 20:54
  Thank you so much for joining me.
• 20:56
  On small fish chat.
• 20:57
  We will be back next week next Wednesday.
• 21:00
  The mission of small fish chat is to end small business failure.
• 21:04
  I'm Melinda Emerson's small biz lady, and I will leave you with this.
• 21:07
  You never lose in business.
• 21:09
  Either you win or you learn.
• 21:10
  We'll see you next time.
• 21:12
  Bye bye.
• 21:15
  Thank you for listening to the Small Biz Chat podcast with Melinda Emerson.
• 21:20
  For more resources and small business success strategies, visit succeed as your own boss.com.
• 21:26
  So back to this podcast wherever you listen to the podcast and join us next Wednesday.