Feel the Force - Become a Business Jedi

  I have had an interesting week and have spent a bit of time with a number of franchisees. I massively enjoy talking to you all and always come away with some new thinking, or something happens that acts as a reminder for me. I was chatting to a small group saying how pissed off I get when you put in a quote and then you never hear again. Well that had happened to me a few times over the last couple of weeks – a couple of nice quotes had been put forward after following my structured process and then radio silence. For some reason some prospects seem to have access to the “witness protection scheme”…… uncontactable. And the fact was I had followed up more than a few times on each…… and got nothing back. However, following my trip I was determined to get an answer and find out why they hadn’t purchased from us. I was determined to ensure that I either got a return for my time investment by getting a “yes” or I found out the reason they had not moved forward. Happily I can confirm t...

  Check this out.... I was in London the other weekend watching my daughter Tori doing the London 10K run. It was a great little run through the streets of the West End, along the Embankment, past Big Ben and then to Downing Street. At the end of the run we decided to go for lunch in Covent Garden.  You'll probably know that there are lots of restaurants around Covent Garden and there is a certain one called Flat Iron. It was recommended to us but you can't book. After a short walk we arrived to find a queue of people waiting to get in for meal. And I mean a queue - check out the photo. We were starving so we didn't bother waiting and moved on. However, this got me thinking... how can a little restaurant attract so much attention and yet other restaurants nearby were empty? What was this place doing that clearly had raving fans queuing to get in for food? I appreciate that we are in a very different market than a restaurant but doesn't it make you think?  What am I doin...

On the Lockforce monthly call on Tuesday there was mention that customers are using the Whats App facility to contact you via a text message as opposed to calling. This was reiterated again in another couple of conversations thereafter. So this has got me thinking? Is this a trend or just a bit of a blip...? From the stats I see there is clear use of the What App function on the webpages, but still relatively small compared to calls. So how do we deal with the dreaded Whats App / Facebook message, text or email..... "I need some new locks, how much will it be?" or something similar. Here is something that I use in the event that I see something similar on Facebook... Customer... "Hello, I would like a quote for xxx." Response... "I am sorry to hear that you have a problem.  So that I can understand the situation and give you the best advice , what is the best number to contact you on…?" This will get me one of 2 responses..... 1)  They text me the number t...

  I was chatting to Damien earlier this week who laughed to say he was in Birmingham last weekend and left his keys in his car.  First a call to the local Lockforce technician who couldn’t help. Car locks are a special type of work and some of the team can open car doors. Then a few calls to some other locksmiths who quoted £200-£300 to gain entry!!  Eventually he found someone who was offering a reasonable £75 but was on a job and couldn’t make it until 9pn {about a 2 hour wait).  Damien didn’t want to wait so ended up ringing his brother to arrange the spare keys to be driven to Birmingham.    However, just before 9pm the locksmith who was busy sent a follow up text to Damien to see if he had got the situation sorted.  And guess what, Damien told him that he was still waiting to get a solution and a short time later the locksmith has retrieved the keys and Damien was sorted. This local locksmith was a very wise man to send a follow up text to see if ...

I was with a franchise recently and he received an inbound call from a 0161 (Manchester) number. He immediately rejected the call and mumbled about it being “another bloody sales call”. The number was actually 0161 820 6080 …. and is our outsourced team that deal with some of our phone calls. They are called MIPA and are based in Manchester. They receive calls from the website, put the customers details on the Ops system and will look to patch the customer through to you directly. So I would recommend that you save the NUMBER to your phone and label it accordingly so you know what to expect if they call you. Yes, you will pay commission on the job if it is successful but better to get the job than not. As an aside I know that many franchisees ignore calls from dial codes outside of their area assuming that they are sales calls. Personally I would not ignore any call as it could be a genuine prospect. And if you are getting sales calls then look to block the number. You can...

 I attended an online conference today to extend and enhance my skills and knowledge. It was all about Sales and one of the first things that was mentioned was First Impressions. Here at the Forces Group we talk about the fact that 1st Impressions Count and last....  ---> and never forget you don't get a second chance to make a good first impression!! But there was one statistic mentioned today that really stood out to me.... First Impressions are made in the first 4 seconds.... just 4 seconds.... really? I was so intrigued that I looked into this further and there is another statistic that says it is 7 seconds and another study that says it is actually fractions of a second. There is a lot of psychology involved here and I don't intend to spend hours researching BUT I am taking the premise very seriously and I would suggest that you do too.... Why...? Because if it is true then it could change your business, and there is no way it will hurt your business. So here is someth...

To grow a financially strong business having income that is "guaranteed" each year is a wonderful thing.  So when you receive a call from a customer asking for you to quote for a "contract" it is understandable that you might get excited.  I know I get excited when asked to quote for some work, particularly if it looks quite a big opportunity. However, I have also learned that it is important to stay grounded and be curious. Most other sales people will be rushing to their vehicles to get down and see the potential opportunity and they will do everything they can to secure the deal. I strongly advise the "be curious" approach..... The main reason is that I want to understand more about the opportunity before I started getting excited and more importantly, investing my time to help the customer and secure the work. I want to qualify the opportunity (and the customer) IN or OUT.  Qualified IN means that I will spend more time and Qualified OUT means that I w...

Your Conversion Rate (CR) is a simple calculation of Jobs Won divided by the number of leads. In mathematical terms you couldn't get any more simple and the result is a simple %. If you read up much around marketing then you may see the reference of CR or CRO (Conversion Rate Optimization). This is a term that can relate to many different aspects of sales and marketing but for this matter it is as simple as No. of Jobs divided by the No. of Leads (calls, text, etc...). I have seen CR's as low as 15% and then up into the 80%'s. And let no-one kid you that they convert all their calls!!!! Learning to convert calls is all part of your key learnings in business and is this video I touch on some of the basics... There is a lot more involved in the sales process and look out for a following video talking about the various steps in the sales process and how each step involves investment from the customer.

In this video we share 2 simple and easy ideas to help make you stand out from the majority..... Saving the names of your customers (past and present) will make you stand out from the majority.   If you can spare the 19 seconds it takes to save down the contact number and name of each customer will put you in the Top 20 of business owners.  How much more impact will you have with customers if you can answer the phone and know who is calling, and then make it personal.............?  "Hi there Mrs Taylor, its Sean speaking, how can I help you.....?" Imagine a customer from a previous year calling you and you answer with their name.....!!  It is so simple but MASSIVE. And then on the other hand do you store your own details as  CONTACT in you phone - full name, phone number and email.... AND WHAT YOU DO!! This then makes it easy to "share" you Contact Card with customers and they can then simply save your details in there phone at the press of a button. Anoth...