Annie Kile

Have you ever driven a vehicle when the tires weren’t properly aligned? If you have you probably know what it’s like for your car to want to make a left hand turn on its own or been slightly embarrassed as your vehicle wobbled down the highway during your morning commute.

When things (including tires) are in alignment it means that parts work together because they’re properly ordered or arranged. Today small business owners are hearing a lot about how “sales and marketing alignment” ...

Many small business owners will fess up to the fact that they didn’t realize part of owning a small business meant they needed to learn how to sell – not to mention overcoming their own personal prejudices about “Sales” in order to do so.

But there’s something a lot of small business owners are even more uncomfortable about: Collections.

It doesn’t matter how much you sell if people don’t pay up. If you find yourself sitting on a ton of unpaid invoices, you need to ...

People tend not to buy from your small business unless they believe it is in their own best interest to do. The central question a customer asks when making a buying decision usually boils down to “Why should I buy from you?” While the specifics may vary, unless your prospect provides an answer that takes some form of “I want to buy from your business because I have trust and confidence in your small business” they aren’t likely to buy from you.

Credibility is key to the success ...

In today’s market a small business owner had better make it their business to improve their sales skills. No, we’re not talking about smarmy sales “tricks” or attempting to “manipulate” people into buying from. Those type to sales tactics lack integrity – which means they also communicate to your potential buyer that you – and your business lack integrity as well.

Many small business owners started their businesses during Boom Times and, up until now, thought that all those experts ...

About 60% of all referrals to your business will result in a sale.
It costs less (5 to 10 times less) to retain a customer than find a new one.
Both of these statements are true. While the statistics may vary, you will close more sales on prospects that have been referred to you than those who are not referred, and it definitely is less expensive and therefore more profitable to retain existing customers. So it only makes good business sense to make garnering referrals and ...