business strategies

3 Simple Solutions to Avoid the Summer Sales Slump

Not every industry slumps in the summer, but some do. Mine is one. According to what “everyone” says, July and December are historically slump months for my industry. People aren’t holding a lot of conferences. Everyone is on vacation. No one is particularly focused on their business.

I don’t buy it. I’ve never bought it, and I don’t ever plan to buy it! As a result, I historically have really solid months in July and December.

Let’s start out this week’s blog post with a good old solid dose of reality. Most often our sales slump when we lose our focus as the business owner. So if you want to have a rocking summer sales report to celebrate over when the kids go back to school, here are some simple tips to help you keep numbers high.

1. Position for relevancy. This is important all year long, but critical when people suddenly find your product less relevant during the summer. From about Mid-April until September we hear people say, “I would love to coach with you, but we just have so much going on right now. I think I need to wait until the kids go back to school next year.” The way that I build relevancy with this is honesty. Unless you truly have a seasonal business, you can’t build a 6 figure income by working only when it is convenient. So every spring I’ll do some type of how to summer proof your business campaign. It might be a blog post, a radio show, a Straight Talk for Small Biz, or a special webinar. But you’ll see me do it every year! How can you make your service of product seem more relevant during the summer?

2. Plan ahead! The worst summers are the ones where you had every intention of working, but didn’t have it all planned out and then the summer just got away from you. Let’s not have that! I already have my speaking gigs booked for the summer. My marketing is scheduled out. Everyone knows their assignments. When you go into the summer that way, it all turns out fine. When you go into the month thinking, “I’ve got to get some sales going this month.” Good luck, it will probably be pretty rocky.

3. Find ways to sell to more people at once. That one sounds like, “Well Duh Amy!” But honestly, I have adjusted my sales plan this summer to focus more on selling to groups rather than individuals. It allows me to maximize my time and close more deals even though we have vacations and camps planned.

Your business this summer is critical! Don’t let it slump. I am 100% serious when I tell you that I can predict the long-term success of an entrepreneur based on how they work during the busy seasons in their lives. You simply cannot build a wildly successful company while working only when it is convenient. Your business, and your sales require consistency. Get your plan in place and I can’t wait to hear about you rocking out your summer sales. For more details visit here: http://amywalkerconsulting.com/

sales skills

5 Tips To Help Starters ROCK Their Finish

I am an amazing starter!  Back in the day when I only had one kid, I loved the fabric store.  I mean honestly, there are very few things more fun than finding a cool pattern or the perfect fabric for new curtains, or some home décor project.  I LOVED envisioning the project and making the initial decisions.  I enjoyed the first 25% of the work.  I endured the middle 50% of the work, and I despised the last 25%!  I was a great starter.  Finishing was another story and as a result I had a chest full of started projects.  At one point I started a quilt made from our old denim.  I moved that unfinished quilt to 3 different houses before it mysteriously disappeared!  It’s annoying in my crafting, it’s downright detrimental in my business!

I see this behavior all of the time in certain clients.  This may or may not ring true for you.  But even if you are an awesome finisher, at some point, you will get a starter on your team.  I’ll even take it a step further to say that if you are a finisher, you should look for a starter to be on your team!  Starters are visionaries, innovators, creative thinkers, and problem solvers.  They are genius in these areas. However, their vision for what they are creating is so strong, that they feel the sense of accomplishment well before the task is finished and they mentally and emotionally move on.  Then the drive they felt to start the project disappears, and the discipline to finish the project can be a challenge.  Sometimes it is a big challenge!

You may be a starter if… (Read this in your best Jeff Foxworthy voice)

• You have 10 different products and programs to sell, but your business sales are struggling.
• You’ve been working on your book for more than a year.
• You are on revision number 52 of your website, but it still hasn’t launched.
• You never seem to get around to your marketing implementation because you are still working on the master plan, which by the way will change lives and probably the world because it is so amazing.
• You LOVE meeting new people and talking with perspective clients, but have to staple your head to the phone in order to accomplish any follow up.

Does this sound familiar?  If you are a starter, here are 5 simple tips to increase your ability to finish.  And if you are a finisher, going crazy trying to lead a starter, you may want to forward this message on!

1. Stop beating yourself up for starting things and not finishing.  Honor the creative genius you are and take inventory of all of the amazing things you have created.
2. Make friends with discipline.  He’s not a bad guy that makes you do things you don’t want to do.  He is your really muscular best friend that is on your team to do your bidding and make all your dreams come true.  Try some declarations to support this new belief.
3. Get some finishers on your team.  Some people love nothing more than finishing projects.  And they struggle to create the vision so celebrate your perfect pairing.
4. Plan awesome rewards.  Knowing you have something to celebrate at the end of the completion of the project can pull even the most distracted starter through.  We are good visualizers, so we can spend our creative energy visualizing the reward, which keeps the passion for the project alive.
5. Keep an idea folder.  I have a page in my personal tracker just for creative ideas.  I choose when to implement them.  But until it’s time and my team and I have the capacity to accomplish that idea, it gets to hang out in the big ideas page!  

Starters, it’s time to grow some grit.  Stop letting yourself off the hook and just hang in there to see it through.  Nothing is more frustrating to a starter than looking around their life and realizing that what they envision is nowhere to be seen because they haven’t acted on their creative ideas. That does not have to be your story.  Your vision is too amazing not to happen. To Get More Details visit here: business growth

business development strategies

Are You Hoping For Business Growth, Or Planning For It?

Meeting a business owner that doesn’t want business growth is about as rare as meeting someone who truly hates chocolate. It happens.  But when it does we all kind of wonder what is wrong with that person!  

Since you are reading my blog, which is full of strategies for business growth, I’m guessing you want to grow.  

I literally meet thousands of business owners a year.  I see your desire for business growth, but what I don’t see often enough is the plan to create that growth.  A vision board is not a growth plan.  A goal is not a growth plan. An intense desire and dream is also not a business growth plan. (And just so you know I have all three of those. I just also have a plan!)

Here are 3 necessary components for generating business growth:

1. Tracking is critical. Your business already has trends it is running. But if you are not tracking your sales and marketing, you are running your business blind. You need to know how each stage of your sales system performs. You need to know how well your marketing is converting into leads.  If you want to increase your sales this year by 30%, you need to know how much sales increased from last year, and the year before.  A plan will include numbers, and you can’t have those numbers without tracking what you are currently doing.
2. A business growth plan will have an overall goal, and specific directives for each department. My goal this year was to double revenue from the year before. When we started out the year, we broke down that that meant for each department. We doubled our marketing efforts. We brought on some new faces for our sales team. We increased the number of speaking gigs. We added in some live events. We adjusted pricing in some of our core programs. We built an automated sales sequence. Everyone in every department of my company is working on projects that will bring us closer to that goal. And unsurprisingly, we are on track to reach that goal.
3. Monitoring is the third critical component for generating business growth. Each week, I review how we are progressing towards our goal. I monitor individual progress, department progress, and project performance. Each month I set goals for each department that will help us move closer towards the overall goals. And at the end of the month, I review how we did. Setting a goal is the easy part. Focusing on the goal until it happens is where most people get off track.

I want you to hope for business growth. There is great power in having faith and believe in business. I’ve relied on it many times. But without a plan in place, there is too much room for confusion, frustration, disappointment, and overwhelm. I am too busy for that and so are you!

Got your plan in place?  Have you reviewed it yet with a business coach?  Click here if you would like someone from my team to reach out and review your business growth plan with you. For more Details: http://amywalkerconsulting.com

time management

Cost vs gain: Raising kids in an entrepreneurial household

I started my first business when my first son was about 5 months old.  I earned my first free car in my network marketing business when my second was 3 weeks old.  I advanced to the position of sales director the same year I had my 3rd baby. When I had my 4th, I was speaking on stages in front of hundreds of people.  I waddled on stage. And I launched Amy Walker Consulting 6 weeks before my 5th son was born.  My children have all been raised watching me build my business. When the older three were little, I ran that business part time.  With my last two, I’ve worked pretty full time. My kids truly don’t know any other lifestyle than business.

I frequently see women place a glass ceiling on their income potential because of their families.  I get it, none of us wants our families to suffer.  If it came down to choosing my family or my business, family would win every time.  

Can I rock your brain here for just a moment?  What if the idea that my family suffers at the expense of my business was a complete lie?  What if the reality was that your family suffers when you do not do your business?  Because in my experience I have seen the second question to be true more often than the first.  

Let’s have an honest conversation about sacrifice.  Your family WILL sacrifice for you to build your business.  I call these sacrifices costs and your family will pay the price.  Here are some common sacrifices in my world. My kids cannot come in and talk to me whenever they feel like it.  They need to wait until I am done working.  I do not attend every field trip or volunteer weekly in their classes. Instead I attend one field trip per year for each kid, and attend 90% of their school functions that they are presenting or performing at. I don’t sew costumes or bake for functions.  I buy stuff and often times send an assistant to buy them for me. I don’t babysit my kids on their responsibilities.  They are expected to manage their own.  If they are struggling with turning in homework or getting projects done, we talk about it, and we come up with a plan to improve that includes specific types of support from me, and more accountability from them. They do not have as much done for them as most of their friends their age.

It is also important to point out what costs they do not pay. They do not lack for love, listening, understanding, support, or family fun time.

Now let’s look at the benefits or the gain.  My children are learning success principles in their childhood that most adults are figuring out in their 30’s and 40’s.  My children understand the value of money.  They see the work it takes to create it.  They see that how you invest it makes a difference on how much you have in the future.  They have no mental limitations on what they can or cannot do as adults. Success to them is simply a matter of deciding what they love enough to monetize. They are growing up in a structured environment where time is our greatest resource and is used wisely.  For example, one Saturday a month we do a family work day.  One Saturday a month we do a family fun day.  One Saturday a month there is a scouting activity, and one Saturday a month we have a chill day. Saturdays are precious for us and we do not waste them.  We make all decisions based on what is best for our family, not on what we can afford.

I am not claiming to be a perfect mom.  I think perfect parents are about as fictional as unicorns and centaurs. I am saying that I recognize that my business is a blessing to my family.  I believe in stay at home moms who have the business of raising their families.  And I believe in moms running successful businesses.  I do not believe in moms running struggling or small producing businesses.  I find that those women pay my costs, and more.  They also have the cost of financial stress, mental exhaustion from thinking about their business all the time, and guilt from knowing they could do more than they are doing. And they don’t have the gain to balance out the cost.

The key to shifting into a dynamic that provides more gain that cost for your family is to get clear on what prices you are not willing to pay.  Protect the things that are essential to you.  Be willing to adjust everything non-essential in order to create the results you need and want. And allow your family to see the benefits of your business! For More Details: business growth

business strategy

How To Hire a Good Sales Executive

When it comes to building a sales team, I am like one of those fanatical people on the side of the road trying to convince anyone who will listen!  Hiring one good sales executive has the potential to double your revenue for many small business owners.  And yet, so many people don’t do it because they just don’t know where to start.

I’ve compiled some resources to get you started to finding the sales executives of your dreams!

1. Set up a commission based pay scale. You may be thinking, “No one wants to work on commission.” But trust me when I tell you this. No good sales executive wants to work on salary. The good ones know that they make the most money on commission and they want it. Sure they would like to have a baseline salary while they get their feet wet. But if this is your first sales person, or your first real sales person, (having your bff make calls for you doesn’t count) then you need to protect your company’s bottom line. Set up a commission structure.

2. Determine if you will have an employee or an independent contractor. Read the rules (https://www.irs.gov/businesses/small-businesses-self-employed/independent-contractor-self-employed-or-employee) before you set the job description. I prefer to have my sales team be independent contractors. I also prefer that my sales team be doing sales for other companies. I find that sales people love a new challenge, and they tend to get bored quickly. When they have their hand in some other pots, they tend to stay longer.  I know other business owners that want their team members 100% focused on working with them.  They want to set the hours, and control the process. That would not fit into the definition of an independent contractor.

3. Here are my favorite places to post sales executive positions. We get the best resumes and most engagement from these sites.

www.indeed.com

www.monster.com

www.ziprecruiter.com (we tend to find more entry level sales executives on this one.)

4. Give case studies during the interview. Sales people are good at making themselves sound amazing!  You want someone that doesn’t just talk big. You want a sales executive that can really close deals. And then on top of that, you want someone that will represent your brand as you would. Give them examples of real clients and what their concerns were and role play with them to see what they would say to those prospective clients.

5. Check references every single time. I had a friend reach out to me for a reference check. The person had a great interview with her. She really liked the guy. He used me as a reference. Everything looked good.  Until she called me and I had to tell her that he was a great guy and while we all liked him, that unless he had more recent references saying that he had learned to sell in the last couple of years, I wouldn’t hire him. He had spent 4 months on a previous sales team I’d led and had not closed a single deal. You never know what you are going to find out until you call the references!  The most recent addition to my sales team gave me about 7 references and I reached out to every single one. It didn’t just give me peace of mind that she would do well on our team, it also helped me understand her work style and how to help her be successful inside my system. References are valuable!

6. Make sure you have a system for your sales executive to follow. Great sales people are hungry to close deals. They don’t want to build your systems or write your scripts for you.  They just want to come in, hit the phones, and close deals!  

At the beginning of the article I mentioned that hiring one good sales person could potentially double your revenue.  In case you still aren’t sold, let me give you my numbers. My second year of business, I experienced a 400% increase from the first year.  I made two changes to my business that year. I hired a marketing assistant, and I built a sales team.  I guarantee you will have some less than amazing hires. That is okay. It’s a learning experience. You will grow through the process and your next hire will be even better. For More Details Visit Here: sales skills

business leaders

Are your products priced to sell?

Everyone wants to close more sales!  It’s one of the most frequent questions my coaching team and I field.  How do I improve my sales?  The answer however is not so simple, there are many factors that go into closing sales.  Did you position your offer correctly?  Did you overcome objections strongly?  Did the intensity of the problem match the intensity of the solution?  Were you offering to the right people in the first place?  And last but definitely not least, were your products and services priced appropriately?

Pricing can be tricky and this is one of the areas that I see my clients second guessing frequently.  Are they priced too high?  Are they priced too low?  What product should they offer in each setting?  It’s actually a very big topic to cover and there are no hard fast rules.  I kind of feel like an English teacher saying “This is the rule, until of course you have an exception.”  Consider these helpful principles to assist you in pricing your products!

• Never compete to be the least expensive. That is a battle you will not win.  All it takes is for some newbie to come in and undersell you and all of your clients take a mass exodus to XYZ brand who is now $2 less than you.  When you are competing for being the least expensive in your industry, you are attracting the least loyal type of customers.  And there will always be a Walmart somewhere you can come in with lower prices than you.

• If you are going to be the most expensive, you have to clearly show why your value is higher than others. I am not the most expensive business coach, but I am definitely not the least expensive. When we are selling programs, we make sure that we have detailed outlines of all that is included.  We have found ways to add in additional value into programs in the form of client days, Q and A calls, and FB groups for extra support.  We also have awesome client testimonials.  All of those things help support us in maintaining and collecting on our current price points.

• People tend to be willing to pay the most for services that will increase their income. Next will be services that will benefit their families.  And if you are selling to women, they tend to put their needs last.  So you will need to show them that investing in themselves will benefit their families!

• If your closing ratio is consistently higher than 50%, your programs are probably priced too low. If your closing ratio is lower than 10%, I’d first look at your sales skills and then look to see if you are over priced.

• Here’s some pricing information for coaching programs. Membership sites tend to range between $10-$50 a month. A fully automated program (Everything is online) can be in the following ranges: 4 weeks $99-499. 6 weeks, $250-$1500, and 8 weeks, $499-$2000.  Adding in any type of live coaching to support the online programs will allow you to charge more.  Live Group coaching can range from $1500-$20,000 for a year. And One on one coaching is anywhere between $2500-100,000 a year.  I know those numbers are so varying that it still doesn’t give you a lot to go off of.  My advice to start by having programs and services to fill those different spots in your product funnel.  That way you have multiple places where people can buy in to what you offer.

• Products: Books pricing depends on the length of the book. But most paperbacks will sell well between $14.99-25.00.  Audio Books are usually $5-15 more than the paperback and Kindles are usually $5-15 less than the paperback. Single CD’s will sell well between $15-29.00.  CD sets can sell for $99-300 fairly easily

• What should you sell and where? The higher the price point, the more interaction I recommend.  I’m not saying you can’t sell a $30,000 package online, I’m just saying it’s not nearly as likely as in a face to face meeting.  These are my general guidelines. If I am on a webinar or conference call with a new audience, I usually offer something around $250, and never more than $1000.  If I am on a webinar or conference call with a responsive and seasoned audience, I will be more likely to offer in the $1000 range.  At a live speaking event, with a brand new audience I’ll keep the numbers very similar to the new webinar audience.  If it is a warm audience, I’ll likely offer something around $2000.  And if it is a hot audience, like a room full of current or past clients, I will talk about my high end programs.

Again, this is not an exact science.  You will need to try things out with your audience and see at what price you can get the people to move.  Happy pricing and happy selling. Visit Here: business strategy

executive business coach

10 Tips For Becoming Successful And Staying Crazy In Love, And Strong In Your Faith

I was paid a wonderful complement this week by a couple of clients. They said, “It’s so hard to find a successful woman in business who is still married, and still active in their faith. We really appreciate your example.”

It really got me thinking about how I keep the core areas of my life strong while I grow my business. While this post is NOT a commentary on why other people’s faith falters, or why their marriage doesn’t work, I do want to share what I do to keep my commitments to faith and family.

1. Know where you want to end up. More than success, money, or fame, I want my family to be strong and to honor my commitment to God. Base every decision you make around that.

2. Never apply the “short term sacrifice, long term gain” mindset to your family and faith.Just because your marriage is strong today, does not mean it will be strong in 5 years. Marriage requires constant care. And the more you put into it, the sweeter it gets. We are closer today than we were when we started building this business because we make an effort to date, talk, and support each other.

3. Don’t get selfish. When you are building your business, it is 100% consuming. Every project feels major. Every deadline brings pressure. It is so easy to get caught up in feeling like your business activities are the most important. They are not. Family prayer is important. Daily scripture study is important. Your spouse’s desires are important.

4. Don’t seek for love, approval, and acceptance from business success. Let’s be honest, it feels amazing to win in business. When I get on stage in front of an amazing audience and they love my training, it fills me up. But it isn’t love. Love is a husband who is patient with me when I am grumpy, critical, sick, and even selfish. Real is a marriage that is built ever day with small, simple acts of kindness. And most of the time, it doesn’t feel all that rewarding. The rewards come, but not so immediately. Be clear that your successes should be celebrated, but never used as a replacement for love and acceptance at home. If you aren’t getting that at home, work on creating a new dynamic there.

5. Set healthy boundaries with clients and colleagues. I rarely do lunch or dinner with another man. I’m not saying never, sometimes I have client meetings where I just simply have to feed them! But I made sure that our conversations stay on business. If I feel like someone is getting flirty with me, or I realize I am getting flirty with them, I end the conversation quickly. I ask all of my male clients about their wives and encourage them to big decisions with them. When possible I try to meet their spouse. I speak of my husband and family positively and frequently. I want everyone to know that I honor their marriage and mine.

6. Grow in confidence and humility. As our success grows, so does our confidence. I am bolder, more sure of myself, and more capable of making big things happen than I was 10 years ago. And as that grows, I have to be cautious of pride. I still pray over the majority of my decisions. When I feel like I have outgrown the other women at church or that I don’t fit in, I recognize that feeling for what it is: A lie told by Satan. Children of God are all equals. When we each stand before God in Heaven, I’m sure He will not be impressed by how much money I made. I’m sure he will care more about how I helped, served, and treated others. It takes humility to stay close to God as you become more capable on your own.

7. Do not connect your spouse’s value with their paycheck. As your business becomes more profitable and you out earn your spouse, it can be a challenge. Maybe the husband used to make more, and now the wife is more profitable. That can be hard for the husband who has to redefine his value. It can also be hard for the wife who starts to feel like she no longer “needs” her husband. Your spouse is valuable to you for so many reasons. Pay attention to those. Be patient with each other as you go through the transition.

8. Give each other space to change. I am not the same woman my husband married. She was a girl who had no ideas of being an entrepreneur or starting a business. I was going to be a stay at home mom and raise babies. He was going to be a psychologist. While I’ve grown in confidence, he has grown in compassion. We, and our marriage are getting better with time. But we are clearly, not the same. We have both had to adjust and get used to the other person changing. Fall in love with the current version instead of lamenting the one that isn’t around anymore.

9. Remove any splinters in your relationship with spouse or God. Money is a magnifier. It enhances the good or the bad. Business comes with a lot of pressure. It will pull apart anything weak. If your marriage isn’t strong now, strengthen it. If your faith is weak, build it up. I spend time daily strengthening both.

10. Grow together not apart. One of the challenges I hear frequently from clients is that they are growing, and their spouse is not. It creates friction in the relationship. It only creates friction because you let it. The idea that two different individuals are supposed to be 100% in sync all the time is crazy. Sometimes I go through a massive growth phase and my husband doesn’t. He is not into personal development books and CD’s. I am. Does that make him wrong? He has read the scriptures probably 10 times more than I have. Does that make me wrong? We all need growth, but just like two different types of plants express their growth differently, so do we. I may grow in a more visible way, but I guarantee, his roots are deep and strong. You do not have to wait for your spouse to grow. Just grow, become your best version of yourself. And love your spouse as they are, as they were, and as they will be. For more details: http://amywalkerconsulting.com/