Learn to ignore trivia

It is so easy to get bogged down with trivia - both in life and in business. When you find yourself spending huge amounts of time on topics that make little difference to your business success, you need to evaluate them in accordance with some simple tests:

• Will this matter in 12 months time?
• Will my business suffer if I fail to sort this out now?
• Will my ability to win new customers be damaged if I fail to sort this out in the next week or so?
• Should somebody else fix this - if only I would let them?

If all else fails, try changing your approach to problems - or read a smashing little book:

• Richard Carlson, Don't Sweat the Small Stuff... and it's all small stuff, Hyperion, ISBN 0-7868-8185-2

Seek and You Shall Find

Sat in your office waiting for the telephone to ring?

Or, out and about regularly, meeting people, networking and looking for opportunities?

Guess which option is most likely to lead to growth?

Too many businesses have decided that the economy is against them and that their sales will fall. Those companies have declining sales. Others have re-set their proposition and come out fighting. Some of these more aggressive firms are having a great 2009. Others are standing still. Some might be having a worse year than 2008. But all of them are a lot better off than businesses who have done nothing.

Which are you?

Price is a weapon

I continually listen to business owners telling me that they are being beaten on price. The bad news is that when they lose on price, they may well have lost the sale at the start of the sales cycle - when they failed to sell the problem effectively to their prospect. If that was several months ago, then they and their sales team have just wasted several months.

Are your sales team guilty of filling in the lost business analysis sheets with:
"Lost to Competitor-Y on price" in almost every box?
Have you looked at your sales process and the way your team conduct their discovery meetings?

Remember, when you start reducing prices instead of selling value, you are on a slippery slope. You must understand the value points your customers look for and make sure that your sales process presents your value to your prospects correctly.