There are a number of businesses being set up each working day, but how many of them really become successful to climb the ladder to be at number 1 position, the answer may not be yes for many, I understand, it’s a business cycle there are ups and downs in businesses but some fail to be totally existent, the main reason being MONEY, money is one powerful ingredient that can derive whether your business is going to be successful or no. Starting with a business venture is easy, but it’s not easy to maintain it as there are number of expenses to be taken care of along with monthly salaries of the employees. People who are working for someone for long are good at sales and they can pitch well about the company too.

In whatever the organization we may be working for, at whatever the position, I have realized that selling is one of the worst things people dislike about their work. For selling your company products, you need to be good at marketing skills, like talking politely, knowing about the products, their competitors, understanding the customer wants, etc. if you are good at some of the marketing tactics you are surely going to win customer’s heart and following are some of the tips I am sharing with you for you to be a better sales person tomorrow:

1. Unless you try selling, no one is going to pick the product from you and buy. You have to make a practice of selling and be perfect at the task may it be a single product or huge numbers. Do your best to persuade your customers in to buying your products, don’t expect to sell everything at first go, it will take time as you develop skills, the more you shall sell.
2. Don’t be a kind of chocolate boy, if you are going to be goody-goody always no one will listen to you or rather they might just walk away even without listening to you. So be a little arrogant and show that you are a professional and here for selling.
3. When you are pitching about your company sales, you are surely selling something. It’s you who should be selling or the customer who sells you with excuses. You have to close a deal any how so have a rebuttal for any excuses your customers’ makes.
4. Be active in your work and voice; don’t make people bore by your dullish talks. If you are not sure than you can record your own voice and check what all places you need to do the changes. The best feedback you can get is from your family and friends, ask them what they feel about your talks, etc.
5. Anything learnt, never goes waste, before setting out to sell your products, you can do a proper study of your buyers or the products, etc. when you know in and out of the story, you even know what would be the conclusion so best is to know, whom you are selling and why they should be buying your products.
6. Don’t act as if you are just here to selling, make your customers understand that you are here with some exclusive products and the offers are not going to last for long. Give them special discounts, if needed. Let them feel that they are lucky to have the products.
7. Decide to sell the maximum you can as per your capabilities, pitch about the products and the quality of the products, the more you pitch the more you are going to make sales, so go ahead.
8. As they say, Time is Money, it stands true especially with marketers; each passing minute is a time tester whether you will sell anything at the point or no. By this, don’t try to be desperate to sell your products, give others chance to speak and know what they are looking for.
9. Be serious while selling, unless you set yourself some position in front of people’s eye, no one is going to pay any heed. You can be whatever you want to be, make some serious efforts to stay by your position and win hearts.
10. Once you have done sales, be persistent of your efforts, your motto is to sell products and more products each passing day. Its just not one day, continue your efforts as long as you achieve your targets.

Other than the above tips which I have shared with you, you can set yourself some specific rules which you will follow religiously. There are varieties of books and material available on Internet on pitching your sales and how to persuade your buyers to buy your products, have the aim to turn your potential buyer into actual buyer.

Businesses are developed with some planning in mind, when you see big businesses around you, not all probably started as you did it, some might have stumbled along the way, some might have got ready built empire and yet some might have worked really hard to achieve their targets or make money. In business, everything works on trust worthiness, if you are worth of any rewards you are going to get them in no time than expected. There were hell lots of mistakes I made in my first few business assignments; but those have not stopped me from being where I stand today. You can well imagine how it feels when starting your own business unit. I was a little nervous and little excited, it’s a mix of enthusiasm and willingness that you are going to put in your business. Today I am going to share few things that you, as a young entrepreneur should keep in mind before heading out on a road to success:

1. The first and foremost I had like to advice you is to pick a real intelligent name for your company, I have seen many an instances where I started with my business that didn’t really work because of the faulty, stupid names I had put as. Your company’s name should necessarily conjoin the business you are doing, forgetting what looks well or bad. Your company name should match with the service that you are providing but at the same time remember not to keep some lengthy names which people wouldn’t be able to remember.
2. Some of my close pals, I have noticed they mostly went for an “A”, to start the business with, the reason being that they would be listed first in whatever the listings, it is a good practice from business’s point of view but make sure they carry weight and people would know what exactly you are into. Sometimes, people do make mistakes in keeping stupid names and they carry on with the same identity for years, later they make this big mistake of changing their company names after years of being realized as the earlier stupid name, it is best to make something good out of bad, already people know you as some company so rather live with it than going through all the process of building a new brand value in market.
3. Don’t forget to hire a good law firm for doing all business legal proceedings, even if you get a good well known law firm there are chances you might as well find some best lawyers who will do your work relating to corporate tax, litigation, income tax returns, etc. remember, lawyers work for you and not the company they are working for, so its best to tie up with some well known company who will give you the best lawyers as per your requirements.
4. There were times, when I had faced bad situation because of these stupid lawyers, the proceedings were delayed in some cases, some were too lazy doing the tasks at quicker pace, etc. I wanted someone who is active and treat my business as his own so the best advice I got from someone, my guru, is to look out for good law firm. The law firms have to carry their reputation, so in no doubt they are going to give you the best they have.
5. This is one of the advices I keep giving to everyone I come across, to hire some big company even if that costs you a little more but go for professionalism and ethic based lawyers.
6. In new enterprises, you don’t necessarily be having a huge staff to represent your company. It is only the work that you do is going to count and so you make money accordingly, there were some idiotic mistakes I did while hiring people for some of my first few companies, the companies that didn’t really made to A lists and I feel, it is the workers who make a company and not the company who makes them, so get the best professional people working for you. Some faults I made were:
   1. Don’t hire a person in your company, just because he was a super master in his earlier job or earned varied certificates in previous job. He might be an expert in the earlier job but not the current job so think over his qualifications, his capabilities and what things he can do for company as a person.
   2. Some people feel, hiring more employees will solve their problems, it is not the case, in fact, you can save lots of money by cutting down on the salaries of employees by doing some work on your own. Go and sell it yourself, this way you will get the real experience of the market and get to know people personally.
   3. Other than employee salaries, there are lots of other expenses incurred to run a company, these costing includes, computer maintenance, electricity bills, employee insurance, office space, etc. so manage your finances well.
   4. You might feel great about someone working for you from seven seas, but it is not really a good idea as there are chances of misleading and you don’t really know the efficiency of the person or if he/she has done the work, in such cases, you can make use of varied software to keep track about the work time and break time.
7. If you are in yesteryears, following old sayings, mind you, you are not going to be always successful, old habits help but not always, stick by the motto, “be faster and getting things done”. I remember the times when I started out with my first few set of companies, it was all a total mess all because of my fault. As your very first venture, you will nurture your new baby business with all the finest possible inputs you can, if you had been feeling the same all this while, don’t worry as these are the symptoms of anxiety every new entrepreneur will face. Instead of taking logical steps which are good for business, you kind of move towards emotional needs of the company so I advice you to take quick steps in whatever decisions you need to take, if you don’t change it now you will be forced to change or take steps in future.
8. If you are a go getter then you cannot forget to put all the inputs, what it takes to build a successful business network by successful networking you can conquer all odds in life whether you are new or old to business, whether you are making money or loss in business, whether you are located in the same continent or farthest of locations. When you have perfect networking connections, you are at it and you have already won the half, the match.
9. Success follows Network, if you network well in business terms, you are bound to get good business proposals, and no one likes to do business with someone who is not aligned in the group of networks. So be there always at a position where people will pick you, make sure to attend all the industrial networking events next time.
10. In business circles, I have often noticed how people treat someone who has given them huge businesses as someone who is GOD like, I really cannot digest this fact that how can someone treat someone as God when everything has been achieved due to his own hard work and determination. When I started with my business, I used to take advice from the people who were already successful in particular field, but sooner I noticed, those advices were not quite working for my business and instead of making profits I made huge loses, this was the time I realized that if I want to run my business I will have to think on my own and proceed by taking major decisions on my own. What I am trying to portray here is, that take advices from people but look over pros and cons before accepting those advices in your business.
11. No matter how much ever successful you may be in your business, you should always be ready to take new inputs from your followers. You might never know when you get some of the best fabulous ideas to run your business, it may come in any form through suggestions, from partners, from business colleagues, etc. when you are running a partnership business, having a partner is a bliss as your partner would always be there to stop you when something might seem un-adjustable.
12. No one is perfect, unless you make a mistake you are not going to learn something new so making mistakes are good to the extent that you don’t keep repeating them. If at all you happen to make mistakes, your partner will help you sort out things through different perceptions. Over and above, having a business partner helps you to come out of adversity. You never know in what form the help may come through, your partner may be an expert in the field you are finding difficult so its best to take advice from them.
13. If you are new to business, don’t fear if something doesn’t work as per your planning. New entrepreneurs often fall under this dilemma of facing the failure, unless you try on something, you will never know of being successful in any particular business endeavors. I have had few instances in my life where I was really fearful of taking on some new business challenge, but after a while I got used to overcoming it and being successful. If you are not sure of taking up something, don’t fear, take it up and blow it away, the worst that can happen is your failure, that failure is not going to eat you up but rather make you steady along the way.

At the end, I would just advice you, young, hot blooded entrepreneurs to accept challenges as they come and not to make any silly mistakes that will ruin your business venture. Learn from your mistakes, don’t repeat them and do each of your business assignments as excitedly you had done the very first one and please avoid the mistakes I made.

Grow Your Business Through Reputation Management

I have come across so many people in my life, had so many acquaintances and so many people I dealt business with, I have found one truth to success that you got to have good Reputation in market to go ahead in life. Did I just say that the word “Business” gets so closer to the word “Reputation”, when we talk about any business partnerships or joint ventures, the first thing that comes in any one’s mind, is the person’s reputation, whether he carries good reputation in the market? In the business world, Reputation is all people ask for when signing the papers, if you don’t have good reputation how are you going to sell? When people buy products from you, they have expectations from you regarding the quality of the product, the use, the service, etc. if you have been doing business since last 5 years and are providing good customer service and quality products then its more likely your business will continue for more 50 years.

As they say, “First impression is the last impression”, while starting a business venture make sure to provide the best of services and quality products to your customers and continue with it forever. If you are really determined to make a strong hold in market, you have to come out with innovative ways to build a good reputation of your brand name in the market. Given below are some of the 3 best effective ways to build a good reputation for longer period:

1. If you are a starter in business, then the best and quickest way to build reputation is through Parnerships, when you partner with good reputed firms, your company will gain same reputation and it would be easier for you to sell products in market. I know, its difficult to get large companies to partner with small firms but you can convince them of your skills and talent and also by taking lesser share they might agree to take you in. The end motive is to build reputation and not the money what you make.
2. Another best way is to Associate yourself with well known people in the industry, when you get some famous well known personalities talking about your business, people are surely going to look up to you to partner with. You can get people to invest in your company, show them your skills by working hard and providing quality products to your end users. In such cases, networking helps, when you are part of a larger social network you can ask the well known persons to do a guest post on their blogs.
3. Some people think that they can do all on their own and they don’t need anyone’s help but in real world, you need partners or professionals to work with. You can build your reputation through sharing ideas over different networks, when you share ideas with larger group of people online, the chances are they might suggest you a better way to do something. Start blogging, don’t just talk about your business but talk about matters people want to hear from you and in most of the cases you will see you will get comments or suggestions from people which will help you in your own business.

So I hope by now you are well clear about the concept of listening as mentioned by me in my previous blog post, listening really helps to sharpen your skill set may be knowingly or unknowingly. Well, let me continue with further of my experiences that will help you achieve your goal of marketing your business through blogs. The next thing is to make sure WHAT you want to achieve by writing a blog, of course, you know it’s for a business purpose but find out what your audience is waiting to listen or rather what you want to portray to your audience about your business. Just don’t start writing a blog because its ought to be written, consider all the channels which will help you strengthen your business through blogs, find the goals for yourself and for your business which are futuristic. After looking over different options you may find, you have quite a bit of diverse goals that you are planning to achieve, if you have wider goals then you can plan to write multiple blogs. Another tips is of being useful to the people who are reading your blog, a good blog should or meet needs, they should be capable of solving problems and should be useful to the people in some way, by this, I don’t mean that your blog should be full of tips but you should write your blogs with an alert mind which will help people.

Different people may be finding different information, some may want to find about your company and company products, while some may want to find the profile of the people working for you or some may eagerly be wanting to find the latest in your industry, etc. now here’s a twist some may mistake me by what I said that “you need to useful”, the sentence doesn’t necessarily mean that being useful means something that will convert your words into actual sales, you can have an impact on the person who is reading it or can persuade your potential buyers into buying your products. This may help in long run as your business becomes popular over the blog so shall your network, as you meet their requirements in blogs, they might surely suggest you in their networks for next business venture.

Once when you have set out on writing, make sure that your language is personal and professional, that will help to make a profound impact on the readers and they will be more than willing to read ahead. Remember, that there are no pre conceived rules or set of languages that you will have to use for your blogs, you know what you want to convey to your audience, by being professional you show them how accurate you are of your dealings and you cannot fore go any promises made to customers. You have develop a niche for yourself over the Internet that will make you more approachable by people across, you can brand your company by writing professional mails to clients, you can use company logo, pictures of the inside factory or business outlets, etc. you can also use varied mediums like audio, image and video to your text written and show more about your company.

When you are in the market surrounded by competitors and hard core sellers and buyers, your main aim should be to sell, may whatever come next. You shouldn’t be afraid of your sales even when you see any hard competition you should stick by your goal for the company, you can use blogs to promote your business or also start with campaigns that will help you reach farthest of audience. You can put people in different advantages by putting surprise gift for a particular period of time people are present in your blogs, or give surprise gift at particular hour or special discount for the readers, etc. you don’t have to bribe people for selling but give them something that they will remember and gift them just a good gesture of their presence on your blog. Check out my next blog for more!