Raw 04 - December 2008 - (Page 13)

RACHEL ELNAUGH RAW Limiting beliefs like ‘There’s no money out there’ and ‘No one’s spending any more’ are a real barrier to success - as they encourage you to give up before you’ve even started. There IS still money out there and people ARE still spending – you just need to work out what they’re now spending it on and how their spending criteria have changed. As for me, I’m now planning my next book – all about how to help people survive the credit crunch Why aren’t they buying? Here’s just a few reasons why I have decided not to make major purchases with businesses during the past month: They couldn’t deliver quickly enough; they didn’t take American Express as a form of payment (it was the only card on which I had £3k headroom to buy the item, plus I was quite happy to pay a surcharge); their selection was poor; their service was rubbish; they didn’t offer a fitting service; the shop was closed at the moment I arrived to spend my money. In all cases I spent my money, but elsewhere. So it’s really worth spending a little time examining what is stopping potential customers buying from you - and then remove all those ‘sales objections’ from your business. Is your marketing working hard enough? I visited a business the other day whose sales were dropping; the owner put the blame squarely on the credit crunch. However it didn’t take long to establish that the business was not doing any marketing at all! Even though 90% of their business was from personal shoppers, there was no signage whatsoever to direct potential customers to their showroom on an industrial estate (even though it Rover, an Audi and a BMW! The problem was not with the credit crunch, it was with the owner. After so many easy years, he had simply grown lazy with his marketing. Don’t fall into the same trap. Don’t let the fear get to you! It’s very easy to let the fear of bankruptcy or repossession freeze you into a state of negativity or even worse, anger (which leads you to give away your power). It’s vitally important that you work hard at managing your motivation and staying in a place of hope, positivity and optimism. You tend to attract more of what you’re feeling, so if you want to attract great stuff you need to raise your vibration to a great place. At stressful times it’s very easy to notice all the things that are going wrong in your business and miss the things which are going right. By focussing on – and even celebrating - the things that went right during your day you will attract more of them. If you have a team, keeping them motivated in this way is a great technique for keeping positive energy flowing. Spend 5 minutes every day with your team and ask them to bring one piece of good news no matter how small. It will encourage everyone to look for the positive. Customers don’t buy from businesses which are depressing. “It’s very easy to let the fear of bankruptcy or repossession freeze you into a state of negativity or even worse” was only a few hundred yards from a big retail shopping park). All their business came from repeat business and word of mouth but no database was being kept to enable them to communicate with their loyal customer base, nor offer incentives or rewards to encourage more recommendations. They also didn’t offer any credit terms to trade customers to encourage them to buy. Finally, to counter the owner’s ‘There’s no money out there any more’ argument, I pointed out that every single customer which had arrived that morning had been a well dressed middle class woman driving variously a Range Banks aren’t the only form of finance If cashflow is your issue there are some very simple ways to accelerate it. The first and most obvious way is to increase sales. If you normally invoice customers, offer them a discount for cash or for early settlement. Negotiate bigger discounts or new payment terms with your suppliers – they may be happy to agree if they think the alternative is that they may lose your business. Work out ways of doing contra deals with other entrepreneurs – everyone is hungry for new business so if you can leverage your resources to bring other entrepreneurs more sales perhaps by offering their service millionimpossible.com 13 http://www.rachelelnaugh.com http://www.millionimpossible.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Raw 04 - December 2008

Raw 04 - December 2008 Contents Imran Hakim Linda Klassen Brown Bradley Chapman Heidi Weir Colin Stroud Emma Thompson Raw Business Have a Care JPR Mortages TLB Events Alexander Davis

Raw 04 - December 2008

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