If you’re in business, there’s a good chance that you will need to negotiate at some point. You might negotiate every day with clients during the sales process, or with vendors in trying to reach a price on raw material. Or, you might negotiate with these parties only occasionally. It might be as infrequent as a negotiation on a delinquent bill.

Whether you’re negotiating daily or occasionally, the key to success in negotiation is knowledge. Before you enter any negotiation, make sure you’ve mastered these areas:

1. Knowledge of the industry. By knowing about the industry you’re working in, you’ll be confident with prices that your competitors are charging. No prospect will be able to blindside you with "I’m going to go to your competitor if you don’t cut your price" if you know that you are the best price. Or, if your competitor does offer a lower price, but you offer better value, you can counter their objection.

2. Knowledge of trends. When you know the trends that are taking place, you’ll have the big picture view. Economic trends are a good example: If you know that the economy is about to improve, and your vendor’s prices will probably go up because more people are buying, you should buy and lock in now, negotiating hard for the lowest price. But there are other trends, too: Consumer attitudes; technological advancements; even political trends can impact your business down the road and thus should impact your negotiating today. Read up on trends by trend experts (Google "futurists" or "trend predictions" to get started).

3. Knowledge of customers. Knowing your customer really, really well will help you in both your customer-side negotiations and your vendor-side negotiations. What are your customers using your product or service for? What will they likely use it for in the future? How are consumer attitudes shifting? What opportunities does this present for you? Create a profile of your customer and modify it as you gain additional information.

4. Knowledge of the other side. This is one of the best ways to get your preferred result from a negotiation. The parties that you’re negotiating with have their own agendas, motivations, and ideal outcomes. When you know these, you can work the negotiation in your own favor. There is an excellent blog post about this on the blog The Customer Collective. In the blog post "Hidden Needs Drives Sales Negotiations", Dr. Jim Anderson outlines some of the important facts you MUST know about the person sitting across the negotiating table from you in order to improve the negotiation outcome for yourself. (Read the blog here).

It’s likely that the most successful negotiations you have will not come from great negotiating skill but rather from the knowledge you’ve collected. When you sit down to negotiate, the more power you have the more effective your negotiation will be.

Brought to by you by: Contemporary VA - Run your business instead of running in circles.

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Do you want to make more money in your business? Do you want to drive down expenses? Do you want to work a little less so you have more time for family? The answer to achieving these things just might surprise you: The answer is that you need to do the same old thing.

The problem is, business owners need to be all things to all people and they can be pulled from one issue to the next throughout the day. Because of this, best practices don’t become "practices"! And good habits don’t become "habits".

Here are a couple of examples:

A freelance graphic designer might normally give great service and speedy turnaround times but takes on too much work and can’t deliver it on time.

A consultant who tries out Twitter one month and doesn’t get any benefit out of it so they try out Facebook another month and LinkedIn another month.

A real estate agent who tries different methods of lead generation and creative ways of showing homes and closing deals.

The problem, in each example, is a lack of consistency. Businesses will do far better, they will run more productively and profitably, and they will drive down expenses and increase customer satisfaction when they perform consistently. Consistency in business means finding the best options and then doing them over and over and over and over (instead of trying to do too much or jumping from one thing to another).

The freelance graphic designer will know how much work can be handled and will minimize the amount of time that they take on more. The consultant will choose just a couple of social media and will work those diligently. The real estate agent will find two or three lead generation methods and will run with them.

Sometimes, the temptation is to try out different things in case you find something better. While it’s okay to test new options to see what the result might be, the danger is that you give up way too much by neglecting proven methods. This is a mirage; a "grass looks greener" situation. Many businesses will be far more successful if they find just a few good practices and stick with them… occasionally (emphasis on occasionally) dialing in additional options to test them.

So, here’s how to make this happen for you:

1. Identify your best practices. You probably know them (even if you don’t realize it). They’re the actions you take that are the most profitable.

2. Turn them from concepts into actual systematic processes by writing them down and figuring out how you can do them efficiently.

3. Do them over and over and over and over and over.

4. Repeat #3.

5. Repeat #3.

6. Repeat #3

Now, I’m not suggesting that you just through innovation out the window. But I am suggesting that your business will be more successful when you harness your innovative ideas and instead focus your efforts on performing good habits again and again.

The other day we had a heavy rainstorm and for about 15 minutes the power was out. Not a big deal. And since I work on a laptop that had a charged battery, I was able to keep working. The only thing was, I had no internet connection for those 15 minutes because, although my laptop is powered by a battery and kept on ticking, my wireless hub is powered through the outlet in the wall. And wouldn’t you know it, during those 15 minutes I thought of a million things that I needed to check online but couldn’t get to!

This brief "mandatory offline" time prompted me to think about my mix of online and offline marketing. Businesses need both. Unfortunately, small businesses don’t have a lot of resources to spend on a lot of marketing online and offline. It makes sense that many go online in order to gain exposure to a potentially larger audience.

But offline marketing is just as important. Now, I believe that a lot of offline marketing is undergoing dramatic changes right now. Just look at the print periodical industry to see how newspapers (and, to a lesser degree, magazines) are struggling to stay afloat. Radio and television advertising is often priced beyond the reach of small businesses, too.

But there are other offline marketing efforts that small business owners can take part in: Business cards, post cards, brochures, and direct mailing are four good examples. And, networking (for example, at a Chamber of Commerce event or an industry convention) is another vital offline marketing opportunity.

If your business has been focusing on the online marketing aspect for a while, that’s good. It’s important. But don’t neglect your offline marketing as well. Here’s a few steps for you to take to make sure that your online and offline marketing mix are working together:

Step 1: Plan. Look at all of your marketing – both online and offline – and figure out how it contributes to your sales pipeline. Does it create leads? Does it help to convert prospects into customers? Chances are, each marketing method does several things but probably only one or two primary things. Figure out what those are and watch for gaps!

Step 2: Unify. Once you’ve seen how each part of your online and offline marketing mix contributes to your sales pipeline, unify your message. Your brand – which includes your business name, Unique Selling Proposition (USP), your logo, your contact information, and some relevant supporting messaging – need to be present and similar across all of your marketing media.

Step 3: Increase. After choosing a handful of offline and online marketing, plan to increase those opportunities slowly. It’s often easy and tempting to increase your online marketing at a faster pace (because new free sites are added to the web so frequently) but make sure that you don’t leave your offline marketing behind. If the choice is to add a third or fourth Twitter clone to your marketing or to go to a networking event, you might want to consider the offline, face-to-face event. Although you’ll meet fewer people, your very presence may potentially have a greater impact.

Contemporary VA

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Starting up a business can be a thrilling experience. There is nothing like the feeling of brainstorming ways to serve customers, dream up shockingly innovative products and services, and clever ways to deliver that offering to the marketplace. It’s no wonder that we’ve coined a word for the entrepreneurs who do this kind of thing over and over and over and over: "Serial entrepreneurs".

Your start-up might be something you operate from the dining room table in the evenings and on weekends when you’re not at your day-job or it might be a high-concept, high tech effort that has venture capitalists drooling all over themselves to get to you. Regardless of what it looks like, there is one truth about your business that you need to keep in mind:

You may THINK you have a business, but until your first sale is made, you do not.

As soon as you make that sale, you’re officially in business and you need to figure out whatever you did right to close deal #1 and repeat that process. But until that sale is made, you have a non-profit organization!

The problem is, lots of people have great ideas about business – innovative offerings or new ways of delivering a product. Great. But even if they set up all the infrastructure and legal documentation and advertising, they still have a non-profit. Only a skilled few can get that business idea (+ infrastructure and legal documentation and advertising) and turn it into a real business. And that is the reason why so many businesses fail in the first years.

Ask any seasoned business owner and they will tell you that "build it and they will come" is always the dream of every entrepreneur but it is rarely the reality. Instead, it’s more like "build it and then chase after them". Even advertising is not as effective as sales. Advertising just creates awareness and rarely brings people all the way to closing of the deal.

What business success really takes is good old fashioned sales: Generating leads, knocking on doors, cold calling, networking.

Case in point: A colleague of mine is a freelance writer. He says that every 3 to 6 months he’s asked by friends or family "can you show me how to make a living as a writer so I can do it too?". And of those people, very very few actually follow through. They’re always shocked to discover that it takes SALES to do the job.

Now, after having written all that, some of you will point to me that sites like Twitter do just fine without any revenue. That is an excellent question and almost deserving of its own post. However, I will link to this site – http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2008/01/twitters-busine.html – which helps to explain how many websites (especially web 2.0 and social media companies) start free but do eventually close the deal.

Contemporary VA

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Have you ever seen a herd of (well, anything – cattle, horses, buffalo, etc.)? They all end up going in the same direction and seem to work with one mind. If one goes over the cliff, the others follow out of sheer momentum.

Business can so easily be influenced by the "herd mentality". One new business might see opportunity in offering the same product or service as a competitor, but offering it at a lower price. Or another business might see that their competitor has foreseen a trend and embraced it, so they follow suit.

Soon, every business tends to look the same. Differentiation doesn’t last long when all the competitors in an industry seem to be thinking as one. Some examples: Once Chrysler produced the first minivan, all other automakers jumped on the bandwagon and now everyone has a minivan in their lineup. Or, want another example of herd mentality? Open your Yellow Pages to the "Pizza" section. You’ll find page after page of nearly identical offerings within a narrow price band.

To fight the herd mentality you need to stop following and start leading. Yes, others will follow but if you achieve market leadership and maintain that position, you’ll have the supreme competitive advantage.

Here are some ways to become a Market Leader:

First, envision what it means to be a market leader in your industry. And picture yourself in that role. This kind of "predictive imagining" sounds silly but plenty of motivational speakers and success coaches believe that the first step to success is to imagine that you’ve achieved it.

Second, become an expert. Don’t settle for knowing the same things that everyone else knows. Become the best source of information on your business. When your competitors call you up to ask you a question, you’ll have attained that coveted market leadership position.

Third, become a thought leader in your field. Don’t be content to keep doing the same things that others do in the same way that others do them. Develop new processes, invent new tools, and discover new methodologies.

Fourth, write. Produce content about your field for magazines, newspapers, or even a book. You may not be a natural writer, so you might need to outsource some help, but getting your expertise "on paper" (or "on screen" as the case may be) will help to position you as a market leader. It’s okay to produce work that others in your industry will read.

Fifth, teach. When you teach others, you become the true expert. Customers searching for the best of the best will want to work with the one who teaches all the others to be successful. Would you rather order pizza from a random pizza shop or from "the shop that taught all the others to make delicious pizza"?

Sixth, speak. Set aside time from your schedule to speak. You might want to speak at Chamber of Commerce meetings or industry events or local networking events. Host seminars for customers and speak on relevant topics. If you want to really be an industry leader, host seminars for vendors or for other organizations in your industry.

Seventh, advocate. Get involved as a representative of your industry in lobby groups, policy groups, and industry roundtables. Drive change among lawmakers. Become THE person in your industry who makes waves for positive change.

Market leadership. It’s the best way to accelerate beyond your competition and position yourself as the best person for customers to call.

Contemporary VA

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The sales funnel or sales pipeline is a short-hand way of referring to the steps you take to generate leads, qualify prospects, and turn them into customers. You need to generate so many leads to find so many qualified prospects to convert them into so many customers. The numbers are different for every industry, of course, but those are the basic steps.

Do you know what your ratios are? I would venture to say that most businesses do not. If you want to transform your business, to take it to the next step, to knock it out of the park, to step on the gas (or whatever other metaphor you want to use), start with knowing your pipeline.

First: Know the specific steps you take. Chances are, they are similar to the "leads – prospects – customers" steps mentioned above, but they will be more specific. Perhaps you generate leads from a lead generation site, you qualify prospects with positioning material, and you convert them into customers with a proposal and follow-up call. (That’s the sales pipeline of a consultant I know). Or maybe you generate leads from people who call a 1-800 number for more information, you qualify them by sending them an information kit, and you convert them into customers with a face-to-face call. (That’s the sales pipeline of several insurance companies).

Second: Know the numbers at each step. Do you need to generate 100 leads to get 10 quality prospects to sell to 1 customer? Those numbers won’t be far off for a lot of people and I’m willing to wager that yours will be higher than you were expecting.

Third: Improve backwards. Using the ratio mentioned above – 100:10:1 – your first thought might be that doubling your customers requires you to get 200 leads and turn them into 20 prospects to get 2 customers. But there is another way. Instead of trying to generate more leads (which is working "forwards" through your pipeline) try making adjustments to your customer conversion process, testing various methods to turn 10 prospects into 2 customers instead of 1. If you hit upon the right method, then you’ll have a much more dramatic impact on your business than if you simply tried to generate more leads. See it in action: The less effective way of getting more clients would be by doubling your lead generation: 200:20:2. The more effective way is to improve your efforts further down the pipeline: 100:10:2. Then, if you do decide to double your lead generation, it will have a greater impact on business: 200:20:4!

Fourth: Use it in decision-making. It can be tempting to jump into new marketing methods because they are popular (can anyone say "Twitter"?), but they are not always the right decision for right now. New marketing methods can be good, but only if they can contribute to your business effectively. When you’re tempted to devote resources (time, effort, or money) to a new marketing method, think about what role it will play in your sales pipeline and how you will use it to nudge people along your pipeline towards conversion. You might find that the latest and greatest craze – whether Twitter, Facebook, Guerilla Marketing, BuzzMarketing, or the zillion other trends, fads, and marketing temptations out there – just isn’t right for your business.

Contemporary VA

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There are a lot of differing statistics but most people can agree on the overall truth: Many (perhaps most?) small businesses fail within the first two years. I don’t know what the actual number is but it’s high. And with today’s economy forcing more people to consider self-employment because they can’t find work, that statistic could potentially worsen.

Now, there are a lot of reasons for small business failure. I want to talk about just one reason in this blog but I want to make the disclaimer that I don’t believe this is the only reason, nor is it necessarily the biggest reason. But I do believe that this can have a huge impact on small business success. The reason is this: Some business owners believe that everything has to be perfect before they can open for business.

So here’s what happens: They spend resources perfecting their business, they spend resources perfecting their product or service, they spend time perfecting their website. They’ve spent all this money and time and effort and haven’t even sold anything!

Businesses need to accept imperfection and embrace ambiguity. Business owners need to feel comfortable with not knowing everything. They need to bring their product to market at a point where it can be delivered confidently, but with still enough "wiggle room" to make changes as the market demands. The same goes for the business plan and the website and everything else.

Here are two case studies, both true (with some details altered for privacy) that demonstrate this necessity:

Trudy wants to import clothes from South America into North America. She finds stylish clothes at a great price and brings them in. But they sit in a warehouse while she tweaks her website and has brochures revised over and over again. She believes that everything needs to be perfect first. I’ve advised her to get out there and sell her clothes right now. Her market will tell her what they want, how they want her to communicate, and how her website should function. In fact, in her particular wholesaling niche, a website is secondary to the face-to-face contact she needs to be making. But those clothes remain in the warehouse, and have been there for four years, while she perfects her website and business cards.

Jason was in sales five years ago but hated his job and his boss and quit. He had a good design eye and a little bit of experience so he decided to get into freelance marketing. Cobbling together a really small portfolio, he went out into the marketplace and started pitching his services. No one bought in the first week so he made a few changes and pitched again. No one bought in the second week so he made some changes and pitched again. In the third week he acquired his first customers. Five years later, he runs a busy marketing consultancy that still embraces ambiguity.

Now, I’m sure to get some blog readers who will disagree, perhaps mentioning that ambiguity in the tech industry and in pharmaceuticals can be dangerous and costly. That is true: in some industries, for some products or services, or to some markets, a completed approach is required. But those are the exceptions.

Most businesses, most of the time, particularly if they are just starting out, should embrace ambiguity and allow the market to guide them.

Contemporary VA

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Focus on WHAT IS WORKING and FORGET about WHAT ISN’T

One of the most valuable tips I’ve ever learned is to focus on what works rather than what doesn’t.  This little nugget of gold can be applied to any aspect of your life or business.

Success is fostered by positivity and by allocating your time to what works rather than wasting valuable time and energy trying to find the needle-in-a-haystack problem. 

Why do you think certain businesses are so successful?  Because they figure out what is working for them, what is getting them the desired results and they focus on the growth of that.  What’s NOT working eventually weeds itself out on its own because there is no focus, thought, or time put into it.  Out of sight, out of mind.

Worrying about a problem puts a weight on your mind.  Your mind starts running in circles and it goes to a negative, frustrated, place rather than a positive, productive place.

Sure, you have to fix problems but there’s a productive way to handle them. 

Instead of fretting over ‘why isn’t this working’, ‘what is the problem’, etc., figure out what IS working.  Then ask yourself these questions:

• Why does it work?  What makes it work?
• What can I do to make it work even better?
• What can I do to expand on this and grow it?

And if there’s just a glaring ‘problem’ that you must focus on, instead of giving it the ‘ol negative thought process, ask yourself:

• What would I like it to be?
• What is right about it at this point and what isn’t exactly right?
• What tweaking would make it work?

Instead of becoming frustrated and overwhelmed about the negativity, focus on the positivity.  Positive energy fosters more positivity; likewise, negative energy fosters more negativity. 

Oftentimes, worrying about the negatives can take too much time and drain energy, and sometimes even cause you to abandon the project for an extended period of time or even altogether. 

When you feed yourself positive energy from the "what IS working" factor, you find yourself more motivated to move forward and you do it with a clear mind rather than a cluttered one.

So,

• Create a positive atmosphere within your mind.
• Get excited about what IS working for you and focus on how to expand on it.  It’s much more fun!
• Forget about what’s NOT working, it will weed itself right out of the game because it doesn’t have your focus.  The positivity will fertilize your business while simultaneously producing its own weed remover.

Einstein didn’t create the lightbulb by frustrating himself over what was wrong, he focused on what was right about it and what would make it work.

In the last post we talked about ‘what’ businesses should have a blog (every business) and some of the benefits to a business blog.

So, now let’s talk about business blog tips.  Things you should or shouldn’t do with your blog and how to build a successful business blog.

First, keep in mind that your goal is to create a community.  This means that you must always keep in focus that you want to get people involved, get them interacting with you and give them a reason to want to come back.

Second, remember that building a successful blog takes time.  It doesn’t happen overnight so be consistent and be patient.  Don’t give up just because you don’t see the results or traffic you want in a week or even a month.  It can easily take a year for a blog to start seeing some real success.  It could take longer, it could take less but if you keep your goals in mind, keep your readers at the forefront, and be consistent and patient, you will see the results.  

The worse thing you can do is let your blog go stale, it’ll surely die if you do.  People are thirsty for more so give it to them…not too much of course, but feed your visitors regularly and they will keep returning to your doorstep.  Fresh content is key. 

You need to decide where your blog’s home will be.  A business blog should be on its own domain so avoid free blogs, the cost is extremely low and well worth it.  My favorite is, of course, Wordpress.  Wordpress is very easy to manage and manipulate and also allows you to place your blog on your own domain.  And Google loves Wordpress blogs.

Then you need to pick a theme or have someone design your blog.  Wordpress has tons of free themes.  If you’re going to pick a theme, take your time.  There are a lot of themes, take the time to go through them.  Don’t just pick the first one you think you like.  Blog design and layout is very important.

You want your blog to be eye-catching and professional looking.  You want to pick a theme that relates to your blog’s theme and decide on how many columns you want, the colors that best go with your theme, and ensure ease of manipulation for you and ease of navigation for your readers.  Try a few on.  Sometimes they look better on the site than they do when you actually install them on your blog.  Don’t hesitate to try on as many as it takes for you to feel "perfect". 

There are a ton of plugins and widgets so take a minute to browse around and see what’s out there.  Don’t worry a ton about this at first if you’re not yet comfortable; you can always add the bells and whistles as you go and as you see fit.  Definitely make sure you install a way to check stats (stats plugin for WP) and a spam filter (askimet for WP).  Those are the first two you should install on any blog. 

Search for business blogs that are relative to yours, and maybe take a look at some that aren’t relative, and check out their layout, theme and direction.  Don’t copy them, being unique and just being "you" is very important but looking around will help you get some ideas.  You may see things you want to incorporate into your blog, find things that you want to stay away from and spark your creativity in general. 

Set up links on your blog/blogroll to your main site(s).  Don’t make all the links just about you but be sure to incorporate them.  This will help your site gain exposure.  Spruce up your "about me" page and tell the world a little about you and your purpose.  Be a little personal.  Remember, you’re building a community and that means getting a little personal.   Don’t get too personal but don’t come off as a cold brick wall either.  People like to see that you are actually human too.

Those are the basics, not that hard eh?  And here are a few links with more tips on business blogging and marketing your blog:

8 Tips for Building a Community on Your Blog – great ideas about how to socialize your blog and get people involved.

Online Marketing Wizards - info about finding and using keywords, submitting your blog and site to directories, generating traffic, and more. 

10 Principles of Successful Business Blogging – oldies but goodies.

A few more good tips – more information and reiteration of some of the points made here.

What othere tactics and principles have you found to make for a successful business blog?  Any must-do or must-not-dos? 

Karen J. for BestBusinessExpert.com

I was recently asked this question and, being the Internet fan that I am, I was honestly a bit perplexed.  "What businesses should blog?"  My question would, instead, be "what businesses shouldn’t blog?"

My first reaction to that question was, "What century are you living in to even ask that question?"  No matter how often I’m reminded of it, it never ceases to amaze me that so many people and business have not yet caught on. 

Blogs give any business a connection to their market, their customers, potential customers, potential partners; and, they open so many doors and opportunities.

it doesn’t matter how big or how small your business is, whether your business is an online business or an offline business (consider the possibilities of how you can integrate it to also be online), how successful your business is or what your business is.  You should have a blog. 

Blogs give you endless possibilities.  You can:

• Learn your market by being personal and "social" – this opens a two-way door rather than your one-way door website that doesn’t really allow for interaction.
• Get new ideas and feedback from readers about what they want, don’t want, like, dislike, etc.
• Build your brand and your status as an expert in your field.
• Establish real relationships with other leaders in your market as well as your customers.
• Use it as your "news" platform – make announcements, provide information about new product or service releases, special offers, etc.
• Give your "evangelists" a place to give you kudos.
• Drive traffic from your blog to your main site and vice-versa.
• Get creative with contests, give-aways, a "suggestion box", cool widgets that your readers will love and more.

The list goes on. There is so much you can do with your blog.  A blog is your business’ best friend.  Seriously.  It’s 2009 and the social aspect of the internet is booming, for everyone.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – we’re way past the days of the boring ‘ol "phone book".  If you’re not social, those who are will probably be in a better position than you.  A blog is the perfect platform to make your business social and social has always beat anti-social.  Open the doors already!

Karen J. for BestBusinessExpert.com