Suggest You - Business

Friends or Foe, The Importance of a Contract!
No matter what business you are in, how old you are, how long you have been doing business or who you are doing it with, a very important part of doing business is a contract. This is really the only thing that is there to make sure your partners do what they say they will do. It is also the only line of defence you have if you don't see eye to eye with your partner, which usually happens in business.Whether it is with a friend, a family member or a stranger off of the street, you must have a contract to protect both of your interests as well as your business. If you don't have a contract, no matter how successful your business is, without one, you leave yourself open to have it all tak

r each of the ways you create value, figure what each is worth. This could be in terms of absolute amounts of money, some percentage of revenues, or some percentage of expense reduction.

Create proof for each of your value assertions. Proof can be in the form of worksheets, testimonials, case studies, success stories, printed statements, even survey results.

Add up each of the value elements to come up with a total value, combining earnings and savings into one number. Again, the total value can be an absolute money number, such as $645,000, or it can be a percentage of sales.

Lastly, calculate your return on investment by comparing the total value to the cost of your product. You may come up with either an ROI (return on investment) or a "payback period." Either wa

Is Life Too Short To Deal With Unpleasant Customers?
One of best clients I ever had was a senior vice president at a financial company.He didn’t beat around the bush. If I asked him, how much of a budget do you have for this, he’d tell me, right away, down to the penny.One day, we were talking and he told me, “Gary, life’s too short to deal with unpleasant people.”There are certain lines, such as this one, that you hear that stick with you. Immediately, I wondered if this fellow had been able to chart a course in business that enabled him to navigate around the difficult customers, some of which seemed to have a home in my portfolio.Then, I had a second reaction. Who can afford to be so choosy that he can toss out ang

As part of my continuing series on Value and Pricing, the following article shows you how to position your company's value contribution to support the highest value-for-value exchange.

Too many business owners, when asked about the value or ROI of their product or service, shrug their shoulders and say, "I can't really put a value on it." If you can't put a value on it, think how hard it is for your prospects and customers! And if they can't put a value on it, how likely is it for them to buy it?

We're going to give you a simple way to identify all the value elements of your product or service and articulate it in such a way that your customers will absolutely know in quantifiable terms what your value is to them. They will see so much ROI they'll be foolish not to want to buy from you.

The key idea here is that you communicate Return on Investment by looking at your value proposition through your customers' eyes. In other words, why should they spend their scarce money with you, versus using the funds in some other way?

Your customers want to know how long it will take them to get back their investment or make a profit. Many will want to see a recurring return.

There's an old marketing saying: "Make your product free". People will pay more when they think that "it doesn't cost them anything." You do this by building so much intrinsic value into your offering that it far exceeds the cost to the customer; do this correctly and in their perception, it's free.

Creating Value with Your Product or Service:

First, list all the ways that you create value for your customers.

Does your product or service...

--Help client's increase their revenues? Does your product/service increase their sales? Create more leads? Increase their competitiveness in their market? Shorten the sales cycle? Get more repeat and referral business?

--Allow them to raise prices, or at least hold prices level? Does the value you create allow your customer to charge higher prices for their offering?

--Reduce expenses? Does it reduce initial or ongoing cost? Does it reduce overhead such as utilities and rent or carrying charges? Does it save money on materials, equipment, staff, and outside services? Does it provide a more economical installation or a longer life span? Does it reduce error rate?

--Allow them to replace some existing expense at a lower cost?

--Enable staff headcount reductions? Does it allow your customer to make headcount reductions in staff or support personnel?

--Avoid impending or predicable expenses? Does it help avoid expenses altogether?

--Increase their products' and services' perceived value. Does it increase the perceived value of your customer's offering?

--Increase productivity? Does it increase your customer's productivity or the productivity of his staff? Does it increase manufacturing production or throughput?

--Give them greater control? Does it offer some way for your customer to track results, lead generation, sales, profitability, productivity, or any other key success factor?

Next, review the list and for each of the ways you create value, figure what each is worth. This could be in terms of absolute amounts of money, some percentage of revenues, or some percentage of expense reduction.

Create proof for each of your value assertions. Proof can be in the form of worksheets, testimonials, case studies, success stories, printed statements, even survey results.

Lastly, calculate your return on investment by comparing the total value to the cost of your product. You may come up with either an ROI (return on investment) or a "payback period." Either way

Has ADHD Put Your Career in Danger? 3 Steps to Get You Back on Track
"Roger, you must get those contracts completed for this month's sales and don't forget, we have a meeting tomorrow at 9:00. Don't be late again!"Roger was a super salesman, but he risked losing his job because he was too busy rushing from client to client to get his paper work completed. He missed meetings and was disruptive when he did come. His boss saw how his energy and enthusiasm brought in clients, but considered him childishly irresponsible with him and his colleagues.What Roger wouldn't admit and his boss didn't know was that Roger had Attention Deficit with Hyperactivity Disorder(ADHD). The hyperactive part gives him lots of energy and enthusiasm to go go when doing what

ish not to want to buy from you.