Let’s face it, when it comes to making sales, you have to be prepared to huff and puff. Do whatever it takes. Overcoming objections, going the last mile, dealing with awkward situations, and handling the disappointment caused by unrealistic expectations, can all be time-consuming distractions whilst striving to generate business and hit targets.
Things won’t always go your way. Murphy’s Law can kick in, and you can end up tired and frustrated at chasing up blind alleys. You might close a great deal with an outside chance, or your best bet might fall through. In sales, you’re only as good as your last day/week/month/quarter/year. From hero to zero and back.
So you are the boss, and you run your own business. You will have a strong idea of your value proposition. What your SME can offer, who your best clients are, what products are selling best. What products yield the best margins, and where you can generate additional revenue from targeting more customers. Even what new products to push if you have the innovation.
Then the landscape of the market changes and all of a sudden the old-fashioned traditional methods of doing business are thrown a curveball by some new ones. For example, social media becomes all the rage, and if your business isn’t online, or promoting your brand through online channels, your business will potentially lose out in competition to those who do.
These days you can pin, blab, post, and tweet. And all without getting up from your chair. But with finite resources, in terms of time and money, how on earth do you decide what to invest in when it comes to digital marketing, SEO, your website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and so on?
Word of mouth has become word of mouse, and social media marketing is a huge phenomenon. But I worry when too much emphasis is placed on technology. Sure at companies like DB Computers in Limerick we specialise in technology solutions for SME’s to deliver increased profitability. Whether be Sage CRM, Sage 200, Sage 50, or Remote Rep, our range of integrated solutions for SME’s and our expertise in-house is dedicated to business support, IT support, and Sage support for your organisation.
And with twenty years’ experience, we know how best to help. But the ultimate goal of that support is to improve the life of the people in your company, not replace them.
And so old-fashioned values are not becoming obsolete, rather much more valued, in the digital age where it may often seem that addiction to distraction is becoming the norm. Social media is not replacing word of mouth referrals and the 80/20 rule, rather complementing it, but it is a canny knack to know how to cultivate your brand online.
I recently attended a digital marketing course and it was excellent. The trainer was very good indeed, although he knew he was overloading us with too much information to take in. From making your own videos, kickstarting your own facebook marketing page through to running a google adwords campaign, and even making your own websites, there are numerous online tools which will facilitate the SME owner with unlimited buckets of time to learn how best to harness and deploy these tools. But the reality is that for a certain degree of professionalism, you will probably look to outsource your SEO and social media strategy rather than spending the time necessary to learn it for yourself.
Perhaps it’s time to rethink the value of online credibility? When a video of someone putting an iPad in a blender gets 18 million hits, maybe it’s time for us all to give our heads a wobble and forget everything to do with the internet for a wee while.
Or again, is it just me?!
Connect and Follow: Our LinkedIn page (https://www.linkedin.com/company/db-computers-limerick)
We are also tweeting and blogging to our SME client base via Twitter (www.twitter.com/DB_Comp)
If you have a need for a process improvement with your Sage 200, Sage 50 or Sage CRM packages, or would simply like more information on how to avail of high quality business support, by all means feel free to email me at carl@dbcomp.ie or call us on 061 480980.