The Dynamic Manager Handbooks Series

Time is money, so sales people who want more of the latter make best use of the former. Selling on the first call is one of the best ways to not only save time but to impress prospects with your professionalism. “Prospect Knowledge” shows you how to learn just about everything you need to know about a prospect before you meet them for the first time. It’s key to making a sale on the first call. “How Much Can They Spend?” gives you several ways to estimate a prospect’s potential without asking them embarrassing questions. “Uncovering Prospect Needs” explains how to discover what customer need your product or service can fulfill so that your first-call proposal is more than just a shot in the dark.

Promotions can give your company a short-term boost in sales or a long-term path for revenue growth. Each of these promotion and advertising ideas includes a description of the markets in which it works best, a step-by-step outline for executing it, and dozens of helpful do’s and don’ts from the businesses that developed them. They range from one-shot weekend events to year-long image-building campaigns.

Communication with customers and prospects keeps your business on the growth track. There are numerous ways to convey your company’s message beyond traditional advertising. “Tune Up Your Publicity Machine” covers the basics of public relations like how to prepare an effective press release and make it appeal to editors as well as where to look in your business for newsworthy topics. “Case Study: Automotive Aftermarket” tells how custom car shops use shows and events to publicize their operations. “Case Study: Sports Team Sponsorships” explores the ins and outs of backing athletic teams, sponsoring events, and other ways to draw attention to your company. “Speaking Up For Your Business” shows you how to reach customers the old-fashioned way, by talking to them. Learn how to overcome your stage fright and reach out to audiences with your company’s message.

You can’t sell someone who refuses to meet you—or can you? There are dozens of practical, legal ways to get past voice mail, charm human assistants, and persuade important people to give you a slice of their precious time so you can make a sales pitch. “Getting Your Foot In The Door” reveals the methods of other sales pros who know there are many ways to skin a cat—or to get an appointment. “Getting Past The Screeners” gives you a battle plan for defeating voice mail and turning human screeners into valuable allies. “Making A Cold Call Appointment” shows you how to make a great first impression while you’re asking the prospect for a meeting. Learn to use five easy steps to make it worthwhile for the prospect to spend some time with you. “Persistence Counts” explains multiple tactics for getting appointments with busy people. The theme: “Where there’s a will there’s a way.” “The Brochure Brush-Off” explores responses to the prospect who says, “Just send me sumpthin’ and I’ll look at it.” “Opening Closed Doors” offers a fool-proof way to get your presentation in front of someone who just won’t see you.

Independent retailers face competition on every front, but Big Box stores are often the most pressing threat to their existence. This handbook identifies the weaknesses in the Big Box approach and explains how an independent retailer can exploit them by playing to their own strengths. “Case Study: Schweser’s” tells the story of one small-town merchant that has developed an effective strategy to compete head-to-head with Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, and other giant retailers. “The Magic Of Pricing” describes the nuts and bolts of setting prices that attract customers while preserving your profit margin. “Two Ways To Compete” shows how several small business operators use high-level customer relationships and top-quality service to deliver value that trumps price in their customer’s minds.

Approach closing opportunities with the idea that every sales call should give the customer yet another reason to do business with you—again. It’s a pro-active, pro-customer way to look at your job. When it comes time to ask for the order, it’s easy! “Fear Of Closing” takes the mystery out of the process and puts closing the sale into the context of improving your customer relationships. “Buying Signals” explains how to recognize buyer behavior that says they’re ready to make a commitment. That’s the time to ask for the order. “Closing Techniques” explores some of the standard approaches to making the sale happen—as well as some you might not expect.

Advertising can help build your sales, but only if you follow the five rules outlined in this do-it-yourself manual for small business owners and managers. “Your Customers, Bert and Bertha” explains how to identify your best customer and build an advertising strategy that appeals to them. “Pay Attention To Attention” shows you how to build attention-getting devices into your ads (regardless of the medium you use) so your messages rise above the babble. “Advertising’s Four-Letter Word” points out the biggest mistake most small business advertisers make—and how to avoid it. “Just A Little Reminder” demonstrates how to build a memory trigger into your ads so customers think of you first. “Media Buying Simplified” takes the mystery out of spending advertising dollars so you get the most bang for your buck.

Social media consultants gush about the wonders of web marketing, but what do actual non-techie business owners have to say about the effectiveness of their websites, Facebook pages, and Twitter feeds? “Marketing In Cyberspace” includes insightful interviews with several craft gallery owners who use the web with varying degrees of success. “Blogging Your Business” explains how and why you can create an online community around your business using various free or low-cost outlets. “Social Media Marketing Three Ways” looks at Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn through the eyes of small business owners who use them every day. Restaurateurs, health club operators, a wine store owner, insurance agent, and a payroll processor are some of the entrepreneurs who weigh in on the social media phenomenon with tips on how to make it work and pitfalls to avoid.

Repeat sales are generally more profitable than new ones, so smart companies work hard to build a base of satisfied customers. This handbook uses real-world examples to give you dozens of ideas for making your customers want to come back again. “Seven Ways To Wow Your Customers” describes how little surprises can create a warm spot for your business in the customer’s heart. “Case Study: Selling to Off-Roaders” explains how knowing your customers pays off, especially in specialty or niche markets. “First Impressions” shows you how to evaluate the first impression you make on your customers and how that shapes your future relationship with them. “Welcome All Newbies” points out some of the pitfalls of dismissing the first-time buyer as too much trouble to deal with.

The retail salesperson can sell more by using creative selling methods to present product benefits, overcome objections, and close the sale, but they also face other challenges and opportunities. Determining customer needs is difficult when the customer can just walk away. Building a base of repeat business is tough when the customer initiates most transactions. The store surroundings can help—or hinder—the salesperson’s efforts. All of these challenges can be overcome, however, and the salesperson can increase sales by applying some common sense, no-pressure selling tactics. “Retail Up-Selling” explains how to increase the size of each customer’s order without using hard-sell methods. “Creating An Effective Retail Sales Environment” helps the store owner or manager see what the customer experiences when they come through the door. “Should Retail Art Gallery Prices Be Negotiable?” is a case study that applies to retail sellers in all markets. “Selling Intangibles In The Automotive Aftermarket” is a case study about linking profitable items like service to retail purchases.

The best and the brightest salespeople don’t waste a moment. Even salespeople who lack good presentation skills or some other talent can make up for it by efficiently using their time. And, on the opposite end of the scale, the salesperson who is floundering and failing invariably has problems with time management. “Time Management And Sales Priorities” helps the salesperson identify which accounts deserve the greatest amount of time while maintaining good customer relations with all of them. “Time Management And Sales Planning” shows how to get the most out of every day, eliminate time-wasters, and increase sales. “Sales And Technology” explains where modern communications tools and customer relations management fit in the salesperson’s time management plan. “Persistence Counts” demonstrates the importance of sticking with it. Few sales are made with only one presentation, but good time management is necessary to stay the course until the sale occurs.

How do you manage the customer who refuses to be satisfied? That’s just one of the many customer relations dilemmas facing small business owners and managers every day. This collection contains dozens of tactics for keeping your customers happy so they not only stay with you, they bring their friends along, too! “Keeping Your Business Customer Friendly” points out numerous small things that can turn into big customer irritants if you’re not careful. “Three Sure Ways To Drive Away Customers” explains how staff attitudes and communication skills ultimately determine just how loyal your customers remain. “Dealing With Difficult Customers” shows how to turn that steaming monster into a happy, satisfied, repeat buyer. “Managing Unhappy Service Business Customers” examines the special customer relations problems faced by businesses like repair shops. “Case Study: Chacon Autos Steers Through A Downturn” goes behind the scenes to see how strong customer relations helped this small business prosper while their competition floundered.

You can’t spend too much time or effort on good hiring. The alternative is managing the wrong person for the job, which is far more difficult. A good hire rewards you every day you work with them. “Five Steps to Hiring Good People – An Overview” takes you through creating a job description, screening applicants, interviewing candidates, testing their skills, and checking references before making a final decision. In five chapters, managers of companies in different industries describe how they go about finding and hiring the best. Positions covered include Wholesale Distributor Sales, Health Club Staff, Automotive Sales, Craft Gallery Staff, and Sporting Goods Retailers. “Make Interviews Meaningful” gives you some guidelines on structuring and conducting insightful interviews as well as a list of simple open-ended questions to get you started.

To overcome objections, be an ally to your customers, not their adversary. Don’t try to prove them wrong for refusing to buy your product, create a way for them to buy it. Don’t demonstrate their ignorance, educate them so they can make better-informed decisions. In other words, don’t overcome their objections, answer their questions instead. Above all, don’t strive to win the argument, concentrate on winning the sale. “Objections In Four Steps” takes the salesperson through a revolutionary, no-conflict method of overcoming objections while strengthening bonds with the customer. “Four Non-Price Objections” explores several obstacles to closing the sale that don’t have anything to do with the price of your product or service. “The Path Around Price Objections” is something every salesperson needs on nearly every sale. Learn how to determine whether the customer is objecting or simply negotiating, then how to get past the objection to close the sale. “The Maybe Challenge” explains how to answer the four deadliest words in sales: “I’ll think about it.”

“First Things First For New Hires” explains how to orient, train, and evaluate the new employee during a standard 90-day trial period. “Making The Good Great By Training Them” shows how to training can both motivate your staff and maximize their performance. In “Should You Bribe Or Bully Your Team?” several managers tell how they motivate to achieve both long- and short-term objectives. “Fire ‘Em Up or Fire ‘Em?” explores different ways to creating an efficient, productive, and motivated staff. “Case Study: Retail Employee Motivation De-Mystified” outlines specific methods from compensation to rules of conduct that help retailers get the most from their staff. “Case Study: Tune Up Your Auto Service Technicians” looks at the different things that motivate non-sales employees to do their jobs better. “Solving the Problem Of Problem Employees” explains what to do when employee performance breaks down. “Do You Need A Second-in-Command?” shows how to choose, train, and motivate line managers.

“Trade Show Exhibition For Fun And Profit” explains how to choose the best shows for your company, how to prepare and operate an effective exhibit or booth, and follow-up on the opportunities you’ll create by marketing at a trade show. “Getting The Most Out Of Attending Trade Shows” details the best way to manage your time and maximize the return on your costs of attending a show. “Trade Show Seller Secrets” gives you a look into the exhibitor’s sales practices. Learn how to resist their pressure tactics and apply a few of your own to negotiate profitable deals on the show floor.

Some of us fight change and some of us embrace it, but we all have to deal with it. This handbook covers a variety of management techniques to manage change while maximizing profits. “Change Is In The Air Everywhere” explores the many changes that affect your business. Customers come and go and their needs are new every day. Employees, vendors, even the tools you use are in a constant state of flux. “Temptation By The Numbers” gives you a blueprint for evaluating potential new lines of merchandise or services. “Details, Details, Details” explains how the little things you do can add up to big profits for your business. “Negotiate Your Way To Profits” details how to prepare for and execute successful negotiations with suppliers, customers, and employees. “Training Yourself” lists numerous resources to help you improve your management skills. “Case Study: Man Against Machine” looks at the ways rapidly-changing technology affects companies in the automotive aftermarket with lessons for businesses in all industries. “Greening Your Company” shows the profit potential in making your company environmentally conscious.

Inadequate funding causes most business failures. Good financial management will not only keep your company afloat, but enable it to grow and prosper. “Plan For Success” gives you a blueprint for a sound financial plan for your company. It’s more than just numbers—a good business plan will focus your company on the ultimate source of cash—your customers. “Where To Find The Money” shows you how to borrow without getting in over your head. Financial leverage can boost your profits as long as you do it wisely. “Is Cash King?” explores the cash management experiences of several companies. Learn how to get and manage cash from their mistakes—and successes. “Case Study: Serial Acquisitions” follows the ups and downs of a century-old family-owned company as they make both good and bad buying decisions. Their story covers both the pitfalls and profits to be made by growing through acquisition.

Family businesses confront the same problems faced by any small company—and then some. Squabbles over titles and responsibilities get confused with sibling rivalries while adapting to changing market conditions often conflicts with cherished tradition. The very real family-owned companies in this handbook represent a cross-section of enterprises passed down from generation to generation. In every one, they’ve faced down the demons of family involvement and built growing, successful companies. “The Family Business Soap Opera” explores the major dramas family business owners live through every day. “Changing Direction From Generation To Generation” tells how a jewelry retailer overcame the foibles of a patriarch who dominated the company for 40 years. “Growth Through Family Ownership” explains how family ownership helped an LP Gas distributor increase sales 50 times. “Family Ownership But Not Family Management” shows how one family in the publishing business turned management over to a non-family team while maintaining control over their company’s future. “Adapting To A Changing Market” is the story of a daughter who re-created her father’s small manufacturing company in response to customer demands. “Mixing Family And Non-Family Owners” explores how a real estate investment and management firm communicates with dozens of outside investors while keeping management in the family. “Family Dynamics Move The Business” is the story of how an auto dealer group deals with sibling rivalries and an 80-year-old founder who won’t let go. “The Family Tyrant” looks behind the scenes at one of the golf industries most successful equipment companies to see how the strong-minded patriarch nearly destroyed it. “Learning At The Founder’s Knee” looks at mentorship from the second-generation’s perspective in a janitorial supply business. “Mixing Technology With Tradition” follows the development of a paint and home decorating retailer as it passes to the fourth generation of family ownership. “Family Tragedy Shapes Company Future” is the story of how three very young brothers and their sister saved their family’s ski resort and real estate company after their parents died in a plane crash. “It’s Never Too Late To Plan For Succession” explains how to prepare yourself and your company for ownership transition.

What would make your business more successful? Dave Donelson asked retailers, manufacturers, restaurant owners, service providers, and many others what they needed to take their companies to the next level. He also asked them to share the lessons they’ve learned over the years with other business operators. Sharing their thoughts and experiences are managers of convenience stores, health clubs, sporting goods retailers, LP gas distributors, automotive service providers, golf course operators, and restaurateurs. Their stories are wistful and whimsical as well as insightful and practical.