What Are QR Codes And How Can They Be Used In Your Business

What are QR codes? Well, they’re similar to the barcodes used by retailers to track inventory and price products at the point of sale. The main difference between the two is the amount of data they can communicate. Traditional bar codes which I’m sure you’re familiar with use vertical lines and can only hold up to 20 digits, whereas QR codes are two-dimensional (2D) and can hold much more information.

When a customer scans or reads a QR code with their iPhone, Android or other camera-enabled Smartphone, the phone can automatically:

• Be linked to a web page (for your shop, or business)
• Activate a number of phone functions including email, messaging or SMS
• Directed to an online video (Youtube, etc)
• Display prices or other data about a product, etc

Really it makes it EASIER for a customer (or potential customer) to obtain further information about a product – WITHOUT having to enter in information (e.g. your website address). It’s a good marketing and sales tool.

I’ve recently seen a big electrical goods retailer use QR codes as a ‘teaser’ for advertised specials. So it will be interesting to keep tabs on the varied (and creative) uses for QR codes in retailing and business.

Updated Marketing Tips For More Customers & Sales

Updated articles (December 2011) on marketing, more customers and sales:

• Tip #21 – Getting More Customers – Fast! (part 1)
• Tip #22 – Free Marketing Strategy: Lead Generation In Public
• Strategy #32 – Store Traffic Information : A Simple Way To Boost Store Sales!
• Strategy #33 – How Many Customers Didn’t Revisit Your Store? And What You Can Do About It!
• Marketing Strategy
• Marketing Products – our business marketing systems
• Client results – case studies and testimonials from clients using our business marketing systems
• Client results #2

Article published from our head office – Balcatta, Perth, Western Australia.

How Your Customer Promise Can Increase Sales

I’m a big fan of how IKEA does business – especially their marketing and sales methods. If you can – make a trip to an IKEA store to simply view how they retail – you’ll certainly learn a lot.

The Customer Promise Closely following the vision for your business is your definition of your business culture and your Customer Promise forms part of that. It’s very important that not only you (the business owner) and the staff understand and operate daily according to the customer promise – it leads to your customers receiving a consistent level of service which in turn increases sales in your business.

My recommendation – if you don’t have a customer promise clearly defined – arrange a meeting with your staff for a brainstorming session – Ask the question "What’s really important to our customers?" and "How can we define and then deliver on that?"

Corporate Business Finally Uses Some Good Marketing

Ahhh, so refreshing to see a corporate business use some good marketing and a bit of fun.

Traditional Corporate Marketing – oh, so, so boring!

Isn’t it amazing that almost all the marketing we see as consumers (and business owners) from the corporate world is so dry and boring. This includes the thousands of corporate and big business web sites out there.

Corporate businesses want to be seen as ‘Professional’, but professional doesn’t mean they have to put us to sleep!

Most of us respond to interesting news, we want to be entertained and have a little fun. Adding a bit of humour and personality in marketing goes a long way to CUTTING through the ordinary.

How can you use personality in your business marketing?

The main ‘trick’ is to use ordinary language and write like you are speaking to a person. Tell stories and explain why you are having a sale, or why you created a particular product, etc. Get excited about your product and service BENEFITS. Use emotional wording.

For example.

Treat yourself and your taste spuds to our tender, juicy and mouth watering MEX beef steak – cooked to perfection with your choice of tantalising sauces. If you don’t think our MEX is the best steak you’ve ever had – you won’t have to pay for it. In fact, we’ll give you a $30 voucher to use towards another main meal of your choice FREE!

So much better than…

Porterhouse steak $32.00.

Getting More Customers – Fast! (part 1)

Often business owners contact me because they need more customers – and more cashflow – today!

So how do we achieve this goal for our clients? The answer : We start with our Kinetic Media & Marketing ‘INSTANT CASHFLOW’ checklist!

One item on the checklist is the break-down of sales process into two components : The enquiry (lead, store browser) and the conversion of that lead into a paying customer. Often most businesses get enough enquiries, but it’s their sales and follow-up processes that are lacking. It’s easy to work out which area is the problem – we ask the business owner (and staff) to record how many enquires turned into sales. This becomes a percentage – sales conversion.

Funnily enough most business owners think their conversion is around 70-80%, but when we measure it, it’s often only around 10-40%.

It’s common for us to review the sales and follow-up systems for a business and make changes to improve sales conversion. I’ll give you an example :

A building material manufacturing company we worked with had a conversion from inbound calls to sales of only 18%. By reviewing ‘what’ they said to potential customers on the phone and then improving their telephone script, the sales conversion increased to 27%. The increase in percentage doesn’t sound like much but when you apply it to a half million dollar ($500,000) turn-over business – it equates to a massive $251,000 increase in sales.

Would you say it was worth it for this business to hire our consulting services? Hmmm, dumb question.

Summary

Improving sales conversion by examining inbound phone calls is one good marketing strategy to get more customers fast. In part two I’ll reveal another – watch this space…

27 Vital Questions You Should Ask Before Buying A Business

I met the husband and wife owners of a small retail shop recently. The business was running at a $65,000 (approx) annual loss. They had purchased the business over 12 months ago and had been steadily losing money. I looked briefly at their books and realised they had paid too much for the business. On top of that, both of them had no retail business experience and they had decided to cut out all of the advertising that the previous business owner had been running – due to cost reasons only.

I asked them how much research and due diligence had they conducted before buying the business. I was shocked by their response…

"We asked the solicitor who was performing the business settlement service if the business was a good buy."

Talk about throwing $$$ away. Needless to say, they no longer have any available capital to invest in marketing or anything else. The outcome will be to close up shop and accept the loss, and the lesson.

So how do you actually avoid this type of business disaster?

Ask yourself these questions…

1. What do I want from being in business?

• For lifestyle (to work fewer than 40 hours per week, with the freedom to go on holidays whenever you choose)?
• To make a profit by building the business up (increasing sales)?
• To generate more cash-flow than a 9-to-5 job?

If your reasons are not listed above – don’t buy the business. If you want to be involved in what the business does (manufacturing, retail, services, etc) out of personal interest, it’s much less stressful and safer to be an employee.

2. Why am I buying this particular business?

• It’s in a prime location.
• It has a massive customer database which is not being used to its full potential.
• You’ve created a specific plan to massively grow the sales revenue using knowledge you’ve accumulated from being an manager in a similar business, or from a previous business(es) owned.
• The business has ‘something’ (Intellectual property, branding, contracts, etc) that you cannot easily duplicate or purchase.
• You can buy the business at a price much lower than the market value. The vendor is highly motivated to sell.

3. What will be my exit strategy to get out of the business?

• Sell the business for a profit
• Sell the business to a major shareholder(s) and become a silent partner
• Pass the business down to a family member
• Franchise

4. What skills do I have that will make me successful in this business?

Please don’t think that all that is required to ‘improve’ the business is cosmetic – by changing some of the products, re-designing the store interior, etc. These ‘improvements’ won’t double sales.

Only very good marketing, a good sales team and good systems will increase sales significantly. Think MARKETING, SALES and DELIVERY of the product or service (using systems).

5. What skills will I have to "hire in"?

6. What cash flow do I need?

What’s my break-even cash-flow (to cover expenses, wages, etc)?

7. How much working capital do I have access to?

8. Will this business suit me i.e. hours, type of operation?

To ask the vendor who is selling the business…

9. How long has the business been operating?

10. How long have they had the business?

11. Why are they selling?

• Worn out from working long hours for little money?
• Couldn’t make the business work (perhaps in its current location)?
• Actual legitimate reasons such as retiring, moving to another state or country, or looking for another challenge in another business?

12. What is the Cash flow and Profit (Gross and Net) for the business?

13. What is the business owner paying him/herself?

14. What do the last 3 years of financial accounts show?

15. How has the business been valued?

Using the ROI method – based on ‘current’ profit of the business? Certainly not priced on what effort & money the current owner put into the business over the years. Only profit counts.

16. Who are the key customers, suppliers, staff?

17. What are the terms and length of any leases?

18. Will the current owner stay on and assist for a period of time?

Ask them to put this period in WRITING!

19. What areas of the business are systemised?

20. Is there a business plan?

21. How many hours a week does the current owner work in the business?

22. When was the last time the current owner took a holiday?

23. What are the marketing systems like? Do they make money for the business?

Review all advertising material, the customer database, the POS systems (if applicable), any loyalty programs, special promotional material, etc.

24. What facts support the "story" of the business?

25. How secure is future income i.e. contracts with customers and suppliers?

26. How dependent is the business on the current owner?

27. What will it take to grow the business so I can sell it for a profit?

Before you make an offer!

1. Get your accountant to check the financial accounts

Obtain actual lodged tax returns with the government, not the business owner’s printout or handwritten bookkeeping summary.

Your accountant will ensure that the business has cashflow and is not over-capitalised.

2. Hire a solicitor who is experienced in buying businesses like the one you are looking at.

Your solicitor will ensure that the contracts with suppliers, the landlord, etc don’t have any surprises.

3. If you are spending over $250,000 on the business, or even if you want to be extra careful, pay for a business valuation.

Pay a licenced valuer to come in and audit the business. Even if you have to spend $7,000 for the valuation, it’s still much better than paying $50,000, $100,000 or more than you should have to buy the business.

You may even be able to ‘use’ the valuation to negotiate a better price.

The lesson

Homework always pays off in business. Taking shortcuts and buying a business on emotion often lead to regrets. Don’t let this happen to you.