Make 2011 The Year Of Taking Action
All the business planning in the world is a complete waste of time and money if it is not actioned. We strongly recommend you focus on this in your business planning during this time of business planning and business goal setting.

A good plan executed today is far better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow...take action now and don't worry about getting it perfect.

Short On Resources? Consider Outsourcing
To grow your business regardless of how small or large it is requires the same degree of focus and commitment. Unfortunately, not every business has the ideal resources to get all their plans going. As a result, we have found a demand in our business for more and more implementation work resulting in many outsourced marketing department arrangements.

These vary from complete outsourcing of marketing and business development through to just providing monthly campaign management or a specific component or project where internal skills are perhaps lacking such as digital marketing.

This sort of thinking is important because you can't do everything yourself and it may not be appropriate to bring in full time personell until a new strategy is proven or volume demands it or makes it more economical to bring back in house.

New Strategies and Trends...Things To Think About
Have you worked out if and how social media might apply to your business? What about mobile internet and video? These are some of the strongest growth areas in marketing today and to be at the front of the wave instead of behind it means spending some time to see what your competitors are doing and plotting a strategy to stay ahead or get ahead of them. This is about innovation and differentiation, key new business winners.

We are introducing mobile web strategies for our clients in 2011...did you know that mobile internet connections are forecast to exceed desk top internet connections within a couple of years? You can't afford to ignore this trend.

Fresh Eyes To Look Over Your Business
I hope there are a few ideas in this note that will stimulate thinking for your business this coming year. If you would like to have someone external have a look over your business with fresh eyes, give us a call or complete the form on our website for a free Business Impact Analysis...we don't charge for an initial fact find meeting and can provide some ideas or thoughts on the spot, at least so you can decide if it is worth going further.

And yes, we can review a business over the web...just can't comment on the onsite business operations.

To your business and personal success in 2010 and best wishes for the festive season from the SMI Team

This is a fundamental truth that most seasoned marketing pros know well.

Contrary to conventional thinking long copy messages are best. Long copy gives you the ability to tell the reader everything that they need to know to make a decision. You can answer all the questions and counter any doubts they may have.

Are you maximising sales? Do you want to increase your conversion rate from prospects to clients? Start here...Benefits sell, not Features.

A client of mine always said "This product is brilliant, if they hear about it, they will buy it!".

He firmly believed it and in his niche market, it was indeed a great product...BUT, it didn't sell itself. He came to me because he was struggling to get sales. The product was just too complicated (it was a new financial services based product) and he was telling prospects, investors and distributors about all the facts and not demonstrating how the buyer was actually going to benefit from it. Because they didn't understand it, they were sceptical...you know how the rest of the story goes.

The issue of handling features and benefits in marketing messages is critical to successful selling. This is an area where many sellers, even experienced sellers, are most likely to make a fatal blunder. And it doesn't matter what your business is or what you sell...household appliances, groceries, architect services, cars, houses, drilling rigs, engineering services.

Part of the problem usually involves confusing features with benefits. A feature and a benefit can be one and the same, but most often, they are not. As with my client, it is a mistake to assume that some wonderful aspect or feature of your product will do the selling. Most often, it will not.

Before we say more, let's clarify the difference between a feature and a benefit. A feature is most often some physical aspect of a product - its colour, the size of the engine, the thickness of the metal, the quality of material its made of and so on. Most often, a feature is a "thing".

A benefit on the other hand is something more subtle. A benefit is what the product or service can do for the prospect...

• How it can make his or her life better
• How it can save time
• How it can enhance prestige
• How it can make life fun and easy
• How it can save money or cut costs
• How it can reduce risk
• and more

So a beneift is not a thing - it is an aspect of the customer or client's life that is made better.

Benefits come from features which is why it confuses some people. For example, a car comes with a 200 kw engine. That's a feature. But what does this do for the person who buys the car? The size of the engine lets you accelerate easily to overtake other cars and trucks on a country highway. It gives the driver the power to pull a horse float or caravan with ease. It gives the feeling of pleasure at having all that mechanical power at the end of your foot. All of these are benefits. Something the client feels, gets or is satisfied by.

To maximise your sales, you need to be conscious of where to use features and benefits in both your face to face selling and in printed and digital media...your brochures, your website, annual reports, product profiles, tender documents. So many websites and brochures explain who "we" are and what "we" do and what "our" products or services are. But your website (and other printed documents) are or can be a 24/7 sales tool...so the content must sell. It must tell stories (how others used your service/product and what benefits they gained), have quotes from happy customers, demonstrate the features but also explain the corresponding benefits. Answer the question, "Why should I do business with you and your organisation over all the other options out there, including doing nothing!"

Its simple to start thinking about benefits. Get all your team together. Draw two columns on a white board or even on individual pieces of paper and list the features of your company, your product(s), your service(s) down the first column and then brainstorm the benefits that go with each feature down the other column.

The benefit is the result or what your product or service does for me...your customer or client.

And this is what you should sell - the benefits. Benefits are what people really care about. They want to know how their lives will be made better by your product or service more than what the product is made of or how you do the service. When you spend too much time talking features, you run the risk of "me oriented" selling rather than focusing on the customers needs. You will make more sales focusing on customer needs.

Its much smarter to focus on the customer - on his or her needs, desires, longings, problems, demands - and then paint a picture that clearly and vibrantly shows the customer how they can get all of the above if they buy your product. Its know as "selling the sizzle and not the steak".

There's no sizzle in features! Look at this example:

"Our premium chair is upolstered with the finest Merino lambs wool which is hand-made onto a fully imported cherrywood frame. The chair reclines to a 56 degree position, yet preserves a compact position that takes up less space than a normal recliner chair half its size..."

It sounds pretty good but its all features. Merino lamb's wool is great, imported cherry wood is nice - but how does the customer benefit? You can't assume the customer will know, so you have to spell it out by describing the benefits, as in:

"Our ergonomic chair is designed with your comfort in mind - the 56 degree reclining position gives strong support to your lower back, meaning you never experience back pain and are able to rest for hours on end without the need to fidget, adjust or change seats. Our fine Merino lamb's wool upolstery feels like heaven against your skin - you experience relaxation with a sense of luxury, and your guests will be impressed by the rich look and sense of style it adds to your living room..."

Here you can see the customer benefits - physical comfort, no back aches, gaining a feeling of pride or prestige from guests who admire your excellent choice of home furninshings.

Never list, use or describe a feature without also telling potential buyers just how that feature will affect them in their real lives, how it will improve their lives, how it will enhance personal comfort, deliver a feeling of pride, satisfaction, gain, saving and so on.

Another great way to discover what your products or services benefits are is to make a "You Get" list. Write down "You Get" 10 times on a piece of paper and name specific benefits to follow each "You Get". If you write, "You get a 200 kw engine..." you have just listed a feature. That's not enough. Complete the process by also saying, "You get a 200kw engine that never leaves you stuck or sluggish on a steep hill and thrills you when you take tight curves on a carefree drive in the country.

Just remember, a feature is most often some physical aspect of your products, but the benefit is all about the customer and what the customer gets, experiences, and is satisfied by. The latter - benefits - is what really sells.

To your business success....Simon

Buying is as much an EXPERIENCE for customers as it is about the shopping (& don't think you are off the hook if you're not in retail, the same applies to any business!)

I called a prospective new client last week who had registered interest via our website. Quite a recognised brand name, so I thought "let's get straight on to them!".

Well, number one, the phone number provided was wrong. But I persisted and tracked down 3 possible branch numbers. The first one said "no, he's not here, call this branch". The next branch fluffed around and said "he might be in but not sure...can you call back tomorrow?"...that's going to win a lot of business! I called again a couple of days later and actually found someone who sounded sensible who said the person I was calling was always hard to get hold of (great story to pass on!), but no hints on how to achieve that outcome.

I left a message, I managed to get an email address...no responses. Why do people make it so hard to do business with them. No one I spoke to bothered to find out if I was potentially important to the business or not.

Let's get back to basics...customers, clients, anyone, is looking for some sort of an experience. If it is bad, they tell many (lucky for them I haven't named names in this email...at the end of the day I'll persist because they clearly need our help!). If it is good, they don't tend to tell as many people, but they do stick around and continue to do business, they are less likely to be poached by competitors and if a friend has a need, they will refer them. Remember, good customer service is a key factor in your marketing strategy.

Experience...what is your business doing?

It doesn't have to be elaborate, but what is it about coming to your business that makes people happy. Happiness is a state of mind that people want more of. If they get it from you, they'll come back. What can you do to give your customers a smile and a positive feeling?

7 real basics to winning and keep customers

1. How easy is it to find your business?
2. Where can they park, how much does it cost, what is the best public transport to get?
3. If you are in retail, how easy is it to find things in your store or on your shelves? Do staff know? Will staff happily and helpfully answer questions or will they sneak around the corner pretending they didn't see or hear the pesty customer?
4. Is the first person who answers the phone smart, friendly and knows just who to put someone through to? Or are they the most junior and untrained person in the office answering calls between SMS's? Think about it!
5. Do you train your staff? Do you have a manual explaining treatment of customers...the "how we do business around here" instruction. Is it implemented and is staff performance measured against it?
6. Do you follow-up quickly on questions and concerns posed by clients?
7. Do you offer easy access via telephone, free-calls, email, Skype, website enquiry forms, SMS, even social media such as Face Book or Twitter? Does someone responsible deal with all of these media quickly and efficiently?

Premises

Does your place of business look approachable? Customers will often look inside first and if it is not up to scatch (messy, dirty, ugly, old and outdated, confusing, doesn't look like it should) they'll turn around and walk right back out. What about the carpark or external presentation? If it is full of rubbish, weeds in gardens, unclean windows etc it sends very powerful negative vibes..."if this is how they present themselves, how will they deliver for me?".

First impressions count

I know it is a cliché but it is true. And it is not just premises. Even if you have a great receptionist, they are only directing traffic. What about the people they direct the calls to, are they providing top notch service? Do customers have to sit waiting? If so what are they listening to and did they expect to wait? Is the person at the other end competent and will they get back to them?

I have a long standing relationship with a big four bank. I have been trying to get something done for 6 months with no success. Phone calls aren't answered and divert through to a different state. Messages are never responded to. It drives me nuts! and...has cost me more money! Does anyone seem to care? No!

It's not rocket science. Making it easy for customers to do business with you is just about doing the basic, simple things, but for some reason it is so easy to forget. The key is to always look at your business through the eyes of a potential customer. Train your employees. Always tell them and yourself:

• It's impossible to provide too much service
• Always be open, informative and approachable
• Be obsessive about following up with customers
• Make the details of buying and ordering super easy
• Buying is as much an EXPERIENCE as it is shopping (and this is not just pointed at retailers!)

Make the experience not only easy and fun, but a pleasure to perform, and you have the key to business success.

To your business success....Simon

Need Professional Help?
Every business has some cash sitting on the table...being over-looked. Our free Business Impact Analysis will find it for you. It might be customer service, it might be something else. There are always hidden assets lurking that should be exploited...to find yours, complete the registration form by clicking on Register Interest Now and we will contact you. You have much to gain and nothing to loose.

When credit is tight and client spending is threatened, cash is king.

So why hold dead inventory or slow moving stock. If you do, you have several problems in one. First, you've got money tied up in that inventory, money that could be put to good use. Second, you have to pay rent to store it. Third, the longer it sits, the more its value may fade. And more.

But so many people I talk to are concerned about getting good value for this slow moving stock or even recovering what they paid for it.Get over it! It makes sense to move it out. This may mean slashing prices till it hurts...but if that gets it moving you will be better off with the cash in the long run.

Consider the opportunity cost of that cash...what? That's right, you always have choices; hold the stock and hang out for your price or move it fast and get that cash working in more productive areas. There is the opportunity cost of doing nothing. You could bolster some marketing efforts to bring new customers, or switch to some higher demand stock and increase sales, or upgrade your website...any number of possibilities.

Or, what about giving it away? Use dead inventory as a sales stimulus for your other products. Tie a freebie to sales of other product and get your whole operation going.

Here is a list of 10 Ways To Get Your Old Stock Moving...be creative:

1. Sell the whole shooting match for one low price. Its fast, no distractions, get on with your business.

2. What about an overseas market. What doesn't sell here may fly off the shelves in another country...get on the phone (or Skype and save a few dollars on calls).

3. Trade or barter your surplus stock for advertising.

4. Free gift idea for another company. Your stock might be ideal for another company to add to their stock to boost sales...sell them the lot.

5. Try a tandem mailing with another company. This is a great idea because each company can gain access to the others client list. Find a complementary company to approach. The right combination of stock could stimulate sales for both of you.

6. Weekend markets, car-boot sales, even garage sales. Why not! Get the kids envolved. Find market stall owners that are looking for cheap stock.

7. Bargain basement websites. Find one that allows individual vendors to set up a virtual shop...or set up your own "end of run" or old stock website store and turn it into another business opportunity.

8. Buying clubs...you may be surprised how many there are. Try a Google search.

9. Invite groups like staff social clubs to an exclusive opening and offer a donation towards their annual events.

10. Auction it! Hold an event or send the stock to an established auction house or auction it online. If you hold an auction event, remember to market it and get a marketing message into the hands of every attendee...a coupon, a brochure or a sales piece.

Like I said earlier, get creative. Step outside the square...dare I say, "be innovative, be entrepreneurial".

To your business success....Simon

So you have put your web pages on the internet and you expect people to know of your presence, but without a well thought out promotion and marketing effort... this will not happen...

Let’s face it – NOBODY KNOWS YOU YET!

Finishing creating pages for your web site is not the end. In fact, it is only the beginning. Just as completing your schooling is not the end but the beginning of your journey in the world beyond the walls of your classroom.

Unfortunately, a big number of you seem to think that the main battle has to do with the difficulties of understanding HTML or the masses of jargon (some good examples follow) or for the SMI Digital clients using a content management system (CMS) for creating your web pages.

People seems to rejoice too early...as soon as their pages are live on the web. "Now, where are all those new business leads?"

Why, that is a big W-R-O-N-G!

Since indirectly you are operating an Internet Business promoting your products and services, like any other business, you need to communicate. You need to interact. You need to let people know you are around and open for business.

I am sure you get my point by now. If you have not been making much progress in the early stages of your Internet Business, this may very well be the reason.

To get yourself started quickly and let people know you are in business, you can do the following easily for no fees or of course you can use professional services. While you do not necessarily need money to make money on the Internet, the life and death of your business depends heavily on your sweat equity and wisdom.

Remember, you did make an investment of money and time in building your website (or you are about to) so you need to get a decent return on that investment...which is SMI Digital's mantra; every $ invested in your website and digital marketing (or any marketing for that matter) should pay for itself over and over again.

Here are 6 basics to make you known at no or very little cost online, remember, these are only basics and many experts can provide you with the support you need to become more visible on the web.

1 - If you use a content management system (CMS) make sure you have prepared your Meta Tags inside every page of your website.
If you don’t have a CMS, then prepare a spreadsheet and give it to your web designer.

The Title Tag - The HTML title tag isn't really a meta tag, but it's worth discussing in relation to them. Whatever text you place in the title tag (between the TITLE and /TITLE portions) will appear in the reverse bar of someone's browser when they view the web page.

The Meta Description Tag - The meta description tag allows you to influence the description of your page in the crawlers that support the tag. The first meta tag is the one that says "name=description"? That's the meta description tag. The text you want to be shown as your description goes between the quotation marks after the "content=" portion of the tag (generally, 200 to 250 characters may be indexed, though only a smaller portion of this amount may be displayed).

The Meta Keywords Tag - The meta keywords tag allows you to provide additional text for crawler-based search engines to index along with your body copy.
The meta keywords tag is sometimes useful as a way to reinforce the terms you think a page is important for.

TIP: to see the meta tags of a page, right click on a web page and select view source. - at the top of the NotePad page that opens, you will see the meta tags.

How was that for some jargon! The language is becoming more common and we need to ensure our businesses have access to skilled understanding of these matter to ensure we get that ROI on the website and other digital marketing investment.

2 - Submit your site to major search engines (Yahoo!, Google, MSN, etc.). In internet jargon, it is called search engine submission.

This should always be the first thing to do as soon as you have your web site up and all your pages including meta tags. It might not be as important today as it once was, but you might as well get every advantage that you can, no matter how small.

3 - Submit your website link to other web sites with high Page Rank in search engines like Google.

Having your website link submitted to directories, forums or related sites with high Page Rank value will also result in increasing your site Page Rank when Google "bots" crawl on the pages in your web site.

4 - Participate in discussion boards.

Join one or two discussion boards where your prospects are gathering. You can interact, submit articles and this gives you the chance to leave your website URL on the board for people interested in what you have to offer. Do not join too many as it is actually unethical and disturbing if people view your profile to find that you post only once or twice on the board. If you have to leave the board, make sure you leave for a good reason.

5 – Join some online social networking sites and start promoting your profile and your business.

Be creative and create some activities and groups around your professional activity or your personal liking.

6 - Submit your articles to other websites and write a Blog.

There are many sites online that specialise in listing directories of articles. If you include a link to your website in your author’s resource box, publishing your articles on these sites is a great way to establish some links back to your website.

Furthermore, other sites and e-zines publishers might even want to publish your article in their publication!

With 6 easy ways to start, you can promote your website at no cost but if you value your time and it is all too hard, then talk to us.

Your profit margin is the money left over after accounting for all your costs. When business is moving fast and the economy is running hot it is easy to lose focus on the all important profit margin.

With changed economic conditions and a bit more focus time, dwelling on profit margins and finding ways to make them bigger is a worthy activity, fuels your motivation and generates excitement...get others involved in the process. In this Business Growth E-Zine, we offer you 7 ideas for enhancing profit margins.

One of the simplest methods of increasing profit margins is across the board price hikes. Before you go saying "That ain't going to happen in this market!" give it some though as a principle to work towards and maybe start changing the thinking in your business. Unless you are the lowest cost producer of quality products or services in your sector, someone else will always gazump you in this area...eventually.

One of our colleagues had a client who owned a construction business that went bankrupt. When asked what happened, he said "I was always the lowest bidder." That meant he worked his fingers to the bone, did more projects than his competitors, but still went bust. His mistake was trying to compete on price. Let the other guy play the "I've got the lowest price." game. You play the "I've got the best profit margin." game.

That means not dwelling on price, but raising prices and then providing quality, excellent customer service, while creating the perception that your price is still very competitive. In selling, perception is everything.

Here are 6 more ideas from our pool of 68 Ways To Boost Profit Margins. Use this to stimulate some thinking for your business.

1. Deal In Higher Margin Products Or Services

 Calculate profit margins on everything you sell. Even a lesser cost item may have a better profit margin than higher cost items. Cut the drag by avoiding very low margin products and putting your time and energy into that which makes you the most cash.
Quick Tips
* If you don't know your profit margin, your working blind
* Low margin products can bring in customers, but you only make it worthwhile if you have a plan to steer those customers to your real profit producers.

2. Innovate

No one says you have to do things the same way all the time, or the same way other businesses in your industry or profession do them. Look outside your industry and see what's being done in other totally unrelated businesses. You may find ideas that could be adopted or adapted to fit your business.

A good example of this is the drive through banking I've seen in the USA...they got the idea from the fast food industry.
Quick Tips
* When you find a new idea, act on it right away. The longer you wait to "perfect it" the less chance you'll have of implementing it and your competition might beat you to the punch.
* Sell your employees on the benefits of providing this new and unique service
* Inform and educate your customers and prospects of your new innovations and let them know how they will benefit from them.

3. Use A Web Page

A website is also a tool that can be used to increase your profit margins,  but jut how to do this can be quite tricky. Since every business has or is thinking about developing a website, no one can afford to ignore this.

It can reduce the cost of client acquisition and conversion, it can make other advertising more efficient and effective, it can automatically build your prospect data base, it can be used for surveys and feedback, it can educate....all without major staff intervention and 24/7.
Quick Tips
* Set up a merchant account onlie and take orders
* Capture more names for your mailing list, you don't have to buy them.
* Integrate with your offline marketing efforts to maximise the value received
* Websites still cost money, they have to be maintained and updated, but relative to other options, they are very cost effective...if done properly and strategically

4. Control Billings & Collections

Allowing customers to get behind in the payment of their bills can create real cash flow problems. Without a constant stream of cashflow into your business, you can't pay your expenses or salaries, and you can't provide the selection of products or level of service your customers want or expect. This is one of the most critic areas of any business, and yet it is often overlooked and one of the easiest to get out of control.
Quick Tips
* Consider requiring payment or part-payment at the time a product or service is rendered or ordered
* Reduce the time between shipping a product or rendering a service and when you send the invoice or bill.
* Include an invoice with the product
* Offer discounts for payment within a certain time period.

5. Create Your Own Label

When you sell other business's products under their label, you don't have as much control over price as you do when you own the label. In most case your supplier is also selling to your competitors which means you have no distinct advantage if you sell under the same brand and label. But when you own the label, you set the price. You can raise the public image of your brand and/or label's quality and get more money for it.
Quick Tips
* You don't necessarily have to create the product yourself - only the label
* Do people pay "just for the name?" All the time! It's the price shopper that wants generic brands, but don't assume that's everyone.

6. Engineer Efficiency

A poorly tuned car wastes a lot of petrol. An inefficient business is certainly losing money it could easily hold onto. Do a top to bottom examination of how efficiently your business or department is running.

You will find that many processes are routine, things you do every day, the basic functions. Take another look at them and see where they can be made to work more efficiently through implementing systemised procedures.
Quick Tips
* Get employee input into how everyone can work smarter, not harder.
* Look at work flow and duplication in different areas.
* Remember the human element. People are not machines, but maybe machines or software can help humans to concentrate on human tasks - especially dealing with customers.

Product Profile - Office Automator 

SMI Business Impact have a division that focuses on auto-piloting businesses and a key part of this program is Office Automator. This is a system that not only reduces costs permanently but also reduces staff resource requirements thereby producing not only improvements in efficiency but also substantial cost savings and hence return on investment (ROI). Business process automation allows businesses to:

• automate projects and processes
• provide enhanced compliance, control and audit trail
• simplify operations and staff training
• ensure consistency of company presentation
• automate document production, revision, storage and retrieval
• improve customer service
• reduce overheads and increase profit margins; and
• is fully customisable to your business; if you can draw a process on paper, it can be automated

There are amazing opportunities to improve your business, it just needs some focus and attention to work out what the best opportunities are for you in your particular market. Maybe we can help you?

Need Some Professional Help?
Need help to work out how best to grow your business down?

What about a 3rd party view of where your business is today and where it could be? What you could do to avoid or minimise any downside from the economic downturn. What new market opportunities might suit your products and services?

Kick-start 2009 and request a F.ree initial consultation with an SMI Business Development Consultant and discover the upside in your business. Simply click on Apply Now button below and we will contact you or give us a call now on +61893648555.

To your business success.

Simon Ackland

This statement doesn't seem quite right at first glance, but think about it.

Large companies globally are making cuts including reducing staff numbers, in response to the economic outlook. But will they end up just cutting costs at the expense of growth...and can they still expect to achieve growth in the medium term?

The point is, if you carefully grow your business down, rather than taking rash and ill-thought out cost cuts, you remain in control and it becomes a strategic move.

• automate projects and processes
• provide enhanced compliance, control and audit trail
• simplify operations and staff training
• ensure consistency of company presentation
• automate document production, revision, storage and retrieval
• improve customer service
• fully customisable to your business; if you can draw a process on paper, it can be automated

This new product has 13 years of development behind it and a client list that includes a top 20 ASX listed company as well as clients in Canada and Israel. Full functionality and cost effectiveness is available to both SME and large enterprises.

There are amazing opportunities to improve your business, it just needs some focus and attention to work out what the best opportunities are for you in your particular market.

Need Some Professional Help?
Need help to work out how best to grow your business down?

What about a 3rd party view of where your business is today and where it could be? What you could do to avoid or minimise any downside from the economic downturn. What new market opportunities might suit your products and services?

Kick-start 2009 and request a F.ree initial consultation with an SMI Business Development Consultant and discover the upside in your business. Simply click on "Apply Now" and we will contact you or give us a call now on (08) 93648555.

To your business success and a prosperous 2009.

Simon Ackland

Unlike the TV series "Lost", we show you how to Find them again by automating the lead generation from your website.

1. Are You Still Using Email To Collect Leads And Enquiries From The Web?
With the vast majority of websites using a simple email based form (or no form at all, just a phone number) for prospective clients to respond to, how many:

• disappear into a Junk or Spam folder? or
• simply get Lost or buried in a full inbox? and/or
• don't get followed up for days (or ever)

When these email leads are tracked down (if ever) and contacted, guess what the biggest response is? That's right, they don't remember you or your company and most can't even remember why they would have made an enquiry. How many sales is this costing you?

2. A fast response to new leads will improve your sales results
You (or your sales team) must act quickly while the prospective client is still 'hot' or at least 'warm'.

What if you didn't have to worry about lost emails and could simply click on the 'Leads' tab of your Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system each morning and discover a bunch of new leads for the sales team to contact straight away. What if the information provided in the CRM even qualified the Leads so you could prioritise them?

Further, suppose that each of these new leads had received an automated email response saying that their enquiry had been received and they would be contacted within 24 hours. That would demonstrate professionalism and reinforce the relationship straight away with the prospective client, and the CRM would provide strong support to ensure the contact was made within 24 hours.

That would speed up the sales process wouldn't it? Not only would you make more sales, but the ROI on your overall marketing expenditure would be vastly improved...imagine, a happy CFO!

3. Client Relationship Management (CRM) is the answer
SMI Digital is the digital marketing agency of SMI Business Impact which specialises in strategic planning, business development, marketing and business automation services. To discover the best all-round CRM solution for our clients, we have tested and investigated many options. What we found was that Salesforce CRM provides the best mix of:

• ease of use,
• no on-site software (fully secure web based),
• super-fast roll-out and
• the ability to automate both the sales and sales management business processes in small companies right through to multi-national sized corporations.

But the key is to find a system that suits you and that allows you to achieve the automation and improved sales opportunities by being fully organised.

SMI Digital: Dedicated to building your business through digital and web based marketing and business development strategies

NEED PROFESSIONAL HELP?
If you don't have the time or expertise, let our team of Digital Marketing, Marketing and Management Consulting experts help you. SMI Digital specialise in helping small to medium sized businesses build their sales and marketing knowledge and systems to increase lead generation and sales conversion; client, shareholder and stakeholder relations strategies; international digital marketing and business development; online sales systems; email marketing; SEO and social media optimisation; web advertising; brand design; website design and development.

Contact us today for your
F.REE Digital Marketing assessment