5 PRACTICAL STEPS TO GROW YOUR SALES

Are you making your sales effective?

Download our 5 practical steps to making the most of the sales resources in your business.

Let us help you with your sales growth and product development strategies.

Are you aware of the simple changes that will help power your sales?

Improve Your Bottom Line

Are you satisfied with your profits?

Would you like to lower your cost of sales?

Are your operating costs under control?

Incite will complete a full analysis of your existing costs and implement proven practices that ensure an improved bottom line.

Marketing That works

Would you like to see a better return from your marketing spend?

Is your marketing message clearly communicated to your potential customers?

Incite will draw upon its marketing experience to help design and implement communication strategies that deliver a tangible return on marketing investment.

Funding Your Business Growth

Is a lack of cash constraining your business growth?

When it comes to funding your growth, do you know which option is best for you and your business?

Have you reached a wall in your progress?

Incite will assist you to identify and implement the right funding options.

Outperform Your Competition

Are competitors taking your customers?

Do you know what makes your business unique in the market? Are you looking to change your services to grow sales?

We will assist you to develop the most effective strategy to outperform your competition.

Export Your Products Overseas

What is the best export method to enter a foreign market to ensure sales success?

Do you know how much it will cost to sell overseas?

Using Incite's vast network of international contacts and experience Incite will enable your business to sell successfully in the international market place.

Profitable Exit Solutions

What is the end game for you, and your business?

Are you looking to sell/exit your business in the next 5 years?

Leaving your business is never easy, but it should be financially and emotionally rewarding. Incite will work with you to determine and most lucrative way to exit your business.

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Why great web design makes great business sense

By Dan Proctor, Simply

Websites are like browsing for DVD’s on a Saturday night at Video Ezy.

Unless you know specifically what you are looking for you end up browsing the shelves, tending to pick up the DVD’s that have attractive covers, interesting headings or capture your imagination in some way.

You scan for visuals you like or keywords you’re interested in –that gets the DVD’s ‘foot in the door” so to speak.

Your website is similar; it’s your opportunity to get a foot in the door with potential clients.

Have an ugly, poorly thought out home page (front cover of the DVD) and you’re potential client is gone… onto the next website. Don’t list the keywords that are relevant to them when they scan your page or confuse them with navigation, too much content or jargon – again they’re gone…onto the competition.

When people meet each for the first time they make up their mind about that other person within the first minute or two – often less, as little as thirty seconds. With your website you have 8 seconds to make a good impression on a new visitor, to give them what they want or they are gone – often lost for ever.

Think again if you are thinking of taking the cheaper option when designing a website. It could end up one of the more costly decisions you will make when promoting your business.

The good news is applying a few simple principles will make a big difference.

Good home page design is equivalent to a successful first date – you don’t spill the beans about your entire life history in the first 10 minutes.

You politely ask your “prospective life partner” questions about themselves and perhaps ask them if they would like to do this or that, go here or go there.

Your home page is similar, it must offer them options (without offering too many) have clear pathways (decisions) and not tell them your entire (company) history up front.

Sorry to tell you this – no one cares – well not in the first 8 seconds anyway.

When it comes to your website think ‘lets talk about you’, what are you looking for and does this (product/service) grab your attention. In the words of highly respected usability expert Steve Krug “think roadside billboard at 60 km per hour.

Once you have your foot in the door via the home page – content is like the back cover of the DVD or the second hour of a first date – you haven’t sealed the deal yet, people are still scanning for something that convinces them take up your offer (call you or make a purchase).

Did you know most visitors will never really read the content of a website they scan pages looking for keywords, when they find what is relevant to them then they may actually read it?

Don’t fill your pages up with loads of content no one wants to, or has time to read, save that for your corporate brochure (downloadable PDF or hardcopy) tell them what they want to hear and what’s in it for them as quickly as you possibly can, direct them towards the easiest path to a solution (conversion) to their problem – don’t beat around the bush or tell them how darn good you are – you can do that later - convince them to take the action you want now …. and quickly.

Summary

Know where you want your visitors to navigate to quickly – what do you want a visitor to do ultimately– read, purchase, fill in form, download information, pick up phone etc
Don’t waste time with flashy graphics and visuals unless they serve a purpose in getting visitors to that ultimate objective and/or enhance a message/pathway.
Do keep your layout simple on the home page – provide clear pathways via navigation, keywords and some visuals
If you have the budget, pay a little extra to have you site designed from the ground up by a professional. Ask them about their process to get to your finished product. You would expect a design brief to be taken, then fed back to you before they touched any design. Expect to get between 1 and 3 design concepts fed back to you in PDF format before any HTML code is touched.

Remember, it is always much easier to change a design than a webpage.

Contact Dan Proctor: mailto: dan@simply.com.au

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