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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Building, Creating and Owning Market Intelligence

By Lawrence Potter at Incite Management

There are plenty of business management trends going around. Think in the last 20 years there has been, Management by Objectives, 7 Habits, JIT, Ishikawa, MRP, MRP II, ERP, TQM, Zero Defect Programs, Quality Circles, Time Management, CRM and the list goes on and on and on.

So why is developing Market Intelligence any different for an organisation?

Market Intelligence is a work management practice. It will assist you to guide the business through these turbulent times. Best of all developing Market Intelligence captures the real information and data required to successfully run and manage a business.

So what is Market Intelligence; in its simplest form it considers four aspects of Business Management;

Business Intelligence;
Competitor Intelligence;
Customer Intelligence; and
Knowledge Management.

Business Intelligence

An essential phase that considers all aspects of your business in regards to financial performance, sales operations, staff resources, operational issues etc. It looks at the current situation and in particular the key business issues that need to be addressed. A good way to undertake the initial steps is to do a Current Situation Analysis. This will include developing a SWOT, and GAP Analysis, there are also several online tools to help assist you through this process including Zenbuu (www.zenbuu.com.au).

The outcome of this phase is to develop a number of tools to effectively capture relevant business information in a timely manner upon which to review, plan and act.

Competitor Intelligence

Prof. Michael Porter (Harvard) developed the famous 5 Forces Model. This model when applied allows businesses to identify a number of strategic forces that will impact upon their business. The centre is focused on the intensity of competition within the market place. All businesses need competition to create a viable market and they also need to understand their competition as you will need to clearly differentiate yourself from the competition. From your SWOT analysis you will need to develop a series of Key Leverage Points or Differentiators. These are key factors to setting you apart, so having a clear message as what makes you different is essential.

Know who the competition actually is direct competition and also those that are indirect which would include potentially your suppliers and customers. As the old saying goes, know your enemy and keep your friends close and your enemies closer.

Customer Intelligence

Too often we forget what it is we really need to be doing, which is fulfilling our customers’ needs. By working in the business as opposed to on the business we can rapidly loose site of the customer. We need to ensure that we have a thorough understanding of our customer and who they actually are; how they buy; what they buy; when they buy and importantly what relationship we have with them. With a plethora of CRM focused applications businesses today can source more readily customer information than ever before. Sales people can get relevant sales and product information on their PDA; we can track which words and landing pages go to on our company website and how long they stay; we can analyse how they order and so on. All this information will allow you structure the marketing programs to best optimise the return on the marketing spend and also maximise the relationship with the customer thereby increasing your ability to retain customers.

Knowledge Management

Information is essential for a profitable business. Ensure that the business has a formalised knowledge management process that captures, retains and analyses information. This will allow you to address weaknesses in the business and also to more effectively direct the business by developing and implementing strategies to drive the business forward. Information needs to be accurate and also validated to ensure that it is of use to the business. It also needs to be timely in its delivery. Most importantly you need to be able to interpret the information and develop from it a series of strategies and reports.

Summary - Strategic Intelligence

If we combine these for elements we will develop a strategic intelligent approach to the business. This will entail the review, plan, act approach, because without understanding there is no knowledge. By embracing the SI practice we will create an effective and balanced holistic approach to business. This is not a fad it is a sound business process whereby we deliberately look at and consider the overall business approach to business. Whilst many articles on this topic relate to Military Defence, the analogy and practices are well founded for good business practice. SI helps us to begin with the end in mind so review, plan and act on your business today.

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