(ACTUALLY? Not a whole lot.) I work with a lot of service firm owners and there’s one thing they all hate, and that’s writing proposals. They love meeting with prospects, identifying the problems the prospects are having, and talking about how they can help. But then they get back to their office and the work of actually writing the proposal is a grind. And it’s easy to see why when you look at the proposals themselves; they are (truly) works of ART! My clients will craft unique descriptions of the problem, then outline (step-by-painful-step) how their unique process™ will produce the solution their prospect is looking for. Then they add to that team bios, case studies, and all kinds of … [Read more...]
Small Business Articles on Processes
Read small business articles from the Anchor Advisors team for best practices on building and improving your organization's processes. Go back to all Articles »
So you think your agency needs a salesperson…
As the business owner, the job of business development for your creative agency has been yours—from the beginning. But the thing is, you don’t like it. Maybe you don’t feel good at it, or successful as a salesperson, or maybe it just feels icky. But none of that matters now, because there’s a solution. You’re going to hire a salesperson, and that’s going to fix everything. It makes perfect sense. A skilled and experienced salesperson would (likely) know exactly what to do in order to increase sales. A skilled and experienced salesperson would handle the clients better, write better proposals, and close more of them…You’re asking yourself “Why didn’t I do this sooner?” before you even have … [Read more...]
How to make a business decision
It could be said that business leaders have one job, and that’s to make decisions. The decisions we make affect people’s livelihoods, their careers – not just our employees – but our customers, our vendors, our community. I wonder how often any of us sit down and think about how we make business decisions – is our process any good? What could we do to improve it? It’s in that spirit that I offer you Brad’s guide to business decision making! (I’m sure books have been written about this, there’s lots to say, so consider this an incomplete summary…) To help us to walk through this I’m going to illustrate how to decide if we need to expand our account management team by hiring someone … [Read more...]
The easy way (and the hard way) to get leads and sell your services
“I’ve tried that, it didn’t work…” I was having a discussion with an owner of a B2B creative services firm about his business development process. He had a strong business that he’d built by leveraging his personal network, but he wanted to see more growth. This is a business owner who’s aggressive and isn’t afraid to take a risk and try something, but sales tactic or process he’s tried ever got any traction. His business sort of sputtered along from year to year — one year it’s up 15% the next year down 10%. He wanted me to give him the answer, the one method or trick that was going to create an endless stream of leads, that didn’t cost him too much money so he could sell more creative … [Read more...]
Crafting a price increase notice: 6 ways to tell your clients
To start, here's a little price increase notice sample. I then follow it up with 6 ways to how to tell clients you're raising your prices below: Dear John (your client's name is John, right?); How are you doing? We used to be so close. Lately there's been some distance between us; I just want to make sure that, from your end, everything is still good. I mean, the work we've done together has been nothing short of terrific. I'm so grateful for the opportunity to work with you and your team! The challenges that your assignments provide have kept me at the top of my game; and you have always been appreciative of my team's long hours, late nights, and responsiveness to last minute … [Read more...]
Grow your funnels to grow your business
Most business owners are familiar with their sales funnel—the accumulation of new business prospects that are in the process of choosing to buy from you (or not). The sales funnel is arguably the most important process that a growing business needs to track. How are we turning people who are “interested” in buying from us into people who are “actually” buying from us? (Or for bonus points, how do we apply our marketing efforts to people who are merely “interested" and turn them into buyers…?) The growth and success of your sales funnel drives the growth and success of your business. One of the most common misconceptions about the sales funnel is that it can be managed. We can be … [Read more...]
How do you know that YOU are doing a good job?
As a business owner, we all have more than one job (many of us carry 4 or 5); but two of those jobs are the same for every business owner. The first is being a great leader in your business. Whether you are the CEO/President, or a partner who shares the leadership, one of your primary roles is to lead your business. As a leader, it’s my job to make sure that my business is pointed in the direction of new opportunity, that I have good people on my team, and that I’m making money. That’s what CEO’s do. But even CEO’s have bosses! And, if you are self-employed, then that means that you are your own boss. So every now and then you need to take off your CEO hat and put on your “investor” … [Read more...]
Avoiding the summer slow down
This week, I’m joining 80% of americans in planning a travel vacation for the summer. As a business owner, I know how important it is to get away; but I’m also aware of the impact a “vacation” has on my business—and the business of my clients. When anyone goes on vacation, we feel it! Schedules get thrown, decisions are stalled. Any kind of change (or action) happens more slowly. Often we’re ”waiting" for everyone to return to the office so that a meeting can be scheduled, or a proposal can get approved. It can be sooo frustrating! Your clients need your help; you want to close the deal; but the world stops for 2 weeks because somebody is on vacation. And then when they come back they’re too … [Read more...]
What (I think) I know about working for yourself; 15 years in
It was April 2001. I was 35 years old, and I was done with corporate life. I had spent over a decade living in airports, sleeping in rooms at the Courtyard by Marriott™, and meeting in conference rooms that were out of state. I was tired of it. I made the choice to step out on my own. I didn’t know much about being self-employed at the time (and maybe I still don’t), but I was determined to figure it out. Now—15 years later—I think I know a few things. 1. The early years are hard. Getting a business started takes a lot of work (it didn't help that I didn't know what I was doing)! There were so many decisions to make (that I had never made before), and everything cost money (more than I … [Read more...]
Sending Price Increase Notices: 4 Best Practices
When you finally decide it’s time to send your clients a price increase notice, there are a few best practices to follow to help ensure you and your customers are on the same page about what’s happening. The last thing you want to transpire when you’re making a request is to put them on the spot, surprise them, or make them angry. That’s why today, we wanted to outline a few best practices to help you send a price increase notice that gets your clients on board (instead of running for the hills.) 1. Give some warning Surprises + Business = Bad. Nobody likes seeing a price increase on his or her monthly invoice—especially when it comes without warning. All of the sudden … [Read more...]
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