There is nothing more frustrating for a sales manager or business owner than not being able to afford to make a new sale. Meaning, the opportunity is there for the taking, the purchase order is there, if only you had the necessary funds to pay your suppliers. If only you could deliver!

Meeting supplier payment demands is one of the biggest challenges that owners and their sales people have. Your suppliers want to get paid immediately or upon delivery. Your commercial clients want to pay you 30 to 60 days after receipt. The math does not work and you’re left in the middle. Unless you have a well heeled bank account, your options may appear limited.

If you are like most business owners, your next call will be to your banker. And unless your business has solid financials, three years worth of audited financial reports and a lot of collateral, there is little chance that the bank will offer any business financing. Even the now common letter of credit requires the same bank underwriting criteria as a loan. This puts it outside the reach of small and medium sized companies. So, where can you obtain working capital if you have a strong sales potential but lack the funds to turn the potential into reality?

There is a little known form of financing that allows you to use your purchase orders (from good customers) as financial collateral. It’s called purchase order financing and your bank probably does not offer it. Purchase order funding enables you to deliver on your large orders from your best customers and enables you to make those sales. It’s easy to qualify for and is available to small and medium sized businesses. It is available to those businesses that have no apparent collateral, except a roster of strong customers.

The arrangement is fairly simple. Once you have a purchase order, the financing company provides your suppliers with a letter of credit that guarantees their payment. With the letter of credit in place, your suppliers can deliver the product to your clients, usually by drop shipping it, and you can close the sale. Then it’s a matter of waiting 30 to 60 days for the customer to pay their invoice and the transaction between you and the financing company is then settled.

Purchase order financing can be a great tool that allows distributors, wholesalers, product suppliers and trading companies to grow beyond their expectations, by capitalizing on their purchase orders.

Now the question is - if you had unlimited working capital, how many sales could you close?

About Invoice Factoring Group

We provide business financing through factoring, purchase order financing or a letter of credit. Marco Terry, the president, can be reached at (866) 730 1922

Commercial Capital © 2006 All rights reserved. Article may be reprinted only if not modified and all links are included live

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Ready to launch your business to the next level and beyond…but just not sure which marketing strategy will give you the most bang for your buck?

One of the most effective marketing strategies just happens to be one of the most reasonably priced strategies. Are you surprised? Perhaps you have come to think that marketing has to be a costly, high budget endeavor and something you can not afford to engage in unless you have the available funding of deep pockets.

It is not surprising if you think that way! We have all pow wowed with fast talking salespeople who tried to convince us of the virtues of all sorts of expensive marketing techniques to reach our customers. With eyes glazed over by the bottom line costs that we know are out of our league…costs that could support a family of four for a year. Don’t sign the contract! Stop and consider your options. Don’t let someone rope you into signing a contract that will legally bind you to a program that may or may not generate revenue for your business. Beware!

Costly, ineffective advertising could put you out of business! If your money is tight… don’t gamble with expensive advertising! It is a proven fact that advertising is only really effective when it is conducted in a strategic, consistent and tightly focused manner. Then perhaps your advertising dollars will be a good solid investment. But until that time when you can afford regular advertising there are certainly other options that can prove effective.

Always begin by asking yourself:

1.) Who am I trying to reach?

2.) What message do I want to relay?

3.) What outcome do I want to achieve?

Then start thinking about what steps you will need to do to accomplish your objective. Consider carefully if your objective can be reached through relationship marketing.
Perhaps you will come to realize that relationship marketing would be the best way to achieve your goal. It is through good relationship marketing that many business owners reach their business, professional and personal goals.

People like to do business with people that they know. It is vital that as a business owner you and your staff are engaged in the business of building relationships with your customers.

Through the process of building dynamic relationships with your clients, your business will continue to grow and reach new levels of profitability.

So how do you do this? This is a great time of year to host an open house.

Invite your clients to special open houses. A Festive Autumn Open House is a great way to show you care about your customers. Open houses are the perfect opportunity to showcase new products and services.

Open houses do not have to be expensive or time consuming for you to put together. Special open houses have the potential to sky rocket your marketing efforts and maximize your profits. If you are looking for ways to generate traffic, increase sales and wow your customers… then don’t ignore the potential of hosting an open house.

To Your Success!

Kathi Dameron

Ideas For Business Open Houses

850-422-3599

© 2006 Kathi Dameron, Kathi Dameron and Associates www.kathidameron.com

Note To Publishers: You are invited to share this article through your ezine, website or print publication provided you publish this article in its entirety and include the copyright statement, bio information, active website links and contact information.

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Do you ever wonder why some sales people with lots of experience never make it to the high ranks for sales success? Have you met someone who seems like they would be perfect for sales because of an out going personality and good looks? Yet, when these same people are put into sales, they just don’t make it. Certainly there could be many reasons for lack of success. One factor to consider is that instead of years of sales growth, they have months or years of the same experience and never grow beyond the basics of sales. For some, they just don’t know how to pick winners for clients and continue to limit their success with the same activity day in and day out.
Here is a question for you, if the measurement of success in sales is to have a high sales volume, then shouldn’t you do business with high volume clients. The right answer is YES! While this might seem simple, the unsuccessful sales person often overlooks this. This is one reason why experience doesn’t always lead so success because the salesperson never learns the lessons of whom or how to pick clients. Let’s use an example to illustrate this better.

Picking the right Client

You know the person at the grocery store who goes through the corn bin to find just the right ear of corn. They pour through the corn bin and move aside all the ears that don’t meet their specifications as the right one. You will see him or her carefully peels back the husk to see inside and determine whether the ear is ripe and meets quality and ripeness measurements. This person is picky and knows exactly what they are looking for. They won’t settle for the small ears they want the best! Time and experience has taught them what to look for. When this activity is finished, the person will walk away with a few ears of corn and leave a mess of disarray behind them. If you go to the bin after they do, you are left with the remains of the best.

You can read a lot out of that analogy but there is one Point I want to make with this writing. When I talk with seasoned sales professionals who are successful, I find a common trait. They know the type of client they want and how to get the attention of the client. One might surmise that the solution to lack luster sales performance lies with how one follows the sales process and plants the seeds of opportunity in their sales territory.

If you want to change from low or mediocre success and rise to higher levels, the answer is with your clients and whom you call upon. If you are dealing with lots of clients who challenge you on price, it is because that is their job. You are probably calling on someone with a buyer attitude and the purchasing agent or someone who is lower on the corporate ladder. Rising above this lower level will match you with higher potential and more promising success. Sales professionals have learned this lesson and they know whom to contact for a strategic partner. You might say they know how to pick an ear or corn.

Steve Martinez implements sales management strategies with a focus on automating sales for printing organizations. Selling Magic teaches businesses how to automate and customizing ACT or Outlook with the best practices of sales management while integrating email marketing and technology for greater profits. http://www.sellingmagic.com

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With the wide spread dislike of telemarketers, many home-based and small business owners are hesitant about using their own phone for advertising. However, there is another powerful marketing tool they tend to overlook, their fax machine.

Everyday, flyers, newsletters, advertisements, and business cards are constantly being pushed onto customers who have become resistant to the whole concept, so how do you get them to take notice of your product or service among thousands?

Here’s how . . . cut through the sludge of the common marketing methods and use your fax machine to climb to the top and land, literally, right into the hands of paying customers.

Getting Started.

Before you embark on a frenzied fax marketing plan, you need to know that fax broadcasting is legal as long as you follow these three important rules.

Do you have an established business relationship?
This means that you were given a business’s fax number voluntarily such as through your website, you were given a business card, or received a letter or email with a fax number. If a business relinquished their fax number to you, then they are giving you permission to use their fax number for further business communications.

Is the fax number publicly advertised?

If a business has published their fax number in a directory, in an advertisement, or on a website on the Internet, then they have agreed to make that number available for public use. If a business advertises their fax number in print or on the Internet, then you can send them unsolicited faxes.
Are you providing a cost free way for recipients to request removal?

Just like email, you need to give businesses a way to opt out of receiving your faxes, and it has to be free. You may want to provide a toll free fax or phone number for those who want to contact you to be removed. Setting up an email address specifically for removals may be another idea.
As long as you follow the above rules you will avoid legal issues arising from unsolicited faxing. If you’re still unsure or want to play it safe, do your own research on broadcast fax laws.

Start Faxing.

It’s time you learned how to market your business using only a fax machine, even if you don’t have one.

With today’s technology, you don’t even have to own a fax machine to use this method of advertising. Instead you can sign up with an online faxing company such as efax.com. You will be assigned a fax number and all your faxes will then be sent and received through email. The businesses you want to fax to don’t have to have an account through efax.com for you to use it. The information you send them will be received through their “real” fax machine like a regular fax.

Once you have access to faxing capabilities, you will then need to make a list of all the businesses in your area, or beyond, who have a need for your product or service. *Remember, businesses who have their fax numbers listed in phone books or on their websites are giving you permission to use it, and you are allowed to legally send them unsolicited faxes.

Ask yourself these questions when considering a potential customer:

- How can my product/service benefit them?

- Why should they buy from me?

- Are they likely to buy from me?

Now that you have your list of businesses complete with fax numbers, it’s time to decide what to send them.

- Sale flyer announcing your specials.

- A list of services/products you offer.

- Grand opening flyer.

- Business event you are hosting.

- Reveal a new product/service.

- Letter introducing you and your business.

When you know what you want to send, make it as professional as possible. Your fax will be representing your business, so you don’t want it littered with errors.

Faxing do’s and don’ts:

Do’s

- Do include your business name, website, email address, and phone numbers.

- Do include information to businesses on how they can be taken off your fax list. You don’t want to be harassing businesses, so if they do not want to receive faxes from you, have them send you an email, call you, or simply return your fax.

- Do make it short and sweet. Get right to the point in your fax, business owners are not going to be interested in reading pages and pages of information.

- Do use automatic response words, such as Now, You, Attention, At Last, New, First, Exclusive, etc. You can learn more about writing to sell through the Internet or by obtaining the ebook, make your words sell by Ken Evoy, M.D. and Joe Robson.

Don’ts

- Don’t go overboard on images. This can cause your reader to be overwhelmed.

- Don’t use a cover letter unless you know it will cause the reader to read the rest of your fax. If they read the cover letter and realize it’s an ad, they may just press the stop button on their machine to stop it from coming in, or throw all the pages into the trash without reading them.

- Don’t send more then one fax a month. If you start faxing businesses every time you have something you want them to see, they may get angry at the constant interruptions to their work and phone line, not to mention the use of paper and ink to receive your faxes. This could boil down to lost sales and a bad reputation.

- Don’t use fancy fonts. You want your fax to be readable, so use an Arial, Times New Roman, or Courier New font and make sure it is large enough so that people won’t have to squint to read it. The easier you make it for the reader, the better chance you have of them reading the entire thing.

Tips for getting sales through faxing:

- Make your entire fax, one page. Use spacing, and layout your page so that it can be skimmed, yet understood.

- Create an exclusive fax list by offering businesses that signup free samples, special deals and discounts. By signing up for free, they are giving you permission to send them faxes, receive mailings, email, and whatever else you want to send.

If you decide to have an exclusive list, make sure that whatever you offer is worthwhile to the members. Go a step further and send out welcome packets to your members. Include a thank-you letter, samples, a coupon or additional discount, a pen or magnet with your business information on it, and include a stack of business cards for them to hand out to fellow business owners or friends. Tip: Write a discount on the back of your business cards, and tell them how they can signup for your free exclusive membership.

- Offer special incentives to the businesses that receive your faxes. Such as buy one, get one free. With those kinds of deals, other businesses are bound to hear about them and request to be added to your fax list.

- Include a discount coupon on the bottom of your fax and instruct them to send in the flyer or bring it in to claim their discount. This is also a great way to track how many sales you received through the fax.

The majority of businesses today own a fax machine, so if you’re not taking advantage of this method you could be losing sales. If you do it right, you can gain an edge on your competition by getting to your customers instantly through faxing.

Happy faxing!

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If you are in sales, you are involved in corporate dating. You must understand this because it is critical to your success or business. This concept of dating and sales might seem like an odd pairing but it takes place everyday. It has been a long time since I was on the dating scene as a single person but I’m involved in business match making activities constantly. Businesses and salespeople are searching for the right company and the perfect contact for a life long profitable relationship. This is the same as dating.

The courtship activities

The initial activities of a successful courtship get you noticed by the individual you want a relationship with. If you are like me, you remember how this worked. Well, the dating game of business is not different when we want to get noticed. Although we might not send flowers, we might use candy, donuts, cookies or special mailings. In high school it was joining a special club just to be in the same room with a person we wanted to know better. In business this strategy might be attending a social event or commerce meeting to meet someone.

More frequent contacts during the courtship period are always expected. Here is a question for you, do you increase and vary your contact activities when you are courting a prospect? Do you send notes, letters, and e-mails besides the standard telephone call in increased numbers during this courtship period? If not, why not? You will never get noticed if you don’t apply this courtship strategy with the important prospects you want to know better. It is only after we have a matured relationship that we can reduce the frequency of these contacts.

The investigative work

When you were interested in someone, how did you learn about them? If you are like most of us, you acted like a master detective and learned as much as you could about the individual you were interested in. You probably asked all your friends and their friends about your potential date. Primarily because you wanted to know everything there was to know about them. Things are better today with the Internet, we can learn so much more about our intended when we research correctly.

Finding common interests was your goal with research and this should be the same goal when striving to develop long term relationships with prospects and customers. In business, the difference might be how we search for pain points with our prospects and even our customers. It is the pain points we uncover that will attract our benefits and solutions to prospects. The more pain we discover and make apparent to our contacts the more likely they will desire a solution oriented relationship with us.

Matchmaking and profiling

We can’t ignore the Internet which brings a unique set of matchmaking tools to assist the single person or business. If we use Internet tools we have a chance of finding a great match for a great relationship. We can use these ideas and apply them to our search for the perfect business match. Some of the online dating sites use extensive testing and personality profiling to assist in matchmaking. We can do the same thing with Standard Industrial Classifications (SIC) codes and matching our best customer profiles with potential prospects. I hope you enjoyed this journey down memory lane for dating and will apply the sales courtship strategies to your sales strategies.

Steve Martinez implements sales management strategies with a focus on automating sales for printing organizations. Selling Magic teaches businesses how to automate and customizing ACT or Outlook with the best practices of sales management while integrating email marketing and technology for greater profits. http://www.sellingmagic.com

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