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Intelligence Small Business Blog
11/17/2009 - KNOW YOUR CLIENT - BEFORE YOU BEGIN SELLING!One of my pet peeves as a sales professional is when other sales folks don't do their homework before visiting with a client or prospect. Most business persons have seen it done or been a part of it: a show-up and throw-up sales call. Whichever side of the equation you happened to have been on, these are not pretty meetings. Selling - on its best day, is a bilateral conversation, not a one sided technical dump, from the "sales person" towards the prospect. Read This Blog 10/30/2009 - TRADESHOW TACTICS: ENGAGE THE TARGET! I just returned from a large AFCEA conference that was well attended by military personnel - both uniformed and civilian. If you generally see the glass as half-full (and employ the few tips offered below), then conferences (both large and small) can be great opportunities to engage the clients; however, without the right attitude, they can be very unsatisfying. The key is to understand how to harvest these events for all they're worth and go into them with a plan. Here are my top tips for small business owners to make these conferences work. Read This Blog 10/13/2009 - PROFESSIONAL NETWORKING: GIT'R DONE! Now is a perfect time to plan for the fall! Whether or not you have teed-up some end-of-year revenue, this is typically a lull period for the federal contractor. One of the best things you can do is recommit to networking during the fourth quarter (September through December). I say this because I am like many IT professionals: I am comfortable in my cave (i.e., my office) and I am just as content to spend a day in the office, cranking out 200 e-mails as I am suiting-up, and getting out into the community to build relationships. But I regret the seasons when I don't get out enough. The period between Labor Day and Christmas is--by far, the most active period to energize your outreach! And, perhaps because I am an extrovert, I never fail to make some valuable acquaintances when I step out and build relationships. Sure, it takes work, but the benefits can be valuable. Read This Blog 09/30/2009 - GENERATING REVENUE FOR YOUR SMALL BUSINESS There is plenty of reason for excitement and hope, if you are focused on the federal market. But this certainly does not mean it's easy to hit your revenue targets. The key, as with any sales effort, is this: change means opportunity. There is plenty of change going on across the federal organizations, especially the military and the IC agencies. So, if you have not studied the federal landscape since the new Administration moved into the White House, this is a great time to do so. Your task as a small business owner (or executive) is to clearly map your unique offering to those changes, and then be the best you can be at delivering it. Read This Blog Authors are entirely responsible for opinions expressed in material appearing in AFCEA publications and online products, and these opinions are not to be construed as official or reflecting the views of the Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association. This is a moderated blog, and all comments are subject to review prior to posting. Approved comments will appear within 24 hours. |
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