Aaron Hoos

Many small businesses are fueled by passion. They start because an entrepreneur has an idea (or is sick of working for a boss), they grow because their ideas solve a problem and somehow that solution is communicated to the marketplace.

Unfortunately, many small businesses fail… even ones that are seemingly successful and make profitable sales. The reason is, they’re simply existing day-by-day, sale-by-sale, without any real strategy or long-term vision to give their existence any direction.

If you’re an entrepreneur, answer these 100 small business strategy questions. The answers will help you to highlight areas of opportunity that you can exploit and areas of concern that you can mitigate. Bookmark this page and come back to it regularly to work through these questions every 3 to 6 months.

With your answers, create a list of to-dos that you can act on until you come back to these questions again.

1. What does your business do?
2. What does your business sell?
3. What does your business stand for?
4. What parts of your brand truly reflect your current business?
5. What parts of your brand do not (or no longer) reflect your current business?
6. What are the top 10 benefits your business provides?
7. Who is your perfect customer?
8. How are you adding value?
9. What are your products’ or services’ biggest flaws?
10. How do you define a lead?
11. Where are your leads coming from?
12. What demographic are your leads?
13. How are you creating leads?
14. How are your competitors creating leads?
15. How will lead creation change for your industry in the future?
16. How do you define a prospect?
17. What is your lead-to-prospect ratio?
18. What demographic are your prospects?
19. How is your prospect demographic different from your leads demographic?
20. How are you turning leads into prospects?
21. How are your competitors turning leads into prospects?
22. What objections do your prospects have?
23. What objections do you NOT have an answer for?
24. How do you define a customer?
25. What is your prospect-to-customer ratio (close rate)?
26. What demographic are your customers?
27. How is your customer demographic different from your prospect demographic?
28. How are you converting prospects into customers?
29. How are your competitors converting prospects into customers?
30. What has caused you to lose a sale?
31. How do you define an evangelist?
32. What is your customer-to-evangelist ratio?
33. What is your evangelist demographic?
34. How is your evangelist demographic different from your customer demographic?
35. How is your relationship with your customers?
36. What were your 3 most successful marketing campaigns?
37. What were your 3 least successful marketing campaigns?
38. What marketing and sales activities are you using in each stage of your sales funnel?
39. How do you measure company-wide success?
40. How do you measure personal and/or employee success?
41. How are you improving your relationship with your customers?
42. How can you improve the process for receiving and acting on feedback from customers?
43. How are you encouraging repeat sales?
44. How are you encouraging upsells?
45. Who else can use your products or services that you aren’t currently serving?
46. What is your business model?
47. What other peer-businesses use the same business model?
48. What can you learn from peer-businesses that use the same business model?
49. What other businesses (in other industries) use a similar business model?
50. What can you learn from businesses in other industries that use a similar business model?
51. Who are your top 3 competitors?
52. Who/what are your indirect competitors?
53. What does the most successful businesses in your industry do that you don’t do yet?
54. Why would someone buy from you instead of your competition?
55. When should someone buy from your competition instead of you?
56. What are your competitors doing differently?
57. What are your competitors doing better than you?
58. What are your competitors doing worse than you?
59. How are your relationships with your suppliers/vendors?
60. How can your supplier/vendor relationships be improved?
61. What does your organizational chart look like and what strengths/weaknesses are the result?
62. What are the next 3 roles you need to hire for?
63. What was the last thing you tested in your business?
64. When was the last time you tested a price change and what were the results?
65. What political changes do you see affecting your business/industry?
66. What economic changes do you see affecting your business/industry?
67. What social changes do you see affecting your business/industry?
68. What technological changes do you see affecting your business/industry?
69. What financial best practices have you implemented?
70. How have buying habits changed in your industry?
71. What trends are influencing buying habits?
72. How will buying habits change in the future?
73. How has your industry innovated in the past decade?
74. How has your business innovated in the past year?
75. Where does your business plan to innovate this coming year?
76. How are you investing in your business’ growth (i.e. innovation, new equipment, etc.)?
77. What is your plan to scale up your business?
78. If you had to get rid of 90% of your customers, what 10% would you keep?
79. If you kept 10% of your most profitable customers, what would that demographic look like?
80. How can you increase your ideal customer base?
81. How can you decrease your less-than-ideal customer base?
82. Where are people talking about your business online?
83. What are people saying about your business online?
84. What is your plan if your industry suddenly received a lot of bad press?
85. What is your plan if your business suddenly received a lot of bad press?
86. What is your plan if your marketing went viral and you suddenly had 10x the customers?
87. What contingency plans do you a have in place for natural disasters?
88. What would happen to your business if you were unable to work?
89. What has changed about your business since you started?
90. How has your income trended since you started?
91. How has your profit margin trended since you started?
92. What plans do you have to increase income next year?
93. What plans do you have to increase profits next year?
94. Where do you see your business in 1 year?
95. Where do you see your business in 5 years?
96. Where do you see your business in 10 years?
97. What strengths/assets can you leverage for growth?
98. Where are your blindspots?
99. What are the top 3 problems keeping you from advancing to the next level in business?
100. What about your business, industry, or customers keeps you awake at night?

Imagine this scenario: As a real estate professional, you’re walking a potential buyer through yet another home. You’re not sure how many homes you’ve seen with them. It seems like hundreds… or maybe thousands? You’re starting to wonder if they are even serious about buying a home at all (although you’re pretty sure that they are) and you are watching as every minute that ticks by eats into the profitability of your commission.

Here’s a real estate copywriting lesson that doesn’t just apply to the written content on your website, it also helps you to sell more homes to buyers.

People love stories… and stories sell.

People love stories because they help to make facts “relatable” and enjoyable. We all live in our own story and we like to hear stories. We’ve been listening to stories since humankind learned to communicate.

And, stories sell. Stories disarm us with how easy and fun they are to listen to and then they convince us to do something… even if we wouldn’t normally respond that way when presented with cold, dry facts.

When I’m writing real estate copywriting content for my clients, I’m always trying to find the story that will hook the reader and convince them to respond.

So, what does this copywriting trick mean for you as a real estate professional?

It means that you can use stories to help improve your ability to sell more homes faster to more potential buyers. Stories can help you turn “tire kickers” and “looky-loos” into homeowners; stories can help your clients overcome the fear of commitment; stories can help you present a home to a homeowner and help them see how perfect it is for them, and stories can help calm your clients when they have buyer’s remorse.

The reason why it works is because people are more likely to buy when they can picture themselves owning the home. The more vividly they picture themselves in the home, the more likely you will be able to sell it to them.

So your job is to paint a vivid picture of your client living in and loving the very home you are showing to them.

DISCOVER YOUR CLIENT’S STORY

First, you need to find out what your potential buyers are looking for in a home. (That’s an easy step because you’re already doing that!)

For example: Are they social and looking for a place to entertain? Are they a young couple looking to start a family? Are they empty nesters who want a great place to host grandchildren? Are they hard workers who want a relaxing enclave from their busy lives?

Then turn that information into a story.

Here’s what I mean: Take the elements they’ve already described and get them to go deeper. Try to get them to give you as vivid of a picture as they can. I’ve written two examples below. Notice how they go much deeper into more of a narrative than “we want a big dining room” or “I want a place to put up my feet at the end of a busy day.”

For your social client: “We like to have another 2 or 3 couples over to our house. We all cook together while enjoying a bottle of wine. We have a big, late supper that we’ve all had a hand preparing. We’re not meat-and-potatoes people; we prefer slightly more exotic foods. The meal goes late – maybe 10pm. After that, we push back from the table, go to the living room, turn up some jazz, and sip cappuccinos.”

For your busy client who wants a retreat: “We get home from work at 7 or 8 at night. We haven’t been home for 13 or 14 hours but as soon as we walk in, we feel completely welcome and ensconced. We eat a quick dinner and then sit in the family room to watch TV on our big screen TV. Once the kids are in bed, we retire to our own bedroom and sink off to sleep in a deep, comforting mattress. Tomorrow will be just as busy as today so we drink in the relaxation as deeply as possible for the few hours that we’re at home.”

SHOW THEM HOMES WHERE THAT STORY WILL COME TRUE

You’re already finding homes that match their stated needs, so that part of your work doesn’t change. Continue to find homes for your clients that have the features they are looking for.

However, once you start showing your clients around to different homes, don’t just highlight the features. Instead, retell your clients’ story with them as central figures living out that story in the home you’re showing them.

By doing this, you’re helping them to see the features as benefits targeted specifically to them. You’re helping them to look past the inevitable quirks that every house has so they can see the house for what it could be for them. Most importantly, you’re helping them to see themselves living their dream lives in this house.

As you develop content for your financial or real estate business, it can be easy to just write naturally in your own voice. That’s good because you come across as personable. However, you tend to attract people who are exactly like you (i.e. whose personality is similar to yours).

If you want to improve your marketing, look at who your top clients are and then work backwards through your sales funnel to develop marketing that resonates with those personalities.

START WITH YOUR EXISTING CLIENTS

Ask yourself: What kind of personality do my biggest, most profitable, and most frequent clients have? (If you work with consumers, you probably get a variety of personalities. If you work with businesses, you might get a few types of personalities for big businesses and a few types of personalities for small businesses).

For example, I work primarily with financial and real estate entrepreneurs — these are two highly competitive industries that take confidence, perseverance, and even some professional aggressiveness to be successful. Therefore, I try to match my marketing and sales content, as well as my workstyle to meet their needs.

Familiarize yourself with a personality-profiling/behavior-styles systems (like Myers-Briggs or the DISC profile or maybe there’s a different one that you are more familiar with). Just make sure it’s not too complicated and easy for you to “read” your contacts quickly and easily.

REVISIT YOUR MARKETING

Once you have a handle on the personality types that make up your client list, revisit your existing and figure out which personality types your marketing tends to resonate with. Then plan to create marketing content that gives the same message but communicates it in a way that some of the other personality types will respond to.

Also, look at your upcoming marketing efforts to make sure that there is content available for all personalities you serve.

In some cases, you might want to create separate sales funnels for each personality type (if you tend to work with one buyer through the entire sales cycle).

EXAMPLE

Here’s an example of how I would handle content for the 4 DISC behavior types, and I’ll use a real estate agent article as an example. Let’s say we want to write an article about how to find the perfect home. Here’s how I would write the same information for each of the following DISC behavior types:

• Dominance: These people are busy decision-makers. Keep the content focused on benefits and potential return on investment at a higher level. Consider an article like “The 6 Most Important Things to Look For in the Next Home You Buy”
• Influencers: These people are key people and potential evangelists. Make sure the content is easy for them to buy into and communicate with others. Consider an article like “8 Useful Tips to Make Your Next Home Purchase Easy and Painless”
• Steadiness: These people are looking for safety and predictability. Make sure the content demonstrates your reliability and minimizes the pain of moving. Consider an article like “How to Ensure that Your Next Home is Perfect (and How to Make the Move Easier Than You Ever Thought Possible)”
• Compliance: These people are analytical and structured. Make sure the content is sequential and provides them with all of the information they need to know. Consider an article like “The 5 Steps to Finding the Perfect Home to Fit Your Needs”

See the difference? Using the four DISC behavior styles, we reworked the article to match it up to the expectations and thought-processes of that style. The title is listed but the content would need to be modified, too.

I can help you get more web visitors and warm leads… but you need to take it from there and “close the deal” with awesome sales skills. Schedule time each and every day to hone your sales skills by performing one or more of these tips below.

By the way, I’m just scratching the surface. Please include your sales-skill-improving ideas in the comments!

1. Create flashcards of features and benefits. Drill through them by (1) memorizing them, (2) practicing the transition from the feature to the benefit, (3) answering with a benefit when a client asks about a feature.
2. Watch videos in the SellingPower YouTube channel.
3. Outline your sales funnel and determine what your prospects have already learned and thought about by the time they get to the sales presentation. Figure out how to make your sales funnel more successful. To help you perform this step, download the Sales Funnel Quick Reference Guide and the Sales Funnel Worksheet.
4. Role-play sales conversations with your peers. Or, consider using case studies instead of role plays.
5. Describe the mindset and potential questions that different types of clients have – the cold lead, the warm prospect, the enthusiastic repeat buyer, the skeptic, the prodigal client who left and came back, etc. To figure out how to effectively use mindsets in your sales, check out my blog post Sell more by mapping your content to your buyers’ mindset.
6. Collect objections and practice overcoming them. Check out my blog post Objections are Awesome and this related YouTube video about objection-handling for insurance brokers.
7. Shadow a more successful salesperson while they are making a sale
8. Read Jeffrey Gitomer’s The Sales Bible.
9. Set sales goals for yourself for the next 10 years then break them down to yearly, quarterly, monthly, weekly, and daily goals.
10. Identify the biggest challenges and fears and obstacles you have in selling and figure out how to overcome them. (You might include specific objection-handling here but I cover that in another point on this list. Instead, I’m talking about challenges like persistence, staying positive, internal resistance, a dislike of cold calling, or whatever). Be sure to include both internal challenges and external ones.
11. Keep a sales journal and write in it every day. Record your thoughts, feelings, fears, and ideas each day. Include positive statements and motivational quotes that inspire you to sell. List your sales successes and failures.
12. Find a sales mentor and meet with them at least once a month (or more often)
13. Record a sales presentation (on video) and critique it yourself.
14. Teach someone to sell.
15. List all of the needs and pain points that your clients have. Make as big of a list as you can. Review past clients to see what prompted them to buy. Then tie each need or pain point to one or more solutions that you offer. Make sure you have memorized each pain point and can smoothly articulate which solutions are best.
16. Read Tom Hopkins’ How to Master the Art of Selling.
17. Create a list of low-pressure non-sales-related conversations starters to start up conversations with prospects and clients.
18. Present your sales presentation to a peer and have them critique it.
19. Practice your ability to carry any conversation and artfully turn it around to a sales pitch by having peers start a conversation about a random topic.
20. Practice transitioning from a conversation into a sales presentation.
21. Create a big list of fact-finding questions to ask prospects.
22. Practice the flawless delivery of a sales presentation.
23. Create a big list of ways to ask for the order (or however you define “closing the deal”).
24. Review articles from SellingPower Magazine.
25. Present your sales presentation in front of a child. Give the presentation in such a way that they understand what you are saying. Pay attention to when they get distracted (because your adult prospect may not have much more patience than that).
26. Experiment with presenting with visuals and without, on the phone and in person, standing and sitting, in a large room and in a small room, in a short period of time and in a longer period of time, to a noisy crowd and to a rapt audience.
27. List your top 5 most successful sales. Describe what made them successful (don’t just describe what you did well, but rather describe what you did well that was NOT present in your less successful sales).
28. List several unsuccessful sales. Describe what challenges you faced and what made them unsuccessful. Brainstorm ways to improve next time.
29. Watch videos in Jeffrey Gitomer’s YoutTube channel.
30. Prior to making a sales presentation, list the goals you want to accomplish in the sale. (Not just “I want to make a sale” but something like, “I want to close the deal for $X.XX and I want to do it in 25 minutes.”
31. After every sales presentation, review the presentation to determine how you did. Did you close the sale? Did you achieve your goals?
32. Create personas describing what your typical client is like. (“Mary is 36 years old. She works in middle management at XYZ Company. She is a single mother of two school-aged children and she saves diligently for her children’s college education. She had saved a little for retirement but the recent recession wiped most of it out. (etc.)”
33. Buy from a competitor then review their presentation afterwards. Determine the factors in your competitor’s sales presentation make them more successful, as well as opportunities you have to outshine your competitor.
34. Next time you’re shopping for something (anything – from new shoes to a new car) pay attention to the sales presentation for that product or service. Analyze the salesperson’s presentation and determine if there are skills and techniques you can borrow. (You might be surprised at what you can learn by going outside of your industry).
35. Tweak and practice your sales presentation for different audiences (for example, different industries or different levels of decision-maker)
36. If you’ve never done it before, record your sales presentation and have it transcribed. Then read it aloud and silently, and have someone else read it, too. Find ways to say things differently and pay particular attention to verbal quirks that could distract rather than enhance your presentation.
37. List the pieces of information you need to know about someone to effectively build rapport, uncover their needs, establish your expertise, handle objections, and close the deal. Create multiple questions for each piece of information you need and then practice incorporating these questions naturally into a conversation.

Got other tips and ideas to improve selling skills? Add them in the comments below! I’d love to hear them.

While writing their marketing content, a request I commonly hear from financial and real estate professionals is to ramp up the “salesmanship” of their content so that they get more committed clients calling them on the telephone.

They want their marketing content to sell their services so that more people go “wow! I want to hire that person to help me find a home” or “wow! I want to hire that person to manage my investment portfolio“.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way.

It takes A LOT of marketing content (sometimes over a substantial period of time) to convince someone who hasn’t heard of you before to become your client. (It’s not impossible… but it probably won’t happen in a 500 word article).

Instead, your marketing needs to accomplish just one action… and it’s not “become my client“.

The action needs to be a painless next step that the curious would take (perhaps fill out an online form or pick up the phone and call you) rather than a big step that the committed would take.

See the difference?

People are afraid of commitment and don’t want to get locked in to a bad thing (like working with the wrong professional). So they’ll willingly do non-committal things, such as filling out an online form or picking up the phone to call… and THAT is when you sell to them.

They will eventually make a commitment to become your client but they need far more convincing than marketing content on its own can often perform.

HERE’S AN EXAMPLE

Take my business, for example. My marketing rarely asks people to become my client. Rather, it asks them to get in touch with me. That’s because my over-the-phone close rate is nearly 100% while my written conversion is much less. So my goal is to get people to call.

The concern that some of my prospective clients might have is: Won’t I get more crackpot callers? You might. (And it’s a reason that my close rate isn’t exactly 100%!). But you won’t get that many more because here’s what’s really going on…

When you use marketing content that tries to convert a cold lead into a client, that content has a lot of work to do and the client may come up with objections that the content can’t address. And, the content can’t capture your entire personality and pre-qualify clients. So you get lots of cold leads reading your content and deciding for themselves whether or not they should hire you… and many will not call because they don’t want to make that commitment based solely on the marketing content they’ve seen.

But when you use marketing content that only tries to move a cold lead into a warm prospect, that content has a lot less work to do and can therefore be far more effective… at pre-qualifying these people and at convincing them to take the smaller, easier step of picking up the phone (instead of making a commitment). And, YOU can then share your personality with your client (hint: that will be a huge selling feature for you) and you can handle their objections.

Result: Your marketing will qualify your clients (weeding out most of the crackpots) but it will also get more of the good prospective clients to pick up the phone.

By using this model of focusing your marketing on a painless, no-commitment action, you can get more people calling you and you can convert more of those prospects into clients.

We’ve also seen a similar shift in selling digital download products (like ebooks). It used to be that you could put up a sales page and have a buy now button at the bottom and get clients. And some people still do that (and it still does work sometimes but not as much as it once did). But today, the more effective squeeze page offers a link to something free and valuable (an ecourse or videos, for example… something non-committal!) and then the sales letter comes later. Thus, there’s the first non-committal step followed by the more targeted, harder-hitting commitment.

For more information about getting your leads and prospects to do less, learn how to identify the steps in your sales funnel stages. Or, if you’re still thinking about how you want to market your business, check out this first in a series of sales funnel 101 blog posts.