Bad Business Profits Are Not the Way To Increase Sales
Bad Business Profits Are Not the Way To Increase Sales
Bad profits are another one of those 800# gorillas many seem to ignore. From my perspective, bad business profits exist for 3 basic reasons
Fees are one of the best examples of bad profits. From banks to governments to credit card companies to schools, fees do not add value, but exist just because the organization can. When businesses or organizations cannot honestly increase sales, they impose a fee to justify their existence while penalizing you as the customer.
Taxes are another example of bad profits. Recently I read where New York City is going to tax the downloading of “I-Tunes.” Instead of reducing costs and trimming the excess waste that exists in 99% of all governmental agencies, new taxes are added to confiscate money from those who actually make money.
Other examples of bad profits abound such as expiration dates on gift cards. Some utilities gain bad profits through demand charges that they impose on their larger business and commercial customers. In many cases, customers are clueless about these fees because they are hidden away in fine print or have become a standard practice that has never been challenged.
Another reason that this is not a good strategy to increase sales is because it demotivates your sales team. How can your sales professionals build authentic relationships when you are, in all honesty, penalizing your customers and acting like you are not?
Since the purpose of business is attracting and maintaining loyal customers as this is how organizations increase sales, bad business profits negate that purpose. Would it not make more sense to trim the fat and become a high performance organization where human capital talent management works in harmony with an environment of continuous improvement?
How to reverse this dangerous trend begins within the Values Statement of the organization. When the executive management team truly lives their core values such as honesty, integrity or responsibility, they will begin to eliminate these bad profits. Building customer loyalty and therefore increasing sales will no longer be a slogan, but daily actions that truly demonstrate how this organization wants to earn their customers’ repeat business.
Of course, organizations could continue to impose new fees and taxes without regards to the customers. However, by taking such actions, those organizations are setting themselves up for their own Boston Tea Party.
Take Action Sales Coaching Tip: Review your policies and pricing structure. Are you creating any bad business profits in your quest to increase sales? What actions can you take to authentically build good profits from good sales while improving customer loyalty?
Bad Business Profits Are Not the Way To Increase Sales - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
Did you ever think some business profits could be bad? Profit is supposed to be a good thing. However, during down economic times or when businesses choose not to innovate, the proliferation of bad profits is everywhere.
Bad profits are another one of those 800# gorillas many seem to ignore. From my perspective, bad business profits exist for 3 basic reasons
- Organizations are lazy and do not want to work to increase sales
- Organizations do not want to add value to their products or services
- Organizations do it because they can
Fees are one of the best examples of bad profits. From banks to governments to credit card companies to schools, fees do not add value, but exist just because the organization can. When businesses or organizations cannot honestly increase sales, they impose a fee to justify their existence while penalizing you as the customer.
Taxes are another example of bad profits. Recently I read where New York City is going to tax the downloading of “I-Tunes.” Instead of reducing costs and trimming the excess waste that exists in 99% of all governmental agencies, new taxes are added to confiscate money from those who actually make money.
Other examples of bad profits abound such as expiration dates on gift cards. Some utilities gain bad profits through demand charges that they impose on their larger business and commercial customers. In many cases, customers are clueless about these fees because they are hidden away in fine print or have become a standard practice that has never been challenged.
Another reason that this is not a good strategy to increase sales is because it demotivates your sales team. How can your sales professionals build authentic relationships when you are, in all honesty, penalizing your customers and acting like you are not?
Since the purpose of business is attracting and maintaining loyal customers as this is how organizations increase sales, bad business profits negate that purpose. Would it not make more sense to trim the fat and become a high performance organization where human capital talent management works in harmony with an environment of continuous improvement?
How to reverse this dangerous trend begins within the Values Statement of the organization. When the executive management team truly lives their core values such as honesty, integrity or responsibility, they will begin to eliminate these bad profits. Building customer loyalty and therefore increasing sales will no longer be a slogan, but daily actions that truly demonstrate how this organization wants to earn their customers’ repeat business.
Of course, organizations could continue to impose new fees and taxes without regards to the customers. However, by taking such actions, those organizations are setting themselves up for their own Boston Tea Party.
Take Action Sales Coaching Tip: Review your policies and pricing structure. Are you creating any bad business profits in your quest to increase sales? What actions can you take to authentically build good profits from good sales while improving customer loyalty?
Bad Business Profits Are Not the Way To Increase Sales - To learn more about this author, visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
|||
David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
|||
Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
|||
Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
|||
Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
|||
Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
|||
John BrennanJohn Brennan Ed.D. Dr. Brennan is President of Interpersonal Development, LLC, a training and development firm. Interpersonal Development has provided sales training and coaching to more than 3,000 sales reps from over 100 companies. A native of Australia, Dr. Brennan received his doctorate from the University of Rochester. His dissertation researched the effectiveness of Behavioral Modeling Technology in training people in interpersonal skills. While he has spent most of his career designing or delivering training, he was also a Vice-President of Sales of a training and development franchise with operations in 25 markets. Dr. Brennan has designed and delivered sales training in North America, Asia, Europe, Australia and the Middle East. He has been a guest speaker at numerous national and regional professional conferences. When Microsoft wanted Best Practices articles on sales for their web site, they called Dr. Brennan. The results are at http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/FX011387391033.aspx His firm’s clients have included Volvo, The Prudential, Merrill Lynch, Eastman Kodak, Gannett, Equifax Europe, the Economist Group and countless small businesses. - Visit John Brennan's Website |
|||
Anne BarrAnne Barr has over 26 years experience in sales and marketing, six years as a franchisee. She has assisted over 367 business owners and purchasers to achieve their goals in career change, transition and exit strategy. She holds the designation of Certified Franchise Executive from the International Franchise Association, Certified Business Intermediary from the International Business Brokers Association and Board Certified Broker from the Texas Association of Business Brokers. Anne is active in professional organizations, networking groups and volunteers for non-profit entities. As owner/operator of four successful businesses, Anne has proven people skills and enjoys helping clients find the right "fit" in business ownership. Visit www.FranchiseOpportunitySpecialist.com for more information about me and my company. - Visit Anne Barr's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
 | |
|  |
Subscribe to Leanne's articles
 | |
|
|  |
 | |
|
| |
 | ||
|
||
 |
||
 |
||
|
| ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
|
|
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 Relationships and Referrals English Make $ From Your Invention Instant Brochures Intro to M&A |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 Blogs For Startups
Top Blogs To Watch In 2009 | |
 |
Top 50 Marketing Blogs
Top Marketing Blogs of 2009 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
| ||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||