Page 32 - Flathead Beacon // 1.14.15

32 | JANUARY 14, 2015
BUSINESS FLATHEADBEACON.COM
Scholarship Opportunities
The Flathead Conservation District offers college scholarships to qualified local high school seniors, wishing to pursue degrees in a natural resource field.
Applications will be accepted Jan 1, through March 16, 2015, 4:00 P.M.
More information and applications can be found on our website at www.flatheadcd.org.
Or you can call our office at (406)752-4220.
BUSINESS IS PERSONAL Mark Riffey
The Shortcut To Easier Sales
ONE OF THE MORE COMMON questions I get is, “How do we find a shortcut to easier sales?” The shortcut starts with a few questions.
Who is the ideal person for your product/service and what is the specif- ic situation your products and services solve for them? You’ll know it’s them if they would look at your “menu” of available products and services and say, “That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for.”
If you are thinking things like, “I’ve been a little frustrated with sales lately,” or, “I’m frustrated with my website. I’ve been having trouble figuring out what the site should look like, how the sales process should look, etc.,” then this is quite likely the source of the problem
The reason this is a problem is that the conversation your sales process and/ or your website engage in isn’t the con- versation going on in the minds of your potential customers. It’s not what keeps them up at night. It’s not what’s on their mind when trying to make payroll, much less when trying to figure out how to pay themselves AND the bills.
To have that conversation, you have to have a much narrower focus on each type of person that you’re selling to.
WHO IS YOUR TARGET MARKET?
Is the answer a single word or phrase? Is it a paragraph describing what you sell? Or is it a description of the people and/or business AND the situa- tions those people are trying to address by using your products and services?
Is the answer “I don’t really know?” Or, “I thought I knew but now I’m not so sure.”
Imagine that you are taking one of these people under your wing. Who would be the perfect person for you to do that for? Can you describe them and their situation in detail?
Example: They’re a couple in their ‘60s. The husband is about 10 years old- er than his wife. He’s retired. They’re both from Brazil but are naturalized U.S. citizens. The wife’s employer is clos- ing down, so she’s looking for a way to supplement her income. Try to describe people in their situation.
The accurate but not useful answer is: “People who need an income.” A bet- ter start is “retired people who need an income” and “retired expats who need an income.” These are two different
groups. For someone who is looking to serve people with these kinds of prob- lems, there are probably dozens of sim- ilar groups with important, yet subtle differences.
If you tell me your clients are “law- yers,” I would suggest that is an incom- plete answer. What kind of lawyer are they? Personal injury? Family law? Transactional? Estate? Tax? Each of them have different conversations, po- tentially different clients and they’ll each have different conversations with their clients.
THE MOST EXPENSIVE MARKETING MISTAKE
The most expensive marketing mis- take you can make is trying to have the same conversation with each of these groups. The “... with important, yet sub- tle differences” part is what changes the conversation with each group.
You need to narrow things down so you can have a conversation with one person (even if there are 100,000 of them) rather than 100 different people who have a related issue that this prod- uct will solve for each of them.
Pick one, do that one. Pick the next one. Do that one. You can only grab one person’s attention at a time and encour- age them to solve this situation. Who will it be? Be specific.
INTRODUCE ME TO YOUR MARKET
There are two pretty common ways to get to the bottom of this.
One is to role play introducing this person to someone who knows nothing about them, but will be immediately ex- pected to be effective selling product or service that the salesperson is familiar with to the expat couple once your in- troduction is complete. I think you can imagine that to go from knowing noth- ing to being effective selling to them is going to require more than insight than “This is Joe and Mary and they need an income.”
What would you say?
The second method is to identify a fa- miliar/famous person who fits the mold, if one exists. Introducing them might be a bit easier since you likely know some- thing about this person and will be able to dig into quickly.
The shortcut to easier sales starts with knowing your audience better than anyone.
NOTICE
Customers of and Property Owners Within the Boundaries of FLATHEAD COUNTY WATER & SEWER DISTRICT #1 - EVERGREEN
The Board of Directors of Flathead County Water & Sewer District #1 – Evergreen, at the last regularly scheduled monthly meeting held on December 17, 2014, adopted a Resolution of Intent to adopt an Ordinance increasing the Water Base Charge and Sewer Base Charge and Usage Rate not to exceed 5%. This Resolution of Intent will be on the agenda at the regular monthly meeting scheduled for January 21, at 7:00 a.m. at the District Office at 130 Nicholson Dr. The current charges and rates and proposed changes are explained below.
Water
Base Charge
Sewer
Base Charge Usage Rate
Current Rate
$4.20
$10.42 $5.09
Proposed Rate
$4.41
$10.94 $5.34
The proposed rate increases would be as follows:
Note: All usage rates are per thousand gallons
All Board of Directors meetings are open to the public. You are encouraged to attend so the Board can address your comments or questions. Additional information can be obtained by calling the office at 257-5861.
Want to learn more about Mark or ask him to write about a business, operations or marketing problem? See Mark’s site, rescuemarketing.com, or contact him via email at [email protected].
servation month—a time to l conservation efforts across
Montana.
k, near Whitefish, the Flathead
strict has restored 1,200 feet of th a mix of vegetated soil lifts,
willow fascines, and riparian plantings.
sing severe streambank erosion and
ng this stretch of Haskill Creek, we have
sediment loading by 138 tons/year,
od plain stability, provided shade to the
d reduced the cover of reed canarygrass & other noxious weeds.
ore about the Flathead Conservation District call us at 4220 or visit www.flatheadcd.org. To learn more about
conservation efforts across the state go to www.montanaconservation.org.
After