By Ciaran McGuigan

Joint Managing Director

As a teenager I remember growing up fully addicted to The Hammer House of Horror movie series. The plots were almost as complex as a 70’s porn movie. The sets were obviously made by the local drama club and held together with spit & greasepaint. As for the talent, they were more frightening than the characters they were trying to portray and could often be recognised from one film to another even though they were magically transformed from werewolf to vampire to Frankenmonster!

But to this day I still love watching horror movies and thrillers – even the bad ones. Actually come to think of it, especially the bad ones. Sitting on the edge of our seats, holding our breath we can see the monster about to attack and wish that if they only turned around or didn’t go through that door they would be OK. Then after avoiding near death, there was always the classic line; you know the one. The one where the young hero would put his arms around the girl, she would nestle her head on his shoulder and he would say [in a John Wayne sort of a way] something along the lines; ‘it’s OK we’re safe now’.

At that moment and right on cue – the mad axeman would pop up from behind the sofa with crazy mad axeman eyes and start fiendishly making impromptu sashimi from our heroes’ foreheads. Why am I telling you this story? Well, I sense that the Australian economy might be about to do an ‘its OK we’re safe now’ type of move in terms of avoiding the full weight of the GFC monster’s axe.

I don’t think it’s OK and I certainly don’t think Australian Businesses are safe – by some margin. As sales professionals and business owners we have to remain vigilant and keep our business engineering tight and effective. Now is not the time to relax, it is the time to stay focussed and driving value and accountability in everything we do.

By Darren Llewellyn

General Manager Sales and Operations

It is the new financial year and for many sales teams the slate has been wiped clean. As a result we have new, and sometimes higher, mountains to climb to achieve the sales targets set for us over the coming period.

In most cases 2008/09 was a less than stellar year, with many clients and prospects reducing their spend in light of the economic climate. There is however optimism that the new financial year will see a reversal of fortunes as businesses emerge from a period of uncertainty into the glare of new opportunity. This is your chance to shine.

Whilst the ‘good old days’ may take a while to return, there are some simple strategies you can put into place to create new wealth for your business: 

• Expand your offer – many businesses have been set in their ways and have developed a preconceived idea of who their ideal client base is. While the larger organisations have been dormant, many small and medium businesses have taken the opportunity to show some initiative and increase their market share and exposure. Now is the time to make connections with these businesses to seek a mutually productive relationship whilst they are looking to expand
• Industry events – as the market turns positive, so does the return of the free breakfast. Many industry organisations are committed to improving your chances of success by showcasing your offer to a broad audience. We’ve all been impressed with speakers at these events and wondered whether we could replicate their success in drawing a crowd of potential buyers. Develop a compelling topic and contact your industry association for upcoming events. This is the ideal way to present yourself to prospects en masse to maximise your exposure
• Social networking – this is not a generational trend; it is an effective tool for promoting your business to an expanded circle of prospects. Whilst you may not believe your day is interesting enough to log every step on Twitter, creating a presence on sites such as LinkedIn can assist in creating opportunities. Whilst you are able to promote yourself and your organisation, you also have the ability to research your prospects and create new contacts with organisations you believe would benefit from your offer

 The simple truth is that as sales people we need to see ourselves as the drivers of the recovery of our business. Through our initiatives we will demonstrate to the rest of the business that there are bright days ahead. Now, where are my spikes – time to get climbing.

By Rachel Poon

Client Services Manager

Most of us think of management as managing subordinates. However if you want to have real impact, then managing your boss is an essential skill you should develop in order for your career to thrive and obtain the best outcome possible for yourself and the business. It is not about office politics or “sucking up”, but how to use your time in the most efficient and effective manner. With unemployment currently at 5.8% and trending upwards, it is important to understand how to make your ideas heard and communicate what you are doing. Here are three ways you can increase your visibility and worth in the workplace by managing upwards.

1. Perception: The way others (especially your managers) view you and your role is critical. How you interact with your peers, your team members, external clients etc all creates a sense of who you are.  Your ideas and work will seem more credible and people are more likely to pay attention to you when they have a positive perception of you, your work ethic and personality.  Remember however, that perception does not mean you change who you are or what you believe, but manage the expectations of those around you. Consistency and reliability are key.
2. Anticipate: Ensure that you are always ready for a question, change of heart or to be able to stand up for your analysis, work or opinion.  Being able to provide a confident answer and opinion with justification for your work whether you are right or wrong will always work to your advantage. This means asking questions when you are unsure and making sure that your managers, staff and peers are accountable to you where necessary.
3. Listen: This may appear counter intuitive to making your ideas heard, but often is the first step towards achieving success. Understanding what is required of you and knowing the relevant context and how to deal with difficult managers is integral to successful relations. Find out how they like information presented to them and play to this style regardless of how illogical it may appear to you. It is not in your power to change who they are, but you can adapt to their style(s). This may mean presenting/pitching the same information in different ways and with different emphasis on different areas of the business to different managers.

Times are tough at the moment, but your working relationships don’t have to be. By keeping the above three points in mind it will not only help you it will also help your managers and ultimately the business succeed, not just today, but in your future career as well.

Senator Conroy has announced a plan to allow businesses to add their name to the do not call register.

 It is a plan that amounts to the regulation of business-to-business communication.

 Let’s run the logic.

 You are an Australian software developer who has spent five years developing a product that is useful to banks. Life is a struggle. Finally you are ready to pitch your product to the Commonwealth Bank.

 But, the Commonwealth Bank has added its phone number to the do not call register. This is because a bean counter has figured out that they can cut general switch board calls by 35% and save three head count by registering – an action that is free of charge.

 Result is you can’t ring them to pitch your software product.

 Obviously this is nonsense; surely the rule would apply only to contact centres.

 The logic here is that you can call the Commonwealth Bank yourself – but you can’t hire the services of a specialist tele-sales organisation that knows exactly how to navigate through a large and complex company and get the correct decision maker on the phone.

 If the outsourced service provider rang the Commonwealth Bank that would be a breach of the law.

 This must also be nonsense, as it limits the access that Australian businesses have to highly specialised service providers. It puts our small Australian software company at a disadvantage versus a top shelf US software company who exclusively reaches out to the market via the agency of highly specialised telephone prospectors.

It also puts at serious risk an entire industry that employs and trains thousands of Gen Ys and gives them their start in life, teaching them basic skills such as how to sell. Let’s not forget that tomorrow’s highly paid software sales people are today’s tele-prospectors.

But surely the scenario is nonsense. A big company like the Commonwealth Bank can’t be allowed to put its name on a list preventing other businesses from making speculative calls into its switchboard. That would not be fair.

So, let’s apply the rule to companies of only a certain size.

 Let’s say that small businesses with less than 5 employees are the only ones allowed to put their name on the register.

 Setting aside the enforcement nightmare for a moment, let’s run a scenario.

Tony, an out-of-work financial guru from a large company wants to get some consulting work. Having recently been made redundant his confidence is low. His sales skills are almost non-existent. He has to pick up the phone and make a cold call.

Why can’t he outsource it? Perhaps he can find a small tele-prospecting firm that will get on the phone and set some appointments for him. They might charge him $500 per appointment.

But Tony only wants to work with small businesses – lacking in confidence and chutzpa, he just wants to focus on picking up bookwork helping local retailers and other micro businesses.

But, when it comes to business X or business Y, he can’t get someone else to ring for him because they are on the register.

In this way, allowing smaller businesses to register is a direct penalty against other small businesses (both Tony and the micro-contact centre who potentially could do the work) because it is mainly small businesses that ring other small businesses. After all, PWC is unlikely to want to ring Bob’s Fish Shop for some work.

But also Bob’s Fish Shop is unreasonably penalised. A small, fiercely independent business man, Bob is a reactionary. He registered on the Do Not Call Register to stop those pests from the The Police Gazette from calling him. But now there is no way for Tony the bookkeeper to contact him other than junk mail or local media (which Bob uses to wrap his fish and chips in) or walking into the shop himself.

The penalty to Bob is about the unforeseen consequences of his actions. He has limited himself to the selection of service providers exclusively from companies big enough to run large scale marketing programs. By putting himself on the Do Not Call Register, he has actually harmed his business by limiting his access to business conversations.

So, both Tony and Bob are losers, not to mention the tiny service provider who could have mad the calls on Tony’s behalf. It seems there is no reasonable way of allowing the Do Not Call Register listing to be governed by the size of the listed company.

Well, why not build the rule around the size of the contact centre? Contact centres with more than 5 seats can’t ring businesses listed on the Do Not Call Register.

For a start, this sounds like a medieval guild provision. It would result in either a very large number of tiny businesses with poor levels of process design and technology investment – or it would lead to larger organizations who use structural flexibility to side-step the regulations thereby making the regulations redundant and possibly opening a few tax loopholes at the same time. It would cost the government a fortune in enforcement costs while producing a poor outcome for the national economy by limiting productivity in a key sector.

Why not build the rule around technology? Only contact centres that use manual dialers can call businesses listed on the register. Well, where do you draw the line? What about dialers that flash coloured LEDs on the key pad so the operator doesn’t even have to think about the number? Or can you just press the same button eight times with the computer automatically feeding the value so as to mimic the manual dialing process? What about soft phones?

And putting all this to one side, what about the most basic question of all – why consider this in the first place.

Business is all about the marketplace, it is all about the hustle and bustle, people interacting, communicating, trying to push a sale. Do you really want to regulate the use of just one medium – the phone?

What about convergence? If I use my computer as my phone, are web advertisers suddenly subject to the same rule? Only if they use sound / voice in their messaging? What about video? Can they mime?

And are you going to attempt to regulate offshore providers ringing into Australia? Are you going to penalize Australian companies that use the Philippines to dial into Australia but let foreign firms off Scot-free?

Or are you going to monitor all incoming voice traffic over the Internet and filter out sales calls?

Or is a Federal Police Officer going to knock on the door of some foreign firm in Kuala Lumpar and issue some sort of summons for illegally trying to contact Australian businesses to sell them stuff?

Or, is it the Government’s intention to just issue some sort of Government statement on their intention to introduce this new regulation.

Why not make this announcement at the same time business investment is collapsing (which includes business spending on services such as B2B contact centres). Throw into the mix a global financial crisis and let’s hope that in the middle of it all the largest single company in the business-to-business space goes broke and throws 500 people out of work (CustomCall).

Let’s create the maximum amount of uncertainty possible inside a key industry that employs thousands of young Australians and gives them their start in life.

And at the same time, let’s put some roadblocks in the path of normal business-to-business communication – because, hey, businesses don’t need to talk to each other.

Bottom line, the idea that the government needs to step in and regulate business-to-business communication is breathtaking.

The big impact is not on larger businesses who can afford the budget to run large marketing campaigns or employ huge numbers of door knockers to get their inbound phone lines ringing.

Instead, it is going to place a massive dead hand on smaller businesses who rely on small professional sales prospecting centres to open doors on their behalf. And as for Tony the out-of-work business consultant, it could be the end of the road. Much as he is a great finance guy, he will never muster the courage to make the 10 cold calls a day he needs to make in order to keep his wife in shoes.

Chris Moriarty is the Joint Managing Director of Strike Force Sales Pty Ltd, one of the dozens of small contact centres that dig out and deliver countless sales opportunities each day to hundreds of small Australian businesses who are looking for clients and an excuse to invest more time and energy in the development of the Australian economy.

By Rachel Poon

Client Services

Recent news headlines have been full of woe in regards to unemployment, recessionary fears and basic global financial doom. This has meant most senior management focus has been on cost cutting rather than investment in future business. This is especially so for companies with long sales’ cycles, new business is starting to be seen as a cost that a company can no longer bear as freely. This attitude is reactionary, tactical and may not be beneficial in the long term.

Many say now is the time you should be selling to your existing customers and not new prospects – as it is easier, quicker and more productive than new business acquisition.

However, now is also the perfect time to build relationships with new prospects. At a time where everyone is reducing costs, if you are speaking to them, you will stand out in the crowd. As your competitors fall away, you are able to pick up where they left off.

In this climate, the ability to be seen swimming when everyone around merely treading water, provides prospects with a sense of confidence and stability. And when the doom is over, you will be the one on the front foot while your competitors are scrambling to get their teams back together and back in working shape.

Understanding that costs are still an issue, mass marketing is not the solution. Instead, personalised, localised and strategic targeting of key prospects and verticals is the way. Who do you want to be working with, and how do you want to be positioned post-recession are just some of the questions to think about.

Remember, the recession will end. Business will pick up.

By Darren Cox

Sales Manager

The Sales Guy (Three years ago):

Targets hit (just!); Head held high; claimed back the “business lunch” at  the Park Hyatt (Woo Hoo!); Sitting behind the desk; feet up; breathe a sigh of relief; wait for the phone to ring.

The Sales Guy (Now):

Target’s missed (by a mile); lost three clients to competitors who dropped their pants for the business; sitting behind the desk – at home; Seek and MyCareer open on laptop; breathe a sigh of hope; wait for the phone to ring.

* * *

It’s remarkable to note that in Australia, many companies, before the economic crisis, rested on their laurels; the sales people sat in their leather chairs, tilted back, feet on their desks, awaiting the phone to ring,

And ring it did! Existing customers called to request a paid upgrade, a newer version, an alternative product, a professional service or two, and sales guys didn’t feel they needed to prospect for new business. Life was easy!

And then, BAM! The Credit Crunch. And, over the weeks and months we have witnessed mass job cuts, in order that businesses can reduce costs.

And who is cut? The sales people waiting for the phone to ring!

Now, times have changed. We’re in a different world – A world where businesses, to remain competitive, have to be on the lookout for new business – proactively. They have to create an effective sales strategy dedicated to new business generation and telephone prospecting.

Unfortunately, business owners, being less inclined to make cold calls, are equally less inclined to force their sales people to do the same thing. Furthermore, they look among their sales team, finding the familiar faces of veteran sales guys – the ones who made the cut – who outright refuse to get on the phone to generate new opportunities, or have no idea how to do it!

And so, their competitive edge becomes blunt, and the sharpened saw snaps.

So, what is the solution to the economic woes we now face? How can business owners and sales people overcome their blunted sales strategy and replace it with a new enthusiasm and purpose?

First and foremost, your sales people must be targeted not only on business retained – existing business – but new business generation.

Existing business should not be your only protection from keeping your business out of the red. Organisations must be looking at finding new opportunities, and forging new relationships.

Please don’t misunderstand, existing business is an important part of your sales pipeline and continued growth, but please consider, your existing business is your competitor’s new business and when the going gets tough the tough get going.

Your competitors are hungry. And so must you be.

Is it your intention to just make it through this crisis; to keep your head above water as you frantically swim to the edge?

Or is your strategy to grow and continue to expand?

Now is the best time to refine, or redefine, your sales strategy, to be proactive in your approach to new business generation, to get tough, but also disciplined in your approach to making outbound cold calls.

Our Joint MD, Ciaran McGuigan, drives a car with a number plate highlighting one of his own key strategies – 10B410. That’s ten outbound new business calls every days before 10am.

This methodology, though sounding simplistic, could be the difference between growth and stagnation.

So be tough. And get going!

By Ciaran Mcguigan

Joint Managing Director

March 17 is Saint Patrick’s Day. The traditional patron saint of Ireland’s day is usually celebrated around the world with green beer, fried food and bad Irish accents. I thought this year as we are in the season we could all benefit from a little more background on why he was so successful when so many had failed before hand.

Before St Patrick went to Ireland there had been many unsuccessful missions [read sales trips] attempting to bring Christianity to pagan Ireland. Ireland, like many other parts of pagan Europe, consistently resisted attempts to convert the population. Now back then as a missionary if you were unsuccessful it generally meant that you were dead; so we can assume that every missionary prepared thoroughly and was personally committed to the outcome. So what did Patrick do which was different?

There are three lessons for us all.

Lesson One: He spoke their language

All previous missionaries arrived speaking classical Latin which naturally no one in Ireland understood. Because of Patrick’s years in slavery he could speak in the local tongue and he understood local customs and behaviour. At a fundamental level he could engage with his prospect base. Ask yourself how many of your sales team can speak CEO or Marketing, Finance or Distribution. Learn how to speak your customer’s language and you will write more business.

Lesson Two: He worked for the long term solution

Patrick was after long-term fundamental change – he wanted to convert core beliefs and systems which had been established for millennium. He knew that simply to arrive, build a church and start converting would not work over the long term. His predecessors had arrived with this strategy and had approached local chiefs and tribal elders with the goal that if they converted the chief then everyone in the tribe would follow. That’s fine – the only problem is if the chief then changes his mind – so does everyone else. No one was ever really converted. Rather than follow this, Patrick looked for the people who looked after the future of the village or tribe; the children. Patrick specifically targeted and spoke to the women in each community knowing that if he can influence them then they in turn will bring up their children, male and female, with their beliefs; beliefs which will stand the test of time.

Lesson Three: He leveraged existing symbols

In Ireland, as in many parts of the ancient world, the Sun was worshipped as the main diet. It made sense, after all the sun brought life everyday. It was one of the few constants in a dangerous world. Patrick knew that he could not replace the sun symbol which was worshiped and symbolised in art, jewellery and custom. He had one symbol; the crucifix and what he did next was one of the smartest marketing strategies I have ever come across. He combined them. What we now know as a ‘Celtic’ cross is in fact the pagan symbol for the sun in combination with a cross. Here is our lesson; We should all ask ourselves – How does our product or service compliment our competitors. If we can change our pitch from either / or, to ALSO then we can win more business and grow accounts.

By Chris Moriarty

Joint Managing Director

Certainly these are interesting times. No doubt the first quarter of 2009 has felt like a down quarter. But it has not necessarily been one.

Strike Force Sales itself is up just over 20% on last year. The issue for our sales team has been that interest and enquiries have more than doubled, so there is a huge pipeline of interest.

I spoke to a colleague, a partner specialising in liquidations at one of the big accounting firms. He has experienced something similar. Lots of companies are talking about entering administration, but few companies are actually doing it.

Accounting firms are instead busy restructuring businesses to shield stakeholders from any future issues – there is a strong sense of future potential risk, but little immediate crisis.

I spoke with a senior executive at one of our big global clients and he noted an interesting trend… just about all of the job losses being announced in Australia appear well planned. People are being retrenched on the back of carefully thought out and well-executed planning, not on the back of emergency situations.

The point here is that if companies were in genuine trouble, they would lay off staff in a more haphazard fashion. What is really happening is businesses are using the downturn as an opportunity to re-size – actions are deliberate and planned.

So let’s thread all this together.

There is a strong sense that the future is uncertain and risks loom.

There is no real sense of panic.

Businesses of all sizes have used the first quarter of this year to sit down and carefully take stock of the current situation while putting in place plans to survive any sudden downturn.

Lots of businesses are re-sizing not because of immediate critical need, but rather because it seems prudent to do so.

A return to business fundamentals is taking place.

The most basic business fundamental is that all power comes from the barrel of revenue. So, while businesses are focussed now on their re-sizing programs, ultimately that can’t survive at all if they don’t keep on winning new business.

This means that over the next few months the whole economy is going to see a surge in sales activity. It will not necessarily result in a surge in buying activity – so we will see a hyper-competitive environment emerge, with fierce hand-to-hand combat being fought over every dollar.

Nothing is going to matter more than winning ‘that’ sale.

This is probably going to become the defining feature of the new economy that will emerge off the back of this global crisis. We will see a new hyper-competitive global economy against a background where risk is properly considered meaning heightened demand (and inherent competitive advantage) for accountability and transparency (the natural enemies of uncertainty).

It will be very exciting – in fact, it already is.

By Daiju

Operations Manager

As Operations Manager for Strike Force Sales I have the opportunity to not only make calls on each and every campaign we run but I also see the spread of data we receive from our many campaigns. One thing my operators and I are consistently hearing from all sectors of the economy is uncertainty, and uncertainty equals risk in business.

Risk can be dealt with in various ways depending on the business model and the management style of a company. Currently most Decision Makers are responding with a single-minded focus on “cutting costs” to protect the bottom line. However, paring back a business can also mean surrendering market share, it might mean your business falls father than your competitors. Thus, the second concern I hear expressed is “How do we take advantage of the current economic climate?”

These two concerns appear polar opposites, but they need not be. Cutting staff can lead to lower total ouput, but not if balanced with increased technology and/or training. Cutting costs while focussing on the future can lead to a leaner more productive and competitive machine which will be more able to capitalise on the inability of competitors to stay afloat in a hostile environment. Decision Makers know that this negative market will end in the not-too-distant future and the more savvy DMs are already preparing to be leading the forward as the conditions begin to change.

When I talk with my operators the first thing we do is examine the negative aspects of your product or service based on the bearish economy. Then we look at the way that our prospects can gain from the products offered by our clients in terms of future positioning. This is a process that continues all the way through each our campaigns so that common objections can be overcome.

We often point out to prospects that we understand their Pain in terms of the need to cut costs (be that staff, general expenditure or capital investment) while also reminding them that this is the perfect time to Gain from the relatively greater fall of competitors. We then insist this is in fact the reason why we have taken the time to contact them. Never directly pushing a product onto a wary market we instead aim to remind them of the fundamentals of business; adapt to and take advantage of the current economic climate.

By Michael A.Brown

© 2008, Michael A. Brown
www.michaelabrown.net