It's hard to believe, but the time has finally come that the marketing tides have turned in favor of the small business. [1] At the dawn of 2010 a big wallet is no longer necessary to climb to the top. With a big brain and that great tool we call the internet, your small business can compete, even outdo, the big guys.

The internet has given the power to the consumer, and thus the way people purchase has changed. They don't need fancy commercials or ads shouting at them at every corner they turn. In fact, they've stopped listening because they know they can find the answer to their every want and need all by themselves on the internet. 

Most companies acknowledge the change has taken place, but few have taken appropriate action. Other companies have payed the big bucks and hired so called 'experts' to help them climb the google ladder and get in front of the consumer while they're surfing the web looking for the services/products their company provides. Reference [1]...A BIG WALLET IS NO LONGER NECESSARY! Save your money and opt for your brain instead. Your small business's website can climb Google's, Bing's, and Yahoo's ladder on its own. With some simple 'do it yourself' SEO, you can help your small business get found. The cost? Some time, effort, and brain power.

Keywords

What does your small business provide and what terms would prospects use to search for these products/services? It only makes sense that these are the words you should be using to describe what you offer. Optimize the content on your site around these terms..use them often and in many places: copy, descriptions, titles, in the h1 heading tags of each page on your site. If your small business makes mittens, don't title your page "stay warm." If someone is looking for mittens, they're not going to search "stay warm," but they will search "mittens." What makes your mittens special? Are they made of wool? If so, say so...this would be another keyword.

Blog

One of the easiest, best ways for your small business to start climbing is through a company blog. Create content that will get people talking and spreading the word about what you do. And don't forget to optimize this content around the keywords you want to be found for. Each blog post is like one more line in the water just waiting to be snatched up by hungry web surfing fish.

Link Building

Getting found and pushed up the search engine ladder is basically a popularity contest. It's important to get people talking about what your small business does. Take for example becoming popular in the offline world. It requires mingling and making your mark on people. You want people to remember you and keep coming back to you for advice, information, etc. Well the same goes for becoming popular and sought for advice and information on the internet. You need to mingle and offer remarkable conversation. And by this I mean commenting on other blogs, answering questions in forums, tweeting useful information, etc. And remember to always link this information back to your small business's site! The more remarkable conversations you're starting and joining online the better. You're getting your company's name out there as a great source, and people will start seeking your small business's site for what they're looking for. Become friends with the right people and get them linking to you, and you may find your Google rank takes a giant leap.

Bottom line, your company can do all of these things on their own. It may be a bit of a nuisance to make sure you're always optimizing content around keywords, and it may require a big time commitment to build links back to your site by starting and joining online conversations, but it will not only save you a ton of money by not hiring someone else to do it, it will help get your small business in front of the right people. Save your money and start accelerating sales with some simple 'do it yourself SEO.'

"What you don't know about SEO" - February 2010 | Entrepreneur.com

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So...the day starts at the butt crack of dawn 3:45AM. The typical life of a small business owner. Trying to get billing done, invoice, study my craft and prep for a prospective new client meeting before 9AM.

I shower and cruise to Starbucks, but the address in my GPS led me to a warehouse where Starbucks apparently used to be. I happend to catch a glance of a Caribou Coffee out of the corner of my eye and head there as my back up. (What is sad is this use to be my first choice before they went public).

I plow through a few emails and decide to take a break to grab an oatmeal. I place my order for oatmeal and I get a "what type?"  I reply, "What do you mean what type?" The Barista looks at me with a blank stare...Good question, I know we have a lot of choices.  Aaargh!

While this young woman was very kind to cure my illiteracy and read my twelve choices off the menu, I was sadly reminded why my once favorite place is now last on my list behind Starbucks, Dunn Brothers and a local hole in the wall.  

So here is the lesson for small business owners in the context of my blog, Epoch.

Don't Follow, Lead. If you do follow, blow the competition out of the water!

Caribou has 500 stores and Starbucks has 9,000! Caribou Coffee is so much smaller and nimbler, it should have been the company to offer coffee in a packet you can take on the road. Or, being an outdoorsy coffee shop, their food selections should resemble those items that take you back to where the Caribou hang. For example, I would offer a breakfast sandwich called a Crystal Creek Sunrise Scramble, inspired by some customers trip they had camping at Crystal Creek in the Tetons. If you are going to follow, make sure you are clearly better than the competition. Note, more is not better. If I was running Caribou Coffee I would have hired someone to create an out of this world gourmet oatmeal, instead of the undercooked crap from a packet I'm eating right now. This would be more consistent with their attempt at "fresh baked" pastries in the store.  

One more non-coffee example: iPods were not the first to market, but they clearly were superior to any media player on the market when they hit.

Build a Community. Human beings buy stuff, not demographics.

I use to feel like the folks at Caribou Coffee were my buds. When I went into the Caribou this morning at 5:30AM, there was no one but me there. I did not get a greeting from the two people that saw me walk in.  

I will go one step further and say that if you go to the corporate Website, there are no invitations to follow them on Twitter, Facebook or the like.  Once again, this suff is free, and social media is the easiest way to stay dialed in on the market and your brand. 

I would totally leverage inbound marketing to keep a pulse and inspire my community to help shape my offerings.

Be Authentic and Avoid the Mushy Middle. Mediocre is a Horrible Aspiration!

Starbucks always has been a kind corporate, sleek refined more upscalish coffee shop. Whereas Caribou is a rough and tumble back country type of experience. However, you would never know this other than the little bits and pieces of Caribou and rustic stuff in their decor. Being a kayaker, backcountry camper Caribou used to be the place where I could go to escape with my buds. Now they are a toned down chain trying to appeal to the masses and not doing very well, based on their financial performance.

To summarize, authenticity, the ability to innovate on a dime and create an intimate community is the biggest game changer small business owners and CEOs have.  I'm certain if Caribou would embrace these truths they would post stronger financial earnings and they would again become my first choice.

As a small business owner, entrepreneur or CEO, you don't have to be Lou Holtz or a superstar motivator to become better at coaching your sales team. However, you can learn from his wisdom on (and off) the field, and embrace some of his coaching philosophy in your sales organization. Let's take a moment to think deeply about a few of his profound quotes.

"A bird doesn't sing because he has an answer, he sings because he has a song."

Small business owners have a multitude of responsibilities in addition to managing those that sell for them, including solving problems by providing answers. This is a critical function for you, but what is equally important, is the delivery of the answer. If the reasoning is not understood by the salesperson (employee or independent contractor), but instead is simply taken at face value, a teaching opportunity may have been lost. Always remember, insight begins with understanding. You may have the answers, but strive to keep conscious awareness on how you arrived at these conclusions. Then deliver it in a way your salesperson can take ownership of the knowledge. With this renewed sense of confidence, more sales are surely on the horizon.

"Coaching is nothing more than eliminating mistakes before you get fired."

Regardless if it's a customer, or an employer who can potentially fire you, both endings are unacceptable. It's an artful balance between focusing on what you want (e.g. the Law of Attraction) versus identifying pitfalls before you fall in. If need for approval, tendency to become emotionally involved, self-limiting record collection, and non-supportive buying cycle are foreign phrases to you, then it's time to start studying(The Objective Management Group). Reason being, if you don't have a certain level of understanding of your salesperson's belief systems, then you may be taking an entirely wrong approach in coaching them.   

"It is a fine thing to have ability, but the ability to discover ability in others is the true test."

I've coached small business owners, entrepreneurs and CEO's extensively on the commonalities that successful salespeople posses. Goal setting, unconditional commitment to success, power of a positive outlook, and zero tolerance for mediocre results, etc. However, what about those hidden gems that you may have let go due to bad performance? The true reason for failure may have been because you didn't understand what drives their motivation. You need to know if they are primarily motivated by the desire to avoid pain, or to gain pleasure. The type of energy in these polar forces are substantively very unique and guide one's behavior in different directions. Again, without insight, there is no understanding. Sometimes fear brings out the best in us, but for another person it may stifle them. It's your job to figure this out. 

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It's not rocket science to successfully manage salespeople. However for the rocket scientist, completing the duties of his or her chosen vocation may strangely come quite easily. While for the small business owner or CEO with sales people as direct reports, dealing with all of the different personalities in his or her sales force may feel like they are trying to land on a new moon that doesn't even exist. Check to see if you are unintentionally 'grounding' your sales team by not having the following three topics mastered.

Fact Based Account-Giving

Behavioral management is not glamorous work. This is why setting mutual activity goals between you and the salesperson is a must. If your management style happens to be a "sell this much each month or your fired" approach, you may have noticed your churn rate is unacceptably high. While it's absolutely necessary that you do meet your sales forecasts, you must manage the 'means' in how it's accomplished. And when sub par performance is demonstrated, you must be clear in your communication with the salesperson that this is not acceptable. First with a warning, then reprimanding them if it happens again, and as a final step, letting them go if necessary. There must be no ambiguity here. What you need to know are the actions required to be done on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis to achieve your revenue targets. Only then, will you have the insight and clear understanding of why your sales team members are coming up short each month.     

Coach, don't Referee

It seems a lot of coaching energy expended by business owners and CEOs that manage sales people is pre-sale consulting and some 'hand holding' throughout the sales process. The old adage 'each time you point your finger at someone else, there are three pointing back at you,' is often the case with ineffective coaching. Ideally, you would be meeting with your reps daily. Are you? If not, it may be time to re-prioritize how your time is spent each day. Your job is to dig deeper and identify the strengths and weaknesses of each sales person (and that of your entire sales force). You must identify and remove roadblocks, clean up the debris, and make the formerly 'less traveled' road to success more accessible.       

Motivating "Don't believe the hype that salespeople are self motivated"

What motivates you? Most likely there is an emotional component or a 'dream' associated with the activities you choose to do on a daily basis. If you learn how to inextricably link activity goals together with a salesperson's dreams, you will definitely see an increase of the desired revenue producing behavior. It's very important that you as small business owner or CEO with salespeople reporting to you to see and understand the psychological underpinnings of each salesperson.
If you're unfamiliar with motivational concepts such as intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, it would behoove you to start learning. For example, if someone is intrinsically motivated by satisfaction of a 'job well done' versus the paycheck that comes along with this achievement, then it's certainly not a best practice to begin your motivational talk discussing the commission generated from the sale. Surely, they already understand the benefits of financial compensation. Growth starts with understanding, period.

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Focus To Grow is sales accleration consulting firm, specializing in providing inbound marketing and sales execution support for small businesses. www.focustogrow.com

Small Business Owners have little to no training in sales management

Entrepreneurs are experts at creating and seizing opportunities that lie before them. However, successful ongoing sales management requires a special skill set that likely needs to be acquired through proper training from a sales force development professional.

Most Business owners do not have a hiring process, thus they make critical mis-steps during the hiring process they pay for down the road. The effectiveness of a company's recruiting process determines the effectiveness and consistency of the sales organization. Sales processes must include (but are not limited to):

I've posted this on my home page, but I wanted to post a sales acceleration manifesto. Whether you are a start up or a 20 year old company, these policies will accelerate sales growth if you stick to them. Conversely, if you're wrestling to hit your sales goals you're missing a step in the sales acceleration manifesto.

 Please free to let me know what the 7th manifesto should be!

manifesto |ˌmanəˈfestō|

  a public declaration of policies and aims.

 I. Focus is the key to growth. Expand by Narrowing.  

 II. Market Insights should happen often, which requires significant and frequent collaboration with the customer[person that writes the check]. 

 III. Strategic Foresight should be based on fact, taking into account both the immediate and future 

 needs of the customer. Think about the entire customer lifecycle, beyond acquisition. 

 IV. Systems and Tools need to be in place to provide visibility, accountability and scalability of all  sales and marketing assets.

 V. Businesses are not entities; they are collection ofpeople working towards a common cause. In

 particular, sales people and marketing programs need to be held accountable for delivering top line  results daily, weekly and monthly.

 VI. Nothing happens unless something is sold. Sales are the business end of the spear.

• It's the biggest shift in how people buy since the industrial revolution.  Who wants to be a part of that!
• It takes way too long for small busineses to reach prospective buyers when compared to television or radio.  Note: It took Radio 38 years to reach 50 million users, TV 13 Years to reach 50 million users and Facebook 9 months to reach 100 million users.  In fact if facebook was a country it would be the 4th largest country in the world.
• All this internet marketing is for kids.  Never mind the fastest growing segment in Facebook is 55-65 year olds.