One creative way to get some stars under your business’ belt is to enter an awards program.

Immersing yourself in the process of a business awards program, is like hitting two birds with one stone. First, you get to rediscover yourself and what makes you tick as a business owner.  Second, you also let everyone – particularly the panel, sponsors, potential clients, and the entire industry that you’re there, and you’ve got the credentials to compete!

Here’s how participation in an awards program can benefit you.

The Application Process

Getting involved in the application process can make you stop and think as to your and your business’ mission. Being immersed in the application process allows you to do a little bit of soul-searching as to why you’re doing what you’re doing. It also allows you to have a look-back on your milestones and achievements.

Justifying your Results

Making your business accomplishments known, and explaining how you’ve made them possible can be a real uplifting experience. Doing this not only pushes your ability to communicate well as a business owner to the limit, but it also allows you to clearly communicate your business directions to a professional and scrutinizing audience. The experience of justifying business results in front of a panel makes you realize a lot of things about yourself and your business’ achievements. This experience of being put on the spot is invaluable when it comes to interactions with your business’ stakeholders.

Presenting the Financials

Closely studying and scrutinizing your financials can give you a deeper understanding of your performance coming from a monetary perspective. This experience is invaluable in crafting your business plan if you ever plan to go to a financial institution or in getting potential business investors.

Speaking in Front or Experts

Speaking in front of a crowd of business experts, professionals, and a panel of judges can be quite an exhilarating experience. It is the time when you either stand  up and be heard or forever shut up. Being in a situation where you know that every aspect of your business is scrutinized can nothing but only build up your confidence and character. It can be an interview wherein every answer feels like your life depended on it – a mind-blowing experience indeed!

Even if you just try filing your application, or even if you don’t “win,” just going through the application process can be a life-changing experience. Applying for a business awards program and having your application accepted can make you feel like as if you’ve already won the competition. Going through the different stages of selection, is already a bonus. Winning the award is just the cherry on top.

In a recent interview with sales guru Neil Rackham, he tells us about three rules for selling in tough times. In this interview Neil points out that these three rules stems from  studying previous recessions and trying to work out what the successful players have done.

Rule Number 1: Avoid Chasing After Too Many Things

In times of economic anxiety, chasing after too many things is the number one mistake that business owners make. In times of uncertainty, our instinct for survival naturally takes over and we begin to get ‘whatever comes our way.’

Neil Rackham states one very important rule of thumb during tough times: “Don’t chase bad business.”  He further stressed his point by adding, “If you won’t chase a business in good times, never ever chase it in bad times.”

Winners instead decide on which pieces of business are most important to get and puts more effort into them. Putting double the effort into a half-opportunity will give you better return than spreading everything thin across all opportunities.

During tough times it is important to keep your focus sharp and over-deliver to your identified market.

Rule Number 2: Never get into Early Negotiations

Yes, it is true that-times are hard; therefore it’s always easy to fall into the trap  of getting into negotiations too early.

In stressing this point, Neil explains the difference between selling and negotiation. According to him, “When you’re selling, you’re not giving anything away; when you’re negotiating, you’re giving things away to get business.”

In uncertain times, anxiety pretty much causes us to start giving things away due to a feeling of desperation. One thing to take important note of is that potential customers can sense this desperation. Emitting these vibes can reduce your chance of getting the business; and what’s worse is that you might even whet the customer’s appetite to get more and more concessions.

Customers  can sense this desperation and will try to push you over the limit once they see that you’re willing to negotiate at the initial meet.

Rule Number 3: Make the Customer Feel Safe

The most common misconception is that during a recession, most people think that customers are price-sensitive. This is not so. Studies have shown that customers would rather pay more and go with a safe alternative than go with a cheaper, less-stable alternative.

To prove this point, you can ask yourself this question: “When times are hard, and you’re willing to make a big purchase, would you go for the safe option or the cheaper option?”

As per the study of Neil and his group, they’ve  found out that eighty percent of people would always go for the ‘safe’ option. With this in mind, your challenge now, as a business owner,  is that you would need to make yourself appear to be the most reliable, and the safest option to your prospects.

Sales are usually measured in terms of conversion. As a business owner, it is always a good idea to  keep track of your conversion rate; you might even notice an increase in sales performance from your staff just by monitoring it.

In order to calculate your business’ conversation rate, you just need to have this very simple formula in mind: conversion rate equals your total sales divided by your total enquires or presentations. With this formula for defining selling success now at play, here are some tips on how you can improve your business’ sales conversion.

Actively Listen to your Customers

Do you become defensive when a prospective customer says something about your product or service that you don’t like? If being defensive is always your initial reaction when it comes to negative feedback, then you definitely need to improve your listening skills. Active listening requires processing the speaker’s message on both the content and context level. It means that you would need to focus on what was said and how it was said. Moreover, you should always look at opportunities for connection and start asking questions when things are unclear. Likewise, active listening also entails you knowing exactly when to paraphrase, when to be silent, or when to give verbal nods.

Build Rapport with Your Customers

Ever had that experience of watching two friends converse and talk about the same topic? To add to that, both of them basically sound alike, use the same word choices, and to a certain extent, also finish each other’s sentences. If you’ve experienced this scene before then you’ve just witnessed how rapport works between two people. When people are in rapport, they naturally ‘match and mirror’ each other. As a business owner, building rapport with your customers is a way of telling them that you are like them. It is a known fact that customers only buy from people that they like and trust; pretty much people who are like them.

Ask Effective Probing Questions

One of the best and fastest ways to find out the needs of your customers immediately is through effective probing. Probing entails asking the right questions in a logical manner to ensure that you get the right details in order to match a need with a product or service.

In asking effective probing questions, there are two things that you should always remember. First, ask  questions that are non-threatening. Second, once a customer answers a question, ask follow-up questions based on what they’ve answered. Once you’ve effectively probed and found out a customer’s need, most of the time, these customers are already sold once you’re done asking questions.

Simplify Your Pricing Schemes

Many business owners already experience apprehensions once the question of price comes in. In discussing process with your customers, always make sure that you get to simplify your packages. Based on your probing, you should already have at least two options available for the customers.  It wouldn’t be wise to overwhelm a customer with options at this point of the negotiation.

Don’t forget to Close!

A lot of sales get lost because no one actually asked for it. Don’t forget to close the sale. An example of a closing questions is, “Which would you prefer option one or option two?” Another very effective closing question is “When do you want it delivered?” Also, when closing the sale always remember to give the customer a little bit of room to think about it or consider his or her options.

Handle Objections

For most business owners, objections signal that you’ve lost the interest of a customer; or even worse is that some give up and even get defensive. Objections are hidden treasures in themselves. Always listen to objections carefully as sometimes they are excuses; but most of the time they are problems that clients want to address. In handling objections, make sure to answer questions with confidence, and re-assure the customer that it is your product or service that will suit their needs. Don’t forget to ask for the sale again. You’ll find out that handling an objection effectively will result to more sales and even a higher level of confidence from the customer.

Before we start, I just wanted everyone to know that I started my career as a used car salesman. I don’t want to cause any panic as I know that people like me have had a bad reputation when it comes to selling. But trust me, I wasn’t that stereotypical car salesman who’s everyone’s all too familiar with.

This was almost about two decades ago, but during this stint at selling used cars, I happened to pick up a few things that helped me throughout my selling career. The valuable lesson that I learned from that experience was that you always have to mindful of buying signals from your customers.

When your prospective customer is close to making a purchase, he or she may demonstrate these buying signals. Buying signals, therefore, are signs that the sale is ‘ripe for the taking.’ Let me share some examples of buying signals; so that you too, can benefit from identifying them, and effectively closing those sales.

The Customer is Visualizing Himself or Herself Using the Product

As a car salesman, I’ve experienced visual statements from customers such as : “I think my friends would love the color” or “I can just imagine seeing the kids sitting comfortably at the backseat on one of our monthly visits to their grandma, about an hour’s drive from home.”

The Customer Has You Go Over the Terms Again

This can come in the form of having to repeat some terms and conditions that were just tackled a few minutes ago or the customer requesting a breakdown of all the fees.

The Customer Tries to Push The Limits

Questions that try to circumvent your company’s standard operating procedures are good indicators that the customer is ready to buy. Most of the time, these attempts are just indicators of ‘pre-sales playfulness’ on the customer’s part. In these instances, the customer is just trying to test you if you can break a few rules in order to get a much better deal.

The Customer Talks About Money

If your potential customer claims that your price is too much; more often than not, this is a sign that he or she is almost ready to buy . The only thing that you need to do is to figure out a way on how to reposition your product to be more convincing when it comes to value-add.

Timing the Close Correctly

When the discussion already changes to timelines, then you’re already set. This is an indication that the customer has already considered taking the product or service and is already planning his or her activities around the product.  What’s more is that once you hear the magic question, “So, what’s the next step?” it pretty much tells you that you’ve got the customer hooked and the deal is sealed.