The Sport of Business

The smartest thing I ever did in life was learn about business.

It doesn't matter what business you are in, it's all business. I work an what I consider what must be THE most ignorant bunch of business people in any trade or profession on the planet. They will argue at any suggestion that business skills are important or even necessary even though the business is hugely competitive and most ***** and complain how tough things are. The competition doesn't just come from other people in the game, it's being heavily eroded by the average Joe in the street. These same fools that will argue Business skills are unnecessary are the same ones asking the most basic Business questions over and over and not having the first **** clue about what they are doing.

They believe that being the best at what they do is enough. Only an idiot would think that. I'm not the best at what I do by a country mile but I make loads more money than a lot of these other clowns that work 5 times harder than I do.
People don't believe me when I tell them I rang a prospective client who told me they already had someone they were happy with, asked if I could drop off some sales material " Just in case they got busy or couldn't help them" dropped in, spent literally 4 minutes with the decision maker and walked out with a $10K deal. I stitch up $5K deals with a phone call and a visit regularly.

I'm not some super salesman, I'm not outstanding at what I do, I just have a good grasp on business basics and what really important to my customers and what pushes their buttons. That's enough to put me ahead of 90% of other vultures in my game.

I did do some small business consulting for a while and it was both amazing and too frustrating for me to go on with. I can size up most business people with one single question and cut them to shreds at the same time. All I ask is " Why should someone use you over your competitors and don't tell me quality or service because that's the cop out every other twit will use".

That one, simple, basic and very realistic question will cut the legs out from under most small business people in an instant. It's not a smartarse, clever trick thing to ask and that's the problem, it's what your customers ask themselves subconsciously every single time. The scary part is, most small business people never think about it! They have no idea why their customers use them but will put it down to the quality and service crap.
For the precious few that can give you a reasonable answer, you can ALWAYS take them down with the second question.... What's the 3 ways to grow a business? They always get the first one, get more customers but the other 2, NFI.
1. Sell to more people. ( get more customers) 2. Sell more often ( Sell to the same customers more frequently) 3. Sell at a higher price/ profit margin. ( raise your prices or increase your profit ratio by say buying at a lower cost).
Basic stuff but few small business people know it.



Most small business people think like customers but don't balance it from a business owner perspective. They don't understand or think through what their customers actually really want. There is an area I work in that I am very successful in and have now had literally a couple of dozen people see what I do and try to take me on and they all fail within 12 months and thats at the outset. Again, not because I'm so incredibly good at what I do no one can come near me but because I understand what my customers really want and the others don't. And like most businesses, its not actually what you do. People don't go to a nice restaurant because they are hungry. They go to Maccas for that. They go out to a decent joint for the experience. They want to feel pampered, indulge themselves with a delicious dessert and don't want the mrs taking up time at the sink or dishwasher when they could be spending that time on more romantic pursuits. If you market the restaurant as a place to go when you are hungry, you'll fail because you do not want takeaway customers which is what you will get with that mistake.

I have to say, I love business. To me it's 3 things, Sales, marketing and advertising. Have a grasp of those 3 things and you have a lot of knowledge and power and not just professionally.
18 Months ago I sold my house in one week for $50K more than the agent who had it 15 months and told me I was asking too much at the 50K less price than what I got for it.
Today I made my son go for a blue collar job interview wearing a suit and with his resume printed on heavy stock paper in a proper presentation folder. He said the guy hardly asked him anything. He looked over his apprentice level resume, looked him up and down and said when can you start? My son was taken aback and asked wasn't there anything else he wanted to know? The guy said I knew the most important things when you walked in the door and saw how well presented you were. I have been talking to guys all week that couldn't be bothered to shave and then you walk in like you want to be president of the company. What else is there to know?

And as laughable as it may be, I have even used my knowledge on a romantic level to pick up women. A mate of mine had a messy divorce which left him very despondent and lacking in self confidence. I signed him up to one of those dating sites and wrote him a profile and 3 replies, an initial approach, first reply and 2nd reply asking the girl out. He seriously had more women wanting to go out with him than he could handle. Instead of telling them how great he was and asking for a date or having a picture of his wedding tackle, there was a well dressed picture of him smiling and the initial contact was to complement the girl and tell her he knew someone as classy and beautiful as her was way above the league of anyone like him but he just wanted to say how pretty he thought she looked and wish her all the best in finding the right person and happiness. The women were asking him out and sometimes he met them within hours of making contact. He met some real nice ladies through that which lead to a couple of relationships over a few years till the new Mrs. right came along.

Sales I think is really ship easy. You know in advance what the objections are going to be. The same ones come up over and over and there is only ever a handful of them. You go over them, think of killer replys to steer the customer where you want and the next time someone lays that on you, your not thinking oh geezuz, here we go again and stammering and talking crap you know is lame, you are just dying for them to ask you that question because you have thought up the answer that you know, if they ask, you have them in the bag!
It's not magic, it's more like going for a test that you have already been given the answers to.

Marketing is important because it guides you into everything you say and do and where you aim yourself in the market. It tells you where to advertise and how to measure where your advertising dollars are best spent and giving you best returns. It tells you what clients to go after, what those clients look like so you can target them, how to present yourself. Should you do brochures, business cards, fridge magnets, a website, yellow pages ads or just go knock on doors?
Advertising ties in but is different. It teaches you how to write an ad and what the features of that ad, your business card and website etc should say and how they should say it. Most people do an ad and get the person at the newspaper or print shop to do it for them. How do you know what copy writing experience they have? They could ( and usually do) a crap job but you don't have the knowledge to recognize it or know how it should be done.

There are LOADS of sites on the net where you can pick up good sales tips and education for free. the only investment you need to make is in yourself and donate a bit of time.
You don't need to be some sales Guru, all you need to do is get a grasp of the fundamental basics and you will be miles ahead of your competition right there.

IMHO, the more competitive the industry, the bigger the edge business knowledge gives you.