Starting from today, we will dedicated a biweekly column to the best web articles about the world of sales, personal growth and entrepreneurship. Let’s start with a really interesting article extracted from one of the world’s leading magazines, “entrepreneur.com”.
To be one step ahead of the competitors, there are several different strategies that can be adopted: for example, delivering a better service or product may be the starting point. Of course, it can be tough and more difficult to be the absolute best rather than being the first to conquer a new niche.
So the question is “How do you find a new niche business?”. The answer lies in “micro-specialization”, that is to say becoming an expert on a specific topic.
Here are 5 steps that can help you to identify your area of specialization:
First you need to identify the industry you would like to enter, even before finding your own niche. For example the banking industry, the medical field, the direction of investments, the fitness industry etc.
At this point, once you find the industry of your interest, you can choose a more specific area. For example, if we take into account the Internet Marketing niches, we could focus on the development of e-commerce sites or deal with content marketing. Each of these niches is very specific, but that’s the “trick”. The more we narrow the field, the more we are sure to find many customers that really need our services.
It is a process based on 4 stages to help customers to verify the feasibility of micro-specialization.
Subtopics: are there enough “secondary” arguments in your specific niche? To check this, you can include your keyword into Google research and look at the related keywords. Another method is to search for books devoted to that specific topic on the web or on Amazon and see if there’s enough material to justify the existence of an expert.
Pain: will your service/product be able to alleviate or lift people from some kind of suffering? Not necessarily physical pain, of course, but a need, a problem awaiting a solution. If there is no real need, you can hardly succeed.
Attainable: is what you propose really attainable? You have to be honest and transparent about this. Can you really offer a service that could help your customers solve a problem? If you are not convinced on this point, it is better to find another niche!
Numbers: is the market big enough? You can audit the data extrapolated from Google Ads, that can tell you if there are already competitors investing in that niche. Or you can use platforms such as LinkedIn or Facebook to get an idea of the popularity of a specific market.
Becoming the reference for your customers means being necessary when they need quality information about your particular sector. You can use different media such as podcasts, blog posts, SlideShare presentations, etc.
Presenting constantly new content to new people, you can reach success step by step. You can also host your content on industry sites or participate in programs or podcasts on the topic.
To be number one in a niche means a lot of sacrifice, but when you reach your goal and collect the initial results, only then you will be grateful to hard work you’ve done.
This article has been extrapolated from “5 Steps to Carving Out a Niche Business” by Brian Ainsley Horn
Brian Horn is an author who deals with sales and is a co-founder of the branding company, Authority Alchemy. He transforms entrepreneurs in “celebrity entrepreneurs” who use the process of “marketing authority”.
Order Sender, the digital catalog and order-taking software for sales reps, allows you to optimize your daily work, thus increasing your productivity and your performances:
We have already mentioned several times how the mobile technology is essential in our lives, that the internet browsing is mostly from mobile devices and that more than half the world’s population has at least one smartphone or tablet.
Despite the mobile revolution is taking place for some time now, many Italian companies are still rooted in an ancient and traditional concept of work, bound to the computer and desk.
The sale is mobile (we could say by definition!): the salesmen are constantly on the move, travelling daily to visit customers and performing their job often between one appointment and another. In addition, the number of customers and prospects is gradually increasing, together with phone calls, emails, etc.
That’s why there is a need to have “your office”, directly on your tablet. It is unthinkable to manage orders or customers just sitting at your desk! The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is one of the most important tools for a sales agent and it should be “mobile” nowadays. A tool that follows the salesperson anywhere, making his work easier.
That’s why we thought of a solution that could perform several functions from a single device:
A software designed and developed taking into account the needs of the field sales team that can be seamlessly integrated with the ERP and communicate continuously with the central system, keeping updated the company’s sales force.
Order Sender is a tool that was created to help sales reps to collect orders from customers, but at the same time it’s also a sales CRM.
There are many different goals that sales reps set to themselves and having a mobile CRM can make the difference in achieving them:
It was shown that multi-tasking (i.e. doing different tasks at the same time) decreases the productivity. In fact, our brains try to continually check if we’re forgetting some follow-up, if we have everything we need for our events on the calendar, if we have verified the address, if we wrote the number of the given customer, etc. All these responsibilities, anxieties and wasted time will be only a distant memory, because all this information will simply be stored in a mobile CRM and it will be possible to access them at any time without any worries.
For us from Order Sender team it is important to measure continuously the results we have obtained and set new goals to accomplish. With our platform you will always keep track of all open negotiations, potential customers, sales made and many other useful information that will help your sales process.
The saying “Time is money” is known worldwide. Sometimes we can not afford to lose even 5 minutes of our time. That’s why having a “mobile secretary” on your tablet is really the winning choice. This way you won’t lose any corporate information, discounts, promotions or commercial choices. In addition you earn much more time for you and you can focus on your Customer.
We started to create Order Sender taking into account the demands of field agents and the key concept of mobility.
You can understand all the benefits that we’ve listed above just trying our platform!
The new year has just begun and with it our new goals, which are essential in order to evaluate the results achieved. For this reason, before starting our sales, we should take some time to understand what we really want to achieve in 2017.
To do this, however, we must not confine ourselves to plan more or less generic facts. We have to set specific and measurable sales goals, which would guide us throughout the year.
Here are our 6 practical tips on how to set truly attainable goals:
What did you manage to obtain in 2016? How much did you sell per month? Make an excel spreadsheet with all the sales data, even the sales that you lost, to have a complete picture and make a critical examination of all the aspects that you should improve. If you already have Order Sender, check the monthly sales statistics of the past year for each supplier or individual customer.
As we were saying, we must try not to be generic. We cannot enforce targets as “increase the number of customers” or “sell more”. You have to set “real” goals such as: “increase sales of 10,000 euros” or “acquire 10 new customers” etc. Starting from results of the previous year, you can increase them in a realistic, but challenging way!
What kind of strategies do you plan to implement to find new customers? Which negotiations are open right now and how you can they generate more sales? Plan a strategy over time, with defined deadlines and objectives, which will help you achieving step by step your macro-objectives.
Enter into your calendar alerts on specific activities, such as contacting or visiting a customer in the middle of the next month. Use our Business Travels module, which will help you in scheduling your appointments Read more here.
If you want the 2017 to be really different, then you have to stay always motivated by accepting defeats or problems and working consistently. Always measure the results! With Order Sender you can compare the data of monthly turnover of the current year (and the previous one) or best selling products from your customers or suppliers. Preview changes.
We know how important it is to keep an eye on the goals and sales data, as well as having available the information related to your customers, including business updates, discounts etc. Rely on our platform and you’ll see the difference!
Nowadays sales reps (any product they sell) are dealing more and more with unsuccessful sales, postponed appointments, etc. They are experiencing a great difficulty in completing the sales process itself. Customers themselves are evolving, becoming more demanding, more indifferent to advertising and wary of products.
Certainly, the market is undergoing an important change: not only the crisis has gripped almost all sectors, but also the customers themselves are changing. That’s why the seller should be able to adapt his own way of selling the products/services to the needs of the customers. To achieve this goal, tools of the past are no longer enough nowadays. It is necessary to interact differently with customers, knowing well above all their new behavioural dynamics and focus on solutions.
We decided to synthesize in 4 main points the aspects that are worth to be considered while managing your customers.
Nowadays, in the digital age of mobile and smartphones, customers already know all of our products offer, since they already had the opportunity to compare their prices and features. For this reason, it is increasingly important to be able to offer them something different, to make them aware of benefits and meet (so know) their expectations.
In an increasingly hectic and individualistic world, there is the growing need of customers to be listened to. It is therefore very important to give priority to relationship with customers, making our interest in them perceivable. This will help to increase the desire to communicate and interact.
The customer himself is less and less loyal, because the offer is increasingly diversified, there are many companies that offer the same products and in addition there are no geographic barriers, thanks to the internet and e-commerce.
The customer is acquiring more and more power, he is well informed, technological and definitely less loyal. If he’s not satisfied about a product, he may use social network to share his criticisms with the community.
In order to be competitive and sell nowadays, it is important to revolutionize your modus operandi and make use of new powerful tools that would support the selling process and help focusing more on the customer, the true core business of any seller!
A real sales CRM that integrates seamlessly with any ERP. Don’t wait, start now to differentiate yourself: choose Order Sender in its full version with all new modules!
Until January 15th, 2017 you can take advantage of up to 20% of discount on all packages of Order Sender!
Having a catalog on tablet nowadays is of paramount importance to a salesperson.
The benefits are numerous and certainly having all your media on your device may be useful to make the product presentation and customer engagement more effective.
When technology helps us deliver a truly engaging, smooth and optimized sales experience, we can benefit from it by focusing more on the customer and on listening to his needs. Order Sender is a real digital product catalog on tablet, as well as a valuable tool for collecting orders, which helps maximizing the performance of sales reps.
New modules of Order Sender will change the way of selling and the very life of the sales reps: it will make the daily work much easier and therefore more enjoyable! The sales reps will feel more supported by the software in their every actions and task, thanks to technological innovation used. They will also have the ability to learn and always have at hand all the data concerning customers, information about their habits, preferences and characteristics, which will allow your sales team to perform to their full potential! Even business managers and sales management team will be more effective, thanks to web access to dashboards with information related to all aspects of the sales force management.
Order Sender is undisputed reference point in the field of sales software, mainly due to the its ease of use and its functional features.
The system gives you the ability to offer effective presentations of products to customers with the following benefits:
The sales force remains up to date, thanks to the continuous synchronization and communication with the company’s central system, which manages from a single point all data and information on tablets of sales reps.
If you think we can help you improve the performance of your sales force, contact us now!
Alfa Group integrates Order Sender in SAP Business ONE (SQL and HANA version). By partnering with one of the leading SAP partners in Italy, we have developed a vertical integration with SQL and HANA version of SAP Business ONE ERP which, in turn, will be able to handle Order Sender Enterprise.
A specific and multi-platform solution (iOS, Android and Web) that can handle a complex sales network with mobile devices that will be connected directly with this latest generation ERP.
The sales force is provided with the app in their tablets, which in addition to order taking module has a product catalog, administrative data of the customers, sales stats and all information related to customers, a true CRM in the hands of the sales force.
The collaboration with this important group stems from the need to be present on important assets, with a strong partnership in the mobile business, developed between the Order Sender platform and one of the major ERP systems on the market.
We consider that Alfa Group may be a strong example for other SAP retailers in proposing a consolidated and ever-changing platform to its customers.
Order Sender is constantly evolving: here are the latest updates of the app that will improve significantly its use, allowing the user to take full advantage of the platform’s strengths and make it even more powerful and versatile in all its features. We were able to improve our solution step by step thanks to the reports and suggestions from sales reps and companies who use our software.
Let’s see what are the new features of Order Sender.
The discounts have been enhanced thanks to the fields inserted in the data sheet of the product (default discount1, default discount2, default dicount3), that can be imported and synchronized. These new fields within the data sheet already associate discounts to various products. This particular feature will save the user a lot of time, since they will be able to bind the discount directly to the products, instead of creating new discounts for every customer.
New option to schedule the next appointment based on frequency of visits, following appointment’s survey completion. Once you have filled in the survey related to the appointment, you are asked to schedule a new appointment with the same frequency, so as to optimize appointments scheduling.
Payment method is related to the customer and can be imported and synchronized. A new field, “Payment Method”, has been added to the product data sheet, allowing the user to choose the payment method for a given customer. When choosing the customer while filling in the order, the field will be auto-completed, without any need to write it again every time.
The shipping cost and its VAT are managed. This cost will be added to the total amount, but excluded from the calculation of statistics.
The date of delivery is also inserted in the list of orders and quotes for a quicker search.
– The company logo can be displayed on the homepage of the application.
– Added “Return to Home” button
– Renewed graphical interface of the Homepage.
A product with discount merchandise pays the excise and the VAT on excise duty; no payment is required for free sample.
In order to activate the new updates, you must update the app from the store (iOS or Android).
It is important to remember that Order Sender is the new app dedicated solely to customers who are already using our Business solution. The app has a new logo icon with a yellow background. Since it has been released not as an upgrade, but as a different app, it is to be found in the store as a new app. Users who are not subscribed to Business version can continue using our “OS Pro” app (logo icon with white background).
Today it’s our first appointment with “Tips&Tricks”, a column dedicated to those who want to start using Order Sender to its full potential.
Today we are going to teach you how to use the new Business Travels module and plan your appointments in a fast and optimized way.
Business Travels allows you to schedule visits to your customers in a simple and intuitive way. Thanks to the horizontal view of the week, you can have an overview of all your appointments. You can also associate a frequency of visits for each customer, in order to monitor whether the latest appointment was made within the date that had been set. The calendar of your visits will be also synchronized with your tablet, allowing you to consult it quickly and with ease from your device.
To start, create a new appointment by clicking the + button, set the date and time of the appointment and select a customer from the data base (or press the + button to create a new one). You can also enter notes and/or goals and add appointments to your calendar in sync on your tablet (this will create the “Order Sender” calendar automatically). Now you are able to display all the events of the day and, by pressing on the map view, to also see them localized with immediacy.
You can manage Business Travels even from web: all you have to do is access your web management by logging in with your username and password from https://business.ordersender.com page. From here you can see your agenda and, by clicking on the name of the customer, you will be able to discover all the details related to the appointment.
Check out step by step the main activities that you can perform with Order Sender. Become operational right away!
Tra Business Travels for free by entering your email here.
Nowadays, it is a fact that the number of business applications is growing rapidly also in our country. It seems that the almost 63% of firms are using these applications, with an important impact for productivity and business efficiency. Recently, very interesting data were submitted within the event “From Paper to Mobility Enterprise” by Gruppo Risorsa from Milan.
The use and deployment of mobile solutions for enterprises (the so-called enterprise app) is growing: notably the 63% of large enterprises has adopted a mobile application over the past years, or is planning to do it soon. This figure is growing compared to the previous year by as much as 3%.
Among the most used business apps, there are those dedicated to the sales force (Sales Force Automation), which record certainly the highest level of penetration in the Italian productive fabric. In fact, they are used by as much as 37% of companies.
All these data are certainly able to make us think about the changes we are undergoing, particularly in the enterprise business process management, thanks to the adoption of new mobile technologies.
An evolution that seems to be quite positive given the numbers:
The advantages are quite numerous. The most recognized in the survey include:
Large companies have already realized the importance of this change, while among SMEs only a small number have decided to focus on mobile applications.
Digital innovation can become an excellent opportunity, especially in the case of companies with commercial network. Even the role of seller is evolving more and more to that of consultant, requiring more specific skills. The sales force is the company’s interface with the market, since it can collect valuable information to help the company in the development of new commercial and marketing strategies.
Order Sender is the most reliable platform on the market that integrates to ERP and other company management systems in a very flexible way. Check it out now and find the most suitable solution for your business!
