Top 15 trends and ideas which will change your business in the next 12 months. For information visit www.johanmouton.co.za

1. Top 15 Trends and Ideas which WILL change
your business in the next 12 months!
written by Johan Mouton (a marketing process approach)
“There are some changes
in the market and if you
are in business you should
know about these today to
make the change in your
business for a better, more
profitable future.”
1. “Dumb business owners get a
customer in order to make a sale.
Smart business owners make a sale
in order to get a customer!” ~ Dan
Kennedy. Dan really understands
marketing. I have used this marketing
principle over and over with great
success. The easiest example is my
Internet Marketing Seminar. The
single biggest goal is generating a sale
to get a customer. This generated over
R250 000 of additional business for us.
What many don’t know is we did not
have one page of training. Nope. We
went into the market and MADE a sale
to GET a customer and THEN
delivered an AWESOME seminar.
How can you apply this to your
business today, right now?
2. The competition you don’t see. If
you read the news, especially
technology and business news, there is
a good chance you have seen the
announcement on Kalahari and
TakeTwo merging. There is Amazon
(who closed down THOUSANDS of
book stores). There is Alibaba, an
online trading platform AND more.
Online sales are billions of dollars.
More and more people are buying
online, directly from suppliers and
distributors. Time to get into the e-
commerce game before it is too late.
3. People are VERY informed. 100
years ago the average person read less
than 50 books in their lifetime. Today
we get bombarded with information
the equivalent of 176 newspapers a
day! Right now most people have the
equivalent of 600 000 books stored on
their computers. We have access to
information at any time with mobile
devices. We read news and get social
updates. Use Google to search for
what we need. We are more informed
than ever before. We crave more
information. Every day we want to
know more. Discover more. Why are
people using the internet? They are
LOOKING for information. In your
business help them find it.
4. Reviews will make OR kill your
business. With the speed of social
media your business can boom or bust
in days. Social media revolves around
one word, “reviews”. How many
people “like” a page. You find reviews
on Google and product sites. Reviews
on booking sites. Suddenly everyone is
a critic. It is key to manage the critics
of your business.
5. Speed makes the deal. In this fast
paced world people are looking for
instant satisfaction. The days where
you wait are gone. You stop at the
petrol station and get petrol in minutes.
Instant coffee. Complete web forms
online and wait for people to respond.
Buy school stationary online (why
struggle to find ALL the right pens and
books when you can order a box with
everything already pre-packed?). You
need to work on the speed of
marketing, sales, operations and
administration in your business to
make it smooth and efficient.
6. One Web Site is not enough. Even
Google does not have just “one”
website; Google.com, Google.co.za ...
Google.co.uk ... Makes you think?
South Africa is close to 1 000 000
registered co.za domains. Last year
180 000 new domains was registered.
About 80 000 domain names deleted.
The growth per year is around 100 000
co.za domains. We have been using
multiple website strategies for the past
8 years, and so have many of our
clients with great success.
7. A website is not a ticking exercise.
Many business owners still see (to
their determent) a website as a ticking
exercise. WAKE UP! The web is
FULL of opportunity. Web sites are
dead! You need a system to drive your
business forward. Cloud computing.
Online commerce. Video streaming.
Online conferencing. These are signs
of the times. If you do a site as a
ticking exercise just to have one I
strongly suggest to rethink where you
stand on that one. An easy way to
check is when last you updated your
website? 2010? Big problem.
8. What is the #1 goal in ANY
business? Grow the database. If your
database is stale, not growing, you
have trouble headed your way fast. We
helped a client grow his database from
3000 to 9000 people in 12 months. 12
months ago he had about 50
transactions per month. Now he is
doing around 150 transactions per
month. Do you see how the business
and database grew with exactly the
same percentage? For him, every 3000
people on the database will be 50 more
transactions per month. What should
you do to grow your database on a
daily basis?
9. What is the #2 goal in ANY
business? Add value to your
customers. Customers want value for
money. Offer it to them. That is how
you create a loyal base of customers. If
clients get no value, are not
appreciated they WILL take their
patronage somewhere else. Business is
100% about relationships.
10. The 3rd most important goal in
your business is communicate
frequently. Use social media, blogs,
newsletters, sms, email, meetings,
phone calls, events, promotions,
printed newsletters, gifts, ... AND
more! Break through the clutter.
People, customers, are always asking
what is new? They want to be
entertained. Informed. Educated.
Enlightened.
11. Systems in your business. Do the
heavy lifting with systems. Systems
can do the work of many. If you are
sending SMS’es with your smart
phone there is a good chance you
might have to send 10 and wait. If you
send emails with a basic email
program you might also only send 10
at a time. Systems can do this in bulk
even while you sleep! Why not use and
implement systems to do this for you?
You can do better things with your
time. Make more sales. Improve
customer service.
12. Documented processes and how
work is done. Documented processes
makes you go faster on all levels in a
business. Training new staff becomes a
lot easier. Less talking, more training,
faster results. Clients understand how
you work. Works gets done better with
a lot less errors. Less rework. More
time. Less stress. The top and bottom
line in your business will be impacted
positively by documenting and
streamlining processes.
13. You can’t improve what you
don’t measure. I asked a client how
many people were added to their
database last month? They did not
know. How many people asked for a
quote? How many presentations? How
many sales? What are your sales
percentages? How many leads will you
get next month? You can only improve
a process when you measure the
process. If you don’t it becomes a very
expensive guessing game. Invest in
your processes (can be very basic, no
need for rocket science here) and
measure your results.
14. Have a dedicated marketing
focus. Put a dedicated structure in
place for your sales and marketing.
There is no more predictable way to
grow your business. (We found the
ideal structure and it is a lot easier than
you think!). You need to have account
executives. These are people closing
deals. They should not prospect. Nope.
You have a team (or person) who
prospects (outbound). You also need
rapid response. This person (or team)
handles ALL incoming calls and
requests. Yes, at a minimum it is a 3
person structure ... and it works. You
do not need to do everything at once.
Start with the most critical and work
from there.
15. Use multiple channels to market.
Do not rely on just one method. Use
different channels to reach your ideal
customers.
Results? Here are some results from
our marketing with clients: One lead
for one client resulted in around
R50,000 per month in sales. Over 2300
leads in one year. Over 60 leads in
October (high transaction value – over
R180,000 per sale). Another client
grew between 5% - 15% per month on
a month-to-month comparison with last
year. From 1 Dec 2013 to 28 Nov
2014, 656 leads for a client.
These are only a few trends, ideas and
tips. We have a dedicated 30 minute
skype presentation with more facts and
ideas that can help make the difference
in your business today for a bright,
more profitable future.
This is ideal for companies who offer a
product and service, at higher
transaction values, based in Gauteng
with 5 to 10 people in the business.
Interested in the 30 minute skype
presentation? Visit
www.johanmouton.co.za for info.
“There are
limitless opportunities.
But every opportunity
has limited time.”