The document provides tips for businesses to increase profits during an economic downturn by boosting sales and reducing costs using the telephone. It recommends using a freephone number to attract more customers, providing excellent customer service with an 0845 number, and implementing a referral program. Businesses can increase sales by getting more customers, increasing purchase frequency through targeted offers, and raising average order value via add-on sales and promotional deals. Costs can be reduced by choosing a low-cost telephone provider and improving sales skills.

1. Discover the Hidden Profit in Your Telephone Key steps to unlocking the extra profit potential in any business

4. How to Get More Customers: Most people think that the only way to get more customers is to advertise more, and that costs money! As we've already seen, in a recession they tend to cut advertising budgets rather than increase them, so they are likely to get less new customers rather than more. As things get worse and they cut costs even more, service levels decline and they begin to lose even their existing customers ……. The downward spiral continues! The answer however, is not to spend more on advertising - it is to Market Smarter! The smarter way to market is to first of all get a better response to existing advertising and then to look for low cost ways to generate more business. One well established way to get a better response to your marketing efforts is to use a Freephone 0800 number . According to a number of research studies, a freephone number has been found to increase response by 200 to 300 percent - that's 2 to 3 times as many replies then normal. That's equivalent to reducing your advertising cost by two thirds (66%)! Similar market research has found that up to 80% of people will respond to a freephone number before ringing an advertiser with a standard STD number and almost 15% of people will only ring a freephone number! Steal business from your competitors! Bearing in mind the above research, it follows that using a freephone number will persuade potential customers to call you before your competitors, add this to the fact that your competitors may be amongst those "cutting costs!" and you have a winning formula for your business.

6. New From Old A great, low cost way to get more customers is to use referrals. This is where you get existing customers to put you in touch with friends, relatives, business associates etc. As you already know, "word of mouth" recommendation is the best form of advertising, but don't just rely on your customers to talk about you of their own accord. By putting in place a Referral Program you can ensure a constant source of new customers. But first a word of warning! Good referral marketing depends heavily on great customer service. Giving Great Customer Service Your customers are not going to recommend you if their experience of you is less than ideal. Take a look at your customer support programme and make sure you are giving first class service. Research has shown that what matters most to customers is the overall buying experience. Yes, price may be a factor and yes, the quality of goods and services is important, as is delivery etc. But it is the less tangible things that matter more, such as ease of contacting you; the response they get from reception and sales staff; the general perception of customer care; etc. For example, the use of dedicated customer support telephone numbers is increasingly being used by larger companies to emphasise their customer service. These are more often than not Local Rate 0845 Numbers . An 0845 number allows a customer to call you at local rate from anywhere in the country - it gives the feeling of local service even when the customer is a considerable distance away. Increasingly customers are becoming aware of these special customer service numbers and are looking for them when dealing with suppliers. It all adds to the impression that you really care about your customer and this in turn adds to a feeling of comfort in dealing with you.

7. Speak Nicely to the Customer! Don't forget that the way your staff answer the telephone also has a major bearing on customer perception of service. You have probably experienced examples of poor telephone manner when ringing your own suppliers (or possibly ex-suppliers!!). Make sure that your staff (and even yourself) undergo telephone skills training and conduct regular follow up "refresher" sessions to keep them sharp. When you are away from the office ring in occasionally and note how the telephone is answered. Make occasional use of a "mystery shopper", i.e. get someone not known to your staff to make an enquiry and note how well it is handled, use the results for follow up training. The Referral Programme You thought I had forgotten about this didn't you? I just wanted to emphasise the importance of good customer service before continuing with referrals. The important thing about referrals is to create a system to make sure that you ask for referrals from customers on a regular basis. A great way to start is with customers who are referred to you. If they have come to you by way of recommendation, it is very easy to remind them of this when you ask them to recommend others. First of all check that they are happy with the service they have received, then acknowledge how important it is to you that they are happy, e.g.: "I'm very pleased that you are happy with our service, it is important to me for two reasons. First I have a happy customer and second, I am very conscious of the fact that Mr …… recommended us and he wouldn't have done so if he didn't feel we would look after you…. Tell me, do you know of any friends or colleagues who might have similar needs to yourself? I would love to be able to help them in the same way."

9. Following Up 1. Make sure your telephone sales skills are up to scratch………… It is important as a minimum that you are able to gain the attention of the prospect, generate interest in talking to you, create a desire to know more about the benefits you can offer and take the action necessary to take matters further - such as make an appointment or even close the sale on the phone. If you are familiar with the sales process you will be aware of the AIDA formula contained above. If not I recommend some good training in telephone sales skills. 2. Use a low cost telephone service provider…… [such as Linctel :-) ] By doing so you can save up to 60% on your telephone bill compared to some carriers’ standard call rates. Further savings can result from the difference in minimum call charges. For example one national carrier charges 4.2p minimum for each call - even if it's only a few seconds, whereas many other providers charge as little as 1p minimum. If you make a lot of short calls, for example because the person you want is not available or you leave a message on a voicemail or answering machine, you could be paying considerably more than you need by using the wrong service provider. The result of the savings possible here is that you can make a lot of extra, business generating , telesales calls at no extra cost above your current phone bill, you may even end up paying less!

12. Get Them to Spend More In other words - Increase the average order value Once you've got the first two areas cracked, this one becomes quite easy. By now you have developed a relationship with your customers. They know you deliver good quality, brilliant deals and great customer service so when you recommend something new or something extra to them, they know it is for their benefit. So let's have a look at a few ways of achieving this: 1. Add-on Sales Make sure that you and your sales staff are thoroughly aware of the relationship between the various products and services you sell, i.e. what normally goes with which? For instance, in my Viking example I might be ordering some more paper for my printer. If I use a lot of paper, it follows that I probably use a lot of ink as well! I am ordering paper because I have run out (or nearly run out if I'm organised) but I might not have checked my ink supplies. If I've forgotten then I'll probably run out of that in a day or two. So it's great customer service to remind me to think about that too e.g. "Thanks for your order for printer paper Mr Kirk. By the way, how are your supplies of ink cartridges? We have some good deals on HP cartridges just now." (they know from previous purchases I use HP cartridges!). So, each time your customers call in an order (on your Freephone Order Line) don't just take the order and say thank you, go that step further and help them to remember those things they might have forgotten or might need in a few days from now. You save them time and trouble and you get more business. After all, they might go somewhere else for the other stuff! Again, this is where good telesales training comes in handy. By the way, I'll tell you where to get good sales training in the resources section at the end of this report.

13. Special Offers 2. Promotional Offers You see these all the time in supermarkets - buy one get one free, three for the price of two, buy a widget and get a free sporrit, money off coupons etc. Why do they use them - because they work that's why! I sometimes get asked "doesn't this reduce profit margins?" Yes it does for these one off offers, but it does increase sales for the period of the offer which means more profit overall. e.g. let's say you sell an item for £5 which costs you £2 so you make £3 profit. If you sell one you make £3 profit on the sale, but if you sell 3 for the price of 2 you make (£10-£6) £4 profit on the sale - an increase of 33% for no more effort and for the same overhead cost! What's more, if it's a limited offer they might buy 6 or 9 or 12…… while they are going! You also give the customer a better deal so they keep coming back. So how do you promote these offers? Passively : When they ring in to place an order for a widget, on your Freephone sales order line , you tell them about the special 3 for 2 offer. If they take it up, which most will - you've doubled your order value and increased the profit by a third. Easy! Actively : You could mail your customers regularly with different offers either by mailing all customers with the same offer or mailing different offers to different customers, depending on their profile. Don't forget to repeat your Freephone Order Line in your mailing, it saves them looking it up so they can respond immediately! Or, less formally, you could simply make a list of the customers most likely to respond to a particular offer and give them a call …. "Good morning Mrs Smith (or Julia, if you're on first name terms which you should be by now!) - you've bought quite a lot of sporrits from us this year so I'm calling to say thank you .. and to make you a very special offer. We've got a new batch available that we managed to negotiate a special price from the wholesalers, so we are offering them to our special customers at three for the price of two - that's a saving of a third off the regular price. You might like to check your stocks and see how many you would like to take at this price……….….."

14. New Products I'm sure you get the idea. This isn't the high pressure selling they might be used to from your competitors, just another example of great personal customer service. And don't forget, now you are getting a great deal from your new telephone service provider , this activity will cost you very little to implement. The beauty of the promotional offer is that it can both increase the order value and the frequency of order! 3. Introduce New Products Now that you've got a well established, growing and responsive customer base, you can capitalise on that by introducing new products and services. Having got to know your customers, their needs and buying habits (You have done this by now, haven't you?) You can begin to think about other ways to meet their needs. New accessories, a deluxe or super deluxe version of a product, a new product to meet a newly discovered customer need or a re-packaging of two or more products into a set. All of these are ways to increase order value or frequency of purchase and all increase the overall level of sales from a given customer base. Don't forget, what you can do with products you can also do with most services. Once you have the new products you can have a New Product Launch to tell the world. You can mail your customer base to tell them the new products are now available on the regular Freephone Order Line ( notice I keep emphasising this, you need to keep reminding them how to order ). You can also introduce the new products to customers when they ring in to place an order. OK, now you know the 3 main ways to increase sales:

15. Summary 1. Increase your Customer Base 2. Increase the Frequency of Purchase 3. Increase the Average Sale Value And you know the 3 key ways in which your telephone can help generate even more income for your business namely: 1. Use a Freephone 0800 Order Line to Increase Sales 2. Use a Local Rate 0845 Number for Customer Service & "Local Presence" 3. Use a low cost Telephone Service to Increase Sales Calls for less cost Naturally Linctel can provide you with all three - details of all Linctel products & services are in the Resources Section . Now let's look at the second way to increase profits - reducing your costs .

16. 3 Ways to Cut Costs I have already mentioned that just cutting costs "willy nilly" can severely damage your business if you cut the wrong things. Often people cut things like training or marketing, but as we have seen, this is not the best way to survive. Smart marketing and good staff training are essential to survival and growth in hard times. So let's see what we can cut: There are three key ways to cut costs and consequently increase profits - without hurting your business : 1. Eliminate unnecessary costs 2. Get better value from what you continue to buy 3. Find different, less costly ways of doing things Each of these take a bit of work and a bit of research and analysis - but don't be put off. It's not difficult, it just needs a methodical approach.

17. Eliminate Unnecessary Costs Q: What is an "unnecessary cost"? A: One which does not earn its keep. In other words, examine everything you spend money on in the business and calculate its contribution to profitability or business growth. Ask your staff and colleagues to contribute their ideas and views, often they see what they think is wastage but aren't absolutely sure because they don't have all the facts. They think it must be OK because you've been doing it for a while and somebody authorised it in the first place. Maybe the expenditure was once bringing a return but has long since ceased to do so. If you still aren't sure, contact the supplier and ask what benefits you should be getting from spending this amount of money with them - see what the have to say. It may be that there are benefits to the business but you have stopped exercising them. If so, make sure that you start to get your money's worth. On the other hand maybe the benefits never materialised or were useful at first but no longer apply. Possibly the supplier has other products or services which would be a better alternative and provide value in your search for greater profitability, otherwise you have no choice but to terminate the expense. By using this careful appraisal of your business costs you will almost certainly identify areas of waste or outdated expenditure that you can get rid of without harming your business. Let's go on to look at the second way to save : Getting better value for money ……………………

18. Pay Less and Get More Do you continually shop around for best value or, like many businesses, do you stick with the same suppliers year after year because it's too comfortable or too much hassle to change. For example, recent research carried out by Linctel Ltd showed the following results within the telecoms industry: Over 50% of businesses still use BT for all their telecoms services, despite the massive savings resulting from the de-regulation of the telecoms industry. In fact, the telecoms regulator, OFCOM, recently expressed concern that UK business was not taking advantage of de-regulation to make significant savings and get access to a wider range of services. Similar results have been seen following de-regulation of other utilities such as gas & electricity! Don't get me wrong, BT provide some good services but no single provider can give all business customers the best service and value package appropriate to their needs - there are just too many variables. Further examples from the telecom research are as follows: Of those who did change service provider, most changed as a result of being approached and "sold to" by the alternative provider - they did not go looking for an alternative. Not surprisingly, quite a number were dissatisfied and returned to their original supplier - never to TRY AGAIN! In other words, they took the first deal that dropped in their laps and when it went wrong (because it was the WRONG DEAL for them!) they scurried back to the comfort of their original supplier - even though they may still feel they are paying too much.

19. Do Your Research Another piece of research by a different telecom company found the following: 81% of businesses they canvassed said they would love to change service provider, and for as little as a 10% saving provided they could be guaranteed the new service would be no worse. In reality they could gain savings of up to 50-60% without noticing the difference if they did their homework . The truth is they were AFRAID to move, much as they would like to! That is just one example from one industry, but it is repeated across all sectors of all industries throughout UK, and probably other countries too! A very successful businessman once said to me …. True Profitability doesn't come from good selling skills - it comes from Great Buying Skills! OK now, what about you? How many suppliers do you stay with due to fear of the unknown, too much trouble to change or just sheer lethargy? So how do you acquire Great Buying Skills? Use the Ten Step Plan below……

20. The Ten Step Plan 1. List your requirements and buying criteria very carefully - divided into essential & desirable criteria. 2. Where appropriate, draw up a detailed specification of those requirements 3. Research the market place for suitable suppliers. Use trade directories, the internet, word of mouth, Yellow Pages and whatever other sources you have to get a full list. 4. Narrow your search by ringing each one on the list to see how they respond to your enquiries. If the response is poor at this stage, it ain't going to get any better! ( remember to use your low cost 'phone provider to keep the cost down - better still, ring them on their freephone number if they have one ) 5. Send your requirement specification to the shortlist of selected suppliers asking them to explain how they propose to meet your needs and at what cost. 6. Examine the response to see who is simply sending a quote or pricelist and who are actually focussed on supporting your business aims. ( the cheapest is not necessarily the best - it depends on what you are getting for your money ) 7. Select the supplier who will give you the best value for money in terms of helping you achieve your business aims. 8. Contract with them on a short term trial basis ( let them know they are on probation! ) 9. Review their performance regularly against requirements 10. Keep reviewing the market place for better value & let your suppliers know you are doing so. Yes, I know it all takes time - but the benefits in cost savings and/or added value can repay the time spent hugely. Finally in this cost saving section, we'll look at changing the way you work ………..

22. Low Cost Marketing Recorded Information Line can use a low cost voice mail box with its own phone number to store recorded information - useful for giving the sort of repetitive information that lots of people ring up for. You can then use low cost classified ads or other media to direct people to it for more information. It can also be set up to enable them to leave a name and phone number or address for follow up. Such a line can take a lot of pressure off expensive sales staff. It can pre-qualify prospects to avoid time wasters and let you concentrate on those who are seriously interested. You can even use it to generate an income, if the information content is of high value, by using a special Revenue Generating Number - see the Resources Section for more details. Alternatively, the information can be recorded onto Audio Tape or CD and sent to enquirers. It takes a little time and cost to prepare the master, but they can then be easily duplicated in house for much less than the print cost of a brochure and they cost less to send because they are lighter. What's more, they don't get buried in piles of similar brochures, being different they stand out. More often than not the recipient will pop it in the car player on the way home - you now have a captive audience for your message. For a little bit more in time and cost you can put your information or sales message into a multi-media presentation format using text, graphics, video, audio, animation etc. and then record it on to Video Tape, DVD or CDROM . Again initial cost can be high but duplication and delivery costs are low. But once again, this is likely to be taken home and used by the recipient, probably in an environment with less interruptions and distractions than the office, shop or factory or if used in the consumer market will get more attention than mail shots or leaflets through the door. Alternatively it could be produced as a Computer Presentation or an E-Book and sent out as an e-mail attachment at very low cost. Best of all, thanks to the rapid take up of internet services by both businesses and consumers, is the Web Site . With a little professional help you can get a superb marketing and information tool that, once set up, can cost very little to run. It's information content is accessible from almost anywhere in the world and it can be changed or updated within hours or even minutes. Information on any of the above can be obtained from Linctel Ltd on 0800 883 0663 .