Springboard

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Vision: What is the Ultimate Purpose of your Business?

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John Paul DeJoria is not your typical billionaire. He grew up with nothing. He was a member of a gang. He joined the navy. He bounced around from job to job. And he even lived in a car for some time.

“Rejection is part of being successful,” said DeJoria. “Successful people do all the things that unsuccessful people don’t want to do, like staying enthusiastic when you keep getting rejected.”

Through enthusiastic perseverance and through his experience in the hair industry (he was fired from 3 different jobs), DeJoria formed his own shampoo company after teaming up with Paul Mitchell. The two men didn’t have much money. In fact, they had just $700 to their names. What DeJoria and Mitchell did have was drive and a revolutionary product.

“Our shampoo you only had to use once instead of twice,” said DeJoria. “So for a hair dresser, it saves time and money.”

DeJoria and Mitchell made millions, becoming the largest, privately-held beauty company in the world. But that wasn’t enough. DeJoria went on to found Patron, which became even more successful than his line of Paul Mitchell products, making DeJoria a billionaire.

20/20 Billionaire Secrets Barbara Walters: John Paul DeJoria

“What do you think is the best part about being a billionaire?” asked Barbara Walters.

“I can make some major changes that affect the entire world – for economy, for ecology, and for humanity,” answered DeJoria. “I like to live well and I feel good about it because I know how much we give back. There is plenty for my family, now let’s take care of the rest.”

John Paul DeJoria Business Vision: Success unshared is failure!

What is your business vision? What is the ultimate purpose of your business? As we told you a few weeks ago, “people do not buy what you do, they buy why you do it.”

Springboard’s Business Vision: To alter the perception of sales people so businesses can thrive, salespeople can be happier and their prospects can live in peace.

Maybe it is time to start thinking about why you do what you do!

If you have any questions about Business Development, please contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the financial burden of an in-house business developer.

At Springboard we know sales!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as well!

Name Dropping: The Do’s and Don’ts of Relationship Building

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Salespeople and business developers have been name dropping for years. It can be an effective tool to help foster business relationships…if it is done the correct way! So let’s talk about what you can and cannot do when it comes to name dropping:

Do:

  • Do Get Permission: Clear with your relationship FIRST before you ever use their name to make a new introduction – ask them for help and they’ll most likely handle the introduction for you.
  • Do Your Research: Make sure to find out more about the relationship between your contact and the person you’d like to meet before reaching out
  • Do Give them an “Out”: Sometimes a relationship just isn’t at the point where someone feels they can make introductions, give it time
  • Do Be Generous: Be grateful for the help, make sure to say thank you, offer introductions on your side or a thank you lunch or breakfast.  I’ve even received gift cards from those I’ve helped.
  • Do Be Gracious: When reaching out to your friend’s contact, be sure to keep in mind that you can either strengthen or damage their relationship – your goal is to be a resource and strengthen their relationship.  You want their contact to go back to your friend and say thank you for making the introduction.
 Don’t:

  • Do NOT drop someone’s name without permission
  • Do NOT drop someone’s name that you really don’t know and act as though you do
  • Do NOT blindly call someone without doing any research on their company
  • Do NOT try to cram a square peg into a round hole. When someone tells you why they aren’t the right fit and they really aren’t, don’t push it
  • Do NOT make the person who introduced you look like a fool
  • Do NOT call the same prospect multiple times dropping multiple names of people you do not know.


If name dropping is done the right way – the ethical way – it can be a powerful sales technique. But you have to be careful. Remember, there is a difference between someone you have met, seen at a networking event, talked with briefly, and someone you can call a friend. So when you open a sales call or sales meeting with the following phrase – “I’m a good friend of ______________ and they said I need to meet you!” – make sure it is actually true! Name dropping in order to get an appointment or close a deal is just bad business. You will get found out and it will hurt your reputation.

“This behavior doesn’t work anymore,” said Springboard CEO Karin Schwartz. “I’m not sure it ever really did, but it certainly doesn’t today.”

People buy products and services, they aren’t sold!

If you have any questions about Business Development, please contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the financial burden of an in-house business developer.

At Springboard we know sales!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as well!

 

The WHY of Success: WHY do some Business Succeed when others Fail?

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Why are some organizations more successful than others, despite being no more qualified than the competition?

Why are some leaders able to inspire when others are not, despite having no “special” attributes?

Why!?

Simon Sinek seeks to explain the WHY in his lecture, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Action.


“The inspired leaders and the inspired organizations, regardless of their size, regardless of their industry, all think, act, and communicate from the inside out,” said Sinek. He further explained this theory using what he calls his Golden Circle.

 

What: Every organization and every leader knows what they do.

How: Some organizations and leaders know how they do what they do is better than the competition. For example: our computer is user friendly, our car gets great gas mileage, etc.

Why: Very few organizations and leaders know WHY they do what they do.

And no, profit is not a why. It is a result. The why is a purpose, a cause, or a belief. The why has to do with why your organization exists? You do not exist to turn a profit. If you do, your business might not be around very long.

Pursuing a result is a recipe for failure; it is what drives businesses into the ground. Pursuing a belief is what drives businesses to succeed, despite the odds. It is what drives prospects to you.

“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it,” said Sinek. “The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have; the goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe.”

The WHY of Sales

The why, the belief, is the reason a prospect buys your product or service. And everyone’s why is different. Because of this, there is no one size fits all sales solution. The key to sales success is to understand your prospects why and respect that belief throughout the entire buying process. This is how you foster long, happy client relationships.

“They know you ‘get’ them,” said Springboard CEO Karin Schwartz. “They trust you; they believe in you.”

If you have any questions about Business Development, please contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the financial burden of an in-house business developer.

At Springboard we know sales!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as well!

The Candle Problem: Rethinking the Way we do Business

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What truly motivates your employees? How do you, as a business owner, foster a more efficient workplace to ultimately drive sales and increase profits? Well, traditional business practices would lead one to believe that extrinsic motivators, like monetary rewards, are the best way to motivate your employees. However, recent studies show that there may be a mismatch between how businesses “motivate” salespeople and what science knows to be effective.

This is the subject of speaker Daniel Pink’s speech, “The Surprising Science of Motivation.”

The Candle Problem: Participants are tasked to attach a candle to a wall in such a way so wax will not drip on the table below. To do this, the participant may use a book of matches and a box of thumbtacks.

Some participants try to use the tacks to fix the candle to the wall. It doesn’t work. Other try to melt part of the candle and stick it to the wall. That doesn’t work either.

The Solution: Empty the box of thumbtacks, put the candle into the box, use the thumbtacks to nail the box to the wall, and stick the candle in the box.

The message of the candle problem is simple and can easily be applied to the business community, especially motivation. We must stop looking at what we think we see…what we think we know about motivation and start looking for more creative and effective ways to encourage salespeople and ultimately bolster sales.

The fact is that traditional, extrinsic rewards aren’t always as effective as we think.

“I can’t tell you how many leaders I speak with that think their sales people are motivated by money, but most aren’t,” said Springboard CEO Karin Schwartz. “It’s rarely about money.”

In fact, according to Dr. Bernd Irlenbusch of the London School of Economics, “financial incentives…can result in a negative impact on overall performance.” Instead, Daniel Pink encourages the use of intrinsic business motivation, which work because of three key factors:

  • Autonomy: The urge to direct our own lives
  • Mastery: The desire to get better and better and something that matters
  • Purpose: The yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves

“It’s not uncommon to see sales people motivated by cultivating long term relationships, helping others, finding the missing puzzle piece, receiving the accolades/appreciation, etc.,” said Karin. “The faster a business owner realizes how their people are motivated the faster they can develop a culture that thrives.”

If you have any questions about Business Development, please contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the financial burden of an in-house business developer.

At Springboard we know sales!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as well!

The Biggest Business Development Mistakes

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If your business relies heavily on sales, then you know just how important it is to have a strong business development strategy. Still, even the best businesses fall victim to the same old mistakes!

  1. Assuming you know EVERYTHING there is to Know: Becoming proficient in the business development arena takes practice. Not just anyone can be successful…it takes serious work!
  2. Selling to the Wrong Person: Make sure you are talking to a decision maker. Don’t waste your time selling to someone who can’t even make the decision to buy your product or service!
  3. Failing to Make Multiple Contacts: What happens if you spend a ton of time developing a business relationship with a prospect only to have that prospect fired? Well, if you failed to make multiple contacts, you are screwed!
  4. Not Enough Prospects: Prospects are your lifeline. Without a healthy number of prospects in your sales funnel, your business has no chance of thriving!
  5. Waiting for Referrals: Referrals are great and a lot of the time, they drive your business. But you cannot rely on your clients to just hand over referrals. Get you’re a$$ out there and find business. Don’t be afraid to ask for referrals from happy clients. What’s the worst that could happen? They say no.
  6. Not Bringing More to the Table: What do you have to offer your prospects? If you are having trouble answering this question, then you are probably in the wrong business! And we are not just talking about your product or service. The prospect already knows about that. But what’s something you can do to help your prospect in their business? What can you offer the prospect that no one else can?
  7. Assuming you know what the Client Needs: You don’t know what the client needs. Only the client knows what he/she needs. So stop talking and start listening.
  8. Fear of Closing: Don’t let a prospect pull you in every direction. You are in the business of making money. So make the sale or cut your losses. You cannot waste your valuable time on a lost cause. That is just a poor business strategy.
  9. Trying to do everything In House: With salary ranges of $120-175k plus benefits, taxes, and expense reimbursements, companies are wisely moving away from in-house business developers and beginning to turn to outsourced business development firms, like Springboard, to ask, “How can we do this at less cost while hitting all the key areas?”
  10. Trusting Someone other than Springboard! If we didn’t think we were the best and if we didn’t know we could help you grow your business, we wouldn’t be doing what we do! So start putting your trust in Springboard Business Development!

If you have any questions about Springboard Business Development, please contact Springboard Business Development by calling 410-832-7560 or click here today!

Located in Baltimore, Maryland, Springboard offers outsourced sales solutions for businesses in the professional services arena. Our approach to business development makes it easy to find new clients without the financial burden of an in-house business developer.

At Springboard we know sales!

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, and LinkedIn as well!

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