The Modern Entrepreneur's Sales Manifesto

Every business owner's success is grounded in sales - how to make them and multiply them fast. We're here to help with our complete guide to growing sales, whether you're a startup or an established entrepreneur looking to take your business to the next level. We'll show you how to master the sales mindset, generate leads, test out new sales strategies -- and ultimately close more deals.

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Richard Branson on Decision-Making For Entrepreneurs

Q: What were your most important managerial decisions -- the ones that changed your business? -- Volodymyr Kravchuk, Kiev, Ukraine

A: Most good chief executives or entrepreneurs only make three or four key decisions every year. Running your business's day-to-day operations and managing your team can take much of your time, so there are usually only a few that stand out -- the game-changing decisions that can make or sometimes break a business.

Looking back over my career, which now spans more than four decades, there were many occasions when I got it right and a few when I did not. A few guiding principles helped; these are the things I would have liked to have known when I was just starting out.

1. Trust your instincts.
There have been many occasions when I have led our team into markets that industry experts told us to avoid because the competition was too fierce or the cost of entry too high.

This was the case when we launched our airlines Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Blue (recently rebranded Virgin Australia), in 1984 and 2000, respectively. On both occasions, my fellow directors were nervous about our chances for survival, given the strengths of our competitors -- namely their market share and fleet sizes and experienced personnel. But I felt that our competitors had become complacent; that passengers wanted something different. With the right energy, focus and flair, we could make our mark.

Virgin Atlantic went from strength to strength, and now carries over 5 million passengers per year. In the case of Virgin Blue, we backed the plans of a former Virgin Express executive and entrepreneur Brett Godfrey, who first presented his ideas to me sketched out on a beer mat. After launching the business with just two Boeing 737s, we have built Australia's second biggest airline, and now have a fleet of nearly 90 planes.

2. Focus on your customers, not your critics.
It wasn't just our team that occasionally worried about our stepping into tough markets. Over the years, our critics fretted about Virgin's expansion into airlines, financial services and mobile phone services. What did our company know about these industries and how would we manage the complex issues?

Related: Richard Branson on Embracing Change

I rarely paid attention (which also drew criticism from some analysts). My answer was always to focus on the customer experience, ensuring that we offered the best service, most innovative products and best value.

This worked especially well in mobile services, where most companies still require customers to sign contracts that are difficult and expensive to exit. We revolutionized the market by offering a pre-paid model. Our position was radical, but we were selling exactly what a number of younger and newer users wanted. Our businesses grew quickly in the U.K., Australia, Canada, France, South Africa, the United States, and more recently in India, expanding our customer base and brand far and wide.

3. Always support your team. 
In previous columns, I have discussed how crucial it was for me to find great managers to run our businesses. Day-to-day management has never been my forte, and my early decision to step back from operations gave me the freedom to focus on our main challenges and opportunities.

This meant that I had to learn to trust the management teams, and to support them when they saw an opportunity. When Matthew Bucknall and Frank Reed came to us in 1999 with the concept of a family friendly health club, we decided to invest. Very quickly, they impressed all of us with their innovative approach to customer service and team building.

Related: 10 Time-Management Tips That Work

Soon after we opened the first few clubs, Nelson Mandela called me, asking if Virgin could rescue a chain of South African gyms. That seemed a stretch, because we had only a handful of locations in Britain, but Bucknall and Reed were confident, and such was our trust in them and their team that we signed onto the deal. And they were right: Virgin Active South Africa is one of the key drivers of that business's growth.

4. Know when to say goodbye.
It can be very difficult to know when to sell, since as a founder and entrepreneur you become very attached to your business and your team. Look into whether selling will be good for the overall health of your company, or if you need objectivity, ask trusted advisers to do this. But brace yourself -- the answer might be yes.

We have sold a number of Virgin companies over the years. Probably the most notable occasion was in 1992, when we sold Virgin Records to EMI and used the cash to expand Virgin Atlantic and other companies in the group. It was a very emotional day for me -- at one point, I broke down in tears. Looking back, it's clear that we sold at the right time and the decision made sense for Virgin as a whole. That secured our group's future and gave us a war chest for investing in new businesses.

Selling is difficult, and you will be tempted to hold on too long. This is one of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur or chief executive can make.

I held onto Virgin Megastores for too long. Despite the warnings of my management team, I could not bring myself to sell the business until a few years ago. By that time, DVD sales had collapsed and the whole industry had been revolutionized by Apple's iTunes store. You can't get them all right!

Finally, when you are facing a difficult choice or must make an important decision on behalf of your company, keep in mind that the answer might not always be yes or no -- sometimes there are other options. Your job is to lead your team in the search for the best solutions, which are not always the easiest ones.

Related: Richard Branson on Strategies for Success (Slideshow)

Q: What were your most important managerial decisions -- the ones that changed your business? -- Volodymyr Kravchuk, Kiev, Ukraine

A: Most good chief executives or entrepreneurs only make three or four key decisions every year. Running your business's day-to-day operations and managing your team can take much of your time, so there are usually only a few that stand out -- the game-changing decisions that can make or sometimes break a business.

Looking back over my career, which now spans more than four decades, there were many occasions when I got it right and a few when I did not. A few guiding principles helped; these are the things I would have liked to have known when I was just starting out.

1. Trust your instincts.
There have been many occasions when I have led our team into markets that industry experts told us to avoid because the competition was too fierce or the cost of entry too high.

This was the case when we launched our airlines Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Blue (recently rebranded Virgin Australia), in 1984 and 2000, respectively. On both occasions, my fellow directors were nervous about our chances for survival, given the strengths of our competitors -- namely their market share and fleet sizes and experienced personnel. But I felt that our competitors had become complacent; that passengers wanted something different. With the right energy, focus and flair, we could make our mark.

Virgin Atlantic went from strength to strength, and now carries over 5 million passengers per year. In the case of Virgin Blue, we backed the plans of a former Virgin Express executive and entrepreneur Brett Godfrey, who first presented his ideas to me sketched out on a beer mat. After launching the business with just two Boeing 737s, we have built Australia's second biggest airline, and now have a fleet of nearly 90 planes.

2. Focus on your customers, not your critics.
It wasn't just our team that occasionally worried about our stepping into tough markets. Over the years, our critics fretted about Virgin's expansion into airlines, financial services and mobile phone services. What did our company know about these industries and how would we manage the complex issues?

Related: Richard Branson on Embracing Change

I rarely paid attention (which also drew criticism from some analysts). My answer was always to focus on the customer experience, ensuring that we offered the best service, most innovative products and best value.

This worked especially well in mobile services, where most companies still require customers to sign contracts that are difficult and expensive to exit. We revolutionized the market by offering a pre-paid model. Our position was radical, but we were selling exactly what a number of younger and newer users wanted. Our businesses grew quickly in the U.K., Australia, Canada, France, South Africa, the United States, and more recently in India, expanding our customer base and brand far and wide.

3. Always support your team. 
In previous columns, I have discussed how crucial it was for me to find great managers to run our businesses. Day-to-day management has never been my forte, and my early decision to step back from operations gave me the freedom to focus on our main challenges and opportunities.

This meant that I had to learn to trust the management teams, and to support them when they saw an opportunity. When Matthew Bucknall and Frank Reed came to us in 1999 with the concept of a family friendly health club, we decided to invest. Very quickly, they impressed all of us with their innovative approach to customer service and team building.

Related: 10 Time-Management Tips That Work

Soon after we opened the first few clubs, Nelson Mandela called me, asking if Virgin could rescue a chain of South African gyms. That seemed a stretch, because we had only a handful of locations in Britain, but Bucknall and Reed were confident, and such was our trust in them and their team that we signed onto the deal. And they were right: Virgin Active South Africa is one of the key drivers of that business's growth.

4. Know when to say goodbye.
It can be very difficult to know when to sell, since as a founder and entrepreneur you become very attached to your business and your team. Look into whether selling will be good for the overall health of your company, or if you need objectivity, ask trusted advisers to do this. But brace yourself -- the answer might be yes.

We have sold a number of Virgin companies over the years. Probably the most notable occasion was in 1992, when we sold Virgin Records to EMI and used the cash to expand Virgin Atlantic and other companies in the group. It was a very emotional day for me -- at one point, I broke down in tears. Looking back, it's clear that we sold at the right time and the decision made sense for Virgin as a whole. That secured our group's future and gave us a war chest for investing in new businesses.

Selling is difficult, and you will be tempted to hold on too long. This is one of the biggest mistakes an entrepreneur or chief executive can make.

I held onto Virgin Megastores for too long. Despite the warnings of my management team, I could not bring myself to sell the business until a few years ago. By that time, DVD sales had collapsed and the whole industry had been revolutionized by Apple's iTunes store. You can't get them all right!

Finally, when you are facing a difficult choice or must make an important decision on behalf of your company, keep in mind that the answer might not always be yes or no -- sometimes there are other options. Your job is to lead your team in the search for the best solutions, which are not always the easiest ones.

Related: Richard Branson on Strategies for Success (Slideshow)

A Thinking Process Every Leader Must Know

Every good leader has a col­lec­tion of tools they draw from to pro­mote bet­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion within their team. Some of these tools are use­ful because they help the leader to gather accu­rate and real­is­tic infor­ma­tion from within. This infor­ma­tion can be used to make deci­sions that will lead to greater suc­cess and improved team culture.

Some years ago, Build­ing Cham­pi­ons Coach Ray­mond Glea­son shared a think­ing process with me which has rev­o­lu­tion­ized both the way we com­mu­ni­cate inter­nally, and the way I coach my clients. I have coached hun­dreds of lead­ers through this process, and all have shared with me that they have got­ten pow­er­ful results.
It’s called the “Keep-Start-Stop.”
The Keep-Start-Stop (or KSS) is a sim­ple process, in which you ask a spe­cific team mem­ber, depart­ment, or the entire com­pany to sug­gest what cur­rent behav­iors or prac­tices need to con­tinue, begin, or stop.
KEEP asks, “What are the behav­iors that we as a com­pany (or I as a leader) need to keep doing in order to have the great­est level of suc­cess?” The “keep” responses are an indi­ca­tion of what is work­ing well.
START asks, “What do we need to start doing that we haven’t been doing already in order to have the great­est level of suc­cess?” The “start” responses could gen­er­ate cre­ative new ideas, or point toward things that have been missing.
STOP asks, “What do we need to stop doing? What is hin­der­ing our suc­cess?” Responses about what to “stop” are usu­ally indi­ca­tors of things that are work­ing, or that have been caus­ing stress and frus­tra­tion within the team.
KSS can be used by an entire team, a depart­ment, one-on-one, or even for self-evaluation. Responses can be shared off the cuff dur­ing a meet­ing, or anony­mously in writ­ten form. In fact, this exer­cise can be tai­lored to a num­ber of sit­u­a­tions, though I heartily rec­om­mend that you not rearrange the order of the Keep, Start, and Stop. By keep­ing them in this order, you will usu­ally find a list heavy on the “keep” side and light on the “stop” side, mak­ing this a great process for team build­ing and collaboration.
The frame­work of the Keep-Start-Stop pro­vides a safe out­let for feed­back, while prompt­ing the kind of thought­ful responses you won’t get from a sug­ges­tion box.

Try it, and I am sure you will reap the ben­e­fits of valu­able information.

How to Get Customers to Help Build Your Brand

Lead generation for any business is expensive. Brand building even more so.

But when it comes to a choice between building a brand or getting more leads, always opt for leads, because they, in turn, will help you build your brand. How exactly?

By developing your reputation as “the go-to” place or person that consistently delivers excellence to new and repeat customers.

That way, you can build your brand on the experiences your customers have with your company based on their own perceptions.

An emotionally satisfying customer experience can be powerful, especially these days when service expectations are so low.

Nothing is more valuable to your business than a great impression that lasts beyond a single purchase or transaction. Remember that today’s exceptional service means customer loyalty and repeat business over time, and better yet, great word-of-mouth for your company.

The key, of course, is being able to deliver what you say you’ll deliver, when you say you’ll deliver it, whether it’s your product, service or some kind of positive result.

Related: Richard Branson on Branding

It also helps to start thinking in terms of the type of value you can deliver in exchange for the prices you charge.

• Could it be value up-front or added value on the back-end?
• Could it be value based strictly on service, delivery or another factor, such as innovation, design, packaging, a unique location or business model?
• Can you leverage that value five or 10 times (either actual or perceived value) compared to what your prices are?

Setting up and planning your business this way can shift your priorities dramatically, and can save you a lot of time and expense for the up-front costs of branding that can waste a lot of your precious start-up resources.

Simply put, you can have a great logo, signs, business cards and website, but until you have a customer, you don’t have a business.

Start with a simple “type treatment” -- meaning your company name staged in a simple, or even unique font -- for your logo or brand identity, and start focusing on how you can add value to your customers’ experience.

Then, focus on a systemized, low-cost way to generate qualified leads that can be replicated.

This may mean setting aside your preconceived notions of advertising that “looks good” and generates a response, or considering online or social media channels of lead generation versus conventional or off-line methods.

It could also mean creating some informational or educational "white papers," case studies or brochures that focus less on the products or services you have and more on what those products or services can do for your customers.

Related: Five Key Ingredients of Lasting Brands

Your focus on these two areas will not only save you money upfront and set you up for ever more profitable business down the road, but you’ll also be able to:

1. Develop an exceptional go-to reputation that will go further in building your brand than any expensive ad campaign could ever do.

2. Establish the basis for a referral-based business, because old-fashioned word-of-mouth is the least expensive and most effective advertising you could ever want for your business.

Can this approach work in any industry or category? If you don’t think that it can, you may just need to find some key points of difference you can offer that will immediately set you apart from the competition. Consider the following:

-- Are you in an industry that prides itself on complexity and customer indifference? Offer simple solutions and great service.

-- Are you in an industry that doesn’t offer a guarantee? Be the first to offer one.

-- Are you in a category known for pushy sales people and expensive add-ons or fees? Find ways to streamline delivery and hire the best, most personable sales people you can find.

No matter what you do, make it unique. You’ll not only effectively position your company against your competition, you’ll also successfully anchor it in your customer’s own mind. There’s no better branding strategy than that.

Better yet, you’ll reap the benefits of your campaign not with high scores in some focus group, but with profits you can literally take to the bank.

How to Diagnose What’s Wrong With Your Business

Over the years, I have met a lot of entrepreneurs who have been frustrated by low profits, lack of growth, or the stress of the never-ending demands. Many struggle with all three. While every business is different, there are common denominators. In fact, I believe there are 10. The tricky part is that failing to have a handle on just one of these areas can result in mediocre performance, a stressful existence, or ultimate and intimate failure. That is one reason the failure rate for small businesses is so high.

This is the checklist I review when I’m not satisfied with my company’s performance.

Marketing

1. Targeting. Do you have a strategy to reach your best potential customers with your sales and marketing efforts? A shotgun approach is too expensive and inefficient for any company, especially a small one. What percentage of the people you approach actually buy a product or service like yours?

2. Advertising and Public Relations. There are many choices for where to place an ad and how to execute a public relations campaign. The problem with many small businesses is that their marketing activities are driven primarily by which salespeople happen to call on them. Ineffective advertising or public relations can be not only a tremendous waste of money but a tremendous waste of opportunity. If you are doing things the same way you did them 10 years ago, you are probably getting less response.

3. The Message. Lots of companies still use this line: “We will exceed your expectations.” I even saw it on the back of an ambulance. (I don’t know about you, but I have pretty high expectations when I call an ambulance! Are the technicians going to give me a haircut after they bring me back to life?) It was a good line when someone first thought of it. Now, it is old. It is tired. It needs to retire. You need to exceed people’s expectations by coming up with your own line. Maybe it is not a line at all. Maybe it is a message. Whatever it is, it should say something about your company that means something to potential customers.

Management

4. Hiring. I can’t think of anything more important than hiring the right people. Great hiring is a skill, one that frequently is not the strong suit of the typical entrepreneur. Do you have a hiring process? Hiring by trial and error is a very expensive and painful way to build a staff. I have found that hiring the right people is 75 percent of management. What percentage of the people you hire work out great? It should be 80 percent or 90 percent, and perhaps less in a low-wage environment.

5. Firing. This is never a popular subject, and it’s especially uncomfortable these days. But it is a harsh reality of business that some people are just not suited for some jobs. Many bosses avoid firing at all costs, including going broke, because they want to see themselves as being “nice.” In reality, customers and other employees just see them as irresponsible. Here is a simple test: Are there people who work for you who you would be relieved to have come in tomorrow and quit? If the answer is yes, that is not a good sign. Especially if the employee is a relative.

6. Operations. Training, standards, support, recognition, systems, key performance indicators, follow-up, etc. Is your company getting the job done? Are customers happy? Do you know? How is employee turnover? Are employees happy? Would they tell you if they weren’t? Do you have people who tell you the truth? Do you yell? (I know. You’re passionate.) Have good people left your company for more money? That is frequently an indication of other problems.

Accounting and Finance

7. Basic Accounting. Many seemingly successful companies have gotten into big trouble by neglecting accounting until it is too late. Accounting is not just about paying taxes. It is about information, insight, and control. Great accounting will not make a business successful, but bad accounting can destroy a business. Is someone staying on top of receivables, being careful about opening new accounts and making sure the existing ones are current? Could you walk someone through your financial statements and explain each part?

8. Pricing. This is probably the sleeper on this list. I can’t tell you how many times I have seen entrepreneurs either put themselves out of business, or never make the money they should have, because of bad pricing models. They charge prices that bear no relation to the costs or to the value proposition. This is just one of the reasons a company needs accurate accounting — so it can determine the true cost of a product or service. Do your salespeople have control of the pricing for jobs that they quote? If so, are they selling at a price that allows you to make a profit?

9. Financing. Most businesses need some kind of financing. Whether it comes from investors, banks, credit unions, factoring or even credit cards, there is a lot to know and understand. This is another place where a good accountant can be of great help. Or not. If you have one of the many accountants who just do tax returns and are not really experienced at helping businesses grow, you can find lots of information in books and online. Or you can hire a better accountant. Here is a test: Do you know your debt-to-equity ratio?

Leadership

10. Any one of these topics could fill a book, and leadership is no exception. Let me count the ways: vision, direction, inspiration, support. It is similar to management, but they are not the same thing. As my company has gotten larger, I have found that leadership gets easier because I now have managers managing. When a company is smaller, the boss has to manage and lead. One minute you are writing someone up for violating the late policy, and the next you are trying to inspire the troops. Perhaps management is pushing, and leadership is pulling. It’s not easy doing both at the same time.

Whether you score well or poorly on this list, keep in mind that it is an ongoing struggle. Personally, I’ve been doing this for 30 years, and I can assure you that I am constantly wrestling with almost every item on the list.

So how did you do?

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