Topic:  Sales Training

Answer: I would most certainly suggest the Sales Excellence multi part series in Courses and under Sales – this is comprehensive and if your team take it and commit to it you will see great improvements – we can discuss this at our quarterly review in person and you can advise on progress. Any help needed in between let me know.

Topic:  Team Management

Answer: Not a problem, the tool you need is our downloadable BOMM sheet in Leadership & Management under Business Tools. Simply download the documents and read the instructions – if you need any more help just let us know.

Topic: Management

Answer: The ability to think lies within all of us – true some are more creative than others but we have found that many employees are able to put forward ideas but only if they are allowed to do so. Our E Book – which as a member you can download within the Leadership Section of the Knowledge Hub – ‘6 Steps to Exceptional Business Growth’ - will show you how to make people more comfortable in making suggestions and also ensure that they feel far more motivated and a bigger contributor to the success of your business. One quote that I would like you absorb is this ‘the amount of thought and creativity that people come up with is directly related to the size of the goal in people’s heads’’. What this means is that if you set a goal of, say, 5% growth whoever is tasked with hitting that goal will come up with the thinking and ideas that will hit that but no more and probably come up short – but challenge people’s minds to, say, double the profits and say ‘nothing is off the table’ and you will be amazed at the amount of creativity and ideas that even the quietest can come up with – if given the chance!! That is down to your leadership or the leadership of the company you work in

Topic: Salespeople

Answer: This is a problem for SME’s that we have encountered many times over many years. These empty promises lead nowhere other than to frustration, costs and wasted time but too many businesses make the same mistake over and over again. You should look to interview salespeople working on key criteria that evaluates them on their ability to sell effectively and their skills and processes – a good technique is to ask questions like – ‘Tell me about a time where you used your negotiation/ sales skills to turn a prospect from negative into positive’’ – ‘How do you go about structuring an effective sales visit/ call’’ – ‘’What do you think are the attributes of a good salesperson’’. On the latter the ability to listen actively after asking open questions is a key factor. In our experience the best listeners who listen to customer/ client needs and requirements and then come up with the appropriate solutions are the ones that score heavily – you will find some useful information on sales excellence in our Knowledge Hub under Sales – let us know how you get on….

Topic: Interest Rates

Answer: Although our Experts can help with unique funding solutions we understand your position. From what you say here you have a great product range probably with some differentials or points of difference versus your competition. How good are your front line sales team, how effective is your marketing are you observing either of these areas and measuring what they are delivering. Have you set standards and are these being met. People will only deliver on what they feel they are being measured against. Simple changes to sales and marketing effectiveness need cost no more money but great gains in productivity and a return on your current investment. Set the standards and measure against them and this could deliver great returns without spending more money at this difficult time!

Topic: Training of retail staff

Answer: First question from us would be ‘do they have clear accountabilities and responsibilities defined?’ Do they understand what they are expected to do and has this been clearly explained, demonstrated and followed up. Our training cycle for any business and any person is to explain what is expected, show them what they need to do and how to do it, let them have a go (under supervision) and then review what’s good and not so good. Go through that cycle two or three times maximum and if the individual isn’t grasping it you may have a challenge on competency and potential. First step though is to define those accountabilities and responsibilities and take them through how they work as defined above.

Topic: Sustained Growth

Answer: What template is your business working to? Do you have a plan and do you know how you intend to achieve it on an annual basis. In this rapidly changing business environment no plans can be cast in stone but you need an outline of where you are going and how you are going to achieve it. The BOMM sheet in our Tools and Resources under Leadership and Management is a great tool to use as you can clearly specify – where you start from (Base) – where you want to get to (Objective) – how you are going to do it (Method) and how you will measure progress ACROSS THE YEAR to ensure that you are on track (Measurement). Give it a try and let us know how you are getting on…

Topic: Developing my people better

Answer: You are right to raise this concern. If you have good people it is crucial to retain them but not (necessarily) paying them more than they are worth. The good people of today want to know that they play a key part in what the business is trying to achieve – so make sure that they are aware of how they play such a part. Secondly be prepared to discuss with them what their career aspirations are – most good people are not totally focused on the money but would rather be with a company where the value they add is appreciated and that they are rewarded appropriately for their efforts – career progression with some management responsibility maybe. Remember for a business to do really well its first ‘who’ and then ‘what’ – keep those good people onside and with you as much as you can. You’ll find some helpful sections in our Leadership course in the Knowledge Hub – Leadership and Management section and we have more on the way…

Topic: How to generate more sales

Answer: Thank you for your question. In our experience Sales issues typically arise when one or more of the following occurs:

• The Seller or Sellers aren’t following best practice when planning calls and engaging clients.
• Activity has dropped off (this is something that can and should be monitored)
• A new entrant or established competitor lowers prices or is able to deliver a more competitive solution (this links back to point 1 – if your sellers are ‘Trusted Advisors’ none of this should be a surprise)

The good news is we have several Courses and downloads to help:

• Sales Basics
• Close more Sales

In the downloads section you should also see some Sales Team evaluation tools which will help you (and us) better diagnose what is going on.

Topic: Training

Answer: A very simple answer here – yes it is fine to continue skill training and development for employees on furlough. In many ways it is a good time to enhance skills to make them even more effective when they return to your business with furlough finished.

Topic: Launching a new initiative

Answer: This sounds like a good opportunity for you but there are a few words of caution. I trust that you have all of the necessary agreements /contracts fully signed ensuring you have UK exclusivity and that no other Distributor can sell in this market – vital to have this covered. Secondly does the product really have unique aspects that no competitor can deliver. Some detailed research on the market and what is there now needs undertaking and answers from the parent company on how and why they have stolen a competitive advantage and how long in their view before similar or identical products are released – do they have any protection against competition. If these can be answered satisfactorily and the product does indeed have significant unique selling points you need to establish a robust sales and marketing plan. To sell any new product successfully you will need a compelling ‘pitch’ on why your customers should buy this product from you – what are the unique benefits to them? Why should they buy from you and not the competition? If it is a price only decision this is of no use as margins will be decimated but, coming back to my point earlier, if this is truly unique there is no price comparison to be made and you set the price – sensibly of course. I note your comments on cash – note that your initial forays into the market don’t need to be extensive or expensive. Initially we would suggest you determine the most suited sector or industry for the product and put a plan together to approach them first as the first step in your roll out plan – your primary market. If this goes well you can continue to roll out to secondary markets. If the initial launch stalls you can learn from mistakes and adapt for the next attack without having sunk huge costs. Let us know if you need more help.

Topic: End of Furlough

Answer: This is a crucial period for many businesses and above all else you need to be objective as a leader of the business. As you mention you have done OK with the resource that you have retained in the business and not put on furlough so our suggestions would be:

1. Take a look at what you think the business will look, sound and feel like as we return fully to work – run the numbers – what do they look like? Order book? Pipeline? Supply?
2. Determine what work is required for your business to function well and split this into sensible job by job responsibilities
3. Allocate the appropriate employee to the role by objectively assessing their skills, abilities, experience and capability – remember you need to retain good people if at all possible.
4. If at this stage you have reduced your headcount and you feel confident that the new roles make sense in terms of workload etc and that you can offer the right level of service to customers as a result, you have a plan to which you need to work

Do ensure that all of the actions you take if losing people are in accordance with good employment practice and that all rules and regulations are followed – treat even those who you are forced to lose fairly and appropriately and your company reputation is preserved.

Topic: Margins

Answer: Your problem is a common one within businesses and particularly in the SME community. It is great to see that your sales are increasing but it is margin and ultimately net profit that counts so sales must be profitable. A common element in ‘margin erosion’ is dealing with high volume customers – those who buy a lot but who absolutely hammer you on price. This requires good negotiating skills and a proper evaluation of how much you can concede on price before a transaction tells you ‘walk away’ no matter how big. The reality is that trading with Amazon is tempting – volumes can be huge but beware ‘eggs in one basket’ and ensure you maintain a spread of customers. It is also essential to know, within your business, where you make money and where you don’t – which customers earn you money and which products and vice versa. This can only be established with a business analytics tool which is remarkably cost effective and pinpoints where your challenges in pricing/ margin and relationships are. Once in possession of the facts in relation to margin drift you can take the appropriate corrective action. Hope this helps but please let us know if we can help further.

Topic: Finance

Answer: Without 100% knowing your set up or industry I can’t be more specific than making these points:

1. Have you actually ‘crunched the numbers’ or are your fears about cash just a ‘gut feel’?
2. If the latter I would suggest you crunch the numbers to get accuracy.
3. Once you have an accurate picture it will allow you to make the right decisions in the circumstances.
4. Recognise that cash is ‘king’ and you must do all you can to protect cashflow – ensure that receivables are collected robustly and on time, are there some suppliers where you could negotiate longer payment terms – remember your business is important to them and they don’t want to see customers go – they may be in a position to offer you something.
5. What about your order book and pipeline – can you improve this position with some sound sales and marketing approaches.
6. Don’t shirk tough decisions about people – if you feel that you need to lose some people you must take the appropriate action. People will admire your honesty and openness too and provided thy are treated fairly and with compassion your business reputation will be retained.
7. If you have to lose people ensure that those remaining are treated with openness and honesty – the last feeling you want from those left, who are key to your future, thinking ‘It’s me next – I need to start looking’. Get close to those that remain.

Finally ask for help from your professional partners – e.g. talk to your bank, your accountant or talk further and more specifically to us. Hope this helps.

Topic: Managing Staffing Levels (Post Covid)

Answer: You must treat people fairly of course but managing businesses, as you probably know, sometimes requires tough decisions to be made. The first thing to realise it that you must retain the right people – the people who have the ability, mindset and desire for the business to succeed. Their previous performance should tell you objectively that these people should be ring fenced.From there you need to departmentalise the situation and determine from which areas you must reduce the number of people and where you can afford to, operationally. Remember that in losing people the work they do remains so you must ensure that your new structure covers that work or your performance in the customer’s eyes will drop and you will start the slow road to oblivion. You must follow an objective selection process by creating a ‘selection pool’ in each area with jobs ‘at risk’ of redundancy. This process is quite detailed and there are plenty of information sources to advise you on the correct redundancy practices. This process ensures that people are treated objectively and fairly without subjectivity and favouritism. If you need any further help let me know – I will need a little more detail to help you further.

Topic: Increasing Sales

Answer: Sales come as a result of a process whatever your market. I look at it this way – there are a number of ways to increase sales:

1. Increase the amount of money your existing customers spend each time they order. This requires your sales team to have the ability to cross sell other products or services of yours to current customers or upsell those customers to premium price products or services. This is what we call ‘farming’ and you need to ascertain how good your sales team are at this.
2. The second area is all about winning new customers – new customers don’t appear by magic – they come from a solid process of good lead generation through your marketing programme and then a good level of conversion of those leads into customers as a result of the team’s sales skills. There are plenty of pieces of material for you to pick up some tips on selling skills required. One tip that I would give you is to ensure that all of your salespeople involved in lead conversion are using a sales script that the business has signed off. This gives the company management the comfort that a consistent message is being relayed to all prospects and that the key reasons for them becoming a customer of yours are being conveyed every time. Does this help? Let me know.

Topic: VAT

Answer: Without knowing your specific circumstances, we cannot recommend the right scheme but outline some options below and the reasons that businesses make the decisions to use them.Firstly, I am sure you know that becoming VAT registered is compulsory “When your VAT taxable turnover goes over £90,000 (the ‘threshold’), or you know that it will”. There are various VAT schemes you can sign up to. It is important to choose the right one for your business and you should always get specific and professional advice – an Accountant is best placed to help there although we can offer some general guidance without knowing your specific circumstances. You can decide to become VAT registered if your business turnover does not meet the threshold, but you should weigh up the ‘pros and cons’ of doing so before you make that decision. We provide a little advice on this later. But it needs to be tailored to your own circumstances. When you register for VAT, there are various schemes you can choose from. These schemes impact not only when you calculate your VAT but also how you calculate the VAT you need to pay to HMRC. It is important that you choose the right scheme(s) for your business. When submitting your VAT application online to HMRC, you will be given several options of VAT schemes to register for. It is important to understand what these schemes mean plus when they may be beneficial to you. To understand the schemes, and whether you should use any of them, it is first important to understand the Standard VAT scheme – this is the scheme all businesses are registered on by default.

The Standard VAT Scheme.

By default, when you register for VAT, you are set to prepare and submit VAT returns quarterly (every three months). The VAT you pay to HMRC is calculated as: VAT on all INVOICED sales less VAT on all INVOICED purchases = VAT due to HMRC This essentially means that you can deduct any VAT you have incurred on valid business purchases/expenses from the VAT on your sales and pay the balance over to HMRC. For example, Sales invoiced during the quarter are £10,000 + VAT, therefore, VAT of £2,000. Purchases invoiced during the quarter are £2,000 + VAT therefore, VAT of £400. VAT to be paid to HMRC for the quarter is £1,600.

The Standard VAT – Cash Basis Scheme.

As a variation to this, you can choose to calculate your VAT return on a cash basis. You do not need to apply to HMRC to make this change – it is not considered a separate scheme, just an alternative way to calculate the VAT. HMRC do however say you must be consistent. When calculating VAT on a cash basis, you only include the sales invoices that you have been paid for in the quarter and purchases you have paid in the quarter. This means that you only calculate VAT on the sales invoices that have been paid. For example – Using the same example as above, but where you have only received payment for £5,000 + VAT of the sales invoiced: Sales received during the quarter are £5,000 + VAT therefore, VAT of £1,000 Purchases paid during the quarter are £2,000 + VAT therefore, VAT of £400 VAT to be paid to HMRC for the quarter is £600. This option is worth considering where you have 30-60 day payment terms with some or all of your clients or customers as it will help your cash-flow. There are other non-standard schemes:

Flat Rate VAT Scheme.

As already discussed, when you register for VAT, you are automatically registered on the Standard VAT Scheme. This may or may not be the best option for your business. The Flat Rate Scheme is popular amongst contractors and small businesses to simplify the VAT process as it was designed to make preparing and calculating the VAT easier and quicker to reduce the admin burden. When using the scheme, although you still charge your client the standard rate of VAT (currently 20%), you pay over a fixed percentage of gross sales to HMRC (based on your industry), rather than offset the VAT on your purchases and expenses. This means less time is spent itemising the VAT on the expenses, and the VAT calculation takes a fraction of the time. Until April 2017, the Flat Rate Scheme was also very beneficial to freelancers and contractors in particular as the low rates meant that it was possible to make several thousand pounds a year profit by using the scheme. Unfortunately, HMRC realised this, and in April 2017 changed the rules for the scheme. Example of the changes below:

Pre-April 2017:

Sales invoiced during the quarter are £10,000 + VAT; therefore, VAT of £2,000 was charged. If you are an IT Consultant, your flat rate percentage pre-April 2017 was 14.5% VAT to be paid to HMRC for the quarter is £1,740. The business has effectively kept the remaining £260 of VAT.

Post-April 2017:

Sales invoiced during the quarter are £10,000 + VAT therefore, VAT of £2,000 was charged. If you are an IT Consultant, unless you spend at least 2% of your sales each quarter on “relevant goods” (unusual), you are treated as a “limited cost trader” and your flat rate percentage post-April 2017 is 16.5% VAT to be paid to HMRC for the quarter is £1,980. The business has effectively kept the remaining £20 of VAT. The Flat Rate Scheme can still be an excellent choice if you have very little VAT-able expenses to claim. You may find that although you pay a little more VAT, the time saved alone makes it the preferred choice. You must apply to HMRC to use this scheme. You can do so on your VAT application or separately at a later stage. A few eligibility points apply also: a. If you expect your turnover to be over £150,000 in the next 12 months, you cannot apply. b. If your turnover exceeds £230,000 in any 12-month period, you will be removed from the scheme. It’s also worth noting that as with the standard scheme, you can choose to calculate the VAT on a cash basis.

Why would you register voluntarily?

As mentioned previously, many businesses choose to register for VAT early – this is before their annual sales hit the threshold, with large numbers of businesses opting to register as soon as they start out. The main reasons businesses apply for voluntary registration: Business credibility. For many, being VAT registered adds an air of credibility to your business. The thought is that potential clients and customers will see being VAT registered as an indication of you being a larger or more established business. Industry ‘Norms’. Some industries almost expect suppliers to be VAT registered, so it goes with the industry ‘norm’. This is often the case for Contractors working with large national companies – for example a Management Consultant working in the City. Ability to reclaim VAT on Expenses. If you have large set-up costs or indeed, significant ongoing costs, you may be able to reclaim the VAT. This could play a big part in helping your cashflow and reducing costs. This is dependent on you registering on the standard scheme. You will not lose money. Ultimately, you will add VAT to your sales, charge it to your client, receive the funds from your client and then pay some of that VAT to HMRC. So, all in all, you will not actually lose any money by being registered. You will have to register sooner or later anyway! If you know you are likely to reach the VAT registration threshold in any case, you may just want to register now so that you don’t have to monitor the sales extensively to know when to register. Equally, it means you can start off with your pricing in place, without concerns that you may need to revisit pricing once VAT needs to be added. However, you must balance this with the potential drawbacks of voluntary registration. Administration. Being VAT registered will increase your admin, no doubt about that. Using the flat rate scheme can help reduce this – but still worth bearing in mind. Often, if you want an easy life, you may want to stay away from VAT registration. Competition. If the majority of your competitors are not registered, registering for VAT may make it difficult to compete on price. You have small clients. If you have smaller clients, or work in the charity sector, registering for VAT may make you particularly unpopular with your potential clients. Charities are not usually VAT registered and so cannot claim back the VAT, therefore increasing their costs.

Questions or comments.

VAT is complicated! If you want to know more about VAT and discuss which VAT scheme may suit your business, our advice is always to talk to us directly via our Book a Consultation feature which gives you time to talk to one of our Experts on the subject where your specific circumstances can be discussed, the precise and correct advice can then be given. If this is not your chosen route, we advise that you find a good Accountant because each situation is different. We have outlined in a fairly detailed way in this response the options that are available and the reasons one might consider them. We hope this helps.

Topic: Marketing

Answer: Tread carefully with this one – online activity across platforms is not a panacea for all businesses and it is important to find the right platforms for your products rather than scatter your efforts thinly. Secondly don’t just ditch the catalogues – you need to evaluate how much business you are getting from the catalogues. How many orders do you receive through your catalogues – do you have a process that captures this information? You may well be ditching an advertising medium that delivers 75% of your business. Take any transition one step at a time. Test and measure one online platform and then depending on results wither switch or (if successful) add one other and then test that. In all cases you must introduce a process that captures where your enquiries/ leads and business are generated from and then you can make objective decisions on marketing mediums.

Topic: Profit Margins

Answer: First up, think about what your product or service does – why should customers buy from you and why do they buy from you? What advantages or additional benefits do you provide your customers with (not price!)? Is your product/ service of superior quality or you deliver more efficiently or provide a superior after sales service? Whatever you advantage these should be used on the front line in front of your customers when price is challenged? Have you worked with your salespeople and seen first hand how they handle this negotiation – from where we sit that would be a good first move and you may want to come back to us with your reflections after doing this when we can provide further more specific advice.

Topic: Hybrid Working Policy

Answer: You are the only person who can really make that decision and it really depends on what your business does and how it functions. You need to give careful consideration to the implications of this for your business. Some flexibility could be the right move but before you change roles to part office/ part home work make sure that you have clearly specified you policies and procedures explicitly (i.e. written down). With remote working it is even more important to have some control measures in place to ensure that you get the right output from those people working from home. In these situations you can really only measure output rather than input/ time spent on the work but, in many ways, output is the thing that really matters and this is what needs measuring. By the way, we have a draft Hybrid Working Policy in Resources that you might find useful if you are moving this way. Hope this helps.

Topic: End of Furlough

Answer: You are in the same position as many SME’s and the most important thing is to ensure that you are fully scoping the situation you face. Every business needs to generate profit from the top line, this should be your first point of call. What is the outlook for sales? How robust is that forecast and what can you ‘take to the bank’. From here you need to incorporate costs into you planning and the output will show you what the trading period ahead looks like. Cash is king however and you must make sure that cash flows are accurately estimated. Check on your cash collection processes and make sure that you people are following up to get money in on time. If you are concerned after this work and if the numbers aren’t looking good get some help and advice – the earlier you act, the better the outcome – don’t sweep problems under the carpet.

Topic: Furlough - Staff Reduction

Answer: One fundamental thing to remember – you need good people. You need those people who understand your business, feel passionate about it and have shown that they are prepared to go the extra yard. Skill is one thing that can be trained in, but attitude is far more difficult. Make sure you retain a core of good people who will support the business going forward and ensure that ‘casualties’ come from outside this group. Selection processes without objective data that underpins choices, it has to be, to a large degree, gut feel about individuals. Make sure that you follow employment procedures and if necessary, get some outside, professional advice. This will pay you back longer term.

Topic: Marketing - Social Media

Answer:  Without knowing a little more about your products and sector (or services and sector) it is difficult to be specific about what areas you should be considering to promote and advertise your products – may I suggest that you have a look at the Online Marketing video course on The Growth Experts platform which will give you some great advice on what social media platforms can and can’t deliver and where they might fit your operation. Once you determine what media or platforms to use make sure that you Test and Measure what each is actually doing for you. With Marketing and Promotion it is so easy to spend a lot of money delivering very little so you must ‘key’ or ‘code’ responses you get from potential customers to evaluate which are the most productive for you. It might be Social Media, it might still be print promotion or a combination and by testing and measuring you will find out what works and what doesn’t without throwing everything at it. Hope this helps.

Topic: Scaling a Business

Answer: Great to see that things are moving forward for you and congratulations. Scaling up is where some businesses get into trouble so there are a few important things to consider. Firstly, can you crystalise your Vision for the business – where you want it to get to and why is this important to you? Secondly, what are the unique aspects of your business and future plan that will make customers choose you and not your competition? You need to have a clear and thought through answer to this question and be confident about it. This really shouldn’t be price as planning/ upscaling on a price advantage only is a recipe for disaster. Thirdly, what sort of business structure will you require to run the business as it grows. As founder/ leader you must be prepared to delegate to the good people that you will need to hold on to or recruit – Depending on your current situation personnel wise. Finally, be prepared for bumps in the road but always have your Vision in mind and a clear picture of your purpose and why you are doing what you are doing.

Topic: Carbon Footprint Concerns

Answer: You are talking about reducing your carbon footprint and if you search for sustainability on our site, you will find some written ideas that might give you food for thought. The areas any business can at least take a look at are travel, cutting down on the use of petrol, how you generate the energy that you use – are there opportunities to use solar power etc? Making sure that your deliveries are made with use of energy in mind – which could be something as simple as better scheduling. There are cars and vans that are less reliant on fossil fuels – hybrid, electric etc. In the manufacturing process be aware of where you source your raw materials from and keep a close eye on waste at the end of the process. How much of this waste can be re-cycled and re-used in some way, shape or form. In terms of retaining and growing profits, without knowing who you supply – many businesses are insisting on seeing the ‘green’ credentials of their suppliers and some are rewarding suppliers with higher purchase prices in return for their adherence to and commitment to reducing their carbon footprint. This trend will only grow.

Topic: Scaling a Business

Answer: Undoubtedly the way we would approach this is by opening your minds (and those of your people) to think creatively about the challenge. Set up a ‘brainstorming’ meeting with you and any of your staff present and tell them that this is to simply explore ideas to grow the business – and nothing is off limits. Nothing that will be said will be immediately agreed as the way forward, but you want them to play a part in your planned growth. Get a flip chart set up and get someone to scribe any ideas that come out then ask the group the question – example ‘What would we need to do to double our profits in the next two years’. Write up anything that is mentioned – no matter how ‘silly’ it may seem and over a process of elimination hang on to the best ideas. If this meeting is run correctly, we can guarantee that you will have some good ideas that you have not thought of!