Mike Glynn – Page 2 – MG Retail Consulting

Services that Scale your Business

Most companies spend a lot of time, money, and effort building a website to attract a prospective customer’s attention for 8 seconds.

And when they don’t make a purchase, they forget about them.

If they don’t have enough traffic, they spend money on advertising, and again, when they don’t buy, they forget them.

Businesses spend £ 000 annually on attracting customers but then do little to follow up!

If you spend more time on the ones that aren’t ready and engage with them, providing you have something they need at some point in the future, they will become customers.

It’s time to play the long game and invest in a marketing assistant with a difference!

Learn more about automation.

One that chases customers in the right way twenty-four hours a day, every day, 365 days of the year, without a break!

If only three prospects out of 100 are ready to purchase today, then that’s a lot of forgotten potential customers and a lot of money left on the table!

So what should you do about it?

Use a system to pull together a crystal clear SYSTEMATIC plan to plug the holes in your follow-up.

If you need help with the system, the ideas, the guidance, the templates, the guidance and the support to do this, please get in touch!

mikeglynn@mgretailconsulting.co.uk or tel 01256 213020

Discovery Call

Your Business Needs You!

You will be the most significant factor determining what happens in your business next year and beyond.

You are in control.

The difference between the winners and the losers will be how you THINK and what you DO…

In every downturn, a sector in all markets does very well.

Why can’t it be you in 2023?

Ask yourself these 3 questions…

What DOES your prospect want?
What does your prospect NOT want?
What is their desired outcome? (In ONE sentence)

Yes, these are simple questions. That’s the point!

The better and more specifically you answer these questions, the better you can sell to your audience. When you make the answers as simple as possible, you have something.

We tend to overthink our “sales strategy” and worry about all the bells and whistles.

What we need to do is know our customers deeply. We need to know what they want and need.

The RELATIONSHIP we have with our prospects is everything.

“You can do anything… but you can’t do everything. At least not at the same time!”

There will be tough times ahead when you have to face up to your responsibilities for mistakes and things not going right, but there will be Aha moments too. Moments when you see that a few simple changes can make a big difference.

Small hinges swing big doors. They need oiling!

These are the six most valuable steps you can take in 2023 to give your business the best platform to thrive from:

Step 1 – Have a plan and a goal

You need a plan. What’s your plan for next year?

Will you cut back on everything, or will you invest in the critical areas of your business?

How will you know where to invest without the correct information?

Include numbers in your plan. You must have a measurable goal to know if you’re succeeding.

Clarity on where you’re heading in 2023 will help define the plan ahead.

Step 2 – Understanding

Having an understanding of the situation in your market is one thing. Looking for something that could go wrong is another.

There may be some doubt in your mind that you can get through the following year, but self-belief is critical. A clear idea of what success would look like to you is part of that reinforcement of self-belief.

Step 3 – Clear Thinking

Having a yes or no is far more definitive than a maybe. The uncertainty of maybe wastes time and cost money. The question is, “Does doing this deliver my plan, yes or no”.

Step 4 – The willingness to act

It’s down to you.

Success or failure – it’s down to YOU.

Procrastination “The greatest amount of wasted time is the time not getting started.”

Whatever you do – Do it Now!

Step 5 – Overcoming resistance.

Who you associate with matters – a lot!

Make sure you hang around with people that inspire you and not those that suck the life out of you.

Be aware of the time stealers around you, including your staff and customers.

Being more focused on your activities will yield a better return than jumping from project to project. Allow your team to make mistakes and give them more accountable for delivering results.

Step 6 – Build your Audience

Make sure you know who your audience are and where they hang out.

If you want more customers next year, you need to build your audience. The more people that know about you and your products the better.

In short control:

yourself
your time,
your environment
the people around you
how you prioritise

If you control all of these, you’ll be on course for a successful 2023.

If you would like some help planning 2023, let’s chat. Call Mike on 07723 504236

A Christmas Survival Guide

Surviving Christmas means different things to different people and their respective businesses.
Christmas could be the most critical time of the year, and you only have a very narrow window of opportunity.
Or.
Christmas is your quietest time, and the sales from the summer carry you through the winter period.
Either way, Christmas this year will be different, albeit not as stark as last year; with the backdrop of Covid19, we have new challenges to consider. Maximising the opportunity of Christmas means throwing the kitchen sink at it, using everything at your disposal to get customers in.
But here’s the thing lots of businesses overlook the simple things, the free things.

Website Your website is the online face of your business. Is it ready for Christmas? Have you removed the remnants of old offers and refreshed them? Have you made customers aware of your upcoming events for the holiday season and reminded them to buy from you? Do the links on the site still work and go to the right place? Here is a Website checklist to make it easier. Here is a Website checklist to make it easier.

Google my business Your business page on Google has a whole host of information and features that many business owners are unaware of. Some minor tweaks and updates will raise your business profile on Google, the results of which you will see in the search results and activity. Google My Business is completely free, but millions of businesses have not yet claimed their list despite this. Many, many more who, although they have claimed Google My Business listing, have done little or nothing to optimise it. Big mistake.
Here is a Google My Business checklist to save you some time

Reviews Consumer opinion travels faster and further than ever before.
.88% of people trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation.
90% of people read business reviews online before they visit a business.
Customers are more likely to spend 31% more with a business.
Reviews don’t just happen, and businesses can do more to get more of the correct feedback.

Reviews don’t just happen, and businesses can do more to get more of the correct feedback. What other people say about you is many times more potent than what you say about yourself!
A well-managed strategy that builds you a steady flow of positive reviews online, on the websites that matter most to your potential customers, is one of, if not the, most helpful thing you can do.

Facebook ads As a local business, you can reach more people than ever before at a fraction of the cost of TV, newspapers or other traditional media. However, over 95% of businesses don’t use Facebook ads, which is daft when you see what you can do. Using Facebook to tell more people what you do is a brilliant thing to do, and you probably only need one campaign to work!
We don’t know how Christmas will turn out with the supply challenges, rising infection rates, rising prices and the apparent shortage of labour. But, if we control what we can, we make the best of the opportunities that pop up in front of us. The Business Inspector list will highlight some quick wins for you, but if you want to know more and thrive in 2023, click the link for a discovery call.

Have you had a mini business service?

Many of you may drive a car and have it serviced regularly as per the manufacturer’s recommendation. And the reason you do that is to ensure that it remains reliable and works when you want it to.

Why is it then that things can go unchecked when it comes to our business, break down, and we don’t notice?
Or perhaps the set-up was wrong in the first place, and it’s never worked to full efficiency.

Your digital footprint and the way in which customers interact online will be the difference for many businesses.
Most customers start their search online when looking for products, services and solutions to a problem.

Before 2020, most searches were done using Google, and the volumes of searches grew massively throughout the year.

This is why today, more than ever before, is it important that your business is well represented on the internet. And that you have a system in place to focus on the key activities that drive your business.

The Mini Business Service will give you an overview of your digital footprint and how customers find you. It will also make some recommendations.

HOW IT WORKS
To help you get customers regularly and retain them best is by following a system, that works.

Getting the most out of any system needs all the right components to be in place doing their job.

The Mini Business Service will give you an unbiased overview of your digital footprint and how customers currently find you online. It will highlight opportunities available to most small businesses before spending on ads.

1 We first need to understand what your gap is.
You may want to have more regular customers and be able to anticipate customer flow better.

2 Then we take a look at your current marketing and marketing assets
You may have a website and Facebook that give you an online presence but no vehicle for information gathering.

3 Fix your marketing – your business promotion may have relied on word of mouth and some local advertising that has grown your business considerably. However, it would be best if you had a regular marketing plan that works in the background.

4 Knowing the score – here, we measure what works best and the results so that they may be repeated again and again. Also, we help you to look at an evergreen campaign and promotional ones.

If you have a small business and haven’t taken the time to take a look under the bonnet of your sales engine, then perhaps you should take a look at the Mini Business Service.

To take a closer look at your sales engine contact info@mgretailconsulting.co.uk or tel 01256 213020.

Which is the best card machine for my business?

Since the global pandemic, the shift towards payments for goods by card has been massive.
With so many different machines, which card machine is best for your business?

Credit card machines are called card terminals; how they work for small businesses is that they allow customers to purchase by card without needing cash.
The credit card company processes this transaction for a small fee which can be a combination of charges.

The cost of card machines can vary depending upon the type and makeup of your agreement. Monthly charges for devices can be as high as £30 a month.
Also, there are some machines you can purchase outright; however, the trade-off here is much higher transaction charges.

Other things to consider are flexibility for epos integrations and mobile purchases away from the shop bar or restaurant.

The plus of integration cuts down on mis-keying transactions and can save your business thousands within the year. Integration saves time with no double keying of transactions and end of day reconciliation.

Consider a monthly rental agreement if you currently process more than £10,000 per month. Not only will you save on lower transaction fees, but you will also have online and local support.

If your turnover is below £10k per month, consider Zettle, Square and SumUp; however, if your monthly turnover is above £10k, then Dojo and World Pay are complete offerings.

What’s the best Epos system for my business

Epos, or POS as it is now commonly known, has been around for nearly fifty years and was initially created to cut down a retailer’s stock inventory, which it still does very effectively. It is no longer out of reach for small retailers concerning cost and is nowhere near as cumbersome as previously used technology. There are several different types of a point-of-sale systems depending upon your industry. How do epos systems work?
The system, in most cases, can be customised to help small businesses with day-to-day operations such as staffing, accounting, stock management and marketing. Most of it is automated, saving the company many hours of repetitive tasks. The benefit is that teams can spend more time engaging with customers. Barcodes are primarily used to track stock sales orders, pricing promotions, and more
. How much does an Epos system cost?
The system requires hardware which usually consists of a screen, barcode scanner, receipt printer, cash drawer and a card machine. The cost for a system could start from as little as £25 a month. Which epos system is best will depend upon the industry that you are in and the functionality that you want from it. Also, consider the level of integration you want with your accounting software and payment system. Some systems to consider for Retail are Revel, Eposnow and Square. For Restaurants Lightspeed, Touch Bistro, Revel, and Good Till. For Bars and Pubs, Zettle, Eposnow, Lightspeed, Food Till and Nobly. Source AAT Business Finance

card payments Global payments WorldPay

What is the quickest way to double your business without spending a penny?

Referrals are a key element in the growth of a business yet very few actively do it. If you looked at how many referrals your current clients gave you in the last 12 months you’d be pretty surprised.

How many pillars do you have?

Attached is a list of marketing pillars that your business could be using today.

Take a look and see how many you’re actually using.

Are you ready for Winter?

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