By focusing on your customer, and not your big time competitors, your small start-up has the opportunity to address the market with creative and relevant products.

In this series we have examined some of the powerful advantages of being small, undercapitalized and able to turn on a dime.

These days, with lawyers running the big corporations either in fact or in fear, more and more truly game changing concepts are coming from outsiders like you.

Here, then, are a few more advantages of being a small start-up that can help you achieve your goals:

11. Being an Outsider. When you’re new and small, you naturally approach challenges with “common sense” and the experience you have gleaned from other industries and personal experiences. Not necessarily so with the big established companies. They find security in sticking to the straight and narrow. They may not even realize that they are doing things because, well, that’s how it’s always been done. In their sometimes misguided desire for job security, they don’t want to “shake the boat” and can end up doing what they have always done instead of innovating. No one has yet proven to them with financial success that it can be done differently. Perhaps the outsider will!

12. Producing Multifaceted Concepts. Being undercapitalized forces you to make every cent count and every idea solve more than one problem. Like the Swiss army knife with its many tools for many uses, your branding concepts have to embrace and satisfy a variety of needs. You simply can‘t afford to rely on conventional and expensive solutions.  For instance, you have to build marketing into the brand. You have to build publicity and customer service into the culture. You have to enhance distribution with packaging design. The big boy, because of his size, divisions of labor, and convoluted communication has to simplify everything, even brand concepts. “Just tell me the one thing that this does” is the common query.  They know that even a simple message can get lost in translation in their massive structures. So they attempt to “‘dumb” everything down.  This results in an advantage for the little guy who produces products or services that are thoughtful, sensitive, and relevant on a variety of levels important to the consumer.  It’s more than just the big blade on the Swiss army knife.

13. Flying Under the Radar. The big boys focus on their big boy competition. They generally don’t even see your small start-up’s product for years. This is usually because they expect their market share to be taken by their big competition. They don’t expect game changers who cut the pie in a different and more popular way. Your tiny company will take what ever sales it can. It can’t afford to be choosy. Many of your first buyers may be little guys themselves, also off the radar, over seas, or not registering sales to the big reporting companies.  Your small start-up may not  go national for years. You may be forced, for reasons of channel distribution or cash flow management, to start small and sell only in a local territory you can control. This advantage allows your small start-up to test the waters, make adjustments and get sea worthy before you take on the world.

Next time we will examine why having the freedom to establishing a new positive culture, making overall company preservation job one, and the trend to acquiring new ideas, gives you a competitive edge. With all the challenges your small start-up faces, you still hold some impressive cards.  If  you play them right, you can have the winning hand!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post The Advantages of Being a Small Start-Up – Part 3 appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

In the previous post we examined some of the ways your well-meaning office, marketing, production and accounting staff may come up with “cost-saving” suggestions than can actually hurt sales. 

When little things go missing or the package gets simplified in the name of production efficiency, you may hear “It hasn’t affected sales”…yet! Or, “Our sales are still strong” implying all you were doing wasn’t necessary anyway, but the customer notices, even subliminally. 

Eventually a competitor will move into the void. Beware of hubris from your non-sales people especially when sales are climbing.

Only when your Sales Support staff works directly with your Sales staff will a complete picture emerge. 

Here are 5 suggestions to keep those “cost saving” ideas from hurting sales:

1. Put your non-sales people in the field so they can appreciate what the customer really wants and see first-hand what your sales people are up against. Make sure your sales people are with them to point out the nuances of the market, the distribution system, and the existing advantages of your product and package. Ask them to share what they discovered. They will be less likely to inadvertently damage the selling points by “cheapening” your product or your package. 

2. Run everything by your sales people that affects your product and its image. Before you allow a change or “improvement” to the product or the package, check with the folks who have to actually make the sale, overcome the objections, and talk directly to the decision makers and the end user. Top-down thinking, when it comes to product, package design and even promotion, can undermine what has taken years to establish. 

3. Show them the money! It’s critical that your non-sales people appreciate where the money comes from that pays their salaries, bonuses, and benefits. It comes from the customer, and nowhere else. When folks are hired, present them with an info-graphic that follows the money trail backwards from the customer through the distribution system, through the marketing and sales system, through the supply and production system, and winds up in their pockets. It seems obvious, but it is soon forgotten especially as your company gets larger. 

4. Pay your non-sales staff bonuses based on sales. Once they see the relationship between sales and their own compensation, they will have a personal interest in the details of what exactly makes sales happen in the field. You’ll be surprised at the many ways they find to assist your sales people, and their suggestions will be coming from a better appreciation for sales realities. They will want your sales people to sign-off on their “cost saving” suggestions. 

5. Acknowledge good Ideas that reduce costs and actually increase sales. Publicly identify and praise suggestions that work with testimonials from your sales people. Announce “Our Sales Support staff has done it again!” to single out the person or team that came up with the idea and the sales people who worked with them. This type of public validation from you sends a powerful message to your staff that you appreciate their sales-wise ideas. 

In today’s market, if you’re not adding value, you’re losing value. You don’t “save” money by reducing the real or perceived value of your product. It’s essential to continue to communicate your product’s value, quality, authenticity and dependability to your buyers and end-users. Run all “good ideas” by your sales team first!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Listen to and Learn from your Sales Staff appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

The Sales people are doing their job out in the field. The non-sales people are at the office or at the plant everyday. They’re the ones you see most often, and can  be the most influential. 

In their desire to help the bottom line, non-sales people may be undermining sales. They often propose various money and time saving ideas, which is wonderful, but it’s up to you to protect sales. Many well meaning suggestions contain these preamble phrases to look out for: 

1. “Why don’t we just…?” This is how the suggestions to cut costs usually start. The suggestion itself indicates that they don’t know why we “don’t just.” Be on guard for this because both you and they must know the reasons why “we don’t just.” A thoughtful discussion usually will result in many answers to this ageless question. 

2. “Why do we have to…?” This is usually followed by a suggestion to make their job easier, thus reducing labor costs. This may indicate that they don’t really know or understand why they must do this or that. There are many subtle quality queues and nuances in your product or package that they may not realize. They may well have a good suggestion, but make sure it is not at the expense of sales. 

3. “If we just cut this out, we could save…” and they do the math. This is usually a simple multiple of a small savings times the number of units sold. Beware! This may hurt sales in ways they know nothing about. This thinking is based on the assumption that sales will remain at the current level, before the “cost” savings or “labor” savings idea went into effect. Savings can rarely be as simple as a mathematical formula. By discussing the need (or lack of) the particular part of the product or package they are suggesting be eliminated, you both will come to a better understanding of what is necessary to make sales happen. 

4. “I just came up with this great idea!” Some suggestions stem from your people’s desire to make their mark on your product or package. Sometimes their motive is career, sometimes it’s based on a desire to be more like your competition, or they may think “its time for a change”. Your product’s uniqueness may be the very advantage that distinguishes it in the marketplace. Consistent packaging and logo designs are critical to your product’s image of dependability.  

5. “This will increase sales.” Your marketing people can make or break your company. They may have a tendency to think they have control over your sales people, and that your sales people must use what they are given. What they design on their computer screens may look fine to them and the other marketing people, but until it has it been field-tested, whether or not it will “work” is an unknown. Marketing is expensive, so think carefully before funds are spent on a new idea. 

Your Sales Support staff is well meaning, and you should welcome their ideas. In my next article, we will discuss how to keep the good suggestions coming, and how to make money and time-saving decisions that won’t hurt your sales.

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Beware of “Money Saving” Suggestions from Your Non-Sales Staff appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.

6. How will you stage your product for shipment? Most products are stacked on a pallet for easy loading and unloading from a truck or container and forklift handling in a warehouse. How many items will sit on a pallet? What is the optimal shape of the package to maximize the number of items per layer and per pallet?

7. Who benefits in the distribution channel when your product sells in volume? What are the advantages to a distributer to carry your product? Does he prevent his competition from getting it? Does he have the exclusive? Is he concerned that he will build a market for your product only to lose it later? Choose your strategic alliances carefully and thoughtfully.

8. What are the alternatives to mainstream distribution for your product? Is there a start-up distributer who would give your product more attention than the big guy? Would he pay on time? Are there key retailers who will buy your product directly? Will they use your dependence on them to require you to reduce your price?

9. Will you have to program reduced prices on an intermittent basis to get the attention required to get your product sold in quantity, displayed, and advertised? Will the retailers pressure you to maintain your reduced prices beyond what you budgeted? Will they only buy when your product is on reduction?

10. Does your distributer need help? A distributer once told us, “God and distributers help those who help themselves.” With the consolidation we have seen in the past 10 years in every industry, are they overloaded and overworked already? Do they really have an incentive to build a new brand? Will you need a representative in every market your product is sold to help make the sales, get the reorders, and provide the sale support?

These considerations are critical during the inception stage of any new product. The answers to these issues may affect everything from the design of the packaging to the pricing structure. Just having a “cool” product isn’t enough. You have to say hello to your truckers, distributors and warehouse people. Knowing their jobs and their limitations will give you an advantage over your competition. You have to understand how much work you will be required to do even if you think it’s the other guy’s job.

Next time we will examine test marketing, push and pull, shelf, set, displays, and the life blood of any business, reorders. A well-designed product has to satisfy all the demands of distribution and still be a terrific product!

Who We Are

Michael Houlihan and Bonnie Harvey co-authored the New York Times bestselling business book, The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America’s #1 Wine Brand. The book has been selected as recommended reading in the CEO Library for CEO Forum, the C-Suite Book Club, and numerous university classes on business and entrepreneurship. It chronicles their humble beginnings from the laundry room of a rented Sonoma County farmhouse to the board room of E&J Gallo, who ultimately acquired their brand and engaged them as brand consultants. Barefoot is now the world’s largest wine brand.

Beginning with virtually no money and no wine industry experience, they employed innovative ideas to overcome obstacles, create new markets and forge strategic alliances. They pioneered Worthy Cause Marketing and performance-based compensation. They built an internationally bestselling brand and received their industry’s “Hot Brand” award for several consecutive years.

They offer their Guiding Principles for Success (GPS) to help entrepreneurs become successful. Their book, The Entrepreneurial Culture: 23 Ways To Engage and Empower Your People, helps corporations maximize the value of their human resources.

Currently they travel the world leading workshops, trainings, & keynoting at business schools, corporations, conferences. They are regular media guests and contributors to international publications and professional journals. They are C-Suite Network Advisors & Contributing Editors. Visit their popular brand building site at www.consumerbrandbuilders.com.

To make inquiries for keynote speaking, trainings or consulting, please contact sales@thebarefootspirit.com.

The post Distribution: The Distance between a Great Product and a Sale – Part 2 appeared first on The Barefoot Spirit.