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1.
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Millionaire businessman turned
business guru, Peter Thomson, who is also Chairman of the British Business Consultants
and Trainers Academy ('BBCTA'), describes this simple windows of opportunity ('WOO')
chart as the most powerful business tool he has ever used. |
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2.
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- Get your sales staff to take one of these charts
with them on every sales call. Better still, get them to take it out at the meeting
and say something like:
"Our customers are always disappointed if they find that they've wasted time
looking for a supplier for something they could have bought from us more easily.
So what we now do is use one of these windows of opportunity charts to make sure
that none of our customers waste their time like that again."
At which point you can start telling them about the products they don't currently
buy - writing the words "Told" in a square once you have told a customer
about that particular product (and, where relevant, adding the date when they
say they might actually be ready to buy it - as in the example above). |
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3.
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- Why not go one step further and explain to your
customers - just as we have explained to you - how the windows of opportunity
chart can be such a powerful business building tool for them too? That way you
will be adding some real value to them and their business. And, in the process
of demonstrating what a real windows of opportunity chart looks like, you'll also
be able to tell them about the products that they aren't currently buying from
you! |
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4.
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- For every new product you add to your range, a whole
new column of windows of opportunities open up. So find creative ways to add new
products. For example, why not add other people's complementary products to your
range on an agency or commission basis? There are many ways of doing this - and
most have no cost or adverse cashflow implications. For example, trainers in the
BBCTA sell books and learning programmes from a BBCTA catalogue - and that means
that they don't need to carry any stocks or tie up a single penny in working capital.
How many complementary products would your customers gladly buy from you if only
you made them available? |
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5.
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- Add a column for referrals - and use it as a prompter
to identify who you are already getting referrals from, and who you need to ask
again (and again!) until the referrals start to flow. |
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6.
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Don't dismiss the WOO chart as
not being right for you because you've got too many customers or products. Peter
Thomson has, for example, successfully used it with a food wholesaler with thousands
of customers and products. All they did was to break the WOO chart down into manageable
chunks, and each week the salesmen took a different chunk out with them on their
sales calls. So, it can be done, and it does work. |
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7.
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Why not contact the British Business
Consultants and Trainers Academy and ask for one of their FREE audio tapes on
which Peter Thomson explains how to use the WOO chart in more detail. Tel 01926
339901. |
