The Difference Between Sales And An Offer In A Sales System.

What is Sales?

Sales is really just going to be talking about how you are approaching customers.

Let’s say you’ve got your product defined, let’s say you’ve defined your ideal customer profile or your customer avatar, whatever name you want to give that, you know who your customer is. Let's say you’ve done that part and you know the problems that your product solves. Now you actually have to get it in front of people, and that is going to be your sales approach.

What is an Offer?

Now if that’s sales, then what is an offer? Well, an offer is the way that you package your product or service. For example, if you think about your phone that you have in your pocket, or maybe you’re watching this video on your phone. Nobody buys the phone itself. Nobody buys the hardware.

You can watch this as a Video and Download My Sales System

I recorded this back in March of 2021, a whole 5 months later. 

It was at a time when I was struggling to publish anything because I was wrestling with authenticity and content value for you, my connections and possible future audience.

I dig into some real depths of some of the struggles I've been through after running my business for 13 years, pretty successfully, and then having to face an almost meltdown. Having to go through that and live life online where everything is people living their best life with pictures of grand achievements when I was feeling less than nothing.

Bio:

Today I chat to Bronwynne Powell, an experienced and achieved writer that believes we all have a storyteller hidden in us just waiting to get out and let the world hear it's voice. Your story matters and she provides tips and guidance on how you can be a better writer and the tips and techniques to get you started and keep you motivated.

Bronwynne:

I create content and get it out into the world. As a digital content writer, I use my editorial and on-page SEO skills to develop content that gets read and shared across the web. My love for storytelling started in the print newsroom more than a decade ago. Since then, I've worked with startups and established tech companies from all over the world. My articles have been featured on the web's biggest sites, like Digital.com, Craft Your Content, Muck Rack, Blogging.com, and more.

Topics

Using other posts in your social posts and why that's okay

Bronwynne believes that using other people's post helps you spread useful articles that other's have written that you yourself find insightful. Why not build on these thoughts and ideas.

Who is your top two authors

If you want to get better at blogging and writing then check out Copyblogger and smartblogger

Use LinkedIn to see what kind of posts people are responding to

If you are afraid of writing, here's insight into what Bronwynne recommends you use to get started

Just start!

Give yourself permission to be bad. Every author and book that you've read, all of them believe that they are bad writers, so you should just get started. Even the best writers struggles and the best way to get over that is just to start so you can work through it and get better over time.

How to deal with the pressure of likes and social attention

Sometimes a post or article will get attention and lots of likes and you may find yourself really responding to that and trying to recreate that with every post that you put out. Bronwynne cautions that you need to check yourself and ask the question, "Why are you writing, is it for likes or to share ideas". If you change your mindset about why you are sharing then you pay less attention to the social notifications.

If you put out content, is it okay to ask for the sale?

In any marketing, put yourself in the other persons' position and if you like the approach then it's okay. The best way to think about this is if you are in a normal human relationship and if someone approached you the way you are about to then will you like it, would it feel natural. Ask yourself these questions

• Do you know this person well enough?
• Did you earn the right to ask for this?

Where should I publish my content?

Post anywhere and start to see where you are most comfortable. Some places prefer long-form articles and others do. It also depends on the audience that you are hoping to reach and just how consistent you are at publishing. Just one article won't do it.

Links mentioned in this conversation

Coppyblogger: https://copyblogger.com/

Smartblogger: https://smartblogger.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bronwynne-powell/

Website: bronwynnepowell.com

email: [email protected]

Jerusha is the founder and CEO of Data Innovator

With a history in capacity building within other organisations, she found that a lot of organisations aren't equipped to make use of the data available and interrogate data to make it useful and user friendly.

Some of the common impacts and challenges Jerusha deals with is

• Helps work through some of the gaps with data by working with people through the data value chain.
• How to collect data
• How to use the information for strategic gain

Jerusha has more than one talent and she explores her talents through many things such as

• Data Innovator
• Speaker
• Training Programs (In-house skills developments through developing skills)
• Data Heros (Online Learning platform)
• Responsible Data governance working group

Jerusha thrives in a little bit of chaos.

The view that Jerusha gave about how she and her family had to do to get through the lockdown and some of the very real impact it had on her family life.

One of the key take-aways is that Jerusha focussed on compassion in business.

You can find out more about Jerusha over on

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jerusha-govender-1894a732/

Data Innovator: http://www.thedatainnovator.com/

Data Heros: https://www.thedataheroes.org/

Uwais Asmal

This week I chat to chartered accountant, Uwais Asmal, on the things he is seeing what businesses are doing to survive and thrive.

Those businesses that were able to "Pivot" are the ones that made a change and built resilience compared to those that wanted to wait and see.

Some key things that Uwais noted is

• Know how your suppliers are doing? - If you have a key supplier that is going through issues that could have a direct impact to your business, so check this
• Play the long-term game and take a look down the line at what decisions you are taking and how the short-term gain could turn into long-term loss
• Work-from-home expenses is again a topic we discuss. Who is responsible and is there a middle ground that employers and employees can agree on.
• Make sure that you have some sort of budget or forecast estimate in place. You can use these tools to plan better and create strategic business planning and decisions

Business tools that business owners should be using

• Any business should have a basic level of accounting in place, like XERO or WaveApps (FREE).
• Social Media platforms and how you can use these platforms to grow a personal brand. We also talk about how to plan a budget for marketing on social media and justifying the cost
• Use planning tools like HOOTSUITE to schedule, plan and be consistent.

Reach out to Uwais on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/uwais-asmal/

Check out the FREE accounting platform WaveApps

https://www.waveapps.com/

If you want to change the way you learn, specifically Excel, why not try my course, Data to Dashboard, where I show how to leverage your business experience to make reports you create in Excel, easier, and more functional. https://learn.e-magination.co.za/ Use the coupon code "PODCAST" to get a 50% discount

This is an episode about how we managed to do 14 Podcast (and Vid Cast) episodes of these conversations about business every week for the last 14 weeks.

Okay, we missed one or two weeks in between, but we always set time to record.

We discuss our favourite, Episode 08 (I say 7 in the show but I really meant 8) and some of the not so favourites.

My main take-away from this was that

1. There are so many people that want you to show up, even if they not that vocal about it.
2. You are not alone. Other professionals and business owners are also going through challenges but don't feel safe to share
3. There's opportunity if you just try something new

Now go ahead a give it a listen

You can check out the show notes over at https://learn.e-magination.co.za/what-weve-learnt-running-a-podcast-our-first-season-season-1-finale/

How to clear your mind and create the future you want with mindfulness. 

This week I have the great pleasure of sitting down in conversation with Hussein Patel. Among many things, Hussein is an author, a coach, and an entrepreneur. 

I chat to him about his latest books, The beginning of ecstasy, Think your way to success, and The Robben Island Effect. 

We have a great, although long, chat about how we can use 6 simple mindful practices to change how we perceive life. 

With over 25 years of corporate experience, Hussein studied natural sciences, computer science, operations research and business in South Africa. He travelled all over South Africa, the Middle East, India, North Africa and Europe. Through his travels, he developed a keen interest in scientific and engineering principles, systems thinking, eastern philosophy and neuroscience. He has transitioned into sharing his learnings of the pathway to success through self-actualisation and mindfulness as a business coach and mentor. The concepts and learnings he ultimately shares transforms lives and motivates people towards true fulfilment and success. His writings challenge old paradigms and brings a fresh perspective to current real-life and business problems.

You can find more about Hussein here: https://husseinpatel.com/  

If you want to change the way you learn, specifically Excel, why not try my course, Data to Dashboard, where I show how to leverage your business experience to make reports you create in Excel, easier, and more functional.   

https://learn.e-magination.co.za/  Use the coupon code "PODCAST" to get a 50% discount

As a business owner, there is a lot that is expected of you. With lockdown and many companies forced to work from home, some employees have hit some expenses they never had before and are coming back to their employers, demanding to be refunded.

What are your options as a business owner or manager on how to handle this?

• Do you just give into every claim?
  
• Do you deny every claim?
  
• Or, is there a middle ground that can be reached?
  

Jermaine and I explore this new normal challenge of who is responsible for work-from-home expenses and what is the dividing line between a reasonable request and what is not. Cellphone usage, Internet connectivity and many other services are now seeing increased usage and with it at times, and increased costs.

So should the employer pay for these?

What about the personal expenses that the employees are not paying for because they get to work from home and what advantages are they gaining?

Join us for this weeks business view of this topic.

If you are an experienced business person and you use Excel daily, then you’ve probably taken a course or two in Excel to help you be better. The challenge with those courses is that it only teaches you specific functions and how to use it but it doesn’t teach you how to use your existing experience to be more productive and spend less time building out complex workbooks.

I’ve developed a course that tackles this issue and poured my 25 years of data analytics and training into my newly launched course, Data to Dashboard. A course specifically designed to teach you Excel techniques that leverages your existing business skills to help you get closer to data analytics without the complexity of functions.

If this is of interest, head over and buy this course. Use the coupon code “PODCAST” and get 50% off.

In this episode, we discuss what reports help drive business success. We both agree that while there are many reports you could use, like the income statement and maybe the balance sheet, or even a Sales Report - but there's one that more important than all of them.  Click this link to get our template-based report to help you on your journey to better reporting.  

https://learn.e-magination.co.za/get-our-reporting-template/

In this show, we get to know a little more about Jermaine's journey into business.  

We discuss how he got into it, the side hustle, and thinking about new ideas.