Step 2, 3, 4

Current Product/Service	Job(s) product/service is used for	Important Underserved Outcomes (opportunity and risk)	Gross Profit	Market Size

Step 5

Rank	Job	Execution Frequency	Current Customers	Potential Customers	Will Pay For Solution
1
2

Step 7

Rank	Job	Score	Job Executors	Will Pay	Catch-up Capability
2	example b	12/15		76%	easy
1	example a	9/15		80%	difficult

Step 6
Rank each capability out of 5, then add to give the score

Rank	Important, Underserved Outcome	Staff Skills & Knowledge	Processes & Systems	Technology	Score	Catch-up Capability
1	example a	4	3	2	9/15	easy
2						difficult

The Job
Job Executioner
Related Products

Job Step	Define	Customers determine their goals and commence planning
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities		simplify user’s planning process
Likely Dissatisfaction causes

Important, Underserved Outcomes	Cause(s)	Matching Product Feature	Product Feature Satisfaction	New/Upgraded Feature Requirement

Job Step	Locate	Customers gather items and information needed to do the job
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities		Have required resources (information, tools) pre-pre-prepared
Likely Dissatisfaction causes

Important, Underserved Outcomes	Cause(s)	Matching Product Feature	Product Feature Satisfaction	New/Upgraded Feature Requirement

Job Step	Prepare	Customers set up the environment to do the job
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities		Simplify or remove setup steps, Design for one-way correct fit
Likely Dissatisfaction causes

Important, Underserved Outcomes	Cause(s)	Matching Product Feature	Product Feature Satisfaction	New/Upgraded Feature Requirement

Job Step	Prepare	Customers verify they’re ready to do the job
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities		Give the user information that the work environment is ready for them to proceed.
Likely Dissatisfaction causes

Important, Underserved Outcomes	Cause(s)	Matching Product Feature	Product Feature Satisfaction	New/Upgraded Feature Requirement

Job Step	Execute	Customers carry out the job
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities
Likely Dissatisfaction causes

Important, Underserved Outcomes	Cause(s)	Matching Product Feature	Product Feature Satisfaction	New/Upgraded Feature Requirement

Job Step	Monitor	Customers assess whether the job is being successfully executed
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities		Remove obstructions to executing the job
Likely Dissatisfaction causes

Important, Underserved Outcomes	Cause(s)	Matching Product Feature	Product Feature Satisfaction	New/Upgraded Feature Requirement

Job Step	Modify	Customers make Alterations to improve execution
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities		automate modifications or updates provide interactive feedback during job execution
Likely Dissatisfaction causes

Important, Underserved Outcomes	Cause(s)	Matching Product Feature	Product Feature Satisfaction	New/Upgraded Feature Requirement

Job Step	Conclude	Customers finish the job, or prepare to repeat it
Desired Perfect Outcome
Opportunities		Reduce need for cleanup Automatic renewals Advice for repeat step to take place
Likely Dissatisfaction causes

Important, Underserved Outcomes	Cause(s)	Matching Product Feature	Product Feature Satisfaction	New/Upgraded Feature Requirement

• Email marketing is primarily aimed at leads who are qualified (they are aware of you and like your solution to their JTBD required outcome) but not yet ready to buy.
• Email marketing is a more profitable B2B digital marketing channel than Linkedin, Facebook, SEO or AdWords.

• Mailing List
• CRM software
• Marketing Campaign software
• Email Content

• Your job executors of the job your product/service is supporting
• At a minimum, the job, an email address and a first name
• Your mailing list is stored in your CRM software

• Sources
  • facebook ads to landing page
  • scraping LinkedIn groups
  • customers
  • referrals by customers

• Your Customer Relationship Management tool.
• a store of the details about your job executor, to help advise them
• a store of the progress of the job executor through the buying and usage cyles
• a store of details of other products and services used by this job executor

• Automates your email despatch.
• Personalizes your messages
• Uses rules to determine who gets what message
• May or may not contain your CRM app
• We recommend ActiveCampaign software as a most cost-effective sBiz solution.

• Subject (Header message)
  •  
• Content
  • Image, infographic or video
  • Emotional pain point being addressed
  • Solution you provide
  • Call to action (CTA)
  • no more than 3-5 paragraphs absolute max

• Time Inputs.
• While it takes effort (time) to build your mailing list this is no more than time required for SEO while email marketing is really cheaper than Pay Per Click Ads (like Facebook Ads, AdWords or Linkedin Ads).
• You have greater control on your email list than any other marketing channel that you can think of and this gives you great power to achieve amazing results. You have to learn how to use email well (trust me, it is easier than SEO) and you'll create a long lasting relationship with your customers.
• Customer acquisition via email has quadrupled over the last 4 years.
• Email marketing has been a growing trend in e-commerce, with an increasing number of retailers building communities and collecting email addresses, then converting those 'members' into customers.
• Email campaigns are a successful way to target leads that have shown initial interest in your company. In fact, email campaigns are one of the top lead generation strategies.
• Emails are fairly easy to craft. They are easy to send. And best of all they can be customized to each recipient using your B2B email data. A customized email really helps potential customers to feel they are important to you!
• The key to crafting emails is to
  • Gather individual lead information
  • Learn what you can offer your leads
    Send each lead an email that answers a business question for them.
    You become an expert giving them business Action Plan.
• Common B2B email mistakes include sending too many emails, writing emails over 3-5 paragraphs, attaching useless files, ignoring your email data, and of course writing mass emails.
  
  Remember, you are building a close relationship with each lead so they look to you as a trusted advisor or business acquaintance. Use emails to make the most of lead scoring.

• CRM - ActiveCampaign, Zoho
• Email List Builder
• Marketing Automation - ActiveCampaign

Element	Ideal	Expect	Remarks
Setup Costs	LOW	LOW
Direct Costs	LOW	LOW
Overheads	LOW	LOW
Targeting	HIGH	HIGH
Control	HIGH	HIGH
Time Investment - Inputs	LOW	MEDIUM	Time to grow your email list
Results Lead Time	LOW	LOW
Scaleability	HIGH	HIGH	Using Marketing Automation software like ActiveCampaign

Brian Balfour - http://www.coelevate.com/essays/5-steps-to-choose-your-customer-acquisition-channel ***********

mike popalardo
7 days ago
I think the challenge is mobile functionality. Users are more willing to open an email outside of a desktop but less willing to get to a landing page to complete the transaction because generally it's a big hassle and time consuming when you're on a phone.

As email marketers we need to drive "simple order & simple pay" capabilities within the email if we want to get recipients to the conversion page.
Reply
http://www.marketingcharts.com/traditional/which-b2b-lead-acquisition-channel-converts-best-57716/

• Slideshare is part of the LinkedIn group
• There are 40 content categories and 18 Million uploads
• Slideshare has more than 70 million visitors
• More than 80% of Slideshare's visitors come from organic search.

Check this blog for how to use Slideshare

• Organic search continues to grow as a reliable channel, (accounting for nearly 16% of customers acquired)
• Provide relevant and informative editorial content along with investing in search engine marketing.

Element	Ideal	Expect	Remarks
Setup Costs	LOW	LOW
Direct Costs	LOW	LOW
Overheads	LOW	LOW
Targeting	HIGH	MEDIUM
Control	HIGH	LOW
Time Investment - Inputs	LOW	MEDIUM
Results Lead Time	LOW	HIGH
Scaleability	HIGH	HIGH

Brian Balfour - http://www.coelevate.com/essays/5-steps-to-choose-your-customer-acquisition-channel

My former company sold services that would often exceed 1 million dollars. Typically, they were in the 50k to 150k range. We revolutionized our business by focusing heavily on valuable content creation and organic search. It got to the point to where nearly 80% of our business was coming from inbound website inquiries.

I believe effective inbound marketing strategies are even more important when dealing with very large purchases. Here are a few reasons why:

Length of Sales Cycle - Typically the more expensive a product or service is, the more time potential buyers spend researching it. Since a significant portion of research is conducted online, you have the opportunity to help shape their learning about the product and the industry. If you have a great presence in the organic search results, you will show up over the many months that might be involved in the procurement process.

Team of Buyers - When companies are spending a significant amount of money on a product or service they will usually have a team of people on the decision making committee. This could include subject matter experts, procurement staff, or general managers. If you have an effective organic search presence in your market you will be there when these other parties search for information on the topic. We often heard from our buyers that we were “everywhere they looked” for information on the topic.

Reputation - Reputation becomes more important on large purchase as well. If you have an effective content strategy then your company should appear when the potential buyer searches for information. This will help you establish trust. If you have a few articles on the subject in 3rd party publications that will help even more.

Competitors - The best thing about using these inbound tactics in high-dollar markets is that in many cases your competitors won’t see the value in implementing them. This might result in a less crowded market for keywords relevant to your buyer. This lack of competition will help with both paid and organic search efforts.

As always, the most important thing with all of these inbound marketing efforts is to provide real value to the potential buyer. I always like to use the following as a benchmark: Make the content valuable to the reader even if they don't choose to use your services.
https://www.quora.com/How-should-you-approach-online-B2B-customer-acquisition-for-high-end-clients

************
Echoing Marcus's opinion to some extent, given that you're expecting clients to spend large amounts with you on products/services, then I think your marketing effort should not scrimp either.

Michael mentions reputation, and this is where inbound marketing really has a strength. It allows you to develop a stronger relationship and offer better service over the (typically much longer) sales cycle - and then maintain it far more effectively once that prospect has become a client

High-value sales may take a while to come through - months, and possibly years - but that doesn't mean the decision is last-minute, so make sure to give the most to every touch point you have, whether inbound or outbound. (And ideally interplay the two!) really has a strength. It allows you to develop a stronger relationship and offer better service over the (typically much longer) sales cycle - and then maintain it far more effectively once that prospect has become a client.

High-value sales may take a while to come through - months, and possibly years - but that doesn't mean the decision is last-minute, so make sure to give the most to every touch point you have, whether inbound or outbound. (And ideally interplay the two!)

• Customers buy/hire your product/service to help them get their job done.
• The outcome required from that job may be functional, or it may be emotional/social - or a mixture of these.
• The nearer you can help them achieve perfect outcomes, the more likely they are to prefer your offer over other less satisfactory products/services.

• When a product or service has become a commodity - when it has many competitors offering the same value towards perfect outcomes - then price is likely to be a major consideration
• When you satisfy outcomes better than your competitors, and therefore meet a need and deliver value, price becomes a secondary consideration
• At that time you can charge a price that is just less than the perceived value, as seen by the customer.

• Use quick and simple customer surveys to assess what is important to customers in getting their job done.
• Consider how you can convert these key considerations below into competitive points of difference.

• Ease of use. This is the highest consideration for most customers. Do you remove uncertainty in use of your product/service? Through product and packaging design, do you reduce the need for a customer to have to think through a problem (you’ve created) or make choices?
• Reliability. This is the second highest consideration for most customers. They need to know they can plan around what you bring to their own requirements. Can your customer depend on you in getting their job done?
• Timeliness. This has two elements:
  • First is your availability to quickly respond to begin meeting their need.
  • Second is how quickly you can deliver the outcomes they require.
• Communication. Do you give your customers advice on delivery schedules - even more important, on delays and revised schedules so they plan around you? Do you let them know when you have security issues that may affect them?
• Relationship. Do you have an emotional rapport with your customers? Are you easy to get along with, can you talk effortlessly about issues? Are you and your staff able to quickly respond and fix any problems you cause them? Or do you and your staff give off an odor of indifference.
• Knowledge. How well do you know your customers’ needs, their pain points and the benefits they are expecting to gain from working with you?
• Skills. Can you demonstrate how your superior expertise and experience, your business capabilities, can help them get this job done better?
• Productivity. Do you let your customers know how you have improved your productivity and passed on those gains to reduce prices?
• Location. Do you offer convenience benefits due to the customer’s location?
  • close to home
  • close to work
  • close to school
  • close to an adjacent product service for this customer job?

Print Dummies: Business Model Examples
Board of Innovation
BPlans
Free
Direct Sales
Retail Variations
Service Variations
Third Party
Complements
Matchmaking

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Element	Your Contribution
Business Model
Value Proposition
Customer Segments
Customer Relationships
Acquisition Channel - Primary
Acquisition Channel - Secondary
Revenue Streams
Key Partners	Customer relationships: Channels: Supply Chain: Operations:
Key Activities	Customer relationships: Channels: Supply Chain: Operations:
Key Resources	Customer relationships: Channels: Supply Chain: Operations:
Cost Structure	Customer relationships: Channels: Supply Chain: Operations:

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• You require useful information for two purposes:
  1. encourage your prospect to do business with you, as a leader in capabilities in the job s/he wants to get done.
  2. assure Google conceptual search SEO ranking that you are offering value on the web.

• We have spoken before about establishing your market niche, based around how you can help customers get perfect outcomes from the job they want to get done.
• You can use your content, in whatever form of media, to build your authority in this niche.

	Information Article
	eBook
	Newsletter
	Case study
	Video
	Webinar
	Slideshare
	Industry research reports

An informational ebook—give your leads valuable information relevant to their business needs.
A business newsletter—weekly or monthly newsletters can offer business tips and insider information to your leads.
Blog posts—updated posts offer a great way to answer your lead’s questions in a helpful and interesting way. Blogs also offer a great way to get search engines to recognize your website.
Videos—people enjoy dynamic presentations. Record valuable information in an interesting format and offer that to potential customers.
Webinars—these informative videos let you teach, train, and spotlight experts in your field. Use these to your advantage.

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• Google + is what drives semantic search, the latest basis of Google SEO.
• What you have in Google + influence what appears in search results.
• If your sources of lead includes Search (SEO) then you need Google +
• Therefore, you must post in Google +, regardless of how many of your contacts are there.

Read this blog article by Brian Jensen
Read this blog from Kissmetrics - 12 Things to Do Right Now With Your Google + Account.

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• Images can convey a message must faster than words.
• Images convey emotions much better than words.
• Images give the eye a break from lots of text.

• images are very shareable
• images are very linkable

Thanks to Ana:

• all-free-download
• bing image search
• canva
• compfight
• creative commons
• flickr commons
• google image search - select Search Tools, then Usage Rights
• iclipart
• morguefile
• photopin
• pixabay

• Perform a reverse image search for the original source of the image.
• Use free tool TinEye.com
• Go to their home page.
• Enter the URL of the image you are interested in.
• Search results will show all occurrences of this image online.
• If their is the slightest hint of copyright, avoid using that image.

• Website crawlers like google don’t recognize the actual image, only how you label it.
• Enhance your SEO (search engine optimization) with helpful information about your image. it is best if this information is relevant to the content it relates to.
• image name. This is the name you give your image with its file type - image-name.jpg
• image title. xx
• image alt text. This is what shows in place of your image when you image does not load properly.

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• This is the 1-2 sentence email preview following the subject line - the perfect place to add a teaser.
• Don't be one of the many who fail to take advantage of this amazing lead in.
  • Use a call to action.
  • Support your subject line--don't reiterate it.
  • Your character count includes your subject line so the longer this is, the less preheader text your recipients see.
  • Cut to the chase.
  • Test out different preheader summaries.

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• SEO - Search Engine Optimization
• SEO is a means of helping potential customers discover your offer.
• People use a search engine like Google, Bing or Yahoo to seek (search for) either information or to buy/rent a product/service to help them do a particular job.
• Your job is to optimize the content in online media to best advise them of how you can help them - in your market niche.

• Organic search
• Natural search
• Conceptual search

• Less than 40% of businesses claim their local listing. That other 60% are missing out on a great marketing opportunity.
• Make sure your prospects and customers can easily find you, especially with mobile.
• Optimize Google My Business
• Hubspot's Top 50 Local Listing Sites
• MainstreetHost’s Guide
• Add your location into your site content.
• Ensure your NAP (name, address and phone) are consistent across all your directories as well as your website.

• Ideas and Concepts Replace Individual Keywords
• Search engines have moved away from relying on individual keywords to, instead, search for a keyword concept.
• The objective is for the search engine to return results that most relate to the idea that the searcher wants.
• Suppose your business sells plants and flowers. If you type the keyword “nursery” into the google search bar, it will offer back concepts such as:
  • nursery
  • nursery ideas
  • nursery furniture
  • nursery rhymes
• Interesting, because what I was seeking was the nursery that sells plants.
• In the days of keywords only, you would have gone out to a totally different audience to the one you were seeking.
• Now, if you type in “nursery plants”, you will get:
  • nursery plant
  • nursery plants for sale
  • nursery plants near me
• Suppose your market niche is a nursery that specialises in orchids, and you type nursery orchid:
  • nursery orchids
  • orchid nursery in Sydney
  • orchid nursery in UK
  • orchid nursery in Miami
• But if you type orchid nursery, you get:
  • orchid nursery near me
  • orchid nursery bay Area
  • orchid nursery Oahu
• Let’s get a little more specific - orchid nursery in New York
  • orchid growers in New York State
  • orchid growers in New York
  • orchid nursery New York

• https://moz.com/blog/keywords-to-concepts
• See Google Keyword Planner
• This article from SearchEngineWatch describes 9 tools you can use to discover keywords for your content.
• See also:
  • Bing Keyword Tool
  • Google AdWords Keyword Planner
  • Google Display Planner
  • Google TrendsKeyword Spy
  • Grepwords
  • MarketMuse
  • SEMrush
  • SEO Book keyword tools
  • Soovle
  • Übersuggest
  • Wordstream

• Time and Date: "nursery plants 2017"
• Quality and/or Price: "Free nursery plants", "Fastest growing nursery plants"
• Intent: "Buy nursery plants", "Find nursery plants”
• Location: "nursery plants Online", "[location] nursery plants"
• Size
• Colour
• Material
• Brand

See this article by Jill Kocher for:

• Title
• Description
• Headings
• Content
• Image tags
• Links

• You want to sell? - Focus on High Commercial Intent - people who want to buy now

$$$	High Commercial Intent	PPC	somebody who is ready to buy
$$	Branded Keywords		someone almost ready to buy
$	Local Keywords		someone looking for something local
-	Informational Keywords	SEO	someone wanting to learn

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• Keep in mind the work required to not only write your content, but also to respond to feedback.

Media	Best Frequency	Minimum	Schedule capability
Facebook	5 - 10 / week	1 / day	yes from facebook page
LinkedIn Personal Profile	20 / month	1 / day
LinkedIn Business Page	1 / day max	1 / week
LinkedIn group	3 / week
Twitter	5 / day	3 / day

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• These recommendations for the best times to post on social media are averages only and may not always be effective for your business.
• You should experiment with posting on social media at different times of the day with different types of content to find out what works best for your business.

• Many of the times below are quite explicit, so how does this work across different time zones?
• Most of the times quoted below refer to US EST. These times would most likely work the same in other time zones.
• Where your market crosses multiple time zones,

Media	Best Days	Best Times	Worst Days
Facebook	Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday	3 - 4pm 1pm - 4pm 9am - 7pm 12 - 1pm	Monday Tuesday Wednesday
LinkedIn	Tuesday Wednesday Thursday	7:30 - 8:30 am working hours 5 - 6pm Tuesday 10am - 11am	10pm - 6am
Twitter	Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday	12 - 3pm
Instagram	Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday	Anytime except 3-4pm	3pm - 4pm
Pinterest	Every day	2am - 4am every evening Friday 5pm Saturday 8pm - 11pm

http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/09/demographics-of-key-social-networking-platforms-2/
http://www.Quicksprout.com/2015/01/02/what-are-the-best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
http://www.Elleandcompandesign.com/blog/2015/2/5/-the-best-times-to post-to-social-media/
http://blog.Surepayroll.com/post-pin-tweet-best-time-to-outreach/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/catriona-pollard/the-best-times-to-post-on_b_6990376.html
https://blog.Bufferapp.com/best-time-to-tweet-research
http://www.Fastcompany.com/3036184/how-to-be-a-success-at-everything/the-best-and-worst-times-to-post-on-social-media-infograph
http://coschedule.com/blog/best-times-to-post-on-social-media/
http://blog.Kissmetrics.com/science-of-social-timim-1/

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• Mailchimp
• 10 Ridiculous Hacks to 5x click-Through Rates
• Parry Malm
• Subject Lines That Sell
• https://phrasee.co/how-it-works/

• If your header sucks you won’t get the recipient to open and read your message.
• If they don't read your message they won’t click through to your offer.
• if they don’t read your offer they won’t buy your product.

• The number of unique people who open your email.
• It's recorded by a small tracking pixel.
• It's the statistic most closely correlated with subject line success.

• The number of unique people who clicked on one or more links in your email.
• It's correlated with subject line success but less so than open rates.

• The proportion of openers who also clicked on an email.
• It strongly correlates with both open and click rates.

• MailChimp analyzed more than 40 million emails sent through them to find best and worst opening rates.
• Open rates:
  • The highest 20 - 60-87 percent.
  • The lowest 20 - 1-14 percent.
• They reviewed their subject lines.
• Their conclusion:
  • Your subject line should describe the subject of your email.
  • The best subject lines tell what's inside, and the worst subject lines sell what's inside.

Check here

• Keep your subject lines simple, straightforward, and consistent.
• Traditional email newsletters are for "soft-selling."They build relationships with your customers, and they're great if your products have a long sales cycle.
• Use them to slowly soften your customers for the sale, or to make them feel really good about your brand.
• If your recipients signed up for these kinds of emails, don't expect them to be enthusiastic when, out of the blue, you send an email with a subject line like,"10% Discount! Open Now!"

• Include emotions
• Subject Lines That Sell
• Viral Subject Lines

• use emotional triggers in ad copy

Unique	Ultra-specific	Urgency	Useful
Something different, fun, personality	Be clear what it is about	Are you losing sales?	Benefits promise

• Don’t be lazy and send a promotional message to your entire email list.
• Tag those prospects who want to (ie have opted in to) receive promotional emails.
• Segment lists into market segments that are much more focused - obvious ones like men and women, and others in your market - so you can build a laser-sharp campaign with subject messages that works just for them.

10 Ridiculous Hacks to 5x click-Through Rates

• Retention Science discovered the ideal spot for subject lines is somewhere between 6-10 words; 8 words seems to nab the golden ticket.
• Keep within the 28-35 character limit to avoid it being cut off - if it’s longer, ensure the key part of your message is at the front.

Parry Malm

Sale now on!	Who cares? You're always having a sale, why pay attention this time?
free	tends to trigger spam filters (MailChimp)
help	tends to trigger spam filters (MailChimp)
% off	tends to trigger spam filters (MailChimp)
reminder	tends to trigger spam filters (MailChimp)

Variations to an average score.

Brand new	+37%
Latest	+24%
Exciting	+19%
The perfect gift	-28%
good	-20%
special	+12%
wonderful	-2%

• Just describe the details of your sale in the most straightforward and concise manner possible, without relying on manipulation.

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Drug abusers:

• The single biggest problem for retailers is that of drug abusers who steal to support their addiction. They are persistent and may try to steal repeatedly on the same day.
• They should always be refused entry to the store or escorted from the shop if found inside.
• It is safer to do this than to try and detain them once they have stolen goods, as their behavior may become irrational or violent if their freedom is challenged.

 

Opportunists:

• Many shop thieves are not regular offenders, but may be influenced by the opportunity, which presents itself to them at the time.
• Retailers should try to ensure that expensive items do not present easy targets.
• Thieves may steal on a daily or weekly basis, may be regular or long-standing customers and may mix purchases with stolen goods.
• It is prudent not to take anyone for granted.
• It will be difficult to prevent thieves stealing smaller and less expensive items, which are on open display – food, clothing, confectionery, cosmetics, etc.

 

Juveniles:

• Young people are influenced by pressure from school or friends to join in stealing. They may also be bullied or coerced into stealing.
• Groups of young people can present a particular problem and retailers need to try and manage them, perhaps by limiting numbers allowed into the store, insisting on an adult accompanying them or by excluding them at certain times – lunch breaks and after school.
• Plastic screens in front of confectionery displays can reduce opportunities to steal.

 

Thieves who use children: Some people use children either to carry out thefts or to disguise adults stealing. Babies (both real and dolls) in prams can be used as decoys and to hide goods. Goods may be given to young children to walk out of the store with or they may place on the under-tray of the pram.

 

Mentally ill or disturbed persons:

• A very small number of people who steal may suffer from a compulsive condition.
• Other persons who steal may be suffering from other forms of mental ill health and retailers should always be conscious of the possibility that someone they are dealing with falls into this category.
• Some elderly people may be confused or forgetful and it may be appropriate to either offer to help them when they enter your store or see if they have friends or relatives who can accompany the person so as to prevent misunderstandings.

 

Distraction Theft:

• This is a method where a group of people will enter a store and distract staff to steal either bulk items or expensive goods.
• In many cases, retailers will be unaware that they have been victims until later.
• Some younger groups of distraction thieves may create a disturbance and become violent if challenged.

 

Professional thieves:

• The increasing number of thieves who travel locally, regionally or nationally to steal from shops several times a day, every day of the week is a growing and serious risk.
• They will steal large quantities of goods, mainly of high value, frequently work in groups and may resort to violence if caught.
• Retailers may not be aware that they have been visited until they discover their losses.
• Worse than the lack of prevention by employees, there might be the case of staff confusion, whereby retailers and other businesses would fall victim of collusive fraud and theft of goods and cash between staff and customers. Sometimes the staff will willingly work with friends and relatives, or they may be coerced into doing this. Thus, the challenge for retailers is both internally and externally.

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Credit card	You get your money immediately. Add a "convenience fee" equivalent to your merchant fee
Add PayPal Option	See Xero add process from dolmanbateman here Online payment with PayPal on your invoice can achieve 16 days faster payment according to a Harvest study.
Online Invoicing	See Xero service here See Freshbooks service here
Weekly/monthly payments/installments	Use an agreement to specify the terms of the repayments
Bank Transfers - Internet Banking
Check account

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1. Your business circumstances are often different to others, and so you can apply your own experience to the suggestions below
2. However, some issues are quite common to all business:
   1. You have delivered a product or service to your customer and you deserve to be paid for it.
   2. The longer it takes you to receive payment, the more at risk your business is from insufficient cash to operate. This is the biggest cause of business failure.
   3. The faster you get your payment the faster you can invest it in more products to sell, or service capabilities. That is a key source of growing your business

Payment Days
3. The best option is pre-payment, either all or a deposit.
4. The second best option always is payment on delivery. (But not using the words “Payment on receipt.” according to studies by both Freshbooks and Xero.) With internet connections and delivery of service or goods with invoice there is no reasons why you should have to wait for payment - especially if your invoice includes links for immediate payment methods such as credit cards or PayPal..
5. Third best option is 7 days. Why do you need to offer more?
6. On average, clients pay two weeks late, regardless of the terms. So you can counter that by reducing your invoice period. (A Xero study based on 12 million invoices)
7. A Freshbooks study of their clients invoices showed business were paid faster when:
   1. Their language was polite
   2. They used the word “days” to pay instead of “net”
   3. They advise late payment penalties apply
8. On your invoices, shows your terms (eg 7 days from date of invoice) plus what that means as an actual date (eg April 27, 2017) - make it as easy as possible for your customer to comply.

Payment Methods
9. Provide for direct payments where possible - credit card or PayPal
10. Include your bank details prominently on your invoice.

Charging Late Fees
11. Charge interest immediately on overdue accounts, a smaller amount for the first 15 days, then a larger amount for anything longer. Interest rates charged need to be at least as high as credit card rates to be taken seriously.
12. Charge a “convenience fee” for credit card payments

Invoice Faster
13. Invoice immediately after the delivery of the product or service. A study by FreeAgent showed invoices sent out within a week were ;paid on average in less than 5 days - waiting another week gave an average of 10 days. In other words the difference between sending out an invoice immediately and waiting two weeks can be (24 - 5) 19 days in getting your money sooner.

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• In marketing, a call to action (CTA) is an instruction to the audience designed to provoke an immediate response, usually using an imperative verb such as "call now", "find out more" or "visit a store today". (Wikipedia)

• Provide significant colour contrast between the CTA button, the page or popup background, and other elements on the page
• Make your call-to-action state exactly what a user is doing, what their action will accomplish:
  • Apply Now
  • Buy - Not ‘Buy my’ but “Start selling xxx today”
  • Book my demo - instead of webinar
  • Claim Your Free Trial
  • Discover Your xxx
  • Find Out More - answer a question in the copy
  • Follow the Magic
  • Get My Free
  • Get Your Grade - interactive
  • Give xxx a Try - link to pricing page
  • Give Now - donations
  • Give Monthly
  • Go to xxx
  • Reserve My seat - webinar is not a well-liked word
  • Save My Free Spot - instead of webinar
  • Save Now, for a promotion
  • Schedule a demo
  • Start Saving
  • Subscribe to - but don’t use the word subscribe. see options below
  • Try It - interactive
  • Upgrade and Save
  • View xxx
  • Watch it in action - demo
  • What We Do
  • Yes Please! - in response to a content question
  • Yes - I Want To xxx
• Better options than subscribe.
  • Become - give the benefit from the subscription instead
  • Explore
  • Get - Get My rather than Get Your
  • Get Free Lifetime Access
  • Get Started
  • I’m In!
  • Join
  • Learn More
  • Sign Up Free

• Request Minimal additional information
  • email address is essential
  • first name is great, but not initially essential
  • the more identification you ask for, the fewer the leads you get.

• Social proof
  • join 299,000 happy campers
  • downloaded by 999,999 smart marketers like you
• The immediate reward - a white paper, ebook, webinar, list.
• Free
• Easy to use
• Evernote - “Remember Everything”
• See this list of top words to use in your copy

• Have people either looking straight at you, or facing towards the CTA button
• Make them relevant to the topic

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Analysing your most profitable products from your most profitable customers

0	Survey ID
1	Customer
2	Your product/service they use
3	What job do they use this product/service for?
4	Who is the job executor
5	Which step in the job is it used for?	During this step... ...Customers... Tick Define Determine their goals and commence planning Locate Gather items and information needed to do the job Prepare Set up the environment to do the job Confirm Verify they’re ready to do the job Execute Carry out the job Monitor Assess whether the job is being successfully executed Modify Make Alterations to improve execution Conclude Finish the job, or prepare to repeat it Strategyn
6a	What functional outcomes does the user want from this step?	Use the Job Outcomes Discovery Form to record all the desired outcomes this user has from this job.
6b	Which functional outcomes does your product/service perform well at?
6c	Which functional outcomes does your product/service perform poorly at? - Pains not removed
7a	What emotional outcomes does the user want from this step?	Use the Job Outcomes Discovery Form to record all the desired outcomes this user has from this job.
7b	Which emotional outcomes does your product/service perform well at?
7c	Which emotional outcomes does your product/service perform poorly at? - Pains not removed
8a	What social outcomes does the user want from this step?	Use the Job Outcomes Discovery Form to record all the desired outcomes this user has from this job.
8b	Which social outcomes does your product/service perform well at?
8c	Which social outcomes does your product/service perform poorly at? - Pains not removed
9	Does your customer have other choices to do this step? (eg your competition, different products, services)	No Yes Examples
10	Why does your customer choose to use your offer over a competitor?	functional outcomes achieved emotional outcomes achieved social outcomes achieved no alternative
11	What other jobs are related to this job?
12	Your analysis summary after the interview

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0	Survey ID
1	Customer
2	Product
3	JTBD

Action	Unit	Object	Context	Measure
Maximize	time			OK
Minimize	cost			under-served
Importance	probability			over-served
High	errors
Medium	defects
Low	other

Action	Unit	Object	Context	Measure
Maximize	time			OK
Minimize	cost			under-served
Importance	probability			over-served
High	errors
Medium	defects
Low	other

Action	Unit	Object	Context	Measure
Maximize	time			OK
Minimize	cost			under-served
Importance	probability			over-served
High	errors
Medium	defects
Low	other

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Action	Rating This Month 1 - 10	Rating Last Month 1 - 10
Staff Issues
Attendance
Allocated work
Staff overtime
Staff Education. Conduct staff education on your theft policies and risk reduction procedures.
Observe trial run on theft detection and apprehension procedures.
Cash Management
Bank reconciliation
Cash deposits accuracy and frequency
Cash reconciliation spot checks
Expense claims trend
Meal allowance charges
Travel Allowances
Invoice Books Pre-Numbered and reconciled
Inventory
Run unannounced inventory cyclic count
Spot check load manifests
Spot check trash containers
Check change room policies are enforced
Assets
Make asset register spot check
Spot check staff asset list
Check mirrors are positioned correctly
Check video surveillance performance
Check lockable cabinets, drawers are properly secured
Customers
Spot Check 5 orders through to payment received
Suppliers
Spot Check 5 purchase orders through to payment made

Seq	Issue	Action Taken

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Stop Letter Template
Letter Component Options	Example
Your Identification details	[My Business Name] [Address line] [State, ZIP Code] [Letter Date]
Customer Identification	[Recipient’s Name] [Address line] [State, ZIP Code]
Letter Date	Standard date
Heading subject	Subject: Credit Stop on Your Overdue Account
Be polite in announcing customer's credit withdrawal	We regret to inform you that we must close your charge account with [my business name].
Explain the reason for doing so	The payment of $[xxxx] you promised two[xx] weeks ago still has not been received. As a small company, we are unable to carry balances for more than [xx]days.
Mention the details of the payment amount and due date to the customer	Your overdue amount is currently $[xxxx] and has now been overdue for [xx] days.
Suggest an alternative to the customer for using a collection agency	Because of your long relationship with us, we prefer to resolve the problem with you directly, rather than refer the account to a collection agency.
Provide contact details	Please contact [staff name] at [999.9999] about arranging a new payment schedule for your outstanding amount.
Mention that you still wish to continue business with that customer	We want to be able to work together to correct this credit problem and restore the good relationship we have had with you for [so many years.]
Offer facility for customer to pay cash for new business, if this is an option for you	In the meantime we hope that we can continue on a cash basis while you resolve your delinquent balance
Show gratitude for the previous business endowment	Your business has been very important to us, and we hope to continue our relationship well into the future.
Wish the customer luck for future endeavors	We wish you the very best during this difficult time.
Signature block	Sincerely, [Senders Name] [Senders Title] -Optional-

Print You need to prepare work instructions for both customers and your staff

Group	Data	Your Content
Guarantee	Define your Guarantee
Eligibility	Proof of Purchase Check
	Time Limitation Check
	Purchase Location Check
Type of Warranty	Refund
	Repair
	Replacement
Item Identification	Model
	Serial Number
Contact Information	Full Name
	Email Address
	Phone
Preparation for Return	Clear personal data
	Packaging
	Product Identification
	Owner Identification
Return Instructions	Return Location Address
	Return Shipping Costs
	Trackable Shipping

Group	Data	Your Content
Pre-Approval	Proof of Purchase Check
	Time Limitation Check
	Purchase Location Check
Receipt of item	Tracking Number Allocated
	Product Identification
	Damage Assessment

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Customer Job To be Done	Guarantee Type Examples
Reduce risk on unknown supplier (you!)	Risk Free trial Try before you buy Free sample 100% money back 100% money back plus costs Double money back Bonus Minimum result achieved
Ensure reliability of performance Ensure a specific result.	Service warranty Money back after x days Will fix it Personal mentoring if needed (limited) 100% Satisfaction Delivery/Turnaround
On time factor	on-time
Credibility Of Claim	One-Condition Proof of an attempt at gaiing a result conditional guarantee
Lowest price available	Competitor price matching Lowest price Guarantee Pay for competitor’s product/service price drop guarantee
Reduce risk to my current business	buy back (surplus)
Flexibility	No contract
Hassle free	Unconditional No questions asked

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You	Hello Mrs. Peters, Sandra here from THE DRESS SHOP
Mrs. Peters	Oh hi Sandra, are there new designs today?
You	Yes Mrs. Peters we have. Well, aside from giving you that news, I wanted to follow-up your payment for Invoice No. 123?
Mrs. Peters	Haven’t I paid that already? The invoice for the skirts.
You	That’s correct, Mrs. Peters but what I’m following up is that of the formal gown, the one you wore for the February Ball?
Mrs. Peters	But I remember I paid for the tuxedo of my husband. That’s also for the ball.
You	Actually you have settled the tuxedo last March 10, however, remember you’ve requested to pay the gown by month’s end? Unfortunately, by that time, you went on a trip and have promised to drop by the shop?
Mrs. Peters	But I failed to go to the shop. Yeah, I remember now. Oh, I’m so sorry for that.
You	That’s okay Mrs. Peters. Perhaps when you visit the store for the new arrivals we can also have this invoice closed?
Mrs. Peters	Of course, Sandra. I will drop by this Saturday.
You	Will it be fine if I call you again on Friday?
Mrs. Peters	Yes, that’s fine. I’d appreciate the reminder, Sandra.
You	Thank you, too, Mrs. Peters and see you on Saturday. Good bye.

Additional Notes:

1. If a customer is forgetful, you need to make sure that you have a complete log and records of all his or her purchases and payments. Failing to do this yourself will cause complications later.
2. It is a good practice to reconcile with the customer once or twice a month depending on how much is his or her average aging invoices.
3. Aside from the usual collection calls, using other means to remind them of their payables will be helpful such as:
   1. Sending e-mails
   2. Periodic sending of billing statement via posted mail
   3. Reminders via SMS or texting

Take care on sending reminders to customers though. Avoid “over doing” it unless you want your customer to feel overwhelmed and uncomfortable due to the bombardment of reminders no matter how forgetful they may be.

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You	Hello, good morning, may I speak with Mrs. Fields?
MF	Good morning, this is Mrs. Fields
You	Yes, Mrs. Fields, I am Eleanor from ALL BEVERAGES. I just want to check if you got our billing statement for your January and February invoices?
MF	I did, Eleanor, in fact I do plan to call your office to discuss them.
You	Is there something we can do for you?
MF	Well, the store’s sales went down the past months after a new & bigger grocery opened nearby. Cash flow had been tight. Sales slowly picked-up in March though. However, I’m afraid I cannot afford to pay all my suppliers at once. I wonder if I can gradually settle my arrears.
You	Oh, I’m sorry to hear about your new competition, Mrs. Fields, although I am also glad that you’re slowly gaining back your sales. Your outstanding balance amounts to $1,000.00. Your March billing was already posted for $300.00. Can you settle the March billing and half of the arrears?
MF	I believe I can pay the March bill plus $300.00 of the arrears?
You	That would be fine. It’s already Thursday. Do you think you can make it Monday, April 10?
MF	Monday, April 10, is a good time. The check for $600.00 will be ready by then.
You	Good. By the way Mrs. Fields, how about the remaining $700.00?
MF	Is it okay for me to settle it by month end?
You	It is very much okay,
MF	Oh, that’s good for us. I am so glad for your call, Eleanor. I am sorry my payments got delayed.
You	And we’re glad you told us about your predicament and that we came to an agreement. We value our continued business with you. Thank you, too, for accommodating my call.
MF	You’re welcome and thank you. Good bye.

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You	Hello, good afternoon, is Mr. Robbins there?
MR	Mr. Robbins here, what can I do for you?
You	Mr. Robbins, I hope this is a good time. This is Mike from CARS UNLIMITED.
MR	Yes?
You	We were reviewing your records and it appeared you have a good payment track with us except for your February 15th due which remains unsettled? May we know what could be the reason for this?
MR	Oh, that? Was it the invoice amounting to $1,500.00?
You	Yes, Mr. Robbins, that’s the amount.
MR	Were you not informed that I’m disputing the invoice? Someone from your shop already called last February to follow-up. I forgot her name though but I told her about certain items that shouldn’t be charged to me. In fact, I even called her there to ask for the revised billing but I received no further response. It’s quite disappointing considering that I’m a regular customer.
You	I am sorry to hear about that Mr. Robbins. It’s quite unfortunate, too, that no mention of the dispute is indicated on our records. Perhaps we can start over by telling me what the disputed items were?
MR	Oh well, that last time I took my car there I had it cleaned, waxed, tire blacked and the breaks were checked. But I never requested for realignment. Neither did I buy break fluids and other accessories. You can check it with your mechanic.
You	I see now Mr. Robbins can I hold you for a few seconds while I check?
MR	Yes, I’ll wait
	CHECK WITH THE MECHANIC
You	Mr. Robbins, thank you for waiting. I’ve spoken with our mechanic and he confirmed what you said. It seems the wheel alignment and other items were intended for another customer. We’re very sorry for the error on billing.
MR	You see. This is why I intended not to settle. I also didn’t like that it took up to this time for it to be checked.
You	I understand, Mr. Robbins. It is but right for you to delay payment pending settlement of the dispute. Your concern is important to us. This incident will surely allow us to improve our billing process. I will have the revised invoice sent to your office by tomorrow morning.
MR	I’m glad this will finally be resolved. I’ll issue the check immediately upon receipt of the revised statement.
You	That will be much appreciated, Mr. Robbins. As a gesture of thanks, your next visit to us for a car wash will be free.
MR	Oh, not necessary but thank you, Mike.
You	Again, Mr. Robbins, accept our apologies and thank you for the time given to us.
MR	You’re welcome, Mike. Nice talking to you. Bye.

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You	Hello, good day, I’m calling for Mrs. Pebbles?
MP	Who is this?
You	Mrs. Pebbles, hi, I am Ms. Greens from BEST Catering Services.
MP	If you’re calling for the full payment of your services for my birthday party, I have no intention of paying.
You	Oh, I see. But Mrs. Pebbles, you did request for additional servings for fifty heads that time?
MP	Yes, I did. But that’s because I thought other guests will still arrive. It turned out my original count was enough.
You	However, Mrs. Pebbles, when you requested for the 50 plates, we did have them served. Did you give instructions to have it cancelled?
MP	No. But I assumed you’ve seen that the food is enough already. You should’ve confirmed with me again.
You	I am afraid that is not how we do things. When orders are placed, we immediately provide the service particularly in your case where the need was quite urgent for you at that time.
MP	Well, I stand by my decision.
You	I’m sorry if that is your decision. We do hope you’d reconsider up to the end of this month. As much as possible, we’d like to handle this outside of legal options. We’d still wait for your call by then.
MP	Okay.
You	Thank you for your time, Mrs. Pebbles. Bye.

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INTRODUCTION

This call reflects a real event, and was made by one of the Credit and Collections staff, Aiza, to one of our sub-dealers. These aren't the real name of the customer and her other details. I’ll use Mrs. Reyes.

 

This is to follow-up her outstanding balances pending for more than a year now. Aiza is new to this account.

 

We tag Aiza as “Aiza” and Mrs. Reyes as “MR”.

 

This is how it went:

Aiza	Good afternoon, may we know if Mrs. Reyes is there? Can I speak to her, please?
Other Party	Yes, she is here. Who is this?
Aiza	Tell her this is Aiza from BEST APPLIANCES
Other Party	Okay, wait, I’ll call her.
MR	Hello, this is Mrs. Reyes, who’s calling?
Aiza	Yes, Mrs. Reyes, Aiza from BEST APPLIANCES. I am calling to check with you regarding your outstanding balance with us worth $ 3,097.92.
MR	What about? I think I have reconciled that already with Lai.
Aiza	I’m sorry Ma’am but Ms. Lai is no longer connected with the Company for quite some time now. And as per our records, your balance is still outstanding. Your last payments entered on our system were received in cash for a total of $5,627.24 last October 26, 2015.
MR	Did it not settle my balances?
Aiza	The payments were applied to your latest invoices. From what I gathered, there were specific instructions on where it should apply.
MR	Well I didn’t know I still have unsettled accounts.
Aiza	Would you like me to send you a summary of what remains to be outstanding?
MR	Yes, I want to see what those invoices are.
Aiza	I will send copies to your office tomorrow. Do you have an e-mail? I can send the scanned invoices plus your Statement of Account.
MR	Okay. My e-mail is [email protected] I will wait for it.
Aiza	By the way, Mrs. Reyes, once received, can I call you again tomorrow to work out your payments?
MR	I’ll review the invoices first. Maybe you can call in the afternoon.
Aiza	Is 2:00 p.m. fine?
MR	Yes, 2:00 p.m is okay.
Aiza	Okay Mrs. Reyes, after this, I’ll send the e-mail. Will call you tomorrow by 2:00 p.m. Thank you very much.
MR	Okay, thank you.
	END OF CALL

ADDED NOTES:

 

Aiza and Mrs. Reyes reconciled the balances.

 

It turned out most of the unsettled invoices were for adjustments (e.g. returned sales, price changes, etc.) Corresponding updates on the system were done to close all of Mrs. Reyes’ outstanding balances.

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INTRODUCTION

 

This actual situation happened between a Supervisor, Ms. Geraldine, and a staff member, Ms. Teresa.

 

Management was reviewing each store’s collectibles and one of those looked into is employees with receivables.

 

This conversation concerns Teresa’s aging accounts receivable with the store (which incidentally has also been a subject of inventory variance by the store.)

 

Last October, Teresa bought an old stock of TV. She and two other staff (Brenda and Mylene) requested Von (also an employee) to have their items swiped using his card which Von agreed. By now, Von has already resigned.

 

 

Ms. Geraldine as MG and Ms. Teresa as MT.

MG	Hi, Ms. Teresa, can I disturb you for a while?
MT	Why?
MG	Remember the 24-inch TV you bought last year?
MT	Oh, that’s already paid
MG	It’s still floating on our records
MT	Ah, why? That’s part of the items we’ve swiped using Von’s credit card
MG	It seems this item was not included
MT	How come? As far as I can remember, I’m even done paying it to Von
MG	Can you remember what the other items are?
MT	I know there were three of us who requested Von. Brenda and Mylene; that was during October’s sale event.
MG	We already checked the records of Von but we cannot find anything about the TV.
MT	That’s your fault. What I know is that I am already paid. And why only raise it now. It’s been months...
MG	It actually appeared as part of our inventory variance before but since our manual documents showed that the sales order was named to you, we were given consideration pending the adjustment. Unfortunately though we overlooked this until now.
MT	That’s your shortcoming. Not mine.
MG	But since our manual records show that it was issued to you, we were instructed to properly issue it out on our system. Definitely, the amount will be under receivables. We cannot find any record that it’s been paid.
MT	But I told you, it was supposed to be charged to Von’s card before and that I already paid it to him so why would I pay it again?
MG	As per confirmation with Von, the TV set was not among the items included on the swipe. It seems you also need to confirm with Von if the amount of the TV was included on the balances you settled to him.
MT	Okay, I’ll confirm with Von. But I’m telling you, I am already paid.
MG	Please do. On our last telecom he already confirmed this wasn’t charged to his card so chances are he hasn’t included this on your balances with him. But we already transacted this on the system under your name Ms. Teresa for $50.00.
MT	That’s your call. But I will not pay it until I’ve confirmed with Von. In fact, since it took you so long to discover this and reconcile with me, I should not be paying you at all.
MG	I’ll just follow up again next week. If Von confirmed it’s not paid, we will collect the balance from you already, Ms. Teresa.
MT	Whatever?! Let’s just talk next week.

ADDITIONAL NOTES

 

Per internal audit’s own confirmation with Von, the 24-inch TV of Teresa, although documented via a manual Sales Order (SO) was really not entered in the system and was not included on the items charged to Von’s credit card.

 

The amount of the TV was also not among the balances paid by Teresa to Von.

 

At as of this date, Teresa’s balance of $50.00 exists. She will pay this in instalment to our Main Store.

 

The fact that Teresa was able to bring home the television set without proper documentation is a separate issue with the store’s procedure. It is currently under review.

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Contents

• Forgetful Customer
• Customer Presently Unable to Pay
• Dissatisfied Customer
• No Intention To Pay
•  
• sBiz Invoice Management Errors
• sBiz Staff Invoice Outstanding

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• We use CLV as a tool to predict the likely revenue and profit from your future relationship with a customer.

Why Use CLV

• When we use CLV we immediately shift our focus from considering customers as a one-off transaction to a source of ongoing revenue and profit.
• The benefits of focus on long term relationships are profound.  Consider the costs you incur in “buying” a new customer, your advertising, promotion and administration costs. Now consider SalesForce experience that shows a dollar spent on customer retention has 2.5 times the effectiveness of a dollar spent on new customer acquisition.
• Consider also that loyal customers are your best source of word of mouth and referrals; and that most successful businesses count on up to 70 per cent of their business from referrals.
• You are more likely to focus your marketing efforts on A and B Category customers who will reward you, and away from opportunistic Category C customers.

How to Use CLV

• The normal method to consider CLV, is to calculate the expected average sales for a three year period, for customers in a specific category - consider a job to be done.
• For each customer in that segment you are measuring their buying pattern over time to see if it matches or supasses the CLV profile.
• If not, you can trigger a specific campaign to cross sell or upsell to that customer. And bring them back to their potential.

How to Improve CLV - Customer Retention

• WindsorCircle claims their clients are seeing a 20% increase in CLV year-over-year, as well as an average retention rate lift of 17%.  
• They utilise a 9 part program to help with customer retention:

1. Know your customers
2. Get connected
3. Thank your customers
4. Amaze your best customers
5. Help your customers buy more
6. Save your churning customers
7. Create evangelists
8. Listen to your customers
9. Acquire retainable customers

Our clients are seeing a 20% increase in CLV year-over-year, as well as an average retention rate lift of 17%. Contact a member of our team  to turn your customer data into an actionable lifecycle email marketing strategy and grow customer value for your business.

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What It Is

• A/B testing (also known as split testing or bucket testing) is process you can use to improve the results of your offer to customers
• The method involves comparing two versions (A and B) of the offer against each other to determine which one performs better.

How It Is Used

• Your offer may be a landing page, a guarantee, or a price.
• A/B testing can be used both online and offline.
• Your offer consists of elements, and your A/B tests compare the effect of a change to an element.
• The change may be, for example, in the text content, the font style, the colours used, the location of the element.
• While you test the change to an element, you are also testing that change in its context in the total offer.

Process

• Define Current Conversion Rate. The only true test result to measure (your metric) is the conversion rate. Your current offer is the A part of A/B.
• Define Conversion Rate Goals. So A/B testing is comparing conversion rates of A (current offer) versus B (new offer.)
• Define Elements to Test. List the elements in your offer that you wish to test.
• Create Offer Variations. Create two versions of your offer (A and B) for each element that you wish to test - everything else in the offer is exactly the same except that element.
• Run the Experiment. Run both variations of your offer.
• Measure and Analyze. Review the test results.
• Test Each Element in Turn. You need to test each element in your list against the original A offer.
• Test Combined Changes. Create a new B offer incorporating all the best results of element testing, and compare that against your original A offer.
• Test Against best performing Single Element. Test your combined offer against the best performing single element offer.
• Select the Best Option. From your various tests, choose the best performing offer.

Software

• For online offers you can use specialised A/B testing applications such as Google Analytics.

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• no billing sent to them
• lost / misplaced invoice
• have forgotten that it is past due
• somebody is tasked to pay it (ex. Secretary)
• business is slow and their customers haven’t paid them
• bill sent out to a wrong customer

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Willing to pay but presently not able	These are mostly apologetic but once able, they will pay right away. Work to have a payment plan in place, so you are receiving some return immediately and a commitment for the balance. You are looking for a win-win to maintain a good ongoing relationship.
Forgetful	Small business owners often have other areas of responsibility: family and business. A friendly call is all that is needed to remind them of the bill to pay.
Dissatisfied customers	Ask them to share their concern. Compromise or settle if necessary. Work to retain the customer - your want positive word of mouth. Document this feedback and improve on this.
Chronic late payers	This person is deliberately using your money to fund their own lifestyle or business. You need to decide how important their business is to you, considering the negative impact their bad practice has on your cash flow. Advise them of revised payment terms, including late payment charges Increase their prices (where possible) to cover your loss - 5-10%
No intention to pay	This is the type that is really difficult to deal with. It is frustrating. But the reality is, you are not getting paid. Stop all credit immediately. Taking a higher level of collection is needed (refer to collection via legal action or collection agency). Keep your cool and keep in mind this phone call is just the first step in the recovery process.

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Here’s how to get the most out of the content in your Action Plan.

1. Read the entire Action Plan once - Read through this entire Action Plan set, watch any videos, download any resources. Don’t execute on the steps until you have finished reading the entire Action Plan. This will help you understand the progression of the steps and put them into context.

2. Complete the steps - This Action Plan is a checklist for the Activity. Each step builds on the next. Complete each step in order.

Lastly, here’s how to use the Action Plan interface.

1. Progress Bar - The Progress bar shows you the percentage of Action Plan Activity you have completed.

2. Action Plan Sections - Your Activity Action Plan is a series of How To steps that lead to the completion of activity and a result to improve your business - plus background understanding.

3. Arrows - Use the Arrow Buttons to open and close the Action Plan Sections.

4. Check box - Click the check box to indicate completion of this Action Plan Section.

5. Stars - Rate your experience with the material in this Action Plan Section, from 1 (worst) to 5 (best)

Print ABC Categories Overview

Why Use ABC Categories?

• ABC Categories are one of the most powerful tools you can apply to your business.
• They help you focus on what is most important, the Vital Few versus the Trivial Many.
• 80% of your results will come from 20% of your efforts.
• You can get much more cash out of your business by making use of ABC Categories.
  


• Inventory Example:

• In many small and medium businesses with inadequate inventory management, it is not unusual for the average immediate availability of all items to be around 65% - in other words there is a 35% likelihood of a lost sale.
• By applying the ABC Category method in a wholesaling business, we were able to:

• Reduce cash tied up in inventory by $2 million.
• Increase Cat A availability to 98% - a 50% increase in immediate sales
• Increase Cat B to 90%
• Increase Cat C to 80%
  

• Customer Example:

• Repeat customers are the major source of your business wealth:

• 80% of your future profits will come from just 20% of your existing customers.
• Your loyal top 10% spend 3 times more per order than the lower 90%; and your top 1% of customers spend 5 times more than the lower 90%. - referralsaasquatch 
• “80% of companies’ marketing budgets are spent on acquiring shoppers; however, for every 1% of shoppers who become repeat customers, a company’s revenue will increase by about 10%.” –Adobe
• “On average, loyal customers are worth up to 10x as much as their first purchase.”
• —MarketingTechBlog

What Are ABC Categories?

• ABC Categories is a ranking system for identifying and grouping items in terms of how useful they are for achieving business goals.
• ABC classification is closely associated with the 80/20 rule, a business metric that proposes 80% of the outcomes are determined by 20% of the inputs.  
  http://searchmanufacturingerp.techtarget.com/definition/ABC-classification 
• A simple ABC system requires grouping things into three categories:

• A - extremely important.
• B - moderately important.
• C - relatively unimportant.

• neXtep easy adds:

• Category D - no importance
• Category E - essential items

• ABC Classification is also similar to the Pareto Principle.

Where to Use ABC Categories

• We commonly use ABC categories to assess:

• The items you sell
• Your customers
• Your staff
• Business risks

How It Works

• Using the items you sell as an example, we can generally say that:

• Cat A - 5% of your items generate 40-50% of your profits.
• Cat A + B - 20% of items generate 70-80% of profits.
• Cat A + B + C - 50% of items generate 95% of profits.
• Cat D - Conversely, the bottom 50% of your items generate only 5% of your profits!

neXtep easy Reports

• See the Reports page from the hamburger menu to view our ABC Category reports for Customers and Items.
• These reports are available with Annual and 3 yearly subscriptions.

Items You Sell

Smart Inventory Using the Pareto Principle

• Not all products are equal, and you can get the most out of your inventory by making use of the 80/20 rule. We can generally say that:

• 5% of your items generate 40-50% of your profits.
• 20% of items generate 70-80% of profits.
• 50% of items generate 95% of profits.
• Conversely, the bottom 50% of your items generates only 5% of your profits!

• Using this classification, we can ensure that our investment in inventory matches the importance of the item to our profitability.

• We can order Cat A Items more frequently
• We can hold more safety stock of Cat A items to reduce the likelihood of stockouts and lost sales.
• We can reduce the investment in Cat C items
• We can eliminate the investment in Cat D items. It’s usually cheaper for you to buy these from your competitors at cost!

A. Analyze Based On Gross Profit

• In neXtep easy we rank ABC sales items by their Gross Profit Contribution rather than revenue, as our focus is always on profit.
• Gross Profit Contribution = Item Gross Profit multiplied by annual unit sales

• Example - we sell Item 123
• Revenue for each item sold is $100
• Direct Costs are $45
• So Gross Profit = $100 - $45 = $55
• We sold 300 of item 123 in the past 12 months
• So, Gross Profit Contribution (GPC) = $55 multiplied by 300 = $16,500

• We create for each item their individual GPC.
• Ranking: We sort them from the largest to the smallest.
• Allocate ABC Categories:

• A Cat - Top 5% of items in the list
• B Cat - Next 15% of items in the list (cumulative 20% of items)
• D Cat - All items that have not sold in past 12 months
• C Cat - The remaining items.

B. Analyse Based on Sales Volume

• There are some items you have that may not generate high profits but are still a major source of bringing customers into your store  and then also giving you the chance to cross-sell to higher value items.
• So use ABC analysis again, using the data you have already collected, as follows.

• Analyse exactly the same as for Gross Profit Contribution, but this time using Revenue.
• Any Revenue Cat A items that are not also GPC Cat A Items, are classified as GPC Cat A2 items.
• The percentage of Cat B items is reduced by the items moving to Cat A2; similarly with any Cat C items.

C. Analyse Based on Essentials

• There are some additional items you must have that may not generate any profits but still are a major source of bringing customers into your store, and then also giving you the chance to cross-sell or upsell to higher value items.
• Examples are florist window display items, or machinery essential parts.
• Identify and allocate these as Category E, if not already Category A.  
• These items must always be in stock, even if only one or two, and therefore require special management.

D. Analyse Based on Seasonality

• Most retailers sell seasonal items in campaigns, often for a number of different season promotions.
• Identify seasonal ABC Categories:

• Identify your seasonal campaigns
• Identify the seasonal selling months
• Using the data already collected, rank item GPC for each of those seasonal campaigns
• Allocate Seasonal ABC Categories for each item, as well as their GPC and Revenue ABC Categories.

neXtep easy Inventory Reports

• In the Reports page, you can view reports which analyse ABC Categories for your items.
• You have the tool to create your own ABC Category parameters, and so optimize your inventory levels and customer service levels.

Balancing Sales and Costs

• Consider decreasing your product range so you only hold the 20% of products generating 80% of your gross profit.

• You have now reduced your annual gross profit by 20%
• But you have also reduced 80% of your inventory range, reducing expenses and capital requirement.
• Now, increase your average selling prices by 10%
• Let’s assume your current Net Profit Margin is 10%
• Compared with the situation when you first started:

• Your Revenue is now 88% of start
• Your Gross Profit is 95% of start
• Your Net Profit is 160% of start

• End Result - Less work, more cash

Your Customers

Applying ABC Categories to Customers

• Your Cat A customers: 

• are your best source of future profits and ongoing referrals, and need top quality nurturing and rewards.
• These customers are more concerned with the reliability you offer, the fact that they can trust you to deliver, than in price.
• Invest in discovering the jobs these people do, and the outcomes they are looking for, to ensure you continue to provide perfect outcomes for them.
• These are the customers that you and your staff will go the extra mile for.

• Your Cat B customers:

• have potential to become Cat A with the correct nurturing and encouragement with applicable offers for their jobs to be done.
• These customers are likely to be more price-sensitive than Cat A customers.
• Invest in discovering the jobs these people do, and the outcomes they are looking for, to see if you can improve the quality of your support.

• Your Cat C customers:

• Are likely to have little loyalty to your business, and are those most likely to hunt for discounts and to drive your profits down.
• There is little or no benefit to your business in campaigns to attract these customers.

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neXtep Business Builder Community Pte Ltd 201424522Z (We, Our, Us and other similar terms) takes all reasonable steps to implement processes and procedures for the management of Personal Information.

This Privacy Policy applies to all personal information collected by Us in the course of providing services to Our customers (Users, You, Your and other similar terms) regardless of the source of that Personal and Business Information. This Privacy Policy is available on our Website located at the URL https://nextepeasy.com (Website).

Terms that are capitalised in this Privacy Policy, take their meaning from Subscription Agreement unless otherwise defined herein.

2.1

Kinds of Personal and Business Information that We collect and hold
We collect a variety of information about Users and their businesses, including names, addresses, financial performance details, customer lists, supplier lists, employee and contractor details and any other data that Users may enter into their business’ accounting software (Personal and Business Information).

2.2

How We collect and hold Personal and Business Information
We may collect Personal and Business Information about Users and potential members via Our Website. We endeavour to collect Personal and Business Information about an individual only from that individual or an authorised representative. Information We obtain from third parties or publicly available sources is limited to circumstances where the person has consented.

2.3

Purpose of collection and use
We collect, hold, use and discloses Personal and Business Information to deliver and improve the services We provide to Our Users. Generally, Users are only obliged to provide Us with information necessary for Us to provide services to them. However, if Users do not provide Us with certain types of Personal and Business Information they may be unable to enjoy the full benefits of the Service or use of some aspects of Our Website.

3.1

Transfer of Personal and Business Information
Personal and Business Information We collect may be accessed by employees and contractors of service providers who We engaged to provide services to Us. Personal and Business Information contained in a record may be transferred and held in countries other than including, but not limited to Singapore, Australia and the USA. We take reasonable steps to ensure that parties that provide Us with necessary services for website hosting and database administration services act in accordance with standard country based privacy principles and have signed undertakings for their staff relating to confidentiality. We also use only recognised service providers who use enterprise level software with up to date SSL Encryption.

3.2

Removal of Personal and Business Information
Unless otherwise required by Law, we only retain your Personal and Business Information for as long as You are a party to Our Subscription Agreement. Upon cancellation of Your Subscription We will store Your Personal and Business Information for a period of thirty (30) days’ and upon expiration of this period, it is erased.

3.3

Performance Metrics
Notwithstanding the above, We will store and utilise Your business performance metrics (BPM), as calculated by Us as we see fit. BPMs are anonymous and cannot be traced back to You or Your Personal and Business Information.

4.1

Accessing Personal and Business Information about You
If You are a User and would like to access or correct Personal and Business Information that We hold about You, please contact:

The Privacy Officer

   neXtep Business Builder Community Pte Ltd 201424522Z
   180 Kitchener Road #09-09/10, Singapore 208539
   Email: [email protected]

You will need to identify Yourself to Our reasonable satisfaction before We will provide You with Personal and Business Information about an individual which We may or may not have in Our possession.

This Website uses cookies to collect information about You. Cookies enable us to tailor Our service offering (including the Website) and to provide You with a better service. If You use the Website, then You agree that We may use cookies as set out below.

We use the following cookies:

• Strictly necessary cookies.These are required for the operation of the Website. They include, for example, cookies that enable You to log into secure areas of the Website. They do not gather information about You that could be used for marketing purposes or remembering where You have been on the Internet.
• Analytical/performance cookies.These allow Us to collect information about how You use the Website, such as, how You move around the Website and whether you experience any errors. These cookies do not collect any information that could identify You; all of the information collected is anonymous and is used only to help Us improve the way the Website works, understand what interests Our users, and measure how effective Our advertising is.
• Functionality cookies.These are used to recognise You when You return to the Website. They enable Us to personalise Our Content for You, greet You by name, remember Your preferences, and improve Your visit.

6.1

Personally Identifiable Information
We collect the following information about Users (Personally Identifiable Information or PII): Name and one or more email addresses.

6.2

Use of Personally Identifiable Information
We use PII as is stated in Clauses 2 and 3, above, with respect to the use of Personal and Business Information.
We do not make PII available to third parties.

6.3

Browser “Do Not Track” Signals
We do not honor or react to “Do Not Track” requests. This is because:
a.  We do not share Your PII with third parties.
b.  The PII we do collect is only used to communicate with You, or to improve Your experience in using the Website.

7.1

We endeavour to comply with the Australian Privacy Principles (APP’s) as contained in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) (Act) (Law).

7.2

Complaints procedure
We provide a service orientated business. Therefore, if You have a complaint about Our collection or use of Personal and Business Information pertaining to You, then We would ask You to contact Our Privacy Officer at first instance. If after investigating Your complaint and reporting to You about an alleged breach of the Australian Privacy Principles and reporting the results of Our investigations to You, You are not satisfied then We would ask that You consult:

The Australian Information Privacy Commissioner
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Telephone: 1300 363 992
Email: [email protected]
A complaint form can be found at:
https://forms.business.gov.au/aba/oaic/privacy-complaint-/

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You can get a full refund up to 30 days after purchase date. No questions asked, no hassles. This will cancel your subscription and membership.

Only within the first 30 days after initial subscription.

We don’t give refunds on all or part of current annual subscription - but you’ll have access to all the great resources and community until the end of your current subscription period.

You can cancel in the Settings menu under “Cancel Subscription”
We first ensure that your PayPal recurring expense is cancelled, so that you are not billed for any further payments.
You can check that this has occurred - there should be a line entry in the Payments History tab that gives the date of your cancellation.

Data from your own accounting package always belongs to you, and you can download this at any time. If your subscription is Annual or you have subscribed monthly for 4 or more months, then you are entitled to download neXtep easy performance data for your business.
We retain your data and metrics for 30 days from cancellation so that your data is not lost should you change your mind.

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Thank you for visiting neXtep Business Builder Community Website made available at the URL https://nextepeasy.com (Website). This Income Disclaimer is shown at various parts of our Website. Terms that are capitalised in this document take their meaning from Our Subscription Agreement.

The Application made available for use to Subscribers via the Website is not to be interpreted as a promise or guarantee of income for your business.

The level of success achieved from using the recommendations that the Application makes depends on various factors, including but not limited to, the amount of time you devote to implementing the recommendations made by the Application, ideas and techniques you use to implementing the recommendations made, the amount of financial resources deployed in pursuing the recommendations and various other factors which are beyond our control. In addition and importantly, the recommendations made require accurate and up to date Data to be incorporated into your accounting software. These factors differ among between businesses and therefore we cannot guarantee the success or income achieved by implementing any of the recommendations made by the Application.

Forward looking statements
Any and all forward-looking statements on any of our Websites or associated with the use of the Application are intended to express our opinion of the Income potential that some business may achieve. They do not create a contractual promise and you should not rely on these statements.

Many factors will be important in determining actual results, and we make no guarantee that you will achieve results similar to ours or anyone else’s. We make no guarantee that you will achieve any results from the ideas and techniques contained on our Website or by using the Application.

To the extent that we included any case studies or testimonials on any of our Websites, you can assume that none of these stories in any way represent the "average" or "typical" customer experience.

In fact, as with any goods or services, we know that some people will purchase access to the Application but never use them at all, and therefore will get no results whatsoever. You should therefore not rely on any representation that use of the Application will increase your income by any particular amount or percentage.

Even though we make no guarantees that use of the Application will produce any particular result for your business, you can still take advantage of our return policy if you are not completely satisfied. In such instances, you can return the product for a refund according to the terms indicated in our refund policy described in the Subscription Agreement.

YOU AGREE AND UNDERSTAND THAT neXtep Business Builder Community IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR YOUR SUCCESS OR FAILURE AS A RESULT OF IMPLEMENTING THE RECOMMENDATIONS MADE BY THE APPLICATION AND WE MAKE NO REPRESENTATION OR PROVIDE ANY WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER THAT OUR SERVICES WILL PRODUCE ANY PARTICULAR RESULT FOR YOUR BUSINESS.

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In our work with many small businesses, we found time and again that people love their business idea, but hate finances and numbers.

Sure, you have to keep financial records for tax reasons and so on, but many have no idea how to use their financial reports for growing their business.

That’s why the small business failure rate is so high - half disappear within 4 years and many of the remainder are stuck earning less than 10% profit.

That is why so many people have feelings of loss of control and dis-empowerment.

 

We said "There HAS to be a better way", when MILLIONS and MILLIONS of small business are like this.

 

So we thought:

• WHAT IF you could bypass all those financial reports?
• WHAT IF you could have a simple, inexpensive way for someone else to analyse those numbers for you?
• WHAT IF you were simply advised of THE ONE BEST THING TO DO, RIGHT NOW, TO IMPROVE YOUR BUSINESS?

Then you can enjoy your focus on the parts of your business you love.

Feel empowered and in control again.

That's what neXtep Business Builder Community does for you.

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These 3 Vital $igns help you understand the financial health of your business. neXtep easy compares your business performance to best practice for your industry.

Focus first on re-inforcing Cash Flow. This is the lifeblood of your business.

Profitability is the next most important Sign, it's the purpose of running a business. It's your business muscle.

Growth needs a strong framework of both cash flow and profitability, to ensure your business can sustain the stresses involved.

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Check if your growth is healthy - your profit growth should preferably at least match your sales growth, otherwise your business is working harder rather than smarter.

1. Sales are not nearly as important to measure and improve as is profit.

2. Gross Profit is a factor of your prices, the discounts you give away, and your supplier-related costs.

3. Pricing strategies that grow your bottom line without having to increase sales volumes are enormously attractive. If your current net profit is 20%, for example, a direct increase in net profit of 5% can have the same impact as a sales increase of 25%.

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• Before you are able to use neXtep easy, we need to tailor our app to your specific needs.
• We need to hook up to your accounting software and pull in some data, then learn more about what you do and how you do it, so our future advice to you is as specific as possible, and so we don’t waste your time.
• In the process, we will also help you become aware of some of the key features of neXtep easy.
• And we will also give you an indication of the immediate potential income improvement you can make.

• This track is for people who want to get started real fast.
• Supporting explanations are minimised, and you will whizz through.

• This track is for people who would like a more leisurely approach, and would like to understand more about what neXtep easy is and does.
• You will use these Help page sliders more, and gain a deeper understanding of the onboarding process.

come back later. Clicking this button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• By clicking on this yellow tab you open the Page help slider for the page involved.
• Page help is there to give you more specific support and instructions.

• Most pages in the onboarding process have the feedback tab.
• By clicking on this tab you open the feedback form.

• Any comments or suggestions you have for improving this process, we can use to help make onboarding even better for others that follow you.
• So please feel free to use this at any time.
• Click on the emoji that best suits your experience.
• Rank from 1 to 10 on your desire to recommend us to your friends
• Choose a feedback subject:

• In your feedback, we’d love to hear particularly of the reasons that led to your ratings choices.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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We love that you love neXtep easy and want your friends, family and business networks to know how great it is as well. Simply click here, and send us their email address and name and we will take care of the rest.

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It’s important to complete this section as accurately and completely as possible in order for us to give you the most accurate Action Plan for your business. You can refer back to the Customize section anytime you need to update your details.

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In small business, there is a definite need to manage your time well. So your first requirement is to focus on what matters, and rank your activities accordingly..

These are the first tasks to do, to ensure your business survival. Our ranking of tasks puts these tasks to the top of your priority list.

These tasks are more strategic. They are critical to your business, but generally best left to the stage when you have more free time, or you have specialist support to carry them out.

These may be not important to you but to someone else - like the tax department. So they must be done.

Keep these activities for your leisure time.

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• You can leave anytime!


• Just click “come back later” on the orange button below. You work will be saved.


• Note: You will need to complete the onboarding process before you are able to use neXtep easy.


• If you feel stuck or need more information, simply click on the yellow “Help” button to the right.


• Don’t forget to leave us feedback!

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• Here, we’ve calculated your potential for earning additional money from just one of our Action Plan activities for you.
• This is an annual increase over your current earnings, before tax.
• This increase can be immediate and requires minimal or no outlay from you.

• Here, we show you the comparison between the annual subscription for neXtep easy and the potential increase for you from this one activity.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• In the next few slides we will be showing you what impact a small price increase can have on your business results.
• In this first slide we show your current situation.

• This data shows your revenue and profit performance over the previous 12 months.
• The data is taken from your accounting app.
• If you have operating for less than 12 months, then the data is annualised.

• The chart shows the same table data in in a more easily reviewed column format.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• In the next few slides we will be showing you what impact a small price increase can have on your business results.
• In this page we highlight the impact of a percentage increase.
• This type of increase is something you can apply quickly for immediate positive results.

• The total amount of your price increase flows straight to your bottom line of take home money.
• There are no expenses to deduct.

• The data in this chart shows the relative increase in percentage terms.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• In this step you can trial different levels of customer loss, to see the results for yourself.

• The chart shows the before (blue) and after (green) possible impact of lost sales from a price increase.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• Here is the summary of the net profit position after both a price increase and a loss of some customers.
• To keep the data simple we are showing only the net position and the final amount of additional cash you have gained.

• The chart shows the net profit figures in an easy format so you can take in the result at a glance.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• Worried that you will lose your customers if you increase your prices?
• Don’t fear a price increase!
• For example, with a 10% price increase and current 10% net profit, you would have to lose 50% of your current customers before you are worse off!

• The red line on the chart plots the % price increase effects on different levels of current net profit.
• The blue dot on the line represents your own current net profit amount
• When you change the price increase % in the box below the chart, this line will move up or down the chart. The blue dot will also move along the line to reflect the change.

• From your blue dot, and reading across to the vertical axis on the left, you can see what percentage of customer revenue you would need to lose before our net profit was right back where you started.
• For example, with a 10% price increase and current 10% net profit, you would have to lose 50% of your current customers before you are worse off!

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• This is an outline only of the Action Plan page you will use to implement a price increase.
• The Action Plan not only shows you what but also HOW to go about the activity to get best results.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• Help tips are available on most key pages to help you understand the purpose of information on that page

• You turn Help Tips on and off with the button above the Page Help tab.
• All Help Tips on the page are then visible. Here’s an example from the take Action page before and after you click on the help Tips button:
• Before:
• After:
• Click on any finger to open and read the Tip.
• Click on the blue ‘x’ to close the Tip.
• Click on ‘Next Tip’ to move to the next Tip in sequence.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• By clicking on this yellow tab you open the Page help slider for the page involved.
• Page Help is there to give you more specific support and instructions, to help you get done the job on that page.

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Think for a moment about why people buy, and what motivates them to choose your business over all your competitors.

• Customers don’t buy from you because they are concerned about your welfare.
• Customers buy because they are looking to satisfy a need.
• In some cases that need is a bargain that is driven by greed,
• But people with this greed need are rarely your ideal customers - unless you are a bargain supplier.
• For most of us, the last thing your business needs is a majority of customers that only buy on price.
• In fact, most people buy because they have a job they want to do. And they are willing to pay a price premium for a great outcome from that job.

• People judge how well their job is done by the outcomes they achieve.
• Only the person doing the job can define those outcomes, and the level of success defined.
• Your job is to discover those required outcomes and then to find:
  • Unmet outcomes for product improvement and a better price point.
  • Over-met outcomes for product simplification and a cheaper price point.
• Outcomes can be emotional and social as well as functional.

• Your business needs to move from the mindset of being all things to all people.
• The need you are best focused on is a specific job your customer needs to have done.
• And customers will keep coming back to you when you provide solutions to get that job done better than anyone else can.
• We call that providing perfect outcomes.
• You become a specialist in your small business niche.
• When you focus on providing perfect outcomes and are successful in this, you will find that you can command premium prices for what you offer.

• People - your customers - “hire” products and services to help get a job done.
• A product can typically be used on 3-4 jobs.
• Each of those jobs is typically a different customer segment.
• Consider your product or service as a Job aid for a customer segment,
• Define your customer segments based on motivations, context and triggers.
• For the Job, focus on the triggering event or situation, the motivation and goal, and the intended outcome:
  • Triggering/situation event: When __________, ...
  • Motivations/goal: ...I want to ____________ ...
  • Intended outcome: ...so that I can _____________
  • Job Story: When _____ , I want to _____ , so I can _____
• Leave behind segments based on demographics or personas.
• Think it terms of the why, rather than the who and what to uncover true customer context and motivations. WHY people do things is the most important discovery you can make.

• Your business will be much more likely to thrive and grow where:
  • You focus on a jobs to be done (JTBD) niche.
  • That JTBD niche has a suitably large market of job performers you can reach.
  • You market to the job performers rather than to superficial market segments based on gender, age, location or other non-relevant factors.
  • Your business focuses on providing support for perfect outcomes for those JTBD.
  • You and your staff develop core skills directed towards that support.
  • Your business processes are directed to optimize that support.
  • Your other business resources are also directed to those key JTBD.
• Immediately you can see that you can’t be all things to all people.
• You can learn to say no to requests that fall outside what you do best.
• But you can also see opportunities in cross-selling products and services that support those perfect outcomes.

• Take a nursery.
• Nurseries sell plants.
• At least that is the old view..
• The second oldest view is that they sell a hole in the ground,
  • The plant
  • The fertiliser
  • A holding stick
  • A watering can
  • A hose
  • Hose fittings
  • Gardening gloves
  • A kneeling mat
  • And so on - lots of cross-selling opportunities
• Neither of those views focuses on the Lifetime Value (LTV) of your customer.
• But the new view is - you sell a perfect outcome for a job to be done
  • Why did the customer buy that plant?
  • Can you offer advice on the best use of that plant?
  • Can you offer a drone view of their property?
  • Can you impose on that view, a suggested planting plan for the whole property?
  • Different stages of tree and shrubs growth?
  • Can you show the full growth view of the plants you suggest?
  • Can you show where to best display annuals, and types
  • Can you provide a seasonal planting schedule for them?
  • Can you offer on-site planting services versus DIY?
  • Can you give them an attractive offer for an ongoing contract?
• You can think of many other industry-based JTBD opportunities:
  • Fashion - wardrobe optimization - this goes with that
  • Wines - bottle sales based on tasting program over 6 months
  • Specialty Foods - menu accessory options
  • Restaurants - special dietary nights ( eg purple foods menu)
  • Events - think social and emotional outcomes as well as functional.

• What is your industry niche opportunity?

Let us know via the feedback link on this page.

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• CAC is the cost of convincing a potential customer to buy a product or service.
• The cost of acquiring a customer is best considered as an investment in the future profitability of your business.
• However, at the same time, your CAC can destroy your business if it is allowed to reduce your CLV:CAC of around 3:1, or if it takes much more than a year to repay that cost.
• So keeping your CACin check and forever working to minimize it, is a critical component of your business role.

• It costs 6 times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one.
• Zaius
• On average, only 20% of first-time buyers will make a second purchase - but if you’re able to get a customer to make that repeat purchase,
  • 45% of repeat buyers make a third purchase, and
  • 60% of those buyers make a fourth.
• Overall revenue increases by approximately 10% for each 1% of shoppers who return for a subsequent purchase.
• This means that if online retailers retained 10% more of their existing customers, they would double their revenue.
• The probability of selling to an existing customer is 60-70% on average, while the probability of selling to a new shopper is only 5-20%.
• On average, returning customers spend 67% more than first-time customers.
• Zaius

• Costs in your business could be segregated as follows:
  • Cost to buy a new customer - CAC - customer acquisition costs
  • Costs to keep a customer - Customer retention costs
  • Business support operations (not included above)
  • Regulatory Compliance costs
  • Other
• For CAC, we are interested in new customer acquisition costs.

• Measure these costs across your business.
  • Direct marketing costs
  • Direct selling costs
  • marketing and sales salaries
  • sales support salaries
  • agency costs
  • website presence
  • social media costs
  • installation costs
  • price incentives

• Obtain recurring revenue (eg subscriptions)
• Optimize upsells and cross-sells
• Product line expansion

• Wherever possible, use free channels such as PR, and influencers.
• Work for viral growth from social network referrals of your posts.
• Seek optimized keywords and phrases to reduce cost per click outlays.
• Make use of Google + to help lift your page rankings.
• Inbound marketing - your distributed content with optimized SEO.
• Use email marketing.
• Become a thought leader in your market niche.
• Leverage your best customers as evangelists.

• The higher your conversion rate, the lower your CAC.
• Use A/B testing to optimize your conversion.
• Some landing page areas to focus on:
  • your offer
  • page structure
  • CTA layout and design
  • testimonials
  • Security trust marks
  • guarantees
• Utilize emails, retargeting

• Wherever possible, provide the answers your prospects need on your website.
• Use self-service Q & A, chatbots, better web interface.

• Marketing automation - software tools to automate wherever possible your Sales and Marketing work processes.

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• This is one of the most critical values used in knowing the longer term profitability of your business.
• Most people will focus on gaining new customers but not on the numbers behind that acquisition - how much can you AFFORD to spend to ‘buy’ a new customer?
• This ratio will tell you.

CAC - Cost to Acquire a Customer.

CLV - Customer Lifetime Value. Also referred to as LTV.

• CLV : CAC
• Divide CLV by CAC

• CLV expressed as revenue over time.
• Most users use a customer lifetime as 3 years.
• Calculate how long your average customer stays with you before they cancel their subscription, or move on to your competitor. The longer the stay, the greater the value s/he is to your business.
• (Average Value of a Sale) X (Number of Repeat Transactions) X (Average Retention Time in Months or Years for a Typical Customer)

• A broad rule is Sales and Marketing Costs / New Customers Won
• However, your S & M costs should be separated into three categories, with each to be used in their appropriate area:
  • amounts spent on acquiring new customers
  • amount spent on retaining existing customers (customer success)
  • amount spent on gaining referral customers

• The ideal ratio is around 3:1 - in other words the average value of a customer needs to be around three times the cost to acquire that customer.
• If the lifetime of a customer is 3 years, then you would be looking to recover the cost to acquire within the first year.
• A ratio of around 1:1 is costing you too much, with little chance of long-term profitability.
• A ratio closer to 5:1 means you are likely missing opportunities to grow your business.

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• Not all customers are created equal, and not all customer segments are created equal.
• You can optimize your profits better when you understanding the characteristics and profitability of different customer segments you WISH to attract.
• The trick is to isolate the really critical elements for segmentation, and then apply those to select your most profitable customers to focus on.

• In his book “Value-based Marketing: Marketing Strategies for Corporate Growth and Shareholder Value”, Peter Doyle has recommended the following criteria for optimizing customer selection.
  • Strategic Importance
  • Customer Significance
  • Customer Profitability
  • Customer Loyalty
• We use these criteria for ranking customers in neXtep easy.

• New customers are expensive, but existing customers come by way of new customers—you can’t have the former without the latter.
• And to turn expensive revenue into lean revenue, customers need to be successful immediately.
• That means from day one sales reps need to assess the renewal and expansion possibilities for any of their prospects. In the graphic below, it means finding more of the 8% of customers generating exceptional revenue.

• If this isn’t a priority for a sales team then they can be acquiring the most costly of revenue: non-profitable revenue. These are customers that are badly qualified and that aren’t going to have success with your product. They’ll churn at the first possible moment, possibly never even escaping the payback period and remaining an outright cost.
• This is one of the first points where your sales and customer success teams can work together.
• Using their knowledge of current successful customers, customer success managers can spot bad deals before they happen and notify the sales team that a prospect fits this specific profile.

http://www.insightsquared.com/2016/05/the-economics-of-the-upsell/

• We suggest you define your key customer segments based on following criteria.
• The combination of these segments create your customer mix.

• Every customer you have has a lifecycle with your product.
• The length of time a customer stays with you varies - primarily according to their Jobs to be Done, and the competitive benefit you offer in helping them get their jobs done with perfect outcomes. For example, Starbucks have a customer lifetime of 20 years. Many businesses plan on 3 years.

• The point of this is that, throughout the life of your business, people will leave you and you will need to replace them.
• The clever bit is being proactive about who you choose to replace them.

There is a lot of information that explains how to segment customers so I will not go into the details. I will, however, highlight three key points for CS teams to consider when looking at segmenting their customer base as part of their customer expansion strategy:

• Maturity model:
  • Assess how business maturity plays into the adoption of your product.
  • If your product is self-explanatory and easy to use, this will not factor significantly into your segmentation model.
  • If, however, you have a complex product that requires CS teams to provide a lot of training or Action Plan, you will likely want to use business maturity as a segmentation criteria.
• Revenue potential:
  • If you want to expand an account, there has to be the potential to do so.
  • Look at whether your customers will buy more of your product.
  • If they have bought everything they can, the potential to spend is zero, even if they are a large customer.
  • You will want to retain these customers but you won’t spend much time selling them more.
  • Conversely, new customers offer opportunities to sell them more licenses or move into new functional areas of the organization.
  • Given the high sales potential, you should look at how to incorporate opportunities for customer service teams to build a roadmap for expansion that ties into the customer’s business objectives.
• ARR & Company Revenue/Size:
  • Don’t fall into the trap of believing there is a lot of expansion potential with a customer due to the company’s revenues or size, or because they are currently large spenders with you.
  • You may have mid-sized companies with more expansion potential than larger companies due to corporate initiatives.
  • As I mentioned before, it is important to know why your customer purchased your product and what they want to to achieve within their organization.
  • You need to understand their long-term goals and determine how your product grows with them.

Bottom line

• Customer segmentation plays a key part in determining how and with which customers you expand.
• Understanding key attributes specific to your product and the industries you serve will help to form the basis for segmentation.
• Customer success teams can use this knowledge to determine the best way to move customers forward on their journey while continually maturing their use of your product.
• Don’t let revenue dry up like a fish out of water. Build a segmentation model that lets you swimmingly service all customers to their full potential while driving your revenue to its full potential!

How to Improve Gross Margin Production Without Changing Your Prices or Lowering Your Costs

• To improve profit performance, most people naturally assume that you have to raise your prices or lower your costs---preferably doing both at the same time.
• But your prices and your costs are not the only variables in the equation.
• In this video guide, you'll learn:
  • How and why your customer mix may have even more influence on profits than your pricing.
  • Why certain customers are inherently more profitable than others and how to identify them.
  • How one company managed their customer mix to improve revenues, profits, and retention.
  • A straightforward approach you can use to begin proactively managing your mix with less risk.

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1. Increase availability of items ready for sale
2. Reduce cash tied up in inventory
3. Keep the system simple to operate on the 80/20 rule - 80% of the results from 20% of the effort.

1. Max Min System
2. ABC Categories
3. IT Calculations and Reports

• Max and Min are really very simple concepts in inventory management:
  • Max is the maximum inventory quantity you will order up to.
  • Min is the inventory quantity level where you want to reorder again, so you don’t run out of stock. Min is like a trigger.
  • Your purchase order quantity is whatever you need to get your inventory level back up to Max again.

• Your actual inventory on Hand is rarely the same as Max. That is because there is a time lag between when you order and when you receive the items from your supplier.
• On average, your actual inventory will be Safety Stock plus half the sum of Review Time plus Lead Time, or SS + {(RT + LT)/2}

• view the ABC Categories slider

• If you, my supplier, are next door to my shop with a hole in the wall between us, I have no need for inventory. When a customer comes in and asks for an item, I call out to you and you pass me the item. Almost instantaneous.
• But the further away you, my supplier, move, the more need I have for stock to sell to my customer. There’s more time involved in getting that stock from you.
• Also the way you send stock to me affects the amount of time involved. A jet plane or a slow boat from China?
• So time affects stock levels –
  • increase time, increase stock
  • reduce time and you reduce stock.

• The Time factor has three elements that affect how much inventory you will hold.

• Review Period.
  • This is the period between placing orders.
  • How often do you order?
  • If you order every day you need to order less than ordering every month. T
  • The actual period will be a balance between the costs to place the order in your own business and with your supplier versus the cost of freight and savings in inventory.
  • Weekly and monthly review periods are most common in sBiz.
  • Our default values in neXtep easy Inventory Model are:
    • Cat A - 7 Days - keep a tight overview on these items
    • Cat B - 14 Days - keep a close, burt not tight overview of these items
    • Cat C - 30 days - the additional days here virtually act as safety stock.
    • Cat D - 0


• Lead Time.
  • This is the most critical time factor, the amount of time it takes to place an order and get inventory from your supplier.
  • Our default value for Lead Time is 30 days, but you can adjust that to suit your business.
  • There are three Lead Time elements involved:
    • the time it takes your business to realize a need, approve and place the order
    • the time it takes for the supplier to receive and process your order, prepare the items for you, and deliver.
    • the time it takes you to check the delivery, place the item in inventory and add it to your stock record so people know it’s available for sale.


• Safety Stock.
  • Safety stock is used to cover variations in demand during your lead time.
  • The bigger the variation around your average demand, the more safety stock you need during Lead Time.
  • For quick and simple safety stock, we suggest:
    • Cat A - one month
    • Cat B - two weeks
    • Cat C - no safety stock
    • Cat D - no safety stock
    
    
    

• Review Period and Safety Stock are totally under your control and most easily reduced.
• Lead Time has two of the three elements under your control also. Work with your supplier to cooperatively reduce their lead times.

• Time also is impacted by the three inter-related transaction flows during lead time.
• These flows are generally tied in time to the flow of the slowest element. These are:
  • Flow of information - use electronic transfers wherever possible, integrated with your supplier, including agreed business rules for approvals.
  • Flow of money - electronic funds transfer wherever possible
  • Flow of items - balanced between flow speed and cost of freight, Consider also warehousing costs - the slower the flow, the more inventory has to be held to cover the extended lead time, and holding inventory costs money.
  
  
• This is how you set your inventory and reorder point levels.
  • Your Min (minimum level) is the time combination of (Lead Time + Safety Stock) X Demand. When your inventory drops to this level, it is time to order so you don’t run out of stock.
  • Your Max (maximum level) is your Min + (Review Period x Demand).
• When you reorder, your reorder quantity takes you back up to the Max. Very simple, but very effective

• To create average demand we use annual sales and divide by 12.

• Nobody really knows exactly what quantity you will sell today or tomorrow.
• So people make estimates, which are called a forecast.
• Forecasts are generally a combination of what you have sold before adjusted by what you think will happen tomorrow.
• You don’t have to be precise to start. Just buying the same quantity you sold last week or month is better than no system at all.
• neXtep easy doesn’t yet provide a means for you to add a forecast adjustment to your sales history of demand.
• Instead, use your Safety Stock - add a percentage factor for known growth (or reduction as a negative)

• This is how you set your inventory and reorder point levels.

• Your Max (maximum level) is your Min + (Review Period x Demand).

• Your Min (minimum level) is the time combination of (Lead Time + Safety Stock) X Demand. When your inventory drops to this level, it is time to order so you don’t run out of stock.


• When you reorder, your reorder quantity takes you back up to the Max. Very simple, but very effective.

• You calculate your planned inventory values by multiplying
  Max and Min Units by your Purchase Cost.
• Then calculate Average Value for each item as
  [Min Value] + ( [Max Value] - [Min Value] / 2
• Create subtotals for each ABC Category and for the total inventory.

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• Here is a letter template for advising customers that you are ceasing standard discounts previously offered to them.
• You can adjust this template for your own use.


• The strategy involved here is to recognise that pretty much everyone first considers price only when you haven’t successfully demonstrated the value your customer receives.
• So move the conversation away from price.
• Instead, you need to demonstrate the value you provide.
• Customers are primarily interested in getting the outcomes they require from the jobs they are doing.
• In your business, you know what jobs people use your products and services for, and what outcomes they are looking for, so you need to highlight the value you provide in meeting those needs. That trumps price for the customers you want to retain, any day.

*************************************************************************************************************

Your Letterhead

(including at least your business name, address and phone contact.)

[Today’s Date]

[Customer Firstname and lastname]

[Customer Business name]

Dear [Firstname],

We have just completed reviewing our discounts policy and realized our sales discounts are actually not helping you, but causing you a disservice!

Sounds crazy, but it’s like this:

We already work to keep our standard prices as razor sharp competitive as we possibly can.

Providing discounts significantly reduces our profitability to a level where we become dangerously less viable.

If we are less viable, then we are more susceptible to market shocks, which could cause us to go out of business.

If we go out of business, then we are no longer able to provide the support you have relied on in meeting your own needs.

We enjoy helping people like you get the results you need, and we don’t want to stop doing that just because we got our discounts policy wrong.

Our customers like you have come back to us time and again because you all know we provide excellent value over our competition. For example:

• Easy to work with. [example]
• Reliability. [example]
• Quality. [example]
• Quick response. [example]
• Supporting advice. [example]

[Give examples where you are providing better value on these - or remove them]

Only recently, another valued customer said:

[add a recent testimonial that backs up value]

You will see this change applying to you purchases from [date].

Your custom is important to us, and we look forward to serving you well into the future.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

[Your Position]

cc. [Accounts Receivable Person]

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• On this page we would like you to check and confirm data you have already entered in your payment or free trial registration.
• You will notice a non-editable and unique username - this is provided for you, and is used for your login instead of an email.
• You are able to change your name and email at any time after onboarding.

• This circle indicates your progress in providing the data we need for the onboarding process.

• You can check your progress strength on any page where onboarding data is required.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• save. Clicking this green button will:
  • store the information you entered on this page, and
  • take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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Congratulations!

• You have completed the onboarding process!
• You have:
  successfully connected with your accounting app.
  collected data and set up your financial metrics.
  calculated the best activity to start with (you will see Action Plan for that in a minute.)
  seen how nextep can generate a lot of additional cash for you from just one example activity.
  set goals in how you wish to make use of your additional cash and time.
  

• click to take action. Clicking this green button will:
  complete the onboarding process
  take you forward to the Take Action page, and selection of your first Action Plan.
  

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• On this page you can set quantified goals.

  Invest in technology	Save time - automate, secure, standardise your biz processes,
  Pay off debt	Reduce your worries and overheads.
  Employ more staff	Seek people who can add to your business competency and faster growth.
  Employ a general manager	Reduce your working hours, work ON not FOR your business
  Early bucket list - enjoy!	Start your bucket list early - like a vacation to a special location.

• If you don’t wish to set goals now you can skip this step

• We can report these Goals and your progress towards achieving them within neXtep easy.
• Like this:

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• skip. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• What would you like to achieve with neXtep easy?
• We want you to get the most value from neXtep easy.
• How will you measure your success?
• Help us to help you stay on track.
• Use the blue buttons on the left to prioritize your preferences for using the additional cash and time that neXtep easy is likely to help you achieve.
• You can save this list then review it and adjust it at any time later.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• save. Clicking this green button will:
  • store the information you entered on this page, and
  • take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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My Business End Goal

You’re 10 times more likely to be successful with Goals

• In a study performed by the Harvard MBA program, those who made and recorded clear goals went on to earn on average 10 times the amount of those who didn’t.
• The earlier you identify the reason you are in business, the more likely you will be better than your competition, and more likely to achieve success.
• While you can skip setting goals if you’re not ready yet, we strongly recommend you take time to be clear to yourself, why you’re in business.
• Goals give you a purpose, a sense of direction, they help put a spring in your step and a reason to overcome day-to-day obstacles in your stride.
• Setting goals will affect your priorities in your marketing, your staff selection, and how you spend your money.

• “The best businesses are sellable, and smart business people believe that you should build a company to be sold even if you have no intention of cashing out or stepping back anytime soon.” - Bo Burlingham.
• “You should always run a company as if it will last forever, and yet you should also strive constantly to maximize its value, building in the qualities that allow it to be sold at any moment for the highest price buyers are paying for businesses like yours.” - Jack Stack.
• You will be looking to build and scale an attraactive business that
• can operate without you,
• creates regular, predictable wealth,
• has a sales engine with predictable pipeline outcomes,
• has a list of high quality customers with great lifetime value,
• a strong management team with incentives to stay on,
• competent staff that can deliver your product with superb reliability.

• According to the Wells Fargo/Gallup Small Business Index, the average small business owner works 52 hours a week, with more than 20 percent working seven days a week.
• The U.S. Census Bureau says 88.6 percent of all U.S.-based companies still require the owner to be there as the primary person responsible for core functions like producing their product or service, managing the day-to-day operations, or managing the financial aspects of the business.
• If you want to get out of this type of rat race, but still love being in a business, then you need a plan to work ON your business rather than IN your business.
• In fact, you will need to do everything required of someone looking to sell their business, plus hiring a top-class CEO to run the business for you.

• With this option, you will aim to be fully involved in the business every day, but will be able to delegate the operational functions and processes to competent staff.
• For your business to be sustainable over time, you too will need to achieve all the requirements of someone wanting to sell their business.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• save. Clicking this green button will:
• store the information you entered on this page, and
• take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• skip. Clicking this orange button will take you on to the next page.

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• Once you have finished your onboarding process you can come back at any time to adjust your customization settings.
• Open the main menu on the header bar on any page, and click ‘Customize’
• This will take you to the set of Customization pages you are now familiar with.
• Choose the page you want and adjust the content as you wish.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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• In just a minute, we’ll put you on track to start building your business wealth, one simple step at a time.
• But first, let’s get a final few things put away...

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• Here, we’ve calculated again your potential for earning additional money from just one of our Action Plan activities for you.
• This is an annual increase over your current earnings, before tax.
• This increase can be immediate and requires minimal or no outlay from you.

• Here, we show you the comparison between the annual subscription for neXtep easy and the potential increase for you from this one activity.

• We’ve made a quick calculation of what your working capital situation is compared with your industry revenue group, and show here potential for releasing money tied up in unnecessary assets such as Outstanding Debtors and Inventory.
• Later, you will get specific step by step Action Plan on how to win that money back.

• If we’ve already convinced you that neXtep esy will e a fabulous investment for your business then you can convert your Free Trial immediately into an annual subscription, and save $240 over the monthly subscription rate.

• back. Clicking this green button will take you back to the previous page.
• next. Clicking this green button will take you forward to the next page in the onboarding process.
• come back later. Clicking this orange button will take you back to the start of the onboarding process, and log you out. Your work will be saved, and whenever you come back to complete onboarding, you will start again exactly where you last left off.

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