Richard's Local & National News Articles
Why to start a business during a recession
Some may think starting a business during a recession is a mistake, but there are opportunities to be exploited
Richard Denny, a business-development adviser, is also enthusiastic about the idea of starting a business in a recession. “If you can start in a tough market, your chances of success and real growth when things ease off are phenomenal,” he said.
“Most people start businesses in an easy trading climate, then they get up against a tough market and haven’t a clue how to cope. They then go seriously wrong and get into difficulties.” He thinks one fertile area for would-be entrepreneurs to target is the over-fifties market — consumers who are relatively recession-resistant. “In an uncertain economic climate, the one section of the community that is still growing is the over-fifty marketplace. They have equity in their property, they have savings and they earn a bit more as interest rates rise.
“They are continuing to spend on holidays, on hobbies, on sports and keeping fit, on interests, on lifestyle, on health and diet. So anything in those directions is a very big market.” He advises would-be entrepreneurs to make the customer absolutely central to their business idea — something that sounds obvious but which people rarely do. “Most people who start businesses do so because they fall in love with a new product or invention. They don’t reverse that to thinking whether a customer would really like it. Would they buy it, what is their interest, how are they going to benefit from it?
“In every business you must start with the philosophy of being customer-led but sales-driven. People have this belief that good products sell themselves. They don’t. I have never once seen a good product sell itself.” However, the most important ingredient for succeeding in a difficult market, said Denny, is attitude. “Success is created in business not just by the product, but more by the individual’s enthusiasm. You could put sweet shops alongside each other and the one that will succeed will not be because it has better sweets, it will be because of the attitude of the person running that business.
“If you make the customer feel you care and give them a good experience in a recession, you will be surprised by what can be achieved when times are good.”
Article published by: The Sunday Times, Business section. April 27, 2008
The Seven Habits of Customer Champions
Competition’s fierce and purse strings are pulling ever tighter as the credit crunch bites. So save yourself some marketing spend and keep your customers happy.
Business guru Tom Peters said: “It is the greatest kept secret in the global economy today. If you can provide awesome care you will need new suitcases to carry all the money home.”
CRM has been in fashion for a number of years, and all sorts of quality-control services come and go. But keeping customers is incredibly easy. Even better, happy customers do the selling for you.
Very few businesses have really even started to understand customer care and the millions it can make them. Here are just a few very simple tips:
- Develop a positive customer obsession from the top.
- Make every person that touches your brand an ambassador.
- Operate risk reversal — in other words you carry the risk, not the customer — and give a 100 per cent money back guarantee.
- Put people back onto switchboards.
- Do the thing you didn’t have to do: the kindness, the follow-up phone call, a small thank you gift.
- Give absolute priority to a customer complaint — it is a massive opportunity to develop a customer for life.
- Invest in your people, train them, inspire them and motivate them. Good training works immediately.
What are your best tips for customer retention? Let us know by adding a comment below.
Article published by: BNET.com
Ross Reyburn meets author Richard Denny and finds the descendent Sir Walter Raleigh has some forthright views on politicians, business and the art of motivation
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"Politicians are incompetent. Parliament is stacked with people doing jobs they are incompetent to do. They would never get through my recruitment agency. "None of the present Cabinet would have got into Clement At Iee's post-war Labour cabinet." This isn't the kind of outburst you'd expect to hear during a weekday interview over morning coffee in a quiet corner of the Edwardian Tea Room in the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery but Richard Denny, the man christened "Britain's Mr Motivator", has some strong views. After a career preaching good practice in the world of selling, he finds the monolithic government machine'5 mistakes - such as the billions spent on a so far unworkable National Health Service national computer data base exasperating. "Very sadly Parliament is populated with too many people completely out of touch with reality with no genuine business experience.
Your medical records are in Birmingham and you are, say, in Scotland. All you have to do is make a phone call or send an email to access the records. You don't have to go into a national data base - it is mind-blowingly stupid." Neither has he that high an opinion of the twin pillars of. New Labour, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. "We won't see the full devastation of what Mr Brown has done for 10 to fifteen years. Pensions are just one example. Prior to when he came in as Chancellor of the Exchequer, we had the best pensions industry in Europe. He utterly and completely decimated it by taxing pension funds.
Article published by: The Birmingham Post
Winning New Business - Essential sales skills for non-sales people.
For any franchisor or franchisee involved in a sales business - and let’s face it what business isn’t a sales business? - Richard Denny’s new title is recommended reading
HIGHLIGHTS:
The techniques for professionals and people in business who "don't do" selling but nevertheless have to win new clients and customers.
It makes winning new business enjoyable and takes out the mystique of selling.
Offers advice on how to win business from competitors without slipping into a price war.
Demonstrates how to sell without being aggressive or pushy.
Winning New Business is the book for everyone who is client or customer facing and who really should have the skills to help bring in the business and keep existing clients and customers.
Article published by: The Franchise Magazine
Read: Complete article..
Innovate and Prosper
Someone who most definitely does meet the prospective candidates is Richard Denny. He is chairman of the Richard Denny Group who specialise in finding candidates for senior appointments. “We are gamekeepers turned poachers because, for years, I had been using recruitment agencies and wasn't terribly satisfied with some of the results,” says Denny. Such dissatisfaction provided the impetus to find a better way of recruiting. “The candidates are normally very vulnerable at this stage and I felt they weren't being looked after,” explains Denny. “Many of the candidates were treated a little bit like flotsam - they put up their CVs then weren’t being told what was going on; they weren't getting feedback. “We treat every single candidate as if they could be an ambassador. They are given continual feedback and if they are rejected we then make sure they are treated kindly and given very good reasons as to why they weren't going forward in the process or the job wasn’t given to them. “It is absolutely paramount, we feel, for the long-term, that people should be looked after at this stage in their careers when they go to an agency; that is something we do that is very different to any other agency.”
Once the candidate has received and accepted an offer they are placed on the Group’s half-day business lifestyle programme. This, says Denny, is to make sure that: “... they are going in with our ‘brand stamp’ on them because, as a brand, the Richard Denny Group is known for being very positive and successful. We want to make sure they are really up to speed in modern leadership skills and techniques.” “completely impartial advice” Once they start, they are mentored for one year as they face the challenges of their new role. “When people get into a new job, often they find it is not what they expected,” says Denny. “A mentor provides the candidate with somebody to talk to in the event they are presented with a job issue they are uncertain about. Very few people have anyone to talk to in business who doesn’t have an axe to grind. We can give them completely impartial advice.”
Article published by: the HRDIRECTOR, Issue 43, January 08. Reproduced with permission.
Inspirational new book - Winning and keeping your piece of the pie - by renowned business guru
Winning New Business – world-renowned sales expert reveals the secret for confident selling
Winning new business is essential to business growth and responsibility for bringing in new customers or clients no longer falls within the remit of just the sales team. Whether you’re a bank manager, a lawyer or an accountant, you too have a duty to promote your company’s growth and that means winning new business. Now, world-renowned sales guru, Richard Denny, author of global bestseller Selling to Win, reveals how to take the fear out of selling, showing just what to do and how to do it in his new book Winning New Business.
This practical book provides inspirational guidance for anyone who needs to bring in business but lacks the right experience, training and confidence. In just ten chapters, Richard Denny shows you how to make a sale without being aggressive or pushy and looks at every vital aspect of winning – and keeping – customers and clients. In true Denny style he motivates and inspires from the first page to the last, giving you the ability and confidence to succeed.
Article published by: Velvet Integrated PR
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