7 Skills Required for Business

Here are 7 skills/competencies that can really help you with your business.

1. Financial Acumen – Running any business involves money. Love it or hate it, a business is about generating sales, paying suppliers and investing or using the profits. In business it is very important to understand terms like: Margin, Markup, Gross Profit, Net Profit, Cost of Goods, Carriage, Creditor Days, Debtor Days, Interest rates. Unless you take the time to understand these metrics, they will cost you money because you will not ask the right questions. No one cares about your money as much as you should do.

2. Marketing Skills – Marketing involve communication of your message about your product or service, It has to be compelling enough for a potential customer to be interested in it. But marketing goes far wider and deeper than a product – it needs to reflect you and the company as well. Every time a communication is delivered from you or your company, that’s marketing. It evolves all the time. Learn it and embrace it.

3. Sales Skills – Sales are the most important thing in any business, but for most they get the least amount of attention. Most business owner and their teams never receive any formal sales training, yet their business depends on sales for its success. Rather than saying – “yeah, yeah, I know how to sell” – simply say “I can sell, but how good am I at selling”, then go and read a book about selling in your industry. Good sales skills are critical to your success.

4. Networking Skills – It's not about who you know, it's about who knows you – old adage – always true. And if you are known – what are you known for – All the right things I hope – Are you the “go to” person in your industry, in your area. Are you an expert? When networking does you look to get or give? It should be give – thats how networking works.

5. Purchasing Skills – making a margin and a profit are 2 of the fundamentals of business. Good buying will allow much higher profits and margins and the customer can also win. Learning how to negotiate on purchasing is a key skill. Knowing your marketplace, knowing your sources, having alternative sources, knowing what your competitors are buying – being able to say “NO”, getting FREE carriage.

6. Pricing Skills – The obsession with cheap often leads people to think that every person knows the price of everything and that they will only buy based on price – this is not true – Price is only a minor factor in the buying decision and it is important to price with this in mind. Being cheap will break your business and attract the worst type of client – price only driven, no loyalty, no appreciation of service, no appreciation of convenience, no appreciation of aftersales service.

7. Customer Service – Again, often neglected – but people will return because of the service they get. Again too many people receive no service training, not even a good induction. A consistent approach to excellent service will deliver more profits than any marketing campaign that you undertake.

We work with our clients every day on the above skills – If you would like a FREE business review – get in touch today – 087 222 0720.