Business

Phil Pickford, phil.pickford@thinkdifferently.kiwi.nz

Going gets tough ... the tough get selling

Business is experiencing tough times at the moment.

Indeed, it is tough times for most of us. We just need to pick up a newspaper, watch the news, listen to the radio or read our news feeds, and we are assaulted with a growing list of crises: inflation, cost of living, interest rates, climate change, war. It’s wonder that any of us find the will to carry on! But we do. Our species has this wonderfully successful ability to accept and adapt.

When I turn the focus onto business, those crises are having one overarching effect –cashflow difficulties. There are few industries that are booming right now on the Hibiscus Coast. Many of us are experiencing that double whammy – a decrease in sales and an increase in costs. Once in that vice, cash becomes the limiting factor. What can we do?

Business owners have been advised to act in a certain way since the dawn of time – first, cut costs. But you have already done that –you are already running a tight ship. You can’t cut costs any more, otherwise you will need an eight-day week to do everything.

No – cutting costs, below that required for efficient operations, is not the first thing to do. The first thing to do is sell more! Don’t cut your sales force, enlarge it. Train it, change it – do whatever you need to do to ensure you sell more. And, yes, it is hard, especially when demand is low and competition is high.

Thus, what I call ‘the tyranny of sales’. It is critical for a company’s success, and yet few people want to do it. We feel too pushy. Our view of salespeople is tarnished by thoughts of the pushy Encyclopaedia seller, or the foot-in-the-door vacuum salesperson.

In the recent past we just put advertisements into our local paper and hey presto, we had some leads, but it’s not that easy anymore. Advertising still has a big part to play, of course, but it needs to be backed with a total change of mindset around sales. A change that is backed by research – and one that works.

This brings us to The Three Laws of Marketing Physics – a concept first developed by Doug Hall, author of Jump Start Your Business Brain, and a way to get past the tyranny of sales.

To best explain this concept, imagine yourself as a prospective customer of widgets from Widgets Ltd in Silverdale. When faced with their salesperson you, as the prospect, have three groups of questions that need to be satisfied before you will buy a widget. First, why should I care? Has my attention been piqued? Will I give this salesperson the time of day? Will I even listen? Secondly, what’s in it for me? What obvious benefit will I gain by purchasing a widget? And thirdly, why should I believe this salesperson? What proof have they provided that these widgets work? Am I confident that they will work for me?

We silently ask all these questions when we buy anything. So, as a Widget maker, turn it around. Make sure you are answering every question, clearly and proactively, before being asked.

If you can sell more in a difficult market, when it recovers, as it surely will, your increased market share will be your foundation for future growth.

Residents voting in the Whangaparāoa electorate in this year’s election so far have five candidates to choose from, with three more announcing their candidacy recently.

Meanwhile, Bill Dyet, who left Democracy NZ and joined the Leighton Baker Party will now no longer stand. Instead, he will be assisting NZ Loyal’s Jeanette Wilson (see below).

Hoping to wrest the long-held National seat from current MP Mark Mitchell’s grasp are Labour’s Estefania (Stef) Muller Pallares, ACT’s Simon Angelo, Craig Laybourn of Democracy NZ ,and NZ Loyal’s Jeanette Wilson.

Muller Pallares announced her candidacy several months ago (HM May 1). The new faces are Angelo, who is number 39 on ACT NZ’s list, Laybourn and Wilson. Angelo, who lives with his family on the North Shore, has owned several businesses, starting his first at age 16. He manages global share portfolios for wholesale investors and contributes to the daily investment news site, Wealth Morning Democracy NZ’s Craig Laybourn worked in the extractive industries for 27 years, in roading aggregate quarries. He has been working as a career airport firefighter for three years, after 14 years as a volunteer. Laybourn will help develop the party’s roading and infrastructure policies. He lives in Kerikeri with his family and says pushing for improved infrastructure to connect and unlock the potential of Northland, is a priority.

Former bank manager, healer, writer and personal development facilitator, Jeanette Wilson of Ōrewa is standing in Whangaparāoa for Liz Gunn’s NZ Loyal. Health and education are two key platforms for her party.

Nominations for candidates have to be in by mid-September.

Election day is October 14, with advance voting starting on October 2.

Fast track option has few months to run

Fast track resource consenting, via the Covid-19 Recovery Act will still continue for a time, although the Act that brought it into being was repealed on July 8. The Act, which came into effect on July 9, 2020, allows a project to bypass Auckland Council’s resource consent process, with decisions instead made by a panel of experts, supported by the Environmental Protection Authority (EPA). It was designed to fast-track projects that could boost economic recovery, post-pandemic. However, although the legislation has been repealed, a few more applications could come through the process. This is because all projects had to first meet eligibility criteria and be referred by the Minister for the Environment, through an Order in Council. Once a project received an Order in Council, the applicant could lodge an application with the EPA. Transitional provisions in the Act allow for projects that received an Order in Council before the date the Act was repealed (July 8), to lodge an application with the EPA, within six months. Locally, the residential development on the former Hibiscus Coast Community RSA land was the first to gain consent via this route. Currently the only local ones in the system are Strathmill residential development in north Ōrewa, Stage 5 of East Coast Heights subdivision in Silverdale and the Dairy Flat surfing wave complex (HM June 12).

Karepiro community pantry

Community food pantries, where anyone can place food for others to take free of charge, have popped up all around the Coast in recent years.

The latest one to be unveiled, on Karepiro Drive in Whangaparāoa (outside Coast Kids on Karepiro childcare centre) had the first food items placed in it as part of a Matariki celebration on July 13.

The pantry has been provided by the childcare centre. Centre manager, Janette Baird, says the families wanted to do something special for Matariki and give back to the community.

The centre is very close to a number of op shops, making it a highly visible and convenient location for a free food pantry.

“The project gives us a wonderful opportunity to share our manakitangi and aroha, and help those in need,” Janette says. “Nau te rourou, naku te rourou, ka ora te manuhiri.” – with your basket and my basket, we will sustain the people”.

The children made a plan and a design was drawn up. Two of the centre’s dads, Brock Barrie and Theo Botha, then built the pantry using materials donated by Ze Build and some of their own.

Janette says the only unfortunate thing was that the solar lights on the pantry were stolen the first night it was put up. They have since been replaced with stronger fixings.

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