Business to Business Quarterly | The Autumn Edition

BUSINESS to business Quarterly

$9.50

AUTUMN EDITION | 2015

The Magic of Targets Why setting targets will evolve your business

3 S’S FOR SURVIVAL

KEY ACCOUNTS MATTER

Learn essential tips for the travelling salesman.

Most businesses fail the customers that matter most.

Passion Sells Find out why skills in sales only get you so far

ESSENTIAL TOOLS FOR A DIGITALLY DISRUPTED 2015

COACHING VS MENTORING Learn the differences to decide which you may need.

Our business meetings...

...aren’t like meetings in other countries. Relationships matter more than long emails and formal committees. Because of our unique way of doing business you need a training company that teaches your team skills tailored to the Kiwi business psyche.

When you’re looking to significantly boost the performance of your sales and marketing don’t choose a licenced solution from abroad, choose a company that grew up here and understands just how great it is to work differently. Choose THE Marketing Company.

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Welcome AUTUMN EDITION 2015

6 A note about this edition.

Sales is an ever-changing blend of science and art, it’s not a job but a way of thinking and problemsolving. Men and women that have spent their entire careers in sales still learn when faced with a change in consumer or client needs or by changing attitudes to the sales process.

In this edition we explore a couple of those changing trends. We also look at some thought-provoking arguments that might just challenge how a sales person approaches their next client. We hope to inspire a business to look at how it sells, and generates interest in selling.

Some of us at THE Marketing Company have not only been training and coaching sales teams for over a decade, we have also implemented many of these approaches ourselves, and have learnt from them. Not only are these articles based on our experiences as trainers and coaches, they are based on our experiences as consumers ourselves.

We hope you enjoy the magazine.

Make more money in your business.

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Contents 2

The 3 S’s For Surviving Selling Easy steps for being safer & more productive

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Why Key Account Management Matters The clients that are your lifeblood

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Passion Sells Exceptional selling for exceptional results

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Essential Business Tools For a digitally disrupted 2015

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The Magic Of Targets Focus your efforts, reap the rewards

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The Difference Between Coaching & Mentoring Our definitive guide

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Two Pronged Approach To Better Business How good HR makes a great business

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Which Came First, The Chicken Or The Egg? Do sales give us advertising or the other way around?

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No Wonder We Don’t Like Sales People The bad habits that give the art a bad name

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I Know A Guy...

Network your way to a better business

Business-to-Business is subject to copyright in its entirety. The contents may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author. The opinions represented in the magazine are not necessarily those of THE Marketing Company Ltd. For advertising opportunities or any other enquiries please contact Tom Emmerson: tom@themarketingcompany.co.nz

The 3 S’s For Surviving Selling There is no school or University of selling and so for most of us we learn on the job and from colleagues. With that in mind I wanted to share some tricks and tips that I have picked up over the years, here in NZ and overseas.

Tim Jones

1. Sphere All sales people are in charge of a territory that is designated by the company but you need to make sure that your sphere of influence is bigger than just that and that you dominate it and on many different levels.

Above all else you need to be the authority on your product/industry. What is going on in the wider world of your customer and therefore your work world.

Similarly know more than just your customer in their business. Spend some time to get to know the people that work with them internally from other divisions.

Getting to know the cleaners is just as important as

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knowing the CEO. After all, if you need to drop a product to a client after hours you are more likely to get the cleaner to let you in than the boss.

Above all else know where to pick up a great cup of tea and a feed, but most of all somewhere with poor cell phone reception and that your boss doesn’t know about.

2. Safety Sales people spend a LOT of time in their vehicles, and that fact means that being a travelling sales rep is one of the most dangerous career choices when you look at road safety statistics.

Your car is in effect your main office and as such your personal safety and that of others around you should be paramount.

Many sales people will be required to carry samples, demo equipment and or the actual widget that you are selling and in some cases these can be heavy items. So make sure that they are in the boot of your car secured with bungees if you can, and remove or secure any other loose items in the front. Even small items can become deadly if you are involved in an accident.

As a failsafe measure (as opposed to fail, which is a term worth remembering) ensure that your rear seatbelts are always fastened when not in use. The only thing stopping whatever is in your boot from flying out into the cockpit is the two plastic lugs that hold your seat up...

Volvo know a lot about car safety and, in Europe at least, all Volvo cars have their headlights on whenever the ignition is on. I personally like this idea as it helps others to see you. For pedestrians and cyclists crossing roads it can just help provide that extra few seconds of time in recognition.

Sales people hate to be away from their phones. Many companies have a blanket ban on phone usage in cars for insurance reasons, however, if your company doesn’t then at least spend some of your pay cheque on a hands-free kit if your company hasn’t provided you with one or a vehicle with inbuilt Bluetooth. For me this one is non-negotiable. I personally couldn’t live with myself if I caused an accident whilst texting or calling. If you are lucky enough to get away without harming yourself or others also bear in mind that racking up tickets or losing your licence could affect your career progression choices.

If you are in a branded vehicle then you are also likely to have a negative impact on the wider business and more people are utilising police

resources (such as *555 in NZ or “report a bad driver” forms online) to ensure we all get home safely. The same goes for speeding. Just don’t do it. Most of us drive late model cars with cruise control so make use of it. If you seem to be running late all the time put your clock forward 10 minutes (don’t forget on time is late, arriving 10 minutes early is on time).

Remember this is your “office”, you want to get home as much as everyone else does, and let’s face it if you lose your licence I’m betting that your boss won’t provide a chauffeur-driven car for you.

Having been through the earthquakes in Canterbury I can only suggest that you get a decent emergency kit in your car and if you are travelling in winter consider what extras you may need, for example a small shovel. In a similar vein keeping a bottle of water or two in your car will save you some money (and the environment) and hand sanitiser and travel wipes are useful (for example after you check your tyre pressure...).

Finally for safety, don’t forget that you may be visiting other peoples offices and other places of work during your day so take heed of any H&S requirements but also remember that as a visitor you may notice behaviour, systems or set ups that could need adjustment and don’t be afraid to point them out in an appropriate manner.

3. Selling This is where the magic happens (let’s face it that is the best word to describe sales with its mix of science, theatre and artistry) but there are some really easy tips for making this run more easily for you and your customer.

Every sales person needs a bag.

Sorry guys, that means you as well. You are the go-to guy for your customers so what is the use of them coming to you to solve

a problem and you have to just nip back to your car because you couldn’t carry all the stuff you need?

Some useful things to put in your bag would be: 1. A note book/pad - if you don’t have one of these you are not a sales person. Fact.

2. Take a book or journal to read when your customers are running late. You’ll be surprised how many you will go through.

Another option is to use Evernote, pocket or Instapaper to clip articles.

3. Business cards.

4. Company and product brochures.

5. Print offs of some latest articles that are relevant to your customers.

6. Spare pens and a highlighter.

7. If you sell a product then any small but potentially product failing spares, that tiny screw that is always on back order but works on every machine and is critical to them working is a good place to start.

8. Similarly if you sell a product have some samples. A Tupperware box/fishing tackle box at worst (try and make it look as pretty as possible). Pelican cases with the foam cut to size in side are your best bet.

9. An array of cables - iPhone/USB etc - being that useful guy when your boss or a client has forgotten theirs is an easy win.

10. Any batteries that you often use.

The basic premise for me is that with all of the above you can deal with most situations. Have a think of any that may be relevant to you and perhaps at the next sales meeting see what your colleagues could recommend of use to have.

These are some of my tips for successful selling, I’d love to get your feedback on what helps you be a stand out sales person.

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Why Key Account Management Matters Ambrose Blowfield I was recently working with a business in Auckland on their key account management and realised that time and time again myself, and the team, see the same problems across a diverse range of businesses.

proactively. An important question any business should ask itself is: how many ‘standard’ clients would it take to replace one of our key accounts?

While a simple exercise, it is seldom done by businesses. Try it.

In this particular organisation I was sitting in a room where one sales person, who was seven days into the business was sitting opposite another who had 27 years of experience in the business. Neither of them knew the core clients who contributed the most value to their business. The new starter obviously had an excuse, but the ‘old hand’ didn’t, and to be sitting in a business where the idea of key account management was a new idea is equally as worrying as it is exciting.

What about the next tier of key accounts? As a business you likely know the top two or three accounts you have that are your big ticket earners, the ones that really prop up your business. But chances are that there are half a dozen more that would make a serious impact to the bottom line if they were all to be won by a competitor.

Let’s say your two main accounts are worth $1m each a year, yet the eight below them are all worth $300,000 each. I appreciate it’s less It’s exciting because there is a effort to manage the two big clients unique opportunity to sit down with but when the others combined are them and develop a strategy for worth 120% of the two big ones nurturing and growing those key wouldn’t you say they’re worth accounts that the business thinks even more attention? Business is a it’s already getting the best from, numbers game, just as much as it’s a when in fact it’s barely scratching relationship game. the surface, of those accounts’ true What about referrals? It is very business value. likely that your top handful of It never ceases to amaze me how key clients are also the ones that are opportunities are lost to businesses your best referrers as well. Hence, that are otherwise really on the ball. your top clients are likely worth They just don’t allocate enough time, even more to your overall business. money and effort to researching and Most businesses rely heavily on managing those key accounts. There word of mouth referrals. The is also very little effort allocated to question I would ask is: do you keeping those key accounts. always thank your clients in an appropriate manner each and every Firstly, few businesses even know time they refer to your business? how much their top accounts are actually worth, let alone how Now ask yourself this: how much frequently they are to be managed effort would your competitor

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put in to try and win those key clients off you? So how much effort should you put into trying to keep them? We have found over many years that businesses can get overly confident in a long-term customer relationship. Some forget how hungry their competitors are, especially in uncertain economic times.

Stop and think about your key accounts. Make more of an effort, a proactive effort. What I mean by that is make an effort to proactively lead the relationship, rather than relying on the client to contact you.

Could you be in a situation where your top few accounts would need over thirty other accounts to replace them? How much time and money would that take to win? Now ask yourself how much time and money it would take to look after your existing customers slightly better. Done right, key account management is enjoyable, simple and it develops your overall business knowledge.

Identifying your key accounts is one thing. Understanding the strategy behind keeping them is another.

We will never tire of showing a business how easy it is to tap into the gold mine that is key account management.

Unless you’re taking notes already, I challenge you to re-read this article and take action: your business deserves it.

Passion Sells Be Without Peer Mike Clark It happened again, like poetry in motion, the customer walked in cautious but keen, with a request for a kitchen quote and some ideas around what she liked. The sales rep greeted her, engaged her, made her feel comfortable, took her around the showroom discussing the options available, pausing with a little flair, for those telling few seconds longer at her favourite samples, before moving on. The customer listened, watched, heard, engaged with the rep and then bought the sales rep’s favourite combination.

Yes you read that line right – the customer bought what the sales rep loved, oh, and I must add - she was happy about it!

How you might ask? Simple really – it happens every day in countless sales. Look at any successful rep’s sales figures and you will see what they love to sell. Great sales people know Passion, Confidence and Belief sell every time. Having sold, observed and trained sales people for years now I have seen that sales reps who get results follow a very simple formula and pattern that allows them to outsell their peers every time.

This is how to be a rep who outsells, out-preforms and out-shines – be that rep – be one without peer.

First some sales basics: 1. Customers do NOT buy what you are selling. They DO buy what your product or service can do for them.

2. Customers do NOT come for the to experience this ‘wonder’ for sales pitch, they DO come to be themselves. guided by people who (should) Your enthusiasm must be linked know better. to a very important component 3. People buy from people. Focus that keeps the customer with you – on the person and explore their Engagement! problems, issues, concerns and Take them on the journey with situations (PICS) and uncover you, match their PICS & HIAD’s, their hopes, ideas, aspirations and ask them how they see the dreams (HIAD). product/service meeting and even People read people a lot more than exceeding what they had expected they give themselves credit for. It – the magic comes when your is suggested that over 90% of all level of engagement is so high that communication is done without customers start to sell themselves, words. You literally ‘speak’ through “Oh Mary will love that and James your body language and your tone. will be so pleased it can deliver in This is the clue to the first sales key: that area…”

Be Passionate!

Passionate people exude confidence and belief and this is highly appealing. You get passionate when you understand what a product can do for people. Learn all you can about your product, speak to your clients and suppliers and see why they love it and talk about it. Learn all about the features and benefits and especially why people connect with it – look for your personal connection. Aston Martin gets employees to drive in the top range cars because they know this fuels a passionate commitment to the brand.

This then sets you up for key 2 – passion unlocks the door that allows enthusiasm to pour forth.

When you have driven in a car that goes from 0-100kms in 3 secs you speak with a depth of energy that is contagious. Enthusiasm draws customers in and makes them want

The fourth key is simple to use and done at the right time secures the sale and delights the customer. All customers are prone to a degree of ‘pre-buyer’s remorse’ especially on larger financial items or ones involving risk. Your recommendation can often be that little bit of reassurance that gives the confidence & peace of mind to say yes.

A little extra tip – follow your recommendation with reassurance, “You will be so pleased you purchased that, I know it’s just what you need to meet your requirements”. This allows the customer to feel good, increases referrals and repeat buying because the customer gets what they want and need.

So go on then, unlock the door to your success and your customers satisfaction and sell with Passion Enthusiasm, Engagement and Recommendation.

Business to Business Quarterly

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Essential Business Tools For A Digitally Disrupted 2015 Technology keeps advancing at an incredible rate and savvy businesses are finding ways to make their business more efficient by embracing some of these changes.

Staples Rodway

The world continues to be changed by technology and businesses that adapt best will prosper in 2015 and beyond. Cloud computing is not new, but its prevalence and interconnectedness is rapidly increasing. It will become a greater agent of change in 2015.

Access to data anywhere, anytime and one-time entry The cloud enables great access to data from wherever you have an Internet connection. This is enabling virtualisation of business environments and mobility of workforces.

Bits of paper which were previously created on the road and entered into systems back in the office can be keyed directly into client systems via apps and tablets.

More cloud applications and greater connectivity Xero and MYOB shows where things are heading and the ‘add-on’ environment is growing every day, 8

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with increasing connectivity and automated data feeds from other systems.

and platforms. The reduced start-up costs enable greater flexibility for companies undergoing change.

The movement to the cloud will continue apace and see additional growth in connected environments across banking logistics and accounting with products tailored to specific industries or functionality.

The growth of crowdfunding

More niche applications Given developers are selling to a global consumer base they are able to create niche products as the economics are no longer confined by small domestic markets.

More migration of IT infrastructure into the cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) is shifting spend previously allocated to hard equipment and internal IT resources into a monthly charge to third party data centre. New businesses will not need to buy hardware but instead make use of cloud-based messaging, storage

Crowdfunding refers to raising money for projects or ventures from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Whilst global crowdfunding has experienced large growth there are still relatively few players and projects in New Zealand. We expect 2015 to be the year crowdfunding makes waves here.

Business Tools To manage a business in a digitally disrupted 2015, businesses need to identify and understand the changes, challenge the status quo and assess the opportunities.

To do this, effective governance programmes are required. This means taking the time to step outside the day-to-day operation of the business and really focus on the issues.

We find that a board or advisory board ensure (or forces) business owners to make the time to assess and react to these aspects. External participants help keep business owners honest or accountable and bring different skill sets. After all, it isn’t what has already been done but what needs to be done that’s important.

In order for management, or an advisory board, to operate effectively they must be provided with accurate and robust information and a quantification of the expected financial impacts.

Accurate financial reporting is going to be a key business tool in 2015 to make financial sense of the opportunities and threats.

Given the amount of uncertainty in the business environment (think of the changes outlined above, as well as changing interest rates, exchange rates, commodity and oil prices, etc.) these financial reports should provide for comprehensive analysis

of the businesses performance on a regular basis.

How does Crowdfunding work?

At Staples Rodway, for example, we’ve developed reporting tools for business owners and managers. One example, ‘Smart Reporting’, quickly and cost effectively generates accurate and transparent reports that bring together Cashflow, Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet analysis. It is a management discipline that will remain a key tool in 2015.

In essence instead of looking for one or two big financial backers willing to invest a lot into your project or business you look to a lot of people to invest a little bit. Kickstarter is one such public version where inventions or projects get the support of followers in return for incentives (which increase in appeal and value as the investment increases).

As Charles Darwin so succinctly put it: “It’s not the strongest species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the most responsive to change.”

For businesses SnowballEffect has emerged. Along a similar vein investors can commit an amount for perks. The recent release of shares for Aeronavics, a Raglinbased drone company, investors are able to fly one of the drones at the AGM. Brewing company Renaissance Brewing gave crates of their beers with investments over a certain amount, lesser investments only received a tour of the factory at the AGM.

Does your business appreciate the changes taking place and have the means and tools to respond in 2015?

For more information on SnowballEffect and its current offers visit: www.snowballeffect.co.nz Business to Business Quarterly

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The Magic Of Targets Goals in a business are not enough. In order to create fundamental longterm business success, it is extremely important to clearly define where you are going.

Graeme Beals “If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there,” is an often repeated paraphrasing of a discussion between Alice and the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland, about which pathway to take. The critical question, is; “Where do you want to get to?” In business speak, we could say; “What is your mission?”

Once we answer that question, it is pretty obvious that an important next step is to set an objective or objectives around getting to that point.

So many businesses do have some sort of objective, even if it isn’t written down. An accountant might have as a mission to provide the best accountancy help available to farmers in the deep south.

So, a strategy in this case may be a set of decisions like; 1.

2. a) b) c)

As you can see, such a goal is specific though not yet as to brand of vehicle or type of connectability Our offices will be our cars. (outcome oriented). It is measurable We will promote our advisory because there is a specific date and expertise around the financial of a set of accomplishments to have accounting by: met by that date. It is attainable in that allows enough time to achieve regularly visit every client’s/ the task, and relevant in that it potential client’s farm, learning directly feeds a strategy based on the as we go. objective. And lastly it is trackable making our website rich in over time, in that it can be broken farming related information. into component parts which can each be tracked, and that lead to the sharing knowledge of how to completion of the whole. achieve farming profitability from our most profitable clients A goal for number two (a) to (d) with our less profitable clients. could be something like;

d) attending farm learning days so we keep up with the information available about farming, along with our clients.

We will each talk to 600 farmers a year and will each visit 200 farms.

This goal too is specific though not yet as to which farmers or where One objective arising from that may 3. We will be doing the farm (outcome oriented). It is measurable be to start a specialised accountancy accounts for 300 clients within because there is a specific time practice that specifically targets 2 years. period (a year) and numerical farmers as clients. goal to have met in that time. It is From this set of strategies, we would attainable in that it allows enough Frequently that is as far as then work with a client to create time to achieve the task, ie visiting businesses get. And frequently goals. These should be SMART 4 farms a week and talking to 12 businesses will refer to such goals where the letters for SMART farmers a week by any means. Again objectives as goals. stand for – specific, measurable, it is relevant in that it directly feeds attainable, relevant and trackable But we at THE Marketing a strategy based on the objective. over time.

Company don’t and that is because And lastly it is trackable over for one thing, there is little or no So a goal for strategy number one time, in that it can be broken into measurable specificity around an could be something like; component parts which can each objective like that, and secondly, it be tracked, and that lead to the By the end of June, lease company is too early to set goals quite yet, as completion of the whole. cars for each partner suited to rural you haven’t devised a strategy, which roads (and carrying passengers and There is plenty of good research is to say, you haven’t defined a course equipment), and have it enabled for to show that there are direct links you will take in order to meet your on-board computer/phone/internet between having identified goals and objective. use from remote locations. achieving enhanced performance in

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business, and hopefully you can now clearly see that to have come this far, is to have done some very focused planning towards creating the business and executing the strategy that we have envisioned.

However, now we come to the magic of Targets!

Targets are a prioritised set of action plan steps to achieve each goal.

Let’s break down the second goal, we will each talk to 600 farmers a year and will each visit 200 farms, into Targets.

For a start we could go for monthly targets.

Let’s assume we want to be on the road for just 40 weeks a year, allowing time for holidays, actually doing our accounting functions, speaking to farmers by phone and at field days etc and generally managing our business. Forty weeks is effectively 10 months of the year, so we could say: From 1st February to November 30 we will visit no less than 20 farms a month each keeping thorough database records of each visit, whether a client or a prospect. and: From 1st February to November 30 we will talk to at least 60 farmers a month each, recording who they were, how they farmed and where they were from, in our CRM. We could then break these down to weekly targets for the first 4 whole weeks of each month along the following lines; This week I will visit 5 farms keeping thorough database records of each visit, whether a client or a prospect. and: This week I will talk to at least 15 farmers recording who they were, how they farmed and where they were from, in our CRM.

And each individual could then break these down to daily targets for each week based on how they like to work.

On Monday this week I will phone the next 10 farmers on my list and seek to make appointments to visit 5 of them next week.

On Tuesday I will visit the 3 farms on my list of booked appointments and on Wednesday morning I will visit the other 2 farms for my week.

On Tuesday afternoon I will attend the Marshland field-day and I will talk to 5 farmers there about our service, what we offer and how it could help them.

And so forth. The advantage of daily and weekly targets, is that they very quickly show if things are slipping such that goals may not be met. Special remedial interventions can then be applied before drastic repercussions appear.

Targets help everybody focus and allocate their time and the available resources efficiently.

It is much easier to budget in the presence of clear goals and targets, and to reduce waste (such as pointless advertising spend) and redundancy (such as taking on more staff or plant than is necessary).

Targets help to keep you motivated when you feel like giving up as they break a big task into stages, the achievement of which can be celebrated along the way. In more complex businesses targets can be used to give daily feedback to managers and employees or even minute to minute where that is desirable. In a business where sales are larger and fewer, something as simple as a text to the team to advise of each new sale, can give a great lift to both the individual and

the team’s performance. Employees or even partners stay very aware of what is expected from them which creates high levels of engagement from those who are successful in that type of work, and fairly rapid exits from those who quickly realise their unsuitability.

Feelings of success as a team spur greater group productivity with greatly enhanced performance, better cooperation and more confidence evident, as everyone knows what is expected of them.

Their achievement of a group target is reward in itself. This is the magic that targets can create.

Of course for many reasons, sometimes businesses fail to achieve the goals and targets they set, but even unmet goals and targets lead to opportunities to examine why performance has not been as expected. Non achievement of targets gives an opportunity for early intervention and remediation by way of continuous improvement.

By having clear goals and targets, that are achieved, there is plenty of room for celebration within a team, and the importance of celebrating successes along the way should never be underestimated.

Finally, a word of warning. Many goals and targets last only for a set period of time, such as our first goal above, regarding acquiring cars. Just make sure that as you are approaching the completion of a goal, set a new one, as on completion of a goal, time becomes free, and should be regarded as an available resource for re-employment.

Oh, and by the way... as part of our goal to produce a quarterly magazine of quality for our TMC clients, my target was to complete my contribution to this issue by tomorrow. Target achieved! Magic!

Now I’ll just go and celebrate.

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The Difference Between Coaching & Mentoring Both are valuable assets to any business looking for direction, but the significant differences between the two often lead to confusion. In this article I debunk some of the myths.

Russell Atkinson

Following on from my article about mentoring I thought I would describe the difference between mentoring and coaching. It’s understandable that you might think mentoring and coaching are similar or even the same thing. But they’re not. Both warrant consideration in the workplace. Here are five differences that I think are important.

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Difference #1: Coaching is task oriented. The focus is on specific issues, such as managing more effectively or speaking more articulately. This requires a content expert (coach) who is capable of teaching the coachee how to develop these skills.

Mentoring is relationship oriented. It seeks to provide a safe environment where the mentoree shares whatever issues affect their professional and personal success.

Although specific learning goals or competencies may be used as a basis for creating the relationship, its focus goes beyond these areas to include things, such as work/ life balance, self-confidence, selfperception, and how the personal influences the professional.

Difference #2: Coaching is short-term. A coach can successfully be involved with a coachee for a short period of time, maybe even just a few sessions.

The coaching lasts for as long as is needed, depending on the purpose of the coaching relationship.

Mentoring is always long-term.

Mentoring, to be successful, requires time in which both partners can learn about one another and build a climate of trust that creates an environment in which the mentoree can feel secure in sharing the real issues that impact his or her success.

Successful mentoring relationships last months to years.

Difference #3: Coaching is performance driven. The purpose of coaching is to improve the individual’s performance on the job. This involves either enhancing current skills or acquiring new skills. Once the coachee successfully acquires the skills, the coach is no longer needed.

Mentoring is development driven.

Its purpose is to develop the individual not only for the current job, but also for the future. This distinction clearly differentiates the role of the immediate manager and that of the mentor (they can’t be the same person). It also reduces the possibility of creating conflict between the employee’s manager and the mentor.

Difference #4: Coaching does not require design.

Coaching can be conducted almost immediately on any given topic. If a company seeks to provide coaching to a large group of individuals, then certainly an amount of design is involved in order to determine the competency area, expertise needed, and assessment tools used, but this does not necessarily require a long

Coaching or mentoring?

Some key points to consider when making this decision:

Coaching: • When a company is seeking to develop its employees in specific competencies using performance management tools and involving the immediate manager • When a company has a number of talented employees who are not meeting expectations • When a company is introducing a new system or program • When a company has a small group of individuals (5-8) in need of increased competency in specific areas

lead-time to actually implement the coaching program.

Mentoring requires a design phase in order to determine the strategic purpose for mentoring, the focus areas of the relationship, the specific mentoring models, and the specific components that will guide the relationship, especially the matching process.

Difference # 5: The coachee’s immediate manager is a critical partner in coaching. She or he often provides the coach with feedback on areas in which his or her employee is in need of coaching.

This coach uses this information to guide the coaching process.

In mentoring, the immediate manager is indirectly involved.

Although she or he may offer suggestions to the employee on how to best use the mentoring experience or may provide a recommendation to the matching committee on what would constitute a good match, the manager has no link to the mentor and they do not communicate at all during the mentoring relationship.

This helps maintain the mentoring relationship’s integrity.

Mentoring: • When a company is seeking to develop its leaders or talent pool as part of succession planning • When a company seeks to develop its diverse employees to remove barriers that hinder their success • When a company seeks to more completely develop its employees in ways that are additional to the acquisition of specific skills/ competencies • When a company seeks to retain its internal expertise and experience residing in its baby boomer employees for future generations • When a company wants to create a workforce that balances the professional and the personal (Acknowledgement – Management Mentors 2014) Business to Business Quarterly

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The Two Pronged Approach To Better Business HR is a crucial and ever-ending subject. Businesses that lead with their people at the fore of their focus are better equipped for growth Interview with Julie Rowlands

HR occupies a unique space, somewhere in between taming rogue organisations that function as unpredictably as an organisational toddler and helping overlybureaucratic organisations take a professional chill pill so they are less tied up in policy and more focused on productivity. Quite simply, it’s about helping companies be the very best that they can be.

It’s an extremely important function in any business enabling best practice people management. This means getting the right people into the right roles, leadership performance, alignment and team dynamics, skill development, managing performance and

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finally, benefits administration and compliance associated with government and industry regulations.

When it comes to HR, the name Julie Rowlands is a well-known one and rightly so with more than 30 years of experience within the field.

It is therefore a critical function which has a impact on employee wellbeing and engagement within any business – big or small.

Today many organisations call this function ‘People, Culture and Performance’.

A human resource specialist within the health service and oil industry for almost 10 years, then a principal consultant of Brooks Royston before establishing her own organisation development business in 1992 – which operated successfully for 20 years – Julie is well placed to lead the HR consultancy arm for the New Plymouth chartered accountancy firm.

It’s a service not traditionally associated with accounting, yet according to Staples Rodway Taranaki HR and organisation development consultancy Associate Julie Rowlands, the fit couldn’t be better.

“Staples Rodway is a wellestablished chartered accountancy firm that has always excelled in more than just the traditional accounting services. The move into HR consultancy was a natural fit.

Our HR consultancy arm is responsible for organisational development as well as best practice HR services. A business seeking guidance may require significant changes in order to be successful.

Accountancy offers that guidance from a financial perspective, while we offer guidance from a people perspective. It’s a whole business combination which we believe is the winning formula.” Julie says.

Business has more than doubled in the two years since Julie began managing the division. Together with the team of five very experienced consultants, they have firmly cemented the HR services as a core function at Staples Rodway.

“What we’ve created is a team which is very focused on building strong partnerships with the business people we work with and an HR service that strongly targets organisational development, with HR support and advice firmly in place as a critical foundation.

“Clients seek guidance and support from their accountant because they know what they are doing financially; we operate in the same space from a people perspective.”

The Staples Rodway Taranaki HR consultancy goal is to work alongside businesses to assist them with their organisational development, whether that is about culture change, helping business owners understand their business, facilitating leadership development programmes, coaching or providing skills focused workshops to enable businesses to function more effectively.

“Often we’re initially called into a business because there’s a compliance related HR issue. The organisation is about to end up in court with a personal grievance, or for some other compliance related issue and once we start working with them, we find they are in this place because other people related strategic and tactical areas aren’t working.

“We add the most value and make the most difference if we are involved in aspects other than HR compliance.”

Often small businesses don’t have the staff or the budget to properly handle the nitty-gritty details of HR. Because of this, more and more small businesses are beginning to outsource their HR needs.

It really is a critical part of a business to build leadership capability. The reality is a leader impacts team performance more than any other factor.”

“We provide a lot of one on one coaching with leaders. We work alongside leaders to assist them and individuals to build accountability, fresh thinking and new approaches for themselves, those they lead and the challenges they face.”

An increasing area of development is assisting leaders to focus on developing a stronger and more mature safety culture. “Whilst many have responded to the change in the safety legislation by providing training to employees, it is not enough. Often what is needed is a fundamental change in the culture. A mature safety culture is one in which safety is recognised as good for business, a culture that is characterised by awareness, assessment and action.”

A large number of organisations have a dated way of managing which collides with what makes employees tick. “We do a lot of work helping them understand their leadership styles and the “In many businesses we work impact of these styles, which alongside internal HR as a specialist often results from the need addition to their team. Many HR for culture change within the related activities can be successfully company. outsourced as projects, for example engagement and climate reviews, “At times we are called into the development of remuneration and organisation because managers performance management strategies. believe that morale is low and Recruitment is also regularly that team members are not outsourced by HR functions. engaged. We can help them understand what is actually going The Staples Rodway Taranaki on, build strategies for change, arm also provides a number of and develop the capability of the leadership programmes, both person to become a more effective public and custom designed for leader.” specific businesses. “Leadership development needs to be a core A key growth area for the process within a business,” Julie says. company is recruitment and Julie says their ability to help business “Our aim is to get organisations to find the right people for those look at this as an ongoing process.

roles through methods such as clear competency framing, analysing team fit and psychometric testing is a unique service offering which enables businesses to make strong recruitment decisions.

“Businesses need their accountants, yet they often don’t think they need HR. We want people to see us in the same space as accountants and recognise the true value we can add to their business.”

Take Note: • 20% - 30% performance differential between organisations comes down to culture • Leadership capability and style impacts culture more than any other factor • People performance + financial performance = business success • Best practice people processes make the difference

Contact: Staples Rodway Taranaki HR Consultancy 109-113 Powderham Street New Plymouth T (06) 757 3155 www.staplesrodway.co.nz (New website coming soon)

Business to Business Quarterly

15

Which Came First, The Chicken Or The Egg? Does marketing create sales or do sales create the funds needed to market? In this article I explore the link and how international companies work out the maths behind marketing.

Tom Emmerson

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Business to Business Quarterly

Typically when businesses look at marketing alongside sales it’s in a budget-setting context. ‘Sales are x amount so marketing spend should be a percentage of that…’ This is not a surprising approach. After all, many business owners grew up with a formula similar to this. The variations include: marketing should be x of GP, cost of sale is x and marketing is 2% of the cost of the sale.

The first approach is probably my favourite to observe because the logic is more traditional. The basis for this is that a business sells first then markets later. This is often achieved by paying sales people only by commission and reacting to their various needs. This is how the company survives, selling first then planning second.

performance of a product and working back from there the business will only achieve what it expected to achieve. What’s worse is that there’s caution over any activity that might over-achieve these goals as management are so worried about not hitting the target through risky tactics that the marketing function simply copy and paste previous activities.

With the possible change of increasing or decreasing the amount of flyers/brochures/ adverts made to fit the budget.

This approach also fails to factor in products that might not be profitable, but might act as a halo product to more rewarding products.

There is no leading and set model.

The second approach is one I’m more familiar with in application.

A business plans to sell x amount of products in a year, the profit margin is y and the cost of sale is z. Within that cost of sale is a percentage allowance for promoting the product. At Honda we would often categorise the marketing spend percentage based on the profit margin – the two correlated.

First, what is your business trying to achieve? If you’re trying to get a new product to market then you should spend more on marketing than you would normally. This isn’t for just the first three months or year depending on your market it might be a three year approach.

In this case awareness is key and that can’t be achieved by a sales force alone.

The question with the first model is that if you’re selling then why bother to market? Marketing’s main function is to generate sales but if that’s already being done then why spend profit doing something you’re already doing? Well, the reality of the marketing role in scenario one is that marketing is a sales support function. Marketing creates the brochure sales use to sell, they write the newsletter which sales use as a pass to call a dormant client. If this is the case in your business then don’t call it a marketing department (if it’s more than one assistant-level employee) and just call a spade a spade, call it sales support.

We typically look at the product lifecycle graph as one dimensional. It’s viewed as sales over time. An excellent secondary dimension is marketing spend, alongside sales over time. It will generally look fairly level. In the early days the spend on marketing could be several hundred times more (as a percent) of sales, to help the product gain traction in the market. Then, over time, sales begins to catch up with spend as the market gains awareness and early adopters begin to promote your product. Then, a stage is reached where sales overtake marketing spend.

The second model isn’t any better. By assessing the predicted

It’s at this stage a business might look to optimise its returns. It can

do this by reducing marketing spend.

This reduces the cost of sale and increases the profit margins. After all, marketing has a bit of an IOU against the product, it spent when the product wasn’t self-sufficient so there does come a time when the spend should take a small back step, only kicking in at a new product iteration or during peak seasons to gain cut-through in outreach to customers.

So is there a magic formula for marketing spend increasing sales?

Let’s put it this way. Apple spent less than 1% of its sales total on advertising in 2012 (over $108bn in sales vs around $900m in advertising). In the same year Microsoft spent 2.2% on advertising and Dell spent 1.3%. Strange how the brand with the smallest spend vs sales has probably one of the most recognisable names and product lines in the industry.

Despite Apple spending the smallest percentage (in comparison to sales) on advertising it’s the market leader.

The cynics amongst might say that Apple’s 1% of sales might still mean they’re outspending Microsoft by 30% or even 50% due to their leading sales. Well, you’d be wrong.

Advertising spend in 2012: Apple: $933m Microsoft: $1.6bn Dell: $860m However, I believe the waters on these statistics are murky. See, Apple’s product line-up is relatively narrow. Phones, tablets, desktops, software and laptops. Dell offers desktops, laptops, printers and servers. Microsoft sells phones, laptops, desktops, tablets, servers, software, games console and a few other things. So maybe we could slice the numbers by product lines, or by the amount of products… …and we’ve fallen into the paralysis by analysis trap.

Business to Business Quarterly

17

Having just developed a strategic marketing course at THE Marketing Company I’ve come to appreciate, more than ever, the complexity of setting up marketing that helps the business achieve its goals. Some industries require a disproportionate spend to combat excessive rival activity (remember when every cigarette brand was sponsoring Formula 1 in the eighties just to stay in people’s mind?) whereas other markets are less competitive so require less spend.

In reality most businesses will want the marketing to generate sales, and the sales to generate the budget to market, it will be a cyclical process.

In my experience it is in the analysis that marketing really begins to have fun against a sales team (I think some competition internally is healthy).

As a marketing manager I look at my spend for acquisition against the sale marketing has made directly. In the same way that a sales person has a funnel, so does marketing. A sales person doesn’t look at a product and say ‘well, it generates $2,000 GP so 1% of that is $200 so if I spend that I’ll get a sale’. Most sales people work the numbers the other way around. ‘If I call 30 people and my conversion rate is 1:4 then I can expect 15 sales.’

I do exactly the same with my marketing. If a direct marketing campaign cost $4,000 and I expect a response rate of 1:10 then I expect 400 responses/sales/leads as my output. In reality my output might differ. If your business is e-commerce then marketing should lead to a sale without any salespeople. If, like us, personal selling is a key part of your model then you will still need a person. In which case my output might be 400 leads. That goes to a sales person with a 1:4 conversion ratio so the business would have 100 sales.

If the average sale is $1,000 (with

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Business to Business Quarterly

a net profit margin of 20%) then the campaign breaks even at 20 sales and provides a net return on investment (ROI) of $16,000.

Now, even though the maths can sometimes look solid there are obviously a number of factors.

1. Response rates for each campaign differ. Certain markets are more desensitised to direct marketing, and advertising, so the response rate may be lower. Higher response rates usually derive from money off or freebie incentives which eat into the net profit margin and therefore increase the breakeven point and lower the ROI. 2. The leads generated need to be hot in order for a sales person to achieve a 1:4 conversion.

Great sales people are only as good as the customers they are put in front of and often need time to get the ‘needs’ out of the customer to offer them an effective solution.

3. Unless a direct response link is used it’s hard to measure whether an enquiry came as a result of the campaign or other marketing work. Using coupons or promo codes make it easier to track the effectiveness of a campaign but rely on the user being incentivised to use the code (see point 1).

Points 1 and 3 both identify that in a realistic scenario the receiver of the campaign is incentivised to respond and this means you’re unlikely to have a campaign that generates much revenue directly from the campaign itself.

So instead of seeing the campaign as a pure direct sales tool, where x needs to be spent to generate y, look at a longer-term view.

Promote products that have easy on-sell, cross-sell or life costs. If the campaign runs at a slight loss it’s OK so long as people are being fed

into products where they can easily be sold higher profit services. If you sell your first product to a customer at minimal margins that can be OK so long as you can sell another product to them further down the track.

Once viewed this way the ROI on a campaign can be exponentially more than previously assessed, but they can be harder to track. Using an effective CRM system, like Zoho, means you can track the lead source back to the campaign. In a year’s time an analyst can see how much was on-sold to that individual and you can get a better sense of what that campaign’s true ROI was.

As with most marketing activities the really valuable tools are not the ones that offer a quick injection of sales. The ones you should be really excited about are not the ones that bring in a large volume of sales overnight (nothing but a fire sale will achieve that), but are the ones that give consistency and a steady stream of customers and profit.

Good marketing offers returns in the medium-term. Great marketing keeps producing sales time after time at lower and lower cost to your business.

No Wonder We Don’t Like Sales People!

As a sales person being sold to is often an enlightening experience, for better or for worse.

Tim Jones I consider myself to be a better than average sales person. And so it always amuses me to be “sold to”, especially when they don’t know that I have a sales background.

I like to play with them a little bit and just see where they take the sales call, count the mistakes that they make and have a little chuckle inside.

On a retail level I can recount one experience in the last ten years when I have been sold to in a professional manner. Looking to buy a new vacuum cleaner, my wife and I went to Godfreys in Sylvia Park.

The salesman did a great preamble, was engaged, etc. but most importantly to me he made the sale in 3 questions - “what kind of floors do you have - carpet, wood, lino?”, “do you have kids or pets” and finally “what is your budget”. Done, we will take that one.

This is however the exception. Here are 3 memorable experiences at the other end of the spectrum: • Buying a car. “This one is a 2.0 litre blah, blah, this one has blah, blah.” I actually stopped the guy and had to make him ask me some questions. “What do you do for a living?”, “what do you do on the weekends?”, “is performance or economy more important to you?” etc. Wow, look there we go, I’ll take the station wagon there.

• Being sold some advertising space today where the sales person thought I was in real estate, constantly talked “at” me, broke from talking “at” me to talk “over” me to colleagues and other potential victims in the room and at no point in the sales process had even established if I was interested, able or willing to spend with them.

Some joking aside, although the above are all genuine experiences, it worries me as a sales professional that these kinds of behaviours are not being kicked out of organisations. The three things of particular concern: 1. The poor sales experiences far outweighs the great ones, so no wonder people think all salespeople are the same.

2. These sales “professionals” have been trained by someone.

3. If they haven’t been trained by someone, then their sales manager or GM thinks that they are good enough to not need it.

On a retail level you can see why they maybe hold off any serious needs based selling with the high turnover of staff etc. However selling a $20,000 car? Selling $10,000 advertising packages? That is not loose change behind the sofa for the client so they should be treated with a bit more respect and compassion.

• Buying a TV in Dick Smith. Well to be fair no one actually came to see me for the 10 minutes I was waiting, so I rang Harvey Norman and purchased one from them over the phone for $100 less than the price in DSE.

Business to Business Quarterly

19

I Know a Guy: Selling Through Effective Networking Networking can be tough for some but doing it well can also reap huge rewards.

Rachel Goodchild Mention the word networking to me and a tiny part of me shrivels up and dies. My first reaction to an event that promises a great networking opportunity is a vision of a range of desperate business people passing out their cards, and worse, being hard sold to by someone I only met five minutes ago.

If you do it right, the foundations you lay with new contacts help bring in long-term client relationships, ongoing referrals and growing sales numbers for much less effort.

Don’t Believe In Rapid Fire

Effective networking isn’t about the number of people you connect with, but the trust and rapport you build with each contact. Organised I am not often found at networking networking groups such as BNI drinks or networking events. It’s not have restrictions on how you share that I can’t work a room like a pro what you do with others, and the (I used to run competitions with my focus on building relationships team on how many prospects we over a period of time is prime. For could collect in an hour), nor that some, having an externally organised I’m shy. service to help add structure to It’s more that for me, unless there is your networking is important, a particular person I want to connect so a regular commitment to a with, I find events and drinks often networking group works well for just are a noise at the end of a long you. day, and I’d rather spend that time Whether it’s formal or informal with my family, or closing a sale. networking, it’s important to see For many, networking is a word that your relationship with contacts a has been badly treated by its users. little like Mainland Cheese – good It’s not a word that gives the user things take time, and the longer the an excuse to hard sell, nor is it a time, the more maturity and taste word to excuse the time you waste comes from the result. on weekly networking events that Never go into a networking function you’ve attended for a year, but never with a plan to give x number of got a sale from. cards or sell a particular service.

I definitely do use networking Remember each person you come effectively to make sales, and to across is just that, a person, and is save time. I believe all the most more than a prospect, a lead or a successful sales people do. It’s not decision maker. whether we network, but HOW we network that’s so key to its success.

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Business to Business Quarterly

Be Connected One of the best ways to network effectively is to become a referrer of everything you love and respect.

Listen to what someone else needs, and then seek to connect them up with a solution (that isn’t you!).

Referring is a great way to build a loyal and effective network, and is a non-threatening way to take contact details “if you give me your email, I’ll connect you both together and introduce you”, or to prolong the contact “I thought I’d give you a call to see how that web designer I suggested worked out”.

To be a referrer, you also need to be connected. Connect yourself to other companies and businesses you respect. Make yourself known to them as someone referring them, and build that relationship. If you build their business, they generally tend to favourably build your business through referrals too.

Know Who To Target Do you know who your dream clients would be? Make a list, defining them in terms of what you can offer them, and what they are already doing.

Networking is most effective if you know whom you want to be networking with. It also helps you get ready to find out more about them, and how you might be able to meet their needs.

Get Your Stalk On Knowing the name of the person you plan to contact is one thing – knowing about his or her past, and what their role is another. If you really want to develop an effective relationship that may grow into an effective business relationship, it’s best to use Google, Linkedin, and other online sources to find out as much as you can about the company and the person you are wanting to connect with.

You can also use existing contacts to ask for their insight into someone.

This is not about getting personal information, although sometimes knowing if they have children, or have a particular interest is good (I’ve developed rapport over being a parent of girls, or having a mutual love of fishing).

The key is balance. You don’t want to go into meeting someone knowing nothing about them, but conversely you don’t also want to go into the meeting knowing everything about them, down to their favourite brand of toothpaste.

Be Where They Are Without trying to be creepy about it, you need to be where your prospects are. A previous colleague bought a Koru club membership because a large number of his prospects were Koru club members (though it’s a bit hit and miss, unless you know when and where they are flying, and that level of stalking is not normally recommended!).

However, many prospects do use some form of social media. You might be able to join a Linkedin group they are also in, or follow them on Twitter.

The key is to find an organic way to begin relating to them, without lingering around their office to try and catch them as they leave.

Create Rapport, Build Relationship In New Zealand, it’s simple to help develop this by creating two or three degrees of separation.

Find your points of connectionwhether it’s a mutual contact, a company you’ve both had dealings with, a past-time you both enjoy or a favourite food. The important part of this is keeping it real. I love fishing, so I talk fishing. I’m not going to profess a love of golf – because that wouldn’t be real.

You can let them know you know a little about what they’ve done before- slide it into conversation – maybe work they are well known for, or a workplace you are also connected with.

Don’t Go In For The Direct Sell Whatever you do, never go in for the direct sell, and don’t feel every meeting you have, informal or not, needs to end in a sale.

My most prized clients started with an informal coffee, and a conversation about a mutual passion, and often then evolved into someone long-lasting, and where effortless selling occurs.

No matter how perfect your product or service is, it can wait.

Right now, you just need to connect, and develop trust and that all-important relationship.

They Can’t See Your Diary Once you’ve connected, if you want to pursue a rapport building relationship, note the next time you plan to connect – be it in person, by phone or by email.

They can’t see your diary, so they don’t know you needed to remind yourself to see them! It’s very important to set reminders so that even while you are taking sales from others, you are still working on the future sales from an emerging strong relationship.

Make sure the contact has a purpose- such as sharing information, or referring them to a colleague.

Give, Give, Give When you walk away from a connection, you need to have a reason to stay in contact. The best and simplest way to do this is to do a favour, meet a need, and connect them up. It’s essential you don’t see this as a step towards promised work. This is simply a good way to build your network, and prove yourself, should they want to use you later.

The key is to connect them up with people who can deliver something they need, that you yourself don’t provide, or to send them a link to an interesting article or an app.

The key is to make it a real gift, not a conditional offer.

Get their contact details, share the information liberally, and allow the relationship to develop.

Remember that the person you are helping is still a potential client.

There is a lot to be said about a person who takes the time to email a quick thanks, or acknowledge your help. If they don’t respond, it might be a very simple indication that they might not be a great fit as a client either.

Networking is incredibly important, and can be done anywhere, at any time, with people you connect with.

It’s not some slimy system to get your business cards out to as many people as possible but is instead an incredibly effective tool to help your sales grow continuously without feeling like there has been a huge amount of effort put into it.

Often it’s as simple as saying “Oh you need THAT done? I just happen to know a guy…”

Business to Business Quarterly

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Contributors Russell Atkinson Russell’s vast business knowledge has spanned many different fields. Russell worked for Dow AgroSciences for 19 years in New Zealand and Australia developing roles and skills in sales and as a marketing specialist, which involved the development of marketing plans and product development.

Tom Emmerson Tom has delivered customer events, brand communications and press releases for Aston Martin. Tom has recently worked for Honda Motor Europe in Pan-European through-theline marketing. There he was responsible for a mutli-million dollar budget and international objectives.

Graeme Beals Ex-school teacher & principal, Graeme left education to create Curriculum Concepts, a million dollar international teachers’ resources company. He went on to develop educational products for Kodak and NZIER in the US, launched his own finance company (still growing today), as well as creating NZ’s pre-eminent assisted self-publishing site.

Rachel Goodchild Rachel’s career includes work in sales for SMEs, managing high-end retail, PR, marketing and social media. She is the author of 27 print books and thousands of magazine articles both for B2B & mass-market publications across topics such as sales, marketing, business growth, team building and relationship management.

Ambrose Blowfield Ambrose is Australasia’s leading trainer and speaker in marketing, sales and business networking. Ambrose has both academic and experience-based knowledge from working at several leading international companies in six countries across three continents, including global consumer goods giant, Proctor & Gamble.

Tim Jones Tim established a business in 1999 in the UK dot-com boom forging relationships with organisations such as CNN and National Geographic. In the years that followed he went into medical device sales working with a number of multinational companies including Johnson & Johnson and Synthes, Australasian distributors as well as interacting with international offices in Europe and the USA.

Mike Clark Having worked for Treger Group, Pridex Kitchens & Vision Manawatu Mike has extensive knowledge in sales, marketing and business improvement.

Mike has helped hundreds of businesses grow through his specialist, world-class expertise.

Make more money in your business.

Business-to-Business is subject to copyright in its entirety. The contents may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author. The opinions represented in the magazine are not necessarily those of THE Marketing Company Ltd. For advertising opportunities or any other enquiries please contact Tom Emmerson: tom@themarketingcompany.co.nz

33%

71%

Q

A

28%

Not enough information to make decisions

Too much time spent on administrative tasks

% 24

Lack of understanding customer needs

Too many manual processes

23%

20 %

Poor communication processes

Source: ‘The empowered sales team enhancing productivity through the better use of information’. A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit.

Wasted time looking for customer info

What is stopping your sales team from selling

A survey confirms the awful truth - time spent away from selling is the biggest problem for sales teams.

A CO-PILOT TO HELP YOUR BUSINESS TAKE OFF Building and sustaining a business can sometimes feel like jumping off a cliff and building a plane on the way down.

Being part of the global Baker Tilly network, as well as one of New Zealand’s most trusted independent accountancy firms for over 65 years, makes Staples Rodway uniquely qualified to be your support crew.

Our full suite of business services, together with our commitment to providing practical, easily understood advice, means we are ideally suited to working with you to help guide your business to realise its full potential.

Visit www.staplesrodway.co.nz or phone our Taranaki team on 06 757 3155 and find out the many ways we can help take your business to new heights.

109-113 Powderham Street, New Plymouth PHONE 64 6 757 3155 newp@staplestaranaki.co.nz

www.staplesrodway.co.nz

78 Miranda Street, Stratford PHONE 64 6 765 6949 stfd@staplestaranaki.co.nz