nz entrepreneur - issue 32

NEW ZEALAND’S E-MAG FOR ENTREPRENEURS AND BUSINESS OWNERS

July 2015

Entrepreneurs - From Geek to Fleek in 20 years!What’s on your Customer’s Mind?

What do Investors want to see?

www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

with Zac de Silva

10 QUESTIONS2014 International Coach of the Year &

Founder of Business Changing

2 • www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

ABOUT / Short and sharp, New

Zealand Entrepreneur is a free

e-magazine delivering thought

provoking and enlightening articles,

industry news and information to

forward-thinking entrepreneurs.

EDITOR / Jennifer Liew

ART DIRECTOR / Jodi Olsson

GROUP EDITOR / Colin Kennedy

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER /

Alastair Noble

CONTENT ENQUIRIES /

Phone Jennifer on 0274 398 100 or

email [email protected]

ADVERTISING ENQUIRIES /

Phone Jennifer on 0274 398 100 or

email [email protected]

WEBSITE / nzentrepreneur.co.nz

ISSN 2253-5683

NZ Entrepreneur is a GREEN MAG created and distributed without the use of paper so it’s

environmentally friendly. Please think before you print. Thank you!

4 From the Editor

6 Entrepreneurs: From Geek To Fleek In 20 Years

12 10 Questions with Zac de Silva

22 What’s on your Customer’s Mind?

26 48 hours of Business Battles

30 Four Essential Tips on Handling Sales Objections

34 Entrepreneurial Intelligence

36 Equity Crowdfunding What do investors want to see?

40 What’s Challenging NZ Business Owners?

CONTENTS

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www.nzentrepreneur.co.nz

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EDITORIAL

OFTEN AS ENTREPRENEURS vision, innovation, creativity and taking a few risks along the way come more naturally than number crunching for instance (not always front and centre but often).

I’m not much of a gambler, but I’d probably hedge a bet that this is a common weakness that a lot of entrepreneurs share. So the reason they may not be getting ahead as fast as they’d like is because they’re not taking care of the numbers as well as they should. More specifically cashflow.

Let’s face it no one knows what they don’t know and for many of us entrepreneurs monitoring cashflow is not only a weakness but we have absolutely no idea. There’s no shame in that, as long as we acknowledge the gaps in our business (and our skills) and get financially savvy mentors (accountants, business coaches, etc.) on board to make sure the numbers are taken care of.

In our interview with Zac de Silva this month he gives us advice on how to deal with financial

✉

pressure as an entrepreneur and highlights how important looking after cashflow is. It’s no good burying our heads in the sand. It’s important to take stock of where we’re at and what’s likely to occur at least 12 months ahead so that we’re prepared to deal with potential issues before they arise. That way we’re empowered to take control of our cashflow instead of it controlling us.

Here’s to keeping it real, not always easy, but our success depends on it. One quote I heard at a seminar run by The Entourage was,’To be a successful entrepreneur you better get comfortable with being uncomfortable’.

Get real right now, face facts, acknowledge gaps, be prepared and take action towards making your vision a reality no matter how uncomfortable, you are the master of your destiny!

Jennifer Liew

https://nz.linkedin.com/in/jenniferliew

https://twitter.com/nzpreneur

mailto:[email protected]

www.facebook.com/nzentrepreneur


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ENTREPRENEURSHIP

THERE IS A FAR greater awareness and appreciation in New Zealand of the importance of entrepreneurs for our economic and societal well-being than there was two decades ago. And that’s a great thing.

Entrepreneurs are nothing new, of course – you can’t have any market or economy without them. But it seems

that it’s becoming increasingly acceptable, even admirable, to want to be an entrepreneur.

While just a couple of decades ago ‘entrepreneurship’ was viewed as something you did if you weren’t qualified for anything else. It’s now a vocation, even a life purpose, with serious cool factor – almost as cool as being a famous singer, actor or supermodel.

BY RICHARD LIEW

ENTREPRENEURS: FROM GEEK TO FLEEK IN 20 YEARS

While just a couple of decades ago ‘entrepreneurship’ was viewed as something you did if you weren’t qualified for anything else, it’s now a

vocation, even a life purpose, with serious cool factor. So what’s changed?.


So what’s changed?Back in the mid-90’s when I was starting out at university, there seemed to be an unspoken societal and familial rule that no self-respecting, well-educated, school leaver would ever choose being an entrepreneur over a safe and secure career in one of the respected professions or trades such as lawyer, accountant, doctor, teacher, builder, electrician, hairdresser, etc.

In fact, entrepreneurs were well and truly considered outliers and anyone who said they wanted to be an entrepreneur was often regarded with suspicion. ‘Entrepreneur’ was often just a euphemism for dropout!

At the same time, coming out of the Generation X ‘grunge and slacker’ culture of the early 90’s – a generational thumbing of the nose to the corporate greed and materialism of the 80’s – anything business or commerce related was a seriously uncool option for any self-respecting young person. In other words, business and money was for the geeks and the greedy.

How then did we get to where we are now where entrepreneurs are held in almost as high esteem as today’s pop culture icons?I think there are a few broad contributing factors to this change in attitude.

First, everything moves in cycles. What was once cool becomes uncool, and vice versa. Prevailing societal opinions change with each new generation. So the anti-business, slacker mentality of Gen X lost steam as Gen X’ers grew up and realised that a) they needed jobs in order to b) pay for the things they wanted to buy, and that c) business was the source of both a) and b). Thank goodness.

The mid-90’s to early 2000’s also saw the rise of the internet and this did two things. First, it created a whole lot of new entrepreneurs – Internet entrepreneurs. A lot of people made a lot of money, very quickly, in a completely new arena. Suddenly dropouts, geeks and nerds could get rich working from their living rooms in their pyjamas. And that was cool. Secondly, the internet itself created a sea change in the way information could


be found, disseminated, and consumed. What better way to put the spotlight on young internet entrepreneurs than the internet itself?

The mid-2000’s and ‘Web 2.0’ saw the arrival and explosive growth of social media and consumer content. Sharing, discussion and idolisation was taken to a new level. And again it was both created by and put the spotlight on some of today’s most famous entrepreneurs. What better way to stick it to the establishment than making billions in a hoodie?

Fast forward to today and it seems that user numbers, funding rounds, IPO’s and eye-popping acquisitions are just as likely to make the headlines as the next blockbuster announcement, the latest diet craze and what Katy Perry said about Taylor Swift.

“Everything moves in cycles. What was once cool becomes uncool, and vice versa.”

We now make a point of the fact that many great entrepreneurs were, in fact, high school dropouts. At the same time, unlike 20 years ago, you can now choose to study entrepreneurship at many universities and tertiary institutes should you wish.

I suspect that part of the cool factor surrounding entrepreneurship is a byproduct of the general cool factor of being famous. That is, it seems that our young people (I define young people as anyone younger than me) have a rather unhealthy obsession with becoming rich and famous. And it doesn’t matter what you become rich and famous for – rich and infamous is just as good as rich and famous.

So with all the media focus the superstars of entrepreneurship have been getting, entrepreneurship is being validated for young people as a good way to get rich and famous. While these seemingly shallow and selfish motivations may appear from the outside to be cause for alarm, I also believe that Generation Y and Z, somewhat paradoxically, actually have a bigger, better social conscience


than Gen X and far more so than the Baby Boomers.

As publishers of NZ Entrepreneur, we’re lucky to meet and hear the stories of today’s entrepreneurs all the time. ‘Succeed at all costs!’ is no longer the catch cry of up and coming entrepreneurs. If you listen, what you’ll hear far more often is, ‘Succeed in a way that everyone wins!’

Finally, I think we need to acknowledge the systemic changes and contributions being made at a local level. Throughout the world, the entrepreneur movement has been going from strength to strength, predominantly on the back of the rise to prominence of the internet and tech entrepreneurs. We are awash with incubators, accelerators, Startup Weekends, Meetups and all number of groups and events that help support and grow entrepreneurs, and that contribute to the entrepreneur renaissance. You have only yourself to blame if you can’t find the inspiration, support or contacts you need to start your entrepreneurial journey.

Here in New Zealand there is one organisation in particular

where the timing of their contribution seems to tie in extraordinarily closely with the heightened awareness of entrepreneurship today. That organisation is known today as Young Enterprise Trust. Broadly speaking they are an independent charitable trust who have made huge headway, especially since the mid 90’s, in helping provide around 100,000 school children with some of the skills, awareness and financial literacy they need to become responsible, enterprising members of society ie entrepreneurs. The fact that so many young New Zealanders are now being introduced to the words ‘enterprise’ and ‘entrepreneurship’ en masse is extremely positive. I am sure that, here in New Zealand at least, this has helped raise the awareness of entrepreneurship among the general population.

We now live in a world where this is no such thing as long term job security and no such thing as a safe financial investment. We live in a world where every person on the planet with an internet connection is a potential


competitor. A world where the old formula for success of, ‘find a safe, secure job, save your money to buy a house and a rental property, then downsize when you retire at 65 so you can survive on the pension,’ is increasingly laughable.

So why it’s up to a charity to promote and teach skills that every young citizen of New Zealand (and the world) must learn in order just to function in the modern world, I have no idea.

Thus, the foresight and contribution of Young Enterprise Trust and their learning resources for school children can not be understated. One can only imagine the cumulative dollar value created for our economy through the inspiration and enlightenment delivered via

these programmes to students over the past 20+ years.

Countless numbers of them have gone on to be entrepreneurs, business builders and job creators since leaving school. The addition of enterprise and financial education to the official New Zealand National Curriculum in the mid-2000’s was a positive step in the right direction and testament to the work of YET.

Unfortunately, I finished at my high school just before the Young Enterprise Scheme was adopted there. Since then though both of our daughters have been at schools that offer this great opportunity. And I have no doubt that eventually all schools in New Zealand will offer Young Enterprise programmes.

Because the overriding reason that entrepreneurship is finally getting the attention it deserves is that people are realising we live in a time where the best thing we can do to ensure the financial security of ourselves, our families and our communities, is to think like an entrepreneur. ■

Richard Liew is an Auckland based entrepreneur and founder of Espire Media www.espiremedia.com

“ We live in a time where the best thing we can do to ensure the financial security of ourselves, our families and our communities, is to think like an entrepreneur.”

http://www.espiremedia.com

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INTERVIEW

with Zac de Silva

10 QUESTIONS

Before Zac ventured out on his own to help others through ‘Business Changing’, Zac worked for several well-known businesses (at 28 he was CFO of Flight Centre

and at 30 he was running FCM Travel), learning business from the ground up. In that time he both personally and for the companies he was leading won a host of notable awards, including ‘Best Workplace in NZ’ for Barkers Menswear. Today, Zac works with

clients of all sizes, in all industries, to grow their profit and reach the next level of success. Last year he won International Coach of the Year. Zac is a member of the Institute of Directors, a judge for the Westpac Business Awards, and has had big

involvement in the Gifted Kids Programme and Books in Homes charities. He also sits on the board of directors or advisory boards for several clients.


Tell us a bit about your journey - how you went from Chartered Accountant to Entrepreneur to winning International Coach of the Year in 2014?I had always been interested in business growing up, and I quickly realized in my first year at Deloitte’s that I found the clients I worked with so much more interesting than counting their beans.

So I moved into a commercial business environment, and it proved to be a good choice for me. Not only did I get to work in the travel industry (mainly with Flight Centre) but I was given some really great opportunities in that time, including being given some decent-sized businesses to run. I thrived on it and it proved to me that I was definitely more into business than straight bean-counting.

Running businesses at a relatively young age taught me some amazing lessons – both with the good things that I achieved and also with the mistakes I can see I made with hindsight. There’s nothing better than real-life learning to quickly cement lessons!

But I don’t regret starting out as a chartered accountant. I think having those financial skills has been so helpful to me, both when I was running businesses (FCM Travel, House of Travel Holidays and Barkers) and later on when I started my own business coaching business, Business Changing.

Numbers do not lie and knowing which ones you should be focusing on can really change a business’ success. I see it all the time with the clients I coach and it’s been a key to my success with them… and it’s probably what helped me win International Coach of the Year last year, in a roundabout way.

10 QUESTIONS


What’s the story behind Business Changing?It’s always been my working life mission to help others in business perform better, even when I first started out. Whether I was with people in my team or friends or family, I would talk business improvement… a lot – perhaps too much sometimes!

So when the timing was right, back in 2010, I decided it was time to stop being an employee/minority shareholder and start running my own business that could fulfill that mission. I was on a mission to change businesses! (Hence the name Business Changing). How did I know the time was right? I’d won a

few awards in 2009 and knew they would provide a good springboard to winning clients and from there I backed myself to do a really good job, resulting in a strong word of mouth from those first clients which led to new business.

I always stress that to my clients; focus on your customer experience to generate positive word of mouth – that’s what will transform your business. Business Changing grew really quickly and I was able to create both a successful business and also a high-performing team of experts who can further help my clients with HR, PR, financials and marketing.

“I always stress that to my clients; focus on your customer experience to generate positive word of mouth – that’s what will

transform your business.”


What is the biggest risk you’ve had to take in building your business?For a long time, I was paranoid about sharing my IP in a public arena. I thought that if I shared too much – writing articles, speaking at conferences, etc. – then someone else might take my ideas and knowledge and use it for their own benefit, making me redundant.

Then I read something that said ‘the more you give away for free, the more you increase your chances of staying ahead of the pack’. I’m a massive fan of accountability and self-improvement, so this thinking really resonated with me.

I liked that it gave me an even stronger reason not to be a one-trick pony and

that it would keep me at the top of my game by having to continue developing my own thoughts and ideas and strategies. So two years ago I dove in, offering regular blogs and media articles and speaking on the circuit and at business workshops.

Since starting this, my own business thinking has gone to another level and my credibility with potential clients has improved – people don’t like risk, so when they can see that you know what you’re talking about, they’re more likely to take the chance in working with you. Best of all, it means I never stop learning and evolving my thinking, and I love that.


If you could start Business Changing all over again, is there anything you’d do differently? I might have started my accountability software company www.accme.co a little earlier, but at the time I really wanted to focus on Business Changing and my clients.

Given all your experience and success, what are the most important attributes you would advise up and coming entrepreneurs to develop?The two biggest things for a startup is making sure a market truly does exist for your idea and that you do not waste money on the wrong areas. I see it a lot; I get called in to help someone in startup phase, and they have already sunk a lot of money into things that are not priorities. It irks me that their investment into the wrong things has led them to be under-capitalised, putting them at a disadvantage right from launch. I’ve got a list of the seven biggest killers for small business that I swear by – email me if you want me to send it to you ([email protected]).

Financial pressure is part and parcel of the entrepreneurial journey - do you have any advice for business builders on how to deal with this pressure?You are better off knowing that you have a cash issue looming than burying your head in the sand. You need to have a monthly cash-flow forecast for the next 12 months or more. That way you’ll know when the real cash hole is going to happen, and you’ll be equipped to sort it out before it happens. It sounds daunting but when we do this with our clients, no matter what it shows, they are happy to just know and figure out their game plan from there.

“The two biggest things for a startup is making sure a market truly does exist for your idea and that you do not waste money on the wrong areas.”



What do you do to unwind and keep on top of your game?It doesn’t always happen, but I try to take Mondays off or at least not see clients then so I can catch up and chill a little.

For most of us, our best business thinking happens when we are away from the laptop and daily to-do list, with the brain space, to really think big, so I try to do this on Mondays. It’s a common issue with many of my clients; they’re so busy working in their company that they don’t always make the time to work on it.

It’s why another entrepreneur, Steve Pirie, and I have set up the Nurture Change

Business Retreat (www.nurturechange.com) in November. It’s five days at a 5-star resort where business people, entrepreneurs and leaders can mingle, share their best practice and business lessons, learn from some industry-leading experts and incredible speakers such as Graham Henry, Sam Hazledine and Xero’s Victoria Crone.

Most of all, they’ll get some much-needed downtime to ‘think’ on their business. Who knows what people might come up with in their five days at the resort and what business connections they will make?! I am excited to see.

http://www.nurturechange.com



In the past, you won an award for having the ‘Best Workplace in New Zealand’ - what key advice do you have for entrepreneurs who want to create a working environment for their teams to thrive?I’m big on company values. It’s important that you define what your values are, then launch them so that everybody knows them – and then make sure that those values are lived and embodied by everyone in your workplace.

People need to know what is important to your company and to feel part of something bigger. Company values help employees make better decisions and guide how they act and perform.

“A simple but effective gold nugget is to actually just touch base with your customers a few weeks after

you did business with them, to check in that everything is ok.”

You also won an ‘Awesome Customer Service Award’ in the past - any tips you’re happy to share on how to consistently create great experiences for your customers?A simple but effective gold nugget is to actually just touch base with your customers a few weeks after you did business with them, to check in that everything is ok. It’s done so infrequently that customers think, “Holy, I have never had that before” and strong word of mouth is guaranteed. I also suggest that at least one of your company values includes the customer…


As well as www.businesschanging.com, Zac also owns www.accme.co and is a co-founder of the Nurture Change Business Retreat – a five-day business event at the Intercontinental Fiji in November: www.nurturechange.com. Zac has three children and is getting better all the time at work life balance – ie. walking the talk!

What’s the key driver behind all that you do?I am naturally a pleaser – there’s nothing worse to me than disappointing somebody! Initially, my driver was that I really wanted to impact on my Business Changing clients (impact means profit growth and business owner/ manager growth).

I still have the same driver but on a much bigger scale. Now

I want to impact thousands and thousands of businesses worldwide. I obviously can’t do this through one-on-one coaching (even with all my late nights!) so I’ve launched www.accme.co, which is virtual coaching software.

I have hundreds of business people and companies using this and the scale possible with it really excites me. But what gets me out of bed in the morning is the same as it’s always been; to help others in business perform better and to take their businesses to the next level. I find it so satisfying. ■

http://www.businesschanging.com

http://www.accme.co


CONTENT MARKETING SEMINARHow to attract customers & grow sales with content marketing

10am–12pm | Friday 21 August 2015 | Auckland

Powerful insights for marketers and business owners - tickets only $39pp

MAKING CONTENT MARKETING COUNT IN NEW ZEALANDContent marketing is an extremely powerful marketing tool right now, but there’s content, and then there’s relevant content. Putting aside the hype, what actually works in New Zealand and what doesn’t?

What you'll learn at this info-packed event:• How to use content to discover and cultivate the right audience• Three strategies to ensure you never run out of relevant content streams• A simple, low cost content technique that keeps the online enquiries coming

(real life case study)• How effective content marketing complements each stage of the sales cycle• Find out what works in New Zealand’s small ecosystem and

what doesn't – yep, NZ content marketing 'fails'!• And more!

REGISTER NOW!

GUEST SPEAKER VAUGHAN STANLEY eBusiness Consultant at ZealdVaughan is an experienced business and marketing executive passionate about helping businesses generate amazing results online. He has a proven track record of gaining excellent results for his clients. Previous roles include being a Marketing Consultant, Sales & Marketing Manager, Co-founder of Joint Venture Marketing, Founder of kookychoo.com and more.

PRESENTED BY COLIN KENNEDY Content Marketing Thought Leader & Head of Content at Espire MediaColin Kennedy is a journalist and writer by profession, and one of New Zealand's foremost experts on content marketing. With more than 20 years experience in journalism, public relations and marketing, his previous roles include newspaper and magazine editor, CEO of New Zealand Agritech Inc and marketing director for BNI New Zealand.

http://espiremedia.com/contentmarketingseminar

http://www.kookychoo.com


What’s on your Customer’s Mind?

MARKETING

Empathy mapping your way to content marketing successBY COLIN KENNEDY


THE IDEA THAT WE can study humankind to gain business insights is a powerful concept, and one with dozens of implications around content marketing. Demographic data doesn’t always tell us about what’s really important to people; it’s too sanitised, too impersonal, but it’s just the baseline we begin with.

Director of Business Innovation & Strategy from Massey University, Hamish Gow, believes that ‘Searching Google’ no longer yields the results people are looking for. Instead, people are embarking on discovery behaviour, which is more complex.

Customers want their experience to be enjoyable (the experience is emotionally engaging), easy, (it’s easy to access that value) and useful (the experience offers value).

“Content marketers need to take a customer perspective – a customer goes out to buy a drill, but he doesn’t really want a drill, he wants to make a hole, but he doesn’t really want just to make a hole, he wants a feature wall of photographs in his home, like the one he saw at the Louvre in Paris,” say Gow.

A customer doesn’t just want to hang a television, for example, he wants to capture the experience of being live at the game…

Gow holds up Simon Sinek’s The Golden Circle of Demand Generation as a good example for content marketers to use. The objective of the content marketer is to move from understanding ‘What’ to ‘How’ to ultimately ‘Why’ which engages the decision-making and emotional part of the brain.

Red Bull, a shining example of good content marketing everywhere, covers the ‘why’ – this emotional quadrant – very well with their objective to ‘excite’ consumers with their content.

Gow also raises the example of how Nokia once produced a phone that illiterate people could use by sending social anthropologist, armed with their cameras, out into the field to observe and study how people used their phones. A result was the realisation that one out of every five people on the planet is illiterate – a large market that needed to be catered for.


Nokia did that by moving beyond big data to getting out there and observing, photographing and interviewing their customers.

Hiring your own anthropologist, or engaging the university, is ideal of course. But if you don’t have the resources for your own anthropologist, Google ‘Empathy Map: a simple customer profiler (Source: Xplane, the visual thinking company)’ and download a copy.

Together with your sales team and other stakeholders, you could build a more authentic personal profile of your customers by considering questions, in the context of your product or service, such as:

• What’s on your customer’s mind?

• What does he or she see?• What does he or she say?• What does he or she hear?

Apple’s Steve Jobs hated focus groups because he maintained that customers don’t know what they want. However, it strikes me the empathy map and the anthropologist approach, advocated by Gow, gets to the heart of what a customer wants without putting him or under pressure with ‘too hard questions’.

As a result, during the course of 2014 we were engaged by Bayleys Real Estate to help the company plan a content marketing strategy. One of the steps in this process was to use a social anthropologist to study the emotional and social quadrants of property vendors. He returned some very intriguing insights that nobody would have guessed at in a hundred years.

The empathy map itself uses a series of questions to uncover true motive – much like a good journalist or police detective might. The end result is the ability to map the customer’s journey and your route to true understanding; the holy grail of content marketing.


Another tool that can contribute to your understanding of your customer and their content needs is Alexander Osterwalder’s Customer Value Proposition Canvas V.0.8. Questions the canvas considers include:

• What is theJOB TO BE DONE?

• By WHOM is the jobbeing done?

• At whatCOMPETENCE level?

• What LOCATION andtime is the job occurring?

• What KNOWLEDGEtransfer is required?

• What TOOLS are needed?• What DECISION needs

to be made?• What ACTION needs

to occur?• Is CONFIRMATION required?• What about FOLLOW UP?

Colin Kennedy, Head of Content from Espire Media is a thought leader in content marketing strategy and communications in New Zealand. www.espiremedia.com

Answers to each one of these questions can help you uncover useful insights to your customers needs, problem and questions, and no doubt inform some compelling content.

Answering your customer’s questions and solving their problems is at the heart of great content marketing, and some of these tools seem to be an inherently useful way to get there. ■

Answering your customer’s questions and solving their problems is at the heart of great content marketing.

http://www.espiremedia.com


48 hours of Business Battles

Tomorrow’s Entrepreneurs

LAST MONTH, 80 OF ourtop Young Enterprise students converged on Massey University’s Auckland campus for one of our biggest events of the year: Enterprise in Action. The weekend sees our students compete in two business challenges: the Global Enterprise Challenge and the Fedex/JA

International Trade Challenge.

The students worked in 10 teams and were mentored by volunteers from Air New Zealand, BNZ, BECA, Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand, HP, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, Snowball Effect, Spark, Warehouse Stationery and Xero.

Young Enterprise CEO Terry Shubkin recaps a weekend choc full of teen entrepreneurs, business pitches and amazing volunteers!


Day 1 was the Global Enterprise Challenge. Each team had 12 hours to “design an innovative exhibit, to inform communities, government and the media about the ways light affects our lives”. No pressure!

Teams were judged on a three-minute pitch and a two-page business plan. Team BNZ took this competition – their concept was to create a mobile exhibition utilising virtual reality units and interactive pathways. Its purpose was to educate young people about the use of alternate light sources in the agricultural sector.

Day 2 was all about the NZ heat of the FedEx International Trade Challenge. Teams had to design a market entry strategy to export an oil-based product to Saudi

Arabia. Entries for this were particularly thoughtful given the tense social-political landscape of Saudi Arabia. They included:

• A women’s multi-vitaminthat would empowerwomen to take charge oftheir health and counter thesevere vitamin deficienciesSaudi women face as aresult of both economicand social constraints

• An anti-aging serum madeout of Olive, Kawakawaand Manuka oils combinedwith gold nano particles.

Team Air New Zealand took this competition out. They pitched biodegradable super absorbent polymer crystals, which were designed to be sprinkled over farmland. The crystals can absorb up to 30


times their weight in water, and then slowly release it. This product was designed specifically to reduce water wastage in Saudi Arabia’s sand-based soil.

Getting the chance to work with leading corporates is one of the huge drawcards for students at Enterprise in Action. Every year, passionate and dedicated volunteers from each organisation give up their entire weekend to support our students – forgoing a lot of sleep in the process.

Genny Stevens from Xero mentored for the third time at Enterprise in Action this year.

“Volunteering for Young Enterprise is just incredible. It’s just so inspiring for me as a person in business to see what is coming up through the ranks from the young people. I learn so much about myself doing this, and I’m able to put improvements into my own business practices and my own life as well.”

When asked what she would say to someone considering


volunteering for Young Enterprise, Genny said you’d be mad not to do it. “It’s so rewarding, it really is. You get so much out of it, seeing the difference that you can make immediately with just a few words and a little bit of experience.”

Genny says that getting the chance to connect with young people is one of the best things about Enterprise in Action. “Seriously, it’s amazing – when people complain about the youth of today, I wonder where the hell they are, honestly! These guys are incredible: they’re our future, and they’re so on to it. I only wish I’d had a little bit of their smarts when I was their age.”

Pip Baxendine from Spark echoes this enthusiasm for the

students themselves.

“You have this amazing inspiration from the students because they are so clever, they’re just great. Every single student I’ve mentored over the past four years has been amazing: they’re polite, they’re kind, they’re generous, they’re clever. I’ve loved every single student that’s come through.”

I think what I enjoy most about Enterprise in Action is the connections that we see between our students and our volunteers. The students rave about their mentors, and the mentors enjoy working with the students. Both groups come away from the weekend physically tired, but mentally invigorated. That’s what we love to see.” ■

Young Enterprise Trust’s vision is to grow a more prosperous New Zealand through enterprise. Our aim is to ensure all New Zealand students participate in experiential enterprise education and financial literacy programmes. http://yetrust.co.nz/

http://yetrust.co.nz/

Be there to help the customer buy from you, not to sell them something! Selling is something you do with people, not to people. That is, if you value the relationship and want repeat business. Try to understand

the world from their perspective. In their view, they will believe they are right, and you know what, they probably are - so listen!

SALESPEOPLE ACROSS ALL industries are talking toincreasingly nervous buyers who are delaying purchasing decisions while they wait for the politicians and banks to try and sort our economies out.

So how should sales professionals deal with an increase in objections and buyer resistance?

SALES

Four Essential Tips on Handling

Sales Objections


BY PAUL NEWSOM


Four Essential Tipson Handling

Sales Objections

What do we say when the buyer raises an objection?For those salespeople who concentrate their efforts on selling product and persuading a customer to buy you can expect objections and lots of them.

If your sales methods are built around a numbers game, (20 calls for five appointments for one sale) then rejection and/or objections will be par for the course. Thick skin, quick thinking and a repertoire of prepared answers to counter the buyers’ resistance will be essential to survive.

Part of the problem created by the sales industry itself is that traditional sales training has included so much material on objection handling and closing that salespeople are being trained for battle. It creates a mindset of preparing for sparring, and trying to win over the customer. Buyers expect it and are ready for it.

Worn out myths such as, ‘Selling doesn’t start until the buyer says no’ must be condemned to the gallows if you are to succeed in developing any sustainable

relationship with a buyer. Buyers have changed the way they are buying, and old school objection handling techniques have little effect. Competition should be against your competitors, not with your customers!

Better answers are no longer the answerI recall participating in a sales training session just a few years ago where they brought in professional actors to try to teach us how to ‘Always Have A Better Answer’ (Ahaba), whenever the customer raised an objection. It was perhaps one of the most entertaining yet entirely ineffective training situations I have experienced. If you are good at acting, you should perhaps be an actor.

Better answers are no longer the answer to the problem. Savvy buyers have heard them all before and tend to switch off.When looking at how to deal with customer objections, focus on the cause, not the symptom. You, the salesperson are the cause, the symptom is the customer objection.


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Here are four essential tips on handling sales objections by focusing on the cause (you) and how you sell:

Understand how and why the customer buys.Know the game that you are playing before you start. Selling begins by understanding the customer before you even talk to them. It continues throughout the sales cycle by finding out what it is that the customer values. You do this by asking questions. As influential French writer and philosopher Voltaire said 300 years ago, ‘Judge a man by his questions, not his answers.’

Let’s be real, price will always be somewhere on the list of buyers criteria, but find out what all the decision criteria are, how they go about selecting suppliers and what their top suppliers do well. Get an agreement that you meet these criteria as you progress the sale.

Get better at qualifying that the prospect has the issue or problem that the benefit of your product or service fixes.We call this ‘Discovery’ – to identify a valid business reason or establish relevancy.

The over-eager salesperson who focuses on selling product features and benefits too early in the conversation is sure to get objections. You are going to come up against resistance if the customer is thinking, ‘Sure, I could always go bigger, faster, better, but that’s not what I need right now – the cost of going bigger, faster or better is higher than the value it will provide to me.’ And all too often, also going through the buyers mind is, ‘This sales person has no understanding of my business, they are only concerned with their own interests, and I don’t trust them’. Of course, they are going to object!

How often do we think we have lost a sale when we should never have been selling there in the first place because there is no valid business reason to be talking with

the customer?


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Paul Newsom is the Editor of NZ Sales Manager magazine www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz

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Slow down for yellow lights, and stop for red lights.This concept is covered well in Mahan Khalsa’s excellent book, “Lets Get Real, The Demise of 20th Century Dysfunctional Selling and The Advent of Helping Clients Succeed”.

Khalsa says: “When you are driving along, particularly when you are anxious to arrive somewhere important, and you encounter a yellow light, what do you do? If you are like most people I know, you go faster. Unfortunately, we use that same response with our clients. We hear something that concerns us, see a reaction that spells potential trouble, feel we are running into difficulty, and we speed up to avoid running into our worst fears. Ultimately we are afraid the light will turn red. We don’t want to fail at a red light, so we speed up, hoping we’ll make it through. If we can’t slow down for yellow lights, it’s hard to get real.”You have to stop when you hit a red light, but hitting a red light is not a failure. Unless of course you have repeatedly crossed through yellow lights and committed time, money, and resources to hit a red light that you should have been at weeks ago.If you hit a yellow light, pass it to the customer and see whether it is going to change to red or to green. Ask the question, ‘If I understand this correctly (explain the situation as you see it)……..so what should we do at this point?’ Eliminate the red lights (objections) before you get to them by slowing down for each

yellow light.

Create an air of cooperation with the customer.Be there to help the customer to buy, not to sell them something. Try to understand the world from their perspective. In their view, they will believe they are right, and you know what, they probably are.

Selling is something you do with people, not to people. That is if you value the relationship and want repeat business.

In summary, your biggest competitive advantage is you, the sales person, not your product or service. The secret to overcoming buyer resistance is to change the way you sell, not come up with more and better answers to

handle objections. ■

http://www.nzsalesmanager.co.nz


PERSONAL TRAINER

Entrepreneurial Intelligence

THEIR CONSTANT BICKERING shows that are both talking and neither are listening. Therefore any underlying issues that are causing this behavior will not be resolved. As the business leader the best course of action is to teach them how to listen to each other.

The process goes like this. Set up a meeting between the three of you and allow at least an hour of time. When they are both present explain that their bickering needs to stop and to assist them you would like to work through any issues that they think might be contributing towards their behaviour.

Tell the first one that you would

like for him/her to tell you and their colleague exactly what is on their mind. Don’t lead the topics or issues as they will get to it when they feel they are really being listened to. Instruct the other one to only listen.

You will both give your full attention to the speaker until they are finished. No interruptions, frustrated facial expressions (like eye rolling) or body language (like deep sighing) from the listener will be allowed.

When the first one has finished the second one will have their turn to talk about what is on their mind and the same rules apply. It might take some time for each speaker to reach

I have two excellent performers in my sales team who get equally good results but their constant bickering causes a lot of strain, distraction and possibly a reduction in results amongst the wider team. I don’t know what to do, do you have any suggestions on where to start?

with Sandy Geyer


the actual issues and get comfortable with the fact that no one is interrupting them but this is a very effective process to reach the issues causing the arguments.

They might need your help when the actual issues are reached to resolve them and each speaker can speak again, but again with no interruptions. It might even take more than one session but it’s unlikely as this process is very effective if followed carefully.

Once resolved, tell them that you expect them to follow the same process for future

concerns and that bickering is no longer acceptable in the business environment.

Remind them that good sales people are really good listeners and what they have learned from this process can also be used to great effect with clients. If they have performed well up until now they will perform even better with this skill in their sales toolbox.

As the business leader this skill can assist you with many potentially tricky situations with staff, colleagues and clients.■

Sandy Geyer is an entrepreneur and mentor and teaches the principles of entrepreneurial intelligence (EnQ), to entrepreneurs in New Zealand, Australia and South Africa. You can visit Sandy’s website at www.enqpractice.com

In each issue, Sandy will be answering commonly asked questions from new entrepreneurs. If you have a question for Sandy to do with entrepreneurship, building successful businesses or the challenges and difficulties faced by

entrepreneurs, email the editor at [email protected]

http://www.enqpractice.com



Investment Corner

Equity Crowdfunding What do investors want to see?

The Crowdfunding ChronicleBY WILL MAHON-HEAP


AN EQUITY CROWDFUNDING campaign, like any offering of shares to the public requires disclosure. Set out below are some things business owners should think about before they launch the campaign. Usually, an equity crowdfunding platform will suggest that you prepare a short form information memorandum (IM), essentially a more comprehensive business plan.

In the interests of helping Kiwi entrepreneurs prepare for an equity crowdfunding campaign, we’ve set out some things to bear in mind when contemplating the campaign. This is by no means exhaustive!

The upfront summary More often than not it is the Executive Summary that an investor will read first. Therefore, it is your opportunity to capture the reader. The Executive Summary is a section that allows an investor to digest some of the company’s most important highlights and details of the raise. It’s often where an investor will decide

whether to keep reading or not - it’s important!

The Executive Summary provides an overview of the business, stakeholders and industry, highlighting the most important aspects and opportunities. Crucially, it addresses the reasons for attracting investment and future growth potential. It is a good idea to write the Executive Summary last as it usually only contains the most relevant and significant points made in the IM.

How do I talk about my business? The first thing to think about is clearly outlining what your company does, and a description of the activities it undertakes as part of its operations. This could include a breakdown of sales, customers, and your perceived development potential. It’s also helpful to break down your corporate structure, i.e. are you a subsidiary (owned by another company), and who are your key stakeholders? This is salient information for investors, as they will naturally sit next to


your current investor base.

As with financials, your history is important. This is the development of the company over time - did you go through a beta phase? How many customers did you acquire? If you’re still in beta why?

Finally, don’t forget the team. As you know with early stage ventures it’s about management. If you’re a proven entrepreneur with a previous exit, highlight this experience. It’s all about credibility for your vision.

Key metricsMetrics are quantifiable measures to track the performance of a business or industry. They are helpful for comparing your business with competitors, and they are a good way of understanding where the trends are heading in the industry. Not all metrics are useful, relevance is critical. Good ones to include would be indicators of financial performance such as profit margins, and industry drivers.

The industry outlineCompetition is essential - do you have any? Why is your business unique? Often you’ll want to put together a competition table showing your business, similar companies, and why you are much better!

As part of this don’t forget to highlight the regulatory nature of your industry if relevant, and any important historical milestones. This section should also include the risks associated with the business and industry.

Metrics are quantifiable measures to track

the performance of a business or

industry. They are helpful for comparing

your business with competitors, and they

are a good way of understanding where

the trends are heading in the industry


new market? Is it to increase sales or develop a new product? Obviously you’ll need to explain how much you are raising and at what reasonable valuation. Looking at similar businesses at your stage and in your sector will give you a good starting point to gauge valuation.

It is important to demonstrate that your business has a well thought out exit strategy for investors to ‘cash-out’. Generally, investors look to exit investments in early-stage businesses through an IPO or acquisition after a period of growth.

ConclusionCrowdfunding providers are here to educate entrepreneurs and guide them through the capital raising process. It is ultimately the responsibility of the company raising capital to ensure these comply with the necessary requirements. However, we are happy to assist companies as much as we can.■

Will Mahon-Heap from Equitise. Crowdfund enthusiast, alternative finance follower, big data reader, internet of things watcher, escaped corporate lawyer. www.equitise.co.nz

OK, so what about the numbers? The financials are the first place to start as assumptions made here will underpin projections in many of the other areas. Financial statements allow investors to see how you will make money and what potential your business has.

If possible, historical financials are important as they help validate the business model and give credibility to your growth projections. Of particular importance are the assumptions used to the forecasted financial statements.

Investors will sanity check these assumptions knowing that most early stage businesses are overly optimistic and forecast revenue that is too high and costs that are too low.

What are you going to achieve? If you’re raising capital, it’s usually for a defined purpose. State these goals clearly - do you need capital to enter a

http://www.equitise.co.nz


What’s Challenging NZ Business Owners?

A SURVEY

Ecosystem

IN THE MARCH ISSUE of NZEntrepreneur we published findings of a study Dr Jodyanne Kirkwood conducted on ‘Tall Poppy Syndrome’ and its effects on entrepreneurs in New Zealand for the past seven years - you can find that article on pages 32-35 in NZ Entrepreneur Issue 30 here: http://nzentrepreneur.co.nz/issue30.

As part of the ‘Tall Poppy

Syndrome’ article we gave

NZ Entrepreneur readers the

opportunity to answer a survey

on ‘What’s challenging NZ

business owners?’. You can find

the summary of findings based

on answers from over 200 Kiwi

entrepreneurs here. ■

Summary of findings to a study conducted by Dr Jodyanne Kirkwood and Dr Tarja Viitanen from the University of Otago Business School on

the challenges small business owners face in New Zealand.

Provided by Dr Jodyanne Kirkwood, Senior Lecturer, Department of Management, University of Otago. [email protected]

http://nzentrepreneur.co.nz/issue30

http://nzentrepreneur.co.nz/issue30

http://bit.ly/What_s_challenging_New_Zealand_Business_owners



“Don’t worry about failure; you only have to be right once.” - Drew Houston, Dropbox Co-Founder and CEO

PARTING SHOT

nz entrepreneur - issue 32

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