Rod Young

I am pleased to welcome on board Rod Young.  Rod will be joining an Expert Business Panel with a focus on franchising.

Rod is the Founder and Director of DC Strategy; the region’s leading specialist consulting and legal firm

Rod Young is a versatile management professional with a broad range and depth of experience leading a specialist consulting firm developing networks and brands for many of Australia’s most well recognized retail brands.

Rod has over 30 years experience in franchising, licensing and business development in Australia, Europe, China, South East Asia, India and the United States and is considered one of the world’s leading franchise consultants.

Rod has been a key advisor to some of Australasia’s leading groups – transforming smaller businesses into national and international chains and steering larger organisations in using franchising or licensing as a management and marketing tool. His business interests have also included roles as both a franchisee and franchisor and he is on the board of several national and international franchise networks including Boost Juice, Cartridge World and Hair House Warehouse.

A recognised authority in the area of franchising, Rod has contributed extensively to major media including television, radio and press as well as being a regular speaker at franchising seminars and conferences in Australia, the United States, China, India and Asia.

Rod Young

Matt Dobbin

I am pleased to welcome on board Matt Dobbin.  Matt will be joining an expert business panel with a focus on strategy and business transformation, particularly for small and medium enterprise (SMEs).

Matt is a Directorwith PricewaterhouseCoopers(Australia‘s largest multi-disciplinary partnership), Matthew has over 17 years international consulting experience with a key focus on organisational strategy and driving major business improvement initiatives across a range of organisations.

Matthew has had extensive international experience working with major clients in the USA, Middle East, Europe, Asia and New Zealand.

Matt Dobbin

Improving Website Conversion

The first part of effective website conversion is to attract traffic that has a need and potential intent to buy.  It is hard for me to comment on this as I am not sure exactly how and what type of traffic you are generating.  From what you said, it sounds like you are generating sufficient numbers, so the question to ask is how good is the quality.

The second part of web conversion is the effectiveness of your website.  This comes under a number of areas.  Firstly your products and services:

• How well do the products and services meet the needs of your traffic?
• How compelling are the products and services you are offering?

Secondly, the website experience:

People typically make their mind on a website within 15 seconds.  There is also a strong element of psychology which influences people’s decision to buy.  Copywriting is the technique for building an effective sales process on the web.  Some of the elements of this process include concepts such as building trust and credibility, having an effective call to action and creating urgency.

Thirdly, the timing of the sales cycle:

Best practice websites will try to attract traffic to join the database.  This is normally done by some kind of free gift or offer that has enough value for someone in return to give their contact details.  The reason for this strategy is that enables trust and credibility to be built up over time.  Many people who come to a site are not at that precise moment ready to buy.  By capturing their details and continuing to connect with them, you increase the likelihood of being in front of mind when they are looking to buy.

Improving Website Conversion

Customer Value Proposition

A customer value proposition captures the essence of a sales strategy.

It describes how we intend to compete for (earn) customer privileges? How we intend to differentiate ourselves from our competitors to more readily be in a position to earn those privileges?

In other words, what products, services, and approaches we will deliver to our customers that will be different (or better executed) from those our competitors provide …….having ensured that those chosen differences are valued highly by the customer, and clearly, more highly valued than the competitors’ unique differences.

Customer Value Proposition

-       A Customer Value Proposition (CVP) answers the “elevator test” Why should I do business with you? 

-       From another perspective, a CVP is the unique outcome (view in the customer’s mind) that we wish to create, by constantly and consistently exposing that customer to our “tools”.

-       The CVP should differentiate us from that of our competitors (Differentiate us from the mindset that the customer has of them, in other words their CVP).

-       And finally, the points of differentiation should be those that would resonate with the customer i.e. Products, services and approaches that the customer would value and rank as important to their business

Customer Value Proposition

Problems in starting an online business

This is a quick question as one I am really passionate about as it is one of the reasons why I setup keys to success club.  From a personal point of view one of the great frustrations for me when I was getting involved in the online world and property investing is the difficulty in finding the right information, the right people to talk to and the right support of what can be a very challenging journey.

As a result of this, and I can say this from personal experience people run into problems making critical decisions without the right level of education, get involved with people who do not have their best interests at heart and can end up wasting a lot of Time Energy and motivation levels especially in the early stages.

One of the other things I observe, is that people underestimate the importance of their personal mindset and belief systems.  If there are significant issues in this area and the chances of success in in a matter what area they focus on will be significantly reduced.

Problems in starting an online business