Not so many years ago, ‘Sales’ was at the forefront of every business. A company had ‘Sales Targets’ and these were understood at every level from the most junior sales person to the MD. The bigger companies had a Sales Director whose sole mission was to manage the sales people, ensuring that they conduced themselves in a professional and effective manner, and achieving the sales targets which had been set at the beginning of the year.
Whether it is a ‘one person’ business, or a ‘company’ with premises and staff, the principles of good effective selling remain the same. With the capabilities of the internet, more leads, and contacts can be made, but good sales techniques remain the same. I have been reminded of the need for this when I ‘googled’ an interest in a new phone system. Within half an hour the first ( of 5 ) calls came in…. With one sales person, I had to ask him to slow down and eventually to stop talking…
There must be so much new business potential out there that these firms must get new customers with this verbal battering ram style of ‘selling’. If it works for them, that’s fine.
After 2 days of these calls and follow up calls, I took the time to turn up the number of someone I had dealt with 2 years ago, and we are now progressing a sale.
In so many medium and small businesses, the company is led and managed by someone who had no specific sales experience. In the early years of so many businesses, there is enough business and margins to get some sales , but when new sales and customers are required, due to tough market conditions or rising costs, there was no basic understanding of the traditional sales process. And the business stops growing.
So many small businesses do not understand the basics of the sales process, whether it is B2C or B2B, many assuming that ‘marketing’ will produce new sales. The sales process includes defining tsales targets, identifying specific prospects for the products or services, and creating a sales process to contact these prospects and qualify them as prospects. ( a prospect is one who acknowledges that they have the need for, or interest in, the product or service, and have the authority to order the product or service). And then to close an order.
The idea that having a good looking web site and swamping the social media channels with posts, only works for a very small number of companies.
For a business to achieve targetted sales figures, it is essential to have a working business plan, and within that plan, details of the marketing and sales processes and actions.
The author of his article has a sales training and sales background at corporate and small business levels.
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Posted by Startup Assist UK – Providing 1-2-1 support for Startup and SME businesses.