Successful selling is such an important part of everyday business. Transactions need to be made on a regular basis to maintain momentum and cash flow. In most cases, the more systemised and organised you are about your sales, the more successful your business will be.
Here are some basic elements to use as a check-list to make sure your sales ‘house’ is in order:
1. Product knowledge
Start by making sure you know your product or service inside and out. Think about the features your product or service offers and how these differ / are better than those of your competitors. Then think about the positive impacts that your product or service creates – this is what your target audience will be interested in the most. How do you solve their problems?
If you are promoting a community organisation (where selling is just as important), think about the difference that you make and quantify your impact across different areas.
2. Sales materials
Do you have a sales kit at the ready? The quality of this kit should be in line with your brand image. Sometimes you can get away with ‘cheap and cheerful’ other times you will need to invest in quality materials that show professionalism and credibility.
Do you have information on each product or service that you can easily email or print and post? Fact sheets can be useful and Frequently Asked Questions can often assist with customer education. Make sure your key messages are the same across every piece of collateral to eliminate confusion. Talk benefits and include testimonials or evidence of other well-known brands that rely on you and your services.
3. Do your homework
Who are your target audiences? These are the people that can use / are interested in your products or services. The more you can focus your energies on attracting the interest of these groups, the more effective and streamlined your efforts will be.
Then you need to determine what the needs are of your target audiences. How do you present your products or services to solve their problems, make life easier for them, save them time or money (or any other benefits)?
4. Manage your activities
Once you have all your materials in place, it is a good idea to know where you are going to start, what you are going to do next, who you are going to talk to. You might like to segment your current contacts into ‘general contacts’ - all the people you have ever met and know you by name; ‘warm leads’ – people who are likely to purchase your product or service; and ‘customers / clients’ – people who have purchased from you.
Make yourself a list of activities you will conduct for each group and schedule these in your diary. Keep notes against each activity or contact in a database (MS Outlook or even Excel can work for this). Once you are communicating with your prospects on a regular basis, always think about how you can present your product or service to them to meet their needs and solve their problems.
5. Increase your contacts
This is where your marketing activities come in to support the sales function. If you do not have enough contacts in your database (and databases never ‘stand still’) you need to make sure you are always meeting new contacts through e-commerce, networking, advertising, media activities, events, affiliations and referrals. The combination of these activities (your marketing mix) needs to be relevant to your brand and sales objectives.
Once you have met a new contact, add them to your keep in touch program (below) and learn about their needs and how you might support them.
6. Keep in touch
Once the mechanics of your sales system are moving along nicely, make sure you also plan communications activities to keep in touch with your contacts, warm leads and customers. Be genuine and useful when you communicate, and make sure your ‘touch points’ are not always about a sale. The idea is to keep in touch often enough to be ready when your customer or client is ready to make a purchase. Then they already know about you, have developed trust and rapport and you can move into negotiations.
For not for profits, make sure you stay in touch and thank people separately to the occasions when you ask for donations or gifts.
If you would like further information or help with establishing your sales and marketing systems, please contact me on 07 3899 8335 or email megan@marketsavvvy.com.au .
Next month’s article will cover Face to Face Selling.
Best wishes – Megan.