In our last post, we talked about Marketing and how it relates to your Top-line Revenues.

Now let’s take a look at sales…

A sale is simply the conversion of a prospect into a customer through a transfer of your confidence and enthusiasm about your products and services to them.  Sales is foundational to the health of a business.  However, a number of companies that I have worked with over the years have not positioned themselves to focus on it.  Instead, sales have been allowed to fluctuate and the business was left to react.

Do you have a documented “funnel” of prospective clients at different stages of buying that you can review regularly to develop/update strategy with?

Prospecting activity is the true measure of a successful sales team. 

Real selling isn’t about the selling; it’s about constant prospecting- making sure you always have potential clients to talk with.

1.  If you aren’t consistently adding new clients to your sales funnel, it’s easy to get scared when current clients start making demands.  For example, if you have an easy access to a grocery store, you’re more likely to throw out the milk when it’s still a day until the expiration date.  If you are stranded somewhere and can’t get new supplies or food, you will find ways to justify keeping that milk just a little longer, you’ll get creative with the food you currently have because you’re so afraid of having NO food.  The same thing happens in business: you will put up with a lot more from a current client or from a poor employee if you don’t have any other prospects on the horizon to replace them.  When you get to a point where your funnel is full, you can start choosing clients and employees that fit your ideal business profile.

2.  Prospecting gives your sales people the benefit of getting out in the current “stream” of selling and seeing where competitors are.  If you keep your head down and do the same thing over and over again, the world will pass you by – and leave you behind.  Making sales calls and gathering possible clients keeps you and your sales team the opportunity to stay constantly in touch with your competitors and fellow dealers and keep your business, your employee knowledge and your sales tactics up to date and competitive within your industry.

3.  Everyone needs to hone their skills – whether an athlete, a musician, a teacher…or a sales person.  It’s very easy to settle into a routine and set client list and to talk to the same people day in and day out.  It’s easy.  It’s comfortable.  It’s MAINTAINING.  What happens when your client’s contact line-up changes?  When they go out of business or decide to “go in another direction?”  It’s important to keep that sales “saw” sharpened; that’s another reason to set aside time and resources for your sales team to prospect.  There are plenty of clichés I could throw out there – “Practice makes perfect”, or “Use it or lose it” – but it’s the truth.  If you’re dealing with the same people all the time, you will get lazy.

Sales is part “art” and part “science”…

I talk to many sales people and sales managers.  I’ve asked them whether they believe that sales is more of an “art” or a “science”.   The most successful and experienced ones answer with a strong emphasis on “science”.  Science is a process with predictable outcomes.  Art is a creative endeavor that comes from the heart.   Hiring the right sales “artists” is one ingredient to success.  However, if you want to move the meter in sales, that will come from improving the process (science) that you use to go to market.

Having a sales process is fundamental to being able to see and understand the opportunities that you have available.  Getting everyone on the same page using the same terminology allows for collaboration on strategy, consistency in messaging to your customers, and maximum leverage of your time and money toward closing sales.  Having a documented funnel also provides some sense of predictability to your sales.  When was the last time you were hoping to make your numbers for the month, but didn’t know how it would happen?  You are not alone.  And at the same time, it doesn’t have to stay that way!

Is it EASY to buy from you?

Eliminate unnecessary steps.  Accept more payment terms.  Make it EASY to buy!  Customers have more and more options these days to buy from- removing the barriers to buying from you will help you get your unfair share of their wallet.  One of the things that I consistently see sales teams missing is proactively maintaining relationships with current clients.  Often the tyranny of the urgent takes over and they spend all their time working on current opportunities when low-hanging fruit is available if they would only ask.  I think of one of my customers who sold IT services.  He said that it was amazing- as soon as the technician would arrive at an office, all kinds of “issues” would come crawling out of the woodwork that nobody had ever reported before the technician arrived.  Being available and in constant contact with your customers makes it easy to buy from you and will add strong revenue for you.

Sales has a system, just like marketing.  Hopefully these thoughts will help you and your business get more on the top-line!

The next part of the series is Profits – Bottom-Line.  Obviously, getting more on the top-line is great – but having extra profits to take home is even better…so DON’T miss the next post!