The lifeblood of every business is sales, revenue and profits.
That is the undeniable truth of the world of business.
And if Sales is the lifeblood, then people is is at the heart of it - driving revenue and channeling resources to feed the company.
One big reason why many businesses, new and old - fail, unfortunately has got to do with with poor sales performance, which could be attributed to a lack of knowledge, or a lack of skill, or lack of competitive or comparative advantage.
All businesses start out with an idea of a competitive or comparative advantage - the founders have something good or better, and they want to bring it to the market.
1 - Awareness is Key
One thing many businesses fail to understand, however, is that until somebody knows about your business and/or products, what they're good for, and how they can help others solve their problems, they will not approach you, and they will not buy from you. Re: No Sales.
2- Amplification is The Extra Key
The second key point to remember, is that sales is also a numbers game.
You can spend 10hrs speaking to 10 people, and close 1 sale.
You could even spend 9hrs speaking to 9people and close no sale.
You may also spend 1hr, speaking to 100 people and close 10 sales.
Many people possess a very linear understanding and approach towards work and sales; many fail to appreciate, that sales and marketing can be what I call, an "amplified" task - whereby you can spend the same amount of effort once, and reap exponential results.
The trick is to find the platform to do that.
Here are some ways to amplify your business message:
- Social media posts on pages and profiles with updates on business activities
- Leveraging on word-of-mouth marketing techniques to get other people to talk about them
- Making videos and sharing tips on how to do something
- Public speaking and sharing tips, insights and exclusive content at events
- Making podcasts and sharing tips
- Putting up print advertisements in papers and publications (poor ROI btw).
- Putting up paid ads on Google / Facebook / Internet etc
The idea is, the more people know about what you do, the better they can access you.
A reminder: you still need to know about your Core Differentiating Factor, and Present a Clear Value Proposition, in order for you to draw people towards you.
Example, you can place a piece of cotton in front of an Ant hill, but until the Ants sense sugar, they're not going to bother about what you place in front of them.
Appreciation of these, is also the main reason why we pioneered the Art of Influence Intensive Workshop to help small business owners attract more business and close more sales in a more structured and more strategic process.
3 - Adopting a Structured Sales Process
Sales is an art, as it can also be a science.
I say that it's a science, because having served as a high performance sales trainer to an American MNC specializing in reselling, I had to deliver a structured curriculum to its sales team - to ensure that everybody is aligned and equipped with the right tools to succeed in the business.
What I realized, from delivering the curriculum was, with a structured process / approach we can condition our mind to approach our customers, tune into what they're looking for, and navigate the journey from prospect to closing... almost effortlessly.
What the structured process does for us is to minimize the uncertainty, and focus on the tasks at hand for each stage , and only moving on to the next stage when our prospects are ready.
What this means is, our prospects are actively engaged, and the chances of drop out (it still happens btw), is reduced significantly.
The key here, however, is to:
- Find a process / structure that works for you,
- Map out the process and structure
- Refine and sharpen that process so that your closing rates are enhanced
It becomes exceedingly hard to close your customers, if your mind and focus is all over the place.
Latching and leveraging on a process helps you reduce the stress, and exponentially increases your chances of success.
(Also, check out our upcoming high performance sales training workshop here!)
In summary, like it or not, all businesses depend on sales and revenue to survive and thrive.
The ability to bring in a healthy stream of revenue is key to the business surviving and growing for years to come.
The inability to bring in the dough, conversely, leads to stagnation and demise... and many entrepreneurs fall short largely because of the myth that the "customers will come when we build it".
Really, even Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Mark Zuckerberg talks about their business to raise awareness, and all the big businesses have a sales team and proven sales process to bring in the dough - what makes you/us any different?
So, bite the bullet and sharpen your sales capabilities today.
Learn to amplify your message and attract more customers too.
You and your business will be better off with it.
