Member Article

Get your Sales Engine revving.

We know that generally speaking more sales equals more profit. However, just clicking your fingers and hoping for more customers will not work. One of the biggest business challenges is getting consistent sales. If you want to achieve maximum sales there are processes to follow to ensure growth and profit. Let us look at the five stages.

Define your target market and who your ideal customer is. Ask yourself questions about them, what do they do for a job. How old are they? What do they do in their spare time? Choose that target customer and really get to know them inside out. It is easy to try to be all things to all people but going through the process of defining your audience is the first stage you need to consider. If you do not target the right customer then your business will not grow.

Next, define your customer journey. It is important to work out the actual journey a customer goes through in order to purchase from you. What is their decision-making process? Are they going on your website or do they call in? Do they research? Can they find you easily? You need to ensure that the information on your business or product is sufficient for them to make a buying decision. Get into the psyche of your best clients. Work out how they make their decisions and what prompts those decisions.Think about the influences surrounding them making that decision.

Next you need to create your sales process. That requires you to clearly define who does what in the sales process. Work out the different sales strengths in your team and ensure that your team is each working to their individual strength. If you have all your sales team doing the same thing you will likely drop sales. The process and the set up of the team must be clearly defined so team members understand their role and the aims within it. As the founder or CEO ensure you communicate your skills as a salesperson and pass on your expertise.

It is very useful as well as necessary to script your sales process. With new recruits coming on board to help your sales funnel and grow your business, you need a script for them to follow. That script should ensure a clear customer journey for the sales person to recreate. Do not make the mistake of having it all in your head and then not be able to share it with your sales team. Ensure there is clear logic to your sales process with the end goal firmly and clearly set out. Help those new recruits at the start and foster a helpful and competent working environment. With shared goals and values.

Finally train you team. Very few people are great salespeople from the off. Most people need to learn how to sell. It is easy to send your new starters on a two day training course and expect them to be fully fledged sales people. The reality is that it will be a waste of money and time. Selling is about asking the right questions by reading the right body language. It is about listening. It is about understanding that selling is an art form and must be practiced. It is important to learn from others, watch what other people do via webinars. The sales market is constantly changing and your team must keep up with those changing trends.

This article is written by Peter Boolkah who is an award winning business coach with over 30 years experience helping businesses here and in the US scale up and grow.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Lucy Hood .