As a small business owner you will undoubtedly function in many roles and wear many hats as you attempt to build and grow your business. One of the roles you will play is “Chief Salesperson”. Your primary job in business is to stay in business meaning keep the doors open as well as remain profitable. As the owner and/or operator of that business, it’s up to you to keep the customers coming in consistently. Let’s explore 5 key sales strategies for success.
1. Set realistic goals
One of the most important activities in sales is to set realistic goals and this starts with your business plan. You must have an idea of how much you can realistically garner each year from the products and services you sell. You must also have an idea about what your best selling and least selling items are and why. Know your customers enables you to set realistic goals.
Another important factor in setting realistic sales goals is knowing your target market and existing customer base. You must be able to predict what your target market will buy. In order to do this, you must learn everything you can about your ideal customers: who and where they are, how you can reach them, etc. You must also know exactly what your existing customers need more of so you are able to continue doing business with them.
2. Develop a Competitive Advantage
At some point when you decided to start your business, you came up with a few things that you perceived as advantages for whatever it is that you sell. You must be able to clearly and succintly tell what makes you or your product, service different from what else is out there. If you don’t have a competitive advantage, how will you out sell your competitors? The fact is, you won’t. You must have an effective and compelling reason for why potential customers should do business with you.
3. Listen More than You Speak
Whe you do most of the talking in a sales conversation you are setting yourself up for failure. “Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care” says damon Richards. You must learn about the prospect before they become a customer and the best way to do this is to let them share who they are and what they need.
4. Build a Strong Reputation
As a small business owner you always need to have a yearning desire to constantly improve your products and services. Having the drive to always get better will help you to have a better reputation in the marketplace. The bottomline here is simply the small business owners who go the extra mile to improve and grow in sales will be the one who excels, grows market share and succeeds in the end.
5. Never Get Too Comfortable
Many small business owners begin to fail or experience a downward spiral in sales when they get too comfortable after a successful period when sales are up. I’ve seen it happen with clients and experienced it for myself. And that’s why I can tell you with certainty, when you rest on your laurels they will eventually give out.
Let’s face it, clients and customers come and go for a variety of reasons. Even the best companies lose a certain amount of customers every year. Having sales attrition is something you should plan for on a monthly, quarterly and yearly basis.
As you can see, there are many sales strategies for success and I’ve listed what I perceive to be the top ones to help point you in the right direction.
Remember, the old adage from the 1992 film, Glengarry Glen Ross where Alec Baldwin delivers a powerful line to the sales people to “always be closing”. In the film, Alec’s character was obnoxious and that one line seemed to be very insenstive. However, the fact is that you must close the sale on a consistent basis if you want to stay in business. Of course, most people tend to respond better to more empathetic sales people who take the time to show more genuine concern. But the bottom line is simply, without sales you do not have a business you have a hobby.
Here’s your sales building assignment:
Decide which of the above areas you are going to work on in the next 30 days. Decide what safeguards you will put in place to ensure that you improve in the area that you have selected.
Copyright © 2015 Quality Media Consultant Group LLC
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Lori A. Manns is an award-winning, marketing, sales coach and business strategist who works with small business owners to help them elevate their brand, get more clients and grow revenue. Lori A. Manns is CEO of Quality Media Consultant Group and founder of the Trailblazer Business Academy™ where advancing entrepreneurs go to learn business growth strategies the soulful way. Lori is also the creator of Sponsorship Sales Secrets System;™ that shows you how to get more sponsors and sales for your business, guaranteed. To purchase consulting services on marketing, advertising or sales and, learn how to increase your revenue and grow your business; please visit the start here page on www.qualitymediaconsultants.com.