What Does Your Sales Program Look Like?
by John Ruh
I am amazed to find so many small businesses, independent consultants and professional advisors who do B-B selling, don’t have a sales program in place to sustain their business. Some people operate under the false impression that
1. A good product or service will sell itself.
2. Client goodwill and referrals will sustain new business.
3. Marketing and advertising efforts including the web (see P.S.) will suffice.
This is a dangerous position to take. Just like the farmer knows he must plant in order to harvest, a businessperson must have an effective new business strategy just to maintain existing sales levels. You will be in a much more secure position if you have a solid sales program that creates a continuing flow of new clients. Then, the above three premises can provide the icing on the cake.
Assuming you want to stay at current sales levels or increase them (a logical assumption if you want to stay in business) you first and foremost need to understand that an effective sales strategy must be implemented to build sales. And the key to creating an effective sales program is building it on a solid foundation.
What is a solid foundation?
It is one that answers the question why hire your firm and/or why hire you. It takes into account your culture (vision, mission and values), the features and benefits of your product and/or service and honestly positions you in a way that is powerful. It’s amazing what this can do to create a manner of speaking that impacts your audience.
How do you do create a solid foundation?
I suggest using a Socratic approach (live in the question not the answer.) Get into detail about what makes your firm unique. It may be useful to have an objective outsider develop this with you and your staff. Once this is done well, you then can start the process of formalizing a targeted sales program that will aggressively go after ideal clients with impact and frequency. This will start the process of planting the seeds that can sustain your growth.
I hope you found this useful.
I remain committed to supporting your vision, mission and values.
Sincerely,
John Ruh
773-775-6636
P.S. Web positioning and marketing can be a tremendous source of new business leads for many businesses.
P.P.S. If you want more information, go to Growing Sales and read the ABC’s of Growing Sales or call/email us to discuss your sales program.