Launching your start-up is one thing but eventually, once the initial buzz and excitement settles down, then comes the gut-wrenching realisation that you need to sell and quickly. Without sales, a company will grind to a halt and eventually fail.
Selling has to be one of the most essential but yet most despised activity in business. So, many start-ups fail not because the idea was bad or the founders incapable but quite simply because the product couldn’t be sold in enough quantities.
The issue is compounded because most people see ‘selling’ as a bad thing and the majority of customers ‘hate’ being sold to.
Most company owners hate implementing ‘sales’ processes and assume if the product is good enough customers will just come, which is false.
Even seasoned salespeople are often encouraged into pushy ‘sales’ tactics to meet inaccessible sales targets just because so few understand how to ‘sell’ effectively.
In this article, we’ll look at how to sell any product or service effectively from beginning to end.
If you have preconceived ideas of what sales is, get ready to be challenged, here goes…
What Sales Isn’t.
Modern-day sales has nothing to do with the “sell me a pen” techniques described in movies like The Wolf Of Wall Street.
The image of the silver-tongued salesperson who could sell his own grandmother for a quick dollar is not a viable image to hold in your mind if you want to sell effectively.
Yes, selling is about effective communication but the days of ‘convincing’ someone to buy your product are now dead. That’s right, you read that correctly, you will never convince anyone to buy your product! But why?
The reason things have changed is because of the internet. The “sell me a pen” technique worked in the past because people were short of quality information.
They had no idea of the number of pens on the market, the prices and the quality of the pens available.
Since the dawn of the internet, everything has changed. Your potential customer can compare your product with all your competitors in minutes if not seconds.
You are no longer in the driving seat with regard to information about your product or service. Worst still, your customer can buy from anyone, anywhere in the world.
Therefore, when a customer does reach out to you they are not coming to hear how great your product is or how better you are than your competitors.
They will often have a fairly good idea as to what they want and what they are willing to pay for it.
Your job in this new reality is to communicate to them how you can solve their challenges effectively and how quickly and efficiently you can solve their problems. Not to convince them to buy from you.
Trying to ‘convince’ a potential customer that you are the best option will not only potentially drive that customer away but will also trigger the in-built ‘hatred’ of sales and diminish trust in your business.
If you can show your potential clients how you can solve their problems, quickly and effectively and within their perceived budget, they will happily buy from you.
In addition, they will trust you more and potentially ask for advice on other areas of their business, which will often lead to more sales.
Selling is now all about building consultative relationships, where you are acting as an advisor offering genuine solutions, rather than a ‘salesperson’ selling widgets regardless of the fit to the customer for a quick buck.
Laying the Foundation.
As we’ve already discussed the Internet now dominates the decision-making process of the majority of potential customers.
Therefore, it’s essential before one sales email is made, one social media post or one sales call that the information found online about your business is accurate and does not cause confusion or lack of trust further along the line in the sales process.
Here are the foundational areas that must be covered:
- Company Registration – Your company registration details are essential- Remember your website is worldwide, so potential clients will want to see if they can do business with you. By sharing your company registration on your website you are stating you are a legitimate business and are legally able to operate and open for business. In most jurisdictions, this is a legal requirement.
- Domain names – The market is now worldwide – Do you own all domain names and misspellings of your main website domain? Have you thought of spellings of your main domain in other jurisdictions and in other languages? You could be losing hundreds, if not thousands of visitors, because they will be searching or spelling differently due to language differences.
- Branding – Your branding should be consistent across all platforms. The same branding (including the same colours) should be used in your emails, on your website, on social media and on invoices sent to customers. You should place your brand on everything that goes out to the customer. Doing this will build trust in the mind of your potential client. You may want to consider trade marking your brand to avoid others stealing it and passing themselves off as you once you start to elevate your brand recognition. Read our article on trademarking here:
- Your Website – Yes, your website is obvious but it’s easy to get it wrong. Ensure your website includes your registered office address, your email and a contact telephone number. Do not hide your email or registered office address on your website. Clients want to know who you are and where you are located. Make it easy for clients to contact you. The easier you make it, the more potential leads you will get from your website.
- Security – Customers are justifiably worried about online security- ensure you show how you adhere to security guidelines by having the necessary SSL certificates to ensure payments online and other communications are encrypted and secure.
- Terms and Conditions/Agreements – Customers will want to see your terms and conditions should they decide to do business with you. Ensure full and up-to-date terms and conditions can be found on your website. Ensure your terms and conditions are relevant to the products and services you are selling and customers can clearly see what legal entity and in what jurisdiction they will be doing business with.
- Privacy Policy – Customers will want to see this to know how you will deal with their personal data. Having this on your site is a legal requirement in most jurisdictions. Having your privacy policy visible on your site will help build trust with your potential client.
- Social Media – Ensure your business has some kind of social media presence and include all social media on your website. Options include LinkedIn, Twitter (X), Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Blog etc. Ensure your social media posts are credible and regular to help build trust in your business.
- Press (PR) – It’s almost essential that your start-up builds some press or public relations (PR). This could be online articles on industry websites about your new products or interviews with the founders of your start-up. Links to these articles will help build credibility and trust in you as a founder and your business. Don’t worry if you do not have these yet but you should aim to have some press ASAP.
- Customer Testimonials/Case Studies – Genuine customer testimonials or case studies are gold. This will add more ‘social proof’ to your offering and help build important trust and credibility in your business. Again, don’t worry if you don’t have these yet but they should be high up on your priority list.
- Response Times -Do not let enquiries languish in your inbox. Ideally, you should answer any incoming enquiries within the hour or at least within 24 hours. If you cannot do this for whatever reason it should be stated on your website how long a reply will take. A potential client will be looking to evaluate how quickly you are able to solve their problem, if it takes you days and weeks to respond you could be out of the picture by the time they get your reply.
Marketing.
Many people get marketing confused with sales. The purpose of marketing is to build awareness of your brand, business and services.
Yes, marketing can result in some sales but it’s important to understand that marketing alone will not necessarily convert into sales.
For example, many celebrities have tons of marketing exposure yet the businesses they set up often fail with few sales. Why is this? (Article – Kim Kardashian shop closure).
The reason is that marketing will often only raise awareness and create a ‘good feeling’ around your brand. It will sometimes bring new leads to the table but only if you are lucky.
However, you will still need to ‘sell’ and have a sales process in order to convert this marketing interest into tangible sales and money.
As a result of this, some companies avoid marketing altogether and keep marketing spend to a minimum. They go straight to the sales process.
Although viable in theory, doing this may leave your potential clients sceptical and cold about your offering as you will have minimal visibility in the marketplace.
Without marketing interest, your customers may feel they do not ‘know you’ well enough to trust buying from you.
You will then be heavily dependent on the personality of your founder(s) or salespeople to convert leads and make sales.
Marketing can give your business that intangible ‘feel good’ factor that sales processes can’t. In essence, if you have good marketing in place, converting leads into tangible sales prospects will be so much easier.
Marketing Mix.
Think of marketing as the mattress on a new bed. A comfortable mattress will make the bed so much more comfortable and cosy.
It will be far more enticing than just the cold, hard bed frame alone. Think of the bed frame as your sales process, yes you can get by, but it will be uncomfortable without a decent mattress to lay on.
Remember, most people ‘hate’ being sold to, so marketing makes the process more comfortable from the client’s point of view. They should already be ‘familiar’ with your brand.
Yes, you can get away with minimal marketing but your potential customers will feel so much more reassured and comfortable if you have some level of marketing behind your sales process. The two go hand in hand.
How you market your product or service will depend on your industry and your sector. You will need to choose carefully the ‘marketing mix’ you intend to use. Do some research to ensure your messaging reaches and resonates with your intended prospects.
Here are some marketing steps to consider for your ‘Marketing mix’:
- Press Releases – If you have newsworthy content consider releasing it via a press release. You can submit a press release to newspapers and magazines within your industry both online and offline. It’s usually free to submit directly to a newspaper or magazine. If you go via an agency you will be charged a fee. You must bear in mind that there is no guarantee that your press release will be used. Some press releases may be picked up by mainstream TV news media shows. Your release will have to be genuinely newsworthy but if it is, the exposure could be huge if numerous news outlets pick up on it.
- Industry Events – Consider attending industry events and seminars within your industry. Often, businesses can hire stands or stalls at these events to allow you to connect easily with potential customers and others within your industry. Such events can be costly so you will have to choose carefully which ones you should attend.
- Social Media – Social media can be an effective way to build awareness of your brand, just don’t expect to make too many direct sales from this route. Social media is a great way to build awareness and engage with potential clients.
- Blogging – Although many consider blogging as dead, it can still be an effective way to build awareness of your brand. Staggeringly some 43% of Google websites are powered by the WordPress blog site. So having a good quality blog site can pay dividends for your business in the long term.
- YouTube/Podcasting – YouTube is in the top two search engines on the internet so it makes sense marketing-wise for your business to have some kind of YouTube presence.
- Newsletter/Email lists – As a start-up, you should begin growing your email list right away. This is one of the easiest ways to connect directly with your potential customers. Remember, although social media can be effective you will not usually hold the email addresses of all your followers. So porting over your social media followers to your email list should be a priority. This can be done by offering free downloads, giveaways and even competitions.
- Advertising – These days advertising is often overlooked by start-ups but it can be a cost-effective way to build awareness quickly. Start-ups can advertise on Google Ads, YouTube, Twitter(X), LinkedIn and Facebook and reach thousands if not millions of users relatively cheaply. You will have to do the sums to ensure the spend is worth the exposure and the number of leads you get from your advertising campaigns is worth it. The advantage of online advertising is that you can often target very specific demographics, ensuring you are only targeting users that are likely to be within your niche. For more ideas, you can read our article on ‘All About Marketing Mix’ here:
Foundations Laid
Ok, that was a lot! So now we’ve laid down the extensive and essential foundations to start selling, we can look into the specific steps to convert those (hopefully) incoming leads into sales.
If you have skipped all or most of the above and jumped straight to this section, expect your sales process to be much more difficult and unpredictable for quite a while until you can gain traction within your marketplace.
It’s essential as a start-up that you do the groundwork first, otherwise, you may find yourself burning through capital quicker than expected while you try to ramp up a slow sales cycle.
Selling First Steps – Stop Selling!
The first step in this new approach is to stop selling! Yes, that sounds counterproductive but it’s essential to take this concept on board.
You must not try to ‘convince’ your prospect to buy from you. Your customers will need to come to that decision themselves. Your new role in this new regime is to:
a) Find out what challenges or problems your customers face.
b) Give your potential clients solutions that will solve those challenges. (This may or may not involve the product you are selling!).
**Note- If a competing product is simply a better fit, do not try to ‘sell’ your product regardless. Your customer will see through that immediately and you will lose trust and credibility. Instead, be honest and show them how you can solve their other challenges instead.
If you do the above, you will put yourself in a much stronger position to make more sales.
The problem with this approach is you need access to potential customers (leads) to put this process into practice. If you’re a start-up with no customers you are first going to need to find new leads to convert into customers. You will need to start prospecting.
Prospecting (Step 1).
Prospecting is the process of finding potential customers that can be turned into paying clients.
If you have followed this article carefully and carried out the steps covered so far you may already have a few prospects coming in via your website, marketing mix, PR, etc.
If you do, great, but remember the sales process is just the beginning! Don’t get too excited just yet!
Just because a potential client has reached out to you, it doesn’t mean they will buy! They will need to be ‘converted’ into a paying customer via your sales process.
If you have had little or no interest from prospects so far, don’t worry. This part of the process will show you how to find and convert new prospects into tangible paying customers.
How to Prospect.
How you prospect will largely depend on your industry, the value of the services you are selling and whether it’s direct to the customer or business to business.
The methods you use to prospect may also be dependent on the legislation within the jurisdictions you do business in.
For example, cold calling may be acceptable in some countries if you are a business calling another business but may be illegal if calling a private consumer.
So, the first step is to ensure the methods you use to prospect are viable legally in your region. It’s very important for your business and reputation that you follow the rules in your jurisdiction to avoid complaints, penalties and fines that could impact both your business and reputation.
Don’t be afraid to seek legal advice if unsure.
Sales Process – Prospecting (Step 1 Continued). – Lead Generation.
- Inbound – Inbound lead generation is a process whereby the potential client contacts you. They will make the first move and call, email or message you in response to your ‘marketing mix’ already discussed earlier in this article. Inbound leads will enter your sales process with a much higher probability of converting because they are already familiar with your brand and have reached out to you proactively. This is the best type of lead generation but you will still need to convert these. It is rare these will convert by themselves.
- Email Outreach – This is where you reach out to potential candidates via email, offering them a link to your website in order to solve a specific problem they may have. You should provide a compelling message and a Call To Action (CTA). A call to action is a request to do something. i.e. click the following link to learn more or download an article or testimonial. Ensure your email meets all legal requirements in your jurisdiction to avoid being labelled as spam.
- Phone Call – Although it may seem old-fashioned to some, ‘cold calling’ can still be an effective way to connect with new business clients, especially if you have done the groundwork with your ‘marketing mix’. Ensure when you call you speak to the relevant person (a decision maker) and that you give a brief elevator pitch of your business and ask permission to send an email with more information about your offering. Ensure the email you send includes your branding and a brief sales deck with testimonials, and other elements to encourage the potential client to meet with you to discuss further. The meeting could be online via Zoom or in person. You should avoid trying to ‘sell’ on the phone. Your goal should be to seek permission to send information. The outcome should be a meeting if the prospect is interested and that’s it. Again, you should ensure you follow the laws in your jurisdiction regarding cold calling.
- Social Media Outreach – Here, much like the email outreach, you will send a message to the potential client offering to solve a specific problem they may have. Again, you will need to provide a compelling message and CTA. If you have done the foundational work laid out in this article, when the potential client looks at your profile they should see a well-populated social media presence with relevant articles and news related to the problem you are looking to solve for them. If this is the case, they are more likely to respond. Once again your goal should not be to ‘sell’ to them immediately, your goal should be to arrange a meeting either online or in person to discuss the matter further.
- Automated Email Campaign – Using software like Mailchimp, Brevo or HubSpot you can build a database of potential client emails over time to prospect to. Do not abuse your list by spamming. Ensure your list is built within the regulations in your jurisdiction.
- Website Conversion – Website conversion is where you aim to convert the potential client directly on your website with no further human interaction. In order to action this you can use email automation software to send emails in a sequence to the client once they have registered on your site. To be effective, the potential client will need to be supplied with all the necessary information to make a decision and will need to be connected to your online payment solution so they can make payment for the service or product immediately online. You will also need a method to deliver the service immediately, either automatically online via download or via a delivery service partner. This method will require a high level of trust and credibility to be built up and will be unlikely to work with high-value products/services where human interaction will be required to ‘consult’ the client on the problems they are looking to solve and to reassure clients before they buy. This method can be useful for lower-value business-to-consumer sales where minimal interaction with the potential client is necessary.
As discussed previously, how you prospect will largely depend on your particular business and customers, so pick how you prospect carefully. You can also test different types of prospecting to see what works best for you and your business.
Read our article here on creating the perfect marketing email:
Types of Prospecting – General Guidelines.
Inbound – Good for all business types – the best way of generating new leads. But remember, you will still need a ‘sales’ process to convert these into paying customers.
Email Outreach – This may work well if selling to businesses. Can be effective if selling directly to consumers too but you will need to ensure you comply with spam regulations in your jurisdiction.
Phone Call – Good if you are selling to businesses. May be too intrusive for consumers. You will need to check your local laws on cold calling to ensure you comply.
Social Media Outreach – Good for consumers and business contacts – Some platforms may limit the number of messages you can send.
Automated Email Campaign – This can be useful for all types of businesses to keep clients ‘in the loop’. It can take up to eight messages before a potential client is ready to move in your sales process. Ensure you do not send too many messages in a short space of time. Once a month is optimal at first. Ensure you have an easy option for your potential client to unsubscribe.
Website Conversion – Great for selling directly to consumers if you have built sufficient trust via your website and ‘marketing mix’. This option may not work if you are selling high-value services/products to medium to large businesses that will require more ‘consulting’ and human interaction before proceeding with a purchase.
With all prospecting, it’s super important not to abuse your campaign by spamming or blitzing your potential client with too many messages. Do not email, message or call too often and when you do, offer only interesting and beneficial content, not a sales pitch.
Sales Process – Prospecting (Step 2). – Information Phase.
You should view prospecting as a series of steps that you climb to get to your required destination. It’s highly unlikely you will make a sale in step one of your sales/prospecting process. It’s possible but you should not try to attempt it.
To recap, it’s essential that you do not try to convert prospects too early or you may lose them for being too ‘salesy’ or pushy.
View the first step in your sales process or prospecting stage as a means to reach out to your potential clients and give them some information about your business.
Once you have completed step one in your prospecting stage you can then start looking at step two.
Step two in your prospecting stage should aim to get some commitment from your prospect or get them to do something. (Remember, you are still not ‘selling’ your product yet, you are just getting the potential client to the next step in the process and gauging how serious they are about finding a solution to their problem).
Here are some ideas for step two in your sales/prospecting process (You should only use one option at this stage):
- Join an online or in-person meeting.
- Fill in an online form.
- Download an article or click a link.
- Watch a video.
When a potential client enters step two of your sales process they are inadvertently qualifying themselves.
By watching your video for example, they are letting you know indirectly that they are interested in the content you have presented. This will let you know that they have ‘some’ level of interest in your messaging so far.
If they have agreed to an online or in-person meeting, this is a great sign but don’t get too excited yet! There are still a few more steps to make before you can make that elusive sale.
Well done for keeping to the process so far!
Sales Process – Prospecting (Step 3). – Discovery Phase.
So, your potential client has watched your video content or agreed to an online Zoom meeting what happens next?
Well, the next step is where you can begin to find out more about your potential client or the ‘ Discovery Phase’. Your goal here is not to ‘sell’ to the client but to find out what their ‘challenges’ or ‘pain points’ are. Your aim should be to help them with their problem (via your product if possible).
You can prepare a small presentation or deck that re-introduces your testimonials, press, PR and product elements you sent them earlier but remember you are not here to formally present. This step is not about you or your business! Your goal is to find out more about your potential client’s needs.
Important: Ensure you are well prepared for your meeting. Do some research on your client, and find out about their career history and interests if possible. Be clear in your mind what questions they may ask.
If you fail to answer any key questions or concerns within the meeting, you will lose credibility in the eyes of the customer and potentially stall or halt the sales process.
So, a potential client watches your video and has accepted a Zoom call. The steps in the call should look something like this:
- Introduction – Small talk. You say hello, introduce everyone on the call and talk about something other than the purpose of the meeting. Thank them for attending. This is a great way to build rapport but don’t overdo it! 1-2 minutes at most. If you feel a client is not in the mood for small talk do not force it on them dive straight in.
- Ask the client about the challenges they face – By asking your potential client this question it allows them to open up and talk about their circumstances. Most people are more than happy to talk about their situation. Listen carefully, they may not directly state their challenges but may allude to them indirectly.
- Present a possible solution to the problem the client has just given you – Here is your chance to tell them why you think your product could help with their problem. Try not to oversell and keep it brief. Avoid giving a dry presentation, relate everything you say to what the client has just told you about their problem. Try not to go into too much detail about the ‘bells and whistles’ of your product or service at this stage. Just show them how it can solve their issue. Less is more.
- Ask the client what their thoughts are on what they have seen – Here is your chance to see if the client feels your product is a good fit for their problem. If things have gone well your potential client may jump straight into ‘How much will it cost?’ This a a good ‘buying signal’ that the client likes what they see.
- Next Steps – Talk to the client about what should follow next. If the meeting has gone well you can suggest sending pricing information or you can decide on a prospective time and date with the client for another meeting to present your product in more detail. If your product is technical in nature you may need to conduct a technical presentation. Either way, you should discuss next steps now rather than following up later.
- After the Meeting – Once the meeting is done you should immediately send a brief email thanking your potential client including your brief presentation and the next steps you’ve discussed in the meeting.
You should aim to keep your first meeting very brief. Do not be tempted to drag the meeting out to ‘convince’ the potential client of the benefits of your product. 10- 15 minutes for your first meeting should be sufficient for most products and services.
Leave the customer excited and motivated after seeing their problem solved. If you make the meeting too long you risk tiring and confusing the client as to the true benefits of your offering.
Sales Process – Prospecting (Step 4). – Pricing Phase.
If the previous steps have gone well, the client should have asked you for some pricing or an idea of the costs for the solution you have provided.
It may be tempting to just send the price in an email and that may be OK if you are dealing with consumers but with higher-value sales and businesses, it may be wise to arrange another brief meeting of 5-10 minutes to discuss pricing.
In this meeting, you are not looking to negotiate the price or ‘sell’ to the customer.
You are simply presenting a breakdown of the costs associated with the solution you are offering. Always present a breakdown of the numbers, rather than one big fixed cost so customers can tailor your offering to their budget. Remember, avoid trying to ‘convince’ your potential client on the pricing.
However, you should explain why you are pricing at the rates presented and explain the value to your potential client but don’t overdo it or you may come across as too ‘salesy’.
At the end of this meeting you will have some insight as to the customer’s mood on your pricing, were they excited, unemotional or disappointed when you presented your prices?
If the client gives verbal feedback that is negative on pricing, resist the urge to drop prices immediately, and let the customer know that you will try to offer them the best price possible.
Whatever feeling you get at the end of the meeting, send them an email with the breakdown of the prices you presented. If they have expressed concern over pricing, follow up with revised pricing if practicable.
Sales Process – Prospecting (Step 5). – Negotiation/Close Phase.
Some customers love to negotiate and get a ‘deal’ , others just want value within their budget. Sometimes the negotiation is not about price at all but is about perceived value.
If you are finding that potential customers are coming unstuck on the price it may be that your pricing is too high in the market or it could be the perceived value of your product is too low in comparison to your competitors.
Either way, you may need to do some adjusting to your messaging or your pricing to find the right balance between perceived value and price.
If you have fully understood your potential client’s needs as laid out in the ‘Discovery Phase’ of this article, you should not face too much pushback on price as you would have established the client’s needs and fully solved their problems with your offering. The client at this stage will be happy to pay the price for that, as long as it’s within the budget.
If all is good, you should get verbal confirmation from your client that they want to proceed.
If that’s the case, congratulations! But it’s not quite over yet. You will need to get the client to sign agreements before you can deliver your product or service.
Sales Process – Prospecting (Step 6). – Agreements Phase.
Your agreements are an essential part of the sales process. Overly complex or ambiguous contracts can scupper an otherwise perfect sales process.
Here are some essential elements to consider for your agreements:
- Keep it Brief – Overly complicated agreements may require extensive legal work and additional cost to your potential client. Keep your agreements as clear and as brief as possible to avoid losing sales due to legal issues. Consider electronic agreements to speed up the process.
- Branding – Ensure your branding is consistent and included in your agreements, this will help build trust with your potential client and they will be more likely to sign.
- Jurisdiction – Business is conducted worldwide these days. Ensure it’s clear in your agreement the jurisdiction that the contract is based in. Ensure your agreements adopt the correct currency for your jurisdiction.
- Your Company – Ensure your contract is clear as to the business entity the client will be dealing with. They will need to have this information in order to pay your company correctly.
- Terms and Conditions – Ensure your agreement includes full terms and conditions and is relevant to the product or service you are selling.
- Payment – Ensure your agreement is clear on payment terms and when payment is expected.
- Error Free – Ensure your agreements are free from errors. Mistakes do happen but anything glaring could stall the sales process.
Sales Process – Prospecting (Step 7). – Welcome Phase.
This phase of the sales process is essential but often forgotten. Once you have got the green light and the client has signed the agreement, try not to forget to welcome the client onboard.
Try to avoid dropping the client like a ‘hot potato’ once they have signed, while you continue with other prospects in your pipeline.
Check-in with your clients post-signing to ensure they are happy with your service so far. Now may be a good time to gain valuable feedback or ask for testimonials.
Once your product or service is delivered, don’t forget to ask for a reference or referral.
Consider having a referral program to reward customers who recommend you or give references.
Sales Process – Prospecting (Step 8) – Getting Unstuck – Measurement.
Where a lot of start-ups go wrong is they fail to measure the results of their sales process or they just measure their sales or web visits rather than the entire sales ‘pipeline’.
Here are some things you should consider measuring to get the best results and to improve things if you get stuck in the process:
- The number of Phone Calls (if you are outbound calling).
- The number of outbound Emails.
- Number of LinkedIn Messages.
- Number of Web Visits
- Number of Meetings.
- Number of Quotes
- Percentage of phone calls to Meetings (Meetings/Phone Calls) x 100
- Percentage of emails to Meetings (Meetings/Emails) x 100
- Percentage of LinkedIn Messages to Meetings (Meetings/LinkedIn Messages) x 100
- Percentage of Web Visits to Meetings (Meetings/ Web Visits) x 100
- Percentage of Meetings that turn into Quotes (Quotes/Meetings) x 100
- Number of Sales.
- Percentage of Quotes that turn into Sales (Sales/Quotes) x 100
- Sales Value.
- Average Value of Sales (Sales Value/Number of Sales).
Of course, we could go on and on and measure various metrics of the business but ensure you are measuring at least the basics. Once you have measured all of these for your entire sales process from the first outreach email to the first sale, you can then evaluate your results to see where you need to make changes.
When evaluating your results ensure you bear in mind this equation:
Number of Sales = Number of Leads x Conversion Rate
Where the Number of Leads is your outreach method; phone call email, etc multiplied by your Conversion Rate, (Number of Sales/Number of leads).
This equation tells you that if you want to increase your sales, you need to either increase your Number of Leads and/or increase your Conversion Rate.
Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you can simply increase your sales by cranking up your outreach by a hundred. Remember that increasing your outreach (Calls, emails, LinkedIn messages etc), will have an effect on your business capacity and on the market too.
For example, you send one hundred emails and make one sale at $1000.
You then decide to push forward and scale your campaign to a thousand emails in order to make $10,000.
On paper, this looks reasonable but in practice sending a thousand emails may take weeks or months to locate the relevant contacts. You cannot simply ‘buy’ a list as this might be against your local regulations or it may not be a targeted list for your specific industry. Obtaining this list will cost you in resources, either in time or money.
If you utilise a publicly available list, inevitably other marketers will be using this list and potential clients may complain about the continuous bombardment they are receiving or may not respond at all. You may be accused of spamming.
In short, if you get it wrong, you can severely impact your reputation in the market, especially if you have not carried out the ‘Laying the Foundation’ and the ‘Marketing Mix’ detailed earlier in this article.
So, before scaling, try to work on your Conversion Rate to optimise what you have achieved so far. Here are some ways to optimise your Conversion Rate.
- Increase your marketing. Raising your presence in the market will increase your reputation and subsequently, your Conversion Rate should increase accordingly.
- Increase the quality of your outreach. Giving your prospects high-quality information rather than drab sales copy could increase your conversion rate significantly.
- Target the right prospects. Targeting a specific laser-focussed demographic who are more likely to be interested in your offering can increase conversion rates significantly.
- Improve your website. Ensure your website is optimised for sales and not just for looks. Monitor how visitors navigate your site and what buttons they click. If they are not doing what you expect, you may need to make changes. Ensure your website contains all your contact information displayed clearly and has a Call to Action i.e. “Click Here To Learn More”. Each click should take a visitor down a path that is one step closer to a sale.
- Work on SEO. SEO or Search Engine Optimisation will drive organic visitors to your site who are searching for your content.
Working on your Conversion Rate can multiply your sales significantly for example in our example:
Our 100 emails resulted in one sale of $1000. Which equates to a 1% conversion.
Instead of making a thousand calls to reach our goal of $10,000, we decide to market our brand online and increase our Conversion Rate to 10%.
Therefore, when we send our 100 emails we get ten sales at $1000 rather than just one, which also results in $10,000 of revenue.
You need to decide which path is best for your business. There is no right or wrong here but when you evaluate your figures it will become clear which route is best for your business and reputation in the marketplace.
Consider using a mixture of increasing your outreach campaigns and Conversion Rate for maximum results.
Final Thoughts
‘Selling’ is an underappreciated and much-maligned skill set that every entrepreneur should learn.
Founders should understand that aggressive and outdated sales techniques no longer work on increasingly sophisticated and internet-savvy buyers. You should not try to convince your clients to buy from you.
‘Selling’ is not actually about selling at all but is primarily about finding your customer’s needs and pain points. If you can do that, the goal of selling your services will be so much easier.
Ensure you take in the broader picture and lay down a solid foundation with a sales-focussed website, a marketing mix with high-quality information, and not just drab sales copy.
Reach out to your potential customers to offer information and advice, not just to ‘sell’.
Under no circumstances should you abuse your contact list by utilising spam or by sending too many messages in a short space of time.
Don’t let the desire to make a quick buck spoil your reputation in the marketplace.
Be patient, keep an eye on your stats and consider increasing your Conversion Rate before scaling dramatically. You should see selling as a series of steps that you need to climb with your client to get to their eventual destination by resolving their issue or pain point.
Hopefully, once you have achieved all of that, they will decide to choose your product as the solution for their needs.
Good luck!
How to 10x Your Sales
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