How to triple your sales revenue the easy way

For some people selling comes easily and naturally. However for many business owners sales is a nuisance and although important, it’s something many people don’t want to do. Leave it to the professionals, is the motto and although if you have plenty of money in the bank to hire sales pro’s, it’s not for everyone.

But sales doesn’t have to be that difficult. So, if you’re on your own, or working with a team of sales people that may under-perform, here are a few tips and tricks that could help your business to triple sales revenue by simply making it easier for you and your team to deal with potential new and old customers:

1. Use the number of averages – Many people put sales calls to one day a week or a specific time. Trying to do 20 or 30 or more calls to connect with potential clients may sound easy, but in reality how many did you actually get on the phone talking to? Most likely if you’ve done 20 calls you can consider yourself lucky if you talked to 3 – 5 prospects (and I mean getting to the main decision maker). This may sound good but reality is that it might even be less. Some weeks you may even just get to one or none. Turning this around is the key and making sure you make your calls on a more regular basis. Lets say you want to talk to 25 clients per week, divide them by 5 and now take 15 – 30 min each day to call 5 potential customers. You may still have days where you will not reach anybody of importance to you and you may need to add them to a different day/ time to call back. Once you get in to a rhythm however, you will notice that you transform 2 – 3 prospects on a daily basis (on average) either into meetings or sales (depending if you try to get a meeting or trying to get a sale over the phone).

2. Get yourself and/ or your team to go to networking events/ join networking groups. – This is important to spread the message of your business. You need to be out there and you need to be seen. Getting referrals is the goal with networking groups and getting meetings is the goal when you go to networking events. In both cases it is important to have the next step sorted before going/ joining:

3. Have a properly designed sales elevator pitch ready – With the right pitch you will gain up to 50% more referrals. Be specific, and tell people what or who it is that you’re looking for. A sales pitch is also great for networking events. It presents your business within 30 seconds, gives an overview of what it is that you do and how you can help any other business owner or potential customer to solve their problems. (If you need help creating an elevator pitch, you can contact us here).

4. Email/ letter marketing campaigns – Proper email or letter marketing campaigns are another great source to bring more customers to the table. But what’s important to know is that you need to do your research. If you don’t know who to address the letter/ email to, pick up the phone and ask. If you just send out generic emails to a list of thousands of customers, then you are not better than 95% of the other businesses doing just that. If you want to stand out and generate more revenue, you need to be different. Choose 100 of those potential clients, find out what they do, how you can help them and most importantly, who is your main contact and their contact details. Then address a properly designed letter/ email directly to them.

Don’t send all 100 sales letters on the same day. Spread them to maybe 5 – 10 letters daily. You will see why on point 5 and 6.

(If you need a sales elevator pitch and a powerful letter/ email marketing campaign, have a look at our PitchPerfect Programme here.) 

5. Have an inactive and pro-active call to action in your letter/ email campaign. – An inactive call to action is when you ask your clients to give you a call based on the information they received and if they like it of course. This could be something simple such as: If you now, after reading this letter, can’t wait to talk to me, please give me a call on xxx xxx xxxx or please fill in this application form and return back to us.

A pro-active call to action is when you take matters in your own hands. This is usually followed by the inactive call to action and is a simple way of saying, I will be calling you. You could say after your inactive call to action: If however you are like most business owners very busy running your business and may not have the time to call us, then don’t worry. I will call you on date x to discuss this in more detail with you. Our call will not take longer than 2 – 3 min of your valuable time. (make sure that with an email campaign you allow 48 hours before you call, on a letter campaign between 3 – 5 days. Don’t take longer. If you give them 2 weeks they will not remember your letter or you for that matter.

Now it’s your move. You promised a call on that specific day and most people do expect your call. Make sure you keep this in your diary and make that call.

6. Follow-up – It doesn’t matter if you take my advise on point 5 and have both an in-active and pro-active call to action or not. If you don’t follow up with your prospects, no one will. The return rate is usually quite low but if you keep your focus and make those follow-up calls, you will gain better results than any other company that sends generic emails/ letters. In fact, we have measured the success rate with a number of companies that we’ve worked with and it’s anywhere between 30 – 45%. Just by simply picking up the phone and making those dreaded phone calls. The good news is, that if you send a letter or email before hand, it’s no longer considered a cold call. It may not be a hot call, but luke-warm is already good.

7. Ask for referrals – Be it with your networking group or with customers and other business owners that you simply use for referrals, asking for referrals is the best way to keep your business growing. If you prepare your clients that you will be looking for referrals as part of your payment, then they will expect if they sign a contract with you, that you will be looking for referrals from them. Some clients may not be comfortable with it and others may just give you one or 2. On average we found that per client you could gain anything from 2 – 3 referrals that will help you keep going with your business.

When in a referral or networking group, it is important that you have a properly designed sales elevator pitch but also that you ask for specific referrals. Don’t be generic like: I’m looking for medium sized companies who are interested in xyz. You will not gain much out of that one. However if you ask specific it will make a difference: I’m looking for medium sized printing companies in area x. (If you can and done your homework you could also add:) I’m looking for an introduction to company X-Print in Town Y and company W-Print in Town Z. The only danger here is that if you choose 2 companies, it might happen that no one in your networking group knows anybody in those companies. However, consistency is the key and asking every week (or every time you meet with your group) for other specific companies, then you will get more referrals out of this. You could also ask type specific such as medium sized IT companies with focus on cloud computing or Start ups, Management consultancies, Coaching businesses etc. Be specific and referrals will come.

8. Put a picture of yourself on your business card and letter/ email campaign – People like dealing with people and this simple change can help you gain at least 10 – 15% more traction. People will remember you, they might not remember your business but they will most certainly remember you. If it’s in a good or bad way is of course up to you and your own selling skills but most people will remember your face.

Sales doesn’t have to be a daunting exercise. If you take every day 30 min to 1 hour to connect with new and old customers, you should see an improvement within a very short period of time in your sales revenue.

Some people say, sales is a numbers game, others say it’s not. In fact, sales is a game of averages. Every day you should do some sales related activity (and by that I mean not looking at your facebook page and hoping to get a customer interact with you). I mean real sales activity when you actively look for new potential customers, engage with old or former clients, use proper up-selling and cross-selling techniques and become more and more visible. Be out there, go to networking events, sign up to a networking group, join the chamber of commerce and actively promote yourself first, then your business and you will see a rise in sales revenue. Meet for networking coffees to discuss how you can help each other.

Try out different ways to interact with your customers. If you have a list of old or former clients, talk to them again. Maybe you have some missed up- or cross-sell opportunities, maybe you can get some referrals out of them. If your old clients are happy, they are more willing to recommend you on to somebody they do business with.

Have the right steps in place when it comes to your own sales strategy. If you don’t have one, it’s time to create one. Make it your daily mantra to work at least 1 hour on your sales and your business will flourish. (Just for the people who might say, 1 hour is not enough…we found in our research that the average time spend on sales activity is less than 2 hours per week for most SME’s. Having a focused 1 hour per day will not only enhance the performance of the business but will make it much easier to grow this activity over time to a decent 2 – 3 hours per day. Some SME owners are not able to spend that much time only on sales activity as they are out working with customers. Getting them to spend 1 hour per day on this, is the real challenge).

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Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

The secret to a successful business

In this post we discover the true meaning of being successful. Have you ever wondered what the secret to success really is?

A lot of people might say, having a prospecting pipeline, lots of customers, great products or services, high sales figures etc. But is this really the key to success?

I mean, yes, you need to have all of the above listed and even more that we haven’t mentioned yet. One other aspect to consider is providing an outstanding customer service. But again, those are just features that every business should have.

But what if you just starting out. When you start a business you may have a great idea, a great product, great services, better pricing than the competition but without a small key ingredient it is not taking you anywhere. And lets face it, especially when you start out on a new venture, customers are usually not running into your store to buy from you. No matter how outstanding your product or service is, if nobody knows about it, then nobody will come and buy from you. Simple as that.

The big question is, how can you do that? How can you get customers to buy from you on a regular basis? How can you generate some money?

Well, first lets look at some very successful businesses:

Virgin, Apple, Microsoft, the Kardashians (yes, this is a business…). What do they all have in common? If you really drill down to every business, one thing stands out:

Self-promotion or visibility.

They are all visible. They always put themselves in the media, write blogs and they constantly put themselves out there.

People like Richard Branson, Bill Gates, James Caan etc. are just a few examples. No matter what you think of them or their business, one thing is for sure, being visible is the way to go.

Think of it in this way. Every business owner out there has a reputation. Either good or bad doesn’t really matter. What matters the most is that there is always people who will like what they do and others may not care or go aggressively against those people. In the end it is all publicity for them and that’s all that matters to successful people. Being in the spot-light and making sure everybody sees them.

Just think about it, if you hear the words Apple who do you relate this business to? The same with Virgin, Microsoft etc. Or the other way around: Richard Branson, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates…you already have the business name in mind. So, how is it that if we think of our own business, we try to stand in the back? Many business owners are not visible at all. They use logos on their website but no person stands behind the logo. There is no association with a living being. A business nowadays is just an enterprise that has no face. Click on the about us section that most business pages have and you will find that many people don’t put their own names out there. They don’t want to be seen. There is no information about the founder of the business, a picture of him or her and what they do, their experience etc. It’s rare that you come across people who put themselves out there. But this is their business. It is owned by them and yet they don’t want to show their face? That doesn’t scream “Trust us” at all. If anything it shows that the owner or directors of the company don’t stand behind their own concept. So, why would a customer?

In order to create success, visibility is mandatory for any business. It is however not only the brand that you build or trying to build that needs to be visible, it’s the team, the directors, the owners that need to show their faces. Using visibility management is key to success and when done right you will have the following benefits:

Visibility -> Recognition -> Rewards

This is also known as the 8th habit of highly successful people. Make it a habit to put yourself out there. Be seen and make sure it’s in a good way. Once you start with this you will find that your company will grow. It may take time to build a proper reputation but in order to start, the most important part is to use visibility to your advantage. Stop hiding behind a website or a boring description. Make yourself stand out. You want a successful business, don’t you?

Here are my Top 5 tips of what you can do:

1. Website – About us 

On the website, in the about us section, create a page for you and your team (if any). Use a picture of yourself and/ or your teams/ board of directors etc. and describe who you are, what you do and maybe share a nice story with the audience. (This is just a suggestion but I would definitely urge you to have a picture with your name on it). You can also if you want to keep it simple just use a picture, your name and link it to your LinkedIn profile.

2. Put a picture of yourself on your business cards

This is something to consider for next time you order business cards. Put a picture of yourself on the card. I would also urge you to do this for your sales reps or any field person out there. Research shows that customers recognise faces better than remembering their names. So, don’t be shy, a picture says more than 1000 words on your card.

3. Go to networking events

Show yourself out there. You may think you don’t have time for that but it is important to be seen. You never know what might come out of it. Telling other likeminded people about your business can make a big difference instead of just sending out sales reps to customers. Make a change to your business right now by joining a networking group such as BNI or any local networking group out there.

4. Write a blog

You may not be a great writer but creating a blog doesn’t have to be all about the written word. You can create a video blog where you talk about any topic that is related to your business. You can create a picture wall of events that you attended etc. The possibilities are endless and I can assure you, there is always people who will like what you do.

5. Be online and offline

There is lots of ways to advertise your business and yourself. Most people have the common social media accounts such as Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+, Pinterest and MosaicHub. Those are great ways to promote your business and yourself online. You can also use other websites to promote your business. Some offer free advertisement, some require a small payment. If you don’t have a massive budget, put yourself out there on everything that is available for free or at a low cost. Websites such as DoneDeal, Groupon, Livingsocial, getmeadeal.ie, or gumtree etc. might be a way to go. However no matter which social media tool you are using, make sure that you have a picture of yourself in there as well. Don’t just use a logo to communicate with people (especially on MosaicHub and LinkedIn). You want to generate trust, make sure that people can see who they are trusting with their business.

No matter what you do, make sure you put yourself out there and promote your business in every way you can. Hang out where you customers might be or where you could get some great advise on your business. The important part is to use visibility management to its fullest potential.

Be visible, get recognized and earn the rewards.

How visible are you in your business?

Let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for more up to date information.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland. Creating a synergy between consultation, training and coaching helps our clients to achieve the best results.

What to do…what to do…no more leads…

Are you running out of leads? No idea where or to whom to sell your products or services to? I think every single sales person has been at that stage during their career. But what did they do to get themselves out of it?

Here is a list of things you might want to consider:

1. Contact former customers again to discuss future opportunities. You never know, one of your former customers might need to buy additional products or services from you. Or you can inform them about new developments, activities, events or just want to meet up for a coffee with them to see how things are going after they bought from you. Follow up is a crucial part of sales and a proper after sales service can go a long way and generate new business for you.

2. Ask your former customers for referrals. You may be able to combine this with step 1 but most customers who are happy with you and/ or the service/ product you supplied, have no issue recommending or referring you to some other potential customers. This is probably the best option in order to keep your business going. Especially when you’re selling b2b, business owners/ managers understand the meaning of referrals and some might be happy to help.

3. Look over your old prospects, the one’s who didn’t buy yet from you. What was the reason? Maybe they didn’t buy because of an un-established need? Or maybe they just didn’t like your approach. Contact them again and get some feedback. Yes, it might be hurtful (in some cases) but it’s a learning curve. Feedback is valuable and most people are willing to provide you with feedback of why they didn’t buy from you. If it was you, maybe hand the account over to a colleague. We can’t get along with everybody, sometimes it’s as simple as that. This has nothing to do with you personally. It’s business. And if it’s a great sale, maybe you can even share the commission (if possible) or get an account from the other sales reps to deal with some of their clients. Selling may be competitive, but you’re working in the same company so the goal is the same: Increase the companies turnover and ensure future growth.

4. Re-establish your target market. Have a look again at your old prospects and other companies similar to your target audience in your area. If you don’t know your target audience, or you say, everybody should use my product, then think again. You may think your product is suitable for everybody, but who is actually buying? Make a list of your current customer traits and find companies or audiences that are fitting (age/ type/ gender/ company size/ industry/ country etc.).

5. Try a different target market. I know this one doesn’t correspond to point no. 4, however sometimes if you depleted all your options you may need to rethink your target market and make it more suitable for a new audience. This means, redesigning your pitch, values etc. It’s a lot of work but may be worth your while. If you’re targeting the IT industry for example and you have no more companies to go to (which I doubt but there is always this one sales rep…) maybe a similar market may be suitable for your products or services. Maybe automotive, pharmaceutical, retail etc. could also be a fit for your products. Yes, sometimes we need to adjust certain aspects of our presentations or sales pitches but hey, that’s life. Think why this audience may be able to use your products as well and what are the benefits for them? Maybe they are not in the IT industry, but have an IT department??? Food for thoughts…

6. Go to networking events, join social media networks, groups etc. This will get your name and trait out there. I’m sure a lot of you doing this already but as a sales rep or manager who is employed, how many of you actually go to business networking events to meet new people? A lot of people who are employed wouldn’t go because their company is not paying for it, meetings are held outside office hours / late in the evening or even weekends. If you want to make money, you need to hang out where your clients hang. Easy as that. And if you’re not willing to go the extra mile for your customers, what are you doing in this position? (Sorry for being blunt, but if you are in sales, and no longer have enough customers you need to look at activities that will bring you new clients).

7. Join Networking groups. You can also join local/ national or international networking groups such as BNI (Business Network International). They might be costly, but a lot of people get great value out of it. It’s all about meeting new people and getting referrals, and that’s what those networking groups are all about. Referring business to each other. So, get in there, yes, they are holding meetings usually early in the morning, but honestly, how much do you want to grow your business/ sales?

8. Ask your family and friends. Yes, I’m serious about that. Even if you believe they have no use for your products or services or that they are too expensive for your family and friends. Think about it this way, we all have a network of people and most of us know at least 250+ people that are hanging in our social (media) networks. Besides that we all know between 30 – 100 people which we consider acquaintances, friends etc. Ask them to help you out to introduce you to some of their friends or acquaintances. A lot of sales people don’t want to mix personal life with business life however you are leaving out a massive amount of people that you could easily tap into to get introduced to or do business with. Don’t be shy, get in there. It’s not about convincing your mother to buy your health insurance. It’s about convincing your mother to help you find people who would be interested to buy health insurance from you (I guess you catch my drift here). This is your network as well 🙂

9. Hit the phone. I mean, seriously now. If you have already tried points 1 – 8 and you’re still out of options, then there is only 2 things left to do: Either hit the phone or quit. Sometimes it requires drastic action in order to get back on track. And if that means to open the telephone book or yellow pages to get out there again, then by all means, do it. It will not be the most fruitful time in your life, but usually 1 out of 10 will listen to you and may even invite you over for a coffee to meet. In order to ease the pain of just calling, you could create an email list of companies that you haven’t targeted yet and send them an email first. You may want to do some research but this will take the (extreme) cold out of cold calling. Read my article on successful email marketing and you will see what I mean.

10. Still no luck but haven’t quit yet? OK, here is one last thing you might want to try: PRAY. I mean it, seriously, go to church and start praying. Well, maybe not literally. But talk to your local priest. Even if you’re not a church goer, an atheist, have different faith or religion then what’s locally available, go anyway. Talk to the local priest or pastor. They know a lot of people and they are in the business of guiding and helping people in their most desperate times. Having faith is one thing but maybe the local priest knows somebody who you could talk to to get your business off the ground again? If that doesn’t work you may also want to try chamber of commerce, other business owners/ entrepreneurs, talk to other sales reps even from different companies, join clubs, health and sport clubs etc. Don’t give up. There is a lot of things that you can do that we haven’t even mentioned yet.

A lot of people saying that we as individuals like it comfy. We stay inside the box where it’s cosy, comfortable and nice. But sometimes we have to go to different lengths in order to succeed and need to stick our heads outside of our own box. And most of the times it works. If it doesn’t who’s to say that you can’t take the box, throw it out the window and redesign a complete new box for you? Brainstorm with colleagues, co-workers, managers and/ or other business owners on how to increase sales and get more leads.

You might also want to consider a business or sales coach to help you find new leads.

Thank you for reading. Follow us on facebook or twitter for more current news.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

A simple guide to networking events

Have you been to a networking event recently? Here is what happens most of the time:

People meet at networking events, talk briefly and go their ways. Afterwards not much is happening and many people complain that it wasn’t really fruitful. Nobody contacted you afterwards to do business with you. Nobody send you an email or called you to buy your products or services.

Well, here is a shocker: One of the most important fundamentals of networking events is the follow up that comes afterwards. You may have made great connections but if you don’t follow up with them, no one will.

Here is a few tips of things that you can do before, during and after the event:

Before the event takes place:

Get your 60 second pitch ready. Yes, have a pitch or elevator pitch ready that you can deliver in 60 seconds or less. Make it interesting and make it count. Rehearse the pitch until you perfected it. If you need help designing a pitch for you then I would urge you to do some research.

Dress for success. Dress for the occasion. Business smart is good but (for men) a suit would be better. Proper business attire is the key for both men and women and it doesn’t really matter what your profession or business is all about. You want to get in with investors, meet new potential customers, get business referrals etc. In order to get those, you need to look the part. Nobody is referring someone who is dressed like a teenager that want’s to score.

 

Show up before. Make sure you show up on time, maybe even 5 – 10 min early. This could give you a head start by already talking to some potential new customers before others are joining the group. I personally make it usually about 30 – 45 min earlier. And as people come in, I’m already there to introduce myself before the event starts and have time to talk to more people.

During the event

Use your pitch. You have rehearsed your pitch now talk to potential new customers. These events are usually filled with different types of businesses and may not even resemble the target market that you have however this is about making connections. Maybe they are able to introduce you to some of their key customers. Keep this in mind when talking to people.

Go around. Don’t spend too much time on one or two people. We all tend to find the people who are a bit like us. And networking events are no exception. We may have the best intentions to introduce ourselves to everybody however we mostly stick with the people we either know or meet who are like minded. This is not (only) about meeting like minded people. This is about looking for business opportunities with as many people as possible. You can mingle afterwards if you wish but use the time wisely. Many business networking events have a set agenda such as speed networking or any other games that will engage the crowd. If this is the case and you followed my advise of being early, then you already have made a good bunch of connections and can enjoy the games of the evening. (Just a thought…)

After the event

Send an email. A few days after the event (no more than a week after) send an email to each of your new contacts. Introduce yourself again and of course mention that you’ve met and ask if they are available to meet for a coffee. Don’t make a big pitch of why they should meet you or what the benefits are to your products or services. Keep it short and simple.

Use the phone. Max. 2 days after you’ve sent your email, pick up the phone and again, introduce yourself, mention that you’ve met during the event and that you’ve sent an email and you were wondering when it would be best for them to meet with you. Here you may need to have a small pitch ready because some people might wonder why you would want to meet up. Many people however will most likely agree to meet with you especially if you had a connection with them during the event. But in general keep it simple. Having a coffee to find common business interest goes a long way and doesn’t scream sales right away. Yes, you may want to sell your products or services but you may also get some referrals out of this in case they are not interested. And obviously this goes both ways.

Prepare yourself. Book the meeting and prepare a small agenda of what you would like to get out of this meeting. This is mainly for yourself. You may want to send it over to your new contacts to give them a chance to prepare something as well. Remember, they give you the courtesy to show you what you’ve got so it’s only fair that you provide them the same benefit.

No sale at first meeting. Key again is to not make a full pitch. The first meeting is not about selling your products or services but to see if there is a general or common interest. Yes, you may want to be prepared for somebody telling you straight away, that they need exactly what you’re selling, but honestly, how often does this happen? You can show off what you do, who you are, what your company does, benefits, strengths etc. but take it slow. Also give them the time to tell you what they do. Afterwards establish the grounds of going forward. Book another appointment if they want to hear more about the products or services you offer, or see if you can exchange customer details in form of referrals. If you provide a handful of customers to them, they might do the same for you.

The key point I would like to make is that barely anybody follows up after networking events and wonder why no business comes out of it. It is vital and important to keep business going and if you want to not waste your time going to those events, then maybe it’s time to follow up with your new connections. Because barely anybody really follows up after those events, there is a lot of business left undone. If you’re one of the people who will follow up you can be rest assured, that something positive will come out of it. Give it a try and let us know how you got on.

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Thank you for reading.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales consultant based in Cork, Ireland 

First step to a successful sale – Prospecting

I’ve been asked a lot of times what I would think is the most important part of the sales process.

The answer might be shocking but simple: Prospecting. In order to initiate contact with a potential new customer we need to prospect.

 

Here are the first steps that in my opinion will help you find more customers:

1. Define your niche.

Every product or service can be defined in a niche market. If you already know what your niche is, great. Move on to step 2. If not, make sure you define what it is that you are really good at. What benefits bring your products or services to your customers? Why should they buy the products or services and most important what need do they fill for your customer.

2. Define your target market.

It is important to know who your target audience is. Not every product or service is meant to attract every single person. Make sure you know your target audience. Your niche can help. By establishing a niche you can find customers who either offer similar type of products (make sure you are not competing with them) and could benefit the customer if implemented or bought from you or you attract customers who could use your products/ services because they are looking at your niche in particular. Look at your current customer base. What do they have in common? Now find similar type of customers. Because if one car manufacturer can use your product, maybe there is another one (again, just an example). I understand, that if you are just starting out and don’t have any customers yet, you might be in for a challenge. But this is what it’s all about, isn’t it?

3. Do your research

You shouldn’t spend too much time researching your customers but to know a bit about their business goes a long way. What do they do? What is their product range? Who is the decision maker in that company for your products/ services? Who is the gatekeeper? Did their sales figures improve or decrease compared to the last year(s)? Knowing your customer can go a long way in order to help you sell your products. And don’t dismiss the gatekeeper (aka receptionists, secretaries, assistants). They can become your most important ally in order to place your products/ services with the company. If you get them on board then usually the decision maker is ready to listen to you as well. (Create a list of potential customers)

4. Develop an elevator pitch

An elevator pitch should not be longer than 60 seconds. The pitch should contain who you are, what you do, the benefits to your customers and a close (in order to get more attention or to book a meeting). You can find 3 great elevator pitches at speakingppt.com. Make it unique and interesting for potential new customers to get to know you better.

5. Prospect

Now the real fun starts. You have to start prospecting. This can be done in several ways but one thing is for sure: Most of the time it should end with you calling your potential new customer. In step 3 you created a list of potential new customers. This is your money making machine. If you don’t feel comfortable just cold calling them, do one of the following:

a) Send an email first with a short pitch. Make sure that pitch is short and to the point. You don’t want to waste anybody’s time. However, the likelihood that your email will be read is very little to none. So, after you send the email, make sure you follow up with your customers a day max. 2 days later. Now you have a reference that you can revert back to and your cold call becomes much easier. Warning: Sending an email will NOT result in your customers calling you nor is leaving a message resulting in your potential new customers calling you back. You have to do the first step: PICK UP THE PHONE AND CALL…

b) Invite them to a free or low cost event. Create an event in eventbrite.com (just as an example) and send invitations to your potential customers. Again, after you send the invitations it is important to follow up with them. You won’t get any sign ups by just adding an event. Make sure you share it and market it. But again, use the phone to follow up.

c) Create a social media marketing strategy. This might take some time but once you have build an audience on social media it should become part of your daily routine. Post regularly and inform about events, special offers and other things that you do. Here you have to follow up by making sure you monitor comments and likes. This time there is no need to phone unless you have their numbers already. This should only be a small part of your daily sales activity. You don’t want to waste too much time looking or waiting for comments to come.

d) Create a newsletter/ sign up page or blog. Writing can give you more exposure. So make sure you write about something that you do and are passionate about. If you have a maintenance business write about what you do for your customers, outcomes, what could happen if certain things are not done correctly etc. This is all about exposure and interact with anybody who comments or maybe even likes your page.

e) Lead generation tools. A lot of businesses offer lead generation or you could even use certain tools that might help you get more exposure or even clients. Some of them are costly but depending on your business and audience you can also find some that are great and free of charge. Do some research.

f) Make sure you have a website/ blog page etc.A lot of small businesses don’t have a website and believe it is not necessary. But having a page, even a simple one, can make a massive difference to any business. Websites don’t cost an arm and a leg anymore unless you get it done professionally. But if you look at pages such as wix.com or even vistaprint.com you can get easy to develop websites from approx. 5 quit a month or even for free. A website will give you additional exposure and you can use it as a tool to refer customers to.

g) Go to networking events. Business networking events are usually done in every country, county or town and most of them are being held on a regular basis. Some of them require a small fee but many are even free of charge. This is a great way to meet other business owners, entrepreneurs and like minded people who share a common interest. (Here you can test your newly developed elevator pitch).

h) Join a local/ national or international business network. Business networking is great and could bring new business to you on a regular basis by means of referrals. Referring business to each other is a great way to improve your sales and will help you stay on top of the game.

i) Chamber of commerce or other business related networks. Most countries have support for start up or small/ medium sized businesses. Make sure you know what you are entitled to and how they can help you grow.

j) Get a business/ or sales coach. Getting help should not be the last step a business owner does before he goes out of business. Waiting until it’s too late is the worst you can do for your business. Make sure you have a mentor, or coach that you can go to either regularly or whenever you need to in order to discuss business growth. A coach is definitely the way to go for increasing your business turnover.

Prospecting is the number one process any sales person, entrepreneur and business owner could do on a regular basis (at least in my opinion it is). The more you prospect, the more you will sell. Of course other parts of the sales process are important too. Especially closing the deal, however without prospecting there will be no deals to close. And if you are in retail, you might think that you can’t prospect. Every business can and has to prospect. But using the right prospecting kind is key to success. I will write another article on how retailers can prospect and drive more business into their premises but in the meantime, if you really want to improve your shop’s performance, maybe read my article Road to retail success.

How many calls did you do today?

Thank you for reading.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of SalesClinic & Coach Clinic and professional sales coach based in Cork, Ireland 

Start Smart

Top 10 Tips to start your own business

Have you ever considered starting your own business? What are the key ingredients of making a business successful? I’ve asked myself this question numerous times and here are the answers I came up with:

1. Have a clear vision

No matter what you would like to do, when setting up a business the one thing that every good entrepreneur will need is to have a vision of what they would like to achieve. Setting a goal is one of the most important parts of setting up a business but you can only set a goal for yourself (or your business) if you have a clear vision of how you are going to achieve it.

2. Be enthusiastic about your business

You have to love what you do and if you have any doubts in your mind either get rid of them or don’t do it at all. If you do something half heartedly it will not work. Commitment and enthusiasm is one of the key areas to make you and your business a success. If you haven’t found what you’re passionate about keep looking. Once you find it, ways will unfold and doors will open. Keep believing in yourself and your business idea.

3. Prospecting, prospecting and more prospecting

I call this the 3 P’s. No matter what business you are in, you have to sell your products or services. If you don’t sell, you will not make it. There is probably a lot of people who believe that their products and services will sell itself. Let me assure you that this is not the case. Yes, you will at some stage build a reputation for yourself and your business (hopefully a good one) but until such time comes you will need to go out and look for customers. If you do this right from the beginning then it will not be so hard to continue once you have a good reputation. And if you continue with your prospecting activities even after you build a great reputation you will increase on your sales figures tenfold.

4. Be resistant 

There is always ups and downs in business. Sometimes you make money and sometimes you have to go days, weeks or even months without making any. Be committed to your goals and tasks and keep going. Don’t give up even in the hardest times. It will be worth it in the end. Now you need to be smart about it as well. Sometimes we have to do the things we don’t like doing just in order to survive, buy food, clothes etc. If an opportunity rings, take it. If you have to get a part time job (or full time employment) in order to get your business off the ground, take it. Don’t be ashamed if something doesn’t work to change your business idea as you go along. Adjustment is hard but it is sometimes necessary in order to keep going. A business is never boring or easy. Business lives from change and adapting to that change is one of the most important factors to consider.

If you want to succeed and something doesn’t work, change tactics.

5. Networking

Networking is a great way to connect with like minded people and other businesses. Sometimes you can go to networking events (I’m sure they have them all over your country as well) and they are usually free of charge. Join networks such as BNI or any local networking organization. SFA (Small Firms Association Ireland) is also a great way to get started (look for local networking groups in your country.). The important part is to throw yourself out there and let people and other business owners, managers see that you exist. If you persist in it, you might get some future customers out of it.

6. Write a detailed business plan

It is important to write your business plan (you can download a free template of a business plan by clicking here and scroll down to the bottom) and if possible in every single detail. There is a lot of people who think they only need to write a business plan in order to get funding or loans from the bank. This is just one advantage to have if you want to go down that road. But even if you don’t want to get funding or investors coming on board etc. it is of the utmost importance to have written your own business plan. The reason being is that you will find faults within your business that you then can eliminate immediately. You will also get a much better understanding of your business, your competition, your products and services and most importantly your future customers.

You don’t have to follow any rules in order to create a business plan (unless you do want to get funding). You can download a template from the internet if you want to or just start writing your plan on word or in your journal. No matter how you decide on writing your business plan, make sure you include points 1 – 5 (see above).

7. Get help

A lot of people try to create a business on their own. This is great because nobody knows the business better than yourself. However when you consider opening up your own business, you should always surround yourself with people who are supportive and want to help. Of course you will find many likeminded people in networking groups and this is a great way to start. Some people may even consider having a business partner or (when creating a limited) a board of directors who could help building the business.

But no matter if you are alone or with a team, get the help of a business coach or business mentor. A coach is a great way to help you stay focused and will encourage and enable you to think outside the box. A coach will also be able to help you get a better understanding of your business (even if they have no idea about what you do). This is a great way to make sure your business will succeed. They will challenge you and make you think in ways you can’t even imagine right now. Getting a few coaching sessions with a business coach doesn’t cost an arm or a leg but it might save you some trouble down the road, or even some mistakes you would’ve made without the coach. Yes, we learn from our mistakes but we can also learn in a safe environment with a coach and this could ultimately safe you a lot of money. Many business coaches have usually great offers for start up companies so don’t be afraid to ask what they could bring to the table.

8. Do your research

This is probably one of the most vital parts of any new business venture. Understanding your market. I came across a lot of people who just think, I want to sell product xyz and my market is every citizen in my country…so, there you have it. Market research done…Well, not really. It is important that you define your market a bit more. Look to consider the following: Private or business use, age group, male/ female/ children/ girls/ boys/ families etc., competitors, selling locally, county wide, country wide or internationally, needs analyzes, pricing, talk to your potential clientele, would they need/ use your product or service, test clients, feedback from your test customers. When testing your product or services with people don’t just test it with family and friends.  Test it with real customers, people you don’t know. That’s the feedback you can value. Your family and friends don’t want to hurt your feelings (or maybe they do because they’re envious of what you do?…). So, don’t rely just on one group of people. Understand your target audience before you start your business.

9. Create a niche market or make your business unique

Creating a niche market or making your business unique is a key factor. Even if you sell products or services that other companies offer as well (or similar items) it is important to let your customers know why they should buy from you. What is unique about your business model that no one else could offer? What is the additional service that makes you stand out from the crowd? Think about this for a while but again, don’t over-think it. Giving your customers a great experience should be part of any new business in order to survive and don’t be afraid to tell them why they should buy from you. Don’t just try to fit in everything in your business. Creating a core niche for your business is vital and you will see that you can manage this far better than trying to juggle your business in every direction. If you can’t think of a niche or why your business is unique then go back to point 7 and find a business coach or mentor. With a great coach you will be able to discover the uniqueness of your business even if you can’t see it right now.

10. Just do it

Don’t delay. If you have all the ingredients, you’ve done the market research, you lined up some customers then just go for it. You will always find things or people that could or want to stop you. Family and friends may tell you that this is crazy. You have to deal with revenue, taxes, VAT, employment issues etc. There is so many things that when you look into it, you will most likely say it’s not worth the hassle. I’m not saying that you should ignore those but you will always find excuses and you can google as much as you want of why you shouldn’t open your business. If your customers want your product or service, if you have a unique idea, or always wanted to do something on your own and you feel really passionate about it, then go for it. Get an accountant to sort out taxes etc. You need to concentrate to grow your business. There is other people and businesses out there that will concentrate on the rest for you. If you are unsure about compliancy ask your local Enterprise board. They can always help you. So, make sure you have completed all necessary steps but once you’ve done everything you need or want to do in order to take your business off the ground, then the final step is doing it. Don’t over-think your business.

I feel these are some of the most important factors to start your own business. Is this everything? Probably not. Whatever you want to do, be committed to it, persistent and passionate about what you do and success will eventually follow.

I would be interested to hear any thoughts on this, if you agree/ disagree or if you even have other points that people who start a business should consider?

Anything you can add could be of value to any other entrepreneur out there. Thank you for reading and if you do consider starting your own business don’t be afraid. There is far more scarier things out there than doing what you love to do.

Carsten

Carsten Schnier is the founder of  Coach Clinic and professional sales coach based in Cork, Ireland