<p>Last week I suggested 5 of the Top 10 most important tasks required to effectively sell for your business. Now it is time for the remainder, the Top 5.<br /><br />If you didn’t read the last article, may I invite you to look that one up first.<br /><br /><strong># 5 Follow the process</strong><br />You will probably recognize “if you always do, what you’ve always done…etc.” and “definition of madness is to repeatedly do the same thing expecting….etc”. Those are expressions that you should not repeat your mistakes, but the reverse it also true. When you make a sale, wouldn’t it be great to be able to repeat it ad nauseum?<br /><br />Do you have a sales process? First of all you should have a clearly defined sales process, including the stages, what the customer would ideally be thinking and feeling at each stage and what you do next. Then follow it if it works and refine it if it doesn’t. I call this the prototyping.<br /><br />Sales people and non-sales folks alike seem to believe they can “wing it”, that they will know what to say and when. You wouldn’t expect to do this with your billing would you? One day you bill in advance, another monthly in arrears. Sometimes on letterhead, sometimes through Quickbooks and occasionally just with a receipt from a receipt book. Well your sales process is more important, without it you would have nothing to bill. Everything in business that you wish to repeat or need to repeat is best done by following a planned approach.<br /><br />In my last company we had 3 equally ranked sales managers. One constantly outperformed the other two. When asked his secret, his reply was “I just get my guys to follow the process.”<br /><br /><strong># 4 Be inspired</strong><br />Get excited about your product offering or service. As a solopreneur, you are probably trying to sell something you decided was a good idea when you started your business. Well don’t forget what a good idea it was.<br /><br />What do you do to remind yourself and get inspiration about what you sell and your business? Sometimes, even the most amazing product ideas can loose a little of their glitz if you deal with them all day. So remind yourself how your services have helped people. If necessary, ask some customers to remind you. A survey or poll on your web site to ask existing customers the greatest value derived, would be one way to remind yourself. Or just call them.<br /><br />Then, when you are talking to prospective customers, you will exude enthusiasm and confidence. People find enthusiasm and confidence very compelling, it will aid your selling no end.<br /><br /><strong># 3 Talk to someone</strong><br />Do you ever find yourself hiding behind email? With all the electronic communications and virtual world nowadays, it is easy to go days without actually interacting with people. Then you think of someone who might be a prospect for you, do you resort to email? If your product or service involves interacting with people, you still might go a day or so without a client or patient.<br /><br />So make sure you get a daily dose of humans. Not just to save you from becoming a hermit, but to renew you perspective on your business. Talk to a customer, talk to a prospect or talk to a business partner or vendor. Make sure that you don’t isolate yourself and your thoughts from your business environment for too long.<br /><br />Why? Because you must stay fresh, keep in practice and keep abreast of what others are thinking. But do it with a sales purpose. Try out your ideas, phrasing, offers, benefit statements. Keep seeking feedback on how others perceive you and your offering or it will run the risk of going stale.<br /><br /><strong># 2 Canvass daily</strong><br />In the first sales operation I ever worked with, there was a poster “a man with no prospects, has no prospects”. If you don’t have a constant flow of potential customers going through your sales process, the revenue will grind to a halt.<br /><br />If you are the business owner, product developer, CFO, practitioner and everything else in your business, it is easy to be too busy to do the one thing you least enjoy. For many people, that is canvassing. In other words, talking to new people about your business.<br /><br />You may remember task #7 was not to be attached to the outcome of a sales conversation. Well this task is to remember to have that conversation. Every day, you should create the opportunity to talk to someone new about your business. And I don’t mean chatting with your Aunt, unless she is your target market.<br /><br />I don’t mean you have to climb the top of the highest mountain to shout out your wares (lucky for James Hance, an in joke for one of the comments on my last article), but engage at least one person potentially in your target market, every day.<br /><br />Let me also refer back to task #6. As long as you know the numbers needed for you to create an appropriate number of sales, the number of prospects you need to add to your pipeline every day should be clear. It may well be more than one, but even if it is less, a great habit is to not let a day go by without adding one. <br /><br /><strong># 1 Dedicate time</strong><br />The most important task towards selling is, without a doubt, to make the time to Sell. Schedule time to sell, create time to sell, ensure you have made time to canvass every day. If you are not making the money in your business that you wish to make, there is one discipline that will make the difference, selling.<br /><br />Recently I worked with a business that raised money from Venture Capitalists. Do you think the CEO and CFO made time for all their potential investor meetings? Sure they did. But it took a lot of time. At one board meeting the remark was made “if we spent this much time selling instead of trying to raise capital, we wouldn’t need the capital.” People can be very creative in how they avoid selling.<br /><br />If you work with all the 10 tasks I have listed and understand the dynamics of your business, you will know how much time you need to do your selling. Now you have to prioritize your time.<br /><br />Customers or potential customers may not keep to your schedule and may call in at any time, but when you have to be proactive, you must allocate time. Do you need to schedule half an hour a day, an hour or more? Is it in your calendar days in advance? Is there a block of time each and every day to take care of the tasks above? If not, you are putting a strain on your own time management and may be compromising your business success.<br /><br />Having set aside, dedicated selling time, now all you have to do is refine and improve the efficiency by which you carry out your selling tasks and either your income or your free time will increase. That decision is then down to you. With luck it will be both.</p>
2009-05-20T04:55:35Z
2009-05-20T14:38:18Z
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part-2-top-10-tasks-for-non-sales-people-who-have-to-sell
5
2009-05-20T14:35:18Z
2009-05-20T14:38:18Z
Last week I suggested 5 of the Top 10 most important tasks required to effectively sell for your business. Now it is time for the remainder, the Top 5.
Part 2 - Top 10 Tasks for non-sales people who have to sell
1
2009-05-20T14:38:18Z