<p>A simple guide to the Top 10 Tasks necessary to achieve a flow of new business.&nbsp; Business owners and solopreneurs do not always see themselves as sales people, but it is obviously a necessary part of running a business.&nbsp; So where should you focus your time?<br /><br /><strong># 10&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Think like your customers</strong><br />You might wonder why this is 10th out of 10.&nbsp; Well mainly because it should be a given in all aspects of your business.&nbsp; I am sure you think like your customer when it comes to developing your product or service offering.<br /><br />You must think like your customer when it comes to service, which extends to billing and collections, and therefore it should be natural to try to think like your customer when it comes to selling to him or her.<br /><br />Thinking like your customer really means empathy.&nbsp; What concerns them, what is on their mind?&nbsp; And this may have nothing to do with you or your product.&nbsp; Be mindful, when selling, of whether or not you actually have their attention. Only then should you focus on what their perspective on your solution is.<br /><br /><strong># 9&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Hone your skills</strong><br />Do you remember the affirmation &ldquo;every day in every way I am better and better&rdquo;.&nbsp; I love it, but just saying it doesn&rsquo;t make it so.&nbsp; What did you do today to make your selling more effective, to be better at bringing in paying business?<br /><br />Unless you are actively involved in a lot of sales conversations, it is likely that you &lsquo;go off the boil&rsquo; from time to time.&nbsp; I can&rsquo;t imagine Tiger Woods saying to himself &ldquo;I don&rsquo;t think I will bother to drive any balls today, I&rsquo;m pretty good&rdquo;.<br /><br />So how do you hone your skills?&nbsp; Read, listen, practice, test, tapes and DVDs are great, but some real practice is best.&nbsp; When I used to row (on the Thames in London) in the winter we would spend a great deal of time training in the gym, and we would constantly look for better ways to prepare ourselves for the season.&nbsp; My coach always used to say &ldquo;the best practice for honing your rowing skills is rowing&rdquo;&hellip;dahh!&nbsp; Do you have someone you can practice selling to?<br /><br /><strong># 8&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Involve your customers</strong><br />I wrote about this a couple of months ago, referrals.&nbsp; How many new clients, customers or patients have come from introductions from existing customers?&nbsp; If you are doing good job, the proportion of referred to overall new should be high.&nbsp; Do you monitor it?&nbsp; 30%, 50%, 75%?&nbsp; When was the last time you asked a client for a referral?&nbsp; How did it go?<br /><br />I apologize for asking so many questions, but I think you will see where it leads us.&nbsp; Ask because your customers appreciate you.&nbsp; They want you to succeed at some level, perhaps depending on how personal your product or service is.&nbsp; It really is the greatest source of new business for many businesses of all types.<br /><br />When you have read this article (or sooner), contact an existing client and ask if they could introduce you to someone who might value what you offer.&nbsp; If this is not absolutely part of your day to day activity, I challenge you to do it.&nbsp; Send me a message with the result&hellip;prove me right or prove me wrong&hellip;☺&nbsp; The worst thing that can happen is that you get some feedback as to a weakness in your product offering, the best, another customer.<br /><br /><strong># 7&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Talk don&rsquo;t sell</strong><br />What I mean here is don&rsquo;t worry too much about the outcome of any one sales conversation or interaction.&nbsp; Be detached from the outcome.&nbsp; That is not to say complacent or not have a clear objective in mind for the conversation, but if it doesn&rsquo;t go the way you thought you wanted, remember your Zen side, that outcome was perfect&hellip;☺<br /><br />If you become attached to the outcome, a less than happy outcome can de-motivate you.&nbsp; Remember, you haven&rsquo;t changed, nor has the quality and value of your product or service, you just caught someone in the wrong mindset.&nbsp; Learn, move on.<br /><br />The strongest way to avoid becoming attached to the outcome of a sales interaction is to have another one lined up afterwards.<br /><br /><strong># 6&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Know your numbers</strong><br />I speak to a lot of people who do not consider themselves sales people.&nbsp; One thing they seem to have in common is that they do not track their sales results as they would if they were part of a sales team.<br /><br />Consider a large company you think of as successful, I will suggest Apple (a lot of Apple supporters on BizNik).&nbsp; Do you think they know their sales conversion rates, the number of prospects in their pipeline, the average value of each customer, their forecast for the period ahead, how many leads they need to generate to achieve their sales targets (and how these numbers have changed through shifting economic climates)?<br /><br />How much of this data do you know intimately?&nbsp; You probably have a good idea of your business account balance.&nbsp; Make sure you know exactly what activity is required to top it up for next month&rsquo;s bills.<br /><br /><strong># 5&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Oh</strong>, what did you expect the top 5 today?&nbsp; Those will be in the next article in a few days.</p> 2009-05-12T23:21:10Z 2009-05-13T16:11:39Z -7.67556 1221 4572 true 15 21702 top-10-tasks-for-non-sales-people-who-have-to-sell 27 2009-05-13T16:09:24Z 2009-05-13T16:11:39Z

A simple guide to the Top 10 Tasks necessary to achieve a flow of new business. Business owners and solopreneurs do not always see themselves as sales people, but it is obviously a necessary part of running a business.

1 2009-05-13T16:11:39Z