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From the coalface: Selling without a sales team
In the first in a new series of articles focusing on real challenges faced by real entrepreneurs, small business expert Edward Bodiam explains the solution he offered to a client looking to boost sales without taking on a sales team. Customer:
ICT services and support company
Challenge:
How do we increase sales without employing a sales and telemarketing team?
Solution overview:
This is a problem which many companies experience. We have found that many organisations struggle to close business and in a lot of cases to find the "right customer".
A good place to start is to look at your current customer base and answer these questions:
- Who are the most profitable customers?
- What did they buy from you?
- What do they say they like about you and your services?
- How did they buy from you? (i.e. internet, telephone, email)
Look at your routes to market:
- How do you market to potential customers?
- Do you know your target market and how they buy?
- Do you match your products and services to specific customers or industries?
Build a profile of customers you have, by profitability and by routes to reach them. Create as many effective routes as possible for each customer.
This exercise will also show which products they have bought and more importantly those they haven't.
Now you can decide on a strategy to attain more sales.
Quick wins
Sell more to your existing customers.
If they've only bought one of your services, contact them and sell your other services. It sounds simple but many companies do not cross sell. It is unlikely your customers know the full product range you carry.
You don't need a sales team to do this. Chances are you or your team know the customer fairly well - give them a call, they should already trust your advice.
Look for new products and services that are relevant to your customer base. You can do this across the whole base or for a more targeted approach by vertical market. This doesn't have to be defined by industry sector, it can be a vertical you design based on your customer profiling.
New sales
When looking at new products and services try and make them exciting and innovative. If these services are what your customers want you can market them to new prospects. New exciting products and services will be the hook to get new customers. When they have bought from you and trust you, you can easily sell your core services.
Re-launch existing services to new markets. You know the product but your prospects may not. Give it a new lease of life and get them excited about the next must have thing for their business.
Using the information you have gained from existing customers, really hone in on your target customer. Know how they buy, when they buy and how much they spend.
Then look at the best route to reach that client. Telesales, web advertising or email shots might each be the best route - perhaps all of them.
Whichever is right, targeting the client is critical to getting a good return on any investment you make in customer acquisition.
Get your customers selling for you!
Retain customers and make them your sales and marketing team.
One of the most disappointing things we regularly come across is the lack of ability SMEs have to get their customers selling on their behalf.
Most people will say, about 80% of my new business comes from referrals. I’m sure that's correct, but it's probably coming from around 10% of your customers or suppliers. This means you are missing out on referrals from the other 90% of your contact base.
You don't even have to offer incentives. The customer is likely to think "I'm too busy selling my services to have time to sell yours for that return on my time." If you offer great service and contact your customers regularly to talk about your products and services, they will talk about you.
However, don't get complacent. Ask for leads. Who do they deal with that fits your profile customer?
Ask for contact details. Ask them to call their customer or supplier to see if they will take a phone call or meeting.
One of the biggest fears we have in business is asking for the deal. It is the same in networking, marketing or sales as it is to deal with existing clients. Just ask the question!
If they say no, it doesn't matter. You can ask why not and see if they have a valid answer. If so, carry on with the call and arrange that drink out.
It may be they don't trust you or that your service was poor or the buying experience wasn't something they want to put their customers through. This is good! You know something extremely valuable that can be used to improve your business. If they don't have a good reason, give them assurances, ask again, and then arrange to take them out for that drink.
Ask your customers questions about their business and who they sell to. You may be able to pass leads and referrals to them. They will become a business friend. Isn't that part of what business and networking is about?
This is just another way of social networking! Make friends with your customers. For that matter, make friends with potential customers as well.
Results:
We have seen a 20% increase in lead generation in three months and helped to increase the conversion rate by 15% using some of the routes above. Next month we expect to see a marked increase in sales to existing customers.
Give it a go and good luck!
If you have any questions or feedback, visit www.smeadvice.co.uk, email ed@smeadvice.co.uk or call 08456 525266
Number of comments: 3
AccountingWEB.co.uk 23-Jul-2008
Categories: Money matters
Times read: 4667
Edward is spot on with his assertions. There is much you can do to maximise the results from the people you have already sold to, either to give you references or to bring you leads. We have a way of doing this online with WeCanDo.BIZ - author Edward is a member (http://www.wecando.biz/profile.php?bid=458).
In tough economic times, it is one hell of a lot easier to grow your customers and revenues where a large part of the selling is done for you. Every company's existing base of customers offers a rich supply of cheap marketing and new contacts. Don't be afraid to exploit it!
Ian Hendry
WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz
Hi,
The above comments are certainly very useful for a company without a sales team. Miracle Training Ltd provide low cost training for SME business owners who "have to" do their own sales/telesales. For a FREE taster please use the Miracle Sales Doctor tab on our website.
Happy Selling!
Miracle Training Team
As well as your current customers, you will probably have a list of lapsed customers - people that have used you in the past, but not for some time.
Consider contacting all of them and find out why - they may not realise you have a new product that is now suitable for them, or they may simply have been a change in personnel, and they are not aware of you as a supplier.
If you have email addresses for them, try sending a email to all of them, perhaps with a piece of news, or just a general update. Otherwise just call and have a chat - it could be a very profitable few minutes!
Jonathan
Synergy Connections - Telephone Marketing and Database Cleaning.
