Making the first sale to a customer is just the beginning of your business relationship with them. This three-step series shows you how to use this ‘platform’ to grow sales (after that first sale), with medium and large sized companies.

Step 1 - Understand how your customer buys
In mid-2006 after a few months of ‘pursuit’, I met with the Category Procurement Manager of a large state-based government organisation. Their total number of employees was 17,000. I wanted to understand their buying process better and assess opportunities for growing our share of business from this customer. The Procurement Manager explained that relevant employees did not need multiple quotations for orders valued less than $30,000! Furthermore, the products we sold were not going to be on their priority list for at least the next few years. He said that we were welcome to go ahead and contact the relevant people and sell directly to them. So we did!

I dedicated one sales person to call all 45 of our contacts within the organisation on a cyclical basis to generate repeat business as well as create referrals. Within one year, we grew sales from that organisation by 200%.

There are factors that contribute to the way your customers buy. Understanding these better means you will be able to sell more! The four main ones are:

Buying units
Think of a business as a mosaic made up of many interrelated parts, each with its individual needs. Explore as much as you can about specific positions, departments or business units within your customer’s company.

Buying frequency
Each buying unit can have different needs through the year or if you have longer sales cycles, over a few years. Find out how often they need your products and services.

Buying policy
Some organisations have clearly defined buying policies whereas others don’t. Subtly ask whether people actually follow the process. Selling to people within companies that have a centralised process, differs greatly from selling to those where individuals are empowered to make decisions for themselves or their business unit. If there are agreements in place, ensure that you know when they are due for renewal and who will be responsible for them.

Competitive forces
Unless you are selling a new invention, it is likely that your customer also buys products or services you sell, from your competitors. Find out who they are, how they got there and how satisfied your customer is with them. As you understand each of these factors, you will have more clarity about the next logical step(s) to take with the company.

In Step 2 of this series, we will look at how to identify ‘Incremental revenue opportunities’ within buying units.

Have an opinion, question or story? Please click the Comments link below and share it. We would love to hear from you!

Like many sales people or business owners, you too might feel like you can’t control your sales results. Agreed. But there is no denying that you have 100% control over your sales activity.

If you want to build sales momentum, you need to start by increasing your sales activity. Here are four essential areas to focus on:

Target database: This list must include those companies or consumer groups from whom you are going to be generating leads. It is important to spend time identifying these groups. They may be specific industries, local companies, inactive customers... the list could go on. Buy or build these lists and ensure they are easily accessible.

Leads: These are companies or consumers who have an interest in your product or service but have not yet been qualified as genuine prospects. It is essential to track this data and critical to nurture those who did not convert in to prospects at the first interaction. Take a look at these good practices to nurture leads.

Prospects: These are the companies or consumers who meet your M.A.N qualification criteria:

1. They must have the Money to afford your product or service.
2. You must be talking to people who have the Authority to make a decision or at least have a strong influence on it.
3. They must acknowledge the Need for your product or service.

Customers: They are a great source of new business. You must actively seek opportunities for new buyers, new products, repeat or renewals and referrals.

In Part 2, we will look at the types of sales activities that will help you build this momentum. For now, remember you’ve got to give more sales activity to get more sales results.

Here's to your success!

Have an opinion, question or story? Please click the link below and share it. We would love to hear from you!

On Sunday afternoon, my wife asked if I would cut down the diseased grapefruit tree in our backyard. I used my much loved Wolfgarten tree pruning knife, made of German steel, to do the job. As I was sawing back and forth, I thought of how the knife’s small, sharp teeth were so quickly and easily cutting through the thick trunk the tree had probably developed over the last five to seven years. In fifteen minutes the job was done!

Negative words act very much like the teeth of that saw. No matter how positive and upbeat a team’s culture may be, negativity unchecked can quickly cut through the strong fabric of a team’s morale.

As a Business Owner or Manager, here are four things you can do with your sales people and support staff, to reduce the damaging effect of negativity,

1. Reduce your tolerance for negativity in your work place
   You approve what you accept, of yourself and others. Set the standard that if people have a problem, they must address it only to those who can provide them with a solution.
   
2. Assess the words you are speaking in public
   Are they full of hope or hopeless? It is essential not to allow your pressures to shape the words you speak to people. If you allow your fears and challenges to dominate your speech, they will undermine the very things you are trying to achieve through your people - growth and success.
   
3. Confront people who are generally negative
   As hard it may seem, it is essential to have a frank and honest chat with staff who are generally negative. Unchecked, these people will spread their attitude, which will result in increased employee dissatisfaction and eventually poor performance and greater turnover. As a Business Owner or Manager , you need to do this for your business and for others who might not have the courage to do so.
   
4. Make people take responsibility for the problem
   People complain when they feel they are not in control. Ask them ‘What are you doing about it?’ For example, if sales are poor, ask how much effort your sales people are putting into generating leads and closing prospects? On a positive note, as you can consciously reduce negativity, you can also increase and build morale. When you do, people begin to believe that change and improvement is possible. They become more engaged, work harder towards goals, enjoy the satisfaction of things coming to fruition and stay longer. Win-win!
   

So, start by reducing and removing those sharp teeth (negativity), which can so easily destroy your team’s culture and motivation. The results will speak for themselves.

Have an opinion, question or story? Click the link below to share it! We would love to hear from you.

Would you walk across the room and ask a complete stranger to marry you? Not likely. Surely, you would invest in building and nurturing a relationship before you popped the BIG question.

This principle is no different when applied to the process of winning new customers. Sales and Marketing Gurus cite that it can take up to 9–12 positive impressions to get a buying decision from a customer!

In any lead generation exercise, you will face one of three scenarios after making contact – Yes, No or Not now. We love the ‘Yes’, hate the ‘No’ and are usually unsure of what to do with the ‘Not now’. You can significantly improve your sales results if you determine to nurture the ‘Not now’ responses.

So, what should you do with ‘Not now’? I suggest that you gain permission to communicate with them in the future. This enables you to build the relationship and continue to create positive impressions.

Here are 10 things you can do to nurture leads:

1. Send them useful information (not about your products)
2. Send them samples of your products
3. Share testimonials from your customers
4. Show results of your work with other clients (after getting permission from those clients)
5. Make them offers to trial your service
6. Provide leads for their business
7. Introduce them to people who may be able to help them
8. Invite them to tradeshows, tours, demonstrations and events
9. Include them in contests and promotions
10. Give them something FREE!

Lead generation must be an on-going, nurturing process to generate sustainable and incremental sales results. So, if you don’t get a ‘Yes’ immediately, don’t be disheartened, be prepared to nurture the ‘Not now’s’.

Have an opinion, question or story? Click the link below to share it! We would love to hear from you.