Let's Talk About Sales Strategies - 18/7/2017

Small Biz Matters – a half hour program each week where you can work ON your business rather than IN it.
with Alexi Boyd from Boyd Office Management Services
Date: 18 July 2017

Sales. It’s a topic not spoken about directly in Small Business. Sure, we chat about marketing, social media, online presence - even personal brand. But what about straight sales? How well are you engaging, Have you got your technique right? Do your sales staff actually know who they’re talking to and do they deliver value. ? Do you even have a CRM? Lots to chat about ….

Welcome to the show Gary. Firstly, tell us a little about your Small Business Journey and what led you to this consultation career?

Topics we’ll be covering:

What does an On-demand Sales Advisory and fulfillment Consultant do?

When you engage with a Consulting Sales Professional here’s what they would be asking you to asses:

• How do you conduct your sales engagements today
• Do you have a Unique Value Proposition (easily articulated)
• Who is doing the selling for your business and how much of it
• Do you have the right person selling for you?
• Is your website up to scratch? Engaging and shows value. Its
  often the beginning or end of an engagement. 
• Marketing/business plan in place? Grow revenue / profit /
  market share.
• How well you conduct any outbound calling ie but needs to be demographically researched and known market segment for B2B selling.
• Incremental sales capacity – at what point do you hire full time internal / external sales people or utilise On-Demand skills.
• Cyclical – have an idea of the cycles and when these sales
  conversations need to take place.
• Conservative estimate of profitability & revenue growth when you engage with them. Return on investment based on recommendations.

CRM (Customer Relationship Management)  is core to the success of a business and adds value in many ways. (Role is different to that of billing application)

 Top Tips CRMs Steps of a CRM:

• Build
• Implement (structured  contact , pipeline , revenue tracking etc)
• Convert

Your CRM is not a static tool; it’s a living resource in your business and needs to be fed & watered with attention. It’s a digital footprint of your business – add value to the value of your business!!

Free software! Insightly, hubspot, ZOHO, Paid Dynamics, Salesforce.

• Customer Relationship Management (all aspects)
• Logging calls and conversations with customers / leads
• Date stamping when to call leads back and why.
• Pipeline visibility and deal closure
• Targets for possible earnings from the client
• When to let them go

Sales and Marketing - there IS a difference.

What the difference between Sales & Marketing & how do they in bigger companies come into conflict? Competitive because of the conflict – they should be unified – so you need a SMARKETING approach.

What’s a true Lead as opposed to a Suspect (shown an interest) and why do we need to know about this as a small business?

Let’s talk LinkedIn for B2B… What value does LinkedIn hold over that of Facebook and why is more relevant for B2B use.

Sales coaching – what to expect from your sales staff

• Using CRM (need continuity if rep leaves promoted etc)
• Visibility of diaries to maker sure face to face selling time is optimal
• In field coaching / role plays if applicable.
• Quantities of calls - Lead generation activity / success
• Periodic assessment - check on health and wellbeing

What Sales professionals want to see fro their employer

• Sales training / meaningful customer engagement
• Compensation plans that keep them enthused about the role
• Fed regular relevant industry information to help them achieve success
• Tools and technology that allow them to maximise selling time.

Don’t forget to Keep your reps happy!

To find out more go to their website: http://www.yoursalesmanager.net.au