Fact: We would all like to make more sales. However most of us can’t afford a dedicated sales team to make that happen.
I bet quite a lot of you are like me now, working on your own or in a very small team. As a result the responsibility of bringing more work for your businesses lies entirely in your hands.
You are the one you has to go out there and ensure that you have a steady flow of new projects, that new clients keep on coming in and that you simply have enough work to keep your company going, let alone allow for its growth.
And then, naturally, once you start bringing that work in, you have to work on those projects. Once they are done you also have to provide support and customer service.
Not to mention that quite often you have to live with the uncertainty of where the next project is going to come from and whether you will still be busy in a month or two.
It is hard to keep up with it all and quite often something is got to give. In most cases it is sales that is being pushed on a side and all your efforts go into the actual work that you do. And sales? It just happens then, from time to time when you are free to work on it.
However, it shouldn’t be like that. In reality sales should fit into your schedule effortlessly. You shouldn’t have to make any extra effort to work on bringing more work for your business.
Winning new work should be natural to you, not something you struggle with everyday. It shouldn’t be something you usually end up putting off until you have no work left to do.
You shouldn’t start selling your services at the very moment when you start to panic, because there is no work on the horizon and you have no guaranteed income.
Unfortunately that is what often happens for many small business owners.
This is also the time when they start making wrong business decision, like reducing prices or accepting low paid jobs only to fill their schedule and be busy again. Even though they are not making any profit at all.
In reality though all this can easily be avoided. By consequently following a simple, daily routine they can ensure that their schedules are always full and even if they have a break in between projects there is more work already booked in. It just hasn’t started yet.
My simple, daily sales routine
Sales is Easy. You have probably heard me making that statement quite a few times on these pages here. I truly believe in it and I know it is true.I also know that sales is really simple. There are some things you have to learn and personal qualities you might have to develop but on the initial level, the one that is enough for you when you are only starting out, sales is really simple.
All it takes are two things: consistency and doing the 5 things below everyday:
1. Provide insanely great customer service.
I know, a support is not really part of sales. However if you want to start bringing new clients in, you have to do some ground work too. Customer service, apart from keeping your current clients happy and coming back for more does also one other thing. It builds up your reputation.
If you provide insanely great customer service, people will talk about it. They will post about you on Twitter, Facebook, their blogs and so on. Unfortunately they will make twice as much effort to do so if you provide crap support.
Your prospects most likely will want to research you before making their decision about even meeting you. They will Google you and your company, they might also ask around and sooner or later they will find all the things that people say about you on social networking sites. Therefore make sure that your clients praise you instead of posting negative feedback about your business.
2. Talk to your existing customers.
Just like customer service, listening to your customers ensures that you earn the reputation you should if you want to find more clients.
Every day make an effort to follow up, over phone or email if you prefer this form of communication two of your clients to ask them if everything is OK with the project you delivered for them, or if they have any more questions.
Not only they will feel valued, which will make them more likely to spread good news about you but also they may have a project for you, or drop a hint that new work may be coming your way.
3. Approach new prospects.
In order to make sales happen you need to constantly make initial contact with new prospects. You don’t have to approach a large number of potential clients a day, in fact I wouldn’t recommend that. It is easier to contact 5 new clients every day, than 20 once a week. Also, it is easier to manage your sales if you keep on initiating conversations with few prospects a day.
For me, the optimum number of prospects to approach was always 5. Making initial contact with such a number doesn’t take much time and also following up is quite quick too, leaving me a lot of time to do my work.
Email cold call was always my favorite way to make initial contact with prospects, however you may feel more comfortable ringing them out of the blue or even calling in to their offices.
4. Follow up with prospects you initiated conversations already.
Most prospects that you approach will not reply to you. They will not reply to your email or make a decision about meeting you right then, when you cold call them. That doesn’t mean that they are not interested in working with you though.
Most of your prospects are busy people. And unless they need what you offer really badly, they will not have the time to respond. You have to take the initiative and push them a little.
I used to ring the prospects I email cold called two or three days after I send them the email to see if they had a chance to read over it. Most of them had and were more than happy to talk to me and arrange a meeting. But if I didn’t follow up, they would never respond. And chances are that my competition would approach them (and followed up), getting the order.
Again, follow up with maximum 5 companies. All it takes is 5 short phone calls that you can make on a prescheduled time to do not interrupt your day too much.
5. Leave the office.
Sales is not only about calling or emailing people, or making sure that your reputation is spotless. It is more about having relationships with those people. It is about building rapport when you first talk and developing the relationship based on that.
It is about being human, a person as much as being a professional.
If you want to be good at sales, leave your office. Go play sports, go for a walk, experience life. Do things that make you happy, apart from work of course, disconnect. Read a paper, have a small talk with someone, breathe the air around you. Visit places, go for walks. Smile at people.
Live the life so that you have stories to tell. These stories will make you a person, someone more than just the white shirt and tie. People love people and they hate fake. Be a professional but also have a life. It will greatly affect your sales, I can guarantee that.
If you are interested in finding out more about how you can bring more work for your business and never have to worry about where your next project is going to come from, then consider preordering my eBook “The Smart Business’ Guide to Winning New Work”.
In the book I will teach you how to keep on finding new clients, present your offer and bring more business for your company.
About Pawel